BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey - ECPv6.16.2//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:20241122
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20241123
DTSTAMP:20260525T195931
CREATED:20241117T022444Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241117T022444Z
UID:12846-1732233600-1732319999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Cecilia
DESCRIPTION:THE VIRGINITY OF \nST CECILIA \nFrom a homily by Fr Ronald Knox6 \n◊◊◊ \nThe legends of the early Roman saints\, among whom St Cecilia is \nnumbered\, do not always command great attention from the critically minded \nhistorian. But whether the story of St Cecilia as it is told in her acts is all true or \nonly partly true\, there is a simplicity about the whole story and a simplicity \nabout St Cecilia’s character in the story which demands a retelling. Let me \nremind you in the most general way of her story: how she was married to a \nyoung pagan called Valerian\, but persuaded him to respect her vow of virginity\, \nbecause her guardian angel would make him sorry for it if he did otherwise; how \nValerian wanted to see this guardian angel\, but Cecilia\, with her innocent craft\, \nsaid he could not do that unless he was baptized first; how he was baptized\, and \nsaw the angel at her side as she prayed; how he made a convert of his brother \nTiburtius\, and how first the two brothers\, and then Cecilia herself were \npunished with death for professing the Christian religion. It is an old story\, and \na familiar one: and while we do all homage to other great saints for their public \nwitness to Christ\, we shall always need St Cecilia as well\, quietly working at \nhome for the conversion of her own husband and his family. \nNot that St Cecilia herself was in the position of a modern wife. Like so \nmany Christian ladies of her time\, she had taken\, in imitation of our blessed \nLady\, a vow of perpetual virginity. These virgin martyrs were martyrs because \nthey were virgins: it was because they insisted on keeping their vow when their \nparents wished them to marry that the secret of their attachment to the \nChristian faith was discovered; and it was their persistency in maintaining it \nthat led to their martyrdom. It would be hard to estimate\, I think\, how much the \nunpopularity in Roman society of the Christian faith owed to its tradition of \nvirginity. Virginity is an ideal which the pagan had no right to misunderstand. \nFor\, in theory\, they\, too\, honored it; and it should have commended itself to \ntheir heathen instinct for sacrifice. For the point of a sacrifice is that the victim \nshould be spotless\, the best of its kind. You must offer not what you can well \nafford to spare\, but what will cost you something. That is the pagan idea of \nsacrifice; and the Christian idea of sacrifice is based on the same principle. In \norder to give up something to God\, we forgo\, not the sinful pleasures which we \nhave no right to in any case\, but the lawful pleasures which he has given us to \nenjoy if we will. \nSo\, let St. Cecilia’s feast remind us to take our Christian vocation \nseriously\, to follow out in our lives the words we profess with our lips. And may \nthis Roman maiden pray for us who worship here and for those who minister to \nus\, that when Christ\, the Master she served\, comes again in judgment\, we may \nbe found blameless before almighty God.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-cecilia-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR