Year: 2024

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Acts: 17:15, 22 – 18:1

After Paul’s escorts had taken him to Athens,
they came away with instructions for Silas and Timothy
to join him as soon as possible.

Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said:
“You Athenians, I see that in every respect
you are very religious.
For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines,
I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’
What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.
The God who made the world and all that is in it,
the Lord of heaven and earth,
does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands,
nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything.
Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.
He made from one the whole human race
to dwell on the entire surface of the earth,
and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions,
so that people might seek God,
even perhaps grope for him and find him,
though indeed he is not far from any one of us.
For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’
as even some of your poets have said,
‘For we too are his offspring.’
Since therefore we are the offspring of God,
we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image
fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination.
God has overlooked the times of ignorance,
but now he demands that all people everywhere repent
because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world
with justice’ through a man he has appointed,
and he has provided confirmation for all
by raising him from the dead.”

When they heard about resurrection of the dead,
some began to scoff, but others said,
“We should like to hear you on this some other time.”
And so Paul left them.
But some did join him, and became believers.
Among them were Dionysius,
a member of the Court of the Areopagus,
a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

After this he left Athens and went to Corinth.

The Word of the Lord.

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Athens was one of the most diverse cities in the ancient world. It was a city of intellects – and a city of gods. 

There were so many gods that some used to say, In Athens, it is easier to meet a god than a person.

Perhaps you’ve visited the famous temple where the gods were worshiped, the Parthenon, located smack dab in the heart of Athens. 

There, people could offer sacrifices to any god they wanted – to the gods of the sky, the sea, even the underworld. Interestingly, there was also an altar titled, To the Unknown God, because the Greeks believed that they could not box-in the Divine.

God was bigger than they could ever imagine.

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Enter Saint Paul.

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Imagine Paul standing in the shadow of the Parthenon, preaching about Jesus Christ. He is the “Unknown God,” the one through whom everything and everyone was created. 

As he writes in his Letter to the Colossians, “All things were created through him; all things were created for him; he is before all else that is. In him everything continues in being.”

If the Greeks wanted to worship God in his fullness, Paul says, then they had to worship the “Unknown God,” Jesus Christ. Amazingly, some convert, becoming part of that second generation of Christians.

But Paul converted people not only because of his logical arguments, but more importantly because of his personal witness; he risked death for our Lord on numerous occasions.

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If someone asked you for a logical argument about why Jesus is Lord, what might you say? 

And how will you live out the faith you profess today?

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Image credits: (1) Saint Paul Delivering the Areopagus Sermon in Athens, Benvenuto Tisi, Fine Art America (2) Bible.com (3) Sharing Horizons

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Acts: 16: 22-34

The crowd in Philippi joined in the attack on Paul and Silas,
and the magistrates had them stripped
and ordered them to be beaten with rods.
After inflicting many blows on them,
they threw them into prison
and instructed the jailer to guard them securely.
When he received these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell
and secured their feet to a stake.

About midnight, while Paul and Silas were praying
and singing hymns to God as the prisoners listened,
there was suddenly such a severe earthquake
that the foundations of the jail shook;
all the doors flew open, and the chains of all were pulled loose. 
When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open,
he drew his sword and was about to kill himself,
thinking that the prisoners had escaped.
But Paul shouted out in a loud voice,
“Do no harm to yourself; we are all here.”
He asked for a light and rushed in and,
trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas.
Then he brought them out and said,
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus
and you and your household will be saved.”
So they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to everyone in his house.
He took them in at that hour of the night and bathed their wounds;
then he and all his family were baptized at once.
He brought them up into his house and provided a meal
and with his household rejoiced at having come to faith in God.

The Word of the Lord.

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There’s an old Swedish proverb: “Those who wish to sing always find a song.”  

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In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Paul and Silas have been humiliated, stripped in public, and beaten with rods. 

Now they’re imprisoned and chained to the ground deep inside the bowels of the earth. Why are they joyfully singing songs to God at midnight?

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Paul and Silas have discovered a higher freedom, one that cannot be chained – the freedom of knowing Jesus Christ. 

This is a great, almost original, Pauline insight – that in the midst of suffering, there is always the consolation of the Spirit; there is grace.

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“Those who wish to sing always find a song.” 

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While we may never know the darkness of imprisonment, we’ve all endured various trials – dryness in prayer, periods of grief, sickness, anxiety, isolation, or frustration. 

But Paul and Silas remind us, there is always a reason to be joyful, there is always a reason to sing.

As Paul later writes, “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? … No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.”

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Those who wish to sing always find a song. 

So, what song will you sing to God today?

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Image credits: (1) Breslov Research Institute (2) Communion Chapel (3) Amazing Grace, John Newton

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Acts: 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.

The Word of the Lord.

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When we think of Europe, it’s easy to presume it’s always been Christian. 

Europe is home to some of the greatest and oldest cathedrals in the world, including Saint Peter’s in Rome; Chartres in France; Westminster Abbey in London; and Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

But Europe’s Christian faith comes from humble beginnings. In fact, the first Masses were likely celebrated in homes, not in sprawling Gothic, Romanesque, or Renaissance Cathedrals. 

So, when did Christianity in Europe in begin? Our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles gives us a likely answer.

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Saint Paul is traveling with some of his companions throughout Greece, where they encounter a group of women, including someone named Lydia.

We don’t know much about her, other than the fact that she traded fine purple linen – meaning she came from some wealth – and she made Paul an offer he couldn’t refuse:

“If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she says, “then come and stay at my home.”

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Paul accepted the invitation. 

He baptized Lydia and her entire household. Then she allowed him to stay with her for as long as he needed, likely several weeks, even months.

Scholars believe that Paul not only stayed in Lydia’s home, but he also celebrated Mass there. That’s where some of the first Christians came to believe – in a tiny home in Greece.

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So, what can Lydia’s story say to us today?

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God’s will often starts with humble beginnings.

Think of Christ lying in a manger. Suddenly, the world is redeemed. 

Lydia welcomes Paul into her home. In time, an entire continent is converted.

Or, in our case, a mustard seed community of faith comes alive. Imagine what the Lord is doing – even now, even here in our own lives!

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Image credits: (1) Herald’s of the Gospel Magazine (2) Chartres Cathedral, Britanica (3) Community Renewal Society