Category: Verse for the day

“With power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” —Acts 4:33 The Holy Spirit has told the Church to make the Easter season extra special by celebrating some of God’s greatest works during Easter. For example, the first hours of Easter are glorified by the Baptisms, Confirmations, and First Communions of hundreds of thousands of catechumens throughout the world. We kick off the fifty-day Easter season with the Easter octave. We often have additional Confirmations and First Communions throughout Easter. We celebrate May as the month of Mary with rosaries and May crownings. We conclude the...

“With power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” —Acts 4:33 The Holy Spirit has told the Church to make the Easter season extra special by celebrating some of God’s greatest works during Easter. For example, the first hours of Easter are glorified by the Baptisms, Confirmations, and First Communions of hundreds of thousands of catechumens throughout the world. We kick off the fifty-day Easter season with the Easter octave. We often have additional Confirmations and First Communions throughout Easter. We celebrate May as the month of Mary with rosaries and May crownings. We conclude the...

“The place where they were gathered shook as they prayed. They were filled with the Holy Spirit.” —Acts 4:31 When Peter and John were released from jail, they did not ask for: future safety, protection from their enemies, justice after being wrongly arrested, or an easier mission. Rather, they asked to be filled again with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4; 4:31) and thereby receive “complete assurance,” that is, holy boldness in witnessing for the risen Christ (Acts 4:29). Let’s not focus on the immensity of our problems and the human impossibility of dealing with them. It doesn’t make that much...

“A week later, the disciples were once more in the room, and this time Thomas was with them. Despite the locked doors, Jesus came.” —John 20:26 The octave of the first Easter was disappointing and uneventful for the apostles. On the evening of the day of Jesus’ Resurrection, Jesus sent His apostles to proclaim His Gospel (Jn 20:21), but eight days later they were still paralyzed by fear and behind locked doors (see Jn 20:26). You can see why Thomas, not present a week earlier, did not believe that Jesus was risen from the dead. However, the Lord had mercy...

“The questioners were amazed.” —Acts 4:13 People who have met the risen Christ are amazing. “Observing the self-assurance of Peter and John, and realizing that the speakers were uneducated men of no standing, the questioners were amazed” (Acts 4:13). Almost everyone must have been amazed that the risen Jesus “first appeared to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons” (Mk 16:9). How could Peter, who denied Christ three times, stand before thousands of people, preach fearlessly, and lead three thousand people to Christ at one time? Amazing! How could the persecutor Saul change into the Apostle Paul?...