The Gospel of John offers a beautiful insight into the dignity of love that God grants to humanity. Jesus calls us friends, elevating us to a glorious relationship with God, and empowers us to offer the gift of our lives with this precious grace.
Mass Readings – Friday of the 5th Week of Easter
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This short passage from John’s Gospel reveals the interaction between the command to love and the gift of joy. While love often challenges us to stretch our hearts as we care for others, the joy we receive flows straight from the heart of heaven.
Mass Readings – Thursday of the 5th Week of Easter
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This beautiful passage from the Gospel of John offers a profound reflection on the nature of God’s love for our lives. Flowing from the Father, divine love is meant to touch our hearts and pass through us into the diverse relationships of daily life.
Mass Readings – Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle
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Study: Consider a moment when you felt unconditional love. How did you react?
Pray: Are there people in your life who are hard to love? Ask the Lord to soften your heart, and place in you the desire to want to love them.
Serve: Love is expressed in many ways. How can you share the Love of Christ with others today?
Mass Readings – 5th Sunday of Easter
Let’s start with a quick overview of this week’s readings:
The Easter season proclaims the Lord’s triumph over sin and death, and inspires us to fix our eyes on Heaven as our destination and goal. United together with the Lord, we understand that we are pilgrims passing through this world – and our words and actions have power and consequence.
Think about it. The Lord commands us to love. This is not some pleasant suggestion or good-idea-if-you-have-time-to-fit-it-in…this command is our call to action: Love flows from the heart of Heaven, and in our Love on earth we practice for the day when we will stand before the Author of Love itself.
And lest we get caught up in some sort of warm fuzzy feeling about Love, we know that this command is hard to carry out! Love demands our forgiveness, patience, mercy, gentleness, peace, and understanding. Simply put, we are called to Love as Christ loves us – by laying down our lives for one another.
Love, then, is not only a principal condition for Heaven, but for the Church on earth as well. Nothing reveals our sincerity and authenticity as Christians more fully than when Love shines through our words and actions.
Our goal is Heaven, and while here on earth the Church follows the example of Christ – loving God and one another. May others see the Lord’s Love in our lives today!
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Catholic Inspiration Archives
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Note: This post was first published on April 19, 2019.
This well known passage from the Gospel of John reminds us that it was out of love for sinful humanity that God sent Jesus Christ for our salvation. May we humbly acknowledge the darkness within our hearts and turn to the one who longs to make us whole.
Mass Readings – Wednesday of the 2nd Week of Easter
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The parable of the Prodigal Son proclaims the tender compassion of the Father. In our wayward moments the Lord continues to run to us in our need, reaching out with mercy, forgiveness and love.
Mass Readings – 4th Sunday of Lent
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When asked what is the most important commandment, Jesus responds by citing Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18 and swiftly summarizes the life of faith by condensing the Ten Commandments down to two. As we take these two crucial commandments to heart may they guide every aspect of our lives each and every day.
Mass Readings – Friday of the 3rd Week of Lent
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The command to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” is perhaps one of the most challenging lines in the Bible. Yet when we strive to carry this out we begin to conform our lives to Jesus, allowing his grace in us to make it possible.
Mass Readings – Saturday of the 1st Week of Lent
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Like Jeremiah and Jesus, we experience times in life that are filled with tension and difficulty. Yet following the example of St. Paul, we face these challenging moments with God’s grace as we embrace and live the love of Christ each and every day.
Mass Readings – 4th Sunday of the Year
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Study: Consider an experience where you were unconditionally loved by another person. How did their love change you?
Pray: Is there someone in your life who is difficult to love right now? Ask the Lord for the strength to love others like Christ.
Serve: Love is not a feeling, but an act of the will. How can you put your love for others into action today?
Mass Readings – 31st Sunday of the Year
We see some common themes in the readings this week:
At first glance we might easily take these ideas for granted; most of us have grown up with our Christian faith and have heard these messages from childhood. But what happens when we pause and reflect?
Loving God is not some melancholy obligation! The Lord made us for love and through the gift of faith we are invited to grow in love with God and one another. Simply put, each and every day we have the opportunity to become more and more like Christ – our teacher and example of love.
How can you foster God’s love in your life today? How can you find ways to express and implement love in your relationships? Our commandment to love finds its source, strength and glory in the love that God has for us. May we receive the Lord’s love for us today as we share that love in all aspects of our lives.
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