1. Now when I came to you, brothers, I did not come with any brilliance of oratory or wise argument to announce to you the mystery of God.

2. I was resolved that the only knowledge I would have while I was with you was knowledge of Jesus, and of him as the crucified Christ.

3. I came among you in weakness, in fear and great trembling

4. and what I spoke and proclaimed was not meant to convince by philosophical argument, but to demonstrate the convincing power of the Spirit,

5. so that your faith should depend not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

6. But still, to those who have reached maturity, we do talk of a wisdom, not, it is true, a philosophy of this age or of the rulers of this age, who will not last long now.

7. It is of the mysterious wisdom of God that we talk, the wisdom that was hidden, which God predestined to be for our glory before the ages began.

8. None of the rulers of the age recognised it; for if they had recognised it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;

9. but it is as scripture says: What no eye has seen and no ear has heard, what the mind of man cannot visualise; all that God has prepared for those who love him;

10. to us, though, God has given revelation through the Spirit, for the Spirit explores the depths of everything, even the depths of God.

11. After all, is there anyone who knows the qualities of anyone except his own spirit, within him; and in the same way, nobody knows the qualities of God except the Spirit of God.

12. Now, the Spirit we have received is not the spirit of the world but God's own Spirit, so that we may understand the lavish gifts God has given us.

13. And these are what we speak of, not in the terms learnt from human philosophy, but in terms learnt from the Spirit, fitting spiritual language to spiritual things.

14. The natural person has no room for the gifts of God's Spirit; to him they are folly; he cannot recognise them, because their value can be assessed only in the Spirit.

15. The spiritual person, on the other hand, can assess the value of everything, and that person's value cannot be assessed by anybody else.

16. For: who has ever known the mind of the Lord? Who has ever been his adviser? But we are those who have the mind of Christ.





“Reze, reze! Quem muito reza se salva e salva os outros. E qual oração pode ser mais bela e mais aceita a Nossa Senhora do que o Rosario?” São Padre Pio de Pietrelcina