Wednesday of Fourth Week of Easter

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/050212.cfm

Shaggy bark Oak

While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

There is much to consider in this sentence:

• While they were worshipping and fasting…. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are the hallmarks of the Christian life. We do nothing without them. All of our business is carried out within this framework; and especially the work of deciding who should be appointed to ministry.
• Set apart for me…. Every work of the church begins with God’s initiative. An individual cannot decide he or she wants to be a minister or has a right to such service. The language of rights is alien to the whole conversation about the work of God.
• Set apart for me…. A vocation is mediated through the Church in prayer, which must discern its own needs, how they should be addressed and who should address them.
• To which I have called them: A calling is not simply a task or chore which may be completed and forgotten. Traditional Catholic language speaks of baptism, confirmation and ordination as characters marked on the soul. Contemporary thought describes more profoundly the change as ontological. A baptized Christian has been transformed ontologically, (in her very being) by divine election.
• the Holy Spirit said...  Several centuries will pass before the Church develops a formulaic definition of "the Spirit." The capitalization of "Holy Spirit" in our text expresses that understanding.
  But Saint Luke is more aware of the long history of God's spirit impelling the prophets from Moses to John the Baptist. It is the same spirit that sent Mary running to Jerusalem and Jesus into the desert. That prophetic spirit sends Barnabas and Saul from Jerusalem on a new mission to the gentiles. 

As Christians today we pray that the Spirit finds our churches eager and ready when it speaks to us.