Reading: Lenten Weekday
2023-03-28
On Despising the Things of This World and
On the Hope of Heavenly Things 3
A sermon by Alan of Lille
…The hope of earthly goods leads only to promises for the future; it
destroys our joys before they arrive. [Earthly hope] corrupts the mind by too
much anxiety, for fear trips up hope and mortgages the joys to come; it stretches
desire into infinity. O man, you depend on earthly things; you rely upon what is
uncertain; you lean upon a reed cane which is easily broken. Do not therefore
trust in that which is fragile and slippery; it quickly sinks away and destroys you.
Set your mind on the clouds of adversity rather than on the clear skies of
prosperity. If you set your hope on earthly prosperity… not only will you fail to
find there what you hope for, but you will discover instead the tinder of sin and of
ruin, a snare for your soul and the leavening of justice.
Rather direct your hope towards tribulations, which although they present
an external bitterness, yet – for those who stand firm – they bring forth in the
spirit the sweetness of the hope of heaven. Nor may he who has not been pricked
by the bitterness of tribulation enjoy the sweet fruit of patience. Tribulation is
the furnace which refines gold, the file which burnishes iron, the flail by which
the grain is separated from the chaff. In this warfare of tribulation, patience is
exercised, fortitude does battle, constancy is strengthened, hope is summoned
heavenwards…
O how happy is that heavenly hope, which fear does not overpower, in
which fear is not engendered by falsehood, where desire does not dream
reason invite us to believe and hope in this. What fear is able to weaken the
human mind, if heavenly hope pleads for it before God? What harm will the
thundering of tyrants, the precipices of fortune, the weaknesses of the body, the
groanings of poverty do to the man whose mind is fortified with heavenly hope?
This is the hope which governs the assemblies [of men], and directs their actions.
This it is which finds its height in charity, that we may direct our actions towards
God; this it is which expands its breadth in charity, that we may extend charity to
our enemy. This it is which stretches out its length in charity, that we may
persevere in charity to the very end of life.
Between this [hope] and fear, as between two millstones, the Christian
should be ground smooth and fine. Whence it is said in Deuteronomy: ‘You shall
not accept the upper or the lower millstone as a pledge’. The upper millstone is
hope, the lower, fear. The one must not be accepted without the other. Anyone
who hopes and does not fear is neglectful; anyone who fears and does not hope is
downcast.
3 Alan of Lille. The Art of Preaching. CF 23. Trans. Gillian R. Evans. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian
Publications, Inc., 1981. 58-61.

Reading: Lenten Weekday
2023-03-29
Father and Son 4
from the Paschal Homilies of St Cyril of Alexandria
In the account of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac, the Bible portrays
the mystery of our Savior in all its aspects. Because I want you to have a clear
understanding of this deep mystery of our religion, I must show you the
connection between the events that typified the truth itself, and explain how each
part of the story should be interpreted.
The holy Abraham took his son and hastened to the place that God had
shown him. The fact that the boy was brought to be sacrificed by his father is
meant to teach us by way of type or sign that the Lord Jesus Christ was not raised
upon the cross by any human power, nor by the wickedness of those who laid
snares for him, but by the will of the Father, whose providential plan permitted
him to suffer death for the whole world. The Savior himself said as much when
he answered Pilate: you would have no power over me if it had not been given
you from above. At another time, speaking to his Father in heaven, he said:
Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. But your will, not mine, be done.
Abraham laid the wood for the sacrifice on his son’s shoulders. In the
same way, the Jews laid the wood of the cross on the Savior’s shoulders and they
did this with the consent, one might almost say the cooperation of the Father; for
it is not possible to compel the divine power. The prophet Isaiah bears reliable
witness to this when he says: He bore the punishment which brings us peace,
and by his wounds we are healed. We had all strayed like sheep, everyone had
gone his own way and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.
When the patriarch eventually arrived at the appointed place, he put all his
skill into building a good altar. This too we are meant to interpret in a spiritual
way and so to understand that what appears to the human eye as a cross and a
gibbet is in fact in the eyes of the Father of the whole universe a vast and towering
altar raised up for the salvation of the world, and blackened by the smoke of a
pure and most holy sacrifice.
By his words, I bared my back to the scourge, and let myself be struck on
the face Isaiah foretold the blows that his enemies would shamelessly inflict on
the Savior’s body, and their spitting upon it… Our Lord Jesus Christ, disregarding
the shame, humbled himself in obedience to the Father, even to the extent of
dying for our salvation. He died to give us life through the Holy Spirit and to
raise us up with himself, to open the gates of heaven to us and to lead us in, thus
restoring to the Father the human race whose sin had long ago made it fly from
his presence.
Therefore, beloved, let this great work of our Savior be acclaimed by every
voice, let his praise be on every tongue. Let the sweet sound of that ancient song
be heard again: God has gone up with shouts of jubilation, the Lord has
ascended with a fanfare of trumpets. He completed the work of our salvation
and then ascended, indeed he not only ascended but he also led captivity captive
and gave gifts to mortals.
4 A Word in Season – vol. II – Exordium Books – 1982 – pg 147

Reading: Lenten Weekday
2023-03-30
The Origin of Death 5
From the writing of Fr. Alexander Schmemann
…Death as the liberation from the oppressiveness of the body; death as the
liberation from suffering; death as freedom from this changing, busy, evil world;
death as the beginning of eternity. Here, in fact, is the sum total of religious and
philosophical teaching before Christ and outside of Christianity… But Christ
weeps at the grave of his friend, and in so doing he reveals his own struggle with
death, his refusal to acknowledge it and to come to terms with it. Suddenly,
death ceases to be a normal and natural fact, it appears as something foreign, as
unnatural, as fearsome and perverted, and it is acknowledged as an enemy: “The
last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
In order to feel the whole depth and revolutionary force of this change we
must begin at the beginning, at the source of this new and unprecedented
approach to death. We find it as a brief statement in Holy Scripture: “God did
not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living”. This means
that in the world, in creation, there is a power that does not have its origin in
God, which he did not desire, which he did not create, which opposes him and is
independent of him…Death is the denial of God, and if death is natural, if it is the
ultimate truth about life and about the world, if it is the highest and immutable
law about all of creation, then there is no God, then this whole story about
creation, about joy, and about the light of life is a total lie.
Therefore, the most important and more profound question of the
Christian faith must be, How and from where did death arise, and why has it
become stronger than life? Why has it become so powerful that the world itself has become a kind of cosmic cemetery, a place where a collection of people
condemned to death live either in fear or terror, or in their efforts to forget about
death find themselves rushing around one great big burial plot?
To this question Christianity answers with equal force, brevity, and
conviction. Here is the text: “and through sin death has come into the world”. In
other words, for Christianity, death first of all is revealed as part of the moral
order, as a spiritual catastrophe. In some final and indescribable sense man
desired death, or perhaps one might say, he did not desire that life that was given
to him by God freely, with love and joy… Man did not desire this life with God
and for God. He desired life for himself, and in himself he found the purpose, the
goal, and the content of life. And in this free choice of himself, and not of God, in
his preference for himself over God, without realizing it, man became inextricably
a slave of the world, a slave of his own dependence on the world…
“God did not create death.” It is man who introduced death into the world,
freely desiring life only for himself and in himself, cutting himself off from the
source, the goal, and content of life – from God. And this is why death -as
disintegration, as separation, as temporality, transitoriness – has become the
supreme law of life, revealing the illusory nature of everything on earth.
In order to console himself, man created a dream of another world where
there is no death, and for that dream he forfeited this world, gave it up decidedly
to death. Only if we fully return to the Christian understanding about death, as
the root of man’s own perversion of the understanding of the very content of life,
can we hear once more, as new, the Christian proclamation about the destruction
of death in the resurrection.
5
Schmemann, Alexander. O Death Where is Thy Sting?. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003. 29-36.

Reading: Lenten Weekday
2023-03-31
Humility 6
From the Epistles of Elder Paisios of Mount Athos
Blessed are those who manage to imitate the humble earth, which, while it
is stepped on by everyone, lifts everyone with its love and nurtures them with
affection like a good mother, which has also provided the material for our flesh.
It accepts with joy anything we throw away, good fruits as well as dirty trash,
converts them quietly into vitamins and, with its fruits, offers them back
plentifully to both good and evil people, without discrimination.
The humble person, as is manifest, is the strongest in the world because he
is always triumphant, but also because he bears other people’s loads with an
untroubled conscience. Although he lives scorned and unjustly treated due to the
errors of others that he assumes out of love, internally he feels the greatest joy in
the world, for he has disregard for this vain world. Insults, injustices… are the
best lancets for those who are at fault, because old wounds are thus cleansed. For
those who are not at fault, however, they are like the executioner’s knives; people
who joyfully accept them for the love of Christ are considered martyrs.
Adults who do not accept insults and biting criticism, that they might be
healed or receive a reward (when not at fault), are more foolish than little
children who don’t want to even hear about the doctor, for fear of the injection
(not wanting to be pierced by the needle). Hence, they continually suffer from a
cough and fever… He who humbly prostrates himself and accepts blows from
other people, removes his own tumours, becomes beautified spiritually as an
angel, and thus fits through the narrow gate of Paradise.
…No one climbs to Heaven through worldly ascent, but through spiritual
descent. He who walks lowly always walks with surety and never falls. He who
does not seek counsel on his spiritual journey, confuses the routes, becomes
exhausted, and is delayed. If he does not humble himself and solicit counsel,
even if at a later stage, he will hardly reach his destination. Those who take
counsel, however, walk tirelessly, with surety, and are covered by the Grace of
God and are enlightened, inasmuch as they have been humbled… He who lacks
humility and good thoughts is full of doubts and questions. Since he will be
constantly perplexed, in the beginning he has need of an Elder with great
patience to constantly provide him with explanations until his mind and heart are
cleansed so he can see clearly.
As the humble and kind-hearted man has purity and internal as well as
external serenity, he also has spiritual depth, perceives profoundly the divine
meanings, and is greatly benefited, and his faith increases even more, for he lives
the mysteries of God. He who is proud, apart from being darkened, is always
unsettled inwardly as well outwardly. Due to the flightiness of his egotism, he
always stands on the surface of things and cannot proceed to the depths, where
the divine pearls are found, so as to be spiritually enriched.
6 Elder Paisios of Mount Athos. Epistles. Vasilika, Thessaloniki, Greece: Holy Monastery of the
Evangelist John the Theologian, 2002. 116-119.

