Sunday Meditation: The Heart of God

On the first Sunday after Pentecost the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity.  Each liturgical year has different readings, and for Year A the Gospel is the often quoted, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”  Why is this passage read for the Feast of the Holy Trinity?  On the surface it only mentions two of the three persons of the Trinity.  God the Father and the Son are clearly stated.  But look carefully.  The Holy Spirit is a spiraling forth of the love between the Father and the Son.  That love is clearly there, and so then is the Holy Spirit.

 

Today’s Gospel:

 

 

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him might not perish

but might have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,

but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,

because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

~Jn:3:16-18

 

It is so hard to describe the Trinity.  I don’t think you can capture it with one image.  It takes a complex set of words to formulate the Christian notion of the Trinity.  This program, Catholic Saints & Feasts, does a noteworthy job of it in short of a seven minute video. 

 

Catholic Saints & Feasts:

God is the ultimate superlative adjective whose nature admits of no competing God. Christian monotheism stops us from approaching different gods for different things. We believe in one God with one will, one mind, and one plan for mankind.  The Holy Trinity, the God of Christianity, is complex. Clear language must be used and clear thinking deployed to grasp the Christian God.

 

The church believes that God is one in his nature and three in his persons.  This means that if you were in a pitch black room and sensed a presence nearby, your first question would be, "What is that? Is it the dog or the cat, my spouse or the wind?" If it were God in the darkness, he would answer the question of what by saying, "I am God." Satisfied that the presence was a person and not an animal or the wind, the next question would be, "Who are you?" And to that question, God would reply in three successive voices. I am the father. I am the son. I am the holy spirit. A nature is the source of operations, but a person does [music] them. A statue has eyes, but it is not its nature to see.  It is not man's nature to lay eggs or to breathe underwater, but it is the nature of a bird or a fish to do so. Our nature sets the parameters for what actions are possible for us. The daughter of a lion is a lioness and does what lions do. The son of a man is a man and does what men do. And the son of God is God and knows, loves, and acts as God does perfectly.  Our trinitarian supernova is both a unity and a plurality, both one and many at the same time. This means that God does not exist alone but in a community of love. God is not narcissistic admiring his own beauty and perfection.  Instead, the love of the father is directed toward the son for all eternity. And the love of the holy spirit animates and passes between the father and the son. The trinity's three persons do not share portions of the divine nature. They each possess it totally.

 

Our God, distinct in his persons, one in his essence and equal in his majesty, is solemnly invoked as the water spills on our heads at baptism and as the oil is traced on our palms at our anointing. God in all of his complexity and in all of his simplicity is with us always in this world and hopefully in the world to come. Most Holy Trinity, we look to your three persons as a model of true love, knowledge, and community life. Help all marriages and families strive for the high ideal of perfection you set before the world, no matter the discouragement resulting from our sins and imperfections. Amen.

 

Not only did the words make the Trinity understandable, but there were so many beautiful images to present how artists through the ages have tried to capture the Trinity.

For the pastoral homily I turn to Fr. Kris Janczak in his YouTube Channel, Good Soil.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever posted one of Fr. Janczak’s homilies before but I have listened to a few.  I think today he really highlights what is a pastoral understanding of this Solemnity.

 

Fr. Kris:

Even though we celebrate this feast day once a year, every single day we pray to the holy trinity. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. May almighty God bless you, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Through him and with him and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours forever and ever.  Sound familiar? See, sometimes we automatically repeat these prayers, forgetting that when we say them, we honor one God who is in three persons.

 

There were much smarter and more educated people in the past who tried but failed. However, I am here to tell you that this is not about understanding but believing. That is not to grasp all this with our brains but with our hearts. And that makes all the difference. There were endless times during Jesus ministry when he repeated, "Believe, have faith, trust me." He didn't ask people to understand.  He asked them to believe. Today he is asking us to believe to believe that the father and the son and the holy spirit are one. One God. Yet what does this mean to us? What does it mean to believe in the Holy Trinity? Well, the holy trinity is united in the greatest love.  The one thing that connects these three, father, son, and the spirit is love. It is love that makes them one God.

