One Minute Reflection – 2 August – “The Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” and the Feast of St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori (1696-1787) Bishop, Confessor, Most Zealous Doctor of the Church – 2 Timothy 2:1-7, Luke 10:1-9 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/
“At that time, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them forth …” – Luke 10:1
REFLECTION – “Our Lord Jesus Christ Ordained the disciples to be guides and teachers of the world and to be “stewards of God’s mysteries” (1Cor 4:1). He also bade them… like lights, to illuminate and give light, not merely to the Jewish people… but everywhere under the sun and to peoples scattered over all the earth (cf Mt 5:14)…
For, if He desired to send His disciples out, even as the Father had sent Him, (Jn 20:21) was it not necessary for those who were destined to imitate His mission, to ascertain what it was that the Father sent the Son to do? In various ways, then, He expounded the character of His mission. And, on one occasion, He said: “I have come to call, not the righteous but sinners, to repentance” (Lk 5:32) and again: “For I have come down from Heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him Who sent Me” (Jn 6:38) and yet, once more: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through Him” (Jn 3:17).
By saying that He is sending them as the Father has sent Him, therefore, He summarised, in a few words, the character of the Apostles’ mission. In this way, they would know that they were bound to call sinners to repentance, to heal the sick, whether of body or soul and in all their dealings as stewards, not by any means to follow their own will but the will of Him Who sent them and, finally, to save the world, insofar as it received the teachings of the Lord.” – St Cyril of Alexandria (380-444) Bishop, Father and Doctor of the Church (Commentary on the Gospel of John 12:1).
PRAYER – O God, Who through blessed Alphonsus Maria, Thy Confessor and Bishop, fired with love for souls, enriched Thy Church with a new family; we beseech Thee that, taught by his saving counsels and strengthened by his example, we may be enabled, happily to come to Thee. Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).
AnaStpaul 