One Minute Reflection – 17 Octoberber – “The Month of the Most Holy Rosary and of the Angels” – St Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) Virgin – Ephesians 3:8-9, 14-19, Matthew 11:25-30 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/
“For My yoke is sweet and My burden light.” – Matthew 11:30
REFLECTION – “People who complain about the roughness of the Lord’s yoke have possibly not completely rejected, the heavy load of the lusts of the world, or, if they did reject them, they have enslaved themselves to them again, to their greater shame! Outwardly, they carry the yoke of the Lord but inwardly, they submit their shoulders to the burden of the world’s cares. They set on the balance of the Lord’s yoke, the hardships and difficulties which they inflict on themselves… As for the yoke of the Lord – it is “sweet and its burden light”.
Indeed, what is sweeter, what more glorious, than to see oneself lifted up above the world by the scorn one shows it and, seated at the summit of a conscience at peace, to have the whole world at one’s feet? Then, one sees nothing to desire, nothing to fear, nothing to envy, nothing of one’s own which might be taken away, no evil which might be caused one, by another. The eyes of the heart turn towards “an inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled and unfading which is kept for us in Heaven” (1 Pt 1:4). With a sort of greatness of soul, one gives little importance to this world’s goods – they pass away; to the pleasures of the flesh – they are contaminated; to the world’s pomp – it fades and, in one’s joy, one repeats the words of the Prophet: “All mankind is grass and all its glory like the flower of the field; the grass withers, the flower fades but the Word of the Lord remains forever” (Is 40:6-8)… In charity – and nowhere but in charity – dwells true tranquillity and true sweetness, for, it is the yoke of the Lord!” – St Aelred of Rievaulx (1110-1167) Cistercian Monk (The Mirror of charity I:30-31).
PRAYER – O Lord Jesus Christ, Who wondrously revealed the unsearchable riches of Thy Heart to blessed Margaret Mary, the Virgin, grant us, by her merits and through imitating her, to love Thee, in all things and above all things, so that we may be found worthy to possess a lasting dwelling place in Thou Heart itself. 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 