St. Benjamin of Persia, Deacon and Martyr

 Today the Church remembers Saint Benjamin of Persia, Deacon and Martyr.

Ora pro nobis. 

Benjamin (AD 329 – c. 424) was a deacon martyred circa AD 424 in Persia. Benjamin was executed during a period of persecution of Christians that lasted forty years and through the reign of two Persian kings: Isdegerd I, who died in AD 421, and his son and successor, Varanes V. King Varanes carried on the persecution with such great fury that Christians were submitted to the most cruel tortures.

Isdegerdes, son of Sapor III, put a stop to the cruel persecution against the Christians in Persia, which had been begun by Sapor II, and the church had enjoyed twelve years' peace in that kingdom when, in AD 420, it was disturbed by the indiscreet zeal of one Abdas, a Christian bishop, who burned down the Pyraeum, or temple of fire, the great divinity of the Persians. King Isdegerdes threatened to demolish all the churches of the Christians unless he would rebuild it. 

Abdas had done ill in destroying the temple, but did well in refusing to rebuild it; for nothing can make it lawful to contribute to any act of idolatry, or to the building a temple, as Theodoret observes. Isdegerdes therefore demolished all the Christian churches in Persia, put to death Abdas, and raised a general persecution against the church, which continued forty years with great fury. Isdegerdes died the year following, in AD 421. But his son and successor, Varanes, carried on the persecution with greater inhumanity. 

The very description which Theodoret, a contemporary writer, and one that lived in the neighbourhood, gives of the cruelties he exercised on the Christians strikes us with horror: some were flayed alive in different parts of the body, and suffered all kinds of torture that could be invented: others, being stuck all over with sharp reeds, were hauled and rolled about in that condition; others were tormented divers other ways, such as nothing but the most hellish malice was capable of suggesting. Amongst these glorious champions of Christ was St. Benjamin, a deacon. The tyrant caused him to be beaten and imprisoned. He had lain a year in the dungeon when an ambassador from the emperor obtained his enlargement on condition he should never speak to any of the courtiers about religion.

The ambassador passed his word in his behalf that he would not; but Benjamin, who was a minister of the gospel, declared that he could not detain the truth in captivity, conscious to himself of the condemnation of the slothful servant for having hid his talent. He therefore neglected no opportunity of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The king, being informed that he still preached the faith in his kingdom, ordered him to be apprehended. The enraged tyrant caused reeds to be run in between the nails and the flesh both of his hands and feet, and the same to be thrust into other most tender parts, and drawn out again, and this to be frequently repeated with violence. He lastly ordered a knotty stake to be thrust into his bowels, to rend and tear them, in which torment he expired in the year AD 424. The Roman Martyrology places his name on the 31st of March.

Almighty God, who gave to your servant Benjamin boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

St. Domninus, Martyr.

 Today, the Church remembers St. Domninus, Martyr.

Ora pro nobis.

Saint Domnίnus was from Thessaloniki, Greece, and lived at the end of the 3rd c. AD.

When Emperor Maximian Galerius (258-311 AD) was building royal palaces in that city, the Saint was arrested as a Christian and for preaching the Word of God, which was an illegal activity and considered as sedition against the empire. 

He was brought before Emperor Maximian, who demanded to know how Domnίnus dared to confess any God, other than those the Emperor worshipped, and to thereby teach sedition against the empire. He commanded him to sacrifice to the idols, if he wished to live. Saint Domnίnus refused, and so the Emperor ordered that his body be mutilated. As he was being tortured, Domnίnus mocked the tyrant. 

This was reported to Galerius who, enraged, then ordered that he be driven out of the city and have his legs cut off at the knee and be left to die. The holy martyr was taken in by other Christians and remained alive for seven whole days without eating anything. Then, after giving thanks, he surrendered his holy soul to God, c. 300 AD.

Almighty God, who gave to your servant Domninus boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

SS. Alexander, Malchus, and Priscus, Martyrs

 Today the Church remembers SS Alexander, Malchus, and Priscus, Martyrs.

Orate pro nobis.

What little we know of them comes from Eusebius’ book ‘Church History’. This is what he recorded of them. "THESE eminent Christians, Priscus, Malchus, and Alexander, led a retired holy life in the country near Cæsarea, in Israel. During the fury of the persecution under Valerian, they often called to mind the triumphs of the martyrs; secretly reproached themselves with cowardice, as living like soldiers who passed their time in softness and ease, whilst their brethren and fellow-warriors bore all the heat of the battle. They could not long smother these warm sentiments in their breast; but expressed them to one another. "What," said they, "whilst the secure gate of heaven is open, shall we shut it against ourselves? Shall we be so faint-hearted as not to suffer for the name of Christ, who died for us? Our brethren invite us by their example: their blood is a loud voice, which presses us to tread in their steps. Shall we be deaf to a cry calling us to the combat, and to a glorious victory?"

Full of this holy ardour, they all, with one mind, repaired to Cæsarea, and of their own accord, by a particular instinct of grace, presented themselves before the governor, declaring themselves Christians. Whilst all others were struck with admiration at the sight of their generous courage, the barbarous judge appeared not able to contain his rage. After having tried on them all the tortures which he employed on other martyrs, he condemned them to be exposed to wild beasts." They were thrown to the animals in the amphitheater of Caesarea and so were martyred on this day in A.D. 260.

From Eusebius, Church History, b. 7. c. 12. p. 262.

Almighty God, who gave to your servants Alexander, Malchus, and Priscus boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

St. Alexander of Bergamo, Martyr

 Today the Church remembers St. Alexander of Bergammo.

Ora pro nobis.

