"When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." (Mt. 10:19-20)

In our shared responsability to proclaim the Kingdom, Jesus assures us of His protection and help.

We want Jesus to keep all difficulties, dangers, contradictions, persecutions... from ever getting in our way on the road through life. Yet this type of protection was never promised by Jesus. "...They will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues... and you will be led before governors and kings... Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name... When they persecute you in one town, flee to another." (16-23)

He, on the other hand, guarantees we will be capable of giving testimony to His love and His teachings... not through any of our own abilities, rather by His Holy Spirit.

It is necessary that we pass through the trial of faith with Him to bear fruit. "Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" (Lk 24:26)

Psalm 71:"God, you have taught me from my youth; to this day I proclaim your wondrous deeds."

St. Benedict, d. 547; wrote famous monastic rule; founded 12 monasteries, including Monte Cassino; considered the "Patriarch of Western monasticism"; patron of Europe.