Take
Five for Faith
Sixth Sunday of Easter
With
you always
When
Jesus was saying farewell to his disciples in the Gospel of John—praying that
farewell, really, because what he had to say to them he said to God in
prayer—he promised he would not leave them alone. He would send his Spirit, an
Advocate, to be present to them until he returned. And lo and behold, at
Pentecost it happened. Christ did not go away; he remained in a different form.
So if you want to know what the Holy Spirit is, just think of it as Jesus’
ongoing presence, which is always with you.
Today’s
readings: Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; 1
Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21
“I will not
leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.”
Monday, April 28
Easter weekday
Come
stay at my house
God
has bestowed so many gifts on creation. In fact, the world is here in the first
place because God’s love overflowed—God wanted to share the divine love. God
even sent Jesus and became human so as to invite people more deeply into life in
God. So shouldn’t the response to all this generosity be a generous one in
which we welcome God into our lives, are open and inviting with God in prayer,
and honor and care for our world and its creatures? Start opening doors today.
Today’s
readings: Acts 16:11-15; John
15:26-16:4a
“If you have
judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.”
Tuesday, April 29
Feast
of Catherine of Siena, virgin, doctor of
the church
Catherine the great saint
Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) lacked formal schooling and died at a young age, yet she managed to become a counselor to popes and a renowned philosopher and theologian. Her many letters are considered a treasure of early Italian literature. She even achieved the rare distinction of being named doctor of the church, one of the first two women to be so honored in 1970 by Pope Paul VI (the other being Teresa of Ávila). Yet perhaps her greatest witness was her dedication to the ill and the poor, whom she served in hospitals and homes. She packed several saintly lives into her brief lifetime and provides us a lifetime of inspiration.
Today’s
readings: Acts 16:22-34; John
16:5-11
“But now I
am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
”
Wednesday, April 30
Easter weekday
Religiously
speaking
You
hear a lot about how many people these days are “spiritual but not
religious.” That they pick and choose the pieces of their spirituality without
much connection to organized religion. But recent surveys paint a different
picture: More than half of Americans between the ages of 21 and 45 are not
involved in religion. Any religion. They live without it, don’t understand it,
and think it’s pretty much inhabited by the backward-thinking and occasional
pathological examples they see in the news. This situation, however, does not
call for condemnation but education and reaching out. Those who believe know
that faith is a natural and even necessary part of life; in fact, it’s the
most important. So try to guide—gently—a “nonreligious” person to
recognize the need for a loving God that’s in all of us.
Today’s
readings: Acts 17:15, 22-18:1; John
16:12-15
“Athenians,
I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the
city . . . I found . . . an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’
”
Thursday, May 1
Easter weekday; National Day of Prayer
A
day to pray
Today
is our National Day of Prayer. It is a day whose roots reach all the way back to
the Continental Congress of 1775, when the delegates declared that a day be set
aside to pray for our fledgling nation. It has had an uneven history since then
(largely because of our unease with “government-mandated” prayer), but some
of our most illustrious presidents, including Washington, Madison, and Lincoln,
were advocates for a day of prayer. Harry Truman finally signed the bill into
law in 1952.
It’s good to be reminded that our prayers are needed for the benefit of
something larger than our own narrow circles of concern. Today, plan to set
aside a few extra moments to pray for our country and our leaders.
Today’s
readings: Acts 18:1-8; John
16:16-20
“Crispus,
the official of the synagogue, became a believer in the Lord, together with all
his household.”
Friday, May 2
Feast of Athanasius, bishop, doctor of the
church
Trouble
ahead, trouble behind
It
was not unusual for Saint Paul to be hauled before courts and officials because
of his preaching of the gospel. He had a way of stirring things up. So did Saint
Athanasius, the fourth-century bishop of Alexandria in Egypt, who spent a total
of 17 years in exile for defending the doctrine that Christ was both fully human
and fully divine. God calls us to stick with our beliefs whatever the cost to
our personal comfort zones. And as God did for Paul and Athanasius, God changes
those costs into the blessedness of closeness to the divine.
Today’s
readings: Acts 18:9-18; John
16:20-23
“Very truly,
I tell you . . . you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy.”
Saturday, May 3
Feast of Philip and James, apostles
Believing
is seeing
How many times have we thought, “If I could just receive some sort of sign that I’m on the right track. If only I knew where I am going. If only I were sure!” When we find ourselves being caught up in these anxious thoughts, we have only to remember the apostles, the ones who were with Jesus from the beginning. To the very end of his life they weren’t sure exactly who he was. They wondered, they questioned, they doubted. Nevertheless, they followed Jesus in spite of their uncertainty. There is no proof in matters of faith. In the realm of the spirit, “seeing is believing” holds no currency. To see, we must first believe.
Today’s
readings: 1 Corinthians 15:1-8; John 14:6-14
“Philip said to Jesus, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be
satisfied.’ ”