Saturday of the Third Week of Easter

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

First Saturday of the Month

Saints: Saint John of Beverley (-721); Blessed Albert of Bergamo OP (1214-1279)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Prologue 39-44

Mass: Acts 9:31-42; Resp Ps 116; Jn 6:60-69

My vows to the Lord I will pay in the presence of the people.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

(Jn 6:63)

Welcome to the First Saturday of the Month, another busy day with the Word made Flesh who dwells among us. Christ is risen. He is truly risen! 

In our account from the Acts of the Apostles, the Church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace. The Church was growing in numbers; many turned to the Lord after witnessing the healing of Aeneas, who was paralyzed and confined to bed for eight years. Many also came to believe after the Lord, through Peter, raised Tabitha (which translated is Dorcas 😊) from the dead. Meanwhile, in the Gospel, after Jesus talks about His Flesh being the true food, and His Blood as the true drink, many of the disciples struggle and murmur. So much so that some returned to their former way of life and no longer walked with Him. Let's not go there. Rather, may we join Simon Peter and exclaim: "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" (Jn 6:68-69). And may many others come to believe through our witness. What is not possible to us by nature, let us ask the Lord to supply through the help of His grace ... we must run and do now what will profit us forever (RB Prologue 41, 44).

To make Christ, always living and present within us, the model of our life and the friend of every hour, the painful hours and the blessed ones as well. To ask Him to make Himself loved by other souls through us, and to be, following a comparison I love, "the rough vessel that contains a brilliant light and through which this light brightens and warms everything around it."

(E. Leseur, The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur, p. 161)

SAINT JOHN OF BEVERLEY,

BLESSED ALBERT OF BERGAMO,

SERVANT OF GOD ELISABETH LESEUR,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: It is always fitting to honor Our Lady, especially in this month of May. This hot off the press photo was sent from a longtime, hometown friend, now faithful reader. She sends her contribution from Carmel, Indiana. As related, her daughter received this beautiful flower while volunteering during a 2nd grade religious education class this past weekend. My dear friend thought it would look beautiful with the addition of three of her favorite statues of Mary. Mary, singular vessel of devotion, pray for us. Shout out to all those east of Mississippi!

© Gertrude Feick 2022