Monday, November 17 : Symeon the New Theologian

We know well the love you have granted us: love without limit, inexpressible, that nothing can contain. It is light – light inaccessible, light that acts in all things… Indeed, what is there that this light does not do? What is there that it is not? It is delight and joy, sweetness and peace, mercies without number, abyss of compassion. When I possess it I do not notice it; only when it goes away do I see it. I hasten to grasp it and it all flies away. I do not know what to do and spend my strength. I learn to ask and seek for it with tears, in great humility, and not to think that what exceeds nature, what comes from God’s compassion and infinite mercy, is either possible or the result of my own power or human effort… This light leads us by the hand, strengthens and teaches us, revealing itself and then fleeing away when we need it. It is not when we want it to (for that belongs to the perfect) but when we are at our wits end and completely worn out that it comes to our help. It appears from afar and lets me feel it within my heart. I am suffocated with sobbing so greatly do I want to grasp it, but all is night and my poor hands are empty. I forget everything; I sit down and weep, despairing of seeing it again like this. When I have wept heartily and consented to stop, then, having mysteriously come, it holds my face and I dissolve in tears, not knowing who it is who is there illumining my spirit with sweetest light.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team