Monday, August 21 : St Hildegard of Bingen

Heavenly love… is for man to know and recognize God by loving Him more than anything. This love proclaims: “Sweet life and sweet embrace of eternal life, blessed bliss in the in which eternal rewards reside, you who are always made of true delights, I can never be satisfied of the interior joy that I find in God. The love of God must pass before all other cares. And every good work is made up of two parts: the love of God and the love of man. Discipline follows the love of Heaven. She is like a child, since she does not want to be powerful by doing her own will, but wants to remain faithfully in awe, restraint and respect. By faith in love man binds himself in the law of discipline. (…) The virtue of mercy rises to go to the poor. For the grace of mercy is in the heart of the Eternal Father. I placed my Son in the bosom of mercy, when I sent him into the womb of the Virgin Mary. The man, justified by the virtues, becomes able to look at the misery of his neighbor and to help him as himself. Mercy whispers: “I always reach out my hands to strangers, the wretched, the poor, the infirm and those who groan. After mercy arises victory by which man conquers himself and the vices of others. (…) Finally, patience and the groaning of the soul have a sweetness that prevents man from being crushed by trials. Free from all cares of the age, he turns to what is eternal in God in the future life.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team