Monday, November 1 : Saint Gregory the Great

In the Gospel, Jesus says: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life,” (Jn 10,27). A little earlier on he had said: “Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture,” (v.9). For we come in through faith but go out in faith towards the vision face to face. Passing from belief to contemplation, we will find pasture for our eternal repose. The Lord’s sheep are those, therefore, who gain access to these pastures, for whoever follows him in simplicity of heart receives grass that is always green as his food. What are the pastures for these sheep if not the profound joy of a paradise ever green? The pasture of the elect is the face of God, present and beheld in contemplation: a vision without shadows. The soul fills itself with this food of life forever. In these pastures those who have escaped the nets of worldly desires are satisfied eternally. There, the choirs of angels are singing; there, the heavenly host come together. There, there is a welcome feast for those who return after the hardships of their sad sojourn abroad. There are to be found the choir of prophets with their piercing eyes, the twelve apostolic judges, the victorious army of innumerable martyrs whose joy is all the greater insofar as they were cruelly tormented here below. In that place the steadfastness of the confessors of the faith is comforted by receiving its reward. There are to be found those faithful men whose strength of soul could not be softened by the pleasures of this world; those holy women who overcame both their own frailty and this world; the children who, through the way they lived, were raised far above their years; the elderly, whom age did not weaken here below and whose strength for the task did not desert them. Beloved brethren, let us go in search of those pastures where we shall become happy in the company of so many saints.

maronite readings – rosary,team