We must always discern the will of our Lord through the providence of the Holy Spirit if we are to serve His Church or in ministry. For unless God builds the house, the builders build in vain!
And rightly so that no man or woman is an island. Therefore it is good to discern as a community. And to lay hands as needed guided by Holy Spirit, so that all of us shall be fruitful for our Lord.
And so we shall go to the ends of the earth to dispel the darkness through the light of our resurrected Lord. Amen. Hallelujah.
Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin, Doctor pray for us…
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First reading
Acts 12:24-13:5
‘I want Barnabas and Saul set apart’
The word of God continued to spread and to gain followers. Barnabas and Saul completed their task and came back from Jerusalem, bringing John Mark with them.
In the church at Antioch the following were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. One day while they were offering worship to the Lord and keeping a fast, the Holy Spirit said, ‘I want Barnabas and Saul set apart for the work to which I have called them.’ So it was that after fasting and prayer they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
So these two, sent on their mission by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and from there sailed to Cyprus. They landed at Salamis and proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews; John acted as their assistant.
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Gospel
John 12:44-50
I, the light, have come into the world
Jesus declared publicly:
‘Whoever believes in me
believes not in me but in the one who sent me, and whoever sees me, sees the one who sent me.
I, the light, have come into the world, so that whoever believes in me need not stay in the dark any more.
If anyone hears my words and does not keep them faithfully, it is not I who shall condemn him, since I have come not to condemn the world, but to save the world.
He who rejects me and refuses my words has his judge already: the word itself that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day.
For what I have spoken does not come from myself; no, what I was to say, what I had to speak, was commanded by the Father who sent me, and I know that his commands mean eternal life.
And therefore what the Father has told me is what I speak.’
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