This reflection on today’s saint (the 4th pope and saint from the Canon) is just what I needed to read as my husband and I finalize our Advent plans which always includes the spiritual & physical.
Today, has been set aside for my family to prepare our home for Advent, a soft prep for an even greater purge that we will embark on during Advent in preparation for the Christ-Child.
I have been prompted by the Holy Ghost to “lay everything on the line” specifically in regards to my physical wellness. The message is imprinted in my heart but my mental conviction has not caught up. I desire not to be held up any longer by my concerns about tomorrow.
I realize that there is a fine line between prudence and trust in His care & providence. I pray for His grace.
I fully understand that nothing on this earth can compare to the sufferings of Hell, purgatory, or that which Our Lord suffered for me (us).
This understanding of this reality is what compels me to push forward — to die to my flesh and glorify Him with everything I have.
Today’s reading is a consolation of sorts for me to keep going forward with our Advent plans.
“Did you observe how St. Clement encouraged himself and his fellow captives in the hard labor they had to perform?
To work for the sake of Christ, and to expect for one’s work an eternal reward in heaven, is surely enough to make all suffering and exertion sweet.
Every man is bound to work according to his station, and it is quite sure that we are in danger of losing our souls, if we do not work as we ought, but lead an idle, luxurious and sensual life.
One station, however, has harder and more troublesome work than another, and there are numbers of people who earn their bread by the sweat of their brow and have, day and night, hardly an hour for rest.
It is quite natural that these sometimes become impatient…
Their impatience goes so far that they become dissatisfied with God’s providence in their regard, and murmur against Him, curse their labor, or perform it unwillingly; and thus not only lose all the merits which they might have earned, but incur heavy responsibility.
I would ask such people to recollect, that their work, if performed with a good intention, in the grace of God and according to His will, will merit for them great glory in heaven.
They ought to arm, themselves against the impatience which sometimes rises in them, with the thought of the reward that awaits them in heaven; for God recompenses every man according to his work, as Holy Writ teaches us. Ought not every one to work with pleasure, when he expects an eternal reward?” -Father Francis Xavier Weninger, Lives of the Saints, 1876.
