April 11, 2004. Memorial of St. Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr.

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles.

When the court officers had brought the Apostles in and made them stand before the Sanhedron,

the High Priest questioned them.

We gave you strict orders, did we not, to stop teaching in that name.

Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and want to bring this man's blood upon us.

But Peter and the Apostle said in reply,

We must obey God rather than men.

The God of our ancestors raised Jesus, though you had him killed by hanging

him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to grant Israel repentance

and forgiveness of sins. We are witnesses of these things, as is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.

When they heard this they became infuriated and wanted to put them to death. The Word of the Lord.

The response is, the Lord hears the cry of the poor.

I will bless the Lord at all times.

His praise shall be ever in my mouth.

Taste and see how good the Lord is.

Blessed the man who takes refuge in him.

The Lord hears the cry of the poor.

The Lord confronts the evil-doers to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.

When the just cry out, the Lord hears them, and from all their distress, he rescues them.

The Lord hears the cry of the poor.

The Lord is close to the broken-hearted, and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.

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