Thursday of the Second Week of Easter

Thursday of the Second Week of Easter. We must obey God rather than men. Peter before the Sanhedrin: God raised Jesus, God exalted him, we are witnesses. He does not ration his gift of the Spirit. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those crushed in spirit. Many are the troubles of the just, but the Lord delivers.

The apostles are brought before the Sanhedrin. The high priest says: we gave you strict orders to stop teaching in that name, yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching. Peter and the apostles 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 whom God has given to those who obey him. When they heard this, they became infuriated and wanted to put them to death. In the Gospel, the one whom God sent speaks the words of God, for 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.

DEACON/PRIEST: Lord Jesus, you were raised by the Father and exalted at his right hand as leader and savior. PEOPLE: Lord, have mercy.

DEACON/PRIEST: Christ Jesus, you send the Spirit without measure to those who obey the Father. PEOPLE: Christ, have mercy.

DEACON/PRIEST: Lord Jesus, you are close to the brokenhearted and you save those who are crushed in spirit. PEOPLE: Lord, have mercy.

PRIEST: The Lord hears the cry of the poor. Let us bring our prayers before the God who gives the Spirit without measure.

DEACON/LECTOR:

1. For all who lead the Church - for Pope Leo, for our bishop, for priests and deacons - that their preaching would carry Peter's clarity: we must obey God rather than men, spoken not in defiance but in fidelity, we pray to the Lord.

2. For Christians in workplaces, schools, and public life where the faith creates friction with the expectations of the culture, that the unrationed Spirit would provide the courage to stand when standing is costly, we pray to the Lord.

3. For the brokenhearted in our parish - those carrying grief, divorce, illness, loneliness, or the slow erosion of something they thought would last - that the Lord who is close to the brokenhearted would make his closeness unmistakable tonight, we pray to the Lord.

4. For the newly baptized as they navigate the friction between their new faith and the expectations of the world they were baptized out of, that the Spirit given at their Confirmation would prove unrationed and sufficient, we pray to the Lord.

5. For our parish community, that we would be a place where both Peter's boldness and the psalm's tenderness coexist - courageous enough to obey God rather than men, and gentle enough to draw close to the brokenhearted, we pray to the Lord.

6. For those who obeyed God rather than men and paid the ultimate price - the martyrs, the exiled, the silenced - and for all the faithful departed: that the Spirit they obeyed in this life would welcome them into the eternal life promised to those who believe, we pray to the Lord.

PRIEST: God of the unrationed Spirit, you gave Peter the boldness to stand before the Sanhedrin and the psalmist the tenderness to name the brokenhearted. Give us both. Through Christ our Risen Lord. Alleluia! Amen.