Blessed Sexedesimus Sunday, the lesson for today comes from the second letter of St. Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians chapter 11 and 12.

Brethren, you gladly put up with fools because you are wise yourselves.

For you suffer it if a man enslaves you, if a man devours you, if a man takes from you, if a man is arrogant, if a man slaps your face, I speak to my own

shame as though we had been weak. But wherein any man is bold, I am speaking foolishly. I also am bold.

Are they Hebrews, so am I. Are they Israelites, so am I. Are they offspring of Adam, Abraham, so am I.

Are they ministers of Christ? I, to speak as a fool, am more,

in many more labors, in prisons, more frequently, in lashes above measure, often exposed to death.

From the Jews five times I received 40 lashes less one. Thrice I was scourged, once I was stoned,

thrice I suffered a shipwreck, a night and a day I was adrift on the sea,

in journeys, often in perils from floods, in perils from robbers, in perils from my own nation,

in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness,

and perils in the sea, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren,

in labor and hardships, in many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often,

in cold and nakedness. Besides those outer things, there is my daily pressing anxiety,

the care of all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to

stumble and I am not inflamed? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness.

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever knows that I do not lie. In Damascus,

the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of the Damascenes

in order to arrest me, but I was lowered in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands.

If I must boast, it is not indeed expedient to do so, but I will come to visions and revelations of the

Lord. I know a man in Christ who, 14 years ago, whether in the body I do not know or out of the body,

I do not know. God knows such a one was caught up to the third heaven.

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