- Matthew 6:33 -
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things
will be given to you as well.
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"Abba, Father, I trust you completely to meet my needs in your timing and
according to your methods. And I will continue to obey you, by the power
of
your Spirit, believing that as I do, You will take care of me."
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February 7th - St. Luke the Younger.
Luke was born in 10th century Greece. He was the 3rd of seven children
born
to Stephen and Euphrosyne, who came from the island of Aegina. They were
forced to leave their home during a Saracen attack and eventually settled
in
Thessaly. They were small farmers and while not poor, they lived a simple
and healthy life.
This was a very pious Christian family and Luke was an especially devout
child. He was known to often give his food to the hungry and not
infrequently he would give his clothes to beggars. Often when he worked in
the fields he would throw much of his seed onto the fields of poor
neighboring farmlands, yet his father's fields always grew abundant crops.
After his father's death, Luke spent some time in solitude and then left
home to seek a monastery where he could devote the rest of his life to
prayer. He was captured by soldiers who thought him to be a runaway slave
and he spent some time in prison where he learnt patience and humility by
suffering the harsh treatment of his guards with meekness.
After his release from prison he was received unkindly by his brothers and
sisters who jeered at him for running away. At one point, two traveling
monks who were on their way to the Holy Land, were hospitably entertained
by
Euphrosyne and were able to convince her to allow Luke to go with them. He
went as far as Athens and entered a monastery there, but after a few
months
the Abbot sent him home because his mother was in need of his help.
Finally Euphrosyne was convinced of her son's vocation and stopped
opposing
it. Luke was about eighteen when he went to Mount Joannitsa near Corinth
where he built a hermitage and lived a very austere life. He became well
known for his love and acts of charity. Many miracles were reported due to
his prayers both before and after his death. He died there about the year
946.
Here we have a man who was neither rich, nor poor, just ordinary. He heard
the message of God most probably at his mother's knee and he embraced it
wholeheartedly from his childhood. As a teen-ager he experienced the
cruelty
that humankind is capable of, but he did not let it embitter him. Instead
he
took each day as it came, but kept himself centered in God.
He was obedient to his abbot, returning home to help his mother even
though
his heart burned to live the religious life. God rewarded his patience and
when he obtained his hearts desire, he didn't live only for himself, but
continued to give what little he had to those in need around him. Truly he
is a model worthy of following.
Saint Quote:
No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does
you harm. You have no enemy except yourselves.
-St. Francis of Assisi
Bible Quote
And they sung to thy holy name, O Lord, and they praised with one accord
thy
victorious hand. For wisdom opened the mouth of the dumb, and made the
tongues of infants eloquent. (Wisdom 10:20-21)
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THE PRAYER RADIATING CHRIST
Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go.
Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly
that all my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me and be so in me
that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine,
so to shine as to be a light to others;
the light, O Jesus, will be all from You;
none of it will be mine:
it will be You shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise You in the way You love best:
by shining on those around me.
Let me preach You without preaching, not by words, but by my example,
by the catching force,
the sympathetic influence of what I do,
the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You.
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