Liturgical Readings for : Saturday, 11th May, 2024
Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter
FIRST READING
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles 18:23-28
Apollos demonstrated from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
Paul came down to Antioch where he spent a short time before continuing his journey through the Galatian country and then through Phrygia, encouraging all the followers.
An Alexandrian Jew named Apollos now arrived in Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, with a sound knowledge of the scriptures, and yet, though he had been given instruction in the Way of the Lord and preached with great spiritual earnestness and was accurate in all the details he taught about Jesus, he had only experienced the baptism of John. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him speak boldly in the synagogue, they took an interest in him and gave him further instruction about the Way.
When Apollos thought of crossing over to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote asking the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived there he was able by God’s grace to help the believers considerably by the energetic way he refuted the Jews in public and demonstrated from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
Responsorial Psalm Ps 46:2-3,8-10. Rv 8
Response God is king of all the earth.
Or Alleluia!
1. All peoples, clap your hands, cry to God with shouts of joy!
For the Lord, the Most High, we must fear, great king over all the earth. Response
2. God is king of all the earth. Sing praise with all your skill.
God is king over the nations: God reigns on his holy throne. Response
3. The princes of the peoples are assembled with the people of Abraham’s God.
The rulers of the earth belong to God, to God who reigns over all. Response
Gospel Acclamation Jn 14:66
Alleluia, Alleluia!
I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever.
Alleluia!
or Jn 16: 28
Alleluia, Alleluia!
‘I came from the Father and have come into the world
and now I leave the world to go to the Father.’
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John 16:23-28 Glory to you, O Lord
The Father loves you for loving me and believing.
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘I tell you most solemnly, anything you ask for from the Father he will grant in my name. ‘Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and so your joy will be complete.
I have been telling you all this in metaphors, the hour is coming when I shall no longer speak to you in metaphors; but tell you about the Father in plain words.
When that day comes you will ask in my name; and I do not say that I shall pray to the Father for you, because the Father himself loves you for loving me and believing that I came from God.
I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I leave the world to go to the Father.’
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Gospel Reflection Saturday, Sixth Week of Easter John 16:23-28
Today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles gives us an insight into how people in the early church supported one another in faith. We are introduced in that reading to a man called Apollos. By all accounts he was a very impressive figure; he had a sound knowledge of the Scriptures; he spoke with great eloquence, and had been given instruction in the faith, in the Way of the Lord. Yet, it is clear that he needed further instruction in the faith and that was given to him by a married couple by the name of Priscilla and Aquila. Apollos obviously had gifts that this married couple did not have, and, yet, they had something which he didn’t have; they had a fuller understanding of the way of the Lord. Apollos had a great deal to offer but he also had something to receive from this married couple. That is how it is in the church. We need each other’s faith if we are to grow in faith. We need the believing community if we are to grow in our relationship with the Lord. Within the community of faith we have an opportunity to give from our own faith and to receive from the faith of others. As members of the body of Christ, we all have something to offer and we all have something to receive. When it comes to our relationship with the Lord we are always interdependent. We need the church, the living community of faith; we cannot go it alone.
The gospel reading suggests that above all we need the Lord who comes to us in and through the members of the church. We need to pray, to ask the Lord for the help that he alone can give us, the help that enables us to do his work, and, indeed, as he says, to do even greater works than he has done. Jesus almost seems to rebuke the disciples when he says in the gospel reading, ‘until now you have not asked for anything in my name’. He encourages us to ask, to live our lives as his followers not on our resources but in union with him, recognizing our dependence on him.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
