Psalms 68:4-10; Acts 1:6-14

4 Sing to God, sing praises to his name; prepare a way for him who rides on the clouds. His name is the Lord - be glad in his presence!

5 God, who lives in his sacred Temple, cares for orphans and protects widows.

6 He gives the lonely a home to live in and leads prisoners out into happy freedom, but rebels will have to live in a desolate land.

7 O God, when you led your people, when you marched across the desert,

8 the earth shook, and the sky poured down rain, because of the coming of the God of Sinai, the coming of the God of Israel.

9 You caused abundant rain to fall and restored your worn-out land;

10 your people made their home there; in your goodness you provided for the poor.

6 When the apostles met together with Jesus, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time give the Kingdom back to Israel?"

7 Jesus said to them, "The times and occasions are set by my Father's own authority, and it is not for you to know when they will be.

8 But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

9 After saying this, he was taken up to heaven as they watched him, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

10 They still had their eyes fixed on the sky as he went away, when two men dressed in white suddenly stood beside them

11 and said, "Galileans, why are you standing there looking up at the sky? This Jesus, who was taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way that you saw him go to heaven."

12 Then the apostles went back to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is about half a mile away from the city.

13 They entered the city and went up to the room where they were staying: Peter, John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Patriot, and Judas son of James.

14 They gathered frequently to pray as a group, together with the women and with Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers.