May 18, 2017
As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love,
Like Peter, we ask where we would go. Your love for us is so great. You became Man to redeem us from sin. You suffered, died, and rose on the third day. What greater love does a person have than to freely lay down their life for another? When I dwell on this, the thought of Your love and saving power for us mere mortals is too great to comprehend. Love is a word freely used and thrown around in our society but You have taught us what it means to truly love.
Sometimes Your love overwhelms us. It overshadows us and fills us momentarily with such peace and joy that like Peter, James, and John on the mountain, we do not ever want to leave that place. We are content to stay there forever and wait for the next encounter. “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.” Your love is enough for us.
Help us to live daily in that love; to always be aware of Your great love for us; and by our lives to spread Your love to all those we meet in our life’s journey by loving them as You would.
Sr. Juliana Monti, SSMO
Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon
May 17, 2017
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.
A Eucharistic image is deeply imbedded in John’s passage that begins the presentation of Jesus’ discourse on the union of Jesus with his disciples. Jesus is the vine, the life-giving fruit of the vine, the source of union. I am a branch intimately connected to the vine whose purpose is to produce fruit. What must I do to be fruitful? Jesus states this fruitfulness is remaining in Him and He in me.
I am given a choice to remain in Jesus, allowing Him to remain in me, or to reject this union. And what are the consequences? If I am not fruitful, if I refuse to maintain my intimate relationship with Jesus I, like the fruitless branch, am to be taken away, cut off, but if I choose to sustain this union that Jesus has established in his Blood, what awaits this choice? I am to be pruned in order to bring forth more fruit!
Am I willing to do what is necessary to allow Jesus to retain this intimate relationship with me, even though its implication is that I must be pruned, that I need to be willing to let go of something I cling to? Jesus, open my eyes to see what it is that I am clinging to that inhibits my being more fruitful.
Sr. Betty Adams, ASC
May 16, 2017
They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the town, leaving him there for dead. His disciples quickly formed a circle about him, and before long he got up and went back into the town. The next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.
Blind prejudice is a terrible thing to behold. In the reading from Acts we see people who considered themselves good Jews, defending their faith by attacking and injuring Paul. While it is true that Paul was delivering the kind of message that flew in the face of the beliefs of the time the unwillingness of those who came against Paul to even listen to the wonderful new message that he bore. It is even more difficult to believe when we recall that he and Barnabas had just arrived from Lystra where they had cured a crippled man. Even faced with that wonder these men refused to believe.
It begs the question then, what does it take to convince a person that a new wonder is before us? What does it take to make us realize that there is a new way of perceiving that which is factually before us? Perhaps it takes a leap of faith, after all, not all of us are thrown to the ground and blinded to get the point across to us as happened to Paul! Are we then able to place our trust in those who have encountered the divine, who have received the true word? If we have, can we then put that new knowledge into practice by the way we live in our world? Perhaps we do not have to “reinvent the wheel” of our faith. Maybe all we need to do is take a chance, believe…..and then act.
Rev. Gary Luiz C.PP.S.
Atlantic Province
May 15, 2017
Not to us, O Lord, but to your name give glory.
Perhaps many of us have had the experience of hearing someone else praised for something that we did. And that was followed by the prick of anger that made us want to yell out, “Hey, I did that!”
Today’s readings present us with a similar, yet quite different, situation. A situation where Barnabas and Paul received much praise for something they did. And yet, like Jesus in the Gospel, they were very aware and quick to say that the glory did not belong to them, but to their God who should receive all the credit.
How appropriate is this time after Easter to begin giving credit where credit is due like that! As a Christian I am very well aware that it is the Holy Spirit working in me that encourages and empowers me to use my talents, skills and inspirations to bring God’s love and blessings to others. But I am not always so quick to admit it. As a Precious Blood sister I say that I want to allow Christ to use me as an instrument of his redeeming love,* but in everyday situations I do not so readily give the glory to God.
During this Easter Season I want to invite Christ once again to use me as an instrument of his redeeming love, and I want to learn to spontaneously refer any praise I receive to God’s glory, and not hold on to it for my own pleasure.
Sr. Rosemary Russell, C.PP.S.
O’Fallon
*CONSTITUTIONS: Sisters of the Most Precious Blood, O’Fallon, MO #3 Pg. 8
May 14, 2017
“Living Stones”
As a Missionary of the Precious Blood, I have been fortunate to give retreats and attend gatherings in various places around the world. I always try to pick up a stone from the place where I have visited to remind me that I have been blessed to stand on holy ground. My prayer table at home has stones from Tanzania, Guatemala, Italy, Germany, Austria, Korea, Vietnam, and almost every state in the U.S. These remind me of the “living stones” I met along the way whose love, fidelity, and compassion gave me a glimpse of the Risen Lord.
In today’s second reading from Peter, we hear the call to live our identity as “living stones” that are being built “into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.” Peter calls us to be a community of priests, of bridge-builders, of holy people. The Vatican II vision of a common priesthood of all baptized believers is founded here. Our priesthood is born in baptism not ordination. Indeed, we see how the ministry of service and servant leadership in the early church community enacted in today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles as the ministry of deacon is born. Early in the evolution of the institution, it became clear that the eyewitnesses to the resurrection, the inner circle of the community, needed help in the rapidly growing community of faith.
Jesus, of course, is the cornerstone of whatever we build in faith. He is the “living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God.” He is the cornerstone of a new creation, this living temple, built at the very fault lines of society where the poor and homeless and most vulnerable fall through the cracks. As living stones, we are being constructed by God into a new creation community, “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own.” Jesus picks up this theme of construction by reminding his disciples that the blueprint for this new creation is made in heaven. He promises them, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith in me also. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.”
We believe we are saved and redeemed in the blood of Christ. How is this work of salvation being revealed in our lives right now? How are we being “living stones” being built by God into a new creation?
- Rev. Joe Nassal, C.PP.S.
Kansas City Province
As May 14th is Mother’s Day, may we honor those holy women, our Moms, living and deceased, whose love, service, and shelter revealed to us the true meaning of being a “living stone” built on the cornerstone of Christ.
