9781644135945

The Light of the World
hast for Me must be given to them also. And the joy and glory and blessing which Thou hast
given Me, must be given to them also, that My joy may be made perfect in them.
Who indeed can comprehend “what things God hath prepared for them that love Him”
(1 Cor 2:9)? All these things have been prepared for us, who are the members of Christ, who
are members of His spouse, the Church.
O marvelous mystery of our union with Christ through baptism and the Holy Eucharist! O
marvelous mystery of the communion of saints! “I will that where I am, they also whom Thou
hast given Me may be with Me” ( Jn 17:24). I am the head, you are the members. “I am the vine,
you the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for without
Me you can do nothing. If any one abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall
wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he burneth” ( Jn 15:5 f.).
“Thou hast delivered us, O Lord, from them that afflict us; and hast put them to shame
that hate us. In God shall we glory all the day; and in Thy name we will give praise forever”
(Gradual).
Prayer
Remit, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the sins of Thy people, that by Thy kindness we may be delivered
from the trammels of our sins, in which through our frailty we have become entangled.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Friday
“I will bring back your captivity from all places” (Introit). The time of our exile is drawing to a
close. Our home in heaven awaits us. We are “fellow citizens with the saints, and the domestics
of God” (Eph 2:19). We are “heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:17).
“He will dwell with them and they shall be His people; and God Himself with them shall be
their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and death shall be no more; nor
mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more; for the former things are passed away”
(Apoc 21:3 f.). The time of our imprisonment, the time of our exile, is at an end. We are home
at last. The time of tribulation and trouble, of labor and suffering, is past. The days of our exile
are over, and the way of the cross, which we had to walk in this world, has been completed. We
have entered “into the joy of the Lord” (Mt 25:21), into the land of light and plenty, into the
land of perfect happiness and bliss. We are allowed to join our voices with the redeemed and
with the seraphim and sing “Holy! Holy! Holy!” Our soul sinks in the unfathomable depths of
light and glory. We have regained the inheritance which we lost, the inheritance which Christ
reclaimed for us through His sufferings and death. We have obtained that which “eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man what things God hath prepared
for them that love Him” (1 Cor 2:9).
“Fellow citizens with the saints, and the domestics of God” (Eph 2:19), we are home
at last with God. God Himself is our heaven and our inheritance. “We shall live in Him
and at the same time we shall be the dwellings of God” (St. Augustine). “We shall see
Him as He is,” “face to face” (1 Jn 3:2; 1 Cor 13:12). We shall see God and all things in
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