St. Ambrose - Let God's Word be Heard

Open Your Lips, and Let God’s Word Be Heard

From the Explanations of the Psalms by Saint Ambrose, bishop

We must always meditate on God’s wisdom, keeping it in our hearts and on our lips.  Your tongue must speak justice, the law of God must be in your heart.  Hence Scripture tells you: You shall speak of these commandments when you sit in your house, and when you walk along the way, and when you lie down, and when you get up. 

Let us then speak of the Lord Jesus, 

for He is wisdom, He is the Word, 

the Word indeed of God.

It is also written: Open your lips, and let God’s word be heard.  God’s word is uttered by those who repeat Christ’s teaching and meditate on His sayings.  Let us always speak this word.  

When we speak about wisdom, we are speaking of Christ.

  

When we speak about virtue, we are speaking of Christ.  

When we speak about justice, we are speaking of Christ.  

When we speak about peace, we are speaking of Christ.

  

When we speak about truth and life and redemption, 

we are speaking of Christ.

Open your lips, says Scripture and let God’s word be heard. It is for you to open, it is for Him to be heard.  So David said: I shall hear what the Lord says in me. The very Son of God says: Open your lips, and I fill them. Not all can attain to the perfection of wisdom as Solomon or Daniel did, but the spirit of wisdom is poured out on all according to their capacity, that is, on all the faithful.  

If you believe, you have the spirit of wisdom.

Meditate, then, at all times on the things of God, and speak the things of God, when you sit in your house. By house we can understand the Church, or the secret place within us, so that we are to speak within ourselves.  Speak with prudence, so as to avoid falling into sin, as by excess of talking.  

When you sit in your house, speak, so as never to be idle. You speak along the way if you speak in Christ, for Christ is the Way.  When you walk along the way, speak to yourself, speak to Christ.  

Hear him say to you: I desire that in every place men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling. When you lie down, speak so that the sleep of death may not steal upon you.  

Listen and learn how you are to speak as you lie down; I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

When you get up or rise again, speak of Christ, so as to fulfill what you are commanded.

Listen and learn how Christ is to awaken you from sleep.  Your soul says: I hear my brother knocking at the door. 

Then Christ says to you: Open the door to me, my sister, my spouse. Listen and learn how you are to awaken Christ.  Your soul says: I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, awaken or reawaken the love of my heart. Christ is love.

Christ gave us His REAL BODY AND BLOOD to eat.

Aurelius Ambrosius,
better known in English
as Saint Ambrose

From the treatise 

On the Mysteries 

by Saint Ambrose, 

bishop 337 AD – 397AD

To the newly baptized on the Eucharist

Fresh from the waters and resplendent in these garments, God’s holy people hasten to the altar of Christ saying: I will go in to the altar of God, to God who gives joy to my youth.  

They have sloughed off the old skin of error, their youth renewed like an eagle’s, and they make haste to approach that heavenly banquet.  They come and, seeing the sacred altar prepared, cry out:  You have prepared a table in my sight.  

David puts these words into their mouths: The Lord is my shepherd and nothing will be lacking to me. He has set me down there in a place of pasture.  He has brought me beside refreshing water.  Further on, we read:  For he has set me beside refreshing water.  Further on, we read: For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I shall not be afraid of evils, for you are with me.  Your rod and your staff have given me comfort.  You have prepared in my sight a table against those who afflict me.  You have made my head rich in oil, and your cup, which exhilarates, how excellent it is.

It is wonderful that God rained manna on our fathers and they were fed with daily food from heaven.  And so it is written: Man ate the bread of angels.  Yet those who ate that bread all died in the desert.

But the food that you receive, 

that living bread which came down from heaven, 

supplies the very substance of eternal life, 

and whoever will eat it will never die, 

for it is the Body of Christ.

The REALITY of the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist

Consider now which is the more excellent: the bread of angels or the flesh of Christ, which is indeed that body that gives life.  

The first was manna from heaven, the second is above the heavens.  One was of heaven, the other is of the Lord of the heavens; one subject to corruption if it was kept till the morrow, the other free from all corruption, 

for if anyone tastes of it with reverence 

he will be incapable of corruption. 

Communion taken with reverence

For our fathers, water flowed from the rock; for you, blood flows from Christ.  Water satisfied their thirst for a time; blood cleanses you for ever.  The Jew drinks and still thirsts, but when you drink you will be incapable of thirst.  

