Philippians 1.27-2.4 (Epistle)

27Only let your way of life be worthy of the Good News of Christ, that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your state, that you stand firm in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the Good News; 28and in nothing frightened by the adversaries, which is for them a proof of destruction, but to you of salvation, and that from God. 29Because it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer on his behalf, 30having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.

1If therefore there is any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassion, 2make my joy full by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind; 3doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself; 4each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.

Luke 9.12-18 (Gospel)

12The day began to wear away; and the twelve came and said to him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding villages and farms and lodge and get food, for we are here in a deserted place.”

13But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we should go and buy food for all these people.”

14For they were about five thousand men. He said to his disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” 15They did so, and made them all sit down. 16He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to the sky, he blessed them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. 17They ate and were all filled. They gathered up twelve baskets of broken pieces that were left over.

18As he was praying alone, the disciples were near him, and he asked them, “Who do the multitudes say that I am?”

Martyr Longinus the Centurion

This is the Centurion who stood at the Cross of Christ and, seeing Him breathe his last, cried out “Truly this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54). From that day forth he was a believer, and was soon baptized. According to some accounts, he was one of the guard at the Tomb of Christ, and was one of those whom the Judaean leaders sought to bribe not to tell the news of the Resurrection. But Longinus would not be bribed, so the leaders plotted to kill him. He left the army and went to his homeland of Cappadocia, where he boldly preached Christ. He was beheaded at the instigation of Pontius Pilate.

Our Venerable Father Gall, Enlightener of Switzerland (640)

He was born in Ireland to wealthy parents, who sent him to be educated at the Monastery of Bangor. There he embraced the ascetical life and became a monk. He was one of the twelve monks who traveled with his spiritual father St Columbanus (November 23) as missionaries to Gaul. In time some of the group traveled into pagan lands, up the Rhine river to Lake Zurich. The monks settled on Lake Constance around a chapel dedicated to St Aurelia, which had been taken by the pagans as a shrine; they cleansed and reconsecrated the chapel, which became the center of their new monastery. Saint Gall lived as a hermit, serving the brethren by making nets and catching fish. In 612 St Columbanus went on to Italy with most of his disciples, leaving St Gall and a few others to continue their life. When St Gall delivered Frideburga, the daughter of a local duke, from a demon, he offered the saint a tract of land on the shores of Lake Constance; here was founded the monastery that in later times bore St Gall’s name.

At various times, the holy Gall refused calls to become a bishop, or to take over the abbacy of the great monastery at Luxeuil. To all such requests he answered that he would rather serve than command. He continued living in his isolated monastic community until he reposed in peace in 640, at the age of ninety-nine. In later years, and continuing well into the middle ages, the Monastery of St Gall became famed for the holiness of its monks and for its library.