Main news for 22 August 2025

These are some of the apostle Paul's best-known words, reflecting something exceptionally important in our faith. For fifteen centuries now many Christians have remembered them in the prayer before receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, saying: "I believe, O Lord, and confess that You are truly the Christ, the Son of the Living God, who came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am first..." Therefore, we do not believe merely that God exists; in essence, that goes without saying. We do not even believe merely that God is able to deliver us from death; that too is obvious. We believe that He has already done this, that He has come into the world.

And there is one more astonishing thing that the apostle Paul mentions more than once: the Lord came to us while we were still sinners. God's love for us is such that He saves us from the depths of perdition, giving us a new opportunity to become worthy of this love. And perhaps the most important words are: "...of whom I am first." But this statement, for all its rightness, suffers from a certain abstractness. What has practical significance is that He came not only to all, but to each person personally.