[Paul said,] ‘And now I know that none of you, among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom, will ever see my face again. Therefore I declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son.(Acts 20:25-28)
RESPONSORY
Do you not know that your body is a templeof the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?
-- You were bought with a great price.
Therefore glorify God in your body.
-- You were bought with a great price.
(Year B)
From a letter to the Corinthians by Saint Clement I (+99)
Let the person truly possessed by the love of Christ keep his commandments. Who can express the binding power of divine love? Who can find words for the splendor of its beauty? Beyond all description are the heights to which it lifts us. Love unites us to God; it cancels innumerable sins, has no limits to its endurance, bears everything patiently. Love is neither servile nor arrogant. It does not provoke schisms or form cliques, but always acts in harmony with others. By it all God’s chosen ones have been sanctified; without it, it is impossible to please him. Out of love the Lord took us to himself; because he loved us and it was God’s will, our Lord Jesus Christ gave his life’s blood for us—he gave his body for our body, his soul for our soul.
See then, beloved, what a great and wonderful thing love is, and how inexpressible its perfection. Who are worthy to possess it unless God makes them so? To him therefore we must turn, begging of his mercy that there may be found in us a love free from human partiality and beyond reproach. Every generation from Adam’s time to ours has passed away; but those who by God’s grace were made perfect in love have a dwelling now among the saints, and when at last the kingdom of Christ appears, they will be revealed.Take shelter in your rooms for a little while,says Scripture,until my wrath subsides. Then I will remember the good days, and will raise you from your graves.
Happy are we, beloved, if love enables us to live in harmony and in the observance of God’s commandments, for then it will also gain for us the remission of our sins. Scripture pronounceshappy those whose transgressions are pardoned, whose sins are forgiven. Happy the man,it says,to whom the Lord imputes no fault, on whose lips there is no guile.This is the blessing given those whom God has chosen through Jesus Christ our Lord. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Musical Selection
The Church's one foundation Is Jesus Christ her Lord; She is His new creation By water and the Word: From heav'n He came and sought her To be His holy Bride; With His own blood He bought her, And for her life He died.
Elect from every nation, yet one o'er all the earth; her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith, one birth; one holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food, and to one hope she presses, with every grace endued.
Mid toil and tribulation, and tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forevermore; till, with the vision glorious, her longing eyes are blest, and the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.
Yet she on earth hath union with God the Three in One, and mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won. O happy ones and holy! Lord, give us grace that we like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with thee.
Collect
Omnipotent God,
your glory is incomprehensible,
your majesty infinite,
and your power incomparable.
Found us on the certainty of your promises,
that no matter what happens,
we may be firm in faith
and live uprightly in your church,
bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. Amen.(Book of Common Worship)