Reflection for 17 May 2026: Seventh Sunday of Easter (Year A)
“All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers” (Acts 1:14).
Dear Marian Helpers and Members of our Marian Family,
The more I study Church History and the histories and traditions of the Church’s many religious orders, the more I realise that practically every movement for reform and renewal in the Church has been an attempt to return to the zeal, faith, and fervour of those first Christians.
We see that faith in action today in our reading from the Acts of the Apostles. They are gathered as a community in prayer united with one another and with the Lord. With them is Mary, interceding for and with them, guiding them, guarding them, loving them with her maternal care. The Apostles are also there too, the leaders of the Church that Christ has founded. They pray earnestly and fervently for the outpouring of the Spirit, the Spirit that Jesus had promised to send.
And He did! He did so because of His love for us, because He knows that we need all the heavenly help that we can get. He did it through their prayers, through the prayers of Mary, the prayers of the Apostles, and through the obedience of all those present to Jesus and His Church. There is always grace in obedience, even if that obedience is difficult.
If we pray as we ought, with hearts and souls open to the Lord, we receive His Spirit which not only strengthens, but purifies. This is the Spirit that allows us to turn away from sin and more and more to God. We seek to follow the words of St. Peter and put away the misdeeds and bad habits that we have picked up over the years. Instead, relying on the Holy Spirit and putting in some effort ourselves, we can overcome all of those things, replacing them with good habits, good deeds, and right attitudes.
We are not of the world, but are in the world. Through our holy living of praying and participating in the life of the Church and our loving lives of kindness and service, we can reform our families, our communities, and, most importantly, ourselves.
May God bless you now and always!
Fr Alex Pumphrey, MIC
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Contact Father Alex at info@divinemercy.org.uk
Please send us your prayer intentions! (click here). We will place them at the foot of our altar in the Divine Mercy Apostolate’s Chapel here in West Ealing, London and will remember them in our daily Chaplets of Divine Mercy.
