Friends in Christ

And I’m going to cause a fear
of panic when I explain to you that the title is incorrect.
When I started looking at this early in, actually last week,
I provided a title that really is for the entire 16 verses,
chapter 1, chapter 16, 1 through 16. And you begin to look at all
those names and I can tell you the title that I provided you
was for all 16 names. We’re only going to tackle one today. That’s the
panic that I want to avoid. But I know that you’re looking
at that list saying, how on earth are we going to stretch that
out into 16 different weeks? Well, don’t panic. It’s this
first person that I want to focus on this morning. It’s this first
saint that Paul mentions in this list that I want to pay particular
attention to this Lord’s Day. He’s got people who would join
me in reading along, beginning in verse 1, where Paul writes,
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the Church,
which is in Centuria, that you receive her in the Lord in a
manner worthy of a saint, and that you help her in whatever
matter she may have need of you. for she herself has also been
a helper of many, and of myself as well. Greet Prisca and Aquila,
my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who, for my life, risked their
own deaths, to whom not only do I give thanks, but also all
the churches of the Gentiles also greet the church that is
in their house. Greet Ephimathus, my beloved,
who is the first convert to Christ from Asia, Greet Mary, who has
worked hard for you. Greet Andronicus and Junius,
my kinsmen, my fellow prisoners, who are outstanding among the
apostles, who also were in Christ before me.” Greet Ampliatus,
my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker
in Christ. And Stachys, my beloved. Greet
Apelles, the approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household
of Aristobulus. Greet Herodian, my kinsman. Greet
those of the house of Narcissus who are in the Lord. Greek Trophaena
and Trophosa, workers in the Lord. Greek Persis, the Beloved,
who has worked hard in the Lord. Greek Rufus, a choice man in
the Lord, also his mother and mine. Greek Assycritus, Phlegon,
Hermes, Petropas, Hermas, and the brethren with them. Greek
Balaamus and Julia, Nereus and his sister Olympus, and all the
saints who are with them. greet one another with a holy
kiss. All the churches greet you. As we come into Paul’s final
chapter, we do so just with awe and humility that Paul is certainly
now beginning to wrap up this great epistle. And as we turn
to these final words that Paul penned for the Roman Church. I wanted to take occasion to
deal with this first couple of verses because I think it puts
to rest one charge that has been unjustly leveled at the Apostle
Paul. Particularly in our own day and
age, Paul has increasingly been labeled as a sexist because of
some of the things he wrote. If you would, turn to one brief
passage, 1 Timothy chapter 2. These are the passages that have
prompted others, especially within the women’s movement to label
Paul as sexist, label these ideas as sexist, and really allowing
them to set aside these standards because Paul was operating outside
of God’s jurisdiction here. 1 Timothy 2, verse 9. For Paul writes, likewise I want
women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and
discreetly, not with braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly
garments, but rather by means of good works, as is proper for
women making a claim to godliness. Now, if you stopped right there,
Paul’s already in trouble. You’re not going to tell me how
to dress. You’re not going to tell me what to wear, what not
to wear, and that attitude alone would prevail, even if Paul didn’t
say another word. But that really, that pales in
comparison to what what is coming. Look at verse 11. A woman must
quietly receive instruction with entire submissive.” Now, ladies,
this is not talking about the home. Paul is not suggesting
that the woman can’t engage in a discussion with her God-given
husband at home. This is talking about the church,
and Paul will wrap up this section by essentially pointing to just
that, that not just for women, but for men, for elders, for
deacons, so that they would know how to properly behave in church. We’ll come to that passage. Paul says, look, a woman must
quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. There
shouldn’t be a debate, there shouldn’t be all kinds of noise
and back-talking and carrying on. Then Paul goes on, but they
do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a
man, but to remain quiet. Now, Paul is giving this command,
but instead of his sexist views, or his opinion, he could have
stopped right there. But Paul, instead, goes on to
give the reason for this position that he is advancing. And it’s
quite clear. He doesn’t blame God. What he
does is blame the fall of man. But this whole position is born
out of the fall. Look at verse 13, for it was
Adam who was first created and then Eve. That’s the simple explanation
that Paul gives to the reason that women are not to take the
fulcrum. It was Adam who was first created,
then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived,
