"Let us be penitent, and with many tears let us beg God's pardon ... Let us humble our souls before Him and ask that He would show His mercy to us ... Let us believe that these scourges of the Lord, with which like servants we are chastised, have happened for our amendment and not for our destruction."
This quote was taken from the prologue to 18th Sunday after Pentecost (today's Mass) from St. Anrrew's Missal.
The words were spoken by Judith, a widow in Israel of great influence, who was living in the palace.
While Manasses, king of Juda, was in captivity in Babylon, the Assyrian monarch, Abuchodonosor, sent his general Holofernes to complete the conquest of Chanaan. This officer besieged Bethulia, whose inhabitants, reduced to the last extremity, decided to surrender the city, unless help came in five days.
I thought these beautiful words of Judith apply to our times and that whilst we are being chastised it has the same positive purpose as it did for the Israelites. Many Catholics seem to be losing the faith but they should take heart because victory is promised not destruction.
Topic: A Reflection (Read 129 times)