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.

A word and an encouragement, and a scripture to consider praying with later today having to do with

both. Those are the three things that hit me this morning as I was praying and reflecting

on the last day or so, something that I came across last night, and then the scriptures this morning.

First the word. So the word that jumped out at me, as has often been the case in the season of

pandemic, whether it was the end of Lent or the beginning of Easter, comes not so much from

the scriptures as from the prayers

for Mass today. And the word that jumps out is the word restore. It's found both in the opening

prayer, what we call the colic, and it's found in the closing prayer, the prayer after communion.

The opening prayer says, oh God who restore human nature to yet greater dignity than at its beginnings,

look upon the amazing mystery of your loving kindness.

And in those you have chosen to make new through the wonder of rebirth,

may you preserve the gifts of your enduring grace and blessing.

So what's revealed in that opening passage or opening prayer is an amazing truth that the church teaches

that God's brought us to even greater dignity than Adam and Eve had at the beginning. That's what's offered to you and me now.

It's something beyond what we can get into right now. It's just an unfathomable concept that only God could take

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