Readings

October 17: Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr, c. 115

The Collect of the Day

Ignatius of Antioch

Almighty God, we praise your Name for your bishop and martyr Ignatius of Antioch, who offered himself as grain to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts that he might present to you the pure bread of sacrifice. Accept, we pray, the willing tributeof our lives and give us a share in the pure and spotless offering of your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Ignatius of Antioch

Almighty God, we praise thy Name for thy bishop and martyr Ignatius of Antioch, who offered himself as grain to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts that he might present to thee the pure bread of sacrifice. Accept, we pray, the willing tribute of our lives and give us a share in the pure and spotless offering of thy Son Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Ignatius of Antioch, martyred in 115, had a profound sense of two ends—his own, and the consummation of history in Jesus Christ. In ecstasy, he saw his impending martyrdom as the fitting conclusion to a long episcopate.

Seven letters, which Ignatius wrote to churches while he journeyed across Asia Minor in the custody of ten soldiers (“my leopards,” he called them), give valuable insights into the life of the early church and the controversies that it faced. Of certain Gnostic teachings that exalted the divinity of Jesus at the expense of his humanity, Ignatius wrote: “Be deaf… to any talk that ignores Jesus Christ, of David’s lineage, of Mary; who was really born, ate, and drank; was really persecuted under Pontius Pilate; was really crucified and died in the sight of heaven and earth and the underworld. He was really raised from the dead.”

In another letter, he condemned a form of biblicism espoused by some as the method of historical interpretation and the only rule of church practice. He wrote: “When I heard some people saying, ‘If I don’t find it in the ancient documents, I don’t believe it in the Gospel,’ I answered them, ‘But it is written there.’ They retorted, ‘That has got to be proved.’ But to my mind it is Jesus Christ who is the ancient documents.”

Ignatius maintained that the church’s unity would always spring from that liturgy by which all are initiated into Christ through baptism. He exhorted: “Try to gather more frequently to celebrate God’s Eucharist and to praise him… At these meetings you should heed the bishop and presbyters attentively and break one loaf, which is the medicine of immortality.”

Ignatius regarded the church as God’s holy order in the world. He was, therefore, concerned for the proper ordering of the church’s teaching and worship. He wrote: “Flee from schism as the source of mischief. You should all follow the bishop as Jesus Christ did the Father. Follow, too, the priests as you would the apostles; and respect the deacons as you would God’s law… Where the bishop is present, there let the congregation gather, just as where Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church.”

Lessons and Psalm

First Lesson

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Psalm

1I love the Lord, because he has heard the voice of my supplication, *because he has inclined his ear to me whenever I called upon him.

2The cords of death entangled me; the grip of the grave took hold of me; *I came to grief and sorrow.

3Then I called upon the Name of the Lord: *“O Lord, I pray you, save my life.”

4Gracious is the Lord and righteous; *our God is full of compassion.

5The Lord watches over the innocent; *I was brought very low, and he helped me.

6Turn again to your rest, O my soul. *for the Lord has treated you well.

7For you have rescued my life from death, *my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling.

8I will walk in the presence of the Lord *in the land of the living.

Gospel

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Romans 8:35–39

35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 12:23–26

23 Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.