FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (YEAR B)

SAINTS OF THE DAY ~ FEAST DAY: APRIL 28, 2024

Greetings, beloved family and Happy Sunday of the Fifth Week of Easter!

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 28, 2024” |

Pray “Holy Mass from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | April 28, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary from Lourdes, France” | April 28, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | April 28, 2024 |

Pray “The Chaplet of Divine Mercy | from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | April 28, 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: Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year B), April 28, 2024
Reading 1, Acts 9:26-31
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32
Reading 2, First John 3:18-24
Gospel, John 15:1-8

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/

SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS

Bible Readings for today, Fifth Sunday of Easter | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

Gospel Reading ~ John 15:1–8

“Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit”

“Jesus said to his disciples: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

In today’s Gospel reading, our Lord Jesus teaches His disciples using a parable, the Parable of the True Vine, in order to tell all of them to remain firmly attached to Him and His truth, and not to separate themselves from Him, or to follow their own path and desires. The Lord revealed Himself as the True Vine, the One through Whom all truth, all life shall come from, using the terms that were familiar to the people of the time, as vineyards were common in the lands of the Israelites, and the people, including the disciples themselves, would have recognised what is meant by the Lord’s parable. This is because if the grapes are not attached to the vine, then they would not only not grow, but they would perish and die. This is therefore an important message and reminder by the Lord to His Church, to all of us that we must always be firmly centred and attached to Him, in all of our faith and lives. Jesus was speaking to His disciples, to all of us today who are trying to be His disciples. The primary reference for Jesus’ words is not the sacrament of ordination but of baptism. When Jesus says, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches’, He is addressing all the baptized. He is speaking about the very deep communion that He wants to have with each one of us, in virtue of our baptism.

Jesus knew that only our close communion with Him would make it possible for us to live with His life, which is a life of loving service of others. This is the fruit that Jesus speaks about in the Gospel reading. ‘Whoever remains in me, with me in them, bears fruit in plenty’. Only a branch untied to the vine can produce grapes and only if we are united to the Lord through faith can our lives bear the fruit of the Lord’s love. According to Saint Paul to the Galatians, he says, ‘the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control’. This is the fruit that Jesus speaks about in the gospel reading. St. Paul speaks of it as the fruit of the Spirit; Jesus speaks of it as the fruit of our communion with Him. They are saying the same thing, because it is through the Spirit that the Lord lives in us and we live in him. In the words of Saint John in the second reading, ‘We know that He lives in us by the Spirit that He has given us’. The Lord has already entered into a deeply personal relationship with each of us through His life, death, resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit into our lives. He has taken the initiative to enter into this relationship with us and He will never take back His initiative. Our calling is to remain in that relationship which He has initiated with us. In the Gospel reading, He calls on us to remain in Him, as branches need to remain on the vine. Another way Jesus expresses this call in the Gospel reading is, ‘Make your home in me, as I make mine in you’. The Lord has chosen to make His home in us, through the Holy Spirit, and now He calls on us to make our home in Him.

Our first reading today gives us a picture of what the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of love, looks like in practice. Saul had been one of the church’s fiercest persecutors. When he became a member of the church after the Lord’s appearance to him on the road to Damascus, it is not surprising that many in the church were suspicious of him, indeed, afraid of him. It was St. Barnabas, a leading member of the church, who opened the door for Saul, explaining to the doubters that the Lord had appeared to Saul or Paul and had spoken to him and that Paul had been preaching the Gospel ever since. St. Barnabas believed in St. Paul when others doubted him and he created a space for St. Paul to exercise the mission the Lord had given him. One of the ways we show our love for others is by creating the space for them to shine, allowing them to become the person God is calling them to be. Such humble service is the fruit of our communion with the Lord.

Our first reading today is a very good example of how one person creates an opening for another. At the beginning of His Christian life, St. Paul was very dependant on others to get started on His missionary work. According to our first reading, when he first went to Jerusalem after his conversion, the disciples were very slow to have anything to do with him. They related to him only as the one who, up until recently, had been persecuting them. It was St. Barnabas who created an opening for St. Paul into the young church in Jerusalem. St. Barnabas was a respected church leader, and his strong recommendation for St. Paul was enough to calm everyone down and allow St. Paul to find a place within the Jerusalem community. There must have been more than one Barnabas in the early church, people who opened doors for other believers to use their gifts in the service of the Lord and the church. One of the greatest gifts a person can have is the gift of facilitating the gifts of others. That particular gift is one that requires a certain degree of humility. In creating an opening for St. Paul, St. Barnabas was making way for someone who was, in many ways, more gifted than he himself was. St. Barnabas was opening a door for someone who would go on to become a much more significant member of the early church than St. Barnabas himself was. He may well have realized that this would be the case. Yet, his focus was not on himself, but on the Lord and on the work of the Lord. We may often find ourselves in a position to create an opening for someone who is more gifted than we are, who has more to bring to the task in hand than we do. Stepping back so that others may flourish is one aspect of our baptismal calling. We are called to be a Barnabas figure. If St. Barnabas made way for St. Paul, St. John the Baptist made way for Jesus. St. John’s calling was to serve as a door for Jesus, to create an opening for him. According to the Fourth Gospel, on one occasion, St. John the Baptist said, ‘He (Jesus) must increase, but I must decrease’. That saying captures something of that humble attitude which is required of those who are being called upon to create openings for others.

