Saturday, February 18 : Saint John Damascene

“From the cloud came a voice that said: ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him!’” (Mt 17,5). Such were the Father’s words as they emanated from the cloud of the Spirit: “This is my beloved Son; this is he who is man and who appears as man. He became man only yesterday and lived humbly among you; now his face shines. This is my beloved Son who was before all the ages. He is the only Son of the only God. Beyond all time and eternally he was begotten by me, the Father. He did not come into existence after me but, from all eternity, he exists from me, in me and with me”… It was through the good pleasure of the Father that his only Son, his Word, became flesh. It was through his good pleasure that the Father fulfilled in his only Son the salvation of the whole world. It was the good pleasure of the Father that brought about the union of all things in his only Son… In truth, it has pleased the Lord of all things, the Creator who rules the universe, to unite divinity and humanity in his only Son and, by its means, every creature “so that God may be all in all” (1Cor 15,28). “This is my beloved Son, ‘the refulgence of my glory, the very imprint of my being’ through whom I have created even the angels, through whom the heavens were consolidated and the earth established. ‘He upholds the universe by his mighty word’” (cf. Heb 1,3) and by the breath of his mouth, namely the Spirit who guides us and gives us life. Listen to him, for whoever receives him, receives me (Mk 9,37) who sent him, not by virtue of my sovereign power but as a father. For he was sent insofar as he is man, but insofar as he is God he abides in me and I in him… Listen to him, for he has the words of eternal life” (Jn 6,68).
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team