Reading: Lenten Weekday
2023-04-01
Submission to God in Suffering is a Source of Peace 7
From the writings of Dom Columba Marmion
When we thus submit ourselves entirely to Christ Jesus, when we abandon
ourselves to Him, when our soul only responds, like His own, with a perpetual
Amen to all that He asks of us in the name of His Father… then Christ Jesus
establishes His peace in us: His peace, not that which the world promises, but the
true peace which can only come from Himself…
Doubtless, here below, peace is not always sensible; upon earth we are in a
condition of trial and, most often, peace is won by conflict… We may be slighted,
opposed, persecuted, be unjustly treated, our intentions and deeds may be
misunderstood; temptation may shake us, suffering may come suddenly upon us;
but there is an inner sanctuary which none can reach; here is the sojourn of our
peace, because in this innermost secret of the soul dwell adoration, submission
and abandonment to God. “I love my God,” said St. Augustine, “no one takes
Him from me: no one takes from me what I ought to give Him, for that is
enclosed within my heart…
Death cannot trouble the soul that has sought only God. Has it not
confided itself to the One Who says: “He that believeth in Me, although he be
dead, shall live”…
In one of her “Exercises,” St. Gertrude allows her assurance, which the
infinite merits of Jesus give her, to overflow. “Woe, woe unto me, if, when I come
before Thee, I had no advocate to plead my cause!… Come Thou with me to
judgment… there let us stand together. Judge me, for the right is Thine; but
remember Thou are also my Advocate. In order that I be fully acquitted, Thou
has but to recount what Thou didst become for love of me, the price wherewith
Thou hast purchased me…
For souls moved by such sentiments, death is but a transition; Christ
comes Himself to open to them the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem… There will
be no more darkness, trouble, tears, or sighs; but peace, infinite and perfect
peace. “Peace first becomes ours with the longing and seeking for the Creator; it
is in the full vision and eternal possession of Him that peace is made perfect.”
7 Marmion, Dom Columba, O.S.B. Suffering with Christ: An anthology of the Writings of Dom Columba
Marmion, O.S.B. Compiled by Dom Raymund Thibaut, O.S.B. Westminster, Maryland: The Newman
Press, 1954. 220-221, 232-233.

Skema
2023-04-02
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
Holy Week

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
April 2 – 8, 2023

Sun
2
Mon
3
Tue
4
Wed
5
Thu
6
Fri
7
Sat
8

Office
Palm Sunday
Mon. of Holy Week
Tues. of Holy Week
Wed. of Holy Week
Holy Thursday
Good Friday
Holy Saturday

Vigils
Zech 9:9-17
Lam 1:1-16
Lam 2:1-10
Lam 2:18-22
Lam 3:19-54
Lam 4:1-6
Lam 5:1-22

Lauds
Zeph 3:14-20
Lam 1:17-22
Lam 2:11-17
Lam 3:1-18
Lam 3:55-66
Wis 2:10-22
Isa 63:1-6

Mass
38
257
258
259
39
40

1st
Isa 50:4-7
Isa 42:1-7
Isa 49:1-6
Isa 50:4-9a
Exod 12:1-8, 11-14
Isa 52:13-53:12

2nd
Phil 2:6-11

1 Cor 11:23-26
Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9

Gospel
Matt 26:14-27:66
John 12:1-11
John 13:21-33, 36-38
Matt 26:14-25
John 13:1-15
John 18:1-19:42

Vespers
1 Tim 6:11-16
Rom 5:6-11
1 Cor 1:18-25
1 Pet 2:20-25

1 Pet 4:1-8

Vigils Reading - Palm Sunday
2023-04-02
The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ1
A Commentary by St Augustine
Jesus’ hour had not yet come – not the hour when he would be forced to die, but the hour when he would choose to be put to death. He knew the appointed hour for him to die; he had pondered all the prophecies concerning himself and was waiting until everything had taken place that the prophets said would occur before his passion began.
…Among the other things that were foretold of Christ, it is written: They mingled gall with my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. How this came about we know from the gospel. First they gave Jesus gall; he took it, tasted it, and rejected it. Then, to fulfill the Scriptures as he hung on the cross, he said: I am thirsty. They took a sponge soaked in vinegar, tied it to a reed, and lifted it up to him where he hung. When he had taken it he said: It is finished. What did he mean by that? It is as though he said: “All the prophecies foretelling what would happen before my passion have been fulfilled. What then is left for me to do?” So, after saying It is finished, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Did the thieves crucified beside him choose when to die? They were imprisoned in the flesh with no power over its limitations. But it was when he himself chose to do so that the Lord took flesh in a virgin’s womb. He chose the moment of his coming among us and the duration of his life on earth. He also chose the hour when he would depart this earthly life. It was in his power to do all this; he was under no compulsion. So in waiting for the hour of his choice, not the hour decreed by fate, he made sure that everything that had to be fulfilled before he suffered was duly accomplished. How could Christ be subject to the decree of fate, when elsewhere he had said: I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again. No one can take it from me; I lay it down of my own accord, and I will take it up again? He showed that power when the Jewish authorities came in search of him. Who are you looking for? he asked them. Jesus of Nazareth, they answered, and he in turn replied: I am he. At these words they recoiled and fell to the ground.

Someone is sure to ask: If he had such power, why did he not demonstrate it when his enemies were taunting him and saying: If he is the son of God, let him come down from the cross? He was showing us how to endure; that was why he deferred the exercise of his power. If he were to come down because he was stung by their words, they would think he had succumbed to their mockery. He chose not to come down. He chose to stay where he was, refusing to die until the moment of his choice.
If Jesus had the power to rise from the tomb, could he have found it so very difficult to come down from the cross? We, then, for whom all these things were done, should understand that the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was then hidden, will be revealed at the Last Judgment…
Thus, unless he had been willing he would not have suffered, his blood would not have been shed; and if that blood had not been shed, the world would not have been redeemed. So let us pour out our thanks to him, both for the power of his divinity and for the compassion of his suffering humanity.

1 Journey with the Fathers: Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels – Year A. Ed. Edith Barnecut, OSB. New York: New City Press, 1992. 48-49.

Vigils Reading - Monday of Holy Week
2023-04-03
The Vice of Covetousness 2
From a homily on the Gospel of John by St John Chrysostom
Six days before the Passover, [Jesus] came to Bethany where Lazarus was; and he shared a meal with them, and Martha served… However, Mary was not serving at table, for she was His disciple. In this case once again she was more deeply spiritual than Martha. For she was not lending her services as if called on to do so, nor did she minister to all the guests in common, but she paid honor to Him alone, and she approached Him, not as man, but as God. Indeed, that is why she poured out the ointment and wiped it dry with her hair, because she did not have the kind of opinion of Him which most people had.
Yet Judas rebuked her, with a pretense of piety in what he said. Therefore, what did Christ say? ‘She has done a good turn for my burial.’… Once again He was admonishing the traitor by speaking of His burial. However the warning did not give [Judas] pause, nor did the words soften him, even though they wereenough to plunge him into grief… Nothing of this caused the bestial and crazed man to yield, even though [Jesus]… both washed his feet on the night of the betrayal and shared with him His table and hospitality…
A terrible vice is covetousness, a terrible vice. It disables both eyes and ears, and makes men fiercer than wild beasts, not permitting them to consider conscience, or friendship, or association, or the salvation of their own soul… This vice made Giezi a leper instead of a disciple and prophet; it destroyed Ananias and his followers; it made Judas a traitor… It has brought on innumerable wars, and filled the roads with bloodshed, and the cities with mourning and weeping… For, when men saw beautiful homes, and extensive fields… and silver vessels, and a great accumulation of garments, they made every effort to get better ones… Let us think about our ancestors. Is not their property still standing, preserving only their names: the bath of this one, the suburban house and dwelling of that one? On seeing them do we not at once groan, thinking of how much toil he expended, how many frauds he perpetrated. Yet he is nowhere in sight, but others enjoy the fruits of his toil, people whom he never intended to enjoy them – perhaps even his enemies – while he suffers the extreme penalty…

However, this is not the case in the everlasting mansions, in the dwellings of the next life… Let us, then, strive for that type of possessions. Let us prepare dwellings for ourselves there, that we may find rest in Christ Jesus our Lord..

2 Saint John Chrysostom. Commentary on Saint John The Apostle and Evangelist: Homilies 48-88. Trans. Sister Thomas Aquinas Goggin, S.C.H. New York: Fathers of the Church, Inc, 1960. 209-215.

Vigils Reading - Tuesday of Holy Week
2023-04-04
One of You will Betray Me3
From a Commentary by Origen
There are many… who condemn Jesus and say, “Crucify him, crucify him,” and, “Away with such a one from the earth.” But to betray him was the work of one who had seen and observed him; for because he was acquainted with him as a teacher of such great and numerous teachings, which he had heard in private with the apostles, and because he knew him as Lord, when he betrayed him he betrayed his greatness, which he had known, something that one who had not beheld his greatness could not have done…
If Judas’ evil had been obvious to Jesus’ disciples it would have been known who was to betray the teacher, since Jesus had said, “One of you will betray me.” But now the disciples look “at one another, doubting of whom he spoke.” Perhaps indeed the apostles were ashamed to suspect anything wicked ofJudas because of his previous worthy deeds. It may have been, too, that Judas did not belong totally to evil, even though the devil had already put it in his heart that Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, should betray him. It was because there was still a remnant of good choice in him that, when he saw that Jesus wascondemned when “they bound him and lead him away and delivered him to Pilate the governor,” he repented and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned in betraying innocent blood.” When they replied, “What is that to us?”… Judas, who loved money, threw the money down and “went and hanged himself.” He did not even wait to see the end of Jesus’ judgment before Pilate.
In Judas’ case neither was his repentance without error, nor his evil unmixed with something better. For had his repentance been pure, even as that of the thief when he said, “Remember me, Jesus, when you come in your kingdom,” he would have approached the Savior and would have done what was in his power to make atonement for the treason that had already taken place. On the other hand, if he had cast the thought of good from his soul completely, he would not have repented when he saw that Jesus was condemned, but in addition would have accused him and added words proper to his treason. And furthermore, as a lover of money… he would not have returned it to the chief priests and elders, nor would he have confessed before those very men, on the one hand accusing himself, [but on the other], praising the teacher in the statement, “I have sinned in betraying just blood.”

“It is He with Whom I shall Dip the Morsel”… Jesus said this, then, and “when he had dipped the morsel, he took it and gave it to Judas… To understand how the Lord gave a morsel to Judas, and Judas then laid aside something better that was in him, perhaps even peace, which returns to the speaker from the one who hears it and does not accept it, according to the words, “If there be a son of peace there, your peace shall rest upon him, but if there is not a son of peace there, your peace shall return to you”… Once his peace was removed, the one who was watching for opportunities to enter his soul [entered] Judas, who also gave him a place to enter. Now observe at the same time that Satan did not enter Judas earlier, but only put it into his heart “that Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, should betray the teacher.”… Wherefore, let us also be on guard that the devil may not put it into our heart by one of his fiery darts, for if he does this, he afterwards watches to enter himself

3 Origen. The Fathers of the Church: Origen – Commentary on the Gospel of John Books 13-32. Vol. 89. Trans. Ronald Heine. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1993. 386-388, 394- 395.

Vigils Reading - Wednesday of Holy Week
2023-04-05
Is It I Rabbi?4
A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew by St Jerome
And while they were eating, he said: “Amen I say to you that one of you is going to hand me over.” The one who had predicted his suffering also predicts his betrayer. He was giving room for repentance, so that when he had understood that Jesus knew his thoughts and secret plans, he might repent of his deed. And yet Jesus does not specifically point him out. For he might have become more impudent, had he been manifestly exposed. He casts the charge against the group, that the one who is aware of it might do penance.
And being very saddened, they each began to say: “Is it I, Lord?” At least eleven apostles knew that they were thinking no such thing against the Lord, but they believe the Master more than themselves. They fear their own weakness and ask him sorrowfully about the sin of which they did not have awareness. But he answered and said: “He will hand me over who dips his hand in the dish with me.” How admirable is the Lord’s patience! First he said: “One of you is going to hand me over.” The betrayer perseveres in his malice. Jesus exposes him more openly but does not reveal his proper name. While the others are saddened and are retracing their hands and are keeping food from their mouths, Judas, with the temerity and impudence by which he was going to commit the betrayal, even puts his hand in the dish with the Master. Thus he feigns a good conscience by this audacity…
Judas does not retrace his steps, even after being rebuked for his treachery not one time but twice. Instead, the Lord’s patience feeds his impudence, and he treasures up wrath for himself on the day of wrath. Punishment is predicted, that the threatened penalties might correct the one whom shame did not conquer. As for what follows: “It would be good for that man if he had not been born”; it is not to be thought on account of these words that he existed prior to his birth, on the grounds that it could not be well for anyone except for one who existed. Instead, it has been spoken literally, that it is much better not to exist than to exist badly…

The others were sad and had very sorrowfully asked: “Is it I, Lord?” Thus, lest he seem to betray himself by his silence, Judas himself asks in similar fashion: “Is it I, Rabbi?” He who had boldly put his hand in the dish was stung in his conscience. But in his words he adds either the affection of a flatterer or thesign of unbelief. For the others who were not going to betray say: “Is it I, Lord?” But he who was going to betray calls him not “Lord” but “Teacher.” It is as if he would have an excuse if he betrayed at most a teacher, having denied that he was Lord. “And he said to him: ‘You have said it.’” The betrayer is put to silence with the same response by which [Jesus] would later answer Pilate

4 St Jerome. The Fathers of the Church: St. Jerome – Commentary on Matthew. Vol. 117. Trans. Thomas P. Scheck. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2008. 294-297.

Vigils Reading - Holy Thursday
2023-04-06
On the Lord’s Words to His Disciples at the Last Supper5
by Ogier of Locedio
When the Lord Jesus began to wash the disciples’ feet, he came first to Simon Peter, the first among his disciples. That God should wash a man’s feet filled Peter with terror and dread; he could not bear to see the Lord so humbled. He had watched him pour the water into the basin and wrap himself in the towel; perhaps he wondered what Jesus meant to do. But then he saw him come before him with the vessel, watched him kneel in preparation, and his apprehension was more than words can tell. Terrified, Peter groaned and cried out, ‘Lord! You – wash my feet?’ Was the Lord about the serve his servant, the Master his disciple? Would God so humble himself before a man, the Creator before his creature, He who from nothing made all things – before one who was made of clay? Get up, Lord, my God! What are you doing? It is too much, I cannot bear it!… Do not do what I see you mean to do! Never shall you wash my feet, Lord!’
At this, Jesus replied, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand. Do not be terrified, Peter. This is to be sure a great gesture of humility, but you will soon see greater and limitless evidence… It is an object- lesson I mean to leave you with as I go to the Father; do not prevent me from doing as I will… ‘I am the water that washes, I am the water that sanctifies: if I do not wash you, you can have no share with me.’ Hearing these latter words, Peter shudders profoundly. ‘What does it mean when you say, “You can have no share with me”? No share with you? What bitter words! You are my life, my sweetness, all my hope, my well-being, my every desire!’ Then, no longer contradicting the Master, he offers to be washed not only his feet but himself entirely: ‘Here I am, Lord. Do with me what you will! Wash my feet – and not only my feet: wash my hands, my head!’

If it is true, Lord Jesus, that no one you have not first washed can have a share with you, then have mercy on me, have mercy!… Do not despise me, O God my saviour! God , be merciful to me, a sinner! Wash what is filthy, wash what is befouled! Wash my feet, my hands, my head, my whole body! Wash my mind, wash my soul; wash me within and without… Who but you, Lord Jesus, will grant it to me to come into my heart and inebriate me with your water, so that I can forget all my former evil and… embrace you, that Life that shall never die? My sinful soul awaits the inspiration of your grace, that I might sufficiently repent and worthily live.
…O blessed Peter, O fortunate apostles, before whose feet knelt in all humility the creator of the angels!… O unhappy Judas! You eat the Lord’s bread and lift up your heel against him…
You therefore, my brothers, disciples of Christ, reflect on Judas’s deed… Judas lifted up his heel against Christ; you must prostrate yourselves, body and soul, before him. Judas turned away and left him; you must follow him. Judas sold him out to the authorities; you must sell all you possess – yourselves as well– for love of that pearl of such beauty. Exert yourselves to the limit in pleasing him, and him alone. Then you and I may be able to attain those joys that last forever, which are Christ Jesus himself..

5 Ogier of Locedio. Ogier of Locedio: Homilies. CF 70. Trans. D. Martin Jenni. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2006. 184-192.

