FOURTH WEEK OF EASTER

SAINTS OF THE DAY ~ FEAST DAY: APRIL 25, 2024

Greetings, beloved family and Happy Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter!

On this special Feast of St. Mark, we pray for his intercession and we continue to celebrate and rejoice in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. May God’s grace and mercy be with us all during this Easter season and always🙏

Watch “Holy Mass and Holy Rosary on EWTN | April 25, 2024” |

Pray “Holy Mass from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | April 25, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary from Lourdes, France” | April 25, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | April 25, 2024 |

Pray “The Chaplet of Divine Mercy | from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | April 25, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary ALL 20 Mysteriels VIRTUAL🌹JOYFUL🌹LUMINOUS🌹SORROWFUL🌹GLORIOUS” on YouTube |

Memorare Chaplet | Prayer in Difficult Times (Powerful Prayer) |

Today’s Bible Readings: Thursday, April 25, 2024
Reading 1, First Peter 5:5-14
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 89:2-3, 6-7, 16-17
Gospel, Mark 16:15-20

DEVOTION OF THE MONTH OF APRIL – MONTH OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST: The month of April is traditionally dedicated to devotion to Jesus in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. The Catholic Church teaches that the Blessed Sacrament is the real and living presence of Christ—His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity—received into our souls with every reception of Holy Communion. Our Eucharistic Lord is the source and summit of our Christian life, the ultimate proof of His infinite love for us.

THE POPE’S MONTHLY INTENTIONS FOR 2024: FOR THE MONTH OF APRIL – FOR THE ROLE OF WOMEN: We pray that the dignity and immense value of women be recognized in every culture, and for the end of discrimination that they experience in different parts of the world. 🙏

PRAYER FOR PEACE ~ POPE FRANCIS:

Lord God of peace, hear our prayer!

We have tried so many times and over so many years to resolve our conflicts by our own powers and by the force of our arms. How many moments of hostility and darkness have we experienced; how much blood has been shed; how many lives have been shattered; how many hopes have been buried… But our efforts have been in vain. Now, Lord, come to our aid! Grant us peace, teach us peace; guide our steps in the way of peace. Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: “Never again war!”; “With war everything is lost”. Instill in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace. Lord, God of Abraham, God of the Prophets, God of Love, you created us and you call us to live as brothers and sisters. Give us the strength daily to be instruments of peace; enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our brother or sister. Make us sensitive to the plea of our citizens who entreat us to turn our weapons of war into implements of peace, our trepidation into confident trust, and our quarreling into forgiveness. Keep alive within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation. In this way may peace triumph at last, and may the words “division”, “hatred” and “war” be banished from the heart of every man and woman. Lord, defuse the violence of our tongues and our hands. Renew our hearts and minds, so that the word which always brings us together will be “brother”, and our way of life will always be that of: Shalom, Peace, Salaam! Amen🙏

During this Easter season, please let us all continue to pray for peace all over the world, particularly in Africa, the Middle East, for an end to the current war in Israel-Palestine, and the Ukraine-Russia conflicts and for peace in our families and throughout our divided and conflicted World. Amen 🙏

On this special feast day, as we continue to celebrate our risen Lord, with special intention through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and the Saints, we pray for the Clergy and religious as they serve in the Lord’s Vineyard. We also pray for the sick and dying. We especially pray for our loved ones who have recently died and we continue to remember our beloved, we pray for the repose of their gentle souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon them. May their gentle souls through the mercy of God rest in perfect peace with our Lord Jesus Christ… Amen 🙏 ✝️🕯✝️🕯✝️🕯

PRAYER FOR THE DEAD: In your hands, O Lord, we humbly entrust our brothers and sisters. In this life, you embraced them with your tender love; deliver them now from every evil, and bid them eternal rest. The old order has passed away: welcome them into paradise, where there will be no sorrow, no weeping or pain, but fullness of peace and joy with your Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen🙏

Prayers for Peace | https://mycatholic.life/catholic-prayers/prayers-for-peace/

FEAST OF SAINT MARK THE EVANGELIST,  MARTYR: Today, we celebrate the feast of Saint Mark the Evangelist, one of Jesus Christ’s original 12 disciples and the author of the second Gospel, the Book of Mark in the Bible. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and St. Mark on this feast day, we humbly pray for the Church, the Clergy, Evangelists and all those who spread the Gospel.🙏

