April 2021: Prayers and Reflections

The Pope’s Monthly Intentions

Universal – Fundamental rights: We pray for those who risk their lives while fighting for fundamental rights under dictatorships, authoritarian regimes and even in democracies in crisis.

 

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An Easter Prayer

Living Lord,

when we stand before the empty tomb

we don’t always feel the joy of resurrection.

We feel fear, doubt and distrust.

Our lives at times feel empty.

Help us to welcome new life.

Fill the emptiness with new light.

Call us to abundant new life.

Guide us in the light of your love.

 

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St Anselm (1033-1109)
21 April
Bishop and Doctor
of the Church

Anselm sends us this invitation for contemplation:

 

Abandon yourself for a little while to God and rest in his love.

 

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St Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) • 29 April

 

Catherine saved a runaway Papacy during a time of Schism in the Church.

 

She achieved so much in her short life of 33 years.

She is a Doctor of the Church and Patron of Europe.

 

‘Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.

St Catherine of Siena

 

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Jesus is Condemned to Death

The first station is for all those innocents who have no one to stand up for them. It is the station of ‘bad news’; and hearing the words, ‘You’re on your own.’ We see in the act of Pilate washing his hands the sacrament of irresponsibility and the refusal to uphold the cause of the innocent. All of the mock trials by corrupt judicial systems, the miscarriages of justice deliberate or unintended, summary executions in countries let by tyrants or dictators, those condemned on death row and the babes in the womb who have the death sentence passed on them before they see the light of day, all meet at this first station of condemnation.

Pass it on! Ronan Drury 1924-2017. Selected Writings

Paul Clayton-Lea and Maria Flood, eds., p. 97.

 

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‘Revelation comes in two volumes:

that of the Bible and that of Nature.’

St Thomas Aquinas (1224-1272)

 

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‘Jesus Christ, inner light, you came not to judge the world,

but so that with the Risen Lord, every human being might

be saved and reconciled. Your love forgives and enfolds us.

Then our hearts, even when afflicted, can begin to love anew.’

(Brother Roger Schutz (1915-2005)

 

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