Monday, October 17 : Isaac the Syrian

O Lord, make me worthy of renouncing my own life for the life that is yours. The life of this world is like that of those who serve as letters for making up words. But the life of the world to come is like something written without a single mistake in books sealed with the royal seal in which there is nothing to add and nothing missing. And so, so long as we are in the midst of change, let us pay attention to ourselves. So long as we have control over the manuscript of our lives, over what we have written with our own hands, let us strive to add to it whatever good we have done and erase the mistakes of our former behavior. So long as we are in this world God does not set his seal on either good or evil. He does so only at the moment of our passing when our work has been accomplished, at the time we are about to leave. As Saint Ephrem says: we must imagine our souls as being like a ship ready for the voyage but not knowing when the wind will come, or like an army that does not know when the trumpet will sound to call to battle. If this is what he says about the ship and the army waiting for something that will possibly never happen, how much more should we not prepare ourselves before that day comes suddenly, before the bridge is lowered and the harbor of the new world opened. May Christ, the mediator of our life, grant we may be ready.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team