“One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened, and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying.” (Acts of the Apostles 16:14.)
In commenting on these verses from today’s First Reading, Saint John Chrysostom writes:
“Therefore we need God, who can open the heart. (God, however, opens hearts that are willing. For there are also hearts that are crippled, incapable of seeing.) “To give heed to what was said by Paul.” The opening, then, was God’s work, the “give heed,” hers. Therefore it was both God’s doing and Paul’s. “And when she was baptized,” it says, “she sought us, saying, ‘If you have judged me’” Look, as soon as she is baptized, she receives the apostles with an entreaty more earnest than Abraham’s. And she mentions no other proof but that by which she was saved. She did not say, “if you have judged me a great woman” or “if you have judged me a devout woman.” What does she say? “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord”—if faithful to the Lord, all the more so to you, unless you dispute it. And she did not say “stay with me” but “come to my house and stay,” thus showing the great eagerness with which she was doing this. Truly a faithful woman!” (Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles, 35.)
Collect
Grant, O merciful God,
that we may experience at all times
the fruit produced by the paschal observances.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
that we may experience at all times
the fruit produced by the paschal observances.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
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
