We recall that one of the reasons St. Paul wrote his letter to the church in Colossae was his concern about the influence of heresies on the still-young community of Christians there. Epaphras, who carried out the mission there on his behalf, had reported this to him.
Why are heresies so dangerous, and why have they posed such a great threat from the very beginning, throughout the entire history of the Church, and right up to the present day? Saint Gregory the Great is sometimes credited with introducing the prayer for peace that immediately follows the Lord’s Prayer in the Mass, which explicitly states: “Come to our aid with your mercy, that we may always be free from sin and protected from all confusion.”