Dear Friends,
    It’s Tuesday morning as I write this.  Chilly but sunny.  Just the way I like it.  
In our readings today, the early Church is undergoing persecution.  You and I are being persecuted by this virus- keeping us from our loved ones, keeping some of us from working at our place of employment and also keeping all of us from worshiping the Lord in our Church.
    The early Christians kept plugging away and were not deterred from spreading the Gospel of Christ because they had great faith and they would not allow anything to stop them.  You and I have that same faith due to Christ rising from the dead.  During times like these, we have to rely more and more on that faith to bolster our spirits and strengthen our hopes that we will see an end to this and be back once again to a state of normalcy.  I believe this and so should you.
  I pray for you daily; please pray for Father Francis and me.
    Today is the Feast of St. Catherine of Siena, a great woman and Doctor of the Church.  Here is a quote from her:     "You are rewarded not according to your work or your time but according to the measure of your love." — St. Catherine of Siena
God Bless,
Father John
 

    The Church underwent a great persecution in Jerusalem, starting with the death of Stephen.  Saul, whom we know will become Paul and a staunch defender of the Church, is now a great persecutor as well.  
    All those people who would be Christ’s followers were now scattered but that did not deter them from carrying out their mission of preaching and teaching in Christ’s name.  No one could stop them because what they did was of God.  God was the One behind it and there was nothing anything or anyone could do.  The lame were walking, the possessed were healed.  
    Philip did all sorts of wonderful things in Samaria in the Lord’s name and the Scriptures tell us that there was great joy in that city.  
No one or nothing can stop God from doing what He wants.  If you remember last week, the man named Gamaliel said a very important and practical thing.  If what this man Jesus’ disciples are doing is rubbish and false, it will die.  But if it is of God, if God is behind it, there is nothing anyone can do.  
Any good that you or I do in Jesus’ name cannot be stopped.  People may mock us; people may criticize us; people may even try to persecute us in some way.  The work of the Lord cannot be stopped because it is of God.  
    You and I have a great task before us.  We must spread the Gospel message to as many people as we can.  It’s no easy task believe me.
 There are so many other distractions and things that pull people away from God and toward unimportant things.
You and I need fortification to carry on the task of preaching the Gospel.  We need what the Lord is telling us in the Gospel.  We need the bread of life, the Eucharist.  It is the Eucharist that gives us the stamina to live the Gospel.  It is the Eucharist that gives us that extra push when we think we can’t do anymore than we’re doing.  It is Christ in the Eucharist that enables us to be other Christs to one another.
    May we always hunger for the Bread of Life so God’s work may be done through us.