Epistles of St. Paul

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Thursday, 4 September 2014 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Corinthians 3 : 18-23

Do not deceive yourselves. If anyone of you considers himself wise in the ways of the world, let him become a fool, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s eyes. To this, Scripture says : “God catches the wise in their own wisdom.” It also says : “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is useless.”

Because of this, let no one boast about human beings, for everything belongs to you, Paul, Apollos, Cephas – life, death, the present and the future. Everything is yours, and you, you belong to Christ, and Christ is of God.

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Wednesday, 3 September 2014 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 Corinthians 3 : 1-9

I could not, friends, speak to you as spiritual persons but as fleshly people, for you are still infants in Christ. I gave you milk and not solid food, for you were not ready for it and up to now you cannot receive it for you are still of the flesh. As long as there is jealousy and strife, what can I say but that you are at the level of the flesh and behave like ordinary people.

While one says : “I follow Paul,” and the other : “I follow Apollos,” what are you but people still at a human level? For what is Apollos? What is Paul? They are ministers and through them you believed, as it was given by the Lord to each of them.

I planted, Apollos watered the plant, but God made it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who makes the plant grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work to the same end, and the Lord will pay each according to their work. We are fellow-workers with God, but you are God’s field and building.

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Tuesday, 2 September 2014 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Corinthians 2 : 10b-16

Because the Spirit probes everything, even the depth of God. Who but his own spirit knows the secrets of a person? Similarly, no one but the Spirit of God knows the secrets of God. We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God and, through Him, we understand what God in His goodness has given us.

So we speak of this, not in terms inspired by human wisdom, but in a language taught by the Spirit, explaining a spiritual wisdom to spiritual persons. The one who remains on the psychological level does not understand the things of the Spirit. They are foolishness for him and he does not understand because they require a spiritual experience.

On the other hand, the spiritual person judges everything but no one judges him. Who has known the mind of God so as to teach him? But we have the mind of Christ.

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Sunday, 31 August 2014 : 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Romans 12 : 1-2

I beg you, dearly beloved, by the mercy of God, to give yourselves as a living and holy sacrifice pleasing to God; that is the kind of worship for you, as sensible people.

Do not let yourself be shaped by the world where you live, but rather be transformed through the renewal of your mind. You must discern the will of God : what is good, what pleases, what is perfect.

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Saturday, 30 August 2014 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)

1 Corinthians 1 : 26-31

Brothers and sisters, look and see whom God has called. Few among you can be said to be cultured or wealthy, and few belong to noble families. Yet God has chosen what the world considers foolish, to shame the wise; He has chosen what the world considers weak to shame the strong.

God has chosen common and unimportant people, making use of what is nothing to nullify the things that are, so that no mortal may boast before God. But, by God’s grace you are in Christ Jesus, who has become our wisdom from God, and who makes us just and holy and free.

Scripture says : Let the one who boasts boast of the Lord.

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Thursday, 28 August 2014 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine of Hippo, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 Corinthians 1 : 1-9

From Paul, called to be an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and from Sosthenes, our brother, to God’s Church which is in Corinth; to you whom God has sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with those who everywhere call upon the Name of our Lord Christ Jesus, their Lord and ours.

Receive grace and peace from God our Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord. I give thanks constantly to my God for you and for the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus. For you have been fully enriched in Him with words as well as with knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you.

You do not lack any spiritual gift and only await the glorious coming of Christ Jesus, our Lord. He will keep you steadfast to the end, and you will be without reproach on the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus.

The faithful God will not fail you after calling you to this fellowship with His Son, Christ Jesus, our Lord.

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Tuesday, 26 August 2014 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

2 Thessalonians 2 : 1-3a, 14-17

Brothers and sisters, let us speak about the coming of Christ Jesus, our Lord, and our gathering to meet Him. Do not be easily unsettled. Do not be alarmed by what a prophet says or by any report, or by some letter said to be ours, saying the day of the Lord is at hand. Do not let yourselves be deceived in any way.

To this end He called you through the Gospel we preach, for He willed you to share the glory of Christ Jesus our Lord. Because of that, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold to the traditions that we taught you by word or by letter.

May Christ Jesus our Lord who has loved us, may God our Father, who in His mercy gives us everlasting comfort and true hope, strengthen you. May He encourage your hearts and make you steadfast in every good work and word.

