Thursday of the Third Week of Easter
This Week’s Intention: That we may be a People of Life, speaking for the dignity and needs of all people, especially the poor, the oppressed, the exploited, the misunderstood, and the forgotten.
Today’s Gospel | John 6:44-50
Jesus said to the crowds: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets:
‘They shall all be taught by God.’
Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.”
From the Eighth Meditation for the Time of Retreat | St. John Baptist de La Salle
It would have been of little use if the holy apostles had instructed the first Christians in the essential truths of our religion, if they did not lead them to live the Christian way of life and conform to what they themselves had lived with Jesus Christ. The apostles were not satisfied with teaching doctrine, but they had a marvelous care to bring the first Christians to practice their religion.
God blessed their care in such a way that it is said that those who first received the faith persevered in the teaching of the apostles, in the communion of the breaking of bread, and in prayers, and they continued to go to the temple every day united in the same spirit. In other words, after they were baptized they were living in harmony with the teaching of the apostles.
Prayer
Eternal Father, we know that to build your Kingdom, we must follow in the footsteps of your Son. As we travel through each day together, help us to do this. Teach our minds to recognize your saving presence. Inspire our hearts to recognize your loving voice. Bless us with faith and zeal for doing your will, so that we may be true to the call of the prophet Micah: to act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with our God. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
St. John Baptist de La Salle, pray for us.
Live Jesus in our hearts forever.