The Feast of Saints Timothy and Titus | Thursday 26 January 2023

Today is Thursday the 26th of January, the feast of Saint Timothy and Titus, in the third week of Ordinary time.

The community of Taizé sing: Tui amoris ignem. Let me make these words my prayer, as I listen. ‘Holy Spirit, come to us. Kindle in us the fire of your love.’

Veni sancte spiritus, tui amoris ignem accende.

Today’s reading is from the second letter of Paul to Timothy.


2 Timothy 1:1-8

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,

To Timothy, my beloved child:

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

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. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. 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. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.

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.

Paul encourages Timothy with great affection to “rekindle the gift of God that is within you”. All God’s gifts to us help us to love others. Indeed, this is a way of testing whether a gift is from God or not.

We’re all called to love. We know that. An interesting question to ask is: how am I, with the gifts that I’ve been given, called to love?


The Jesuit, Herbert Alphonso, calls this our Personal Vocation. So, what’s your particular gifting? How are you best able to love others?

Enjoy what this gifting means for you. Breathe in the Holy Spirit letting it affirm the gift in you . . . let the Spirit nurture that gifting with its breath . . .

Listen again to Paul’s affectionate words to Timothy and the affirmation of his mother and grandmother too . . .

Your own mother and grandmothers have transmitted gifts to you too. What gift from them comes to mind now? How does God want that gift to be put to use?

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.