[base "]Let me not weary as I confess to you those acts of mercy by which you plucked me from all my evil ways[per thou] (I, 15, 24)
Who, St. Augustine, would not be moved by your words, when asking Our Divine Lord for the grace to not be weary in confessing his acts of mercy towards you. And, YOU, My God, the God of St. Augustine, whom you drew to yourself, first for his own salvation and then for our edification and instruction to sinners who need your Mercy. Divine Lord, it is you who see all men as sinners, but those who confidently acknowledge their weakness know what it is to be loved and held by your mercy. Even when we are erring because of our weaknesses, You , in Your infintie Wisdom show us the way to you. St. Augustine, I feel touched by your sincerity in your prayer to My God, the God whom you stood before then and whom I address now in your presence, for just as you addressed Him then, so I address Him now in the eternal time which is now in faith, 'the simultaneously perfect possession of interminable life.' The 'time' of eternity which you experience in the Beatific Vision and in which you experience His unchanging Mercy towards you, experiencing that from which you were 'plucked' by his mercy then, but now is to you an eternal plucking of a now which will have no end. For me as I address you in His presence I hope as you once said, that the 'egg' shell of my hope will become a desire of my minid that will grow larger and larger until it encompasses of Him as much as I am enabled by this Merciful God, both to you as you pray for my journey and for you as you grow in ever widening vision of His eternal presence. Dear God, you are ever renewing our strength in ever more constant manifestations of your glory. I am told by another Saint in your presence, St. Thomas Aquinas in his work which gives you glory today, in his Summa Contra Gentiles about how you desire to answer those prayers which are in accord with your Divine Providence and Will. Hear, the words which you hold in your Divine mind:
'Further. We proved that God fittingly fulfils the desire of the rational creature on account of its being near to God. Now a man approaches to God by contemplation, devout affections, and humble but firm resolutions. A prayer, therefore, that lacks these conditions in its approach to God, does not deserve to be granted by Him. Hence it is said in the Psalm (ci. 18): He hath had regard to the prayer of the humble; and (James i. 6): Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.' [New City Press, 1997]
You ask that we ask but not waver in asking, and this is why I am moved by your servants, Augustine in his Confessions now at the beginning in his prayer to you and Thomas Aquinas in his speaking about you. Both prayed to you and both of their lives were a confession of your Mercy; Augustine as Bishop of Hipo and Thomas Aquinas as a learned and wise theologian who brought forth from the cupboard of his mind and heart both the old and the new and placed them before us on the table of your Holy Church which you established. They are in your presence, you who are eternally 'ever ancient and ever new.' We, here on earth, as members of your body await the doors of death, which you opened in triumph thru your victory on the Cross and gathered together before your Holy Throne all the elect from every nation and language. We have to pass thru this door and be judged as you judged Augustine about his deeds in the flesh. WE too, are part of that judgment, both for our own sins and the sins of our fathers. All of us look to your Mercy. You choose the weak things of this world to confound the strong, we are weak. So today, I , too, come before you and Augustine and Thomas Aquinas and so many others united in communion with you, both herre on earth and in your triumphant Church in Heaven. 'How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, God of Hosts!' Grant that we , too, may join THEM and thanking you for having plucked us form our evil ways and 'set us upon a ROCK that is the cornerstone and the eternal vision of your Glory, the 'Lord Man,' Jesus Christ, who is the Rock of Peter, Our Holy Father , the visible vicar of your Church; who is the strength of your people, who ,put on himself 'sackcloth' the humble covering of flesh- 'born of a woman under the law to delliver form the law those who were subjected to it. ' It is this subjection that Augustine speaks of when I hear him say, 'you have plucked me from my evil ways.' For it is not only his alone, but ours that you have plucked us from. For we lilke the sinful woman brought before you sometime when you walked the face of the earth and placed in your sight and were ashambed to raise her head to you who was caught in adultery, we too, shamefaced, lift our eyes to you and say, 'no one, sir.' No one who is true to the sin that lies in our lives and that we are all born into and that you alone rescued us from adn that we are free to accept or reject form your merciful hands. We do desire it, 'we do belived, help our unbelief!' Let this be our prayer, let this be our desire to give you praise, to give you the glory for we too, like the hardhearted who faced that woman to stone her, we , too, after seeing your merciful gaze fall upon our sins, beign to walk away one by one leaving this poor woman before you. Yet, the woman is both us and her persecutors. One part of ourselves shrinks from you the other is wholly humbled at your presence to us ,your mercy to us. Yet, when you say, 'go and sin no more,' how could we gather strength unless you alone did sustain us both in the effort and in the setting our footsteps behind yours to humbly follow you?
Now on us, O Lord, have mercy!
IP CRL
5:52:13 AM.
