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On the first great feast of Pentecost, fifty days after the Resurrection of Jesus and ten days after His Ascension into heaven, Our Lady and the Apostles as well as some others were gathered at prayer in the Upper Room.

For each one of us as members of Christ’s Body the Church, the Holy Spirit is a powerful force in our life and a source of abundant grace. By the gifts that He brings and by the guidance and wisdom that He bestows, He makes us courageous witnesses to the Lord Jesus and His Church.

The celebration of Ascension Thursday reminds us that Our Lord always gives us the ability to do what He asks of us. Even though He ascended into heaven, because of His love for us, He still remains with us and gives us His own life, His grace, to proclaim the Gospel to all the world. It is through His Presence in the Sacraments that He strengthens us to do His Will.

May is a month of hope as spring comes into full bloom and our thoughts turn to new life and motherhood. The second Sunday of May we honor and thank our earthly mothers. The entire month, however, is a special time when we as Catholics honor and celebrate our heavenly Mother, the Virgin Mother of God.

A resurgence of the power and beauty of the priesthood will only come from the holiness of life of priests who embrace their call to be conformed to Christ the great High Priest and to serve God’s people as alter Christus (“another Christ”) in humility and love. While we need more priests, more importantly we need holy priests.

By uniting our prayer, good works, suffering and our very selves with the Redemptive act of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ that we can contribute with the salvation of people and the restorative healing of creation.

Devotion to the Divine Mercy helped people set their hearts on eternal life in a time when life on earth seemed almost unbearable. When punishment and cruelty seemed their daily lot, the people turned to the message of Divine Mercy with its offer of forgiveness, peace and the merciful love of God.

Divine Mercy Sunday celebrates the light of Christ that has broken through the darkness of the world of sin and pours forth His mercy upon us so that we receive His redemptive love. From His pierced side shine forth pale rays and red rays that indicate the water of Baptism and the Blood of Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

What does love look like? It is the One Who is the King of Kings and is buried in another man’s tomb because His kingdom is not of this world. It is the One Who is raised from the dead on the third day and lives forever.

The sufferings we experience in our lives are to be embraced by us as we see that they are really a part of the Passion of Jesus. This means that we are immersed in and share in the mystery of Christ’s sufferings in a real and dynamic way and, by His will and mysterious plan, participate in the redemption that is made present through His Body the Church in our time.

God’s plan is always in effect; we only need to see it by His grace and embrace it. Our Lady was conceived immaculately and was born at just the right time, in the right place to become the Mother of God. Jesus came at just the right time in the right place according to the Father’s plan to save us by His Passion and Death.

A prayer that has been in the Church for centuries and that has regained great popularity in our present time is the Chaplet (also called the Rosary) of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Chaplet itself is made up of seven groups of seven Hail Marys. For each group of prayers, one of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady is considered. In each of the Seven Sorrows, there is an emphasis on the relationship between Jesus and His Mother.

There can be no doubt about who Jesus is. He is not simply a great prophet, or a religious leader, or a worldly messiah. No, He is the Son of the Father. He is God Himself. He is in union with the Father.

When, in Lent, we hear the Gospel of Our Lord’s being tested in the desert, it reminds us that these forty amazing days of Lent and, in fact, every day of our life is about a battle between good and evil. In other words, our journey through Lent and our journey through life is not for wimps.

As we begin our Lenten season, let us go to the very source of salvation and reparation, to the Passion and Death of Jesus made present every time the Mass is celebrated. Let us be amazed at the power God has placed in our hearts and our hands!

The message from the Grotto of Lourdes is one that we hear clearly and strongly during prayer. To access it we only need a heart that is lifted up and opened to God. Let us go to the Grotto in our prayers and ask the Mother of God and our Mother to teach us and form our hearts as her Son wishes.

This Feast of the Presentation is packed full of lessons for us and replete with the manifestation of Christ’s love. Let us follow the blessed admonition, “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” That, we should do every day.

Our hope for the future of the Church and our world can be found in the brilliance of the light of Christ that shines out clearly when we come together in His Name to proclaim that all life is sacred.

Because our prayer opens our hearts to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, our petitions for peace are powerful. Let us ask Jesus for peace throughout the world and in our own communities, our families and our hearts.

St. Matthew specifies that Emmanuel means “God with us.” He presents the virginal conception and birth of Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s plan for our salvation that is seen in prophecies and signs in the Old Testament.