Read Fr Joe\u2019s short reflection on today\u2019s First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles. <\/p>\n
St Luke introduces us to Lydia today in our first reading. She was from Thyatira which was formerly part of Ancient Greece but today i<\/span><\/span>t is the modern city of<\/span><\/span> A<\/span><\/span>khisar<\/span><\/span> in south western Turkey.<\/span><\/span> She was in the purple dye trade so most probably a wealthy and influential woman.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Lydia opens her heart to God<\/span><\/span>, in<\/span><\/span> response to the preaching of St Paul. She converts and is baptised and leads all her household to the Lord. Her new and lively faith has a prompt effect<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span> as she becomes a<\/span><\/span>channel of God\u2019s <\/span><\/span>grace<\/span><\/span> \u00a0to<\/span><\/span> those in her family and community.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n St Luke further demonstrates her spirit of generosity and hospitality as she opens her house to St Paul and St Timothy (possibly other companions). This was a charism very evident in the early church but not lost<\/span><\/span>on many of us<\/span><\/span> toda<\/span><\/span>y.<\/span><\/span> W<\/span><\/span>e see others reaching out in all sorts of ways to those in need<\/span><\/span> and also those little gestures that say, I am still thinking about you.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span><\/span>Charity may be a very short word, but with its tremendous meaning of pure love, it sums up man’s entire relation to God and to his neighbo<\/span><\/span>u<\/span><\/span>r<\/span><\/span>\u201d. Read Fr Joe\u2019s short reflection on today\u2019s First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","post","publish","author-ryan-black","has-more-link","post-2780","format-standard","category-parish-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p85OtW-IQ","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2781,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780\/revisions\/2781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/span><\/span>\u2013 St <\/span><\/span>Aelred<\/span><\/span> of <\/span><\/span>Rievaulx<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"