Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

  From the Homily at the Canonization of the martyrs of Uganda by Pope Paul VI   The African martyrs add another page to the martyrology – the Church’s roll of honor – an occasion both of mourning and of joy. This is a page worthy in every way of being added to the annals … Continue reading Vigils Reading – St Charles Lwanga & Companions →

  The prefiguring of Christ in the miracle of Elisha: a reading from The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena. 1   : After I had made everything good and perfect, I created the rational creatures in my own image and likeness, and I put them in this garden . But because of Adam=s sin … Continue reading Vigils Reading →

A Reading about St Boniface, the Apostle of Germany, by Chris­topher Dawson.     In art and religion, in scholarship and literature, the Anglo-Saxons of the eighth century were the leaders of their age.  At the time when continental civilization was at its lowest ebb, the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons marked the turn of the … Continue reading Vigils Reading – St Boniface →

    Biblical Readings for Office and Mass 10th Week in Ordinary Time Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (I) June 6 – 12, 2021   Sun 6 Mon 7 Tues 8 Wed 9 Thu 10 Fri 11 Sat 12 Office Corpus Christi Weekday Office for Vocations St Ephrem Weekday Sacred Heart of Jesus Immaculate Heart … Continue reading Skema →

  A Commentary on the Gospel of St. Mark by St John Chrysostom   As they were eating, he took bread and broke it. Christ instituted this sacrament  at the time of the Passover in order to teach us by every possible means both that he himself had been the lawgiver of the Old Testament, … Continue reading Vigils Reading →

      God’s Curse on Hezekiah is Lifted – from Commentaries by St. Cyril of Jerusalem    Do you want to know the power of repentance? Do you want to understand this strong weapon of salvation and the might of confession? By confession Hezekiah routed 185,000 of the enemy. This was important, but it … Continue reading Vigils Reading →

  The Divine Call – from a book by Hans Urs von Balthasar    Christian revelation is primarily a revelation of hearing, not of seeing. Although the image of seeing is not excluded – for “we see now through a mirror in an obscure manner” (I Cor 13:12); wisdom, when it appears, is the “mirror … Continue reading Vigils Reading – Office for Vocations →

  From a Sermon by St. Ephrem    Lord, shed upon our darkened souls the brilliant light of your wisdom so that we may be enlightened and serve you with renewed purity. Sunrise marks the hour for men to begin their toil, but in our souls, Lord, prepare a dwelling for the day that will … Continue reading Vigils Reading – St Ephrem →

    A Commentary on the Second Book of Kings by Ephrem the Syrian   Jehu, who had seen the woman who had spoken to him and had recognized her to be Jezebel, ordered  the eunuchs who were beside her to throw her out of the window, and they immediately threw her with force and … Continue reading Vigils Reading →

  On the mysteries of our redemption hidden and revealed in the heart of Jesus; a prayer from the Meditations of William of St. Thierry. 1     O Truth supreme, you are the heaven of heavens, you who are what you are, who have your being from yourself, who belong to yourself and are … Continue reading Vigils Reading – Sacred Heart of Jesus →

  Sermon 55 on the Feast of Our Lady's Nativity by John Tauler   Today we celebrate the lovely feast on which the blessed Virgin, Our Lady, was born, free from sin, immaculate and holy from her mother's womb, in which she had been sanctified.  In hr was restored what had been lost in Paradise … Continue reading Vigils Reading – Immaculate Heart of Mary →

A Commentary on the Gospel of Mark by St Peter Chrysologus Brothers and sisters, you have heard today how the kingdom of heaven, for all its vastness, can be compared to a mustard seed: the kingdom of heaven, says the gospel, is like a mustard seed. A mustard seed! Is that the sum of believer’s … Continue reading Vigils: Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time →

  Biblical Readings for Office and Mass 11th Week in Ordinary Time Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (I) June 13 – 19, 2021   Sun 13 Mon 14 Tues 15 Wed 16 Thu 17 Fri 18 Sat 19 Office 11th Sunday Bl Gerard Weekday St Lutgard Bl M-Joseph Cassant Office for the Dead Memorial of … Continue reading skema: Eleventh Week Ordinary Time →

From St.Bernard's Lament for the Death of Gerard, his Brother. How much better for me, O Gerard, if I had lost my life rather than your company, since through your tireless inspiration, your unfailing help and under your provident scrutiny I persevered with my studies of things divine.  Why, I ask, have we loved, why … Continue reading Vigils: Bl Gerard →

A Commentary on the 2 Book of Kings by Ephrem the Syrian This sign is divided into two figures and each of them possesses its own meaning. “The Lord’s arrow of victory” clearly signifies our Lord and Savior hanging from the wood and giving up his spirit. In his spirit he descends into the fortresses … Continue reading Vigils: Weekday →

From the Life of St. Lutgarde  by Thomas Merton Born in 1182, Lutgarde reached maturity at the turn of the 13th century. She belongs to the age of St. Francis and St. Dominic, St Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure. It was a great age. With the growth of the new social order came the development … Continue reading Vigils: St. Lutgarde →