Pope Saint John Paul II (1920-2005)
Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 18:1-6 The Order of the Psalmody
Mass: Eph 3:14-21; Resp Ps 33; Lk 12:49-53
For upright is the word of the Lord, and all His works are trustworthy.
JESUS, FATHER OF THE WORLD TO COME,
HAVE MERCY ON US.
In today's chapter of the Holy Rule, Saint Benedict instructs us on how to begin each hour of the Divine Office during the day. It is by singing with the psalmist: God, come to my assistance; Lord make haste to help me (Ps 69[70]:2), followed by "Glory be to the Father" (RB 18:1), when we give "honor and reverence to the Holy Trinity" (RB 9:7). This is a good way too to begin every day, or every time we begin a good work, when we "pray to God most earnestly to bring it to perfection" (RB Prol 4), or when we find ourselves in a difficult situation: God, come to my assistance; Lord, make haste to help me.
Another prayer comes to us in the form of our first reading at Mass, from Saint Paul's Letter to the Ephesians (Eph 3:14-21), where Paul prays for the brothers and sisters of Ephesus. I've made it personal.
Dear Father in heaven, please grant me in accord with the riches of your glory to be strengthened with power through Your Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith; that I, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that I may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to accomplish for more than all I ask or imagine, by the power at work within me, to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.
POPE SAINT JOHN PAUL II,
PRAY FOR US.
© Gertrude Feick 2020
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