Tag: evangelio del dia

Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena

From the responsorial psalm: “Our God is in heaven; whatever he wills, he does. Their idols are silver and gold, the handiwork of men. Not to us, O Lord, but to your name give the glory.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 14:21-26)

Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, “Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.”

As Jesus speaks to the disciples, Judas questions in what particular way Jesus will reveal himself and the Father to the world. Obedience to Jesus’ commandments demonstrates love for him as it reveals love of the Father and the Son in action. The Holy Spirit would come as Jesus promised so that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwell within. Guiding their understanding of Jesus’ teachings and bringing them to recall all that he has taught them, the coming of the Holy Spirit is a promise fulfilled that ensures that the disciples—and all who believe—will have divine assistance in understanding the truths Jesus has shared with them and the grace to put them into action.

God, help me understand what Jesus was telling the disciples. What he said would happen did happen: the Holy Spirit came to give them greater understanding and strengthen their faith. Jesus spoke the words of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, expressing the will of the Trinity: As Jesus said, “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” Lord, just as you sent the Holy Spirit to the disciples, help me also prepare a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit through obedience to the teachings of your Son, to the Church, and in union with the Eucharistic celebration throughout the world. Saint Catherine of Siena, pray for us!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.” | Fifth Sunday of Easter

From the responsorial psalm: “To him alone shall bow down all who sleep in the earth; before him shall bend all who go down into the dust. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 15:1-8)

Jesus said to his disciples: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus asks his disciples and all who hear his word to remain in him. The word remain appears eight times in the passage and twice in the First Letter of John. It is vital—literally life-giving—to remain in Christ, the vine. Remaining in him bears spiritual fruit all along the branch—in this life now and as the means of obtaining eternal life. “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither.” Jesus repeats what he said in yesterday’s Gospel about the glorification of the Father: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.” In remaining in Christ, we keep his commandments. And his commandment is this, John tells us: “we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us.”

God, how is it that we have free will, yet Jesus commands us to love one another? John says, “Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.” So how do I reconcile those two—free will and the command to love? When it is difficult to love another, help me recognize the futility of struggling outside of the truth so that I can quickly get back to knowing that I belong to the truth, that to you I belong. In vain, I would try any other way—judgment, avoidance, superiority—and I find out all of them are lies. In choosing to return to you, Lord, help me freely remain in your truth and ask you for whatever I need in bearing the fruit that glorifies your name.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter

From the first reading “There were some Cypriots and Cyrenians among them, however, who came to Antioch and began to speak to the Greeks as well, proclaiming the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with them and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 10:22-30)

So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me. But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

During the feast of the Dedication, known as Hanukkah, Jesus is in Jerusalem near the temple area on the Portico of Solomon. In response to the questions some of the Jews ask him, Jesus reiterates what he has already told them about his identity. He is the Christ, the Son of God. The repetition of what he tells them serves to emphasize not only that he is obedient to the Father but is a distinct person of the Trinity. “The Father and I are one.” Belief in that is critical, and as the first reading demonstrates was responsible for the rapid growth of Christians among Jews and Gentiles alike.

God, I come to you in prayer for a short time now, uncertain of the day’s outcome yet recognizing that you are one with Jesus Christ your Son. Again, I hear Jesus say, “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” For the times I hear your voice, let me follow without hesitation; for the times I am unaware of you, occupied with the concerns of the day, be patient with me until I turn to you and realize you are near. Father in heaven, you are present, guiding me to you. As the psalmist says, “Glorious things are said of you, O city of God. . . ! My home is within you.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter

From the responsorial psalm: “As the hind longs for the running waters, so my soul longs for you, O God. Athirst is my soul for God, the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God? Athirst is my soul for the living God.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 10:1-10)

Jesus said: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.”

Jesus goes on to say that he is the gate, not that he is like the gate, but that “whoever enters through me will be saved.” He is the gate. Jesus, who calls us by name, is the way and the truth and the life. The voice of Christ is familiar because it is the voice of the one we hear about in the psalms: “You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb.” Responding to the voice of the Lord and entering through him is the way to eternal life. “A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;” Jesus says, “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

God, help me recognize that Christ is the way to you and the means of eternal life. He is the gate through which I find you in this life and salvation in the life of the world to come. Abundant life is what Christ came to bring to all and to me. God, strengthen my desire to be attentive to the voice of Christ, following and imitating him in my words and actions and ignoring the voices of strangers who call me away from him. Lord, give me the grace today to hear and respond to your voice as you draw me to yourself.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“Good Shepherd” flickr photo by Lawrence OP https://flickr.com/photos/paullew/13972657988 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) license

Fourth Sunday of Easter

From the responsorial psalm: “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes. The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 10:11-18)

Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.”

The comforting image of Jesus as the good shepherd is well known and loved. In saying “I know mine and mine know me,” Jesus makes clear that he knows us by name and defends each of us. The relationship Jesus has with his Father, obedient even to death, is the same relationship he invites us into. Many times in this short passage Jesus says that the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. In the example of obedience and trust in the Father, Jesus leads us to a place of unconditional love and eternal life. In laying down our lives for others, Jesus brings us into the source of courage and hope: “I have power to lay it down,” he says, “and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.”

