21 May 2025 (Wednesday)
Wednesday of the 5th week of Eastertide or Saint Christopher Magallanes and his Companions, Martyrs.
Easter Weekday/ Saint Christopher Magallanes, Priest, & Companions, Martyrs.
Readings from the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church:
First Reading : Acts 15:1‐6
Some men came down from Judaea and taught the brothers, ‘Unless you have yourselves circumcised in the tradition of Moses you cannot be saved.’ This led to disagreement, and after Paul and Barnabas had had a long argument with these men it was arranged that Paul and Barnabas and others of the church should go up to Jerusalem and discuss the problem with the apostles and elders. All the members of the church saw them off, and as they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria they told how the pagans had been converted, and this news was received with the greatest satisfaction by the brothers. When they arrived in Jerusalem they were welcomed by the church and by the apostles and elders, and gave an account of all that God had done with them. But certain members of the Pharisees’ party who had become believers objected, insisting that the pagans should be circumcised and instructed to keep the Law of Moses. The apostles and elders met to look into the matter.
Responsive Psalm : Psalm 121(122):1‐5
I rejoiced when I heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’ And now our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.
For Israel’s law it is, there to praise the Lord’s name. There were set the thrones of judgement of the house of David.
Gospel : John 15:1‐8
For our reflection today:
I would like to urge you to always have total trust in the action of divine grace. In fact, Jesus insists on remaining in Him, remaining in His love, being branches grafted onto the Vine, to bear abundant fruit; Jesus clearly warns: “Without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5) and invites us to pray always, without ever tiring (Lk 18:1). In today’s various crises of ideas and customs, we can sometimes be disappointed and defeated; we can feel like it is the hour of Gethsemane, the hour of the Cross. But it must also be the hour of supreme trust in “grace”, which acts in an invisible, unpredictable, mysterious way, even through the torment of our human impotence. Let us remember St. Paul: “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also give us everything else with him?” (Rom 8:31-32). Therefore, always and above all be souls who pray, who adore, who love. Saint Catherine in one of her prayers said: “In your nature, Eternal Deity, I will know my nature”. And she asked herself: “What is my nature? It is fire!” (Pope John Paul II, Speech, To Missionaries of the School, Castelgandolfo 25 August 1980)
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