Here is a reflection on love by Saint Augustine. Fr. Johnathan
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Sermon 344, §2-3
It is to those who are on fire with love or, rather, those he wants to set on fire with this love, that our Saviour addresses these words. For our Saviour has not done away with, but regulated, the love we owe to parents, spouse, children. He did not say: "Those who love them" but "Those who love them more than me"... Love your father, but love the Lord even more; love him who brought you into the world, but love yet more he who gave you being. It was your father who brought you into the world but it was not he who created you since he did not know, when he bred you, who you would be or what you would become. It was your father who fed you but he is not the origin of the food that staunched your hunger. Finally, your father must die if you are to inherit his goods, but you will share the inheritance God intends for you while living with him eternally.
So love your father, but not more than you love your God; love your mother, but love still more the Church who has begotten you into eternal life... Indeed, if you owe such gratitude to those who begot you for mortality, what kind of love do you owe to those who begot you for eternity? Love your spouse, love your children as God does, to lead them to serve God together with you, and then, when you are reunited, you will not be afraid of being separated. Your love for your family would indeed fall short if you did not lead them to God...
Take up your cross and follow the Lord. Your Saviour himself, wholly God as he was in the flesh, clothed with your flesh, he, too, showed human feelings when he said: "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me," (Mt 26,39)... The servant's nature with which he clothed himself for your sake caused his human voice, the voice of his flesh, to be heard. He took your voice so as to express your weakness and give you his strength..., and to show you whose will to prefer.
Our Resurrection
A tree that has been uprooted, even cut down to its base, and then replanted – a willow, for example – grows and blossoms again; and can it be that a human being who has been uprooted from the earth should not live again? Seeds that have been harvested rest, sleep in the granary and come back to life in the spring; and can it be that a human being who has been harvested and thrown into the granary of death should not live again? A bud on the vine, a branch that has been cut and transplanted, these come back to life and bear fruit; and can it be that a human being, for whom everything was created, should not rise again when he has fallen?
And look at what is going on around you. Meditate on what you see in this vast universe. I sow wheat or some other seed; it falls, it rots, and can no longer serve as our food. But from its rotten state it is born again, it rises, it multiplies. I sowed only a single seed and I gather twenty or thirty more. But who was it created for? Wasn't it made for our use? All those seeds did not come out of nothing for their own sake. So what was created for us dies and is born again, and should we, for whom this marvel is worked every day, be excluded from this benefit? How is it possible to believe that we have no resurrection?
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (313-350)
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
To all of you, brothers in trial, who are visited by under a thousand forms, the Council has a very special message. It feels fixed on itself your pleading eyes, burning with fever or hollow with fatigue, questioning eyes which search in vain for the why of human suffering and which ask anxiously when and whence will come relief. Very dear brothers, we feel echoing deeply within our hearts as fathers and pastors your laments and your complaints. Our suffering is increased at the thought that it is not within our power to bring you bodily help nor the lessening of your physical sufferings, which physicians, nurses, and all those dedicated to the service of the sick are endeavoring to relieve as best they can.
But we have something deeper and more valuable to give you, the only truth capable of answering the mystery of suffering and of bringing you relief without illusion, and that is faith and. union with the Man of Sorrows (Is 53,3), with Christ the Son of God, nailed to the cross for our sins and for our salvation. Christ did not do away with suffering. He did not even wish to unveil to us entirely the mystery of suffering. He took suffering upon Himself and this is enough to make you understand all its value.
All of you who feel heavily weight of the cross, you who are poor and abandoned, you who weep, you who are persecuted for justice, you who are ignored, you the unknown victims of suffering, take courage. You are the preferred children of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of hope, happiness, and life. You are the brothers of the suffering Christ, and with Him, if you wish, you are saving the world! This is the Christian science of suffering, the only one which gives peace. Know that you are not alone, separated, abandoned, or useless. You have been called by Christ and are His living and transparent image.
Vatican Council II
Message to the Poor, the Sick, and the Suffering (trans. Walter Abbott; ©America press,1966)
Come, Holy Spirit!
Today the Holy Spirit preaches the same message that Jesus Christ preached teaches the same doctrine, consoles and delights as He did. What more could you ask for? What more could you look for? What more do you want? For you have within you a counselor, a tutor, a director. One who will guide you, advise you, encourage you, put you on the right road, who will accompany you in everything you do, and everywhere you go. Finally, if you do not lose sanctifying grace, he will go by your side so that you may neither do, nor say, nor think anything that is not inspired or directed by him. He will be your faithful and true friend; if you do not leave him, he will never leave you.[Saint John of Avila (1499-1569), priest ]
Come, let us adore Him
"Without Adoration
there is no transformation
of the world.”
Pope Benedict XVI
High Waters
Let us but raise the level of Religion in our hearts and it will rise in the world.He, who attempts to set up God’s kingdom in his heart, furthers it in the world. He whose prayers come up for a memorial before God, opens the windows of heaven, and the foundation of the great deep, and the waters rise. Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman
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