These two saints were both monks before they were ordained Bishops, in the fourth century.

St Gregory Nazianzen said: ‘God always was, and always is, and always will be. Or rather, God always Is. For Was and Will Be are fragments of our time, and of changeable nature, but He is Eternal Being. And this is the Name that He gives to Himself when giving the Oracle to Moses in the Mount. For in Himself He sums up and contains all Being, having neither beginning in the past nor end in the future; like some great Sea of Being, limitless and unbounded, transcending all conception of time and nature, only adumbrated by the mind, and that very dimly and scantily’.

That great God is the One who also loves us, limitlessly and without end. May we trust Him as we move forward into this New Year with all its challenges, and may these two saints pray for us. May God bless you this day.