Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.” (Matthew 22:11.)

Saint Gregory the Great comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“But since you have already come into the house of the marriage feast, our holy church, as a result of God’s generosity, be careful, my friends, lest when the King enters he find fault with some aspect of your heart’s clothing. We must consider what comes next with great fear in our hearts. But the king came in to look at the guests and saw there a person not clothed in a wedding garment.

What do we think is meant by the wedding garment, dearly beloved? For if we say it is baptism or faith, is there anyone who has entered this marriage feast without them? A person is outside because he has not yet come to believe. What then must we understand by the wedding garment but love? That person enters the marriage feast, but without wearing a wedding garment, who is present in the holy church. He may have faith, but he does not have love. We are correct when we say that love is the wedding garment because this is what our Creator himself possessed when he came to the marriage feast to join the church to himself. Only God’s love brought it about that his only begotten Son united the hearts of his chosen to himself. John says that “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son for us.” (Forty Gospel Homilies)

Collect

May Your grace, O Lord, we pray,
at all times go before us and follow after
and make us always determined
to carry out good works.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

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My name is great among the nations

Saint Cyril of Alexandria

Bishop and Father of the Church

An excerpt from A Commentary on Haggi

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

When our Savior came, he appeared as a divine temple, glorious beyond any comparison, far more splendid and excellent than the older temple. He exceeded the old as much as worship in Christ and the gospels exceeds the cult of the laws, as much as truth exceeds its shadows.

Furthermore, I might point out that originally there was just one temple at Jerusalem, in which one people, the Israelites, offered their sacrifices. Since the only-begotten Son became like us, and as Scripture says, though he was Lord and God, he has shone upon us, the rest of the world has been filled with places of worship. Now there are countless worshipers who honor the universal God with spiritual offerings and fragrant sacrifices. This surely, is what Malachi foretold, speaking, as if in the person of God: I am a great king, says the Lord; my name is honored among the nations, and everywhere there is offered to my name the fragrance of a pure sacrifice.

With justice, therefore, do we say that the final temple, the Church, will be more glorious. To those who are so solicitous for the Church and labor for its construction, Haggai declares that a gift will be made, a gift from heaven given by the Savior. That gift is Christ himself, the peace of all men: through him we have access in the one Spirit to the Father. The prophet goes on to say: I will give peace to this place and peace of soul to save all who lay the foundation to rebuild the temple. Christ too says somewhere: My peace I give you. Paul will teach how profitable this is for those who love: The peace of Christ, he says, which surpasses all understanding will keep your minds and hearts. Isaiah, the seer, made the same prayer: O Lord our God, give us peace, for you have given us everything. Once a man has been found worthy of Christ’s peace, he can easily save his soul and guide his mind to carry out exactingly the demands of virtue.

Haggai, therefore, declares that peace will be given to all who build. One builds the Church either as a teacher of the sacred mysteries, as one set over the house of God, or as one who works for his own good by setting himself forth as a living and spiritual stone in the holy temple, God’s dwelling place in the Spirit. The results of these efforts will profit such men so that each will be able to gain his own salvation without difficulty.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

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Thrown out because of attire? What is Jesus teaching?

εὐαγγελίζω (euaggelizo)
“to announce the Good News of victory in battle”

“But when the king came in to meet the guests,
he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.
The king said to him, 'My friend, how is it
that you came in here without a wedding garment?”

Matthew 22:11-12
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Is there anything in the text we just heard that raises a concern?” A king dispatches servants to gather all who have been invited to his son’s wedding feast. People excuse themselves not once, but twice and even with mind-boggling violence. Since the preparations for the festival are complete, the king instructs another batch of servants to get anyone, both the good and the bad, and bring them to the feast. Yet when one shows up without a wedding garment, he is not only removed from the feast but bound hand and foot and cast outside because of improper attire. Even if we understand the significance of the wedding garment, the sense of the text suggests that there may not have been time for this person to don such a garment. So, what’s up with the white garment?

