Category Archives: Sr. Rosemary’s Reflections

In all the times I’ve read this Priestly Prayer of Jesus from our gospel today, I never picked up that Jesus was giving us all a definition of ‘eternal life’.  He said in this prayer to his Father: “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,…

We know the Holy Spirit by many names: ‘Advocate’, as Jesus says in today’s Gospel, ‘Comforter, ‘Helper’, and some of us used to say, “Holy Ghost”.  But a lot of ink has been spilled on another name for the Holy Spirit, that is, ‘Paraclete’, which is from the Greek, and has 2 root words:  para…

How very differently the apostles acted before Jesus’ resurrection than after this great event. In our gospel, Jesus is at the Last Supper with his disciples and he’s preparing them to be his missionary disciples when he is no longer with them. They’re obviously confused and questioning him. He strengthens and encourages them by telling…

There’s a significant pivotal shift going on in our first reading from Acts.  St. Stephen’s death has acted as a catalyst for the spreading of the Gospel and the growth of this new church as far away as Cypress near Greece and Cyrene in North Africa.  Now, not only are Jewish people in Antioch continuing…