Basilicas worldwide will celebrate with solemnity and offer Plenary Indulgence on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul which is also our consecration day this Wednesday, June 29. We will be celebrating our 5th Anniversary of becoming a basilica on this day. Come join us for Mass at noon (in person or online). Confession will be offered 4:30-5:30 p.m.

O GOD OUR CREATOR, from your provident hand we have received our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. You have called us as your people and given us the right and the duty to worship you, the only true God, and your Son, Jesus Christ. Through the power and working of your Holy Spirit, you call us to live out our faith in the midst of the world, bringing the light and the saving truth of the Gospel to every corner of society. We ask you to bless us in our vigilance for the gift of religious liberty. Give us the strength of mind and heart to readily defend our freedoms when they are threatened; give us courage in making our voices heard on behalf of the rights of your Church and the freedom of conscience of all people of faith. Grant, we pray, O heavenly Father, a clear and united voice to all your sons and daughters gathered in your Church in this decisive hour in the history of our nation, so that, with every trial withstood and every danger overcome— for the sake of our children, our grandchildren, and all who come after us— this great land will always be “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, “Take and eat; this is my body.”  Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you,  for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.”                                                                                                                                            Matthew  26: 26-

In today’s Gospel, Jesus appoints 72 other missionary disciples to spread the Good News about the coming of the Kingdom of God. Reflecting on this, each of these 72 disciples and each person they evangelize “adds to the Light of the Church.”