Friday Reading 2nd Pentecost Holy Trinity

Acts 5:12-21a
Many signs and wonders were done among the people at the hands of the apostles. They were all together in Solomon’s portico. None of the others dared to join them, but the people esteemed them. Yet more than ever, believers in the Lord, great numbers of men and women, were added to them. Thus they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on one or another of them. A large number of people from the towns in the vicinity of Jerusalem also gathered, bringing the sick and those disturbed by unclean spirits, and they were all cured. Then the high priest rose up and all his companions, that is, the party of the Sadducees, and, filled with jealousy, laid hands upon the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night, the angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison, led them out, and said, “Go and take your place in the temple area, and tell the people everything about this life.” When they heard this, they went to the temple early in the morning and taught.

John 15:22-27
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin; but as it is they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me also hates my Father. If I had not done works among them that no one else ever did, they would not have sin; but as it is, they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But in order that the word written in their law might be fulfilled, ‘They hated me without cause.’ “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

Prayer of the Faithful, vol III.
Ramsho – Opening Prayer (page 122)

O Just One,
who never committed a fault and whose mouth never uttered
deceit,
you willingly allowed yourself to be crucified between two
wrongdoers.
May your cross purify us from our sins,
deliver us from evil,
and protect us from the evil one and his ways.
To yu we shall give glory,
now and forever.
Amen.

Saint of the day: Saint Maurus of San Felice, born in 6th century A.D.
Born in Palestine he traveled as a pilgirm to Rome in the 6th century. Eventual-ly he was made bishop of San Felice near Narni in Italy.

Meditation:

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! – Psalm 98:4

In this liturgical worship, the Christians of the East pay high tribute, in beautiful hymns of praise, to Mary ever Virgin,… – Unitatis Redintegratio, Nov. 21, 1964, Vatican II

The Psalms of the Old Testament of the Bible remind us of how important “sung-verse” was for worship in the ancient world, and especially in the Mediterranean basin (the ancient Near East). Even the founder of the Israelite Kingdom, the anointed cho-sen ruler, King David was thought to have been a singer and musician. It is not sur-prising therefore, that this tradition would be carried into Christian forms of worship, and most identifiably in Eastern Christianity.
Syriac Christianity produced many “saintly singers” although most of their names, biographies, and even works, have been lost in the sweep of time and the de-struction of Christian civilization in the Levant. Almost all Christians have some famili-arity with St. Ephrem the Syrian (ca.306-373), called “The Harp of the Holy Spirit”; in Ephrem’s works and others, it can be seen that these poems and hymns were not only verses of praise, but also of theology and doctrine. For example, many hymn’s of Ephrem show not only his great devotion to the Mother of God, but an understanding of her Immaculate Conception. In his time this doctrine was in the East often refereed to as the pre-purified state of the Virgin. St. Ephrem writes:
Handmaid and daughter
of blood and water [am I] whom you redeemed and baptized
(Hymns on the Nativity 16,10; CSCO 187,76; Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns, trans. Kathleen E. McVey, CWS (New York: Palest Press, 1989), p.150.)