How the Righteous Shine

It will be good to notice two things at the start:  (1) love ought to find its expression in deeds more than in words; (2) love consists in mutual communications, i.e., the lover gives and communicates to the beloved whatever the lover has, or something of what the love has or is able to give, and the beloved in turn does the same for the lover.  Thus one who possesses knowledge will give it to the one without it, and similarly the possessor of honor or wealth shares with the one who lacks these, each giving to the other...

To ask for what I want.  Here it will be to ask for interior knowledge of all the good I have received so that acknowledging this with gratitude, I may be able to love and serve his divine majesty in everything.  

Point 1.  This is to bring to memory the benefits received - creation, redemption, and particular gifts - pondering with great affection how much God our Lord has done for me, how much he has given me of what he has: and further, how according to his divine plan, it is the Lord's wish, as far as he is able, to give me himself; then to reflect and consider within myself what, in all reason and justice, I ought for my part to offer and give to his divine majesty, that is to say, everything I have, and myself as well, saying, as one making a gift with great love:  "Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess.  You gave it all to me; to you, Lord, I give it all back.  All is yours, dispose of it entirely according to your will.  Give me the grace to love you, for that is enough for me."

Saint Ignatius of Loyola

-Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1556) was the founder of the Society of Jesus.

The Patient Endurance of Joachim and Anne

In time of trial it is of great profit to us patiently to endure for God's sake, for the Lord says:  "By patient endurance you will win life for yourselves."  He did not say by your fasting, or your solitude or silence, or your singing of psalms, although all of these are helpful in saving your soul.  But he said:  "By your patient endurance" in every trial that overtakes you, and in every affliction, whether this be insolent and contemptuous treatment, or any kind of disgrace, either small or great, whether it be bodily weakness, or belligerent attacks of Satan, or any trial whatsoever caused either by other people or by evil spirits.

The apostle writes:  "With patient endurance we run the race of faith set before us."  For what has more power than virtue?  What more firmness or strength than patient endurance?  Endurance, that is, for God's sake.  This is the queen of virtues, the foundation of virtue, a haven of tranquility.  It is peace in time of war, calm in rough waters, safety amidst treachery and danger.  It makes those who practice it stronger than steel.  No weapons or brandished bows, no turbulent troops or advancing siege engines, no flying spears or arrows can shake it.  Not even the host of evil spirits, nor the dark array of hostile powers, nor the devil himself standing by with all his armies and devices will have power to injure the man or woman who has acquired this virtue through Christ.

Saint Nilus of Ancyra

-Saint Nilus of Ancyra (430) was a disciple of Saint John Chrysostom and a monastic writer.

How the Apostles Serve

People dedicate themselves to God in the hope that the eyes of their heart will be enlightened.  They withdraw from worldly activities and give themselves up to prayer and supplication, waiting for the Lord to come and reveal himself to them and purify them from their sins.  For they do not rely solely on their own labors and conduct to obtain what they hope for, namely, that the Lord will come and dwell in them with the full experience and energy of the Spirit.  And when they experience the Lord's goodness and delight in the fruits of the Spirit, and when the veil of darkness is lifted and the light of Christ shines upon them to their unspeakable joy, they are completely satisfied because they have the Lord with them in much love; they are like a merchant rejoicing in his gains.  But even so they still have to struggle and they go in fear of the robber spirits of wickedness causing them to grow slack and lose their labor before they obtain the kingdom of heaven, the Jerusalem above.  

Let us too, then, beseech God to strip off our old nature and clothe us in the heavenly Christ even now, so that the joy of being led by him may bring us great tranquility.  For in his desire to fill us with longing for the kingdom the Lord says:  "Without me you can do nothing."

Nevertheless he was able to enlighten many people through the apostles.  In spite of being merely creatures, they fed their fellow servants.  Through their good example and teaching the Lord restored to life minds that were dead and corrupted; for it is possible for one creature to nourish and give life to another:  though only creatures, the clouds, when so commanded, bring seeds of wheat or barely to life.  Like light coming in through a window the sun shedding its radiance over all the world, the prophets were lights to their own house of Israel, but the apostles are suns with rays reaching every corner of the earth.

Saint Macarius

-Saint Macarius (4th - 5th century) probably came to the south of Asia Minor from Mesopotamia and was the abbot of a community of cenobites.

The Better Part

The Spirit of truth shuns those whose love does not reach beyond themselves.  His will is that he, and he alone, should be loved for his own sake.  Not only does he desire to be the sole object of our love, but our love for him must be total.  He will have no rival in love, any more than he can be rivaled in the generosity with which he rewards those who love him.