 

If I could compare this truth to something, it would be to a marriage between a man and a woman.  During our Catholic wedding ceremony during the mass, before the end of mass, the priest blesses the couple using a unique and beautiful blessing.  It is called the Nuptial Blessing. It is a rather long blessing or prayer if you wish. But there is one sentence in there that says, "God, we pray that they husband and wife become one flesh, become one body." How can they become one flesh? How can they become connected? Only by a true love that they have for each other. They are still two separate people, but they are equal. And by their sacrificial love, they become one, one flesh, husband and wife. And nothing should separate that union.

 

If I could summarize it, through love, persons become one.

 

 

Sunday Meditation: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.

 

We sang this at our parish today, “All Hail Adored Trinity.”

 

 

All hail, adored Trinity!

All hail, eternal Unity!

O God the Father, God the Son,

And God the Spirit, ever One.

 

Three persons praise we evermore,

One only God our hearts adore:

In thy sure mercy, ever kind,

May we your strong protection find.

 

The Trinity is at the heart of God.

 

Sunday Meditation: The Birth of the Church

We have come to the conclusion of the Easter season, the Feast of Pentecost Sunday.  It is interesting that of the readings, there are differences between the liturgical years but there are similarities.  The first reading from Acts (2:1-11) where the Holy Spirit descends in tongues of fire is always read no matter which year.  The second reading varies per liturgical year, and the Gospel is usually fixed to the one today, though I have seen options.  I don’t recall any of those options ever being read.

Two years ago, I embedded a clip from Dr. Brant Pitre explaining the Jewish roots of Pentecost.  It is only four minutes long, but it is well worth listening to.  A key takeaway is that the descent of the Holy Spirit in tongues of fire mirrors the descent of God on Mount Sinai in a fire when He brings down the Ten Commandments.  There is more and you should listen to it all.

I found the introduction to today’s Pentecost Mass in the magazine Magnificat (May 2026 Issue, p. 364) particularly insightful.  I will quote it.

 

By the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the Church remains in every age vivified and sanctified by Christ’s presence.  The Holy Spirit prepares us with his grace to draw us to Christ.  He manifests the risen Lord to us, opening our minds.  He makes present the mystery of Christ.  He reconciles us, bringing us into communion with God.  And he interiorly perfects our spirit, communicating to it a new dynamism so that it refrains from evil for love.  When the Holy Spirit comes within us, “it is quite natural for people who had been absorbed by the things of this world to become entirely otherworldly in outlook, and for cowards to become people of great courage” (Saint Cyril of Alexandria).

The quote from St. Cyril is excellent but I particularly liked the sentence, “And he interiorly perfects our spirit, communicating to it a new dynamism so that it refrains from evil for love.”

 

Today’s Gospel:

 

On the evening of that first day of the week,

when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,

for fear of the Jews,

Jesus came and stood in their midst

and said to them, "Peace be with you."

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, so I send you."

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,

"Receive the Holy Spirit.

Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,

and whose sins you retain are retained."

~Jn:20:19-23

 

There are many aspects of Pentecost we can explore.  In my introduction above I linked to a post on the Jewish roots of Pentecost.  I also spoke on the Holy Spirit entrance into our hearts, and more on that later in the pastoral homily.  But for the exegesis I would like to post this homily from Archbishop Edward Weisenburger on the meaning of Pentecost as the birth of the Church.

 

Archbishop Weisenburger:

We then come to the Christian experience and meaning of  Pentecost, which is the fiftieth day after Easter, when we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy  Spirit on the Apostles gathered together with our Blessed Mother in the upper room after Jesus'  ascension and the beginning, some would say the "birthday," of the Church itself. But that image of "birthday of the Church" is not a perfect one.  Let me explain. 

