Today, April 16
Feast of the Day
No feast of the day
Saint of the Day
Readings of the Day
Acts of the Apostles 5,27-33.
When the court officers had brought the Apostles in and made them stand before the Sanhedrin, the high priest questioned them, "We gave you strict orders (did we not?) to stop teaching in that name. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and want to bring this man's blood upon us." But Peter and the apostles said in reply, "We must obey God rather than men. The God of our ancestors raised Jesus, though you had him killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins. We are witnesses of these things, as is the holy Spirit that God has given to those who obey him." When they heard this, they became infuriated and wanted to put them to death.
Psalms 34(33),2.9.17-18.19-20.
I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall be ever in my mouth. Taste and see how good the LORD is; blessed the man who takes refuge in him. The LORD confronts the evildoers, to destroy remembrance of them from the earth. When the just cry out, the LORD hears them, and from all their distress he rescues them. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves. Many are the troubles of the just man, but out of them all the LORD delivers him.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 3,31-36.
The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things. But the one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever does accept his testimony certifies that God is trustworthy. For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God. He does not ration his gift of the Spirit. The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.
Daily Reflection
Like Mary, every servant of God must be silent and calm in herself quite often, must shut herself up within herself, hide in the spirit so as to shield herself and escape from the senses and to make for herself a place of silence and of interior rest. This interior rest is what is being sung…: “For when peaceful stillness compassed everything and the night in its swift course was half spent, Your all-powerful word from heaven’s royal throne bounded, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land,” (Wis 18:14-15), when the eternal Word came out of the Father’s heart. True silence reigns in the midst of silence, at the very moment when all things are plunged into the greatest silence; that is when one truly hears this Word. For if you want God to speak, you must be silent; all things must go out so that he might enter. When our Lord Jesus entered Egypt, all the country’s idols collapsed. Your idols are all that prevents this eternal birth from happening in you in a true and immediate way, no matter how good and holy these things might seem. Our Lord said: “I have come to bring a sword” (Mt 10:34) to sever all that stems from the human person… For your enemy is that which is closest to you: that multiplicity of images that conceal the Word in you.