And Saul approved of his killing.

And a severe persecution
happened
on that day
upon the congregation
which was in Jerusalem,
then all were scattered
over the countries of Judea and Samaria-
except the apostles.

And devout men buried Stephen
and made great lamentation over him.

But Saul started to ravage the church:
entering house after house,
dragging off men and women,
he was handing them over to prison.

Thank you, dear Jesus,
for all you have given me,
for all you have taken away from me,
for all you have left me.

Thomas More (c.1478-1535)

Then, hearing these things
their hearts became furious
and they ground their teeth
at him.

But being full of the Holy Spirit
he looked straight to heaven
and he saw the glory of God
and Jesus, standing at the right hand of God
and he said:
‘Look, I see the heavens opened
and the Son of Man,
standing at the right hand of God.’

But having called out with a great cry
they stopped their ears and
they rushed,
with a single purpose,
at him.
And when they had dragged him out of the city
they threw stones at him
and the witnesses put down their cloaks
at the feet of young man, called Saul.
And they threw stones at Stephen
who was praying:
‘Lord Jesus
receive my spirit.’
Kneeling,
he cried out with a loud voice,
‘Lord, do not blame them
for this sin. ‘

And saying this he fell asleep.

And Saul approved of his killing.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy,
For your mercy and for your truth’s sake. Amen

(This is the one….received living words to give to you).
to whom our fathers
did not to wish to become obedient,
but they rejected
and they turned in their hearts to the Egyptians,
saying to Aaron:
‘Make for us gods
who will go before us.
For this Moses
who brought us out from Egypt
we do not know what has become of him¹
And they made a calf
in those days
and they brought a sacrifice
to the idol,
and they were glad
in the works of their hands.

So God turned away and handed
them over to serve
the stars in the sky
as it has been written in the Book of the Prophets:
You did not bring victims and sacrifices to me
during forty (years) in the desert, house of Israel, did you?
and you took up the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Raphan
the images which you made to worship
and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.²

1. Ex 32:1,23 ↩︎
2. Amos 5 25- 27 ↩︎

Teach us, good Lord,
to serve thee as thou deservest;
to give and not to count the cost;
to fight and not to heed the wounds;
to toil and not to seek for rest;
to labour and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do thy will,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

St Ignatius

And after forty years
an angel, in a flame of a burning bush
appeared to him
in the wilderness of Mount Sinai
So, Moses seeing (this)
was marvelling at the sight,
and when he approached to look closer
there came the voice of the Lord.
I am the god of your fathers,
The God of Abraham, and of Isaac and of Jacob¹.
Then Moses began to tremble,
and did not dare to look closer.

The Lord said to him:
‘Take off the sandals from your feet,
for the place on which you stand is holy ground.
I have certainly seen the oppression of my people
who are in Egypt
and I have heard their groaning,
and I have come down to rescue them.
And now, come!
I will send you into Egypt. ²

This Moses,
whom they disowned,
saying:
‘who appointed you ruler and judge?
this one, God sent
as ruler and liberator
with the hand of the angel
who appeared to him in the bush.

This one lead them out
by doing wonders and signs
in Egypt
and at the Red Sea
and in the wilderness for forty years.

This is the Moses
who said to the Children of Israel
‘God will raise a prophet like me to you
from among your brothers.’³

This is the one
who was in the congregation
in the desert
with the angel
who spoke to him on Mount Sinai
and with our fathers
he received
living words
to give to you.

1. Ex 3: 7-8, 9 ↩︎
2. Deut 18:15 ↩︎

When he was forty years old,
it entered his heart
to help his brothers,
the sons of Israel.
And when he saw someone being mistreated
he came to help them,
and he took revenge
on behalf of the person who was being mistreated
by striking down the Egyptian.
So he supposed his brothers would understand
that God was saving them
by his hand.
But they did not understand.

Then on the next day
he saw (two men) fighting –
and he tried to make peace between them, saying
‘Men, you are brothers;
why do you harm each other?’

But the one harming his neighbour
pushed him aside, saying:
‘Who appointed you ruler and judge
over us?
You do not wish to kill me
in the way you killed
yesterday
the Egyptian, do you?’

Then Moses fled,
at this word,
and he became a sojourner
in the the land of Midian,
where he ‘became father’ to two sons.

Thank you, dear Jesus,
for all you have given me,
for all you have taken away from me,
for all you have left me.

Thomas More (c.1478-1535)

Just as the time of the promise
drew near
as God had assured Abraham,
the people grew and
increased in Egypt
when
another King came to power
over Egypt
who did not know Joseph.¹
He took advantage of our people
and mistreated our fathers
who made them
expose their children
so that they wouldn’t survive.
At that time Moses was born
and he was pleasing to God.
Who for three months was brought up
in the house of his father
Then being abandoned
Pharoah’s daughter took him up for herself
and adopted him
as her own son.
And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians
and he was powerful in his words and deeds

1. Exodus 1 ↩︎

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy,
For your mercy and for your truth’s sake. Amen

And the patriarchs
being jealous of Joseph
sold him into Egypt.
yet God was with him
and rescued him from all his troubles
and gave him grace and wisdom
before Pharoah, King of Egypt,
and he appointed him to rule over Egypt
and over the whole of his house.

Then famine came over the whole of Egypt and Canaan
and great trouble
and the fathers did not find any food.

Then Jacob
hearing that there was wheat in Egypt
sent off our fathers, first.
And the second time,
Joseph was made known to his brothers
and Joseph’s family became known to Pharoah.

So Joseph having sent (a message)
sent for Jacob our father,
and all the relatives,
amounting to 75.

And Jacob went down to Egypt
and he died
and our fathers.
And they were taken back to Shechem
and they were put in the tomb
which Abraham had bought,
for a certain sum of silver
from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

O Lord Jesus Christ,
stay beside me to defend me,
within me to guide me,
before me to lead me,
and above me to bless me,
that with you and in you,
I may live, and move and have my being,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

(unknown)

The High Priest said:
‘Are these things true?’

He said:
‘Brothers and fathers, listen.’

The God of glory appeared to our father, Abraham
being in Mesopotamia
before he lived in Haran.
And he said to him:
Go out from your country and
from your relatives, and
come away to the land
which I will show you. ¹
Then going out from the land of the Chaldeans
he settled in Haran.
After the death of his father
he settled him in this country
in which we now live.
And he did not give to him
a property in it –
not even a foothold
– he promised
to give it to him
as a possession
and to his seed after him;²
(Abraham) not having any children.

But God spoke like this:
His seed will be like a stranger
in a land belonging to another,
and they will enslave him,
and they will mistreat him
for four hundred years.
And the nation which enslaves him, I myself will judge.
God said
And after these things they will come out³
and worship me in this place.
And he gave him a covenant of circumcision.
And in this way he fathered Isaac
and he circumcised him on the eighth day
and Isaac, Jacob
and Jacob, the twelve patriarchs.

1. Gen 12:1 ↩︎
2. e.g. Gen 12:7 etc ↩︎
3. Gen 15:13,14 ↩︎

Lord God,,
you feed us with the living bread from heaven;
you renew our faith,
increase our hope,
and strengthen our love.

Teach us to hunger
for Christ who is the true and living bread,
and to live by every word
that comes from your mouth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Then
Stephen full of grace and power
was working wonders and great signs among the people.
There stood up certain men
– from the synagogue of the Freedmen, as it was called –
Cyrenians and Alexandrians,
and
men from Cilicia and Asia,
and argued with Stephen.
But they were not able to resist
the wisdom and the Spirit
with which he was speaking.

Then they secretly persuaded some men,
to say that
‘We have had heard him speaking blasphemous words
against Moses and God. ‘
So they stirred up the people,
and the elders,
and the scribes and
they came against him and took him
and brought him to the Sanhedrin.
They put forward the false witnesses,
who said
‘This man never stopped speaking words
against the Holy Place and the Law.
For we have heard him say that
Jesus the Nazorean
will destroy this place
and he will change the customs
which Moses has passed down to us. ‘

And having looked straight at him,
all those sitting in the Sanhedrin
saw his face to be like the face of an angel.

Eternal Light, shine into our hearts;
Eternal Goodness, deliver us from evil;
Eternal Power, be our support;
Eternal Wisdom, scatter the darkness of our ignorance:
That we may seek your face
with all our heart and mind and soul and strength. Amen.
Alcuin

In those days
as the disciples were increasing in number
a grumbling began
amongst the Greek-speaking Jewish Christians
against the Aramaic-speaking Jewish Christians,
that their widows
were neglected in the daily ‘distribution of food’.

When the Twelve called together
the whole number of disciples they said:
‘It is not right
for us to leave the Word of God
to serve at tables.
So pick out, brothers/sisters
from among you
seven men, of good reputation:
full of Spirit and wisdom,
whom we may put in charge
of this needful thing.
And we will be devoted to prayer
and the ministry of the word.

And (this suggestion) pleased all the other disciples
and they chose for themselves
Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit,
and Philip and Prochorus, Nicanor, Parmenas,
and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch.
They stood these men before the apostles
who prayed
and laid their hands on them.

And the Word of God grew and
the number of disciples
in Jerusalem
increased greatly.
A large group of priests became obedient to the faith.