Announcing:
Saint Mary's Press winner for the week of April 25, 2011!

Congratulations to William Jordan!

William will receive a copy of The Catholic Youth Prayer Book, a a $18.95 value.

Help youth understand the meaning of Christian prayer. Introduce them to traditional and devotional prayers of the Church, as well as to contemporary styles and methods. Assist youth in developing the habit of daily prayer. This all-in-one resource for prayer forms was specially written for teens, in the PRAY IT! STUDY IT! LIVE IT!® model, like The Catholic Youth Bible® and The Catholic Faith Handbook for Youth. It is the most expansive prayer book for teens. But The Catholic Youth Prayer Book does more than teach about prayer. It helps teens become prayerful people.

The Catholic Youth Prayer Book
ISBN: 978-0-88489-559-6, paper, 232 pages

National Teacher Day

When I was growing up, both of my parents were educators in the public school system. I cannot tell you the number of times I was out with one of my parents and we would bump into one of their former students or coworkers, or a parent of one of their students. Often these encounters would include the person turning to me and saying, "Your dad made a huge difference in my life" or "Your mom really helped my child." When I was young, I didn’t think much about these exchanges. In reflecting on this as an adult, these exchanges were moments of grace that affirmed the blessing my parents are to me and to the youth they served. It also solidified for me the important role educators play in our communities and in the lives of young people, and it has in some way contributed to the careers I have chosen.

Tuesday, May 3, is National Teacher Day. This is a day to affirm and thank educators for the important contributions they make in the lives of young people, in our families, and in the larger community. The National Education Association has developed resources in support of National Teacher Day.

We at Saint Mary’s Press are proud to be in partnership with the wonderful men and women who minister tirelessly as educators. It is not always easy to see, but the contribution these teachers are making in the lives of young people is priceless. On Tuesday, May 3, I encourage you to take a moment to thank your children’s teachers or to contact one of your former teachers to show your gratitude. And thank you to all of the teachers reading this; you truly are appreciated and a blessing to the youth you educate! I pray that you have a blessed Easter season, and as always, I pray that God will continue to bless you and your ministry.

Peace,
Steven McGlaun

Click Here for More Information

John, chapters 20–21; Matthew, chapter 28; Mark, chapter 16;Luke, chapter 24

A "talk show" with questions from a live audience allows the students to address the four different Gospel accounts of the Resurrection and the nature of the risen Jesus.

1. Have the students prepare for this activity by reading John, chapters 20–21, Matthew, chapter 28, Mark, chapter 16, and Luke, chapter 24.

2. Divide the class into nine groups for two talk show episodes. The first episode will cover initial experiences of and reactions to the Resurrection and will feature groups assigned to these readings:

- Jn 20:1–18
- Mt 28:1–10
- Mk 16:1–8
- Lk 24:1–12

The second episode will cover post-Resurrection encounters with the risen
Jesus and will include groups assigned to these readings:

- Jn 20:19–29
- Jn 21:1–23
- Mt 28:16–20
- Lk 24:13–35
- Lk 24:36–43
Let the students know that you will act as the host of the show.

3. Direct the groups each to read their assigned passage and to prepare to play the roles in that reading. Mention that the students need to imagine what it was like to experience the Resurrection and then reflect on how it affected the lives of those involved.

4. Stage the first talk show episode, with you interviewing the students playing the characters from the first set of Scripture readings, and the students assigned to the second set of readings serving as the audience. Solicit the various versions of what happened at the tomb, and allow the audience to ask questions about the event. Encourage discussion about the variety of accounts, the nature of the risen Jesus, the power of the Resurrection on the people’s lives, and so on.

In this episode, there will likely be more than one Mary Magdalene, Peter, and so on, each representing a different account. Challenge the students to think about how the differences in accounts emerged. Help them to understand this by having them consider a powerful experience in their own lives and the different ways that people present could describe it.

Host the second episode of the talk show in a similar fashion, inviting related questions and discussion.

5. Given the variety of accounts, help the students arrive at the basic version of what happened at the tomb and the essence of an encounter with the resurrected Jesus.

Second Sunday of Easter
May 1, 2011
John 20:19-31

Opening Prayer
Jesus, help us in our doubting. As the disciples encountered you and believed in your risen glory, may we also experience you and believe in you. Bless us with grace so that we can believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, even though we have not seen you with our own eyes. Amen.

Context Connection
Last Sunday we had the Gospel story of the empty tomb. This Sunday's Gospel takes place later on the same day. In the verses between these two stories is an account of Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene, 20:11-18. After conversing with Mary Magdalene, Jesus instructs her to go and tell the disciples of their encounter. "Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, 'I have seen the Lord'" (20:18). In verse 19 the disciples are gathered together on the first day of the week. They have locked themselves in a house because they fear the Jews. Yet despite the locked door, Jesus stands among them and greets them: "Peace be with you" (20:19). Jesus speaks this greeting to calm the disciples' fear. Immediately Jesus shows the disciples his wounds from the Crucifixion: "He showed them his hands and his side" (20:20). This is all it takes to restore these disciples' hope in Jesus. "Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord" (20:20).

Next, Jesus commissions the disciples to continue his work in the world, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (20:21). Jesus ends the commissioning by breathing on them as God the Creator did at the creation of the world in Genesis 2:7. As a permanent gift, Jesus gives the disciples the Holy Spirit with further instructions: "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (20:23). (See the Catholic Connections article in The Catholic Youth Bible® near John 20:21-23 regarding the sacrament of Reconciliation.)

