Thursday, November 3 : Saint Peter Chrysologus

Oh man! why do you despise yourself so, seeing that you are so precious to God? And why do you demean yourself in this way when God honors you by Christ’s birth in our flesh? Why search out how you were made and not enquire what you were made for? Was not this whole dwelling, this world that you see, made for you? For your sake light spreads abroad and causes darkness to fade; for your sake night is ruled and day measured; for you heaven shines with the varied splendors of sun and moon and stars; for you the earth is spangled with flowers, trees and fruits; for you was created this amazing mass of animal life, in the air, the fields, the loveliness of water, so that no dismal solitude should spoil the new world’s joy… Besides this, the Creator seeks out what else he can add to your dignity: he sets his image within you (Gen 1,27) so that your visible image might make present upon earth the invisible Creator, and to you he entrusts the care of earthly goods so that so vast a domain as this is should not be lacking a representative from the Lord… And what God accomplished in you by his power he graciously assumed into himself: he wanted to be truly manifested in the man in whom, hitherto, he had only appeared in image. He enabled man to become in reality what he had only been in mere likeness before… Thus Christ is born to restore all its integrity to fallen nature.
maronite readings – rosary,team