5th Sunday after Easter

This Sunday we hear from St. James. He is the Apostle who tells us that "Faith without good works is dead." Today he tells us: "For is a man be a hearer of the word and not a doer; he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a glass. For he beheld himself and went his way, and presently forgot what manner of man he was."

We don't want to become like that guy. Pay attention!

True piety, as St. James here says, consists not only in knowing and recognizing the word of God, but in living according to its precepts and teachings; in subduing the tongue, the most dangerous and injurious of all our members; in being charitable to the poor and destitute, and in contemning the world, its false principles, foolish customs and scandalous example, against which we should guard, that we may not become infected and polluted by them. Test thyself, whether thy life be of this kind.

Then, in the Gospel of St. John, we hear Jesus telling us to ask the Father in His Name anything and it will be granted. This, of course, depends if that request is going to help our soul, and its' deliverance to eternal life. Just think, ask. And, remember, sometimes God says NO. Hard to imagine, isn't it?

A--ask
S--seek
K--knock

ASK. Get it?

We always ask in the Name of Jesus, and finish our prayers with His Name. By this is meant praying with confidence in the merits of Jesus. St. Cyril says: "Who, being God with the Father, gives us all good, and as mediator carries our petitions to His Father." The Church, therefore concludes all her prayers with the words: "Through our Lord, Jesus Christ." It means also that we should ask that which is in accordance with the will of Christ, namely, all things necessary for the salvation of our soul; to pray for temporal things merely in order to live happily in this world, is not pleasing to Christ and avails us nothing. St. Augustine says: "He who prays for what hinders salvation, does not pray in the name of Jesus." Thus Jesus said to His disciples: Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; "because," as St. Gregory says, "they did not ask for that which conduces to eternal salvation." And, remember this, that sometimes God says "NO", because He knows what is good for our souls. He doesn't 'un'-answer prayers!


Here is a prayer to the Holy Ghost that we should learn by heart. It's short, so even us old people, with our limited memory, can learn it.

HOLY GHOST, GOD OF LIGHT, REALLY AND TRULY IN MY SOUL, GIVE ME THY BLESSED LIGHT, THAT I MAY SEE ALL THINGS CLEARLY.