Sunday, June 25 : Saint Anthony of Padua

“At your word I will lower the nets.” It is at the command of divine grace and supernatural inspiration that the nets of preaching are to be spread out. Otherwise the preacher wastes his time in lowering the lines of his words. People’s faith is won, not by carefully composed speeches but the grace of a divine vocation… O fruitful humility! When those who so far haven’t caught a thing put their trust in Christ’s word, they catch a great number of fish… “At your word I will lower the nets.” Whenever I lowered them on my own I wanted to keep what belongs to you for myself. It was myself I was preaching and not you; my words, not yours. That’s why I caught nothing. Or if I did catch something, it wasn’t fish but frogs, only good for croaking my own praise… “At your word I will lower the nets.” Running out the net at the word of Jesus Christ means not attributing anything to oneself but all to him; it means practising what one preaches. Then a great number of fish will be caught.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team