5th Sunday of Easter
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
Written by Anna Sklut
As we begin this 5th week of Easter, in the Catholic, all-girls high school where I work, we are flying toward the end of the school year. My senior students are done with finals, looking forward to a week of celebrations, Baccalaureate Mass, and Graduation. My office has become a revolving door of ridiculously goofy, joyful, soon-to-be high school graduates. It’s not unusual for one of them to exclaim, “God is so good!” through a giant grin. It’s true, and it’s so evident in these Easer days!
This week, with so much hope upon us, this psalm almost rolls off of our tongues: I will praise your name forever, my king and my God. It’s easy to recognize the Lord’s goodness and mercy, to give thanks to God for his goodness, and to speak of the glory of God’s kingdom.
The challenge for all of us is to praise God’s name forever. Five weeks into Lent, as I was desperate for a break from school before the end of the year, and deeply hoping for the rejuvenating spirit of Easter, I did not as easily see the goodness of the Lord. Neither did my students. The same senior girls who are ecstatic as we approach graduation, were stuck in the emotional up and down of college acceptances, rejections, and deferrals. In moments of spiritual dryness, despair, grief, exhaustion, or whatever life throws at us, it becomes difficult to praise God’s name or to recognize God’s everlasting mercy.
In those moments, Ignatian Imaginative Prayer can be an incredibly helpful tool: placing myself back in a time where I was more aware of hope, imagining the circumstances that offered such assurance in God’s goodness, and allowing myself to be transported in prayer to a vibrant reminder of the love of a God whose dominion endures forever.
However your life finds you today, allow yourself to rest in a time of hope and joy, and wholeheartedly pray, “I will praise your name forever, my king and my God.”
Anna Sklut is the Director of Campus Ministry at St. Agnes Academy in Houston, TX. Anna is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame’s Echo Program with a M.A. Theology, and she is a committed member of the Dominican Family, walking alongside the Dominican Sisters of Houston.
Pray with today’s psalm.