Friday 24 July 2020
Friday of week 16 in Ordinary Time
or Saint Charbel Makhlouf, Priest
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Friday of week 16 in Ordinary Time
From the Confessions of St Augustine
Christ died for all
In your unfathomable mercy you first gave the humble certain pointers to the true Mediator, and then sent him, so that by his example they might learn even a humility like his. This Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, appeared to stand between mortal sinners and the God who is immortal and just: like us he was mortal, but like God he was just. Now the wage due to justice is life and peace; and so, through the justice whereby he was one with God, he broke the power of death over malefactors and by that act rendered them just, using that very mortality which he had himself chosen to share with them. How you loved us, O good Father, who spared not even your only Son, but gave him up for us evil-doers! How you loved us, for whose sake he who deemed it no robbery to be your equal was made subservient even to the point of dying on the cross! Alone of all, he was free among the dead, for he had power to lay down his life and power to retrieve it. For our sake he stood to you as both victor and victim, and victor because victim; for us he stood to you as priest and sacrifice, and priest because sacrifice, making us your children instead of your servants by being born of you in order to serve us.
There is good reason for my solid hope in him, because you will heal all my infirmities through him who sits at your right hand and intercedes for us. Were it not so, I should despair; for many and grave are those infirmities, many and grave; but wider-reaching is your healing power. We might have despaired of ourselves, thinking your Word remote from any conjunction with mankind, had he not become flesh and made his dwelling among us. Filled with terror by my sins and my load of misery, I had been turning over in my mind a plan to flee into solitude; but you forbade me, and strengthened me by your words: To this end Christ died for all, that they who are alive might live not for themselves but for him who died for them.
See, then, Lord: I cast my care upon you so that I may live, and I will contemplate the wonders you have revealed. You know how stupid and weak I am: teach me and heal me. Your only Son, in whom are hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge, has redeemed me with his blood. Let not the proud disparage me, for I am mindful of my ransom. I eat it, I drink it, I dispense it to others, and as a poor man I long to be filled with it among those who are fed and feasted. And then, let those who seek him praise the Lord.
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Other choices for today:
Saint Charbel Makhlouf, Priest
From the letters of St Ammonius, hermit
Those close to God have become doctors of souls
You also know, my dear brethren, that ever since the transgression came to pass, the soul cannot know God unless it withdraws itself from men and from every distraction. For then the soul will see the adversary who fights against it. And once it has seen the adversary, and has overcome him every time he engages it in battle, then God dwells in that soul, and all the labour is changed to joy and gladness. But if the soul is overcome, then there come upon it grief, boredom, and many other kinds of heaviness.
This is why the holy fathers also withdrew into the desert alone, men such as Elijah the Tishbite and John the Baptist. For do not suppose that because the righteous were in the midst of men it was among men that they had achieved their righteousness. Rather, having first practised much quiet, they then received the power of God dwelling in them, and then God sent them into the midst of men, having acquired every virtue, so that they might act as God’s provisioners and cure men of their infirmities. For they were physicians of the soul, able to cure men’s infirmities. This was the need for which they were dragged away from their quiet and sent to men. But they are only sent when all their own diseases are healed. For a soul cannot be sent into the midst of men for their edification if it has some defect of its own. And those who go before they are made perfect, go at their own will and not at God’s. And God says in reproof about such, ‘I sent them not, but they ran of themselves’ (Jeremiah 23:21). For this cause they are neither able to guard themselves, nor to edify another soul.
But those who are sent from God, do not want to go away from their quiet, knowing that through it they have obtained the divine power; but in order not to disobey the Creator, they go for the spiritual edification of men, in imitation of Him. For as the Father sent His very Son from heaven to heal all the infirmities and sicknesses of men (as it is written, ‘He took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses’ Isaiah 53:4), thus all the saints who come among men to heal them follow the example of the Creator of all, that so they might be made worthy of adoption as sons of God. And as the Father and the Son are, so these should be, unto the ages of ages.
See, beloved, I have made known to you the power of quiet, and how it heals on all sides, and how God wills it. That is why I have written to you, that you may be strengthened in what you are doing, and know that it is in quiet that all the saints grew, and for this reason the divine power came to dwell in them, and made known to them heavenly mysteries; thus they drove away all the oldness of this world. And he who is writing this to you has by means of it attained to this measure.
Many monks at the present time have been unable to persevere in quiet because they could not overcome their self-will. For this reason they live among men all the time, since they are unable to despise themselves and flee from the company of men, or to engage in battle. Thus they abandon quiet, and remain in the company of their neighbours, receiving their comfort thereby, all their lives. Therefore they have not been held worthy of the divine sweetness, or to have the power dwelling within them. For when that power looks down upon them, it finds that they receive their comfort in this present world and in the passions that belong to the soul and body. As a result it cannot overshadow them any more, for love of money, human vainglory, and all the soul’s sicknesses and distractions, prevent that divine power from overshadowing them.
Show yourselves strong in what you do. Those who depart from quiet are unable to conquer their passions or to fight against their adversary, because they are subjected to their passions. But in your case, you overcome the passions, and the power of God is with you.
