Friday, October 27 : Saint John Henry Newman

Christ’s coming was to subdue this world, to claim it as His own, to assert His rights as its Master, to destroy the usurped dominion of the enemy, to show Himself to all men, and to take possession. He is that Mustard-tree which was destined silently to spread and overshadow all lands; He is that Leaven which was secretly to make its way through the mass of human opinion and institutions till the whole was leavened. Heaven and earth had hitherto been separate. His gracious purpose was to make them one, and that by making earth like heaven. He was in the world from the beginning, and man worshipped other gods; He came into the world in the flesh, and “the world knew Him not”; “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not,” (Jn 1,10-11). But He came in order to make them receive Him, know Him, worship Him. He came to absorb this world into Himself; that, as He was light, so it might be light also. When He came, “He had not a place to lay His head” (Lk 9,58); but He came to make Himself a place, to make Himself a home, to make Himself houses, to fashion for Himself a glorious dwelling out of this whole world, which the powers of evil had taken captive. He came in the dark, in the dark night was He born, in a cave underground…There first He laid His head; but He meant not, blessed be His Name! He meant not there to remain for ever. He did not resign Himself to that obscurity… He purposed to change the earth… All was to be by Him renewed, and He availed Himself of nothing that was, that out of nothing He might make all things… He was a light shining in a dark place, till by the virtue that went out of Him, He should create a Temple worthy of His Name.
maronite readings – rosary,team