May 16, 2026  ·  Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter

God, come to my assistance.

— Lord, make haste to help me.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

— as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Alleluia.

🔔  Sacred Silence(indicated by a bell) A moment to reflect and receive in our hearts the full resonance of the voice of the Holy Spirit and to unite our personal prayer more closely with the word of God and public voice of the Church.

God has given us a new birth into a living hope, alleluia.

— By raising Jesus Christ from the dead, alleluia.

LECTIO I

1 John 3:18–24

“Love in Truth and Dees”

My children, our love is not to be just words or mere talk, but something real and active; only by this can we be certain that we are children of the truth and be able to quieten our conscience in his presence, whatever accusations it may raise against us, because God is greater than our conscience and he knows everything.

My dear people, if we cannot be condemned by our own conscience, we need not be afraid in God’s presence, and whatever we ask him, we shall receive, because we keep his commandments and live the kind of life that he wants. His commandments are these: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and that we love one another as he told us to.

Whoever keeps his commandments lives in God and God lives in him. We know that he lives in us by the Spirit that he has given us.

℟. Our love is not to be just words or mere talk, * but something real and active; only by this can we be certain that we are children of the truth, alleluia.

℣. Whoever keeps his commandments lives in God and God lives in him. * But something real and active; only by this can we be certain that we are children of the truth, alleluia.

LECTIO II

From an Easter Sermon by Saint Gaudentius of Brescia, Bishop

“The Mystery of the Passover Is Complete in Us

The mystery of the Passover which we have been celebrating through these weeks of Easter is not a memory we visit and then leave. It is a reality that is meant to become our daily mode of existence. Christ has crossed over from death to life. The Bride of Christ is called to make that same crossing, not once in some moment of extraordinary grace, but in every act, every day, through the whole of the ordinary life the Spirit inhabits.

John writes to little children, and he calls them to a love that is real and active. This is the Passover in practical form. The soul who loves in truth and in deed is a soul who is continuously crossing over — from the death of self-love into the life of God’s love, from the death of performance into the life of genuine self-gift, from the death of words alone into the life of incarnate action.

As we stand on the eve of the Ascension, the Church asks us to feel the particular quality of this moment. The Lord is about to go where we cannot yet follow in the body. But he does not leave us orphaned. He leaves us his Spirit, and with the Spirit, the capacity to love in the very way that he has loved — in truth and in deed, with our whole life, as a real and active gift.

℟. God is love; those who live in love live in God, * and God lives in them, alleluia.

℣. We ourselves have known and put our faith in God’s love towards ourselves. * And God lives in them, alleluia.

THE REFLECTION

Tomorrow the Church celebrates the Ascension of the Lord. But in this Saturday evening vigil, John gives us the preparation we need by a very concrete directive: “Our love is not to be just words or mere talk, but something real and active.” Everything the Ascension means, Christ carrying our humanity into the presence of the Father, the opening of heaven to the creature, the promise of the Spirit… becomes actual and operative in us only to the degree that our love is real and active.

This is what the Divine Will asksof us, not extraordinary spiritual experiences, but rather real andactive love in each act, each hour, each ordinary moment. The Fiat isnot a prayer to be said in the morning, But rather it is preciselythe “making-real” and “making-active” of the love that theDivine Will has poured into the soul. The morning act is the soul’sway of saying: today, whatever I do, I will not let it be words onlyor mere talk. I will let Jesus make it something “divinely real andactive”. “Real” because done in the Divine Will, and “Active”because it penetrates to every creature ever made.

As our soul genuinely tries to love in truth and deed, we will always find our conscience raising accusations. But “God is greater than our conscience.” The Divine Will knows the places where our love was still too self involved, still too conditional, still too small. But God is greater. He sees not just the imperfection but the orientation. He sees the will that was trying, however imperfectly, to be real and active in love. And he knows everything — including what we were intending for even when we fell short.

Soon this Ascension vigil evening: let our Prevenient Act intend tolove in truth and deed, not in words only, as we pray: “Most SacredHeart of Jesus,Ibeg of you the grace to allow our Mother and Luisa to form in me thedivine acts you purchased for me and for everyone. I am nothing andGod is all, come Divine Will. Come heavenly Father to beat in myheart and move in my Will; come beloved Son to flow in my blood andthink in my intellect; come Holy Spirit to breath my lungs and recallin my memory.Mayevery one of my acts today be a real and active movement of Jesus inmy soul through the Divine Will carrying my Fiat on behalf of everysoul into the presence of the Father. With Our Mother Mary, we placethis day entirely into her Fiat and we say, with her, the word thatis the beginning of all things.”

Fiat.

Amen.