Acts: The Good New of the Holy Spirit (Six Weeks with the Bible for Catholic Teens)

You might compare this volume to a short visit to a national park. The park is so large that you could spend months, even years, getting to know it. But a brief visit, if carefully planned, can be worthwhile. In a few hours you can drive through the park and pull over at a handful of sites. At each stop you can get out of the car, take a short trail through the woods, listen to the wind blowing in the trees, get a feel for the place.
In this volume we’ll travel through the Acts of the Apostles, making half a dozen stops along the way. At those points we’ll proceed on foot, taking a leisurely walk through the selected passages. The readings have been chosen to take us to the heart of the book’s message. After each discussion, we’ll get back in the car and take the highway to the next stop. “Between Discussions” pages summarize the portions of Acts that we will pass along the way.
This guide provides everything you need to explore Acts of the Apostles in six discussions—or to do a six-part exploration on your own. The introduction on page 6 will prepare you to get the most out of your reading. The weekly sections feature key passages from Acts, with explanations that highlight what these words mean for us today. Equally important, each section supplies questions that will launch you into fruitful discussion, helping you both to explore Acts for yourself and to learn from one another. If you’re using the guide by yourself, the questions will spur your personal reflection.
Each discussion is meant to be a guided discovery.
Guided ~ None of us is equipped to read the Bible without help. We read the Bible for ourselves but not by ourselves. Scripture was written to be understood and applied in and with the Church. So each week “A Guide to the Reading” supplies background and explanations. The guide will help you grasp the book’s message. Think of it as a friendly park ranger who points out noteworthy details and explains what you’re looking at so you can appreciate things for yourself.
Discovery ~ The purpose is for you to interact with Acts. “Questions for a Closer Look” is a tool to help you dig into the book and examine it carefully. “Questions for Application” will help you consider what Acts means for your life here and now. Each week concludes with an “Approach to Prayer” section that helps you respond to God’s Word. Supplementary “Living Tradition” and “Saints in the Making” sections offer the thoughts and experiences of Christians past and present in order to show you what Acts has meant to others—so that you can consider what it might mean for you.
If you are using this guide for individual study, pay special attention to the questions provided for each week (Warm-Up Questions, Questions for a Closer Look, Questions for Application). One advantage of individual study is that you can take all the time you need to consider all the questions. You may also want to read Acts in its entirety. You will find that the “Between Discussions” pages will help you understand the portions of Acts that are not covered in this guide. Take your time making your way through Acts and this accompanying volume: let your reading be an opportunity for Acts to become God’s words to you.
A History in Which
We Can Share
Introducing the Acts of the Apostles
The philosopher George Santayana wrote that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” According to this view, the reason for studying history is to learn about the errors people made in the past in order to avoid committing those errors again. This kind of study happened after the atrocities of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. Scholars and historians studied the Holocaust to figure out how something like that could have happened.
Saint Luke, who wrote the history of the early Church called Acts of the Apostles, saw another purpose for remembering the past. If asked for his view, he would probably have said that those who are ignorant of the past cannot play their part in the present. Luke wrote his history to help his friend Theophilus better understand the origins of the Church and of the Gospel that Luke had received (1:1; unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references in this volume are to Acts). Theophilus would then be prepared to take part in the Church’s life and mission.
World leaders have been urged to remember the Holocaust so that such genocide will never occur again. Luke, on the other hand, wanted Theophilus to learn the lessons of the Church in Jerusalem, Joppa, Antioch, and Philippi so as to continue living the same life that the first Christians began to live when the Holy Spirit came to them.
Luke probably wrote around the year a.d. 80, and 19 centuries later his history can serve the same purpose for us. Acts of the Apostles puts us in touch with the foundational events of the Church to which we belong. By understanding our history, we can enter more deeply into it. The first Christians’ situation was quite different from our situation today, but we can share their experience. God calls us to open ourselves to the same Spirit, to practice the same mutual love and to carry out the same mission that we read about in Luke’s history. Luke wants us to know that those who remember the past are enabled to repeat it.
The book that Luke wrote ~ If Luke could examine one of our Bibles today, he might be surprised to find that the two parts of his work are not placed together in the New Testament. Part one, Luke’s Gospel, is grouped with the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John. Part two, Acts of the Apostles, is placed after the Gospels. In this arrangement, the two sections of Luke’s work are separated by the Gospel of John.
There are good reasons for this arrangement: putting all four Gospels together at the beginning of the New Testament indicates the central importance of Jesus himself. But when reading Acts we should keep in mind that the two parts of Luke’s work go together. Luke wrote a two-volume history because he was describing a two-stage action of God. When we view the two volumes of the story together, we get a better understanding of how the two stages of God’s action are related to each other.
Luke tells the following story in his two-stage work. God had given the people of Israel a special relationship with himself and had promised that he would rescue them from oppression. He fulfilled this promise through Jesus of Nazareth, his Son. God made himself powerfully present to people through Jesus’ teaching, miracles, reconciliation of sinners, and inclusion of outcasts. When Jesus accepted a painful death in obedience to God’s plans, God raised him from death and placed him in authority over all things. That was stage one, the Gospel of Luke. In stage two, Acts of the Apostles, God sent the Holy Spirit to Jesus’ followers. The Spirit enabled them to continue in the way of forgiveness, humility, and care for the needy that Jesus had begun. The Spirit gave them the strength to invite people everywhere to join in this graced life by believing in Jesus.
There are similarities between the two stages. Just as God sent his Son Jesus to make his kingdom present in the world, God has now sent his Spirit to Jesus’ followers, who are to extend the presence of his kingdom. Just as God confirmed Jesus’ announcement of the kingdom with powerful signs, he now gives signs that confirm the Church’s message about Jesus. Jesus had to suffer to accomplish God’s purposes; the members of the Church will also...