Before the commencement of the Diocletianic Persecution in 303 AD, both Galerius and Maximian in the West inaugurated, on their own responsibility, a crusade against Christianity and sought particularly to remove all Christians from the armies. St. Alexander was one of the victims of this persecution. He was a survivor of the decimation (the killing of every tenth man) ordered by Maximian against the Theban Legion. After the decimation, he escaped to Milan. (St. Maurice and the largely Christian Theban Legion refused orders to kill local Christians and Maximian commanded the decimation of the Legion. After refusing a second command to kill local Christians after the decimation, a second decimation was ordered by Maximian. When St. Maurice refused, ha and the entire legion were executed.)

At Milan, Alexander was recognized and imprisoned, and it was demanded that he renounce his Christian faith. However, he was visited in jail by Saint Fidelis and Bishop Saint Maternus. With the help of Fidelis, Alexander managed to escape. Alexander fled to Como but was captured again.

Brought back to Milan, he was once more condemned to death by decapitation. However, the executioner's arms went stiff during the execution. He was imprisoned again, but Alexander once again managed to escape and ended up in Bergamo after passing through Fara Gera d'Adda and Capriate San Gervasio. At Bergamo, he was the guest of the lord Crotacius, who bid him to hide from his persecutors. However, Alexander decided to become a preacher instead and converted many natives of Bergamo, including Firmus and Rusticus, who were later martyred. Alexander was once again captured, tortured to induce him to renounce Jesus, and was finally decapitated on August 26, 303 AD, on the spot now occupied by the church of San Alessandro in Colonna.

Almighty God, who gave to your servant Alexander boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

St. Castulus of Rome, Martyr

 Today the Church remembers St. Castulus of Rome, Martyr.

Ora pro nobis.

Castulus was a Roman citizen of high rank, eventually being appointed the Chamberlain of Emperor Diocletian. After becoming a convert to the Christian religion, and knowing the peril it placed himself and his family in, he began to shelter Christians in his own home and even arranged for religious services to be held discreetly inside the imperial palace.

With his friend Tiburtius, he converted many men and woman to Christianity and brought them to Pope Caius to be baptized. He was eventually betrayed by an apostate named Torquatus and taken before Fabian, prefect of the city.

He was found guilty of sedition and of practicing an illegal religion, abandoning the worship of the state and the emperor which was required of every citizen. Castulus was tortured and executed by being buried alive in a sand pit on the Via Labicana in 286 AD. According to tradition, his wife St. Irene subsequently buried the body of the martyred Sebastian. She was later martyred herself, around 288 AD.

Almighty God, who gave to your servant Castulus boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Amen.

The Annunciation

 Today the Church remembers the Annunciation of the Incarnation of the Son of God to a young Israelite girl named Maryam (Mary) by the angel Gabriel.

Blessed day on which we remember the astonishing faith of this young girl who said "yes" to bearing the Son of God, becoming pregnant before being wed to her betrothed, when "yes" might have led to her being rejected by her family, shunned by her people, or even being stoned to death. Thank you, blessed one. Because of your faith in the love of God our Savior was born and the universe has been transformed.

Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Pour your grace into our hearts, O Lord, that we who have known the incarnation of your Son Jesus Christ, announced by an angel to the Virgin Mary, may by his cross and passion be brought to the glory of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. 

Amen.

St. Gregory of Armenia

 Today, the Church remembers St. Gregory of Armenia, Bishop and Missionary.

Ora pro nobis.

Gregory is also called the Illuminator for bringing the light of the Gospel of Jesus to a land mired in endless conflict over territory (mirrored still today) and laboring in the darkness of paganism.

Saint Gregory the Illuminator is the patron saint and first Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church. He is credited with converting Armenia from paganism to Christianity.

His early life was dominated by his father’s complicity in the assassination of his cousin, the king of Armenia, which forced Gregory into exile as a child. He was fostered by Christian relatives in western Armenia (now part of modern Turkey) in the region of Cappadocia.

As an adult, he returned to atone for his father’s act of fratricide, but was imprisoned in a pit for nearly 14 years. He was released only after a new ruler was in power. The new king has become insane with grief after the Roman Emperor Diocletian (notorious for his deadly persecution and murder of many Christians) absorbed much of western Armenia into the Roman Empire. Armenia had already lost much of its eastern lands to India. Gregory was released out of prison because he was known to be a holy and gentle man, who had turned his imprisonment in a pit into a life monastic tranquility, prayer, fasting, and teaching his guards about the Christian Faith. By his prayers, the king was restored to sanity, and he asked Gregory to baptize him and his family, and gave Gregory permission to begin preaching, teaching, and baptizing all who would accept the Christian Faith.

After many years of his labor for the souls of his fellow Armenians, Armenia became the first nation to adopt Christianity as its official religion, and Gregory was name the first Catholicos (Patriarch) of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Weary with age and many years of serving as the spiritual leader of the nation, and after securing a successor, Gregory retired back to Cappadocia where here formed a small monastery, and there died in peace in AD 332.

The great cathedral of Etchmiadzin was built over the pit where Gregory suffered for so many years. Even the darkest of places can become holy and filled with the light of God.

Almighty God, whose will it is to be glorified in your saints, and who raised up your servant Gregory the Illuminator to be a light in the world, and to preach the Gospel to the people of Armenia: Shine, we pray, in our hearts, that we also in our generation may show forth your praise, who called us out of darkness into your marvelous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

St. Epaphroditus

Today the Church remembers St. Epaphroditus, Bishop and Missionary.

Ora pro nobis.

Epaphroditus is named in the New Testament, appearing as an envoy of the Philippian church, the first community of Christians in Europe, to assist the Apostle Paul (Philippians 2:25-30). He is regarded as a saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, and honored as the first Bishop of Philippi.

Epaphroditus appears in the New Testament in the Letter to the Philippians (2:25-30, 4:18). He was a fellow Christian missionary with St. Paul.

Epaphroditus was the delegate of the Christian community at Philippi, sent with their gift to Paul during his first imprisonment at Rome or at Ephesus. Paul, in 2:25, calls him "my brother and fellow-worker and fellow-soldier." He is described as an authoritative delegate representing to church at Philippi. He was sent also as minister (λειτουργός) to Paul's need (2:25), doing for Paul what the Philippian community was unable to do (2:30).

On his arrival, Epaphroditus devoted himself to "the work of Christ," both as Paul's attendant and as his assistant in missionary work. So assiduously did he labor that he lost his health, and in the words of Paul, "he was ill, and almost died." He recovered, however, and Paul sent him back to Philippi with this letter to quiet the alarm of his friends, who had heard of his serious illness. Paul besought for him that the church should receive him with joy and 'honour men like him' (2:29).

Almighty God, who willest to be glorified in thy saints, and didst raise up thy servant Epaphroditus to be a light in the world; Shine, we pray, in our hearts, that we also in our generation may show forth thy praise, who hast called us out of darkness into thy marvelous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

St. Cuthbert

 Today, the Church remembers St. Cuthbert, Monk and Bishop.

Ora pro  nobis.

Cuthbert (c. A.D. 634 – A.D. 20 March 687) is a saint of the early Northumbrian British Church when it was on the verge of the merging of the British Church with the Roman Church that had recently been established by missionaries sent from Rome under the leadership of St. Augustine of Canterbury in the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in what might loosely be termed the Kingdom of Northumbria in the North East of England and the South East of Scotland. After his death he became one of the most important medieval saints of Northern England, with a place of pilgrimage centred on his tomb at Durham Cathedral. Cuthbert is regarded as the patron saint of Northern England.

Cuthbert was perhaps of a noble family, and born in Dunbar in the mid-630s A.D., some ten years after the conversion of King Edwin to Christianity in A.D. 627, which was slowly followed by that of the rest of his people. The politics of the kingdom were violent, and there were later episodes of pagan rule, while spreading understanding of Christianity through the kingdom was a task that lasted throughout Cuthbert's lifetime. Edwin had been baptised by Paulinus of York, an Italian who had come with the Gregorian mission from Rome, but his successor Oswald also invited Irish monks from Iona to found the monastery at Lindisfarne where Cuthbert was to spend much of his life. This was around 635 A.D., about the time Cuthbert was born.

The tension between the Roman and British Churches, often exacerbated by Cuthbert's near-contemporary Wilfrid, an intransigent and quarrelsome supporter of Roman ways, was to be a major feature of Cuthbert's lifetime. Cuthbert himself, though educated in the British tradition, followed his mentor Eata in accepting the Roman forms without apparent difficulty after the Synod of Whitby in 664 A.D.

He was evidently indefatigable as a travelling priest, spreading the Christian message to remote villages, and also well able to impress royalty and nobility. Unlike Wilfrid, his style of life was austere, and when he was able to do, he lived the life of a hermit, though still receiving many visitors.

It was Cuthbert’s habit to walk alone down to the seashore after dark. Intrigued, one of the monks followed him at a discreet distance, hoping to see what it was that Cuthbert did at dead of night.

From his hiding place he watched Cuthbert wade out into the slate-black sea until the waters reached his neck, and then begin to sing psalms, a performance which he kept up until dawn.

The monk was still watching when back on the sands, Cuthbert became absorbed in prayer again. Suddenly, two otters scampered over to him and chafed his feet, numb with North Sea cold, and dried them with their fur. Cuthbert gave them his affectionate blessing, and they made off back to their homes.

The monk-spy could barely collect sufficient wits to find his way back to the monastery. Next morning, after confessing the whole story to Cuthbert, he promised to tell no one until after Cuthbert’s death.

Almighty God, you called Cuthbert from following the flock to be a shepherd of your people: Mercifully grant that, as he sought in dangerous and remote places those who had erred and strayed from your ways, so we may seek the indifferent and the lost, and lead them back to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

St. Joseph

 Today, the Church remembers St. Joseph, the husband of Mary and foster father of Jesus. 

Ora pro nobis.

Joseph was presented with a difficult choice when his betrothed, Mary, was discovered to be pregnant. He had every right to renounce her and refuse to marry her. Had he done so, the consequences would have been severe for Mary, even deadly, and therefore the same for her unborn child, Jesus. The wondrous mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God, Jesus, is often portrayed as only being dependent on Mary saying "yes" to God. The truth is, it also took Joseph saying "yes" to God, and the both of them together facing a life of being questioned, ridiculed, and misunderstood by their families and their communities. Joseph trusted God and said “yes”, and was was therefore entrusted with raising the baby Jesus, and teaching him to become a faithful and loving man. Yes, the Incarnate Son of God, his own Lord and Messiah, needed him. Imagine the blessing, the challenge, and the wonder of such a calling.

Thanks be to God, Joseph said "yes" to God, even knowing the consequences of saying "yes" would result in a very difficult life. 

Blessed Joseph, pray for us all, that we also might have the faith and the courage to say "yes" when God asks of us things that we do not understand, or things that we do understand that will put us in compromising circumstances, perhaps for the remainder of our earthly lives. Pray that we will be willing to allow our lives to be complicated by God, and to see with eyes of faith and wonder, especially when times are difficult and our lives bewildering.

O God, who from the family of your servant David raised up Joseph to be the guardian of your incarnate Son and the spouse of his virgin mother: Give us grace to imitate his uprightness of life and his obedience to your commands; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem

 Today the Church remembers St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Theologian and Bishop.

Ora pro nobis.

Cyril of Jerusalem was a distinguished theologian of the early Church (c. 313 – 386 AD).

About the end of 350 AD he succeeded Maximus as Bishop of Jerusalem, but was exiled on more than one occasion due to the enmity of Acacius of Caesarea, and the policies of various emperors. Cyril left important writings documenting the instruction of catechumens and the order of the Liturgy in his day.

