Catholics see how St. Stephen’s stoning let The Holy Sprit lead Saul to become St. Paul.
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Question 1: “What good did The Holy Spirit make from St. Stephen’s stoning?”
Answer: “Today’s Reading from The Book of Acts 7:51-8:1, begins with Stephen’s words to those who attacked him by repeating what he had learned in his preceding three and a half years with Jesus: ‘Stephen said to the people, the elders, and the scribes: ‘You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the Holy Spirit; you are just like your ancestors.’”
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Question: “Did that anger the mob of Catholic haters?”
Answer: “Their anger increased when Stephen followed it with this question that neither the mob nor those who hired them wanted to answer: ‘Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?’ Then, Stephen made them even angrier by describing what their Godless kind of people had done to God’s Holy Prophets!
‘They put to death those who foretold the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.’
Then, Stephen told them how disrespectful to God they had chosen to be: ‘You received the law as transmitted by angels, but you did not observe it.’”
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Question 3: “How did the mob react?”
Answer: “‘When they heard this, they were infuriated and they ground their teeth at him.’”
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Question 4: “Did Stephen apologize for offending them?”
Answer: “He was too overcome by The Holy Spirit to care what people thought! ‘But Stephen, filled with The Holy Spirit, looked intently to Heaven and saw The Glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and Stephen said, ‘Behold, I see the Heavens opened and The Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’”
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Question 5: “What did the angry mob do?”
Answser “‘But they cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together. They threw him out of the city and began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning Stephen, he called out ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’. (May we all be blessed to remember those words, and these, at our last moments on earth:) ‘Then, he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice: Lord do not hold this sin against them.’ and when he said this, he fell asleep.’ Today’s Reading ends with:
‘Now, Saul was consenting to his execution.’”
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Question 6: “Do Catholics see The Holy Spirit at work in Today’s Reading?”
Answer: “Catholic History tells us that The Holy Spirit led Saul, a leading persecutor of Catholics, to become of the greatest Catholic teachers of the next 2,000 years! St. Peter empowered Paul to ordain Catholic priests and Bishops as he repeatedly evangelized his way through Syria, Turkey, Greece, Macedon, and possibly Spain, founding Catholic parishes and Dioceses before being becoming another Catholic martyr in Rome.”
May we all be blessed to follow Psalm 6 in Today’s Reading and say “Into Your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.” and receive The Miracle of Catholic Communion in John 6:35: “‘I am the bread of life’, says The Lord, and whoever comes to Me will never hunger.’
Catholics are blessed to realize the literal truth of His Call to Catholic Communion that He repeated 12 times in the last half of John 6 and twice more at The Last Supper: ‘If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood you do not have life in you.’”
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Today’s Simple Rhyme: “Saul did not fall but rose to be Paul / May we also serve ‘The God Who made all’.”
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