“It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed [in] with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.” (Luke 13:21.)
Saint Ambrose of Milan offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel proclamation:
“There are three measures: of the flesh, of the soul and of the spirit. This is truer of the spirit in which we all live. The woman, who prefigures the church, mixes with them the virtue of spiritual doctrine, until the whole hidden inner person of the heart is leavened and the heavenly bread arises to grace. The doctrine of Christ is fittingly called leaven, because the bread is Christ. The apostle said, “For we, being many, are one bread, one body.” Leavening happens when the flesh does not lust against the Spirit, nor the Spirit against the flesh. We mortify the deeds of the flesh, and the soul, aware that through the breath of God it has received the breath of life, shuns the earthly germs of worldly needs.” (Exposition of the Gospel of Luke, 7.)
Collect
O God,
Who in Your wonderful providence
decreed that Christ’s Kingdom
should be extended throughout the earth
and that all should become partakers
of His saving redemption,
grant, we pray, that Your Church
may be the universal sacrament of salvation
and that Christ may be revealed to all
as the hope of the nations and their Savior.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Almighty ever-living God,
increase our faith, hope and charity,
and make us love what You command,
so that we may merit what You promise.
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.
Who in Your wonderful providence
decreed that Christ’s Kingdom
should be extended throughout the earth
and that all should become partakers
of His saving redemption,
grant, we pray, that Your Church
may be the universal sacrament of salvation
and that Christ may be revealed to all
as the hope of the nations and their Savior.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Almighty ever-living God,
increase our faith, hope and charity,
and make us love what You command,
so that we may merit what You promise.
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
