Daily Retreat 06/29/06

2006 Jun 29 Thu: PETER AND PAUL, APS S
Vigil: Acts 3: 1-10/ Ps 18(19): 2-3. 4-5/ Gal 1: 11-20/ Jn 21: 15-19.
Day: Acts 12: 1-11/ Ps 33(34): 2-3. 4-5. 6-7. 8-9/ 2 Tm 4: 6-8. 17-18/ Mt 16: 13-19

 

From today’s readings:  “Now I know for certain that the Lord sent His angel and rescued me....  Not a word nor a discourse whose voice is not heard; through all the earth their voice resounds, and to the ends of the world, their message....  The Lord stood by me and gave me strength....  I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church....”

 

The Apostolic Church

 

Apostolicity is one of the marks of the true Church - as is professed in the Nicene Creed, the Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.  As explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church §857:

 

 The Church is apostolic because she is founded on the apostles, in three ways:
- she was and remains built on "the foundation of the Apostles," the witnesses chosen and sent on mission by Christ Himself;
- with the help of the Spirit dwelling in her, the Church keeps and hands on the teaching, the "good deposit," the salutary words she has heard from the apostles;
- she continues to be taught, sanctified, and guided by the apostles until Christ's return, through their successors in pastoral office: the college of bishops, "assisted by priests, in union with the successor of Peter, the Church's supreme pastor"

 

Celebrating today St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and St. Paul, the Apostle to the Nations, we can appreciate what a gift the apostolic nature of the Church is!  This means what Peter and Paul and all the other apostles believed and died for, we believe and live for today!  That just as Christ chose them to lead His Church at her beginning, He continues to bless His Church with their inspirational example, with their intercession now from their place in Heaven, and with their successors, the Pope and the college of Bishops in union with him.  Thank God for the Apostolic Church!