Vigils Reading - Good Friday
2023-04-07
Living United to Your Cross 6
A Meditation by St Rafael Arnaiz
Today, at Holy Communion, I felt the consolation of being close to You when it seems that everything else has abandoned me. Lord, I wanted to nail to Your heart the words I say every day: “Lord, do not permit me to be parted from You.” May I remain, Lord, in the shadow of the stark wood of the cross forever. Put my cell and my bed at Your feet… There may I find all my delight, Lord, and my rest amid my suffering too… Water the ground at Calvary with my tears… There, at the foot of the cross, may I pray and examine my conscience… “Lord, do not permit me to be parted from You.”
What a great joy it is to be able to live at the foot of the cross. There I find Mary, and Saint John, and all those who love You. There is no pain there because, looking up at Your own, Lord, who would dare to suffer? There everything is forgotten. No one desires joy, no one thinks of suffering… Upon seeing Your wounds, Lord, only one thought reigns in the soul…love…yes, love, to wipe away Your sweat; love, to tend Your wounds; love, to relieve such great and immense pain. Lord, do no permit me to be parted from You.
Let me live at the foot of your cross without thinking of myself, or wanting or desiring anything other than gazing wildly upon the divine blood that is pouring down upon the earth… Let me weep, Lord, but weep for how little I can do for You, and how much I have offended You while I was far away from Yourcross… Let me weep for the forgetfulness that humanity shows You, even those who are good… Let me live at the foot of Your cross, Lord… day and night, at work and at rest, in prayer and study, while eating and sleeping…always… always.

I only came to know the gentleness of Christ’s ways such a short time ago, but I have always found consolation in the cross. What little I know, I have learned from the cross… I have always done my prayer and meditation at the cross… In truth, I don’t know a better place, and I’m not going looking for one… so stay still, then. Therefore, Lord, as I consider the divine school of your cross, as I consider that it is only on Calvary, at Mary’s side where I can learn to be better, to love You, and to forget and disregard myself: “Do not permit me to be parted from You.”
God is so good to me. I truly don’t have the words for it. He forcibly removes me from the world. He sends me a cross, and draws me near to His own… and so all I have to do is wait, wait with faith and love, wait, embracing His cross… Therefore, Lord, clinging to the cross with all my strength, uniting mytears to Your blood, shouting, wailing, howling… wanting to go mad… mad for Your most holy cross… Hear me, O Lord! Listen to my supplications, and od not spurn them… With the water pouring from Your side, wash away my great sins, my faults, and my ingratitude; fill my heart with Your divine blood, and give rest to my soul as it unceasingly cries out, “Lord, let me live united to Your cross, and do not permit me to be parted from it.”
Virgin Mary, Mother of Sorrows, when you gaze upon Your Son, bleeding on Calvary, let me humbly tend to Your great sorrow, and unworthy though I am, allow me to wipe away Your tears.

6 Saint Rafael Arnaiz. The Collected Works. Ed. Sr. Maria Gonzalo-Garcia, OCSO. Trans. Catherine Addington. Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2022. 629-631.

Vigils Reading - Holy Saturday
2023-04-08
A Flash in the Darkness7
From the writings of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
There is a loneliness in us that hears. When the soul parts from the company of the ego and its retinue of petty conceits; when we cease to exploit all things but instead pray the world’s cry, the world’s sigh, our loneliness may hear the living grace beyond all power. We must first peer into the darkness, feel strangled and entombed in the hopelessness of living without God, before we are ready to feel the presence of His living light…When ignorance and confusion blot out all thoughts, the light of God may suddenly bust forth in the mind like a rainbow in the sky. Our understanding of the greatness of God comes about as an act of illumination… “like a lightning that all of a sudden illumines the whole world, God illumines the mind of man, enabling him to understand the greatness of our Creator.” This is what is meant by the words of the Psalmist: “He sent out His arrows and scattered [the clouds]; He shot forth lightnings and discomfited them.” The darkness retreats, “The channels of water appeared, the foundations of the world were laid bare”.
…Reminders of what has been disclosed to us are hanging over our souls like stars, remote and of mind-surpassing grandeur. They shine through dark and dangerous ages, and their reflection can be seen in the lives of those who guard the path of conscience and memory in the wilderness of careless living. Since those perennial reminders have moved into our minds, wonder has never left us. Heedfully we stare through the telescope of ancient rites lest we lose the perpetual brightness beckoning to our souls. Our mind has not kindled the flame, has not produced these principles. Still our thoughts glow with their light…

Every one of us stood at the foot of Sinai and beheld the voice that proclaimed, I am the Lord thy God. Every one of us participated in saying, We shall do and we shall hear…Then the startling moment occurred: God appeared to Moses “in a flame of fire out of the bush; and he looked, and lo, the bush wasburning, yet it was not consumed”. In the face of that startling fact, Moses said: “I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.”… A new element was brought into being: fire that burns but does not consume. It indicated a new order in God’s relation to man, namely, that to reveal He must conceal, that to impart His wisdom He must hide His power. It made revelation possible…
Unless we learn how to appreciate and distinguish moments of time as we do things of space, unless we become sensitive to the uniqueness of individual events, the meaning of revelation will remain obscure… Two stones, two things in space may be alike; two hours in a person’s life or two ages in human history are never alike… Absurd it must be to all those who have no sense for the uniqueness that is in time, for the uniqueness of what happens in time. Why indeed, should one hour out of an infinite number of hours be of particular importance to the history of man?…
The lack of realism, the insistence upon generalizations at the price of a total disregard of the particular and concrete is something which would be alien to prophetic thinking… Theirs is not a timeless, abstract message; it always refers to an actual situation. The general is given in the particular, and the verification of the abstract is in the concrete

7 Heschel, Abraham Joshua. God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism. New York: Meridian Books, Inc, 1960. 140-141, 191, 202-204.

Skema
2023-04-09
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
Easter Octave

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
April 9 – 15, 2023

Sun
9
Mon
10
Tue
11
Wed
12
Thu
13
Fri
14
Sat
15

Office
Easter Sunday
Easter Monday
Easter Tuesday
Easter Wednesday
Easter Thursday
Easter Friday
Easter Saturday

Vigils
* Easter Vigil
1 Pt 1:1-21
1 Pt 1:22-2:10
1 Pt 2:11-25
1 Pt 3:1-17
1 Pt 3:18-4:11
1 Pt 4:12-5:14

Lauds
Acts 13:28-33
1 Cor 15:1-11
1 Cor 15:12-19
1 Cor 15:20-28
1 Cor 15:35-41
1 Cor 15:42-49
1 Cor 15:50-58

Mass
42
261
262
263
264
265
266

1st
Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Acts 2:14, 22-33
Acts 2:36-41
Acts 3:1-10
Acts 3:11-26
Acts 4:1-12
Acts 4:13-21

2nd
Col 3:1-4

Gospel
John 20:1-9
Matt 28:8-15
John 20:11-18
Luke 24:13-35
Luke 24:35-48
John 21:1-14
Mark 16:9-15

Vespers
Rev 1:12-18
Acts 1:1-5
Acts 1:12-14
Acts 1:15-26
Acts 2:42-47
Acts 4:32-37
Acts 5:1-11

Easter Vigil Readings* 1) Gen 1:1-2:2 2) Gen 22:1-18 3) Exod 14:15-15:1 4) Isa 54:5-14 5) Isa 55:1-11 6) Bar 3:9-15,32-4:4
7) Ezek 36:16-17a,18-28 Epistle Rom 6:3-11 Gospel Matt 28:1-10

Easter Sunday
2023-04-09
He is Risen1
From the writings of Thomas Merton
The risen life is not easy; it is also a dying life. The presence of the Resurrection in our lives means the presence of the Cross, for we do not rise with Christ unless we also first die with him. It is by the Cross that we enter the dynamism of creative transformation, the dynamism of resurrection and renewal, the dynamism of love. The teaching of St. Paul is centered entirely on the Resurrection. How many Christians really understand what St. Paul is talking about when he tells us that we have “died to the Law” in order to rise with Christ? How many Christians dare to believe that whoever is risen with Christ enjoys the liberty of the sons and daughters of God and is not bound by the restrictions and taboos of human prejudice?
To be risen with Christ means not only that one has a choice and that one may live by a higher law – the law of grace and love – but that one must do so. The first obligation of the Christian is to maintain their freedom from all superstitions, all blind taboos and religious formalities, indeed from all empty forms of legalism. Read the Epistle to the Galatians again sometime. Read it in the light of the Church’s summons to complete renewal.
The Christian must have the courage to follow Christ. The Christian who is risen in Christ must dare to be like Christ: one must dare to follow conscience even in unpopular causes. One must, if necessary, be able to disagree with the majority and make decisions one knows to be according to the Gospel and teaching of Christ, even when others do not understand why the person is acting this way.
“The followers of Christ are called by God not according to their accomplishments, but according to God’s own purpose and grace.” This statement from the Constitution on the Church of Vatican II effectively disposes of a Christian inferiority complex which makes people think that because they never have amounted to anything in the eyes of others, they can never amount to anything in the eyes of God. Here again we see another aspect of St. Paul’s teaching on freedom. Too many Christians are not free because they submit to the domination of other people’s ideas. They submit passively to the opinions of the crowd. For self-protection they hide in the crowd, and run along with the crowd – even when it turns into a lynch mob. They are afraid of the aloneness, the moral nakedness, which they feel apart from the crowd.

