Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Vigils Reading - St Mechtild
2025-11-19
OUR SERVICE OF GOD
An excerpt from “The Book of Special Grace” by St Mechthild of Hackeborn
◊◊◊
If any obstacle arises in our service of God, whether from the attitude of
others, from external circumstances, from our own desires, memories, or from
any other cause – whatever the impediment, we should take it as a messenger
from God, sending it back to Him, so to speak, with praise and thanksgiving.
Three things very pleasing to God are: first, never to abandon one’s
neighbors in their needs, and to excuse their shortcomings and sins as much as
possible; second, in tribulation to seek refuge only in God, abandoning to Him
alone all that disquiets the heart; third, to walk with Him in truth.
When it is time to eat or to sleep, say in your heart: “Lord, in union with
the love with which you created this useful thing for me, and yourself made us of
it when you were on earth, I take it for your eternal praise and for my bodily
need.” The Blessed Virgin tells us: “if you wish to be truly holy, stay close to my
Son; he is holiness itself, making all things holy.”
We should be lovingly grateful not only for the spiritual blessings God
gives us, but for all bodily necessities, such as food and clothing, receiving them
with a sincerely thankful heart and considering ourselves unworthy of them.
We should also thank God for everything that he has given to his Mother and to
the angels.
Works which give no human satisfaction may nevertheless be very
pleasing to God. What best pleases God in members of religious orders is purity
of heart, holy desires, gentle kindness in conversation, and works of charity.
When you are alone, raise your heart constantly to God, speak with him and
direct all your desire to him with great intensity. You can never be in so large a
crowd that you are not alone with him.
When those who receive from the Lord the gift of a fine orchard, they
cannot taste the fruit until it is ripe. Likewise, when one receives a special grace,
any interior joy is not experienced until by the practice of mortification one has
broken the hard rind of earthly pleasure.

Vigils Reading
2025-11-20
THE ONE BODY OF CHRIST
From a commentary by Origen
◊◊◊
The temple and the body of Jesus, seem to me…to be a type of the church
signifying that it is built of living stones, a spiritual house for a holy priesthood…
The temple will be rebuilt and the body will rise again on the third day, after the
day of evil which threatens it and the day of consummation which comes after.
For the third day will rise on the new heaven and the new earth when these
bones – the whole house of Israel – will rise again on the great day of the Lord,
victorious over death.
Thus it is that the already completed resurrection of Christ, including his
sufferings on the cross, contains the mystery of the resurrection of the whole
body of Christ. But as that physical body of Jesus was crucified and buried and
then raised up, so the whole body of Christ’s saints is crucified with Christ and
now lives no longer…For Scripture says: All my bones are scattered.
But when the actual resurrection of the true and more perfect body of
Christ takes place, then those who are now the members of Christ, (for they will
then be dry bones) will be brought together, bone to bone, and fitting to fitting,
to the measure of the stature of the fullness of the body of Christ. Then the many
members will be the one body, all the members of the body, though they are
many, becoming one body. But the distinction between foot and hand and eye
and ear and nose, which in one sense fills out the head and in another sense
represents the feet and the rest of the members, the weaker and the humbler,
the less honorable and the more honorable – this distinction is for God alone to
make who will put together the body and, more than he does now, will give the
greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body,
but that the members may have the same care for one another, and if one
member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice
together.

Vigils Reading - Presentation of the BVM
2025-11-21
THE VIRGIN AND THE TEMPLE
From the writing of Fr Yves Congar6
◊◊◊
The only occasion on which the Gospels expressly mention the Virgin
Mary in connection with the Temple are in the account of her Purification and of
the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple and the finding of the child Jesus in the
Temple after four days’ absence on his part and three anxious searching by his
parents. To these very brief indications, the piety of Christians very soon added
the idea of the presentation of Mary in the Temple at the age of three to be
consecrated to the service of God. We are dealing here with a symbolical
representation of a profound spiritual reality about which the tradition and the
doctrine of the Church provide us with valid information.
Mary, predestined to be the Mother of Jesus, true God and true man, and
to be worthy of her vocation, was prepared by the gift of exceptional graces and
lived with unfailing fidelity a most pure life of inner consecration to the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. As the type of all faithful souls and of the Church
herself, Mary expressed spiritually and supremely in her life the “presentation”
which, for each one of us, is to begin by the service of faith and to be
consummated in heaven.
It is obvious that the tradition and doctrine of the Church may, without
falling prey to the imaginary productions of the apocrypha, propound
statements concerning the status of the Mother of God in relation either to the
Jewish messianic temple going far beyond what we are explicitly told in the
three short passages from the Gospel which narrate the incidents mentioned
above.
If Mary is the Mother of God, she has a special relation to the body of
Christ which is the true temple – to his physical body and doubtless also, in a
certain sense, to his body the Church. She is herself a temple of God in a quite
specific and sublime way, both because Christ was within her from the moment
of his conception until that of his birth, and because of the exceptional spiritual
gifts she received in preparation for her divine motherhood and as a reward for
her free acceptance of this vocation, not only after the Annunciation but during
the whole of her life. Hence the liturgy – the Oriental liturgy in particular –
shows a profound understanding of the mystery of Mary when it constantly uses
the texts concerning the Temple and the tabernacle in order to express it.
6 The Mystery of the Temple, Westminster(Maryland) 1962, p.254-255.11

Vigils Reading - St Cecilia
2025-11-22
THE VIRGINITY OF
ST CECILIA
From a homily by Fr Ronald Knox
◊◊◊
The legends of the early Roman saints, among whom St Cecilia is
numbered, do not always command great attention from the critically minded
historian. But whether the story of St Cecilia as it is told in her acts is all true or
only partly true, there is a simplicity about the whole story and a simplicity
about St Cecilia’s character in the story which demands a retelling.
Let me remind you in the most general way of her story: how she was
married to a young pagan called Valerian, but persuaded him to respect her vow
of virginity, because her guardian angel would make him sorry for it if he did
otherwise; how Valerian wanted to see this guardian angel, but Cecilia, with her
innocent craft, said he could not do that unless he was baptized first; how he was
baptized, and saw the angel at her side as she prayed; how he made a convert of
his brother Tiburtius, and how first the two brothers, and then Cecilia herself
were punished with death for professing the Christian religion. It is an old story,
and a familiar one: and while we do all homage to other great saints for their
public witness to Christ, we shall always need St Cecilia as well, quietly working
at home for the conversion of her own husband and his family.
Not that St Cecilia herself was in the position of a modern wife. Like so
many Christian ladies of her time, she had taken, in imitation of our blessed
Lady, a vow of perpetual virginity. These virgin martyrs were martyrs because
they were virgins: it was because they insisted on keeping their vow when their
parents wished them to marry that the secret of their attachment to the
Christian faith was discovered; and it was their persistency in maintaining it
that led to their martyrdom.
It would be hard to estimate…how much the unpopularity in Roman
society of the Christian faith owed to its tradition of virginity. Virginity is an
ideal which the pagan had no right to misunderstand. For, in theory, they, too,
honored it; and it should have commended itself to their heathen instinct for
sacrifice. For the point of a sacrifice is that the victim should be spotless, the
best of its kind. You must offer not what you can well afford to spare, but what
will cost you something. That is the pagan idea of sacrifice; and the Christian
idea of sacrifice is based on the same principle. In order to give up something to
God, we forgo, not the sinful pleasures which we have no right to in any case, but
the lawful pleasures which he has given us to enjoy if we will.
So, let St Cecilia’s feast remind us to take our Christian vocation seriously,
to follow out in our lives the words we profess with our lips. And may this
Roman maiden pray for us who worship here and for those who minister to us,
that when Christ, the Master she served, comes again in judgment, we may be
found blameless before almighty God.

