9781644135945

The Light of the World
What is sordid, make Thou pure;
What is wounded, do Thou cure;
Slake now our aridity.
What is rigid, gently bend;
What is frigid, warmly tend;
Strengthen what goes erringly.
Fill Thy faithful who confide
In Thy power to guard and guide,
With Thy sevenfold mystery.
By a devout participation in the Holy Sacrifice, we receive, as the fruit of our work, the forgiveness
of our sins and the remission of the temporal punishment due to sin. As an assurance of
the forgiveness of our sins and of the graces and the help we are to receive, the Lord personally
enters into our souls. “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you again, alleluia; and your
heart shall rejoice, alleluia.”
“And your heart shall rejoice.” This is the characteristic mark of the Christian; he is ever
joyful and thankful to God, who has done such great things for him. Ah, if we could only be fully
aware of the great truth: we are saved. God has taken away our sins. He loves us, and as a guarantee
of His love and forgiveness, He pours forth His Spirit into our soul. “Praise the Lord, O my
soul; in my life I will praise the Lord; I will sing to my God as long as I shall be, alleluia.” From
paralytics we have been made new men through the operation of the Holy Ghost in our soul.
Prayer
O merciful God, suffer not Thy Church, gathered together in the Holy Ghost, to be troubled
by any assault of her enemies. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Ember Saturday
Today we assemble in the church of St. Peter. Just as the Christians of an earlier age offered
tithes of their crops in thanksgiving to God for a bountiful harvest, so we, too, during the final
days of the Easter cycle offer our thanks to God for the rich harvest of spiritual fruits we have
received. For the liturgy this is a day of great festivity (Second lesson), a holy day, a day for
fervent spiritual thanksgiving.
In retrospect. “Brethren, being justified by faith, let us have peace with God, through our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access through faith into this grace wherein we
stand, and glory in the hope of the glory of the sons of God” (Epistle). We have been saved,
we have been reconciled to God. We have been saved, not through any works which we have
performed, not through our own natural powers and efforts, but through the grace of God
which He has given us in baptism. We have been reconciled to God through faith in Jesus
Christ, who was crucified, who rose from the dead, and who redeemed us with His most
precious blood. We are saved; we have been justified. The first result of our justification
is the fact that we are now at peace with God. We can now approach God with ease and
confidence, because we know that He loves us and that nothing can separate us from Him.
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