Gn 15.5-12, 17-18; Ph 3.17-4.1; Lk 9.28-36

• Philippi was a thoroughly Roman city full of veterans and hardly any Jews. The earliest Christians in Philippi were Romans facing serious persecution for turning their backs on Rome in turning to Christ.

• Because he knows that persecution can drive Christians together or drive them apart, St. Paul, likely intending to evoke the military image of the Roman testudo, the formation in which legionnaires would pull together united in a defensive posture, says that like good soldiers, he hopes to find them “standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents”.

• We too battle with present-day “enemies of the cross of Christ”, in the form of militant atheists who want to bully Christianity out of the public square, and radical individualists who think “choice” is the summum bonum.

• Let us remember then that our citizenship too is in heaven, and our identity is in Jesus Christ.

Pro-Life Intercession

That the poor, the homeless, the preborn child, and pregnant mothers may experience the protection of the God who guided Abraham, we pray to the Lord...