Little is known of his life before he became a bishop; the assignment of his birth to the year 315 rests on conjecture. Cyril was born at or near the city of Jerusalem, and was apparently well-read in both the Church fathers and the pagan philosophers. Cyril was ordained a deacon by Bishop St. Macarius of Jerusalem in about 335 AD and a priest some eight years later by Bishop St. Maximus. About the end of 350 AD he succeeded St. Maximus in the See of Jerusalem.

Relations between Metropolitan Acacius of Caesarea and Cyril became strained. Acacius is presented as a leading Arian by the orthodox historians, and his opposition to Cyril in the 350s is attributed by these writers to this. Sozomen also suggests that the tension may have been increased by Acacius's jealousy of the importance assigned to St. Cyril's See by the Council of Nicaea, as well as by the threat posed to Caesarea by the rising influence of the seat of Jerusalem as it developed into the prime Christian holy place and became a centre of pilgrimage.

Acacius charged Cyril with selling church property. The city of Jerusalem had suffered drastic food shortages at which point church historians Sozomen and Theodoret report “Cyril secretly sold sacramental ornaments of the church and a valuable holy robe, fashioned with gold thread that the emperor Constantine had once donated for the bishop to wear when he performed the rite of Baptism”. It was believed that Cyril sold some plate, ornaments and imperial gifts to keep his people from starving.

For two years, Cyril resisted Acacius' summons to account for his actions in selling off church property, but a council held under Acacius's influence in 357 AD deposed St. Cyril in his absence (having officially charged him with selling church property to help the poor) and Cyril took refuge with Silvanus, Bishop of Tarsus. The following year, 359, in an atmosphere hostile to Acacius, the Council of Seleucia reinstated Cyril and deposed Acacius. In 360, though, this was reversed by Emperor Constantius, and Cyril suffered another year's exile from Jerusalem until the Emperor Julian's accession allowed him to return.

Cyril was once again banished from Jerusalem by the Arian Emperor Valens in 367 AD. St. Cyril was able to return again at the accession of Emperor Gratian in 378, after which he remained undisturbed until his death in 386. In 380, St. Gregory of Nyssa came to Jerusalem on the recommendation of a council held at Antioch in the preceding year. He found the faith in accord with the truth, but the city a prey to parties and corrupt in morals. Cyril's jurisdiction over Jerusalem was expressly confirmed by the First Council of Constantinople (381), at which he was present. At that council he voted for acceptance of the term homoousios, having been finally convinced that there was no better alternative. His story is perhaps best representative of those Eastern bishops (perhaps a majority), initially mistrustful of Nicaea, who came to accept the creed of that council, and the doctrine of the homoousion, that God the Father and God the Son were of the same nature..

Though his theology was at first somewhat indefinite in phraseology, he undoubtedly gave a thorough adhesion to the Nicene Orthodoxy. Even if he did avoid the debatable term homoousios, he expressed its sense in many passages, which exclude equally Patripassianism, Sabellianism, and the formula "there was a time when the Son was not" attributed to Arius. In other points he takes the ordinary ground of the Eastern Fathers, as in the emphasis he lays on the freedom of the will, the autexousion (αὐτεξούσιον), and in his view of the nature of sin. To him sin is the consequence of freedom, not a natural condition. The body is not the cause, but the instrument of sin. The remedy for it is repentance, on which he insists. Like many of the Eastern Fathers, he focuses on high moral living as essential to true Christianity. His doctrine of the Resurrection is not quite so realistic as that of other Fathers; but his conception of the Church is decidedly empirical: the existing Church form is the true one, intended by Christ, the completion of the Church of the Old Testament. His interpretation of the Eucharist is disputed. If he sometimes seems to approach the symbolic view, at other times he comes very close to a strong realistic doctrine. The bread and wine are not mere elements, but the body and blood of Christ.

Cyril's writings are filled with the loving and forgiving nature of God which was somewhat uncommon during his time period. Cyril fills his writings with great lines of the healing power of forgiveness and the Holy Spirit, like “The Spirit comes gently and makes himself known by his fragrance. He is not felt as a burden for God is light, very light. Rays of light and knowledge stream before him as the Spirit approaches. The Spirit comes with the tenderness of a true friend to save, to heal, to teach, to counsel, to strengthen, and to console”. Cyril himself followed God's message of forgiveness many times throughout his life. This is most clearly seen in his two major exiles where Cyril was disgraced and forced to leave his position and his people behind. He never wrote or showed any ill will towards those who wronged him. Cyril stressed the themes of healing and regeneration in his catechesis.

Cyril is author of the Catecheses, or Catechatical Lectures on the Christian Faith. These consist of an introductory lecture, then eighteen lectures on the Christian Faith to be delivered during Lent to those about to be baptized at Easter, and then five lectures on the Sacraments to be delivered after Easter to the newly baptized. These have been translated into English (F L Cross, 1951), and are the oldest such lectures surviving. (It is thought that they were used over and over by Cyril and his successors, and that they may have undergone some revision in the process.)

Cyril lived in a time of intense apocalyptic expectation, when Christians were eager to find apocalyptic meaning in every historical event or natural disaster. Cyril spent a good part of his episcopacy in intermittent exile from Jerusalem. Soon after his appointment, Cyril in his Letter to Constantius of 351 AD recorded the appearance of a cross of light in the sky above Golgotha, witnessed by the whole population of Jerusalem. The Greek church commemorates this miracle on the 7th of May. Though in modern times the authenticity of the Letter has been questioned, on the grounds that the word homoousios occurs in the final blessing, many scholars believe this may be a later interpolation, and accept the letter's authenticity on the grounds of other pieces of internal evidence.

Cyril interpreted this as both a sign of support for Constantius, who was soon to face the usurper Magnentius, and as announcing the Second Coming, which was soon to take place in Jerusalem. Not surprisingly, in Cyril's eschatological analysis, Jerusalem holds a central position.

