20 May 2025 (Tuesday) / Tuesday of the 5th week of Eastertide or Saint Bernardine of Siena, Priest / Easter Weekday/ Saint Bernardine of Siena, Priest, Religious, Missionary

20 May 2025 (Tuesday)

Tuesday of the 5th week of Eastertide or Saint Bernardine of Siena, Priest.

Easter Weekday/ Saint Bernardine of Siena, Priest, Religious, Missionary.

Readings from the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church:

First Reading: Acts 14: 19-28

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 145: 10-11, 12-13ab, 21

Alleluia: Luke 24: 46, 26

Gospel: John 14: 27-31a

First Reading : Acts 14:19‐28

Some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium, and turned the people against the apostles. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the town, thinking he was dead. The disciples came crowding round him but, as they did so, he stood up and went back to the town. The next day he and Barnabas went off to Derbe. Having preached the Good News in that town and made a considerable number of disciples, they went back through Lystra and Iconium to Antioch. They put fresh heart into the disciples, encouraging them to persevere in the faith. ‘We all have to experience many hardships’ they said ‘before we enter the kingdom of God.’ In each of these churches they appointed elders, and with prayer and fasting they commended them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe. They passed through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia. Then after proclaiming the word at Perga they went down to Attalia and from there sailed for Antioch, where they had originally been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. On their arrival they assembled the church and gave an account of all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith to the pagans. They stayed there with the disciples for some time.

Responsive Psalm : Psalm 144(145):10‐13a,21

Your friends, O Lord, shall make known the glorious splendour of your reign.

or

Alleluia!

All your creatures shall thank you, O Lord, and your friends shall repeat their blessing. They shall speak of the glory of your reign and declare your might, O God, to make known to men your mighty deeds and the glorious splendour of your reign.

Your friends, O Lord, shall make known the glorious splendour of your reign.

or

Alleluia!

Yours is an everlasting kingdom; your rule lasts from age to age.

Your friends, O Lord, shall make known the glorious splendour of your reign.

or

Alleluia!

Let me speak the praise of the Lord, let all mankind bless his holy name for ever, for ages unending.

Your friends, O Lord, shall make known the glorious splendour of your reign.

or

Alleluia!

Alleluia: Luke 24: 46, 26

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

46, 26 Christ had to suffer and to rise from the dead, and so enter into his glory.

(26. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer before entering into his glory?'

25. Then he said to them, 'You foolish men! So slow to believe all that the prophets have said!

44. Then he told them, 'This is what I meant when I said, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms, was destined to be fulfilled.'

45. He then opened their minds to understand the scriptures,

46. and he said to them, 'So it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,

47. and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

48. You are witnesses to this).

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel : John 14:27‐31

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you, a peace the world cannot give, this is my gift to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me say: I am going away, and shall return. If you loved me you would have been glad to know that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you this now before it happens, so that when it does happen you may believe. I shall not talk with you any longer, because the prince of this world is on his way. He has no power over me, but the world must be brought to know

that I love the Father and that I am doing exactly what the Father told me.’

For our reflection today:

We must ask, then, for the grace to see the certainty of Easter in every trial of life and not to lose heart, remembering, as another great Eastern Father wrote, that “the greatest sin is not to believe in the power of the Resurrection” (SAINT ISAAC OF NINEVEH, Sermones ascetici, I, 5).

Who, better than you, can sing a song of hope even amid the abyss of violence? From the Holy Land to Ukraine, from Lebanon to Syria, from the Middle East to Tigray and the Caucasus, how much violence do we see! Rising up from this horror, from the slaughter of so many young people, which ought to provoke outrage because lives are being sacrificed in the name of military conquest, there resounds an appeal: the appeal not so much of the Pope, but of Christ himself, who repeats: “Peace be with you!” (Jn 20:19, 21, 26). And he adds: “Peace I leave you; my peace I give to you. I do not give it to you as the world gives it” (Jn 14:27). Christ’s peace is not the sepulchral silence that reigns after conflict; it is not the fruit of oppression, but rather a gift that is meant for all, a gift that brings new life. Let us pray for this peace, which is reconciliation, forgiveness, and the courage to turn the page and start anew. The peoples of our world desire peace, and to their leaders I appeal with all my heart: Let us meet, let us talk, let us negotiate! War is never inevitable. Weapons can and must be silenced, for they do not resolve problems but only increase them. Those who make history are the peacemakers, not those who sow seeds of suffering. Our neighbours are not first our enemies, but our fellow human beings. (Pope Leo XIV, Speech, Participants in the Jubilee of Oriental Churches, 14 May 2025)

Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,

Most High Servant,

Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love (Blessed and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)