Apr. 10: Thursday of the Third Week of Easter

Rembrandt van Rijn, Baptism of the Eunuch, Museum Catherijneconvent, Utrecht, 1626

Readings for Mass
First Reading: Acts 8:26-40
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 66:8-9, 16-17, 20
Gospel: John 6:44-51

“How can I, unless someone guides me (NRSV, Acts 8:31a)?”

Let us pray.

Father, how gracious you are to all of us in every situation. At each moment, you reveal yourself to us through your one spoken Word, uttered to all in every place and time. You have as well given us your written Word passed down to us through the centuries. Your truth is contained in the wisdom of the ages shared by the whole human family. If this were not enough, in the fullness of time, the Word has become flesh in our Lord Jesus Christ, indeed truly the way, the truth and the life, come to teach, to comfort, to heal and even to die with us.

Father, our situation in life and history, the heavy burden of the sin of the world, and our own personal selfishness and sin, make it difficult fully to grasp your Word in every situation even though every moment, without fail, is always saving.

Your truth, Father, spoken to us all in the depth of our being through the Word, abounds throughout creation in ways we often least expect. May every one of us, Lord, come to a deeper understanding of who you are and what you challenge us to become. May we always encourage one another so that we may each one benefit from the truth revealed to all but only understood in part by any one of us. May each of us, in ways not always yet determined, share in mediating your Word to one another.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.