Vigils Reading

THE HAVEN OF LENT

By St Caesarius of Arles

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Behold, dearest brethren, through the mercy of God the season of Lent is

upon us. Therefore 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, not applying ourselves to fasting and vigils and prayers, neither

reading Sacred Scripture ourselves nor willingly listening 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 I exhort you, dearest brethren, to rise rather early for

vigils, and above all to come to Terce, Sext and None. Let no one withdraw

himself from the holy Office unless either infirmity or public service or at least

great necessity keeps him occupied. Let it not be enough for you that you hear

the divine lessons in church, but read them yourselves in your room or look for

someone else to read them and willingly listen to them when they do.

Remember the thought of our Lord, brethren, when he says: “If he were to gain

the whole world and destroy himself in the process, what can a man offer in

exchange for his very self?” Finally, if you cannot do more, at least labor as much

on behalf of your soul as you desire to labor for the sake of your body.

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

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

away.” What, then, remains in a person 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 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 life, and how few there are who find it!”

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 the 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 through the year has been broken or destroyed or

damaged by many storms, that is, by the waves of sin. And since it is necessary

for us to endure the storms and tempests of the 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, with God’s help may he always find us prepared against him.