Mar 17, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Monday of the 5th week of Lent
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop, Doctor
Gospel – John 8:1-11
‘If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ The Pharisees and scribes brought this woman caught in the act of committing adultery to test Jesus. They wanted to find out whether Jesus will be lenient in the law of Moses. In this episode we see how God sees the sins and how man sees the sins. For men the sins are occasion to accuse and condemn. But for Jesus, the sin is the occasion to save the sinner. Man condemn the sinner and continue to sin. Jesus condemn the sin but save the sinner. This love of God is very important to understand what we must do with our sins. Jesus loves us and wants to save us. He condemns ths sin but He loves each person and He sees each person different from the sin. The sinner is not identified with the sin. The sinner is identified as a person to be saved and loved. Let’s reflect: Lent is to understand the love of God which saves the sinner but condemns the sin.
Mar 16, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
5th Sunday of Lent
Gospel – John 12:20-33
“I tell you, most solemnly, unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest”. This Word of God explains the profound meaning of suffering. The falling of the grain on the ground and the dying of the grain under the soil are two moments of great pain – falling and dying. But these moments are necessary for the beginning of new life. These moments are necessary for the leaving behind its existence as a single grain. These moments are necessary to produce rich harvest. These moments take life to a different stage. The suffering is like this. The moments of pain we accept because we believe in the love of God which takes our pains and transform them as grace for eternal life. This is seen in the life of Jesus Christ. In the person of Jesus Christ, the human suffering is transformed into joy of resurrection. So, when we unite our suffering to Jesus in the cross, we walk the same path of the Cross of Jesus Christ. The path towards resurrection. Let’s reflect: Lent is to understand the meaning of my suffering in the meaning of the Cross of Christ.
Mar 15, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Saturday of the 4th week of Lent
Gospel – John 7:40-52
“The police replied, ‘There has never been anybody who has spoken like him.’” The police were sent by the Pharisees and chief priest to arrest Jesus. But they couldn’t because they listened to Jesus, and they had this impression. Then in the beginning of passage we read: “Several people who had been listening to Jesus said, ‘Surely he must be the prophet’, and some said, ‘He is the Christ’,”. This group also listened to Jesus. Then the Pharisees and chief priests who are despising Jesus. And there is Nicodemus who has his desire to listen and to discover who is Jesus. So, the words of Jesus are provoking different reactions in these people. But none of them is moving towards believing or accepting. Some are admiring, some are despising, some are indifferent, and some are doubtful. Those who want to arrest Jesus are those who are not listening, those who do not want to listen, and those who are blind because of their pride and pretension that they know everything. Let’s reflect: Lent is the time to listen to Jesus to make the choice of accepting Him as God.
Mar 15, 2024 | NEWS
On March 15, 2024, we sisters of the new General Leadership of our Congregation, together with the sisters of the Generalate Convent in Rome, went on pilgrimage to Manoppello in Abruzzo to invoke God’s blessing and the assistance of the Holy Spirit for the next 6 years ahead of us.
Manoppello is home to the shrine of the Holy Face of Jesus, which is run by Capuchin friars. A relic has been kept here for centuries, showing the face of Jesus on a wafer-thin fabric with clear signs of his passion. The image was not painted by human hands and it is not scientifically possible to explain how this image came to be on the cloth.
We were all very touched by this face. The prayer of Pope Benedict XVI, who himself was in Manoppello in 2006 and elevated the pilgrimage church to basilica status, should be a source of strength for us in our service to the Congregation, in the certainty that each of us is infinitely loved and that we can always trust in this love and His mercy:
…Your eyes rest on us with tenderness and mercy.
Let us draw from them the strength of love and peace,
that shows us the way of life, and that courage,
to follow You without fear and without compromise,
to become witnesses of your gospel
with active signs of devotion, love and forgiveness…. Amen.
After praying the Way of the Cross, whose stations are located on the way to the shrine, we returned to Rome in the afternoon full of gratitude and joy.
Mar 14, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Friday of the 4th week of Lent
Gospel – John 7:1-2,10,25-30
Jesus cried out in the temple. “Yes, you know me and you know where I came from. Yet I have not come of myself: no, there is one who sent me and I really come from him, and you do not know him, but I know him because I have come from him and it was he who sent me”. Jesus was crying out this in the temple because everyone around Him was seeing only the human part of His person. Their knowledge went only as far as Nazareth. Beyond that, no one was able to see. This is because they were not looking through the eyes of faith. Only when we will be able to look through the eyes of faith, we can see beyond the obvious and the tangible. Our celebrations and our devotions, if we don’t see beyond the palpable, if we don’t go beyond the superficial, with the help of faith, Jesus will have to cry out again. “You know me, but you don’t know my Father who sent me”. You know the prayers, but you don’t know to whom you are addressing. You know the rites, but it does not mean anything to you. Let’s reflect: Lent is to go beyond the superficial with faith to see God who loves us.
