Wednesday Reading 2nd Pentecost Holy Trinity

Acts 4:23-31
After their release they went back to their own people and reported what the chief priests and elders had told them. And when they heard it, they raised their voices to God with one accord and said, “Sovereign Lord, maker of heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them, you said by the holy Spirit through the mouth of our father David, your servant: ‘Why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples entertain folly? The kings of the earth took their stand and the princes gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed.’ Indeed they gathered in this city against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed, Herod and Pontius Pilate, together with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do what your hand and (your) will had long ago planned to take place. And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and enable your servants to speak your word with all boldness, as you stretch forth (your) hand to heal, and signs and wonders are done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” As they prayed, the place where they were gathered shook, and they were all filled with the holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

John 15:15-17
I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.

Prayer of the Faithful, Vol. III
Safro – Third Prayer (page 97)

Lord,
grant peace to the world.
May wars a battles cease throughout the earth;
protect the churches and monasteries;
unite them in the unity of the true faith.
Support and care for the people you have acquired
through your precious blood.
Thus, strengthened by your calm and peace,
we shall render glory and thanksgiving to you,
now and forever. Amen.

Saint of the Day: Elisha the Prophet, died 8th century B.C.
The mantle of the Prophet Elias (Elijah) was passed to his disciple Elisha. He not only prophesied but God worked many miracles through him, such as the raising of a child to life and the cure of the Syrian general Naaman of leprosy.

Meditation:

The Syriac Father, Isaac of Nineveh was a great defender of the outward, bodily actions that should accompany prayer. He had taken on the Messalians (Syriac msal-yane, ‘those who pray’) “which appeared in the fourth century and spread over the en-tire Christian Orient, rejected the Church’s sacraments and asceticism” (Hilarion Alfeyev, Prayer in St. Isaac of Nineveh). In response to them and their sole desire for ecstatic mystical experiences, Isaac argued that it was the tradition of the ancient fa-thers that bodily reverence for God should go along with the inner prayer of the heart, together creating true piety in the one who prays. This stance of Isaac is seen clearly in his devotion to the Holy Cross, a central symbol in the prayer, art, and theological thought of ancient Syriac Christianity.
“In many places Isaac mentions prayer and prostrations before the Cross, kiss-ing the Cross, and other signs of special reverence which must be shown by a Chris-tian to the Cross” (Hilarion Alfeyev, Prayer in St. Isaac of Nineveh). For him the Cross is foreshadowed in the Ark of the Covenant, where Moses and the people of Israel acknowledged the presence of God by prostration before the Ark. Now the presence of God is perfectly manifested in the Cross of Christ, and in reverence to that presence we adore Christ through prayer and prostration before the Cross. The Cross therefore is the bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament, and is the eschato-logical (end-of-time) bridge to the Kingdom of God. The Holy Cross stands out in the theology of Isaac as the symbol above all others of the whole sweep of salvation histo-ry. It was to be venerated with prostrations, kissing the image of the Cross, kneeling, laying in front of its image for long periods of time, and putting one’s head to the floor numerous times.