but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. And
Paul leaves it quite simple. He doesn’t build a case from
any kind of degree that men are better than women. He just ties
this back to the order of creation and to the order of default. Paul is not a sexist. Paul was
a servant of God when he said, let a woman quietly receive instruction
with entire submissiveness. But I would tell you, even that
statement goes against this idea that Paul was a sexist. Because
what Paul does in that one sentence is open up to the sisters in
Christ what had previously been forbidden to them. One pastor
painted the very great picture of first century Christianity. Part of Jewish tradition was
that, of that day, was low esteem for women. The Jewish tradition
at the time of our Lord and at the time of Paul had put women
into the low profile position. The mentality would basically
be to keep them ignorant. Jewish men, frankly, did not
feel that women were part of the learning process. And so,
for Paul to say that women were now welcomed in the fellowship,
but that there was context to that, there was a way that they
were to go about that, Paul was anything but sexist. There’s another passage you know
as well, 1 Corinthians 14, I’m just going to read the verse
briefly. Paul echoes his thoughts here
when he says, the women are to keep silent in the church For
they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves
just as the law also says. If they desire to learn anything,
let them ask their own husbands at home, or it is improper for
a woman to speak in church.” Again, addressing the pulpit
ministry of the local church. Well, someone even suggested
that maybe women didn’t have anything to teach. Maybe they
didn’t have anything to say. Well, that’s absurd. To think
that a woman can’t teach another man some things. There are many
examples in Scripture, but especially young pastors, or aging pastors
now, have plenty to learn from the women of the body. Some of
the greatest lessons that I’ve learned have been from godly
women, where I have been exhorted about attitudes, exposed, things
that I didn’t even see myself, where I’ve had manners taught,
misperceptions clarified, unintentional male clumsiness, I’ve been taught things about
God. I’ve been taught things about godly living. I’ve been
taught things about prayer and prayerfulness. I’ve been taught
about suffering. I’ve been taught about caring
for others. I’ve been taught about loving the unlovely. I’ve been taught about selflessness
and patience. I’ve been taught about handling
the untimely death of a spouse. I’ve been taught about parenting.
Some of the greatest lessons that I’ve ever learned have been
learned from women. It isn’t that Paul says that
women have nothing to teach. It’s the context. It’s when and where should a
woman teach and how should she go about that. I want to give
you a case for a practical vindication of Paul in this unjust allegation
of sexism. Even as a he that Paul didn’t
discriminate against women, we might even say he was an equal
opportunity persecutor. Acts 8-3. says that Saul began ravaging
the church, entering house to house, and dragging off men and
women who put them in prison. In fact, I wrote in Acts 9-2,
Paul says it in his testimony in Acts chapter 22, I persecuted
this way to death, binding and putting both men and women in
prison. He was an equal opportunity persecutor. And then he went
and got himself saved and started going about planting churches,
and one of the most beautiful scenes in all of Scripture is,
if a man was a sexist, the church in Philippi would never have
been planted. Would you turn to Acts chapter 16? If Paul were a sexist, I’m telling
you, the church in Acts would have been a one-man show, with
Philippi and Jacob perhaps. But that’s not in God’s providence.
Look at verse 13. And on the Sabbath day, we went
outside the gate to a riverside where we were supposing that
there would be a place of prayer. Apparently, when a city didn’t
have a formal synagogue, people would gather by the riverside
to pray. And that’s what took place here.
We sat down and began speaking to the women who had ascended,
which was utterly unthinkable in the Jewish culture. The Jewish
men, had they arrived, would have ignored the women almost
completely. A woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a
seller of purple fabrics, a worshipper of God, was listening, and the
Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken of by Paul. What an amazing scene. Paul begins
to preach the gospel, and here is this, essentially, Jewish,
Gentile proselytite, who had been converted to Judaism, now
facing the prospect of the Messiah having come. And her heart was
opened. She was touched by the things
of which Paul was speaking. And it says that she and her
household, had her entire household baptized, and she urged us saying,
if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house
and stay. The first thing, and I’ve told
the saints before, the first thing that Lydia did was exercise
her hospitality. And that became one of the marks
of the entire Philippian church. Don’t tell me that women can
have an influence, a positive influence, on the local church.