SAINT MARK THE EVANGELIST,  MARTYR: St. Mark the Evangelist (1st c.)  was one of Jesus Christ’s original 12 disciples and the author of the second Gospel, the Book of Mark in the Bible. He was born to Jewish parents living in Libya in North Africa, later settling in Cana of Galilee not far from Jerusalem. He was a member of the tribe of Levi. St. Mark is sometimes called John Mark in the New Testament. St. Mark was the son of that Mary who was proprietress of the Cenacle or “upper room”. His mother’s house or the upper room served as the meeting place for the first Christians in Jerusalem (Acts 12:12). He was still a youth at the time of the Savior’s death. Both he and his mother, Mary, were highly esteemed in the early Church. During the years that followed, the rapidly maturing youth witnessed the growth of the infant Church in his mother’s Upper Room and became acquainted with its traditions. This knowledge he put to excellent use when compiling his Gospel.

According to tradition, St. Peter the Apostle was married to a relative of St. Mark’s father, and after St. Mark’s father died, St. Peter looked after him like his own son. He was baptized and instructed by St. Peter. An intimate friendship existed between Sts. Mark and Peter; he played the role of St. Peter’s companion, disciple, and interpreter. In about the year 42 A.D. he came to Rome with the Prince of the Apostles. There at the request of the faithful he wrote his Gospel about the year 50 A.D. Being a close disciple of St. Peter, the first Bishop of Rome, St. Mark wrote the Gospel in Greek addressed to Gentile converts to the Christian faith living in Rome. The Romans asked St. Mark to record St. Peter’s teachings and preaching about Our Lord Jesus Christ and pays special attention to the head of the Apostles. In this way the second Gospel is a record of the life of Jesus as seen through the eyes of the Prince of the Apostles. He chronicled what the first Pope witnessed.

St. Mark was associated with St. Paul and St. Barnabas (who was Mark’s cousin) and accompanied them on their missionary journey to Antioch and on their first missionary journey. But St. Mark was too immature for the hardships of this type of work and therefore left them at Perge in Pamphylia to return home. As the two apostles were preparing for their second missionary journey, St. Barnabas wanted to take his cousin with him. St. Paul, however, objected. Thereupon the two cousins undertook a missionary journey to Cyprus. Time healed the strained relations between Sts. Paul and Mark, and during the former’s first Roman captivity (61-63), St. Mark rendered St. Paul valuable service (Col. 4:10; Philem. 24), and the Apostle learned to appreciate him. When in chains the second time St. Paul requested St. Mark’s presence (2 Tim. 4:11). Little is known of St. Mark’s later life. Tradition ascribes to him the founding of the Church in Alexandria. It is certain that he died a martyr’s death as bishop of Alexandria in Egypt. He was martyred by the heathens in c. 68 A.D. by being dragged through the streets of Alexandria until his body was torn to pieces. His relics were transferred from Alexandria to Venice, where a worthy tomb was erected in St. Mark’s Cathedral.

The Gospel of St. Mark, the shortest of the four, is, above all, a Roman Gospel. It originated in Rome and is addressed to Roman, or shall we say, to Western Christianity. Another high merit is its chronological presentation of the life of Christ. For we should be deeply interested in the historical sequence of the events in our blessed Savior’s life. Furthermore, St. Mark was a skilled painter of word pictures. With one stroke he frequently enhances a familiar scene, shedding upon it new light. His Gospel is the “Gospel of Peter,” for he wrote it under the direction and with the aid of the prince of the apostles. “The Evangelist Mark is represented as a lion because he begins his Gospel in the wilderness, `The voice of one crying in the desert: Make ready the way of the Lord,’ or because he presents the Lord as the unconquered King.” St. Mark is the Patron Saint against impenitence; attorneys; barristers; captives; Egypt; glaziers; imprisoned people; insect bites; lions; notaries; prisoners; scrofulous diseases; stained glass workers; struma; Diocese of Venice, Florida; Venice, Italy.

PRAYER: Saint Mark, you were a friend of the Apostles and shared their commitment to spreading the faith. From your home in Heaven, may you strengthen all those who lack the courage to live the Gospel message in their own lives so they can witness it to others…. Amen🙏

God, You helped St. Mark the Evangelist with Your grace so that he could preach the Gospel. Grant that we may learn from his teaching to walk faithfully in the footsteps of Christ…Amen🙏

