Thought for the Day – 24 December – Meditations with Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900)
Meditations for Advent
From “The Devout Year”
By Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900)
“O Clavis David”
“ O Key of David and Sceptre of the house of Israel,
Who openest and no man shutteth
and shuttest and no man openeth;
Ccome and deliver from the prisonhouse,
the captive who sits in darkness and in the shadow of death.”
+1. The Key and the Sceptre, are the symbols of supreme authority; they indicate the sway which the Saviour is to hold over His faithful people and the right which He alone possesses of opening the Gate of Heaven to the children of men and of extending to them the golden sceptre of His mercy and forgiving love.
To me, O Key of David, unworthy though I am, open in Thy Mercy the Door of Heaven; stretch forth to me, all undeserving, the sceptre of Thy favour and Thy love.
+2. Thou shuttest , O Lord and no man opens.
O shut not upon me the Door which will admit me to draw nigh to Thee! Shut not upon me the Door of Thy Mercy and Grace. Shut not the Door which leads me into the inner sanctuary of Thy Love. Shut not the door of that fold wherein Thy favourite children dwell in peace and happiness. Shut not, above all, the Door of Paradise at my last hour!
+3. Come then , O Lord and open to me now, the Door of my captivity. I am a captive to my own self-will; a captive to my want of charity; a captive to my vanity and love of display a captive to my self-indulgence and dislike of mortification; a captive to a thousand faults of which I am scarcely conscious.
Come, O Lord and set the captive free!
I am weak and cannot break my chains, unless I receive from Thee, the necessary strength; Come , O Lord Jesus, Come quickly!
AnaStpaul 