The Various Graces for the Different Ministries in the One Body of Christ
by St. Paul
2nd Reading from the Office of Readings of the Liturgy of the Hours for the Feast of St. Mark, Evangelist
From the treatise Against Heresies by Saint Irenaeus, bishop
PREACHING TRUTH
The Church, which has spread everywhere, even to the ends of the earth, received the faith from the apostles and their disciples. By faith, we believe in one God, the almighty Father who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them. We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became man for our salvation. And we believe in the Holy Spirit who through the prophets foretold God's plan: the coming of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ, his birth from the Virgin, his passion, his resurrection from the dead, his ascension into heaven, and his final coming from heaven in the glory of his Father, to recapitulate all things and to raise all men from the dead, so that, by the decree of his invisible Father, he may make a just judgement in all things and so that every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth to Jesus Christ our Lord and our God, our Savior and our King, and every tongue confess him.
The Church, spread throughout the whole world, received this preaching and this faith and now preserves it carefully, dwelling as it were in one house. Having one soul and one heart, the Church holds this faith, preaches and teaches it consistently as though by a single voice. For though there are different languages, there is but one tradition.
The faith and the tradition of the churches founded in Germany are no different from those founded among the Spanish and the Celts, in the East, in Egypt, in Libya and elsewhere in the Mediterranean world. Just as God's creature, the sun, is one and the same the world over, so also does the Church's preaching shine everywhere to enlighten all men who want to come to a knowledge of the truth.
Now of those who speak with authority in the churches, no preacher however forceful will utter anything different - for no one is above the Master - nor will a less forceful preacher diminish what has been handed down. Since our faith is everywhere the same, no one who can say more augments it, nor can anyone who says less diminish it.
RESPONSORY
Christ sent me to preach the Gospel,
but not with the wisdom of this world
in which the cross of Christ loses all its meaning.
--For the message of the cross is foolishness
to those who are on the way to destruction;
but to us who are on the way to salvation
it is the proof of God's power, alleluia.
The world did not come to know God through wisdom;
it has pleased God to save those who believed
through the foolishness of the message we preach.
--For the message...
PRAYER
Father,
you gave Saint Mark
the privilege of proclaiming your gospel.
May we profit by his wisdom
and follow Christ more faithfully.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
This item 176 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