Matthew 24:6 speaks of "wars and reports of wars", as a sign of the End Times, and it is within this context that Cyril read Julian's war with the Persians. Matthew 24:7 speaks of "earthquakes from place to place", and Jerusalem experienced an earthquake in 363 AD at a time when Julian was attempting to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Embroiled in a rivalry with Acacius of Caesarea over the relative primacy of their respective sees, Cyril saw even ecclesial discord a sign of the Lord's coming. His Catechesis 15 would appear to cast Julian as the antichrist. 

“In His first coming, He endured the Cross, despising shame; in His second, He comes attended by a host of Angels, receiving glory. We rest not then upon His first advent only, but look also for His second."

He looked forward to the Second Advent which would bring an end to the world and then the created world to be re-made anew. At the Second Advent he expected to rise in the resurrection if it came after his time on earth.

Every year, thousands of Christian pilgrims came to Jerusalem, especially for Holy Week. It is probably Cyril who instituted the liturgical forms for that week as they were observed in Jerusalem at the pilgrimage sites, were spread to other churches by returning pilgrims, and have come down to us today, with the procession with palms on Palm Sunday, and the services for the following days, culminating in the celebration of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. We have a detailed account of Holy Week observances in Jerusalem in the fourth century, thanks to a a Spanish nun named Egeria who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and kept a journal. 

Strengthen, O Lord, the bishops of your Church in their special calling to be teachers and ministers of the Sacraments, so that they, like your servant Cyril of Jerusalem, may effectively instruct your people in Christian faith and practice; and that we, taught by them, may enter more fully into the celebration of the Paschal mystery; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. 

Amen.

St. Patrick

 Today, the Church remembers St. Patrick.

Ora pro nobis.

Saint Patrick was a fifth-century AD Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. He was born around AD 390 (likely in 387). His name is from the Latin Patricius, meaning “high-born”. His parents were part of the Christian minority of Britain; his father, Calpurnius, was a deacon, "the son of Potitus, a priest, of the village Bannavem Taburniæ."

At the age of 16, he was captured during a raiding party and taken to Ireland as a slave to herd and tend sheep. During that time, he prayed frequently and came for the first time to have a true faith in God. At age 22, he had a vision in which God told him to be prepared to leave Ireland. Soon, he escaped, walking 200 miles to a ship and returning to Britain. In a dream, he saw the people of Ireland calling him, "We beg you, holy youth, that you shall come and shall walk again among us."

St Patrick sought clerical training. He was ordained by St. Germanus, bishop of Auxerre. Around AD 430 he was ordained a bishop, after which he returned to Ireland. There, he preached the Gospel, reaching tribal chieftains, gaining their permission to teach their subjects also. During his episcopate, he was attacked for a sin he confessed to a close friend, a sin he committed "in a single hour" when only 15, but he did not suffer as a result. He established an episcopal administration and led a monastic lifestyle, establishing Christianity in Ireland. St. Patrick died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, on March 17, AD 461.

Blessed Patrick, you were captured and made a slave. We live in a time where there are more humans held in slavery, trafficked for sex, and forced into indentured servitude than at any know eta of human history. Pray for all who are regarded as property, and give them the same courage you knew to escape your bondage. 

Pray for us, who often unknowingly support the slave trade so that we might live in luxury, that we might have the grace of the Holy Spirit to imitate Jesus, as you did, to bring liberty to the oppressed and free those held in bondage. 

And pray for us yet more, that we, being so filled with the love of God in Jesus, that those who walk in darkness, superstition, and fear may see the light of his love and be drawn to God for salvation. 

Amen

Almighty God, in your providence you chose your servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of you: Grant us so to walk in that light that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

St. Leocritia

 Today the Church remembers Saint Leocritia, laywoman, of Cordoba, a martyr for the Faith during the Moorish occupation of southern Spain. 

Ora pro nobis.

Since the early eighth century, southern Spain was under the rule of the Moors. They were a Muslim people mostly from northern Africa who had invaded the Iberian peninsula, as well as Malta and Sicily. Cordoba in the Andalusia region of south central Spain was their capital. Under this Islamic rule, Christians were surprisingly not forced to convert, but they were highly taxed on all their properties. No disrespect (“blasphemy”) for their founder Mohammed was permitted, and anyone attempting to convert someone to Christianity (“apostasy”) faced the death penalty. Many Christians had moved north for safety, and the Christian population was, therefore, a small one, although Cordoba was one of the largest cities in Europe at the time.


Leocritia was a young woman who was the child of prominent Moorish parents living in Cordoba, born in the 840s AD. In 859 AD, after being taught the tenets of the Faith by a relative, she converted from Islam to Christianity and chose to be baptized. When her parents learned this, they were enraged and locked her in her own home to keep her from any further Christian influence. She wrote to Father Eulogius, a well known priest who had been elected bishop for his tireless work of teaching and evangelization, but who had not yet been installed as bishop at Toledo, asking what she should do. He advised her to be obedient to her parents, as she was a minor, but to look for an opportunity to flee north out of Muslim controlled territory. When she attended a wedding with her family, she saw her opportunity to escape, slipped away unnoticed and found her way to Father Eulogius. He was able to protect her for a time by changing her whereabouts regularly with Christians who shielded her from the Moorish authorities. One day, her location became known, and she and all who had helped her were arrested, including Eulogius. Both Eulogius and Leocritia were flogged and then put in prison, denied food and drink and offered their freedom if they would renounce Christianity. Both refused to abandon the Faith. Eulogius was beheaded on March 11, 859, and Leocritia met the same fate on March 15. Leocritia’s body was discarded into the Guadalquivir River, a river in Cordoba where numerous Christian martyrs before her had also been dumped. The Christian faithful secretly retrieved her remains, which were brought to Oviedo Cathedral about twenty years later. She shares a reliquary there with Eulogius, which can be venerated to this day in northern Spain.


