Friday in the Sixth Week of Easter

We pray through the sixth week of Easter and offer our whole day to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We reflect with Saint Augustine on Peter and John as signs of the active life of faithful endurance and the contemplative life that reaches fulfillment when Christ comes. 
• opening prayers and a full-day offering united to the Mass 
• Saint Augustine’s “two kinds of life” in the Church, faith now and vision later 
• Peter as the sign of following Christ through endurance and action 
• John as the sign of contemplation that waits for perfect knowledge 
• both apostles united, and the whole Church sharing suffering now and joy to come 
• hope in God’s promise to restore, support, and strengthen us after suffering 

If you found this time of prayer and reflection fruitful and like more opportunities to grow in your faith, consider joining the Cristeros 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 Offering

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Friday, in the sixth 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.

Augustine On Two Ways Of Living

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From a treatise on John by Saint Augustine, Bishop. The Church recognizes two kinds of life as having been commended to her by God. One is a life of faith, the other a life of vision. One is a life passed on pilgrimage in time, the other in a dwelling place in eternity. One is a life of toil, the other of repose. One is spent on the road, the other in our homeland. One is active, involving labor, the other contemplative, the reward of labor. The first kind of life is symbolized by the Apostle Peter, the second by John. All of the first life is lived in this world, and it will come to an end with this world. The second life will be imperfect till the end of this world, but it will have no end in the next world. And so Christ says to Peter, follow me. But of John he says, If I wish him to remain until I come, what is that to you? Your duty is to follow me. You are to follow me by imitating my endurance of transient evils. John is to remain until my coming, when I will bring eternal blessings. A way of saying this more clearly might be, your active life will be perfect if you follow the example of my passion. But to attain its full perfection, John's life of contemplation must wait until I come. Perfect patience is to follow Christ faithfully, even to death, but for perfect knowledge we must await his coming. Here in the land of the dying, the sufferings of the world must be endured. There in the land of the living shall be seen the good things of the Lord. Christ's words, I wish him to remain until I come, should not be taken to imply that John was to remain on earth until Christ's coming, but

Peter Follows While John Remains

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rather that he was to wait, because it is not now, but only when Christ comes, that the life he symbolizes will find fulfillment. On the other hand, Christ says to Peter, Your duty is to follow me, because the life Peter symbolizes can attain its goal only by action, here and now. Yet we should make no mental separation between these great apostles. Both lived the life symbolized by Peter. Both were to attain the life symbolized by John. Symbolically, one followed, the other remained, but living by faith, they both endured the sufferings of this present life of sorrow, and they both longed for the joys of the future life of happiness. Nor were they alone in this. They were one with the whole church, the bride of Christ, which will in time be delivered from the trials of this life and live forever in the joy of the next. These two kinds of life were represented respectively by Peter and John, yet both apostles lived by faith in this present, passing life, and in eternal life, both have the joy of vision.

One Church Sharing Both Callings

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And so for the sake of all the saints, inseparably united to the body of Christ, to bide them through the storms of this life, Peter, the chief of the apostles, received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, with the power to bind and loose sins, and for the sake of those same saints, to plumb the depths of that other, hidden life, John the evangelist, reclined on the breast of Christ. For it is not only Peter, but the whole church that binds and looses from sin. And as for the sublime teaching of John about the Word, who in the beginning was God, with God, and everything else he told us about Christ's divinity, and about the Trinity and unity of the Godhead, which now until the Lord comes, is all like a faint reflection in a mirror, but which will be seen face to face in the kingdom of heaven. It was not only John who drank in this teaching that came forth from the Lord's breast as from a fountain. All who belong to the Lord are to drink it in, each according to his capacity. And this is why the Lord Himself has spread John's gospel throughout the world.

Hope After Suffering And Intercessions

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The God of all grace has called us to glory in Christ Jesus. He will restore, support, and strengthen us after we have suffered for a little while. He who raised Jesus from the dead will also raise us up with Jesus. He will restore, support, and strengthen us after we have suffered for a little while. Hear our prayers, O Lord, so that what was promised by the sanctifying power of your word may everywhere be accomplished through the working of the gospel, and that all your adopted children may attain what the testimony of truth has foretold, 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.

Closing Devotions And Invitation

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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. Our Lady of Guadalupe, 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 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.