Skema
2025-11-23
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
34th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
November 23 – 29, 2025

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

Office
Christ the King
St Andrew Dung-Lac & Companions
St Catherine of Alexandria
Weekday
Weekday
Thanksgiving
Weekday
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Isa 33:2-22
Daniel 12:1-13
Daniel 13:1-33
Daniel 13:34-64
Deut 26:1-19
Daniel 14:1-22
Daniel 14:23-42

Lauds
Jerm 23:1-6
Mal 2:1-9
Mal 2:10-16
Mal 2:17-3:4
Joel 2:21-27
Mal 3:6-12
Mal 3:13-21

Mass
162
503
504
505
943.3, 944.3, 947.6
507
508

1st
2 Sam 5:1-3
Dan 1:1-6, 8-20
Dan 2:31-45
Dan 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28
Isa 63:7-9
Dan 7:2-14
Dan 7:15-27

2nd
Col 1:12-20

Col 3:12-17

Gospel
Luke 23:35-43
Luke 21:1-4
Luke 21:5-11
Luke 21:12-19
Luke 17:11-19
Luke 21:29-33
Luke 21:34-36

Vespers
Rev 19:11-16
2 John 1-6
2 John 7-13
3 John 1-8

3 John 9-15
Rev 1:1-8

Vigils Reading - Christ the King
2025-11-23
IN THE STEPS
OF THE MARTYRS
From a homily by St Augustine
◊◊◊
Let us not imagine that in keeping the feast of the Martyrs with great
solemnity, we are benefiting them. They who are in the joy of heaven with the
angels have no need of our honors and if they rejoice with us, it is at being
imitated, not at being honored. However, though this veneration does not
benefit them, it is useful for us: but to honor them without imitating them,
would be lying flattery. If then these solemnities have been instituted in the
Church of Christ, it is only to unite all the members of Christ and to enlist them
as followers in the steps of the martyrs of Christ. Such is the fruit of today’s
festival; there is no question of any other.
When, in fact, we propose God himself as our example, human weakness
readily answers that it is above its power to imitate him to whom it cannot be
compared. In that case Jesus Christ our Lord will be proposed to it as model
who, being God, clothed himself in mortal flesh in order the better to persuade
us also clothed in this same flesh, adding word to example; Christ, it is written,
“suffered for our sake, and left you his own example; you were to follow in his
footsteps”.
Yet will not frail humanity reply again: “What comparison is there
between me and Christ? He was one of us, but he was God. He took flesh, but
without ceasing to be the Word, assuming a new nature without losing that
which was proper to him. For, as St Paul says, “God was in Christ, reconciling
the world to himself”. Once again, how can I compare myself with Christ?
Therefore, to remove all pretext from the faithlessness of the weak, the
Martyrs have made a broad way for us. It was necessary that the foundation
should be solid as stone, in order that our footsteps should be steady: they have
cemented it with their blood and their testimony, and finally, reckoning nothing
of their bodies, they have thrown them under the feet of Christ as he advances to
the conquest of the heathen, as, On Palm Sunday, the people threw their
garments under the feet of the ass on which he rode. Who would be ashamed to
say: “I am inferior to God”? I grant you are very much so. “I am inferior to
Christ”? Yes, certainly, and even to his humanity.
But Peter was what you are; so was Paul, and the Apostles and Prophets
were all what you are yourself. If the example of our Lord alarms you, at least
imitate those who are like you his servant. They go before you in dense crowds:
no more excuse for your lukewarmness. Will you say to me again: “I am very far
from Peter and Paul”? Are you then also far from truth? There where the
illiterate receive the crown, there is no excuse for vanity. Are you less than
children?
Watch then…that in celebrating the sufferings of the Martyrs you fill
yourself with the desire to imitate them. They knew that they must choose a
good cause if their work was to be made fruitful. They remembered that not
only had our Lord said: “Blessed are the persecuted”, but: “blessed are those
who suffer persecution in the cause of right”. Choose yourselves the good cause,
and do not be disturbed by what you suffer in so doing.

Vigils Reading - St Andrew Dung-Lac & Companions
2025-11-24
IN THE STEPS
OF THE MARTYRS
From a homily by St Augustine
◊◊◊
Let us not imagine that in keeping the feast of the Martyrs with great
solemnity, we are benefiting them. They who are in the joy of heaven with the
angels have no need of our honors and if they rejoice with us, it is at being
imitated, not at being honored. However, though this veneration does not
benefit them, it is useful for us: but to honor them without imitating them,
would be lying flattery. If then these solemnities have been instituted in the
Church of Christ, it is only to unite all the members of Christ and to enlist them
as followers in the steps of the martyrs of Christ. Such is the fruit of today’s
festival; there is no question of any other.
When, in fact, we propose God himself as our example, human weakness
readily answers that it is above its power to imitate him to whom it cannot be
compared. In that case Jesus Christ our Lord will be proposed to it as model
who, being God, clothed himself in mortal flesh in order the better to persuade
us also clothed in this same flesh, adding word to example; Christ, it is written,
“suffered for our sake, and left you his own example; you were to follow in his
footsteps”.
Yet will not frail humanity reply again: “What comparison is there
between me and Christ? He was one of us, but he was God. He took flesh, but
without ceasing to be the Word, assuming a new nature without losing that
which was proper to him. For, as St Paul says, “God was in Christ, reconciling
the world to himself”. Once again, how can I compare myself with Christ?
2 Sermon 325. Trans., Lectionary and Martyrology, ed. Encalcat Abbey, 1956, 509-510.5
Therefore, to remove all pretext from the faithlessness of the weak, the
Martyrs have made a broad way for us. It was necessary that the foundation
should be solid as stone, in order that our footsteps should be steady: they have
cemented it with their blood and their testimony, and finally, reckoning nothing
of their bodies, they have thrown them under the feet of Christ as he advances to
the conquest of the heathen, as, On Palm Sunday, the people threw their
garments under the feet of the ass on which he rode. Who would be ashamed to
say: “I am inferior to God”? I grant you are very much so. “I am inferior to
Christ”? Yes, certainly, and even to his humanity.
But Peter was what you are; so was Paul, and the Apostles and Prophets
were all what you are yourself. If the example of our Lord alarms you, at least
imitate those who are like you his servant. They go before you in dense crowds:
no more excuse for your lukewarmness. Will you say to me again: “I am very far
from Peter and Paul”? Are you then also far from truth? There where the
illiterate receive the crown, there is no excuse for vanity. Are you less than
children?
Watch then…that in celebrating the sufferings of the Martyrs you fill
yourself with the desire to imitate them. They knew that they must choose a
good cause if their work was to be made fruitful. They remembered that not
only had our Lord said: “Blessed are the persecuted”, but: “blessed are those
who suffer persecution in the cause of right”. Choose yourselves the good cause,
and do not be disturbed by what you suffer in so doing.

Vigils Reading - St Catherine of Alexandria
2025-11-25
ST CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints
◊◊◊
Since about the tenth century, veneration of St Catherine of Alexandria
has been marked in the East, but from the time of the Crusades until the 18th
century her popularity was even greater in the West. Numerous churches were
dedicated in her honor, including the parish church of Gethsemani Abbey at
New Haven, KY. She was venerated as patroness of maidens and women
students of philosophers, preachers and apologists. Adam of St Victor wrote a
poem in her honor; hers was one of the heavenly voices heard by St Joan of Arc.
But not a single fact about her life or death has been established.
It is said in her Acts that she belonged to a patrician family of Alexandria
and devoted herself to learned studies, in the course of which she learned about
Christianity. She was converted by a vision of Our Lady and the Holy Child.
When Maxentius began persecuting Christians, Catherine went to him and
rebuked him for his tyranny. He could not answer her arguments against his
gods, so summoned fifty philosophers to oppose her. These confessed
themselves convinced by the learning of this Christian girl, and were therefore
burned to death by the infuriated emperor.
Then he tried to seduce Catherine with an offer of a consort’s crown, and
went off to inspect a camp. On his return he discovered that his wife and an
officer had gone to see Catherine out of curiosity and had both been converted,
together with two hundred soldiers of the guard. They accordingly were all slain
and Catherine was sentenced to be killed on a spiked wheel. When she was
placed on it, her bonds were miraculously loosed and the wheel broke, its spikes
flying off and killing many of the onlookers. Then she was beheaded.
All the texts of the “acts” of Catherine state that her body was carried by
angels to Mount Sinai, where a church and monastery were afterwards built. In
527 the Emperor Justinian built a monastery for hermits of the place, and the
body of Catherine was said to have been taken there in the 8th or 9th century.
The monastery has borne her name since then.
The great monastery of Mount Sinai still claim the alleged relics of St
Catherine, in the care of the monks of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Archbishop Falconio of Santa Severina said that the meaning of the “angels” is
that her body was carried by the monks of Sinai to their monastery. Tradition
has referred to the monastic life as “the angelic life”. This is still a current
expression in Eastern monasticism.

