One Minute Reflection – 17 November – “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”

One Minute Reflection – 17 November – The Thirty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, Luke 21:5–19, The Third World Day of Prayer for the Poor and the Memorial of St Elizabeth of Hungary (1207-1231)

“By your perseverance you will secure your lives.” … Luke 21:19

REFLECTION – “That person has not yet attained perfect love and profound knowledge of Divine Providence who, in time of trial, when affliction befalls, does not have magnanimity but cuts himself off from love for the spiritual brethren.
The aim of Divine Providence is to re-unite by means of right faith and spiritual love, those who were cut asunder and scattered by evil.   It was in order to “gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad” (Jn 11:52) that the Saviour suffered. So, someone who refuses to bear the burden of arduous circumstances and endure sorrows or suffer pain, walks outside the love of God and the aim of Providence.   If “charity is patient and kind” (1Cor 13:4), does not the person who is fainthearted in sorrows, who bears malice against those giving offence, or who severs the love due to them, fall short of the aim of Divine Providence?…   They are long-suffering who await the end of the trial and receive praise for what they have endured.
“Whoever is slow to wrath abounds in wisdom” (Prv 14:29), for such a one, relates all that happens, to the ultimate end and, in its expectation, bears all afflictions.   And the end, says the Apostle, is everlasting life (cf. Rm 6:22).   “And this is eternal life, that they might know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent” (Jn 17:3).” … St Maximus the Confessor (c 580-662) Monk, Theologian, Father – Fourth Century on Love, nos 16-18, 23-24

PRAYER – Holy God and Father, grant us a strong Faith!   Poor Your graces into our hearts that we may believe with all our hearts, minds and souls and that in believing, we may constantly raise our entire being to You in prayer and supplication, in prayer and adoration, in prayer and love.   May the intercession of St Elizabeth of Hungary, a woman of deep prayer from her youth, strengthen our perseverance and trust.   Through Jesus Christ, our Lord in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever, amen.