Today in 10 Seconds
Gospel: Jesus promises a place prepared in heaven Rosary: Glorious Mysteries Pope: Faith frees us from earthly anxieties ABC News: Search intensifies for two missing US soldiers ABC News: Israel and Hezbollah clash amid nuclear talks Saint: Philip demands proof of the divine
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John 14:1-12
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Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.
The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,
or else, believe because of the works themselves.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,
and will do greater ones than these,
because I am going to the Father.""
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Test Your Faith IQ |
Scripture |
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In today's Gospel, Jesus says 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.' How many total 'I AM' statements does Jesus make in John's Gospel?
Answer at the bottom of this newsletter.
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The Objection
"Why do Catholics pray to saints? They're dead. The Bible says there's only one mediator between God and man, which is Jesus."
The Catholic Response
Catholics agree completely that Jesus is the one mediator (1 Timothy 2:5). But that same passage, two verses earlier, urges believers to make "supplications, prayers, and intercessions" for one another (1 Timothy 2:1). If you can ask a friend on earth to pray for you, why not a friend in heaven? The Church teaches that the saints are not dead but alive in Christ (CCC 956), and their prayers before God's throne are described in Revelation 5:8, where the elders hold golden bowls full of incense, "which are the prayers of the holy ones."
CCC 956 | CCC 2683 | 1 Timothy 2:1-5 | Revelation 5:8 | Hebrews 12:1
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 Photo: Vatican News
VATICAN NEWS
Pope Leo XIV used Sunday's Regina Caeli prayer to tell Christians that faith liberates us from anxiety about possessions and status, calling believers to reveal fraternity and peace to the world. His words offer a counter-cultural spiritual challenge in an age of endless striving.
 Photo: ABC News
ABC News
Two U.S. service members are missing after multinational military exercises in Morocco, with search efforts underway.
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FAITH & THE WORLD |
Psalm 139:7-10 |
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"Where can I go from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee? If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, there you are. If I take the wings of dawn and dwell beyond the sea, even there your hand guides me."
CCC 2104, Duty to Seek God; Military Chaplaincy and Pastoral Care
Two families tonight are staring at phones, waiting for news that may not come. Psalm 139 is the prayer for exactly this kind of anguish: the insistence that no place on earth, no desert or sea, falls outside God's reach. The Church has always held that those who serve in the defense of others perform an act of charity (CCC 2310), and our duty now is to hold them in prayer with the ferocity their sacrifice deserves.
Reflect → When was the last time you stopped everything to pray for a stranger in danger?
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 Photo: ABC News
ABC News
Israel and Hezbollah are exchanging attacks while diplomatic signals about Iran's nuclear program send mixed messages about whether hostilities have truly ended.
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FAITH & THE WORLD |
Jeremiah 6:14 |
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"They have treated lightly the injury to my people: 'Peace, peace!' they say, though there is no peace."
CCC 2304, Peace Is Not Merely the Absence of War
Declaring hostilities "terminated" while missiles are still flying is the kind of false peace Jeremiah warned about 2,600 years ago. The Catechism is blunt: authentic peace requires justice, not just a ceasefire (CCC 2304). Peace built on a press release crumbles; peace built on the common good endures.
Reflect → Where in your own life are you calling something 'resolved' that you know isn't?
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![[GOOD NEWS] The Pandemic May Have Changed Young People for t](https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Lori-Peek-works-with-youth-volunteers-in-Gulf-Coast-after-Hurricane-Katrina-with-the-SHOREline-program-courtesy-of-CU-Boulder-Today.jpg) Photo: Good News Network
Good News Network
Research suggests the pandemic's hardships actually made many young people more resilient and community-minded, with teens stepping up as ambulance drivers and volunteers.
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FAITH & GOOD NEWS |
Romans 5:3-4 |
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"We even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope."
CCC 1508, Redemptive Suffering; Gaudium et Spes 10
The world spent years mourning what the pandemic took from young people. Paul would not be surprised that suffering also gave them something: endurance that ripened into character (Romans 5:3-4). The Church has always taught that God wastes nothing, not even the worst seasons of our lives.
Reflect → What hardship in your past turned out to be the thing that made you who you are today?
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DAILY WORD GAME
Test your Catholic vocabulary
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| Rosary Mystery of the Day | |
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Today's Mysteries |
Sunday: Glorious Mysteries |
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Glorious Mysteries
- 1. The Resurrection
- 2. The Ascension
- 3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit
- 4. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
- 5. The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
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Saint of the Day |
April 29 |
Saints Philip and James, Apostles
Philip is the apostle who, in today's Gospel, blurts out "Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us," prompting Jesus's slightly exasperated reply: "Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me?" It's one of the most awkward exchanges in the New Testament. Philip had been following Jesus for three years and still didn't fully get it. Patron saint of every honest doubter who stays in the room anyway.
Philip's feast day falls on May 3, and he appears directly in today's Gospel (John 14:8-9), making his honest confusion the perfect entry point into Jesus's teaching on being the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Trivia Answer
C . Jesus makes seven 'I AM' statements in John's Gospel: the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Gate, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way/Truth/Life, and the True Vine. The number seven in Jewish tradition signifies completeness, reinforcing John's portrait of Jesus as the fullness of God's revelation.
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