Today’s Readings – Tuesday of Week 5 of Easter - First Reading

Commentary on Acts 14:19-28

We come today to the final description of Paul’s and Barnabas’ first missionary journey. In the previous passage, they were in Lystra, and in the embarrassing situation of being taken for gods because of the cure of a paralysed man. But their glory was to be short-lived; their enemies were on their tail.

Those Jews whose hostility they had incurred in the towns of Antioch and Iconium turned up and successfully stirred up the feelings of the people of Lystra against the two apostles. But it’s important to remember that there were also other Jews in these towns who had become Christian believers.

Reflecting the fickleness of crowds, the people who had just been treating the apostles as gods now had Paul stoned and left him for dead. It … Continue

Yesterday’s Readings – Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor

Catherine of Siena was a member of the Third Order of the Dominicans (Order of Preachers, OP), a scholar, philosopher and theologian. She was born in Siena, Italy, on 25 March, 1347. Her parents were Giacomo di Benincasa, a cloth-dyer, and Lapa Piagenti, daughter of a local poet. She was t … Continue