Thursday in the Fifth Week of Easter

We pray through the fifth week of Easter and place our whole day on the altar through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We hear Saint Gaudencius teach why the Church receives the Eucharist as Christ’s true body and blood and we ask God for perseverance when faith feels hard. 
• opening invocations and the Morning Offering for intentions, sins, and the Holy Father 
• Saint Gaudencius on Christ’s one sacrifice offered in every church for healing and life 
• why wine signifies Christ’s blood and the “true vine” in the Gospel 
• how bread and wine become heavenly gifts through Christ’s promise and power 
• responding to “this teaching is too hard” by trusting the Spirit who gives life 
• prayers for courage, perseverance, and mercy through the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary 
If you found this time of prayer and reflection fruitful and would like more opportunities to grow in your faith, consider joining the Christeros and purchasing our publications now available on Amazon.com. The Cristeros app is available on the Apple app and Google Play Store. More information on the Cristeros can be found at theCristeros.org. 

Transcript

Opening Prayer And Morning Offering

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Thursday, in the fifth week of Easter. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, for the remission of my sins, for the intentions of my family and friends, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen. From a treatise by Saint Gaudencius of Brescia, Bishop. One man has died for all, and now in every church, in the mystery of bread and wine, he heals those for whom he is offered in sacrifice, giving life to those who believe and holiness to those who consecrate the offering. This is the flesh of the Lamb. This is his blood. The bread that came down from heaven declared, The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. It is significant, too, that his blood should be given to us in the form of wine, for his own words in the gospel, I am the true vine, imply clearly enough that whenever wine is offered as a representation of Christ's passion, it is offered as his blood. This means that it was of Christ that the blessed patriarch Jacob prophesied when he said, He will wash his tunic in wine, and his cloak in the blood of the grape. The tunic was our flesh, which Christ was to put on like a garment, and which he was to wash in his own blood. Creator and Lord of all things, whatever their nature, he brought forth bread from the earth and changed it into his own body. Not only had he the power to do this, but he had promised it, and as he had changed water into wine, he also changed wine into his own blood. It is the Lord's Passover, Scripture tells us, that is, the Lord's passing. We are no longer to look upon the bread and wine as earthly substances, they have become heavenly, because Christ has passed into them and changed them into his body and blood. What you receive is the body of him who is the heavenly bread, and the blood of him who is the sacred vine. For when he offered his disciples the consecrated bread and wine, he said, This is my body, this is my blood. We have put our trust in him. I urge you to have faith in him, truth can never deceive. When Christ told the crowds that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood, they were horrified and began to murmur among themselves, This teaching is too hard, who can be expected to listen to it? As I have already told you, thoughts such as these must be banished. The Lord himself used heavenly fire to drive them away by going on to declare, It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. The living Father sent me, and I have life because of the Father. Whoever eats me will live because of me. Alleluia. This is my body, which will be given up for you. Whoever eats me will live because of me. Alleluia. O God, by whose grace, though sinners, we are made just, and though pitiable, made blessed. Stand we pray by your works, stand by your gifts, that those justified by faith may not lack the courage of perseverance. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen. Let us praise the Lord and give him thanks. All that I have and all that I am, I give to your hands, Jesus, through the heart of Mary, your blessed mother. Amen. Sacred heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. If you found this time of prayer and reflection fruitful and would like more opportunities to grow in your faith, consider joining the Christeros and purchasing our publications now available on Amazon.com. The Christeros app is available on the Apple app and Google Play Store. More information on the Cristeros can be found at theCristeros.org.