— The Lord's Day —
Easter, the Third Sunday

“Now I know, brothers, that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did ...” (Acts 3:17)

In commenting on this verse from today’s First Reading, Saint John Chrysostom writes:

“As he had been hard on them and had shown that he whom they crucified had risen, he now relaxes, by giving them the power of repentance: “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.” This is one ground of excuse. The second is of a different kind. As Joseph says to his brothers, “God sent me before you.” In the earlier speech Peter had briefly said, “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” He enlarges upon that here: “But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled.” (Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles, 9)


Collect
May Your people exult for ever, O God,
in renewed youthfulness of spirit,
so that, rejoicing now
in the restored glory of our adoption,
we may look forward in confident hope
to the rejoicing of the day of resurrection.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Lord is risen. Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen