1 Corinthians 3: 9c-11, 16-17
Brothers and sisters:
You are God’s building.
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
A Great Union
Most of the world’s religions have sacred times (seasons and feasts) and sacred places (temples, shrines synagogues, churches, mosques). Catholics are no exception, and we celebrate occasionally the dedications of important churches.
Today we celebrate the dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome by Pope St. Sylvester I in the year 324. Its name is complicated: It is called the Lateran Basilica after the Lateran family who originally owned the site and the Basilica of St. John after St. John the Baptist and St. John the Apostle and Evangelist. Rebuilt often, it remains the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, and Pope Leo XIV solemnly took possession of it on May 25th of this year.
To belong to the Catholic Church is to be in union with a bishop who is in union with the Bishop of Rome. So, today we celebrate, too, our union with the pope who is the Vicar of Christ on earth and the focus of unity for Catholics and many other Christians and persons of good will in our world—a union of great importance to Catholic saints, among whom stand out St. Catherine of Siena and St. Ignatius of Loyola, two saints whose mysticism has a strong papal element.
—Fr. Bob Hagan, SJ, is a member of a community of senior Jesuits at Saint Ignatius Hall in Black Jack, Missouri. He gives spiritual direction, mostly online; gives sacramental care to the lay Catholics in the adjacent retirement community; writes occasional reflections for Jesuit Prayer; posts various daily items and a longer weekly reflection on the Sunday Mass readings on his Facebook site at Bob Hagan SJ; and drives fellow Jesuits who no longer drive wherever they want to go.
Prayer
God all-holy, in every place on earth you gather your people into your presence to proclaim the wonders of your love.
As we celebrate the dedication of the cathedral church of Rome, deepen our unity with your faithful throughout the world, and build us up into a house of prayer for all nations.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.
—ICEL collect for the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome.
Pray with the Pope
Pray with the monthly prayer intentions of the pope.