We are now closer to Ascension and Pentecost than Easter, but we are still in the Easter Season. The readings this Sunday begin to move us along too, as once more we hear the Lord at the Last Supper preparing his disciples for his departure: he does this by giving them a rule to live by, a new commandment. This commandment, “love one another”, is to be the guiding light of the community of believers after Pentecost (check the first reading for the Second Sunday of Easter) – it is the risen Lord’s parting gift to his Church.
We pray this week for the people of the parish of St. John Paul II, Eccles, and Father Martin Collins, their parish priest. We pray for their three parish primary schools and for St. Patrick’s High School, for the Franciscan Missionaries of St. Joseph and for the Chaplaincy to the Salford Royal Hospital, as well as the Syro-Malabar Catholics who worship at St. Mary’s.