In the years 851 to 859 AD, forty-eight Christians were put to death in Moor-occupied Spain (then known as Al-Andalus), all charged in some way with blasphemy or apostasy. They are collectively known as the Martyrs of Cordoba. Leocritia was beheaded on 15 March 859 AD after imprisonment, starvation, and being scourged, steadfastly refusing to deny Jesus. 

Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyr Leocritia triumphed over suffering and was faithful even to death: Grant us, who now remember her in thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to you in this world, that we may receive with her the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

St. Leander of Seville

 Today the Church remembers St. Leander of Seville, Bishop.

Ora pro nobis.

The next time you recite the Nicene Creed at Mass, think of today’s saint. For it was Leander of Seville who, as bishop, introduced the practice in the sixth century AD. He saw it as a way to help reinforce the faith of his people and as an antidote against the heresy of Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ.

St. Leander was born at Cartagena, Spain, in 534 AD, to Severianus and Theodora. St. Isidore and Fulgentius, both bishops, were his brothers, and his sister, Florentina, also numbered among the saints, was an abbess who directed forty convents and one thousand nuns.

Leander moved to Seville as a young man and became a monk. He spent three years in prayer and study. At the end of that tranquil period he was ordained and consecrated the bishop of the diocese of Seville. For the rest of his life he worked strenuously to fight against heresy. He was instrumental in converting the two sons, Hermenegild and Reccared, of the Arian Visigothic King Leovigild. This action earned him the kings's wrath and exile to Constantinople, where he met and became close friends of the Papal Legate, the future Pope Gregory the Great. It was Leander who suggested that Gregory write the famous commentary on the Book of Job called the Moralia.

The death of the anti-Christian king in 586 AD helped Leander’s cause, and he returned to Seville. Once back home, he and the new king Reccared worked hand in hand to establish orthodoxy against the Arians of Spain. Leander succeeded in persuading many Arian bishops to change their loyalties. The third local Council of Toledo (over which he presided in 589 AD) affirmed the consubstantiality of the three Persons of the Trinity. Leander's unerring wisdom and unflagging dedication to Christian orthodoxy led the Visigoths and the Suevi back to the true Faith and obtained the gratitude of Gregory the Great. The saintly bishop also composed an influential Rule for nuns and was the first to introduce the Nicene Creed at Mass.

By the end of his life, Leander had helped Christianity flourish in Spain at a time of political and religious upheaval. Worn out by his tireless work in the cause of the orthodox Faith, Leander died around 600 AD and was succeeded in the See of Seville by his brother Isidore. The Spanish Church honors Leander as the Doctor of the Faith.

O God, who by thy Holy Spirit dost give to some the word of wisdom, to others the word of knowledge, and to others the word of faith: We praise thy Name for the gifts of grace manifested in thy servant Leander, and we pray that thy Church may never be destitute of such gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the same Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

St. Gregory the Great

 Today, the Church remembers Pope St. Gregory the Great.

Ora pro nobis.

Pope Saint Gregory I (c. A.D.540 – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was Pope of the Catholic Church from 3 September 590 to 12 March 604 AD. He is famous for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregorian Mission, to convert a pagan people to Christianity. Gregory is also well known for his writings, which were more prolific than those of any of his predecessors as pope.

A Roman senator's son and himself the Prefect of Rome at the age of 30 years, Gregory tried the monastery but soon returned to active public life, ending his life and the century as pope. Although he was the first pope from a monastic background, his prior political experiences may have helped him to be a talented administrator, who successfully established papal supremacy. During his papacy, he greatly surpassed with his administration the emperors in improving the welfare of the people of Rome. He also was an able theologian, and successfully challenged the theological views of Patriarch Eutychius of Constantinople before the emperor Tiberius II. Gregory regained papal authority in Spain and France and sent missionaries to England. The realignment of barbarian allegiance to Rome from their Arian Christian alliances shaped medieval Europe. Gregory saw Franks, Lombards, and Visigoths align with Rome in religion.

Gregory was born into a period of upheaval in Italy. From A.D. 542 the so-called Plague of Justinian swept through the provinces of the empire, including Italy. The plague caused famine, panic, and sometimes rioting. In some parts of the country, over 1/3 of the population was wiped out or destroyed, with heavy spiritual and emotional effects on the people of the Empire. Politically, although the Western Roman Empire had long since vanished in favour of the Gothic kings of Italy, during the A.D. 540s Italy was gradually retaken from the Goths by Justinian I, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire ruling from Constantinople. As the fighting was mainly in the north, the young Gregory probably saw little of it. Totila sacked and vacated Rome in A.D. 546, destroying most of its population, but in A.D. 549 he invited those who were still alive to return to the empty and ruined streets. It has been hypothesized that young Gregory and his parents retired during that intermission to their Sicilian estates, to return in A.D. 549. The war was over in Rome by A.D. 552, and a subsequent invasion of the Franks was defeated in A.D. 554. After that, there was peace in Italy, and the appearance of restoration, except that the central government now resided in Constantinople.

On his father's death, Gregory converted his family villa into a monastery dedicated to the apostle Saint Andrew (after his death it was rededicated as San Gregorio Magno al Celio). In his life of contemplation, Gregory concluded that "in that silence of the heart, while we keep watch within through contemplation, we are as if asleep to all things that are without."

Gregory is known for his administrative system of charitable relief of the poor at Rome. They were predominantly refugees from the incursions of the Lombards. The philosophy under which he devised this system is that the wealth belonged to the poor and the church was only its steward. He received lavish donations from the wealthy families of Rome, who, following his own example, were eager, by doing so, to expiate their sins. He gave alms equally as lavishly both individually and en masse.

