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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250331
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UID:13275-1743379200-1743465599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:EVERYWHERE MERCY PRECEDES \nFrom a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny \n◊◊◊ \nO happy the humility of those who repent; O blessed the hope of those \nwho confess. How mighty you are with the Almighty; how easily you conquer the \nunconquerable; how quickly you turn the dreadful judge into a devoted father. \nWe have heard to our great edification of the prodigal son’s sorrowful journey\, \ntearful repentance and glorious reception. He was so gravely guilty and had not \nyet confessed but only planned to; had not yet made satisfaction but only bent \nhis mind to it. Yet by merely intending to humble himself he immediately \nobtained a pardon\, which others seek for so long a time with such great desire\, \nbeg for with such tears\, strive for with such diligence. The thief on the cross was \nabsolved by a simple confession\, the prodigal by only the will to confess. \n“I said\,” Scripture says\, “I will confess my transgression to the Lord; and \nyou did forgive the guilt of my sin.” Everywhere mercy precedes. It had preceded \nthe will to confess by inspiring it; it preceded also the words of confession by \nforgiving what was to be confessed. “When he was still far off\,” we read\, “his \nfather saw him and was moved with compassion\, and running to meet him fell \nupon his neck and kissed him.” These words seem to suggest that the father was \neven more anxious o pardon his son than the son was to be pardoned. He \nhastened to absolve the guilty one from what was tormenting his conscience\, as \nif the merciful father suffered more in his compassion for his miserable son than \nthe son did in his own miseries. We do not mean to attribute human feelings to \nthe unchangeable nature of God; we intend rather that our affection should be \nsoftened and moved to love that supreme goodness by learning from \ncomparison with human feelings that he loves us more than we love him. \nSee how where sin abounded grace abounds still more. The guilty one \ncould scarcely hope for pardon; the judge\, or rather not now the judge but the \nadvocate\, heaps us grace… What a wealth of graciousness and sweetness\, what \nan abundance of most blessed joy\, what torrents of most holy delight do they not \ncontain? “He fell upon his neck and kissed him.” When he thus showed his \naffection for him\, what did he do by his embrace and his kiss but take him to his \nbosom and cast himself into his son’s bosom\, breathe himself into him\, in order \nthat by clinging to his father he might become one spirit with him\, just as by \nclinging to harlots he had been made one body with them? It was not enough for \nthat supreme mercy not to close the bowels of his compassion to the wretched. \nHe draws them into his very bowels and makes them his members. He could not \nbind us to himself more closely\, could not make us more intimate to himself \nthan by incorporating us into himself. \nBoth by charity and by ineffable power he unites us not only with the body \nhe has assumed but also with his very spirit. If such is the grace accorded to the \nrepentant what will be the glory of those who reign? If such are the consolations \nof the wretched\, what will be the joys of the blessed? And since he gives us so \nmuch in advance while we are still on the way\, what treasures is he not keeping \nstored up for us when we arrive in our fatherland? Indeed\, what has not entered \ninto the heart of man: that we should be like him and that God should be all in \nall.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-287/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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