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The Time After Pentecost
is the sacrament of love, the fire which the Lord brought down from heaven to this earth
(Lk 12:49), and with which He wishes to inflame our hearts that we learn to love the Father
with the love of Jesus. The liturgy therefore leads us every morning to the Holy Eucharist,
the source of divine love.
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and
with thy whole mind. . . . Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments
dependeth the whole law and the prophets” (Gospel). Do I love the Lord? Do I love Him in
all things with an undivided love? Do I love all other things in Him and for His sake? Love is
the measure of our sanctity.
Prayer
Grant Thy people, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to shun the defilements of the devil and with pure
hearts to follow Thee, the only God. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Ember Wednesday in September
In southern countries the Ember days of autumn are days of thanksgiving for the completed
harvest of fruits and grapes. The liturgy connects them with the solemn commemoration of the
New Year’s celebration of the Old Testament and the great Day of Atonement. These Ember
days, therefore, have become days of thanksgiving and of atonement.
A day of atonement. The Gospel tells us of a father whose son was possessed by the devil. The
father brings the poor boy to Jesus that He may cast out the evil spirit; Jesus complies with this
request. “And when He was come into the house, His disciples secretly asked Him: why could
not we cast him out? And He said to them: This kind can go out by nothing but by prayer and
fasting.” The liturgy presents here a picture of our soul. Although through Original Sin our
soul had fallen into the power of the devil, we were rescued through the reception of baptism.
Nevertheless the devil has not been left without any power over us; for in us lives the evil spirit
of pride, lust, egoism, and worldliness. We ourselves have too often been ruled by evil spirits in
our solicitude for our daily needs, in our seeking for earthly and temporal things. This day is a
day of recollection, when these spirits must be banished again. We therefore go to the Eucharistic
Lord, who can and will banish them, provided we pray and fast. “This kind can go out by nothing
but by prayer and fasting.” The Lord’s words are an earnest admonition that this day is a day of
atonement and of fasting, a day of contrition and repentance for the evil we have done, for the
many acts of faithlessness and negligence.
A day of rejoicing in the Lord. The second lesson relates how Esdras read the law of
Moses from morning until midday before the men and women and all those that could
understand; and all the people listened attentively. Then Esdras spoke to the people: “This
is a holy day to the Lord our God; do not mourn nor weep, . . . for the joy of the Lord is our
strength.” In the liturgy we ourselves are the people that attentively listen to the words of
the law. This day is a day of holy reading, a day to be occupied with God, with the Gospel
and its doctrines, with the joy of the Lord, when we meditate on His love shown to us in His
incarnation, in the redemption on the cross, in the Eucharist, and in the innumerable graces
given to us. We rejoice in the Lord and in His loving providence and guidance, recalling
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