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DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240423
DTSTAMP:20260404T095840
CREATED:20240421T005041Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240421T005041Z
UID:11821-1713744000-1713830399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Bl Maria Gabriella
DESCRIPTION:MY ONLY DESIRE IS TO LOVE\nFrom the final letter of Blessed Maria Gabriella to her mother 2\n◊◊◊\nI do not want you to get ideas and begin to pray for my recovery. Pray\ninstead that the Lord will do with me whatever is to his greater glory… I am\nalways content to do the will of God\, whatever it might be\, for that is my joy\, my\nhappiness\, my peace… Remain firm in your dispositions of abandonment to the\nwill of God and bless him always for whatever he chooses to do with me. Forget\nthat I am sick and think only about the Lord: thank him and bless him for the\ngraces and the gifts he has given me. \nI feel that I love my Spouse with all my heart\, but I would like to love him\neven more. I would like to love him for those who do not love him\, for those who\nscorn him\, for those who offend him. In short\, my only desire is to love. \nMy happiness is great and no one can take it from me. It is greater than\nthat enjoyed by rich people in their mansions who\, while they enjoy themselves\,\nperhaps have death in their hearts. There is no happiness greater than being\nable to suffer something for Jesus and for the salvation of souls… You must be\nhappy as well\, mother\, and thank the Lord for this grace which he has given to\nyou and to me… I want you all to be as happy as I am… Resign yourselves and\nrejoice\, all of you\, in the Lord. \nDo not think that I am not well cared for—on the contrary\, I am taken\ncare of hand and foot. The Reverend Mother is so good that she does not spare\nherself anything in order to give me every possible assistance… No mother’s\nheart could outdo her in the love and attention she demonstrates towards me.\nI thank the Lord\, and will thank and bless him always for all he has done for me\nand for you\, but I feel that I will never be able to thank him enough. \n2\nfrom Martha Driscoll\, OCSO\, The Silent Herald of Unity\, Kalamazoo\, MI: Cistercian Publications\, 1990\, pp. 99-\n100.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/bl-maria-gabriella/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240423
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240424
DTSTAMP:20260404T095840
CREATED:20240421T005311Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240421T005311Z
UID:11823-1713830400-1713916799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Easter Weekday
DESCRIPTION:JESUS IN THE HOLY EUCHARIST\nFrom the Spiritual Autobiography of St Charles de Foucauld 3\n◊◊◊\nLord Jesus\, you are in the Holy Eucharist. You are there\, a yard away in the\ntabernacle. Your body\, your soul\, your human nature\, your divinity\, your whole\nbeing is there\, in its twofold nature. How close you are\, my God\, my Saviour\, my\nJesus\, my Brother\, my Spouse\, my Beloved! \nYou were not nearer to the Blessed Virgin during the nine months she\ncarried you in her womb than you are to me when you rest on my tongue at Holy\nCommunion. You were no closer to the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph in the caves\nat Bethlehem or the house at Nazareth or during the flight into Egypt\, or at any\nmoment of that divine family life than you are to me at this moment – and so many\nothers – in the tabernacle. St. Mary Magdalene was no closer to you when she sat\nat your feet at Bethany than I am here at the foot of this altar. You were no nearer\nto your apostles when you were sitting in the midst of them than you are to me\nnow\, my God. How blessed I am! \nIt is wonderful\, my Lord\, to be alone in my cell and converse there with you\nin the silence of the night – and you are there as God\, and by your grace. But to\nstay in my cell when I could be before the Blessed Sacrament – why\, it would be as\nthough St. Mary Magdalene had left you on your own when you were at Bethany\nto go and think about you alone in her room! It is a precious and devout thing\, O\nGod\, to go and kiss the places you made holy during your life on earth – the stones\nof Gethsemane and Calvary\, the ground along the Way of Sorrows\, the waves of\nthe sea of Galilee – but to prefer it to your tabernacle would be to desert the Jesus\nliving beside me\, to leave him alone\, going away alone to venerate the dead stones\nin places where he is no longer. It would be to leave… the Jesus living at my side\nto go into another room to greet his portrait… \nWherever the sacred Host is to be found\, there is the living God\, there is your\nSaviour\, as really as when he was living and talking in Galilee and Judea\, as really\nas he now is in heaven. Never deliberately miss Holy Communion. Communion is\nmore than life\, more than all the good things of this world\, more than the whole\nuniverse: it is God himself… \n3 St Charles de Foucauld. Spiritual Autobiography of Charles de Foucauld. Ed. JeanFranҫois Six. Trans. J. Holland Smith. New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons\, 1964. 98-99.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/easter-weekday-6/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240424
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240425
DTSTAMP:20260404T095840
CREATED:20240421T005841Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240421T005841Z
UID:11825-1713916800-1714003199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Easter Weekday
DESCRIPTION:THE NEW AGE OF THE RESURRECTION\nBy Thomas Merton 4\n◊◊◊\nThe “new life\,” the life of the Spirit\, life “in Christ\,” is communicated to\nthe human spirit by the invisible Mission of the Holy Spirit — a direct\nconsequence of the Resurrection of Jesus. Therefore the “new creation”\ninstituted by the second Adam is in fact a prolongation of his Resurrection.\nThe new world which is called the Kingdom of God\, the world in which God\nreigns in us by his divine Spirit\, the world of the Second Adam is\, in fact\, the\nEon of the Resurrection — the new age that begins to dawn with the rising of\nChrist from the dead\, which reaches out to touch\, with the pure spiritual light\nof that dawning\, each soul newly incorporated into the Risen Christ\, until all\nthe elect are gathered together in him and the Kingdom is openly and\ndefinitively established without question and without opposition in the\ngeneral resurrection of all the dead.\n“If\,” says St Paul\, “by reason of the one man’s offense death reigned\nthrough the one man\, much more will they who receive the abundance of\ngrace …reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.” That is exactly the Pauline\nconcept of the Kingdom of God — a Kingdom of superabundant spiritual life\,\nin which the saints “reign in life through the one Christ.” \nTo reign in life is to have domination and autonomy by union with God\nas the source of life. It is to have and enjoy the sublime liberty of the children\nof God\, the freedom of the Spirit by which Christ has come to make us free.\nThe early Church was entirely penetrated with this doctrine of liberation\,\nplenitude and life. Wherever the authentic Christian spirit has prevailed\, it\nhas always been marked by this same perfect liberty and vitality in the Spirit.\nFor always and everywhere the Spirit of Christ teaches this message to those\nwho are his own: “For whoever are led by the Spirit of God\, they are the\nchildren of God. Now you have not received a spirit of bondage so as to be\nagain in fear\, but you have received a spirit of adoption\, by virtue of which\nwe cry\, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself gives testimony to our spirit that\nwe are the children of God.” \nIn this view of Christ’s role as second Adam\, establishing the final\nvictory of life over death\, we are still confronted with the ideas of death and\nlife together. The liberation from sin and death is effected by the death of\nChrist. The communication of life to our souls is effected by the resurrection\nof Christ. “Jesus… was delivered up for our sins\, and rose again for our\njustification.” We shall see that in order to enter fully into communion with\nthe life brought to us by Christ we must in some sense — sacramentally\,\nascetically\, mystically — die with Christ and rise with him from the dead. The\nwhole life of the Kingdom of God consists then in the gradual extension of\nthe spiritual effects of the death and resurrection of Jesus to one soul after\nanother until Christ lives perfectly in all whom he has called to himself. \n4  THE NEW MAN\, Thomas Merton (Farrar\, Straus & Cudahy\, NY 1961) pp. 152-154.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/easter-weekday-7/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240425
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240426
DTSTAMP:20260404T095840
CREATED:20240421T010348Z
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UID:11827-1714003200-1714089599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:St. Mark
DESCRIPTION:ST MARK’S GOSPEL\nBy Dom Damasus Winzen 5\n◊◊◊\nIn contrast to St Matthew\, who starts his gospel with the human\ngenealogy of Christ\, “the son of David\, the son of Abraham\,” and to Luke\, who\nexplains in his short preface that he intends to “write in order” the facts which\nhe has most diligently obtained\, St Mark’s gospel keeps most faithfully the\noriginal character of the glad tidings of Christ as the Son of God and the\nMessiah. He writes not as a historian but as a preacher\, recording faithfully\nwhat he had heard from St Peter. In fact\, St Peter’s address to the Roman\ncolonel Cornelius contains the outlines of St Mark’s gospel. This begins with\n“the baptism which John preached” and how “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth\nwith the Holy Spirit\, and with power”; The first main section describes Christ’s\nministry in Galilee\, the “word which began in Galilee\, about Jesus of Nazareth\,\nwho went about doing good\, and healing all that were oppressed by the devil\,\nfor God was with him”. A brief survey deals with “the things that he did in the\nland of the Jews (Judea) and in Jerusalem”\, and leads up to the second main\nsection of the gospel which tells us how “they killed him\, hanging him upon a\ntree\,” and how “God raised him up on the third day\, and gave him to be made\nmanifest”. \nThe fact that St Mark’s narrative of the Lord’s passion and resurrection is\non a scale out of all proportion with the rest of the book indicates clearly that in\nthe intention of the evangelist the person of the suffering and glorified Lord is\nthe core and center of the glad tidings. Here is the key to the “mystery of the\nKingdom of God” which his gospel proclaims. One has only to read the first\nchapter of St Mark’s gospel to realize that the mystery of the kingdom is the \ncross of the king. This first chapter contains the “beginnings” of the entire\ngospel. The activity of the precursor is the “beginning” of Christ’s work of\nsalvation. As Christ reveals the mystery of the kingdom in his word and in his\nwork\, so does John preach repentance and administer baptism. Because the\nkingdom of God will not come in power and glory but in the self-sacrificing\ncharity of the Son of God\, only those can enter into it who “repent” or\, better\,\n“change their hearts” from the selfishness of the flesh to the selflessness of the\nSpirit. \nThe rite of baptism\, through which the whole person is immersed in water\nand then rises\, as it were\, to a new life\, foreshadows the work of salvation of the\nMessiah Jesus who will be swallowed up in the waters of death to rise in the\nfullness of the Spirit. Rightly\, therefore\, does Christ begin his public life as\nMessiah by having himself baptized by John. He who never knew sin and did\nnot need repentance has himself made into sin for us\, so that in him we might\nbe turned into the holiness of God. His death is like another flood which drowns\nall that is earthly in us. \nWhen he “comes up out of the water” foreshadowing his resurrection\, he\nis like another Noah\, the favorite son of God. Like Noah he receives the dove\,\nthe likeness of the Holy Spirit who descends upon this new Son of David\, to\ndrive him like a captive into the desert. There he is “with the wild beasts.”\nExposed to the attack of the enemy\, he remains victorious so that after forty\ndays and forty nights\, which are symbolic of the “old age\,” the angels come and\nminister to him as the Lord of the new age. Through humiliation to exaltation\,\nthat is the way of the Messiah Jesus\, who in his life repeats and fulfills the march\nof the chosen people from Egypt\, through the Red Sea into the desert\, and\nultimately to the promised land. \n5 Damasus Winzen\, Pathways in Scripture\, Ann Arbor\, MI: Word of Life\, 1976\, pp. 243-245.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/st-mark/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240426
