Daily Reading for Friday, April 29th, 2016

Reading 1, Acts 15:22-31

²² Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose delegates from among themselves to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas, known as Barsabbas, and Silas, both leading men in the brotherhood,

²³ and gave them this letter to take with them: 'The apostles and elders, your brothers, send greetings to the brothers of gentile birth in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia.

²⁴ We hear that some people coming from here, but acting without any authority from ourselves, have disturbed you with their demands and have unsettled your minds;

²⁵ and so we have decided unanimously to elect delegates and to send them to you with our well-beloved Barnabas and Paul,

²⁶ who have committed their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁷ Accordingly we are sending you Judas and Silas, who will confirm by word of mouth what we have written.

²⁸ It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to impose on you any burden beyond these essentials:

²⁹ you are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from illicit marriages. Avoid these, and you will do what is right. Farewell.'

³⁰ The party left and went down to Antioch, where they summoned the whole community and delivered the letter.

³¹ The community read it and were delighted with the encouragement it gave them.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 57:8-9, 10-12

⁸ Awake, my glory, awake, lyre and harp, that I may awake the Dawn.

⁹ I will praise you among the peoples, Lord, I will make music for you among nations,

¹⁰ for your faithful love towers to heaven, your constancy to the clouds.

¹¹ Be exalted above the heavens, God! Your glory over all the earth!