Letter to the Ephesians 2,12-22.
Brothers and sisters: You were at that time without Christ, alienated from the community of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have become near by the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace, he who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh,
abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims, that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two, thus establishing peace,
and might reconcile both with God, in one body, through the cross, putting that enmity to death by it.
He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near,
for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.
Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord;
in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Psalms 85(84),9ab-10.11-12.13-14.
I will hear what God proclaims;
the LORD –for he proclaims peace to his people.
Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,
glory dwelling in our land.
Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.
The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,
and salvation, along the way of his steps.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 12,35-38.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Gird your loins and light your lamps
and be like servants who await their master's return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.
Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.
And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants."
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
Blessed Columba Marmion (1858-1923)
Abbot
Monastic Prayer (Christ the Ideal of the Monk, trans. a nun of Tyburn Convent, Sands & Co., 1934; rev.)
Happy that faithful servant !
When we are faithful to keep habitually the sense of God's presence, the ardor of love is constant; all our activity, even the most ordinary, is not only "kept pure from all stain" (Rule of Saint Benedict, ch. IV) but, moreover, raised to a supernatural level. Our whole life is irradiated with heavenly light "coming down from the Father of lights" (Jas 1:17) and is the secret of strength and joy. This habit of the presence of God disposes the soul for divine visits. It may happen, and to certain souls it happens frequently, that they find a real difficulty in making their prayer at the time assigned: weariness, sleepiness, a state of ill health, distractions, hinder, in appearance, all efforts to attain prayer. This is spiritual dryness. Let the soul, however, remain faithful and do what it can to stay near the Lord, even if it is without sensible fervor: "Yet I am always with you; you take hold of my right hand" (Ps 72[73]:23); God will draw near to it at another moment. It can be said of these visits of the Lord what the Scripture declares of his coming at the close of our earthly life: "You know not at what hour the Lord will come" (Mt 24:42).