Dear parishioners and visitors;
“I am the vine and you are the branches” (Jn. 15:5)
All of us naturally want to be closely connected with our loved ones. Today modern communication-technologies bring us much closer with one another even we may live thousand miles away from each other.
We have an image of the vine and the branches in this Sunday’s gospel. It is a great and beautiful image of unity, closeness and interdependence. Just as the branches need the vine, so we do need Jesus. Being separated from him we have no life and bear no fruit.
Today we can be closely connected with Jesus and effectively bear fruit for Him by being actively and joyfully joining with one another to celebrate and to receive all the sacraments given to us through and by the hands of the Church and by devoutly listening and faithfully following Jesus’ the teachings also given to us through the Church.
Last week’s bulletin I shared with you about “Lectio Divina” (the Sacred Reading), a traditional way of praying with the Sacred Scripture. This way of praying, with its 5 steps: Reading, Meditation, Prayer, Contemplation, Action, help us to encounter God in his sacred Word and respond to His grace.
Step 1. Reading (Lectio): You read slowly and reverently the text, the Word of God, attentively listen to the Word and carefully seek to understand the Word as interpreted by the Church, not by anyone’s opinions (CCC. # 84-87 & 100). You can ask yourself: what does this passage say to me? Who I am in this passage? What do I see or hear? (Step 2 will be in next week’s bulletin)
Have a blessed week. Fr. Peter Hoan Nguyen.