Friday 24 May 2013

And I will show you a still more excellent way. 1 Cor 12:31

Scottish Saints: Margaret, Giles, David
Special prayers during these days; for 'the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland').

Saint of the day: 24th May

Saint David of Scotland

Scotland's greatest king was the sixth and youngest son of St Margaret of Scotland and Malcolm III, born in 1085. He married Matilda daughter of Waldef, the Anglo-Saxon Earl of Northampton and Huntingd on which gave him a claim to the earldom Northumberland.

For many years he waged a long and unsuccessful war against England, but after being crowned king of Scotland in 1124, around the age of 40, he devoted his life to peaceful activities and became known as a kind, just and liberal king.

Historians say he was responsible for making Scotland into a modern nation, by reforming the legal system and public administration and encouraging trade and the foundation of towns. He also reformed the Scottish church, establishing a system of dioceses. Under his rule many monasteries, hospitals and almshouses were founded.

David prayed the Divine Office daily, received Communion each week and gave generous alms to the poor - often in person as his mother had done.

He died on this day in 1153 and was buried at Dunfermline. His shrine was a popular place of pilgrimage until the Reformation. One of the patron saints of Scotland, many churches are named after him.


Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Our Calendar today has Saint David of Scotland.
St. David was a friend of St. Aelred of Rievaux, and it so happens that the Night Office second reading is by Aelred.
The commentary  beautifully add light to the very favoured I Corinthians’  13th chapter.
The Friday Collect of Lauds has the embrace of the thought in prayer.
Night Office.
Friday (1)
“God of strength,
You light of hope in the heart of your Church.
Free your children from fear,
Strength them when evil threatens,
Make them more humble and more confident
On this day,
Which in your love you have prepared,
In Jesus, our Lord”.

Friday
First Reading     1 Corintians 12:31 – 13:13

Second  Reading
From The Mirror of Charity by Saint Aelred of Rievaulx

The Lord's yoke is easy; the Lord's burden is light. For what can be more agreeable, what more delightful than to find that by renouncing the world we have been raised above it? As we stand on the lofty height of a clear conscience, we have the whole world under our feet. When insults have no effect on us, when persecutions and penalties have no terror for us, when prosperity or adversity has no influence on us, when friend and foe are viewed in the same light, when we follow the example of him who makes his sun rise on the wicked and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust alike, do we not come close to sharing the serenity of God? All such dispositions spring from charity and charity alone, in which is true peace and contentment; for it is the Lord's yoke, and if we follow his call to bear it our souls will find rest, because his yoke is easy and his burden light.

Charity is patient and kind, it is not jealous or boastful, it is not conceited or rude. The other virtues are to us as a carriage bearing the weary traveler, as provisions fortifying the wayfarer, as a lamp for those in darkness, or as arms for combatants. But charity, although it must be present in all the other virtues, is yet in a special way rest for the weary, shelter for the traveller, fullness of light for one who arrives, and a glorious crown for the victor.

For what is faith but the carriage that bears us to our native land? What is hope but the food we take for our journey through life's hardships? And those other virtues of temperance, prudence, fortitude and justice-what are they but the weapons given us for the struggle? But when death has been swallowed up by that perfection of charity which is achieved in the vision of God there will be no more faith, because faith was the preparation for that vision, and there will be no need to believe what we see and love. And when we embrace God with the arms of our charity, there will be no more hope, for there will be nothing left to hope for. And as for the other virtues, temperance is our weapon against lust, pru­dence against error, fortitude against adversity, justice against injustice. But in charity there is also perfect chastity, and so no lust for temperance to combat; in charity there is the fullness of knowledge, and so no error for prudence to guard against; in charity there is true blessedness, and so no adversity for fortitude to overcome; in charity all is peace, and so there is no injustice for justice to withstand.
Faith is not even a virtue unless it is expressed by love; nor is hope unless it loves what it hopes for. And if we look more closely, do we not see that temperance is only love that no pleasure can seduce; that prudence is only love that no error can mislead; that fortitude is only love courageously enduring adversity, and that justice is only impartial love mitigating the injustices of this life? Charity therefore begins with faith, is exercised through the other virtues, but achieves perfection in itself.

Response   1 Jn 4:16.7



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