• Friday, May 15 : Acts of the Apostles 18,9-18.
    One night while Paul was in Corinth, the Lord said to him in a vision , “Do not be afraid. Go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you. No one will attack and harm you, for I have many people in this city.” He settled there for a year and a half and taught the word of God among them. But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews rose up together against Paul and brought him to the tribunal, saying, “This man is inducing people to worship God contrary to the law.” When Paul was about to reply, Gallio spoke to the Jews, “If it were a matter of some crime or malicious fraud, I should with reason hear the complaint of you Jews; but since it is a question of arguments over doctrine and titles and your own law, see to it yourselves. I do not wish to be a judge of such matters.” And he drove them away from the tribunal. They all seized Sosthenes, the synagogue official, and beat him in full view of the tribunal. But none of this was of concern to Gallio. Paul remained for quite some time, and after saying farewell to the brothers he sailed for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had his hair cut because he had taken a vow.
  • Friday, May 15 : Psalms 47(46),2-3.4-5.6-7.
    All you peoples, clap your hands; shout to God with cries of gladness. For the LORD, the Most High, the awesome, is the great king over all the earth. He brings people under us; nations under our feet. He chooses for us our inheritance, the glory of Jacob, whom he loves. God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy; the LORD, amid trumpet blasts. Sing praise to God, sing praise; sing praise to our king, sing praise.
  • Friday, May 15 : Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 16,20-23a.
    Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy. When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. On that day you will not question me about anything. Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.”
  • Friday, May 15 : Saint John Chrysostom
    “You became imitators of our divine Lord,” says Paul. How? “Receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit” (1Thes 1,6). And not only in affliction but in the midst of afflictions and sufferings without number. You can confirm this from the Acts of the Apostles. There we see how persecution was stirred up against them and how their enemies denounced them to the magistrates and aroused the whole town. They were in affliction yet you cannot say they remained faithful with anguish and groaning. No! It was with great joy. The apostles had set them an example: “Rejoicing they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name of Christ” (Acts 5,41). Now here is something truly admirable! It is already a great deal to bear affliction patiently, but to rejoice in it is to show oneself above human nature and to possess nothing more than a passionless body, so to speak. But in what way were they imitators of Christ? In the very same thing he himself suffered without complaining but with joy. For it was by his own will that he found himself among such afflictions. It was for our sake that he humbled himself, going to meet the spitting, buffeting, and even the cross. And he so greatly rejoiced in this that he called it his glory. “Father,” he said, “glorify me” (Jn 17,5).