Seed of Mercy
To you I turn my thoughts of love, O my God, Father of mercies; to you I raise the song of praise that sums up my nothingness, and the earth weeps for not knowing how to say...
TODAY'S SAINT
Saint Julia Billiart
Every day the Church celebrates the journey of men and women who have been able to make the mercy of God through concrete gestures of love and service.
Saint Julia Billiart, along with the other saints remembered today, Wednesday, April 8, shows us that holiness comes from small things lived with a big heart. Meditating on the saint of the day helps us recognize that mercy is the path that transforms everyday life into a gift, and invites us to follow her example in our own time.
TODAY'S GOSPEL
From the Gospel according to Luke
Lc 24,13-35
And behold, that same day [the first day of the week], two of [the disciples] were going to a village named Emmaus,
about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.
While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came up and walked with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with one another as you walk?”
They stood still, looking sad. One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
He asked them, "What things?" They answered him, "The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,
how the chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him.
But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.
But some women of our party astonished us, for they went to the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body,
They came to tell us that they had also had a vision of angels, who said that he was alive.
Some of our men went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but him they did not see."
He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
As they approached the village to which they were going, he acted as if he were going farther. But they insisted, saying,
“Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is now far spent.” He went in to stay with them.
While he was at table with them, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him.
But he vanished from their sight. And they said to one another,
“Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”
They set out at once and returned to Jerusalem, where they found the Eleven and those who were with them gathered together, who were saying:
"The Lord is truly risen and has appeared to Simon!"
And they told what had happened on the road, and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Comments on today's Gospel
Commentary on the Gospel by Father Giordano Favillini
When he was at table with them, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him. There is a spiritual blindness that prevents us from moving forward in the life of faith. We must nourish ourselves with the body of Christ and thus we will see the invisible, and faith will be an inner light that guides us on the path of life.
