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🕯️ Saturday, April 4, 2026 The Longest Day No Mass Till The Vigil Photo created by James Dacey, Jr. using Co-Pilot. Holy Saturday • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II ✝️ Today The Church observes a sacred fast today. There is no Mass until the Easter Vigil tonight. 📖 The Word Today No Gospel is being read at morning prayer today. Just silence. The tomb is sealed. The disciples are scattered and terrified. Mary Magdalene is weeping somewhere. Peter is hiding. John is with Our Lady. And Jesus, the Word made flesh, is silent in the tomb. 🙏 Reflection This is the longest day of the year. Yesterday He died. Tomorrow, He rises. But today, nothing. Just the sealed stone in front of the tomb and the silence and the longest Saturday in human history. The disciples didn't know about tomorrow. They just knew about yesterday. They had watched Him die. They had seen the stone rolled across the entrance. And now they sat in their locked room with their grief and their confusion and thei...
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🕯️ Friday, April 3, 2026 It Is Finished And Yet, It Is Just Beginning Photo created by James Dacey, Jr. using Co-Pilot. Good Friday • The Passion of the Lord • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II ✝️ Today's Mass Readings First Reading: Isaiah 52:13- 53:12 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25 Second Reading: Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9 Gospel: John 18:1- 19:42 📖 The Gospel He was arrested. Tried. Scourged. Crowned with thorns. Condemned. He carried His cross. He was nailed to it. He said, “I thirst.” He said, "It is finished." He bowed His head and handed over His spirit. 🙏 Reflection Jesus died. The Son of God, the I AM, the Living Water, the Resurrection and the Life, the one who called Lazarus out of the tomb, was nailed to a cross outside Jerusalem and died today. Isaiah had seen it coming seven centuries earlier: He was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. The punishment that made us whole fell on him. We had all gone astray. And the L...
Location: Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA
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🕯️ Thursday, April 2, 2026 Jesus Got Down on His Knees …and He Washed Their Feet Photo created by James Dacey, Jr using Co-Pilot. Holy Thursday • The Mass of the Lord's Supper • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II ✝️ Today's Mass Readings First Reading: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 116:12-13, 15-16, 17-18 Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 Gospel: John 13:1-15 📖 The Gospel Before the Passover feast, Jesus rises from supper, ties a towel around His waist, and begins to wash His disciples' feet. Peter protests, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus says, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Then Jesus says, "Do you understand what I have done? I have given you an example. As I have done, so you must do. 🙏 Reflection The God of the universe got down on His knees tonight and washed dirty feet. Think about that for a moment. The hands that formed the stars untied sandals and cleaned the dust of the road off twelve sets of feet, incl...
Location: Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA
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🕯️ Wednesday, April 1, 2026 The Chief Priests Paid Judas 30 Pieces of Silver to Betray Jesus Photo created by James Dacey, Jr. using Co-Pilot. Spy Wednesday • Wednesday of Holy Week • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II ✝️ Today's Mass Readings First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 69:8-10, 21-22, 31, 33-34 Gospel: Matthew 26:14-25 📖 The Gospel Judas goes to the chief priests and asks, what are you willing to give me if I hand Him over to you? They pay him thirty pieces of silver. From that moment, he looks for an opportunity to hand Him over. Meanwhile, Jesus says to His disciples, go into the city, prepare the Passover for us. 🙏 Reflection Spy Wednesday. The day everything goes quietly before the storm. Judas is counting his silver on one side of the city. Jesus is preparing the Passover on the other hand. Two completely different kinds of preparation are happening simultaneously, one for betrayal, one for the greatest gift ever given. Isaiah describes ...
Location: Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA
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🕯️ Tuesday, March 31, 2026 Will You Betray Me Too? Photo created by James Dacey, Jr. using Co-Pilot Tuesday of Holy Week • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II ✝️ Today's Mass Readings First Reading: Isaiah 49:1-6 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 71:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 15, 17 Gospel: John 13:21-33, 36-38 📖 The Gospel At the Last Supper, Jesus is troubled in spirit and says plainly, "One of you will betray me." The disciples look at each other. Peter signals to John, asking him who it is. Jesus says, it is the one to whom I hand this morsel. He hands it to Judas. And immediately Judas goes out. And it was night. Then Jesus turns to Peter, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times. 🙏 Reflection Two betrayals. One dramatic, one desperate. Judas walks out into the night with a plan already forming. Peter sits at the table full of confidence, Lord, I will lay down my life for you, with absolutely no idea what the next few hours will cost him. Here is the uncomfortable tru...
Location: Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA
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🕯️ Monday, March 30, 2026 Monday of Holy Week She Poured It All Out Photo created by James Dacey, Jr. using Co-Pilot. Monday of Holy Week • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II ✝️ Today's Mass Readings First Reading: Isaiah 42:1-7 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 27:1-3, 13-14 Gospel: John 12:1-11 📖 The Gospel Six days before Passover. Mary of Bethany takes a pound of pure nard, worth nearly a year's wages, and pours every drop of it on the feet of Jesus. Then she wipes His feet with her hair. The whole house fills with the fragrance. Judas objected immediately. Jesus says, "Leave her alone. She has kept this for the day of my burial." 🙏 Reflection Here we are, Holy Week has begun, and there are only six days left. Mary didn't measure it out; she wasn't saving it for later. She poured the whole jar, extravagantly, scandalously, completely, on the feet of the One she loved. And the whole house filled with the beautiful fragrance of it. Judas had the math right...
Location: Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA
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🌿 Sunday, March 29, 2026 Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord Photo created by James Dacey, Jr. using Co-Pilot. Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord • Year A • Lent 2026 • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II ✝️ Today's Mass Readings Procession Gospel: Matthew 21:1-11 First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-7 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24 Second Reading: Philippians 2:6-11 Passion Gospel: Matthew 26:14 - 27:66 📖 The Gospel - Matthew 21:1-11 & Matthew 26:14 - 27:66 He rides in on a donkey. The crowds wave palm branches and cry Hosanna. The whole city is shaken. Who is this? This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth. And then in the same liturgy, the longest Gospel of the year, everything unfolds. Judas. The Last Supper. Gethsemane. The arrest. The denial. The trial. The scourging. The cross. It is finished. 🙏 Gospel Reflection Palm Sunday is the most dramatic bipolar day in the entire liturgical year. I say bipolar for a reason. We begin it waving palms and cr...
Location: Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA
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