Pentecost Novena—Day 9
Acts 28:16-20, 30-31
Psalm 11:4-5, 7
John 21:20-25
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ACTS OF APOSTLES
"Your business is to follow Me." —John 21:22
Today, on the last day of our novena to the Holy Spirit and the next to last day of the Easter season, we read the last words of the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel of John. May today be the beginning of our never again refusing to act on God’s commandments.
When the Lord commands us to follow Him to Calvary, He doesn’t want us to turn and ask: “But, Lord, what about him?” (Jn 21:21) The Lord doesn’t want us to hinder the spread of His Word by comparing ourselves with others. Furthermore, the Lord doesn’t want us to delay in acting on His commands because we have too many problems. For example, “with full assurance, and without any hindrance whatever, [Paul] preached the reign of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 28:31). St. Paul acted on the Lord’s command even though he was in an unfamiliar city, under house arrest, awaiting trial before the Roman emperor, and rejected by many Roman Jews (see Acts 28:16, 19, 24). St. Paul had plenty of problems and excuses for not acting, but he obeyed the Lord.
When we receive the Holy Spirit, we too perform the “acts of the apostles.” We don’t question God, compare ourselves with others, or get bogged down in our problems. We act (Jas 1:22). Let today be the last time we fail to act on God’s commandments. May today be the beginning of the uninterrupted acts of us, His disciples.
Prayer: Father, on this last day of the novena to the Holy Spirit, may I fix my eyes on Jesus and obey His every command.
Promise: "There are still many other things that Jesus did, yet if they were written about in detail, I doubt there would be room enough in the entire world to hold the books to record them." —Jn 21:25
Praise: St. Rita, famous as the patron of impossible causes, is also a patron of troubled marriages, infertility and parenthood.
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