One Minute Reflection – 16 December – “The Month of the Divine Infancy and the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary” – St Eusebius of Vercelli (c283-371) Bishop, Confessor – 2 Corinthians 1:3-7; Matthew 16:24-27 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/
“For he who will save his life, will lose it and he who will lose his life, for My sake, will find it. ” – Matthew 16:25
REFLECTION – “I lost myself and was found”
“The one who walks in the love of God seeks neither gain nor reward but seeks only, with the will, to lose self and all things, for God and this loss, the lover judges to be a gain! Thus it is, as St Paul asserts: “For me death is gain” [Phil 1:21], that is, my death to all things and to myself, for Christ, is my spiritual gain. Consequently, the soul declares: “I was found.” The soul who does not know how to lose himself, does not find himself but rather, loses himself, as Our Lord teaches in the Gospel: “For he that will save his life, shall lose it and he that will lose his life for my sake, will find it. ” (Mt 16:25).
Should we desire to interpret this verse more spiritually and in accord with what we are discussing here, it ought to be known that when a soul treading the spiritual road, has reached such a point that he has lost all roads and natural methods, in his communion with God and no longer seeks Him by reflections or forms or feelings or by any other way of creatures and the senses but, has advanced beyond them all and beyond all modes and manners and enjoys communion with God in faith and love, then it is said that God is his gain, because he has certainly lost all that is not God and has truly lost himself.” – St John of the Cross (1542-1591) Carmelite, Doctor of the Church (Spiritual Canticle 29:11).
PRAYER – O God, Who gladden us with the annual festival of blessed Eusebius, Thy Martyr and Bishop, mercifully grant that, as we venerate the anniversary of his Martyrdom, we may also rejoice in his protection.Through 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 