Feast Day of St Polycarp
Today is the feast day of St Polycarp. Since I live in the city of Smyrna Georgia, I feel it is appropriate to pause and reflect on one of the true heroes of the Church. He was a disciple of St John the Apostle, bishop of Smyrna in the 2nd century and was martyred at the age of 86.
As we enter the first week of Lent, Polycarp reminds us, in his "Letter to the Philippians", of where we should focus our attention.
"Wherefore, forsaking the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return to the word which has been handed down to us from the beginning; "watching unto prayer," and persevering in fasting; beseeching in our supplications the all-seeing God "not to lead us into temptation," as the Lord has said: "The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak."
After almost 2,000 years,these words are as applicable today as they were then.
From the Proper of the Saints in the Divine Office revised by Pope Pius X: "Deus, qui nos beati Polycarpi Martyris tui atque Pontificis annua sollemnitate lætificas: concede propitius ut, cujus natalitia colimus, de ejusdem etiam protectione gaudeamus. Per Dominum nostrum."
ReplyDeleteTranslation: God, who gladdens us with the annual solemnity of blessed Polycarp, your martyr and bishop: favorably grant that we, who celebrate his birth [into heaven], may rejoice [also] in his protection. [We ask this] through Christ, our Lord.