About Today
Sunday 10 May 2026
6th Sunday of Easter
The Lord has truly risen, alleluia.
Year: A(II). Psalm week: 2. Liturgical Colour: White.
In other years: Saint John of Avila (c.1500-1569)
John was born in Almodóvar del Campo, in the Spanish province of Ciudad Real, around 1500. As a priest he travelled throughout Andalusia, drawing crowds by his preaching. His enemies, disturbed by his success and challenged by his teaching, denounced him for heresy, and he made no attempt to avoid imprisonment or trial, but preached the Catholic faith even more fervently.
He played an important part in the setting up of the Council of Trent, where his voice was heard through the treatises he wrote for its guidance even though he was not well enough to attend; and wrote a further work to guide the Bishop of Córdoba in the implementation of the Council’s reforms. He spent his last years in Montilla, and there he fell asleep in the Lord on 10 May 1569.
Other saints: Saint Damien of Molokai (1840 - 1889)
United States
Joseph de Veuster was born in Belgium and took the name Damien on entering the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary at Leuven (Louvain). He landed in Hawaii in 1864, fulfilling his dream of becoming a missionary. In 1873, at his own request, he took up residence at the leper colony at Kalaupapa and ministered to its spiritual and material needs until he caught leprosy himself and eventually died of it.
Other saints: Saint Comgall (510/520 - 597/602)
Ireland
He was the founder and abbot of the great Irish monastery at Bangor in what is now Northern Ireland. See the article in Wikipedia.
Other saints: St. Antoninus of Florence OP (1389 - 1459)
10 May (where celebrated)
Dominican Friar and Bishop.
Today's gospel reading John 14:15-21 If you love me, you will keep my commandments
At that time: Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
‘I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.’
Reflection on the painting
The opening line of today’s Gospel from the Gospel of John is striking in its simplicity and its force: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Jesus places love and obedience side by side: not as opposites, but as inseparable. True love is not vague or sentimental; it takes shape in being obedient. Love and obedience are two expressions of the same reality: a heart turned towards God.
And yet, in our culture, we often separate the two. Law and obedience are seen as restrictive.Love is seen as liberating. Hence hey two are considered to be opposed and excluding the other. Even when we read the Gospel, we can fall into this trap: imagining the Pharisees as rigid followers of the law without love, and Jesus as purely about love without law. But that istoo simplistic. As Peter Kreeft puts it so well: “Jesus was anti-legalism, but not anti-law.” Hedoes not abolish the commandments, He fulfils them, and shows that their deepest purposeis love.
This brings us to something essential: love is not first of all a feeling. It is a decision, an act ofthe will. That is why Jesus can command it. We are called to choose to love: to will the good ofthe other, even when it is difficult, even when it costs. And we are not left to do this alone.Jesus promises the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the one who stands beside us. We callthe Holy Spirit the Advocate because Jesus uses the Greek word Paraklētos, meaning onewho is “called alongside” to help, guide, and defend. It has a legal flavour, like a lawyer whospeaks on your behalf, but it is much richer: the Holy Spirit not only defends us, but alsocomforts, strengthens, and leads us into truth.
In a very charming, human way, this role is echoed in the lively painting by Pieter Brueghelthe Younger, where we see a village advocate, a village lawyer surrounded by people seeking help. They are bringing what little they have (eggs, fruit, poultry) in exchange for guidance and defence. They bring their offering in exchange for the services of the lawyer. But theHoly Spirit is of course infinitely more than any legal advocate such as the one depicted inour painting. He does not simply defend us; He transforms us. He teaches us how to love,how to live the commandments not as burdens, but as the path to true freedom.
The Peasant Lawyer, Painted by Pieter Breughel the Younger (1564-1638), Painted circa 1620Oil on panel.
6th Sunday of Easter
The Lord has truly risen, alleluia.
Year: A(II). Psalm week: 2. Liturgical Colour: White.
In other years: Saint John of Avila (c.1500-1569)
John was born in Almodóvar del Campo, in the Spanish province of Ciudad Real, around 1500. As a priest he travelled throughout Andalusia, drawing crowds by his preaching. His enemies, disturbed by his success and challenged by his teaching, denounced him for heresy, and he made no attempt to avoid imprisonment or trial, but preached the Catholic faith even more fervently.
He played an important part in the setting up of the Council of Trent, where his voice was heard through the treatises he wrote for its guidance even though he was not well enough to attend; and wrote a further work to guide the Bishop of Córdoba in the implementation of the Council’s reforms. He spent his last years in Montilla, and there he fell asleep in the Lord on 10 May 1569.
Other saints: Saint Damien of Molokai (1840 - 1889)
United States
Joseph de Veuster was born in Belgium and took the name Damien on entering the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary at Leuven (Louvain). He landed in Hawaii in 1864, fulfilling his dream of becoming a missionary. In 1873, at his own request, he took up residence at the leper colony at Kalaupapa and ministered to its spiritual and material needs until he caught leprosy himself and eventually died of it.
Other saints: Saint Comgall (510/520 - 597/602)
Ireland
He was the founder and abbot of the great Irish monastery at Bangor in what is now Northern Ireland. See the article in Wikipedia.
Other saints: St. Antoninus of Florence OP (1389 - 1459)
10 May (where celebrated)
Dominican Friar and Bishop.
Today's gospel reading John 14:15-21 If you love me, you will keep my commandments
At that time: Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
‘I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.’
Reflection on the painting
The opening line of today’s Gospel from the Gospel of John is striking in its simplicity and its force: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Jesus places love and obedience side by side: not as opposites, but as inseparable. True love is not vague or sentimental; it takes shape in being obedient. Love and obedience are two expressions of the same reality: a heart turned towards God.
And yet, in our culture, we often separate the two. Law and obedience are seen as restrictive.Love is seen as liberating. Hence hey two are considered to be opposed and excluding the other. Even when we read the Gospel, we can fall into this trap: imagining the Pharisees as rigid followers of the law without love, and Jesus as purely about love without law. But that istoo simplistic. As Peter Kreeft puts it so well: “Jesus was anti-legalism, but not anti-law.” Hedoes not abolish the commandments, He fulfils them, and shows that their deepest purposeis love.
This brings us to something essential: love is not first of all a feeling. It is a decision, an act ofthe will. That is why Jesus can command it. We are called to choose to love: to will the good ofthe other, even when it is difficult, even when it costs. And we are not left to do this alone.Jesus promises the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the one who stands beside us. We callthe Holy Spirit the Advocate because Jesus uses the Greek word Paraklētos, meaning onewho is “called alongside” to help, guide, and defend. It has a legal flavour, like a lawyer whospeaks on your behalf, but it is much richer: the Holy Spirit not only defends us, but alsocomforts, strengthens, and leads us into truth.
In a very charming, human way, this role is echoed in the lively painting by Pieter Brueghelthe Younger, where we see a village advocate, a village lawyer surrounded by people seeking help. They are bringing what little they have (eggs, fruit, poultry) in exchange for guidance and defence. They bring their offering in exchange for the services of the lawyer. But theHoly Spirit is of course infinitely more than any legal advocate such as the one depicted inour painting. He does not simply defend us; He transforms us. He teaches us how to love,how to live the commandments not as burdens, but as the path to true freedom.
The Peasant Lawyer, Painted by Pieter Breughel the Younger (1564-1638), Painted circa 1620Oil on panel.