But the Christian in whom Christ is risen dares to think and act differently from the crowd. He has ideas of his own, not because he is arrogant, but because he has the humility to stand alone and pay attention to the purpose and the grace of God, which are often quite contrary to the purposes and the plans of an established human power structure. If we have risen with Christ then we must dare to stand by him in the loneliness of his Passion, when the entire establishment, both religious and civil, turned against him as a modern state would turn against a dangerous radical. In fact, there were “dangerous radicals” among the Apostles. If we study the trial and execution of Jesus we find that he was condemned on the charge that he was a revolutionary, a subversive radical, fighting for the overthrow of legitimate government. This was not true in the political sense. Jesus stood entirely outside of all Jewish politics, because his Kingdom was not of this world. And yet he was a “freedom fighter” in a different way. His death and resurrection were the culminating battle in his fight to liberate us from all forms of tyranny, all forms of domination by anything or anyone except the Spirit, the Law of Love, the “purpose and grace” of God.

1He is Risen. Thomas Merton. Argus Communications. 1975. p.18

Easter Monday
2023-04-10
On the Resurrection2
From the “Songs for the Fast and Pascha” by St Ephrem the Syrian
See the cheerful feast day… Voices with voices woven, and all of them have risen up to reach heaven… Blessed are the silent who have thundered forth through him!
See how the earth has thundered forth below, and above, heaven has thundered forth! / April has mixed voices with voices: exalted ones with low ones, / voices of the sanctified church mixed with the thunder of divinity, / and amidst the glow of its lamps are mixed flashes of lightning. / With the rain, the passion’s weeping, and with the field, the fast of Pascha.
In the same way, on the ark, every voice shouted joyfully from every mouth. / Outside were terrible waves, but inside were beautiful voices… Glory to the Lord of the ark!
At this feast, when each has brought his victorious deeds as his offerings, / I lamented for myself, my master, for I saw that I stand [here] meagerly. / My intellect, moistened by your dew, became an April anew… Blessed is the cloud that has poured down upon me!…
Exquisite, eloquent flowers did the children scatter before the king: / the donkey was crowned with them, the road was full of them. / Praises did they scatter like flowers, and melodies like lilies. / Now, too, in [this] feast, / the assembly of children scatters for you, my Lord, / Hallelujahs like blossoms. Blessed is he who was praised by the young!…

Let us summon and call the victorious martyrs, apostles, and prophets, / whose blossoms are like them: victorious are their flowers, / and rich are their roses, the sweet fragrance of their lilies / they gather from the garden of delights, and bring lovely flowers / to crown our beautiful feast. Glory to you from [all] the blessed!
The crowns of kings are impoverished before the richness of your crown, / in which purity is plaited, in which faith shines, / in which humility gleams, in which holiness is woven. / in which great love glimmers. See how perfect is the beauty of your crown…
Our King, receive our offering, and give us salvation in its stead! / Bring peace to the lands which were ruined, build up the churches which were burned, / so that when there is great peace [again], we may plait for you a great crown, / as blossoms and those who plait them come in from all sides, / that the Lord of peace might be crowned. Blessed is he who has acted and can act

2 St. Ephrem the Syrian. The Fathers of the Church: Songs for the Fast and Pascha. Trans. Joshua Falconer, Blake Hartung, and J. Edward Walters. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2022. 195-199.

Easter Tuesday
2023-04-11
The Self-Revelation of the Risen Christ3
from the writings of Caryl Houselander
In the five recorded incidents of Christ appearing in his Risen Body, he allowed each of those to whom he showed himself to discover that it was he in their own way, through their own medium. His approach to them, always exquisite in courtesy, miraculous in humility, was in each case one that showed his intimate knowledge of each one individually. He knew which would be the most natural way for that particular person to respond to his love, and what each needed to lift his or her heart from the sorrow or shame which was crushing it and restore it to the joy that would enable it to enter into communion with him.
To Mary Magdalene the revelation was a word of tenderness, and at the same time of restraint, followed immediately by entrusting her with the news of his Resurrection to give to his apostles.
A woman whose experience had been the opposite to Magdalene’s — one who had lived a sheltered, protected life, a life of virtue, who had always been esteemed by her contemporaries, who could not even imagine what it is like to be held in contempt, to hold oneself in contempt, to be regarded even by those who love one as being capable only of emotionalism and instability — simply could not have understood the sheer glory it must have been to Magdalene to be asked by Christ for the pure, supernatural love implied by his words, following that intimate utterance of her name -“Mary”: “Do not cling to me thus; I have not yet gone up to my Father’s side”. And then, to be given a commission which could only be entrusted to one whom he knew to be levelheaded and wholly trustworthy, and which was the final message of Christ’s Incarnation and Resurrection to the whole world. “Return to my brethren, and tell them this, I am going up to him who is my Father and your Father, who is my God and your God”.

There was no proof needed for Magdalene other than the stirring of life in her own heart in response to the illimitable courtesy of Christ’s love for her; but it was otherwise with the apostles. Those amazingly incredulous men, who had been warned, who had had the prophecies that were to be fulfilled pointed out to them, who had been told that Christ would rise on the third day, who had actually seen him raise another man from the dead, were still unconvinced, they frankly disbelieved Magdalene and, as men are so apt to do when faced by the courage of a woman’s love, they thought that she was, at least temporarily, insane. They were frightened, trembling for their own lives, bewildered by what had happened and by what might be going to happen, and they locked themselves up “for fear of the Jews.”
Christ knew their need — their need for reassurance, for courage; that they must be calmed like frightened children: he knew the turmoil within them, like the tossing waves of the sea which he had once calmed with a word; so he came secretly yet wonderfully through the doors, and his first word was “Peace!” He knew too the smarting humiliation of their failure through weakness in his hour of need, and once again the genius of his human love shines out; they are given the power to forgive, to absolve sin, to strengthen and comfort the weak, and to reunite the scattered, frightened world of sinners to himself. “With that, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. When you forgive men’s sins, they are forgiven, when you hold them bound, they are held bound’”.

3 The Risen Christ, New York 1958; pp. 39-45.

Easter Wednesday
2023-04-12
An Easter Reflection4
by a Carthusian
He is there, the Lord, beside us, the same and yet different. He takes part in our usual activities, he watches the fishing, he eats with us around the fire, he walks with us along the road, he explains the Scriptures to us, he shares our bread. But he has changed, and at first we do not recognize him. Then, a familiar continuity with Jesus of Nazareth. He bears the marks of the nails in his hands, but he is Lord and God; to him all power in heaven and on earth is given.
We hesitate, we hang on to the familiar contours of the sadness that followed the ruination of our hopes. It is painful, but it is within our reach, ‘we are well-versed in it’… Why disturb [us] with your light that is too pure, your life that is too strong, your love that is too demanding? If we agree to believe – again! – to what suffering, to what disappointment are we opening the door? We will be changed, everything will have to be begun again, we will be obliged to open our heart, to throw ourselves into a life of love, and suffering lies in wait on the road… A dead Christ leaves the world to us – a world that does not amount to much, but is within our reach. A living Christ, present – that changes everything… It opens onto an abyss from all sides. We are no longer sufficient to ourselves…
The Lord Speaks
Do not be afraid! I love you exactly as you are. I have taken your weaknesses upon myself, I shared them, all except your sin… Your weaknesses remain, so that my power in you may appear as coming from me and your pride may not appropriate it. The effort, the risk, the responsibility of your freedom remain, so that… you may come to me of your own accord. I want you to have a share in my entire mystery, not only in my glory, but in my laboriously lived love and in my death. In that way, life will pass through you to your brothers. Your powerlessness to love truly with all your heart, that will also remain, but only to the extent that you must learn to climb the road of love… not to count on your own strength to love, so that you let me love in you.

For that is the ultimate answer to all your doubts. What I bring you is the gift of my risen life, my light which sees the Father face to face, my love which is the love of the Father in me and my love in the Father; a love which is the bond of communion in the Trinity of God, and between you and all your brothers in my body, the Church. You have only to open up by faith so that the divine power of this light-life-love may unfold freely in you…
The meaning of life, the meaning of time, is to strain towards that final victory, not to realise it fully in your life… A poor man, rich in love, in my love for you. I give you my poverty: be my love. Love! That is the substance of eternal life. It is already present, because I am present, to the extent of your faith and your love

4 From Advent to Pentecost: Carthusian Novice Conferences. CS 188. Trans. Carmel Brett. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1999. 142-145.

