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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) This was his favorite healing prayer.

SEPTEMBER

The month of September is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, whose memorial the Church celebrates on September 15. September falls during the liturgical season known as Tempus per Annum or Ordinary Time (formerly Time After Pentecost), which is represented by the liturgical color green. Green is a symbol of hope, as it 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. The liturgical color green is worn during prayer of Offices and Masses of Ordinary Time.

The Holy Father’s Intentions for the Month of SEPTEMBER 2026

The Holy Father’s Intentions for the Month of SEPTEMBER 2026
For the care of water: Let us pray for a just and sustainable management of water, a vital resource, so that everyone may have equal access to it. (See also https://popesprayerusa.net.)

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.

DAILY PRAYER
 

“Lord Jesus, thank You for being the source of real freedom. Help me remember that loving You and loving others matters more than simply following rules. Teach me to notice You in the ordinary moments of my day. Fill my heart with compassion, joy, and gratitude as I walk with You today. Amen.”

https://oblatesusa.org/category/prayers/

 
“The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.“
 
 

ORDINARY

TIME:

SEPTEMBER 5th

Saturday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time; Opt Mem St. Teresa of Calcutta, Virgin
 

On December 24, 2024, Pope Francis ordered the inscription of Saint Teresa of Calcutta, Virgin, into the General Roman Calendar, celebrated each year as an Optional Memorial on September 5.
The Holy See released the proper liturgical texts in Latin. Some of those texts were previously approved in English and Spanish by the USCCB, and they were confirmed by the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on June 24, 2025. Texts involving the Liturgy of the Hours must still be newly translated and approved before they can be implemented.
Today the Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), affectionally called “Mother Teresa.” Nun, missionary and teacher in Calcutta, India and foundress of the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity in 1950. She received the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in 1971, the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1972, and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and the Missionaries today work in 30 countries.
 