What happened in symbol 

is now fulfilled in reality.

If what we marvel at is a shadow, how great is the reality whose very shadow you marvel at.  

Listen to this, which shows that what happened in the time of our fathers was but a shadow.  They drank, it is written, from the rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.  All this took place as a symbol for us.  

You know now what is more excellent: 

LIGHT is preferable to its shadow, 

REALITY to its symbol, 

the BODY OF THE GIVER

 to the manna 

He gave them from heaven.

Is this God's Will or my own??

Do you find life pretty darn hard?  I do... things just seem some times to be hard to take...heartaches, challenges, disappointments, oppositions, sickness, betrayal... I wonder why is this happening to me?  

What's the point?  I've been struggling with this my whole life.  I know I'm to do God's Will..but it's like I have been trying---but stuff keeps happening to me... 

I didn't realize that the "stuff" 

WAS GOD'S WILL.   

I have constantly prayed -- help me Lord to do Your Will---but have fought against everything that does not go with what I think should happen...  Thinking that this can't be it...this can't be what God wants.. why would He want things to go this way?  Why???? 

I found this book that has answered some of my questions -- awakened spirit to see the deeper meanings of what I have gone through.... it's called Uniformity with God’s Will & the Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ by St. Alphonsus Liguori.  

Guess I am pretty dense...I have been fighting tooth and nail against what I now know to be His Will.  The Lord must shake His Head at me.   I guess I will never understand until I meet the Lord face to face...I must learn to accept everything with love and in peace that God knows what He is about.  I learn through all the difficulties of life...everything is laid out for me...I must accept it with the knowledge that God will use it for my perfection. 

It's hard to do...not having control..or wanting it (control).  I'm going to be struggling with this for the rest of my life here on earth.  Perfection is not going to be easy to obtain, but I am hoping the Lord will see the meager, imperfect efforts I am making to fulfill His Will in my life..,

I would like to recommend this book to you if you have been struggling as I have been.  It's called:

 

Uniformity with God’s Will

by St. Alphonsus Liguori 

Edited by Paul A. Boer, Sr. Veritatis Splendor Publications 2012

(Kindle edition is  90 cents on Amazon..or you can get the softcover for about $8.00)









Excerpts from the book...

St. AlphonsusLiguori

“When, therefore, something adverse happens to us, let us accept it from his hands, not only patiently, but even with gladness, as did the apostles “who went form the presence of the council rejoicing, that they were accounted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus.”  

What greater consolation can come to a soul than to know that by patiently bearing some tribulation, it gives God the greatest pleasure in its power?  

Spiritual writers tells us that though the desire of certain souls to please God by their sufferings is acceptable to him, still more pleasing to him is the union of certain others with his will, so that their will is neither to rejoice not to suffer, but to hold themselves completely amenable to his will, and they desire only that his holy will be fulfilled.

If, devout soul, it is your will to please God and live a life of serenity in this world, unite yourself always and in all things to the divine will.  

 Reflect that all the sins 

of your past wicked life 

happened because you 

wandered from the path of God’s will.   
 

For the future, embrace Gods’ good pleasure and say to him in every happening:  “Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight.”  
  
When anything disagreeable happens, remember it comes from God and say at once, “This comes from God” and be at peace: “I was dumb and opened not my mouth, because thou hast done it.”  Lord, since thous hast done this, I will be silent and accept it.   

Direct all your thoughts and prayers to this end, to beg God constantly in meditation, Communion, and visits to the Blessed Sacrament that he help you accomplish his holy will.

St. Teresa of Avila

Form the habit of offering yourself frequently to God by saying, 

“My God, behold me in thy presence; do with me and all that I have as thou pleasest.”  

This was the constant practice of St. Teresa.  At least fifty times a day she offered herself to God, placing herself at his entire disposition and good pleasure.  

How fortunate you, kind reader, if you too act thus! You will surely become a saint.  Your life will be calm and peaceful; your death will be happy.  At death all our hope of salvation will come from the testimony of our conscience as to whether  or not we are dying resigned to God’s will.  

If during life we have embraced everything 

as coming from God’s hands, 

and if at death we embrace death 

in fulfillment of God’s will, 

we shall certainly save our souls 

and die the death of saints.  

