I may speak with every tongue that men and angels use; yet, if I lack
charity, I am no better than echoing bronze, or the clash of cymbals.
I may have powers of prophecy, no secret hidden from me, no Knowledge too
deep for me; I may have utter faith, so that I can move mountains;
yet if I lack charity, I count for nothing.
I may gave away all that l have, to feed the poor; I may give myself up to
be burnt at the stake; if I lack charity, it goes for nothing.
Charity is patient, is kind; charity feels no envy; charity is never
perverse or proud, never insolent; does not claim its rights, cannot be
provoked, does not brood over an injury;
takes no pleasure in wrong-doing, but rejoices at the victory of truth;
sustains, believes, hopes, endures, to the last.
The time will come when we shall outgrow prophecy, when speaking with
tongues will come to an end, when knowledge will be swept away; we shall
never have finished with charity.
Our knowledge, our prophecy, are only glimpses of the truth; and these
glimpses will be swept away when the time of fulfilment comes.
Just so, when I was a child, I talked like a child,
I had the intelligence, the thoughts of a child; since I became a man,
I have outgrown childish ways.
Meanwhile, faith, hope and charity persist, all three; but the greatest of
them all is charity.
St Paul's First Lesson to the Corinthians
chapter 13, verses 1 - 13
