One Minute Reflection – 8 May – “Mary’s Month” – Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter, Readings: Acts 16:1-10, Psalm 100:1-3, 5, John 15:18-21
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me first.”- John 15:18
REFLECTION –“I rejoice with you greatly in our Lord Jesus Christ, that you welcomed the copies of true love [Ignatius of Antioch and his companions]…who were encumbered with saintly chains, which are the diadems of those, truly chosen by God and our Lord. And I rejoice because the deep root of your faith, which has been renowned from early times, still lasts and bears fruit to our Lord Jesus Christ, Who for our sins, endured even facing death, and whom “God raised, releasing him from the throes of death” (Acts 2,24). “Though you have not seen him, you believe with unutterable, triumphant joy” (1Pt 1,8)… “He who raised him from the dead will raise us also” (2Cor 4,14), if we do His Will and live by His Commands and love what He loved… Let us be imitators of His endurance and, if we suffer for His sake, let us glorify Him. For He set us this example Himself and this is what we have believed.
So I beg you all, to obey the message of uprightness and to exhibit all endurance, such as you saw with your own eyes, not only in the blessed Ignatius and Zosimus and Rufus but also, in others of your number and in Paul himself and the rest of the Apostles, being assured, that all these “have not run in vain” (Gal 2,2) but in faith and uprightness and, that they are in the place that they have deserved with the Lord, with and for Whom they suffered. For they did not “love the present world” (2Tm 4,10) but Christ, Who died for us and was raised up by God for our sakes.”- St Polycarp (69-155) Apostolic Father, Bishop and Martyr – Letter to the Philippians, 1-2, 8-9
PRAYER – Almighty God, grant that Your faithful, who rejoice in the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, may be delivered from every evil here on earth, put on the armour of Your Son and fight the good faith bearing His standard. Through her prayer and the prayers of Your Angels and Saints, may we come to the enduring joys of heaven. We make our prayer through her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, one God with You, in the union of the Holy Spirit, forever amen.
AnaStpaul 