One Minute Reflection – 22 November – Today’s Gospel: Luke 19:41-44, Thursday of the Thirty-third week in Ordinary Time, Year B and The Memorial of St Cecilia (died 3rd Century) Virgin Martyr
And when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it, saying, “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace!”…Luke 19:41-42
REFLECTION – “I leaned out of the window… The sun was beginning to rise. A great peace reigned over nature. Everything began to wake up – earth, sky, birds. Everything began, little by little, to wake up under God’s order. Everything obeyed His divine laws without complaint or sudden spurts, gently, smoothly, the light as much as the darkness, the blue sky as much as the hard earth covered with morning dew. How good God is, I thought! There is peace everywhere except in the human heart.
And delicately, gently, by means of this sweet and peaceful dawn, God taught me, too, to obey – a very great peace filled my soul. I thought how God alone is good, how all is ordained by Him, how nothing is of importance in what people do or say and how, where I am concerned, there must be nothing else in the world but God. God who will arrange everything for my good. God who causes the sun to rise each morning, who makes the ice melt, who cause the birds to sing and changes the clouds of heaven in a thousand soft colours. God who offers me a little corner on this earth for prayer, who gives me a little corner in which to wait for what I hope.
God is so good to me that, in the silence, He speaks to my heart and teaches me, little by little, sometimes in tears, always with the cross, to detach myself from creatures, not to look for perfection except in Him and showing me Mary and saying to me : “Here is the only perfect creature, you will find in her the love and charity you fail to find in men. What are you complaining about, Brother Raphael? Love me; suffer with me, it is I, Jesus!”... St Raphael Arnaiz Baron (1911-1938)
PRAYER – Lord our God, in Your mercy listen to our prayers! Teach us the peace of Your love. Guide us in the ways of Your Commandments. Let the path laid out by Your Son, be our Light and our Joy. Grant that by the prayers of Your Martyr, St Cecilia and all Your Saints, we may receive strength for our journey. Through Jesus our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, God for all eternity, amen.
AnaStpaul 