April 19, 2026 ~ Third Sunday of Easter ~ Year A

 Spiritual Reflection

April 19, 2026  ~  Third Sunday of Easter  ~  Year A (pdf)

Then they said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?" Luke 24: 13-35

Faith enables us to overcome pretenses and to see the primary Cause above secondary causes. It allows us to see that all that happens around us does not happen due to man’s power. Faith allows us to discover the traces of God in creation. It gives us the ability to perceive God’s will in phenomena and to see events as signs of God passing by. 

Every moment of our lives is permeated with the Presence that loves and bestows. To live in faith means to be able to see this loving and constantly bestowing Presence. Because of faith, Christ gradually becomes a light that shines through a person’s whole life and that shines through the world. He becomes a living, active presence in the life of His disciples. Every moment of our lives brings us His presence. Time is the Presence written with a capital “P.” It is the presence of Christ in our lives. It is the personal presence of God, revealing Himself as the One who expects something from us. God reveals Himself to us through His will. But what is His will? It is always that which is best for us because God is Love. Every moment of your life is a moment of meeting with the Presence that is loving you. Someone has said that time is the sacrament of the meeting between man and God. This means that every moment is an evangelical gift since it is the Presence that calls us to do something. God links grace to each moment, be it an easy or difficult one. St. Paul says that we live, move, and exist in God (Acts 17:28). It is from Him that we therefore receive not only the gift of our existence but also the gifts of breathing, food, friendship, and the gift of every moment of our lives. . . 

Faith allows us to notice the traces of God’s works in everything, to understand that He is present within us—in our spiritual, emotional, and physical lives. If we know how to see God in everything, our prayer will become a prayer of faith. It will be a prayer not only of words but also a prayer of seeing and admiring the world, a prayer of gratitude for everything that God gives us. 

Through faith we discover that man only seems to be the protagonist in the history of the world; in reality God is the main protagonist. The presence of God throughout history affects equally the things that happen in the realm of politics, society, and the economy, as well as in our family or in professional matters. He is present everywhere, and everything depends on Him. In His hands lie the destinies of all of us, as well as the destinies of nations and of the world. We come to know all this through faith, which brings about inner peace in us. This peace flows from faith that gives us the understanding that He, Who is the eternal might and eternal love, holds everything in His hands filled with mercy. He guides everything with His eternal wisdom and total love. Faith gives us feelings of security and peace, and the confidence that we are always immersed in God’s love.

Tadeusz Dajczer, The Gift of Faith, pp 5-8

References from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

301   With creation, God does not abandon his creatures to themselves. He not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being, enables them to act, and brings them to their final end. Recognizing this utter dependence with respect to the Creator is a source of wisdom and freedom, of joy and confidence: 

For you love all things that exist and detest none of the things that you have made; for you would not have made anything if you had hated it. How would anything have endured if you had not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved? You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the living.

Questions for Reflection

1.          How has God revealed Himself to me this week – through an event, nature, a moment?
2.          What have I discovered was His will in this experience? How can I now see that it was what was best for me?
3.          With our Blessed Mother why, or why not, am I able to be at peace? 

Prayer after Sharing

 Thank you, God, for allowing me to see the truth about my weaknesses and how it calls upon the abyss of your merciful Love.