Togetherness: a room reserved, a meal prepared, bread is broken and shared. The guest reveals his glory and blesses you with peace. Together with your friends, sharing the events of the day, what is your next step? How long will this peace last? Jesus blesses you and promises a future of tomorrows. The blessings of Christ’s love and peace are given to share today and with the future. Who is at your table? Who will be at your table tomorrow? Gather together, receive Christ, and go in peace.

Every Sunday the collection basket circulates throughout churches across America. You and I throw in our dollar, five dollars, ten, 20. If you've ever been drafted for counting duty, you know that once in a while someone throws in a $100 bill! Perhaps that's when the sermon is especially good, or when someone is feeling especially grateful—or guilty.

Thomas, sometimes called the Twin, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples told him, “We saw the Master.” But he said, “Unless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my finger in the nail holes, and stick my hand in his side, I won’t believe it.”

In The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton’s classic memoir, the writer monk describes his first visit, in April of 1941, to the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky for a retreat.

Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins, and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.

"They devoted themselves . . . to the communal life.” A paradox in this week’s reading is that while the epistle talks about the trials of faith, the early Christian community in the Acts of the Apostles seems blissfully free of them. Maybe the point here is that though the picture in Acts may be idealized, the essence of new life in Christ really is as simple as it sounds: a common life sharing in the presence and teachings of Jesus, worship, and the regular sacred meal and giving up possessions when necessary so that all may have enough.

Doubt sets in and forces us to review, update, and strengthen our core beliefs. Don’t be afraid to confront your doubts today.

By his miraculous entry through closed doors Christ proved to his disciples that by nature he was God and also that he was none other than their former companion. —Saint Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444)