Today we celebrate the gift of the Eucharist, the Body, and Blood of Our Lord. We partake of him every time we received Holy Communion, and in the Eucharist, Our Lord sacramentally remains with us always for our consolation and adoration.

In today's First Reading Moses reminds the people of Israel, just before their entry after forty years into the Promised Land, that the Lord fed them in their need, just as he feeds us through the Eucharist.

The manna that the Lord sent to the Israelites during their wandering in the desert is a foreshadowing of the Eucharist. Manna was unknown to the ancestors of the Israelites in today's First Reading. The Eucharist is a food unheard of in human history before the coming of Christ, and nothing will ever match it because it is God himself.

In today's Second Reading Paul reminds us that Holy Communion enables us to participate in Our Lord's sacrifice of his Body and Blood and so doing draws us into communion with God and with each other.

Breaking bread with someone is a gesture of peace and fraternity. Our Lord let himself be that Bread, let himself be broken so that we could restore communion not only with the Father, but with each other. In every celebration of the Eucharist that bread is broken again for us.

In today's Gospel Our Lord teaches us that he is true food and true drink that nourish us so much that those who partake of him will live forever.

The manna mentioned in today's First Reading was something the people of Israel had never seen before. Moses explained that its purpose was not only to feed man but to show him that man must rely on the word of God to live.

Our Lord is the Word of God, and without him, there is no life. He is not only truly the Word of God that is necessary for eternal life; he is the bread of life too.

Attempts have been made to interpret Our Lord's words today metaphorically, but he is very clear: "my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink." This is the Scriptural basis, among other passages, for our belief that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ.

Through eating his flesh and drinking his blood we remain in communion with Christ and, through him, we remain in communion with the Father. Through eating his flesh and drinking his blood, we not only remain on good terms with the Lord; we receive ongoing spiritual nourishment that will one day lead us to eternal life if we remain in Christ.

Christ taught this before he ever raised bread and said, "this is my body": it required faith in Christ to accept this teaching, and it does even today. It was only at the Last Supper that his disciples really understood that bread and wine would become Christ's Body and Blood.

That Last Supper became the first of many celebrations of the Eucharist, including the one we celebrate today, but they are all thanks to Our Lord and his sacrifice, making himself true food and drink for us. 

"If we wish to discover in all its richness the profound relationship between the Church and the Eucharist, we cannot neglect Mary, Mother and model of the Church…Mary can guide us toward this most holy sacrament because she herself has a profound relationship with it." (Saint John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia)

At the center of our Catholic Faith is the belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Unfortunately, we often lose sight of or don't appreciate the profound blessing that we have been granted. If we desire to become better Catholics and improve our relationship with the Lord, we must deepen our love for the Eucharist. How can we do so? One of the best ways is to turn to the Mother of Jesus, Mary. By getting to know her and studying her life, we can grow closer to Our Lord who is fully present in the Eucharist. In his encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Saint John Paul II devotes an entire chapter to Mary, "Woman of the Eucharist". Let's examine some of his thoughts on how Our Lady can help us better understand the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Mary and Eucharist

Sometimes referred to as Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Mary can take us by the hand and lead us to a closer relationship with the Eucharistic Christ. While observing that "at first glance", the Gospel is silent on the subject of Mary and the Eucharist, the late Holy Father makes an interesting observation. We know that Mary was present with the apostles who prayed "with one accord" (Acts 1:14) for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it follows that Mary was most certainly present at the Eucharistic celebrations of the early Christians who were devoted to "the breaking of bread" (Acts 2:42). Blessed John Paul II then points to Mary's interior disposition and observes that Mary is a "woman of the Eucharist" in her whole life.

A Mystery of Faith

The Eucharist is certainly a mystery of faith and cannot be grasped by our limited human understanding. Accepting Jesus' command to "Do this in memory of me", requires us to deny our senses and humbly submit to His instruction. What better advice can we be given than the words of Mary at the wedding feast of Cana when she stated, "Do whatever He tells you" (John 2:5)? Just as He changed water into wine, He can turn ordinary bread and wine into His Body and Blood. By listening to Mary's advice, we can accept (without fully understanding) the miracle that occurs on the altar and embrace Our Lord's words, "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life" (John 6:54).

