Thursday of the Third Week of Easter

Official Translation

Thursday of the Third Week of Easter

Reading 1 – Acts 8.26-40

An angel of the Lord
spoke to Philip, saying,
“Arise, and go toward the south
to the way that goes down
from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert.”

He arose and went;
and behold, there was a man of Ethiopia,
a eunuch of great authority under
Candace, queen of the Ethiopians,
who was over all her treasure,
who had come to Jerusalem to worship.
He was returning and sitting in his chariot,
and was reading the prophet Isaiah.

The Spirit said to Philip,
“Go near, and join yourself to this chariot.”
Philip ran to him
and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet,
and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
He said, “How can I,
unless someone explains it to me?”
He begged Philip to come up and sit with him.
Now the passage of the Scripture
which he was reading was this:

“He was led as a sheep to the slaughter.
As a lamb before his shearer is silent,
so he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation, his rights were taken away.
Who will speak of his kind?
For his life is taken from the earth.”

The eunuch answered Philip,
“Who is the prophet talking about?
About himself, or about someone else?”
Philip opened his mouth,
and beginning from this Scripture,
preached Jesus to him.
As they went on the way,
they came to some water,
and the eunuch said,
“Behold, here is water.
What is keeping me from being baptized?”
He commanded the chariot to stand still,
and they both went down into the water,
both Philip and the eunuch,
and he baptized him.

When they came up out of the water,
the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away,
and the eunuch did not see him anymore,
for he went on his way rejoicing.
But Philip was found at Azotus.
Passing through,
he preached the Gospel to all the cities,
until he came to Caesarea.

Responsorial – Psalm 66.8-9, 16-17, 20 Resp. 1

R. Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth! or R. Alleluia!

Praise our God, you peoples!
Make the sound of his praise heard.
He preserves our life among the living,
and does not allow our feet to be moved.

R. Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth! or R. Alleluia!

Come, and hear, all you who fear God.
I will declare what he has done for my soul.
I cried to him with my mouth.
He was extolled with my tongue.

R. Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth! or R. Alleluia!

Blessed be God, who has not turned away
my prayer nor his loving kindness from me.

R. Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth! or R. Alleluia!

Gospel – John 6.44-51

Jesus said to the crowds:
No one can come to me
unless the Father who sent me draws him,
and I will raise him up on the last day.
It is written in the prophets,
‘They will all be taught by God.’
Therefore everyone who listens to the Father,
and has learned, comes to me.

Not that anyone has seen the Father,
except he who is from God.
He has seen the Father.
Amen, amen, I tell you,
he who believes in me has eternal life.

I am the bread of life.
Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness,
and they died.
This is the bread which comes down from heaven,
that anyone may eat of it and not die.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven.
If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.
Yes, the bread which I will give
Is my flesh for the life of the world.”