21 December. 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Thomas the Apostle.

21 December. 1662 Book of Common Prayer.  Thomas the Apostle.

Saint Thomas the Apostle.

The Collect.

 

ALMIGHTY and everliving God, who for the more confirmation of the faith didst suffer thy holy Apostle Thomas to be doubtful in thy Son's resurrection; Grant us so perfectly, and without all doubt, to believe in thy Son Jesus Christ, that our faith in thy sight may never be reproved. Hear us, O Lord, through the same Jesus Christ, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, now and for evermore. Amen.

http://www.eskimo.com/~lhowell/bcp1662/notes/saints.html#Thomas . This modest offering is presented by the URL:

“St. Thomas the Apostle. -- The name Thomas in the Hebrew, as Didymus in the Greek, simply means a "twin brother," and as St. Thomas is named in all the catalogues with St. Matthew (see Matt. x. 3; Mark iii. 18; Luke vi. 15), he has been thought to be his brother. His character is marked in St. John's Gospel by a few touches -- the desponding but devoted affection ready to die with his Master (John xi. 16); the blank ignorance, in spite of all that he had heard, whither Our Lord should depart and by what way (John xiv. 5); and the doubt of the Resurrection, obstinate, but overcome with absolute completeness John xx. 28). Of his subsequent history Scripture has no record. Early tradition carries him as a missionary to Persia, and later tradition even further east to India, where it tells of his martyrdom. -- December 21st.”

These martrys are not forgotten nor will they be forgotten in that “Great Day.”  God’s omniscience, justice, love, mercy and sovereignty exist within His eternal being.  A day to be remembered in Advent 2013. Also, again, in Advent 2014.

Revelation 6.9ff.

^“.9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: ¹⁰ and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? ¹¹ And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”