Fifth Sunday of Easter
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Today's Readings
Acts 6:1-7; Ps 33; 1 Pet 2:4-9; Jn 14:1-12
Read today's readings at USCCBReflection
Come to him, a living stone. Peter uses the image of stone deliberately - stone is what lasts, what remains when the softer materials have worn away, what is shaped by pressure and time into something that can bear weight. The living stone is Christ himself, rejected by human beings and chosen by God. And those who come to him become, in coming, living stones themselves - no longer raw material but fitted pieces, being built into something that will stand.
You have been a stone in the building for a long time now. The years have shaped you - pressed you, chipped at you, fitted you to the stones around you in ways you did not always choose and did not always welcome. The upright word of the Lord, the psalm says, and all his works are trustworthy. He loves justice and right. The eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear him. Those eyes have been on you across all the years of the shaping. Nothing that pressed you was outside his sight. And the spiritual house you have been part of building - the family you helped raise, the community you helped sustain, the faith you handed to the next generation - is more solid than you may know from where you stand inside it.
Jesus says: in my Father's house there are many dwelling places. He is speaking it again today, the word he spoke on the night before he died - still speaking it, still preparing the place, still coming to take us to himself. Thomas did not know the way. Philip did not recognize the Father he had been standing next to. The disciples were still learning. You have been learning all your life, and the learning does not end. But the place is prepared. The dwelling is real. And the one who spoke it is the one whose word is upright and whose works are trustworthy.
The Rosary Today
The Glorious Mysteries begin with the Resurrection - the stone that the builders rejected becoming the cornerstone, the rejected living stone revealed as chosen and precious. The Rosary today traces the arc from the empty tomb to the crowning of Mary as Queen of Heaven, each mystery a further unfolding of the dwelling place being prepared. Pray it tonight as a meditation on what has already been built and what is still being prepared for you.
Prayer of the Faithful
- For those who have been living stones for many decades, who have borne weight and been shaped by pressure and loss and time, that they would know themselves as precious in the sight of God - chosen, fitted, irreplaceable in the structure he is building, we pray to the Lord.
- For families across generations, that the faith passed from the older to the younger would continue to be the living stone transmission Peter describes - the calling out of darkness into wonderful light, moving from one generation to the next, we pray to the Lord.
- For those in the evening of life who are asking Thomas's and Philip's questions - where are we going, and can we see the Father before we arrive - that Jesus's answer would be enough: you know the way, you have already seen him, the place is prepared, we pray to the Lord.
Something to Do
Find a stone today - from a yard, a garden, a park, a driveway. Hold it. Let it be a tactile reminder that you are a living stone, shaped by the one who calls things precious that others have rejected. Set it somewhere visible in your home for the month of May. Let it be your own small May altar object alongside whatever Marian image you have placed. Stone and rose - the endurance of what God builds and the beauty of what he grows.
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