The state in which Gregory became pope in A.D. 590 was a ruined one. The Lombards held the better part of Italy. Their predations had brought the economy to a standstill. They camped nearly at the gates of Rome. The city was packed with refugees from all walks of life, who lived in the streets and had few of the necessities of life. The seat of government was far from Rome in Constantinople, which appeared unable to undertake the relief of Italy. The pope had sent emissaries, including Gregory, asking for assistance, to no avail. In A.D. 590, Gregory could wait for Constantinople no longer. He organized the resources of the church into an administration for general relief. Gregory began by aggressively requiring his churchmen to seek out and relieve needy persons and reprimanded them if they did not. To pay for his increased expenses he liquidated the investment properties of the Church, including his own vast holdings of land, and paid the expenses in cash. 

Money, however, was no substitute for food in a city that was on the brink of famine. Even the wealthy were going hungry in their villas. The church now owned between 1,300 and 1,800 square miles (3,400 and 4,700 km2) of revenue-generating farmland divided into large sections called patrimonia. It produced goods of all kinds, which were sold, but Gregory intervened and had the goods shipped to Rome for distribution.

Distributions to qualified persons were monthly. However, a certain proportion of the population lived in the streets or were too ill or infirm to pick up their monthly food supply. To them Gregory sent out a small army of charitable persons, mainly monks, every morning with prepared food. It is said that he would not dine until the indigent were fed. When he did dine he shared the family table, which he had saved (and which still exists), with 12 indigent guests. To the needy living in wealthy homes he sent meals he had cooked with his own hands as gifts to spare them the indignity of receiving charity. These and other good deeds and charitable frame of mind completely won the hearts and minds of the Roman people. They now looked to the papacy for government, ignoring the rump state at Constantinople, calling him a fool for his pacifist dealings with the Lombards. 

Pope Gregory had strong convictions on missions: "Almighty God places good men in authority that He may impart through them the gifts of His mercy to their subjects. And this we find to be the case with the British over whom you have been appointed to rule, that through the blessings bestowed on you the blessings of heaven might be bestowed on your people also." 

He is credited with re-energizing the Church's missionary work among the non-Christian peoples of northern Europe. He is most famous for sending a mission, often called the Gregorian mission, under Augustine of Canterbury, prior of Saint Andrew's, where he had perhaps succeeded Gregory, to evangelize the pagan Anglo-Saxons of England. It seems that the pope had never forgotten the English slaves whom he had once seen in the Roman Forum. The mission was successful, and it was from England that missionaries later set out for the Netherlands and Germany. The preaching of non-heretical Christian faith and the elimination of all deviations from it was a key element in Gregory's worldview, and it constituted one of the major continuing policies of his pontificate.

Throughout the Middle Ages he was also known as "the Father of Christian Worship" because of his exceptional efforts in revising the Roman liturgical worship of his day.

Blessed Gregory, we live in an age of poverty, famine, and war; and in the Church we face heterodoxy, even apostasy, and often the debasement of worship, even as did you in your earthly life. You who worked so tirelessly for the plight of the hungry, the poor, and refugees; for making peace with enemies; for sending out missionaries to share the orthodox and catholic Faith with those who had never head the Good News in Jesus; and labored for the enrichment and ennoblement of Christian worship. Amen.

Almighty and merciful God, you raised up Gregory of Rome to be a servant of the servants of God, and inspired him to send missionaries to preach the Gospel to the English people: Preserve in your Church the catholic and apostolic faith they taught, that your people, being fruitful in every good work, may receive the crown of glory that never fades away; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

St. Anastasia the Patrician

Today the Church remembers St. Anastasia the Patrician

Ora pro nobis.

Anastasia the Patrician was the daughter of an Egyptian nobleman and a lady-in-waiting in the court of Emperor Justinian in Constantinople. Justinian pursued her amorously, and she fled the court to take up a religious vocation in a convent in Alexandria, Egypt. When Justinian’s consort, Theodora, died, Anastasia had to flee again, as he was seeking her. She went out into the Egyptian desert where she was allowed to dress as a monk and to remain in place. For twenty-eight years Anastasia remained in solitude in the desert, in constant prayer.

She arrived at a place called Pempton, near Alexandria, where she founded a monastery which would later be named after her. She lived with monastic discipline and wove cloth to support herself.

Following the death of Theodora in 548 AD, Justinian attempted to get Anastasia to return to Constantinople, to no avail. Instead, Anastasia left for Scetis, looking for help from Abba Daniel, hegumen of the monastery at that time. To safeguard Anastasia, he let her move into a laura, or monastery cell, 18 miles from Scetis in the desert, and dress as a (male) monk to hide her from the emperor and take up the life of a hermit at a time when this was only permitted of men. He visited her every week and ensured that one of his disciples supplied her with jugs of water. Anastasia dwelt in seclusion for twenty-eight years.

In 576 AD, aware of her approaching death, she wrote several words for Abba Daniel on a piece of broken pottery and placed it at the entrance to the cave. The disciple found an ostracon with the words “Bring the spades and come here.” When Daniel heard this, he knew Anastasia was near death. He went to visit her with his disciple and to give her communion and hear her last words. Daniel revealed the full details of her story to his disciple after her death.

Her story survives in one recension of the Copto-Arabic Synaxarion and by a tale of Daniel of Scetis. Her feast day is 10 March in the Eastern Orthodox, Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches, and on 26 Tobi in the calendar of the Coptic Church, the date of her death given in the Ethiopic Life of Daniel of Scetis.

O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his poverty might be rich: Deliver us from an inordinate love of this world, that we, inspired by the devotion of your servant Anastasia, may serve you with singleness of heart, and attain to the riches of the age to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. the Church

 remembers St. Anastasia the Patrician

Ora pro nobis.

Anastasia the Patrician was the daughter of an Egyptian nobleman and a lady-in-waiting in the court of Emperor Justinian in Constantinople. Justinian pursued her amorously, and she fled the court to take up a religious vocation in a convent in Alexandria, Egypt. When Justinian's consort, Theodora, died, Anastasia had to flee again, as he was seeking her. She went out into the Egyptian desert where she was allowed to dress as a monk and to remain in place. For twenty-eight years Anastasia remained in solitude in the desert, in constant prayer.

