Saint Edmund R.C. Parish - Brooklyn

Today is Saturday, 8th week in ordinary time

DAILY PRAYER
Lord Jesus,
your word is life and truth. Instruct my heart that I may grow in the knowledge of your truth and live according to your word. Amen

DAILY VERSE (Colossians 3:16a, 17c)

Alleluia, alleluia.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly;
giving thanks to God the Father through him

CLICK FOR TODAYS READINGS:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/053026.cfm

REFLECTION

Where does Jesus get His authority from?

1. Authority to cast out devils.

2. Authority to heal body and soul.

3. Authority to feed thousands from a few loaves and fish.

4. Authority to raise Himself from the dead.

5. Authority to ascend to Heaven 40 days after His Resurrection.

6. Authority to found the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church?

The Authority of Jesus comes only from one source: God the Father.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1: o8).

Christians receive their authority through the Holy Spirit.
- BLESSING

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen

Courtesy of Laudate app, Homily by Bishop Barron & other sources

Today is Thursday, 8th week In ordinary time

DAILY PRAYER
Lord Jesus,
may I never fail to recognize my need for your grace and mercy.
Strengthen my faith and trust in you that I may seek your presence daily and listen to your word with a readiness to follow you who are my All. Amen

DAILY VERSE (John 8:12)

Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
whoever follows me will have the light of life

CLICK FOR TODAYS READINGS:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052826.cfm

REFLECTION

“Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.”
(Mark 10: 46 - 52).

St Mark the Evangelist identified the Blind Man in the story as Bartimaeus.

What a truly beautiful story.

Won't you like to have the faith and courage of Bartimaeus? His tenacity, singleness of purpose in pursuing his goal?

The cry of Bartimaeus:

“Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” is a most powerful prayer.

PRAYER IS THE ACTIVATOR OF POWER.

Bartimaeus fired the bullet, it struck the Heart of Jesus.

Our pains and trials could be the setting for the powerful and merciful intervention of the Providence of God to elevate our faith and bring us the kind of healing we need and the accomplishment of God's Plan in our lives.
"Jesus told him, “Have sight; your faith has saved you.” He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God." (Mark 10: 46 - 52).

Jesus chose and called Bartimaeus to be a disciple. Jesus’ meeting and healing of Bartimaeus today was not an accident. It was divine appointment. Divine Providence.

Jesus was delighted with the faith of Bartimaeus. Jesus saw the faith of Bartimaeus in action.

"Jesus told him, “Have sight; your faith has saved you.” He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God." (Mark 10: 46 - 52).
- BLESSING

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen

Courtesy of Laudate app, Homily by Bishop Barron & other sources

Today is Tuesday, 8th week in Ordinary Time

DAILY PRAYER
Lord Jesus,
I want to follow you as your disciple and to love you wholeheartedly with all that I have. Fill my heart with faith, hope, and love that I may always find peace and joy in your presence. Amen

DAILY VERSE (Matthew 11:25)

Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth;
you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom

CLICK FOR TODAYS READINGS:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052626.cfm

REFLECTION

Today’s Gospel exhorts us to see the radicality and rewards of Jesus’s call to discipleship, which cuts through so many of the social conventions of his time and ours. Jesus urges us to see that everyone—rich and poor, men and women, those on the inside and those on the outs—is summoned to discipleship, and that this summons is the most important consideration of all. It is the better part, to use Jesus’s words; it is the one thing necessary.

St. Augustine was right: “Lord, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” We are all wired for God. There is a hunger in us that nothing in this world can possibly satisfy. Only Jesus can lead us to the heavenly banquet; and that’s why we must follow him.
- BLESSING

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen

Courtesy of Laudate app, Homily by Bishop Barron & other sources

Heavenly Father,
On this Memorial Day, we gather to remember and honor those who have given their lives in service to our country. We thank You for their bravery and sacrifice.
May Your eternal light shine upon them, granting them peace and rest.
We ask for comfort for their families and strength for our nation.
Help us to cherish the freedoms they fought for and inspire us to live in a way that honors their memory.
In Your holy name, we pray.
Amen.