Vigils Reading
2025-11-26
OF TOMBS AND GARDENS
From the writing of Blessed Guerric of Igny
◊◊◊
Whose voice is fittingly heard in the assembly of brethren and friends,
that is, in the Church of the saints, the Bridegroom himself indicates when he
says: “You who dwell in the gardens, friends are listening; let me hear your
voice.”
It is not I to whom this should be said; I am not one who dwells in gardens
—I seem to myself rather to be of those who dwell in tombs. For what are the
bodies of sinners but tombs of the dead. Therefore they who are devoted to their
bodies dwell not in gardens, but in tombs and exasperate God until he who leads
forth prisoners in strength cries with a loud voice: “Lazarus, come forth”; and he
gives his disciples the command: “Loose him and let him go free.”
To be sure there is a great difference between tombs and gardens. The
former are full of every filth and of dead men’s bones, the latter are full of
flowers or fruits in all their sweetness and grace. What if tombs are sometimes
seen in gardens – for the Lord was buried in a garden?
If there are tombs in a garden surely there are not gardens in tombs. Yet
perhaps there are, but in the tombs of the just. There indeed a certain most
agreeable pleasantness which belongs to gardens will flourish as in spring, the
springtime, that is, of their resurrection when their flesh will blossom again.
Not only the bones of the just man will sprout like grass, but also the whole of the
just man will sprout like a lily and bloom forever before the Lord.
Not so the godless, not so. They are buried with the burial of an ass.
Without any hope of a better resurrection, they are subject to corruption, as a
foretaste of their future fate. Concerning their tombs I had begun to say that as
great as is the difference between their filth and the beauty of gardens in flower,
incomparably greater is the difference between the delight of spiritual men and
the pleasure of carnal joys.
It is you then, if I am not mistaken, who dwell in gardens, you who
meditate on the law of the Lord day and night” and walk about in as many
gardens as you read books, pick as many apples as you select fine thoughts. And
blessed are you for whom all the apples, both old and new, are kept, that is, for
whom the words of the prophets, evangelists and Apostles are laid up, so that to
each of you those words of the Bride to the Bridegroom seem to be said: “All the
apples, new and old, my Beloved, I have kept for you.”

Vigils Reading - Thanksgiving
2025-11-27
THE FULLNESS
OF THANKSGIVING
By Xavier Léon-Dufour
◊◊◊
The first reality of biblical history is the gift of God, gratuitous,
superabundant, without return. The encounter with God does not put human
beings simply in the presence of the absolute; it completes them and transforms
their lives. Thanksgiving appears as the response to this progressive and
continual grace which one day should blossom in Christ. At the same time there
is an intense awareness of the gifts of God, a spirit of soul permeated with
wonder because of God’s generosity, a joyous recognition before the divine
greatness; thus thanksgiving is essential in the Bible because it is a fundamental
religious reaction of creatures when they discover, in a tremor of joy and
veneration, something of God’s greatness and glory…
At the time of the New Covenant thanksgiving truly breaks forth,
becoming present everywhere in the prayer and the life of the Christians as it
had never existed before among the just of the past. Biblical thanksgiving is
truly and essentially Christian. It is not exclusively Christian, however, to the
extent that, as was written in the Old Testament, “Israelites praise without
giving thanks.” If the Old Testament does not yet know the fullness of
thanksgiving, it is because it has not yet tasted the fullness of grace.
If praise, more spontaneous, more exteriorized, holds therein perhaps a
greater place than thanksgiving properly so called, more reflective, more
attentive to God’s actions and self revelation, it is because the most holy God is
revealed only progressively, unveiling little by little the amplitude of the action
and the depth of the gifts of God.
Because it is the revelation and the gift of perfect grace, in the person of
the Lord, it is also the revelation of the perfect thanksgiving rendered to the
Father in the Holy Spirit. The supreme act of the Lord is thanksgiving; the
sacrifice which Jesus made of His life in consecrating it to the Father in order
that He may sanctify His own is our Eucharist. At the last supper and on the
cross, Jesus reveals the drive of all His life and that of His death: thanksgiving
from the heart of the Son.
The passion and death of Jesus were necessary that He might fully glorify
the Father, but all His life was an incessant thanksgiving, which sometimes was
made explicit and solemn, to draw all to believe and return thanks to God with
Jesus. The essential object of this thanksgiving is the work of God, the
Messianic realization, notably manifested by miracles, the gift of His word
which God has made to everyone.
The gift of the Eucharist to the church expresses an essential truth: only
Jesus Christ is our thanksgiving, just as He alone is our praise. It is He first of all
who gives thanks to the Father, and Christians afterwards in Him. In Christian
thanksgiving, Christ is the sole model and sole mediator. In the heavenly
Jerusalem, with the Messianic work fulfilled, thanksgiving becomes pure praise
of glory, dazzling contemplation of God and the eternal marvels.

Vigils Reading
2025-11-28
THE GENTLENESS OF CHARITY
From “The Mirror of Charity” by St Aelred of Rievaulx
◊◊◊
Let anyone who finds it pleasant to enjoy his friend see to it that he enjoy
him in the Lord, not in the world or in pleasure of the flesh, but in joyfulness of
spirit. But, you ask, what does it mean to enjoy ‘in the Lord’? About the Lord, the
apostle Paul said: By God he has been made for us wisdom, sanctification, and
justice. Since the Lord is wisdom, sanctification, and justice, to find enjoyment
in the Lord is to find enjoyment in wisdom, sanctification, and justice. By
wisdom worldly vanity is banished, by sanctification the vileness of the flesh is
forsworn, and by justice all flattery and fawning are checked.
Then it is charity, if it comes, as the apostle says, from a pure heart, a clear
conscience, and unfeigned faith. A pure heart accepts wisdom, modesty calms
the conscience and unfeigned faith adorns justice. There are those who take
enjoyment in vain and ludicrous things, in worldly pomp and mundane
spectacles, in the pursuit of vanity, and in reveling in falsehood. They do not
enjoy themselves in wisdom, nor in him who is the strength of God and the
wisdom of God. Others, although not worse, are certainly more vile. In them
there is almost nothing human. Obscene depravity has transformed them into
beasts who find enjoyment in self-indulgent banqueting and impure desires.
Since they do not enjoy themselves in the sanctification which consists of the
gentleness of charity, they do not, of course, enjoy the Lord who was made our
sanctification by God.
There are others who take enjoyment in flattery, patting each other on the
back and conniving with each other. While taking care not to offend one
another, they incur each other’s ruin because they do not enjoy themselves in
the liberty of justice or in the Lord.
If our mutual exchange of words is delightful, let our talk therefore be
about our habits and about Scripture. Let us now grieve together over the
miseries of the world, now rejoice together in the hope of future happiness. Let
us now refresh one another by confiding our mutual secrets, now long together
for the blessed vision of Jesus, and for heavenly well-being.
If we relax our tense spirits with some pleasant and less lofty subjects, as
is sometimes useful, let these moments of relaxation be filled with rectitude and
free of frivolity. Although these subjects may not be weighty, let them never lack
constructiveness. Let us enjoy one another in sanctification, so that each may
know how to possess his vessel—that is to say, his own body—in sanctification
and honor, and not in the passion of desire. Let us take enjoyment in justice, so
we may mutually encourage one another in the spirit of freedom. Let us correct
one another, knowing that wounds from a friend are better than an enemy’s
deceitful kisses.

