Festival of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr
Posted on October 17, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 6:19-23 (NKJV)
6:19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”
Devotion
En route to his martyrdom in Rome, Ignatius wrote a series of letters which have been preserved as an example of very early Christian theology. In fact, he wrote seven letters while traveling from Antioch to Rome, where he would be martyred in the Coliseum, being devoured by lions. He did not lay up treasure for himself on earth, but in heaven. “I write to all the Churches, and impress on them all, that I shall willingly die for God… Suffer me to become food for the wild beasts, through whose instrumentality it will be granted me to attain to God. … I am, even until now, a servant. But when I suffer, I shall be the freedman of Jesus Christ, and shall rise again emancipated in Him. And now, being in bonds for Him, I learn not to desire anything worldly or vain.” (The Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans, Chapter IV).
Sometimes our Lord gives us the blessing of being weary and disgusted with the world so that we might learn to let it go. Our Lord would have us cast off the vain honor and glory of this world for the glory of heaven.
Prayer: Almighty God, behold our weakness and the sorrows of Thy people, and as Thou didst grant the consolation of Thy Holy Spirit to St. Ignatius in his time of affliction for Thy Name’s sake, so uphold us in our generation, through our Lord, Jesus Christ, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
O Almighty and most Merciful God, of Thy bountiful goodness keep us, we beseech Thee, from all things that may hurt us; that we, being ready, both in body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish those things that Thou wouldest have done; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
