May 19, 2006, Tuesday of the 7th week of Easter.

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles.

From Miletus, Paul had the presbyters of the church at Ephesus summoned.

When they came to him, he addressed them.

You know how I lived among you the whole time from the day I first came to the province of

Asia. I served the Lord with all humility, and with the tears and trials that came to me because

of the plots of the Jews, and I did not at all shrink from telling you what was for your

benefit, or from teaching you in public or in your

homes. I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks to repentance before God and to faith

in our Lord Jesus. But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem.

What will happen to me there, I do not know,

except that in one city after another,

the Holy Spirit has been warning me that imprisonment and hardships await me.

Yet I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the

ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to bear witness to the gospel of God's grace.

But now I know that none of you to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels will ever see my face again.

And so I solemnly declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,

for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God.

The Word of the Lord.

The responsorial psalm.

The response is,

Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.

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