May 5, 2024
6th Sunday
Easter
FOCUS: Remain in Jesus as the Father tends and cares for us.
When we remain in Jesus, his word remains in us, and we bear the fruit of love for one another. The Father prunes us, knowing what we need and do not need to grow and flourish. No other vine is as life-giving as that of Jesus.
What's in Your Heart
A big point of the scripture for today has to do with how Christians see love. It’s one thing to think of love as intimate relationship and another to remember that we have love because God loved us first, especially through Jesus.
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How has God loved me? In what ways do I feel loved by God?
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Saint Peter came to learn that God shows no partiality. Do I imitate this impartial love for all in my life and ministry?
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Where do I most vividly sense the presence and work of the Holy Spirit?
Homily Stories
I didn’t take a single photo in 2023. I barely noticed that I had stopped doing something I loved, but it was one of the hardest years I’ve ever had (and I’ve had some doozies). I was struggling with health problems, and my beloved cat started struggling with medical issues too. She died—far too young—at the end of that year, and the loss is devastating.
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One person noticed my long break from photography—my friend Ashley—and soon after my cat died, she asked me, “What can we do to get you to take pictures again?” She knew that photography had been a lifeline for me a decade before, when I first took up the hobby after my divorce. Ashley started telling me on a regular basis, “We’re going for a hike. Bring your camera.” The cold, fallow Michigan landscape in late winter matched my inner state—but I saw beauty in it nonetheless, and I started looking at it through the lens again. I decided my creative theme for the year would be “wonder”—and death and grief are part of wonder. I’m exploring that now with my camera, and it’s lifting me out of my sorrow.
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Ashley didn’t literally lay down her life for her friend—few of us ever will—but she did lay down enough of it to help pick a friend’s life back up.
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First Reading
Second Reading
Gospel
Video Reflection
Quotes
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Hold back nothing of yourself for yourself, so that He who gives Himself totally to you may receive you totally.
—Saint Francis of Assisi
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I am not my own; I have given myself to Jesus. He must be my only love.
—Saint Kateri Tekakwitha