Easter Thursday
2023-04-13
Christ’s New Birth from the Tomb5
From “The Names of Christ” by Luis de León
…There was no natural force that could give heat and life to a cold body enclosed in a grave, nor was there any normal way to bring blood back to His veins, humors to His body. It was only the wonderful powers of God that could bring heat where ice was, fullness where emptiness reigned, tie together what had been set apart and broken. Christ’s soul was full of God’s essence, which helped God’s movement toward Christ: Christ’s soul became full to the brim with God’s presence, warmth, and glory, penetrated every pore of Christ’s body and made both body and soul shine with His glory to the point that they outshone the sun’s rays, the sun’s golden light… For God’s infinite light reverberated in Christ’s soul,and the soul shed its light into the body, and the body then became a beacon of God’s ever-expanding light.
And we read that Christ was born then ‘in adornment of holiness,’ because when He was thus born out of His tomb He was not the only one born, as had happened when He was born out of Mary, but rather with Him and in Him many other people resplendent in life, glory, and holiness were also born. He brought into a wider horizon of light and freedom many people who were imprisoned in the old law of Abraham and… managed to gather together all His friends and disciples in a spiritual embrace, and He gathered all of them into Himself in such a way that in the death that His mortal flesh was to suffer all the evil and sinful part of their flesh would also die. Condemned to die, it was to be reborn into glory and justice… This is why in a beautiful metaphor and paradox Christ says about Himself and His new birth, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it remains alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit’. Because when a grain has been sowed, if it becomes full of soil’s humidity and the juices of the earth, it becomes pregnant, rots, and out of its womb come a thousand others seeds, a whole ear of corn or of wheat…

We see then that when Christ rose like the sun from His sepulcher this meant that it was not only a ray of sunlight that was arising and shining at that moment, but rather many rays, many shining splendors, life itself, and the very future of the world, being embraced and enhanced by Christ. Joy, birth, a new birth for all of us: a wonderful birth in which we were all reborn, and moreover one that overcame death, anguish, despair. By contrast with darkness light shines brighter. The anguishing hours before such a birth, hours of despair and death, enhance such a birth, since out of suffering, misery, grief, came out victory and life. A paradox: By falling down Christ rose up, out of death life arose and conquered the heavens. In such a manner, we conclude that the deeper the roots, the higher the plant that grows out of such roots, and in a parallel way out of an experience, so deep and poignant, of agony and despair, Christ came to know an existence of bliss

5 Luis de León. The Names of Christ. Trans. Manuel Durán and William Kluback. New York: Paulist Press, 1984. 293-295.

Easter Friday
2023-04-14
A Sermon for Easter6
by St Aelred of Rievaulx
As our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to be born for us, to be tempted for us, to be beaten for us, and to die for us, so also did he deign to rise for us. Yet his temptation, scourging, death and entombment belong to our redemption; his resurrection strengthens our hope. For by the former he paid for us what we owed, by the latter he showed us what to hope for. Just as by the death of his flesh he freed our soul from death, so by the scourging he took he freed us from the scourging of our soul. For without a doubt, we were in the scourging and we were in the tomb, and whatever he himself suffered in the body is what we have suffered in the soul.
Let us now consider the order of the passion and thereby arrive at the glory of the resurrection. First Judas betrayed him with a kiss… Listen to the kiss: Taste and you will be like gods. This kiss had sweetness and delight on the outside, but poison lay concealed within. After this kiss we were bound. How? Without doubt, by our own inordinate desires. For as Scripture says. The woman, seeing that the tree was beautiful to see and sweet to eat, took and ate from it. At first, therefore, she was as if seduced by a kind of sweet kiss – certainly it tasted sweet to the soul to be like gods. But afterwards she was so bound by her inordinate desires that she could not restrain herself, even if she hoped for no other advantage from it.
Thus bound, humanity was handed over to Caiaphas, that is, to cupidity, whose servants and attendants veiled his face. For who are the servants of cupidity except the vices themselves, which veiled humans’ face so that they could not perceive the true sun, true justice? They were veiled as it were by two bonds, that of ignorance and that of inordinate desire. For these two make a human being totally blind…

After this he was handed over to Pilate, that is, to the devil, prince of this world. In a marvelous way the demons themselves ridiculed the human species in their midst when a man being mocked by one devil was handed over to another for mockery… Mocked by unclean spirits, people have been led to such perversity that they enjoy it when they do evil and exult in the worst things… He was thus crowned with thorns, because <man’s> glory and honor were in his own iniquities. For the more prone <man> was to perverse and crude things, and the more he leaned toward all vices, the more he appeared to glory in himself…
At last he died and was buried. He died because he was separated from God. He was buried because he had reached a point of contempt for God. Even if people are vicious and sinful, inasmuch as they confess and recognize their sin, they are not punished by death. When, however, they advance so far in their evil life that they neither recognize nor confess their sin, then they are dead from deep within. As it is written, confession is as far from death as if it were not. Moreover they go so far as to be oblivious of God and hold him in contempt, even despairing of his mercy, they are buried. About this point Scripture says. The impious man when he came into the depths of evil was contemptuous.
Because we had suffered all these things in the soul, our Lord Jesus Christ wished to suffer all of them in his body and, through the sufferings of his body, to cure the sufferings of our soul. And because Christ suffered all these things for us, so that he then rose from the dead, without a doubt where he rose we too have risen. If therefore you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above… And who are those who rise with Christ except those who share in all that Christ has suffered

6 Aelred of Rievaulx – Kiturgical SZermons – Liturgical Press – Collegeville, MN – 2016 – pg 102

Vigils Reading - Easter Saturday
2023-04-15
Death is Swallowed Up in Victory7
A sermon by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
…We do not like to speak of victories in our lives. It is too large a word for us. We have suffered too many defeats in our lives. Too many hours of weakness and too many crude sins have reduced victory to nothing. But, isn’t it true, the spirit within us longs for this word, yearns for the final victory over sin, over the anxious fear of death in our lives. And now God’s word does not speak to us about our victory. It does not promise us that from now on we will be victorious over sin and death. It does say with all power, however, that someone has won this victory, and that this one will also win the victory over us when we have him as our Lord. It is not we who are victorious but Jesus.
Today, we proclaim and believe this, against everything that we see around us, against the graves of our loved ones, against the dying nature outdoors, against the death that the war casts over us once again. We see the reign of death, but we preach and believe in the victory of Jesus Christ over death. Death is swallowed up in victory. Jesus is victor, resurrection of the dead, and eternal life.
…Death and sin puff themselves up and instill fear in humankind, as if they were still the rulers of the world. But it is only an illusion. They have long since lost their power. Jesus has taken it from them… Hell no longer has any power over us who are with Jesus. They are powerless. They still rage like a vicious dog on a chain, but they cannot get at us, because Jesus holds them fast. He remains the victor.
But, we ask ourselves, if that is the case, why does it appear so completely different in our life? Why does one see so little of this victory? Why do sin and death rule so terribly over us? Indeed, this very question is God’s question to you: I have done all this for you, and you live as if nothing has happened! You submit yourselves to sin and fear of death as if they could still enslave you! Why is there so little victory in your life? Because you do not want to believe that Jesus is the victor over death and sin, over your lives. Your unbelief brings about your defeat. But now the victory of Jesus is proclaimed again to you today in the Lord’s Supper: the victory over sin and death for you, too whoever you may be. Seize it in faith… Sin need not rule over you any longer. Jesus will rule over you, and he is stronger than every temptation. Jesus will be victorious in the hour of your trial and fear of death, and you will confess: Jesus has become the victor over my sin, over my death. Whenever you abandon this belief, you will have to sink and succumb, sin and die. Whenever you seize this belief, Jesus will keep the victory.

…Do we believe in the power of death and sin, or do we believe in the power of Jesus Christ? There can be only one of these two beliefs. In the past century, there was a man of God who during his life had often preached the victory of Jesus Christ and done wonderful things in his name. As he lay in great torment and distress on his deathbed, his son bent over toward his ear and called to the dying man, “Father, victory is won.” When dark hours and when the darkest hour comes over us, then we want to hear the voice of Jesus Christ calling in our ear: victory is won. Death is swallowed up in victory. Take comfort. And may God grant that then we will be able to say: I believe in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. It is in this faith that we want to live and die..

7 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Collected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Ed. Isabel Best. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012. 208-210.

2023-04-16
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
2nd Week of Easter

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
April 16 – 22, 2023

Sun
16
Mon
17
Tue
18
Wed
19
Thu
20
Fri
21
Sat
22

Office
2nd Sunday of Easter
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday
St Anselm
Bl Maria Gabriella

Vigils
Col 3:1-17
Rev 1:1-20
Rev 2:1-11
Rev 2:12-29
Rev 3:1-22
Rev 4:1-11
Rev 5:1-14

Lauds
Eph 1:1-10
Eph 1:11-14
Eph 1:15-23
Eph 2:1-10
Eph 2:11-18
Eph 2:19-22
Eph 3:1-6

Mass
43
267
268
269
270
271
272

1st
Acts 2:42-47
Acts 4:23-31
Acts 4:32-37
Acts 5:17-26
Acts 5:27-33
Acts 5:34-42
Acts 6:1-7

2nd
1 Pet 1:3-9

Gospel
John 20:19-31
John 3:1-8
John 3:7b-15
John 3:16-21
John 3:31-36
John 6:1-15
John 6:16-21

Vespers
Acts 5:12-16
Acts 5:27-32
Acts 6:8-15
Acts 7:51-60
Acts 8:1b-8
Acts 8:9-13
Acts 8:14-25

Vigils Reading - 2nd Sun Easter
2023-04-16
BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HAVE NOT SEEN, YET BELIEVE
From the writings of Fr. Romano Guardini1 ◊◊◊
And Jesus said to Thomas, “You have learned to believe, Thomas, because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have learned to believe!” Such words as these are really extraordinary! Thomas believed because he saw. But Our Lord did not call him blessed. He had been allowed to “see,” to see the hands and the side, and to touch the blessed wounds, yet he was not blessed!
Perhaps Thomas had a narrow escape from a great danger. He wanted proofs, wanted to see and touch; but then, too, it might have been rebellion deep within him, the vainglory of an intelligence that would not surrender, a sluggishness and coldness of heart. He got what he asked for: a look and a touch. But it must have been a concession he deplored having received, when he thought on it afterwards. He could have believed and been saved, not because he got what he demanded; he could have believed because God’s mercy had touched his heart and given him the grace of interior vision, the gift of the opening of the heart, and of its surrender.
God could also have let him stay with the words he had spoken: in that state of unbelief which cuts itself off from everything, that insists on human evidence to become convinced. In that case he would have remained an unbeliever and gone on his way. In that state, external seeing and touching would not have helped him at all, he simply would have called it delusion. Nothing that comes from God, even the greatest miracle, proves out like 2 x 2.

