Acts talks about the appointing of “elders.” You are a leader of your community. How does your ministry gather the people and make disciples?

We are a culture of consumers. In the week since the community last gathered, each member was exposed to thousands of advertisements on air and in print, encouraging them to find their happiness by buying new things.

IF YOU HAD your life to live over, what would you do differently? This question is only a parlor game, of course: None of us gets a do-over from birth on out.

IN HIS VISION John of Patmos declared he “saw . . . a new earth,” echoing God’s words in the Book of Isaiah God: “For I am about to create . . . a new earth” (65:17).

JESUS SAID to love one another, and each of us tries in small ways to do just that. It is a given that we strive to love parents, siblings, spouses, children, friends. But even to those outside our intimate circles we do our best—on a good day—to offer simple courtesies and acts of kindness.

ON THE UPCOMING Mother’s Day weekend we will focus on our mother’s love for us. For many of us our memories take us back to our youth when a simple smile and a generous hug would make all that was wrong in our lives right.

You can frame stories around the following themes that occur in today’s readings.

Sisters and brothers, our love for one another shows we are disciples of Jesus. For the times we have failed to love God and others, we pray for God’s mercy and forgiveness.

The “new order” in Revelation includes a new earth in which the “sea was no more.” Why this phrase?

Our Lord Jesus Christ loved us more than himself. . . . It was indeed something new for love to go as far as that.