BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20230312T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20231105T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20240310T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20241103T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20250309T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20251102T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240921
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240922
DTSTAMP:20260505T061925
CREATED:20240915T104327Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240915T104327Z
UID:12532-1726876800-1726963199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Matthew
DESCRIPTION:ST MATTHEW\, \nAPOSTLE AND EVANGELIST \nFrom “The Saints” by John Coulson1 \n◊◊◊ \nFew people love the tax collector… Much more was this so in the Palestine \nof the first century\, when it was in his interests to bully and harry and falsify. \nBut even the mild and honest tax collector was not acceptable to official \nJudaism: he did business with the gentile and handled his money; he was legally \nimpure\, socially outcast. A Jewish Rabbi would be bold indeed to invite him to \njoin his inner circle of disciples: it would be a gesture of defiance to the \nestablished prejudice. And so\, the formula ‘publicans and sinners’ slipped even \ninto the phrase book of the evangelist and\, quaintly enough\, into the Gospel of \nMatthew the publican. This term ‘publican’…does not accurately describe \nMatthew’s profession but flatters it. The Pharisees might despise it\, but the \ntrade was a profitable one and much sought after: whether it be pursued \nhonestly or dishonestly would depend on the character of the officer. \n“And Jesus passed further on\, he saw Levi\, the son of Alpheus\, sitting at \nwork in the customs-house and said to him\, “Follow me”; and he rose and \nfollowed him. That this was a call to the apostolate there is no doubt – its terms \ntoo closely match those of the call of Simon and Andrew to be otherwise. Yet \n‘Levi’ does not appear in any list of the Twelve. Now the vocation of the tax \ncollector is reported in the first Gospel too\, but there he is called ‘Matthew’\, thus \nidentifying him with the Matthew who appears in all the apostolic lists. The \nwidely accepted and most natural explanation is that Matthew and Levi are one \nperson with two Semitic names. It may be that our Lord himself gave him the \nname Matthew (Mattai\, ‘gift of God’\, in Aramaic) as he gave Kepha to Simon.15 \nThis Matthew then got up from his registers… The change destroyed all \nMatthew’s worldly prospects: Simon and Andrew might return to their fish\, but \nMatthew had thrown over a coveted business and could never recover it. He \nleft it gladly…and completely. It was not he but Judas who kept the accounts \nfor the apostolic group… \nWhen the need for a written gospel record began to be felt\, upon which of \nthe Apostles would the choice fall? Upon one who used the pen\, no doubt. Poor \nMatthew was back where he started\, but this time with an eager will and high \npurpose. In Palestine\, sometime between the years 40 and 50\, this ex-civil \nservant produced not the lively and artless Gospel of St. Mark but the orderly\, \nalmost ledger like\, treatise\, which we know as ‘The Gospel according to St. \nMatthew.’ \nAnd so\, Matthew’s old trade entered a new service; the accountant \nbecame an evangelist. It is not surprising that he alone records his Master’s \nwords; “Every scholar whose learning is of the kingdom of heaven…knows how \nto bring both new and old things out of his treasure house. For there is no poor \ntool of ours that God’s service will not perfect and dignify. \nIt is commonly but not unanimously affirmed he died a martyr’s death; \nbut we know for certain that he lived a martyr’s life – and that is enough. And \nfor us he will always be the man who knew what money was and what it was \nnot.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-matthew-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR