Daily Bible Readings Friday May 15 2009 Fifth Week of Easter

May 15 2009 Friday Fifth Week of Easter
Saint of the Day – St. Isidore the Farmer

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/051509.shtml

Acts 15:22-31
Haydock New Testament

Then it pleased the apostles and ancients, with the whole church, to choose men of their own company, and to send them to Antioch, with Paul and Barnabas; Judas, who was surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren, Writing by their hands.

The apostles and ancients, brethren, to the brethren of the Gentiles, that are at Antioch, and in Syria, and Cilicia, greeting. Forasmuch as we have heard, that some, who went out from us, have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, to whom we gave no commands: It hath seemed good to us, assembled together, to choose out men, and send them to you, with our dearly beloved Barnabas and Paul, Men who have given their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have sent, therefore, Judas and Silas, who themselves also will, by word of mouth, tell you the same things. For it hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay no further burthen upon you, than these necessary things: That you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which things keeping yourselves, you shall do well. Fare ye well.

They, therefore, being dismissed, went down to Antioch: and when they had gathered together the multitude, they delivered the epistle. Which when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation.

Responsorial Psalm 56:8-10 and 12 (Ps 57 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready:
I will sing, and rehearse a psalm.
Arise, O my glory, arise psaltery and harp: I will arise early.
I will give praise to thee, O Lord, among the people:
I will sing a psalm to thee among the nations.
Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens:
and thy glory above all the earth.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint John 15:12-17
Haydock New Testament

Jesus said:

This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do the things that I command you. I will not now call you servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth. But I have called you friends: because all things whatsoever I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you.

You have not chosen me: but I have chosen you, and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain: that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father is my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, that you love one another.

Haydock Commentary Acts 15:22-31
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 23. The brethren of the Gentiles. Hence we see, that he letter, with the decree of the Council, only regarded those converts, who had been Gentiles; neither are they forbidden to use the Jewish ceremonies, but a declaration is made, that they have no obligation to follow the said ceremonies and precepts, as it will appear by other places.  Wi.
• Ver. 24. Some who went out from us, from Jerusalem, and pretended to speak our mind, and in our name, but we gave them no such commission.  Wi. — A proper description of heretics, schismatics, and seditious preachers, who go out from their own superiors, and pretend to teach and preach without any mission, et quomodo prædicabunt nisi mittantur; how can they preach, unless they are sent?  Rom. x. 15.
• Ver. 28. It hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us. To us in these matters, wherein by the promises of Christ, we are directed by the Holy Ghost, the spirit of truth, &c. — Than these necessary things. Necessary at this juncture, and always, if we except that order of abstaining from blood, and things strangled, which was not a perpetual, unchangeable precept, but to last only for a time, as S. Chrys. observes.  Wi. — This is the first general council held in the Church, and the model of all succeeding ones.  In it the apostles,  in a commanding and authoritative manner, laid down the law, which was to be the guide of the faithful, knowing they had a right to  impose any regulations in the Church, and that they could not employ this authority but to good purposes, directed as they were by the unerring spirit of truth, which Christ had promised (Matt. xxviii. 20.) should remain with his Church for ever.  Hence it would appear that we have no more ground refusing obedience to the voice of the Church at present, than at her first establishment: and that those who will not hear the Church now, speaking in her Councils, would with as little ceremony have opposed the apostles on this occasion, had they lived at the time.  By what spirit of seduction has been introduced, and spread, to such an alarming extent, the opinion, that Christianity (the very leading feature of which is to hear and to obey) authorizes unrestricted liberty?  Is then authority an unmeaning word?  A.
• Ver. 29. From blood, and from things strangled. The use of these things, though of their own nature indifferent, were here prohibited, to bring the Jews more easily to admit of the society of the Gentiles; and to exercise the latter in obedience.  But this prohibition was but temporary, and has long since ceased to oblige; more especially in the western churches.  Ch. — See note on v. 20. supra.
• Ver. 31. We may  here briefly remark, that the controversy was finally adjusted by the decree of the Council.   2dly, That all, not only the Gentiles, but the abettors and masters of the former dissension, experienced great consolation in the promulgation of the decision, receiving it as the resolve not of mere mortal men, but of the Holy Ghost.  It hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us.

Haydock Commentary John 15:12-17

• Ver. 14. You are my friends. A wonderful condescension, says S. Aug. in our blessed Redeemer, who was God as well as man, to call such poor and sinful creatures, his friends; who, when we have done all we can, and ought, are still but unprofitable servants.  I have called you my friends, because I have made known to you, &c.  We can only understand these words, as S. Chrys. takes notice, of all things which they were capable of understanding, or which it was proper to communicate to them; for, as Christ tells them in the next chap. (v. 12.) I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. Wi.
• Ver. 16. O ineffable grace!  For what were we, before Christ chose us, but wretched and abandoned creatures?  Such we were; but now we are chosen, in order that we may become good by the grace of Him that hath chosen us.  S. Aug. tract. 86. in Joan.