Today is the Solemnity of Pentecost

The last Sunday in the Easter Season

DAILY PRAYER
Lord Jesus,
I want to follow you as your disciple and to love you wholeheartedly with all that I have. Fill my heart with faith, hope, and love that I may always find peace and joy in your presence. Amen

DAILY VERSE
Come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love

CLICK FOR TODAYS READINGS:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052426.cfm

Pentecost Sunday is one of the principal celebrations in the liturgical life of the Church. It marks the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the end of Eastertide, and it falls 50 days after the Resurrection of Our Lord.

In ancient Jewish tradition, Pentecost was ‘the feast of weeks’ where Israelites offered ‘first fruits’ to God in thanksgiving of the full harvest which was to come. Also traditionally, Jewish Pentecost came to honor the day Moses received the Law on Mount Sinai. On that day, God spoke to His chosen race through Moses with thunder, lightning and trumpet blasts, guiding his people with the Law of the Ten Commandments.

Christian Pentecost, with the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, builds on the Old Law but brings new meaning to it. In this Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is trumpeted and the New Law is Great News; Christ has been crowned in Heaven and he desires for us to join Him. He gives us the birth of the Church and shows us how to be united in faith. Modeling Jesus Christ and aligning with God’s Spirit produces in us rich fruits including; “…charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity.” In these twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit, we are shown how to live in union with God and with our brothers and sisters.

BLESSING

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen

Today is Friday, 7th week of Easter

DAILY PRAYER
Lord Jesus,
inflame my heart with your love and burn away everything within it that may be unloving, unkind, ungrateful, unholy, and not in accord with your will.
May I always love what you love and reject what is contrary to your love and will for my life. Amen

DAILY VERSE (John 14:26)
Alleluia, alleluia.
The Holy Spirit will teach you everything
and remind you of all I told you

CLICK FOR TODAYS READINGS:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052226.cfm

REFLECTION

Today’s Gospel tells of the great engagement between the risen Jesus and Peter. Peter knows his sin—he betrayed Jesus three times. But Jesus brings him through the process of repentance and gives him the key to transformation. Three times Peter denied the Lord, and so three times Jesus asks him to reaffirm his faith: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Notice that Christianity is not a set of ideas or convictions or principles. It is a relationship with a person. Do you love Jesus? Has he become your friend?

When Simon says yes, Jesus tests him: “Feed my lambs; tend my sheep; feed my sheep.” The test of love is action. Are we willing to do what Jesus did? Are we willing to go on mission on his behalf?

Then we hear that wonderful closing section: “When you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” The ultimate test of discipleship is our willingness to abandon our egos and be carried by a power greater than ourselves.
- BLESSING

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen

Courtesy of Laudate app, Homily by Bishop Barron & other sources

Today is Thursday, 7th week of Easter

DAILY PRAYER
Heavenly Father,
have mercy on all your people who have been redeemed by the precious blood of your Son who offered up his life for us on the cross.
Pardon our sins and heal our divisions that we may grow in love, unity, and holiness together as your sons and daughters.
May all Christian people throughout the world attain the unity for which Jesus prayed on the eve of his sacrifice.
Renew in us the power of the Holy Spirit that we may be a sign of that unity and a means of its growth. Increase in us a fervent love, respect, and care for all of our brothers and sisters who believe in Jesus Christ. Amen

DAILY VERSE (John 17:21)

May they all be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
that the world may believe that you sent me, says the Lord

CLICK FOR TODAYS READINGS:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052126.cfm

REFLECTION

In today’s Gospel, Jesus prays for our unity with him and with each other. The Church is one because its founder is one. Jesus compels a choice precisely because he claims to speak and act in the very person of God. Jesus simply cannot be one teacher among many, and therefore those who walk in his way must be exclusively with him.

Joseph Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) commented that the opening line of the Nicene Creed, “I believe in one God,” is a subversive statement, because it automatically rules out any rival claimant to ultimate concern. To say that one accepts only the God of Israel and Jesus Christ is to say that one rejects as ultimate any human being, any culture, any political party, any artistic form, or any set of ideas.

