Saturday of the 7th week of Eastertide
or Saint Rita of Cascia
May 22nd, 2010
"And they knew Him in the breaking of the Bread"
"Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again" Liturgy of the Mass
Luke 24 : 35
The season of Easter 2010 comes to a close tomorrow, Pentecost Sunday. But then Easter never comes to an end. For we are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song! From the Resurrection of Christ the Church came forth. The Church is the People of God. God has fulfilled the promises of the Old Testament made to Abraham, Moses and all the prophets. God has fulfilled them in Christ. This is our faith. So, let us rejoice in the Lord and be happy and fill the earth with the joyful sound of our Alleluias of praise and thanksgiving.
It is in the Resurrection of Christ that we will find the help and the strength to cope with the failings of some of our Church leaders. These are troubled times for the people of God who feel let down and disillusioned by all the scandals. However, Christ is our Good Shepherd. He is never happy till all the lost sheep are safely home and all of us are transformed into the likeness of Christ.
Resurrection leads to Eucharist where sinners and saints meet around God’’s table. Here, hunger and thirst are no more. No one is ever turned away from God’’s table. Perhaps the problems besetting our Church today come from our failure to celebrate the Eucharist as Christ did.
Prayer
Vigil of Pentecost : This past week has been a week of prayer in preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit. We have been in the upper room with Mary and praying with her and the Apostles for a renewal tomorrow Pentecost Sunday of that first out pouring of the Spirit. So we pray : Almighty God, our Father, open our minds and hearts to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. With sad but hope filled hearts, we implore youto guide and renew our Church in these difficult times. Raise up new leaders, imbued with the spirit of the Gospel, who will re-invigorate our Irish Church. And may the faith of St. Patrick continue to burn brightly in the hearts of our people. This we ask through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
The prayer for each day has been prepared by various members of the Holy Family Association. All who visit our website are remembered in prayer. If you would like us to pray for a particular need, simply complete and submit the form on the right hand side of this page. You may wish to leave a comment in the space below.
Just a Thought
How the Holy Family prayer: A Reflection by Pope Benedict XVI
“I would like to invite you to reflect on the place of prayer in the life of the Holy Family of Nazareth. The home of Nazareth, in fact, is a school of prayer where we learn to listen, to ponder and to penetrate the profound meaning of the manifestation of the Son of God, drawing our example from Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
Pope Paul VI during his visit to Nazareth said “we come to understand the need for a spiritual discipline, if we wish to follow the teaching of the Gospel and become disciples of Christ.” And he added: “First, it teaches us silence. Oh! That there would be reborn in us the esteem for silence, that wonderful and indispensable atmosphere of the spirit: while we are deafened by so many noises, sounds and clamorous voices in the frantic and tumultuous times of modern life. Oh! Silence of Nazareth, teach us to be resolute in good thoughts, intent upon the interior life, ready to listen well to the secret inspirations of God and the exhortations of the true masters.”
We can glean several insights on the Holy Family’s prayer and relationship with God from the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ childhood. We may begin with the Presentation of Jesus in the temple. St. Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph, “when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, brought the child up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord”(2:22). Like every observant Jewish family, Jesus’ parents go up to the temple to consecrate the firstborn son to God and to offer sacrifice. Moved by fidelity to the law’s prescriptions, they set off from Bethlehem and go up to Jerusalem with Jesus, who is now forty days old. Instead of a one-year-old lamb, they present the offering of simple families; that is two young pigeons. The Holy Family’s pilgrimage is one of faith, of the offering of gifts, a symbol of prayer, and of encounter with the Lord, whom Mary and Joseph already see in the son Jesus.”