Vigils Reading - Memorial of BVM
2025-11-29
MAIDEN AND MOTHER
From “The Son’s Course” by Gerald Vann
◊◊◊
In the Church’s devotion to Mary great emphasis is laid on the fact that in
her motherhood she yet remained a maiden as well; and we shall miss all the
richness of the mystery if we think of this insistence as being purely or even
primarily concerned with physical conditions. Motherhood produces
fundamental psychological changes in a woman: it means the loss of some
qualities and the acquisition of others, a different mentality, a different outlook.
The mother has known the deep experience of love and joy, of pain and danger
and sorrow: we think of her as the symbol of wisdom because she has known in
her own body the mysteries of good and evil.
The girl on the other hand is the symbol of opposite qualities: of a
freshness and spontaneity and purity of heart which comes precisely from
inexperience, knowing that reality can be ugly, not yet made wise through
lessons of sorrow: her courage, her strength, her wisdom, her joy, are from other
sources. In Mary alone, the Maiden-Mother, these opposite sets of qualities co-
exist; it is this that gives her personality a richness which is unique; and it is
because of this richness that she can teach us so much.
Mary’s life then is a song at once of innocence and of experience; and as
this double richness means a double fear so it means also a double love; and the
love in its turn produces a double wisdom, a double trust, and therefore a double
courage. Mary pondered all these things in her heart: it is her song of
experience, and the source of her wisdom. She knew how He-that-is-mighty
had done great things in her; she knew the overshadowing power of the Most
High; she knew the gradually unfolding self-revelation of her Son; and knowing
these things she could sense of the resurrection through the cross, the joy
through the pain, the triumph through failure; and so she could find the courage
to meet the sword.
Behold the handmaid of the Lord: there, on the other hand, is her song of
innocence: whatever may come it will be well because it is his will, because he is
Love: hers are eyes too that can look out untroubled on a future which is veiled,
simply because she has implicit trust in the God she loves, even before the trust
has been justified by experience; and as the mother can say, I can do all things
in him who has strengthened me, so the girl can say, I can do all things in him
who will strengthen me.

Skema, 1st Week of Advent
2025-11-30
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
1st Week of Advent

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (II)
November 30, – December 6, 2025

Sun
30
Mon
1
Tue
2
Wed
3
Thu
4
Fri
5
Sat
6

Office
1st Sunday of Advent
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
St Francis Xavier
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday

Vigils
Isa 6:1-13
Isa 7:1-17
Isa 8:1-18
Isa 9:7-20
Isa 10:5-21
Isa 11:1-16
Isa 13:1-22

Lauds
Micah 7:14-20
Isa 1:10-18
Isa 1:21-27
Isa 2:6-11
Isa 2:12-21
Isa 3:8-15
Isa 5:1-7

Mass
1
175
176
177
178
179
180

1st
Isa 2:1-5
Isa 4:2-6)
Isa 11:1-10
Isa 25:6-10a
Isa 26:1-6
Isa 29:17-24
Isa 30:19-21, 23-26

2nd
Rom 13:11-14

Gospel
Matt 24:37-44
Matt 8:5-11
Luke 10:21-24
Matt 15:29-37
Matt 7:21, 24-27
Matt 9:27-31
Matt 9:35-10:1, 5a, 6-8

Vespers
Rev 22:12-21
Rom 1:1-12
Rom 1:13-17
Rom 2:1-11
Rom 2:12-16
Rom 2:17-24
Rom 3:21-26

1st Sunday in Advent
2025-11-30
CHRIST’S TWOFOLD COMING
From a commentary by Paschasius Radbertus 1
◊◊◊
Watch, for you do not know the day or the hour. Like many other scriptural texts, the admonition is addressed to all of us, though it is formulated in such a way that it would seem to concern only Christ’s immediate audience. We can all apply it to ourselves because the Last Day and the end of the world will come for each of us on the day we depart this present life. This means we must make sure we die in the state in which we wish to appear on the Day of Judgment, Bearing this in mind each of us should guard against being led astray and failing to keep watch, otherwise the day of the Lord’s return may take us unawares. If the last day of our life finds us unprepared, then we shall be unprepared on that day also.
I do not for a moment believe the apostles expected the Lord to return in judgment during their own lifetime. All the same there can be no doubt that they took every care not to be drawn from the right path. They kept watch, observing the universal precepts their master had given to his disciples so as to be ready when he came again.
Consequently we must always be on the lookout for Christ’s twofold coming, the one when we shall have to give an account of everything we have done, and the other when he comes day after day to stir our consciences. He comes to us now in order that his future coming may find us prepared. If my conscience is burdened with sin what good will it do me to know when the Day of Judgment will be? Unless the Lord comes to my soul beforehand and makes his home with me, unless Christ lives in me and speaks his word in my heart, it is useless for me to know if and when his coming will take place. Only if Christ is already living in me and I in him will it go well with me when he comes in judgment. If I have already died to the world and am able to say, The world is crucified to me, and I to the world, then, in a sense, his final coming is already present to me.
Consider also our Lord’s warning: Many will come in my name. It is only the Antichrist and his members who, albeit falsely, claim the name of Christ, though they lack his works and his true doctrine and wisdom. You will never find the Lord in Scripture actually declaring, “I am the Christ.” His teaching and miracles revealed it clearly enough, for the Father was at work in him. Louder than a thousand acclamations his teaching and mighty works proclaimed: “I am the Christ.” And so whether or not you find him describing himself in so many words, the works of the Father and his own message of love declared what he was, whereas the false christs who possessed neither godly deeds nor holy doctrine loudly claimed to be what they were not.
1
Journey with the Fathers – Year A – New City Press – New York – 1992 – pg 16

Advent Weekday
2025-12-01
THE MISSION OF CHRIST
By Pope St John Paul II 2
◊◊◊
In Christian discipleship and love for the person of Christ there are a number of points concerning the growth of holiness in the consecrated life which merit particular emphasis today. In the first place, there is need for fidelity to the founding charism and subsequent spiritual heritage of each Institute. It is precisely in this fidelity to the inspiration of the founders and foundresses, an inspiration which is itself a gift of the Holy Spirit, that the essential elements of the consecrated life can be more readily discerned and more fervently put into practice.
Fundamental to every charism is a threefold orientation. First, charisms lead to the Father, in the filial desire to seek his will through a process of unceasing conversion, wherein obedience is the source of true freedom, chastity expresses the yearning of a heart unsatisfied by any finite love, and poverty nourishes that hunger and thirst for justice which God has promised to satisfy. Consequently the charism of each Institute will lead the consecrated person to belong wholly to God, to speak with God or about God…so that he or she can taste the goodness of the Lord in every situation.
Secondly, the charisms of the consecrated life also lead to the Son, fostering an intimate and joyful communion of life with him, in the school of his generous service of God and neighbor. Thus the attitude of consecrated persons is progressively conformed to Christ; they learn detachment from externals, from the tumult of the senses, from all that keeps man from that freedom which allows him to be grasped by the Spirit. As a result, consecrated persons are enabled to take up the mission of Christ, working and suffering with him in the spreading of his Kingdom.
Finally, every charism leads to the Holy Spirit, insofar as it prepares individuals to let themselves be guided and sustained by him, both in their personal journeys and in their lives of communion and apostolic work, in order to embody that attitude of service which should inspire the true Christian’s every choice.
In fact, it is this threefold relationship which emerges in every founding charism, though with the specific nuances of the various patterns of living. This is so because in every charism there predominates a profound desire to be conformed to Christ to give witness to some aspect of his mystery. This specific aspect is meant to take shape and develop according to the most authentic tradition of the Institute, as present in its Rule, Constitutions and Statutes.
Institutes of Consecrated Life are thus invited courageously to propose anew the enterprising initiative, creativity and holiness of their founders and foundresses in response to the signs of the times emerging in today’s world. This invitation is first of all a call to perseverance on the path of holiness in the midst of the material and spiritual difficulties of daily life. But it is also a call to pursue competence in personal work and to develop a dynamic fidelity to their mission, adapting forms, if need be, to new situations and different needs, in complete openness to God’s inspiration and to the Church’s discernment. But all must be fully convinced that the quest for ever greater conformity to the Lord is the guarantee of any renewal which seeks to remain faithful to an Institute’s original inspiration.
2
John Paul II, Post-Synodal Exhortation Vita Consecrata, 36-37.

