Tuesday, November 25 : Saint Gregory Nazianzen

The place before the great sanctuary in which you will stand immediatelly after your baptism symbolizes the glory of the world to come. The singing of psalms with which you will be received is a prelude to the hymns of heaven. The lamps you will light prefigure that great procession of lights in which we shall go to meet the Bridegroom with the bright lamps of faith, our souls radiant and pure. Very careful shall we be not to fall asleep, in case the awaited One should arrive unexpectedly. Nor shall we come without the oil of good works, for fear of being excluded from the bridal chamber… Swiftly the Bridegroom will enter and the wise will go in with him, but the foolish will be shut out because when it was time to enter they were still busy preparing themselves. They will lament bitterly when they learn too late the penalty for their carelessness… In another way, they resemble the guests who failed to attend the wedding feast a noble father gave for a noble bridegroom. One did not come because he had recently married, another because he had just bought a field, a third because he had bought a yoke of oxen… There is no place in heaven for the arrogant and careless, nor yet for one dressed in rags instead of a wedding garment, even though while on earth such a one may think himself fit for the resplendence of the world to come and, deceived by vain hopes, slip in among the faithful without their knowledge. What will the next world be like? Once we are within the Bridegroom knows what he will teach the souls that have entered with him, and how he will be united with them. I believe that he will live with them and teach them yet higher and holier mysteries.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team