Epistle. 1 _Thessalonians_ i. 2, 10. _Brethren:_ We give thanks to God always for you all; making a remembrance of you in our prayers without ceasing; being mindful of you in the work of your faith, and hope, and charity, and of the enduring of the hope of our lord Jesus Christ, before God and our Father; knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election. For our gospel hath not been to you in word only, but in power also, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much fulness, as you know what manner of men we have been among you for your sakes. And you became followers of us, and of the Lord, receiving the word in much tribulation, with joy of the Holy Ghost; so that you were made a pattern to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia. For from you was spread abroad the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but also in every place your faith, which is towards God, is gone forth, so that we need not to speak any thing. For they themselves relate of us, what manner of entering in we had unto you; and how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven (whom he raised up from the dead) Jesus, who hath delivered us from the wrath to come. Gospel. _Matthew_ xiii 31, 35. _At that time:_ Jesus spoke to the multitude this parable: The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and dwell in the branches thereof. Another parable he spoke to them: The kingdom of heaven is like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened. {404} All these things Jesus spoke in parables to the multitudes, and without parables he did not speak to them; that the word might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world." Credo. If there be not VI. Sundays between the Epiphany and Septuagesima, what remain are omitted, and taken in between the XXIII. and the last Sunday after Pentecost. Septuagesima Sunday.