Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter "Consolation from the Spirit"

Jesus said to his disciples: "But now I am going to the one who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ´Where are you going?´ But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts. But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned." (John 16:5-11)

Introductory Prayer: Lord, as I begin this prayer I offer you my whole self: my thoughts, desires, decisions, actions, hopes, fears, weaknesses, failures and petty successes. I open my entire being to you, aware that you know everything already. I’m certain of your mercy and of the purifying power of your penetrating, loving gaze.

Petition: Lord, help me to experience the joy and consolation of the Spirit.

1. Sadness at Jesus’ Parting: As Jesus’ imminent self-sacrifice approaches, the apostles are overwhelmed with confusion and grief. “Who is going to betray him?” “Why is he going?” “What will we do without him?” Questions like these — fruit of their concern for their Master and friend — are whispered to and fro. They have given up everything to follow him. Jesus strives to console them although he is immersed in grief himself. Sorrow is not lacking in the life of any pilgrim, and as Christians we are exiles in a foreign land. Our joy and hope comes from the vision of faith, which enables us to follow in the footsteps of Our Lord. His sacrifice and victory give meaning to our daily trials.

2. The Consoler’s Coming: We are called to an intimate friendship with the Holy Spirit, the “Sweet Guest of the Soul.” Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit upon us at our baptism to be the craftsman of our holiness, and our consolation and strength as we await Christ’s return. No one would wish to face a criminal trial alone and unaided; nor should we try to face the ordeal against sin without the help of Christ’s advocate. Am I aware of the gentle presence of the Holy Spirit in my soul? Am I attentive and docile to his inspirations and movements?

3. Setting Things Right: Nothing is so unsettling as to see the “bad guy” win. Whether it be in the movies or in real life, somehow it seems written in the very fabric of the universe that good should prevail. Many times evil has appeared to usurp the upper hand momentarily, but a Higher Power has always intervened, causing one tyranny and dictatorship after another to crumble. In our own day, evils abound in societies where the lives of the most vulnerable are greatly undervalued. Christ reminds us, however, that the Holy Spirit is at work. Time and again the Holy Spirit continues renewing the face of the earth and changing hearts, bringing good out of evil. Am I too pessimistic in the face of evil, or do I have the optimism of a Christian? Do I confide in the grace and action of the Holy Spirit?

Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, you have left us to go to the Father and yet you are still with us through the action of your Holy Spirit. Help me to find strength and consolation as I strive to follow his guidance.

Resolution: I will take a moment out of my day today to thank the Holy Spirit for his action in the world and in my life.

Monday of the Sixth Week of Easter "The Spirit’s Witness"

Jesus said to his disciples: "When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning. I have told you this so that you may not fall away. They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God. They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me. I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you." (John 15:26-16:4a)

Introductory Prayer: Lord, as I begin this prayer I offer you my whole self: my thoughts, desires, decisions, actions, hopes, fears, weaknesses, failures and petty successes. I open my entire being to you, aware that you know everything already. I’m certain of your mercy and of the purifying power of your penetrating, loving gaze.

Petition: Lord God, help me to live as a true witness to Christ.

1. Witness of Christ: Some people try to invoke the Holy Spirit as justification for ideas contrary to Christ’s teaching. A careful look at today’s Gospel illustrates how this can never be according to God’s plan. The Holy Spirit is not at odds with Christ’s message, nor is he working out a plan of salvation distinct from Christ’s Church. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of Christ and of the Father; his very purpose in coming is to testify to Christ. Every true inspiration of the Holy Spirit moves us to a greater fidelity to the truth. Am I attentive to the Spirit’s urging me to a greater fidelity to my Christian commitments?

