Portrait of Saint John Eudes
Abatta Spirituality Center, ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST
Brothers and sisters of the Heart of Jesus and Mary, receive the fraternal akwaba (greetings) of the community of Eudist Associates and Friends of Abatta in Côte d'Ivoire.
In the spirit of Saint John Eudes, we dedicate the interprovincial prayer of this month of September 2024, to Saint Janvier, bishop and martyr Common of Martyrs.
Let us dispose our hearts to live this prayer in community, praying for freedom, justice and peace in Africa.
"I will consider that the love with which God loved me before I was, is not only eternal, having loved me from all eternity, but that it is continuous, unchanging and very constant. For ever since he began to think of me and to love me, though without beginning, he has not ceased; there has been no interruption in his thought and in his love for me; his mind and heart have always been devoted to me. (O.C. II, 137). "With eternal love, I have been loved since before I was born. I have always been carried in his arms and in his heart with a love greater than that of a mother for her son". (O. C. II, 57)
One of the Pharisees invited him to a meal. When he arrived at the Pharisee's house and took his place at table,
suddenly a woman came in, who had a bad name in the town. She had heard he was dining with the Pharisee and had brought with her an alabaster jar of ointment.
She waited behind him at his feet, weeping, and her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them away with her hair; then she covered his feet with kisses and anointed them with the ointment.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, 'If this man were a prophet, he would know who this woman is and what sort of person it is who is touching him and what a bad name she has.'
Then Jesus took him up and said, 'Simon, I have something to say to you.' He replied, 'Say on, Master.'
'There was once a creditor who had two men in his debt; one owed him five hundred denarii, the other fifty.
They were unable to pay, so he let them both off. Which of them will love him more?'
Simon answered, 'The one who was let off more, I suppose.' Jesus said, 'You are right.'
Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, 'You see this woman? I came into your house, and you poured no water over my feet, but she has poured out her tears over my feet and wiped them away with her hair.
You gave me no kiss, but she has been covering my feet with kisses ever since I came in.
You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.
For this reason I tell you that her sins, many as they are, have been forgiven her, because she has shown such great love. It is someone who is forgiven little who shows little love.'
Then he said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven.'
Those who were with him at table began to say to themselves, 'Who is this man, that even forgives sins?'
But he said to the woman, 'Your faith has saved you; go in peace.'
God's gift to us of being and life, his gift to us of all creation, are the first fruits and signs of his gift to us of himself. God gives himself to us and draws us to himself so that we can possess him in love. The call to such a transcendence gives rise to conflict within us. Excessive attention to gifts sometimes distances us from the giver, yet no created reality can satisfy us. It is God himself who has imposed himself on us as the object of our contemplation and desire.
And since that time, his fatherly eyes have always been fixed on you, according to the words: I will keep my eyes fixed on you (Ps 31:8); his mind has been continually occupied with thinking of you; his heart has been perpetually applied to loving you; his power, his wisdom, his goodness have been ceaselessly employed to protect you, lead you and do you an infinite number of goods, both corporal and spiritual.
And, after all this, he promises you that, if you are faithful in the covenants of your Contract, you will be his heir in heaven, and co-heir with his Son; and that you will eternally possess goods so great and admirable, that they have never been seen by any eye, nor heard by any ear, nor understood by any mind. This is what this divine Father has obliged himself to you.
"O great God, I adore you
and I love you in all that you are.
Ah! what joy for my heart to see you so great
and so full of all kinds of goodness and excellence!
If I possessed all these greatnesses myself
I would like to strip myself of them to clothe you with them."
(O. C. II, 165)
Lord God, you allow us to venerate the memory of Saint Janvier, your martyr; grant us to rejoice with him in blessed eternity. Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Abatta Spirituality Center, ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST
