BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey
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:20220313T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20221106T060000
END:STANDARD
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
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230225
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230226
DTSTAMP:20260430T055305
CREATED:20230218T044112Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230218T044112Z
UID:10120-1677283200-1677369599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Reading: Saturday After Ash Wednesday
DESCRIPTION:The Mercy of God to a Penitent 7\nFrom a Letter of St Maximus the Confessor \nGod’s will is to save us\, and nothing pleases him more than our coming back\nto him with true repentance. The heralds of truth and the ministers of divine grace\nhave told us this from the beginning\, repeating it in every age. Indeed\, God’s desire\nfor our salvation is the primary and preeminent sign of his infinite goodness. It is\nprecisely in order to show that there is nothing closer to God’s heart than the divine\nWord of the Father\, with untold condescension\, lived among us in the flesh\, and\ndid\, suffered and said all that was necessary to reconcile us to God the Father\, when\nwe were at enmity with him\, and to restore us to the life of blessedness from which\nwe had been exiled. He healed our physical infirmities by miracles; he freed us from\nour sins\, many and grievous as they were\, by suffering and dying\, taking them upon\nhimself as if he were answerable for them\, sinless though he was. He also taught us\nin many different ways that we should wish to imitate him by our own kindness and\ngenuine love for one another. \nSo it was that Christ proclaimed that he had come to call sinners to\nrepentance\, not the righteous\, and that it was not the healthy who required a doctor\,\nbut the sick. He declared that he had come to look for the sheep that was lost\, and\nthat it was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel that he had been sent. \nTo give the same lesson he revived the man who\, having fallen into the hands\nof brigands\, had been left stripped and half-dead from his wounds; he poured wine\nand oil on the wounds\, bandaged them\, placed the man on his own mule\, and\nbrought him to an inn\, where he left sufficient money to have him cared for\, and\npromised to repay any further expense on his return. \nAgain\, he told of how that Father. Who is goodness itself\, was moved with\npity for his profligate son who returned and made amends by repentance; how he\nembraced him\, dressed him once more in the fine garments that befitted his own\ndignity\, and did not reproach him for any of his sins. \nSo too\, when he found wandering in the mountains and hills the one sheep\nthat had strayed from God’s flock of a hundred\, he brought it back to the fold\, but\nhe did not exhaust it by driving it ahead of him. Instead\, he placed it on his own\nshoulders and so\, compassionately\, he restored it safely to the flock. \nSo also he cried out: “Come to me\, all you that toil and are heavy of heart.\nAccept my yoke”\, he said\, by which he meant his commands\, or rather the whole\nway of life that he taught us in the Gospel. He then speaks of a burden\, but that is\nonly because repentance seems difficult. In fact\, however\, “my yoke is easy”\, he\nassures us\, “and my burden is light”. \nThen again he instructs us in divine justice and goodness\, telling us to be like\nour heavenly Father\, holy\, perfect and merciful. “Forgive”\, he says\, “and you will be\nforgiven. Behave toward other people as you would wish them to behave toward\nyou”. \n7 The Liturgy of the Hours – vol II – pg 304 – Catholic Book Publishing co – 1976
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/reading-saturday-after-ash-wednesday/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR