Left for Dead: When Suffering Reveals Your Purpose | Daily Readings | May 20, 2025

May 20, 2025 - Daily Catholic Lectionary Readings for Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Easter

They dragged Paul's bloodied body outside the city and left him for dead. Then he got up and walked back in. This isn't just an amazing survival story – it's a radical challenge to our comfort-obsessed Christianity. What if suffering isn't a detour from your purpose but the very path itself? What if the stones flying at you aren't obstacles to your calling but revelations of it?

Our reflection explores:
1. Why Jesus promised Paul suffering instead of success
2. How persecution confirmed rather than contradicted Paul's calling
3. The forgotten truth that "through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom"
4. What happens when we embrace suffering as sacred participation rather than unfortunate interruption

Readings:
Acts 14:19-28; Psalm 145:10-11, 12-13ab, 21; John 14:27-31a

Timeline:
00:00 Introduction
00:15 Reading I
01:37 Psalm Response
04:24 Gospel
05:08 Reflection

Perfect for anyone questioning God's presence in their pain, struggling to find purpose in difficulty, or needing courage to rise again after being knocked down.

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