She arrived at a place called Pempton, near Alexandria, where she founded a monastery which would later be named after her. She lived with monastic discipline and wove cloth to support herself.

Following the death of Theodora in 548 AD, Justinian attempted to get Anastasia to return to Constantinople, to no avail. Instead, Anastasia left for Scetis, looking for help from Abba Daniel, hegumen of the monastery at that time. To safeguard Anastasia, he let her move into a laura, or monastery cell, 18 miles from Scetis in the desert, and dress as a (male) monk to hide her from the emperor and take up the life of a hermit at a time when this was only permitted of men. He visited her every week and ensured that one of his disciples supplied her with jugs of water. Anastasia dwelt in seclusion for twenty-eight years.

In 576 AD, aware of her approaching death, she wrote several words for Abba Daniel on a piece of broken pottery and placed it at the entrance to the cave. The disciple found an ostracon with the words "Bring the spades and come here." When Daniel heard this, he knew Anastasia was near death. He went to visit her with his disciple and to give her communion and hear her last words. Daniel revealed the full details of her story to his disciple after her death.

Her story survives in one recension of the Copto-Arabic Synaxarion and by a tale of Daniel of Scetis. Her feast day is 10 March in the Eastern Orthodox, Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches, and on 26 Tobi in the calendar of the Coptic Church, the date of her death given in the Ethiopic Life of Daniel of Scetis.

O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his poverty might be rich: Deliver us from an inordinate love of this world, that we, inspired by the devotion of your servant Anastasia, may serve you with singleness of heart, and attain to the riches of the age to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Ora pro nobis.

Anastasia the Patrician was the daughter of an Egyptian nobleman and a lady-in-waiting in the court of Emperor Justinian in Constantinople. Justinian pursued her amorously, and she fled the court to take up a religious vocation in a convent in Alexandria, Egypt. When Justinian's consort, Theodora, died, Anastasia had to flee again, as he was seeking her. She went out into the Egyptian desert where she was allowed to dress as a monk and to remain in place. For twenty-eight years Anastasia remained in solitude in the desert, in constant prayer.

She arrived at a place called Pempton, near Alexandria, where she founded a monastery which would later be named after her. She lived with monastic discipline and wove cloth to support herself.

Following the death of Theodora in 548 AD, Justinian attempted to get Anastasia to return to Constantinople, to no avail. Instead, Anastasia left for Scetis, looking for help from Abba Daniel, hegumen of the monastery at that time. To safeguard Anastasia, he let her move into a laura, or monastery cell, 18 miles from Scetis in the desert, and dress as a (male) monk to hide her from the emperor and take up the life of a hermit at a time when this was only permitted of men. He visited her every week and ensured that one of his disciples supplied her with jugs of water. Anastasia dwelt in seclusion for twenty-eight years.

In 576 AD, aware of her approaching death, she wrote several words for Abba Daniel on a piece of broken pottery and placed it at the entrance to the cave. The disciple found an ostracon with the words "Bring the spades and come here." When Daniel heard this, he knew Anastasia was near death. He went to visit her with his disciple and to give her communion and hear her last words. Daniel revealed the full details of her story to his disciple after her death.

Her story survives in one recension of the Copto-Arabic Synaxarion and by a tale of Daniel of Scetis. Her feast day is 10 March in the Eastern Orthodox, Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches, and on 26 Tobi in the calendar of the Coptic Church, the date of her death given in the Ethiopic Life of Daniel of Scetis.

O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his poverty might be rich: Deliver us from an inordinate love of this world, that we, inspired by the devotion of your servant Anastasia, may serve you with singleness of heart, and attain to the riches of the age to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Today the Church remembers St. Anastasia the Patrician

Ora pro nobis.

Anastasia the Patrician was the daughter of an Egyptian nobleman and a lady-in-waiting in the court of Emperor Justinian in Constantinople. Justinian pursued her amorously, and she fled the court to take up a religious vocation in a convent in Alexandria, Egypt. When Justinian's consort, Theodora, died, Anastasia had to flee again, as he was seeking her. She went out into the Egyptian desert where she was allowed to dress as a monk and to remain in place. For twenty-eight years Anastasia remained in solitude in the desert, in constant prayer.

She arrived at a place called Pempton, near Alexandria, where she founded a monastery which would later be named after her. She lived with monastic discipline and wove cloth to support herself.

Following the death of Theodora in 548 AD, Justinian attempted to get Anastasia to return to Constantinople, to no avail. Instead, Anastasia left for Scetis, looking for help from Abba Daniel, hegumen of the monastery at that time. To safeguard Anastasia, he let her move into a laura, or monastery cell, 18 miles from Scetis in the desert, and dress as a (male) monk to hide her from the emperor and take up the life of a hermit at a time when this was only permitted of men. He visited her every week and ensured that one of his disciples supplied her with jugs of water. Anastasia dwelt in seclusion for twenty-eight years.

In 576 AD, aware of her approaching death, she wrote several words for Abba Daniel on a piece of broken pottery and placed it at the entrance to the cave. The disciple found an ostracon with the words "Bring the spades and come here." When Daniel heard this, he knew Anastasia was near death. He went to visit her with his disciple and to give her communion and hear her last words. Daniel revealed the full details of her story to his disciple after her death.

Her story survives in one recension of the Copto-Arabic Synaxarion and by a tale of Daniel of Scetis. Her feast day is 10 March in the Eastern Orthodox, Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches, and on 26 Tobi in the calendar of the Coptic Church, the date of her death given in the Ethiopic Life of Daniel of Scetis.

O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his poverty might be rich: Deliver us from an inordinate love of this world, that we, inspired by the devotion of your servant Anastasia, may serve you with singleness of heart, and attain to the riches of the age to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.