Readings at Mass

  When they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among the men. ‘Friends,’ he said, ‘if you had listened to me and not put out from Crete, you would have spared yourselves all this damage and loss. But now I ask you not to give way to despair. There will be no loss of life at all, only of the ship. Last night there was standing beside me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, and he said, “Do not be afraid, Paul. You are destined to appear before Caesar, and for this reason God grants you the safety of all who are sailing with you.” So take courage, friends; I trust in God that things will turn out just as I was told; but we are to be stranded on some island.’

  On the fourteenth night we were being driven one way and another in the Adriatic, when about midnight the crew sensed that land of some sort was near. They took soundings and found twenty fathoms; after a short interval they sounded again and found fifteen fathoms. Then, afraid that we might run aground somewhere on a reef, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight. When some of the crew tried to escape from the ship and lowered the ship’s boat into the sea as though to lay out anchors from the bows, Paul said to the centurion and his men, ‘Unless those men stay on board you cannot hope to be saved’. So the soldiers cut the boat’s ropes and let it drop away.

  Just before daybreak Paul urged them all to have something to eat. ‘For fourteen days’ he said ‘you have been in suspense, going hungry and eating nothing. Let me persuade you to have something to eat; your safety is not in doubt. Not a hair of your heads will be lost.’ With these words he took some bread, gave thanks to God in front of them all, broke it and began to eat. Then they all plucked up courage and took something to eat themselves. We were in all two hundred and seventy-six souls on board that ship. When they had eaten what they wanted they lightened the ship by throwing the corn overboard into the sea.

  When day came they did not recognise the land, but they could make out a kind of bay with a beach; they planned to run the ship aground on this if they could. They slipped the anchors and left them to the sea, and at the same time loosened the lashings of the rudders; then, hoisting the foresail to the wind, they headed for the beach. But the cross-currents carried them into a shoal and the vessel ran aground. The bows were wedged in and stuck fast, while the stern began to break up with the pounding of the waves. The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners for fear that any should swim off and escape.

  But the centurion was determined to bring Paul safely through, and would not let them do what they intended. He gave orders that those who could swim should jump overboard first and so get ashore, and the rest follow either on planks or on pieces of wreckage. In this way all came safe and sound to land.

  Once we had come safely through the shipwreck, we discovered that the island was called Malta. The inhabitants treated us with unusual kindness. They made us all welcome, and they lit a huge fire because it had started to rain and the weather was cold. Paul had collected a bundle of sticks and was putting them on the fire when a viper brought out by the heat attached itself to his hand. When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand they said to one another, ‘That man must be a murderer; he may have escaped the sea, but divine vengeance would not let him live’. However, he shook the creature off into the fire and came to no harm, although they were expecting him at any moment to swell up or drop dead on the spot. After they had waited a long time without seeing anything out of the ordinary happen to him, they changed their minds and began to say he was a god.

  ‘Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned. These are the signs that will be associated with believers: in my name they will cast out devils; they will have the gift of tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their hands on the sick, who will recover.’

  And so the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven: there at the right hand of God he took his place, while they, going out, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that accompanied it.