Friday, August 23 : Saint Gregory of Nyssa

…If, therefore, you wash by a good life the filth that has been stuck on your heartl like plaster, the divine beauty will again shine forth in you. It is the same as happens in the case of iron. If freed from rust by a whetstone, that which but a moment ago was black will shine and glisten brightly in the sun. So it is also with the inner man, which the Lord calls “the heart”. When he has scraped off the rustlike dirt which dank decay has caused to appear on his form, he will once more recover the likeness of the archetype (Gn 1,27) and be good. For what is like to the Good is certainly itself good. Hence, if a man who is pure of heart sees himself, he sees in himself what he desires; and thus he becomes blessed, because when he looks at his own purity, he sees the archetype in the image. To give an example. Though men who see the sun in a mirror do not gaze at the sky itself, yet they see the sun in the reflection of the mirror no less than those who look at its very orb: So, he says, it is also with you. Even though you are too weak to perceive the light itself, ye if you but return to the grace of the image with which you were informed from the beginning, you will have all you seek in yourselves. …For the godhead is purity, freedom from passion, and separation from all evil. If therefore these things be in you, God is indeed in you. Hence, if your thought is without any alloy of evil, free from passion, arid alien from all stain, you are blessed because you are clear of sight.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team