One Minute Reflection – 16 September – Today’s Gospel: Mark 8:27–35 – Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B and the Memorial of Sts Cornelius & Cyprian and St Ninian
“If any man would come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross
and follow me.”…Mark 8:34
REFLECTION – “Being one with Christ is our sanctity, and progressively becoming one with him our happiness on earth, the love of the cross in no way contradicts being a joyful child of God. Helping Christ carry his cross fills one with a strong and pure joy, and those who may and can do so, the builders of God’s kingdom, are the most authentic children of God. And so those who have a predilection for the way of the cross by no means deny that Good Friday is past and that the work of salvation has been accomplished. Only those who are being saved, only children of grace, can in fact be bearers of Christ’s cross. Only in union with the divine Head does human suffering take an expiatory power. To suffer and to be happy although suffering, to have one’s feet on the earth, to walk on the dirty and rough paths of this earth and yet to be enthroned with Christ at the Father’s right hand, to laugh and cry with the children of this world and ceaselessly sing the praises of God with the choirs of angels – this is the life of the Christian until the morning of eternity breaks forth.”…St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891-1942)
PRAYER – Look upon us Lord, Creator and Ruler of the whole world, give us the grace to serve You with all our hearts, to take up our cross and follow You, that we may come to know the power of Your love and the forgiveness which You give and You teach. Grant that by the intercession of Sts Cornelius and Cyprian and St Ninian, we may attain the glory of Your kingdom and see You face to face. We make our prayer through Christ our Lord with the Holy Spirit, one God forever, amen.
AnaStpaul 