Friday, March 4 : Saint Romanos Melodios

O my soul, give yourself up to repentance; be united to Christ in thought; cry out with groans: “Grant me pardon for my evil deeds that I may receive from you who alone are good (cf. Mk 10:18), absolution and life eternal” (…). Moses and Elijah, those fiery towers, were great in their deeds (…) First among the prophets, they spoke freely to God; astonishingly, and unbelievably, they took delight in approaching him to pray and converse with him face to face (Ex 34:5; 1 Kgs 19:13). All the same, they took care to have recourse to the fasting that brought them to God (Ex 34:28; 1 Kgs 19:8). Therefore fasting, together with deeds, brings about life eternal. By fasting, devils are repulsed as by a sword for they cannot bear its joys. What they love is the gamester and drunkard. But if they see the face of fasting they are unable to support it; they flee far away from it as Christ our God teaches, saying: “It is by fasting and prayer that demons are cast out” (cf. Mk 9:29). This is why we are taught that fasting brings us to life eternal (…). Fasting restores to those who practise it the father’s house from which Adam was cast out (…). God himself, the friend of man (Wsd 1:6), first entrusted to fasting the man he had created, as to a loving mother, as to a teacher. He had forbidden him to taste of one tree only (Gn 2:17) and if the man had observed this fast he would have dwelt with angels. But he rejected it and so found anguish and death, the sharpness of thorns and thistles and the sorrow of a miserable life (Gn 3:17 f.) Now, if fasting is shown to be of value in Paradise, how much more must it be so here below to win us life eternal !

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team