8th Week of Pentecost

Acts 15:36-16:1-3,6-10
After some time, Paul said to Barnabas, “Come, let us make a return visit to see how the brothers are getting on in all the cities where we proclaimed the word of the Lord.” Barnabas wanted to take with them also John, who was called Mark, but Paul insisted that they should not take with them someone who had deserted them at Pamphylia and who had not continued with them in their work. So sharp was their disagreement that they separated. Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and departed after being commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. He traveled through Syria and Cilicia bringing strength to the churches. He reached (also) Derbe and Lystra where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. The brothers in Lystra and Iconium spoke highly of him, and Paul wanted him to come along with him. On account of the Jews of that region, Paul had him circumcised, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. They traveled through the Phrygian and Galatian territory because they had been prevented by the holy Spirit from preaching the message in the province of Asia. When they came to Mysia, they tried to go on into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them, so they crossed through Mysia and came down to Troas. During (the) night Paul had a vision. A Macedonian stood before him and implored him with these words, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When he had seen the vision, we sought passage to Macedonia at once, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

Luke 11:1-4
He was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.”

Prayer of the Faithful, vol. III
Ramsho – Opening Prayer

Christ our God,
pure splendor of the Father,
you sent your Spirit of life on your holy apostles.
During the Season of Pentecost
may we celebrate the feast of the descent of the Holy Spirit in
purity and holiness,
and prepare to receive your divine gifts.
We shall exalt the glory of the life giving Trinity:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
now and for ever.
Amen.

Saint of the Day: Saint James the Greater, Apostle (died 44 A.D.)
James; his brother John, the Evangelist; and Peter were special favorites of the Lord. They had the privilege of witnessing the Transfiguration, when Jesus’ robe and face shined as bright as the sun and the voice of God spoke from the heavens, announcing that Jesus was his only Son. The three apostles were terrified and fell to the ground.

Later, when they were coming down from the mountain where this had taken place, Jesus told them that they could not tell anyone what they had seen until after he had died and been risen from the dead.

James was called “the Greater” because he was either older or taller than the other apostle named James. One day, James and his brother John made the other apostles angry. The two of them told the Lord that they thought they deserved a special place in his kingdom. They bragged that they would be able to sacrifice their lives, as Jesus was going to sacrifice his. Jesus took the brothers aside. He told them that they did not understand what true service to others meant. He said that anyone who wanted to be truly great had to be the servant of others. Jesus was trying to teach them what he expected of them.

Jesus called the two brothers “sons of thunder” because they sometimes lost their tempers. One time the people of a village turned them away. James and John were upset that the villagers would not welcome Jesus. They asked the Lord if he wanted them to call down fire to destroy the village. Jesus had to correct them and remind them that God wants us to act with love.

But James and John did learn from everything Jesus taught. They became great examples of faith for all of Jesus’ followers. After Pentecost, James stayed in Jerusalem to preach about Jesus even though it was dangerous to be known as a Christian. He was soon arrested and put to death around 44 A.D.

James was the first apostle to become a martyr for his faith in Christ. Tradition says that his body was taken to Compostela, in Spain, which became a famous place of pilgrimage—”The Way of St. James”—from the Middle Ages onward. Some stories say he traveled to Spain to preach there before his death, but there is no proof that this happened.

Meditation:
“The ultimate aim of the Incarnation, however, was not just to restore Adam’s humanity to Paradise, but to raise humanity to the position and honor that Adam and Eve would have been granted had they kept the divine commandment, as St. Ephrem explains in the Commentary on Genesis II.23.

‘…had the serpent been rejected, along with the sin,
they would have eaten of the Tree of Life, and the
Tree of Knowledge would not have been withheld
from them any longer; from the one they would have
acquired infallible knowledge, and from the other
they would hace acquired divinity [allahutha] in humanity; and
had they thus acquired infallible knowledge and immortal
life, they woild have done so in the body.’

Elsewhere, in one of the Nisibene hymns (LXIX.12) he puts the matter succinctly as follows:

‘The Most High knew that Adam wanted to become a god,
so He sent His Son who put him on in order to grant
him his desire.’”

Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns On Paradise, Sebastian Brock, SVS Press, 1998.