RELIGION AND ART

MONDAY WEEK FIVE OF EASTER: EVIDENCE OF GOD IN ALL CREATED THINGS - THE GOOD NEWS First Reading Acts 14:5-18  We have come with good news to turn you to the living God Eventually with the connivance of the authorities a move was made by pagans as well as Jews to make attacks on the apostles and to stone them. When the apostles came to hear of this, they went off for safety to Lycaonia where, in the towns of Lystra and Derbe and in the surrounding country, they preached the Good News.  Readings   Lectures  A man sat there who had never walked in his life, because his feet were crippled from birth; and as he listened to Paul preaching, he managed to catch his eye. Seeing that the man had the faith to be cured, Paul said in a loud voice, ‘Get to your feet – stand up’, and the cripple jumped up and began to walk.  When the crowd saw what Paul had done they shouted in the language of Lycaonia, ‘These people are gods who have come down to us disguised as men.’ They addressed Barnabas as Zeus

FIFTH SUNDAY IN EASTER: LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU First Reading Acts 14:21-27  Lectures They gave an account to the church of all that God had done with them Readings Paul and Barnabas went back through Lystra and Iconium to Antioch. They put fresh heart into the disciples, encouraging them to persevere in the faith. ‘We all have to experience many hardships’ they said ‘before we enter the kingdom of God.’ In each of these churches they appointed elders, and with prayer and fasting they commended them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe. They passed through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia. Then after proclaiming the word at Perga they went down to Attalia and from there sailed for Antioch, where they had originally been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now completed.  On their arrival they assembled the church and gave an account of all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith to the pagans. Responsoria Psalm:  I will ble

SATURDAY FORTH WEEK OF EASTER:   REMAIN IN MY LOVE First Reading   Acts 1:15-17,20-26   'Let someone else take his office'   One day Peter stood up to speak to the brothers – there were about a hundred and twenty persons in the congregation: ‘Brothers, the passage of scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit, speaking through David, foretells the fate of Judas, who offered himself as a guide to the men who arrested Jesus  after having been one of our number and actually sharing this ministry of ours. Now in the Book of Psalms it says: Readings Lectures   Let his camp be reduced to ruin, Let there be no one to live in it. And again: Let someone else take his office.   ‘We must therefore choose someone who has been with us the whole time that the Lord Jesus was travelling round with us, someone who was with us right from the time when John was baptising until the day when he was taken up from us, and he can act with us as a witness to his resurrect

FRIDAY FOURTH WEEK IN EASTER:  YOU ARE MY SON First Reading Acts 13:26-33  God has fulfilled his promise by raising Jesus from the dead Paul stood up in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia, held up a hand for silence and began to speak: ‘My brothers, sons of Abraham’s race, and all you who fear God, this message of salvation is meant for you. What the people of Jerusalem and their rulers did, though they did not realise it, was in fact to fulfil the prophecies read on every sabbath. Though they found nothing to justify his death, they condemned him and asked Pilate to have him executed. Readings , Lectures When they had carried out everything that scripture foretells about him they took him down from the tree and buried him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had accompanied him from Galilee to Jerusalem: and it is these same companions of his who are now his witnesses before our people. Reflections We have come here to tell you the G