Thursday in Easter Week

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Lesson: Acts 3:11-26

¹¹While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s Portico, utterly astonished.

¹²When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? ¹³The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. ¹⁴But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, ¹⁵and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. ¹⁶And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you. ¹⁷“And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.¹⁸In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. ¹⁹Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, ²⁰so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus, ²¹who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets. ²²Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you from your own people a prophet like me. You must listen to whatever he tells you. ²³And it will be that everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be utterly rooted out of the people.’ ²⁴And all the prophets, as many as have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, also predicted these days. ²⁵You are the descendants of the prophets and of the covenant that God gave to your ancestors, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your descendants all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ ²⁶When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

Psalm: Psalm 8 or 114 or 118:19-24

¹ O Lord our Governor, *
       how exalted is your Name in all the world!
² Out of the mouths of infants and children *
       your majesty is praised above the heavens.
³ You have set up a stronghold against your adversaries, *
       to quell the enemy and the avenger.
⁴ When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, *
       the moon and the stars you have set in their courses,
⁵ What is man that you should be mindful of him? *
       the son of man that you should seek him out?
⁶ You have made him but little lower than the angels; *
       you adorn him with glory and honor;
⁷ You give him mastery over the works of your hands; *
       you put all things under his feet:
⁸ All sheep and oxen, *
       even the wild beasts of the field,
⁹ The birds of the air, the fish of the sea, *
       and whatsoever walks in the paths of the sea.
¹⁰ O Lord our Governor, *
       how exalted is your Name in all the world!

or

¹ Hallelujah!
  When Israel came out of Egypt, *
       the house of Jacob from a people of strange speech,
² Judah became God’s sanctuary *
       and Israel his dominion.
³ The sea beheld it and fled; *
       Jordan turned and went back.
⁴ The mountains skipped like rams, *
       and the little hills like young sheep.
⁵ What ailed you, O sea, that you fled? *
       O Jordan, that you turned back?
⁶ You mountains, that you skipped like rams? *
       you little hills like young sheep?
⁷ Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, *
       at the presence of the God of Jacob,
⁸ Who turned the hard rock into a pool of water *
       and flint-stone into a flowing spring.

or

¹⁹ Open for me the gates of righteousness; *
       I will enter them;
       I will offer thanks to the Lord.
²⁰ “This is the gate of the Lord; *
       he who is righteous may enter.”
²¹ I will give thanks to you, for you answered me *
       and have become my salvation.
²² The same stone which the builders rejected *
       has become the chief cornerstone.
²³ This is the Lord’s doing, *
       and it is marvelous in our eyes.
²⁴ On this day the Lord has acted; *
       we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Gospel: Luke 24:36b-48

³⁶Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” ³⁷They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. ³⁸He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” ⁴⁰And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. ⁴¹While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” ⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³and he took it and ate in their presence. ⁴⁴Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures,⁴⁶and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things.

Printable Lectionary Readings

This page is available in: Español