Daily Readings - 21/04/2026

^7:51 You stubborn people, with your pagan hearts and pagan ears. You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do.

^7:52 Can you name a single prophet your ancestors never persecuted? In the past they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, and now you have become his betrayers, his murderers.

^7:53 You who had the Law brought to you by angels are the very ones who have not kept it.’

^7:54 They were infuriated when they heard this, and ground their teeth at him.

^7:55 But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God’s right hand.

^7:56 ‘I can see heaven thrown open’ he said ‘and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’

^7:57 At this all the members of the council shouted out and stopped their ears with their hands; then they all rushed at him,

^7:58 sent him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses[*q] put down their clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul.

^7:59 As they were stoning him, Stephen said in invocation, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’.

^7:60 Then he knelt down and said aloud, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’; and with these words he fell asleep.

^8:1 Saul entirely approved of the killing. That day a bitter persecution started against the church in Jerusalem, and everyone[*a] except the apostles fled to the country districts of Judaea and Samaria.

^31:1 In you, Yahweh, I take shelter; never let me be disgraced. In your righteousness deliver me, rescue me,

^31:2 turn your ear to me, make haste! Be a sheltering rock for me, a walled fortress to save me!

^31:3 For you are my rock, my fortress; for the sake of your name, guide me, lead me!

^31:4 Pull me out of the net they have spread for me, for you are my refuge;

^31:5 into your hands I commit my spirit, you have redeemed me, Yahweh. God of truth,

^31:6 you hate those who serve worthless idols; but I put my trust in Yahweh:

^31:7 I will exult, and rejoice in your love! You, who have seen my wretchedness, and known the miseries of my soul,

^31:8 have not handed me over to the enemy, you have given my feet space and to spare.

^31:9 Take pity on me, Yahweh, I am in trouble now. Grief wastes away my eye, my throat, my inmost parts.

^31:10 For my life is worn out with sorrow, my years with sighs; my strength yields under misery, my bones are wasting away.

^31:11 To every one of my oppressors I am contemptible, loathsome to my neighbours, to my friends a thing of fear. Those who see me in the street hurry past me;

^31:12 I am forgotten, as good as dead in their hearts, something discarded.

^31:13 I hear their endless slanders, threats from every quarter, as they combine against me, plotting to take my life.

^31:14 But I put my trust in you, Yahweh, I say, ‘You are my God’.

^31:15 My days are in your hand, rescue me from the hands of my enemies and persecutors;

^31:16 let your face smile on your servant, save me in your love.

^31:17 I invoke you; Yahweh; do not let me be disgraced, let the disgrace fall on the wicked! May they go speechless to Sheol,

^31:18 their lying lips struck dumb for those insolent slurs on the virtuous, for that arrogance and contempt.

^31:19 Yahweh, how great your goodness, reserved for those who fear you, bestowed on those who take shelter in you, for all mankind to see!

^31:20 Safe in your presence you hide them far from the wiles of men; inside your tent you shelter them far from the war of tongues.

^31:21 Blessed be Yahweh, who performs marvels of love for me (in a fortress-city)!

^31:22 In my alarm I exclaimed, ‘I have been snatched out of your sight!’ Yet you heard my petition when I called to you for help.

^31:23 Love Yahweh, all you devout: Yahweh, protector of the faithful, will repay the arrogant with interest.

^31:24 Be strong, let your heart be bold, all you who hope in Yahweh!

^6:30 So they said, ‘What Sign will you give to show us that we should believe in you? What work will you do?

^6:31 Our fathers had manna to eat in the desert; as scripture says: He gave them bread from heaven to eat'[*a].

^6:32 Jesus answered: ‘I tell you most solemnly, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven, the true bread;

^6:33 for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world’.

^6:34 ‘Sir,’ they said ‘give us that bread always.’

^6:35 Jesus answered: ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me will never thirst.