Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter

Today's Mass Readings

“I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours…” John 17:9

To learn, ever so gradually, that we belong to the Father, that we are given to Christ by the Father – this dawning knowledge is a wonderful thing!

But how do I learn it? By not passing up opportunities to exercise faith!

Blessed John Henry Newman spoke of the “one bright Light before us,” referring to the Risen Christ and our faith in Him – “the victory that overcomes the world.” He then makes this statement: “What infinite mercy it is in him, that he allows sinners such as we are, the privilege of acting the part of heroes rather than of penitents?”

Opportunities to exercise faith are continually before me. They are not just ahead of me – tomorrow, next week, this summer, next year – they are now. They are the seemingly insignificant and chance events that make up my day:

• An inspiration to prayer
• A good act put before me
• A mental pain I am able to surmount
• A sharp put-down I am able to ignore

The list could go on. To take these little opportunities can be heroic, especially for us who are children of a materialistic and individualistic world. But if I can learn to recognize in each event the action of God inviting me to faith and trust, then I come to know that I belong to God, in Christ! And we can do it if we but ask the Holy Spirit to help us. Here’s the example of the prayer from today’s mass in which the Church observes the Memorial of St. Philip Neri, “The Apostle of Rome”:

… graciously grant that the Holy Spirit may kindle in us that fire with which he wonderfully filled the heart of St. Philip Neri.

(In 1544, St. Philip, experienced a vision in which a globe of fire entered his mouth and dilated his heart; permanent physical effects of this experience were said to be found after his death.)

Reflection by Fr. Xavier Nacke, OSB