Thursday of the Third week of Easter

Acts of the Apostles

8,26-40.

The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, "Get up and head south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route."
So he got up and set out. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, that is, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury, who had come to Jerusalem to worship,
and was returning home. Seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
The Spirit said to Philip, "Go and join up with that chariot."
Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?"
He replied, "How can I, unless someone instructs me?" So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him.
This was the scripture passage he was reading: "Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
In (his) humiliation justice was denied him. Who will tell of his posterity? For his life is taken from the earth."
Then the eunuch said to Philip in reply, "I beg you, about whom is the prophet saying this? About himself, or about someone else?"
Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this scripture passage, he proclaimed Jesus to him.
As they traveled along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "Look, there is water. What is to prevent my being baptized?"
Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water, and he baptized him.
When they came out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but continued on his way rejoicing.
Philip came to Azotus, and went about proclaiming the good news to all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

Psalms

66(65),8-9.16-17.20.

Bless our God, you peoples,
loudly sound his praise;
He has given life to our souls,
and has not let our feet slip.
Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
When I appealed to him in words,
praise was on the tip of my tongue.
Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John

6,44-51.

Jesus said to the crowds: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day.
It is written in the prophets: 'They shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."

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Bl. Marie-Anne Blondin()

Bl. Marie-Anne BlondinReligious (1809 - 1890)Esther Blondin, in religion "Sister Marie Anne," was born in Terrebonne (Quebec, Canada) on April 18, 1809, in a family of deeply Christian farmers. From her mother, she inherited a piety centered on Divine Providence and the Eucharist. From her father, she received deep faith and patience in suffering. Esther and her family were victims of illiteracy so common in the French Canadian milieux of the nineteenth century. Still illiterate at the age of twenty-two, Esther worked as a domestic in the Convent of the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame that had recently opened in her village. A year later, she registered as a boarder in order to learn how to read and write. She then became a novice in the Congregation, but left due to ill health.In 1833, Esther became a teacher in the parochial school of Vaudreuil. Little by little, she found out that one of the causes of this illiteracy was due to a certain Church ruling that forbade that girls be taught by men and that boys be taught by women. Unable to finance two schools, many parish priests chose to have none. In 1848, under an irresistible call of the Spirit, Esther presented to her Bishop Ignace Bourget a plan she long cherished: that of founding a religious congregation "for the education of poor country children, both girls and boys in the same schools." A rather new project for the time! It even seemed quite rash and contrary to the established order. Since the State was in favor of such schools, Bishop Bourget authorized a modest attempt so as to avoid a greater evil.The Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Anne was founded in Vaudreuil on September 8, 1850. Esther, now named "Mother Marie Anne," became its first superior. The rapid growth of this young Community soon required larger quarters. During the Summer of 1853, Bishop Ignace Bourget transferred the Motherhouse to Saint Jacques de l'Achigan. The new chaplain, Father Louis Adolphe Marechal, interfered in the private life of the Community. During the Foundress' absence, Father Louis changed the pupils' boarding fees. Whenever he went away for a while, he asked the Sisters to await his return for confession. After a year of conflict between the chaplain and the Foundress, the latter being anxious to protect the rights of her Community, Bishop Bourget asked Mother Marie Anne, on August 18, 1854, to resign. He called for elections and warned Mother Marie Anne "not to accept the superiorship, even if her sisters wanted to reelect her." Even though she could be reelected, according to the Rule of the Community, Mother Marie Anne obeyed her Bishop whom she considered God's instrument. And she wrote: "As for me, my Lord, I bless Divine Providence a thousand times for the maternal care she shows me in making me walk the way of tribulations and crosses."Mother Marie Anne, having been named Directress at Saint Genevieve Convent, became the target of attacks from the Motherhouse authorities, influenced by the dictatorship of Father Marechal. Under the pretext of poor administration, Mother Marie Anne was recalled to the Motherhouse in 1858, with the Bishop's warning: "take means so that she will not be a nuisance to anyone." From this new destitution and until her death on January 2, 1890, Mother Marie Anne was kept away from administrative responsibilities. She was even kept away from the General Council deliberations when the 1872 and 1878 elections reelected her. Assigned to mostly hidden work in the laundry and ironing room, she led a life of total self-denial, and thus ensured the growth of the Congregation. Behold the paradox of an influence that some wanted to nullify! In the Motherhouse basement laundry room in Lachine, where she spent her days, many generations of novices received from the Foundress a true example of obedience and humility, forging authentic relationships and ensuring true fraternal charity. To a novice who asked her one day why she, the Foundress, was kept aside in such lowly work, Mother Marie Anne simply replied with kindness: "The deeper a tree sinks its roots into the soil, the greater are its chances of growing and producing fruit."The attitude of Mother Marie Anne, who was a victim of so many injustices, allows us to bring out the evangelical sense she gave to events in her life. Just as Jesus passionately worked for the Glory of His Father, so too Mother Marie Anne sought only God's Glory in all she did. "The greater Glory of God" was the aim she herself gave her Community. "To make God known to the young who have not the happiness of knowing Him" was for her a privileged way of working for the Glory of God. Deprived of her most legitimate rights, and robbed of all her personal letters with her bishop, she offered no resistance and she expected, from the infinite goodness of God, the solution to the matter. She was convinced that "He will know well, in his Wisdom, how to discern the false from the true and to reward each one according to his deeds."Prevented from being called "Mother" by those in authority, Mother Marie Anne did not jealously hold on to her title of Foundress. Rather, she chose annihilation, just like Jesus, "her crucified Love," so that her Community might live. However, she did not renounce her mission of spiritual mother of her Community. She offered herself to God in order "to expiate all the sins which were committed in the Community"; and she daily prayed Saint Anne "to bestow on her spiritual daughters the virtues so necessary for Christian educators."Like any prophet invested with a mission of salvation, Mother Marie Anne survived persecution by forgiving without restriction, convinced that "there is more happiness in forgiving than in revenge." This evangelical forgiveness, guarantee of "the peace of soul which she held most precious," was ultimately proven on her death bed when she asked her superior to call for Father Marechal "for the edification of the Sisters."As she felt the end approaching, Mother Marie Anne left to her daughters her spiritual testament in these words which are a resume of her whole life: "May Holy Eucharist and perfect abandonment to God's Will be your heaven on earth." She then peacefully passed away at the Motherhouse of Lachine, on January 2, 1890, "happy to go to the Good God" she had served all her life.