She set the tone from the very first moment. And Paul thought to himself,
no, we can’t read it. We’re really busy. No, I mean,
watch this. And she prevailed upon, she would
have taken out her answers. This was an amazing
scene. For a man to be interacting with
a woman in that context, and then to give her the high place
of attending her home, and receiving her hospitality. Paul had many
such female friends. He mentions a number of them
in this passage. Beginning with Phoebe, then he
goes on to mention Priscilla or Prisca, Mary, Julia. He mentions Rufus’ mother as
being as his own. He had taken her and loved her
as his own. Paul went about. Paul wasn’t
afraid to preach the gospel to women. Paul wasn’t afraid to
welcome them into the faith in Thessalonica. Listen to this.
One verse. Some of them were being persuaded
and joined Paul and Silas along with a large number of the God-fearing
Greeks and a number of the leading women. Paul went about preaching
the gospel, and he was harvesting whoever would repent and place
their faith in Christ, women included. Same thing happened
in Berea. Many of them believed, along
with a number of prominent Greek women and men. Paul didn’t hold
back. from addressing their sins. Even
in the book of Romans, the outset of the book of Romans is an address
of women’s sins. Paul includes them, much better
news, in the blessing of the gospel. In Galatians 3, 28 he
says, there’s neither Jew nor Greek, there’s neither slave
nor free, there’s neither male nor female, you are all one in
Christ Jesus. When you stand before the cross,
God isn’t looking at you with regards to your race or your
gender. Paul watched over women and sought
for their care. In Philippians 4-3, he said,
I ask you to help these women who have shared in my struggle
and the cause of the gospel. Apparently, there was some dispute,
some, you know, breach. plagued their relationship, and
Paul says, come alongside and help them. Paul provided detailed
instruction to women, not the least of which is the passage.
Paul could have ignored women entirely. Paul could have said,
you know, don’t let these women teach, and yet he goes on and
gives deep and detailed instruction regarding the role of women in
the church. In 1 Timothy 3.11, and later
on in that same section, Paul said women must likewise be dignified,
not malicious gossip, but temperate, faithful in all things. He basically
tells them how they’re supposed to conduct themselves, not just
in the church, but in society. Paul goes on to specifically
articulate the manner in which he wanted women to be treated.
And you can’t tell me that Paul doesn’t have a high, lofty view
of women. When he wrote in 1 Timothy 5-2,
that when we speak to them, we are to appeal to the older women
as mothers. Now, let me tell you, young men,
that elevates how you should be treating your mother now.
Because you’re also supposed to treat other women that way. Appeal to the older women as
mothers and the younger women as sisters in all purity. You’re supposed to talk to them
and treat them as if they were your own sister, and that’s supposed
to be a good thing. Paul demanded protection of those
who were vulnerable, and in that society, a woman, a single woman,
Women in general were very vulnerable, not unlike our own day. 2 Timothy 3.6, speaking of false
teachers, among them are those who enter into households and
captivate weak women, weighed down with sins. Paul was especially
watchful of that situation. And then he provided very gracious
instruction to Titus, this young pastor planting churches establishing
elders, and he says, look, older women, let me tell you how the
older women are supposed to behave, and I’ll let you decide which
category you’re placed into. Older women, likewise, are to
be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved
to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage
the young women to love their husbands, love their children.
Paul gives this lengthy and detailed description of what women are
to be and how they’re to function in the Church. In Paul’s epistles,
he gives lengthy sections on marriage, much instruction about divorce,
singleness, home life, motherhood, barrenness, dignity. Paul was
obsessive, but of all the passages that we could look, no passage
in Scripture is more clear about Paul’s view of women than the
passage in front of us. Romans chapter 16, verses 1 and
2. And so I gave you a title for
all 16 verses, but if I were to come back, since we’re only
going to deal with two verses this morning, and if I were to
come back and give you a title, perhaps provocative, I would
call this women’s work. And just the thought of that,
you’ve heard it before. Whenever we hear that this is
women’s work, we think of it as less than what a man would
stoop to. But that’s not at all how I would
suggest we take this. Because this work done by this
particular woman garners the very blessings of God himself. There is a blessing to serving
Christ, whether you’re a man or a woman, whether you’re young
or old. But in this particular case,
Paul takes the time, in the midst of this incredible epistle, to
elevate above all the rest of the people he mentions. And he
does so first. An obscure Seemingly, to some
people, unimportant woman named Phoebe. And what we get out of
this passage is the Apostle’s regard for her faithfulness to
Christ. Phoebe’s faithfulness to Christ,
first of all, elicits Paul’s commendation of her to others.