St. Teresa of Calcutta (Kolkata)
“By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.”
Small of stature, rocklike in faith, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was entrusted with the mission of proclaiming God’s thirsting love for humanity, especially for the poorest of the poor. “God still loves the world and He sends you and me to be His love and His compassion to the poor.” She was a soul filled with the light of Christ, on fire with love for Him and burning with one desire: “to quench His thirst for love and for souls.”
This luminous messenger of God’s love was born on 26 August 1910 in Skopje, a city situated at the crossroads of Balkan history. The youngest of the children born to Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu, she was baptised Gonxha Agnes, received her First Communion at the age of five and a half and was confirmed in November 1916. From the day of her First Holy Communion, a love for souls was within her. Her father’s sudden death when Gonxha was about eight years old left the family in financial straits. Drane raised her children firmly and lovingly, greatly influencing her daughter’s character and vocation. Gonxha’s religious formation was further assisted by the vibrant Jesuit parish of the Sacred Heart in which she was much involved.
At the age of eighteen, moved by a desire to become a missionary, Gonxha left her home in September 1928 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto, in Ireland. There she received the name Sister Mary Teresa after St. Thérèse of Lisieux. In December, she departed for India, arriving in Calcutta on January 6, 1929. After making her First Profession of Vows in May 1931, Sister Teresa was assigned to the Loreto Entally community in Calcutta and taught at St. Mary’s School for girls. On May 24, 1937, Sister Teresa made her Final Profession of Vows, becoming, as she said, the “spouse of Jesus” for “all eternity.” From that time on she was called Mother Teresa. She continued teaching at St. Mary’s and in 1944 became the school’s principal. A person of profound prayer and deep love for her religious sisters and her students, Mother Teresa’s twenty years in Loreto were filled with profound happiness. Noted for her charity, unselfishness and courage, her capacity for hard work and a natural talent for organization, she lived out her consecration to Jesus, in the midst of her companions, with fidelity and joy.
On 10 September 1946 during the train ride from Calcutta to Darjeeling for her annual retreat, Mother Teresa received her “inspiration,” her “call within a call.” On that day, in a way she would never explain, Jesus’ thirst for love and for souls took hold of her heart and the desire to satiate His thirst became the driving force of her life. Over the course of the next weeks and months, by means of interior locutions and visions, Jesus revealed to her the desire of His heart for “victims of love” who would “radiate His love on souls.” “Come be My light,” He begged her. “I cannot go alone.” He revealed His pain at the neglect of the poor, His sorrow at their ignorance of Him and His longing for their love. He asked Mother Teresa to establish a religious community, Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor. Nearly two years of testing and discernment passed before Mother Teresa received permission to begin. On August 17, 1948, she dressed for the first time in a white, blue-bordered sari and passed through the gates of her beloved Loreto convent to enter the world of the poor.
After a short course with the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna, Mother Teresa returned to Calcutta and found temporary lodging with the Little Sisters of the Poor. On December 21 she went for the first time to the slums. She visited families, washed the sores of some children, cared for an old man lying sick on the road and nursed a woman dying of hunger and TB. She started each day in communion with Jesus in the Eucharist and then went out, rosary in her hand, to find and serve Him in “the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for.” After some months, she was joined, one by one, by her former students.
On October 7, 1950 the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially established in the Archdiocese of Calcutta. By the early 1960s, Mother Teresa began to send her Sisters to other parts of India. The Decree of Praise granted to the Congregation by Pope Paul VI in February 1965 encouraged her to open a house in Venezuela. It was soon followed by foundations in Rome and Tanzania and, eventually, on every continent. Starting in 1980 and continuing through the 1990s, Mother Teresa opened houses in almost all of the communist countries, including the former Soviet Union, Albania and Cuba.
In order to respond better to both the physical and spiritual needs of the poor, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity Brothers in 1963, in 1976 the contemplative branch of the Sisters, in 1979 the Contemplative Brothers, and in 1984 the Missionaries of Charity Fathers. Yet her inspiration was not limited to those with religious vocations. She formed the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa and the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, people of many faiths and nationalities with whom she shared her spirit of prayer, simplicity, sacrifice and her apostolate of humble works of love. This spirit later inspired the Lay Missionaries of Charity. In answer to the requests of many priests, in 1981 Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests as a “little way of holiness” for those who desire to share in her charism and spirit.
During the years of rapid growth, the world began to turn its eyes towards Mother Teresa and the work she had started. Numerous awards, beginning with the Indian Padmashri Award in 1962 and notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, honoured her work, while an increasingly interested media began to follow her activities. She received both prizes and attention “for the glory of God and in the name of the poor.”
The whole of Mother Teresa’s life and labour bore witness to the joy of loving, the greatness and dignity of every human person, the value of little things done faithfully and with love, and the surpassing worth of friendship with God. But there was another heroic side of this great woman that was revealed only after her death. Hidden from all eyes, hidden even from those closest to her, was her interior life marked by an experience of a deep, painful and abiding feeling of being separated from God, even rejected by Him, along with an ever-increasing longing for His love. She called her inner experience, “the darkness.” The “painful night” of her soul, which began around the time she started her work for the poor and continued to the end of her life, led Mother Teresa to an ever more profound union with God. Through the darkness, she mystically participated in the thirst of Jesus, in His painful and burning longing for love, and she shared in the interior desolation of the poor.
During the last years of her life, despite increasingly severe health problems, Mother Teresa continued to govern her Society and respond to the needs of the poor and the Church. By 1997, Mother Teresa’s Sisters numbered nearly 4,000 members and were established in 610 foundations in 123 countries of the world. In March 1997 she blessed her newly-elected successor as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity and then made one more trip abroad. After meeting Pope John Paul II for the last time, she returned to Calcutta and spent her final weeks receiving visitors and instructing her Sisters. On 5 September Mother Teresa’s earthly life came to an end. She was given the honour of a state funeral by the Government of India and her body was buried in the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity. Her tomb quickly became a place of pilgrimage and prayer for people of all faiths, rich and poor alike. Mother Teresa left a testament of unshakable faith, invincible hope and extraordinary charity. Her response to Jesus’ plea, “Come be My light,” made her a Missionary of Charity, a “mother to the poor,” a symbol of compassion to the world, and a living witness to the thirsting love of God.
Less than two years after her death, in view of Mother Teresa’s widespread reputation of holiness and the favours being reported, Pope John Paul II permitted the opening of her Cause of Canonization. On December 20, 2002, he approved the decrees of her heroic virtues and miracles.
—Excerpted from the Vatican Website
Patronage: diocese of Calcutta, India; Missionaries of Charity
Highlights and Things to Do:
MASS READINGS
 
September 05, 2026 (Readings on USCCB website)
 
PROPERS [Show]
 
COLLECT PRAYER
 
Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time: God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, you may nurture in us what is good and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Optional Memorial of St. Teresa of Calcutta: O God, who called the Virgin Saint Teresa to respond to the love of your Son thirsting on the Cross with outstanding charity to the poorest of the poor, grant us, we beseech you, by her intercession, to minister to Christ in our suffering brothers and sisters. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
 
Daily Meditation:
 
1 Corinthians 4:6-15
 
What do you possess that you have not received? (1 Corinthians 4:7)
 
What does holiness look like?
In today’s first reading, Paul confronts the Corinthians for falling into the trap of thinking they can pick and choose which apostle they will follow based on their own personal preferences. They were behaving as if they had attained the highest level of holiness—as if they had earned all their gifts and blessings rather than “received” them from the Lord (1 Corinthians 4:7). And so they trusted in their own wisdom, which allowed them to fall into factions based on which leader each one followed.
 
But Paul calls them away from these assumptions and back to the true path of holiness: one rooted not in status or comparison but in love for God and for others. He points them toward the example of the apostles, whose lives were marked by humility and sacrifice rather than boastfulness and pride. Holiness, Paul essentially tells them, should make them more humble in the way they treat each other; it shouldn’t make them think they could judge each other’s holiness!
 
Paul’s words resound powerfully today. We live in a world where people’s value is based on their achievement, a world so marked by division that we even took a word from physics—polarization—and began using it to describe our relationships with each other. By contrast, the holiness that God calls us to has not changed at all: it’s the holiness of self-giving, of pouring out the gifts God has freely given to us. It’s the holiness of honoring everyone equally, no matter their social standing, and bringing them all together under Christ. It’s the holiness of humility and sacrifice.
 
