One Minute Reflection -20 May – “We will come and make our home with him.”

One Minute Reflection -20 May – Monday of the fifth Week of Easter, C, Gospel: John 14:21–26 and the Memorial of St Bernadine of Siena OFM. (1380-1444)

“We will come to him and make our dwelling with him”…John 14:24

REFLECTION – “My Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.”   Consider, dearly beloved, how great this solemnity is, that commemorates the coming of God as a guest in our hearts.   If some rich and powerful friend were to enter your home, you would quickly clean the entire house, for fear something there, might offend your friend’s eyes, when he entered.   Let anyone then who is preparing his inner house for God, cleanse away the dirt of his evil deeds.

You see what Truth tells us – “We will come and make our home with him.”   He does indeed enter the hearts of some but does not make His home there, because through repentance, they acquire respect for God but during a time of temptation, they forget that they have repented and so return to committing sins, as if they had never wept over them at all.   The Lord comes into the heart and makes His home in one, who truly loves God and observes His commandments, since the love of His divine nature, so penetrates him that he does not turn away from it during times of temptation.   That person loves truly, whose heart does not consent to be overcome by wicked pleasures…   Hence the following clarification – “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.”   Dearly beloved, enter into yourselves and inquire if you truly love God.    But let no-one believe the answer his heart gives in his own case, apart from the testimony of his works….St Pope Gregory the Great (540-604) Doctor of the Church Homilies on the Gospels no 30.

PRAYER – Lord, by Your grace, we are made one in mind and heart.   Give us a love for what You command and a longing for what You promise, so that, amid this world’s changes, our hearts may be set on the world of lasting joy.   May the angels and saints intercede for us and may our Mother, the Mother of God, be a constant assistant and guiding hand.   We make our prayer, through our Lord Jesus Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God with You, forever and ever, amen.

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Our Morning Offering – 20 May – Most Holy Virgin, I Choose You this Day

Our Morning Offering – 20 May – ‘Mary’s Month’ – Monday of the Fifth week of Easter, C and the Memorial of Saint Bernadine of Siena OFM (1380-1444)

Most Holy Virgin, I Choose You this Day
By St Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Doctor of the Church

Most Holy Mary, Virgin Mother of God,
I am unworthy to be your servant.
Yet moved by your motherly care for me
and longing to serve you,
I choose you this day to be my Queen,
my Advocate and my Mother.
I firmly resolve ever
to be devoted to you
and to do what I can
to encourage others
to be devoted to you.
My loving Mor,
through the Precious Blood
of your Son shed for me,
I beg you to receive me
as your servant forever.
Aid me in my actions
and beg for me the grace
never by thought, word or deed
to be displeasing in your sight
and that of your most holy Son.
Remember me, dearest Mother,
and do not abandon me
at the hour of death.
Amen

Thought for the Day – 19 May – The New Commandment

Thought for the Day – 19 May – The Fifth Sunday of Easter, C

The New Commandment

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another…. John 13:34

Saint Augustine (354-430)
Bishop and Great Western Father of the Church

An excerpt from his Tractates on the Gospel of John, 65.

A new commandment I give you, that you love one another.   This commandment that He is giving them is a new one, the Lord Jesus tells His disciples.   Yet was it not contained in the Old Law, where it is written – you shall love your neighbour as yourself?   Why does the Lord call it new when it is clearly so old?   Or is the commandment new because it divests us of our former selves and clothes us with the new man?   Love does indeed renew the man who hears, or rather obeys its command but, only that love which Jesus distinguished from a natural love, by the qualification – As I have loved you.

This is the kind of love that renews us.   When we love as He loved us, we become new men, heirs of the new covenant and singers of the new song.   My brothers, this was the love that even in bygone days renewed the holy men, the patriarchs and prophets of old. In later times it renewed the blessed apostles and now it is the turn of the Gentiles.  From the entire human race throughout the world this love gathers together into one body a new people, to be the bride of God’s only Son.   She is the bride of whom it is asked in the Song of Songs:   Who is this who comes clothed in white?   White indeed are her garments, for she has been made new and the source of her renewal, is none other, than this new commandment.

And so all her members make each other’s welfare their common care.   When one member suffers, all the members suffer with him and if one member is glorified, all the rest rejoice.   They hear and obey the Lord’s words – a new commandment I give you, that you love one another, not as men love one another for their own selfish ends, nor merely on account of their common humanity but because they are all gods and sons of the Most High.   They love one another as God loves them, so that they may be brothers of His only Son.   He will lead them to the goal that alone will satisfy them, where all their desires will be fulfilled.   For when God is all in all, there will be nothing left to desire.

This love is the gift of the Lord who said – as I have loved you, you also must love one another.   His object in loving us, then, was to enable us to love each other.   By loving us Himself, our mighty head has linked us all together, as members of His own body, bound to one another by the tender bond of love.

