Daily prayer
to St. Jude

O kindSaint-Jude, our faithful intercessor to Jesus, receive the following special intentions : to present them to the Almighty Lord, Root of all good. Above all, grant us an increase of our faith in His love. May each day find us closer in our relationship with our Heavenly Father. KindSaint-Jude, you who has revived hope in our hearts, you whose model merits and life bring us the divine blessings and graces, be our advocate, and lead us to Jesus and Mary. With you, blessed apostle, we give thanks and praise God with all our heart for His innumerable kindnesses. Amen.

The Monthly Note

April 2005

An experience to live as a Church

by Fr. Émery Désilets, OP

During all the Easter period, we relive the Apostles’ and first Christians’ faith experience. They lived this experience as a community, as a Church. The facts of this matter are clear, significant and eloquent.

Let us think of the women who, along with Mary of Madgdela, went to the tomb in the early hours of Easter morning: immediately, they tell the Apostles and their companions what they saw and heard. There is a back and forth between the tomb and the place where the Apostles are assembled. Then, people are brought together around the Apostles and their companions. The disciples of Emmaus, after having recognized the Risen Christ at the breaking of the bread, immediately returned to Jerusalem to share their faith experience with the Apostles. On Easter evening, the Risen Christ manifested himself in the midst of the Apostles, but Thomas was absent. Eight days later, the disciples were gathered and Thomas was with them. Jesus once again appeared to them. It is then that Thomas let out his cry of faith: « My Lord and my God! ».

All this brings out the importance of community, of gathering, of the liturgical celebration during these gatherings and of the common and ecclesial sharing at the base of their faith experience. We can even say that the first Christian community was the archetypal sign of the Risen Christ.

We who have made ours their faith experience, it is also as a community, as a Church, in communion with one and other that we have to live our faith experience. Christ is still present in our gatherings in His Word, in our fraternal communion, in the breaking of the bread and in our collective prayer. It is together, in communion with one and other, that we experience Christ’s presence and action among us, that we become a sign of the Risen Christ.

During the Easter period, may we, as a Church, live a deep faith experience and, as the Eleven and their companions, reach a strong faith in Jesus’ resurrection, a faith that sets us on the road of testimony and mission.

Émery Désilets, o.p. Director

«Now a week later his disciples were again inside» (Jn 20, 26)