The preeminence of Charity

On Saturday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time our Church invites us to read and reflect on a passage from the letter of the apostle Paul to the Galatians (5:25—6:18) entitled "Admonitions concerning charity and perseverance". Our treasure, which follows, is from a sermon by Blessed Issac of Stella, abbot. Isaac of Stella was a monk, theologian, and philosopher in the late 12th century. Isaac's most popular work was an allegorical commentary on the canon of the mass in the form of a letter to John of Canterbury, bishop of Poitiers. His 55 surviving sermons, as well as his "Letter to Alcher of the Soul", constitute his real theological contribution. The Galatians to whom the letter is addressed were Paul's converts, most likely among the descendants of Celts who had invaded western and central Asia Minor in the third century B.C. and had settled in the territory around Ancyra (modern Ankara, Turkey). Paul had passed through this area on his second missionary journey and again on his third. It is less likely that the recipients of this letter were Paul's churches in the southern regions of Pisidia, Lycaonia, and Pamphylia where he had preached earlier in the Hellenized cities of Perge, Iconium, Pisidian Antioch, Lystra, and Derbe; this area was part of the Roman province of Galatia, and some scholars think that South Galatia was the destination of this letter