Sunday, June 2 : Saint Gregory the Great

It is justly promised by the Lord that the Spirit «will teach you all things» because, unless the Spirit is present in the heart of a listener, the teacher’s utterance is useless. No one should attribute to his teacher what he understands from him, because unless there is an inner teacher, the one outside is exerting himself in vain. You all hear equally the single voice of the person speaking and yet you each have a different perception of the meaning… Teachers possess fiery tongues, because when they preach out of love for God they enflame the hearts of their hearers. A teacher’s utterance is useless if it cannot provide the flame of love. The men who said: «Were not our hearts burning within us as he spoke to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us» (Lk 24,32) received this fire of teaching from the mouth of the Truth himself. When words are clearly heard the mind is set on fire, numbness and cold recede, the heart becomes solicitous in its desire for heavenly things on high and strange to earthly desires. The true love which fills it torments it to the point of tears… It gladly listens to the heavenly precepts and instructed by the commandments it is as if it were being set on fire by so many torches. A heart once made torpid afterwards burns with the words it hears… set on fire with the torches of an interior love. A word is brought to their ears, and their hearts glow within them and are consumed by the flames of inner delight.
maronite readings – rosary,team