May 2023: Thought for the Day
Intercom Magazine Thought for the Day
May 2023
Fifth Sunday of Easter
7 May 2023
There is a song our parish choir sometimes sings, ‘You are the centre O Lord, of my life’. The Church is not the centre of our lives; Jesus is the centre of our lives, and the Church exists to create a space for Jesus to be the centre of our lives. He is present to us in and through the community of believers, in and through his word, the Scriptures of the Church, in and through the Sacraments of the Church, especially the Eucharist and Reconciliation. It is the Spirit at work in the Church, and beyond the Church who brings Jesus to us so that he can become the centre of our lives.
Martin Hogan,
You Have One Teacher: Reflections on the Gospel of Matthew (Veritas)
* * *
Sixth Sunday of Easter
14 May 2023
Easter makes us a hopeful people. We are hopeful because we know that, as St Paul puts it in his letter to the Romans, ‘nothing that exists, nothing still to come … can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord’ –not even our own tendency to say ‘no’ to the Lord. The hope that we have does not come from anything in ourselves; it is rooted in the Lord’s faithfulness to us. We are hopeful because we know that the Lord will never turn away from us; we are hopeful because we know that his ‘yes’ is always stronger than our ‘no.’
Martin Hogan,
You Have One Teacher: Reflections on the Gospel of Matthew (Veritas)
* * *
The Ascension of the Lord
21 May 2023 • world Communications Day
The Lord asks a lot of us but only because he assures us of his empowering presence. He has placed his mission in our hands and he has promised us all the resources that we need. There is a strong message coming through in today’s feast that the Church must be a community in mission, guided by the God’s Spirit and confident of God’s protection. Individually and collectively, we are called to make disciples and the Lord empowers us to do that through the giving of his Holy Spirit. Disciples are made by other disciples, by the Lord working through his disciples. We bring each other to the Lord.
Martin Hogan,
You Have One Teacher: Reflections on the Gospel of Matthew (Veritas)
* * *
Pentecost Sunday
28 May 2023
The feast of Pentecost celebrates the unseen, immeasurable presence of God in our lives and in our Church – the ruah that animates us to do the work of the Gospel of the Risen One, the ruah that makes God’s will our will, the ruah of God living in us and transforming us so that we may bring His life and love to our broken world. God ‘breathes’ His Spirit into our souls that we may live in His life and love; God ignites the ‘fire’ of His Spirit within our hearts and minds that we may seek God in all things in order to realise the coming of His reign.’
Fr Antony Kadavil
www.vaticannews.va