As we reflect on the words of the Sacred Scriptures this Sunday, we all celebrate the occasion of the Fifth Sunday of Easter, and as we continue to mark with great joy our Easter commemoration and festivities, we are all reminded to continue to place our focus and emphasis in life upon none other than Our Lord Himself, in all His truth and love, and in everything which He Himself has revealed and given to us through His Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour. On this Sunday all of us are reminded that if we truly call ourselves as Christians then we really have to centre our whole lives and existence, our every actions, words and deeds upon the Lord, so that in everything that we say and do, we will always be the good role models and inspirations for one another, helping many more people to come ever closer to God and His salvation. If we allow ourselves to be swayed by the temptations of worldly glory and pleasures, fame and ambition, we may end up falling away, further away from the true path of Christ. All the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord, the early Church fathers and missionaries have remained firmly true in this path, in the missions and journey that they had undertaken in proclaiming the truth and salvation of God to the nations. There were however many others who have gone astray, who have embraced worldly ambitions and temptations, leading many into the false paths and evils, the path of heresy and disobedience against God. That was how many heresies sprung up in the early Church, leading to divisions in the Body of Christ, the Church of God, breaking the unity of the Church and leading to many people falling into the path of sin and darkness. Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all realise that we must always adhere closely to the fullness of the teachings of the Lord as preserved and taught by His Church, and not to give in to the temptations to embark on our own ideals and interpretations that may lead us down the path of error and even heresy, as what many of our predecessors had done. We have to remember that as parts and members of the same Church of God, the Body of Christ, all of us are united in Our Lord and Saviour, and we ought to believe in Him and His truth wholeheartedly. Otherwise, if we allow ourselves to be swayed by those temptations and wicked desires all around us, then we may end up falling ever deeper into the path of sin and evil, and from there, we may find it hard to get out and return to the path towards the Lord and His salvation. We must remember that separated from the Lord, we can do nothing and there is absolutely no hope for any one of us. Instead, let us all continue to embrace the Lord and remind ourselves to stay faithful to His Law and commandments, doing our very best to live our lives in accordance with His ways. Let us all continue to bear rich fruits of grace and righteousness, of virtue and love, of Christ’s light and truth, by our every good works and deeds, and by everything that we do, in our every endeavours and efforts, to glorify the Lord by our lives. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us His grace and may the Risen Lord continue to bless us all and may He continue to guide and strengthen us in our path in life, in whatever we do for the sake of His glory, and for all that He has called us to do in our respective lives, to be His worthy and good missionaries, all throughout our lives, now and forevermore. Amen 🙏

SAINTS OF THE DAY: MEMORIAL OF SAINT LOUIS-MARIE GRIGNON DE MONTFORT, PRIEST; SAINT PETER CHANEL, PRIEST AND MARTYR AND SAINT GIANNA BERETTA MOLLA ~ FEAST DAY: APRIL 28TH: As we continue to celebrate and rejoice in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, today, we celebrate the Memorialof Saint Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort, Priest; St. Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr and Saint Gianna Beretta Molla. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints during this Easter season, we humbly pray for all expectant mothers and the unborn, we pray for their safety and well-being. We pray for all Healthcare professionals, praying for their health, safety and protection especially during these incredibly challenging times. 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 our beloved family members who recently passed away and the souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. 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🙏

SAINT LOUIS-MARIE GRIGNON DE MONTFORT: St. Louis-Marie de Monfort (January 31, 1673 – April 28, 1716) was a 17th century French Roman Catholic Priest and Confessor. He was known in his time as a preacher and was made a missionary apostolic by Pope Clement XI. As well as preaching, St. Louis De Montfort found time to write a number of books which went on to become classic Catholic titles and influenced several popes. He is known for his particular and intense devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the practice of praying the Rosary. St. Louis-Marie is perhaps most famously known for his prayer of entrustment to Our Lady, “Totus Tuus ego sum,” which means, “I am all yours.” The late-Pope John Paul II took the phrase “Totus Tuus” as his episcopal motto.

