Project BLACK MAMBA: Sixth Sunday of Easter

'Tis the Sixth Sunday of Easter: Paschal-link & Wikipedia-link Easter.

Scripture of the Week
Mass Readings—Sixth Sunday of Easter
The Acts of the Apostles, chapter eight, verses five thru eight & fourteen thru seventeen;
Psalm Sixty-six, verses one, two, & three; four & five; six & seven; sixteen; & twenty;
The First Letter of Peter, chapter three, verses fifteen thru eighteen;
The Gospel according to John, chapter fourteen, verses fifteen thru twenty-one.

Commentary: Video Easter Gospel reflection by Jeff Cavins: Encountering the Word.

Easter Gospel reflection by Bishop Robert Barron (Word on Fire):

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus promises to send us the Spirit of Truth who will make us intimate friends of God. The Holy Spirit is the love shared by the Father and the Son. We have access to this holy heart of God only because the Father sent the Son into the world, into our dysfunction, even to the limits of godforsakenness—and thereby gathered all of the world into the dynamism of the divine life.

Those who live in Christ are not outside of God as petitioners or supplicants; rather they are in God as friends, sharers in the Spirit. And this spiritual life is what gives us knowledge of God, a knowledge, if you will, from within.

When the great masters of the Christian way speak of knowing God, they do not use the term in its distanced, analytical sense; they use it in the Biblical sense, implying knowledge by way of personal intimacy. This is why St. Bernard, for one, insists that initiates in the spiritual life know God, not simply through books and lectures, but through experience, the way one friend knows another. That knowledge is what the Holy Spirit facilitates.

Otherwise, 21 May would be the festival of Saint Godric of Finchale, Hermit (circa 1065-1170): Saint-link & Wikipedia-link.

'Twould also be the festival of Saint Cristóbal Magallanes Jara, Priest, & Companions, Martyrs (1869-1927, Anglicized as Christopher Magallanes; A.K.A. the Martyrs of the Mexican Revolution), martyred in the reign of the president Plutarco Calles: Martyr-link Charlie Mike Juliett, Martyrs-link ūnus, Martyrs-link duo, & Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Wayback Machine. Quoth the Holy Family bulletin:

St. Christopher, twenty-one diocesan priests, & three lay faithful were martyred for being a part of the Cristeros movement against the anti-Catholic Mexican government during the 920s. St. Christopher had erected a seminary at Totatiche & ministered to the people secretly. When imprisoned, he was heard to shout from his cell: "I am innocent & I die innocent. I forgive with all my heart those responsible for my death, & I ask God that the shedding of my blood serve the peace of our divided Mexico."

Mass Journal: Week 21
Reflection by Matthew Kelly, founder of the Dynamic Catholic Institute:

In every age, there [is] a small number of men & women who are prepared to turn their backs on popular culture & personal gain to embrace heroically the life Jesus outlines in the Gospels. These [persons] fashion Catholicism into a lifestyle, they listen attentively to the voice of God in their lives, & they passionately pursue their personal adventure of salvation. As a result, they capture the attention & the imaginations of everyone who crosses their path.