June 2, 2025 // Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter // Optional Memorial of Saints Marcellinus and Peter, Martyrs
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Acts 19:1-8
Reflect on the Word //
I held a familiar ache of heart as I knelt in prayer, and this particular morning, our good Jesus illuminated and named my ache. It was like I was in a room with roaring white noise, and the Lord came and muted the noise with His Word: “We have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit” (Acts 19:2).
This little phrase painlessly opened my heart with the Light of Christ, showing me the importance of ministry today. We live in a time in the history of our beloved Mother, the Church, where many people are not taught basic truths of the faith. With a bit of time, they sometimes express excitement and sometimes experience fatigue that they must search for the truth while dodging bad teachers and relativistic, mushy thinking.
I resonate with Saint Paul’s fire for the Gospel, and also I resonate with the ache he must have experienced at discovering that these new disciples in the First Reading did not know the Holy Spirit when he asked them a simple question: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” (Acts 19:2)
Their humble and frank reply moved me to tears, and my heart leapt for joy as I recognized the “rich soil” that the Lord loves to find in hearts that are receptive to the blessing of His Word of Life (see Mark 4:20). There are many, many people I have met in my ministry who soar like eagles in the spiritual life because they are willing to ask a question vulnerably of the Lord. They are humble and frank with God.
Sister, God calls us, too, to be poised like Saint Paul to exercise our prophetic mission in Jesus, which we were given at Baptism. We can imitate Saint Paul by simply teaching with the fullness of truth that we only find through, with, and in Jesus Christ in the Church. However, we can only give what we have received, and so we can pray to and trust in the Holy Spirit to guide us in each and every moment of sharing the truth.
Relate to the Lord // Invite the Holy Spirit and ask Him to inspire you throughout your day.
Maria Kim-Ngân Bùi, after twenty years in religious life, is discerning a call to found a community of consecrated religious women dedicated to Our Lady and who will pray reparation for sins against the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, pray for conversions, and work for the evangelization of those who have left the Church or feel furthest from the Church.
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