God, I hear Jesus say many times that he will lay down his life for his sheep. I want to think about that for a minute because Jesus also says, “whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” If Jesus lays down his life and has that command from you, help me see in that the good that follows—”there will be one flock, one shepherd.” Lord, give me the grace today to follow where you lead. Help me recognize that in dying to small things that keep me from you—impatience, unforgiveness, selfishness—I learn to lay down my life for you in greater things and become more like Christ. As St. Paul says, “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Saturday of the Third Week of Easter

From the responsorial psalm: “My vows to the LORD I will pay in the presence of all his people. Precious in the eyes of the LORD is the death of his faithful ones. How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good he has done for me?”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 6:60-69)

As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer walked with him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

Many of the disciples who had been following Jesus leave him when he teaches them about the reality of his body and blood as true food and drink sent from heaven. “This saying is hard,” many of the disciples say to him, “who can accept it?” Yet, John tells us “Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him.” The disciples return to a former way of life. Even today, returning to a former way or living in doubt is not an uncommon response to the reality of Christ’s true presence in the Blessed Sacrament. But faith in the risen Christ readies us for eternal life and restores life here and now—literally. After Pentecost, Peter is a new man in Christ, so much so that through the Holy Spirit he raises the disciple Tabitha from the dead. Because many witnessed this, we hear in Acts, “many came to believe in the Lord.”

God, strengthen my faith in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. As much as your grace allows, help me recognize the risen Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. Keep me attentive, Lord, to the bread and wine as it becomes the body and blood of Jesus. And give me the wisdom to choose you throughout the day, as Peter did when he said: “To whom shall we go, Lord? You have the words of eternal life.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Friday of the Third Week of Easter

From the Gospel acclamation: “Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood, remains in me and I in him, says the Lord.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 6:52-59)

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him.”

In speaking to the Jews who question how Jesus can give them his Flesh for eternal life, he repeats in four successive statements that his Flesh and Blood is the way he remains in us and is life itself within us. Jesus emphasizes further that “Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.” The words of Jesus leave no room for doubt. In instituting the Eucharist at the Last Supper, Jesus is present body and blood, soul and divinity, whenever the priest raises the bread and wine and says in the person of Christ, “This is my body. . . . This is the chalice of my blood.”

God, strengthen my faith and trust in you. The words of Jesus that I hear during each Mass call out for me to behold what I am about to consume. Help me be more attentive at Mass, fully realizing that what I receive is the Flesh and Blood of the Son of Man—that it is true life-giving food and drink. It is what Jesus says it is; since it is just that, now and forever, stir in me the desire, Lord, to say what the crowd who followed Jesus said to him: “Sir, give us this bread always.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Thursday of the Third Week of Easter

From the responsorial psalm: “Blessed be God who refused me not my prayer or his kindness! Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 6:44-51)

“I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.”

Jesus further explains how we are drawn to him and the necessity of receiving his body and blood for eternal life. Jesus says to the crowds, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day.” He explains how the Father draws us to Jesus. Everyone who listens to his Father—our Father—comes to Jesus. When we come to Jesus in the Eucharist, we receive the body and blood of Christ—the bread that came down from heaven that will give us eternal life.

Father in heaven, you sent Jesus your Son to draw us to you. In his teachings and in the sacraments of the Church, born out of your love, Jesus remains ever present so that I can come to him at all times. “Whoever believes has eternal life,” Jesus says. Give me the grace today to believe in the hope and reality of eternal life through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Gospel acclamation is an aid to help me remember this throughout the day: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord; whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter

From the responsorial psalm: “Shout joyfully to God, all the earth, sing praise to the glory of his name; proclaim his glorious praise. Say to God, “How tremendous are your deeds!” Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 6:35-40)

“But I told you that although you have seen me, you do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.”

In the Bread of Life Discourse, Jesus continues speaking to the crowd that he fed with the distribution of the loaves and the fishes. What he says to them is hard to take in. Jesus tells them that he is sent to do not his own will but the will of the Father. And the will of the Father, he tells them, is that he will not reject anyone who comes to him and that all who believe in him will have eternal life. Although the crowd doesn’t know it and can’t yet understand, Jesus invites them to the heavenly banquet, where their sustenance for all eternity will be the bread of life—Jesus Christ—in the unity of God the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Father in heaven, let me say in my heart with the grace of understanding what the crowd says to Jesus, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Help me recognize the hope that I am called to in receiving the Eucharist and in internalizing the Word made flesh. It is nourishment in this life and the hope of eternal life, the “medicine of immortality.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter

From the responsorial psalm: “Into your hands I commend my spirit; you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God. My trust is in the LORD; I will rejoice and be glad of your mercy. Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 6:30-35)

So they said to Jesus, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

John continues relating the story of Jesus’ encounter with the crowds that followed him after he performed the miracle of the loaves and the fishes. After Jesus tells them that to do the work of God is to believe in the one he sent, they ask for a sign from him so that they may believe. The same crowd Jesus had just fed ask him, recalling how Moses fed them manna in the desert, ask “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do?” How can they ask this after witnessing a miracle? Yet, Jesus tells them it was not Moses but his Father who gave them true bread from heaven. And Jesus says, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

Father in heaven, help me trust in you today through Jesus Christ your Son. Trust that you will provide me with everything I need. Trust that you know what I need even before I ask. Grant me the wisdom to know what it is I seek and what to ask you for. I stand as one among the crowds that followed Jesus, sometimes asking “What can you do?” Give me the grace, Lord, to breathe freely in the gift of peace that only you can give. Help me be aware of this gift when I have the opportunity to become a means of your peace for others. Stay with me, Lord!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.