Thursday, Third Week of Easter

St. John 6.44-51: "I am the living bread come down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh".

"Christ, our Lord and God, was once for all to offer himself to God the Father through his death on the altar of the cross, to accomplish there an everlasting redemption. But because his priesthood was not to end with his death, at the Last Supper, 'on the night when he was betrayed', he wanted to leave to his beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice by which the bloody sacrifice which he was to accomplish once for all on the cross would be re-presented, its memory perpetuated until the end of the world and it salutary power be applied to the forgiveness of sins we daily commit" (Council of Trent).

Feast of St. Mark

St. Mark 16.15-20: "After rising from the dead, Jesus, appeared to the Eleven and said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned".

"O God, who raised up Saint Mark, your Evangelist, and endowed him with the grace to preach the Gospel, grant we pray, that we may so profit from his teaching as to follow faithfully in the footsteps of Christ" (Collect from the Feast of St. Mark).

Tuesday, Third Week of Easter

St John 6.30-35: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty".

"What material food produces in our bodily life, Holy Communion wonderfully achieves in our spiritual life. Communion with the flesh of the risen Christ, a flesh 'given life and giving life through the power of the Holy Spirit', preserves, increases and renews the life of grace received in Baptism. This growth in Christian life needs the nourishment of Eucharistic Communion the bread for our pilgrimage until the moment of death, when it will be given to us as viaticum" (CCC#1392).

Monday, Third Week of Easter

St. John 6.22-29: "Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you".

Lord, our hearts are restless until they rest in you" (St. Augustine).

Third Sunday of Easter (Year B)

St. Luke 24.35-48: "While they were talking, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you'. They were startled and terrified, and thought they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, 'Why are you frightened and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see that I have'".

Saturday, Second Week of Easter

Acts of the Apostles 6.1-7: "Select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.

"With regards to deacons, strengthened by sacramental grace they are dedicated to the People of God, in conjunction with the bishop and his body of priests, in the service (diakonia) of the liturgy, of the Gospel and of works of charity" (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council, 29).

Friday, Second Week of Easter

St. John 6.1-15: "Jesus took the five loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted".

"By celebrating the Last Supper with his apostles in the course of the Passover meal, Jesus gave the Jewish Passover its definitive meaning. Jesus' passing over to his Father by his death and Resurrection, the new Passover, is anticipated in the supper and celebrated in the Eucharist, which fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the Church in the glory of the Kingdom" (CCC# 1340).