Fr. Joseph Whalen, our founder, blessed the above video asking God to give his healing blessing to all who watched it in the most Holy Name of Jesus Christ. (if you have the St. Raphael oil please put a cross shape on your forehead then watch it)
JUNE
The month of June is dedicated to The Sacred Heart of Jesus. The month of June is the beginning of Ordinary Time, which is represented by the liturgical color green. This symbol of hope is the color of the sprouting seed and arouses in the faithful the hope of reaping the eternal harvest of heaven, especially the hope of a glorious resurrection. It is used in the offices and Masses of Ordinary Time.
The Holy Father’s Intentions for the Month of JUNE 2026
The Holy Father’s Intentions for the Month of June 2026
For the values of sports: Let us pray that sports be an instrument of peace, encounter, and dialogue among cultures and nations, and that they promote values such as respect, solidarity, and personal growth. (See also Apostleship of Prayer.)
The gifts received by us from God are derived not from ourselves but from the Holy Spirit, and are to be used, in a spirit of humility, in the service of the Church and of our brothers and sisters.
Lord of Wisdom, You call me to love everyone, even those who wound me. Many times, this is beyond my strength without Your grace. Lovingly transform my heart so it mirrors the mercy of the Father. Help me grow always toward the perfection of selfless love and service. Amen.
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.“
ORDINARY
TIME: JUNE 16th
Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
Other Commemorations: St. Benno, Bishop (RM)
The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. Benno of Meissen (1010-1106), who labored to convert the Slavs, established numerous religious edifices, and is said to have founded the Cathedral of Meissen.
St. Benno of Meissen
In the year 1066 a nobleman named Benno was made Bishop of Meissen, in Saxony. The Emperor of Germany at that time, Henry IV, was a boy of sixteen, and he was a very different kind of person from St. Henry II, who had always tried to rule the State for the good of religion and the Church. Henry IV, on the other hand, intended to try to make the Church obey the State, and one of his plans was to make the German bishops entirely dependent on him. He, and not the Pope, gave to each newly made bishop the crosier and the ring which showed his ‘marriage’ to the Church.
But it happened that at that time there was one of the greatest of the Popes, St. Gregory VII, who was equally determined that the Emperor should do nothing of the kind; and this led to the long struggle you read about in your history books. It was called the `Investiture Contest,’ and went on for many years all over Europe to decide whether the Pope, as Head of the Church, or the ruler of the State should `invest’ bishops with the symbols of their holy office.
The reason St. Benno is important among the saints of Germany is that, unlike some of the German bishops, he stood out against the Emperor, and because not even imprisonment could make him say that Henry was right. We do not know very much about his life, apart from the warfare and struggles of the time. But there is one story which has become famous. When the Pope had said that the Emperor, because he would not obey the Church, was not to be allowed to receive Holy Communion Henry hoped that the German bishops would take no notice of this `excommunication.’ He rode with his followers to Meissen and demanded entry to the cathedral. Benno realized that there was nothing he could do to keep him out unless he shut the cathedral to everyone, so he ordered everything to be fastened up from the inside and then the great door locked on the outside. When this had been done, in front of all the people, he threw the key far out into the river Elbe.
Henry knew that if he gave his soldiers orders to break down the door he would have everyone against him, so he rode away, vowing vengeance on the Bishop. When he had gone the question was how the cathedral could be opened again. Benno, after much prayer, told a fisherman to throw his net into the river as near as he could to where the key had fallen, and, so the story says, among the fish that were caught that day was one which had the key hanging on to one of its fins. So, among the paintings of the saints which you can see today, you can always recognize St. Benno, because he is holding a fish and a key.
He lived to be a very old man (some say that he was nearly a hundred when he died), and at the end of his life he followed the example of so many of the German saints and went to preach to the barbarians on the outskirts of the country who were still heathen. He was buried in his cathedral at Meissen, but when, at the time of the German Reformation, four hundred years later, the countryside left the Catholic Church and became Protestant his body was removed, for safety, to Munich, and from that time St. Benno has been considered the Patron Saint of that city.
Patronage: anglers; fishermen; weavers; Bavaria, Germany; diocese of Dresden-Meissen, Germany; Munich, Germany
Symbols and Representation: Often Depicted As: a bishop holding a fish with keys in its mouth; a bishop with a book on which lays a fish and two keys; symbols of fish and keys
Highlights and Things to Do:
- Read more about St. Benno:
- See Christian Iconography for images of St. Benno.
MASS READINGS
June 16, 2026 (Readings on USCCB website)
PROPERS [Show]
COLLECT PRAYER
Daily Meditation: Matthew 5:43-48
Your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)
“Heavenly Father, you are perfect and you show us the way of perfection. As I consider your love, your mercy, and your faithfulness, I am in awe. You constantly reach out to everyone you created, to draw us back to yourself with love. I will praise your goodness and declare your greatness!
“Heavenly Father, your love is perfect. Before we could do anything to please you, you loved us. Even though you knew that we would turn to our own ways and separate ourselves from you, you did not turn your heart away from us. Your desire to draw us to yourself did not waver. In your love, you said, I will make a way. And you sent Jesus to be our way back to you. Lord, may I learn to love as perfectly and generously as you do!