 

When that great historical event of Pentecost took place, St. Peter, whom Jesus clearly left in charge, was there. But the papacy as we understand it today was still a long way off. That humble fisherman left in charge often stumbled, made mistakes, and eventually it took his co-workers and St. Paul to correct him in error and get him back on track with the Gospel.  No.  On that first, great, historical Pentecost, with its outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon those gathered in the upper room, there were no basilicas or cathedrals. Not until the 4th century. There was no St. Peter's Square. That would come 16 centuries later. There was no Vatican. That would come 18 centuries later.  There was no pope putting on military armor, like Pope Julius II, going into battle against his enemies to defend the Papal States. There were no encyclicals. We believe the first one came in the early 1700s. There were no Cardinals.  They appeared in the 11th century. There was no formal canon law, which evolved primarily from the 12th century. No Benedictine monks until the fifth century, and no Jesuits until the 16th. 

 

No, at that first, historic Pentecost, with the empowering of the Apostles, and our Blessed Mother with the Holy Spirit, none of this was there. And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that these developments were not willed directly and inspired by the Holy Spirit, or profoundly helpful as the Church grew through the centuries. I'm only saying that all too often we identify "the Church" with real estate, bureaucracy, titles, offices, and laws, instead of the foundation upon which it would be built, which were the faithful, the people themselves. 

 

When you think about it, what the Holy Spirit fell upon at Pentecost was unwashed fishermen, peasant carpenters, housewives, greedy tax collectors, and a lot of other marginal people, who found themselves glued together by three things. First, baptism into Jesus. Second, the breaking of bread in the Eucharist. And third, the overwhelming, loving witness of very ordinary people.

 

It seems that these three factors were the basic building blocks of the Church.  And what's more, each of those present discovered that he or she had some gift to offer, some ability, talent, or something in some way useful for the building up of the Church, and their gifts were honored, put to use, and treasured.  Brothers and sisters, that's what we find when we look to the early Church. The Church   immediately after the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit at that first, historical Pentecost.  And if you had been there in the first century, and asked, "What is the Church?"  The response you would have received, perhaps worded or articulated in a host of ways, would simply have been something more like, "We are simple people, baptized into Jesus' life, and gathered together around God's word and the breaking of bread. We have a variety of gifts, joyfully putting them to use for the Lord. And knowing that in God's power, nothing can stand against us. We will continue on, joyfully allowing the Lord to use us as he pleases."

That was a long, extended quote but a very insightful one.  That point is one to remember.

For the pastoral homily I’m going to go to an Italian Dominican, Br. Giovanni Castellano, who serves in England with the historic Black Friars.

 

Br. Giovanni:

Well, today we have yet another episode in the Easter drama we've been living for weeks now. But we should beware of thinking that Pentecost is merely an extra episode, an optional addition to what the Lord has already done. It is not something we could do without. Pentecost is truly the fulfillment for us of the Lord's death, resurrection, and ascension.  And the reason is that if all the wonderful things that happen to our Lord are to have any meaning or any effect in our lives, that is because of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  Receiving the spirit is our way of entering the history of salvation which the Lord accomplished in his own life.

 

What exactly this means of course is another very good question. The fathers compare the spirit to a sunbeam which has of course all sorts of effects. It nourishes plants. It produces solar energy and it also makes us sweat during a rather unwelcome heatwave in Britain.  The spirit in the same way works in many ways in us. I found a page online listing the 70 effects of the Holy Spirit. And I was tempted to go through all of them with you this morning, but I thought they might not be a good idea.  So perhaps I'll just comment on a couple of them. First, the spirit gives us a new heart.  God had promised this through the mouth of the prophet. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.  We are given the capacity for a supernatural love… in Christian theology, supernatural means what exceeds our natural capacity and is then a gift from God. And the most supernatural thing of all is a love like Christ's, a divine love which gives itself up for its friends. And this is the love that the Holy Spirit makes possible in us.

