Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter

Saint Damien de Veuster (d. 1889)

Readings of the day: RB 1:6-13

Mass: Ac 18:1-8; Resp Ps 98; Jn 16:16-20

Caravaggio, Conversion of Saint Paul, 1601

PAUL BEGAN TO OCCUPY HIMSELF TOTALLY WITH PREACHING THE WORD.

This morning I think of Paul, tentmaker by trade. Not so long ago, Paul was ‘breathing murderous threats against the disciples’ and seeking ‘any men or women who belonged to the Way’, so that ‘he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains’ (see Ac 9). After being knocked off his ‘high horse’, Paul is now totally occupied with preaching the Word! We might not have such dramatic conversions as Paul, yet we too can be transformed in mind and heart to follow more closely our Lord and God. Saint Damien de Veuster, pray for us.

The way an invisible Holy Spirit bears witness, the way the Spirit’s witness can be heard,

is through the Spirit’s disciples,

through those who do recognize Him because he is within them. 

(W. Burghardt, S.J., d. 2008)