Daily Reflections

Job 42:7, 8

The LORD said to Eliphaz:
you and your friends have not spoken truthfully of Me
as has My servant Job;
– he will pray for you.

I shall hear his prayer
and forgive you your foolishness in speaking against Me.
– He will pray for you.

Saturday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Saturday of the Blessed Virgin Mary 

Saint Margaret, Widow, Queen of Scotland (Traditional)

As Tobit instructs his son to give what is due, Raphael redirects their attention to the incomparable Goodness of God (Book of Tobit 12:1, 5-15). The widow in the Temple treasury exemplifies Raphael’s instruction. Going beyond the value of worldly wealth, Jesus explains what makes her gift so valuable: it is a gift of “everything she possessed, all she had to live on” (Mark 12:38-44). 

SAINT MARGARET, WIDOW, QUEEN OF SCOTLAND 

Saint Margaret’s name signifies “pearl“. “A fitting name,“ says Theodoric, her Confessor, and her first biographer, “for one such as she.“ Her soul was like a precious pearl. A life spent at amidst the luxury of a royal court, never dimmed its lustre, or stole it away from Him Who had bought it with His Blood. She was the granddaughter of an English king; and in 1070, she became the bride of Malcolm III, King of Scotland, and reigned Queen of Scotland to her death in 1093. How did she become a saint in a position where sanctity is so difficult? First, she burned with zeal for the House of God. She built churches and monasteries; she busied herself in making vestments; She could not rest till she saw the laws of God and His Church observed throughout her realm. Next, amidst a thousand cares, she found time to converse with God, ordering her Piety with such sweetness and discretion that won her husband to sanctity like her own.  He used to rise with her at night for prayer; he loved to kiss the holy books she used, and sometimes he would steal them away, and bring them back to his wife, covered with jewels. Lastly, with virtues, so great, she wept constantly over her sins,  And begged her confessor to correct her faults. Saint Margaret did not neglect her duties in the world because she was not of it. Never was a better mother. She spared no pains in the education of her eight children, and their sanctity was the fruit of her prudence and her zeal. Never was a better queen.

She was the most trusted counsellor of her husband, and she laboured for the material improvement of the country. But, in the midst of the world’s pleasures, she sighed for the better country, and excepted death as a release. On her deathbed in 1093, she received the news that her husband and her eldest son were slain in battle. She thanked God, Who had sent this last affliction as a penance for her sins. After receiving, holy Viaticum, she was repeating the prayer from the missal, “O, LORD, Jesus Christ, who, by Thy death didst give life to the world, deliver me.“ At the words deliver me, says her biographer, she took her departure to Christ, the Author of true Liberty. She is honoured as patron of Scotland.

Reflection: all perfection consists in keeping a guard upon the heart. Wherever we are, we can make a solitude in our hearts, detach ourselves from the world, and converse, familiarly with God. Let us take Saint Margaret for our example and encouragement.

John Gilmary Shea [d. 1892] – American author and celebrated historian, regarded as the father of American Catholic history.

From the Exposition of John by Saint Thomas Aquinas, Priest

(Cap. 14, lect. 2)

The Way to come to True Life

Christ Himself is the Way, and therefore He says: I am the Way. This certainly is eminently right for through Him we have access to the Father.

Since this Way is not separate from its end, but joined to it, He adds the Truth and the Life; thus He is Himself at once both the Way and the Goal. In His human nature He is the Way, and in His Divine nature He is the Goal. Therefore, speaking as man He says: I am the Way; and speaking as God He adds: the Truth and the Life. These two words are an apt description of this Goal.

For this Goal is the object of human desire, and a man desires two things above all. In the first place he wants to know the Truth, which is peculiar to him; and secondly he wants to continue to exist, which is common to all things. Christ is the Way by which we come to know Truth, though He is also that Truth: Lead me, O LORD, in Truth, and I shall enter into Your Way. Christ is also the Way to come to Life, though He is also that Life: You have made known the ways of Life.

Therefore, He designated the end of this Way by Truth and Life, about which we have spoken above with reference to Christ. First, He Himself is Life, for Life was in Him; then, He is Truth, because He was the Light of men, and Light isTruth.

If, then, you are looking for the Way by which you should go, take Christ, because He Himself is the Way: This is the Way; walk in it. And Augustine says: Make man your way and you shall arrive at God. It is better to limp along the Way than stride along off the Way. For a man who limps along the Way, even if he only makes slow progress, comes to the end of the Way; but one who is off the Way, the more quickly he runs, the further away is he from his goal.

If you are looking for a goal, hold fast to Christ, because He Himself is the Truth, where we desire to be. My mouth shall reflect on the Truth. If you are looking for a resting place, hold fast to Christ, because He Himself is the Life. Whoever finds Me finds Life, and receives Salvation from the LORD.

Therefore hold fast to Christ if you wish to be safe. You will not be able to go astray, because He is the Way. He who remains with Him does not wander in trackless places; he is on the right Way. Moreover He cannot be deceived, because He is the Truth, and He teaches every Truth. And He says: For this I was born and for this I have come, to bear witness to the Truth. Nor can He be disturbed, because He is both Life and the Giver of Life. For He says: I have come that they may have Life, and have it more abundantly.

 Offering Everything to Jesus

[Jesus said to Sister of the Holy Trinity:] “Soon your mission will be to pray unceasingly near Me that souls may be brought into touch with Me and receive Me, that souls of goodwill may come back to the Church. Ah, if you knew the Gift of God. I wish you to be entirely Mine. You have much need of Me. I will shelter you in the secret places of My Heart; you are My tiny child! Together we will accomplish some good, but it will be in Heaven that you will work to the fullness of your ability. No, you have not done great things on earth, but you have given Me what I asked for. Soon it will be I who will give it to you. Prepare yourself, strip yourself, I want you to be wholly, wholly Mine. 

Listen to Me! Do not lose a moment. But do not get agitated; those who get agitated waste time. Think of My Mother, whom I have given to you to be your Mother also. Who has been charged with heavier responsibilities than she? Yet she was always calm and smiling because I filled her whole soul. Do not get agitated; do not be anxious. Everything passes away, except your God. I am Order and Perfect calm. To live My Life, rest silently in Me. I love you! Is that not enough to fill every one of your moments with the fullness of Joy? I love you and desire that you should know it. Oh, if you knew how much I love you, My little child! Do not be afraid of coming to Me…. If you have certain difficulties in your exterior life, have you not My tenderness for your interior life? I see all the sufferings, all the efforts, all the injustices—and I grant the desires of each soul not only with perfect justice but according to My Love, which gives in a Divine way…. Those who desire, who ask for and prefer My intimacy to all other good, to them I give it.”

Sister Mary of the Holy Trinity

Sister Mary of the Holy Trinity († 1942) was a Poor Clare of Jerusalem. [From The Spiritual Legacy of Sister Mary of the Holy Trinity, Poor Clare of Jerusalem (1901-1942).

RESPONSORY

The LORD restored to Job twice as much as he had had before;
and his brothers and sisters came and comforted him.
– The LORD blessed Job in his last days more than He had in the beginning.

The LORD is Faithful;
He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength;
with every trial He will also give you a way out of it.
– The LORD blessed Job in his last days more than He had in the beginning.

“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The Tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.”– Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen