Sunday, March 24 : Saint Theodore the Studite

So here we are coming to the holy and great week of the accomplishment of the sufferings of Christ, and again we learn how, how many times, when and how much the Lord of Glory has humbled himself for us (1 Co 2 , 8), our God and our Creator. In truth, we are fully illuminated each time we penetrate this mystery. Indeed, what soul of stone is not seized with compunction and would not bend in learning that the Lord is delivered by a disciple to the hands of the impious (cf. AC 2,23)? He is bound by the soldiers, led to court. He is condemned; Him, the truth, he hears himself called an Imposter and a charlatan (cf. Mt 27,63), he, the Savior of all, he is hit in the face and he tolerates it; We cover him with spitting and he does not defend himself; as a derision, he is surrounded by the crown of thorns, and He does not reduce to ashes those who dare these outrages; He is clothed in a purple coat like a king and, like a criminal, struck. Finally he is crucified, pierced with a spear. He tastes death, he who is everyone’s life. And immediately, he resuscitates, thus raising us from our forfeiture, and he puts us up for immutable immortality… What are we going to offer you, because in your inexhaustible goodness, you have considered us such a great price that, far from despising your lost creature, you came to save us by means of an extreme , unspeakable descent? However, you made us strong and you saved us. And of our sinking and unworthy lips, we offer you all the praise and the thanksgiving of which we are capable of. We are urged to seek to imitate your example, to conform to it in big and important things and, just as much, to take it as a model in small and servile things. Because this worthily honors you.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team