9781644135945

The Light of the World
of the special guidance and providence of God, which saves us from the insidious plots of the
devil and from sin, and gives us courage and power to continue in the performance of good
deeds. It helps us to perform acts pleasing to God and to bring forth more abundantly the fruits
of the Holy Ghost: charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness,
faith, modesty, continency, chastity (Gal 5:22 ff.). Thus filled with God, we ever grow in grace
and in the participation of divine life. The more we grow in grace, the more fruitful become
our prayers, our works, our acts of self-denial, our sufferings, and our sacrifices made for our
brethren in Christ. Truly, “in all things you are made rich in Him” (1 Cor 1:5).
“Sing, ye, to the Lord a new canticle, because the Lord hath done wonderful things” (Alleluia
verse). The liturgical year will soon end. With deep seriousness the liturgy calls upon us to
grow and to be ripe for the harvest, to attain to the fullness of God. We are likened to the
servants of a man who is about to go on a journey. He calls his servants and delivers his goods
to them. He gives five talents to one of them, two talents to another, and one talent to a third.
After a long time the master will return. The one who got five talents must gain five more;
the one with two must have two more; otherwise they will be judged. “Wicked and slothful
servant. . . . For to every one that hath, shall be given, but from him that hath not, that also
which he seemeth to have shall be taken away. And the unprofitable servant cast ye out into
the exterior darkness” (Mt 25:26 ff.).
Prayer
Let Thy grace, we beseech Thee, O Lord, ever go before us and follow us, and may it make us to
be continually zealous in doing good works. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saturday
The Church reminds us of the coming of the Lord at the Last Judgment. Then He will take her
home. But the Church is grieved at the thought of the many souls who must be left behind in
spite of all the graces they received and in spite of her prayers, pains, sacrifices; for they will
not be ripe for harvest. For these she implores: “Have mercy on me, O Lord” (Introit); “Look
down, O Lord, to help me” (Offertory); “Let Thy grace . . . ever go before us and follow us, and
may it make us to be continually zealous in doing good works” (Collect).
“Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I have cried to Thee all the day” (Introit). “With fear and
trembling work out your salvation. For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish,
according to His good will” (Phil 2:12 f.). If He left us to ourselves, we should be
borne down continually by the heavy weight of our fallen nature into the depth of evil, and to
estrangement from God. “So then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of
God that showeth mercy” (Rom 9:16). We are branches of Christ, the vine. “He that abideth
in Me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. . . . As the
branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide
in Me. . . . If any one abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall wither” ( Jn
15:4 ff.). If we the branches would bear the fruit of eternal salvation, we must remain in living
contact with the vine. Only thus can we absorb His living sap and life. The living sap is grace,
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