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Monday, 25 August 2014 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Louis and St. Joseph Calasanz, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

2 Thessalonians 1 : 1-5, 11b-12

From Paul, Sylvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians which is in God our Father and in Christ Jesus, the Lord. May grace and peace be yours from God the Father and Christ Jesus, the Lord.

Brothers and sisters, we should give thanks to God at all times for you. It is fitting to do so, for your faith is growing and your love for one another increasing. We take pride in you among the churches of God because of your endurance and your faith in the midst of persecution and sufferings.

In this the just judgment of God may be seen; for you must show yourselves worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are now suffering. May He, by His power, fulfill your good purposes and your work prompted by faith. In that way, the Name of Jesus our Lord will be glorified through you, and you through Him, according to the loving plan of God and of Christ Jesus the Lord.

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(Usus Antiquior) Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Feast of St. Bartholomew the Apostle (Double II Classis) – Sunday, 24 August 2014 : Epistle

Lectio Epistolae beati Pauli Apostoli ad Corinthios – Lesson from the Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians

1 Corinthians 15 : 1-10

Fratres : Notum vobis facio Evangelium, quod praedicavi vobis, quod et accepistis, in quo et statis, per quod et salvamini : qua ratione praedicaverim vobis, si tenetis, nisi frustra credidistis.

Tradidi enim vobis in primis, quod et accepi : quoniam Christus mortuus est pro peccatis nostris secundum Scripturas : et quia sepultus est, et quia resurrexit tertia die secundum Scripturas : et quia visus est Cephae, et post hoc undecim.

Deinde visus est plus quam quingentis fratribus simul, ex quibus multi manent usque adhuc, quidam autem dormierunt. Deinde visus est Jacobo, deinde Apostolis omnibus : novissime autem omnium tamquam abortivo, visus est et mihi.

Ego enim sum minimus Apostolorum, qui non sum dignus vocari Apostolus, quoniam persecutus sum Ecclesiam Dei. Gratia autem Dei sum id quod sum, et gratia ejus in me vacua non fuit.

English translation

Brethren, I make known unto you the gospel which I preached to you, which you have also received, and wherein you stand, by which you are also saved, if you hold fast after what manner I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.

For I delivered unto you first of all, which I also received, how Christ had died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, and after that by the eleven.

Then He was seen by more than five hundred brethren at once, of whom many remain until this present day, and some have already fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the Apostles. And last of all He was seen also by me, as by one born out of due time.

For I am the least of the Apostles, and I am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God, but by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace in me had not been void.

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(Usus Antiquior) Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 17 August 2014 : Epistle

Lectio Epistolae beati Pauli Apostoli ad Corinthios – Lesson from the Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians

1 Corinthians 12 : 2-11

Fratres : Scitis, quoniam, cum gentes essetis, ad simulacra muta prout ducebamini euntes. Ideo notum vobis facio, quod nemo in Spiritu Dei loquens, dicit anathema Jesu.

Et nemo potest dicere, Dominus Jesus, nisi in Spiritu Sancto. Divisiones vero gratiarum sunt, idem autem Spiritus. Et divisiones ministrationum sunt, idem autem Dominus, et divisiones operationum sunt, idem vero Deus, qui operatur omnia in omnibus.

Unicuique autem datur manifestatio Spiritus ad utilitatem. Alii quidem per Spiritum datur sermo sapientiae, alii autem sermo scientiae secundum eumdem Spiritum : alteri fides in eodem Spiritu : alii gratia sanitatum in uno Spiritu : alii operatio virtutum, alii prophetia, alii discretio spirituum, alii genera linguarum, alii interpretatio sermonum.

Haec autem omnia operatur unus atque idem Spiritus, dividens singulis, prout vult.

English translation

Brethren, you know that when you were heathens, you went to dumb idols, according as you were led. Whereas I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God, said anything anathema to Jesus. And no man can say, the Lord Jesus, but by the Holy Spirit.

Now there are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit; and there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but the same God, He who worked all in all.

And the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit. To one indeed, by the Spirit, is given the word of wisdom, and to another, the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit, and to another, the grace of healing in one Spirit, and to another, the working of miracles, and to another the discerning of spirits, and to another, diverse kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of speeches.

But in all these things worked one and the same Spirit, dividing to everyone according as He wills it.