Acts 12:24 - 13: 5 / John 12:44-50
The means of communication have evolved in leaps and bounds over the past few decades.
From the experiments in electric voice-transmission devices in the mid 19th century, the means of voice communication devices is really astounding.
There is a cartoon in which two modern-day handphones were looking at a portrait of a wired telephone, and one handphone said to the other : Oh yes, our ancestors have tails. (the wire that attaches the handset to the body of the telephone)
Yes, modern day communication is easy and convenient and mobile. With modern day handphones, one can go roaming, in every sense of the word.
In the 1st reading we heard how the Holy Spirit communicated to the disciples at Antioch.
Yet to prepare for this communication, they had to pray and keep a fast. They had to keep that line of communication free from distortion and from other influences that might give them a wrong message.
And when the Holy Spirit spoke, it was not to just one individual but to the community of disciples.
As Jesus Himself said about the Word of God, what He had spoken did not come from Himself but was commanded by the Father.
As for ourselves, in order to be receptive to the Word of God, we need to pray and even keep a fast as a form of spiritual offering.
And we will know if God has spoken to us in the depths of our hearts. By what we speak to others, we will know whether those words are from God or not.