Wednesday of the Third Week of Eastertide

Year of Saint Joseph

Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love" 

Other saints: Saint Anselm of Canterbury, Bishop, Doctor (1033-1109); Saint Maelrubha, Abbot (642-722)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 64:7-22

Mass: Acts 8:1b-8; Resp Ps 66; Jn 6:35-40

Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.

JESUS, CROWN OF SAINTS,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

In today's General Audience, the Holy Father spoke of prayer as "dialogue with God; and every creature, in a certain sense, engages in dialogue with God." Furthermore, "prayer becomes word, invocation, hymn, poetry ... the Divine Word is made flesh, and in the flesh of every person, the word returns to God in prayer." As we remember the great Saint, Bishop, and Doctor of the Church Anselm of Canterbury, we can dialogue God with words from Saint Anselm. Saint Anselm gave us a classic definition of Theology in his Prologian or Discourse on the Existence of God, Chapter I: "The believer does not seek to understand, that he may believe, but he believes that he may understand: for unless he believed he would not understand." Or put more simply, theology is faith seeking understanding. Furthermore, Saint Anselm's prayer becomes poetry throughout his discourse, here in Chapter XXVI:

O God, let me know you and love you so that I may find my joy in you; and if I cannot do so fully in this life, let me at least make some progress every day, until at last that knowledge, love and joy come to me in all their plentitude. While I am here on earth let me learn to know you better, so that in heaven I may know you fully; let my love for you grow deeper here, so that there I may love you fully. On earth then I shall have great joy in hope, and in heaven complete joy in the fulfillment of my hope ...

let this hope of mine be in my thoughts and on my tongue; let my heart be filled with it, my voice speak of it; let my soul hunger for it, my body thirst for it, my whole being yearn for it, until I enter into the joy of the Lord, who is Three in One, blessed for ever. Amen.

SAINT ANSELM OF CANTERBURY,

SAINT MAELRUBHA,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Hot off the wire, from Maddy on an evening hike in the Columbia River Gorge, east of Portland, Oregon. "Sing joyfully to God, all the earth, sing praise to His glorious name"!

© Gertrude Feick 2021