“As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by
people but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are
being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: ‘See,
I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who
trusts in him will never be put to shame’.”
I Peter 2:4-6
St. Louis Grignion de Montfort
wrote:
I am a poorly polished stone,
Crude and without adornment,
Shape it, Lord, I beg you,
To set it in your building.
I want to suffer in patience,
Cut, shape, strike, slice,
But help my helplessness
And
forgive me my sins.
The Cross of Jesus Christ is the true Alchemy, the ‘philosopher’s
stone’, the ‘fifth essence’, for which the ancient sages had sought so eagerly.
It is the Science of all sciences: “Strive then to become proficient in
this all-important science under your great Master, and you will understand all
other sciences, for it contains them all in an eminent degree”.
....
Taken from Friends of the
Cross,
by St. Louis Grignion de
Montfort
….
The mystery of the Cross is a mystery unknown to the Gentiles, rejected by the Jews, and despised by heretics and bad Catholics. But it is the great mystery you must learn to practice in the school of Christ, and which can only be learnt from him. You will look in vain in all the schools of ancient times for a philosopher who taught it; in vain you will appeal to the senses or to reason to throw some light on it. It is only Jesus, through his all-powerful grace, who can teach you this mystery and give you the ability to appreciate it.
The mystery of the Cross is a mystery unknown to the Gentiles, rejected by the Jews, and despised by heretics and bad Catholics. But it is the great mystery you must learn to practice in the school of Christ, and which can only be learnt from him. You will look in vain in all the schools of ancient times for a philosopher who taught it; in vain you will appeal to the senses or to reason to throw some light on it. It is only Jesus, through his all-powerful grace, who can teach you this mystery and give you the ability to appreciate it.
Strive then to
become proficient in this all-important science under your great Master, and
you will understand all other sciences, for it contains them all in an eminent
degree. It is our natural and supernatural philosophy, our divine and mystic
theology, our philosopher’s stone, which by patience transforms the basest
metals into precious ones, the bitterest pains into delight, poverty into
riches, the most profound humiliations into glory. The one among you who knows
best how to carry his cross, even though in other things he does not know A
from B, is the most learned of all.
The great St. Paul
returned from the third heaven, where he learned mysteries hidden even from the
angels, and he proclaimed that he did not know, nor did he want to know anything
but Christ crucified. Rejoice, then, you ordinary Christian, man or woman,
without any schooling or intellectual abilities, for if you know how to suffer
cheerfully, you know more than a doctor of Sorbonne University who does not
know how to suffer as you do. ….
Philippians 3:8-11
I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider
them garbage, that I may gain Christ and
be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law,
but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God
on the basis of faith. I
want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his Resurrection and
participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection
from the dead.
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