A Blessed Easter to you all! He is Risen!
In celebration of these glorious days, I will be offering an Easter contest. The winning entry will receive a copy of the New Collegeville Bible Commentary: The Acts of the Apostles by Dennis Hamm and the Collins Catholic Bible: NRSV w/ Grail Psalms.
This contest will not be like the ones I have done recently, which were drawn randomly. Here are the rules for this Easter contest:
1) One entry per person. No anonymous entries will be accepted. (If you sign in anonymously, you must include a name at the end of your entry.)
2) Since I am paying for the shipping, I will only be shipping within North America.
3) If you have a blog of your own, I would appreciate you advertising this contest on it. (This is, however, not mandatory for an eligible entry.)
4) All entries must answer the following question in the comment box:
Since we are hearing readings from the Acts of the Apostles at Mass during the Easter season, what is your favorite verse(s) from Acts and why? Please limit the verses to five or less and your reason to under fifty words.
5) All entries must be submitted by Friday, April 13th, at 11:59PM. I will announce the winner on Saturday.
10 comments:
:( Only in North America?
My favorite passage of Acts is the account of Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch, particularly the exchange of Acts 8:30-31.
(30) Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” (31) He replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him. (Acts 8:30-31 NABRE)
I can relate particularly well to the Eunuch in the story; so often I "look but do not see, and hear but do not understand." And then, so often the Holy Spirit uses someone to inspire in me some deeper understanding of some passage of scripture.
--Chad Meyer
Hard to pick one.
4:18-22 because it speaks just as particularly and poignantly today as in its own day and because the Church is still here, still preaching Jesus in the face of those who would have it silent and thus old Gamaliel (5:34ff) had it exactly right.
Acts 4:32-4:34, 2:44-46. For obvious reasons, that the world is broken; and, in doing their best to enact the will of Christ on earth, tried to fix a small part of it.
Also, I'm not certain of the verse, but when the man falls asleep listening to Paul, falls out the window and dies, and is resurrected: on that verse I was converted to Christianity after reading the Gospels, as "the man was tired, and could care less of the preaching; but now, by the Power of God, he hath been born again, and is risen from the death of sin, and in to the light of life".
"They searched the Scriptures every day to know if these things were true."
CA Mayo
The verses themselves:
Acts 2:42-46:
And all they that believed, were together, and had all things common: their possessions and goods they sold, and divided them to all, according as every one had need. And continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they took their meat with gladness and simplicity of heart; Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord increased daily together such as should be saved.
Acts 4:34-37:
...And when they had prayed, the place was moved wherein they were assembled; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spoke the word of God with confidence. And the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul: neither did any one say that aught of the things which he possessed, was his own; but all things were common unto them. And with great power did the apostles give testimony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord; and great grace was in them all. For neither was there any one needy among them. For as many as were owners of lands or houses, sold them, and brought the price of the things they sold, and laid it down before the feet of the apostles. And distribution was made to every one, according as he had need.
They were undivided in worship, and held all things common, with no poor and no rich; they were one, as Christ and the Father are one, before schism or dissension; and through this Apostolic witness, the Lord worked to call men to salvation. Such shows that the "social gospel" is not incompatible with orthodox Christianity, and indeed is an integral part of the Christian sojourn on this earth.
Acts 20:9-10:
And a certain young man named Eutychus, sitting on the window, being oppressed with a deep sleep, (as Paul was long preaching,) by occasion of his sleep fell from the third loft down, and was taken up dead. To whom, when Paul had gone down, he laid himself upon him, and embracing him, said: Be not troubled, for his soul is in him.
From the DRC Bible.
Acts 2[25] For David says concerning him, `I saw the Lord always before me,
for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;
[26] therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
moreover my flesh will dwell in hope.
Dwell in hope, that is pretty powerful when you think of it, no matter what your situation, we can dwell in hope. L A Bell
Hello Timothy,
My favorite verses are Acts 2: 1-41.
I like those verses because they not only tell the story of the empowering of the Church through the descent of the Holy Spirit, but they also contain Peter's wonderful sermon. Which was the Church's opening salvo in the evangelization of the world.
Pax,
John McBryde
The one verse(s)that has always stuck with me is Acts 18:9,10: One night in a vision the Lord said to Paul, “Do not be afraid. Go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you...” It's sometimes hard to imagine Paul being afraid but it sounds as if he was, and in a world that is growing more and more secular, I think at times we are afraid to speak out , but the Lord wants us to. John Paul always repeated the call of Jesus as well: Be not afraid.
Russ Reiners
The conversion of the Ethopian eunuch has always been a favorite story of mine -- it shows the importance of Tradition in evangelization. It all happens very simply, too -- Phillip just goes up and sits with the man and talks to him.
26 But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert road. 27 And he rose and went. And behold, an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a minister of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless some one guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
Acts 9:3-6
3 And as he went on his journey, it came to pass that he drew near to Damascus. And suddenly a light from heaven shined round about him. 4 And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? 5 Who said: Who are you, Lord? And he: I am Jesus whom you persecute. It is hard for you to kick against the goad. 6 And he, trembling and astonished, said: Lord, what will you have me to do?
For two reasons. First, Christ dramatically identifies himself with the Church, his body. Second, the most active enemy of the Church begins his conversion to become one of its greatest evangelist.
Larry Pryor
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