Sunday, December 18 : Saint Leo the Great
The Incarnation of the Word only contributed to the doing of those things that were done: and the mystery of humankind’s salvation was never, even in the remotest age, at a standstill. What the apostles foretold, the prophets announced: nor were those things fulfilled too late which had always been believed. But the wisdom and goodness of God made us all the more receptive of his call… as the foretelling of it had been ancient and oft-repeated. And so it was no new counsel, no tardy pity whereby God took thought for us, but from the foundation ofl the world he ordained one and the same cause of Salvation for all. For the grace of God, by which the whole body of the saints is continually made righteous, was increased, not initiated, when Christ was born. And this mystery of God’s great love, with which the whole world is now filled, was so effectively pre-signified that those who believed the promise obtained no less than those who were the actual recipients. And so, dearly beloved, since that loving-kindness is now manifest with which all the wealth of divine goodness has been showered on us, whose call to eternal life has been promoted, not only by the supportive example of those who went before us but by the visible and bodily appearance of Truth itself, we are bound to keep the day of our Lord’s nativity with a joy beyond this world… By the illumination of the Holy Spirit consider who it was who received us into himself and whom we have received, since as the Lord Jesus became our flesh by being born, so we also became his body by being re-born… For God suggested to us the standard of his own gentleness and humility… Let us imitate his humility, then, to whose glory we would wish to be conformed. He himself will help us and lead us to what he has promised.
maronite readings – rosary,team
