One Minute Reflection – 3 August – Friday of the Seventeenth week in Ordinary Time, Year C, Gospel: Matthew 13:54–58 and The Memorial of St Eusebius of Vercelli (c 283-371)
Is not this the carpenter’s son?…And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.…Matthew 13:55,58
REFLECTION – “For if I do not understand the nature placed at my service, I discern Your goodness from the mere fact that it is there to serve me. I perceive that I do not even understand myself but I wonder at You all the more… You have given me intellect, life and human feeling, the source of so many joys, yet I do not begin to understand how I began to be…
So it is through failing to understand what surrounds me, that I grasp what You are and it is through perceiving what You are, that I come to adore You. That is why, in what concerns Your mysteries, my incomprehension, lessens not a bit my faith in Your omnipotence… Your eternal Son’s birth exceeds even the idea of eternity, it is prior to the times everlasting. Before any other thing that exists, He was Son proceeding from You, O God and Father. He is true God… You have never existed without Him… Before ever time was, You are the eternal Father of Your Sole Begotten One.”…St Hilary (315-368) Bishop of Poitiers, Doctor of the Church
PRAYER – “So long as I enjoy that breath of life granted to me by You, Holy Father, Almighty God, I will proclaim You as God eternal but also as Father eternal. Never will I set myself up as judge of Your almighty power and mysteries, never will I set my limited understanding before the true appreciation of Your infinity, never will I claim You to have existed beforehand without Your Wisdom, Power and Word, God the Only-Begotten, my Lord Jesus Christ. For even though human language is weak and imperfect when it speaks of You, this will not inhibit my mind, to the point of reducing my faith to silence, for lack of words, able to express the mystery of Your being…” (St Hilary) Lord God, You hold out the light of Your Word to those who do not know You. Strengthen in our hearts the faith You have given us, so that no trials may quench the fire Your Spirit kindled within us . Grant that the prayers of St Eusebius of Vercelli, may assist us to grow in love of You. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, one God forever, amen.
AnaStpaul 