Advent Weekday
2025-12-02
THE COMING OF CHRIST
From a treatise by St John Chrysostom 3
◊◊◊
The prophets foretold not only that God would become man but also they predicted the manner of his coming. He was not going to come in the midst of thunder, lightning, earthquake, or tumult from the heavens. He was not going to stir up any consternation. His birth struck no man with fear, for he was born with no one to witness it, without tumult or confusion, in the house of a carpenter, in an ordinary and undistinguished home…
For Micah said: “And you, Bethlehem, the land of Judah, are by no means the least among the princes of Judah. For out of you will come the leader who will shepherd my people, Israel: and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity.” Micah was pointing out both the divinity and the humanity of Christ. When he said: “His going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity,” he revealed his existence before all ages. When he said: “There will come the leader who will shepherd my people, Israel,” he revealed Christ’s birth in the flesh.
And notice here that he makes clear another prophecy. Micah not only said where Christ would be born but also that the place would become well known even if it was a little town and little known. For he said: “You are by no means the least among the princes of Judah.” So it is that now the whole world rushes to see Bethlehem, where he was born and laid in a manger. The place became famous, and there is no other reason than this why people go there.
Again, another prophet made clear the time of his coming, when he said,… “A chief shall not depart from Judah, nor a ruler from his loins till he come for whom it is reserved,” meaning Christ. For the first registration was held just at the same time that he was born, and this was after the Romans had conquered the Jewish nation and had brought them under the yoke of their empire. Something further is meant by the words: “Even he is the expectation of the nations.” For after he had come, he did draw all the nations to himself.
And Isaiah when on to tell of other marvels and showed how Christ cured the lame, how he made the blind to see, and the mute to speak: “Then will the lame man leap like a stag, and the tongue of those with impediments of speech will be clear and distinct.” And this did not happen until his coming.
3
Demonstration Against the Pagans That Christ is God. Trans. Paul W. Harkins, Fathers of the Church Series, vol. 73. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1985. pp. 197ff.

St. Francis Xavier
2025-12-03
ST FRANCIS XAVIER
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints 4
◊◊◊
Francis Xavier was born in Spanish Navarre at the castle of Xavier, near Pamplona, in 1506, the youngest of a large family. He entered the college of St Barbara and in 1528 gained the degree of licentiate. It was here that he met Ignatius Loyola, and later joined with him in the first band of seven who vowed themselves to the service of God at Montmartre in 1534. With them he received the priesthood at Venice three years later and in 1540 Ignatius appointed him to join Fr Simon Rodriguez on the first missionary expedition the Society sent out to the East Indies…
They arrived at Goa, India on May 6, 1542, after a voyage of thirteen months. Francis opened the mission with the Christians of Goa, instructing them in the principles of religion and forming the young to the practice of virtue. He walked through the streets ringing a bell to summon the children and slaves to catechism. He offered Mass with lepers each Sunday. For the instruction of the very ignorant or simple he versified the truths of religion to fit popular tunes, and this was so successful that the practice spread till these songs were being sung everywhere, in the streets and fields and workshops…
But before he left he heard about Japan for the first time from Portuguese merchants. The next fifteen months were spent in endless traveling between Goa, Ceylon and Cape Comorin, consolidating his work and preparing for an attempt on that Japan into which no European had yet penetrated. In April 1549 Francis set out, accompanied by a Jesuit priest and lay-brother and three Japanese converts. On the feast of the Assumption they landed in Japan, at Kagoshima on Kyushu.
Francis set himself to learn Japanese. A translation was made of a simple account of Christian teaching, and recited to all who would listen. The fruit of twelve months labor was a hundred converts, but then the authorities began to get suspicious and forbade further preaching. So, leaving one of the Japanese converts in charge of the neophytes, Francis pressed further with his companions and went by sea to Hirado, north of Nagasaki… Twelve years later the Jesuit lay-brother, Luis de Almeida, found these isolated converts still retaining their first fervor and faithfulness.
At Hirado the missionaries were well received by the ruler and they had more success in a few weeks than they had had at Kagoshima in a year. Xavier’s objective was Miyako (Kyoto), then the chief city of Japan. In due time he was able to be received by the authorities, who gave him permission to preach and provided an empty Buddhist monastery for a residence. He preached with such fruit that he baptized many in that city.
Francis decided to revisit his charge in India, from whence he hoped to extend his mission to China. After dealing with matters in India, Xavier set sail for China. In august 1552 the convoy reached the desolate island of Shang-chwan, half-a-dozen miles off the coast and a hundred miles south-west of Hong Kong. Here Xavier fell sick with a fever and died on December 3. He was buried on the island, but his body which was found to be incorrupt, was later moved to Goa. He was canonized in 1622 at the same time as Ignatius of Loyola.
4
Butler’s Lives of the Saints – revised edition – Harper – San Francisco – 1991 – p 398f.

Advent Weekday
2025-12-04
A SIMPLE SURRENDER TO GOD
From the Spiritual Conferences of John Tauler 5
◊◊◊
“You shall be witnesses unto me in all Judea.” Judea means “to confess God” or “to praise God.” We are to be God’s witnesses by confessing God in all our actions, behavior, and intentions. And this not merely when all goes well with us, when we are full of joy and delight and natural enthusiasm. People find it easy enough at such times to think that they are confessing God very well. They seem to know and love God well enough as long as things go according to their own will; but as soon as they meet with terrible assaults, they begin to wonder what they have been about. They have completely lost their bearings now that suffering has come upon them.
Now we can see clearly what has been at the root and foundation of their confession: not God, but their feelings. This is an unstable foundation built on shifting sands. God’s true witnesses, on the other hand, stand firm, rooted in God and in God’s will, in love and in suffering, no matter what God gives or what God takes away. Nor do they set great store by practices of their own.
It often happens that when people have successfully undertaken some pious practices, they give much thought to the business of planning them and carrying them out; and so they place great reliance on them and exercise their own activity to the utmost. But God, in an inalienable love, often breaks down whatever rests on such a foundation as this by frequently arranging things which run contrary to our desires. If we want to keep vigil, we are obliged to sleep, against our will; if we like to fast, we are made to eat; if we would like to be quiet and at rest, we have to do quite otherwise. In this way everything that we cling to crumbles at our touch, so that we may be brought face to face with our own bare and naked nothingness.
Thus we should learn to place all our reliance upon God, confessing God alone in a simple and uncompromising faith, and resting upon nothing else at all. For just as worldly and sinful persons are seduced by sensual pleasures, so these people are held back by a complacency in what they do or what they feel, and are thus hindered from an absolute and simple surrender to God and from the true poverty of spirit which God wants of them.
5
Spiritual Conferences, John Tauler O.P., Herder: St. Louis 1961. pp.97-98.

