BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey - ECPv6.15.18//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: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
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20260308T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20261101T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250730
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250731
DTSTAMP:20260404T042806
CREATED:20250727T112406Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250727T112406Z
UID:13740-1753833600-1753919999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:ASCETICISM \nAS A WAY OF LOVE \nBy Paul Evdokimov \n◊◊◊ \nThe methods provided for asceticism reflect the epoch which practices it \nand adapt themselves to its way of thinking. In the conditions of modern life\, \nunder the weight of overwork and nervous exhaustion\, emotional reaction \nchanges. Medicine protects and prolongs life but at the same time diminishes \nthe resistance to suffering and to privations. Christian asceticism is never an \nend in itself; it is only a means\, a method in the service of life\, and it will seek to \nbe in harmony with new requirements. \nFormerly\, the asceticism of the desert Fathers imposed fasts of a severe \nkin\, and constraints; today the battle is shifting to other ground. Man has no \nneed to impose supplementary suffering upon himself; to use [highly artificial \nmethods] would be to risk breaking him to no purpose. \nToday ‘mortification’ means being relaxed from all necessity to ‘dope’ \noneself: through speed\, noise\, excitements\, drugs\, alcohol\, [and similar] stimuli \nof all kinds. Asceticism would be\, rather\, the repose that is imposed upon us\, the \ndiscipline of calmness and silence in which a man rediscovers the faculty to \npause for prayer and contemplation\, even at the heart of all the noises of the \nworld\, in the [train and bus stations]\, in the crowd\, at the crossroads of a town; \nbut above all it is the faculty of appreciating the presence of others\, the friends of \neach encounter. \nFasting\, contrary to the maceration which one inflicts upon oneself\, \nwould be the joyous renunciation of all that is superfluous\, sharing it with the \npoor\, and a smiling\, natural\, peaceful equilibrium. Back beyond the [bodily] and \npsychological asceticism of the Middle Ages\, we should seek the eschatological \nasceticism of the first centuries\, that act of faith which transformed the whole \nhuman being into the joyous expectation of the Second Coming\, an expectation \nwhich was not chronological\, but qualitative\, and which discerns the final and \nsole necessity\, for\, according to the Gospel\, the time is short and “the Spirit and \nthe Bride say ‘Come!’” \nAsceticism thus becomes a means of paying attention to the challenges of \nthe Gospel\, to the standard of the Beatitudes: it will seek for humility and purity \nof heart\, in order to deliver its neighbor and to restore him to God. In a world \nthat is weary\, crushed with cares\, living to an intensely accelerated rhythm\, the \ntask is to find and to live a ‘spiritual childhood’\, the freshness and the \nevangelical simplicity of the ‘little way’ which leads to sitting at the table of \nsinners\, to blessing and breaking bread together.… \nThus\, [asceticism] is never anything but a means\, a strategy… The \nevangelical asceticism of the Gospel goes to extremes\, not out of fear\, but out of \na love that overflows with tenderness towards the world. St. Dorotheus gives a \nbeautiful picture of salvation\, in the form of a circle. Its center is God\, and all the \npeople stand at the circumference. The nearer one draws to the center — God — \nthe nearer do the rays of the circle — one’s neighbor — draw to one another. \n[And so] St. Isaac can say [a similar thing] to his disciple: “Here is a \ncommandment for you: let mercy always [be the measure] your scale\, until… \nyou feel within yourself the mercy that God feels towards you and towards the \nworld.”
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-341/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR