In the last night of his life, Jesus prayed specifically for his followers to have unity. He said that, through unity, the disciples would bear a powerful witness to his name. Why, on the darkest night of his life, was he thinking about that? The answer is seen in his example: in unity, there is love, a sacrificial love between the Father and Son, and between all who believe in him. Christianity has survived, not because of its cleverness or power, but because of its unified love.

Place yourself in today's Gospel reading, and imagine being in the room with Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper. Jesus sits up and begins to talk. Listen attentively to his prayer to the Heavenly Father.

The readings for the Easter season harken to the first days of Christianity, allowing us to walk in the footsteps of the first Christians as they attempted to follow Christ as part of the young Church.

Today's readings focuses on embracing the crosses that God allows into our lives, even while our human nature resists that kind of suffering. We avoid it and anxiously try to change situations that are unpleasant. Yet Jesus Himself modeled for us the transformation and redemption that comes from hardship and pain.

Have you ever watched a herd of animals as they journey toward a destination? It's remarkable that their every move seems to be in sync with the entire group. Nature itself shows us that uniting together in community – as one body – is the way God intended us to behave.

Just as Peter denied Jesus three times, now the risen Lord asks Peter three times, "Do you love me?"

There are two sides to Christ's love. On one side He mercifully loves us wherever he finds us, even in our sin. On the other side, we see that he loves us too much to leave us in that condition, but draws us out to be transformed.

Today we celebrate the greatest of all Christian feasts: Easter Sunday. We come together rejoicing in the goodness of God, knowing that Christ's resurrection from the dead gives us the hope that we too will rise someday with him.

The readings for Palm, or Passion, Sunday are the most dramatic of the whole year. They recount the entire story of Christ's death from Holy Thursday through Good Friday. One of the unusual aspects of this week's Gospel reading is that it is the one time during the year when all of us take part in proclaiming the Word of God by participating in the Gospel reading.

Today's reading from the Gospel of John tells of a woman who was caught in the sin of adultery, and then caught again--but this time in God's mercy and love. The account provides not only a striking example of Jesus' mercy, but also his call to conversion. He offers forgiveness and healing and a call to a new life as he tells her: "Go and sin no more."