The Fiat and the Amen

By offering her womb for the Incarnation of God's Word, Mary lived her Eucharistic faith even before the institution of the Eucharist. At the Annunciation, when Mary conceived the Son of God, she foreshadowed what happens to us when we receive Holy Communion. As a result, according to Saint John Paul II, "there is a profound analogy between the Fiat which Mary said in reply to the angel, and the Amen which every believer says when receiving the Body of the Lord". Although we sometimes forget the significance of our response to the words "The Body of Christ", by replying "Amen" we are expressing our belief that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. Mary's belief in the mystery of the Annunciation ("Blessed is she who believed") anticipates the Church's belief in the Eucharist.

There is no better person to help us increase our appreciation for the Eucharist than the Mother of Our Lord. She knows Him better than any other human. Ask her to help you believe the "unbelievable"!

"Mary is present, with the Church and as the Mother of the Church, at each of our celebrations of the Eucharist. If the Church and the Eucharist are inseparably united, the same ought to be said of Mary and the Eucharist." (Saint Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia)

Fr. Antonius David Tristianto, O.Carm. 

Please come to the Sanctuary 10-15 minutes earlier to quieten and prepare to enter into the Lord's silence. We will listen to a Teaching on Meditation, then meditate for 20 minutes, and share any insights on the meditation experience and the Teaching. The session will last from 7:00-7:45 PM. For those who are new to meditation, instruction will be given. Please come and see! 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lack of volunteers from the Usher Ministry, the distribution of parish before each Mass will be suspended. If you wish to have a copy of the bulletin please help yourself and feel free to get your copy at the back of the church and bring it with you when you go home for meditation and/or to have a reference for the church's upcoming activities. Please do not leave copies of the parish bulletin on the pews for health safety reasons. 

When a Christian gets in a theological conversation with a Muslim, one of the first things that comes up is the mystery of the Holy Trinity, which we celebrate each year on this Trinity Sunday.

Muslims, like Jews and Christians, believe there is one God, all-powerful and transcendent.

Their concept of God resembles what appears in the Old Testament. This is understandable, because Mohammed, the founder of Islam who lived in the Middle East in the sixth and seventh centuries, grew up among Jews and Christians. But at that time, the Christian churches in the Middle East were constantly getting involved in theological controversies that caused violent and scandalous divisions among Christians.

This was the environment in which Mohammed adopted and popularized a simplified, non-Christian idea of God.

He rejected what Jesus had revealed about the Holy Trinity, that God is three divine persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – but one divine nature.

That rejection certainly limited the room for theological controversy, but it also cancelled out the whole New Testament, which Muslims do not accept.

And so, of the world's monotheistic religions, only Christianity believes in the Trinity. It is unique to us.

It is true that the Trinity is hard to understand. How can God be both one and three? How can the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be fully God, and yet distinct persons? Our minds cannot grasp this completely.

And yet, that very fact makes the doctrine of the Trinity ring true.

It shows that no merely human mind would have been able to come up with it. And it also shows that God, the Creator of the universe, exists in a way that we, mere creatures, cannot fully understand - and that makes perfect sense: God should exceed our ability to understand him; if he didn't, he wouldn't be much of a God. 

The Spiritual Meaning of the Scapular

The Scapular finds its roots in the tradition of the Order, which has seen in it a sign of Mary's motherly protection. It has, therefore, a centuries' old spiritual meaning approved by the Catholic Church.

• It stands for a commitment to follow Jesus, like Mary, the perfect model of all the disciples of Christ. This commitment finds its origin in baptism by which we become children of God.
• The Blessed Virgin teaches us:
  • To be open to God and to His will, shown to us in the events of our lives;
  • To listen to the Word of God in the Bible and in life, to believe in it and to put into practice its demands;
  • To pray at all times, as a way of discovering the presence of God in all that is happening around us;
  • To be involved with people, being attentive to their needs. ︎
• It leads us into the community of Carmel, a community of religious men and women, which has existed in the Church for over eight centuries. It calls on us to live out the ideal of this religious family: intimate friendship with God in prayer.
• It reminds us of the example of the saints of Carmel, with whom we establish a close bond as brothers and sisters to one another.
• It is an expression of our belief that we will meet God in eternal life, aided by the intercession and prayer of Mary.

Some practical rules

People are enrolled in the Brown Scapular only once, by a priest or authorized person.The Scapular can be replaced afterwards by a medal which has on one side the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and on the other, the image of Mary.

The Scapular holds us to live as authentic Christians in line with the teaching of the Gospel, to receive the sacraments, to profess our special devotion to the Blessed Virgin, which should be expressed each day, at least, by saying the Hail Mary three times.

Short Form for Giving the Scapular

"Receive this Scapular, a sign of your special relationship with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, whom you pledge to imitate. May it be a reminder to you of your dignity as a Christian, in serving others and imitating Mary. Wear it as a sign of her protection and of belonging to the Family of Carmel, voluntary doing the will of God and devoting yourself to building a world true to his plan of community, justice and peace."

The Brown Scapular is not:

• a magical charm to protect you
• an automatic guarantee of salvation
• an excuse for not living up to the demands of the Christian life

It is a sign which:

• has been approved by the Church for over seven centuries;
• stands for the decision to follow Jesus like Mary:

• open to God and to His will;
• guided by faith, hope and love;
• close to the needs of people; praying at all times;
• discovering God present in all that happens around us;
• introduces people into the Family of Carmel;
• points to a renewed hope of encountering God in eternal life with the help of Mary's protection and intercession.

Fr. Antonius David Tristianto, O.Carm. 

Meditation will resume on 9 June, Tuesday at 7:00 PM.Please come to the Sanctuary 10-15 minutes earlier to quieten and prepare to enter into the Lord's silence. We will listen to a Teaching on Meditation, then meditate for 20 minutes, and share any insights on the meditation experience and the Teaching. The session will last from 7:00-7:45 PM. For those who are new to meditation, instruction will be given. Please come and see! 

Beginning Monday, June 1st, weekday Masses will once again be offered at St. Anne's at 9:00AM from Monday to Saturday.

Adoration of the Sacrament will now take place from 9:30AM to 10:30AM every weekday from Tuesday to Friday.
Tuesday and Thursday will be in Cantonese. Wednesday and Friday will be in English.

Masses on Saturday evening and Sunday will resume June 6^th and 7^th.

We withdraw the first Friday evening Mass, because we already have it in the morning. 

We are writing to express our deepest thanks for your donation to St. Anne's Church, especially in this difficult situation. As you know, since the public Masses have been suspended, the Church has had no income at all. So, generous gifts from donors like you provide the financial and moral support needed to continue our service in this parish.

There is no way to fully express our gratitude for your loyalty. We at St. Anne's Church are continually inspired by the dedication and generosity of donors like yourself who answer the call to give again and again.

May our Lord always pour His blessing and races upon you, guide you and give you peace.

Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Paulus Waris Santoso, O.Carm
Parish Priest 

For the past seven weeks we have kept the Easter Candle here in the sanctuary, lighting it every time we have celebrated Mass.

The living flame of the Easter Candle reminded us that Christ is alive, that he rose from the dead just as the sun rises each morning to put an end to the darkness of the night.

The tall, white candle with a burning flame on top reminded us of God's faithfulness throughout all of history. It symbolized the two miraculous pillars - smoke by day and fire by night - that had guided the ancient Israelites out of Egypt, through the desert, and to the Promised Land.

Now it is Christ, the Risen Lord, who is our pillar of smoke and pillar of fire, our sure guide out of slavery to sin, through this world of trials and temptations, and into the Promised Land of Heaven.

But today we remove the Easter Candle from our sanctuary. Until next Easter, we will only use it during baptism ceremonies, when Christ's risen life is given for the first time to new members of the Church.

