Tag: acts11:22-24

One Minute Reflection – 11 June – Memorial of St Barnabas, Apostle – Today’s First Reading  Acts of the Apostles 11:21b-26.13:1-3.

News of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.   When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad and he exhorted them all, to remain faithful to the Lord, with steadfast purpose;  for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.   And a large company was added to the Lord...Acts 11:22-24

REFLECTION – “While we cannot see God, there is something we can do, to open a way, for the eye of our understanding to come to Him.   It is certain that we can see now in His servants, one whom we can in no way see in Himself.   When we see them doing astonishing things, we can be sure that God dwells in their hearts…   None of us can look directly at the rising sun by gazing at its orb.   Our eyes are repelled as they strain to see its rays.   But we look at mountains bathed in sunlight and see that it has risen.   Because we cannot see the Sun of righteousness (Mal 3,20) Himself, let us see the mountains bathed in His brightness, I mean the holy apostles.   They shine with virtues and gleam with miracles…  The power of His divinity, is in itself, like the sun in the sky;  in human beings it is like the sun shining on earth…”…St Pope Gregory the Great (c 540-604), Father & Doctor of the Church (Homilies on the Gospel, no 30)

PRAYER – O God, who decreed that Saint Barnabas, a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit, should be set apart to convert the nations, grant that the Gospel of Christ, which he strenuously preached, may be faithfully proclaimed by word and by deed.   We pray you Lord, that by the intercession of St Barnabas, we too may grow in faith and love and live to glorify Your kingdom.   Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.