From today’s Matins I think we can gain insight on how to weather the storms we find ourselves amidst in life, or even more so the storms we have to confront and battle. Day after day it seems we have more odd news, in the Church and in the world, more restrictions, more arguments….

Let’s pause and hear from Pope St. Leo in his first sermon on Sts. Peter and Paul:

“[…] In Rome were the dreams of an unbelieving philosophy to be destroyed, in Rome were the empty utterances of earthly wisdom to be confuted, in Rome was idolatry to be overcome, in Rome profanity to be put down, even in Rome, where the activity of superstition had gathered together from the whole earth every error which it could find. O most blessed Apostle Peter! this was the city to which thou didst not shrink to come. The Apostle Paul, thy comrade in glory, was yet occupied in founding the Churches, and thou didst enter alone into that forest of wild beasts roaring furiously; thou didst commit thyself to that stormy ocean, more boldly than when thou walkest upon the waters to come to Jesus. […]”

“O most blessed Apostle Peter! this was the city to which thou didst not shrink to come…” that can be our encouragement in every “city” to which we have to go. And more boldly did he go to Rome than when he walked in water, to Rome to teach the Faith, to uphold the brethren, and to spill his blood as a seed for the Church. Let us recall that when walking on water Peter began to sink the moment he took his eyes off of Jesus. And so, for us, in our “cities” where we are called to bear witness to Christ, the first and most important thing to do, if we would ever dare to actually do so boldly, is to keep our eyes fixed on Christ!