Saint Paul says in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, recounting his trials, among other things: “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.” The reason for “forty stripes save one” was that according to the Law of Moses it was not allowed to punish anyone with more than forty stripes, and to avoid the possibility of accidentally messing up the count, it was customary to give one less stripe just in case.

St. Peter says in today’s Epistle: “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: casting all your care upon him; for He careth for you.”
The words “humble” and “humility” come from the Latin word humus, which means “earth” or “soil”. In a sense, humility is the same as “having both feet on the ground”, that is, to see things as they really are. Being humble means seeing yourself realistically, as you are, without embellishing anything, but also without fake and hypocritical self-deprecation.

Excuses, excuses, excuses... We have thousands of excuses for not being able to do one thing or another. From “the dog ate my homework” to not being there for my child’s birth or at my mother’s deathbed, because I had got tickets to the final or I was busy making money…
It’s true that we don’t always have time for everything. We can’t be in many places at once, even if we really wanted to. And it is not always possible to make good choices, so we must accept poor ones. However, it is often still just excuses, sometimes even made-up ones…

In the book of Proverbs there is a prayer: „Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny Thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.“
The first part of this prayer reminds us that we should not live in a lie; in a lie, which consists not only of deceiving others or ourselves, but also of allowing our lives to be shaped and directed by what is really empty and worthless. Of course, someone who lives a completely empty life is primarily deceiving himself. But he is also a grave disappointment to God, who wants our life to be full and to reflect the glory and love of our Creator.

The first half of the liturgical year ends with the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, the center of which is the doctrine of one God in three Persons: God is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. On the one hand, this teaching is an attempt to place what God reveals about Himself in His Word within the framework of human understanding. On the other hand, it represents the message that God is immeasurably greater and richer in His nature than man could ever understand or even imagine.