Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles
Solemnity
Saints Peter and Paul
“This day has been made holy by the passion of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul. We are, therefore, not talking about some obscure martyrs. ‘For their voice has gone forth to all the world, and to the ends of the earth their message.’ These martyrs realized what they taught: they pursued justice, they confessed the truth, they died for it.
“Saint Peter, the first of the apostles and a fervent lover of Christ, merited to hear these words…: ‘I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church…
“Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; and even though they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, and Paul followed. And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles’ blood. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labors, their suffereings, their preaching and their confession of faith.”
(From a sermon by Saint Augustine, from the Second Reading, Office of Readings, Liturgy of the Hours)
Art for this post on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles: Saint Peter and Saint Paul, El Greco, between 1590 and 1600, PD-US author’s life plus 100 years or less, Wikimedia Commons.
About Liz Estler
Editor, SpiritualDirection.com. Liz holds a Master of Arts in Ministry Degree (St. John’s Seminary, Brighton, Massachusetts), Liturgy Certificate (Boston Archdiocese), and a BS degree in Biology and Spanish (Nebraska Wesleyan University – Lincoln). She has served as hospital chaplain associate, sacristan, translator and in other parish ministries. She was a regular columnist for a military newspaper in Europe and has been published in a professional journal. She once waded in the Trevi Fountain!