2. Witnesses in the Spirit: Our faith is by no means a static reality. Just as the first disciples experienced Christ’s preaching, miracles and personal love, all Christians serious about their faith discover Christ’s presence throughout their daily experience. This is especially true in the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist. Jesus is always with us, and his forgiveness and closeness are the source of our joy. The Holy Spirit empowers us through the grace of our baptism to give witness to what we have freely received. Do I take seriously my Christian vocation to give testimony to Christ’s love? Do I realize that my first act of testimony needs to be the witness of a truly Christian life? Do I remember that in this seemingly daunting task I should rely heavily on the Holy Spirit as my business partner?

3. Fidelity Amidst Opposition: Christ shares with the apostles gathered in the Upper Room that being witnesses to him will not always be met with acceptance. Opposition seems to be an integral part of being a Christian. Deep-seated and unflinching adherence to Christ and the voice of conscience has never been compatible with the popular mindset. In fact, many times Christians are not called to “fit in” but to “stand out”, and this has inevitable consequences as it did in the life of Our Lord. The wonderful part is that we have been promised the final victory. Christ goes before us and the Holy Spirit is at our side.

Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, it has always been demanding to be an authentic witness to you. Teach me not to rely on my own capabilities, but to grow in strength and coherence through fidelity to the inspirations of your Holy Spirit.

Resolution: I will make some public sign of witness to my faith today.

Sunday, 6th week of Easter "A Holy Temple of God"

Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name -- he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.”

Introductory Prayer: Lord, as I begin this prayer I offer you my whole self: my thoughts, desires, decisions, actions, hopes, fears, weaknesses, failures and petty successes. I open my entire being to you, aware that you know everything already. I’m certain of your mercy and of the purifying power of your penetrating, loving gaze.

Petition: May the Blessed Trinity dwell in me.

1. A Cold, Stony Heart We have no writings of Our Lord. The only time we see Our Lord writing, he was bent over writing something in the sand with his finger. However, as his finger traced in the sand (see John 8:6), it was also etching into the hardened hearts of the surrounding crowd. They dropped the stones with which they intended to kill the adulterous woman. It is curious how these stones also symbolized the hardness of their hearts. They dropped them because their hearts had also softened. In the Old Testament we see Moses coming down from the mountain with a stone tablet that contained the written law of God, the Ten Commandants. Christ came to crush our stony hearts and to write his law of love there. Christ wants us to give him a blank slate so that he can write whatever he wants in our hearts.

2. Christ’s Reassurance It is scary when we learn that a loved one will be leaving us for an undetermined amount of time. We can think of the soldiers who go off to war and how hard it must be for their spouses and children to deal with the loneliness and uncertainties that naturally arise. Yet the good soldier assures them he will return, and he is confident that they will be strong and live upright lives. How hard it must have been for the apostles when Christ told them he would be leaving them. They had left everything to follow him, and now it seemed as if they would be alone. Christ knew how heavy their hearts were, so he assured the apostles that he needed to leave in order that he and the Father could send the Holy Spirit into their hearts. The Holy Spirit enlightens our hearts too, as he enlightened the hearts of the apostles.

3. A Sad Homecoming? Christ is the Prince of Peace. He sought to uplift the apostles, who were dragged down by sadness and fear at being left alone in the world. Christ tells them, and he tells us, that they should rejoice because he is going home. Christ wants us to rejoice not only because he is going home to the Father, but also because if we keep his word, he and the Father will make their dwelling in us. Their abode will be in our hearts. He wants us to trust the Holy Spirit who will give us the clarity of thought and the strength to live Christ’s teachings coherently. How open am I to the promptings of the Holy Spirit within my soul? What keeps me from perceiving Him within me? Do I need to be more detached from the goods of this life so my friendship with my Lord and Creator can grow?

Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, I want to trust in your word -- in the working of the Holy Spirit in my heart. Help me to let go of the anxieties that at times paralyze my thoughts and actions. I open my heart so that you, the Blessed Trinity, can dwell within me. This gives me supernatural joy, a joy that the world cannot give or take away.

Resolution: I will look to comfort someone who is lonely, helping him or her to know that you are always with us.