One Minute Reflection – 19 May – ‘What has He loved in us if not God? ‘

One Minute Reflection – 19 May – The Fifth Sunday of Easter, C, Gospel: John 13:31-35

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another,
even as I have loved you, that you also love one another….“…John 13:34

REFLECTION – “For what do they love, those who love their neighbour with a pure, spiritual love, if not God?   This is the love the Lord wants to distinguish from a purely natural affection when He adds:  “As I have loved you”.   What has He loved in us if not God?   Not God as we possess Him now but as He wants us to possess Him where “God will be all in all.”   Doctors love their patients because of the health they want to give them, not because of their sickness.   “Love one another as I have loved you”.   This is why He has loved us – so that we, in our turn, might love one another.”…St Augustine (354-430) Doctor and Great Western Father of the Church – Sermons on Saint John’s Gospel, 65

PRAYER – Almighty God and Father, Your ways are not our ways, teach us to willingly agree to them, for You know which way we should go. Help us to say “yes” always to Your plan and to render ourselves, as a sacrament of Your divine love to all we meet. Fill us with the grace to be Your tools, to bring glory to Your kingdom.   Our Father, who art in heaven, may Your Will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.   Mary Mother of God, Mother of Faith, pray for us!   Through our Our Lord Jesus Christ with You, in the union of the Holy Spirit, one God forever, amen.

Our Morning Offering – 18 May – O Blessed Lady, Mediatrix and Advocate

Our Morning Offering – 18 May – ‘Mary’s Month” – Saturday Fourth Week of Easter, C

O Blessed Lady,
Mediatrix and Advocate
By St Bernard (1090-1153)

Our Mediatrix and Advocate
O blessed Lady,
you found grace,
brought forth the Life,
and became the Mother of Salvation.
May you obtain the grace for us to go to the Son.
By your mediation,
may we be received by the One
who through you, gave Himself to us.
May your integrity compensate with Him
for the fault of our corruption;
and may your humility,
which is pleasing to God,
implore pardon for our vanity.
May your great charity
cover the multitude of our sins;
and may your glorious fecundity
confer on us a fecundity of merits.
Dear Lady,
our Mediatrix and Advocate,
reconcile us to your Son,
recommend us to Him,
and present us to your Son.
By the grace you found,
by the privilege you merited,
by the mercy you brought forth,
obtain for us the following favour,
O blessed Lady.
Amen

Our Morning Offering – 15 May – Mother of Mercy

Our Morning Offering – 15 May – ‘Mary’s Month” – Wednesday of the Fourth week of Easter, C

Mother of Mercy
By St Bonaventure (1217-1274)
Serpahic Doctor

Virgin full of goodness,
Mother of Mercy,
I entrust to you my body and soul,
my thoughts, my actions,
my life and my death.
O my Queen, help me,
and deliver me from all
the snares of the devil.
Obtain for me the grace
of loving my Lord Jesus Christ,
your Son,
with a true and perfect love,
and after him, O Mary,
to love you with all my heart
and above all things.
Amen

One Minute Reflection – 14 May – Saint Matthias, the witness to the resurrection chosen by God

One Minute Reflection – 14 May – Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter, C, First Reading: Acts of the Apostles 1:15-17.20-26. and the Feast of St Matthias, Apostle of Christ

“During those days Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers and spoke.”…Acts 1:15

REFLECTION – “Because he is fervent and is the senior member of the group, he is always the first to speak:   “My brothers, it is necessary we choose one of the men who accompanied us.”   Note how he wants these new apostles to be eyewitnesses.   No doubt, the Holy Spirit would come and yet Peter placed a great deal of importance on this point – “One of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us” (v.21).   He indicates that they must have lived with Him and not just been disciples.   For in fact, in the beginning, many people followed Him… “Until the day when he was taken up from us.   He must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” (v.22)

Peter did not say: “a witness to everything else” but only – “a witness to his resurrection.” For a disciple who could say, “Someone who ate and drank and was crucified was the same who was raised” would be more worthy of credence.   Therefore,it was not necessary that he should be a witness to the times beforehand, nor to those that followed, nor to the miracles.   What was required of him was that he should be a witness to the resurrection. Everything else had been manifest and proclaimed, whereas the resurrection took place in secret.   It was manifested only to a few.”…St John Chrysostom (345-407) Bishop of Constantinople, Doctor of the Church – 3rd sermon on the Acts of the apostles ; PG 60, 33 (trans. breviary 14/05)

PRAYER – Lord God, You chose St Matthias to complete the number of the twelve. By his prayer, include us among Your chosen ones, since we rejoice to see that the lot marked out for us, is in Your Love. Through Jesus the Christ, our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, God now and forever, amen.