Throughout church history, pastoring (shepherding) has been a prime image for leadership and care, and today pastoral ministry includes not only those named or ordained as pastors but many who follow different calls to serve and lead others.

The accounts of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes offer ample material for reflection and prayer. Jesus meets that most basic human need, hunger, and does so with largess and compassion

Today’s Gospel provides a window into the life of the pre-Easter Jesus.

Awareness of God’s call, traveling light and risking rejection, these are the carry-ons for true prophets.

Two themes echo throughout the readings: covenant and sacrifice.

The Jesus who emerges from these stories is one who is compassionate in the face of human suffering and who makes the needs of these sufferers the norm for his action, to the disregard of social taboos and conventions.

The readings offer directions for proclaiming the presence of the Spirit in the church.

The Trinity presents a series of paradoxes. It is the central mystery of Christian faith, yet its power in Christian life gets lost amid a tangle of theological distinctions and philosophical speculation.

The first reading captures the meaning of today rsquo s liturgical celebration Matthias not one of the original followers of Jesus is chosen to be a witness to the resurrection From Easter to Pentecost all the readings in effect present different aspects of what it means to be such a witness The

The church, like the disciples, is not to stand looking at the sky but is to carry on Jesus’ mission to the ends of the earth.