Message from our Shepherd: Archbishop John C. Nienstedt

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

The day has come. We are on the cusp of redefining marriage in our state. The vote could go either way, and it is expected to be very close. Our representatives in both the Minnesota House and Senate must hear from us. You have a voice, and if you take only a few minutes to contact them, it will make a difference.

I urge you to exercise your right to effective representation. I urge you to contact your legislator and tell them not to redefine marriage. If you are not sure who your legislator is, you can call the State Capitol or go to the Minnesota Catholic Conference web site at www.mncc.org and click on the "Take Action" button at the top of the home page.

God is the author of life, and the author of marriage. Let us courageously defend his beautiful plan for marriage between one man and one woman.


Yours in Christ Jesus,
Archbishop John Nienstedt

Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter "Confidence in the Father’s Love"

Jesus said to his disciples: "Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete. I have told you this in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but I will tell you clearly about the Father. On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you. For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father."

Introductory Prayer: Lord, as I begin this prayer I offer you my whole self: my thoughts, desires, decisions, actions, hopes, fears, weaknesses, failures and petty successes. I open my entire being to you, aware that you know everything already. I’m certain of your mercy and of the purifying power of your penetrating, loving gaze. (John 16:23b-28)

Petition: Father, help me to confide in you.

1. Ask and You Shall Receive: As a child I was often bashful to the extreme when dealing with strangers. I remember once my dad asked me to leave a food package at the rectory office as a contribution to the parish food drive for the poor. I was scared stiff. Finally after I got up the courage, I rang the doorbell, dropped the box and ran. At times we can feel the same apprehension and uncertainty before prayer. We are not sure if God will take kindly to “being disturbed” in his care for the universe to listen to our request. Ultimately, we need to remember how much God likes to be asked and to trust that, if what we are asking for is for our good or that of another, God will certainly grant it.

2. God’s Self-Revelation: Language is a vehicle of communication, and like every means of expressing ideas, it is limited. Speech, however, is really pushed to its limits when it tries to express realities about which humans have no clear conceptualizations. God’s power, his awesome majesty and his very being are far beyond our limited scope of comprehension. Jesus, as true God and true man, becomes the bridge between our human language and God, whom he knows intimately. Jesus uses the most adequate expressions possible for God –– such as Father ––, but he also reminds us that he is speaking in figures. One day he promises to tell us clearly and even introduce us to him. Is this my greatest hope? Would I be ready right now to be introduced to God the Father?

3. “The Father Himself Loves You”: Our Holy Father, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, reminds us of the Father’s love: “True, no one has ever seen God as he is. And yet God is not totally invisible to us; he does not remain completely inaccessible. God loved us first, says theLetter of St John, and this love of God has appeared in our midst. He has become visible in as much as he ‘has sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him’ (1 John 4:9). God has made himself visible: in Jesus we are able to see the Father (cf.John 14:9). Indeed, God is visible in a number of ways. In the love-story recounted by the Bible, he comes towards us, he seeks to win our hearts, all the way to the Last Supper, to the piercing of his heart on the cross, to his appearances after the Resurrection and to the great deeds by which, through the activity of the apostles, he guided the nascent Church along its path” (Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est [God Is Love], December 25, 2005).

Conversation with Christ: Jesus, you have revealed the immense love the Father has for all people by the ultimate self-giving of your life. Help me never to doubt your love for me. Help me to respond to your love though fidelity to your will and the practice of exquisite charity.

Resolution: I will say a decade of the rosary for missionaries who are preaching God’s love to others.

Feast of Saint Philip and Saint James, Apostles "Seeing God Face to Face"

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ´Show us the Father´? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. (John 14: 6-14)

Introductory Prayer: Christ, I thank you for the gift of faith. You know that I believe, but I want my faith to grow. In knowing you I find meaning, rest and strength. I need you, Lord. I trust in your loving mercy. You know what I need the most today. All I ask is that you remain at my side throughout this day. That is enough for me. I want to spend this day making you happy, pleasing you with my every thought, word and action.

Petition: Christ, help me to know you and love you more each day.

