Hey, everybody. This is Father John Ricardo with Acts 29. And in the middle of all the craziness

and the uncertainty that's going on right now, it seems from our perspective as a team that it's

worth using these days to reflect in a more deliberate way on the scriptures every day, which

for many of us now is the only spiritual food that we're receiving. And so we're going to do a special podcast series simply entitled,

Be Not Afraid God's Word in Uncertain Times.

And we'll try to post something every day, usually reflecting on the scriptures,

so that we can listen in on what God is trying to say to us in these days.

On this final Saturday before we enter into Holy Week, the Great Week, the week that commemorates

the single most significant week in the history of the universe, when God, out of his love for

us, who had become man, went to battle on our behalf as he heads to the cross so as to defeat definitively our ancient foe, the devil, and to destroy the power of death and to free us from the power of sin and to thereby give you and me hope as we wander this pilgrimage that we call life.

Three thoughts come to mind as I'm praying with the scriptures today. It's actually not even

with the scriptures today, although I do encourage people to take some time today to pray with

what is in place of the Psalm at Mass today, which is a short excerpt from Jeremiah 31,

I found myself just lingering over that entire chapter, which is a chapter of extraordinary

hope for the people of Israel who found themselves in exile, much like we do today in the church

and in the world. I might just encourage you to prayerfully linger

over that whole chapter. It's long, but boy, is it rich. But I've been thinking about something

the last couple of days, and I thought I'd share it with everybody. I'll try to contextualize this

in three things. First, first, first communions. Second, a line in scripture that I had never heard

before until the very first, First Communion that I celebrated. And third, something for us maybe to

pray and think about as we enter into this most unusual of Holy Weeks, the likes of which I pray,

like you, we will never see again. So first, first Communions.

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