Monday, October 3 : Saint Gregory of Nyssa

This is one of the Lord’s great precepts: that his disciples should shake off everything earthly as though it were dust… so as to let themselves be carried heavenward in one great impetus. He exhorts us to overcome sleep, to seek what is above (Col 3:1), to keep our spirits constantly on the alert and cast from our eyes seductive sleepiness. I’m talking about that torpor and lethargy that lead people into error and fabricate the images of dreams: honor, wealth, power, grandeur, pleasure, success, profit or prestige… So as to forget such dreams, our Lord asks us to rise above this heavy sleep: don’t let us allow reality to vanish in a frantic pursuit of nothingness. He asks us to keep watch: “Gird your loins and light your lamps” (Lk 12:35).The light that dazzles our eyes casts out sleep, the belt that clasps our waist keeps our body alert. It expresses a striving that does not tolerate any torpor. How clear the meaning of this image is! To gird ones loins with temperance is to live in the light of a pure conscience. The lighted lamp of sincerity lightens one’s face, makes the truth break forth, keeps the soul awake, makes it impermeable to falsity and foreign to the futility of our feeble dreams. Let us live according to Christ’s demands and we will share the life of angels. For he unites us to them in this precept: “Be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks” (Lk 12:36). They are the ones who are seated by the gates of heaven with watchful eye so that the King of glory (Ps 23[24]:7) may pass through on his return from the wedding.

maronite readings – rosary,team