Commemoration of the Apparition of the Sign of the Precious Cross over Jerusalem in 351 AD; Martyr Acacius the Centurion at Byzantium (303); Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem

Agrippa said to Paul, “You may speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand, and made his defense.

¹²“Whereupon as I traveled to Damascus with the authority and commission from the chief priests, ¹³at noon, O king, I saw on the way a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who traveled with me. ¹⁴When we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

¹⁵“I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ¹⁶But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will reveal to you; ¹⁷delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, ¹⁸to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

¹⁹“Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, ²⁰but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.

Jesus said therefore again to them, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sins. Where I go, you can’t come.”

²²The Jews therefore said, “Will he kill himself, because he says, ‘Where I am going, you can’t come’?”

²³He said to them, “You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. ²⁴I said therefore to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

²⁵They said therefore to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. ²⁶I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you. However, he who sent me is true; and the things which I heard from him, these I say to the world.”

²⁷They didn’t understand that he spoke to them about the Father. ²⁸Jesus therefore said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I say these things. ²⁹He who sent me is with me. The Father hasn’t left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”

³⁰As he spoke these things, many believed in him.