I believe, Lord, and confess that You are truly the Christ, the Son of the Living God, who came into the world to save sinners, from whom I am the first. I also believe that this is Your Most Pure Body, and this is Your Most Honest Blood. I pray to You: have mercy on me, and forgive me my sins, voluntary and involuntary, in word, in deed, in knowledge and ignorance, and grant me, without condemnation, to partake of Your most pure Sacraments, for the remission of sins and eternal life. Amen.
From them I am the first - of whom I am the first. I pray, that’s why I pray.
+ I believe, Lord, and confess that You are truly the Christ, the Son of the Living God... - He says to them: Who do you take Me for? Simon Peter answered and said: You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Then Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven (Matthew 16:15-17).
I came into the world to save sinners, from whom I am the first. – This is a true saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first (1 Timothy 1:15).
“Even if you have climbed the entire ladder of virtues, still pray for the forgiveness of sins, hearing what St. Paul says about sinners: “I am the first of them.”
Venerable John Climacus