Many biblical scholars suggest that knowledge of first-century Jewish wedding practices is essential to assist in the salvific meaning of the parable. Scholars also acknowledge that we do not have all the relevant information to have a complete or big-picture view of the wedding feast celebrated in this era. We do know that once a couple married-but-before-they-lived-together (what we would call today a ‘formal engagement’) plans were ‘officially’ set in motion for the eventual day of the bride moving into a home (or room) prepared by her husband and his family. The marriage and its announcement (again, in biblical times this was the commitment but a couple did not live together at this point) came after the families (i.e. fathers) worked out the terms of marriage for their children, especially the daughter. When the marriage was announced, the couple was committed (or espoused) to each other. In terms of our culture, they could not ‘see’ or date other people. The groom, guided by his father, began the necessary work of building a home or adding a room onto the family home for his bride. He enlisted the help of family, friends, and skilled people to make all ready. Others in the town made preparations for the wedding festival. Some would prepare food, some would hope that their wine would be ready while others took care to have a suitable place for the celebration. The bride for her part lived in a state of expectation not knowing the exact day when all would be ready. She and her friends lived in anticipation of the groom’s voice announcing that all preparations were complete and his bride could now come to live with him. When all was ready, the groom (or his father) announced to the town that all was set for the wedding. The bride’s father then escorted her to the new home and she was handed-over to her husband. As the bride was carried over the threshold of the door (marking the start of living together) the celebration began throughout the town. The festivities could last as long as a week, or until the wine ran out – an embarrassment for sure if this happen too early (cf. Cana, John 2). As for the matter of the wedding garment, scant and sketchy historical data suggests that this was a garment worn particularly by those who had a close role in the proximate preparations for the arrival of the bride. Some data suggests that the wedding garment was the change of clothing marking a transition from preparatory work to festive celebration. Especially for those involved in the last-minute preparations for the bride’s move to her new home, the wedding garment was a refreshing way of leaving behind the work and entering into the celebration.

Biblical exegetes note that this parable has much in common with the parables of previous Sundays. The theme of ‘gift offered, gift rejected and gift given to another people’ surfaces once again this Sunday. Similar to past weeks, we do not want to lapse into a mentality where we as humans decide a person’s or a people’s eternal destiny. There is only one Person who alone will do that – God the Father. But the “wedding garment” is the ‘sticky’ element this week. Why does its absence cause someone to be violently and quickly booted from the festival? Some have mentioned in passing that the garment is a symbol.

When it comes to symbol in the Scriptures, there is no better authority than the Fathers of the Church (and a few Ancient Christian Writers, Origen of Alexandria the notable bright-star in the group.) The Fathers of the Church knew how to “do” symbol in the reading and proclamation of Sacred Scripture. Too often people believe symbol is a fake reality or a license giving free rein as to the Text’s meaning. In these cases symbol is often an opinion that does violence to the literal sense of the Sacred Text.

As for this week’s Parable, a few Fathers of the Church offer insight on the whole episode, but Saints Augustine and Gregory the Great amply address the wedding garment. A good deal of Patristic commentary notes the variety of people invited to the banquet and all the people – good and bad – who come to the banquet as a result of the ‘last round-up’ commanded by the King. Since the Fathers of the Church often view the many banquets and feasts in the Scriptures as an image of the Kingdom of God, Saint Augustine and company comment that the parable is hope-filled: all are invited to the banquet and some at the festival might even be somewhat unsavory. The point is that nobody came to the banquet as a result of her or his initiative. No one ‘earned’ a place or a seat at the banquet. All were invited as pure gift hence equality among all the guests be they rich or poor, good or bad. All are equal in the eyes of the Inviter. But for the Fathers, especially Saints Augustine and Gregory the Great, the universal invitation is not without a requirement. Both view the banquet as the Church and Baptism as the ‘door’ through which the invitation to the Church is opened. However, the baptized must be clothed in the garment of Christian love. Since a wedding is a joining, the garment expressive of that joining must reflect the essence of that union – love. Saint Augustine further comments that this love is none other than the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ Himself. That love – the wedding garment, that is THE CROSS – must be worn by the baptized 24/7/365.

With these insights it is possible to conclude that the wedding garment speaks of a reality deeper than our good or bad actions. The wedding garment speaks of an underlying attitude or manner of life that is sacrificial in nature. This is especially needed in our culture of moral relevance and goodness. How many times do we hear, ‘Oh, well, you know … she or he (or me, of course!) is a good person.’ An exceptionally vague concept of goodness has become the epitome of life and it is a goodness that is often self-defined. The Christian is not called to goodness but holiness grounded in Jesus’ sacrificial death. Our thinking, speaking and acting must go beyond a vague, self or societal construct of convenient goodness. The wedding garment – especially for the baptized and those who consider themselves good – is the challenge to think, to speak and to act sacrificially: the essence of love lived Personally by Jesus Christ Who died that we might enjoy the festivities of the Banquet His Father summons us to in the Holy Spirit.

Collect

Almighty ever-living God,
Who in the abundance of Your kindness
surpass the merits and desires
of those who entreat You,
pour out Your mercy upon us
to pardon what conscience dreads and
to give what prayer does not dare to ask.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

Saturday of the Twenty-seventh Weekin Ordinary Time

“While he was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.”” (Luke 11:27.)

