MEDITATIO

There is a kind of wealth that is deadly to all: the loss of it salutary. Which, when it makes the soul pure — that is, poor and bare — hears the Savior speaking thus: “Come, follow Me.” For to the pure in heart he now becomes the way. But into the impure soul the grace of God finds no entrance because that soul is unclean which is rich in lusts and in thrall to many worldly posessions. For whoever holds possessions, gold, silver and houses, as gifts of God, witnesses his thanksgiving to God by coming to the aid of the poor. He knows that he possesses them more for the sake of others than his own and is superior to the possession of them, not the slave of the things he possesses. He does not carry them about in his soul, nor bind and circumscribe his life within them, but is ever labouring at some good and divine work. Even should he be necessarily, at some time or other, deprived of them, he is able with cheerful mind to bear their removal equally with their abundance. This is someone who is blessed by the Lord, and called “poor in spirit”, a fitting heir of the kingdom of heaven (Mt 5,3)… But someone who carries his riches around enclosed within his soul and, instead of God’s Spirit, bears in his heart gold or land, and is always acquiring possessions without end, and is perpetually on the outlook for more, never looking up to heaven: such a one is fettered in the toils of the world, being earth and destined to return to the earth (Gn 3,19). How can someone like that be able to desire the kingdom of heaven who, instead of a heart, carries land or metal, and who is due to be surprised by death in the midst of his uncontrolled desires? For “where your heart is, there also will your treasure be” (Mt 6,21).
maronite readings – rosary,team

If Christ bore witness to the truth, he refused to impose the truth by force on those who spoke against it. Not by force of blows does His rule assert its claims. It is established by witnessing to the truth and by hearing the truth, and it extends its dominion by the love whereby Christ, lifted up on the cross, draws all men to Himself (Jn 12,32). Taught by the word and example of Christ, the Apostles followed the same way… Not by the use of coercion or of devices unworthy of the Gospel, but by the power, above all, of the word of God. Steadfastly they proclaimed to all the plan of God our Savior, “who wills that all men should be saved and come to the acknowledgment of the truth” (1 Tm 2:4). At the same time, however, they showed respect for those of weaker stuff, even though they were in error, and thus they made it plain that “each one of us is to render to God an account of himself” (Rm 14:12), and for that reason is bound to obey his conscience… With a firm faith they held that the Gospel is indeed the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. Therefore they rejected all “purely human weapons”: they followed the example of the gentleness and respectfulness of Christ and they preached the word of God in the full confidence that there was resident in this word itself a divine power able to destroy all the forces arrayed against God… As the Master, so too the Apostles recognized legitimate civil authority… At the same time, however, they did not hesitate to speak out against governing powers which set themselves in opposition to the holy will of God: “It is necessary to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). This is the way along which the martyrs and other faithful have walked through all ages and over all the earth.
maronite readings – rosary,team

   The fact of being a man or a woman involves no limitation here, just as the salvific and sanctifying action of the Spirit in man is in no way limited by the fact that one is a Jew or a Greek, slave or free, according to the well-known words of Saint Paul: “For you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28).    This unity does not cancel out diversity. The Holy Spirit, who brings about this unity in the supernatural order of sanctifying grace, contributes in equal measure to the fact that “your sons will prophesy”(Jl 3,1) and that “your daughters will prophesy”. “To prophesy” means to express by one’s words and one’s life “the mighty works of God” (Acts 2: 11), preserving the truth and originality of each person, whether woman or man. Gospel “equality”, the “equality” of women and men in regard to the “mighty works of God” – manifested so clearly in the words and deeds of Jesus of Nazareth – constitutes the most obvious basis for the dignity and vocation of women in the Church and in the world. Every vocation has a profoundly personal and prophetic meaning. In “vocation” understood in this way, what is personally feminine reaches a new dimension: the dimension of the “mighty works of God”, of which the woman becomes the living subject and an irreplaceable witness.

maronite readings – rosary,team