Advent Weekday
2025-12-05
NOTHING LESS THAN LOVE
From a letter by Hadewijch of Flanders 6
◊◊◊
I will tell you without beating about the bush: be satisfied with nothing less than Love. Give reason its time, and always observe where you heed it too little and where enough. And do not let yourself be stopped by any pleasure through which your reason may be the loser. What I mean by “your reason” is that you must keep your insight ever vigilant in the use of discernment. Never must any difficulty hinder you from serving people, be they insignificant or important, sick or healthy. And the sicker they are, and the fewer friends they have, the more readily must you serve them. And always bear with aliens willingly. As for all who slander you, contradict them not. And be desirous to associate with all who scorn you, for they make the way of Love broader for you.
Leave not anyone in need out of spite. And never fail to ask about any wise teaching you are ignorant of, out of spite or shame that you do not know it. For you are bound before God to acquire a knowledge of all the virtues and to learn them by exertion, questioning, study, and earnest purpose.
And if by your fault you have offended anyone, wait not too long to set it right. You are bound to this by the death of our Lord, in order to content him. Take whatever means you think the quickest and best to make peace with the one you have offended.
Do not become so stubbornly attached to anything that God may, in consequence, refuse you grace. Do not, through pride, spare any service. Do not, through pride, refrain from giving gifts to the poor. Do not, through pride, fail to ask for anything you need and cannot well do without. Do not, through pride, be ashamed that you are hungry, thirsty, drowsy, or cold, or be ashamed of a repulsive illness, or of having shown a lack of good understanding or courtliness. For it is great honor and the finest courtly behavior if one acknowledges outwardly what one is ashamed of; but it is great pride not to tell it; and it is outrage and shame to see [in anyone] more evil than is truly to be seen.
Moreover toward God, our Beloved, it is guileful insincerity and odious infidelity. For it is the law of high [promise] and love that the loved one be revealed to the beloved in all that he or she is, lowly or sublime.
6
Hadewijch, The Complete Works, trans. Mother Columba Hart, OSB; New York: Paulist Press, 1980, pp. 103-104.

Advent Weekday
2025-12-06
THE ONE RIGHT WAY
By St John Henry Newman 7
◊◊◊
It takes a long time really to feel and understand things as they are; we learn to do so only gradually. Profession beyond our feelings is only a fault when we might help it; when either we speak when we need not speak, or do not feel when we might have felt. Hard insensible hearts, ready and thoughtless talkers, these are they whose unreality, as I have termed it, is a sin; it is the sin of every one of us, in proportion as our hearts are cold, or our tongues excessive.
But the mere fact of our saying more than we feel is not necessarily sinful. St Peter did not rise up to the full meaning of his confession, “Thou art the Christ,” yet he was pronounced blessed. St James and St John said, “We are able,” without clear apprehension, yet without offense. We ever promise things greater than we master, and we wait on God to enable us to perform them. Our promising involves a prayer for light and strength. And so again we all say the Creed, but who comprehends it fully? All we can hope is, that we are in the way to understand it; that we partly understand it; that we desire, pray, and strive to understand it more and more. Our Creed becomes a sort of prayer. Persons are culpably unreal in their way of speaking, not when they say more than they feel, but when they say things different from what they feel…
What I have been saying comes to this – be in earnest, and you will speak of religion where, and when, and how you should; aim at things, and your words will be right without aiming. There are ten thousand ways of looking at this world, but only one right way. The person of pleasure has his way, the man of gain his, and the man of intellect his. Poor people and rich people, governors and governed, prosperous and discontented, learned and unlearned, each has its own way of looking at the things which come before it, and each has a wrong way.
There is but one right way; it is the way in which God looks at the world. Aim at looking at it in God’s way. Aim at seeing things as God sees them. Aim at forming judgments about persons, events, ranks, fortunes, changes, objects, such as God forms. Aim at looking at this life as God looks at it. Aim at looking at the life to come, and the world unseen, as God does. Aim at “seeing the King in His beauty.” All things that we see are but shadows to us and delusions, unless we enter into what they really mean.
It is not an easy thing to learn that new language which Christ has brought us. He has interpreted all things for us in a new way; He has brought us a religion which sheds a new light on all that happens. Try to learn this language. Do not get it by rote, or speak it as a thing of course. Try to understand what you say. Time is short, eternity is long…
7
Parochial and Plain Sermons, John Henry Newman. Ignatius Press, San Francisco 1987. pp.977-978.

Skema
2025-12-07
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
2nd Week of Advent

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (II)
December 7 – 13, 2025

Sun
7
Mon
8
Tue
9
Wed
10
Thu
11
Fri
12
Sat
13

Office
2nd Sunday of Advent
Immaculate Conception
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Our Lady of Guadalupe
St Lucy

Vigils
Isa 14:1-21
Rom 5:12-21
Isa 29:13-24
Isa 30:15-26
Isa 32:1-20
Prov 8:32-9:11
Isa 35:1-10

Lauds
Isa 4:2-6
Judges 6:34-40
Isa 9:1-6
Isa 12:1-6
Isa 55:6-12
Sir 4:11-18
Isa 11:10-16

Mass
4
689
182
183
184
690A
186

1st
Isa 11:1-10
Gen 3:9-15, 20
Isa 40:1-11
Isa 40:25-31
Isa 41:13-20
Rev 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab
Sir 48:1-4, 9-11

2nd
Rom 15:4-9
Eph 1:3-6, 11-12

Gospel
Matt 3:1-12
Luke 1:26-38
Matt 18:12-14
Matt 11:28-30
Matt 11:11-15
Luke 1:39-47
Matt 17:9a, 10-13

Vespers
Rom 5:1-11
Rom 8:28-39
Rom 8:18-27
Rom 6:16-23
Rom 7:14-25
Gal 3:23-29
Rom 8:9-17

Vigils reading - 2nd Sun of Advent
2025-12-07
THE TIME FOR FAITH
From a commentary by St Augustine
◊◊◊
The gospel tells us that some people were rebuked by the Lord because,
clever as they were at reading the face of the sky, they could not recognize the
time for faith when the kingdom of heaven was at hand. It was the Jews who
received this reprimand, but it has also come down to us. The Lord Jesus began
his preaching of the gospel with the admonition: Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand. His forerunner, John the Baptist, began in the same way:
Repent, he said, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Today, for those who will
not repent at the approach of the kingdom of heaven, the reproof of the Lord is
the same. As he points out himself, You cannot expect to see the kingdom of
heaven coming. The kingdom of heaven, he says elsewhere, is within you.
Each of us would be wise therefore to take to heart the advice of his
teacher, and not waste this present time. It is now that the Savior offers us his
mercy; now, while he still spares the human race. Understand that it is in hope
of our conversion that he spares us, for he desires no one’s damnation. As for
when the end of the world will be, that is God’s concern.
Now is the time for faith. Whether any of us here present will see the end
of the world I know not; very likely none of us will. Even so, the time is very near
for each of us, for we are mortal. There are hazards all around us. We should be
in less danger from them were we made of glass. What is more fragile than a
vessel of glass? And yet it can be kept safe and last indefinitely. Of course it is
exposed to accident, but it is not liable to old age and the suffering it brings.
We therefore are the more frail and infirm. In our weakness we are
haunted by fears of all the calamities that regularly befall the human race, and if
no such calamity overtakes us, still, time marches on. We may evade the blows
of fortune, but shall we evade death? We may escape perils from without, but
shall we escape what comes from within us? Now, suddenly, we may be attacked
by any malady. And if we are spared? Even so, old age comes at last, and nothing
will delay it.