Saint Augustine of Hippo comments on these verses from the Gospel proclaimed during today’s Mass:

“Mary was more blessed in accepting the faith of Christ than in conceiving the flesh of Christ. To someone who said, “Blessed is the womb that bore you,” he replied, “Rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.”

Finally, for his brothers, his relatives according to the flesh who did not believe in him, of what advantage was that relationship? Even her maternal relationship would have done Mary no good unless she had borne Christ more happily in her heart than in her flesh.” (Holy Virginity, 3/)

Collect

Almighty ever-living God,
who in the abundance of Your kindness
surpass the merits and desires
of those who entreat You,
pour out Your mercy upon us
to pardon what conscience dreads
and to give
what prayer does not dare to ask.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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The performance of our ministry

Saint Gregory the Great

Bishop of Rome and Great Western Father of the Church

An excerpt from Homily 17

Saturday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Let us listen to what the Lord says as he sends the preachers forth: The harvest is great but the laborers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest. We can speak only with a heavy heart of so few laborers for such a great harvest, for although there are many to hear the good news there are only a few to preach it. Look about you and see how full the world is of priests, yet in God’s harvest a laborer is rarely to be found; for although we have accepted the priestly office, we do not fulfill its demands.

Beloved brothers, consider what has been said: Pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest. Pray for us so that we may have the strength to work on your behalf; that our tongue may not grow weary of exhortation, and that after we have accepted the office of preaching, our silence may not condemn us before the just judge. For frequently the preacher’s tongue is bound fast on account of his own wickedness; while on the other hand it sometimes happens that because of the people’s sins, the word of preaching is withdrawn from those who preside over the assembly. With reference to the former situation, the psalmist says: But God asks the sinner: Why do you recite my commandments? And with reference to the latter, the Lord tells Ezekiel: I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be dumb and unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious house. He clearly means this: the word of preaching will be taken away from you because as long as this people irritates me by their deeds, they are unworthy to hear the exhortation of truth. It is not easy to know for whose sinfulness the preacher’s word is withheld, but it is indisputable that the shepherd’s silence while often injurious to himself will always harm his flock.

There is something else about the life of the shepherds, dearest brothers, which discourages me greatly. But lest what I claim should seem unjust to anyone, I accuse myself of the very same thing, although I fall into it unwillingly—compelled by the urgency of these barbarous times. I speak of our absorption in external affairs; we accept the duties of office, but by our actions we show that we are attentive to other things. We abandon the ministry of preaching and, in my opinion, are called bishops to our detriment, for we retain the honorable office but fail to practice the virtues proper to it. Those who have been entrusted to us abandon God, and we are silent. They fall into sin, and we do not extend a hand of rebuke.

But how can we who neglect ourselves be able to correct someone else? We are wrapped up in worldly concerns, and the more we devote ourselves to external things, the more insensitive we become in spirit.

For this reason the Church rightfully says about her own feeble members: They made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept. We are set to guard the vineyards but do not guard our own, for we get involved in irrelevant pursuits and neglect the performance of our ministry.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

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It was like coming into port after a rough sea

Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman

Doctor of the Church

An excerpt from his treatise, Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Chapter V: Position of My Mind since 1845, London 1878

From the time that I became a Catholic, of course I have no further history of my religious opinions to narrate. In saying this, I do not mean to say that my mind has been idle, or that I have given up thinking on theological subjects; but that I have had no variations to record, and have had no anxiety of heart whatever. I have been in perfect peace and contentment; I never have had one doubt. I was not conscious to myself, on my conversion, of any change, intellectual or moral, wrought in my mind. I was not conscious of firmer faith in the fundamental truths of revelation or of more self-command; I had not more fervor; but it was like coming into port after a rough sea; and my happiness on that score remains to this day without interruption.

Nor had I any trouble about receiving those additional articles, which are not found in the Anglican Creed. Some of them I believed already, but not any one of them was a trial to me. I made a profession of them upon my reception with the greatest ease, and I have the same ease in believing them now. I am far of course from denying that every article of the Christian Creed, whether as held by Catholics or by Protestants, is beset with intellectual difficulties; and it is simple fact, that, for myself, I cannot answer those difficulties. Many persons are very sensitive to the difficulties of Religion; I am as sensitive to them as anyone; but I have never been able to see a connection between apprehending those difficulties, however keenly, and multiplying them to any extent, and on the other hand doubting the doctrines to which they are attached. Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt, as I understand the subject; difficulty and doubt are incommensurate. There of course may be difficulties in the evidence; but I am speaking of difficulties intrinsic to the doctrines themselves, or to their relations with each other. A man may be annoyed that he cannot work out a mathematical problem, of which the answer is or is not given to him, without doubting that it admits of an answer, or that a certain particular answer is the true one. Of all points of faith, the being of a God is, to my own apprehension, encompassed with most difficulty, and yet borne in upon our minds with most power.

