Wednesday, December 6 : Saint Paulinus of Nola

“What do you have that you have not received?” St. Paul says to us (1Cor. 4,7). So let us not be greedy of our goods as though they belonged to us…They have been entrusted to our care; we have the use of a wealth in common, not the eternal possession of a personal good. If you acknowledge that this good is yours only for a time here below, you will be able to gain a possession in heaven that will never end. Remember the servants in the gospel who had received some talents from their master and what the master, on his return, rendered to each of them. You will then understand that to place your money on the Lord’s table to make it bear fruit is far more profitable than to preserve it in fruitless faithfulness without its returning anything back to its creditor, to the great loss of the useless servant whose punishment will be all the more heavy… Let us then loan to the Lord the goods we have received from him. Indeed, we possess nothing that is not a gift from the Lord and we exist only because he wills it. What is there we could think of as our own since, by reason of an enormous and exceptional debt, we do not belong to ourselves? For God created us but he has also redeemed us. Let us be thankful, then; redeemed at great price, the price of the Lord’s blood, we are no longer worthless things…Let us return to the Lord what he has given us. Let us give to Him, who receives in the person of every poor man. Let us give with joy that we may receive from him in gladness, as he has promised.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team