The Divine Plan for the World
From a sermon by Saint Ephrem, deacon (306-373)
The divine plan for the world is the mirror of the spiritual world
Narrated by Frank Dugan, Huntington Beach, California
Lord, shed upon our darkened souls the brilliant light of your wisdom so that we may be enlightened and serve you with renewed purity. Sunrise marks the hour for men to begin their toil, but in our souls, Lord, prepare a dwelling for the day that will never end. Grant that we may come to know the risen life and that nothing may distract us from the delights you offer. Through our unremitting zeal for you, Lord, set upon us the sign of your day that is not measured by the sun.
In your sacrament we daily embrace you and receive you into our bodies; make us worthy to experience the resurrection for which we hope. We have had your treasure hidden within us ever since we received baptismal grace; it grows ever richer at your sacramental table. Teach us to find our joy in your favor! Lord, we have within us your memorial, received at your spiritual table; let us possess it in its full reality when all things shall be made new.
We glimpse the beauty that is laid up for us when we gaze upon the spiritual beauty your immortal will now creates within our mortal selves.
Savior, your crucifixion marked the end of your mortal life; teach us to crucify ourselves and make way for our life in the Spirit. May your resurrection, Jesus, bring true greatness to our spiritual self and may your sacraments be the mirror wherein we may know that self.
Savior, your divine plan for the world is a mirror for the spiritual world; teach us to walk in that world as spiritual men.
Lord, do not deprive our souls of the spiritual vision of you nor our bodies or your warmth and sweetness. The mortality lurking in our bodies spreads corruption through us; may the spiritual waters of your love cleanse the effects of mortality from our hearts. Grant, Lord, that we may hasten to our true city and, like Moses on the mountaintop, possess it now in vision.
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings
Saint Ephrem was born at Nisibis, Mesopotamia of Christian parents. He served under St. James of Nisibis and became head of his school. He probably attended the Council of Nicaea in 325. Syrian sources attribute the deliverance of Nisibis from the Persians in 350 to his prayers. Thirteen years later when the city was ceded to the Persians by Emperor Jovian, he took residence in a cave near Edessa in Roman territory and preached to the Christians. It was here that he did most of his writing. He visited St. Basil at Caesarea in 370 and on his return helped victims of the famine in 372-73 by distributing food and money to the stricken and helping the poor.
Ephrem wrote volumes in Syriac on dogmatic and ascetical themes using scriptural sources. He also wrote against the heresies of the Arians and the Gnostics and on the Last Judgment. He was especially devoted to the Blessed Virgin and was absolutely certain of her sinlessness. He introduced hymns in public worship. Particularly outstanding are his Nisibeian hymns and the canticles for the seasons giving him the surname “the Harp of the Holy Spirit.” He died at Edessa around 373 and was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XV in 1920. He was the only Syrian to be so honored.