May 27, 2025 // Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter // Optional Memorial of Saint Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop

Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Acts 16:22-34 

Reflect on the Word // 

As soon as I sent the email I regretted it. Was I right? Maybe. Did it need to be said? Probably. Did it need to be said right then? No. Could it have been said more charitably? Definitely. I sighed and shut my computer. The anxiety and irritation were at a fever pitch and this poor soul just ended up on the wrong end of my overwhelm. 

I have yet to master my emotions in daily interactions when I’m tired/stressed/hungry/sad/busy/frustrated. You get it. I want all of me to be converted, yes, even and especially my emotions. I know intellectually that God is bigger than my problems, but my ever changing thoughts and feelings don’t always align with that unchanging truth. Unlike Saint Paul, I don’t see myself singing in a prison cell, praying with confidence that the Lord’s loving hand was at work in my life and circumstances. But that’s what he did in today’s First Reading.

And it wasn’t just any prison cell, they were being held in the innermost cell, feet shackled with a stake (see Acts 16:24). And this after being beaten with rods—many, many times. After this nightmare of a day, at midnight, they were found . . . singing and praying? Not licking their wounds and accusing the Lord of abandoning them? Not frantically plotting their escape? But singing and praying?! It’s easy to dismiss Paul and Silas’ witness with a can’t relate, but perhaps rather than measuring ourselves against their heroic example we can be inspired by it, learn from it, and actually try it. 

We have only to read the rest of the story to see what God did with those prayers and the sacrifice of praise offered in their darkest hour. The Lord not only spectacularly rescued them, but also set every captive free and saved an entire family through Baptism. And all they did was sing and pray.

In the middle of our (mostly much less serious) bad days, there is another way. Next time I’ll try singing and praying before hitting send. 

Relate to the Lord // What song of praise or thanksgiving will you lift up to the Lord today?