Photo: Hail, Queen of Heaven

 

Spirituality: Wendell Berry in The Art of the Commonplace

Good human work honors God's work. Good work uses no thing without respect, both for what it is in itself and for its origin. It uses neither tool nor material that it does not respect and that it does not love. It honors nature as a great mystery and power, as an indispensable teacher, and as the inescapable judge of all work of human hands.

Photo: A Typewriter

 

Spirituality: from Teilhard de Chardin on the Eucharist

Prayer is to nourish, nurture, and evoke a consciousness and an alternative to the current consciousness. All are invited into a higher way of seeing things. We want more people to see this whole to develop a sense of the ‘human.’ Our consciousness is meant to embrace everyone.

Poem: Gerard Manley Hopkins, May's Magnificat

May is Mary’s month, and I

Muse at that and wonder why :

Her feasts follow reason,

Dated due to season—

Candlemas, Lady Day ;

But the Lady Month, May,

Why fasten that upon her,

With a feasting in her honour ?

Is it only its being brighter

Than the most are must delight her ?

Is it opportunist

And flowers finds soonest ?

Ask of her, the mighty mother :

Her reply puts this other

Question : What is Spring?—

Growth in every thing—

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,

Grass and greenworld all together ;

Star-eyed strawberry-breasted

Throstle above her nested

Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin

Forms and warms the life within ;

And bird and blossom swell

In sod or sheath or shell.

All things rising, all things sizing

Mary sees, sympathizing

With that world of good

Nature’s motherhood.

Their magnifying of each its kind

With delight calls to mind

How she did in her stored

Magnify the Lord.

Well but there was more than this :

Spring’s universal bliss

Much, had much to say

To offering Mary May.

When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple

Bloom lights the orchard-apple

And thicket and thorp are merry

With silver-surfèd cherry

And azuring-over greybell makes

Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes

And magic cuckoocall

Caps, clears, and clinches all—

This ecstasy all through mothering earth

Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth

To remember and exultation

In God who was her salvation.

Photo: St. Joseph, the Worker

 

Poem: Madeleine L'Engle, O Sapientia

 It was from Joseph first I learned

of love. Like me he was dismayed.
How easily he could have turned
me from his house; but, unafraid,
he put me not away from him
(O God-sent angel, pray for him).
Thus through his love was Love obeyed.

The Child’s first cry came like a bell:
God’s Word aloud, God’s Word in deed.
The angel spoke: so it befell,
and Joseph with me in my need.
O Child whose father came from heaven,
to you another gift was given,
your earthly father chosen well.

With Joseph I was always warmed
and cherished. Even in the stable
I knew that I would not be harmed.
And, though above the angels swarmed,
man’s love it was that made me able
to bear God’s love, wild, formidable,
to bear God’s will, through me performed.

Photo: City Life

 

Spirituality: from Teilhard de Chardin on the Eucharist

Many have evolved into a sense of the ‘human’. Some see all humans as part of the human family, members of the world household who need to be fed, housed, educated, and cared for medically. We are united to Christ by entering into communion with ‘all’ people. We will be made whole when we choose the whole.

The God of Spacious Hospitality: The Fifth Sunday of Easter 2026

                                         The God of Spacious Hospitality:

The Fifth Sunday of Easter 2026 

May 3, 2026

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Acts 6:1-7; Psalm 33; 1 Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12

 

The comforting Gospel passage is one used for many funerals because it reminds us that we each have a place in God’s world. We can retain our full human identity and still be known to God and others in the expansive world that is to come. The passage tells us: We belong. We are a child of God and known to God. It also reminds that even if we do not think we know the way, God remembers us and gives us spacious hospitality.

 

The idea of being with God with many dwelling places serves as an example of the hospitality we are to extend to one another here on Earth. We have a really big God and we have to grow into this larger image of God. Much of our prayer language has focused upon the Christ who ‘was,’ that is Jesus of Nazareth. We return to ancient Scripture for understanding and guidance, and we can lose sight of the Christ who ‘is’ – the Christ who ‘is’ today and the Christ who is ‘up ahead of us.’ The cosmic ‘Body of Christ,’ of which you are a part, has been evolving in size and consciousness for over 2,000 years. 

 

When we realize we are part of this large community of faith, our mindset shifts from one that is restrictive to one that his more open and inclusive. Even if we have a small faith, we have a big God. Through our partaking of the Eucharist, we are moved to see his God of airy hospitality. Together, we move toward a broader and more comprehensive way of thinking and perceiving. Our capacity for compassion and empathy increases. 

 

Our prayer life can no longer be about self-improvement or of a ‘Jesus and me’ experience. I can no longer be self-focused or self-enclosed because, as a community, we develop a collective spiritual life. Our spiritual life is always based on being part of a community. We think and feel and move as the “Body of Christ.” We begin to see ourselves no longer as individuals living separate lives. Through the Resurrection, we are new creations and part of something much greater. 

