6TH SUNDAY OF EASTER - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Jesus said: ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we shall come to him.’ JN 14:23

ACTS 10:25-26,34-35,44-48 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Anyone who hungers and thirsts for the Truth will find You and finding You they will be filled with joy of the Holy Spirit. Peter, fully aware that he was only a servant of the Master, said to Cornelius who knelt and prostrated at his feet, ‘Stand up, I am only a man after all!’ We, like Peter, must always give glory where it is due - to God alone. We must point to You, Lord, and direct the gaze of those we witness to, to You. You are the Christ, the Messiah, Yeshuah - One who saves, You are our Redeemer, our life, and our hope. 

You give the Holy Spirit freely to all who hunger and thirst for Truth. The Holy Spirit comes with an abundance of Gifts and when we use them to build up the Kingdom we will bear an abundance of good fruit for His glory. 

PSALM 97(98):1-4 ©

Sing a new song to the Lord
for he has worked wonders.
His right hand and his holy arm
have brought salvation.

The Lord has made known his salvation;
has shown his justice to the nations.
He has remembered his truth and love
for the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
Shout to the Lord, all the earth,
ring out your joy.

The Lord has shown his salvation to the nations.

1 JOHN 4:7-10 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

God is love - God loves because He is love - that is who He is and loving is what He does because it is His nature, His very being to love. All who believe that the Father sent You as a ransom setting us free from slavery to sin are begotten in love by the Holy Spirit. Failure to love is a sign that we do not know You, Lord, and we cannot be counted among the children of God. 

How do we know that God is love? The greatest proof of His love is this:

God’s love for us was revealed
when God sent into the world his only Son
so that we could have life through him.

Beloved, we have to only look at a crucifix to know how infinitely and immeasurably God's love for us for while we were still sinners, You died for us. You took on Yourself a punishment that was ours. You became the Lamb of Sacrifice that makes perfect and complete atonement for our sins. 

This is the love I mean:
not our love for God,
but God’s love for us when he sent his Son
to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.

Thank You, Lord.

JOHN 15:9-17 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The one, sure and unmistakable sign that we love God is when we keep Your commandments. You and the Father are one and the fullness of Your love for the Father and His for You is manifest in the Holy Spirit - He is the love that is poured out uninterruptedly between You and Your Father making You one in love and it is this love of the Holy Spirit that draws us into the love of the Trinity because we are one in You. We are members of Your Body. We are grafted on to You and Your love flows into us and gives us life. We are fruitful because we are branches of the Vine. The Sap of Life, which is the Holy Spirit keeps us alive in the love that God has for us, and this love we are called to pour out on others. We do not keep it but share it freely just as it is given freely to us.

Beloved, You have summarized the 10 Commandments into two great commandments the first is to, “love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.” We are commanded to love as You love, Lord - no have measures but fully and self-sacrificially.

A man can have no greater love
than to lay down his life for his friends.

When we respond to Your commandment to love as You love, we are no longer slaves but Your friends. You have revealed the Father's love for us. You lay down Your life, at Your Father's command, to liberate us, we who are now one in You obey Your command to love and this is why You now say to us:

I call you friends,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.

As Your friends, Lord, we are no longer called to live for ourselves but for You and for love of You, and in imitation of You, we die to ourselves and lay down our lives for our neighbor. We are equipped with the Holy Spirit and commissioned by You to be fruitful never forgetting that until the end of our sojourn on earth, we are to love God above and before all and love our neighbor as ourselves. Keep us faithful, O Lord, to the end.

You did not choose me:
no, I chose you;
and I commissioned you
to go out and to bear fruit,
fruit that will last;
and then the Father will give you
anything you ask him in my name.
What I command you
is to love one another.