Brothers and sisters: I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the ­unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace: one Body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Brothers and sisters: Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.

Seek the Lord while he may be found,/ call him while he is near./ Let the scoundrel forsake his way,/ and the wicked his thoughts;/ let him turn to the Lord for mercy;/ to our God, who is generous in forgiving./ For my thoughts are not your thoughts,/ nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord./ As high as the heavens are above the earth,/ so high are my ways above your ways/ and my thoughts above your thoughts.

Brothers and sisters: Some­one may say, “How are the dead raised?

Brothers and sisters: If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

I am reminding you, brothers and sisters, of the Gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand.

Brothers and sisters: Strive ­eagerly for the ­greatest spiritual gifts.

Brothers and sisters: As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ.

In the days when Christ was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.

Brothers and sisters:/ Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,/ did not regard equality with God something to be grasped./ Rather, he emptied himself,/ taking the form of a slave,/ coming in human ­likeness;/ and found human in appearance,/ he humbled himself,/ becoming obedient to death,/ even death on a cross./ Because of this, God greatly exalted him/ and bestowed on him the name/ that is above every name,/ that at the name of Jesus/ every knee should bend,/ of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,/ and every tongue confess that/ Jesus Christ is Lord,/ to the glory of God the Father.