 

As part of our Eucharist and our life of faith, we are called to take on a higher way of thinking. We hear this on Easter Sunday in Colossians 3 when Paul exhorts us with these words, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” Our work in this life is to realize that our inhibitions, indoctrinations, and habits prevent us from recognizing God’s presence among us. This awareness of what holds us back is crucial for taking down those formidable barriers, for those deeply entrenched illusions. Our transformation leads to an evolution to a more complex structure, to a higher way of thinking, to a reality in which there are more dwelling places that we imagine possible.

 

This passage is certainly comfortable for funerals, but it means so much more. It is meant for ‘now.’ It is meant that we may experience the fullness of life today. What is salvation but the permission to “enjoy the fullness of life” during life on earth as it will continue to grow consciously forever with God in heaven, in those many dwelling places. This is a God who gives us such space to pass onto others what we receive – a generous hospitality where all are welcome, where all belong, because this big God says, “Todos, Todos, Todos,” 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

Monday: (Acts 14) As Gentiles and Jews in Iconium were about to attack Paul and Barnabas, they fled to Lystra where Paul healed a lame man.  

 

Tuesday: (Acts 14) The crowds began to put their faith in Paul and Barnabas as gods, but the men protested and told the story of the Christ event. Opposition to Paul increased shortly afterwards and he was stoned. They left for Derbe to strengthen the disciples in those cities and encouraged them during their times of hardship.

 

Wednesday: (Acts 15) Some of Paul’s Jewish opposition raised the question of circumcision and adherence to the Mosaic laws. Along the way to Jerusalem to seek the advice of the Apostles, they told everyone of the conversion of the Gentiles.

 

Thursday: (Acts 15) After much debate, Peter and James decided that no further restrictions were to be made on the Gentiles.

 

Friday (Acts 15) The Apostles and presbyters chose representatives and sent them to Paul and Barnabas with word that the Gentiles were indeed welcomed into the faith with no extra hardships placed upon them. The people were delighted with the good news.

 

Saturday (Acts 13) In Derbe and Lystra, Paul heard of a man named Timothy who was well regarded by the believers. Paul had him circumcised and they travelled to Macedonia to proclaim the good news.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (John 14) In the Farewell Discourse, Jesus reassures his disciples that he will remain with them if they keep his commandments to love one another. 

 

Tuesday: (John 14) To punctuate his message of consolation, he tells them he will send an advocate to teach and remind them of all he told them.

 

Wednesday (John 15) Jesus leaves them with his lasting peace that will help them endure many difficult times. This peace will allow us people to remain close to him – organically as he is the vine and we are the branches. 

 

Thursday (John 15) Remaining close to Jesus will allow us to share complete joy with one another. 

 

Friday (John 15) Jesus once again proves his love to his friends by saying that the true friend, the Good Shepherd, will lay down his life for his friends.  

 

Saturday (John 14) However, even with the love of Jesus, his followers will experience hatred in this world, but as his friends and as God’s elect, their harm can never really harm the souls of a believer.

 

Saints of the Week

 

May 3: Philip and James, Apostles (first century), were present to Jesus throughout his entire ministry. Philip was named as being explicitly called. James is called the Lesser to distinguish him from James of Zebedee. Little is known of these founders of our faith.

 

May 4: Joseph Mary Rubio, S.J., priest (1864-1929), is a Jesuit known as the Apostle of Madrid. He worked with the poor bringing them the Spiritual Exercises and spiritual direction and he established local trade schools.  

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• May 3, 1945. American troops take over Innsbruck, Austria. Theology studies at the Canisianum resume a few months later. 
• May 4, 1902. The death of Charles Sommervogel, historian of the Society and editor of the bibliography of all publications of the Jesuits from the beginnings of the Society onward. 
• May 5, 1782. At Coimbra, Sebastian Carvahlo, Marquis de Pombal, a cruel persecutor of the Society in Portugal, died in disgrace and exile. His body remained unburied fifty years, till Father Philip Delvaux performed the last rites in 1832. 
• May 6, 1816. Letter of John Adams to Thomas Jefferson mentioning the Jesuits. "If any congregation of men could merit eternal perdition on earth and in hell, it is the company of Loyola." 
• May 7, 1547. Letter of St. Ignatius to the scholastics at Coimbra on Religious Perfection. 
• May 8, 1853. The death of Jan Roothan, the 21st general of the Society, who promoted the central role of the Spiritual Exercises in the work of the Society after the restoration. 
• May 9, 1758. The 19th General Congregation opened, the last of the Old Society. It elected Lorenzo Ricci as general.