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240427
DTSTAMP:20260404T095840
CREATED:20240421T010808Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240421T010808Z
UID:11829-1714089600-1714175999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Easter Weekday
DESCRIPTION:GOD CAME TO TEACH HUMILITY\nFrom a sermon by St Augustine 6\n◊◊◊\nPride is the source of all diseases\, because pride is the source of all sins.\nWhen a physician removes a disorder from the body\, if he merely cures the\nmalady produced by some particular cause but not the cause itself\, he seems to\nheal the patient for a time; but while the cause remains\, the disease will repeat\nitself.\nFor example\, to speak of this more expressly\, some humor in the body\nproduces sores; a high fever follows and considerable pain. Certain remedies\nare prescribed to repress the sores; the remedies are applied and they work. You\nsee the one who was full of sores now healed; but because that humor was not\nexpelled\, it returns again to ulcers. Perceiving this\, the physician purges away\nthe humor and removes the cause\, and there will be no more sores.\nWhat is the source of iniquity? From pride. Cure pride and there will be\nno more iniquity. Hence\, to cure the cause of all diseases\, namely pride\, the Son\nof God came down and humbled himself. Why are you proud\, O mortal\, when\nGod humbled Himself for you? You might perhaps be ashamed to imitate a\nhumble mortal\, but in any case imitate the humble God. \nThe Son of God came in the nature of humans and humbled himself. You\nare commanded to become humble; you are not commanded to go from a\nhuman to a brute. He\, who was God\, became human; you who are human\nrecognize that you are such; all your humility consists in knowing what you are\nyourself. Therefore\, because God teaches humility he said: “It is not to do my\nown will that I have come down from heaven\, but to do the will of Him who\nsent me.” For this is the commendation of humility. Pride does its own will\, but\nhumility does the will of God. Therefore\, “No one who comes to me will I ever\nreject.” Why? “Because it is not to do my own will that I have come down from\nheaven\, but to do the will of him who sent me.” \nI came humble\, I came to teach humility. I came as a master of humility.\nWhoever comes to me is made one body with me; whoever adheres to me will\nbe humble\, because they do not their own will but the will of God. Therefore\nthey will not be cast out\, for when they were proud\, they were cast out…\nThus the Teacher of humility came not to do his own will but the will of\nthe One who sent him. Let us come to him\, enter into him\, be engrafted onto\nhim\, that we may not be doing our own will but the will of God. And he will not\ncast us out\, because we are his members\, because he willed to be our head by\nteaching us humility. \n6 Christian Readings. Vol. IV. Catholic Publishing Company. New York\, 1970. p. 39.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/easter-weekday-8/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240427
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240428
DTSTAMP:20260404T095840
CREATED:20240421T011330Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240421T011330Z
UID:11831-1714176000-1714262399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Bl Raphael Arnaiz Baron
DESCRIPTION:SIMPLICITY OF HEART\nFrom the writings of St Rafael Arnaiz Baron 7\n◊◊◊\nI see\, Brother\, that the path you follow is the simple life. God does not\nrequire more of us than simplicity without and love within. The truth is that the\nreal pathways of God are very easy and very simple when we walk along them\nfull of the spirit of trust and with free hearts fixed on God. Happy\, indeed\, is\nthe Trappist who is not merely a Trappist externally\, but whose interior life is\nmarked by the simplicity that makes the real Trappist. People of the world could\nthink us somewhat complicated. I do not know how to explain myself\, but I\nhave come to realize what Jesus means when he says: “Unless you become as\nlittle children…” \nThe ways of the Lord are simplicity; his yoke is easy and his burden is\nlight. We die to the world in order to be born to God. The self-denial of a life of\nsilence and solitude blossoms into the exuberant joy of a heart which counts its\nblessings in terms of simplicity and integrity. Those who follow Christ\, do so\nalong the way of the Cross. I think that when we love the Cross all is gained. \nGod always lets his light shine on anyone who loves and seeks him in\nsimplicity. We have to find our way along many winding paths before we arrive\nat the simple straight one. What causes us more distress than complicating\nthings! How we human beings love to complicate everything for ourselves!\nUnless we keep ourselves under control by the practice of virtue\, repeatedly\,\nwith our complicated way of existing we drive far from us everything that is\nsimple. \nTime and again\, we fail to grasp the greatness hidden deep down in an\nact of simplicity. We want to seek greatness in complexity and think that only\nwhen things are difficult have they anything worthwhile to offer… Virtue\, God\,\nInterior Life – difficult values to live out! It is not that I have attained virtue\,\nnor that my knowledge of God and my life in the spirit are totally clear\, but that \nI have seen that to achieve something in these matters I need to be free from\ncomplexity and contortion\, from clever speculation and technicalities.\nI have seen that we reach God by just the opposite. True knowledge of\nHim comes through simplicity of heart and integrity. An act of love is not\ndifficult at all. What is really hard is the effort to attain knowledge of God by\npenetrating his mysteries. The act of love brings us to God; the other way leads\nus nowhere… Because we are not simple; because we complicate our objectives\,\nbecause the weakness of our will makes everything we desire seem difficult. We\npander to this weakness when we let our will satisfy itself with what is pleasant\,\nconsoling\, distracting and\, oftentimes\, plain passion… \nWith Jesus at my side nothing seems difficult to me\, and the path to\nholiness seems simpler every time I look at it. Better it seems to consist in going\nforward and leaving things behind rather than in acquiring anything new\,\nstripping back to simplicity rather than adding things on. In so far as we go\nforward turning our back on so much inordinate love of creatures and of\nourselves\, it seems to me that we are drawing closer to that one real love\, that\nsole desire\, that unique aspiration of this life: the true holiness which is God. \n7 Liturgical text\, Generalizia Cistercensi S.O.\, Rome\, 1993.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/bl-raphael-arnaiz-baron/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240428
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240429
DTSTAMP:20260404T095840
CREATED:20240427T190447Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240427T190447Z
UID:11849-1714262400-1714348799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema - 5th Wk of Easter
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n5th Week of Easter\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (B)\, Weekdays (II)\nApril 28 – May 4\, 2024\n\n\n\nSun\n28\nMon\n29\nTue\n30\nWed\n1\nThu\n2\nFri\n3\nSat\n4\n\n\nOffice\n5th Sunday of Easter\nSt Catherine of Siena\nEaster Weekday\nSt Joseph the Worker\nSt Athanasius\nSS Philip & James\nEaster Weekday\n\n\nVigils\nActs 16:16-40\nActs 17:1-18\nActs 17:19-34\nActs 18:1-28\nActs 19:1-20\n1 Cor 12:1-13\nActs 20:1-16\n\n\nLauds\nEph 2:1-10\nEph 2:19-22\nEph 3:7-13\nEph 4:1-6\nEph 4:25-32\nProv 4:10-19\nEph 6:10-17\n\n\nMass\n53\n285\n286\n287\, 559\n288\n561\n290\n\n\n1st\nActs 9:26-31\nActs 14:5-18\nActs 14:19-28\nActs 15:1-6\nActs 15:7-21\n1 Cor 15:1-8\nActs 16:1-10\n\n\n2nd\n1 John 3:18-24\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nJohn 15:1-8\nJohn 14:21-26\nJohn 14:27-31a\nMatt 13:54-58\nJohn 15:9-11\nJohn 14:6-14\nJohn 15:18-21\n\n\nVespers\nEph 2:11-18\nEph 3:1-6\nEph 3:14-21\nEph 4:17-24\nEph 5:1-5\n2 Cor 4:1-6\nCol 1:1-8
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-5th-wk-of-easter/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240428
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240429
DTSTAMP:20260404T095840
CREATED:20240427T190810Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240427T190810Z
UID:11851-1714262400-1714348799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - 5th Sunday of Easter