People say that the doctrine of Transubstantiation is difficult to believe; I did not believe the doctrine till I was a Catholic. I had no difficulty in believing it, as soon as I believed that the Catholic Roman Church was the oracle of God, and that she had declared this doctrine to be part of the original revelation. It is difficult, impossible to imagine, I grant;—but how is it difficult to believe? I believe the whole revealed dogma as taught by the Apostles, as committed by the Apostles to the Church, and as declared by the Church to me. I receive it, as it is infallibly interpreted by the authority to whom it is thus committed, and (implicitly) as it shall be, in like manner, further interpreted by that same authority till the end of time. I submit, moreover, to the universally received traditions of the Church, in which lies the matter of those new dogmatic definitions which are from time to time made, and which in all times are the clothing and the illustration of the Catholic dogma as already defined. And I submit myself to those other decisions of the Holy See, theological or not, through the organs which it has itself appointed, which, waiving the question of their infallibility, on the lowest ground come to me with a claim to be accepted and obeyed. Also, I consider that, gradually and in the course of ages, Catholic inquiry has taken certain definite shapes, and has thrown itself into the form of a science, with a method and a phraseology of its own, under the intellectual handling of great minds, such as Saint Athanasius, Saint Augustine, and Saint Thomas; and I feel no temptation at all to break in pieces the great legacy of thought thus committed to us for these latter days.

Collect

O God, Who bestowed on the Priest
Saint John Henry Newman
the grace to follow your kindly light and
find peace in your Church,
graciously grant that,
through his intercession and example,
we may be led out of shadows and images
into the fullness of your truth.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

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Friday of the Twenty-seventh Weekin Ordinary Time

“When an unclean spirit goes out of someone, it roams through arid regions searching for rest but, finding none, it says, ‘I shall return to my home from which I came…” (Luke 11:24.)

Origen of Alexandria (part 2 of Pope Benedict’s reflections on Origen) comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“The unclean spirit dwelt in us before we believed, before we came to Christ when our soul was still committing fornication against God and was with its lovers, the demons. Afterward it said, “I will return to my first husband,” and came to Christ, who “created” it from the beginning “in his image.” Necessarily the adulterous spirit gave up his place when it saw the legitimate husband. Christ received us, and our house has been “cleansed” from its former sins. It has been “furnished” with the furnishing of the sacraments of the faithful that they who have been initiated know. This house does not deserve to have Christ as its resident immediately unless its life and conduct are so holy, pure and incapable of being defiled that it deserves to be the “temple of God.” It should not still be a house, but a temple in which God dwells. If it neglects the grace that was received and entangles itself in secular affairs, immediately that unclean spirit returns and claims the vacant house for itself. “It brings with it seven other spirits more wicked,” so that it may not be able again to be expelled, “and the last state of that kind of person is worse than the first.” It would be more tolerable that the soul would not have returned to its first husband once it became a prostitute than having gone back after confession to her husband, to have become an adulteress again. There is no “fellowship,” as the apostle says, “between the temple of God and idols,” no “agreement between Christ and Belial.” (Homilies on Exodus, 8.)

Collect

Almighty ever-living God,
Who in the abundance of Your kindness
surpass the merits and the desires
of those who entreat You,
pour out Your mercy upon us
to pardon what conscience dreads
and to give what prayer does not dare to ask.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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The development of doctrine

Saint Vincent of Lerins

Priest and Monk

An excerpt from his treatise, First Instruction

Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Is there to be no development of religion in the Church of Christ? Certainly, there is to be development and on the largest scale.

Who can be so grudging to men, so full of hate for God, as to try to prevent it? But it must truly be development of the faith, not alteration of the faith. Development means that each thing expands to be itself, while alteration means that a thing is changed from one thing into another.

The understanding, knowledge and wisdom of one and all, of individuals as well as of the whole Church, ought then to make great and vigorous progress with the passing of the ages and the centuries,but only along its own line of development, that is, with the same doctrine, the same meaning and the same import.

The religion of souls should follow the law of development of bodies. Though bodies develop and unfold their component parts with the passing of the years, they always remain what they were. There is a great difference between the flower of childhood and the maturity of age, but those who become old are the very same people who were once young. Though the condition and appearance of one and the same individual may change, it is one and the same nature, one and the same person.

