September 2

Seventh Monday after Trinity

And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far. S. Mark 8:3.

OUR Lord might have quieted the people's hunger by a mere act of His will, causing them to feel no such pain and craving, even as He had supported Himself and His prophets under it, through their whole forty days' fast. He might have rained down manna or quails from heaven, as in very old times He had done to His people in the wilderness, and let them gather it for themselves. But it was not His will to feed them in either of these ways. He chose rather to do the whole in a manner through His disciples, consulting them in the first instance, and employing them all along, even as it is, if you mark it, in almost all His mighty works, both of nature and grace. He does us good through others, men and women like ourselves. He gives us life, nourishment, education, tender care of all kinds, through our parents, and through others who are as parents to us. He gives us His Holy Word and His precious Sacrament through His Apostles and Evangelists, and after them through His Bishops and other ministers commissioned by them, and so in this and in His other miraculous feast He does all through His disciples.

Thy ways, O Lord, with wise design, Are framed upon Thy throne above; And every dark or bending line Meets in the centre of Thy love.

With feeble light, and half obscure, Poor mortals Thy arrangements view, Not knowing that the least are sure, The most mysterious just and true.

My favoured soul shall meekly learn To lay her reason at Thy throne: Too weak Thy secrets to discern, I'll trust Thee for my guide alone.