Showing all posts in June 2025

Having concluded our journey through the Acts of the Apostles, in which we have accompanied these tireless witnesses of the Gospel on their missionary journeys, with all their sufferings but also with their joy at the spread of the faith, we now wish to focus our attention on the Holy Spirit, in keeping with the liturgical season.

For it was He who guided the mission of the apostles, who had to wait for His coming before beginning their ministry among all peoples. With today’s meditation we enter into the imminent preparation for Pentecost.

As a guiding star for the following meditations, I turn to the Pentecost Sequence, which is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful prayers of the Church:

Read More

Shortly after Paul was taken to Caesarea, the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and the lawyer Tertullus to bring their charges against him before the procurator Felix (Acts 24:1). However, Paul defended himself, and Felix found no grounds for condemning him, so he postponed the case (v. 22). So Paul remained in Caesarea for two years, under guard but with certain liberties. Felix’s successor, Porcius Festus, left Paul in prison to please the Jews (v. 27).

As soon as he took office, Festus had to face the accusations of the chief priests and the leaders of the Jews against Paul (Acts 25:1-2). They asked him to transfer him from Caesarea to Jerusalem, ‘planning an ambush to kill him on the way’ (v. 3). But Festus refused and replied that they should go down to Caesarea (vv. 4-5). When they arrived and presented their accusations, Festus asked Paul if he wanted to go up to Jerusalem to be tried there (v. 9), to which Paul replied:

Read More

After the series of the last three meditations, in which we addressed the crisis of the Church’s mission in the light of the witness of the apostles, we will now turn to the last chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. We will do so with a slightly different outline than in the last few weeks, since the last chapters speak for themselves. I can only strongly recommend to everyone to take the time to read them in their entirety. They are very rich in the sense that they narrate the following missionary journeys of St. Paul and all that happened in them. However, in the following meditations I will limit myself to summarising the events, emphasising one or the other key point.

After leaving Athens, Paul spent a very fruitful time in Corinth (Acts 18). There he was comforted by the Lord through a vision, who told him not to be afraid and that no one could harm him (vv. 9-10). Paul stayed one year and six months in Corinth (v. 11).

Read More