Tuesday, August 11 : Saint Claude la Colombière

You may well believe that there is no one in the world, neither friend nor brother, father or mother, husband or fiancé who loves you more than your God loves you. Divine grace is that treasure of great price, that boundless treasure of which the wise man speaks, which, as soon as we use it, makes us participants in friendship with God (cf. Wis 7:14). In God’s sight we were only miserable creatures, poor servants, and now we become friends, beloved friends of our Creator himself! Precisely so as to make us more at ease with him, he emptied himself (cf. Phil 2:7), so to speak, humbling himself so far as to become man in order to converse familiarly with men (cf. Bar 3:38). Even this was not enough: he became a child, became poor, he even let himself be put to death on a cross, by a miscarriage of justice, before a whole people. Even more, he went so far as to put himself under the species of bread so as to make himself our companion each day and unite himself in close union with each one of us: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood,” he said, “remains in me and I in him” (Jn 6:56). In sum, one could say that he has no love but for you, he loves you so much. Therefore it is him you should love and no other. Of him you could and should say “My Beloved is mine and I am his” (Sg 2:16); my God has given himself without reserve and, without reserve, I give myself to him; he has chosen me as the object of his tenderness and he, among thousands, he, the radiant and ruddy one (Sg 5:10), so loveable and so loving, he is the chosen of my heart, the only one I wish to love.

maronite readings – rosary,team