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Message of the Day
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On a path, two great crises await you. The first comes when the magic of the beginning has vanished. The second comes just before the goal. Both ask the question: Do you really want this?
- Gernot Candolini,
Labyrinths: Walking Toward the Center
(Which of these "crises" are you experiencing at this time in your life? How do you experience the question?)
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Lectionary Readings
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EPH 2:19-22; PS 117: 1-2; JN 20:24-29
R. Go out to all
the world and tell the Good News.
Praise the LORD, all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!
For steadfast is his kindness for us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures
forever.
USCCB Lectionary
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Reflection on the Gospel
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The last apostle to meet the resurrected Lord was the first to go with him to Jerusalem at Passover time. The apostle Thomas was a natural pessimist. When Jesus proposed that they visit Lazarus after receiving news of his illness, Thomas said to the disciples: "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (John 11:16). While
Thomas deeply loved the Lord, he lacked the courage to stand with Jesus in his passion and crucifixion. After Jesus' death, Thomas made the mistake of withdrawing from the other apostles. He sought loneliness rather than fellowship in his time of sorrow and adversity. He doubted the women who saw the resurrected Jesus and he doubted his own fellow apostles who also testified that Jesus had risen.
When Thomas finally had the courage to rejoin the other apostles eight days later, the Lord Jesus made his presence known to him and reassured him that he had indeed overcome death and risen again. When Thomas recognized his Master, he believed and exclaimed that Jesus was truly Lord and truly God!
Through the gift of faith we, too, are able to recognize the presence of the risen Lord in
our personal lives. The Holy Spirit reveals the Lord Jesus to us and helps us to grow in knowledge and understanding of God and his ways. Through the gift of faith we are able to proclaim that Jesus is our personal Lord and our God. He died and rose that we, too, might have new life in him. The Lord offers each of us new life in his Holy Spirit that we may know him personally and walk in this new way of life through the power of his resurrection. Do you believe in God's word and in the power of
the Holy Spirit?
"Lord Jesus Christ, through your victory over sin and death you have overcome all the powers of darkness. Help me to draw near to you and to trust in your life-giving word. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and strengthen my faith in your promises and my hope in the power of your resurrection."
DailyScripture.Net
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Spiritual Reading
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The Cloud of Unknowing, by Anonymous Of two ghostly (spiritual) devices that be helpful to a ghostly beginner in the work of this book.
NEVERTHELESS, somewhat of this subtlety shall I tell thee as me think. Prove thou and do better,
if thou better mayest. Do that in thee is, to let be as thou wist not that they press so fast upon thee betwixt thee and thy God. And try to look as it were over their shoulders, seeking another thing: the which thing is God, enclosed in a cloud of unknowing. And if thou do thus, I trow that within short time thou shalt be eased of thy travail. I trow that an this device be well and truly conceived, it is nought else but a longing desire unto God, to feel Him and see Him as it may be here: and
such a desire is charity, and it obtaineth always to be eased.- Chapter
32
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