Vigils reading - Immaculate Conception
2025-12-08
THE FAVORED ONE
From a commentary by Sophronius of Jerusalem
◊◊◊
Hail full of grace, the Lord is with you. Truly blessed are you among
women, for you have changed the curse of Eve into a blessing and caused Adam,
once accursed, to be blessed through you. Truly blessed are you among
women, for it was through you that the Father’s blessing dawned on humankind
and freed it from the ancient curse. Truly blessed are you among women, for
through you your ancestors will be saved, since you are going to bear the Savior
who will gain them God’s salvation. Truly blessed are you among women, for
without seed you produced the fruit that brings blessing to all the earth,
releasing it from the curse that made it bear thorns. Truly blessed are you
among women, for though by nature you are a woman, you will in very truth
become the mother of God: if he who is to be born of you is truly God incarnate,
then, since you will be giving birth to God, you will with perfect justice be called
the mother of God.
Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God that can
never be lost. You have won from God a most glorious favor, a grace long
desired, a grace of great splendor, a saving grace, an unfailing grace, a grace that
will last for ever. Many before you have been holy, but no one has been as
favored as you, no one as blessed as you, no one as perfectly sanctified as you, no
one as highly praised as you. No one else has like you been possessed from the
first by purifying grace, no one else has been enlightened like you, or exalted like
you, for no one has approached so close to God as you, or been enriched with
such divine gifts, or endowed with such heavenly grace.
You surpass all human desire; you surpass all the gifts given by God to the
whole human race, for God’s dwelling within you has made you richer than all
others. No one else has been able to contain God as you do; no one else has been
capable of receiving God as you have; no one else has deserved to be so
enlightened by God. And therefore you have not only received God, the Creator
and Lord of the universe, but He has in an unheard-of way taken flesh from you;
you bear him in your womb, and will later give birth to him who will redeem
humankind from the Father’s sentence, and confer on it eternal salvation.

Vigils reading
2025-12-09
THE ADVENT OF GOD
From “Pathways in Holy Scripture” by Dom Damasus Winzen
◊◊◊
The word Advent had for the people of old a magic sound. It put before
their eyes the glorious scene of the king’s return from a victorious war. Preceded
and followed by the might of his arms, carrying with him the spoils of victory,
the hosts of the captives, the treasures of the enemy, he stands on his chariot,
vested in the purple of triumph, the golden wreath of victory on his head. The
whole city is in a delirium of joy. The festive throngs of the citizens line the
streets. They greet their king with the royal shout, acclaiming him as savior and
kyrios with incense and hymns. In the evening thousands of lights appear on
windows and doorways, on temples, gates and palaces, for the light is come, and
the glory of the king is risen upon the city.
The Advent of our Ecclesiastical Year does not celebrate the triumphant
entry of an earthly king into his capital, but it sees the King of kings whose might
covers the earth like a cloud, returning to the world which He had left because of
its sin, crushing His enemies, extirpating sin and establishing a kingdom of
peace for those who believe in Him. This is the Divine Action of salvation which
constitutes the real meaning of history, although it may take centuries and
centuries to be accomplished. That the birth of Mary’s little babe in the humble
manger of Bethlehem is the beginning of this glorious Advent would be hidden
from the eyes of men, had the glad tiding not been announced from heaven and
had the Holy Spirit not spoken in times past to the fathers by the prophets.
It is really the vision of the prophets which opens the eyes of the faithful to
see beneath the humble form of man the glory of God, and to realize that Christ’s
First Coming in patience and charity is the beginning of the Day of judgment
which will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven to receive the
Eternal Kingdom from the hands of the Father. It is the unique gift of the
prophets to see sign and reality, the human and the divine, the present and the
future in their compenetration. Therefore, they “rendered service not so much
to them selves but to us,” [as it is written in the first letter of Peter, us] who
celebrate the Advent of God in that incomparable compenetration of visible sign
and divine reality which is the liturgy of the Church.

Vigils reading
2025-12-10
SAINT AND MISSION
From “The World of Prayer” by Adrienne von Speyr
◊◊◊
A saint’s standing before God with a community within is no plain and
simple fact. The saints can be in God’s presence in such a personal way that,
involuntarily or even voluntarily, they forget their mission. And between these
two poles there is a whole spectrum. It may happen involuntarily when God
alone wishes it so because he wants to have his saint to himself. It happens
voluntarily when the saint feels it right on this occasion to be alone in God’s
presence, leaving the particular mission out of focus in the background.
There is another extreme in relation to these two forms of prayer, namely,
the prayer of those saints who never appear before God except in the very midst
of their mission, whether because God wills it so or because the saint will not
have it otherwise. Here too there are gradations. One is inclined to a certain
suspicion of those who always do everything completely deliberately and of
their own free will, choosing whether to go before God with or without the
mission entrusted to them, whereas there can be no grounds for suspicion in the
case of the saint who, involuntarily and only as God requires, is always standing
before God in one sense or another. In general, however, there is an alternation:
There are times and moments in which the saint is more important to God than
the individual mission, and others when the mission itself is the most important
thing.
If the saints themselves make no choice, God can work in them or in their
mission or in both, within the relationship he chooses. But if the saint and the
mission constitute a single unity as willed by God, God’s shaping influence on
the one will always benefit the other.
It can happen, then, that when a particular mission begins to make itself
felt it brings difficulties for the saint in standing before God in prayer. But these
difficulties and their mastery contribute to the saint’s fruitfulness. They never
take the form of insuperable obstacles but of a gain at a higher level, be it a
deeper insight or a better adaptation to God’s will or a closer integration of saint
and mission. Mission here always means an embodiment of the community. It is
what, in the saint, is of and for the community: the seed of community, a task
within the community, a fruit entrusted to the community. This fruit is greater
than the I; it is the Thou, in all its manifold forms, which has been entrusted to
the I. Ultimately this multiplicity belongs to the Church and indeed can be the
Church.

Vigils reading
2025-12-11
MY HEART IS READY
From a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny
◊◊◊
Do you want to hear more explicitly about the confession you should
make in preparation for the coming of the Lord? “A just man is the first to accuse
himself,” says the Scripture. And what follows? His Friend comes, who before
the accusation was withdrawing farther away, estranged. For when he said: “I
will confess against myself my injustice to the Lord,” the Lord forgave him. “He
comes and shall search him.” Indeed he shall search him like a strong draft
searching the heart and the reins, reaching into the division of the soul and the
spirit, drawing out all impurity from the recesses of the soul and the deep
caverns of the mind, purging love that it may bring forth more fruit. God the
Father, the husbandman, rejoices already over the first-fruits of that confession.
However, he who – after such confession – is present sometimes even
before he is called on, at other times waits for you to invite him. And in order to
increase your merits he often dissimulates for a long time so that by being more
attentive at the psalmody and more instant in prayer you may in your gentle
violence compel him to enter. If you do not, the prophet laments that the cities
of the south are shut up, with none to enter them.
When therefore you can say: “My heart is ready, O God,” because it is
emptied of evil, “my heart is ready,” because it is full of holy desires, then busy
yourself with what follows: “I will sing and recite a psalm.” And whatever may
be your voice, singing or reciting, let this intention be in your mind: “Arise, my
Glory, arise at my coming, for as far as it is in me [to go,] I have gone to meet
you.”
O good Jesus, how swift and prompt, how full of joy and gladness are you
in running to greet such devotion as this. How cheerful do you show yourself in
these ways. As Isaiah says: “You have met him that rejoices and does justice: in
your ways they shall remember you.” For if you sing wisely in the way of
integrity, coming he will come and will bring to light what is hidden from you so
that you may understand the mysteries of the Scriptures you do not at present
know. Then it will be as you say: “I will sing and I will understand in the
unspotted way when you shall come to me.” Stir up, Lord, your power, which at
your coming stirs up our sluggishness, and come to save us, O Savior of the
world, who live and reign, God for ever and ever.

