CATHOLIC MEDITATION: Thursday - 23 April, 2026. (3rd Week - Easter, Year A).

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:37]In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. Greetings beloved of the lord. You are listening to catholic meditation. I am father blessed ambang.

[00:00:54]Today is Thursday the 23rd of April 2026.

[00:01:01]Thursday of the third week of Easter church ye the memorial of St. George Ma also of St. Adelbert bishop and ma.

[00:01:17]Thanks for joining us.

[00:01:20]The Lord be with you. And with your spirit.

[00:01:24]Let us pray.

[00:01:27]Almighty everliving God, let us feel your compassion more readily during these days when by your gift we have known it more fully, so that those you have freed from the darkness of error may cling more firmly to the teachings of your truth. through our Lord Jesus Christ, your son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen. The first reading is taken from the Acts of the Apostles 8:es 26-4.

[00:02:06]The responsorial psalm is taken from Psalm 66. The response to the psalm is cry out with joy to God all the earth.

[00:02:17]The gospel is taken from St. John 6 44- 51. And meditation is inspired by the gospel text.

[00:02:29]At that time Jesus said to the crowds, "No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day."

[00:02:44]It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught by God.

[00:02:51]Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except him who is from God. He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.

[00:03:10]I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the mana in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die.

[00:03:24]I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.

[00:03:38]The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:03:44]The theme for today's meditation is allow yourself to be drawn by the father to Jesus.

[00:03:56]Allow yourself to be drawn by the father to Jesus.

[00:04:03]Dear friends in Christ, yesterday from the gospel text, Jesus invited and exalted us to come to him in order to be saved because his father's will is for him to save all those who come to him so that none will be lost.

[00:04:24]Today he says no one can come to him unless drawn by the father. John chapter 6 verse 44.

[00:04:34]By this Jesus means salvation is a process initiated by God himself not by human willpower.

[00:04:44]On our own we cannot know God.

[00:04:48]Our desire for God is initiated by himself and he reveals himself to us so that we can know him.

[00:04:57]He gives us the grace and the capacity to know him.

[00:05:02]This is the reason why faith is a gift.

[00:05:07]Therefore, man's capacity to know God and to believe in Jesus and be saved is a process that begins with God. It is a divine initiative.

[00:05:20]However, that divine initiative needs human effort supported by God's grace.

[00:05:28]For example, you could be given a gift, yet you do not accept it or you misuse it.

[00:05:35]God may give us the gift of faith, but we need to nurture it and make it grow.

[00:05:41]This is the reason Jesus needs us to be open and dosile to his father so that his spirit can move us and lead us to Jesus the savior.

[00:05:53]Those who have not come to Jesus is not because the father has not drawn them but because they are blocked or have misused or have been careless with the gift of faith given to them. But it is God who initiates.

[00:06:13]How does God draw us to Jesus?

[00:06:16]He speaks to us deep inside of our hearts. That inner voice of conscience that tells us to do good and avoid evil.

[00:06:26]That voice that makes us regret when we do something evil.

[00:06:30]If we listen to that voice, that is God drawing us to Jesus Christ.

[00:06:37]But that initiative of God needs to be supported by human effort.

[00:06:42]It is God who gives the gift of intelligence.

[00:06:47]But a child needs to support this initiative by going to school, by attending lessons.

[00:06:54]You may have the gift of intelligence.

[00:06:57]But if you do not support it by going to school, by attending lessons, that gift will be wasted. Similarly, when God gives the gift of faith, it is his initiative, but he needs us to nurture it so that that gift may grow.

[00:07:14]We need a good environment. This is important.

[00:07:18]That environment will help to nurture that gift of faith given to us by God.

[00:07:25]This is the reason why family is very important. The kind of home where we grow, that home could either nurture the gift of faith or it could destroy it.

[00:07:38]Some homes are truly nurseries. They nurture that gift of faith that God plants in our hearts.

[00:07:46]Societies where we live, some societies are hostile. They rather destroy the seed of faith that God plants in our hearts. So what is the environment?

[00:07:56]Where do you live and where do you grow?

[00:07:59]This is important. That environment plays a very vital role like the nursery.

[00:08:07]Then we also nurture it by reading good literature.

[00:08:11]What kinds of books do you read? Do you read your Bible?

[00:08:16]Do you read good Christian literature?

[00:08:18]Or do we spend our time over social media? It will destroy the beautiful seed of faith planted in our hearts.

[00:08:28]If we spend the time reading bad literature, it will destroy that seed of faith planted in our hearts.

[00:08:37]Good friends, good company. Some friends will help you build your faith, others will help destroy the faith. So what kinds of friends do you have? What kinds of company do you keep? This explains some lose their faith because they do not support that initiative of God. They do not support it with human effort.

[00:09:01]They don't go to church. They listen to false doctrines. They do not pray. They don't belong to church groups. Over time, what happens? They feel a certain dryness because they are cut off from the source.

[00:09:19]A branch cut off from the stem withers.

[00:09:24]A tree trunk cut off from the roots withers.

[00:09:28]A human being cut off from God is a moving corpse. So dear friends, Jesus tells us it is he to save us but we cannot reach him unless the father draws us.

[00:09:43]Meaning it is the father's initiative.

[00:09:45]It is a divine initiative. Faith is a gift given to us by God. But that gift may be given and we waste it. We misuse it. We do not use it to go closer to Jesus because certain factors especially the environment where we grow. The kinds of company we keep, the kinds of literature we read or listen to, those things can destroy the beautiful seed of faith planted in our hearts. Let us therefore pray for that grace. beloved, that we may allow ourselves to be drawn by God to Jesus Christ who is the savior by going to church, reading good literature, always being available for God's will so that he can lead us to Jesus who is the savior. He is ready to plant that seed of faith in each one of us. The question is, do you allow your own seed to grow by nurturing it or do you allow it to wither by the kinds of things you plunge yourself into?

[00:10:48]St. George. Very little is known about him. Yet it is believed he was a soldier who was martyed during the persecution of Ducleian in the year 303.

[00:11:01]The veneration of St. George spread very quickly throughout the near east and Europe in the 4th century.

[00:11:09]He is often depicted as the victorious knight who fights a monstrous dragon.

[00:11:17]Adalbert who was born in a noble family in Bohemia in the year 956 became the bishop of Prick where he carried out his pastoral ministry with great zeal.

[00:11:30]Not everyone agreed with his efforts to reform the church. He suffered exile twice and after some time in Rome where he lived as a simple monk, he went to Poland and Prussia as a missionary.

[00:11:45]There he was marted in the year 1022. We wish a happy feast day to all those who go by the names George or Adalbert and also to institutions named after them.

[00:11:57]Amen. The Lord be with you. May the blessing of Almighty God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit come down on you and remain with you forever. Amen.

[00:12:07]Allow yourself to be drawn by the Father to Jesus. Let that seed of faith planted in your heart grow to fruition.