 

But there is a second crucial thing the spirit does. He makes us work for the kingdom of God. Again, black friars exists today because of the visionary leadership of be Jared. He was certainly inspired by the Holy Spirit to bet on something which perhaps others would not have dared to do. He said, "We are beginning without a penny, but we shall build as the money comes in." He'd been given a vision for the future and had the courage to act on it.  The apostles after the ascension were gathered together in prayer, but they were still paralyzed by fear like on the day of the resurrection as we saw in John's gospel. Only when the spirit comes upon them do they receive the boldness to go out and proclaim the gospel to the world.  So the spirit changes our heart, but he also gives us a vision and a mission and with it the strength to carry it out.  The spirit teaches us how to love the world and how to build up the church.

 

So, with the Spirit teaching us “how to love the world and how to build up the church,” Br. Giovanni combines two of the major themes for today. 

 

 

Sunday Meditation: Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.”

 

Let us turn to this beautiful hymn, “Come, O Holy Spirt, Come,” set to the melody of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.

 

 

Come, thou Holy Spirit, come,

and from thy celestial home

shed a ray of light divine;

Come O Holy Spirit Come.

come, thou Father of the poor,

come, thou source of all our store,

come, within our hearts to shine,

Come O Holy Spirit Come.

 

Thou of comforters the best,

thou the soul's most welcome guest,

sweet refreshment here below;

Come O Holy Spirit Come.

in our labour rest most sweet,

grateful coolness in the heat,

solace in the midst of woe,

Come O Holy Spirit Come.

 

O most blessed Light divine,

May that Light within us shine,

And our inmost being fill!

Come O Holy Spirit Come.

In your absence, we have naught,

Nothing good in deed or thought,

Nothing free from taint of ill.

Come O Holy Spirit Come.

 

Have a blessed Feast of Pentecost!

Faith Filled Friday: St. Basil on the Holy Spirit With Commentary

Hat tip to Alice for suggesting this would make a good blog post.

This is my commentary on the Office of Readings for May 19^th 2026, a couple of days ago, which was an excerpt from St. Basil’s treatise, On the Holy Spirit.  It has an extra significance with the weeks leading to Pentecost.

St. Basil the Great (330-379 AD), or sometimes referred to as St. Basil of Casearia, was roughly contemporaneous with St. Augustine of Hippo.  In some respects, St. Basil is the Eastern Church’s equivalent to how we hold St. Augustine in the Western Church.  Both were hugely influential theologians from which subsequently flowed doctrine and spirituality. 

Just as Augustine addressed several heresies in his treatises, Basil responds to Pneumatomachianism, which taught that the Holy Spirit is not God, with On the Holy Spirit,.  You can read the entire treatise at New Advent.  The Office of Readings takes a passage from Chapter 9 of On the Holy Spirit and breaks it down into seven paragraphs.  I will quote the paragraph and comment below it.

†††

From office of readings May 19^th 2026
Second reading
From the treatise On the Holy Spirit by Saint Basil the Great, bishop
The work of the Holy Spirit

Paragraph 1:

The titles given to the Holy Spirit must surely stir the soul of anyone who hears them, and make him realize that they speak of nothing less than the supreme Being. Is he not called the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, the steadfast Spirit, the guiding Spirit? But his principal and most personal title is the Holy Spirit. 

Paragraphs 691 and 692 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church lists a number of other names for the Holy Spirit.  Let us list them all, including the ones St. Basil identifies:

the Spirit of God, Spirit of truth, the steadfast Spirit, the guiding Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, advocatus (the advocate), consoler, the Spirit of the promise, the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of glory. 

Paragraph 2:

To the Spirit all creatures turn in their need for sanctification; all living things seek him according to their ability. His breath empowers each to achieve its own natural end.

Interesting St. Basil says that “all living things seek him according to their ability.”  Other than mankind, what other creature did St. Basil have in mind that has the ability to seek him?  All animals have breath, and so perhaps he considers the breath of the Holy Spirit empowering animals to their natural end?  Is the act of breathing a supernatural sanctification of the Holy Spirit?  It provides life at every moment.  From the Nicene Creed, the Holy Spirit is “the Lord, the giver of life.” 

Paragraph 3:

The Spirit is the source of holiness, a spiritual light, and he offers his own light to every mind to help it in its search for truth. By nature the Spirit is beyond the reach of our mind, but we can know him by his goodness. The power of the Spirit fills the whole universe, but he gives himself only to those who are worthy, acting in each according to the measure of his faith.