The tiny members of unweaned children and the grown members of young men are still the same members. Men have the same number of limbs as children. Whatever develops at a later age was already present in seminal form; there is nothing new in old age that was not already latent in childhood.

There is no doubt, then, that the legitimate and correct rule of development, the established and wonderful order of growth, is this: in older people the fullness of years always brings to completion those members and forms that the wisdom of the Creator fashioned beforehand in their earlier years.

If, however, the human form were to turn into some shape that did not belong to its own nature, or even if something were added to the sum of its members or subtracted from it, the whole body would necessarily perish or become grotesque or at least be enfeebled. In the same way, the doctrine of the Christian religion should properly follow these laws of development, that is, by becoming firmer over the years, more ample in the course of time, more exalted as it advances in age.

In ancient times our ancestors sowed the good seed in the harvest field of the Church. It would be very wrong and unfitting if we, their descendants, were to reap, not the genuine wheat of truth but the intrusive growth of error.

On the contrary, what is right and fitting is this: there should be no inconsistency between first and last, but we should reap true doctrine from the growth of true teaching, so that when, in the course of time, those first sowings yield an increase it may flourish and be tended in our day also.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

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Thursday of theTwenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

“What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?” (Luke 11:11-12.)

Saint Augustine of Hippo comments on these verses from the Gospel proclaimed during today’s Mass:

“Of those three things that the apostle commends, faith is either signified by the fish, because of the water of baptism, or because it remains unharmed by the waves of this world. The Serpent is opposed to it, because it craftily and deceitfully persuaded man not to believe in God. The egg symbolizes hope, because the chick is not yet alive but will be; it is not yet seen but is hoped. “Hope that is seen is not hope.” The scorpion is opposed to hope, because whoever hopes for eternal life forgets the things that are behind and reaches out to those that are before. It is dangerous for him to look backward, and he is on guard against the rear of the scorpion, which has a poisoned dart in its tail. Bread symbolizes love, because “the greatest of these is love,” and among foods, bread certainly surpasses all others in value. The stone is opposed to it because the stonehearted cast out love. It may be that these gifts signify something more appropriate, yet he who knows how to give good gifts to his children urges us to ask, seek and knock.” (Letter 130)

Collect

Almighty ever-living God,
Who in the abundance of Your kindness
surpass the merits and desires
of those who entreat You,
pour out Your mercy upon us
to pardon what conscience dreads
and to give
what prayer does not dare to ask.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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One bishop with the presbyters and deacons

Saint Ignatius of Antioch

Bishop, Apostolic Father of the Church and Martyr

An excerpt from The Letter to the Philadelphians

Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Ignatius, also called Theophorus, to the church of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ located at Philadelphia in the province of Asia. You have found mercy and have been strengthened in the peace of God; you are now filled with gladness because of the passion of our Lord, and by his mercy you are made believers in his resurrection. I greet you in the blood of Jesus Christ. You are my abiding and unshakeable joy, especially if your members remain united with the bishop and with his presbyters and deacons, all appointed in accordance with the mind of Christ who by his own will has strengthened them in the firmness which the Spirit gives.

I know that this bishop has obtained his ministry, which serves the community, neither by his own efforts, nor from men nor even out of vainglory, but from the love of God the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am deeply impressed by his gentleness, and by his silence he is more effective than the empty talkers. He is in harmony with the commandments as is a lute with its strings. I call him blessed, then, for his sentiments toward God, since I know these to be virtuous and perfect, and for his stability and calm, in which he imitates the gentleness of the living God.

As sons of the light of truth, flee divisions and evil doctrines; where your shepherd is, follow him as his flock.

For all who belong to God and Jesus Christ are with the bishop; all who repent and return to the unity of the Church will also belong to God, that they may live according to Jesus Christ. Do not be deceived, my brothers. If anyone follows a schismatic, he will not obtain the inheritance of God’s kingdom; if anyone lives by an alien teaching, he does not assent to the passion of the Lord.

Be careful, therefore, to take part only in the one eucharist; for there is only one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ and one cup to unite us with his blood, one altar and one bishop with the presbyters and deacons, who are his fellow servants. Then, whatever you do, you will do according to God.

My brothers, I overflow with love for you and with a joyous heart I make you strong—although it is not so much I but Jesus Christ. Although imprisoned for his sake, I fear more because of my imperfection. But your prayers will perfect me in the eyes of God so that I might yet receive the inheritance promised me by the merciful God. I seek refuge in the person of Christ through the Gospels and I appeal to the true ministry of the Church through the apostles.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

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