Thought for the Day – 26 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 Rex Gentium”
“O King of the nations and desired of them
and the Cornerstone which maketh both one,
Come and save man, whom Thou didst form of dust.”
+1. Never was there a king who had such a claim to sovereignty as Christ Our Lord. He is King by Divine appointment and His own right.
He is King by the consentient voice of His subjects and by the right of conquest.
He is King by reason of His having purchased us with His Own Blood.
What unnumbered claims He has on me! and besides all the rest, does He not deserve to reign supreme by reason of His having won me by His Love?
+2. Christ was desired by all nations, long before they knew Him Whom they desired. The heathen world felt a craving want which it could not define but which was the desire for the Saviour, Who should free them from the bondage of sin. So now, men of goodwill, outside the Church, feel something of the same strange longing.
Nothing will satisfy it save submission to their King by union with His Mystical Body, the Church of God. Oh, how happy am I, whose desires are fulfilled, in that I am no alien but a servant of that King, Whom to serve, is my own desire!
+3. Christ is the Cornerstone which maketh both one; the King of peace, Whose work it is to unite together, those who love Him in the unity of mutual love of one another, for His sake. Thus He desires that I should be united to those around me that there should be no dissension or disunion.
Do I ,in this, fulfil the pleasure of my King?
AnaStpaul 