Scattered

Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter

April 17, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041724.cfm

There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem,
and all were scattered
throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria,
except the Apostles.
Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him.
Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church;
entering house after house and dragging out men and women,
he handed them over for imprisonment.

Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.
Thus Philip went down to the city of Samaria
and proclaimed the Christ to them.
Acts 8:1-6

Those who persecuted the first Christians expected them to be obliterated by the subsequent “scattering “. Instead, like sparks cast widely into dry tinder, the Gospel exploded through the world in Power and Light.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We pray to recognize ourselves and our whole Church as those same sparks cast into the ages for the sake of the Gospel. We are the ongoing fulfillment of the words Jesus spoke in today’s reading:

And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but that I should raise it on the last day.
For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day.”
John 6:37-38

Prayer: Thinking about the legacy of faith passed down to us through the centuries, I came across this prayer of St. Alphonsus to St. Teresa of Avila.

O Seraphic virgin, St. Teresa, 
beloved spouse of the Crucified, 
you who burned with such great love of God 
while on earth, 
and now burn with a still purer 
and brighter flame in Heaven; 
you who so greatly desired 
to see God loved by all, 
obtain for me too, I pray,
a spark of that holy fire, 
whereby I may oppose all that opposes God,
and grant that all my thoughts, desires, and affections 
may be ever employed in pursuing, 
whether in the midst of joys or of sufferings, 
the will of the Supreme Good, 
Who deserves our unbounded love and obedience. 
Oh, obtain for me this grace, 
you who are so powerful with God, that, 
like you, I may be all on fire with divine love.   
Amen.