Look at the passage. I commend to you our sister Phoebe,
who was a servant of the Church, which is absentria. This idea
of commending, unfortunately, I mentioned this a couple weeks
ago, churches don’t do this anymore. We want to change churches, we
just change churches. No one calls, no one asks. But
in this particular case, people did a lot of traveling in that
day, in first century Christianity, and they would often go to places
where they didn’t know anyone. And so, in order to be cared
for, they would often elicit the help and hospitality of friends
or friends of friends. Years ago, when Pastor Donato
visited our church, he was telling us about Honduras. That in Honduras,
you wouldn’t dare stay in a motel. A motel is a place of ill-repute. You wouldn’t dare stay in a hotel.
When you stayed there, you stayed in hotels. And there was quite
a difference. But in the first century, there
were no hotels, good or bad. What little hotels there were,
were not places that one would want to stay anyway. Paul knew
that at such time, a letter of accommodation was not only necessary,
but appropriate. Paul also saw that there were
times where, you know, perhaps a letter of commendation was
not needed. That’s what he was talking about
to the Corinthians when he said, are we beginning to commend ourselves
to you again? Do we need, as some, letters
of commendation to you or from you? In other words, he said,
you know me, you, but that wasn’t the case for Phoebus. This word, to commend, just talks
about this very common practice of introducing, bringing friends
together in Christ, introducing them and really saying, you know,
in a sense, this guy’s a good guy. This is a trustworthy person. Phoebe, man, you’ve got to reach
out to her. And the interesting thing about
this is that this formula that Paul uses here makes it quite
likely that Phoebe wasn’t just a guest visiting Rome, she was
the bearer of this letter. It’s almost universally held
that Phoebe was entrusted with the letter, the epistle to the
Romans, to carry to them for the first time. One said it’s reasonable to believe
that Phoebe would, in departing for Rome, carry and deliver Paul’s
letter. Some manuscripts even make mention
of this in their subscript. In other words, in the original
manuscripts of the epistle, and when I say original, not the
one written with Paul’s pen, but in the ensuing copies that
were made, There were notes made at the bottom that pointed to
the fact that Thetis had hand-carried this to Rome. We don’t know any
more about Thetis, but that’s a pretty good fact. That’s a
pretty good calling to have in life, to bear the epistle of
the Romans. Nobody else is mentioned as having
been tasked with that, either in the epistle or outside of
the epistle. And one referred to this great
opportunity as a responsibility of considerable magnitude. Yeah,
you’d think. Here’s one pastor’s description.
Are you ready? There were, of course, no copies.
No carbon paper in those days. And even the simplest writing
materials were very expensive. It’s therefore highly unlikely
that Paul, through the hand of Tertius, made more than one copy
of this letter. You begin to see the difficulty
of man. There’s one copy of the Book
of Romans. Since Paul realized that this
letter would become part of God’s written word, he knew that the
truths imparted in this letter had the mark of divine authenticity. He would therefore have made
certain that this epistle to the Romans was entrusted to only
the most reliable persons. No pressure, right? Are you kidding? Delivering the epistle of the
Romans? Having to traverse not only land,
but even waterways? Possibly even alone? The only
thing that I could possibly liken this to is that occasion In my
second year of undergraduate college, I had an opportunity. I was the campus limo driver. Don’t get too excited. It was
a Ford LTD. Then I made one trip, and I picked
up a guy named Paul Williams. He used to be famous. And I dropped
him off, and they said, the other limo didn’t show up. You’ve got
to hustle back to the airport and pick up Mr. Hope. Bob Hope. See, my kids are specially tasked
with keeping me humble because they always give me that glare
like, who’s Bob Hope, in order to remind me of how old I am.
And I can remember driving down the highway, thinking, if I write
this card tomorrow, the whole world is going to know my name.
