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Daily Reflections, May 31, 2023. Peace? Or the World? Joy at the Presence of the Lord.
[Sr Cecilia Nguma]
Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Readings for Today
Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Luke 1:39–42
Amhurumiaye Maskini Humkopesha Bwana
NURU YENU IANGAZE:
"Mpe Mungu kama alivyokupa wewe, na kama mkono wako ulivyopata, utoe kwa ukarimu." Ndugu wapendwa je unatambua ukarimu wa Mungu maishani mwako?
Daily Reflections, May 30, 2023. The Love of the Father Revealed
An Exchange of Gifts
May 30, 2023
Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings for Today
Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more…” Mark 10:29–30
On Pentecost, Pope Francis says Holy Spirit can bring harmony to ‘a polarized Church’
On the solemnity of Pentecost, Pope Francis urged Catholics to invoke the Holy Spirit daily to bring harmony to a divided world, a polarized Church, and to broken hearts.
Speaking in St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope explained that the role of the Holy Spirit, both at the beginning of the creation of the world and at all times, is to make “created realities pass from disorder to order” and “from confusion to harmony.”
“In our world today, there is so much discord, such great division. We are all ‘connected,’ yet find ourselves disconnected from one another, anesthetized by indifference and overwhelmed by solitude,” Pope Francis said in his homily on May 28.
“If the world is divided, if the Church is polarized, if hearts are broken, let us not waste time in criticizing others and growing angry with one another; instead, let us invoke the Holy Spirit. He is capable of resolving these things,” he said.
The pope added that without the Holy Spirit, “the Church is lifeless, faith is mere doctrine, morality mere duty, pastoral work mere toil. … With him, on the other hand, faith is life, the love of the Lord conquers us, and hope is reborn.”
“Let us put the Holy Spirit back at the center of the Church; otherwise, our hearts will not be consumed by love for Jesus but by love for ourselves,” he said.
Thousands Visit Sister Wilhelmina's Body Over Holiday Weekend
Thousands of pilgrims are descendend on a Benedictine abbey outside rural Gower, Missouri, on the Memorial Day weekend to view the surprisingly well-preserved body of its African American foundress, Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, who died in 2019.
On Sunday, the feast of Pentecost, an average of 200 vehicles per hour were coming onto the abbey's property, an uptick in traffic from the day before, Clinton County Sheriff Larry Fish, said he expected 15,000 people to visit the site by the end of the day.
"We're going to see this probably for months, but right now this weekend is probably going to be the biggest influx of people that you’re going to see in this area," Fish said.
Part of the urgency for those visiting the abbey over the holiday weekend were limited from touching the nun’s body, which has been on public display in a room in the basement of the abbey's church for more than a week.
On Saturday, pilgrims were witnessed touching parts of Sister Wilhelmina's body with their hands or rosary beads and even kissing her hands. Such direct physical contact won’t be possible after today Monday afternoon when the nun’s remains will be placed in a glass enclosure, though her body will still be available for public viewing.