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SIXTH
SUNDAY OF EASTER
ACTS 17:22-31
PSALM
66:7-18
1
PETER 3:13-22
JOHN
14:15-21
COLLECT
Merciful God,
you have prepared for those who love you
riches beyond imagination.
Pour into our hearts such love toward you,
that we, loving you above all things,
may obtain your promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
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A
READING FROM THE BOOK OF ACTS
Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, "Athenians, I
see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went
through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your
worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'To an
unknown God.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I
proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it,
he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made
by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he
needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and
breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to
inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their
existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live,
so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and
find him - though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For
'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your
own poets have said, 'For we too are his offspring.' Since we are
God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like
gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and
imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of
human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged
in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he
has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."
ACTS 17:22-31
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PSALM
REFRAIN Be joyful in God, all you lands.
Bless
our God, you peoples; make the voice of his praise to be heard;
Who
holds our souls in life, and will not allow our feet to slip. R
For
you, O God, have proved us; you have tried us just as silver is
tried.
You
brought us into the snare; you laid heavy burdens upon our backs.
You
let enemies ride over our heads; we went through fire and water;
but you brought us out into a place of refreshment. R
I
will enter your house with burnt offerings and will pay you my
vows, which I promised with my lips and spoke with my mouth when I
was in trouble.
I
will offer you sacrifices of fat beasts with the smoke of rams; I
will give you oxen and goats.
Come
and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he has
done for me.
I
called out to him with my mouth, and his praise was on my tongue.
If
I had found evil in my heart, the Lord would not have heard me;
But
in truth God has heard me; he has attended to the voice of my
prayer.
Blessed
be God, who has not rejected my prayer, nor withheld his love from
me. R
PSALM 66:7-18
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A
READING FROM THE FIRST LETTER OF PETER
Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But
even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do
not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your
hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your
defence to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope
that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your
conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse
you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is
better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God's
will, than to suffer for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for
sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to
bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive
in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to
the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God
waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the
ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through
water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you not as a
removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good
conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone
into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels,
authorities, and powers made subject to him.
1 PETER 3:13-22
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THE
HOLY GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
ACCORDING TO JOHN
Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,
to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the
world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.
You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. I
will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while
the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I
live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in
my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my
commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who
love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and
reveal myself to them."
JOHN 14:15-21
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PRAYER
OVER THE GIFTS
God of glory,
accept all we offer you this day,
and bring us to that eternal city of love and light,
where Christ is King.
We ask this in his name.
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PRAYER
AFTER COMMUNION
Father,
you restored us to life
by raising your Son from death.
May we who receive this sacrament
always be strengthened to do your will,
in the name of Jesus Christ the risen Lord.
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