Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter the Apostle

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“Out of the whole world one man, Peter, is chosen to preside at the calling of all nations, and to be set over all the apostles and all the fathers of the Church. Though there are in God’s people many bishops and many shepherds, Peter is thus appointed to rule in his own person those whom Christ also rules as the original ruler. Beloved, how great and wonderful is this sharing in his power that God in his goodness has given to this man. Whatever Christ has willed to be shared in common by Peter and the other leaders of the Church, it is only through Peter that he has given to others what he has not refused to bestow on them.

“The Lord now asks the apostles as aa whole what men think of him. As long as they are recounting the uncertainty born of human ignorance, their reply is always the same.

“But when he presses the disciples to say what they think themselves, the first to confess his faith in the Lord is hte one who is first in rank among the apostles.

“Peter says: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replies: ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven.'” (From a sermon by Saint Leo the Great, pope, from the Second Reading, Liturgy of the Hours).

Art: Chair of Saint Peter in St. Peter’s Basilica, 03.05.2008, Sergey Smirnov, CC, Wikimedia Commons.