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St. Apollonius(Martyr (+ c. 186))

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SAINT APOLLONIUS Martyr (+ c. 186) Marcus Aurelius persecuted the Christians. The terror ended when Commodus, his son, stayed the persecution after becoming emperor in 180. Commodus stopped the terror thanks to his Empress, Marcia. She admired the Faith and may have believed in Jesus. During the calm, the number of faithful increased greatly. Many officials received faith in Jesus through the intercession of Mama Mary and the saints. One among the converts, a Roman senator named Apollonius, was a confessor for the faith. He was educated in philosophy, but also versed in Holy Scripture. His love for the Messiah was exceeding, and he bravely proclaimed the Gospel. An edict by former emperor Marcus Aurelius was still in effect, which caused the accusers of Christians to be ensnared in the same punishment and execution. When one slave accused Apollonius of subversively practicing his faith, the accuser's legs were broken and he was soon after put to death. Apollonius was put on trial and led to his own Golgotha to share the Passion of the Lord. When a judge ordered Apollonius to renounce his faith in order to preserve both life and fortune, the latter chose martyrdom. After refusing the terms of safety, Perennis referred Apollonius to the judgment of the Roman senate, where the latter gave an account of his faith. Apollonius spoke in defense of Christ and the Church. He was condemned by a decree of the Senate, and beheaded about the year 186. The sting of death separating body and soul sent Apollonius forth to eternal life. Uninterrupted by the senses, he beholds God face to Face forever.

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Bl. Savina Petrilli()

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Bl. Savina PetrilliReligious (1851 - 1923) At the age of ten, Savina Petrilli, of Siena, Italy, read a biography of Saint Catherine of Siena that instilled in her a lasting devotion to this saint. Savina thereafter aspired to imitate Catherine's devotion to the Eucharist, the Passion of Christ and the Church. Following her First Holy Communion at the age of twelve, Savina became a frequent communicant. As a teenager, she was a very active member of a Marian sodality, the Children of Mary. At the age of eighteen, she had the opportunity to meet (Blessed) Pope Pius IX, who upon learning that she was a native of Siena, commented that she should walk in Saint Catherine's footsteps. Savina saw in this remark a sign from heaven that inspired her to found a new religious congregation. She confided her plan to her dying sister Emilia, who in turn promised to assist in its accomplishment by her prayers in heaven. Savina's congregation received papal approbation in 1877 with the title "Sisters of the Poor," devoted to the care of the needy. Mother Savina passed away from cancer on April 18, 1923, but continues interceeding for us in heaven.

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