Simon of Cyrene was, we are told, coming in from the fields when the soldiers press ganged him into helping carry the cross. From the sky where once the host of angels appeared to shepherds, the noon day sun beat down on the criminal and His reluctant helper. But just as the shepherds went joyfully from the fields and when they saw the signs of which they had been told, saw and believed; so Simon, when he was forced from the fields and saw the realities to which those signs pointed, himself came to believe, he and his sons Alexander and Rufus being known to the church in which the Gospel was written.

Lord may we who believe be strengthened in our faith. May those who seek you find you and be established in faiht. May those who do not know their need of you recognise messengers who come with tidings of great joy; and may those who have lapsed from their faith or turned away from you hear the call which is made even to the reluctant and the unwilling, that your church may rejoice in the participation of all her members.