Thursday of Easter week

Acts of the Apostles

As the crippled man who had been cured clung to Peter and John, all the people hurried in amazement toward them in the portico called "Solomon's Portico."
When Peter saw this, he addressed the people, "You Israelites, why are you amazed at this, and why do you look so intently at us as if we had made him walk by our own power or piety?
The God of Abraham, (the God) of Isaac, and (the God) of Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus whom you handed over and denied in Pilate's presence, when he had decided to release him.
You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.
The author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.
And by faith in his name, this man, whom you see and know, his name has made strong, and the faith that comes through it has given him this perfect health, in the presence of all of you.
Now I know, brothers, that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did;
but God has thus brought to fulfillment what he had announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer.
Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away."
and that the Lord may grant you times of refreshment and send you the Messiah already appointed for you, Jesus,
whom heaven must receive until the times of universal restoration of which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old.
For Moses said: 'A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kinsmen; to him you shall listen in all that he may say to you.
Everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be cut off from the people.'
Moreover, all the prophets who spoke, from Samuel and those afterwards, also announced these days.
You are the children of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors when he said to Abraham, 'In your offspring all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'
For you first, God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways."

Psalms

O LORD, our Lord,
how glorious is your name over all the earth.
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke

The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way, and how Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of bread.
While they were still speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you."
But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have."
And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?"
They gave him a piece of baked fish;
he took it and ate it in front of them.
He said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled."
Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.
And he said to them, "Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things."

St. Hermenegild(Martyr († 586))

SAINT HERMENEGILD Martyr ( 586) Leovigild, King of the Visigoths, had two sons, Hermenegild and Recared, who reigned with him. They were Arians, until Hermenegild married a zealous Catholic, the daughter of Sigebert, King of France. By her holy example,Hermenegild was converted to the Faith. King Leovigild denounced Hermenegild's conversion, branded him a traitor, and marched to capture his son. Hermenegild tried rallying the Catholics of Spain in his defence, but they were too weak to make a stand. After two years' fruitless struggle, Hermenegild surrendered on the assurance of a free pardon. When safely in the royal camp, the King had Hermenegild loaded with fetters and cast into a foul dungeon at Seville. Despite being tortured and offered wealth for his conversion, Hermenegild retained his Catholic faith. The Prince wrote toKing Leovigild that he considered the crown as nothing, and preferred to lose sceptre and life rather than betray the truth of God. At length, on Easter night, an Arian bishop entered the Prince's cell, and promised him pardon if he received communion. Hermenegild rejected the offer. Soon after, the Prince knelt with joy for his death-stroke. On the night of Hermenegild's execution, a light streaming from his cell told the Christians who were watching that the martyr had won his crown, and was keeping his Easter with the saints in glory. King Leovigild, on his death-bed, bade his remaining son, Recared, to seek out St. Leander, whom he had persecuted. Following Hermenegild's example, King Leovigild converted and was received by St. Leander into the Church. After the King's death, Prince Recared labored so earnestly for the extirpation of Arianism that he brought over the whole nation of the Visigoths to the Church. "Nor is it to be wondered," says St. Gregory, "that he (Recared) came thus to be a preacher of the true faith, seeing that he was the brother of a martyr, whose merits did help him to bring so many into God's Church."

St. Martin I(Pope and Martyr († 656))

SAINT MARTIN Pope and Martyr ( 656) St. Martin, who occupied the Roman See from AD 649 to 656, incurred the enmity of the Byzantine court by his energetic opposition to the Monothelite heresy. The Exarch Olympius went so far as to procure the assassination of the Pope at the Church of St. Mary Major; but the would-be murderer was miraculously struck blind, and his master refused to have any further hand in the matter. Olympius' successor had no such scruples: He seized Martin and conveyed him on board a vessel bound for Constantinople. After a three-month voyage, the island of Naxos was reached, where the Pope was kept in confinement for a year, and finally, in 654, brought in chains to the imperial city. Pope Martin was then banished to the Tannic Chersonese, where he lingered on for four months, in sickness and starvation, till God released him by death in 656. He was canonized because of his heroic virtues and the miracles proceeding from his intercession.

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