That’s the only thing that I can liken. See, carrying this parchment
scroll, with the book of Romans, the epistle from the apostle
himself, written by the hand of his friend, Tertius, to this
church of friends that he’d never met. What an incredible treasure Phoebe
had in her hands. Phoebe had served Paul goes on
to point out that she had served the church in centuria. She had
been an even greater servant to the church. The church of
all times when she was tasked with delivering this letter. One pastor said, never was there
a greater burden carried by such tender hands. The theological
history of the church throughout the centuries was in the manuscript
which she brought. The reformation was in that baggage. The blessing of multitudes in
our own day was carried in those parchments. Paul provides this
otherwise obscure Christian with a three-fold identity as he unfolds. First of all, her name was Phoebe.
Not a common name, as she’s mentioned only here in all of the New Testament.
It’s the feminine form of Ptoivas, a name which was given to the
Greek god Apollo. It probably points to the fact
that she was a Gentile convert because she retained that name
and possibly even a woman who had been freed as a slave. Slaves
commonly were given those kinds of names, names of the Greek
gods. The early Christians didn’t have
scruples to abandon those names because to them the gods meant
nothing. once they had met the true and
living God, and so Phoebe retains her name. Paul not only calls
her Phoebe, he points to her as our sister, pointing to the
fact that she was a member of the body of Christ, their sister
in the Lord. Paul wasn’t talking about human
relations, he was elevating this standard to the church, talking
about how affectionately we should treat one another in the church
as part of the household and family of God. Not only does
he call her Phoebe and sister, but he points to her as a servant
of the church, which is that centuria. Now, I know in our day and age that
word, unless we have really been steeped in scripture, that word
has a very bad taste in our mouth. We don’t like to be called servants.
Servant of anything. But it’s interesting, as Paul
opens the first time in all the epistles of the Romans that he’s
mentioned the word church. He does so now with this seemingly
obscure woman that he calls her a servant of the church. And
I’ll tell you, to me there is no higher title. This became her legacy. This
is what Phoebe was known for then. Not just to the church
of Rome, but to all saints of all times. Phoebe would become
known as the servant of the church in the century of what a glorious
title. But rather than an official title,
and I’ll get to that in a moment, this name characterized her.
She had earned the designation by countless deeds of service
of the saints in this local church. She was a helper. She was just
a go-to gal in the First Church of Centuria. She was the one
that people sought when things needed to get done. When things
needed to be done and nobody signed up for them, she was the
one that got them done. She noticed them before anyone
else did and did them. That points to her relationship
to the Church, but the sad thing is, really, This thing almost
got hybrid. Because in about the 2nd century
they developed this office in the church called Deaconess.
And they pointed to this passage as being essentially the example,
the foundation on which this office would be built. I don’t
think that that’s what’s being pointed to here. The word is
It does utilize that same word that we derive our word, deacon,
from, the transliteration of the word. But I don’t believe
that there’s, not only do I not believe that Scripture presents
enough evidence for the office of deaconess, but I don’t believe
that’s what’s being spoken of, of Phoebe here. She was a servant. just used very generally as it
is in all the rest of Scripture. If it’s used as deaconess, this
is the only place in all of Scripture that it’s used. And the absence
of any mention throughout the entirety of the rest of the New
Testament is a strong indication that it’s not being used in that
way here. Paul’s just pointing to the fact
that Phoebe was first and foremost a servant. As one pastor said, if he be
ministered to the saints, then she would be a servant of the
Church, and there is neither need nor warrant to suppose that
she occupied or exercised what amounted to an ecclesiastical
office, comparable to that of a deacon, whose honor is not
to be tarnished by elevation of positions and functions inconsistent
with station they occupy in the economy of human relationships.
