MEDITATIO

The Word of God is like a grain of mustard seed: before cultivation it looks extremely small. But when it is cultivated in the right way it grows so large that the highest principles of both sensi-ble and intelligible creation come like birds to revive themselves in it. For the principles – or inner essences of all things are embraced by the Word, but the Word is not embraced by anything. Hence the Lord has said that whoever has faith like a grain of mustard seed can move a mountain by a word of command (cf. Mt 17:20), that is, he can destroy the devil’s dominion over us and remove it from its foundation. The grain of mustard seed is the Lord, who by faith is sown spiritually in the hearts of those who accept him. Whoever diligently cultivates the seed by practicing the virtues moves the mountain of earthbound pride and, through the power thus gained, expels the obdurate habit of sin. In this way the activity of the principles and qualities, or divine powers, present in the commandments is revived as though they were birds. (…) Those who seek the Lord should not look for him outside themselves. On the contrary, they must seek him within themselves through faith made manifest in action. For it is written: “The word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart” (Rm 10:8), that is, the word of faith, Christ being himself the word that is sought.

maronite readings – rosary,team

The person who desires salvation must keep his heart ready for contrition and repentance: “My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.” (Ps 51:19) If a person maintains a contrite spirit, he can peacefully pass through the traps of the devil, whose whole ambition is to cast his mind into trouble and to sow weeds there, according to the words of the Gospel: “Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where are the weeds coming from?” But if a person maintains a humble heart and peaceful thoughts, all the attacks of the devil are to no effect. The martyr Boniface said that contrition begins with the fear of God. From that fear is born attentiveness, the mother of interior peace and of the awareness, which enables the soul to see, as in pure and smooth water, how disfigured it is… Can a person who falls after having been in a state of grace then rise up again? Yes… When we sincerely repent of our faults by turning towards Our Lord Jesus Christ with all our heart, he rejoices and invites all the spirits who are his friends to come to the feast, showing them the coin that has been found again (Lk 15:10). So let us not hesitate to turn towards our merciful Lord without letting ourselves go in a carefree life or in despair. Despair is the devil’s greatest joy. It is the deadly sin of which Scripture speaks (1 Jn 5:16).
maronite readings – rosary,team

The sowing was carried out by the apostles and prophets, yet it is the Lord himself who sows. The Lord himself is the one present in them since it is the Lord himself who did the reaping. For without him they are nothing whereas, without them, he remains unmoved. As he said to them: “Without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15,5). And so what does Christ say as he sows among the gentiles? “A sower went out to sow” (Mt 13,3). In another text reapers were sent out to reap, but here the sower goes out to sow and does not complain of his labor. For what, indeed, does it matter if some seed falls on the path or rocky ground or among thorns? If he were to let himself be discouraged by these arid terrains he would make no progress towards the good soil!… Now this has a bearing on ourselves: are we that pathway, those rocks, those weeds? Do we want to be good soil? Let us prepare our hearts to yield thirty, sixty, a hundred, a thousandfold. Thirtyfold or a thousandfold: in each case it is a question of wheat and nothing but wheat. Don’t let us any longer be that path where our sowing is trampled on by passers-by and our enemy lays hold of us like a bird. Further, those rocks or that shallow soil cause seeds that are unable to endure the heat of the sun to shoot up too quickly. And most especially: not those weeds, the lusts of this world, a focus for wrongdoing. For what, indeed, could be worse than applying all our efforts to a life that hinders us from attaining life? What more miserable than to cultivate our lives in order to lose life? What could be sadder than to avoid death only to fall into the power of death? Let us cut off the thorns, prepare the soil, receive the seed, hold fast till the harvest and long to be taken into the barn.
maronite readings – rosary,team