Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Luke (10: 1-9) in which Jesus sends seventy-two people out, two by two, ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go and told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field”. Afterwards, Fr Paul shares a little about the lives of St Cyril and St Methodious whose memorials we celebrate today.

Fr Paul says Methodious was born in Thessalonica and with his brother Cyril he went to Moravia to preach the faith. They translated liturgical texts into the Slavonic language and invented the Glagolithic and possibly also the Cyrillic alphabet. After his brother’s death he went to Pannonia, where he was persevered in the work of evangelization. In the complicated international politics of the time, he suffered many attacks by his enemies, but he was always supported by the Popes. He died on 6 April 885.

Cyril was also born in Thessalonica and was educated in Constantinople. With his brother Methodius he went to Moravia to preach the faith. As I have already mentioned they translated liturgical texts into the Slavonic language and invented the Glagolithic and possibly also the Cyrillic alphabet. They were called back to Rome, where Cyril died on 14 February 869.

So today, Fr Paul invites us to ask, ‘Saints Cyril and Methodious… Pray for us!’.