DESCRIPTION:WITHOUT GOD\, NOTHING CAN BE DONE \nFrom a commentary by St Augustine1 \n◊◊◊ \nThe passage from the gospel in which the Lord calls himself the vine and \nhis disciples the branches affirms in its own way that\, as mediator between God \nand the human race\, the man Christ Jesus is head of the Church and we are his \nmembers. It is beyond dispute that a vine and its branches are of one and the \nsame stock. Since Christ\, therefore\, possessed a divine nature not shared by \nourselves\, he became man precisely in order that in his own person there might \nbe a vine of human stock whose branches we could become. \nDwell in me\, said Jesus\, and I will dwell in you. His disciples\, however\, \ndo not dwell in Christ in the same way as Christ dwells in them. In either case\, \nthe benefit is theirs\, not his. If branches are attached to a vine\, it is not to confer \nany advantage on the vine; it is rather that the branches themselves may draw \ntheir sustenance from the vine. The vine is attached to the branches to provide \nthem with their vital nourishment\, not to receive anything from them. In the \nsame way Christ’s presence in his disciples and their presence in him both profit \nthe disciples rather than Christ. If a branch is cut off\, another can grow from the \nlife-giving root; but once severed from the root\, no branch can remain alive. \nThe incarnate Truth goes on to say: I am the vine\, you are the branches. \nWhoever dwells in me and I in him yields fruit in plenty\, because without me \nyou can do nothing. These words are to be weighed and pondered continually. \nSomeone hearing Jesus say\, he yields fruit in plenty\, might perhaps think that \na branch can bear at least a certain amount of fruit on its own. Our Lord’s words\, \nhowever\, were not: You can do little without me\, but: you can do nothing. Little \nfruit or plenty\, there can be neither without him\, because without him nothing \ncan be done. Even if a branch does produce a little fruit\, the vinedresser prunes \nit away so that it may produce more. But if the branch does not remain attached \nto the vine and draw its life from the root\, it can bear no fruit at all. \nNow\, although Christ could not be the vine if he were not human\, he could \nnot offer such a grace to his branches if he were not at the same time divine. \nSince without this grace it is impossible to have life and consequently death is \nthe result of one’s free choice\, he said: Whoever does not dwell in me will be \nthrown away like a branch and will wither\, to be gathered in and cast on the \nfire to burn. And so the shame incurred by those branches that refuse to dwell \nin the vine is in direct proportion to the glory they will have if they do remain in \nhim. \nIf you dwell in me\, said Jesus\, and my words dwell in you\, you will ask \nfor whatever you desire and it will be yours. Can a person dwelling in Christ \ndesire anything out of harmony with Christ? The very fact that people dwell in \ntheir Savior must mean that they have no desire that is opposed to their \nsalvation. And yet we do indeed desire one thing insofar as we are in Christ\, and \nanother insofar as we are still in this world. Because of our sojourn here below\, \na thought sometimes steals into our ignorant minds to ask for something which \ncannot be good for us. But this may not be\, if we are dwelling in Christ. He does \nwhat we ask only if it is for our good. To dwell in him\, therefore\, is to have his \nwords dwelling in us; whatever we desire we shall then ask for\, and it will be \ngiven us. \n  \n1 Journey with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – 1999 – pg 56.3 \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-5th-sunday-of-easter/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240429
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240430
DTSTAMP:20260404T095840
CREATED:20240427T190935Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240427T190935Z
UID:11853-1714348800-1714435199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Catherine of Siena
DESCRIPTION:THE TRUE WORKERS \nFrom “The Dialogues” of St Catherine of Siena2 \n◊◊◊ \nDo you know what course I follow\, once my servants have completely \ngiven themselves to the teaching of the Gentle loving Word? I prune them\, so \nthat they will bear much fruit – cultivated fruit\, not wild. Just as the gardener \nprunes the branch that is joined to the vine so that it yield more and better wine\, \nbut cuts off and throws into the fire the branch that is barren\, so do I the true \ngardener act. When my servants remain united to me I prune them with great \nsuffering so that they will bear more and better fruit\, and virtue will be proved \nin them. But those who bear no fruit are cut off and thrown into the fire. \nThese are the true workers. They till their souls well\, uprooting every \nselfish love\, cultivating the soil of their love in me. They feed and tend the \ngrowth of the seed of grace that they have received in holy baptism. And as they \ntill their own vineyards\, so they till their neighbor’s as well\, for they cannot do \nthe one without the other. You already know that every evil as well as every good \nis done by means of your neighbors. \nYou\, then\, are my workers. You have come from me\, the supreme eternal \ngardener\, and I have engrafted you onto the vine by making myself one with \nyou. Keep in mind that each of you has your own vineyard. But everyone is \njoined to your neighbor’s vineyards without any dividing lines. They are so \njoined together\, in fact\, that you cannot do good or evil for yourself without \ndoing the same for your neighbors. \nAll of you together make up one common vineyard\, the whole Christian \nassembly\, and you are all united in the vineyard of the mystic body of holy \nChurch from which you draw your life. In this vineyard is planted the vine\, \nwhich is my only-begotten Son\, into whom you must be engrafted. Unless you \nare engrafted into him you are rebels against holy Church\, like members that \nare cut off from the body and rot. \nIt is true that while you have time you can get yourselves out of the stench \nof sin through true repentance and recourse to my ministers. They are the \nworkers who have the keys to the wine cellar\, that is\, the blood poured forth \nfrom this vine. (And this blood is so perfect in itself that it cannot be deprived \nof its benefits through any fault in the minister.) \nIt is charity that binds you to true humility – the humility that is found in \nknowing yourself and me. See\, then\, that it is as workers that I have sent you \nall. And now I am calling you again\, because the world is failing fast. The thorns \nhave so multiplied and choked the seed so badly that it will produce no fruit of \ngrace at all. I want you\, therefore\, to be true workers. With deep concern help \nto till the souls in the mystic body of holy Church. I am calling you to do this \nbecause I want to be merciful to the world as you have so earnestly begged me. \n  \n2 Catherine of Siena – The Dialogue – The Classics of Western Spirituality – Paulist Press – New York – 1980 – pg \n24.5 \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-catherine-of-siena-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11855-1714435200-1714521599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE MIRACULOUS SPREAD \nOF THE GOSPEL MESSAGE \nA reading from “Against the Pagans” by St John Chrysostom3 \n◊◊◊ \nIt was…marvelous that these few ignorant\, poor\, undistinguished\, \nunlettered\, worthless men of foreign tongue were entrusted with setting straight \nthe whole world. They were commissioned to lead the world to live a far more \ndifficult life and they did not accomplish this mission at a time of peace but \nwhile countless wars were being stirred up against them from every side. And \nthis was the case in every nation and every city. \nDid I say every nation and every city? In every home a war was fanned to \nflame against them. For when their teaching entered a home\, many a time it \nsplit a son from his father\, a bride from her mother-in-law\, a brother from his \nbrother\, a servant from his master\, a subject from his ruler\, a man from his wife\, \na woman from her husband\, and a father from his children. For everybody did \nnot all at once accept the faith. Their teaching was harassed by hatred every day \nthat passed; it stirred up one war after the other and brought death to more \npeople than you could count; it had people avoiding one another as if they were \ncommon enemies and foes. \nFor everybody drove the apostles out. Emperors avoided them\, as did \nlesser rulers\, common people\, free and slave; whole peoples\, entire cities \nshunned them. Not only did they drive out the apostles but\, what is worse\, they \ndrove out those who were but newly fixed in their faith\, those whom the apostles \nhad instructed. It was one and the same war which was waged against the \napostles and their disciples\, because people saw that their teaching was opposed \nto the edicts of their emperors and their ancestral ways and customs. \nEven though the apostles told so harsh a story\, they still won people over \nto believe. This is how they built up the Church. How did they do it and by what \nmeans? They did it through the power of Him who had commanded them to do \nit. He made ready the way; he made all the hard things easy. If it were not the \npower of God which accomplished this\, the Church would not have had a \npreface\, much less a beginning. \nHow could all this be done? It was God who said: “Let there be heaven\,” \nand showed forth his work; it was God who said: “Let the earth be founded\,” \nand he produced its substance; it was God who said: “Let the sun shine\,” and he \nshowed forth the star; it was God who caused all things to be. And it was the \nsame God who planted the Church. And that word: “I will build my Church” is \nwhat produced all this. For this is the power of the words of God. They create \nworks which are wondrous beyond our expectation. God said: “Let the earth \nproduce the grassy plant\,” and suddenly everything was a garden\, everything \nbecame a meadow; the earth heard God’s command and plumed itself with \nplants beyond number. In the same way God later said: “I will build my \nChurch\,” and this was done with the greatest of ease. \n  \n3 St. John Chrysostom\, Apologist. Catholic University of America Press\, 1983\, pp. 242-243.7 \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-185/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11857-1714521600-1714607999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Joseph the Worker
DESCRIPTION:ST JOSEPH THE WORKER \nA reflection by Pope Francis4 \n◊◊◊ \nSt Joseph concretely expressed his fatherhood by making an offering of \nhimself in love\, placed at the service of the Messiah who was growing to \nmaturity in his home. And because of his role at the crossroads between the Old \nand New Testament\, St Joseph has always been venerated as a father of the \nChristian people. In him\, Jesus saw the tender love of God\, the one that helps \nus accept our weakness\, because it is through and despite our fears\, our frailties\, \nand our weakness that most divine designs are realized. Only tender love will \nsave us from the snares of the accuser\, and it is by encountering God’s mercy in \nthe Sacrament of Reconciliation that we experience His truth and tenderness\, \nbecause we know that God’s truth does not condemn us\, but instead welcomes\, \nembraces\, sustains and forgives us. \nJoseph is also a father in obedience to God with his “fiat”. He protects \nMary and Jesus and teaches his son to do the Will of the Father… At the same \ntime\, Joseph is an accepting Father because he accepted Mary unconditionally \n– an important gesture even today in our world where psychological\, verbal and \nphysical violence towards women is so evident. But the Bridegroom of Mary is \nalso the one who\, trusting in the Lord\, accepts in his life even the events that he \ndoes not understand\, setting aside his own ideas and reconciling himself with \nhis own history. \nJoseph’s spiritual path is not one that explains but accepts – which does \nnot mean that he is “resigned”. Instead he is courageously and firmly proactive. \nBecause with the Holy Spirit’s Gift of fortitude\, and full of hope\, he is able to \naccept life as it is\, with all its contradictions\, frustrations and disappointments. \nIn practice\, through St Joseph\, it is as if God were to repeat to us: “Do not be \nafraid” because faith gives meaning to every event\, however happy or sad\, and \nmakes us aware that God can make flowers spring up from stony ground. \nJoseph did not look for shortcuts but confronted reality with open eyes and \naccepted personal responsibility for it. For this reason\, he encourages us to \naccept and welcome others as they are\, without exception and to show special \nconcern for the weak… Consequently every poor\, needy\, suffering or dying \nperson\, every stranger\, every prisoner\, every infirm person is “the child” whom \nJoseph continues to protect. From St Joseph\, we must learn to love the Church \nand the poor. \nAs a carpenter who earned an honest living to provide for his family\, St. \nJoseph also teaches us the value\, the dignity and the joy of what it means to eat \nbread that is the fruit of one’s own labor. This aspect of Joseph’s character \nprovides the opportunity to appeal in favor of work… There is a renewed need \nto appreciate the importance of dignified work\, of which St. Joseph is an \nexemplary patron. Work is a means of participating in the work of salvation\, an \nopportunity to hasten the coming of the Kingdom\, to develop our talents and \nabilities\, and to put them at the service of society and fraternal communion. \nThose who work are cooperating with God Himself\, and in some way become \ncreators of the world around us. \n  \n4 Osservatore Romano – December 8\, 2021.9 \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-joseph-the-worker-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11859-1714608000-1714694399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Athanasius
