Sixth Sunday of Easter

Acts 10:25-26,34-35,44-48
Ps. 98:1-4
1 Jn. 4:7-10
Jn. 15:9-17

• How is Jesus the model of Christian love?
  What does his example contribute to your understanding of abiding in love?


• In what ways have you experienced being loved by God?
  Does this experience affect how you understand yourself and act in relation to others?


• Why did Peter and his fellow Jewish Christians decide to baptize Cornelius?
  Is this a case of the Holy Spirit being ahead of the church and leading it forward?

Fifth Sunday of Easter

Acts 9:26-31
Ps.22:26-27,28,30,31-32
1 Jn. 3:18-24
Jn. 15:1-8

Blessing Prayer For Mother's Day
God of Love, Listen to our prayer,
Holy Mary, Mother of Jesus, Bend down your ear to our request and bless our mother.
Bless her with the Strength of Your Spirit,
     she who taught us how to stand and to walk.
Bless her with the Melody of Your Love,
     she who taught us how to speak, sing and pray to You.
Bless her with a place at Your Eternal Dinner Table,
     she who showed us how to feed ourselves and fed us while we were helpless but embraced in her love.
Bless her today, now in this lifetime, with good things and with health.
Bless here with joy and love and laughter, with pride in her children, and surround her with good friends.
This blessing and all graces, we pray, descend upon our mother:
in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
AMEN.

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MOTHER'S DAY
    In the United States, Mother's Day did not become an official holiday until 1915. Its establishment was due largely to the perserverance and love of one daughter, Anna Jarvis (1864-1948)
    Anna's mother had provided strength and support as the family made their home in West Virginia and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where her father served as a minister. As a girl, Anna had helped her mother take care of her garden, mostly filled with white carnations, her mother's favorite flower. When Mrs. Jarvis died on May 5, 1905, Anna was determined to honor her. She asked the minister at her church in West Virginia to give a sermon in her mother's memory. On the same Sunday in Philadelphia their minister honored Mrs. Jarvis and all mothers with a special Mother's Day service. Anna Jarvis began writing to congressmen, asking them to set aside a day to honor mothers. In 1910, the governor of West Virginia proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day and a year later every state celebrated it. The offical Mother's Day flower is the red carnation.

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LAUGHING WITH MOM
Things Mom's NEVER SAY...

• "How on earth can you see the TV sitting so far back?"


• "Just leave all the lights on.. it makes the house look more cheery."


• "I don't have a tissue with me... just use your sleeve."


• "Don't bother to wear a jacket - the wind-chill is bound to improve."

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Fourth Sunday of Easter

Acts 4:8-12
Ps. 118:1,8-9,21-23,26,29
1 Jn. 3:1-2
Jn. 10:11-18

• Who are You?
  What are your most important identity markers?
  Where does being a child of God fit in?


• How might the distinctive character of Christian identity as shaped by Jesus' death and resurrection manifest itself in idividual Christians and in Christian communities?


• How does the repeated emphasis on the paschal mystery affect your understanding of Christ as the Good Shepard?
  In what senses is Jesus no ordinary shepard?

From the Old Testament Book of Proverbs;

"Better a dry crust with peace than a house full of feasting with strife."
(Proverbs 17:1)

"Depending on an unreliable person in a crisis is like trying to chew with a loose tooth or walk with a crippled foot."
(Proverbs 25:19)

MAY CROWNING CEREMONY

    Images of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus have been revered by Christians from ancient time. The reverence for the image is directed to the persons represented. Crowning a statue of the Lord's Mother is symbolic of the honor we give her as the one chosen by God to bear His Son, our Salvation.

    During the Month of May - a month both named for and dedicated to Mary - Catholics have long honored her by placing a crown on her image. The tradition in the United State and many other countries has been for school children to have a "May Crowning" ceremony, with a procession, pretty dresses and a wreath of fresh flowers that one child get to place on the statue. A song for these festivals, "Bring Flowers of the Fairest", with its refrain "O Mary, we crown thee with blossoms today, Queen of the Angels, Queen of the May..." has a familiar favorite for generations.

    Cardinal Glemp notes that "the Church recognizes in the Blessed Virgin Mary a perfect example of a Christian way of life, filled with deep faith and true love for all people.. (The Mother of God) will guide us and support us...enabling us to meet and overcome the challenges of the times in which, through God's will, we live on this Earth."