Year A
Discover the deeper meaning and connections found in this week's readings, through these great commentaries written by our priests.
Explore this week's readings and hear what God is saying to us through His Word.
Find out more about how we can mark this special day in our liturgy.
See our music recommendations for the liturgy.
This Sunday focuses on the Holy Spirit coming to those who believe in Jesus.
· As we move towards the end of the Easter season, we look forward to the Holy Spirit’s arrival at Pentecost.
· Today’s first reading describes the preaching of Philip the deacon, chosen at the same time as Stephen (Acts 6:5). After the Samaritans have believed in Jesus, the apostles Peter and John come to confirm their faith by laying hands on them and praying that they receive the Holy Spirit. “The gift of the Spirit completes the grace of baptism”(CCC 1288).
· In the second reading, St Peter asks us to be ready to answer anyone curious about our Christian hope. But because faith and hope are gifts, we are to answer politely. Peter’s original hearers could expect opposition and persecution, but their hope amid difficulties made them attractive witnesses to Christ.
· To describe the Holy Spirit, today’s gospel uses the Greek word Paraclete, which can mean Advocate, Consoler, or Helper. In a Greek lawcourt the term paraclete could sometimes denote a defence lawyer, advocating for someone accused of a crime. At the request of Jesus, the Father sends the Spirit to remain with the disciples and continue his advocacy for them when he has departed.
· CCC 788 says: “When his visible presence was taken from them, Jesus did not leave his disciples orphans. He promised to remain with them until the end of time; he sent them his Spirit.”
· In our lives, we all value and rely on supportive family members, friends, and work colleagues, who can help and guide us when we are uncertain or facing difficulties. Jesus had been a supportive guide for the first apostles, but now he would send them the Spirit to support and guide us.
· In 2023, Bishop Philip is inviting everyone in the diocese to dedicate a Year of Prayer to the Holy Spirit. This Year is meant to help our conversion, to deepen our faith, to support our spiritual renewal, and to guide our diocese through the current time of transition. Let us pray every day that the Holy Spirit will renew us.
Liturgical situation:
We are approaching the end of the Easter Season. The Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension falls this coming Thursday. This Sunday, the Liturgy turns us outwards, looking beyond the time of Paschal rejoicing to the tasks that always lie before us, in our vocation corporately as the Body of Christ, and individually as disciples and imitators of the Lord.
Liturgical keynote:
The Christian ‘mission:’ ‘If you love me you will keep my commandments’ (Gospel).
The Collect, Prayer over the Offerings and Post Communion prayer offer a good ‘take’ on that saying of Jesus.
‘... that what we relive in remembrance, we may always hold to in what we do’ (Collect).
In making the offering, we ask: ‘... may we be conformed to the mysteries of your mighty love.’ (Over the offerings)
‘... increase in us, we pray, the fruits of this paschal sacrament ...’ (Post Communion)
These three prayers are all about how Christ, through his action in the Liturgy, is ‘forming’ us, his flock. Through full, conscious and active participation, we have to let ourselves be formed, trained, converted, taught - in body, spirit, soul, intellect and action.
... so that, as a people formed in and by the love of Jesus, actively mediated to us through the Liturgy, we may be able to do nothing but keep his commandments.
Jesus is saying that keeping his commandments will be like breathing, we will simply do it, as St. Benedict writes ‘naturally and as if by habit’ (Rule ch.7).
so: ‘If you love me you will keep my commandments’ - Of course you will!
A good choice for the Preface today: Easter Preface 2: ‘New life in Christ.’
These hymns have been picked and chosen from different sources:
Alleluia, Sing to Jesus (CFE37, L644, LHON110, TCH112)
Be still and know I am with you (CFE69, L968 LHON163)
Come Down O Love Divine (CFE125, L303)
Follow me, Follow me (CFE175, L863 LHON259)
Love Divine, all loves excelling (CFE398, L801, LHON461, TCH242)
Key
CFE - Celebration Hymnal for Everyone
L – Laudate
LHON – Liturgical Hymns Old and New (Mayhew, 1999)
TCH – The Catholic Hymnbook (Gracewing)
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
