Read the Bible with Me!

Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! We've been reading the Bible clear through this year. We've reached the New Testament, so read along with me. But first, let us pray: 

Father,

When the fullness of time had come, you sent your Word in the One who said, “Whoever sees me, sees the Father.” No revelation can surpass this, until Jesus comes again in glory. 

Open my mind today to the gift of life and truth your Word offers me through the Church. By your Holy Spirit, grant me wisdom and strength to put this Word into practice and to become, myself, a presence of Jesus for people who are looking for you.

Jesus, eternal Word and Son of the Father, live in me with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Today's chapters are Acts 2-4.

We've been promised the Holy Spirit, and in today's opening chapter, the Spirit comes with dramatic signs:  It is the Jewish feast of Pentecost (Weeks) seven weeks after Passover. Pilgrims from the diaspora are providentially in the Holy City to hear the first sermon ever preached by a Christian leader. Already the Gospel is being proclaimed "to the whole world"! 

In his first sermon, Peter declares that the events of that morning were a fulfillment of the apocalyptic prophecy of Joel. We'll find a lot of prophecies cited in today's chapters: These fulfillment narratives tell us how the first generation of Christians read the Old Testament in the light of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection and in the light of their own experience as a Eucharistic Church gathered together by the Apostles and their immediate successors. This demonstrates the beginning of the inspired interpretation of Scripture.

In our chapters today, Luke also gives us two short summaries about the community life of the first Christians. Members were not obliged to sell their belongings and put everything in common, but there was something about the teachings of Jesus and the witness of the Apostles that led many of them, people like the Levite Barnabas, to voluntarily do what Jesus had recommended to the "rich young man." And that was so attractive, it drew even more disciples to the new, but threatened, community.

Start reading here.

For additional background

I don't have a lot of resources specific to Acts, but if you would like to go further into this unique book of the Bible, the two-volume set (Witnesses of the Messiah for Acts 1-15, and Envoy of the Messiah for Acts 16-18) by Stephen Pimentel seems to fit the bill. 

The sections include study questions for groups, too!