Liturgical Colour : White

Lectio Epistolae Beati Joannis Apostoli – Lesson from the Epistle of Blessed John the Apostle

1 John 3 : 13-18

Carissimi : Nolite mirari, si odit vos mundus. Nos scimus, quoniam translati sumus de morte ad vitam, quoniam diligimus fratres. Qui non diligit, manet in morte : omnis, qui odit fratrem suum, homicida est. Et scitis, quoniam omnis homicida non habet vitam aeternam in semetipso manentem. In hoc cognovimus caritatem Dei, quoniam ille animam suam pro nobis posuit : et nos debemos pro fratribus animas ponere.

Qui habuerit substantiam hujus mundi, et viderit fratrem suum necessitatem habere, et clauserit viscera sua ab eo : quomodo caritas Dei manet in eo? Filioli mei, non diligamus verbo neque lingua, sed opere et veritate.

English translation

Dearly beloved, do not wonder if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love, will abide in death. Whomsoever hated his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in himself. In this we have known the charity of God, because He had laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

He who had the substance of this world, and shall see his brother in need, and shut up his bowels from him, how had the charity of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word nor in tongue, but in deed and in truth.