Today’s the Western feast day of St. Irenaeus (c. 125-202 A.D.), bishop of Lyons, church father, and scourge of gnosticism. Irenaeus, according to tradition, was merely two degrees removed from the apostles themselves, having heard the preaching of St. Polycarp who himself had sat at the feet of St. John.

[I]t was for this end that the Word of God was made man, and He who was the Son of God became the Son of man, that man, having been taken into the Word, and receiving the adoption, might become the son of God. For by no other means could we have attained to incorruptibility and immortality, unless we had been united to incorruptibility and immortality. But how could we be joined to incorruptibility and immortality, unless, first, incorruptibility and immortality had become that which we also are, so that the corruptible might be swallowed up by incorruptibility, and the mortal by immortality, that might receive the adoption of sons? – Against Heresies, Book III, Chapter XIX

Prayer: Almighty God, who upheld your servant Irenaeus with strength to Maintain the truth against every blast of vain doctrine: Keep us, we pray, steadfast in your true religion, that in constancy and peace we may walk in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.