Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • April 6, 2018 5 9274 Hwy 49/Airport Gulfport, MS 39503 228-863-5525 1-800-880-2446 FAX: 228-863-9612 www.butchoustalet.com Prices starting at $2,499 ~ with airfare included in this price from anywhere in the USA Many trip destinations: the Holy Land; Italy; France; Portugal; Spain; Poland; Medjugor- je; Lourdes; Fatima; Ireland; Scotland; Eng- land; Austria; Germany; Switzerland; Turkey; Greece; Budapest; Prague; Our Lady of Guadalupe; Colombia; Brazil; Argentina; Domestic Destinations; etc… We also specialize in custom trips for Bishops, Priests, and Deacons (Hablamos Español) 855-842-8001 508-340-9370 www.proximotravel.com anthony@proximotravel.com call us 24/7 Thank you, Jesus, Mary, St. Jude, and St. Anthony for prayers answered. CS Thank you, St. Jude, for prayers answered. CS A recent study found that 67% of Americans say a personal invitation from a friend, neighbor or family member would be effective in getting them to visit a church. Two percent said the invitation would be more effective if it came from Mormons, 7% if from Methodists, 11% if from Baptists and 15% if from Roman Catholics. The survey found home visits, TV or radio commercials, newspaper ads, email or billboards to be far less effective than personal invitation. In today’s Gospel the resurrected Jesus appears in person to his frightened and confused disciples. Along with the assurance it is really him, Jesus gives them a mission and invites their participation in spreading the good news to all. Is your hope brighter because you believe in the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus? Has your life changed for the better because of your faith in God?Are you in love with Jesus and have a deep desire to spread his love to others? Do you believe that Jesus lives and can make a difference in the life of people you know? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, be a missionary disciple of Jesus Christ. Invite someone to come to church with you and walk the journey of faith with them whatever their present circumstances. The Book of Acts provides evidence that Christ’s resurrection had a profound transformational effect on the early community. Peter instigated Judas’ replacement restoring the apostolic band to twelve and signaling their readiness to go into the world and make disciples of all nations. Believers grew in faith and holiness by adhering to the apostles teaching, centering worship around the Eucharistic liturgy, distributing goods to those in need, seeing signs and wonders performed by the apostles in Jesus’ name, and having large numbers of men and women come to the ‘new way.’ They encouraged, taught, and sent out their own to speak of Christ’s resurrection and saving power. Those that were healed, healed others. Those that hungered for God’s word spread that word to all who would hear. Those forgiven, showed mercy, those transformed by God’s love, joy and peace brought the giver of these gifts to the world around them. Because they received Eucharist (bread blessed, broken and shared), they gave of themselves in service. “There was no needy (physically or spiritually) person among them” (Acts 4:34a). God’s divine mercy demands such action from his body, the Church. John’s Gospel transports us to a room in Jerusalem where the apprehensive disciples hid behind locked doors for fear of their lives. But the scene shifts suddenly when Jesus shows up. Not to condemn the disciples for deserting him, nor to write-off Thomas for not being there the week before, but to offer peace -- the assurance that no matter how terrible our sin, or horrendous the chaos of life, God will always be with us to love, guide, forgive and restore to wholeness. He gifted them with the Holy Spirit, empowered them to forgive sins, commissioned them to go out as witnesses to his resurrection, and poured out mercy, forgiveness, restoration, and new purpose to those who thought they had lost everything. Thomas, who had to see to believe, responded in awe, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). In this upper room encounter, Jesus gives example of his mercy driven love so that we also might follow. What is your usual response to someone in need of love and mercy? When you had a falling out with someone did you let it fester and look for opportunities to retaliate or did you turn it to a positive and try to bring healing? Do you put yourself in the shoes of the poor, think about them, help them and even defend them when people make general statements about their unworthiness? Having just celebrated some of the most exciting days in Church liturgy, is it time now to coast along the faith-trail and rest on the glory? Or in the next five weeks of Easter will we continue to celebrate not only what once happened to Jesus but what is now happening among us as a people called to conversion, gathered in faith and gifted with the Spirit of wholeness and holiness? Will we seek to revive, restore and reconcile others to God? Will resurrection praise and glory now permeate everything we think and say that what we may have once declared “dead and buried,” “hopeless,” or “useless, we can now proclaim as a work of the Lord? Will we now share a kindred zeal and passion with the early Church, be that community where God takes possession of our hearts at their deepest core, and recreates us anew broken like bread for the world’s life -- a community rich in compassion, steadfast in hope, and fearless in the search for justice and peace? In reflecting on Thomas’s absence from the gathered community, Mary O’Driscoll, OP, wrote; “Whenever we as a human family or as church gather in either small or large groups to celebrate, to make plans for the future, or to search for God’s truth for ourselves and our world, we need to look around and ask: Who’s missing? Who’s not here? Who should be here?” Perhaps there is a need there that can be met. If each of us recognizes just one person’s absence and follows with a call, a card or a text -- God would be glorified. Deacon Ralph Tor- relli lives in Hattiesburg and is assigned to St. Thomas Aquinas Parish. Visit his website: www. homilypearls.com. 1st Reading: Acts of the Apostles 4:32-35 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24 2nd Reading: 1 John 5:1-6 Gospel: John 20:19-31 Second Sunday of Easter Divine Mercy Sunday Mercy acts Deacon Torrell i Sunday Scripture Commentaries