1. I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life: “I am the way, the truth and the life.” Christ is the answer to our problems. Since he is fully God and fully man, his very reality unites humanity to God in a way never before hoped. It is in following Christ that we find our way. It is in believing in Christ that we discover truth. It is in accepting Christ that we gain life. Christians don’t simply follow a set of rules or believe in some doctrines, we follow a person: Christ. As Archbishop Fulton Sheen wrote, Christ’s “doctrine was himself” (Life of Christ, p. 153).

2. Show Us the Father: “Seeing is believing”, the saying goes. Yet this seems to go contrary to the faith. Didn’t Christ tell “doubting” Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (John 20:29)? Here again, Christ seems to be chiding Philip for wanting to see. However, Christ isn’t correcting Philip for wanting to see; rather, he didn’t see in Christ what he was supposed to: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” At the core of the doctrine of the Incarnation is that now the “face” of God is made visible in the person of Christ. Answering the man born blind whom he had just healed when asked who the Son of Man is, Christ said, “You have seen him” (John 9:37). The Second Council of Nicaea, in the year 787, reaffirmed against the iconoclasts the validity of using sacred images, linking religious pictures and art to the Incarnation (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 476). Man has a need to see God, and the Incarnation was God’s response.

3. Believe Because of the Works: Christ helps Philip’s faith by pointing to the works he has done. The faith cannot be proven in an empirical sense, but there can be many signs which assist our reason in that act of faith. Christ’s miracles, his moral stature, his words and ultimately his resurrection are strong arguments in favor of the faith. Nevertheless we must still decide to believe. Once we decide, then even greater works than Christ performed in his earthly life can be worked through us. Don’t wait to understand everything to believe, rather believe and you will begin to understand.

Conversation with Christ: Lord, let me see your face in prayer, in the Eucharist and in my neighbor. Be my way, my truth and my life. Be my model, my point of reference and my strength. Without you I can do nothing; with you I can do all things.

Resolution: I will do a conscious act of charity for my neighbor, making an effort to see Christ in others.

Memorial of Saint Athanasius, bishop and doctor of the Church "My Love for the Church"

Jesus said to his disciples: "As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father´s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete." (John 15: 9-11)

Introductory Prayer: Lord, thank you for granting me the opportunity to be with you. There are things in life, Lord, that attract me, but you attract me more. I hope in you, and I love you. Maybe I don’t really understand what it means to love, and maybe I don’t love the way I should, but I do love you.

Petition: Lord, increase my love and appreciation for the Church and her leaders.

1. Christ and His Church: When Christ says, “Keep my commandments and remain in my love,” he is talking not only about the Ten Commandments but also about the Church. What is the Church? It is Christ’s extension through time. We cannot say, “Christ, yes; the Church, no,” because the Church is the mystical body of Christ; the two are inseparable as head and body. The Church, through its sacraments and its solid teachings, makes Christ present for me now, today. It is through this Church that I received the gift of faith. I want to remain in Christ. I want to remain enthusiastically in his Church.

2. God’s Chosen Ministers: You chose the Apostles to continue your work of redemption throughout the ages. Therefore, Lord, I want to love your priests and your bishops. I know how hard their job is. I see their perseverance. The Eucharist is available all over the world because of the fidelity of priests. Thank you for bishops and priests. Thank you for our parish. I want to support the parish with joy; giving of my time and my financial sacrifices.

3. The Pope: Lord, I want to love the Holy Father. He is the rock on which you chose to build your Church. Because he has kept the straight path, the world recognizes his moral authority. Lord, I want to learn more about what he is saying. Today with the Internet, it is so easy. It just takes a little interest and a little time. This is one way I can remain in your love. Thus, my joy will be complete.

Conversation with Christ: When you came, Lord, you wanted to heal us through the sacraments, and you set up the Church to administer them. Because you are present in your Church, it has lasted two thousand years. Thank you for giving us this instrument of salvation.

Resolution: I will read something Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI or Pope Francis has written. Much can be found on the Vatican website.