Friday, January 20 : Saint John Henry Newman

Look around you, my brethren, on every side… Look round, I say, and answer, why it is that there is so much change, so much strife, so many parties and sects, so many creeds? because men are unsatisfied and restless; and why restless, with every one his psalm, his doctrine, his tongue, his revelation, his interpretation? they are restless because they have not found… It has not yet brought them into the Presence of Christ, in which “is fulness of joy” and “pleasure for evermore” (Ps 16[15],11). Had they been fed with the bread of life (Jn 6,35), and tasted of the honeycomb, their eyes, like Jonathan’s (1Sam 14,27), had been enlightened, to acknowledge the Saviour of men; but having no such real apprehension of things unseen, they have still to seek, and are at the mercy of every rumour from without.. O sad and pitiable spectacle, when the people of Christ wander on the hills as “sheep which have no shepherd;” and instead of seeking Him in His ancient haunts and His appointed home, busy themselves in human schemes, follow strange guides, are taken captive by new opinions, become the sport of chance, or of the humor of the hour, or the victims of self-will, are full of anxiety, and perplexity, and jealousy, and alarm, “tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive;” (Eph 4,14) —and all because they do not seek the “one body” and the “one Spirit,” and the “one hope of their calling,” the “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all,” (Eph 4,5-6) and “find rest for their souls” (Mt 11,29)!
maronite readings – rosary,team