The Glorious and Illustrious Saints, Apostles, and Chief Primates, Peter & Paul
2nd Cor. 11: 21b - 12:9

A reading - from the Letter of St. Paul the apostle to the Corinthians

Brothers and sisters: What anyone else dares to claim - I speak with absolute foolishnes now - I, too, | will | dare.

Are they Hebrews? So Am I! Are they Israelites? So am I! Are they the seed of Abraham? So | am | I!

Are they ministers of Christ? Now I am really talking like a fool - I am more: with my many more labors and imprisonments, with far worse beatings and frequent brushes | with | death.

Five times I was beaten with rods; I was stoned once, shipwrecked | three | times;

I passed a day and night on the sea. I traveled continually, endangered by floods, robbers, my own people, [and] the Gentiles; imperiled in the city, in the desert, at sea, by | false | brothers;

enduring labor, hardship, many sleepless nights; in hunger and thirst and frequent fastings, in cold | and | nakedness.

Leaving other sufferings unmentioned, there is that daily tension pressing on me, my anxiety for all | the | churches.

Who is weak that I am not affected by it? Who is scandalized that I am not aflame with | indig| nation?

If I must boast, I will make a point of my weaknesses. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus knows - blessed be he forever - that I do | not | lie.

In Damascus the ethnarch of King Aretas was keeping a close watch on the city in order to arrest me, but I was lowered in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped | his | hands.

I must go on boasting, however useless it may be, and speak of visions and revelations of | the | Lord.

I know a man in Christ who, fourteen years ago, whether he was in or outside his body I cannot say, only God can say - a man who was snatched up to the | third | heaven.

I know that this man - whether in or outside his body I do not know, God knows - as snatched up to Paradise to hear words which cannot be uttered, words which no man | may | speak.

About this man I will boast; but I will do no boasting about myself unless it be about my | weak| nesses.

And even if I were to boast it would not be folly in me because I would only be telling | the | truth.

But I refrain, lest anyone think more of me than what he sees in me or hears from my lips. As to the extraordinary revelations, in order that I might not become conceited I was given a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to beat me and keep from get| ting | proud.

Three times I begged the Lord that this might leave me. He said to me, “My grace is enough for you, for in weakness power reaches | per| fection.”

And so I willingly boast of my weaknesses instead, that the power of Christ may - rest - upon - me.