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In other parts of the world and other calendars:
Blessed John Soreth, Priest
From the 'Exhortation on the Carmelite Rule' by Blessed John Soreth
Learn from Christ how you should love him
It is from Christ himself, brother, that you will learn how to love him. Learn to love him tenderly, with all your heart; prudently, with all your soul; fervently, with all your strength. Love him tenderly, so that you will not be seduced away from him; prudently, so that you will not be open to deception; and fervently, so that downheartedness will not draw you away from God’s love. May the wisdom of Christ seem sweet to you, so that you are not led away by the glory of the world and the pleasures of the flesh. May Christ, who is the Truth, enlighten you, so that you do not fall prey to the spirit of error and falsehood. May Christ, who is the Strength of God, fortify you when hardships wear you out.
St Basil says that we are bound to our benefactors by bonds of affection and duty. But what greater gift or favour could we receive than God himself? For, he continues, I experience the ineffable love of God – a love more easily felt than described. Since God has planted the seeds of goodness in us, we can be certain that he is awaiting their fruits.
So let the love of Christ kindle your enthusiasm; let his knowledge be your teacher, and his constancy your strength. May your enthusiasm be fervent, balanced in judgement and invincible, and neither lukewarm nor lacking in discretion. Love the Lord your God with all the affection of which your heart is capable; love him with all the attentiveness and balance of judgement of your soul and reason; love him with such strength that you will not be afraid to die for love of him. May the Lord Jesus seem so sweet and tender to your affections that the sweet enticements of the world hold no attraction for you; may his sweetness conquer their sweetness.
May he also be the guiding light of your intellect and the ruler of your reason: then you will not only avoid the deceptions of heresy and save your faith from their ambushes, but you will also avoid too great and indiscreet an enthusiasm in your behaviour. God is Wisdom, and he wants to be loved not only fervently, but also wisely; otherwise the spirit of error will easily take advantage of your enthusiasm. If you neglect this advice, that cunning enemy thereby has a most effective means of taking the love of God from your heart by making you progress carelessly and without discretion. Therefore, may your love be strong and persevering, neither giving in to fears nor being worn out by labours.
Not to be led astray by allurements, that’s what it means to love with all one’s heart; not to be deceived by false arguments, that’s the meaning of loving with all one’s soul; not to let your spirit be broken by difficulties, that is to love with all one’s strength.
The Rule goes on to say that you should love your neighbour as yourself. For he who loves God, loves his neighbour too; ‘for he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see?’
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Blessed Maria Mercedes Prat, Virgin and Martyr
From the writings of St Henry de Osso, priest
Conforming our life to Christ Jesus
If we are looking for an essential occupation, a consuming interest, that can be called Christian before all else, then it is to clothe oneself in Christ: to think as Christ did; to feel as he did; to love as Jesus did; to work as he did; to deal with others as Christ did; to speak as he did – in one word, to make the whole of our life resemble that of Christ Jesus. The word Christian means alter Christus – another Christ – therefore nobody can save us if we have not first of all been conformed to the likeness of Christ. But in order to conform ourselves to the life of Jesus, it is above all necessary to study him, to know him, to meditate upon him. If we are to be totally in perfect union with him, this must not be done superficially. We must enter into the feelings of Jesus, his longings, his desires, his intentions.
We ought to recollect that, to enter into the Holy of Holies of his heart, is a foolhardiness on our part; but the same Lord Jesus in his goodness, and with his own words, has called us to himself. If he did not, how are we to learn his meekness and humility? If we do not know the sentiments of his heart in order to practise them, how are we to place our every action before him, in imitation of him? For Christ lived, ate, slept, spoke, kept quiet, got about, got tired, rested, was hungry and thirsty, worked. To be brief: he suffered and died for our sake.
When I say Jesus Christ, I imagine a lovely baby, a fine youth, or a mature man, with all the grace and charm that the divinity was able to shower upon a human soul and body. But I also think of him, subject to all of our miseries, except sin, out of love for me. He is our brother, flesh of our flesh, blood of our blood, and bone of our bones. He is my Jesus, truly God and man, alive, personal, who appeared on this earth, and lived and talked with us for thirty-three years. For our sake, being the Eternal Word of the Father, he descended from heaven, was born, suffered, died, rose, ascended into heaven. He remains amongst us until the end of time, to be our companion, our consolation and nourishment in the most blessed Sacrament of the Altar.
I shall live, eat, sleep, talk, keep silent, work, suffer: I shall do everything, suffer everything in union with Jesus. All that Jesus desires that I suffer or do, this shall I do in union with that divine intention and those sentiments that Jesus had in all that he did or suffered. Whoever does this, will live here on earth a life of heaven, will be transformed into Jesus, and will be able to say with the Apostle: “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.”
Copyright © 1996-2020 Universalis Publishing Limited: see www.universalis.com. Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible are published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. Text of the Psalms: Copyright © 1963, The Grail (England). Used with permission of A.P. Watt Ltd. All rights reserved.