It touches one; it is only seen and grasped when the heart is open and the spirit is purged of self. Then it awakens faith…
Thomas was standing a hair’s breadth away from obduracy and perdition. He was not at all blessed.
Blessed indeed are “those who have not seen, and yet have learned to believe!” Those who ask for no miracles, demand nothing out of the ordinary, but who find God’s message in everyday life. Those who require no compelling proofs, but who know that everything coming from God must remain in a certain ultimate suspense, so that faith may never cease to require daring. Those who know that the heart is not overcome by faith, that there is no force or violence there, compelling belief by rigid certitudes. What comes from God touches gently, comes quietly; does not disturb freedom; leads to quiet, profound, peaceful resolve within the heart. And those are called blessed who make the effort to remain openhearted. Who seek to cleanse their hearts of all self-righteousness, obstinacy, presumption, inclination to “know better.” Who are quick to heart, humble, free-spirited… Blessed are those who can see the Lord in all these things

1 Jesus Christus, Chicago 1959, 101-104.

Vigils reading
2023-04-17
THE FAITH THAT OVERCOMES THE WORLD
from a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux2 ◊◊◊
…“All that is born of God triumphs over the world.” For the world hates both Christ and those who belong to Christ, but it is also overcome by them with Christ’s help… The truth of Paul’s words thus becomes perfectly clear: “All those whom he (God the Father) has known from the first, he has destined to be shaped to theimage of his son”. Notice the “shaping.” It is after Christ that they are adopted, so that he is the first-born of many brothers: it is after Christ that the world hates them: it is after Christ that the world is conquered by them.
It is right, then, to say that what is born of God triumphs over the world, and thus the proof of our heavenly birth is victory over temptation. Just as the natural son triumphed over the world and its prince, so we also who are sons by adoption emerge as victors. Yes, victors, but only in him who strengthens us an in whom wecan do all things. For “our faith is the victory which prevails over the world.”
For it is by faith that we are adopted among the sons of God: it is our faith that the world, submerged in wickedness, hates and prosecutes: and it is by faith that the world is conquered. As the Scripture says, “Saints have conquered kingdoms by faith”. Surely our victory is to be attributed to faith, for faith owns our very life: “The just man lives by faith”. So each time that you resist temptation, each time you prevail over evil, do not attribute it to your own strength. Congratulate not yourself but the Lord. For in what circumstances would the armed and brace prince yield before your weakness? In short, listen to the warning of the shepherd appointed to tend the Lord’s fold: “Your enemy the devil goes around like a raging lion seeking someone to devour. Bravely resist him by your faith”. You see how all these evidences of the truth are in harmony. Paul says that the saints have conquered kingdoms by faith. Peter says that we must resist the prince of this world by faith. And John says: “Our faith is the victory which prevails over the world.”

Next we read: “For who can conquer the world except him who believes that Jesus is the son of God”? Any person, brethren, who does not believe in the Son of God is undoubtedly both conquered and judged through this disbelief. For without faith we cannot please God… If a man is not terrified by Christ’s threats nor attracted by his promises, if a man does not obey his commands nor fall in with his designs, does he really believe that Jesus is the Son of God? In fact, even if he proclaims that he knows God, he denies it by his actions. Besides, faith without works is dead. It can hardly seem surprising if such a man fails to conquer, for he is not even alive.
You ask what is a lively and victorious faith. It is undoubtedly the faith through which Christ lives in our hearts. For Christ is our strength and our life. Paul says: “When Christ your life appears, you too will appear in glory with him”. The source of that glory will surely be our victory. We shall appear with him because our victory is won in him. In short, the power to become sons of God is given only to those who acknowledge Christ, and to these only must we apply the words “Every man who is born of God triumphs over the world.

2 Sermo in Octava Paschae 1. – PL 83, 291-294. Trans. in The Way 4 (1964), 66-67.

Vigils Reading
2023-04-18
VICTORY AS THE FRUIT OF SACRIFICE
from a book by Fr. Yves Congar3 ◊◊◊
The victory of the Lamb springs from its sacrifice. This is proclaimed in the canticles of both the elders and the angels: “Worthy are you to take the book and break its seals, for you have been slain and by your blood have purchased for God men from every tribe and tongue, and people and nation.” “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing”.
The Apocalypse in this instance expresses the unanimous theology of the books of the New Testament which unite Christ’s triumph and glory with his humiliation and Passion. The Son of man had to be lifted up as the serpent was lifted up in the desert in order that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “He humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience, even to the extent of dying, and the death he died was the death of a common criminal. That is why God has now lifted him so high and has given him the name beyond all names”. But no words more aptly express the connection between the cross and glory than those in the story of the disciples of Emmaus on the evening of Easter Day: “Was it not fated that the Christ should suffer thus, and then should come into his glory?”.
The factor that is common to these passages is the affirmation of a conjunction between the cross and the self-sacrifice on the one hand, and the power of communicating life on the other… between Good Friday and Easter Day. Thus in our “new creation”, the cross … becomes the true and new tree of life…

This connection between sacrifice and victory, death and life, seems to me to express a kind of inner law that is natural to life “in Christ.” I have been amazed at the constant recurrence of life springing from death, at the foot of the cross, and the cross alone destroys the pride of life in us and releases the energies of that life which is hidden with Christ in God. Trial is the condition of renewal and progress. “For your sake we are killed all the day long; we were accounted as sheep for the slaughter. But in all these things we win an overwhelming victory through him who has proved his love for us”

3 The Revelation of God, New York-London, 1968, pp. 105-106.

Vigils Reading
2023-04-19
ROOTED IN LOVE
From the spiritual writings of the 13th century anchoress Ancrene Wisse4 ◊◊◊
God has earned our love in every kind of way… He gave us all the world in Adam our first father… He did even more… “Christ,” says St. Paul, “so loved his beloved that he paid for her the price of himself.” Pay close attention, my dear sisters, to why one ought to love him: first, as a man who woos, like a king who loved a noble poor lady of a far land… Hereby hangs a tale, a parable with a hidden meaning.
A lady was completely surrounded by her enemies, her land all ruined, and she completely destitute, inside an earthen castle. Nevertheless, the love of a mighty king was turned to her so passionately that by way of courtship he sent his messengers, one after the other, often many together. He sent her many beautiful presents, provisions to keep her alive, the help of his noble army to hold her castle. She received it all like one who did not care, and was so hard-hearted that he could never come any nearer to her love… He came himself in the end… spoke so sweetly, and such happy words they could raise the dead to life again. He worked miracles, and performed many acts of power before her eyes, revealed to her his might, told her of his kingdom, asked to make her queen of all he had. All this was no use. Is this contempt not strange? For she was never worthy to be his handmaiden. But in his graciousness love had so overcome him that in the end he said:
“Lady, you are beleaguered, and your enemies are so strong that you can in no way escape from their hands without my help. So that they do not put you to shameful death after all your grief, for the love of you I will take this fight upon myself, and rid you of those who seek your death. Yet I know it to be true that I will receive from them my death-wound – and I wish it with all my heart, to win your heart. Now then, I beseech you, for the love I show you, that you love me at least after this deed, dead, when you would not living.”

The king did everything just so: he rid her of all her enemies and was himself cruelly abused and finally killed – yet through a miracle he arose from death to life. Would not this same lady be of an evil sort of nature if she did not love him ever after over all things?
This king is Jesus, God’s Son, who in just this way wooed our souls, which the devil had surrounded; and he, like a noble wooer, after many messengers and many presents, came to prove his love, and showed through chivalry that he was worthy of love, as knights were at one time accustomed to do… And for love of his love had his shield pierced on every side in the fight, like a brave knight. His shield, which covered his Godhead, was his beloved body which was spread on the cross, broad like a shield above in his stretched arms, and narrow beneath where the one foot…was set upon the other.
“But Lord,” you say, “why? Could he not have delivered us with less pain?” Yes indeed, very easily, but he would not… A thing little loved is easily bought. He bought us with his heart’s blood – never was a price dearer – to draw out our love toward him, that cost him so bitterly… After a brave knight’s death, his shield ishung high in church in his memory. So is this shield, that is, the crucifix, set high in church in such a place where it is soonest seen, to bring to mind Jesus Christ’s chivalry, which he performed on the cross. His beloved should see by it how he bought her love, letting his shield be pierced, his side opened to show her his heart, to show her openly how deeply he loved her, and to draw out her heart.

