Monday of the Third Week of Easter

Readings of the day: RB 61:6-14

Mass: Ac 6:8-15; Resp Ps 119; Jn 6:22-29

STEPHEN, FILLED WITH GRACE AND POWER,
WAS WORKING GREAT WONDERS AND SIGNS AMONG THE PEOPLE.
THEY COULD NOT UNDERSTAND THE WISDOM
AND THE SPIRIT WITH WHICH HE SPOKE.

Let us ask St Stephen to intercede for us so that all the words we use to communicate with our families, friends, community members, co-workers, and all those we encounter be words of kindness, gentleness, love, and welcome.

Words from Pope Francis are fitting for all these encounters, what he calls ‘the little details of love’ in Gaudete et Exsultate, 145:

The love of friendship unifies all aspects of marital life and helps family members to grow constantly.  This love must be freely and generously expressed in words and acts.  In the family, "three words need to be used.  I want to repeat this! Three words: ‘Please’, ‘Thank you’, ‘Sorry’.  Three essential words!". "In our families when we are not overbearing and ask: ‘May I?’; in our families when we are not selfish and can say: ‘Thank you!’; and in our families when someone realizes that he or she did something wrong and is able to say ‘Sorry!’, our family experiences peace and joy". Let us not be stingy about using these words, but keep repeating them, day after day.  For "certain silences are oppressive, even at times within families, between husbands and wives, between parents and children, among siblings". The right words, spoken at the right time, daily protect and nurture love (Pope Francis, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, 133).

STEPHEN’S FACE WAS LIKE THAT OF AN ANGEL.