Friday, May 22, 2026
Mass Reading and Reflection on Friday May 22nd 2026
"Peter Do You Love Me?"
First Reading: (Acts 25:13–21)Responsorial Psalm: (Psalm 103)
Response:
The Lord has fixed his throne in heaven.
Gospel Acclamation:
Alleluia, alleluia.
The Holy Spirit will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
Gospel: (John 21:15–19)
After they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” Peter answered, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
A second time Jesus asked, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter replied, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Tend my sheep.”
A third time Jesus asked, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because Jesus asked him the third time, and he answered, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus then said, “Feed my sheep.”
Jesus told Peter that one day he would stretch out his hands and glorify God by his death. Then he said to him:
“Follow me.”
Reflection:
The encounter between Jesus and Peter in today’s Gospel is one of the most moving moments in Scripture. It takes place after the resurrection. Peter, who once denied Jesus three times, now stands face to face with the risen Lord.
And Jesus asks him the same question three times:
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Why does Jesus repeat the question? Is he doubting Peter’s love? Is he trying to embarrass him? No. Jesus is healing Peter. The threefold profession of love is meant to heal the wound caused by Peter’s three denials.
Peter had failed. Out of fear and weakness, he denied even knowing Jesus. Yet Jesus does not reject him. Instead, he gives Peter the opportunity to begin again.
By the third question, Peter is hurt. He feels sorrow deep within himself. And so he responds with words filled with humility and honesty:
“Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
Peter no longer trusts in his own strength. Before, he boldly claimed he would never abandon Jesus. But now he places everything before the Lord’s all-knowing heart.
“Lord, you know everything.”
What God knows about us is very important. Human beings may judge us by our failures, mistakes, weaknesses, or past sins, but God sees deeper. He reads the heart. He knows our intentions. He knows the struggle within us.
Even when we fall through weakness, God desires to see whether our hearts still love him.
That is why Jesus asks each one of us today:
“Do you love me?”
He calls us by name and asks us personally.
Despite our sins and weaknesses, do we truly love God? Because if we truly love him, then even after falling, we will regret our sins and desire to return to him. Love always seeks reconciliation.
Peter denied Jesus, but because his heart truly loved the Lord, he could not remain far away forever. His love drew him back.
The same is true for us. When we genuinely love God:
we feel sorrow for sin,
we desire conversion,
we seek forgiveness,
and we try again after every fall.
Jesus then entrusts Peter with a mission:
“Feed my sheep.”
What a remarkable thing. Jesus gives this responsibility not to the perfect disciple, but to the disciple who failed and repented.
Why not John? Why not another apostle who did not deny him publicly? Because the Lord is interested not in perfection alone, but in love, humility, repentance, and fidelity.
Peter understood human weakness. Therefore, he could become a compassionate shepherd.
Today, Jesus gives the same mission to all of us in different ways. Parents feed the sheep by raising children in faith. Priests feed the sheep by preaching and administering the sacraments. Teachers, catechists, and all Christians are called to guide others toward God.
But an important question remains:
Do we feed the sheep, or do we feed on the sheep?
Do we serve others with love, gentleness, and care, or do we use people for selfish gain, pride, power, or recognition?
So today, let us say with Peter from the depths of our hearts:
“Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
And may that love move us always to repentance, fidelity, and service.
Amen.
Have a wonderful weekend.
God bless you 🙏
Thursday, May 21, 2026
Poor Reading Proficiency: The Silent Crisis Engineered for Us
The reading crisis didn’t appear out of nowhere. It was engineered, slowly, predictably, and with a kind of bureaucratic confidence that assumed children would simply “bounce back.” They didn’t.
The Covid Lockdown Effect:
When COVID hit, one of the most drastic interventions was the nationwide shutdown of schools. Overnight, millions of children were sent home. Some districts scrambled to build online classrooms, but let’s be honest: expecting a 6-year-old to learn phonics through a laptop screen was a fantasy.
Grade-school attention spans are short under the best of circumstances. Put children in front of a glitchy Zoom call with 25 other kids and a stressed teacher, and the outcome was inevitable.
Now, six years later, the data is undeniable.
Across the country, schools are reporting historic drops in reading proficiency. Entire cohorts of children are behind by one, two, or even three grade levels. Teachers are sounding alarms. Parents are confused. Policymakers are pretending to be surprised.
But anyone paying attention could see this coming.
“Don’t Worry, Kids, AI Will Think for You”
Here’s the part that should make every adult uneasy.
Instead of rebuilding literacy, rebuilding attention, and rebuilding the ability to think, the cultural message is shifting toward something else:
“You don’t need to know how to read deeply.
You don’t need to think critically.
AI will do it for you.”
This is the beginning of a new dependency, one that feels convenient but is profoundly dangerous. Because if a generation grows up unable to read well, unable to analyze, and unable to question, then they also grow up unable to defend themselves.
A person who cannot read is a person who cannot verify.
A person who cannot verify is a person who must trust whatever the machine tells them.
We saw echoes of that during and after COVID: “Trust the science.” Anyone who questioned the dominant narrative was often sidelined or outright blacklisted. For many people, that period felt like a prelude to what may still be coming.
That is not empowerment.
That is not progress.
That is control.
We are drifting toward an AI-mediated society, where tools answer before minds can form questions; where convenience replaces comprehension; where speed replaces depth.
Some call it an AI utopia.
But a utopia where humans stop thinking is not a utopia, it is a soft cage.
And the reading crisis may be the first warning sign.
