Here is today’s New Testament reading: ‘Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does right is righteous, as he is righteous. He who commits sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God commits sin; for God’s nature abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God.  By this it may be seen who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not do right is not of God, nor he who does not love his brother’.

St Augustine said: ‘Let him tell us this, let us see in what we cannot sin. In this are manifested the children of God and the children of the devil. Whosoever is not righteous is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother. Now indeed it is manifest of what he speaks: Neither he that loves not his brother. Therefore, love alone puts the difference between the children of God and the children of the devil. Let them all sign themselves with the sign of the cross of Christ; let them all respond, Amen; let all sing Alleluia; let all be baptised, let all come to church, let all build the walls of churches: there is no discerning of the children of God from the children of the devil, but only by charity. They that have charity are born of God: they that have it not, are not born of God. A mighty token, a mighty distinction! Have what you will; if this alone you have not, it profits you nothing: other things if you have not, have this, and you have fulfilled the law. For he that loves another has fulfilled the law, says the apostle: and, “Charity is the fulfilling of the law”’.

May this love fill our hearts this day, love for God and for our neighbour; and may God bless you.