Friday of the Fourth week of Easter

Acts of the Apostles

When Paul came to Antioch in Pisidia, he said in the synagogue: "My brothers, children of the family of Abraham, and those others among you who are God-fearing, to us this word of salvation has been sent.
The inhabitants of Jerusalem and their leaders failed to recognize him, and by condemning him they fulfilled the oracles of the prophets that are read sabbath after sabbath.
For even though they found no grounds for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him put to death,
and when they had accomplished all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and placed him in a tomb.
But God raised him from the dead,
and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. These are (now) his witnesses before the people.
We ourselves are proclaiming this good news to you that what God promised our ancestors
he has brought to fulfillment for us, (their) children, by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second psalm, 'You are my son; this day I have begotten you.'"

Psalms

"I myself have set up my king
on Zion, my holy mountain."
I will proclaim the decree of the LORD:
The LORD said to me, "You are my Son;
this day I have begotten you."
"Ask of me and I will give you the nations for an inheritance
and the ends of the earth for your possession.
You shall rule them with an iron rod;
you shall shatter them like an earthen dish."
And now, O kings, give heed;
take warning, you rulers of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice before him;
with trembling rejoice.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John

Jesus said to his disciples: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.
In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.
Where (I) am going you know the way."
Thomas said to him, "Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?"
Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Bl. Julian of Norwich()

Julian of NorwichAnchorite (ca 1342 - 1420) It was popular the 14th century for a number of English men and women to withdraw from the world as hermits. They were known as anchorites. Their hermitage was a small room attached to a local church. Each room had two windows. One through the church wall permitting the anchorite to receive communion. Through the second window, the anchorite received food brought to him or her by village people. Thus they at all times had the window of their heart open to Christ, and open to the world. As a young woman, Julian, who was born about 1342, became an anchorite at the Church of St. Edmund and St. Julian in Norwich. When she was 30, Julian suffered from a severe illness. Whilst apparently on her deathbed, Julian had a series of intense visions of Jesus Christ, which ended by the time she recovered from her illness on 13 May 1373. Julian wrote about her visions immediately after they had happened (although the text may not have been finished for some years), entitled Revelations of Divine Love. It is believed to be the earliest surviving book written in the English language by a woman. Twenty to thirty years later, perhaps in the early 1390s, Julian began to write a theological exploration of the meaning of the visions, known as The Long Text. This work seems to have gone through many revisions before it was finished, perhaps in the first or even second decade of the fifteenth century.Until her death in about 1420, at the age of 78, Julian stayed in her simple room. Like most anchorites, she prayed, fasted, did penance, studied, sewed clothing for the poor, and advised the village people. In Revelations of Divine Love, Julian described her 16 visions of Jesus. As she wrote this book about God’s great compassion for us, Julian developed a special vocabulary. She called the Creator our mother and our father. She called Jesus the Redeemer our brother. Revelations is a celebrated work in Catholicism and Anglicanism because of the clarity and depth of Julian's visions of God. Julian of Norwich is now recognised as one of England's most important mystics. Julian of Norwich lived in a time of turmoil, but her theology was optimistic and spoke of God's love in terms of joy and compassion, as opposed to law and duty. For Julian, suffering was not a punishment that God inflicted, as was the common understanding. She believed that God loved everyone and wanted to save them all. Popular theology, magnified by catastrophic contemporary events such as the Black Death and a series of peasant revolts, asserted that God punished the wicked. Julian suggested a more merciful theology, she believed that behind the reality of hell is a greater mystery of God's love. In modern times, she has been classified as a proto-universalist, although she did not claim more than hope that all might be saved. At the time of Julian’s death, people from all over Europe traveled to her room, or cell, to ask her advice. Everyone recognized that she was close to God. The Church never formally declared her a saint, but through the ages, people have called her “Blessed.” Julian of Norwich is quoted saying,“If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love.”

St. John the Silent(Bishop (454 - c. 558))

SAINT JOHN THE SILENT Bishop (454 - c. 558) St. John was born in 454 to a noble family in Nicopolis, Armenia. His parents lovingly and carefully nurtured the boy's faith. After their passing, John built a church in honor of the Blessed Virgin, and also a monastery with ten fervent companions; all at the age of eighteen. To protect against egoism and jabbering, and to pray by listening, with the goal of interior recollection, John seldom spoke. When obliged to, he spoke in few words and with discretion. When he was only twenty-eight years old, the Archbishop of Sebaste obliged Fr. John to quit his retreat, and ordained him Bishop of Colonia in Armenia in 482. In this dignity, Bishop John preserved the same spirit, and continued his monastic austerities and exercises. While watching one night in prayer, Bp. John saw before him a bright cross formed in the air, and heard a voice which said to him, "If you desire to be saved, follow this light." It seemed to move before him, and at length point out to the monastery of St. Sabas. After the vision, John abdicated the episcopal office, and retired to the neighboring monastery of St. Sabas, which at that time contained one hundred and fifty monks. John was then thirty-eight years old. After living there for some years, fetching water, carrying stones, and doing other menial work, St. Sabas, judging Fr. John worthy to be promoted to the priesthood, presented him to the Patriarch Elias. John took the patriarch aside, and, having obtained from him a promise of secrecy, said, "Father, I have been ordained bishop; but on account of the multitude of my sins have fled, and am come into this desert to wait the visit of the Lord." God revealed to St. Sabas the state of the affair, whereupon, calling for John, he complained to him of his unkindness in concealing the matter from him. Finding himself discovered, John wished to quit the monastery, nor could St. Sabas prevail on him to stay. In the year 503, John withdrew into a neighboring wilderness, but in 510 went back to the monastery, and confined himself for forty years to his cell. St. John, by his example and counsels, conducted many fervent souls to God, and continued to emulate, as much as this mortal state will allow, the glorious employment of the heavenly spirits in an uninterrupted exercise of love and praise. Soon after the year 558, he passed from this world to join the Church Triumphant in heaven. He lived seventy-six years in the desert, which had only been interrupted by the nine years of his episcopal dignity.

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Category: Mass by Year / Catholic Missal 2022 / Catholic Missal of may 2022