“Heavenly Father, your mercy is perfect. You looked upon us when we had turned away from you, and you revealed your love by forgiving us. You open our eyes to your compassion and move us to approach you for forgiveness. Even to the people who persecuted and rejected your Son, even to me when I choose to turn away, you offer mercy and restoration. Lord, let my experience of your mercy make me more merciful, even to my ‘enemies.’
“Heavenly Father, your faithfulness is perfect. You send the sun to rise over all of creation—the just and the unjust. You send the rain to provide for all of us. You want everyone you created to walk in fellowship with you. That’s why you continually call each of us to come to you. You never give up on us. There is no end to your faithfulness. Your promises endure forever because you are steadfast in your ways. Lord, make me as faithful as you are; help me to show love and mercy to everyone.
“Jesus has called me to be perfect as you are perfect, heavenly Father. If he asks this of me, I believe you will equip me. And so I ask that you fill me with your love and mercy and faithfulness. Let your life within me change my heart so that it resembles yours. Lord, perfect me in your perfection!
“Father, you are perfect in all of your ways, and you are my example of perfection. Make me like you so that I can follow in your perfect footsteps.”
1 Kings 21:17-29
Psalm 51:3-6, 11, 16
(Hymn at Lauds)
The feast day of Raphael was included for the first time in the General Roman Calendar in 1921, for celebration on October 24. With the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar, the feast was transferred to September 29 for celebration together with archangels Saints Michael and Gabriel.
St. Raphael in the traditional calendar (October 24) — which continues to be observed not only in communities which follow the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite , but also in those locales where St. Raphael is a patron.
In 1830, one of the apparitions sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church occurred in the chapel of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, Rue de Bac, Paris. There were three visions given to Saint Catherine Laboure who, at the time of the first one, was a novice in the order. She was awakened at 11:30 PM on the eve of the Feast of St. Vincent de Paul, by a “shining child” who led her to the chapel where she saw Our Lady, who spoke to her for two hours about the difficult task that lay ahead. Four months later, on November 27 Catherine had the second vision wherein she saw a three-dimensional scene of the Blessed Virgin standing on a white globe with dazzling rays of light streaming from her fingers and she heard a voice say:
“There now formed around the Blessed Virgin a frame rather oval in shape on which were written in letters of gold these words: ‘O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee’
This sacramental from Heaven was at first called simply the Medal of the Immaculate Conception, but began to be known as the Miraculous Medal due to the unprecedented number of miracles, conversions, cures, and acts of protection attributed to Our Lady’s intercession for those who wore it.
Sister Catherine became Saint Catherine in 1947. The church instituted recognition of the apparition in which the Miraculous Medal first appeared for November 27, 1830. Millions of the Miraculous Medal have been distributed, and many graces and miracles have been received through this devotion to Our Lady.
BROWN SCAPULAR OF MT. CARMEL
Virgin Mary’s promise to Saint Simon Stock
July 16, 1251″Wear it devoutly and perserveringly,” she says to each soul, “it is my garment. To be clothed in it means you are continually thinking of me, and I in turn, am always thinking of you and helping you to secure eternal life.”
The scapular is an external sign of the filial relationship established between the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother and Queen of Mount Carmel, and the faithful who entrust themselves totally to her protection, who have recourse to her maternal intercession, who are mindful of the primacy of the spiritual life and the need for prayer.
THE SABBATINE PRIVELEGE
The blessed Virgin of Mt. Carmel has promised to save those who wear the scapular fromthe fires of Hell; She will also shorten their stay in Purgatory if they should passfrom this world still owing some temporal debt of punishment.
The Blessed Virgin appeared to him and speaking of those who wear the Brown Scapular said: “I, the Mother of grace, shall descend on the Saturday after their death and whomsoever I shall find in Purgatory, I shall free, so that I may lead them to the holy mountain of life everlasting.”
Pope Benedict XV proceeded to grant an indulgence of 500 days for each time the cloth Scapular is kissed”. On July 16th, the Scapular feast, while addressing the seminarians of Rome, Benedict XV said: “Let all of you have a common language and a common armor: the language, the sentences of the Gospel; the common armor, the Scapular of the Virgin of Carmel, which you all ought to wear and which enjoys the singular privilege of protection even after death.”
The Brown Scapular | A Sacramental
“One of the most remarkable effects of sacramentals is the virtue to drive away evil spirits whose mysterious and baleful operations affect sometimes the physical activity of man. To combat this occult power the Church has recourse to exorcism, and sacramentals” (The Catholic Encyclopedia., 1913, VXIII, p. 293).
The Brown Scapular | A True Story
You will understand why the Devil works against those who promote the brown scapular when you hear the true story of Venerable Francis Yepes. One day his Scapular fell off. As he replaced it, the Devil howled, “Take off that habit which snatches so many souls from us! All those clothed in it die piously and escape us!” Then and there Francis made the Devil admit that there are three things which the demons are most afraid of: the Holy Name of Jesus; theHoly Name of Mary and the Holy Scapular of Carmel.“Modern Heretics make a mockery of wearing the Scapular. They decry it as so much trifling nonsense.” – St. Alphonsus LigouriMary, Mother of God and Our Mother“When Mary became the Mother of Jesus, true God and true Man, She also became our Mother. In His great mercy, Jesus wished to call us His brothers and sisters, and by this name He constituted us adopted children of Mary.” – St. John BoscoOver the years there have also been many miracles associated with wearing the brown scapular.
*If you would like a brown scapular click here:
