Easter 4th Week, Tuesday, May 5th

Acts 11:19-26 / John 10:22-30 

Jesus speaks about discipleship: “My sheep hear my voice and follow me.”

Two shepherds were separating their flocks after their sheep had shared the same pen for the night. The first shepherd called, “Manah” (Arabic for “Follow me”). At once his sheep came to him. The second shepherd did the same with the same results. A visitor, familiar with Jesus’ words in today’s gospel and interested in testing them, put on the outer cloak and turban of the first shepherd and called, “Manah!" The sheep didn’t budge. “Will your flock ever follow someone other than you?” asked the visitor. “Yes,” said the shepherd. “Sometimes a sheep gets sick and will follow anyone.”

May 4-9: Easter 4th Week - Reflections

May 4 Monday: Jn 10:11-16: 11 I am the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.  13 He flees because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the Good Shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, 15 as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16…USCCB reflections: (https://youtu.be/KbA1bcD679s?list=PLpTzvCOJa7DA8uaxE25BlBvINntS5bWpi )

Easter 4th Week, Monday, May 4th

Acts 11:1-18 / John 10:1-10 

Jesus talks about life: “I came to give you life in all its fullness.”

A 50-year-old man with a terminal illness wrote to a friend: “I suddenly asked myself, ‘What am I doing? Why am I working at something I don’t enjoy? Why am I building a bank account that will do me no good when I am dead?’” Then the man told his friend that he was going to change his approach to life and live the way his heart dictated he should. That man lived 18 more months. Before he died, he told someone that the final 18 months of his life were “the best, the fullest, and the richest” of his entire life. Jesus came to teach us “the best, the fullest, and the richest” way to live.

Jesus, the Bread of Life- Prayer -7

As we are called to Become the Bread of Life for Others

Jesus Lord, many are the ways that you have quenched the thirst and filled the hunger of your people. You wouldn’t allow the joy and honour of a family at Cana to be damaged due to a lack of wine, nor would your generosity stop short for the Samaritan woman at the well. Wasn’t it your love, Lord, crossing all borders, wasn’t it the living water filling her to the brim that made her so excited to run to the village to bring her people to you? It’s saving people that seems to satisfy your hunger for souls and not decorations, ceremonies, rituals or earthly food that your disciples were able to bring.

Easter 4 A - Liturgical Prayers

Greeting (See Second Reading)
By the wounds of Jesus we have been healed.
We had gone astray like sheep,
but now we have come back
to the shepherd and guardian of our souls.
May Jesus our Good Shepherd
be always with you.

Jesus, the Bread of Life- Prayer -6

As we Battle our Addictions at this time of Isolation

Lord, our God, though we have learned through your servant Augustine “our hearts are made for you and they shall not rest until they rest in you”, your created things whose only being was to serve you held us back from you and the Bread of life that your son is. Even though, Lord, you tried to break through our deafness, flash through our blindness, flavour through our taste buds, breathe through our nostrils and touch us through our bodies, we have remained cold, stubborn, insensitive and unresponsive because those things fed us in the body and gave us pleasure even as we missed your joy which was not of this world. You have made us, Lord, for happiness.

Easter 3rd Week, Saturday, May 2

Acts 9:31-42 / John 6:60-69 

Many people leave Jesus: Peter stayed with Jesus.

A popular poster shows a loaf of bread and a goblet of wine. On the poster are the words, “Jesus of Nazareth requests the honor of your presence at a dinner to be given in his honor.” The poster underscores two important points. First, the Mass is a meal to which Jesus invites us personally: “Do this in memory of me.”

Jesus, the Bread of Life- Prayer -5

This time of isolation and separation, we hunger and thirst for your abundant life

God of healing and transformation, at this time of isolation and separation, we hunger and thirst for your abundant life. We bring you our sorrow and ask for the bread of joy; we bring you our despair and ask for the bread of hope; we bring you our weariness and ask for the bread of inspiration. Meet us, Lord, here in this time and place of frustration. We need the bread of heaven to sustain us as we journey to find our way, that we may be one with you.

May 1st: Feast of St. Joseph, the Worker - Prayer

Glorious St. Joseph, model of all those who are devoted to labour, obtain for us the grace to work conscientiously, putting the call of duty above our many concerns; to work with thankfulness and joy, responsibility and commitment, considering it an honour to employ and develop, by means of labour, the gifts received from God; to work with order, peace, prudence and patience, never surrendering too quickly and too long to weariness or difficulties; to work, above all, with purity of intention, and with detachment from self, having always the gift of God before our eyes and the account which we must render of time lost, of talents wasted, of good omitted, of vain complacency in success so fatal to the work of God. All for Jesus, all for Mary, all after your example, O Patriarch Joseph. Such shall be our motto in life unto death.  

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Jesus, the Bread of Life- Prayer -4

Jesus, the Bread of Life- Prayer -4

Jesus said, 'I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.' This is the promise of God to whom we now pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to be the Bread of Life for the world.  Forgive us for elevating earthly appetites above devotion to you.  Feed us with the knowledge of Christ so that we recognize our sin and gladly repent in his name.