Tuesday 12 May 2026
Ss Nereus and Achilleus; St Pancras
Acts 16:22-34. Your right hand has saved me, O Lord – Ps 137(138):1-3, 7-8. John 16:5-11.
Love-in-action
In Acts today, we find a lovely story of Paul and Silas’ compassion for their jailer. There they are, locked up in the innermost cell as well as jammed into stocks. When an earthquake shatters the whole jail, it is their opportunity to set themselves free. Instead, understanding the potential plight of the jailer had he failed to constrain them – indeed, he is about to kill himself to escape public condemnation – they remain.
In an understandable extremity of emotion, the jailer asks to be converted to their path of salvation; we can imagine the surge of joy he felt. And his new faith instantly turns to love-in-action: he washes their wounds, he brings them to his household, he feeds them. The mean-spiritedness of the local society which incarcerated the apostles has been entirely replaced by life, wonder and hope.
Lord, give us today the same abundance of faith, love and joy.
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