Easter 4 Sunday A - Good Shepherd

Fr. Jude Botelho:

In today’s first reading Peter contrasts what God did to Jesus with what the people did to Him, they crucified Him. The hearers moved to guilt ask, "What must we do?" Peter's answer was to reform, repent and be baptized. Those who heard Peter realized they could no longer believe and act as they once did. In accepting Peter's message today, we too must make the changes in our lives that reflect the One whose rule we follow. What is God asking of me right now? Listening with faith demands a response or else the Word is rendered impotent in our lives.

Easter 3 Sunday A - Emmaus Journey

In the first reading we hear Peter preaching the first Christian sermon of the five recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.

Easter 2 Sunday A - Divine Mercy

Andrew Greeley:  

Story:
Once upon a time there was a man who counted carefully all his grudges. He remembered all the cruelties of the school yard, the taunts from his class when he did something well, the feather-brained irresponsibilities  (as he saw them) of the young women he had dated, the dishonesty of his business associates, the insensitivity of his wife, the ingratitude of his children. So many people had done such terrible things to him that he figured that there had to be a conspiracy. Who could have organized such a massive conspiracy?

Maundy Thursday - Stole and Towel

From Fr. Jude Botelho: 

The Book of Exodus tells us how the Lord ordered the Israelites to keep the Paschal meal. Each family had to kill a lamb and smear the doorposts with the blood of the lamb. The lamb should be roasted and eaten standing to signify their readiness to pass from the land of slavery to the land of promise. It would also signify the passing of the angel of the Lord over the houses of the Israelites marked by the blood of the lamb. To remember this Passover, God ordered the Israelites to keep the Feast of the Passover. The lamb sacrificed was eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs and the father of the family would explain to the children, year after year, what the meal and the feast meant. Our Eucharistic celebration is a commemoration of the same Paschal meal, reminding us that we are called to pass from the land of slavery to sin to the land of freedom; we are called to pass over from wherever we are to where the Lord wants us to be. It calls to mind the fact that God has passed over our sins thanks to the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ through whose death we are given life.