One of the great blessings I have received in Carmel is the encouragement to follow the daily office of Readings in the Breviary. I often find real gems there. This morning St Basil the Great exhorts us: 'O man, be like the earth. Bear fruit like her and do not fall short of what mere inanimate matter can achieve. The earth bears crops not for her own benefit but for yours.' From time to time I think of myself variously as a sheep, as a sinner, as a follower of Christ, it's not often I think of myself as 'the earth'. But what Basil says reminds me of the parable of the sower, in which Our Lord compares us to soil - thin soil, rocky soil, rich soil. The seed showers over all of the soil, but the soil may not be able to receive it. I also like the thought that the earth bears crops not for her own benefit. In doing good I must not think of what I can get out of it and I must not even complain because it doesn't seem to do me any good. I am soil, soil exists to produce fruit ....
Intercessions:
I, in a long phase of recovery from a very challenging operation
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