Households of Faith

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Zoom Group - Next meeting April 19 at 7 :00 p.m call Karen for Zoom link

Weekly group meets every Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. in the church Basement

Good News Reflection for

Third Sunday of Easter
April 19, 2026

Acts 2:14, 22-33
Ps 16:1-2, 5, 7-11
1 Peter 1:17-21
Luke 24:13-35

How to see Jesus

The two disciples in this Sunday’s Gospel reading did not recognize Jesus until after they heard him explain the scriptures and then broke bread with him. It was a two-part process.

First, while listening to him teach about the scriptures, only their hearts recognized him. (“Were not our hearts burning within us?”) Their eyes didn’t see his true identity until Jesus shared a meal with them, raised the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them to eat.

When we celebrate Mass today, we’re on a similar journey with Jesus. First, we have the Liturgy of the Word, during which we hear the scriptures and a homily that explains them. This is a time of opening our hearts to him.

A well-trained reader will speak the words of scripture with meaning and emphasis so that our hearts can recognize God in the words. A well-trained priest or deacon will set our hearts on fire as if Jesus himself were teaching us the meaning of the scriptures. But even when the reader or homilist does a poor job, we can open our hearts to hear Jesus speaking to us directly.

Then we move into the Liturgy of the Eucharist. When the presiding priest consecrates the bread and wine, it is Jesus himself who is actually doing it, using the priest’s hands and vocal chords. Jesus is doing for us what he did for those two disciples at Emmaus.

If we have opened our hearts to Jesus during the first part of Mass, and if we are still paying attention, we see much more than a piece of bread and a chalice of wine. We see Jesus. We recognize him with our hearts and our heads. We know beyond all doubt that the resurrected Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist.

Questions for Personal Reflection:
In what area(s) of your life does Jesus seem to be absent? How can the Mass help you recognize Jesus and feel his closeness? What else can you do to discover the presence of Jesus when you are not able to sense his nearness?

Questions for Group Faith Sharing:
When did you discover that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist? What helped you with that discovery? How do you know that the bread and wine change into the substance of Jesus while retaining their original form (which is called “transubstantiation”)? How easy is it for you to recognize Jesus in the Eucharist? Why?

Second Sunday of Easter
Divine Mercy
April 12, 2026

Acts 2:42-47
Ps 118:1-4, 13-15, 22-24
1 Peter 1:3-9
John 20:19-31

How to continue the Easter experience

How well do we live the Easter experience in our daily lives? We are an Easter people, because we know and celebrate that Jesus has risen from the dead. And yet, we’re not always shouting, “Hallelujah!” We don’t always feel like celebrating — not in our worship nor outside the church where our joy could influence people toward faith in Jesus.

It’s hard to feel like the Good Friday experience of carrying our crosses has really ended.

This Sunday’s second reading describes what the Easter experience is supposed to feel like: We should rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy. But how does that happen?

The attitude of joy does not come from reaching the end of our cross-like burdens. Rather, it comes from knowing that Christ’s death and resurrection have overcome our crosses, and by uniting ourselves to his life, we are victorious even before we see the battle end.

Furthermore, it comes from knowing that we have the ultimate victory — eternal life in God’s abundant love — and we know that this gift is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” and that it’s being safeguarded by the power of God because, by choosing to have faith in Christ, we have accepted the gift in advance.

This joy-from-knowing is the true definition of “hope”. Hope isn’t wishful thinking. Hope means celebrating what is certainly going to happen before it happens.

Some Catholics say that they’re afraid they might lose their salvation because they don’t trust themselves to stay close to Jesus always. They’re afraid that something will tempt them to turn away from Jesus between now and the hour of death. If you worry about this, let me ask you: During times of suffering, do you reject God or run to him?

Even when we get angry at him, we’re actually very close to him. We’re angry because we believe in him and trust him and he seems to be disappointing us. This is a normal part of the Christian life: Our faith is purified by our trials.

To embrace life as an Easter people, we must learn to remember that our sufferings are temporary and that someday we will enter into eternal joy. This is what we celebrate even while carrying our crosses.

Questions for Personal Reflection:
In what ways has God apparently disappointed you? What is he doing — or not doing — that’s upsetting you? How is this increasing your closeness to him, even if it feels like he’s silent and distant?

Questions for Group Faith Sharing:
Give an example of wishful thinking: What have you wished for in prayer? What have you been begging God to do? How is this different than hoping (joy-from-knowing)? Even if your wish never comes true, what’s your reason for a higher hope?

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