The Holy Martyr Hyacinth of Amastris; Holy Martyr Emilian (360-63)
Romans 12:1-3; Matthew 10:37-11:1
Read Romans 12:1-3
“Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…” We must always strive in our lives to grow, to persevere, and to seek to discern the will of God. Too often the world and its cares can weigh us down. If we let these cares, such as money, career, or family trials dominate our lives we can be thrown off course from seeking the higher things including the renewal of our minds and perseverance in the spiritual life.
But what does it mean to renew our minds? Most importantly it means that we should direct our thoughts to contemplation of God and how He acts in our lives. God’s grace acts on us as we seek Him out with our human reason, through meditation on the Holy Scripture and through spiritual reading. Frequent reading of the gospels, the psalms, and the epistles in the New Testament, the reading of the works of the Church Fathers, or the lives of the saints is edifying and reveal God to us and what it means to know Him. This takes effort, but not superhuman effort. We can orient our lives to greater contemplation and study of our faith with God’s help and with the direction offered by a spiritual father or mother.
As the Cherubic Hymn tells us we must “lay aside all cares of life” and as we do we can direct our minds away from the cares of the world to contemplate the mysteries of our faith. Let us pray to God that He indeed grant us the grace to do this, not simply to find the time but to give us a yearning for every possible opportunity to direct our minds to meditation on His beauty and truth.