A woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth

Reading 1 Acts 16:11-15
We set sail from Troas, making a straight run for Samothrace,
and on the next day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi,
a leading city in that district of Macedonia and a Roman colony.
We spent some time in that city.
On the sabbath we went outside the city gate along the river
where we thought there would be a place of prayer.
We sat and spoke with the women who had gathered there.
One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth,
from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened,
and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention
to what Paul was saying.
After she and her household had been baptized,
she offered us an invitation,
“If you consider me a believer in the Lord,
come and stay at my home,” and she prevailed on us.
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Reflection: The simplicity of today's reading uplifts me. Awash in a sense of absence in empty rooms in Vasco on my arrival from Delhi yesterday, this reading gave me a sense of purpose and motivation in life. Like the woman who deals in purple cloth, we too must find our meanings - however simple they may be - in the will of the Lord. This is also an exceptional piece of travel-writing -albeit about Greece which is in financial doldrums now.

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