Apr 2: Peter and John Speak before the Sanhedrin

Parmigianino: St. Peter and St. John Healing the Cripple
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, c.1530

Saturday in the Octave of Easter

Reading I: Acts 4:13-21

“We cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard (NRSV, Acts 4:20).”

Father, as we reflect on today’s scripture we are ever mindful of our Holy Father John Paul who at this moment has begun his passage through death and we pray that in these last earthly moments he will continue to accept the life and the strength that you offer to all of us in every situation.

The ministry of the bishop of Rome, successor of Peter, is especially a teaching ministry. That ministry, Father, is shared with all of the faithful. Every one of us is charged to join with Peter and John as they declared before the Sanhedrin: “We cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Father, you speak your one Word to all of us at every moment. No one is excluded from that revelation. But our rehearsing aloud of what we have experienced at the depth of our being enables us all to clarify our understanding and for many of us it prompts us to turn within and discover what we have perhaps hitherto ignored or even misunderstood.

Father, we give thanks for the ministry of Pope John Pope for awakening us to a fuller discussion of gospel truth and its meaning for all of our lives.

Through Christ our Lord.