December 7
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeTwentieth Saturday after Trinity
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:19, 20.
"He that rejoices," says S. Chrysostom, "in the Lord cannot be cast out of this pleasure by any accident. For all other grounds of joy are changeable and fleeting and easily altered; and this is not the only evil about them, but also, while they last, the pleasure which they furnish to us is not so great as to repel and overshadow the sadness which comes on us from other causes. But the fear of God has both these qualities; it is firm and immovable, and it teems with so great a joy that we retain no feeling of all our evils. For he who fears God as he ought, and puts confidence in Him, has gained the root of pleasure and possesses the whole fountain of cheerfulness; and as a small spark of fire falling into the boundless sea is forthwith extinguished, so whatever may befall the man that fears God, falls, as it were, into a vast sea of gladness, and is quenched and swallowed up. If when thou art in prosperity and happiness, in success and enjoyment, thou givest thanks, it is nothing great or wonderful; but what is looked for is, that thou shouldest give thanks when in tribulation and in sorrow. Utter nothing in preference to these words, "I thank Thee, Lord."
Rejoice in Christ alway— When earth looks heavenly bright, When joy makes glad the livelong day, And peace shuts in the night.
Rejoice, when care and woe The fainting soul oppress, When tears at wakeful midnight flow, And morn brings heaviness.