DESCRIPTION:AS BRIGHTNESS FROM LIGHT \nFrom the Expositio Fidei by St Athanasius5 \n◊◊◊ \nWe believe in one Unbegotten God\, Father Almighty\, maker of all things \nboth visible and invisible\, that has His being from Himself. And in one Only- \nbegotten Word\, Wisdom\, Son\, begotten of the Father without beginning and \neternally; word not pronounced… nor an effluence of the Perfect\, nor a dividing \nof the impassible Essence\, nor an issue; but absolutely perfect Son\, living and \npowerful\, the true Image of the Father\, equal in honour and glory. For this\, he \nsays\, ‘is the will of the Father\, that as they honour the Father\, so they may \nhonour the Son also’: very God of very God… For all things which the Father \nrules and sways\, the Son rules and sways likewise: wholly from the Whole\, being \nlike the Father as the Lord says\, ‘he that has seen Me has seen the Father’. \nBut He was begotten ineffably and incomprehensibly\, for ‘who shall \ndeclare his generation?’… no one can. Who\, when at the consummation of the \nages\, He had descended from the bosom of the Father\, took from the undefiled \nVirgin Mary our humanity… delivered of His own will to suffer for us\, as the \nLord said: ‘No man takes My life from Me. I have power to lay it down\, and have \npower to take it again’… He was crucified and died for us\, and rose from the \ndead\, and was taken up into the heavens\, having been created as the beginning \nof ways for us\, when on earth He showed us light from out of darkness\, salvation \nfrom error\, life from the dead\, an entrance to paradise\, from which Adam was \ncast out\, and into which he again entered by means of the thief\, as the Lord said\, \n‘This day shall you be with Me in paradise’… \nWe believe\, likewise\, also in the Holy Spirit that searches all things\, even \nthe deep things of God… But the Holy Spirit\, being that which proceeds from \nthe Father\, is ever in the hands of the Father Who sends and of the Son Who \nconveys Him\, by Whose means He filled all things. The Father\, possessing His \nexistence from Himself\, begot the Son… and did not create Him\, as a river from \na well and as a branch from a root\, and as brightness from a light\, things which \nnature knows to be indivisible; through whom to the Father be glory and power \nand greatness before all ages\, and unto all the ages of the ages. \n  \n5 Translated by Archibald Robertson. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers\, Second Series\, Vol. \n4. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo\, NY: Christian Literature Publishing \nCo.\, 1892.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. \n<http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2821.htm>.11 \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-athanasius-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11861-1714694400-1714780799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - SS Philip & James
DESCRIPTION:THE APOSTOLIC WITNESS \nBy Jean Frisque6 \n◊◊◊ \nThey were still talking about all this when he himself stood among them \nand said to them\, “Peace be with you!” \nThe preeminent witnesses to the resurrection of Christ were the apostles. \nFrom the time of Jesus’ baptism to his death\, they accompanied him in his \npublic ministry. His death on the cross at the first threw them into a panic\, but \nsoon afterwards it clarified everything for them\, once it had been placed in its \nScriptural context\, through the aid of the resurrected Christ himself. \nBut was the testimony of the apostles limited to this single well-founded \nassertion: He whom you crucified has risen from the dead through the power of \nGod? In reality\, there was much more: the apostles did not only offer an \neyewitness account of an event but the testimony of their faith. Only their faith \nenabled them to discover why the death on the cross was the key-event of \nsalvation-history and in what way it led to the life of the resurrection. And theirs \nwas not simply any faith\, but faith in the paschal experience itself\, the faith \nwhich had perceived that in Jesus Christ all people were called to share in the \ndivine filiation and to contribute on their own behalf to the construction of the \nKingdom. \nNor was this all. The witness which the apostles rendered to the \nresurrection of Christ was above all an authorized witness. The apostles had \nreceived from the resurrected Christ himself their power to testify validly to \nhim. They had received the Holy Spirit\, the Spirit of the resurrected Christ. Thus \nthe very life of the resurrected Christ was given to the apostolic group\, and the \nChurch which they would construct in his name would be animated by this same \nlife. The Church was to be the temple of the Holy Spirit\, and the life which \ncirculated in her would testify until the end of time to the resurrection of her \nHead! \nThus we can see why the apostolic witness rendered to the resurrected \nChrist was inseparable from the life which animated the first Christian \ncommunity. This witness was necessarily communal. The preaching in which \nthis witness took shape was absolutely inseparable from the grace of \ncommunion given to the primitive community and its efforts to be entirely \nfaithful to the law of universal charity. \nToday’s Christians are not wrong\, therefore\, when they insist upon the \nimportance of the testimony of their life. But the life to which they must witness \nin order to testify to the resurrected Christ is the life of Christ himself. This life \nis displayed here on earth by the way of total obedience unto death for the love \nof all people\, for such an obedience leads us constantly from death to life. Such \na sign can only be displayed by the Church herself. \n  \n6 London\, 1965\, vol. 3\, pp 77-78.13 \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-ss-philip-james/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11863-1714780800-1714867199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE EXPERIENCE OF FAITH \nBy Hans Urs von Balthasar7 \n◊◊◊ \nThe analogy between the pre-Easter and the post Easter testimony \n(comparable to the analogy between testimony in the Old and the New \nTestament) signifies the decisive step forward: the leaving behind of the old\, \nwhich had served as basis\, in order to become established in the new. Paul is \nthe eyewitness of this step forward\, since he not only had to defend his \neyewitness arduously in itself\, but his eyewitness in this matter against the \nprivileges of the original Apostles. Whoever disregards the element of analogy \nin the Apostles’ witness\, will hold unswervingly to the testimony of the other \nApostles and will with them consider Paul’s credentials as an eyewitness to be \nsecondary\, if not altogether doubtful. But his legitimacy stands under the \nprotection of Scriptural inspiration and thus remains unassailable. \nThis is of the highest theological interest. Paul’s witness to the \nResurrection dispenses with the ‘analogy’ between witness to Christ’s earthly \nexistence and witness to the Resurrection; he is a witness only to Jesus’ \nResurrection. For Paul\, the identity of the risen Christ with the Jesus who \nsuffered and died lies in the vitality exhibited by the Kyrios. Because he is the \nnew man\, he was also the old. If this holds for Paul and if it is to this that he \nwitnesses\, the same does not necessarily apply to the others. For Paul there is \nno other legitimation than that of his own turning from the Old to the New \nCovenant and to the new man\, his conversio morum\, the fact that in all things \nhe shows himself to be a servant of God\, the fact that his existence has been so \ntransformed that it has become an incontestable mirroring of the image of \nChrist. Paul proves himself to be one who has seen essentially by letting himself \nbe seen and by being\, in fact\, seen. He gives himself wholly over to seeing\, \nhearing\, and touching: by the grace of God\, in him a Christian has been formed \nwho is not a ghost\, but who has flesh and bones. Paul cuts right through the \nanalogy that runs across the testimony of Peter and others\, and this cannot be \nhis work\, since he himself is the work of the grace of the Risen One. \nPaul straddles the boundary between the apostolic and the ecclesial era. \nHe fights for his inclusion in the apostolic era\, and the Lord himself gives the \nwarrant for this inclusion; and yet his experience of Christ bears essential \nfeatures of the ecclesial era\, namely\, that of private revelation and its \nconfirmation by personal sanctity. He shares this transitional character with \nthe whole period of the Acts of the Apostles: this is the period of archetypal \nChurch history. This is certainly so\, on the one hand\, because this is the span \nof time in which Christ’s original eyewitnesses lived. And yet Paul falls outside \nthese limits\, while still dominating in a central way the events in the Acts of the \nApostles. For\, on the other hand\, this period of history is more than just the \ntimespan in which the original eyewitnesses lived; it is the privileged space in \nwhich the Holy Spirit became visible\, audible\, and palpable: it is the expansion \nof the explosion that occurred on Pentecost. \n  \n7 The Glory of the Lord. Vol. I Seeing the Form. Hans Urs von Balthasar\, Ignatius Press\, 1982\, pp. 347-348.15 \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-186/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11867-1714867200-1714953599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n6th Week of Easter\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (B)\, Weekdays (II)\nMay 5 – 11\, 2024\n\n\n\nSun\n5\nMon\n6\nTue\n7\nWed\n8\nThu\n9\nFri\n10\nSat\n11\n\n\nOffice\n6th Sunday of Easter\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\nBl Christian de Cherge\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\nHoly Abbots of Cluny\n\n\nVigils\nActs 20:17-38\nActs 21:1-26\nActs 21:27-39\nActs 21:40-22:21\nActs 22:22-23:11\nActs 23:12-35\nActs 24:1-27\n\n\nLauds\nCol 1:9-14\nCol 1:24-29\nCol 2:9-15\nCol 3:12-17\n1 Jn 1:5-10\n1 Jn 2:7-11\n1 Jn 2:18-23\n\n\nMass\n56\n291\n292\n293\n294\n295\n296\n\n\n1st\nActs 10:25-26\, 34-35\, 44-48\nActs 16:11-15\nActs 16:22-34\nActs 17:15\, 22-18:1\nActs 18:1-8\nActs 18:9-18\nActs 18:23-28\n\n\n2nd\n1 John 4:7-10\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nJohn 15:9-17\nJohn 15:26-16:4a\nJohn 16:5-11\nJohn 16:12-15\nJohn 16:16-20\nJohn 16:20-23\nJohn 16:23b-28\n\n\nVespers\nCol 1:15-23\nCol 2:1-8\nCol 3:12-17\n1 Jn 1:1-4\n1 Jn 2:1-6\n1 Jn 2:12-17\nCol 3:1-11
