THURSDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK OF EASTER - 2021

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

I am the living bread which has come down from heaven,
says the Lord. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever. JN 6:51

ACTS 8:26-40 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

These verses from Acts 8 reveals that God is constantly speaking to us all we need to do is listen, discern, and obey. If we are sincere about being authentic witnesses to the Truth of the Gospel we will not let anything distract us. The more focused we are on the Spirit of God the more clearly will we be able to discern His Voice, His prompting, His nudging, all we need to do is follow His direction nothing more and nothing less - He will inspire, He will provide the words, He will do the work of transformation in the listener - we do just as He says leaving the outcome to Him.

Philip heard the voice of the Spirit giving him clear directions of what he was to do and he did it. If today, Ethiopia worships the one, true, God and You whom He sent, it is because Philip obeyed the Holy Spirit. Another most important lesson we learn is that God makes no distinction between His children. All are invited to the Banquet Feast of the Lamb. We do not know whether the eunuch was a Jew or a Gentile, we do know that his faith led him to make the pilgrimage from Ethiopia to Jerusalem. On the way back home he was reading a text from Scripture that he could not understand and wished he did. The Holy Spirit honors every impulse, every desire to know God, and will ensure that the deepest desires of our heart as we seek the truth will be satisfied.

Once Philip opened the Scriptures to him, he understood and he believed and expressed a desire to be baptized. Is our witness of You so powerful that it creates in others a desire to be grafted to Your Body in Baptism? 

After Philip baptized him the eunuch the Spirit took him away teaching us too that once we have done as God asks we ought not to linger but go where He leads as Philip did. He continued his journey proclaiming the Good News in every town as far as Caesarea.

PSALM 66:8-9,16-17,20 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

In the midst of this pandemic and the isolation forced upon us, You continue to be faithful to each of Your promises and for this, we praise and bless You. The Church and the great company of believers bless You, praise You, and trust that You are in control. We know that You will not lay on us a burden too great for us to shoulder and when we feel its weight, You will help us for we are yoked to You. 

We who are beholden to You for every breath we breathe must testify to Your goodness to us. Unless we open our mouths and tell of all the blessings You continually shower on those who trust You, how will the world know You and come to love You as well? May we never withhold the praise due to You and we never cease to be grateful for Your kindness and mercy to us.

Thank You, Lord, for always hearing every prayer and for answering us, not in the way we would like but in the manner You know is best for us. Thank You, for Your love that surrounds us and makes life worth living. 

JOHN 6:44-51 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The evangelist John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, has laid down for the Church the unequivocal truth and which every Christian who confesses to believe in You must embrace which is: 'I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.’

Anyone who rejects the Gift of gifts - Your Body and Your Blood in the Holy Eucharist, a Sacrament instituted by You at the behest of the Father, rejects You. All who broke away from Your Body, the Church, and led others astray  are far more culpable than those who continue to teach and preach the colossal and life-threatening error that the Eucharist is merely symbolic. Many of Your disciples walked away when You emphasized even more strongly, ‘I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead; but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die. As long as Christians set their faces like flint against You on this they will never have the fullness of the Holy Spirit nor the fullness of Truth - You.

However, the Church You founded will not die because she is fed on the Bread that comes from heaven which abounds to eternal life in all her members who eat and drink You worthily.

'I tell you most solemnly,
everybody who believes has eternal life.'