Apt Bible passage at Catholic Mass coincides with earthquake

CHARLOTTE, NC (AP) — A Catholic church in North Carolina which had a portion of 1 Kings for the Bible for its reading during an early Sunday morning Mass found the verse unusually timely.

The Diocese of Charlotte says Father Richard Sutter of St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church said a lector had just reached the 19th chapter which states: “After the wind there was an earthquake — but the LORD was not in the earthquake.”

It was about then that parishioners felt a 5.1 magnitude quake centered near Sparta that rattled North Carolina on Sunday.

It was the most powerful earthquake to hit the Southern state in more than a century.