by Prince Mathew
Preface for Meditation:
How precious the gift of the cross, how splendid to contemplate! In the cross
there is no mingling of good and evil, as in the tree of paradise: it is wholly
beautiful to behold and good to taste. The fruit of this tree is not death but
life, not darkness but light. This tree does not cast us out of paradise, but
opens the way for our return.
This was the tree on which Christ, like a king on a chariot, destroyed the
devil, the lord of death, and freed the human race from his tyranny. This was
the tree upon which the Lord like a brave warrior wounded in hands, feet and
side, healed the wounds of sin that the evil serpent had inflicted on our
nature. A tree once caused our death, but now a tree brings life. Once deceived
by a tree, we have now repelled the cunning serpent by a tree. What an
astonishing transformation! That death should become life, that decay should
become immortality, that shame should become glory!
The wonders accomplished through this tree were foreshadowed clearly even by the
mere types and figures that existed in the past. Was it not the wood of a tree
that enabled Noah, at God's command, to escape the destruction of the flood
together with his sons, his wife, his sons' wives and every kind of animal? And
surely the rod of Moses prefigured the cross when it changed water into blood,
swallowed up the false serpents of Pharaoh's magicians, divided the sea at one
stroke and then restored the waters to their normal course, drowning the enemy
and saving God's own people? Aaron's rod, which blossomed in one day in proof of
his true priesthood, was another figure of the cross, and did not Abraham
foreshadow the cross when he bound his son Isaac and placed him on the pile of
wood?
By the cross death was slain and Adam was restored to life. The cross is the
glory of all the apostles, the crown of the martyrs, the sanctification of the
saints. By the cross we put on Christ and cast aside our former self. By the
cross we, the sheep of Christ, have been gathered into one flock, destined for
the sheepfold of heaven.
Bible Reading Passages:
Evening
Fourth Wednesday of The Holy Lent (Mid Lent)
* St. Matthew 17: 22-27
Morning
* St. John 3:13-21
Before Holy Qurbana
* Numbers 21: 4-9
* Psalms 34:1-9
* Zechariah 12: 6-14
Holy Qurbana
* Acts 15: 22 -33
* II Corinthians 9: 1-15
* St. John 3:13-21
Bible Verse of the day:
"They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life." And the
disciples were filled with grief." - St. Matthew 17:23
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