I would therefore like us all to maketo pay attention to every person, to combat Faith transforms even death itself, writes the culture of waste and of throwing out so as to foster a culture of solidarity and Pope Francis: “By contemplating Christ’s encounter.
NOVENA TO
Saint Cecilia 2
Day 8 2
union with the Father even at the height of his sufferings on the cross (cf. Mk 15:34), Christians learn to share in the same gaze of Jesus. Even death is illumined and can be experienced as the ultimate call to faith, the ultimate ‘Go forth from your land’ (Gen 12:1), the ultimate ‘Come!’ spoken by the Father, to whom we abandon ourselves in the confidence that he will keep us steadfast even in our final passage” (Lumen Fidei, 56). Saint Cecilia received the grace granted to every martyr for Christ – to trust more in God and his promise of life eternal than in any good this world holds. She loved the gift of life, but faith gave her the vision to see that life in this world, for all its beauty, will give way to the life that never ends with Beauty Himself. Abandoning herself to the Father, Cecilia knew that he would keep her steadfast. Even her extended fingers, three on one hand and one on the other, expressed her faith in the Trinity, the God to whom she went forth in peace. May we, like Saint Cecilia, persevere in confidence in God, whose love is far more powerful than death.
Saint Cecilia, illustrious martyr of Jesus Christ, pray for us. Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia Congregation 2 Nashville, Tennessee 2 www.nashvilledominican.org