The Gospel for The feast of St. Stephen is taken from Matthew 10:17 22. Jesus said to his disciples, beware of men, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues. And you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans when they hand you over. Do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say.

For it will not be you who speak, but the spirit of your father speaking through you. Brother will hand over brother to death and father his child. Children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But whoever endures to the end will be saved. The early stories of the impact that God’s presence living within us is experienced and displayed for us, as is in these stories, like this one with the martyrdom of St.

Stephen. And what’s so beautiful about this is the promise that God is making to Stephen and to all of us, that when we are doing the work of God, when we are proclaiming the truth, we have to trust in something. And that is this mysterious way in which God’s spirit speaks through us. How do you know when it’s God speaking and not yourself? It’s not a case of knowing, it’s a case of believing it’s possible. And the words that you use are maybe not the key thing because it’s the way in which you’re communicating the spirit of God from you to another person.

The words are not the focus. It’s your intention, your intention to speak truth and light and hope to others. Foreign Closing PRAYER how do we understand God working through us, communicating through us? If we think it’s just about the words, we’re making mistake. Because God can use any word that we use in and convey something to the person that we are speaking to that is not necessarily in the words themselves, but it’s the intention that we have in our hearts to awaken people to you, God, and to all that you are in our lives. So bless us with the conviction that it is not up to us to understand the unfolding of your work through us.

Let us always just trust like children believing, hoping and knowing we are in a work with you. And that work is bringing life to others. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.