May 7, 2026 // Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: John 15:9-11
Reflect on the Word //
There were four generations present at my friend’s family gathering. Children and a dog whirled around our legs, delivering rapid hello-hugs as we arrived. Their excitement at seeing my friend and me was intense, but it may have simply matched the timbre of their joy at their homemade game which they interrupted as briefly as possible to greet us. Being away from family during the holidays, that kind of welcome made me smile from the inside out, long into the night. Songs, games, treats, conversation, food—every bit of it was love.
As I continue to meditate on this little real-life parable of the family gathering as an illustration of our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel, His words, “Remain in my love” (John 15:9), have become luminous and vibrant with life.
“As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love” (John 15:9). The Lord’s tender hope and longing are present in these poignant words. I can feel His vulnerability in them; He is as vulnerable as those excited children who gave such hearty hugs to tell us how happy they were we had finally arrived. Our Lord’s love is just as excited but purer and therefore, more vulnerable, because His love is more profound and immediate.
Yet, how can we remain in His love? He wants to redirect our attention from jumping into the spiral of self-evaluation—with the foregone conclusions of our inadequacy—and He invites us to allow Him to show us what it would be to remain.
Sister, remaining in the truth of His love is steadying and healing. Enfolded in His love, the storms of human thoughts are like distant wind howling forebodingly. Remaining in His love enables us to resonate with our truest essence like a gentle soprano note, inviting us to admire—contemplate— how God’s beauty is always more than we can expect. Will we say yes like our Lady and remain?
Relate to the Lord // When you’re tempted to self-evaluate today. Practice looking at Jesus instead.
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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