Friday, April 17 : Saint Leo the Great

If we consider what the whole world has received through the cross of the Lord, then we shall recognize that if we are to celebrate Easter then it is only right to prepare ourselves with a fast of forty days… It is not just bishops or priests or only the ministers of the sacraments but the whole body of the Church, it is the entire assembly of the faithful who are to purify themselves from every blemish so that God’s temple, whose foundation is its own founder (see 1Cor 3:11.16), may be beautiful in all its stones and radiant in all its aspects… There is no doubt that no one can undertake or complete this temple’s purification without its builder, yet he who built it also allowed him to be able to seek for its growth through his own labor. For it was living and intelligent material that served for the construction of this temple and it is the Spirit of grace that prompts it to adhere willingly into a single edifice… And so, since all the faithful as a whole and each one in particular form one and the same temple of God, it has to be just as perfect in each as it must be in its entirety. For even if its beauty cannot be identical in all its members nor its merits the same in such a great variety of parts, yet the bond of charity obtains communion in beauty. Even if they have not received the same gifts of grace, those who are united by holy love enjoy their blessings together and what they love in others cannot be foreign to themselves since they themselves increase their riches by finding their joy in the progress of others.

maronite readings – rosary,team