Mass Readings and Reflection on Thursday the Memorial of Saint Christopher Magallanes and Companions
First Reading: (Acts 22:30; 23:6–11)
Responsorial Psalm: (Psalm 16:1–2a and 5, 7–8, 9–10, 11)
Response:
Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
Gospel Acclamation: (John 17:21)
Alleluia, alleluia.
May all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you; let the world believe that you sent me.
Gospel: (John 17:20–26)
“I ask not only on behalf of my disciples, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
Reflection:
Today, the Church honors Saint Christopher Magallanes and his companions, courageous martyrs who remained faithful to Christ during the persecution of the Church in Mexico. They lived in dangerous times when priests were hunted, churches were closed, and openly practicing the Catholic faith could lead to imprisonment or death. Yet they remained faithful because they loved Christ more than they feared suffering.
Their witness connects powerfully with today’s readings.
In the first reading, Saint Paul stands before a divided and hostile council. Accusations surround him, tensions rise, and violence threatens his life. Yet in the middle of the chaos, the Lord comes to Paul and says:
“Take courage.”
Those words are important because they were not spoken after the danger ended. They were spoken while Paul was still in the struggle.
God often works that way in our lives. We may ask the Lord to remove every difficulty before we trust him, but instead, he gives us strength within the difficulty. His presence does not always remove the storm immediately, but it gives us courage to endure it faithfully.
Christian courage is not arrogance or aggression. True courage is quiet faithfulness. It is continuing to pray when life becomes heavy. It is remaining honest when dishonesty would be easier. It is choosing forgiveness over bitterness. It is standing for truth when compromise would be more comfortable.
The martyrs we honor today understood this kind of courage. They continued to celebrate the sacraments, preach the Gospel, and care for God’s people despite the threat of death. Their strength came from their deep union with Christ.
That leads us beautifully into today’s Gospel.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus prays not only for his apostles, but for all believers. That includes every one of us. And what is his prayer?
“That they may all be one.”
Unity is at the heart of Christ’s desire for his Church.
Yet unity is difficult because it requires sacrifice. It asks us to forgive, to remain patient, to listen, and to love even when it is inconvenient. Division often comes naturally because pride, anger, and selfishness pull people apart. But unity rooted in Christ calls us to humility and charity.
Our world today is filled with division: division in families, communities, nations, and even within the Church. People separate over politics, opinions, personal hurts, and misunderstandings. Yet Jesus continues to pray for unity among his followers so that the world may believe in him.
The unity Jesus speaks about is not based on sameness. It is based on sharing the love of Christ. The martyrs lived this unity so deeply that even death could not separate them from the Lord.
The Psalm today gives us the foundation for this courage and unity:
“Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.”
That is the prayer of a heart that trusts God completely.
Most of us may never be asked to die physically for our faith, but every Christian is called to daily sacrifice. We are called to die to selfishness, pride, fear, anger, and sin so that Christ may live more fully within us.
Today, the Lord asks us:
to take courage when living the Gospel becomes difficult,
to remain faithful when society pressures us to compromise,
to seek unity instead of division,
and to trust that God remains with us in every trial.
And the beautiful consolation is this: Jesus himself prays for us. Even now, Christ intercedes for his people before the Father.
So today, through the intercession of Saint Christopher Magallanes and his companions, may we ask for the grace to remain faithful, courageous, and united in Christ.
And whenever fear or uncertainty enters our hearts, may we remember the words spoken to Saint Paul:
“Take courage.”
Amen.
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
ZSCALER Cybersecurity Company Blocks 🚫 All Websites At Work Except This Blog
The only website I can visit.
Education as We Know It Will Never Ever Be the Same: AI Will End Us
Then you begin to realize that this is 2026, and the world is becoming as artificial as AI itself. That means intelligence, in many ways, is becoming super artificial too.
Now, this is by no means degrading the intelligence of those young people. Good Lord knows we need intelligence in our world. But what is scary is the fact that today, we are becoming more informed without necessarily becoming wiser, or even more human.
It is fair to say that we are slowly losing our common humanity.
Okay, that may sound like a lot, but AI has made it incredibly easy to access information for whatever you need, especially in education. Research that once took days in a library can now be done in minutes. Essays, explanations, tutoring, translations, calculations, and even critical analysis are now available instantly.
Those of us who went through school without such access might need to request readjustments to our grades and transcripts.
Just imagine that.
But all jokes aside, education has changed, and it will never, ever be the same in this age of everything artificial.
The question is no longer whether students have access to information. Almost everyone does. The real question is whether we are still teaching people how to think, how to reason, how to struggle through problems, how to be creative, and how to remain human in a world increasingly driven by machines. I am afraid not.
Artificial intelligence can give answers, but it cannot replace wisdom, character, empathy, discipline, or lived experience. Those things still have to be developed the old-fashioned way: through life, failure, relationships, sacrifice, and growth. Especially failure. Most of those young people will go through their years of formal formation without ever having to taste failure until they end up at the work place where they will have to solve some problems without AI. May not.
And maybe this new era will produce the smartest generation in history. But intelligence without wisdom can also become dangerous.
Education is no longer just about memorizing facts. It is now about learning how to navigate truth, technology, and humanity all at once.
And that changes everything. And as I read that people, I was wondering the problem solving skills of those young people. This by the way is not limited to the HS on LI, but around the nation and the world at large. With 21 intelligent boys and girls, who will give the speech? Please think about that question careful and apply it to the real world here everyone in the boardroom or the office is super qualified.
Wait until you read about the cheating that has taken place around universities in the past two years.
Drop a comment.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)