Thursday, February 2 : Saint Sophronius of Jerusalem

Let us go to meet Christ, all we who fervently honour and venerate his mystery; let us make our way towards him with all our hearts. Let everyone without exception take part in this encounter and let all bring their lights along with them. If our candles give off such brightness it is first of all to demonstrate the divine radiance of he who comes, he who makes the whole world resplendent and bathes it in an everlasting light, scattering the darkness of evil. But it is also, and above all, to show with what brightness of soul we ourselves should go to meet Christ. Indeed, just as the Mother of God, the most pure Virgin, bore the true light in her arms to meet “those who lay in darkness” (cf Is 9,1; Lk 1,79), so let us, lit up by their rays and carrying in our hands a light that all can see, make haste to encounter Christ. It is clear this mystery is our own, since “the light came into the world” (Jn 1,9) and shone upon it when it was bathed in shadows and since “the daybreak from on high has visited us” (Lk 1,78)… So let us run together; let us all go to this encounter with God… May we all be illuminated by it, my brethren; may we all be made radiant by it. May none of us remain outside this light like a stranger, nor any one of us insist on staying plunged in the dark. Let us rather go forward into the brightness; let us go radiantly to meet him and receive, together with the aged Simeon, this glorious and everlasting light. Together with him let us rejoice with all our hearts and sing a hymn of thanksgiving to God, the Father of lights (Jas 1,17), who has sent true brightness to us to draw us out of darkness and make us radiant. God’s salvation, “which he has prepared in sight of all the peoples” and manifested for our glory as the new Israel, behold! we, too, “have seen it” (Lk 2,30f.) in our turn, thanks to Christ. And all at once we were set free from the night of our sins just as Simeon, when he saw the Christ, was set free from the bonds of this present life.
maronite readings – rosary,team