May 13, 2011
Friday of the Third Week of Easter
By Melanie Rigney
On (Saul’s) journey, as he was nearing Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He said, “Who are you, sir?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, for they heard the voice but could see no one. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. For three days he was unable to see, and he neither ate nor drank. (Acts 9:3-9)
Go out to all the world and tell the Good News. (Mark 16:15)
“Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.” (John 6:57)
Piety
Lord, help me to be present to Your small presences in my life as well as the large.
Study
When were you saved?
The Roman Catholic answer, of course, is we are “saved” by Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross and our baptism.
Some of our Protestant friends look at this differently. They can tell you the exact time, place, and circumstance during which they accepted Jesus Christ as their personal lord and savior. Often, this acceptance came with a profound faith experience, an experience that to them was as meaningful as Christ waylaying Paul on the road to Damascus.
Those times that God puts out flashing neon lights for us are amazing. Maybe it happened when your children were born, or after you’d been wrestling with a problem the way Jacob wrestled with the angel.
But the quiet moments of continual conversion can be pretty amazing too. Maybe it happened when the congregation sang a hymn for the millionth time but all of a sudden, the words meant something to you that you’d never heard before. Or maybe you felt it the morning you woke up and managed for the first time not to cry about the recent loss of a loved one.
It doesn’t matter whether we’re fed in a public way or in a private way. What matters is that, once nourished, we go out in the world and by our actions, thoughts, and words, share the wealth of the Good News.
Action
Have a discussion at the dinner table about how God fed you today.
