MEDITATION:
Written by Athenagoras (c133-c190), an Athenian Father of the Church and Christian apologist, philosopher, and convert to Christianity. This is from his letter “A Plea Regarding Christians,”
It is like the potter and the clay. The clay is matter, the potter is an artist. So is God the creator an artist, while matter is subject to him for the sake of his art. But as clay cannot by itself become pottery without art, so matter, which is altogether pliable, cannot receive distinction, form, or beauty apart from God the creator. We do not, moreover, reckon pottery of more value than the potter, or bowls or vessels of gold than the artisan. If they have artistic merit, we praise the artist. It is he who reaps the renown for making them. So it is with matter and God. It is not matter which justly receives praise and honor for the arrangement and beauty of the world, but its creator, God. If, then, we were to worship material forms as gods, we should seem to be insensitive to the true God, identifying what is eternal with what is subject to dissolution and corruption. Beautiful, indeed, is the world in its all-embracing grandeur, in the arrangement of the stars, both those in the circle of the ecliptic and those at the Septentrion, and in its form as a sphere. Yet it is not the world, but its maker, who should be worshiped.
PRAYER:
Written by the Lasallian Brothers, a religious teaching organization founded by Jean-Baptiste de La Salle (1641-1719) in France and now based in Rome.
All-loving and ever-living God,
We pray with the prophet Isaiah:
“Yahweh, you are our Father;
We, the clay, you the potter,
We are all the works of your hand.”
Help us to trust in you.
Free us to be shaped by your love.
Help us to follow the example of your Son, Jesus,
Whose love transformed the lives of his disciples.
Through love, may we influence the lives
of those entrusted to our care.
We make this prayer through Jesus,
your Son and our Brother. Amen.
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