The Holy, Glorious, All-Praiseworthy and Chief Apostles Peter and Paul
2 Corinthians 11:21-12:9; Matthew 16:13-19
All-Night Vigil Feast. Holy Day of Obligation.
Read 2 Corinthians 11:21-12:9
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Chief Apostles Peter and Paul. These two apostles are described and hymned with such beauty and eloquence in the stichera of Vespers last night and Matins this morning. We sing about their laborious preaching, great suffering and death as martyrs. The hymns of this feast point to the unity shared by these two apostles and how we are to imitate their great lives of apostleship.
Everything that is sung of them begins with one crucial act that both Peter and Paul accomplish: repentance. Peter and Paul may be Chief among the apostles and hymned for their preeminence among them but they were both also men who sinned against our Lord, Jesus Christ: Peter with his threefold denial and Paul as the great persecutor of Christians.
Brothers and sisters, our sins do not preclude us from becoming saints. May the Chief Apostles Peter and Paul be an example for us as apostles, preachers of the Word, witnesses of Christ, and penitents.
Holy Chief Apostles, Peter and Paul, pray to God for us!