Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday)

Divine Mercy Sunday. The early Church devoted to teaching, communal life, breaking of bread, and prayers. A living hope through the resurrection. Faith more precious than gold tested by fire. Thomas's honest doubt met by Christ's patient return. Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I send you. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.

The early community devotes themselves to the teaching of the apostles, to the communal life, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers. Awe came upon everyone. All who believed had all things in common, selling property and dividing according to each one's need. Every day they met in the temple and broke bread in their homes, eating with exultation and sincerity of heart. The Lord added to their number daily. Peter writes: blessed be God who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection. We have an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven. The genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold tested by fire, will prove to be for praise, glory, and honor. Although you have not seen him you love him; though you do not see him now you believe and rejoice with indescribable and glorious joy. In the Gospel, Jesus appears to the disciples on Easter evening behind locked doors. Peace be with you. He shows his wounds. He breathes the Holy Spirit on them. Thomas, absent, demands to see and touch the wounds before believing. A week later Jesus returns, offers the wounds, and Thomas confesses: my Lord and my God. Jesus says: blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.

DEACON/PRIEST: Lord Jesus, you came through locked doors and spoke peace into rooms full of fear. PEOPLE: Lord, have mercy.

DEACON/PRIEST: Christ Jesus, you came back for Thomas and offered your wounds to the one who doubted. PEOPLE: Christ, have mercy.

DEACON/PRIEST: Lord Jesus, you breathed the Holy Spirit on your disciples and sent them as the Father sent you. PEOPLE: Lord, have mercy.

PRIEST: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his mercy endures forever. On this Sunday of Divine Mercy, let us bring our prayers before the Risen Lord who walks through locked doors.

DEACON/LECTOR:

1. For our Holy Father Pope Leo, for bishops, priests, and deacons, and for the whole Church: that the mercy we proclaim today would be visible in how we welcome the doubter, the sinner, and the one who was not in the room the first time, we pray to the Lord.

2. For all who approach the sacrament of Reconciliation today, that they would encounter not judgment but the same patient mercy Jesus showed Thomas - a God who offers his wounds rather than a lecture, we pray to the Lord.

3. For those carrying honest doubt, who want to believe but find themselves unable, that the Risen Christ would come back through their locked doors as many times as it takes, we pray to the Lord.

4. For the newly baptized celebrating their first full week in the Church, that the community described in Acts - devoted to teaching, communal life, breaking of bread, and prayer - would be the community they actually find, we pray to the Lord.

5. For our parish, that we would be a community where mercy is not only preached but practiced: where the locked doors are approached with patience, where the Thomases are welcomed without condescension, and where bread is broken with exultation and sincerity of heart, we pray to the Lord.

6. For all who have passed from this life into the mercy of God, that the inheritance Peter describes - imperishable, undefiled, and unfading - would be theirs forever, and that the faith they held through the fire would now be rewarded with the sight Thomas received: the wounds, the face, the Lord himself, we pray to the Lord.

PRIEST: God of mercy, your Son came back through locked doors for one doubting man. Come back for us today. We carry doubts we have not spoken and wounds we have not shown. Meet us the way you met Thomas - with patience, with evidence, and with peace. Through Christ our Risen Lord. Alleluia! Amen.