Best wishes to our second grade Notre Dame de Lourdes students and our PREP students who are preparing to receive their First Holy Communion at Our Lady of Peace Church this Saturday 2 May. These students received their First Penance in February – delayed a week because of those January snows, and they participated in the First Communion Retreat this weekend as their final preparation. Blessings to them and to their families. Thank you to their catechists, teachers, and all who have prepared them for this moment of grace.
“O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament have left us a memorial of your Passion, grant us, we pray, so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood that we may always experience in ourselves the fruits of your redemption.” (Roman Missal p. 353)
As we celebrate with them it affords us the opportunity to reflect upon our own reception of First Holy Communion. In what parish did you receive First Communion? What time of year was it? What were you wearing? With whom did you celebrate the occasion? Were you kneeling or standing when you received First Communion? Did you receive on your tongue or on your hands? Have you ever received Communion on your tongue? Have you ever received Communion on your hands? Have you ever knelt to receive Communion?
An Act of Spiritual Communion: My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I love you above all things, and I desire to receive you into my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive you sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace you as if you were already there and unite myself wholly to you. Never permit me to be separated from you. Amen.
We also pray, on this Good Shepherd Sunday, for an awareness of vocations.
“Lord, you call us all by name to follow your path. You always bless your Church and guide your followers to become leaders who think of others before themselves. Mold us in the image of your Son, to respond to your call as Sisters, Priests, Brothers, Deacons, and Lay servants of the Gospel. Embolden us all to grow in knowing you, and allow this knowledge to open hearts, minds, and souls to your enduring call. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Friday 1 May is the Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker. The following is from paragraph six of Pope Francis’ 2020 Apostolic Letter, With a Father’s Heart, celebrating the 150th anniversary of St. Joseph’s dedication as Patron of the Universal Church.
“An aspect of Saint Joseph that has been emphasized from the time of the first social Encyclical, Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, is his relation to work. Saint Joseph was a carpenter who earned an honest living to provide for his family. From him, Jesus learned the value, the dignity and the joy of what it means to eat bread that is the fruit of one’s own labor.
In our own day, there is a renewed need to appreciate the importance of dignified work, of which Saint Joseph is an exemplary patron. Work is a means of participating in the work of salvation, an opportunity to hasten the coming of the Kingdom, to develop our talents and abilities, and to put them at the service of society and fraternal communion. It becomes an opportunity for the fulfilment not only of oneself, but also of that primary cell of society which is the family.
Working persons, whatever their job may be, are cooperating with God himself, and in some way become creators of the world around us. The crisis of our time, which is economic, social, cultural and spiritual, can serve as a summons for all of us to rediscover the value, the importance and necessity of work for bringing about a new “normal” from which no one is excluded.”
Fourth Sunday of Easter – Cycle A / 26 April 2026
Acts 2:14a, 36-41 – When and where were you baptized? / What gifts of the Holy Spirit do you treasure most? What gifts have you yet to unwrap?
Responsorial Psalm 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, – R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want. – How is the Lord your shepherd? / How frequently do you allow your soul to be refreshed? Who or what refreshes your soul? / What virtues follow you all the days of your life?
1st Peter 2:20b-25 – Are you following in the footsteps of Christ? / Where in your life do you still need spiritual healing? How can the wounds of Christ assist you with that healing?
John 10:1-10 – What is the difference between the gatekeeper and the shepherd? Who is the gatekeeper? / How well do you recognize the voice of the shepherd? / Compare and contrast this Gospel with the Psalm.