Today, May 11
Feast of the Day
No feast of the day
Saint of the Day
Readings of the Day
Acts of the Apostles 16,11-15.
We set sail from Troas, making a straight run for Samothrace, and on the next day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, a leading city in that district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We spent some time in that city. On the sabbath we went outside the city gate along the river where we thought there would be a place of prayer. We sat and spoke with the women who had gathered there. One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened, and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying. After she and her household had been baptized, she offered us an invitation, "If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my home," and she prevailed on us.
Psalms 149(148),1-2.3-4.5-6a.9b.
Sing to the LORD a new song of praise in the assembly of the faithful. Let Israel be glad in their maker, let the children of Zion rejoice in their king. Let them praise his name in the festive dance, let them sing praise to him with timbrel and harp. For the LORD loves his people, and he adorns the lowly with victory. Let the faithful exult in glory; let them sing for joy upon their couches; Let the high praises of God be in their throats. This is the glory of all his faithful. Alleluia!
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 15,26-27.16,1-4a.
Jesus said to his disciples: "When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning. I have told you this so that you may not fall away. They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God. They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me. I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you."
Daily Reflection
When the Lord gave to the disciples power to confer rebirth into the life of God, he said: «Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit» (Mt 28,19). He promised through his prophets that he would pour out this Spirit in the last times on his servants and handmaidens so that they would prophesy (Jl 3,1)... In the same way our Lord promised «living water» to the Samaritan woman so that she might «never thirst again» or have to drink water drawn up laboriously but might have water «welling up to eternal life» within herself (Jn 4,10-14). It is a matter of being able to drink what our Lord himself received from his Father and gives, in his turn, to those who live in him, by sending out the Holy Spirit over all the earth... Gideon had prophesied that the dew, which is the Spirit of God, would be spread over all the earth (Jg 6,36-40). It was this same Spirit of God that came down on the Lord: "The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and devotion, the Spirit of fear of the Lord" (Is 11,2-3). He gave the same Spirit again to the Church, sending the Counsellor to every nation from heaven,from which the Lord said "the devil was cast down like lightening" (Lk 10,18). Accordingly we need God's dew, so as not to be burnt up and made unfruitful but rather to have a Counsellor when we have an Accuser (Rv 12,10). For the Lord entrusts to the Holy Spirit his man who had fallen among thieves (Lk 10,30). Taking pity on him, he has bound up his wounds and given two imperial coins, stamped with the image of Spirit and the inscription of the Father and the Son. We are to accept them, and make the coin entrusted to us bear fruit and multiply for the Lord (cf Mt 25,14f.).