Weekday

A reading from the Dogmatic Constitution
LUMEN GENTIUM 4
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The Church, to which we are all called in Christ Jesus, and in which by the grace of God we acquire holiness, will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven, when will come the time of the renewal of all things. At that time, together with the human race, the universe itself, which is so closely related to humankind and which attains its destiny through him, will be perfectly reestablished in Christ.
Christ lifted up from the earth, has drawn all to himself. Rising from the dead he sent his life-giving Spirit upon his disciples and through him set up his Body which is the Church as the universal sacrament of salvation. Sitting at the right hand of the Father he is continually active in the world in order to lead all to the Church and, through it, join them more closely to himself; and, by nourishing them with his own Body and Blood, make them partakers of his glorious life. The promised and hoped for restoration, therefore, has already begun in Christ. It is carried forward in the sending of the Holy Spirit and through him continues in the Church in which, through our faith, we learn the meaning of our earthly life, while we bring to term, with hope of future good, the task allotted to us in the world by the Father, and so work out our salvation.
Already the final age of the world is with us and the renewal of the world is irrevocably under way; it is even now anticipated in a certain real way, for the Church on earth is endowed already with a sanctity that is real though imperfect. However, until there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells the pilgrim Church, in its sacraments and institutions, which belong to this present age, carries the mark of this world which will pass, and she herself takes her place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and await the revelation of the children of God.
So it is, united with Christ in the Church and marked with the Holy Spirit “who is the guarantee of our inheritance” that we are truly called and indeed are children of God though we have not yet appeared with Christ in glory in which we will be like to God, for we will God as God is. “While we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord” and having the firstfruits of the Spirit we groan inwardly and we desire to be with Christ.
That same charity urges us to live more for him who died for us and who rose again. We reckon then that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” and we look for the “blessed hope”, the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body.”

4
Vatican II Documents, “The Pilgrim Church”. Austin Flannery, OP, Costello Pub. Co., 1975, pp. 407-408.