St. Louis-Marie De Monfort was born in Montfort, Brittany, France on January 31, 1673 to a large farming family. As a child he displayed an unusual spiritual maturity and spent much time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. He possessed a strong devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and was also intimately devoted to the Blessed Virgin, especially through the Rosary. He took the name Marie at his confirmation. The saint manifested a love for the poor while he was at school and joined a society of young men who ministered to the poor and the sick on school holidays. When he was 19, he walked 130 miles to Paris to study theology, gave all he had to the poor that he met along the way and made a vow to live only on alms. After his ordination at 27, he served as a hospital chaplain until the management of the hospital resented his reorganization of the staff and sent him away.

St. Louis-Marie discovered his calling to be an itinerant preacher and great gift for preaching at the age of 32, and committed himself to it for the rest of his life. He received the title of “Apostolic Missionary” from the Pope after his bishop tried to silence him. For the next 17 years he preached missions in countless towns and villages throughout France with an emphasis on renewal and reform. His fiery devotion, oratory skill, and identification with the poor led many souls to conversion. He met with such great success that he often drew crowds of thousands to hear his sermons in which he encouraged frequent communion and devotion to Mary. But he also met with opposition, especially from the Jansenists, a heretical movement within the Church that believed in absolute Predestination, in which only a chosen few are saved, and the rest damned. Much of France was influenced by Jansenism, including many bishops, who banished St. Loius-Marie from preaching in their dioceses. He was even poisoned by Jansenists in La Rochelle, but survived, though he suffered ill health after. While recuperating from the effects of the poisoning, he wrote the masterpiece of Marian piety, “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin,” which he correctly prophesied would be hidden by the devil for a time. His seminal work was discovered 200 years after his death. One year before he died, St. Louis-Marie founded two congregations: the Daughters of Divine Wisdom – which tended to the sick in hospitals and the education of poor girls, and the Company of Mary, missionaries devoted to preaching and to spreading devotion to Mary.

Quotes of St. Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort:

“We never give more honour to Jesus than when we honour His Mother, & we honour her simply and solely to honour Him all the more perfectly. We go to her only as a way leading to the goal we seek – Jesus, her Son.”

“The rosary is the most powerful weapon to touch the Heart of Jesus, Our Redeemer, who loves His Mother.”

O God, You willed to direct the footsteps of St. Louis, Your Priest, in the way of salvation and the love of Christ, with the accompaniment of the Blessed Virgin. Grant that following his example we may meditate on the mysteries of Your love and strive indefatigably to build up Your Church… Amen🙏

SAINT PETER CHANEL, PRIEST AND MARTYR: The Protomartyr of the South Seas, St. Peter Chanel was born in Clet in the diocese of Belley, France, in 1803. He became a diocesan priest and in three years completely revitalized the first parish to which he was assigned. Since his mind was set on missionary work, St. Peter joined the newly formed Society of Mary (Marists), which concentrated on missionary work at home and abroad. To his dismay, he was appointed to teach at the Seminary of Belley and remained there for the next five years, diligently performing his duty. In 1836, St.Peter was sent to the New Hebrides as the superior of a little band of missionaries. After a long and arduous ten-month journey, the band split up, with Peter and two others going to evangelize the island of Futuna. Once there, St. Peter and his two assistants made headway in converting the island’s populace, attracting even the son of the King. As a result, the King dispatched a group of warriors to set upon the saintly head of the missionaries.

On April 28, 1841, three years after his arrival, a band of native warriors entered the hut of Father Peter Chanel on the island of Futuna in the New Hebrides islands near New Zealand. They seized and clubbed the missionary to death and cut up his body with hatchets. He was killed by hose he had come to save and his death brought his work to completion—within five months the entire island was converted to the Faith. Two years later, the whole island was Catholic. St. Peter Chanel’s death bears witness to then  ancient axiom that “the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.” He is the first martyr from Oceania, that part of the world spread over the south Pacific, and he came there as the fulfillment of a dream he had had as a boy. Peter was canonized in 1954 by Pope Pius XII. Patron Saint of Oceania.

PRAYER: God, in order to spread Your Church You crowned St. Peter with martyrdom. Grant that in these paschal joys we may so frequent the mysteries of Christ’s Death and Resurrection as to become witnesses of the new life. Amen🙏
 
SAINT GIANNA BERETTA MOLLA: St. Gianna (October  4, 1922 – April  28, 1962) was an Italian Roman Catholic  pediatrician, a Mother, Doctor, Fashionista and Lover of Life. She was a pro-life doctor and mother who gave her life for her unborn child. Gianna Beretta was born in Magenta (Milan) October 4, 1922. Already as a youth she willingly accepted the gift of faith and the clearly Christian education that she received from her excellent parents. As a result, she experienced life as a marvelous gift from God, had a strong faith in Providence and was convinced of the necessity and effectiveness of prayer. She diligently dedicated herself to studies during the years of her secondary and university education, while, at the same time, applying her faith through generous apostolic service among the youth of Catholic Action and charitable work among the elderly and needy as a member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. After earning degrees in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Pavia in 1949, she opened a medical clinic in Mesero (near Magenta) in 1950. She specialized in Pediatrics at the University of Milan in 1952 and there after gave special attention to mothers, babies, the elderly and poor.

While working in the field of medicine-which she considered a “mission” and practiced as such-she increased her generous service to Catholic Action, especially among the “very young” and, at the same time, expressed her joie de vivre and love of creation through skiing and mountaineering. Through her prayers and those of others, she reflected upon her vocation, which she also considered a gift from God. Having chosen the vocation of marriage, she embraced it with complete enthusiasm and wholly dedicated herself “to forming a truly Christian family”. She became engaged to Pietro Molla and was radiant with joy and happiness during the time of their engagement, for which she thanked and praised the Lord. They were married on September 24, 1955, in the Basilica of St. Martin in Magenta, and she became a happy wife. In November 1956, to her great joy, she became the mother of Pierluigi, in December 1957 of Mariolina; in July 1959 of Laura. With simplicity and equilibrium she harmonized the demands of mother, wife, doctor and her passion for life.

In September 1961 towards the end of the second month of pregnancy, she was touched by suffering and the mystery of pain; she had developed a fibroma in her uterus. Before the required surgical operation, and conscious of the risk that her continued pregnancy brought, she pleaded with the surgeon to save the life of the child she was carrying, and entrusted herself to prayer and Providence. The life was saved, for which she thanked the Lord. She spent the seven months remaining until the birth of the child in incomparable strength of spirit and unrelenting dedication to her tasks as mother and doctor. She worried that the baby in her womb might be born in pain, and she asked God to prevent that. A few days before the child was due, although trusting as always in Providence, she was ready to give her life in order to save that of her child: “If you must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate: choose the child – I insist on it. Save him”. On the morning of April 21, 1962, Gianna Emanuela was born. Despite all efforts and treatments to save both of them, on the morning of April 28, amid unspeakable pain and after repeated exclamations of “Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I love you», the mother died. She was 39 years old. Her funeral was an occasion of profound grief, faith and prayer. The Servant of God lies in the cemetery of Mesero (4 km from Magenta). “Conscious immolation, was the phrase used by Pope Paul VI to define the act of Blessed Gianna, remembering her at the Sunday Angelus of September 23, 1973, as: “A young mother from the diocese of Milan, who, to give life to her daughter, sacrificed her own, with conscious immolation”. The Holy Father in these words clearly refers to Christ on Calvary and in the Eucharist. St. Gianna was beatified by Pope John Paul II on April 24, 1994, during the international Year of the Family. She was canonized by Pope St. John Paul II on May 16, 2004. She’s the Patron Saint of mothers, physicians, wives, families, and preborn children.

PRAYER TO SAINT GIANNA FOR HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS:  Dear St. Gianna, you who knew that Christ Himself was present in each of your patients, and who chose medicine as a way to serve Him, we entrust to you the health care professionals of our times. We ask you to take into your care in a special way those who do not know Christ, beseeching the Holy Spirit to fill their hearts with Love since God is Love. We ask you to comfort those who are Christians. Keep their eyes focused on their Divine Savior, and never let them forget that He is present before them and through them. You who knew so well the challenges of combining your work with your family life, take care of the families of our doctors, nurses, and health care workers. Help them to know that in their generosity, they too are serving God. Intercede for the health care workers who are sick in body or in spirit, overwhelmed by the high price their bodies and their spirits must pay in order to assist others.
Ask God to bring the souls of the health care professionals who have died into the mercy of his loving embrace.

St. Gianna Molla, pray for them and pray for us.”… Amen🙏

Let us pray:

Jesus, most glorious Vine, You and You alone are the source of all nourishment in life. From You all good things come. Help me to have a firm faith in You and all that You have revealed, so that this faith will bud forth and bring about an abundance of good fruit for the glorious building up of Your Kingdom. Jesus, I trust in You ~ Amen 🙏

Save Us, Savior of the World. Our Blessed Mother Mary and Saint Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort, Saint Peter Chanel and Saint Gianna Beretta Molla ~ Pray for us🙏

Thanking God for the gift of this day and praying for His Divine Mercy and Grace upon us all and for vocations to priesthood and consecrated life. Have a blessed, safe, grace-filled Sunday and fruitful Fifth Week of Easter🙏

Blessings and Love always, Philomena💖