In today's Office of Readings we encounter a reading from a sermon said to be by St Macarius (300-391 A.D.). Saint Macarius the Great was one of the Egyptian desert recluses and a disciple of Saint Anthony. Fifty Spiritual Homilies were ascribed to Macarius a few generations after his death. Modern patristic scholarship doubts this attribution but concludes from internal evidence that the author was from Upper Mesopotamia, where the Roman Empire bordered the Persian Empire, and that the homilies were written not later than 534. None of this, of course, affects the spiritual value of the homilies themselves. Credit: Universalis.com. For a reflection, "Woe to the souls where Christ does not dwell!" please click on the image. Peace be with you!