Does the removal of the Easter Candle mean that Christ is no longer among us? No. The sanctuary lamp beside the Tabernacle reminds us that Christ hasn't gone on vacation.

Rather, today is Pentecost, the day when Christ's risen life was entrusted to the Church by the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, who descended like tongues of fire on the Apostles nine days after Christ has ascended into heaven.

That new season in the life of the Church is paralleled by our new liturgical season, Ordinary Time, when we take the Easter Candle out of the sanctuary, because we ourselves become living Easter Candles, burning flames of wisdom, pillars of Christian faith and love spreading Christ's hope in the world. 

One way in which Mary is honoured in the Carmelite family is through the Brown Scapular. The Scapular is a symbol of Mary's protection. A garment as a symbol is found elsewhere in the Christian tradition, most notably in the Eastern icon tradition "Madonna of the Mantle." Along with the understanding of Mary's protection, the Scapular (itself a symbol of the Carmelite habit) includes the idea of consecration to Mary. Consecration is most properly an act done by God, so that when we say we consecrate ourselves to God and to Mary, we are principally stating that we freely want God's will, the Lordship of Jesus, to be manifest in our lives. The wearing of the Scapular is a sign that we want the values lived out by Mary to be evident in our actions and dispositions.

Tradition suggests that in 1251, Our Lady appeared to the Prior General of the Carmelite Order, St. Simon Stock at Aylesford, England. In this apparition, Our Lady gave him what we call the brown Scapular... a garment that has become the symbol of the bond between Our Lady and the Order of Carmel. The Carmelites have always been her devoted servants. However, whether or not this apparition actually took place is something we shall never know. But Our Lady did not give the Scapular just to the Carmelites. She gave it to the whole world so that all her sons and daughters could wear an outward sign of her love for them. As a "cloak" of grace and love, the Scapular represents the protection and security we find in our heavenly mother's love. Our Lady has given us her Scapular to wear; a garment of special concern a sign of belonging. Her Scapular is a mantle of grace and love.

The Carmelite Scapular is not a magical charm to protect you, or an automatic guarantee of salvation or an excuse for not living up to the demands of the Christian life. The Scapular holds us to live as authentic Christians in line with the teaching of the Gospel, to receive the sacraments, to profess our special devotion to the Blessed Virgin, which should be expressed each day, at least by saying the Hail Mary three times.

The Scapular – A Sign of Christian Faith and Commitment

Signs in Ordinary Human Life

The world in which we live is full of material things which have symbolic meaning: light, fire, water..... There are also, in every-day life, experiences of relationships between human beings, which express and symbolize deeper meanings such as sharing a meal (as a sign of friendship), taking part in a protest march (as a sign of solidarity), joining together in a national celebration (as a sign of our identity). We need signs and symbols to help us understand what is happening at present, or what happened before, and to give us an awareness of who we are, as individuals and as groups.

Signs in Christian Life

Jesus is the great sign and gift of the Father's love. He founded the Church as a sign and instrument of His love. Christian life also has its signs. Jesus used bread, wine and water to help us understand higher things which we can neither see nor touch. In the celebration of the Eucharist and the other sacraments (Baptism, Confirmation, Reconciliation, Matrimony, Orders, the Sacrament of the Sick) the symbols (water, oil, the laying on of hands, the rings), all have their own meaning and bring us into communication with God, present in each of them. As well as liturgical signs, the Church has others related to some event, to some tradition, or some person. One of these is The Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

The Scapular is a Sign of Mary

One of the signs in the tradition of the Church from many centuries ago is the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It is a sign approved by the Church and accepted by the Carmelite Order as an external sign of love for Mary, of the trust her children have in her, and of commitment to live like her. The word "scapular" indicates a form of clothing which monks wore when they were working. With the passage of time, people began to give symbolic meaning to it: the cross to be borne every day as disciples and followers of Christ. In some religious Orders, such as the Carmelites, the Scapular turned into a sign of their way of life. The Scapular came to symbolize the special dedication of Carmelites to Mary, the Mother of God, and to express trust in her motherly protection, as well as the desire to be like her in her commitment to Christ and to others. Thus, it became a sign of Mary.

