I think sometimes we forget that Jesus was fully human, (while also fully divine), just like us. He felt hunger and thirst. He felt pain. He experienced sickness and exhaustion. He even felt abandoned, abandoned by His father while He was hanging on the Cross. Jesus felt abandoned by his father, much like we may feel right now, I know I do. The disruption in our Sunday Mass attendance has been a difficult one for many of us. Recently, I find myself asking that same question Jesus did on the Cross, “Father, why have you abandoned me?” At the same time, how many of Jesus’ followers felt that way at the thought of Jesus’ death? How many of them felt abandoned because Jesus would no longer be with them when, if He was truly the Son of God, He could’ve saved himself? Why wasn’t there some other way?

I’m sure I’m not alone in that feeling of abandonment. Why can’t we go to mass? Why can’t we receive Jesus in the Eucharist? Why wasn’t there some other way? St. John and the Blessed Mother, at the foot of the Cross, are the perfect examples of how we should respond. In the midst of Jesus’ passion and death they remained. They witnessed and, in their own way, experienced this pain and sorrow with Jesus but not for a minute did they leave His side.

They remained.

We need to remain with Jesus. We can still encounter Jesus right now, even if it’s outside of the Church and outside of the Eucharist. All we have to do is remain at the foot of the Cross and remember that we are not alone. Not only do we have each other, but we have the Mother of Jesus right next to us. He gave us his very own mother to be our mother and she knows so so well what we’re going through. She knows that desire to be close to Jesus. She knows how hard it is to be without him. The pain Mary felt as she watched her son suffer and die is beyond what we can imagine. She knows your pain. Cling to her at the foot of Jesus’ Cross. Allow yourself to feel that desire, that thirst, just as Jesus did. As he hung on the Cross he said, “I thirst.”

Friends, His thirst was for you. His thirst IS for you. Even now, in the midst of a global pandemic that may prevent us from receiving him in the Eucharist, He thirsts for you. Remain with Mary and John as they remain with Jesus.

When have you thirsted for the Lord? what did you do? 

When have you felt abandoned by the Lord? How did He respond? 

How will you remember that Jesus longs for you? How should that change your day-to-day life?

"He thirsts for me."

"Lord have mercy on us and on the whole world."

​"I long for you."

I​n this difficult time, we will use our Action step each day to join with people around the world in praying for an end to the pandemic of the Coronavirus, for the healing of all those affected, and for the comfort of all those who have lost a loved one. The prayer below is from Archbishop José H. Gomez, President of the USCCB in his reflection and prayer during coronavirus:

Holy Virgin of Guadalupe,
Queen of the Angels and Mother of the Americas.
We fly to you today as your beloved children.
We ask you to intercede for us with your Son,
as you did at the wedding in Cana.
​
Pray for us, loving Mother,
and gain for our nation and world,
and for all our families and loved ones,
the protection of your holy angels,
that we may be spared the worst of this illness.

For those already afflicted,
we ask you to obtain the grace of healing and deliverance.
Hear the cries of those who are vulnerable and fearful,
wipe away their tears and help them to trust.

In this time of trial and testing,
teach all of us in the Church to love one another and to be patient and kind.
Help us to bring the peace of Jesus to our land and to our hearts.

We come to you with confidence,
knowing that you truly are our compassionate mother,
health of the sick and cause of our joy.

Shelter us under the mantle of your protection,
keep us in the embrace of your arms,
help us always to know the love of your Son, Jesus. Amen.

​Today's Prayer was prepared by Anna Roche, the High School Youth Minister at St. Thomas the Apostle in Crystal Lake, IL.

If you have anything you'd like our team to pray for, please go to the page of our website called "Prayers" and let us know how we can pray for you today.

On this great solemnity of Pentecost, we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit onto the Church as the Body of Christ. The love of the Father and the Son is shared with us and unlocks for us a power that man hadn’t previously experienced - the gift of great speech, of fortitude, of wisdom, and plenty more. In these days of quarantine and the slow re-opening of society, I want to look most closely at the peace that Jesus promises with the Holy Spirit.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve found peace very hard to come by in the last few months despite many of the things that kept me busy being cancelled. At the beginning of May, I hit that proverbial lockdown wall and began questioning every aspect of my life. I found myself robbed of the peace that the Holy Spirit had been drawing me into. Thankfully, this same Spirit made me aware of what had stolen this peace and showed me that it definitely wasn’t of God.

In my increased time spent online, I had let myself get sucked very deep into the world of comparison. Comparison with others is the thief of joy. I was seeing all these things people were doing to deal with quarantine and in seeing their apparent happiness, I felt that I was missing out on something. Would I be better off in another situation or vocation? I had been pulled down by the world, the flesh, and the devil and was obscuring the Spirit wishing to manifest itself in my life. Restoring that peace was partly cutting out a media that seems to be rooting for the virus, and partly refocusing on being with the people I am physically living with. But mostly, it was returning to a relationship with God and recalling all the times before He had bestowed His peace upon me.