A Christian, I would argue, is someone who, at the most fundamental level of his or her being, is centered on the one God of Jesus Christ. This helps to explain why, on the last night of his life on earth, while sitting at supper with his disciples, the core of the Church, Jesus prayed, “I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one.”
- BLESSING

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen

Today is Tuesday, 7th week in Eastertide

DAILY PRAYER
If only I possessed the grace, good Jesus, to be utterly at one with you! Amidst all the variety of worldly things around me, Lord, the only thing I crave is unity with you. You are all my soul needs. Unite, dear friend of my heart, this unique little soul of mine to your perfect goodness.You are all mine; when shall I be yours? Lord Jesus, my beloved, be the magnet of my heart; clasp, press, unite me for ever to your sacred heart. You have made me for yourself; make me one with you. Absorb this tiny drop of life into the ocean of goodness whence it came. Amen

DAILY VERSE (John 14:16)

Alleluia, alleluia.
I will ask the Father
and he will give you another Advocate
to be with you always

CLICK FOR TODAYS READINGS:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051926.cfm

REFLECTION

Jesus’s prayer in today’s Gospel sums up his wonderful work as he is about to return to his Father. Jesus was, in his very person, the meeting of heaven and earth. God and humanity came together in him, and his entire ministry was the outward expression of that inward identity. By calling a scattered Israel to unity, inviting the poor to table fellowship, healing the sick in body and heart, and embodying the path of forgiveness and love, Jesus was bringing God’s will and purpose to earth.

Now, in his passion and death, Jesus brought heaven all the way down into the world. He carried the divine light into the darkest places of the human condition—hatred, cruelty, violence, corruption, stupidity, suffering, and death itself—and thereby transformed them. And the proof that heaven is able to transform earth is, of course, the resurrection.

Now we know that cruelty, hatred, violence, fear, suffering, and death are not the most powerful forces in the world. Now we know that divine love is more powerful. God’s kingdom has, in principle, broken the kingdoms of the world, which thrive upon, and in turn produce, those very negativities.
- BLESSING

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen

Courtesy of Laudate app, Homily by Bishop Barron & other sources

Today is Friday, 6th week of Easter

DAILY PRAYER
Lord Jesus,
we are an Easter people, and alleluia is our song.
Fill us with your Holy Spirit that we may we radiate the joy of your Resurrection and live in the reality of your great victory over sin and death. Amen

DAILY VERSE (Luke 24:46, 26)

Alleluia, alleluia.
Christ had to suffer and to rise from the dead,
and so enter into his glory

CLICK FOR TODAYS READINGS:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051526.cfm

REFLECTION

In today’s Gospel, Jesus exhorts us to pray with expectant faith: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.” Invoking the name of Jesus is an effective way to monitor the quality and shape the content of our prayer.

When we pray “through Christ our Lord,” we are assuming the stance and attitude of Jesus, aligning ourselves to him, compelling ourselves to desire what he desires. Accordingly, it is altogether consistent to pray in the name of Jesus for peace, justice, the forgiveness of our enemies, greater faith, or the health of those we love. Those are all goods that Jesus would want.

But how anomalous it would be to pray for vengeance against our enemies in Jesus’s name, or for a Maserati through Christ our Lord!
- BLESSING

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen

Courtesy of Laudate app, Homily by Bishop Barron & other sources

Today is The Ascension of the Lord, A Solemnity and Holy Day of Obligation

DAILY PRAYER
May almighty God bless you on this day when his only Son
ascended into heaven to prepare a place for you. Amen!

DAILY VERSE (Matthew 28:19a, 20b)

Alleluia, alleluia.
Go and teach all nations, says the Lord;
I am with you always, until the end of the world

CLICK FOR TODAYS READINGS:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051426.cfm

REFLECTION

The Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord is celebrated today by the archdioceses and dioceses within the Ecclesiastical Provinces of Boston, Hartford, New York, Omaha and Philadelphia, for which the Ascension of the Lord always falls on the preceding Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter and is a Holyday of Obligation.

This holy solemnity, which the Acts of the Apostles 1:3 situates forty days after the Resurrection, commemorates Jesus’ return to his Father in heaven.

This solemn blessing for the Feast expresses its significance for us:

Blessing for Ascension:

May almighty God bless you on this day when his only Son
ascended into heaven to prepare a place for you.

Amen!

After his resurrection, Christ was seen by His disciples.
When He appears as judge may you be pleasing for ever in His sight.

Amen!

You believe that Jesus has taken His seat in majesty at the right hand of the Father. May you have the joy of experiencing that He is also with you to the end of time, according to His promise.

Amen!
- BLESSING

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen

Courtesy of Laudate app, Homily by Bishop Barron & other sources