An ancient story, retold famously by St. Jerome, is that in the final years of St. John the Apostle he lived in exile in a cave on Patmos Island. A small community of Christians lived on the coast and each Sunday they hiked up the mountain to pray with and  listen to the Apostle. Every week St. John told them “children, love one another.” The Christians nodded their heads and seemed to take this message to heart.

After many Sundays of this one of the community rose at the end of the visit and asked him, very humbly, “Holy Father, we have heard you say ‘love one another’ every week. Why do you keep repeating it?”

The old Apostle responded, “My children, I repeat this to you so often because Our Lord repeated it so often to us apostles.”

Indeed, in the Gospel according to John and his letters we read this sacred commandment very often: “Love one another” and “as I have loved you, you must love one another.”

We read and hear it so often that perhaps we are like that early Christian flock. We think we have this one figured out and we’re ready to move on to the next lesson…

Yet Our Blessed Lord kept repeating it and named loving God and neighbor as the Greatest Commandment. So, He must have known we needed to keep hearing it!

Looking just at my own life, and also listening to confessions, and reading the news, I can understand why Jesus - and then His apostles - keeps reminding us. We need to love one another, whether it be in forgiveness, patience, generosity, works of mercy and kindness. It’s obvious but difficult.

In our quiet personal and family prayer this week let’s consider what this most basic commandment means in our particular lives. Get concrete. John writes that Jesus is advocating to His Father for us, so let’s count on this help to love one another.

---

This month we priests are celebrating our anniversaries of priestly ordination:

April 6 - Fr. Tom (1974)
April 11 - Fr. David (2015)
April 15 - Fr. Andrew (2023)
April 27 - Fr. Brian (2019)

Congratulations to my brothers and please pray for us! We are so grateful to you for your support and encouragement- but most especially your prayers. We’re blessed by the Lord to be serving in Arizona. Count on our prayers for you all and your families. We always remember: the family that prays together stays together.

In Christ,

Fr. David

BACK TO LIST BACK