Quoting St. Paul: “Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised previously through his prophets in the holy scriptures, the gospel about his Son, descended from David according to the flesh, but established as Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness through resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 1:1-4). 

The Holy Spirit is the source of holiness because it sanctifies, just as he sanctified our Lord, and so was the source of Christ’s power.

Paragraph 4:

Simple in himself, the Spirit is manifold in his mighty works. The whole of his being is present to each individual; the whole of his being is present everywhere. Though shared in by many, he remains unchanged; his self giving is no loss to himself. Like the sunshine, which permeates all the atmosphere, spreading over land and sea, and yet is enjoyed by each person as though it were for him alone, so the Spirit pours forth his grace in full measure, sufficient for all, and yet is present as though exclusively to everyone who can receive him. To all creatures that share in him he gives a delight limited only by their own nature, not by his ability to give.

Contemplate this: The Spirit is present everywhere but yet present distinctly in each individual.  He permeates everywhere, thereby sanctifying everything, and always unchanged.  He is eternally self-giving but yet is never diminished. 

Paragraph 5:

The Spirit raises our hearts to heaven, guides the steps of the weak, and brings to perfection those who are making progress. He enlightens those who have been cleansed from every stain of sin and makes them spiritual by communion with himself.

Priest: The Lord be with you.
People: And with your spirit.
Priest: Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them up to the Lord.
Priest: Let us give thanks to the Lord, our God.
People: It is right and just.

“And with your spirit” is a reference of the power of the Holy Spirit at work through the priest.  With that acknowledgement, the priest exhorts the congregation to lift up their hearts.  From the power of the Spirit the congregation then lifts them up.

Paragraph 6:

As clear, transparent substances become very bright when sunlight falls on them and shine with a new radiance, so also souls in whom the Spirit dwells, and who are enlightened by the Spirit, become spiritual themselves and a source of grace for others.

“After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.  And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.  And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”  While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Mt 17:1-5).

The light that emanates from Jesus’s face comes from the Holy Spirit burning through Him.  The Holy Spirit is there in the scene as the cloud that casts a shadow.  The glow in Jesus is a foreshadow of the glow when we achieve perfect holiness, either in this life or more likely in the next.

Paragraph 7:

From the Spirit comes foreknowledge of the future, understanding of the mysteries of faith, insight into the hidden meaning of Scripture, and other special gifts. Through the Spirit we become citizens of heaven, we enter into eternal happiness, and abide in God. Through the Spirit we acquire a likeness to God; indeed, we attain what is beyond our most sublime aspirations—we become God.

We can only wait for that glorious day with hope and faith.  This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit.  It fulfills Jesus’s promise that He will send the Paraclete to complete the apostle’s baptisms.  From the Gospel of John: “He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (Jn 20: 22-23).

 

 

Sunday Meditation: One Through Prayer

I know most of the country has transferred Ascension Thursday to Sunday, today.  For us in the Archdiocese of New York, last Thursday was Ascension Thursday and today is the Seventh Sunday of Easter.  Frankly that’s how it should be, and I definitely prefer it this way.  For the Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year A, Jesus continues his high priestly prayer.  He prophesizes his departure, and then prays for those given to Him.

Three years ago on this Gospel I highlighted what Jesus said was the means to eternal life: “Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.”  I consider this to be very important.  To know God through Jesus Christ is eternal life. 

But how does one “know God”?  Read Jesus’s last paragraph here; He tells us.  (1) Belonging to God through Jesus, (2) keeping God’s word, (3) knowing that everything comes from God, (4) receiving God’s word, and (5) understanding and accepting God’s word.

 

Today’s Gospel:

 

 

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,

“Father, the hour has come.

Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,

just as you gave him authority over all people,

so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.

Now this is eternal life,

that they should know you, the only true God,

and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

I glorified you on earth

by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.

Now glorify me, Father, with you,

with the glory that I had with you before the world began.

 

“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.

They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,

and they have kept your word.

Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,

because the words you gave to me I have given to them,

and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,

and they have believed that you sent me.

I pray for them.

I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,

because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours

and everything of yours is mine,

and I have been glorified in them.

And now I will no longer be in the world,

but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”

~Jn:17: 1-11

 

 

Since almost all of the rest of the country is on a different liturgical schedule, it is difficult to find pertinent homilies for the Seventh Sunday of Easter.  This children’s animation from Singapore (I think) called, “St. Joseph’s Corner,” does an excellent job of explaining the readings.

 

St. Joseph’s Corner:

The Seventh Sunday of Easter comes between the Ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  It is a time when the Church remembers what it means to wait on God’s promise.  The readings show the disciples gathered in prayer holding on to hope for what is to come…The Gospel shares the prayer of Jesus for His friends asking the Father to keep them safe and united.  The Seventh Sunday of Easter of Year A invites us to reflect on our faith while we wait for God to act.  It is a call to trust, to pray, and to hope, and to stay close to others who share the same hope.

 

On the Seventh Sunday of Easter of Year A, it aligns with the theme of trusting God while awaiting His work.  [It] invites us to reflect on Jesus’s prayer before He leaves His disciples.  He prays for Himself, His followers, and all who will believe in Him.  His words remind us of the importance of our relationship with God, the need for unity, and the call to love one another.

 

Perhaps that was intended for children, but that was pretty deep for adults too!

I’m going to go all the way to Nigeria for the pastoral homily.  I really enjoyed Fr. Martin Badejo’s homily who outright tells us his central theme: “Cultivate the Habit of Prayer.”

 

Fr. Martin:

This Gospel passage is referred to as the Priestly Prayer of Christ…He asks the Father to glorify Him.  He speaks of the source of eternal life as knowing the Father and Him whom the Father sent.  Then he prays about his disciples as well.  He makes his prayer directly to the Father for them so that the Father will protect them in the world, for they are in the world and He is going back to the Father.  In this short passage we find a lot of themes condensed together; such themes include the unity between the Father and Jesus, the glorification of Jesus, the connection between Jesus and heaven as he lifted up His eyes to pray, the meaning of eternal life, the concern and care of Jesus for his disciples, the manifestation of the Father's name to the disciples.

 

If there is one thing [Jesus] teaches us it is that we also must cultivate the habit of prayer.  In that prayer of Jesus we observe the fluency of His words and His request from the Father.  This can only be possible on the pre-existing Foundation of a Unity which derives from consistency [of] communication.  In other words if he had not been consistently united with His Father and in contact with the Father His communication with the Father at this point would not be as fluent…That communication which sustains relationship is very necessary even between us and God.  Jesus never for once took it for granted that since He's the son of God or because He is co-equal with the Father then He does not need to pray.  He communicated with the father all the time; in fact even his breath was prayer.

 

We should learn from the Lord. We should cultivate the habit of prayer.  We should let our lives be an acceptable offering to the Father.  This can be effectively done and suitably achieved by the foundation of a constant communication with Him.  It must become for us a habit to talk to God.

 

Make sure you watch Fr. Martin to the end where he will take up a guitar and sing a Gospel song.

 

 

Sunday Meditation: " I pray for them.”

 

We sang “One Love Released” as our communion hymn today at Mass and I thought it was beautiful.

 

 

One bread, one body, one cup, one call, one faith, one Spirit present in us all.

One prayer, one blessing, one hope, one peace, one church, one people, one love released.

 

Is not this bread we share, the body of our Lord?

Is not this wine we drink, the blood of Christ outpoured?

 

One bread, one body, one cup, one call, one faith, one Spirit present in us all.

One prayer, one blessing, one hope, one peace, one church, one people, one love released.

 

I am the bread of life, eat and you shall live.

To those who share this meal, my strength I'll always give.

 

One bread, one body, one cup, one call, one faith, one Spirit present in us all.

One prayer, one blessing, one hope, one peace, one church, one people, one love released.

 

Unity is necessary.  I can’t stand those that would splinter the Body of Christ.  One!