21 Fri Easter Weekday [Saint Christopher Magallanes, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs]
Acts 25:13b-21/Jn 21:15-19
22 Sat Easter Weekday Saint Rita of Cascia] Acts 28:16-20, 30-31/Jn 21:20-25
23 SUN PENTECOST SUNDAY Solemnity
Vigil: Gn 11:1-9 or Ex 19:3-8a, 16-20b or Ez 37:1-14 or Jl 3:1-5/Rom 8:22-27/Jn 7:37-39
Day: Acts 2:1-11/1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13 or Gal 5:16-25/Jn 20:19-23 or Jn 15:26-27; 16:12-15
This week, from May 16 to 24, Catholics everywhere are uniting to take the next steps in our journey toward better care of creation, as Pope Francis has urged us in his encyclical Laudato si’, issued May 24, 2015. Here’s Pope Francis :
Catholics everywhere are uniting May 16-24 to take the next steps in our groundbreaking journey toward better care of creation. You are called to join us.
We hope to join in the important week from this humble blog. Take a look at what’s being planned
May 10 Mon Easter Weekday. [Saint John of Ávila, Priest and Doctor of the Church; USA: Saint Damien de Veuster, Priest] Acts 16:11-15/Jn 15:26—16:4a
11 Tue Easter Weekday Acts 16:22-34/Jn 16:5-11
12 Wed Easter Weekday [Saints Nereus and Achilleus, Martyrs; Saint Pancras, Martyr] Acts 17:15, 22—18:1/Jn 16:12-15
13 Thu THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD Solemnity Acts 1:1-11/Eph 1:17-23 or Eph 4:1-13 or 4:1-7, 11-13/Mk 16:15-20
14 Fri Saint Matthias, Apostle Feast Acts 1:15-17, 20-26/Jn 15:9-17
15 Sat Easter Weekday [USA: Saint Isidore] Acts 18:23-28/Jn 16:23b-28
16 SUN SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Acts 1:15-17, 20a, 20c-26/1 Jn 4:11-16/Jn 17:11b-19
The Feast of the Ascension is celebrated on Thursday this week in the Eastern United States where I live but on Sunday in the western dioceses. Better to celebrate this feast at the same time, I think.
In the Acts of the Apostles, Paul takes the stage at Athens, the intellectual capitol of the Roman world, but his words chosen carefully are met mostly with rejection or curiosity. “We would like to hear you some other time.” (Wednesday)
Friday is the feast of St. Matthias, chosen to be an apostle to take the place of Judas who betrayed the Lord.
On Friday the ordinary readings tell us that Paul after his rejection at Athens, gets a better reception in Corinth, not far from Athens, but worlds away from the proud self sufficient city. “Do not be afraid. Go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you.” Jesus says to Paul in a vision.
In the reading from Acts on Saturday, Luke reminds us that Paul had great people with him like Priscilla and Aquila, the wife and husband, who instruct Apollos, a good speaker but weak in his theology. “When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the Way of God more accurately.”
Some time ago I told a cousin of mine recently who wasn’t sure about a sermon she heard in church. “You may be right and he’s wrong.”
Lord Jesus, once in the wilderness your people ate heavenly manna and they were filled. And once in a desert place you fed the hungry with blessed bread.
A simple thing, we say, costing our mighty God little effort.
But what if bread is a body offered for all, and a cup of wine your own life-blood given to those who hardly care?
A costly thing, we say, Is there anything more God could have done? Anything more Love could do than lay down his life for his friends?
From Lent-Easter Meditations and Prayers by Fr. Victor Hoagland, C.P.
Saints show us our capabilities, how far we can rise, from the depths to the heights. That’s why the church recalls the conversion of St.Paul a number of times in the church year. Today we hear it as part of our readings from the Acts of the Apostles. As he readily acknowledges, Paul rose from the dust and became a powerful force in his church and in the world through God’s grace.
St. John Chrysostom says of him: “Paul, more than anyone else, has shown us what we really are, and in what our nobility consists, and of what virtue a human being is capable. Each day he aimed ever higher; each day he rose up with greater ardour and faced with new eagerness the dangers that threatened him. He summed up his attitude in the words: I forget what is behind me and push on to what lies ahead. When he saw death imminent, he bade others share his joy: Rejoice and be glad with me! And when danger, injustice and abuse threatened, he said: I am content with weakness, mistreatment and persecution. These he called the weapons of righteousness, thus telling us that he derived immense profit from them…
The most important thing of all to him, however, was that he knew himself to be loved by Christ.”
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