Jesus delights when we gratefully receive the gifts he has given us and use them to serve one another. He loves it when we pour ourselves out for people rather than hold tightly to our own lives. This is what true holiness looks like, the holiness of Jesus and of all the apostles and saints.
 
“Lord, I am so grateful for all the gifts you have given me. Help me to share them generously with all the people around me.”
 
Psalm 145:17-21
Luke 6:1-5
 
 
 
5TH SEPTEMBER 2026
SATURDAY OF WEEK 22 IN ORDINARY TIME 
1 Corinthians 4:6-15; Psalm 145:17-18,19-20,21; Luke 6:1-5
WHEN HUMANS ARE HUNGRY, LOVE SHOULD RULE THE LAW
 
“While Jesus was going through a field of grain on a sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Have you not read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry?” Luke 6:1-3
▪One of the weapons some world leaders use against their citizens is poverty and hunger. When people are kept poor and hungry, they lose the sense of their rights. Laws do not work when people are hungry. It is only someone who has been well fed and lives comfortably who talks about law and order. The Pharisees saw the disciples in a field of grain on a sabbath. They were not working but were trying to survive hunger. 
~ Most of the crimes are not intentionally committed. No one is justifying any form of crime. Some crimes and disorders in the world can be controlled when hunger is controlled. How can hunger be controlled? By applying the rule of love more than the rule of law. David is used as an example of the event in 1 Samuel 21. He was hungry, and there was no common bread, but consecrated bread (cf. 1 Samuel 21:5). To save him and his men, he got the show (consecrated) bread. 
~ Apostle Paul and the other disciples were ready to go hungry to preach the gospel. Let us remember that this hunger was willingly chosen, though sometimes because of necessity. Many in the world did not choose to go hungry, but life’s circumstances have forced them to do so. For someone in such a state, no law will matter as long as food is eaten to satisfy the immediate need of hunger.
~ We may be in a haste like the Pharisees to judge and condemn people for doing what we think is unlawful if we do not understand their situation. At the end of the discussion, the Lord said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath” (Luke 6:5). Even though the law is meant to keep order, the ultimate goal of the law is to keep love alive in society. If this law comes into conflict with love, it will be set aside for the sake of love. 
▪Dear friend, when we look at people with the eyes of love, we will be merciful first; when we look at them with the eyes of law, we will judge them first. May we not judge and condemn those we would have shown mercy. The Lord always looked on all with compassion. Let us learn to look at people with the same compassion the Lord does. If our hearts feel love and compassion, the law will mean love instead of judgment and condemnation. 
Peace be with you! 
Fr Joseph Chukwugozie Ikegbunam
 
 
 
We propagate the Tuesday devotion to Holy Raphael, please pray along with us for his intercession for all travelers, marriages, those who are sick, use the oil, our benefactors and all priests and religious on Tuesdays.
+Glorious Archangel St. Raphael, great prince of the heavenly court, you are illustrious for your gifts of wisdom and grace. You are a guide of those who journey by land or sea or air, consoler of the afflicted, and refuge of sinners.I beg you, assist me in all my needs and in all the sufferings of this life, as once you helped the young Tobias on his travels. Because you are the “medicine of God” I humbly pray you to heal the many infirmities of my soul and the ills that afflict my body. I especially ask of you the favor (here mention your special intention), and the great grace of purity to prepare me to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
 


“May the Angel Raphael, physician of our salvation, help us from the heights of Heaven, heal all diseases and guide our faltering steps towards the true life.”

(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.

“St. Gertrude’s Prayer,” was dictated by Our Lord to St. Gertrude the Great, a Benedictine cloistered nun and a mystic. In the twelfth century, the Lord told the Saint that this prayer (approved and recommended by M. Cardinal Pahiarca of Lisbon, Portugal on March 4, 1936) releases 1,000 Souls from Purgatory each time it is offered.

“Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today,  for all the holy souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.”
MIRACULOUS MEDAL
 

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:

“These are the symbols of grace I shed upon those who ask for them.”
“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’
Then the voice said:
‘ Have a medal struck upon this model. All those who wear it, when it is blessed, will receive great graces especially if they wear it round the neck. Those who repeat this prayer with devotion will be in a special manner under the protection of the Mother of God. Graces will be abundantly bestowed upon those who have confidence.’ “

At the same instant, the oval frame seemed to turn around. Then I saw on the back of it the letter ‘M’, surmounted by a cross, with a crossbar beneath it, and under the monogram of the name of Mary, the Holy Hearts of Jesus and of His Mother; the first surrounded by a crown of thorns and the second transpierced by a sword. I was anxious to know what words must be placed on the reverse side of the medal and after many prayers, one day in meditation I seemed to hear a voice which said to me:
‘The ‘M’ with the Cross and the two Hearts tell enough.’ ”
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.    
*Click on this link for a free Miraculous Medal


BROWN SCAPULAR OF MT. CARMEL

“Whosoever dies clothed in thisshall never suffer eternal fire.”

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:

Free Brown Scapular | Order Page