Monday, February 5 : Saint John Chrysostom

What should you be saying to your wife? Tell her with great gentleness: “…I have chosen you; I love you and prefer you to my own life. Life in the present is nothing and so I perform all my prayers, intentions and every action that we may be granted to spend this life in such a way as to be reunited in the life to come without further fear of separation. Our present life is short and tenuous. If it is granted us to be pleasing to God now we shall be with Christ and each other forever in unending happiness. It is your love that enraptures me more than anything else and I could not know a more unbearable misfortune than to be parted from you. Were I to lose everything and become poorer than a beggar, run the ultimate risks or undergo anything at all, it would all be bearable for me so long as your love for me holds firm. Only by counting on this love will I hope for children.” You must also match your conduct to these words… Show your wife how much you value living with her and that, because of her, you prefer being at home to the public square. Prefer her to all your friends and even to the children she has borne you, and let these be loved by you for her sake… Say your prayers together. Let each of you go to church and, back at home, let the husband ask an account from his wife and the wife from her husband concerning whatever was said or read… Learn the fear of God and all the rest will flow as from a spring and your house will be filled with countless blessings. Let us aspire to those good things that are incorruptible and the rest will not pass us by. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and all the rest will be added to you” (Mt 6:33).

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team