On the first day of the next week, Sunday, Jesus again appears to the disciples. This time Thomas, who was absent the week before, is also there. When the disciples told Thomas about the earlier appearance of Jesus, he responded with conditional faith, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe" (20:25). Thomas sets conditions on his belief that the crucified Jesus now has risen. We do not see him deny the possibility of resurrection. Yet Thomas insists that he has requirements that the risen body of Jesus must fulfill in order for him to believe. Jesus again greets them: "Peace be with you" (20:26). Without delay he invites Thomas to put his finger in the wounds in his hands and to put his hand in his side. Jesus offers to meet Thomas's conditions but also challenges him to reach beyond his conditional faith. While Jesus is presenting his wounds to Thomas for him to probe, he speaks these words, "Do not doubt but believe" (20:27). Thomas answers with a profound statement of faith, "My Lord and my God!" (20:28). Thomas discovers that the risen Jesus is the crucified Jesus. Then Jesus makes this final statement, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe" (20:29).

John concludes chapter 20 by talking about his purpose for writing this Gospel. What we read in verses 30 and 31 relates directly to what is written in the first chapter. John's Gospel comes full circle and ends where it began. John wants to make clear to his readers the true identity of Jesus: "that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God" (20:31), and that fullness of life comes through believing in Jesus the Christ.

Tradition Connection
Jesus's Resurrection is significant because it confirms that Jesus is the Son of God; all his teachings are true, and new life comes forth from death. Because we now know that there is life after death, the suffering and pain we endure in this life are tolerable because something far better is yet to come. Peter writes: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3).

Jesus's Resurrection was not a return to an earthly existence. Rather, it was a transformation to a reality that no longer held human limitations. "Christ's Resurrection was not a return to earthly life, as was the case with the raisings from the dead that he had performed before Easter: Jairus' daughter, the young man of Naim, Lazarus. . . . At some particular moment they would die again. Christ's Resurrection is essentially different. In his risen body he passes from the state of death to another life beyond time and space. At Jesus' Resurrection his body is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit: he shares the divine life in his glorious state" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 646).

Jesus's Resurrection is a mystery we come to believe in because of the empty tomb and the witness of the disciples who encountered the risen Jesus.
No one was an eyewitness to Christ's Resurrection and no evangelist describes it. No one can say how it came about physically. Still less was its innermost essence, his passing over to another life, perceptible to the senses. Although the Resurrection was an historical event that could be verified by the sign of the empty tomb and by the reality of the apostles' encounters with the risen Christ, still it remains at the very heart of the mystery of faith as something that transcends and surpasses history. This is why the risen Christ does not reveal himself to the world, but to his disciples, "to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people." 1 (Catechism, paragraph 647)

The mystery of the Resurrection of Jesus continues to be the source of hope for the Christian community today.

Wisdom Connection
Jesus's appearance in the midst of the disciples on that first Easter Sunday renewed their hope. Just three days earlier their hopes had been shattered when Jesus had died on the cross. Now in seeing the wounds in Jesus's hands and side they know that the risen Jesus is the same person as the crucified Jesus. Seeing the risen Jesus strengthens their faith. Thomas, however, wants tangible proof that this is indeed the same Jesus and that the other disciples had not been deceived by their own eyes. In Greek, the word used for putting his finger in the nail wounds and putting his hand into Jesus's side is "balo." It carries the action of thrusting his finger and hand into the wound. Such a vivid and forceful action definitely proves that the risen Jesus and the crucified Jesus are the same person.

John gives us a second model of coming to believe in Christ. Last Sunday the beloved disciple, John, experienced the empty tomb and believed. This Sunday Thomas seeks empirical evidence so he can believe. How one comes to believe in Jesus is not important, what Jesus stresses is, "Do not doubt but believe" (20:27). Jesus challenges us not to persist in our unbelief. Rather, we must simply believe! John concludes with a statement that sounds like a beatitude: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe" (20:29).

The early Christian community to whom John is writing, and indeed all Christian communities, are called to proclaim their belief in Jesus as the Messiah based upon the faith Tradition of the Church. We have not encountered the risen Jesus as the disciples did, nor have we placed our finger and hand in the risen Jesus's wounds. But we are all called to believe because of the witness of the first disciples. Today we trust and have faith in the first Christian community's witness of Easter. Are we able to make the same profession of faith as Thomas in recognizing the true identity of Jesus, "My Lord and my God!" (20:28)?

Acknowledgments
The scriptural quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Catholic Edition. Copyright © 1993 and 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

The quotations labeled Catechism are from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America. Copyright © 1994 by the United States Catholic Conference, Inc.--Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.

The Lord's Prayer is taken from Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers. Copyright © 1988 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc., Washington, DC. All rights reserved.

Endnotes Cited in Quotations from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
1. Acts 13:31; cf. John 14:22.

Saint Gianna Beretta Molla

April 28 is the memorial for Saint Gianna Beretta Molla.

Gianna was born in 1922 in Milan, Italy, into a large, pious family. She was a wife, mother, and pediatrician. Facing a difficult delivery of her fourth child, she made it clear that if the doctors could save only one person, they should save her child. The baby was delivered, but Gianna died from the complications. Gianna was canonized in 2004 and is the patron saint of pregnant women and against abortion.

For more information about Saint Gianna Beretta Molla, go to http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-gianna-beretta-molla/.