22 Apr
Sun
2nd Sunday of Easter (C)
Acts 5:12-16
Ps. 118:2-4, 22-24, 25-27a
Rev. 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19
Jn. 20:19-31
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Index of This Month
 
     We read in today's Gospel John's version of Jesus handing on His Spirit to His disciples. The effects are dramatic. They had been huddled together in that room, afraid that the authorities would come to arrest them as accomplices of Jesus. But now it is Jesus, not dead but risen, who comes to them. He brings them peace and they are filled with joy, knowing that He is with them again. This is the transformation that Jesus can bring into our lives too if we surrender fully to Him. Joy and peace will be ours, in spite of troubles which may surround us. But Jesus has not come just to console them in their fear and sorrow. He has work for them to do - His mission. From now on, they will be His hands and feet and voice. Their task is the work of reconciliation, of bringing people back together in union with their God and in union with each other as brothers and sisters. And this is basically our Christian mission in our families and homes, in our work places and in our society generally. We are to be agents of forgiveness and reconciliation, of love and harmony, of justice and peace.
    

     Dear Jesus, help us to carry on the work, which You began. Let us not fail to reach out to those who need to know Your love and to experience it in their lives.
DAILY OFFERING
Eternal Father, I offer You everything I do this day; my thoughts, words, joys and sufferings. Grant that, vivified by the Holy Spirit and united to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, my life this day may be of service to You and to others. I also pray that all those preparing for marriage discover in Sacrament the source of Christ's grace for living a fithful and fruitful love. Amen.

PRAYING WITH THE CHURCH
INTENTION
That consecrated people, answering the call of their particular vocation, may radiate the spirit of the Gospel beatitudes in the present-day world
Elaboration

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P R A Y I N G    W I T H    T H E    C H U R C H    

INTENTION : That consecrated people, answering the call of their particular vocation, may radiate the spirit of the Gospel beatitudes in the present-day world

In the world of today there is a widespread search for joy, happiness, serenity, liberty. That is why the consecrated religious is called on to remind every person that the life of a human being comes from God. Religious give outstanding and striking testimony that the world cannot be transformed and offered to God without the spirit of the Beatitudes which proposes a way of living and for people to relate to each other. The consecrated life is for all the faithful a luminous sign of the common vocation to holiness, a model on which to draw inspiration and courage. Besides, the religious community based on motivations of faith, on mutual love and on sharing presents itself as a call to the constant reform of ecclesial communities.

The commitment asked of consecrated people needs the support, awareness and prayer of the entire Christian community, so that human weakness may not prevail but may always allow itself to be led and transformed by God's action. In fact, the attitudes indicated by the Beatitudes not only point a sure way towards fulfilment and charity, but also lead directly to the Person of Christ who came so that men and women not only might have life but have it to the full.




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