Tuesday, November 1 : Baldwin of Ford

Dearly beloved, let us anxiously attend to all that concerns the profession of our common life, “keeping the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace,” by “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the imparting of the Holy Spirit” (Eph 4,3; 2 Cor 13:13). From the love of God comes the unity of the spirit; from the grace of our Lord Jesu Christ comes the bond of peace; from the imparting of the Holy Spirit comes that communion which is necessary to those who live in common. … “I believe, 0 Lord, in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints” (Credo). This is my hope, this is my trust, this is my confidence, this is the whole of my security in the professing of my faith. … If I am allowed, O Lord, to “love thee and love my neighbor” (Mt 22:37-39), though my merits are small and few, yet will my hopes reach beyond them. I am confident that the merits of the saints will help me by the communion of charity, so that the Communion of Saints will make up for my insufficiency and imperfection. … Let charity expand our hope as far as the Communion of Saints in the sharing of merits and rewards; but the sharing of the latter belongs to the future, for it is the sharing in the glory which shall be revealed in us. Since, then, there are three communions – the first of nature, which includes the sharing of guilt …; the second of grace; and the third of glory. By the communion of grace that of nature begins to be remade and the sharing of guilt to be excluded: but by the communion of glory that of nature will be perfectly restored and the communion of anger will be entirely excluded, when “God will wipe away every tear from the eyes” of the saints (Is 25:8; Rv 21:4). Then among all the saints there will be “one heart and one soul” and “all things will be in common”, when God will be “all in all” (Acts 4:2; 1 Cor 15:28). That we may all arrive at this communion and that we all may be one, “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, and the imparting of the Holy Spirit be with us all for ever. Amen.”
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team