PRAYER INTENTIONS: We thank God for blessing us all with the gift of His precious son, may we be saved by the name of our Savior Jesus Christ! May the Lord grant us His grace as we continue to serve Him in spirit and in truth during this Easter Season. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the sick and dying. We particularly pray for sick children, those who are sick with convulsive disorder, mental illness, strokes, heart diseases, and those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. May God restore them to good health and grant them His Divine healing and intervention. May our Mother Mary comfort them, may the Angels and Saints watch over them and may the Holy Spirit guide them in peace and comfort during this challenging time. We pray for the safety and well-being of us all and our families, for peace, love and unity in our families, our marriages and our divided and conflicted world. Every life is a gift. We pray for God’s deliverance from impossible causes or situations. We pray for the souls in Purgatory and the repose of the gentle souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon them. May their gentle souls through the mercy of God rest in peace with our Lord Jesus Christ Amen. For all widows and widowers. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Bishops, the Clergy and all those who preach the Gospel. For vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church, for persecuted Christians, for all the innocent who suffer violence due to political or religious unrest, for the conversion of sinners and Christians all over the world. Amen🙏

SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS.

Bible Readings for today, Feast of Saint Mark, Evangelist | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

Gospel Reading ~ Mark 16:15-20

“Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to every creature”

“Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Then the Lord Jesus, after He spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took His seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.”

In today’s Gospel reading, the risen Lord told all of the disciples after His Resurrection, that He would send His disciples to proclaim His Good News to all the corners of the world. They will all go forth and spread the words of truth to everyone they encounter, and they will perform miracles and wonders in His Name. They will have to endure sufferings, trials and challenges for His sake, and they will be persecuted, but only to be triumphant with God at the very end. God will remember them and will save them all. As the disciples went out to preach everywhere, the Lord was ‘working with them and confirming the word by the signs that accompanied it’. The risen Lord is with His disciples, working with them and confirming them. Just as the disciples, whenever we strive to be faithful to the Lord’s ways, whenever we seek to witness to Him, we can always be assured of the Lord’s confirming presence. We understand the Sacrament of Confirmation as the moment when we confirm our baptism. However, the more fundamental confirmation is the Lord confirming us as we strive every day to follow in His way. The Lord is always working with us to confirm, strengthen and support us in our efforts to answer His call in today’s world.

In our first reading today from the Epistle of St. Peter, Peter assures the churches he is addressing that even though they are having to suffer for their faith, the Lord ‘will see that all is well again; He will confirm, strengthen and support you’. The Lord is with His struggling churches to keep them faithful to the end. The exhortation from the Prince of the Apostles assures us of the calling that God had made upon each one of us, His beloved people. We are all called to be the ones to proclaim the truth of God to each and every one we encountered in our lives. All of us are entrusted with this same mission that the Lord had given to His Church, and as members of that same Church, we are all part of this great effort in proclaiming the salvation and the love of God in our world today. As Christians, we must have that understanding and realisation that we are called to walk in the same path that St. Mark had once walked before.

As we reflect on the words of the Sacred Scriptures today, the first reading from the first letter of Peter and the Gospel reading from the Gospel of Mark have a theme in common. We are all reminded that as those who believe in God, as Christians, we are all called to commit ourselves to proclaim the Risen Lord in our every actions, words and dealings throughout life. We are all presented with the truth and the teachings of the Lord which had been preserved and handed down to us from the Apostles and the many other disciples like St. Mark, who had faithfully kept the Christian faith alive and burning well even throughout the most difficult and challenging moments in the history of the Church. Let us all therefore strive to do our best to proclaim the Risen Lord, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, following the examples of St. Mark and the other Apostles and disciples of the Lord. May all of us do our best to proclaim Him and His truth, His love and mercy to the whole world through our own words, actions and deeds. May God in His infinite grace and mercy be with us all and may He grant us His grace and bless our actions and strengthen each and every one of us so that we may always ever be courageous to do His will, and be His witnesses wherever we are, and in whatever opportunities we receive. St. Mark the Evangelist, Holy Servant of God, devoted to the end, pray for us all sinners. Amen🙏

Let us pray:

Glorious Lord Jesus, You gave Your followers the great mission to preach Your Gospel to the ends of the world. I thank You for the ways that Saint Mark responded to Your inspiration and was used in such a powerful way. Please use me, dear Lord, as an instrument of Your grace so that I can share in the mission You have given to the Church. Jesus, I trust in You ~ Amen 🙏

Save Us, Savior of the World. Our Blessed Mother Mary and Saint Mark the Evangelist ~ Pray for us🙏

Thanking God for the gift of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ and praying for us all as we celebrate the resurrection of our loving Savior, Jesus Christ. Have a blessed, safe, joyous and grace-filled Fourth Week of Easter🙏
   
Blessings and Love always, Philomena💖