The 11th Sunday after Pentecost the church puts her hope in God from whom she receives her help our Lord has healed the wounds of mankind and has given us strength infinite charity and mercy of God is what this celebration underlines today.
The Introit
God in HIs holy place; God who maketh men of one mind to dwell in a house; He shall give power and strength to His people. Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered: and let them that hate Him flee from before His face. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and the Holy Ghost.
And here we have the 2nd of the propers for today's mass.
The Collect
O almighty and everlasting God, who in the abundance of Thy loving kindness are wont, to go beyond both the merits and prayers of Thy suppliant people, pour down upon us Thy mercy: that Thou mayest forgive us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and grant us what our prayer does not dare to ask. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Epistle
Lesson from the Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, !. Chapter 15 verses 1 - 10.
Brethern:
I make known unto you the Gospel which I preached to you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand, by which also you are 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 that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried and He rose again on the third day and that He was seen by Cephas, and after that by the eleven. Then was He seen by more than five hundred brethren at once; of whom many remain until this present, but some are 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 one born out of due time. For I. am the least of the Apostles, who am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. I am what I am; and His grace in me hath not been void.
Now We will draw aside a little; while I will share with you a few words by the holy priest Father Leonard Goffine’s as he ponders on the epistle. Father writes:
An Explanation of the Epistle
Saint Paul warns the Corinthians against those who denied the resurrection of Christ and of the deceased faithful and exhort them to persevere in the faith which they have received to live in accordance with it. Learn from this how we in our days in which the true faith in Jesus and his church is in so many ways attacked and denied should firmly preserve in the one only saving catholic faith which is the same that Paul preached.
Paul in this Epistle gives to the Corinthians and to us, a beautiful example of humility by calling himself, because of the sin he had committed before his conversion, one born out of time. The least of all the apostles and not worthy of being called an apostle although he had laboured so much in the service of Christ.
He acknowledges also that all that he was, was by God's grace only. Thus speaks the truly humble man as he sees in himself nothing but weakness sin and wrong and therefore despises himself and desires to be despised by others.
All the good which he professes or practices he describes to God and gives Him the honour. Dear Christian you too must Strive for such humility. You have far more reason to do so than Paul had, because of the sins which you have committed, and of the grace which you have abused and the inactive useless life you have led.
An aspiration. Dispel from me most loving saviour the spirit of pride and grant me the humility I need so much. Let me realise that of myself I can do nothing and that all my power to do good comes from thee alone, who alone does cause me to have the will to do the goo