News - May 2022 RSS Feed

This weekend the Church commemorates the Ascension of Our Lord into heaven forty days after his post resurrection mission among his disciples. Christ ascends into heaven, into a sanctuary not made by human hands. And he now sits at the right hand of the Father in glory interceding for us. Our faith teaches us that where Christ our head has gone before, we his body will follow. We see that he was already preparing his disciples’ minds for his ascension.

Imagine that your best friend is leaving town and there is no way to change things. How would you feel? What would you do with your sorrow? This seems to be the scene in this weekend’s gospel. Jesus is comforting his disciples because he is moving, not just to a different town, but away from this world. His departure is certain and there is nothing the disciples can do about it. [Click here to read more]

Before his passion, our Lord gives a ‘New Commandment.’ This is a commandment of love, which would characterize the new community he is establishing, which is the church. Jesus says, love one another (not as yourself, which is already admonished in the Old Testament, but as he, Jesus, loves you). This begs the question, how has Jesus loved us? And the response would be: “Look at the Cross.” His dying and rising are proof of his love. The cross demonstrates the extent to which he would go for love of us. [Click to read more]

The Fourth Sunday of Easter is popularly called “Good Shepherd Sunday” because each year the Gospel reading is from John 10, the “Good Shepherd Discourse.” On this day prayers are offered for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, because priests and religious are visible manifestations to us of Christ in his role as the Good Shepherd. [Click to read more]