Celebrating the Seasons. Robert Atwell
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it seems to us that we are nearly forsaken and cast away because of our sin – and deservedly so. Because of the humility we acquire this way we are exalted in the sight of God by his grace, and know a very deep contrition and compassion and a genuine longing for God. Then suddenly we are delivered from sin and pain, and raised to blessedness and even made great saints!
Our courteous Lord does not want his servants to despair even if they fall frequently and grievously. Our falling does not stop his loving us. Peace and love are always at work in us, but we are not always in peace and love. But he wants us in this way to realise that he is the foundation of the whole of our life in love, and furthermore that he is our eternal protector, and mighty defender against our enemies who are so very fierce and wicked. And, alas, our need is all the greater since we give them every opportunity by our failures.
Tuesday after 5 before Lent
A Reading from a homily of Basil the Great
‘Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’ This is why the commandments of our Lord trouble the rich, demanding of them a life that is impossible to live unless they dispense with useless goods.
Your heart will be weighed in the balance and found to be inclined either toward true life or toward present pleasures. It is in stewardship and not in pleasure that one ought to use riches: such ought to be the conviction of those who reason wisely. In giving up wealth they ought to rejoice, convinced that this will be beneficial for others, instead of being tormented by the loss of their own fortune. Why this chagrin? Why this mourning at the injunction to ‘Sell what you have’? It is these same goods which will follow you into eternity. Overshadowed by the glory of heaven, they are not worth eagerly retaining in this life. Since you must leave them here, why not sell them and bring the profits with you to heaven? After all, when you spend gold to buy a horse, you experience no suffering. But at the idea of exchanging corruptible goods for the kingdom of heaven, you cry and repel the offer, refuse to proceed, inventing the pretext of a thousand expenses.
What are you going to tell the judge, you who cover your walls but do not cover the human being? You who adorn your horses and then loudly mock your brother in rags? You who are able to leave alone both your wheat and those who are starving? You who bury your gold and scorn those who are strangled?
Wednesday after 5 before Lent
A Reading from an Introduction to the Devout Life by Francis de Sales
Before we can receive the grace of God into our hearts they must be thoroughly emptied of self-glory. Humility repulses Satan and preserves in us the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit.
If you would know whether a person is truly wise, learned and generous, observe whether his gifts make him humble, modest and open. If so, the gifts are genuine. If they swim on the surface, however, always seeking attention, then they are less than true.
If we stand upon our dignity about places, or precedence, or how we should be addressed, besides exposing ourselves and our gifts to scrutiny and possible contradiction, we render those same gifts unattractive and contemptible. Honour is beautiful when it is freely bestowed: it becomes ugly when it is exacted or sought after.
The pursuit and love of virtue begins a process by which we become virtuous; but the pursuit and love of honour will make us contemptible and open to ridicule. Generous minds do not need the amusement of such petty toys as rank, honour and obsequious greetings; they have better things to do. Such baubles are only important to degenerate spirits.
It is said that the surest way of attaining to the love of God is to dwell on his mercies; the more we value them, the more we shall love God. Certainly, nothing can so humble us before the compassion of God as the contemplation of the abundance of his mercies; and nothing so humble us before his justice as the abundance of our misdeeds. Let us, then, reflect upon all that God has done for us, and all that we have done against him. And as we enumerate our sins, let us also count his mercies.
Thursday after 5 before Lent
A Reading from The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity by Richard Hooker
God is himself the teacher of the truth, whereby is made known the supernatural way of salvation and law for them to live in that shall be saved.
This supernatural way had God in himself prepared before all worlds. The way of supernatural duty which to us God hath prescribed, our Saviour in the Gospel of St John doth note, terming it by an excellency, the work of God: ‘This is the work of God, that ye believe in him whom he hath sent.’ Not that God doth require nothing unto happiness at the hands of men saving only a naked belief (for hope and charity we may not exclude) but that without belief all other things are as nothing, and it is the ground of those other divine virtues.
Concerning faith, the principal object whereof is that eternal verity which hath discovered the treasures of hidden wisdom in Christ; concerning hope, the highest object whereof is that everlasting goodness which in Christ doth quicken the dead; concerning charity, the final object whereof is that incomprehensible beauty which shineth in the countenance of Christ the Son of the living God. Concerning these virtues, the first of which beginning here with a weak apprehension of things not seen, endeth with the intuitive vision of God in the world to come; the second beginning here with trembling expectation of things far removed and as yet but only heard of, endeth with real and actual fruition of that which no tongue can express; the third beginning here with a weak inclination of heart towards him unto whom we are not able to approach, endeth with endless union, the mystery whereof is higher than the reach of the thoughts of men; concerning that faith, hope, and charity, without which there can be no salvation, was there ever any mention made saving only in that law which God himself hath from heaven revealed? There is not in the world a syllable muttered with certain truth concerning any of these three, more than hath been supernaturally received from the mouth of the eternal God.
Friday after 5 before Lent
A Reading from a treatise entitled The Teacher by Clement of Alexandria
Our Teacher is the holy God Jesus, the Word, who is the guide of all humanity: God himself, who loves us, is our Teacher.
In a song in Scripture the Holy Spirit says of him: ‘He provided for the people in the wilderness. He led them through the desert in the thirst of the summer heat, and instructed them. He guarded them as the apple of his eye. As an eagle hovers over her nest, and protects her young, spreading out her wings, rising up, and bearing them on her back, so the Lord alone was their leader. No strange god was with them.’ In my opinion, Scripture is offering us here a picture of Christ the Teacher of children, and is describing the sort of guidance he imparts. Indeed, when he speaks in his own person, he confesses himself to be the Teacher: ‘I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’ Who has the power to lead us if not our Teacher?
He is the one who appeared to Abraham and said to him: ‘I am your God; be pleasing before me.’ He formed him by a gradual process into a faithful child, as any good teacher would, saying: ‘Be blameless; and I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your descendants.’ What is being offered is a share in the Teacher’s friendship. Who, then, could train us more lovingly than Christ? Formerly, God’s ancient people had an old covenant; the law disciplined the people with fear, and the word was an angel. But the new and young people of God have received a new and young covenant: the Word has become flesh, fear has been turned into love, and the mystic angel has been born – Jesus.
Formerly, this same Teacher said: ‘Fear the Lord your God.’ But now he says to us: ‘Love the Lord your God.’ That is why he tells us: ‘Cease from your own works, from your old sins’; ‘Learn to do good; love justice and hate iniquity.’ This is my new covenant written in the old letter. Thus, the newness of the word must not be made ground for reproach. For the Lord says through Jeremiah: ‘Say not, “I am too young.” Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you.’ Perhaps this prophetic word refers to us: before the foundation of the world we were known by God as those destined for the faith, but we are still only infants.