Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Health Vailankanni

In one of the psalms the prophet says: “My soul pines for your salvation; I hope in your word” (119[118]:1) (...) Who is it expressing this ardent desire if not “the chosen race, the royal priesthood, the people set apart for God” (1 Pt 2:9), each in their own day, in each one of those who have lived, are living or will live from humanity's first beginning until the end of the world? (...) That is why our Lord himself says to his disciples: “Many prophets and righteous men have wanted to see what you see.” It is their voice, then, we must recognise in this psalm (...) Their longing has never come to an end in the saints, nor does it end even now in “the Body of Christ, the Church” (Col 1:18) until “the Desired of all nations” comes (Hag 2:8 Vg) (...) So the beginning of the Church's era, before the Virgin had given birth, comprised saints who longed to see Christ's coming in the flesh; and the period where we are now, following the Ascension, comprises other saints who long to see the revealing of Christ to judge the living and the dead. From the beginning to the end of time the Church's longing has never lost its intensity, excepting only when our Lord was alive on earth in the company of his disciples.

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Thursday of the Sixteenth week in Ordinary Time

Saint Augustine (354-430)

"Many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see"

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