Daily Bible Readings Saturday April 18 2009 Octave of Easter

April 18 2009 Saturday in the Octave of Easter
Saint of the Day – St Apollonius, Martyr (See Also)

About the sources used. The readings on this site are not official for the Mass of Roman Rite of the Catholic Church in the USA, but are from sources free from copyright. They are here to present the comparable readings alongside traditional Catholic commentary as published in the Haydock Bible for your own personal study. Readings vary depending on your local calendar.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/041809.shtml

Acts 4:13-21
Haydock New Testament

Now they, seeing the constancy of Peter and John, knowing that they were illiterate and ignorant men, they wondered: and they knew them, that they had been with Jesus: Seeing also the man standing with them, who had been healed, they could say nothing against it. But they commanded them to go aside out of the council: and they conferred among themselves, Saying;

What shall we do to these men? for a notable miracle, indeed, hath been done by them, it is manifest to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: it is manifest, and we cannot deny it. But that it may be no further divulged among the people, let us threaten them, that they speak no more in this name to any man.

And calling them, they charged them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answering, said to them;

If it be just in the sight of God, to hear you rather than God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.

But they, threatening them, sent them away, not finding how they might punish them, because of the people: for all men glorified what had been done, in that which had come to pass.

Responsorial Psalm 117:1 and 14-15, 16bc-21 (Ps 118 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

Give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
The Lord is my strength and my praise: and he is become my salvation.
The voice of rejoicing and of salvation is in the tabernacles of the just.
The right hand of the Lord hath exalted me:
the right hand of the Lord hath wrought strength.
I shall not die, but live: and shall declare the works of the Lord.
The Lord chastising hath chastised me: but he hath not delivered me over to death.
Open ye to me the gates of justice: I will go in to them, and give praise to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord, the just shall enter into it.
I will give glory to thee because thou hast heard me: and art become my salvation.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Mark 16:9-15
Haydock New Testament

But he rising early the first day of the week, appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. She went, and told them that had been with him, who were mourning and weeping. And they hearing that he was alive, and had been seen by her, did not believe. And after that he appeared in another form to two of them walking, as they were going into the country. And they going, told it to the rest: neither did they believe them. At length he appeared to the eleven, as they were at table: and he upbraided them with their incredulity and hardness of heart; because they did not believe them who had seen him after he was risen again. And he said to them:

Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

Haydock Commentary Acts 4: 13-21
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 13. The constancy of Peter and John, surprised the council very much. They admired their knowledge of the Scriptures, seeing them men without learning or letters,[2] and (as they are called idiots) they could not find how to contradict the fact, the man that was healed, being there present. Wi. — Here, with the Jewish people, you may admire the constancy, wisdom, and learning of the apostles, after the coming of the Holy Ghost, who, before that event, were simple, unlettered, and timorous men. See v. 19; and again, C. v. 29.
• Ver. 16. What shall we do to these men? They were perplexed, says S. Chrys. and in greater fear than the apostles. They saw they could do nothing but threaten and charge them to speak no more of Jesus. Wi.
• Ver. 19. But Peter and John stopped their mouths, by asking them, if it was reasonable for them to hearken to men rather than to God. For we, they say, (v. 20.) cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Wi.
• Ver. 20. We have seen and heard. From these words, S. Chrysostom make some important remarks on the conduct of Christians. On returning from the theatre, or any public meeting, each can relate what he has seen and heard. This is the fruit they reap from attending at public places an amusement; and would to God it were merely pleasure unmixed with poison. But on returning from Church, where they have been for instruction, they remember nothing, speak of nothing they have seen or heard. All is silence. Not even a thought is turned on what has been performed. Hom. x. in Act. — It is a curious fact, which the apologists for the innocence of modern plays would do well to attend to, that the theatre has always been avoided by the good and the virtuous of every age. When one of the ancient Fathers was exorcising a female demoniac, who had been possessed at the theatre, and bade the devil to depart; No, replied he, I had a right to take possession of her, for I found her in my own house. A.
• Ver. 21. Threatening them. Here commences the history of the first persecution of religious opinion, which the passions of men have continued, and swelled to such a frightful length. But on this, as on all other occasions, it has defeated its own purpose, by adding firmness and constancy to the persecuted. Truth is not to be overpowered by violence. In vain have the kings and princes of the earth risen up against the Lord, and against his Christ. — When will men learn, that charity is the principle of conversion! — That is an unheard-of kind of preaching, said the great Pope, S. Gregory, which exacts belief by stripes. He was on this occasion reprehending the false zeal of certain indiscreet Christians at Rome, who were for compelling the Jews to become converts. A. — The amiable Fenelon, in a letter to Prince Charles, the son of our James the Second, says: “No human power can force the impenetrable intrenchments of the human mind. Compulsion never persuades—it only makes hypocrites. When kings interfere in matters of religion, they do not protect it; they enslave it. Give civil liberty to all; not by approving all religions, as indifferent, but, by permitting in others, what God permits.”

Haydock Commentary Mark 16:9-15

• Ver. 9. This appearance of our Saviour is more fully related by S. John. Our Lord arose early from the monument in which he had been placed late in the evening, thus fulfilling the words of the psalmist: In the evening weeping shall have place, and in the morning gladness. Ps. xxix. Ven. Bede. — Rising early. It appears from this that our Saviour arose early, about sunrise, as was the sentiment of S. Austin; though S. Gregory seems to think that he arose at midnight, in the same manner as Samson, who was a figure of Christ, arose in the middle of the night and carried away the gates of Gaza. If we follow this opinion, we must understand the word early as referring to the verb appeared, not to the participle rising, and then the sentence will be: he rising, (having arisen) appeared early the first day of the week. The first interpretation, however, of S. Austin seems more agreeable to the text: he rising early the first day of the week, appeared, &c.
• Ver. 12. He had appeared to Magdalene in the form of a gardener, and to two disciples in the form of a traveller.
• Ver. 14. At length, &c. in the Latin text, taken according to the letter, is lastly, or last of all: but if we examine and compare the four gospels, this was not the last time that Christ appeared to his disciples after his resurrection. We can only then understand it of the last time mentioned by this evangelist. — To the eleven. If this apparition (as it was the common opinion of S. Augustine) was made when S. Thomas was not with them, they were only then ten, without S. Thomas and Judas. The evangelist here calls them eleven, because the apostolical college (Judas being dead) consisted of no more than eleven. And this way of speaking may be justified by diverse examples: one instance may suffice. A meeting of the Jewish sanhedrim might be called the Council of the Seventy-two, though it many times happened that all the seventy-two were not there present. Wi. — Some think that this was the last apparition of Jesus Christ, after which he quitted the earth, and ascended into heaven. V.