Our Lady of Fatima, we come to you on bended knee to ask for Your holy intercession for peace and unity.  Show us the right and shining way.  Each time you appeared in Fatima you promised to help us to banish war and fear if we pray to you.  Dear Lady, we ask your guiding hand for grace and guidance here on earth and protection for our land. Amen.

So much suffering comes from disappointment. We wait for something which we believe will bring us happiness, and it does not arrive. We see only the negative things that have come our way - illness, a child with a handicap - and we close up in anger and rebellion. Human wisdom means coming back down to earth; not closing ourselves up in a beautiful ideal which we must attain, but welcoming reality just as it is; discovering God present in reality; not struggling against reality, but working with it; discovering the seed of life, the possibilities hidden in it. Of course we must have a vision for the future and focus on it, we must have a plan, and be aware of and responsible for the future, but our hope and vision must be rooted in the present. This is Buddhist wisdom, but also Christian - to discover God in the present moment, to be a friend of time and of reality.

Often we think that we do not know enough to be able to teach others. We might
even become hesitant to tell others what we know, out of fear that we won't have
anything left to say when we are asked for more.

This mind-set makes us anxious, secretive, possessive, and self-conscious. But
when we have the courage to share generously with others all that we know, whenever
they ask for it, we soon discover that we know a lot more than we thought. It is
only by giving generously from the well of our knowledge that we discover how deep
that well is.

Lord Jesus, when You passed beyond our sight and into Your heavenly Kingdom You left us with hope.  We know that You are our Leader – and where You go, we hope to follow.  Fill us with hope each and every day so that we will continue to follow in Your footsteps. Amen. 

Lord Jesus, not only are You my Creator and my Redeemer as You are of all humanity, but You are also my special benefactor, You are my friend.  Yes indeed, You are the friend who has shown me Your tenderness in a very special way.  You are my generous friend who has chosen to forget all my ingratitude and love me as intensely as if I had always remained faithful to You.  You have carried me upon Your shoulders.  You have washed my wounds.” 

"May is a month which the piety of the faithful has long dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God. This is the month during which Christians, in their churches and their homes, offer the Virgin Mother more fervent and loving acts of homage and veneration; and it is the month in which a greater abundance for God’s merciful gifts comes down to us from our mother’s throne.”

   ~ Pope Paul VI

. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (New Revised Standard Version)

Jesus is risen

‘He had no form or comeliness that we should look at him,

and no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men;

a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions,

he was bruised for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,

and with his stripes we are healed.’

It was through his littleness and pain,

his brokenness and death,

that Jesus had saved them,

by conquering sin and death and the power of the Evil One.

He had overcome violence,

not by shunning or ignoring it,

but by receiving it

and then transforming it

into tenderness and forgiveness.

By his broken body,

we, the body of humanity,

are made whole,

whoever we are and wherever we are,

whatever our doubts or shame,

our turmoil or anger.

We are healed and can come together

in the fullness of the Body of Christ.

He has penetrated into the depths of darkness,

loneliness, rejection, agony and fear,

in order to touch the depths of darkness

in each one of us

and to call us to belief,

to call us to walk in this world of darkness,

loneliness, rejection, agony and fear –

hoping, trusting in the resurrection.

Page 59f.

Forgiveness is the source and the rock

of those who share their lives:

to forgive each day,

to forgive and forgive and forgive,

and to be forgiven just as many times . . .

Forgiveness is the cement that bonds us together:

it is the source of unity;

it is the quality of love;

that draws togetherness out of separation.

Forgiveness is understanding and holding

the pain of another;

it is compassion.

Forgiveness is the acceptance of our own brokenness,

yours and mine.

Forgiveness is letting go of unrealistic expectations of others

and of the desire that they be other than they are.

Forgiveness is liberating others to be themselves,

not making them feel guilty for what may have been.

Forgiveness is to help people flower, bear fruit,

and discover their own beauty.

Forgiveness does not need the drama of tears

and emotional hugging.

It is a simple gesture,

signifying that we are together, part of the one body,

called by Jesus

in a covenant with one another.

Forgiveness is peace‑making:

struggling to create unity,

to build one body,

to heal the broken body of humanity.

Forgiveness is to follow Jesus,

to be like him,

for he came to give and to forgive,

to take from the shoulders of people

the yoke of guilt that locks them

into a prison of sadness and sterility,

and prevents them from flowing and living freely.

Page 106f.

Before being a commandment,

the words of Jesus, ‘Love your enemies,’ are a promise:

‘I will give you my spirit

to do what you cannot do by yourself.’

‘I will teach you compassion,

how to love and forgive those who hurt you,

who criticize you behind your back,

who limit your freedom,

who prevent you from living,

who reject you,

who abandon you,

who stifle you,

who slap you in the face.’

With Jesus the impossible becomes possible.

Spirit of the living God,
Fall afresh on me.
Spirit of the living God,
Fall afresh on me.
Break me, melt me,
Mold me, fill me,
Spirit of the living God,
Fall afresh on me.

Heavenly Father, forgive me my sins.  I know right from wrong but this doesn’t mean I always follow the right path.  I thank You, Lord, for never giving up on me.  No matter my faults, You remain by my side.  For that I will be forever grateful. Amen.