Vigils reading -Our Lady of Guadalupe
2025-12-12
THE APPEARANCE OF THE
BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
AT GUADALUPE
From the first written Aztec account of the apparition6
◊◊◊
Upon his reaching the top of the hillock, Juan Diego catches sight of a
woman, one who has been taking her stand there. She beckons him to come on,
closer up to herself. Upon reaching her presence, he greatly marvels at her
extreme, her surpassing, her perfect wonderfulness.
Her garments are as the sun, gleaming, glittering. Even the boulder, the
crag, on which she takes her stand sparkles in resplendence, like fine emerald
jade or a bangle when it shines, like the swarming glow of a rainbow in the
gloom. Even the soil, the brambles and prickles and the rest of the varied weeds
that struggle to survive there are shining like emerald, like divine turquoise, to
the tip of every leaf; are glittering like the golden scourings of the gods up every
stalk and twig and thorn.
In her presence he prostrates; he listens to her utterance, her declaration.
These are as of one who sets others at ease, one whose manner is to attract, one
whose attitude is to esteem. She addresses him: “Do listen to me, my littlest one,
Juanito!… “Do know this, do be assured of it in your heart, my littlest one, that I
myself, I am the entirely and ever Virgin Saint Mary, Mother of the True
Divinity, God Himself: Because of Him, life goes on, Creation goes on; His are
all things afar, His are all things near at hand, things above in the heavens,
things here below on the earth. How truly I wish it, how greatly I desire it, that
here they should erect me my temple! Here would I show forth, here would I lift
up to view, here would I make a gift of all my fondness for my dear ones, all my
regard for my needy ones, my willingness to aid them, my readiness to protect
them. For truly I myself, I am your compassionate mother, yours, for you
yourself, for everybody here in the land, for each and all together, for all others
too, for all folk of every kind, who do but cherish me, who do but raise their
voices to me, who do but seek me, who do but raise their trust to me.
For here I shall listen to their groanings, to their saddenings; here shall I
make well and heal up their each and every kind of disappointment, of
exhausting pangs, of bitter aching pain… Therefore, to realize all that my
clemency claims, go to the palace of the Bishop of Mexico, and say that I sent you
to make manifest to him my great desire; namely, that here in the valley a temple
should be built to me. Tell him word for word all that you have seen and heard and
admired. Be assured that I shall be grateful and that I will reward you, for I will
make your life happy and cause you to become worthy of the labor you have taken
and the trouble you perform to do what I enjoin you. Now you have heard all my
bidding, least of my sons. Go and do your utmost.’
“At this point he bowed before her and said, ‘Lady, I go to do your bidding.
As your humble servant, I take my leave of you.’ Then he went on to accomplish
her will, taking the causeway that leads directly to Mexico City.”

Vigils reading - St Lucy
2025-12-13
ST LUCY
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints
◊◊◊
St Lucy is said to have been a Sicilian, born in the city of Syracuse of noble
and wealthy parents and brought up a Christian. She wished to devote her life to
God and to give her fortune to the poor, but during the Diocletian persecutions a
man, usually represented as a Roman soldier, tried to rape her, and she resisted.
He denounced her as a Christian, and she was arrested, tortured and killed.
Though these traditions have no ascertainable historical basis, her
connection with Syracuse and the existence of an early cult connected with her
name are well established. A fourth-century inscription mentioning that a girl
called Euskia died on Lucy’s feast-day survives at Syracuse. Lucy was honoured
at Rome in the sixth century as one of the most illustrious virgin martyrs whose
lives the Church celebrates. Her name is included in the Canons of the Roman
and Ambrosian rites and occurs in the oldest Roman sacramentaries, in Greek
liturgical books, and in the marble calendar of Naples.
Churches were dedicated to her in Rome, Naples, and eventually Venice.
In England two ancient churches were dedicated to her, and she has certainly
been known since the end of the seventh century…
Possibly on account of her name, which has connotations of light and
purity (in Latin Lux and Lucia), legends have long gathered around St Lucy.
Some of the legends and many paintings relate to her eyes. One gruesome story
is that she tore her eyes out rather than surrender to her attacker, and she is
sometimes shown offering them to him. Oddly, she is the patron saint of those
with eye trouble, and a gentler interpretation is that this is because the eyes are
the source of our awareness of light. Her feast-day had long been the occasion
for special ceremonies connected with virginity. It occurs near the shortest day
of the year and is especially celebrated in Sweden as a festival of light, with a
procession of young girls dressed in white and crowned with lighted candles.
The song “Santa Lucia” celebrates her memory.

Skema
2025-12-14
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
3rd Week of Advent

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (II)
December 14 – 20, 2025

Sun
14
Mon
15
Tue
16
Wed
17
Thu
18
Fri
19
Sat
20

Office
3rd Sunday of Advent
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday

Vigils
Micah 4:1-14
Micah 5:1-14
Micah 7:7-20
Isa 40:1-11
Isa 40:12-31
Isa 41:8-20
Isa 41:21-29

Lauds
Zech 2:10-17
Isa 24:21-25:5
Isa 52:1-7
Isa 42:1-9
Isa 45:1-8
Isa 45:18-25
Isa 46:5-13

Mass
7
187
188
193
194
195
196

1st
Isa 35:1-6a, 10
Num 24:2-7, 15-17a
Zeph 3:1-2, 9-13
Gen 49:2, 8-10
Jer 23:5-8
Judg 13:2-7, 24-25a
Isa 7:10-14

2nd
Jas 5:7-10

Gospel
Matt 11:2-11
Matt 21:23-27
Matt 21:28-32
Matt 1:1-17
Matt 1:18-24
Luke 1:5-25
Luke 1:26-38

Vespers
Rom 9:1-8
Rom 10:1-13
Rom 11:13-20
1 Thess 5:16-24
Phil 1:3-11
Phil 3:17-21
Phil 4:4-9

Vigils Reading - 3rd Sunday Advent
2025-12-14
THE ONE WHO IS TO COME
From a commentary by Thomas of Villanova
◊◊◊
The gospel narrative tells of a question which John the Baptist, who was
in prison, put to the Lord through his disciples. Are you the one who is to come,
or are we to look for someone else? John himself was in no doubt about the
matter. Even from his mother’s womb he had recognized Jesus, and at the
Jordan he had borne his testimony; but he sent this embassy for two reasons.
In the first place, John wished to instruct his disciples. He knew that his
own death was imminent and, like the good leader and teacher he was, he made
provision for his disciples, to ensure that they would have a teacher and
protector. He wanted to see them safe under Christ’s wing and in his care.
John’s second and paramount motive, however, was to draw attention to
Christ. He knew that he had been sent to bear witness to Christ, and although he
had given his testimony at the Jordan, few had accepted it. Knowing now that
his death was near he devised a profitable and very prudent plan: he would put
this question to Jesus publicly and thus bring him into the limelight, so that in
replying to the question Jesus would at the same time bear witness about
himself, and thereby reveal himself to the people. John knew that the Lord’s
reply was bound to be very fruitful, and events proved him right.
The disciples approached Jesus, and in front of the crowd put to him the
same question which the Jews had put to John. Everyone eagerly awaited his
reply, for there had already been a rumor among the people that he might
indeed be the Messiah. The Lord gave no immediate answer, but delayed a little,
and in their presence worked wonderful, mighty miracles. Then he invited
them, Go and report to John what you have heard. The blind are receiving
their sight, the lame are walking, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead
rise again, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.
He did not give an answer to them in so many words, but pointed to his
deeds, as much as to say, “The works that I am doing are my witness. These are
the works I am performing; judge for yourself whether I am the Messiah.” This
was an admirable reply, for he not only claimed by means of his works that he
was the Messiah; he also proved it.
Isaiah had uttered three prophecies about the Christ. The first was this:
Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unsealed,
and the lame man will leap like a stag. The second was, The Spirit of the Lord is
upon me… he has sent me to announce good tidings to the poor. The third
declared, He shall be a stone for stumbling over, and a rock of scandal as well,
for both houses of Israel. The Lord fulfilled these prophecies before their eyes,
and implicitly quoted them in his reply: the first, by saying, The blind are
receiving their sight, the lame are walking … the deaf hear; the second in his
claim that the good news is proclaimed to the poor; and the third by saying,
Blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.
