Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter

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

Saints:Saint Charles Lwanga and his Companions, Martrys (-1885/7); Saint Kevin (-618)

First Friday of the Month

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 7:44-48 Humility

Mass: Acts 25:13b-21; Resp Ps 103; Jn 21:15-19

 

Bless the Lord, O my soul.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

HEART OF JESUS, SACRED TEMPLE OF GOD,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

I was reminded yesterday that the month of June is traditionally dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In these days, and for the entire month, as we prepare to celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 24, the daily reflection will include an invocation from the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is a beautiful litany, one to pray with every day of the year. Heart of Jesus, of Infinite Majesty, have mercy on us.

In today's Gospel, Jesus asks Simon Peter and each one of us: Do you love me? Well, do you love Jesus? One commentator, Father Donald Haggerty, asks this question: "Would you choose anything or anyone over Him?" Father Haggerty also writes that Jesus asks whether we intend to love Him entirely to our last drop of blood. This, as he says, is no small thing. What follows comes to mind, something I have included before. It is something Cardinal Basil Hume said. 

Always think of God as your lover. Therefore, He wants to be with you, just as a lover wants to be with the beloved. He wants your attention, as every lover wants the attention of the beloved. He wants to listen to you, as every lover wants to hear the voice of the beloved. If you turn to me and ask, "Are you in love with God?" I would pause, hesitate and say, "I am not certain. But of one thing I am certain-that He is in love with me.

(B. Hume, The Mystery of Love)

And since I wrote this in a card last night, I pass along the following poem, attributed to the Persian poet Hafiz (c.1320-1389). You can find it in D. Ladinsky, Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and the West (Penguin, 2002), p. 164.

THE TRUE NATURE OF YOUR BELOVED

Know

the true nature of your

Beloved.

In 

His

loving eyes

your every thought, word, and movement

is always, always,

beautiful.

SAINT CHARLES LWANGA AND HIS COMPANIONS,

SAINT KEVIN,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: You mighty in strength.

© Gertrude Feick 2022