The peace that Christ offers in today’s Gospel is not just the absence of conflict or war. Instead, the Gospel uses the Greek word eirene, which is the equivalent of the Hebrew word shalom. It signifies completeness, well-being, order, and harmony. Above all, shalom is the blessing that comes from living faithfully to one’s relationship with God. And that’s what the Holy Spirit was sent for, to be the source of graces, gifts, sanctification, and the new life that confirms that we are God’s adoptive children.

In speaking His peace to the Apostles, He openly showed Himself and strengthened their wavering minds by His voice. It’s this peace that Jesus wishes to give you today as He continues to pour out His Holy Spirit on the world.​

What are some things that are getting in your way of living in the peace of Christ?

How can you be more in touch with the Holy Spirit today?

How can looking at peace in this new way change you? How can it change what you seek?

"Come Holy Spirit."

"Thank You Jesus."

"Jesus, I trust in You."

Before we get to our daily prayer during this pandemic, it is only appropriate that we pray for peace and the respect of the dignity of every human life. Let us take that peace that Christ has shared with us and bring that into our communities and into our world. 

​In this difficult time, we will use our Action step each day to join with people around the world in praying for an end to the pandemic of the Coronavirus, for the healing of all those affected, and for the comfort of all those who have lost a loved one. The prayer below is from Archbishop José H. Gomez, President of the USCCB in his reflection and prayer during coronavirus:

Holy Virgin of Guadalupe,
Queen of the Angels and Mother of the Americas.
We fly to you today as your beloved children.
We ask you to intercede for us with your Son,
as you did at the wedding in Cana.
​
Pray for us, loving Mother,
and gain for our nation and world,
and for all our families and loved ones,
the protection of your holy angels,
that we may be spared the worst of this illness.

For those already afflicted,
we ask you to obtain the grace of healing and deliverance.
Hear the cries of those who are vulnerable and fearful,
wipe away their tears and help them to trust.

In this time of trial and testing,
teach all of us in the Church to love one another and to be patient and kind.
Help us to bring the peace of Jesus to our land and to our hearts.

We come to you with confidence,
knowing that you truly are our compassionate mother,
health of the sick and cause of our joy.

Shelter us under the mantle of your protection,
keep us in the embrace of your arms,
help us always to know the love of your Son, Jesus. Amen.

Click the link below or open your Bible to the passage and read through the reading at least once, paying attention to what is happening in the text. 

Use the following meditation to help you reflect more deeply on the Scripture (you may want to read the passage again).

In today’s Gospel Jesus twice asks Peter, “What concern is it of yours?”, a statement in reply to Peter’s curiosity about John remaining around longer than the other disciples.

Concern for another can be two-fold. We can have a "healthy" concern for another when we desire what is best for them; this is the essence of love. Or we can have an "unhealthy" concern for another that produces within us an anxious spirit of comparison. The latter was the disposition of Peter in this story. He was comparing himself to John.

A big part of living in the daily will of God is to have a genuine concern and love for others, instead of taking part in that nasty disposition of comparison – which is an unhealthy concern of another. Every passing day is a day to thank God for the uniqueness of each of us. Each one of us is a little different from the other, but we are all beautiful gifts from God.

Please take this to heart...God loves you and has a plan for you – do not try and be someone you are not. Jesus teaches us a lesson; let’s put to rest comparing ourselves to others, and be busy about a genuine love for oneself and for others.

These questions are to be used to talk to God; have a conversation with the Lord about these questions and what is going on in your heart as you pray today.

How are you living in relationship to others? Do you have a genuine concern for them, or do you constantly compare yourself?

What are some of the gifts God has given you that you are grateful for? Take some time to acknowledge those things and thank God for them, knowing that they are given to you by him.

As the Easter season comes to an end, what are some of the graces you are thanking God for during this season, as different as it may have been?

In this step, you listen. Stop talking, let God speak to your heart. You may repeat one of these short phrases to focus your mind on the Lord.

"Jesus, I trust in you."

"Thank you, Lord."

​"I choose you, Lord."

In light of today's reading and your time spent in prayer with the Lord, what concrete action or actions will you take to let this encounter with the Lord bear fruit in you today?

The following image is here for you to save and use as a background or lock screen on your smartphone or device to help you carry today's Lectio Divina with you the rest of the day.

Today's prayer was prepared by Fr. John McNamara, priest of the Diocese of Rockford. 

If you have anything you'd like our team to pray for, please go to the page of our website called "Prayers" and let us know how we can pray for you today.