Let us then abandon everything to God’s good pleasure, because being infinitely wise, he knows what is best for us; and being all-good and all-loving – having given his life for us—he wills what is best for us.  

St. Basil the Great

Let us, as St. Basil counsels us,  

"...rest secure in the conviction that beyond the possibility of a doubt, God works to effect our welfare, infinitely better than we could ever hope to accomplish or desire it ourselves.”

 "...In external matters.  In times of great heat, cold or rain; in times of famine, epidemics and similar occasions we should refrain from expressions like these:  "What unbearable cold!" "What a tragedy!" In these instances we should avoid expressions indicating opposition to God's Will.  We should want things to be just as they are, because it is God who thus disposes them...."

"Do thou build up or tear down, O Lord, 

as seems good in thy sight.  

I am content.  

I wish only what thou dost wish."

ON SICKNESS....

 

Let's see what St. Ignatius says to this...

Do not weary yourself planning

what you would do it you were well,

but be content to be sick

for as long as God wishes...

 

 

We ought to make use of the ordinary remedies in time of sickness--such is God's will; but if they are not effective, let us unite ourselves to God's will and this will be better for us than would be our restoration to health...

 

Certainly, it is more virtuous not to repine in times of painful illness, still and all, when our sufferings are excessive, it is not wrong to let our friends know what we are enduring, and also to ask God to free us from our sufferings....that the sufferings here referred to are actually excessive.  

 

It often happens that some, on the occasion of a slight illness, or even a slight indisposition, want the whole world to stand still and sympathize with them in their illnesses. 

 

But where it is a case of real suffering, we have the example of our Lord, who, at the approach of his bitter passion, made known his state of soul to his disciples, saying: "My soul is sorrowful even until death"  and besought his eternal Father to deliver him from it: "Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me." 

 

 

But our Lord likewise taught us what we should do when we have made such a petition, when he added:

"Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt."
 

St. John of Avila, Doctor of the Church

 

"If you are seeking to carry out God's will,

what difference should it make to you 

whether you are sick or well?" 

                                                     

St. John of Avila 

 

Excerpt from Uniformity with God's Will --

'Finally we should consider the events which are happening to us now and which will happen to us in the future, as coming from the hands of God.  Everything we do should be directed to this one end: to do the will of God and to do it solely for the reason that God wills it.  To walk more securely on this road we must depend on the guidance of our superiors in external matters, and on our directors in internal matters, to learn from them God’s will in our regard, have great faith in the words of our Lord:”He that heareth you, heareth me.” 

 

Daydreaming

Above all, let us bend all our energies to serve God in the way he wishes.  This remark is made so that we may avoid the mistake of him who wastes his time in idle day-dreaming.  Such a  one says, “If I were to become a hermit, I would become a saint” or “If I were to enter a monastery, I would practice penance” or “If I were to go away from here, leaving friend and companions, I would devote long hours to prayer.”  If, If, If—all these ifs!  In the meantime such a  person goes from bad to worse.  These idle fancies are often temptations of the devil, because they are not in accord with God’s will.  Hence we should dismiss them summarily and rouse ourselves to serve God only in that way which he has marked out for us.  Doing his holy will, we shall certainly become holy in those surroundings he has placed us.

Let us will always and ever

only what God wills;

for so doing,

he will press us to his heart. 

 

To this end let us familiarize ourselves with certain texts of sacred scripture that invite us to unite ourselves constantly with the divine will: “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?  Tell me, my God, what thou wilt have me do, that I will it also, with all my heart.  “I am thine, save thou me.”  I am no longer my own, I am thine, O Lord, do with me as thou wilt.

If some particularly crashing misfortune comes upon us, for example, the death of a relative, loss of goods, let us say: “Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight.”  Yes, my God and my Father, so be it, for such is thy good pleasure.  Above all, let us cherish that prayer of our Lord, which he himself taught us:  "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

St. Catherine of Genoa

 

St. Catherine of Genoa

to make a notable pause at these words

whenever she said the Our Father,

praying that God’s holy will be fulfilled on earth

with the same perfection with which

the saints do in heaven. 

Let this be our practice also,

and we shall certainly become saints.

 Excerpts taken from the Conclusion of the book, Uniformity with God’s Will St. Alphonsus Liguori

Uniformity with God’s Will & the Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ by St. Alphonsus Liguori Edited by Paul A. Boer, Sr. Veritatis Splendor Publications 2012