Remember Lois & Eunice!

Wednesday of Week Nine in Ordinary Time

2 Timothy 1:1-3, *6-12
*from missing verses 4&5:  Lois & Eunice…Elders in Faith

Excised again!!!  Arrrgh!!!

I love their part in the mystery of the great passing-on.  Lois and Eunice pass on faith that is living…it sounds almost DNA-like. It LIVED in Lois and Eunice and because of their stewardship of the gift it LIVES all the way down to…well, with a little imagination…me!  Whenever a Baptism is celebrated within the liturgy, it doesn’t matter if I know the family, I am always reminded of Lois and Eunice when I affirm, along with the parents and godparents:  Yes.  I will be some part of bringing this child up in the practice of the faith…to love God and to love our neighbor as Christ taught and teaches still, through that great passing-on!

Thank you Lois and Eunice.  And thank you Paul for reminding Timothy…even if the Church seems to forget;)

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, 2 To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.  3 I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.

NOW HERE ARE THE VERSES CUT-OUT:

4 Recalling your tears,

I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.

5 I am reminded of your sincere faith,

a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois

and your mother Eunice

and now, I am sure, lives in you.

6 For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; 7 for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. 8 Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11 For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher,[a] 12 and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him.