Good Friday morning. The world kept moving overnight. Here's what happened, and what your faith has to say about it.
✝ Friday of the 3rd week of Eastertide
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Pope Leo XIV
Pope: As a pastor, I cannot be in favor of war; too many innocents have died
On his return flight from Africa, Pope Leo XIV directly addressed the wars in Iran and Lebanon, condemning violence and recalling child victims while reaffirming his pastoral conviction that war claims too many innocent lives. The Pope's personal statement responds directly to today's major global conflicts.
Response to World Events
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John 6:52-59
"The Jews started arguing with one another: ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat. ’ they said. Jesus replied: ‘I tell you most solemnly, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you."
| Rosary Mystery of the Day | |
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Today's Mysteries |
Friday: Sorrowful Mysteries |
Sorrowful Mysteries
- 1. The Agony in the Garden
- 2. The Scourging at the Pillar
- 3. The Crowning with Thorns
- 4. The Carrying of the Cross
- 5. The Crucifixion and Death of Our Lord
The Objection
"Why do Catholics pray to saints? They're dead. The Bible says there's only one mediator between God and man."
The Catholic Response
Catholics don't pray to saints as if they were gods; we ask them to intercede for us, the same way you'd ask a friend to pray for you. The difference is that these friends are alive in Christ. Jesus himself showed that the dead in God are alive when He spoke with Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:3). Paul calls the faithful a single body where each member cares for the others (1 Corinthians 12:25-26), and Revelation 5:8 shows the heavenly elders offering the prayers of the saints to God. The "one mediator" passage in 1 Timothy 2:5 refers to Christ's unique role in salvation, not a ban on asking others to pray, since Paul himself asks for prayers just three verses later (1 Timothy 2:1).
CCC 956 | CCC 2683 | 1 Timothy 2:1-5 | Revelation 5:8 | Matthew 17:3
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Test Your Faith IQ |
Scripture |
In today's first reading, Saul encounters Christ on the road to Damascus. For how many days was Saul blind before Ananias restored his sight?
- A) One day
- B) Three days
- C) Seven days
- D) Forty days
Answer at the bottom of this newsletter.
 Photo: ABC News
ABC News
The U.S. expands its military blockade against Iran following major combat operations launched in late February alongside Israel.
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FAITH & THE WORLD |
Isaiah 2:4 |
"They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again."
Just War Doctrine (CCC 2307-2317)
The Catechism insists that war is only legitimate as a last resort, when all peaceful alternatives have been exhausted and the damage inflicted by the aggressor is lasting, grave, and certain (CCC 2309). As blockades tighten and rhetoric escalates, Catholics are obligated to ask whether the strict conditions of just war are actually being met, or whether Isaiah's vision of peace is being abandoned before it was ever tried.
Reflect → When you hear war described as inevitable, do you accept that framing, or do you push back and pray for the peacemakers?
 Photo: NPR
NPR
Hezbollah and Israel exchanged fire just hours after extending their ceasefire, exposing how thin the line between truce and war really is.
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FAITH & THE WORLD |
Jeremiah 6:14 |
"They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace."
Pacem in Terris (John XXIII, 1963)
John XXIII wrote that true peace is not merely the absence of war but is built on truth, justice, charity, and freedom (Pacem in Terris, 167). A ceasefire that both sides violate within hours is not peace; it is a pause in violence, and Jeremiah would recognize the difference instantly.
Reflect → Where in your own life are you calling something 'resolved' when the real wound hasn't been addressed?
 Photo: TechCrunch
TechCrunch
A U.S. special forces soldier allegedly used classified intelligence about a military operation to win $400,000 on a prediction market.
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FAITH & THE WORLD |
Luke 12:48 |
"Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more."
CCC 2411 (Justice in Contracts and Exchanges)
The Catechism names it plainly: speculation that manipulates the value of goods to the detriment of others is morally illicit (CCC 2409). This soldier was entrusted with secrets meant to protect lives, and he converted them into a gambling payout. That is not cleverness; it is a betrayal of both duty and the common good.
Reflect → What trust has been placed in you, at work or at home, that you'd never dream of exploiting for personal gain?
![[GOOD NEWS] 'Mummified' Fossil Shows 289 Million-yo Skin, Sc](https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Captorhinus-according-to-an-artists-impression-credit-Dr.-Michael-DeBraga.jpg) Photo: Good News Network
Good News Network
Scientists discovered a 289-million-year-old reptile fossil so well preserved it still contains skin, scales, and evidence of the earliest known lung function.
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FAITH & GOOD NEWS |
Genesis 2:7 |
"The Lord God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."
CCC 283 (Faith and Science)
The Church has never been afraid of deep time. The Catechism teaches that scientific discovery and faith illuminate each other, since the same God who breathed life into Adam set the whole unfolding of creation in motion (CCC 159, 283). A 289-million-year-old set of lungs is not a threat to Genesis; it is a staggering footnote to it.
Reflect → Does the sheer age and intricacy of creation fill you with wonder, or do you rush past it?
![[GOOD NEWS] The Beloved Oregon Restaurant Rewriting the Rule](https://reasonstobecheerful.world/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/0_260209-Local-Ocean-Lunch-photo-by-Rachelle-Hacmac-@littlezestypdx-69-scaled.jpg) Photo: Reasons to be Cheerful
Reasons to be Cheerful
A beloved Oregon seafood restaurant is winning fans by sourcing hyper-locally and treating the ocean's bounty with radical care and transparency.
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FAITH & GOOD NEWS |
Genesis 1:28 |
"God blessed them and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea."
Laudato Si' (Pope Francis, 2015)
Pope Francis writes that dominion over creation is not a license to exploit but a call to responsible stewardship: "Each community can take from the bounty of the earth whatever it needs for subsistence, but it also has the duty to protect the earth" (Laudato Si', 67). A restaurant that honors where its food comes from is practicing, whether it knows it or not, the kind of grateful dominion Genesis envisions.
Reflect → The next time you sit down to eat, can you name where your food came from and thank God for the hands that brought it to you?
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DAILY WORD GAME
Test your Catholic vocabulary
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Saint of the Day |
April 24 |
St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen
Before becoming a Capuchin friar, Fidelis was a successful lawyer who earned the nickname 'Advocate of the Poor' because he kept representing destitute clients for free. His wealthy clients grew frustrated that he cared more about justice than billing hours. He eventually quit law altogether, gave his entire fortune to the poor, and joined one of the strictest religious orders in the Church.
His feast day is today, and his radical conversion from worldly success to total self-gift mirrors Saul's transformation in today's first reading from Acts.
Trivia Answer
B . Acts 9:9 tells us Saul was blind for three days and took neither food nor drink. The number three echoes Christ's own three days in the tomb, linking Saul's blindness to a kind of death and his healing to resurrection.
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