Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel Reading is Acts 2:1-11. It is the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and they go out immediately and begin sharing the Gospel. Come Holy Spirit and renew the face of the earth, renew us! The Church is STILL in the “phase of Pentecost”. We NEED the Holy Spirit! Come, Holy Spirit!

Praised Be Jesus Christ!  Today’s Gospel Reading is John 21: 20-25. Peter asks what will happen with John the Beloved Disciple and Jesus instructs him to to be faithful to his own mission. So too we must be faithful in our own time, location, and vocation. By doing so we will bear the fruit the Lord intends. How is that the Lord desires us, individually, to be his disciples and proclaim his Gospel to the world?

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel Reading is John 21: 15-19. In this Gospel, Jesus asks Peter three times, do you love me? The corresponding yes comes with the task of watching over Jesus’s sheep. Jesus is asking us, “do you love me?”, and by this, do we love the Lord more than everything else? Let us pray for the grace to put the Lord above everything else

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel Reading is John 17:20-26. Jesus continues to pray for His disciples, us, and the Church. Not just the apostles, but all who come to faith through them. Those who have received and passed on the apostolic faith. Is there one person who the Lord desires to bring to His mercy through us? Let us pray that our labor be fruitful, remembering He has consecrated us in the Truth.

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Todays reading is Acts 20:28-38. Paul is preparing the people for the time that he will have to leave. As the people pray for and over Paul, they weep. They know they won’t see him again, and so there is a sadness for his departure, but also a joy for what he’s given them. Today let us give thanks to God for the great witnesses of the Christian faith in our own lives.

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel Reading is Jn 15:9-17, the Feast of Matthias the Apostle. The Apostles knew they needed to reconstitute the fullness of the group. As such, they had to replace Judas. They prayed that God would reveal His choice to them. Ultimately, they chose Matthias and he was numbered among the 12. By our Baptisms, we too, are brought into the community of the Church to be witnesses to Christ in the world.

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel Reading is Jn 16:29-33. “Take courage, I have conquered the world”, says the Lord. There are plenty of times where we may feel oppressed or just that nothing is going our way. The Lord instructs us to take courage, and if we feel that there is nowhere to turn, we are to turn to Him. Let us pray for courage and trust in the Lord as we embark on our mission as disciples.

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel Reading is John 19:11-19. Jesus prays that the Father would protect us and keep us in His name. That we would be consecrated in the Truth. On Pentecost we are given the duty, the mission, to proclaim the Gospel to all nations. Let us ask the Lord to consecrate us to the Truth so that we might be His witnesses to the ends of the earth.

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel reading is John 15:23-28 Ask with faith and the Lord will give me whatever it is that I need. It’s tempting to think that God is too busy for me, but the truth is that the Lord ASKS us to go to Him. When we ask in Faith, the Lord guides our hearts to recognize that which is true and good for us.

Praised Be Jesus Christ! The first reading today is Acts 18:9-18. Paul is given courage by God to continue in his ministry through all the persecutions he has suffered. Paul goes out to spread the Gospel to all, but he doesn’t have much support. Just so, we might feel that we don’t have external support in our call to spread the Gospel. Here we must remember that God gives us strength and the promise of heaven.

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today is Ascension Thursday, and today’s reading is Mk 16:15-20. After Christ has ascended into Heaven, the disciples IMMEDIATELY go out to begin their mission. We also know they spend 9 days in prayer in the upper room in prayer, waiting for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The permanent state of the Church is one of waiting for the second coming, constantly depending on the power of the Holy Spirit.

Today’s Gospel Reading is Jn 16:12-15. Jesus tells us that everything He has heard from the Father, He has handed on to us. It might seem strange that Jesus is able to teach everything in just three years, but in His perfection He is able to. We have the Gospels to meditate on, so we might learn what we need for Salvation. The Holy Spirit teaches us what we need to know. Praised Be Jesus Christ!

Today’s First Reading is Acts 16:22-34. According to the standard of the world, we are responsible for everything, without mercy. God’s standard is otherwise. The mercy of God calls us even when we fall short. God in His goodness offers us His mercy over and over.  So too, we have been called to be witnesses. Praised Be Jesus Christ!

Today’s Gospel Reading is Jn 15:26-16:4. We are preparing for Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus prepares his disciples for all the realities of the Gospel, from the Passion to the reception of the Holy Spirit. The Advocate that is coming to us will give us everything that we need. Praised Be Jesus Christ!

Today’s Gospel Reading is Jn 15:9-17 No one has greater love than to lay down their life for their friends. Further, if we live according to the teachings of Jesus, we are truly friends with Christ. Am I aligned with Jesus’s teachings, His way of thinking, His Gospel? Praised Be Jesus Christ!

Today’s Gospel Reading is Jn 15:18-21. Jesus tells his disciples that the world will hate them. This is because there is a consequence to accepting God’s mercy, namely, there are certain behaviors that one needs to leave behind. Remember, if they persecuted Jesus, they will persecute us also. We are united with the Lord, whether the Gospel is received or rejected. Praised Be Jesus Christ!

Today we celebrate the feast of the apostles of St. Philip and St. James. We read from Jn 14:6-14. “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”. Have you fully assented to this? Is it personal? Pray today, that we enter into the mystery, that he becomes your Way, your Truth, and your Life. Praised Be Jesus Christ!

Today is the feast of St Athanasius, we read from Jn 15:9-11. God’s desire for us is that we experience His love in all things, and as such, that we would have love and joy to the fullest extent. St. Athanasius is famous as a theologian who did not let his knowledge of the Lord, nor his joy, be swayed by public pressure or opinion. Let us pray that we would remain confident and strong in the love of Christ. Praised Be Jesus Christ!

Today is the Feast of St. Jospeh the Worker! We sometimes fall into the fallacy that work is contrary to God’s plan. However, from the beginning work has been included in the Lord’s plan. Prior to the fall it had a place, but now after the fall, it takes on a new difficulty. St. Joseph as a just man and the foster father of the Lord works always in union with God. Let us pray that we will share not only in God’s work, but God’s glory. Praised Be Jesus Christ!

Today’s Gospel Reading is John 14: 27-31 . The Lord brings peace, but not the same the world brings peace. Is peace just the absence of noise and conflict? The peace Jesus brings us is a peace of soul. A quiet, confidence, and total reliance on God. Today, let us pray for true peace of soul. Praised Be Jesus Christ!