You know, that’s the thing. We want to make a title. We want
to put Phoebe on some kind of a ecclesiastical pedestal. But in reality, all Paul says
is that this noble woman’s character wasn’t the fact that she owned
the title. She was a servant. She loved people. She loved Christ,
and she served the people of Christ. She served this little church
in Centria. It was a port city that serviced corn. And Paul just points quite generally,
that’s about all we know about Centria, and it’s certainly all
we know about feeding. Paul makes this commendation
of her to others. But he doesn’t stop there. He
appeals to the church in Rome for favour. He appeals for favour. His regard for her faithfulness
prompts him to appeal for kindnesses from this church. Look at the
passage. I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant
of the church, which is us denturia, that you receive her in the Lord
in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever
matters she may have needed. First of all, this receiving,
used plentifully throughout the New Testament, some 50 times,
and it can be used very generally. Almost, you know, extend a hand
when she comes through the doors of the church. But I think if
you look at it, Paul is requesting much more of that here. He’s talking about receiving
her into your midst, receiving her into your church, Providing
her the kind of welcome that is appropriate for saints to
give other saints in Christ, not only as we are obligated, but as they
deserve. That even though people may be
poor, even though they may be hated by the world, if they are
in Christ, they are our brothers and sisters, and we are to receive
them in as such. Paul says, not only receive them,
but look at us, help her. He’s very gentle. And we don’t
even know, Paul doesn’t even go on at all to talk about what
her needs are. In fact, he makes it absolutely,
completely undefined. Whatever matters she may have
needed. Whatever she needs, Paul says,
almost as it were, put it on my tab. You take care of whatever
needs. She has. Some have suggested
that this means that Phoebe was a wealthy woman going to Rome
on business. We don’t have anything to base
that on. We don’t know about her circumstances. We don’t know what her needs
were. But Paul clearly anticipates that she very likely will have
needs and he appeals to the Romans based on her past performance
to reach out. Was she aged? We don’t know. Was she grieving? We don’t know. Was she infirm? We don’t know.
Was she poor and needy? We don’t know. We know that she would need protection
as a woman. We know that she would very likely
need hospitality, and not just a warm greeting, but taking her
into their home, caring for her needs, providing for whatever
needs she had. Paul says, help her. Paul concludes with a reason. In Paul’s consideration of Phoebe
and his high regard for her faithfulness, her faithfulness not only elicited
commendation to others and an appeal for favor, but a personal
testimony of her faithfulness. Look at the passage once again.
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who was a servant of the church
for 10 centuries, that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy
of the saints, and that you help her in whatever manner she may
have needed. For she herself has also been
a helper of many, and of myself as well. I told you firsthand
of the great value of this woman, this word became a formal title. I still don’t believe that Phoebe
occupied a certain position or title. That’s to take away from
her what she had done. What she was and what she did
was devote herself to caring and helping others. What kind of help? Holy is completely
undefined, isn’t it? Did she pray? Did she pray all
week long for the spread of the gospel? Did she pray for the
pastor? Did she hand out bulletins? Did
she set up chairs? Did she make goodies for the
fellowship time? Did she clean? Did she type?
Did she care for the hurting? Did she make meals? Did she counsel? Did she witness? Nothing would
surprise me. But to me, that’s the dignity
of what she did. And that’s the dignity of what
Paul points to. That any service to others is
a service to Christ. And Paul points to himself. Not
only did she help everybody else, she even helped me. If you look
at the many times that Paul would have had cause for help, need
of help, 2 Corinthians 11, far more imprisonments, beaten times
without number, often in danger of death, five times I received
from the Jews thirty-nine lashes, I don’t know how long you are
in recovery over that deal, three times I was beaten with rods,
once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, at night and
at day I spin in the deep, frequent journeys, dangers from rivers,
dangers from robbers, dangers from countrymen, Paul knew. We don’t know how Phoebe helped.
A crock-pot of chicken soup. It’s worth something. It’s valuable. Paul says that this is Christianity. And this woman, we don’t have
to take away from her by insisting that she bore the title Deaconess. We can look at Phoebe And know
that of Phoebe, she was a servant. She was a servant of Christ.
She was a servant of others. And he garnered Paul’s highest
respect. It’s found before a God in prayer. Our Father, we are beset even
in our own day with just confusion about the roles and especially
the value of women. Let us settle love in our mind
once and for all. Paul highly valued women and
highly valued the service of godly women. Not the least of
which was this young faithful sister. Lord, grant us the grace
to take whatever little callings, whatever little projects, whatever
little need that we see, to take it and to do it as a member of
the Lord, just as our contemporary sister did. It’s in Jesus’ name
that we pray.