Daily Reflections

In the Church calendar, today's Solemnity ranks up there with Christmas and Easter.  So significant is this day that we are actually given a variety of options for readings and liturgical prayers on today's Solemnity.

May we not be concerned about others’ relationship with God or the blessings they may have received. Instead, may we be concerned with following Jesus, so that the Good News continue to be proclaimed.

Today, Christ asks us as well: “Do you love me?” And the answer is not only spoken… it is lived in a life offered.

Jesus prays for us to come together as one and not live as isolated individuals. Jesus sees us as created, unique, precious, equal persons and created in the image and likeness of God.

The terrifying question is not whether the world hates the Gospel. Jesus already told us it would. The more dangerous question is whether we have learned to betray the Gospel while defending it.

Yet, how often do we focus our attentions on the things of the world and place our priorities on the temporal while ignoring the eternal?

Let us therefore not lose heart in times of struggle. Instead, let us hold firmly to the Lord who has conquered the world.

We, too, have been “baptized with the Holy Spirit” because, like the first disciples, we have been claimed by Christ to be his witnesses to every person who comes our way.

Jesus reminds us in the gospel today of the importance of being willing to ask God for what we need.  Sometimes we do this in prayer, other times we are called to listen to the people that God places in our lives.

Because of Jesus, we know that no matter what we go through, God will companion us in our labor and bring us to resurrection and new life.