Sunday, January 8 : Blessed Guerric of Igny

“Arise, be enlightened Jerusalem, for your Light has come!” (Is 60,1). Blessed is the Light which has “come in the name of the Lord”, “The Lord is God and has shone upon us” (Ps 118[117],26-27). In virtue of it this day also, you are sanctified by the enlightening of the Church. Thanks be to you, true Light, you that “enlighten every man coming into this world” (Jn 1,9), you who for this very purpose have come into this world as a man. Jerusalem has been enlightened, our mother (Gal 4,26), mother of all those who have deserved to be enlightened, so that she now shines upon all who are in the world. Thanks be to you, true Light, you who have become a lamp to enlighten Jerusalem and to make God’s word “a lamp for my feet” (Ps 118[117],105)… For not only has the Church been enlightened: it has been “raised aloft on a candlestick”, one all of gold (Mt 5,15; Ex 25,31). The city sits on the mountain of mountains (cf. Mt 5,14)… so that its gospel may shine out far and wide, as far and as wide as the world’s empire spreads God, you who give light to all nations, of you we will sing: “Behold the Lord will come and enlighten the eyes of his servants” (cf. Jude 14). Behold, you have come, my Light: “Enlighten my eyes, that I may never fall asleep in death” (Ps 13[12],4)… You have come, O Light of the faithful, and behold you have granted us today to rejoice at the enlightening of faith, that is, of our lamp. Grant us also to rejoice always at the enlightening of the darkness that remains in us… This is the way in which you should advance, O faithful soul, in order that you may cast off the darkness of this world and arrive at your home country of eternal brightness, where “your darkness will be like midday” (Is 58,10) and “night will be lit up like day” (Ps 139[138],12). Then indeed, then “you will see and be radiant, your heart will thrill and rejoice” (Is 60,5), when the whole earth is filled with the majesty of unbounded light and “his glory is seen in you» (Is 60,2)… “Come and let us walk in the light of the Lord!” (Is 2,5); as “children of light” let us walk “from brightness to brightness, as led by the Lord who is Spirit” (2Cor 3,18).

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team