Collect Series: Second Sunday of Easter Year A

 Collect Series

The Mass: Collect Series

COLLECT SERIES

 

COLLECT

 

The Collect for the Second Sunday of Eastertide reads as follows:

 

God of everlasting mercy, who in the very recurrence of the paschal feast

 kindle the faith of the people you have made your own,

Increase, we pray, the grace You have bestowed,

that all my grasp and right understand in what font they have been washed,

by whose Spirit they have bee reborn,

by whose Blood they have been redeemed. 

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,

who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

 

1.    What does God’s mercy mean to me?

2.    How will I celebrate Mercy Sunday?

3.    In what areas of my faith does my faith need kindling?

4.    What does it mean to me be to be reborn in the Spirit?

5.    What difference will it make to my life this coming week to have been redeemed by Jesus?

“Peace be with you… Receive the Holy Spirit.”

The Gospel opens in a locked room.

The disciples are not gathered in triumph, but in fear.
The doors are shut. Their hearts are shut. Their hopes feel shattered.

And into that space—without force, without accusation—Jesus comes.

“Peace be with you.”

Not once, but three times.  This is not just a greeting. It is the first act of mercy.

Jesus does not say: “Where were you?” “Why did you abandon me?”

Instead, He gives them exactly what they do not deserve and deeply need:
peace, presence, and restoration.

 

 The Wounds That Speak Mercy

Jesus shows them His hands and His side.

These wounds are not hidden.
They are not erased by the Resurrection.

They remain—transformed, not as signs of defeat, but as signs of love that endured.

This is the heart of Divine Mercy Sunday.

In the revelations to Saint Faustina Kowalska, Jesus asks that we contemplate the rays flowing from His heart:

• Red – the blood (life poured out)
• Pale – the water (mercy washing and healing)

The same reality is present in this Gospel:
The open side of Christ becomes the source of mercy for the world.

 

Thomas: The Honest Disciple

Then comes Thomas.

He is often remembered for his doubt—but perhaps he is simply the most honest.

He does not settle for second-hand faith. He wants encounter.  “Unless I see… unless I touch…”

And what does Jesus do? He returns.  He comes again—for one person.

This is Divine Mercy in action:

• Patient
• Personal
• Persistent

Jesus meets Thomas exactly where he is, not where he “should” be.

 “My Lord and My God”

When Thomas encounters Jesus, everything changes.

Notice: he never actually touches the wounds.

The invitation alone is enough.

What he receives is not proof—it is mercy.

And his response is the most profound profession of faith in the Gospel:

“My Lord and my God.”

 

 Divine Mercy Sunday – The Heart of the Gospel

This Sunday is not an “extra theme.” It is the unfolding of the Resurrection itself.

Mercy is not something Jesus does after rising—
Mercy is what the Resurrection reveals.

• The locked doors → opened by mercy
• The fearful disciples → restored by mercy
• The doubting Thomas → embraced by mercy

And now…

You.

 Personal Reflection

Where are the “locked doors” in your life right now?

• A fear you haven’t voiced
• A disappointment that still lingers
• A place where your faith feels uncertain

Jesus does not wait for you to fix it.

He comes into it.

And He speaks the same words:

“Peace be with you.”

 

A Prayer for Mercy Sunday

Jesus,
You come into the closed rooms of my life
without judgment, without hesitation.

Show me Your wounds—
not to shame me,
but to remind me how deeply I am loved.

In my doubts, be patient with me.
In my fears, speak Your peace.
In my weakness, pour out Your mercy.

Like Thomas,
may I come to know You not just in my mind,
but in a living encounter—

and say with my whole heart:
My Lord and my God. Amen.