Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 4:1-21 The Tools for Good Works
Mass: Acts 16:22-24; Resp Ps 138; Jn 16:5-11
MARY, TOWER OF DAVID,
PRAY FOR US.
We are not lacking in things and people to pray for. For starters, many of the faithful in our country and throughout the world begin to once again go to their parishes for Mass and to receive the Body of Christ. We give thanks and pray for one another.
We also remember and pray for Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and the Anglican Communion. May Saint Dunstan intercede for them.
Then there is the action packed reading from the Acts of the Apostles, where Paul and Silas are attacked, stripped, beaten, and thrown into an innermost cell of the local slammer with their feet secured to a stake (Acts 16:22-24). All of this because the people found them to be a disturbance (Acts 16:20). After all, Paul did call on the Name of the Lord to cast out an oracular spirit from a local slave girl (Acts 16:16-18). And it's a no wonder. Paul was "annoyed" with the girl who had been following the men for days and shouting, "These people are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation" (Acts 16:1). Amidst the drama, servants of the Lord Paul and Silas appear to be at peace as they were busy praying and singing hymns to God as the other prisoners listened (Acts 16:25). They present one way to observe the years later teaching of St Benedict as presented to us in today's reading from the Holy Rule: "Your way of acting should be different from the world's way; the love of Christ must come before all else" (RB 4:20-21).
LET US REJOICE AND BE GLAD AND GIVE GLORY TO GOD, FOR THE LORD OUR GOD THE ALMIGHTY REIGNS, ALLELUIA.
(Entrance Antiphon, Mass)
SAINT DUNSTAN,
PRAY FOR US.
Today's photo: Thimbleberry courtesy of faithful CO.
© Gertrude Feick 2020
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