Yet God desires to be loved by us in such a way that we love everything else together with him, and love nothing apart from him.  As their Creator he is the source of all created things, and every created thing is good simply because he made it.  In loving created things, therefore, we should love their Creator.  We must not love them for their own sake, but for the sake of him who gave them existence.  Anyone who sets his heart on gold or silver, material goods, or possessions of whatever kind for their own sake is a stranger to the Father's love.  It is the Creator we must love in all created things, and all created things in him.  By loving him in this way we love everything else too, yet God is really and truly the sole object of our love.

Blessed Oger of Locedio

-Blessed Oger (1264) was a disciple of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and an abbot of Locedio in Piedmont, Italy.

"I desire mercy"

A wise man said:  The man who hides his fault cannot be saved, but the Lord has mercy on one who acknowledges his sin and repents.  If you suffer injustice, the world will despise you.  The Lord's heart is set against the proud to humble them, and humility receives mercy forever.  

If you take a humble role in all human affairs you will raise yourself above the rulers of the world.  Let everyone see that you are really humble, and bow to others first as if they were the important ones.  He who is renowned for his wisdom is humble among men, in spite of his wisdom and learning, and is wise in what he finds in his spirit.  Blessed is he who offers himself in everything he does, for he is raised above all.  

Those who make themselves humble for the Lord's sake, and diminish themselves to the Lord, praise the Lord; and those who endure hunger and thirst for the Lord's sake he will honor with suitable gifts.  Those who comfort others for his sake he will clothe in splendid garments, and those who are poor and in distress for his sake he will comfort with true riches...

The eyes of the Lord are on the humble:  the prayers of the humble are heard as soon as they are spoken.  Service and humility turn a human being into God on earth.  Faith and mercy quickly lead to wisdom.

Blessed are those who for love of the Lord plunge headlong into trials and troubles without anger or sadness; when they escape they soon reach safety in the harbor of the divinity, and through their good works come to God's home and have rest from their troubles, rejoicing in their hope.  Those who run the race of life in hope are not frightened by the trials on the way, nor do they cease from following it; on reaching the end of their course they see the Lord, and praise him for having saved them from perdition and from the many adversities they suffered in their ignorance.  

John Moschus

-John Moschus (619) was a Byzantine monk and spiritual writer.

The Lord Under Our Roof

Who can speak of God's being, of how he is everywhere present though not invisible, of how he fills heaven and earth and every creature, according to the text:  "Do I not fill heaven and earth?  says the Lord"; and elsewhere, as the prophet says:  "The Spirit of God has filled the whole world"; and again:  "Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool"?  God, then, is everywhere, utterly immense, and everywhere close at hand, according to his own testimony about himself:  "I am a God who draws near, he says, and not a distant God."

Therefore, it is not a God dwelling far away from us that we seek, since if we are worthy we have him within us.  He dwells in us like the soul in the body, provided that we are his healthy members, that we are not dead through sin, that we are free from the taint of a depraved will.  Then he truly lives in us who said:  "And I will live in them and walk among them."  And if we are worthy to have him within us, then we are really brought to life by him as his living members, for as the apostle says:  "In him we live and move and have our being."

Who, I say, can investigate the sublimity of this unutterable and incomprehensible being?  Who can examine the depths of God?  Who would dare to treat of the eternal source of the universe?  Who could boast of knowing the infinite God who fills and surrounds all things, who penetrates and surpasses all things, who embraces and eludes all things, whom no one has ever seen as he is?  Who he is and how great he is, he alone knows, but since he is our God, though we cannot see him, we must seek him, seek him continually.  We must always hold fast to God, to the deep, immense, hidden, sublime, and omnipotent God, and beseech him, by the merits and intercession of his saints, to shed at least a ray of his light upon our darkness to shine on us, dull and ignorant as we are, on the dark road of this world, and lead us to himself by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, belongs glory throughout all ages.  Amen.

Saint Columban

-Saint Columban (615) was born in Leinster, Ireland, and was the founder of several European monasteries.

How Christ Does the Father's Will

"Could not God make people perfect right at the beginning?"  someone may ask.  Take the example of a very small child.  The mother can give her baby grown-up food, but the baby is still unable to take adult nourishment.  Similarly, God could have given humanity perfection right at the beginning, but humanity could not have received it because it was only a child. 

For that reason our Lord, who sums up all things in himself, when he came on earth in these last days, came not in full glorly which he could have done, but in the form we could see.  Certainly, he could have come in his imperishable glory, but we should not have been able to bear the greatness of his majesty.  

Therefore, like giving milk to infants, the perfect Bread of the Father revealed himself to us on earth in human form, so that we might be nourished by his Word like babes at the breast and so by degrees become strong enough to digest the whole Word of God.

Saint Irenaeus of Lyons

-Saint Irenaeus (early third century) was a pastor, missionary, and a heroic writer in defense of the Church.