Vigils Reading
2023-04-20
THE FIRSTBORN OF THE DEAD
By Geoffrey of Auxerre5 ◊◊◊
He arose from the dead, the first fruits of those who sleep, so that death may no longer have dominion over him who is the first to pass through death to immortality. And he is the firstborn among many brethren, who, dead to the world and dead to sin, by adoption are born to God… By his godhead he is the only-begotten; in his humanity he deigned to become the firstborn, giving to those who receive him the power to become children of God that they may be heirs of God and joint heirs with himself…
He loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood. My brothers, we should listen closely to these words, and pay careful attention, because they concern the mystery of our redemption and of our welfare. We must diligently study four matters: the source, the work, the cause, and the means they commend. The source: God and man; the work: our cleansing from our sins; the cause: love; the means: by his own blood. The source’s divinity commends glory, his humanity increases our affection. His divinity draws our attentive souls upward; devout consideration of his humanity spreads to all people everywhere so that a person may communicate it to all his fellow humans for whom the God-man deigned to give himself up.
The work is the abolition of our sins, a work possible only to him. The greatest sinners used to say of it: ‘ Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ A difficult work, but of no little effect; a great work, and greatly needed for everyone touched by the stain of sin. Moreover, unless people receive complete forgiveness of their sins while still alive, so that after death they can be expiated by others, unforgiven faults and indelible stains will produce undying worms, so that the unquenchable fire can neither cleanse the stains nor destroy the worms…

During the first years of my conversion, a lay brother named Yves, who was very devout, lay dying at the monastery of Clairvaux. To a brother who was visiting him, one who is still alive today and can bear witness today, he said: ‘An angel of the Lord appeared to me, showing me his beautiful and joyful countenance as I lay here in my weakness. And he said, “You humans do well to desire the sight and presence of the Lord. If you knew how much he loves you, how much he wants you, with what longing he waits for you, you would hurry to him with far more fervent affection.”’ These were his last words, to which his serene summons, which immediately followed, bore sufficiently trustworthy testimony. But if you do not believe the word of an angel, or the words of a man soon to go to God, believe the works of the Lord, believe the condescension by which the Word became flesh for your sakes. God became a human for the sake of humans. Believe the bloodshed of the New Testament, believe him suffering, believe him dying and descending into hell, ‘for love is strong as death, and jealousy as hard as hell’. No greater human love exists than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends… So that you may realize how exceedingly he loves you, look, he gives a gift you can appreciate deeply, a gift he purchases with the great price of his blood, his death, his cross.
What a marvelous thing, beloved, if we can only keep thus firmly in mind the source, the work, the cause, and the means of our salvation, that this more than threefold cord may not be broken in us without difficulty. If only these thoughts can draw, can entice, can firmly fasten and indissolubly bind and inseparably bind us to our Saviour

5 Geoffrey of Auxerre: On the Apocalypse. CF 42. Trans. Joseph Gibbons, CSSP. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2000. 37-41.

10

Vigils Reading - St Anselm
2023-04-21
THE ENTOMBMENT AND RESURRECTION
From the meditations of St Anselm6 ◊◊◊
… Leave not Mary Magdalene, but court her society, help her to prepare the spices, and come with her betimes to the Lord’s sepulchre. O, may you merit to see with the eye of the soul, as she did by bodily vision, now an angel sitting on the stone which he had rolled away from the door of the monument; and now again, within the monument, two, one at the head, and one at the feet, preaching the Resurrection and its glories; and yet again Jesus Himself, refreshing the sad and tearful Magdalene with eyes so gentle, and saying with voice so sweet, ‘Mary.’ At this word all the cataracts of her soul are broken loose, and tears are distilled from her very marrow, and sighs and sobs from her heart’s inmost recess. ‘Mary.’ O happy thou! What were thy thoughts, thy heart, thy soul, when, in answer to this word, flinging thyself at His Feet, and greeting Him in return, thou sayest ‘Rabboni!’ What were the emotions, what the yearnings, what the ardours of thy soul, when thou sayest ‘Rabboni’? Tears prevent more, emotion chokes thy voice, and excess of love absorbs every sense of mind and body.
But why, my dear Jesus, dost Thou drive me, loving Thee as I do, from Thy sacred and so longed-for Feet? ‘Touch Me not,’ Thou sayest. Why, O Lord, why? Why may I not touch those all-desired Feet of Thine, that were burrowed through with nails and drenched with Blood? Why may I not touch them, and caress them with a thousand kisses? What! Is He less my Friend now that He is more glorious? See, I will not let Thee go; I will not leave Thee; I will not spare my tears; my heart shall break with sighs and sobs unless I touch Thee. But He says, ‘Touch Me not.’ This blessing shall not be refused thee, though it be delayed; go only, and tell My brethren that I have risen again. She ran quickly, wishing to return quickly; she returns, but not alone; there are other women with her. And Jesus goes to meet them, and with gentlest greeting raises them from their dejection and consoles their sorrow. And see; what was deferred before is granted now. For ‘they came up, and took hold of His Feet, and worshipped Him’. Linger here, virgin, as long as you can, and neither let sleep break in upon your joys, nor any exterior distraction interrupt it

6 St Anselm. Book of Meditations and Prayers. Trans. M.R. London: Burns and Oates, 1872. 217-220.

12

Vigils Reading - Blessed Maria Gabriella
2023-04-22
FROM THE LETTERS OF BLESSED MARIA GABRIELLA
And her abbess Mother Maria Pia7 ◊◊◊
Letter One – Easter, 1939
Dearest Mamma, I write these lines to send you my last thoughts and my last
farewell. The Divine Bridegroom has renewed the invitation, and the longed-for day approaches. I do not say the day of my death, but the day when, loosed from the bands of this miserable flesh, I can finally move on from this life to the happy and blessed life of heaven. The separation from the body is not a death but a transition to real life. Rejoice, oh my Mother, because there will be no more enclosure, and I, although you will not see me, I will come and visit you and hug you so much, as my love for you grows more and more. Be at peace because up there I will be much more useful to you than I could be here; there I will see clearly all your needs, and I will intercede more with the Lord…
I wish indeed that the same day you receive the news, you will all go to Mass and Communion and pray for me and thank the Lord very much for the graces he has given me and for his predilections in my regard… I still recommend that you remain tranquil and happy in the Lord. Pray for me and commend me to the prayers of our relatives and acquaintances to whom I am sending with you my final greeting. One last time I ask everyone for forgiveness for any offenses that I may have caused. I embrace you tightly in the heart of Jesus, together with all the family.
Always your daughter, Sister Maria Gabriella ◊◊◊
Letter Two – Wednesday, April 26, 1939
Dear Mrs. Sagheddu, How much you must have waited for this letter from me!
With it comes the last letter written by your daughter, who wrote it according to my

advice, and she agreed that I would send it to you after her passage to the heavenly kingdom.
For Thursday the twentieth, Mother Maria Gabriella had a significant worsening. Already since Easter we were keeping vigil with her at night, even though she did not want to disturb us… Her body of twenty-five years and two months fought with strong resistance. But she was suffering with such docility and resignation. Consenting to acts of acceptance, love, and offering that we suggested to her, Saturday night seemed to be her last, but she was fully conscious. She asked with that small voice that was soon clear, “Communion, if possible, if possible.” It was brought to her again as Viaticum. She recovered a bit… But we remained all night, the nurse, two sisters, and I… and the Father Chaplain, who wanted to stay, despite his advanced age, not wishing to leave her without accompanying her to the last breath… That Saturday…all during the night she suffered greatly, indeed, like a lamb…
At half past five, very tranquilly, she ceased to breathe. She lowered her eyelids – as when she was unable to speak, to say, “Yes.” Then she raised her eyelids again. She was already with her Lord, whom she loved so much that she offered the sacrifice of her young life for the union of the separated churches. It was GoodShepherd Sunday, and the gospel spoke thus: “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also.” Signora, cry pure tears: you are her Mother. But give thanks, give thanks to the Lord. Yesterday we had the burial ceremony… Now she rests in the tomb of the monastery, which is located under the presbytery, and her coffin is place just below the altar… I will send you a rosary that when she was sick, I put into her hands, saying that I would later send it to her mother. “Thank you,” she replied gratefully…
May Jesus bless you… Sister Maria Pia, o.c.r

7 Blessed Gabriella Sagheddu. The Letters of Blessed Maria Gabriella: With the Notebooks of Mother Pia Gullini. MW 57. Trans. David Lavich, OCSO. Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2019. 132-135.

Skema
2023-04-23
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
3rd Week of Easter

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
April 23 – 29, 2023

Sun
23
Mon
24
Tue
25
Wed
26
Thu
27
Fri
28
Sat
29

Office
3rd Sunday of Easter
Easter Weekday
St Mark
Easter Weekday
St Rafael Arnaiz Baron
Easter Weekday
St Catherine of Siena

Vigils
Rev 6:1-17
Rev 7:1-17
Eph 4:1-16
Rev 9:1-12
Rev 9:13-21
Rev 10:1-11
Rev 11:1-19

Lauds
Eph 3:7-13
Eph 3:14-21
Sir 51:13-22
Eph 4:17-24
Eph 4:25-32
Eph 5:1-5
Eph 5:6-14

Mass
46
273
555
275
276
277
278

1st
Acts 2:14, 22-33
Acts 6:8-15
1 Pet 5:5b-14
Acts 8:1b-8
Acts 8:26-40
Acts 9:1-20
Acts 9:31-42

2nd
1 Pet 1:17-21

Gospel
Luke 24:13-35
John 6:22-29
Mark 16:15-20
John 6:35-40
John 6:44-51
John 6:52-59
John 6:60-69

Vespers
Acts 9:1-9
Acts 9:10-19a
2 Tim 4:1-11
Acts 9:23-31
Acts 10:1-8
Acts 10:9-16
Acts 10:17-28
