Vigils Reading

THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW ROAD

From a sermon of St Caesarius of Arles4

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I beseech you, beloved, with God’s help let us celebrate these days,

salutary for bodies and healing for the soul, in so holy and spiritual a manner

that the observance of a holy Lent may lead to progress for us and not judgment.

For if we lead a careless life, involving ourselves in too many occupations,

refusing to observe chastity, not applying ourselves to fasting and vigils and

prayers, neither reading Sacred Scripture ourselves nor willingly listen to others

reading it, the very remedies are changed into wounds for us. As a result of this

we shall have judgment, where we could have had a remedy…

For this reason, dearest brethren, “Have no love for the world, nor the

things the world affords,” because “the world with its seductions is passing

away”. What, then, remains in a man except what each one has stored up in the

treasury of his conscience for the salvation of his soul by reading or prayer or

the performance of good works? For miserable pleasure, still more wretched

lust and dissipation, through a passing sweetness prepare eternal bitterness;

but abstinence, vigils, prayer and fasting lead to the delights of paradise through

the briefest hardships. The Truth does not lie when He says in the Gospel:

“Straight and narrow is the road that leads to eternal life, and how few there are

that find it!” Not for long is there rejoicing on the broad way, and not for long is

there labor on the straight and narrow road. After brief sadness those who travel

the latter receive eternal life, while those who travel the former, after short joy,

suffer endless punishment.

For this reason, dearest brethren, by fasting, reading and prayer in these

forty days we ought to store up for our souls provisions, as it were, for the whole

year. Although through the mercy of God you frequently and devoutly hear the

divine lessons throughout the entire year, still during these days we ought to

rest from the winds and the sea of this world by taking refuge, as it were, in the

haven of Lent, and in the quiet of silence to receive the divine lessons in the

receptacle of our heart. Devoting ourselves to God out of love for eternal life,

during these days let us with all solicitude strive to repair and compose in the

little ship of our soul whatever throughout the year has been broken or

destroyed or damaged or ruined by many storms, that is, by the waves of sins.

And since it is necessary for us to endure the storms and tempests of this world

while we are still in this frail body, as often as the enemy wills to lead us astray

by means of the roughest storms or to deceive us by the most voluptuous

pleasures, with God’s help may <the enemy> always find us prepared against

him.

If…you both willingly heed and strive faithfully to fulfill…the truths which

we are suggesting for the salvation of all by presuming on your obedience, you

will celebrate Easter with joy and happily come to eternal life. May He Himself

deign to grant this, who together with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and

reigns for ever and ever.

4 St Caesarius of Arles, Sermons, vol.3, The Fathers of the Church, vol. 66, Catholic University of America Press,

Washington DC, 1973, pg. 41.9