Daily Reading for Friday, May 21st, 2021

Reading 1, Acts 25:13-21

¹³ Some days later King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea and paid their respects to Festus.

¹⁴ Their visit lasted several days, and Festus put Paul's case before the king, saying, 'There is a man here whom Felix left behind in custody,

¹⁵ and while I was in Jerusalem the chief priests and elders of the Jews laid information against him, demanding his condemnation.

¹⁶ But I told them that Romans are not in the habit of surrendering any man, until the accused confronts his accusers and is given an opportunity to defend himself against the charge.

¹⁷ So they came here with me, and I wasted no time but took my seat on the tribunal the very next day and had the man brought in.

¹⁸ When confronted with him, his accusers did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected;

¹⁹ but they had some argument or other with him about their own religion and about a dead man called Jesus whom Paul alleged to be alive.

²⁰ Not feeling qualified to deal with questions of this sort, I asked him if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem to be tried there on this issue.

²¹ But Paul put in an appeal for his case to be reserved for the judgement of the emperor, so I ordered him to be remanded until I could send him to Caesar.'

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 103:1-2, 11-12, 19-20

¹ [Of David] Bless Yahweh, my soul, from the depths of my being, his holy name;

² bless Yahweh, my soul, never forget all his acts of kindness.

¹¹ As the height of heaven above earth, so strong is his faithful love for those who fear him.

¹² As the distance of east from west, so far from us does he put our faults.

¹⁹ Yahweh has fixed his throne in heaven, his sovereign power rules over all.

²⁰ Bless Yahweh, all his angels, mighty warriors who fulfil his commands, attentive to the sound of his words.

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