We are reminded in the Gradual that nations as well as people are blessed by the Lord, wise words for our own time. Dear St. Paul, a prisoner, entreats the Christians to maintain charity and keep a bond of peace with each other, having presumably one Lord, one Catholic Faith, one common goal: Heaven.
Based upon Our Lord’s own Words in the Gospel, we are commanded to love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind...and...thy neighbour as thyself. The second portion of the two Commandments is the most difficult to maintain. We ask God to hear our prayers in the Offertory and for forgiveness of past sins in the Secret, an allusion to the Sacrament of Penance. It may not be self-evident, but the second of the Commandments, love of neighbour, prepares us to love God for as St. John Chrysostom comments, “Everyone who does evil hates the Light and never attains to the Light.”
Although not commemorated in the 1962 Missal, the 20th September is the feast of St. Eustace and Companions Mm. The Saint is one of The Fourteen Holy Helpers invoked for help with fire, both temporal and spiritual.