Thursday, June 24, 2010

Nativity of St John the Baptist - click to read


The Lord called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name. (Isa 49:1)
...the mystery of John is being fulfilled in the world until the present. The spirit and the power of John must first fill the soul of whoever is destined to believe in Christ Jesus, “to prepare for the Lord a people well-disposed” (Lk 1:17) and to “make ready the way of the Lord, [to] clear him a straight path” (Lk 3:5) in the roughness of their heart. Not only at that time were “the windings … made straight and the rough ways smooth”; rather, the spirit and the power of John still go before the Lord and Savior’s coming today. Oh greatness of the Lord’s mystery and of his plan for the world!...(Origen 'Homilies on St. Luke')

..As soon as ever thou hast delivered thyself up to God with thy whole heart, and neither seekest this nor that for thine own pleasure or will, but wholly placest thyself in Him, thou shalt find thyself united to Him, and at peace, for nothing will relish so well, and please thee so much, as the good pleasure of the divine will..(The Imitation of Christ, Bk 4)

Remember, Lord, my resting place
Is in Thy holy Will;
Within the shelter of Thine arms
My soul shall fear no ill.
If Thou shouldst sleep, and sudden storm
Arise, I'll not forsake
My peaceful haven; O prepare
My soul ere Thou awake! (St Therese 'Poems')