Readings for May 21st, 2023

FIRST READING: Acts 2:1-21
 
L:    A reading from Acts.
 
When the day of Pentecost had come, the apostles were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. When they heard the sound, they came on the run. Then when they heard, one after another, their own mother tongues being spoken, they were blown away. They couldn’t for the life of them figure out what was going on, and kept saying, “Aren’t these all Galileans? How come we’re hearing them talk in our various mother tongues?
 
Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

That’s when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency: “Fellow Jews, all of you who are visiting Jerusalem, listen carefully and get this story straight. These people aren’t drunk as some of you suspect. They haven’t had time to get drunk  it’s only nine o’clock in the morning. This is what the prophet Joel announced would happen:
 
‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
 
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ ”
 
       The word of the Lord.
C:   Thanks be to God.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13
 
L:    A reading from Corinthians.
 
No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
 
To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
 
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body Jews or Greeks, slaves or free and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
 C:  Thanks be to God.

Psalm: Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
 
L:    In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
C:   Yonder is the sea, great and wide, with its swarms too many to number, living things both small and great.
 
L:    There go the ships to and fro, and Leviathan, which you made for the sport of it.
C:   All of them look to you to give them their food in due season. 
L:    You give it to them; they gather it; you open your hand, and they are filled with good things.
C:   When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
 
L:      You send forth your Spirit, and they are created; and so you renew the face of the earth.
C:   May the glory of the Lord endure forever; O Lord, rejoice in | all your works. 
 
L:    You look at the earth and it trembles; you touch the mountains and they smoke.
C:   I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will praise my God while I have my being.
 
L:    May these words of mine please God. I will rejoice in the Lord.
C:   Bless the Lord, O my soul. Hallelujah! 
 

Gospel: John 7:37-39
 
P:    The holy gospel according to John.
C:   Glory to you, O Lord.
 
P:    On the last day of the festival of Booths, the great day, while Jesus was standing in the temple, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
 
       The gospel of the Lord.
C:   Praise to you, O Christ.

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Readings adapted from Sundays and Seasons

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