MEDITATIO

    It is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are. There are four zones of the world in which we live, and four principal winds, and the Church is scattered throughout all the world, and her “pillar and ground” (1 Tm 3:15) is the Gospel and the Spirit of life; therefore it is fitting that she should have four pillars, breathing out immortality on every side, and vivifying us afresh. The Word, the Shaper of all things, who sits upon the cherubim and upholds all things (Ps 79:2; Heb 1:3), who was manifested to men, has given us the Gospel under four aspects but bound together by one Spirit. David says, when entreating this manifestation, “You that sit between the cherubim, shine forth.”(Ps 79:2) For the cherubim, too, were four-faced (Ez 1:6), and their faces were images of the dispensation of the Son of God.      For, as Scripture says, “The first living creature was like a lion,” (Rev 4:7) symbolizing his effectual working, his leadership, and royal power; “the second was like a calf”, signifying his sacrificial and priestly order; but “the third had, as it were, the face as of a man,”-an evident description of his coming as a human being; “the fourth was like a flying eagle,” pointing out the gift of the Spirit hovering with its wings over the Church. And therefore the Gospels of John, Luke, Matthew, and Mark are in accord with these living things, among which Christ Jesus is seated. (…)     Such was the form of the living creatures, so was also the character of the Word of God himself: the Word of God himself conversed with the patriarchs before Moses in accordance with his divinity and glory; but for those under the law he instituted a priestly and liturgical service. Afterwards, being made man for us, he sent the gift of the Spirit over all the earth, protecting us with his wings (Ps 16:8). (…) These things being so, all who reject the form the Gospel has taken – that is, those who say the Gospels should be more or fewer in number – are futile, ignorant, and presumptuous.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

Listen in silence. It is because your heart is brimful of a thousand things that you are unable to hear God’s voice in it. But as soon as you set about listening to God’s voice in a peaceful heart, it becomes full of God. This takes many sacrifices. If we think we want to pray then we have to prepare ourselves for it. Without delay. I am only referring to the first steps towards praying but unless we carry them out with determination we shall never reach the final step, the presence of God. That is why our training has to be perfect from the start: we begin listening for God’s voice in our heart and, in the heart’s silence, God begins to speak. Then, out of the fullness of the heart there rises up what the mouth must say. That is where the connection lies. In the silence of the heart God speaks while you have only to listen. Then, once your heart has reached its plenitude because it finds itself filled with God, filled with love, filled with compassion, filled with faith, it falls to your mouth to speak. Bear in mind that, before speaking, you need to listen and only then, from the depths of a receptive heart, can you speak and be heard by God.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

We Christians are Christ’s body and members, the apostle Paul says (1Cor 12,27). At Christ’s resurrection all his members were raised with him and, as he passed from hell to earth, he made us pass from death to life. The word “Pasch” in Hebrew means “passover” or “passage”. Isn’t this mystery a mystery concerning the passage from evil to good? And what a passing over it is! From sin to righteousness, from vice to virtue, from age to infancy. I’m speaking here about the infancy that pertains to simplicity, not to age. For virtues, too, belong to their age. Yesterday the decrepitude of sin was sending us downhill. But the resurrection of Christ brings us to rebirth into the innocence of children. Christian simplicity makes childhood its own. Children are without malice; they do not know deceit; they dare not strike. Thus this christian child does not fall into a rage if he is insulted nor defend himself if he is stripped nor hit back if he is struck. Our Lord even requires him to pray for his enemies, relinquish both tunic and cloak to the thief and turn the other cheek to those who strike him (Mt 5,29f.). Christ’s infancy surpasses human infancy… The latter owes its innocence to weakness, the former to virtue. Moreover, it is worthy of far greater praise: his hatred of evil comes from his will, not his powerlessness.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team