Lectionary: 298
Reading 1
Acts 20:17-27
From Miletus Paul had the presbyters
of the Church at Ephesus summoned.
When they came to him, he addressed them,
“You know how I lived among you
the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia.
I served the Lord with all humility
and with the tears and trials that came to me
because of the plots of the Jews,
and I did not at all shrink from telling you
what was for your benefit,
or from teaching you in public or in your homes.
I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks
to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus.
But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem.
What will happen to me there I do not know,
except that in one city after another
the Holy Spirit has been warning me
that imprisonment and hardships await me.
Yet I consider life of no importance to me,
if only I may finish my course
and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus,
to bear witness to the Gospel of God’s grace.
“But now I know that none of you
to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels
will ever see my face again.
And so I solemnly declare to you this day
that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,
for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God.”
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 68:10-11, 20-21
R. (33a) Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
A bountiful rain you showered down, O God, upon your inheritance;
you restored the land when it languished;
Your flock settled in it;
in your goodness, O God, you provided it for the needy.
R. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed day by day be the Lord,
who bears our burdens; God, who is our salvation.
God is a saving God for us;
the LORD, my Lord, controls the passageways of death.
R. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Gospel
John 17:1-11a
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,
“Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people,
so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you,
with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them,
and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,
and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world,
but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”
REFLECTION
SOURCE: One Bread One Body
THEME: GETTING INTO TROUBLE
"The Holy Spirit has been warning me from city to city that chains and hardships await me." –Acts 20:23
The Holy Spirit repeatedly warned St. Paul that chains, hardship, and even martyrdom awaited him. Although this would result in Paul suffering persecution and death (Acts 20:24), the Spirit compelled him to finish his race and complete his service to the Lord. The Holy Spirit warns us of trouble and then gets us into it.
If we're going to receive the Spirit in a new Pentecost, we must volunteer to get into the Holy Spirit's kind of trouble. For instance, some nurses who receive the Spirit this Pentecost will quit their jobs rather than be silent about their hospitals performing abortions. Some teachers who have a true Pentecost will be fired because they prayed publicly in a public school. Others will be prepared this Pentecost to have their homes vandalized and lives threatened by porn-pushers that they've tried to put out of business. Some Christians who receive the Spirit this Pentecost will be persecuted or even killed because they have tried to lead others to Christ in Muslim, Communist, or secular humanistic countries.
The Holy Spirit will get us into a certain kind of trouble. If we're willing to get into that trouble, we will receive the Holy Spirit this Pentecost.
PRAYER: Father, may my love for You make me willing to suffer and die for You.
PROMISE: "Eternal life is this: to know You, the only true God, and Him Whom You have sent, Jesus Christ." –Jn 17:3
PRAISE: The king of Uganda, enraged at the refusal of some of his page boys to submit to his immoral demands, ordered his Christian servants to separate from the non-Christian ones. St. Charles Lwanga and fourteen other young men stepped forward, declared their loyalty to Jesus, and courageously endured martyrdom.
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