Fifth Sunday of Easter

Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"

In other years: Saint Isidore the Farmer, Patron of Madrid (1070-1130); Saint Carthage (c.555-637); Blessed Giles of Vaozela OP (c.1184-1265); Blessed Andrew Abellon OP (1375-1450) 

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 2:30-32 Qualities of the Abbot

Mass: Acts 14:21-27; Resp Ps 145; Rev 21:1-5a; Jn 13:31-33a, 34-35

Let all your works give you thanks, O Lord.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

Behold, God's dwelling is with the human race.

(Rev 21:5)

As of today, we have ten newly formally canonized saints to intercede for us. We invoke them below. They cheer us on to glory. God is praised!

Almost enough for this week is to embrace Jesus' words: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another (Jn 13:34). Love is a mark of a disciple of Jesus as the He says: This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (Jn 13:35). Jesus loved us first. Let's be about loving Him and loving one another then with all the joy and suffering love brings, including what we hear in our account from the Acts of the Apostles. There, Paul and Barnabas tell us that "it is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). So be it as Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur notes:

Suffering works mysteriously, first in ourselves by a kind of inner renewal, and also in others, perhaps far away, without ever knowing here on earth what we are accomplishing by it.

Suffering is an act. Christ on the Cross has perhaps done more for humanity than Christ speaking and acting in Galilee or Jerusalem. Suffering creates life; it transforms all it touches, all it strikes.

(E. Leseur, The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur, pp. 164-165)

We join Paul and Barnabas then and exhort one another to persevere in the faith (Acts 14:22). We have so many in the communion of saints to help us. Those formally recognized along with the saints "next door" (Pope Francis, Gaudete et exsultate, 6-9), in heaven and on earth, inspire us to keep going.

SAINT TITUS BRANDSMA,

SAINT MARIE RIVIER,

SAINT CAROLINA SANTOCANALE,

SAINT CHARLES DE FOUCAULD,

SAINT DEVASAHAYAM PILLAI,

SAINT CESAR DE BUS,

SAINT LUIGI MARIA PALAZZOLA,

SAINT JUSTIN RUSSOLILLO,

SAINT ANNA MARIA RUBATTO,

SAINT MARIA DOMENICA MANTOVANI,

SAINT ISIDORE THE FARMER,

SAINT CARTHAGE,

BLESSED GILES OF VAOZELA,

BLESSED ANDREW ABELLON,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: This lush vanilla leaf makes for a peaceful scene. From faithful reader, Linda, on a walk at Redwoods. Thank you. Let your faithful ones praise you.

© Gertrude Feick 2022