Good Morning, Everyone! This is a good day, even particularly in a troubled world, to praise the Lord.
As the day begins, this antiphon from today’s Office of Readings sounds in God’s ear, rising from the lips of those praying around the world.
“Lord, You know the burden of my sorrow.”
God’s response is, “Ask that you may receive and your joy will be full.”
Prayer:
“Rise up Lord in defense of Your people. Do not hide Your Face from our
troubles.”
If Time and Space and all the created resist You, their Maker, let me be the void, a nothing, a nobody, empty as a vacuum, demanding Your entrance by Love if not by law. Fill my space and time. Topple my pride by Your Uncreated Presence. Now master chaotic waters and silence my current. Still the fallen artistry of the proud “I, myself.”
Conqueror of all You survey, probe me, and finding me “all flaw”, reign in Your handiwork, Oh Hearer of my prayer. One person, one prayer, one poor heart’s entreaty; who can resist You or stand in the way of Your advance? My faith rests in Your infinity, your unending answer to trust. Love transforms the Law by Covenant. “The Lord sat enthrones over the flood; the Lord sits as King for ever.” (Psalm 29)
Day5 Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan 3/2/09
St Ignatius of Antoch: Letter to the Ephesians: complete
Day 5 Lite Version
St. Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to the Ephesians:15-21
Printer-Friendly Version of Outline: Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan PDF
This morning I’m thinking about the Church. I love Sundays. I hear the lion’s roar, “and then he cried out in a loud voice as a lion roars.”(Rev. 10:3) The lion thunders out, crying “full-throated and unsparing like a trumpet blast…” “When He roars his sons shall come…” (Hoses 11:10) On Sundays,with tremendous power, the Lion of the tribe of Judah summonses the gathering of the Church from all corners of the earth for a great feast. Even in Lent, the season of fasting, the Church prepares a banquet. The Lion, Himself, provides the meal, prepared Himself of Himself. It is here that the Lion becomes the Little Lamb that was slain, but now lives.
Monsignor Raun, this morning:
We say, “We’ll believe it when we see it.” God says, “You’ll see it when you believe it!” He was speaking of conversions. The God who turned Saul into Paul is still in the business.
“When you awake, enter at once into My Heart, and when you are in it, offer My Father all your actions united to the pulsations of My Heart . . . If engaged in work of no value in itself, if she bathes it in My Blood or unites it to the work I Myself did during My mortal life, it will greatly profit souls . . . more, perhaps, than if she had preached to the whole world. You will be able to save many souls that way.” Our Lord to Sr. Josefa Menendez (1890-1923)
When you awake in the morning, let your first act be to salute My Heart, and to offer Me your own . . . Whoever shall breathe a sigh toward Me from the bottom of his heart when he awakes in the morning and shall ask Me to work all his works in him throughout the day, will draw Me to him . . . For never does a man breathe a sigh of longing aspiration toward Me without drawing Me nearer to him than I was before.” Our Lord to St. Mechtilde (1241-1298)
“It is not merely by praying that souls are saved, but through the actions of even the most ordinary lives lived for God . . . Offer Me everything united to My life on earth.
. . . Offer Me all the crosses of the world. There are so many, and few think of offering them to Me in expiation for sins . . .”Our Lord to Gabrielle Bossis (874-1950)
My prayer for this day:
Here I am Lord. My heart is all “Fiat.” Draw me and hide me in Your Heart. Bathe all my desires, my thoughts, my doings in Your Blood, that united to the beating of Your Most Sacred Heart, they may bear fruit to Your service and Your glory. Even my sighs, embraced by Your Holy Spirit, will flower infinitely beyond the power of the dust and ashes that I am. Amen
Be Holy! 