Saturday of the Third Week of Easter

April 20, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042024.cfm

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When he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs
where all the widows came to him weeping
and showing him the tunics and cloaks
that Dorcas had made while she was with them. 
Peter sent them all out and knelt down and prayed. 
Then he turned to her body and said, “Tabitha, rise up.” 
She opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up. 
He gave her his hand and raised her up,
and when he had called the holy ones and the widows,
he presented her alive. 
This became known all over Joppa,
and many came to believe in the Lord.

Acts 9:39-42

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In our readings today, we see people’s lives turning forward or backward based on the power or weakness of their faith.

Peter prays and then turns toward Tabitha to restore her life by the power of his faith.

In our Gospel, those disciples whose faith is too weak to receive Christ’s teaching on the Eucharist, return to their former uninspired life.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We pray to have a committed faith that grows stronger with the inevitable turns of our life. May our Eucharistic faith power our lives to witness Christ.

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Poetry: The Waterwheel – Rumi

As I read this poem, I can hear Jesus asking his friends to believe and stay with him in the turns of life.

Stay together, friends.
Don’t scatter and sleep.

Our friendship is made
of being awake.

The waterwheel accepts water
and turns and gives it away,
weeping.

That way it stays in the garden,
whereas another roundness rolls
through a dry riverbed looking
for what it thinks it wants.

Stay here, quivering with each moment
like a drop of mercury.

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Music: Waterwheel – Marina Belica