Wednesday Readings

Acts 7:1-8
Then the high priest asked, “Is this so?” And he replied, “My brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia, before he had settled in Haran, and said to him, ‘Go forth from your land and (from) your kinsfolk to the land that I will show you.’ So he went forth from the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, he made him migrate to this land where you now dwell. Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but he did promise to give it to him and his descendants as a possession, even though he was childless. And God spoke thus, ‘His descendants shall be aliens in a land not their own, where they shall be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years; but I will bring judgment on the nation they serve,’ God said, ‘and after that they will come out and worship me in this place.’ Then he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, as Isaac did Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs.

John 16:16-19
“A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me.” So some of his disciples said to one another, “What does this mean that he is saying to us, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” So they said, “What is this ‘little while’ (of which he speaks)? We do not know what he means.” Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you discussing with one another what I said, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’?

When God makes a covenant, He is faithful. He promised a reward to the descendants of Abraham, and even though the reward would seem distant God was faithful. Jesus foretold His death and His resurrection, but during the three days, the disciples doubted that Jesus would fulfill his covenant and the covenant made to the prophets and patriarchs. When we are in a difficult place, do we doubt that God is faithful? God kept His covenants of old, and He will keep His covenant to those who are faithful.

PRAYER – Second Prayer from the Psalmody for Safro for the Memorial of a Confessor according to the Prayer of the Faithful of the Maronite Rite
Lord, have mercy on us and save us.
Light of the just and righteous, on this morning enlighten our souls with Your light and enflame our hearts with Your love that we may imitate Saint Louis Gonzaga, and like him consecrate our lives to You. Then we will accomplish Your will here below, obtain a crown in heaven, and praise You, now and forever. Amen.