One Minute Reflection – 23 June – “Month of the Sacred Heart” – Readings: Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18, Psalms 105: 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9, Matthew 7: 15-20
“By their fruits, you shall know them.” – Matthew 7:20
REFLECTION – “Try to gather together more frequently to give thanks to God and to praise Him. For when you come together frequently, Satan’s powers are undermined, and the destruction he threatens, is destroyed in the unanimity of your faith. Nothing is better than peace, in which all warfare between heaven and earth is brought to an end.
None of this will escape you if you have perfect faith and love toward Jesus Christ. These are the beginning and the end of life – faith the beginning, love the end. When these two are found together, there is God and everything else concerning right living follows from them. No-one professing faith sins; no-one possessing love hates. “A tree is known by its fruit.” So those who profess to belong to Christ will be known by what they do. For the work we are about, is not a matter of words here and now but depends on the power of faith and on being found faithful to the end.
It is better to remain silent and to be, than to talk and not be. Teaching is good if the teacher also acts. Now there was one teacher who “spoke, and it was made” (Ps 33:9) and even what He did in silence, is worthy of the Father. He who has the word of Jesus can truly listen also to His silence in order to be perfect, that he may act through his speech and be known by his silence. Nothing is hidden from the Lord but even our secrets are close to Him. Let us then do everything, in the knowledge, that He is dwelling within us, so that we may be His temples and He may be God within us.” – St Ignatius of Antioch (c 35-c 108) Bishop and Martyr, Apostolic Father of the Church – Letter to the Ephesians, 13-15
PRAYER – God our Father, You open the gates of the kingdom of heaven to those who are born again of water and the Holy Spirit. Increase the grace You have given, so that the people who have been purified from all sin, may not forfeit the promised blessing of Your love. Grant that the Holy Spirit may ever guide and bear us in His inspiration. We make our pray through Christ, our Lord, in union with You and the Holy Spirit, one God forever, amen
O HEART of love, I place all my trust in Thee; for though I fear all things from my weakness, I hope all things from Thy mercies. – Ejaculation of Saint Margaret Mary – Indulgence 300 Days, Everytime – Raccolta 180 St Pius X, 3 June 1908.