Jesus's presence in the Blessed Sacrament affords us a wonderful opportunity.  Just as we spend time with friends and loved ones just to be with them, our mental prayer is an occasion of simply being present with Jesus.  Jesus did this during his earthly life with various groups and individuals.  They cherished these days and hours alone with their Friend, Lord, and Teacher. We can do the same in our prayer life. 

This Sunday's readings remind us of so many important realities.  We are God's people and precious to him.  He has loved us in our sinfulness, before we merited any goodwill on his behalf.  We are an apostolic Church chosen by name and invested with power to do good and proclaim the Gospel.  Our ordinary lives are actually quite extraordinary!

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is more than a symbol.  Jesus truly loves us with his heart.  This love is fully human: emotional, warm, tender, encouraging.  This love is fully divine: all powerful, infinite, eternal.   To appreciate this love we need to live in it and pray about it.  Let's "enter into the Sacred Heart of Jesus," as saints and Popes alike have encouraged us.  There we find new strength for our own love of God and others.  

On the Feast of Corpus Christi the Church turns her heart to Jesus's real presence in the Blessed Sacrament.   A marvel of love, in the Eucharist the infinite enters the finite, the Creator his creation and the invisible the visible real.  Adoration, devotion, and gratitude should mark our response to this great mystery of our Faith. 

The Bible often encourages us to a silent, receptive stance before God's reality and goodness.  This kind of prayer takes recollection or composure of heart, which in turn requires some trust in God.  Our distaste for quiet prayer can be rooted in an unwillingness to cede control or a fear of the changes it might provoke in us.  Jesus's advice to the busy Martha is pertinent for all times: "Mary has chosen the better part."  Although our lives are rightly busy,  we should also play the role of Mary--quietly listening to Jesus--and we can do this by learning how to pray in silence. 

The Holy Spirit is God's gift to us.  The Spirit dwells within each one of us in the state of grace.   We should ask him for help and rely on his presence especially to live the virtue of charity.  The fruits of the Spirit are the indications of his activity in our life. 

"This is eternal life, that they know you the one true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."  These words of Jesus reveal the importance of coming to know God more and more.  We grow in this knowledge in various ways: study and spiritual reading, personal dealings with Him in our prayer life, living in HIs presence.  To know Jesus fully, however, we also have to enter into his own experience of loving and trusting God in and through the trials of our life.  

As we celebrate Mother's Day in the month of May, our minds and hearts naturally go to our Heavenly Mother, Mary.  Devotion to Our Lady should be natural and heartful, as is our devotion to our own mothers.  Mary is a great ally in the Christian life and May, Mary's month, is a great time to increase our love for her and our dependence on her intercession .

St. Peter says we are a priestly people who  offer spiritual sacrifices to God.  What does it mean to have a "priestly soul"?  How can we make our hearts altars of a burning love of God?  How can we be mediators and peacemakers between God and men?

The image of our Lord as Good Shepherd is a challenging one.   It means that we Christians are sheep.  Our pride and self-sufficiency naturally bristle at this image.  Only with deep humility, and contemplating Jesus the Lamb of God, can we embrace being sheep and having a Shepherd.