Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter – Year A
First Reading – Acts 22:30, 23:6-11
But the next day, desiring to know the real reason why the Jews accused him, he unbound him, and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet, and he brought Paul down and set him before them.
But when Paul perceived that one part were Sad′ducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead I am on trial.” And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sad′ducees; and the assembly was divided. For the Sad′ducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. Then a great clamor arose; and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ party stood up and contended, “We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?” And when the dissension became violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn in pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them and bring him into the barracks. he following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified about me at Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also at Rome.”
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 16:1-2 and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
℟ Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.
℟ Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.
I keep the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
℟ Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also dwells secure.
For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your godly one see the Pit.
℟ Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
You show me the path of life; in your presence there is fulness of joy, in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.
℟ Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
Alleluia – John 17:21
℟ Alleluia!
Even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
℟ Alleluia!
Gospel – John 17:20-26
I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which you have given me in your love for me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you; and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will mak it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.
Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, Ignatius Press, Copyright ⓒ 2006.