Daily Reflections

Micah 6:8; Psalm 37:3

The LORD has told you, O man, what is good,
– and this is what He expects of you:
to do what is right, to love goodness,
and to walk humbly with your God.

Trust in the LORD and do good
and you shall possess the land.
– And this is what He expects of you:
to do what is right, to love goodness,
and to walk humbly with your God.

Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Friday of the Sacred Heart

Saint Agapitus, Martyr (Traditional)

Joshua addresses the people and offers a catalogue of the astounding mercies and graces that the LORD has bestowed on them. The fidelity of God to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses is recounted alongside the spectacular events of the Red Sea crossing and the fall of Jericho. (Book of Joshua 24:1-13). All of this points to the victory of God’s love over what we would otherwise deem impossible. In the same way, God’s unfailing fidelity enables married couples to live in unfailing fidelity to each other through the Sacramental graces He bestows (Matthew 19:3-12).

SAINT AGAPITUS, MARTYR

The Roman Martyrology commemorates today Agipitus who, at the age of 10, was put to death with a sword and many cruel tortures at Prameste in italy. His tomb has recently been found with the inscription “Agapitus, pray for me”. His body has bee=n transferred to Cometo in 1437.

From a sermon on Baptism by Saint Pacian, Bishop
(Nn. 5-6: PL 13, 1092-1093)

We follow the new way through the Spirit in Christ

The sin of Adam had come into all men. Through one man, the Apostle says, sin entered and through sin, death. Thus it has come to all men. Therefore, the justice of Christ must enter into men; and as the old Adam ruined his descendants through sin, so Christ must bring new life to all men through justice. The Apostle stresses this theme when he says: As through the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners, so too, through the obedience of one man, many were made just. And, as sin brought death to the offender, so grace through justice brings birth to Life Eternal.

Someone may say to me: “But the sin of Adam is justifiably transmitted to his posterity. Since they were descended from him, and since we are not descended from Christ, how can we be saved because of Him?” Do not think in physical terms about descent, then you will see how Christ is our Father. In these times of salvation, Christ received body and soul from Mary. He came to save this soul, not to leave it in hell. He united it with His spirit and made it His own. And this is the marriage of the LORD, the union of two in one flesh, so that according to that great mystery, two become one flesh, Christ and His Church.

From this marriage the Christian people are born, by the descent of the spirit of the LORD. The essential nature of the soul, engendered by heavenly seed, grows in the womb of our mother, the Church, and at birth is given life by Christ. Therefore, the Apostle says: The first Adam was a living soul, the new Adam a Life-Giving spirit. Thus Christ continues in the Church through His priests, as the same Apostle says: In Christ, I have begotten you. And so, the Seed of Christ, that is, the Spirit of God, brings forth the new man, nourished in the womb of His Mother, welcomed at His birth at the font through the hands of the priests, while Faith presides over the ceremony.

Christ must, therefore, be received in order to beget, for the Apostle John says: To all who received Him He gave the power to become sons of God. But these things cannot be accomplished except by the Sacrament of the font, the Chrism and the Priest. For sin is washed away by the waters of the font; the Holy Spirit is poured forth in the chrism; and we obtain both of these gifts through the hands and the mouth of the priest. Thus the whole man is reborn and renewed in Christ. Just as Christ rose from the dead, so we shall walk in the newness of life, that is we put away the errors of our old lives and we follow the new way through the Spirit in Christ.

DAILY MEDITATION 

Christ never allows Himself to be outdone in generosity. When you are ready to sacrifice yourself for Him, a new joy comes into your life to which no earthly joy can be compared.

Your heart must be purified before it can live the life of intimate prayer and union with God. Christ is the Way to the father, for He said: “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father, but by Me” [John 14:6]. Your task, then, is to come into the closest possible contact with the Heart of Jesus. Sin and selfishness in varied forms stand in the way of this contact with Him. Jesus does not delight in seeing you suffer. It is not sacrifice in itself that is of any great value. In fact, sacrifice is simply pain unless there is love in it. You must be willing to give up what ever may stand between you and the love of Christ. The Divine Life can flow into your soul only in the measure in which your soul is emptied of selfishness and sin.  And this demands self-sacrifice. Jesus said that the grain of wheat must die in order to bring forth much fruit [Gospel]. Pride, selfishness, and sin must be conquered before Christ can reign supreme. 

Therefore, refuse nothing that God may ask of you. Yield your soul to God, by fulfilling His Divine Will after the example of Christ, Who said: “I do always the things that please Him“ [John 8:29]. Be generous when the Holy Ghost shows you some failing that you should correct, or some sacrifice you should make, or some good you should do. Love for God will lead you to do all that you can to please God and refuse Him nothing.

Father Lawrence Lovasik [d.1986] –  American, missionary priest for the society of the Divine Word, and author of numerous catechisms and devotional works.

Joined in the Love of God

In the Gospels Christ says, what God has united, man must not divide. This phrase is most often quoted in discussions of divorce; but here in this context, it is the fact that God has joined them together which is crucial.

It is considered by many to be very primitive to think that “marriages are made in heaven”, and yet there is a great metaphysical foundation underlying this assertion. It is God who has created each human being to be absolutely unique. The individual personality is the invention of His love, and its development is the fruit of its response to His Providential care. In a very real and not merely sentimental sense, it is true to say that we meet each person as walking towards us out of God’s hands. He is presented to us by God as His creation, distorted by the human environment and his own faults, but nonetheless containing a splendid inner mystery.

This glory may be hidden from the eyes of most people, but it is revealed to love and in love. Many say that love is blind, which is partially true in relationship, to some traits. But it is also possible to say that love alone is able to see—in reference to the unique meaning and value of a person. Now, we say that it is in love and through love that the lover sees; but since God is Love, it is, therefore, equally meaningful to say that it is somehow in God that people come to love one another—whether they are conscious of it or not. Again, if we say that the light of God’s love reveals the lovableness of each one to the other, then we may recall that Christ is called by Saint John the Light which came to enlighten us all.

Ronda Chervin

Ronda Chervin is a convert from Judaism, professor of philosophy and theology, and author of over fifty books. [From Church of Love. © Ronda Chervin)

Romans 5:19, 21; 1 John 4:10

For as by the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners;

So, also, by the obedience of One, many shall be made just.

– That as sin hath reigned to death; so also grace might reign by justice unto Life Everlasting, through Jesus Christ Our LORD.

In this is Charity: not as though we had loved God, but because He hath loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins.

– That as sin hath reigned to death; so also grace might reign by justice unto Life Everlasting, through Jesus Christ Our LORD.

“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