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-68/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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SUMMARY:Vigils Reading -6th Sunday of Easter
DESCRIPTION:A GREATER LOVE \nBy St Thomas More1 \n◊◊◊ \nLet us deeply consider the love of our Savior Christ who so loved his own \nunto the end that for their sakes he willingly suffered that painful end\, and \ntherein declared the highest degree of love that can be. For\, as he himself says: \nA greater love no one has than to give his life for his friends. This is indeed the \ngreatest love that ever anyone had. But yet had our Savior a greater love\, for he \ngave his life for both friend and foe. \nBut what a difference is there now\, between this faithful love of his and \nother kinds of false and fickle love found in this wretched world. The flatterer \npretends to love you because he dines well with you. But now if adversity so \ndiminishes your possessions that you find your table not laid\, then – farewell\, \nadieu – your brother flatterer is gone and gets himself to some other table. And \nhe might even turn into your enemy and cruelly speak evil of you. \nWho can in adversity be sure of many of his many friends when our Savior \nhimself was\, at his capture\, left alone and forsaken by his? When you go forth\, \nwho will go with you? If you were a king would not all your realm send you on \nyour way alone and then forget you? Will not your own family let you depart a \nnaked\, feeble soul\, you know not whither? \nLet us all in time\, then\, learn to love as we should\, God above all things\, \nand all other things for him. And whatsoever love be not referred to that end\, \nnamely\, to the good pleasure of God\, is a very vain and unfaithful love. And \nwhatsoever love we bear to any creature whereby we love God the less\, that love \nis a loathsome love and hinders us from heaven. Love no child of yours so \ntenderly but that you could be content to sacrifice it to God\, as Abraham was \nready with Isaac\, if God so commanded you. And since God will not do so\, offer \nyour child in another way to God’s service. For whatever we love that makes us \nbreak God’s commandment\, we love better than God\, and that is a love deadly \nand damnable. Now\, since our Lord has so loved us\, for our salvation\, let us \ndiligently call for his grace that in return for his great love we be found not \nungrateful. \n  \n1 Journey with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – 1999 – pg 58.3 \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-6th-sunday-of-easter/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11871-1714953600-1715039999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE RESURRECTION OF ALL FLESH \nFrom “The Eternal Year” by Fr Karl Rahner2 \n◊◊◊ \nWe children of the earth may love the earth; we must love her\, even when \nshe terrifies us and makes us tremble with her misery and her destiny of death. \nFor ever since Christ\, through his death and resurrection\, penetrated the earth \nfor all time\, her misery has become provisional and a mere test of our faith in \nher innermost mystery\, which is the risen One himself. Our experience does not \ntell us that he is the mysterious meaning of her misery; by no means! It is our \nfaith that tells us this. The faith that offers blessed consolation to all that we \nexperience in life\, the faith that can love the earth because she is\, or is in the \nprocess of becoming\, the “body” of the risen One. \nWe do not need to leave her\, for the life of God dwells in her. When we \nwant both the God of infinity (how can we help wanting him?) and the familiar \nearth\, as it is and as it shall become\, when we want both for our eternally free \nhomeland\, there is one path to both! For in the resurrection of the Lord\, God \nhas shown that he has accepted the earth for all time… The flesh is the hinge of \nsalvation. \nThe hereafter to every exigency of sin and death is not somewhere in the \nlife hereafter; it has come down to us and lives in the innermost reality of our \nflesh. The most sublime religiosity of seclusion from the world would not fetch \nthe God of our life and the salvation of this earth from the distance of his \neternity; and it would not even reach him in his world. But he himself has come \nto us. And he has transformed what we are and what we still want to consider \nas the gloomy\, earthly dwelling place of our “spiritual nature”: he has \ntransformed the flesh. Ever since that event\, mother earth bears nothing but \ntransformed children. For his resurrection is the beginning of the resurrection \nof all flesh. \nOne thing\, of course\, is necessary for this event – which we can never undo \n– to become the blessedness of our existence: he must burst forth from the grave \nof our hearts. He must rise from the core of our being\, where he is as power and \npromise. He is there\, and yet something remains to be done. He is there\, yet it \nis still Holy Saturday\, and it will continue to be Holy Saturday until the last day\, \nuntil that day that will be the cosmic Easter. And this rising takes place beneath \nthe freedom of our faith. It is taking place as an event of living faith that draws \nus into the colossal eruption of all earthly reality into its own glorification\, the \nsplendid transfiguration that has already begun with the resurrection of Christ. \n  \n2 The Eternal Year\, Helicon Press: Baltimore MD 1964. pp.93-95.5 \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-187/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11873-1715040000-1715126399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE SECRET OF THE LORD \nFrom a sermon by St John Henry Newman3 \n◊◊◊ \nOur Lord expressly promises all Christians a certain gracious \nmanifestation of himself\, which it is natural\, at first sight\, to suppose a sensible \none: and many persons understand it to be such\, as if it were not more blessed \nto believe than to see. Our Lord says; “He that has my commandments and \nkeeps them\, he it is that loves me; and he that loves me\, shall be loved of my \nFather\, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.” When Jude asked \nhim\, “Lord\, how is it that you will manifest yourself unto us\, and not unto the \nworld?” Our Lord answered\, “If one loves me\, he will keep my words; and my \nFather will love him\, and we will come unto him\, and make our abode with \nhim. \n” In accordance with this promise\, St Paul says\, “The Spirit itself bears \nwitness with our spirit\, that we are the children of God”; and St John\, “He that \nbelieves in the Son of God has the witness in himself.” \nNow\, that this great gift\, whatever it be\, is of a nature to impart \nillumination\, sanctity\, and peace\, to the soul to which it comes\, far from \ndisputing\, I would earnestly maintain. And\, in this indirect way\, doubtless\, it is \nin a certain sense apprehended and perceived; perceived in its effects\, with a \nconsciousness that those effects cannot come of themselves\, but imply a gift \nfrom which they come\, and a presence of which they are\, as it were\, the shadow\, \na voice of which they are the echo. \nBut there are persons who desire the inward manifestation of Christ to be \nmuch more sensible than this. They will not be contented without some sensible \nsign and direct evidence that God loves them; some assurance\, in which faith \nhas no part\, that God has chosen them; and which may answer to their \nanticipations of what Scripture calls “the secret of the Lord\, \n” and “the hidden \nmanna” which Christ invites us to partake. Some\, for instance\, hold that their \nconscience would have no peace\, unless they recollected the time when they \nwere converted from darkness to light\, from a state of wrath to the kingdom of \nGod. Others consider that\, in order to possess the seal of election\, they must be \nable to discern in themselves certain feelings or frames of mind\, a renunciation \nof their own merit\, and an apprehension of gospel salvation; as if it were not \nenough to renounce ourselves and follow Christ\, without the lively \nconsciousness that we are doing so; and that in this lies “the secret of the Lord. \n” \nOthers go further; and think that without a distinct inward assurance of his \nsalvation\, one is not in a saving state. \nThis is what men and women often conceive; not considering that \nwhatever be the manifestation promised to Christians by our Lord\, it is not \nlikely to be more sensible and more intelligible than the great sign of his own \nResurrection. Yet even that\, like the miracle wrought upon Jonah\, was in secret\, \nand they who believed without seeing it were more blessed than those who saw. \n  \n3 Parochial and Plain Sermons\, San Francisco: Ignatius Press\, 1987\, pp. 1244-1245.7 \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-188/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11875-1715126400-1715212799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Bl. Christian de Cherge
DESCRIPTION:CHRISTIAN DE CHERGÉ \nMONK\, MARTYR\, AND MYSTIC \nBy Dom Bernardo Olivera \n◊◊◊ \nIn its early stages\, monastic life was interpreted in various ways. Not a \nfew understood monasticism as an authentic martyrdom. The martyr\, the monk \nand the mystic are people who have oriented their lives toward mystery and \nentered deeply therein. They long for one thing only: to enter into communion \nwith their Lord in death in order to be joined with him in the Resurrection. \nChristian de Chergé was born on January 18\, 1937 at Colmar into a \ndistinguished family of eight children. His father was a military man\, as would \nbe his older brother later on. During his childhood he spent three years in \nAlgeria during the Second World War. From the time of his childhood he always \nremained impressed by the Muslim’s way of approaching God. \nOn October 6\, 1956\, at the age of nineteen he entered the seminary of the \nCarmelites in Paris. His studies were interrupted in 1959 when he had to report \nfor military service. Set on becoming an officer\, he took the required courses \nand in July of the following year he was made second lieutenant. That same \nmonth\, at the time of the war of independence\, he arrived in Algeria at the age \nof twenty-three. \nAn event occurred during this time that left its mark on him for the rest \nof his life. He had made friends with an Algerian who worked as a warden under \nthe French authorities\, a position that made him susceptible to the violence of \nthe National Liberation Army. Mohamed tried to be faithful at one and the same \ntime to his Christian friend\, to his Islamic faith\, and to his own people. It so \nhappened one day that they were involved in a scuffle in the street. Mohamed9 \nprotected his friend and tried to pacify his aggressors. The following day\, he was \nfound dead. This painful episode was never to be forgotten. Christian came back \nto it in later years\, writing: “I know at least one beloved brother\, a convinced \nMuslim\, who gave his life for love of another\, in a concrete way\, by spilling his \nown blood. Indeed\, since then\, in my hope for communion of all the elect in \nChrist\, I can fix my eyes on this friend who lived\, even in his death\, the one \ncommandment.” \nFor Christian de Chergé all of this was a foundational experience and the \nseed of a vocation. In the blood of his friend\, assassinated for not having wanted \nto bargain with hatred\, Christian said in 1982: “I knew my calling to follow \nChrist would end up living itself out sooner or later in the same country where \nI had been given the pledge of the greater love\, “shed for you and for many”. On \nMarch 21\, 1964\, he was ordained a priest and shortly thereafter was sent to \nAlgeria and to the monastic life. On September 14\, 1976\, he made his perpetual \nvows. In it he expressed his desire to “live in Prayer in the service of the Church \nof Algeria\, listening to the Muslim soul\, God willing\, until the final gift of my \ndeath.” \nChristian was elected Titular Prior of Atlas monastery in 1984. He was \nalready deeply involved in the interreligious dialogue. On May 21\, 1996\, united \nwith his six brothers of the community\, he sealed with his blood the witness of \nhis life.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-bl-christian-de-cherge-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11877-1715212800-1715299199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:WE ARE ALL WITNESSES \nBy Fr Paul Evodokimov4 \n◊◊◊ \nThere are no half measures\, no intermediary formulas. We are in the \npresence of the fundamental evidence of Jesus risen from the dead. A God who \ndoes not present his charter as lover of <humanity>\, a God who is not love \ncrucified in order to radiate “life\, death of death“\, as St. Augustine says\, is not \nreally God. In following St. Paul’s thought to its conclusion\, we could say that \nall religion exists only by the resurrection and mystically leans on this event. If \nChrist is risen\, this is of interest for all… If the Christian testimony to the risen \nLord is suppressed\, no religion will survive on the level of the modern world\, \nfor outside the Gospel every religious message stops halfway. \nThe Gospel’s transcendent end is God become a risen <Human being>. \nThis fact does not concern just a few witnesses only; the risen Christ in \nbecoming the contemporary of all <humanity> means that every <one> is \ncontemporary with the eternal Christ. This makes all the events of history \nessentially Christological. Christ is risen as head of the human body\, and now \nall religions and all <individuals> can and ought to seek their life in him. This \ntestimony alone determines the ecumenical mission of the Church in the midst \nof all religions and in the great meeting between East and West. History places \nthe Christian faith in the risen Christ as the crossing point of all ideologies that \nnow reformulate the only important question — that asked by Pilate –– ” What \nis truth?” It obliges faith to say its yes\, going if need be as far as the confession \nof martyrdom\, that unique answer that resounds universally. Christ is in agony\, \nand eternity is impatient to hear this answer. \nThe apostolic kerygma announces the event of Easter\, the intervention of \nGod raising up Jesus; this alone gives a definitive meaning to the existence of \n<humankind> in history. The resurrection of Jesus is God’s “Amen” to his \npromise\, an “Amen” full of the Holy Spirit who manifests it. “Amen” comes from \nthe Hebrew heemin and it means an unshakable base of operations. Those who \nproclaim it—the apostles and martyrs—claim the right to proclaim the event \nbefore the magistrates of the earthly city. \nLikewise the Apologies of Justin\, Athenagoras\, and Aristides present to \nemperors the same decisive message and warn them of the imminent judgment. \nTheir kerygma is of interest to all <humanity>. It is preached in the presence of \nangels and concerns all of creation: the kingdom of God has already arrived; we \nare contemporaries of the one who sits at the right hand of the Father. Here is \nthe lamb immolated and risen and here is his kingdom. He is here and it is the \nfullness of time. All religions are ways by which <we> seek God. They are \nnumerous. However\, the Christian revelation is unique for it is God who finds \n<humanity>. The preaching of St. Paul is of capital importance for the theology \nof religion. In deciphering the monument to the unknown God and in giving it \nthe name Jesus Christ\, the apostle integrated with Christ the religious \naspiration of all times and gave it value in Christ. \n  \n4 Paul Evdokimov\, The Struggle with God\, New Jersey: Glen Rock\, 1966\, pp.66-68.11 \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-189/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11879-1715299200-1715385599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:WE SCARCELY KNOW OURSELVES \nFrom the writing of Servant of God Dorothy Day5 \n◊◊◊ \nMuch as we want to\, we do not really know ourselves. Do we really want \nto see ourselves as God sees us\, or even as our fellow human beings see us? Could \nwe bear it\, weak as we are?… We do not want to be given that clear inward vision \nwhich discloses to us our most secret faults. In the Psalms there is that prayer \n“Deliver me from my secret sins.”… They were what I read most when I was in jail… \nI read with a sense of coming back to something that I had lost. There was an \nechoing in my heart. And how can anyone who has known human sorrow and \nhuman joy fail to respond to these words? \nOut of the depths I have cried to thee\, O Lord: Lord\, hear my voice. Let thy ears \nbe attentive to the voice of my supplication. If thou\, O Lord\, wilt mark iniquities: Lord \nwho shall stand it. For with thee there is merciful forgiveness… \nAll through those weary first days in jail when I was in solitary confinement\, \nthe only thoughts that brought comfort to my soul were those lines in the Psalms \nthat expressed the terror and misery of <one> suddenly stricken and abandoned. \nSolitude and hunger and weariness of spirit – these sharpened my perceptions so \nthat I suffered not only my own sorrow but the sorrows of those about me. I was \nno longer myself. I was <humankind>… The sorrows of the world encompassed \nme. I was like one gone down into the pit. Hope had forsaken me… And yet if it \nwere not the Holy Spirit that comforted me\, how could I have been comforted\, how \ncould I have endured\, how could I have lived in hope?… \n“What glorious hope!” Mauriac writes. “There are all those who will \ndiscover that their neighbor is Jesus himself\, although they belong to the mass of \nthose who do not know Christ or who have forgotten Him… Even some of those \nwho think they hate Him have consecrated their lives to Him; for Jesus is disguised \nand masked in the midst of <humanity>\, hidden among the poor\, among the sick\, \namong prisoners\, among strangers. Many who serve Him officially have never \nknown who He was\, and many who do not even know His name will hear on the \nlast day the words that open to them the gates of joy. ‘Those children were I\, and \nI those working men. I wept on the hospital bed. I was that murderer in his cell \nwhom you consoled.’” \nBut always the glimpses of God came most when I was alone. Objectors \ncannot say that it was fear of loneliness and solitude and pain that made me turn \nto Him. It was in those few years when I was alone and most happy that I found \nHim. I found Him at last through joy and thanksgiving\, not through sorrow. Yet \nhow can I say that either? Better let it be said that I found Him through His poor\, \nand in a moment of joy I turned to Him… If Christ established His Church on earth \nwith Peter as its rock\, that faulty one who denied Him three times\, who fled from \nHim when he was in trouble\, then I\, too\, wanted a share in that tender \ncompassionate love that is so great… \nThe experiences that I have had are more or less universal. Suffering\, \nsadness\, repentance\, love\, we all have known these. They are easiest to bear when \none remembers their universality\, when we remember that we are all members or \npotential members of the Mystical Body of Christ. A conversion is a lonely \nexperience. We do not know what is going on in the depths of the heart and soul \nof another. We scarcely know ourselves. \n  \n5 Day\, Dorothy. By Little and By Little – The Selected Writings of Dorothy Day. Ed. \nRobert Ellsberg. New York: Alfred A. Knopf\, 1983. 4-7\, 9.13 \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-190/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11881-1715385600-1715471999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Holy Abbots of Cluny
DESCRIPTION:FROM A LETTER OF \nST BERNARD TO POPE EUGENIUS\, \nOn behalf of Peter the Venerable\, Abbot of Cluny6 \n◊◊◊ \nIt would be silly for me to write you on behalf of the Lord Abbot of Cluny\, \nto act as if I wanted to befriend a man whom the entire world befriends. But \nalthough he does not need me to write on his behalf\, I am nevertheless doing so \nin order to satisfy my affection for him\, for this purpose alone and no other. \nAlthough I cannot accompany him in body I shall be with him in spirit on his \npilgrimage to Rome. Nothing can separate us\, not the height of the Alps\, nor the \ncold of the snows\, nor the long distance of the journey. And I am present to him \nnow\, stretching out my hand to him in this letter. He cannot go anywhere \nwithout me because I am so much in his debt for the favor of his friendship. But \nhis favor itself acquits me of the debt\, for what was a duty has become a \npleasure. \nHonor this man as an honorable member of Christ’s body. He is a vessel \nfit for all honorable employment\, a vessel full of grace and truth\, full of all \nmanner of good things. Send him back with joy to rejoice the hearts of many by \nhis return. Show him great favor\, so that when he returns we may all receive of \nhis fullness. He should\, of course\, find no difficulty in obtaining from you \nanything he asks for in the name of the Lord Jesus. For\, if you do not know it\, \nhe it is that holds out his hands to the poor of our Order; he it is that freely and \nfrequently\, as far as he may without offending his own people\, supports our \nbrethren from the possessions of his monastery. \nBut let me explain why I say “in the name of the Lord Jesus. \n” It is because \nI fear and suspect he may ask to be released from the rule of his monastery; and \nno one who knows him would consider this a petition made in the name of \nJesus. I am very much mistaken if he is not more self-effacing than usual\, if he \nhas not become more perfect since he last saw you\, although it is well known \nthat almost from the first instant of assuming office he reformed his Order in \nmany ways\, in the matter\, for instance\, of fasting\, silence\, and costly and curious \nclothing. \n  \n6 Letter 349\, The Letters of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux\, edited by Bruno Scott James\, Chicago: Henry Regnery Company\, 1953\, \npp. 427-428.15 \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-holy-abbots-of-cluny-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11890-1715472000-1715558399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema: 7th Week of Easter
DESCRIPTION:  \n\n\n\nBiblical Readings for Office and Mass\n7th Week of Easter\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (B)\, Weekdays (II)\nMay 12 – 18\, 2024\n\n\n\nSun\n12\nMon\n13\nTue\n14\nWed\n15\nThu\n16\nFri\n17\nSat\n18\n\n\nOffice\nAscension of the Lord\nOur Lady of Fatima\nSt Matthias\nSt Pachomius\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\n\n\nVigils\nEph 4:1-24\nActs 25:1-27\nPhil 3:13-4:1\nActs 27:1-20\nActs 27:21-44\nActs 28: 1-14\nActs 28:15-31\n\n\nLauds\nDan 7:9-14\n1 Jn 2:24-27\n1 Jn 2:18-25\n1 Jn 3:19-24\n1 Jn 4:7-12\n1 Jn 5:1-5\n1 Jn 5:13-21\n\n\nMass\n58\n297\n564\n299\n300\n301\n302\n\n\n1st\nActs 1:1-11\nActs 19:1-8\nActs 1:15-17\, 20-26\nActs 20:28-38\nActs 22:30; 23:6-11\nActs 25:13b-21\nActs 28:16-20\, 30-31\n\n\n2nd\nEph 4:1-13\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nMark 16:15-20\nJohn 16:29-33\nJohn 15:9-17\nJohn 17:11b-19\nJohn 17:20-26\nJohn 21:15-19\nJohn 21:20-25\n\n\nVespers\nEph 1:15-23\n1 Jn 2:28-3:3\n1 Cor 4:1-7\n1 Jn 4:1-6\n1 Jn 4:13-21\n1 Jn 5:6-12\nRom 8:9:17\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-7th-week-of-easter/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11892-1715472000-1715558399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Resurrection of the Lord
DESCRIPTION:HIS ASCENSION INTO HEAVEN\nBy St Leo the Great 1\n◊◊◊\nThe sacred work of our salvation was of such great value in the sight of\nthe Creator of the universe that he counted it worth the shedding of his own\nblood. From the day of his birth until his passion and death this work was\ncarried out in conditions of self-abasement; and although he showed many\nsigns of his divinity even when he bore the form of a slave\, yet strictly speaking\,\nthe events of that time were concerned with proving the reality of the humanity\nhe had assumed. But he was innocent of any sin\, and so when death launched\nits attack upon him he burst its bonds and robbed it of its power. After his\npassion weakness was turned into strength\, mortality into eternal life\, and\ndisgrace into glory. Of all this Lord Jesus Christ gave ample proof in the sight of\nmany\, until at last he entered heaven in triumph. bearing with him the trophy\nof his victory over death. \nAnd so while at Easter it was the Lord’s resurrection which was the cause\nof our joy\, our present rejoicing is on account of his ascension into heaven. With\nall due solemnity we are commemorating that day on which our poor human\nnature was carried up in Christ above all the hosts of heaven\, above all the ranks\nof angels\, beyond the highest heavenly powers to the very throne of God the\nFather. It is upon this ordered structure of divine acts that we have been firmly\nestablished\, so that the grace of God may show itself still more marvelous when\,\nin spite of the withdrawal from our sight of everything that is rightly felt to\ncommand our reverence\, faith does not fail\, hope is not shaken\, charity does not\ngrow cold. \nFor such is the power of great minds\, such is the light of truly believing\nsouls\, that they put unhesitating faith in what is not seen with the bodily eye;\nthey fix their desires on what is beyond sight. Such fidelity could never be borne\nin our hearts\, nor could anyone be justified by faith if our salvation lay only in\nwhat is visible. That is why Christ said to the man who seemed doubtful about\nhis resurrection unless he could see and touch the marks of his passion in his\nvery flesh: you believe because you see me; blessed are those who have not seen\nand yet believe. \nIt was in order that we might be capable of such blessedness that on the\nfortieth day after his resurrection\, after he had made careful provision for\neverything concerning the preaching of the gospel and the mysteries of the new\ncovenant\, our Lord Jesus Christ was taken up to heaven before the eyes of his\ndisciples\, and so his bodily presence among them came to an end. From that\ntime onward he was to remain at the Father’s right hand until the completion\nof the period ordained by God for the Church’s children to increase and\nmultiply\, after which\, in the same body with which he ascended\, he will come\nagain to judge the living and the dead. \nAnd so our Redeemer’s visible presence has passed into the sacraments.\nOur faith is nobler and stronger because sight has been replaced by a doctrine\nwhose authority is accepted by believing hearts\, enlightened from on high. \n1\nJourney with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – 1999 = pg 60.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/resurrection-of-the-lord/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11894-1715558400-1715644799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Our Lady of Fatima
DESCRIPTION:OUR SWEET MOTHER\nBy St John Paul II on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima 2\n◊◊◊\nSince the time when Jesus\, dying on the cross\, said to John: “Behold your\nMother”\, since the time when “the disciple took her into his home”\, the mystery\nof Mary’s spiritual motherhood had its fulfillment in history with an amplitude\nwithout boundaries. Motherhood means concern for her son’s life. Now\, if Mary\nis the mother of all people\, her concern for human life is universal in scope…\nThe spiritual motherhood of Mary is therefore participation in the power of the\nHoly Spirit\, the One who “gives life.” It is with the humble service of the one\nwho says of herself: “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord”. In the light of the\nmystery of Mary’s spiritual motherhood\, let us understand the extraordinary\nmessage\, which began to resonate in the world by Fatima since May 13\, 1917\nand lasted for five months until October 13 of the same year. If the Church has\nembraced the message of Fatima it is mainly because it contains a truth and a\ncall\, which in their essential content is the truth and the call of the Gospel itself. \n“Repent and believe in the Gospel”\, these are the first words of the\nMessiah addressed to humanity. The message of Fatima is in its core a call to\nconversion and penance… The call to repentance is maternal and at the same\ntime\, strong and determined. The love that “rejoices in the truth”\, knows how\nto be outspoken and determined… Can the Mother\, who with all the power of\nher love\, which fosters in the Holy Spirit and desires the salvation of every\nperson\, keep quiet about what undermines the very foundations of this\nsalvation? No\, she cannot! \nThe Immaculate Heart of Mary\, opened by the word: “Woman\, behold\nyour son”\, meets spiritually with the Heart of the Son opened by the soldier’s\nlance. Mary’s Heart was opened by the same love for mortals and for the world\,\nwith which Christ has loved humanity and the world\, offering Himself on the\nCross for them. To consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother\nmeans returning beneath the Cross of her Son. More it means consecrating this\nworld to the pierced Heart of the Savior\, bringing the very source of his\nredemption. Redemption is always greater than the sin of man and the “sin of\nthe world.”… The Heart of the Mother is aware of this\, as no one else in the\nwhole universe\, visible and invisible… \nThe Mother of Christ calls us and invites us to join the Church of the living\nGod in the consecration of the world\, this reliance by which the world\,\nhumanity\, nations\, all people are offered to the Eternal Father with the power\nof Christ’s redemption. They are offered in the pierced Heart of the Redeemer\non the Cross… The appeal of the Lady of Fatima is so deeply rooted in the Gospel\nand in the whole of tradition that the Church feels committed by this message.\nYes\, we can truly say: “Blessed are you\, daughter\, in front of the Most High God\nabove all women on earth!”… Yes\, here and throughout the Church\, in the heart\nof every man and in the whole world you are blessed Mary\, our sweet Mother! \n2 A Discourse of Pope John Paul II at Fatima.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/our-lady-of-fatima/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11896-1715644800-1715731199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:St. Matthias
DESCRIPTION:OUR VERY GLORY IS OUR WARNING\nBy St John Henry Newman on the feast of St Matthias 3\n◊◊◊\nThis is the only Saint’s day which is to be celebrated with mingled feelings\nof joy and pain. It records the fall as well as the election of an Apostle. St.\nMatthias was chosen in place of the traitor Judas. In the history of the latter we\nhave the warning recorded in very deed\, which our Lord in the text gives us in\nword\, “Hold that fast which thou hast\, that no man take thy crown.” And\ndoubtless many were the warnings such as this\, addressed by our Lord to the\nwretched man who in the end betrayed him. \nThe reflection which rises in the mind on a consideration of the election\nof St. Matthias\, is this: how easily God may affect His purposes without us\, and\nput others in our place\, if we are disobedient to Him. It often happens that those\nwho have long been in His favor grow secure and presuming. They think their\nsalvation certain\, and their service necessary to Him who has graciously\naccepted it. Now\, this feeling of self-importance is repressed all through the\nScriptures\, and especially by the events we commemorate today. \nWhat solemn overpowering thoughts must have crowded on St. Matthias\,\nwhen he received the greetings of the eleven Apostles\, and took his seat among\nthem as their brother! His very election was a witness against himself if he did\nnot fulfill it. And such surely will ours be in our degree. We take the place of\nothers who have gone before\, as Matthias did; we are “baptized for the dead\,”\nfilling up the ranks of soldiers\, some of whom\, indeed\, have fought a good fight\,\nbut many of whom in every age have made void their calling. Many are called\,\nfew are chosen. The monuments of sin and unbelief are set up around us. The\ncasting away of the Jews was the reconciling of the Gentiles. The fall of one\nnation is the conversion of another. The Church loses old branches and gains\nnew. God works according to His own inscrutable pleasure… \nThus the Christian of every age is but the successor of the lost and of the\ndead. How long we of this country shall be put in trust with Gospel\, we know\nnot; but while we have the privilege\, assuredly we do but stand in the place of\nChristians who have either utterly fallen away\, or are so corrupted as scarcely\nto let their light shine before others. We are at present witnesses of the Truth;\nand our very glory is our warning. By the superstitions\, the profanities\, the\nindifference\, the unbelief of the world called “Christian”\, we are called upon to\nbe lowly-minded while we preach aloud\, and to tremble while we rejoice. Let us\nthen\, as a Church and as individuals\, one and all\, look to Him who alone can\nkeep us from falling. Let us with single heart look up to Christ our Saviour\, and\nput ourselves into His hands\, from whom all our strength and wisdom is\nderived. \n3 Parochial and Plain Sermons\, San Francisco: Ignatius\, 1987\, pp. 300-301\, 304-305.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/st-matthias/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11898-1715731200-1715817599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:St. Pachomius
DESCRIPTION:OUR RIGHTEOUS FATHER PACHOMIUS\nFrom “The Life of Pachomius” 4\n◊◊◊\nTheodore began to tell the brothers of the life of our father Pachomius\nfrom his childhood on and of all the labors he underwent from the beginning\nwhen he established the holy Koinonia. He told them of the temptations of\ndemons and how he snatched away from them the souls which the Lord gave\nhim and of the revelations which the Lord disclosed to him. And he told them\neverything he had heard from that saint’s mouth as well as those things he had\nseen with his own eyes. \nHe spoke to them as follows:\n‘Listen to me\, my brothers\, and understand well the things I am telling\nyou. For the man whom we are exalting is truly the father of us all after God.\nGod established a covenant with him to save a great many souls by means of\nhim. And us also the Lord has saved through his holy prayers. For he — I am\nspeaking of our righteous father Pachomius–is also one of the holy people of\nGod and one who did his will always and everywhere. I am fearful that we may\nforget his labors and actually be unmindful of who it was who made this\nmultitude one spirit and one body. It was accomplished by means of him and\nof our other holy fathers who aided him in the establishment of this holy\ninstitution. We believe that the blessing of our father will remain with us and\nwith those who come after us before God forever. Now then\, let us not be\nnegligent and forget his laws and his commandments\, which he gave us while\nhe was still with us in the body.’ \n‘Pachomius pursued in its entirety the way of life of the prophets and the\nway of service in which\, according to the Gospel\, our Lord walked. He was\nwithout blame before all\, as you yourselves bear witness. You are also not\nunaware how he used to teach us frequently with tears\, as Paul said in the book\nof the Acts of those whom he was teaching. You know how he used to gather us\ntogether daily and speak to us about the holy commandments so that we might\nobserve each of the commandments in the holy Scriptures of Christ\, and how\nhe used first to put them into practice before giving them to us. It is through\nour contact with such a righteous man that we have learned the will of God even\nin such details as the manner of stretching our hands upward to the Lord and\nhow one should pray to God. It is he who taught it to us. Is it not right for us to\nbless him next after the Lord who created us? Indeed\, did God not say to\nAbraham\, who had done his will\, I will bless him who blesses you and I will\ncurse him who curses you? Now then\, my brothers\, let us all say\, “Blessed be\nGod and our righteous father Pachomius who through the labors of his\nprayers has become for us a guide to eternal life”‘. \n4 Pachomian Koinonia\, Vol One\, Trans.\, Armand Veilleux\, Kalamazoo\, 1980; pp 237-8.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/st-pachomius-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11900-1715817600-1715903999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Easter Weekday
DESCRIPTION:THE LIGHT OF THE LORD’S MERCIES\nFrom a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux 5\n◊◊◊\nAll of you know what is good\, the way on which to proceed\, and how you\nought to proceed along it. But you do not have a single will. For in all the\nexercises of this way and this life\, some not only walk but also run\, or rather fly;\nso that to them their vigils seem brief\, their foods sweet\, their clothing soft\, and\ntheir labors not only bearable but even appealing. Others\, however\, are not like\nthis. Instead with withered hearts and rebellious dispositions\, scarcely are they\ndragged to these exercises\, scarcely are they compelled by fear of hell. Wretched\nand woebegone\, they share in our tribulation but not in our consolation. Is the\nhand of the Lord shortened so that he cannot give to everyone when he opens\nhis hand and fills every living creature with his blessing? What then is the\nreason? \nClearly it is this\, that they do not see Christ when he is taken up from\nthem; in other words\, they do not ponder how he left them orphans\, that they\nare pilgrims and strangers on earth\, that as long as they are still held in the\nfrightful prison of the body\, they cannot be with Christ. Further\, if people of this\ntype have remained under a burden for a long time\, they are overwhelmed and\nsink down\, or else they are in a sort of hell\, so that they never breathe fully in\nthe light of the Lord’s mercies and in the Spirit’s freedom which alone makes\nour yoke easy and our burden light. \nThe source of such a pernicious lukewarmness is that their inclination\,\nthat is\, their will\, has not yet been purified. Gravely diverted and allured by their\nown craving\, they do not choose the good as they know it. They are fond of little\nearthly consolations for their flesh\, whether in word\, or in sign\, or in deed\, or in\nanything else. If they sometimes take a break from these things\, they do not\nwholly break with them. Hence their inclinations are rarely directed toward\nGod\, and their compunction is not constant\, but intermittent. Now a soul\nsubject to these distractions cannot be satisfied with the Lord’s visitations. The\nmore it is emptied of the distractions\, the more fully will it be satisfied by the\nvisitations. If it is greatly emptied\, it will be greatly satisfied; if it is barely\nemptied\, it will be barely satisfied. Surely if you examine further\, one can never\nbe mixed with the other for all eternity. When the oil did not meet with an empty\nvessel\, it had to stop flowing. New wine is put only in new wineskins so that both\nmay be preserved. So too spirit and flesh\, fire and lukewarmness\, do not abide\nin the same domicile\, especially since lukewarmness is wont to provoke the Lord\nhimself to vomit. \n5 Sermons for the Summer Season – Bernard of Clairvaux – CF53 – Cistercian Publications – pg 39 – Kalamazoo\, MI –\n1991.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/easter-weekday-9/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11902-1715904000-1715990399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Easter Weekday
DESCRIPTION:THE MYSTERIES OF GLORY\nBy Fr Jean Danielou 6\n◊◊◊\nThe Apostles’ Creed contains a noteworthy passage in which\,\ngrammatically speaking\, we move from the past to the future: “He ascended\ninto the heavens\, to be seated at the right hand of God. He will come again to\njudge the living and the dead.” Thus the mysteries of Christ are not completed\nwith the ascension. There is still another mystery to come\, that of the Parousia.\nBetween these two there is a mystery which is\, in the present\, that of the session\nat the right hand. So there is a mystery of Christ with which we are\ncontemporary that corresponds to that moment of sacred history\, which\nbelongs to us\, which constitutes the present activity of the Word.\nHere we find\, in the mysteries of glory\, the order which we ascertained in\nthe mysteries of darkness. Through the ascension the humanity of Christ was\nexalted above every creature and was introduced by the Word into the\ninaccessible sanctuary of the Trinity. But the humanity of Christ tends to attract\neverything else to it. “If only I am lifted up from the earth\, I will attract all\npeoples to myself.” Christ has only entered the heavenly sanctuary as a\nforerunner. The presence of his humanity in the sphere of the Trinity is the\nguarantee of the possibility that is henceforth ours to attain. The impassible gulf\nis henceforth overcome; the impossible has become possible. In a suitable\nimage\, the epistle to the Hebrews shows the humanity of Christ as cast like an\nanchor\, not into the depths of the sea\, but into the far places of heaven\, laying\nthe foundation of our hope that we shall in our turn attain to the anchorage\nbeyond the veil. \nThus there is\, henceforth\, in the heart of each person an ascensional\npower that lifts it up and draws it towards the Father\, that “gravity” of love of\nwhich Augustine spoke\, and which counteracts the “gravity” of the flesh. This\nis the meaning of the era of the Church\, in which Christ\, having entered into the\nglory of the Father\, seeks to lift up humanity as a whole. By this means the\nmovement is completed which began at the Incarnation\, when the Word of God\ncame to seek for mankind\, but in order to lead it back to the Father. This is why\nwe are told\, “he has mounted up on high; he has captured his spoil; he has\nbrought gifts. And he who so went down is no other than he who has gone up\,\nhigh above all the heavens to fill creation with his presence.” And truly this\nhumanity is a mighty weight to raise. Its gravity resists grace. That is the whole\ndrama of the present period in sacred history. But the power of the Word is\ngreater than our resistance. \n6\nJean Danielou\, Christ and Us\, New York: Sheed and Ward\, pp. 155-159.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/easter-weekday-10/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11904-1715990400-1716076799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Easter Weekday
DESCRIPTION:THE ASCENSION AND CHRISTIAN PRAYER\nBy Thomas Merton 7\n◊◊◊\nAt the Ascension\, in the sight of the disciples\, “the nature of humankind\nsoared above the dignity of all the creatures of heaven” and “there was to be\nno limit to the advancement of Christ’s humanity until\, seated together with\nthe eternal Father\, it might share enthroned the glory of Him whose nature it\nshared in the son.” And of course\, the Fathers never ceased to remind their\nhearers that this same humanity of Christ which was enthroned with the Father\nin the divine glory\, was to return and judge the world. “He set a limit to His\nbodily presence\, and would remain at the right hand of the Father until He\nshould return in the same flesh in which He had ascended.” Monastic prayer is\neschatological and is centered on the expectation of the Parousia\, the advent of\nthe “immortal and invisible King of ages” who is both “God alone” and the\nChrist\, our Redeemer and Liberator… \nSt Leo says that with Christ’s ascension into heaven we have recovered\npossession of paradise\, and not only that\, “we have even penetrated\, in Christ\,\ninto the height of heaven\,” we have been enthroned with Him because we are\n“one Body” with Him. This is the reason why we should rejoice at His going to\nthe Father… He is not separated from us unless we choose to remain bound to\nthe earth by our passions. In contemplation we experience\, at least obscurely\,\nsomething of this mystery of our union with Him now in heaven. \nThis has important implications for the life of prayer. The life of the monk\,\nbeing that of a Christian\, is a way of living in heaven. While living bodily in exile\nand in his earthly pilgrimage\, the monk is already spiritually in paradise and in\nheaven where he has ascended with Christ. That is to say\, although he is not\nphysically present in heaven\, he is free to come and go there as he pleases\, in\nspirit\, in prayer\, in faith\, in thanksgiving\, praise and love\, because he already\n“is” there mystically in Christ. “Let us therefore\, exult with a worthy and\nspiritual joy\, happy before God in thanksgiving\, and let us lift up the free eyes\nof our heart to that height where Christ is.”… \nChrist has made us His friends by making known to us “the joys of interior\ncharity and the festival of the heavenly country which He daily makes present\nin our minds by the desire of love.” And St Gregory explains that this loving\nknowledge of heavenly things is very real indeed\, no mere fancy: “for when\,\nhearing of heavenly things\, we love them\, we already know the things we love\,\nfor our love itself is a way of knowing.” It is by the charity of Christ in our\nhearts that we “are in heaven” and know the things of heaven. \n7\n“The Humanity of Christ in Monastic Prayer”\, Monastic Studies 2\, 1964\, 11-13.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/easter-weekday-11/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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