Day 5 – For Perfection

For God, who is Eternity itself, Light, Incorruptibility, and the very Apex of all perfection, willed to come to live in time and to descend in darkness and corruption and, as it were, in the very sink of vice.

(St. Anthony Zaccaria, SermonVI)

A reading from the first Letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians (1Tes 4:1-3:7-8: )

Brothers, we earnestly ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that, as you received from us how you should conduct yourselves to please God--and as you are conducting yourselves--you do so even more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. This is the will of God, your holiness: that you refrain from immorality…For God did not call us to impurity but to holiness. Therefore, whoever disregards this, disregards not a human being but God, who (also) gives his holy Spirit to you.

A reading from the six Sermon of St. Anthony Zaccaria

Choose, then, what is good and leave out what is bad. But which is the good side of created things? It is their perfection, while their imperfection is the bad side. Therefore, draw near to their perfection and withdraw from their imperfection. Look, my friends: if you wish to know God, there is a way, "the way of separation" as spiritual writers call it. It consists in taking into consideration all created things with their perfections and in distinguishing God from them and all their imperfections, so as to say: "God is neither this nor that, but something far more excellent. God is not prudent; He is Prudence itself. God is not a particular and limited good; He is the Good, universal and infinite. God is not just one perfection, He is perfection itself without any imperfection. He is the all good, the all wise, the all powerful, the all perfect, etc."

Invocations
Anthony Mary, magnanimous hero, you have fought without pay the good fight … pray for us
Anthony Mary, exultant champion, you have quickly finished the race… pray for us
Anthony Mary, blessed servant, you have remained faithful unto death… pray for us


Prayer
Christ, Head of the Church, you called St. Anthony Mary to fight the lukewarmness, "this pestiferous and great enemy" of you Crucified, grant to the Church not "small saints" but big ones, to reach the fullness of perfection. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be...


Prayer to St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria

Saint Anthony Zaccaria , helper of the poor and the sick, you who devoted your life to our spiritual welfare, listen to my humble and hopeful prayer. Continue your work as doctor and priest by obtaining from GOD healing from my physical and moral sickness, so that free from all evil and sin, I may love the LORD with joy, fulfill with fidelity my duties, work generously for the good of my brothers and sisters, and for my sanctification. AMEN