Fr. Antonius David Tristianto, O.Carm. 

Donations from our parishioners are the major sources of income for the operating expenses of the parish. With the physical absence of our parishioners, the amount of church donations has dwindled significantly, and will soon endanger the smooth running of the parish.

For all of you who may wish to contribute to the much-needed financial support of our parish, there are 3 ways that Sunday donations can be made:

• Direct donation to the parish Donation box in the church (in person).
• Donation by cheque through mail or in person.Cheque should be made payable to St. Anne's Church.Mailing Address: 1 Tung Tau Wan Road, Stanley, Hong Kong, Attention: Parish Secretary
• Direct bank transfer to the parish account, ICBC A/C: (072) 713 01000 3995. Account: St. Anne's Church.
  
  

A receipt will be issued on request. Please provide personal information (donor's name, mailing address & mobile phone number) for the receipt.
- For in-person donation, please inform parish priest or secretary.
- For cheques or bank deposit donation, please write down 'DONATION' at the back of slip (together with personal information) and pass to parish secretary (by hand or mail) before end of the month. 

Today we do a strange thing.Today we celebrate our Savior's departure from earth.

He became man and was born on Christmas. For thirty years he lived a hidden life in Nazareth, sharing the mundane struggles experienced by every working family.

For three years he travelled around Israel preaching the gospel, performing miracles, and training his Twelve Apostles. Then, when that work was finished, he redeemed fallen humanity: he reversed the tragedy of Original Sin through his sacrificial passion and death.

Finally, to guarantee the trustworthiness of his teaching and his sacrifice, he rose from the dead and appeared to his followers multiple times.

But forty days later, which corresponds to today, with his disciples and Apostles gathered around him on the mountaintop, Jesus mysteriously ascended back into heaven, back to his Father's side, back to where he had come from at the moment of the incarnation.

And today we celebrate that. But shouldn't we mourn it instead? Shouldn't we regret and be sad that he is no longer among us? Doesn't it seem that he has abandoned us?

Not at all.

In today's Preface (the prayer the priest prays at the start of the Eucharistic prayer) the Church tells us why: "Christ... has passed beyond our sight, not to abandon us but to be our hope. "Christ is the beginning, the head of the Church; where he has gone, we hope to follow."

If Jesus had not ascended into heaven, body and soul, humanity and divinity, we would not be able to hope for heaven ourselves.

The ascension is the direct source of our hope. It means that we are never alone. 

On July 26^th the Church and our parish celebrates the feast of Anne. Saint Anne is our parish patron. To prepare for this celebration, we will hold a Novena prayer of Saint Anne (every Sunday start from May 24^th).

The strong character of Mary in making decisions, her continuous practice of prayer, her devotion to the laws of her faith, her steadiness at moments of crisis, and her devotion to her relatives—all indicate a close-knit, loving family especially the mother that looked forward to the next generation even while retaining the best of the past.

Anne (Hebrew, Hannah) is the wife of Joachim, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary and grandmother to our Savior Jesus Christ. Her name means "grace" or "the gracious one" or "the loving one."

We have limited knowledge about Saint Anne. She is not mentioned in the New Testament, and we must depend on apocryphal literature, chiefly the Protoevangelium of James, which dates back only to the second century. In this document we are told that Anne, wife of Joachim, was advanced in years and that her prayers for a child had not been answered. Once as she prayed beneath a laurel tree near her home in Galilee, an angel appeared and said to her, "Anne, the Lord hath heard thy prayer and thou shalt conceive and bring forth, and thy seed shall be spoken of in all the world." Anne replied, "As the Lord my God liveth, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God; and it shall minister to Him in holy things all the days of its life." And thus Anne became the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Blessed Virgin Mary was just three years old when Ss. Anne and Joachim led their daughter to the Temple steps, saw her pass into the inner sanctuary, and then saw her no more. The holiest parents on earth could not, in the plan of God, raise this Child as was needed. Ss. Anne and Joachim humbly adored the Divine Will, and continued to watch and pray, until God called them to unending rest.

Simplicity is the secret by which we gain Saint Anne's intercession and her protection. She taught her Blessed Daughter to read the Holy Scripture, seeing in Her the fulfilment of all its prophesies.

Fr. Antonius David Tristianto, O.Carm. 

During these Sundays of the Easter Season, the Church takes us back to the Last Supper, giving us a chance to dig deeper into its meaning.

Throughout his Last Supper discourse, Christ's constant refrain is: if you love me, you will keep my commandment. That commandment is to "love one another as I have loved you" (John 13:34), the commandment of Christian charity. These are his parting words to his closest disciples, the last flow of love from his Sacred Heart before it is broken and pierced.

They are special words. We need to hear them, to let them sink in. Jesus knows that these twelve men are normal, fallen human beings. They are weak and ignorant, stubborn, and headstrong.

And yet, he also knows that they truly love him. They want to be his disciples. They are just like us: flawed, but committed. He earnestly desires to teach them how to live out their commitment to him, and so he gives them his new commandment: love one another, as I have loved you.

That is the mark of a Christian, a true follower of Jesus Christ. It's not in pretty words, fancy rituals, and complicated prayers. It's in following the example of Christ, who gave his life for us on the cross. To give our lives, leaving behind our comfort zones in order to help our neighbors and build a better world, to be truthful, responsible, honest, pure, and faithful even when it feels like we're being crucified, that's how we follow Christ.

This is the path to loving him and living life to the full. It was the path he taught his Apostles, it's the path he teaches us, and it's the path he blazed before us by his passion, death, and resurrection. 

July 16th the Church celebrates the feast of our Lady of Mount Carmel. To prepare this celebration we will hold a Novena prayer of our Lady of Mount Carmel (every Thursday start from May 14th) and learn carmelite spirituality and Marian spirituality.

Mount Carmel

We know about Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of La Salette, our lady of Donglu etc. These names are associated with the place where Mother Mary appeared. But not so with the name of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Mary never appeared on the Mount Carmel. The name of this title is associated with the hermits on Mount Carmel. Hermits lived on Mount Carmel near the Fountain of Elijah in northern Israel in the 12th century.

Mount Carmel is a biblical place where the prophet Elijah dwelt. It rises 1,742 feet above sea level and towers above Israel's Mediterranean coastline. It was here where Elijah prayed to God for the salvation of Israel, which was suffering a terrible drought at the time. He continued to pray and sent his servant up the mountain several times to look for rain. On the seventh try, Elijah's servant returned with good news. "Behold a little cloud arose out of the sea like a man's foot" (1 Kings 1:44). Soon thereafter, torrential rains fell upon the parched land and the people of Israel were saved.

Elijah saw the cloud as a symbol of the Virgin mentioned in the prophecies of Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14). The hermits who lived on Mount Carmel followed Elijah's example and prayed for the advent of the much-awaited Virgin, who would become the mother of the Messiah. The origins of the Carmelite Order can be traced back to Elijah and his hermited disciples.

Hermits and Our Lady

Hermits had a chapel dedicated to Our Lady. By the 13th century they became known as "Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel." They soon celebrated a special Mass and Office in honor of Mary. In 1726, it became a celebration of the universal Church under the title of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. For centuries the Carmelites have seen themselves as specially related to Mary. Their great saints and theologians have promoted devotion to her and often championed the mystery of her Immaculate Conception.

The Carmelites were known from early on as "Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel." The title suggests that they saw Mary not only as "mother," but also as "sister." The word sister is a reminder that Mary is very close to us. She is the daughter of God and therefore can help us be authentic daughters and sons of God. She also can help us grow in appreciation of being sisters and brothers to one another. She leads us to a new realization that all human beings belong to the family of God. When such a conviction grows, there is hope that the human race can find its way to peace.

Fr. Antonius David Tristianto, O.Carm.

From ancient times, philosophers have summed up the human condition as a quest to answer three fundamental questions: What should I do? What can I know? What can I hope for?

In response to the common-sense comment of doubting Thomas, Jesus Christ gives us the definitive answer to each one of these questions when he tells us that he is the way, the truth, and the life.

Actually, Jesus doesn't just give the answers; he is the answers. "I am the way" can translate into: "What should you do? Follow me! Do what I have done."

"I am the truth" means: "What can you know? You can know everything, if only you know me.

"Knowing me, more and more every day, you know the secret behind the workings of the whole universe and the deepest yearnings of the human heart, because I made them both. I am the eternal Word, the very Wisdom of God."

"I am the life" means: "What can you hope for? In me, through me, you can hope for the fullness of life that you long for in the very depths of your soul. "You can hope for your very own room in my Father's house, in heaven - I have gone to prepare it for you. "In my Father's house all sorrows turn to joy, all weakness turns to strength, and life grows more alive as eternity unfolds.

Christ is truly the living water that quenches every thirst. He is truly the light that scatters every type of darkness. The quest of every man and woman to satisfy the heart's deepest needs is the quest to seek his face.

As St Augustine famously wrote, "Our hearts are restless until they rest in God." And Jesus Christ is God.

The month of May is the "month which the piety of the faithful has especially dedicated to Our Blessed Lady," and it is the occasion for a "moving tribute of faith and love which Catholics in every part of the world [pay] to the Queen of Heaven. During this month Christians, both in church and in the privacy of the home, offer up to Mary from their hearts an especially fervent and loving homage of prayer and veneration. In this month, too, the benefits of God's mercy come down to us from her throne in greater abundance" (Paul VI: Encyclical on the Month of May, no. 1).

This Christian custom of dedicating the month of May to the Blessed Virgin arose at the end of the 13th century. In this way, the Church was able to Christianize the secular feasts which were wont to take place at that time. In the 16th century, books appeared and fostered this devotion.

The practice became especially popular among the members of the Jesuit Order — by 1700 it took hold among their students at the Roman College and a bit later it was publicly practiced in the Gesu Church in Rome. From there it spread to the whole Church.

The practice was granted a partial indulgence by Pius VII in 1815 and a plenary indulgence by Pius IX in 1859. With the complete revision of indulgences in 1966 and the decreased emphasis on specific indulgences, it no longer carries an indulgence; however, it certainly falls within the category of the First General Grant of Indulgences. (A partial indulgence is granted to the faithful who, in the performance of their duties and in bearing the trials of life, raise their mind with humble confidence to God, adding — even if only mentally — some pious invocation.

https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/overviews/months/05_1.cfm

Fr. Antonius David Tristianto, O.Carm.

Jesus wants us to know who he is: The Good Shepherd, who protects and cares for the people of God, just as a shepherd does his sheep.

Shepherds always want their sheep to be healthy and happy. They want them to have the best grass, fresh water, and safety, so that they can grow and multiply as much as possible.

A sheep has no greater friend than a good shepherd, and we have no greater friend than Christ. He invented life, he gave us life, and he came so that, in him, we might learn to live it "more abundantly".

He does not claim to be one good shepherd among many good shepherds, but the only one: "All others who have come are thieves and robbers."

Some religious leaders and philosophers throughout history - and even in our own day - have claimed to be saviours, to have all the answers, but they were really consumed by pride, greed, or lust.

Others have sincerely sought to better this world, but simply have insufficient wisdom or power to provide the human family with the kind of hope we long for and need.

Jesus Christ, on the other hand, not only wants to lead us to a more abundant life, but he can. Omniscient, omnipotent, and eternal, he combines utter goodness with infinite wisdom and unlimited power.

And so, with his flock, the problem is not the shepherd's limitations or ignorance, but the sheep's lack of docility: we stray from the flock and trap ourselves in thistles and swamps of self-centeredness, self-indulgence, and stubborn disobedience.

As Christians, we actually don't have just a good shepherd, but the perfect shepherd. All we need is to be sensible sheep and listen to the voice of the One we know.