⁹ “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you;^(A) seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

¹¹ “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for^[a] a fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

³¹ Now eagerly desire^(A) the greater gifts.

Love Is Indispensable

And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

13 If I speak in the tongues^[a](B) of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy^(C) and can fathom all mysteries^(D) and all knowledge,^(E) and if I have a faith^(F) that can move mountains,^(G) but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor^(H) and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b](I) but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient,^(J) love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.^{(K) 5} It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,^(L) it is not easily angered,^(M) it keeps no record of wrongs.^{(N) 6} Love does not delight in evil^(O) but rejoices with the truth.^{(P) 7} It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.^(Q)

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies,^(R) they will cease; where there are tongues,^(S) they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part^(T) and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes,^(U) what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood^(V) behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;^(W) then we shall see face to face.^(X) Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.^(Y)

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.^(Z) But the greatest of these is love.^(AA)

Intelligibility in Worship

14 Follow the way of love^(AB) and eagerly desire^(AC) gifts of the Spirit,^(AD) especially prophecy.^(AE)