One Minute Reflection – 12 June – “Month of the Sacred Heart” – Friday of the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year A, Readings: 1 Kings 19:9, 11-16, Psalm 27:7-9, 13-14, Matthew 5:27-32
“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.” … Matthew 5:29
REFLECTION – “As the degree of innocence increases, faith becomes more advanced. For we are advised to be free, not only from our own particular faults but also from those things, which affect us outwardly. For is it not because of sin, that the bodily members were condemned in the first place? The right eye is no less sinister than the left. It is pointless to chastise a foot that is unaware of lust and thus involves no grounds for punishment. But our members indeed do differ from each other while we are all one body. We are here being advised to pluck out inordinate loves or friendships, if they are the occasion that leads us further into wrongdoing. We would do well, to not even have the benefit of a member, like an eye or a foot, if it furnishes the avenue, by which one is drawn by excessive affections into a partnership with hell. Even the cutting away of a member might be beneficial, if the heart (figuratively speaking), were also able to be cut away. But, if the impulse of the heart is left unchanged, the cutting away of a member would be pointless.” … St Hilary of Poitiers (315-368) Father and Doctor of the Divinity of Christ – On Matthew, Ch 4
PRAYER – Yours is the day and Yours, the night, Lord God and we are Your children. Grant we pray, that the weakness of our humanity, the drive of our emotions and flesh may not overpower us. Lead us Lord, through the dangers of our day, give us strength and true love, wishing only, our final home, for those who share our lives, especially our spouse. Mary, pray for us, that we may imitate your faithfulness in all things. We make our prayer through Christ our Lord, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever, amen.
AnaStpaul 