Today’s readings come to us complete with a theme of repentance—and within the context of that theme we must ponder the “after effect” of repentance: transformation—and that is what these readings are taking about today. Practically speaking, the “after effect”—or consequence—of repentance is conversion through our openness to God’s free gift of salvation. It is through our contrition of the heart, that we are absolved of our sins and return to friendship with the Lord.

Over the last few weeks the Lukan Gospels as well as our Old and New Testament readings have been speaking to us on the subject of faith and prayer: from its small dose, like that of a mustard seed, which can do great things, to the gratitude of the one leper—a Samaritan—who praises God for His goodness and healing, we heard of the need for our persistence in prayer which develops our relationship with God and aligns our will to His, and finally this weekend when we hear about our inner disposition to prayer and how that disposes us to Godly ways in our living out our life

Parishioner John Hayes, a cantor in our choir, was diagnosed with Urethral cancer which is a rare form of kidney cancer. After his diagnosis he went through 12 weeks of chemotherapy and then surgery to remove his diseased kidney. A recent PET scan showed that 2 more lymph nodes had cancer. He is now going through a new type of cancer treatment known as immunotherapy. Praise God, it seems to be working well and the tumors have shrunk significantly!

The tradition and meaning of All Souls Day is particular to the Christian faith and even more so to the Roman Catholic tradition. On this Day, we remember the faithfully departed—our family and friends who have gone before marked with the sign of faith and to whom we believe are resting in the peace of Christ until the General Resurrection—the unfolding of the Kingdom of God (as opposed to the Particular Resurrection—at the moment of death).

In the time of Jesus the lepers were also banned from the community; in fact, it was ritualistically impure to be near them no less touch them. Jesus breaks the boundaries of culture and religion to heal them—but not only to heal them physically but also bring healing of faith. As Christ healed the lepers and transformed Francis, He also desires to heal us and transform us into disciples that step outside the comfort of our cultural boundaries, our religious boundaries and those of society to bring healing and oneness to others.

A mustard seed is small, yet once it starts growing—watch out—it is hard to stop it. The analogy that Jesus uses in this weekend’s gospel should give us all hope. Hope that once we get going, our faith will produce much good. But there can be many obstacles to faith’s initial launch and subsequent growth. We need to be ready and prepared to act upon faith’s plantings so that the harvest will be gathered.

A wise woman gave me this “Parents’ Prayer” the other day and I thought it might be helpful to some of our parents. I've also received calls about the "Swimmers Prayer" that I read at last weeks Mass so it's included here as well!