Daily Scripture Reflection & Prayer: May 12, 2025

Monday of the 4th Week of Easter

Scripture Text:  Acts 11:1-18

The Apostles and the brothers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God. So, when Peter went up to Jerusalem the circumcised believers confronted him, saying, ‘You entered the house of uncircumcised people and ate with them.” 

Peter began and explained it to them step by step, saying, “I was at prayer in the city of Joppa when in a trance I had a vision, something resembling a large sheet coming down, lowered from the sky by its four corners, and it came to me. Looking intently into it, I observed and saw the four-legged animals of the earth, the wild beasts, the reptiles, and the birds of the sky.  I also heard a voice say to me, ‘Get up, Peter. Slaughter and eat.’  But I said, ‘Certainly not, sir, because nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’  But a second time a voice from heaven answered, ‘What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.’  This happened three times, and then everything was drawn up again into the sky. Just then three men appeared at the house where we were, who had been sent to me from Caesarea.  The Spirit told me to accompany them without discriminating.  These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house.  He related to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, saying, ‘Send someone to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter, who will speak words to you by which you and all your household will be saved.’  As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them as it had upon us at the beginning, and I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’  If then God gave them the same gift he gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?”

When they heard this, they stopped objecting and glorified God, saying, “God has then granted life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too.”

 Breaking the text open – background and summary:

The first reading for today from the Acts of the Apostles recounts Peter’s vision from the LORD that clarified for him that the LORD’s salvation won by Christ was to include the Gentiles. The vision’s message was further affirmed when Peter witnessed the Spirit at work in the household of Cornelius in Caesarea.

Meditating on the text with personal questions:

Am I open to the LORD’s will? Am I open to the Spirit’s work in the world and in others?

Praying:

LORD, Almighty Father, it is your will that all your children share in life in abundance with You. You sent your only-begotten Son to redeem us for our sins when we were unwilling and unable to redeem ourselves. And You give us the gift of the Spirit to guide us and strengthen us as we seek to accept your loving gift and live as You created us to live and as your Son, Jesus Christ, calls us to live. Grant that we may always and everywhere be open to the guidance and graces of your Spirit in our world, in ourselves. We ask this in the name of your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Spirit, one LORD, forever and ever. Amen.