Monday, May 8 : Saint Augustine

The Church recognizes two forms of life praised and endorsed by God. The first is in faith, the second in sight; the first during the pilgrimage of the present age, the second in the dwellings of eternity; the first in travail, the second in rest; the first on the way, the second at home; the first in the exertions of activity, the second in the rewards of contemplation…. The first is symbolised by the apostle Peter, the second by John… And it is not only these but the whole Church, Christ’s Bride, who actualises all these things, she who is to be delivered from this world’s trials and dwell in everlasting happiness. Peter and John each symbolized one of these two lives. But each of them passed together through the first in time by faith, and each of them will enjoy together the second in eternity through sight. And so it was on behalf of all the saints inseparably united to Christ’s body and to navigate them through the storms of this life, that Peter, the first of the apostles, received the keys of the Kingdom of heaven with power to retain and forgive sins (Mt 16:19). And it was also for the sake of all the saints and in order to give them entry into the peaceful depths of his most intimate life that Christ allowed John to recline on his breast (Jn 13:23.25). For the power to retain and forgive sins is not Peter’s alone but belongs to the whole Church; and John is not the only one to drink at the stream from the breast of the Lord, the Word who, from the beginning, was God from God (Jn 7:38; 1:1)… but the Lord himself pours out his Gospel for everyone in the whole world so that each may drink according to his capacity.

maronite readings – rosary,team