Monday, May 18, 2026
Monday of the Seventh week of Easter
John 16:29-33
Listen to the whole reading — MP3
First reading
Acts 19:1-8
While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, came to Ephesus, and found certain disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They said to him, “No, we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” He said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” Paul said, “John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe in the one who would come after him, that is, in Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke with other languages and prophesied. They were about twelve men in all. He entered into the synagogue, and spoke boldly for a period of three months, reasoning and persuading about the things concerning God’s Kingdom.
Responsorial psalm
Psalms 68:1-2,3-4,5-6
As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. As wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. But let the righteous be glad. Let them rejoice before God. Yes, let them rejoice with gladness. Sing to God! Sing praises to his name! Extol him who rides on the clouds: to the Lord, his name! Rejoice before him! A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. God sets the lonely in families. He brings out the prisoners with singing, but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land. God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness... Selah.
Gospel
John 16:29-33
His disciples said to him, “Behold, now you are speaking plainly, and using no figures of speech. Now we know that you know all things, and don’t need for anyone to question you. By this we believe that you came from God.” Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, the time is coming, yes, and has now come, that you will be scattered, everyone to his own place, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”
Lectio
There is a quiet ache running through today's readings, the recognition that we can believe and still be missing something. The disciples in Ephesus had received John's baptism, a real turning, a genuine repentance, and yet they had never even heard of the Holy Spirit. They were not faithless; they were incomplete. Paul does not scold them for what they lacked. He simply asks the question that opens the door: "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" Sometimes the most important spiritual movement in our lives begins not with a great sin confessed but with a gentle question about what we have never yet let God give us.
In the Gospel, the disciples announce their faith with a certain confidence — "Now we know" — and Jesus, tender and unillusioned, tells them that this same confidence will scatter when the hour comes. He does not condemn them for the coming abandonment. Instead He gives them the gift that will outlast their failure: "In me you may have peace." Notice that His peace is not the absence of trouble but something offered precisely in the midst of oppression. "In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world." The peace He gives does not depend on our steadfastness; it depends on His.
And the psalm reminds us what kind of God this is — a Father of the fatherless, one who "sets the lonely in families" and "brings out the prisoners with singing." The same God who fills the empty disciples at Ephesus with His Spirit is the one who gathers the scattered and seats the abandoned at a table. We are not asked to be strong. We are asked to be open, to let ourselves be found, filled, and gathered by the One who has already overcome.
Where in your faith are you like the disciples at Ephesus — sincere, but living without something God has been longing to give you, perhaps because you have never even thought to ask?
Jesus told His friends they would scatter and leave Him alone at the very moment they felt most certain of their belief; when has your own confidence quietly failed under pressure, and can you let His words "I have overcome the world" meet you there instead of your shame?
Saint of the day
St. Venantius, Martyr († 250)
Ora reads this aloud, every morning, free. Ora