Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Vigils Reading - Easter Friday
2025-04-25
WITNESSES OF
THE RESURRECTION
From a sermon by St John Henry Newman
◊◊◊
It might have been expected that, on our Savior’s rising again from the
dead, He would have shown Himself to very great numbers of people, and
especially to those who crucified Him; whereas we know from history that, far
from this being the case, He showed Himself only to chosen witnesses, chiefly
His immediate followers… This seems at first sight strange. We are apt to fancy
the resurrection of Christ as some striking visible display of His glory, such as
God showed from time to time to the Israelites in Moses’ day; and considering it
in the light of a public triumph, we are led to imagine the confusion and terror
which would have overwhelmed His murderers had He presented Himself alive
before them. Now, to reason in this way is to conceive Christ’s kingdom of this
world, which it is not; and to suppose that then Christ came to judge the world,
whereas that judgment will not be till the last day, when in very deed those
wicked men shall “look on Him whom they have pierced“.
After His resurrection, Jesus said to His disciples, “Go, convert all
nations“. This was His special charge. If, then, there are grounds for thinking
that, by showing Himself to a few rather than to many, He was more surely
advancing this great object, the propagation of the Gospel, this is sufficient
reason for our Lord’s having so ordained. Now consider what would have been
the probable effect of a public exhibition of His resurrection. Let us suppose that
our Savior had shown Himself as openly as before He suffered: preaching in the
Temple and in the streets of the city; traversing the land with His Apostles, and
with multitudes following to see the miracles which He did. What would have
been the effect of this? Of course, what it had already been. His former miracles
had not effectively moved the body of the people; and, doubtless, this miracle
too would have left them as it found them, or worse than before. They might
have been more startled at the time; but why should this amazement last?
When the man taken with a palsy was suddenly restored at His word, the
multitude were all amazed and glorified God, and were filled with fear saying, “
We have seen strange things this day.” What could they have said and felt more
than this, when “one rose from the dead“? In truth, this is the way of most
people in all ages, to be influenced by sudden fears, sudden contrition, sudden
earnestness, sudden resolves, which disappear just as suddenly. Nothing is
accomplished effectively through untrained human nature; and such is always
the condition of the multitude. Unstable as water, it cannot excel. One day it
cried Hosanna; the next, Crucify Him.
And, had our Lord appeared to them after they had crucified Him, of
course they would have shouted Hosanna once more; yet when He had
ascended out of sight, then again they would have persecuted His followers…
Surely so it would have been; the chief priests would not have been moved at all;
and the populace, even though they had been moved at the time, would not have
been moved in a lasting way, nor in a practical way, so as to proclaim to the
world what they had heard and seen, as to preach the gospel. The very reason
why Christ showed Himself at all was in order to raise up witnesses to His
resurrection, ministers of His word, founders of His Church; and how in the
nature of things could a populace ever become such?

Vigils Reading - Easter Saturday
2025-04-26
THE LEAVENING OF
MORTALITY AND INIQUITY
From a sermon by St Aelred of Rievaulx
◊◊◊
He who is the creator, made himself a creature. He who was Lord, made
himself a servant. He who was rich, made himself poor. He who was great, made
himself little. And the Word was made flesh. He was bread and he fed the
angels. But he did not feed us. We were, however, so weak that in no way could
we taste that bread in all its purity. We had within us a corrosive leaven that
robbed us of our pristine strength. We had become so unlike that pure and
untainted bread that we could not taste it at all. This leavening which we had
within us was twofold. We had within us the leavening of mortality and we had
within us the leavening of iniquity…
We are mortals and sinners; he is immortal and just. How were we to
come together? He saw this, he who is caring and merciful. Because we could
not ascend to him, he came down to us. He took upon himself one part of our
leavening and so adapted himself to our weakness. He did not take to himself
the whole leaven that was in us, but a certain part of it. If he had taken on the
whole of it he would be as we are and he would not be able to help us. If he had
taken none of it he would be so distant from us that we would not be able in any
way to approach him. And so we would remain forever in our wretchedness…
The leavening of our mortality therefore he accepted, and abode in the purity of
his justice, so that he would be the sort of being who could come down to us and
yet remain the sort of being to whom we ought to ascend…
To this leavening of mortality belongs hunger, thirst, sorrow, misery. All
of this our Lord took on himself. He chose to take on this leavening, but he was
not obliged to remain in ferment. First he showed this leavening in himself
through a wondrous compassion and then he purged himself of this leaven
through a wondrous charity…
We ought to know that our iniquity is the cause of our mortality. And
therefore when we are fully purged of iniquity we will doubtless also be purged
of mortality… Our iniquity is twofold. It comes from the nature in which we
were born and from the evil which we later brought to it. From both of these the
Lord purges us. He offered for us a sacrifice – his own blood – and through this
sacrifice we are purged. And therefore what we suffer now from the corruption
of our nature is no longer iniquity but infirmity.
From the corruption of our nature come the impulses of concupiscence
which we suffer unwillingly. From this come the impulses of lust, anger, pride,
ambition. But if we do not consent to them, God does not impute them to us,
because the pure sacrifice was offered to offset the corruption of our nature… By
the workings of his compassion in us in baptism we are purged of all sins, both
those which came from nature and those which we added voluntarily.

Skema
2025-04-27
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
2nd Week of Easter

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
April 27 – May 3, 2025

Sun
27
Mon
28
Tue
29
Wed
30
Thu
1
Fri
2
Sat
3

Office
2nd Sunday of Easter
Easter Weekday
St Catherine of Siena
Easter Weekday
St Joseph the Worker
St Athanasius
SS Philip & James

Vigils
Col 3:1-17
Rev 1:1-20
Rev 2:1-11
Rev 2:12-29
Rev 3:1-22
Rev 4:1-11
1 Cor 12:1-13

Lauds
Eph 1:1-10
Eph 1:11-14
Eph 1:15-23
Eph 2:1-10
Eph 2:11-18
Eph 2:19-22
2 Thess 2:13-3:5

Mass
45
267
268
269
270, 559
271
561

1st
Acts 5:12-16
Acts 4:23-31
Acts 4:32-37
Acts 5:17-26
Acts 5:27-33
Acts 5:34-42
1 Cor 15:1-8

2nd
Rev 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19

Gospel
John 20:19-31
John 3:1-8
John 3:7b-15
John 3:16-21
Matt 13:54-58
John 6:1-15
John 14:6-14

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

Vigils Reading - 2nd Sunday of Easter
2025-04-27
BLESSED ARE THOSE
WHO HAVE NOT SEEN
From a commentary by St Augustine
◊◊◊
My dear people, you, like myself, are well aware that our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ is the one physician capable of bringing us eternal healing and
salvation. We know, too, that it was in order to accomplish this that he took
upon himself the weakness of our human nature, otherwise that weakness
would have remained with us forever. He equipped himself with a human body
liable to death, so that in and through that body he might conquer death itself.
And though, as the apostle tells us, it was his human weakness that made it
possible for him to be crucified, it was his divine power that enabled him to
return to life.
That same apostle says: He will never die again, neither will death have
any further hold upon him. All this you already know and believe, and also the
consequences flowing from it; we can be sure that the miracles he wrought while
he lived among us were meant to encourage us to accept the gifts from him that
should never pass away nor have an end. Thus he gave back sight to blind eyes
that would shortly be closed again in death; he raised Lazarus from the dead
only for him to die again. His bodily cures, indeed, were never meant to last for
ever, even though at the end of time he is to give the body itself life everlasting.
But because “seeing is believing,” he used these visible wonders to build up
people’s faith in even greater marvels that could not be seen.
Let no one then be found to say that since Christ Jesus our Lord no longer
works such miracles among us, the Church was better off in its early days. On
the contrary, in one recorded testament, the same Lord set those who have
never seen and yet believe before those who believe only because they see.
Indeed, so great was the disciples’ weakness at that time, that when they saw the
Lord they found it necessary to touch him before they could believe he had really
risen from the dead. They were unable to believe the testimony of their own
eyes, until they had handled his body and explored his recent wounds with their
fingers. Only after this was done could that most hesitant of all his disciples
exclaim: My Lord and my God! Thus it was by his wounds that Christ, who had
so often healed the manifold wounds of others, came to be recognized himself.
Now we may ask: could not the Lord have risen with a body from which all
the marks of wounds had been erased? No doubt he could have; but he knew his
disciples bore within their hearts a wound so deep that the only way to cure it
was to retain the scars of his own wounds in his body. And when that confession:
My Lord and my God! Was uttered, what was his answer to it? You believe, he
said, because you have seen me; blessed are those who have not seen and yet
believe.
And who, my brothers and sisters, are those if not ourselves and those
who are to follow after us? When, later on, the Lord had departed from human
sight and faith had time to strike roots into people’s hearts, those who believed
in him made their act of faith without seeing him in whom they made it. The
faith of such believers is highly meritorious, for it springs from a devoted heart
rather than an exploring hand.

Vigils Reading
2025-04-28
THE FIRST AND THE SECOND
RESURRECTION
By Blessed Guerric of Igny
◊◊◊
“Blessed and holy is he who has a share in the first resurrection”. “I am the
resurrection and the life”, Jesus said. He indeed is the first resurrection; he is
also the second resurrection. For rising from the dead as the first fruits of those
who sleep, Christ both brings about for us the first resurrection by the mystery
of his own resurrection and by the example of that same resurrection will bring
about for us the second. The first is that of souls, when he raises them together
with himself to newness of life; the second will be that of bodies, when he forms
this humbled body of ours anew, molding it into the image of his glorified body.
Christ does well then to proclaim himself the resurrection and the life
since it is through him and into him that we rise in order to live according to him
and with him; now according to him in holiness and justice, afterwards with him
in happiness and glory. Now the first resurrection of our Head, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is the cause and the proof of the second resurrection, which will be that
of his whole body. So also for each of us the first resurrection of the soul, by
which it comes to life again from the death of sin, is the proof and the cause of its
second resurrection, by which the body will be freed not only from corruption of
death but also from every tendency to corruption and death. That the one is the
proof and cause of the other St Paul shows clearly in the words: “If the Spirit of
Christ who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he will give life also to your
perishable bodies on account of his Spirit who dwells in you”.
It is well said then: “Blessed and holy is he who has a share in the first
resurrection”. Holy, that is, on account of the first, which he has already
obtained through the renewal of his soul; blessed on account of the second,
which he happily awaits when his body is restored. The reason for his
blessedness is indicated by the same passage of Scripture, which goes on: “Over
these (who have a share, that is, in the first resurrection), the second death has
no power, even if the first death has seemed to exercise its dominion over them
for a passing hour. For death has reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those
who did not sin according to the likeness of Adam’s transgression. But as with
Christ so with the Christian; rising from the dead, he dies no more; death has no
more dominion over him.
So over those blessed neither has the second death any power nor will the
first keep the power, which it had for a time. For the one death of Christ
triumphed over both of ours, setting free from the one those who were already
its captives, from the other, those who would be its captives. It prevented us
from falling into the one, from remaining in the other. How true, how devout
and at the same time how magnificent is that threat he uttered as he died: “I will
be your death, O death”. How fittingly and wonderfully he triumphed who
tasted death on behalf of all and so swallowed up his own death and all the dying
of all humanity. Free from fear he may mock at it, whomever that blessed man is
who has a share in the first resurrection: “Where is your victory, death? Where
is your sting, death?”

Vigils Reading - St Catherine of Siena
2025-04-29
THE WAY OF
PRAYER TO GOD
From “The Dialogues” by St Catherine of Siena
◊◊◊
A soul rises up, restless with tremendous desire for God’s honor and the
salvation of souls. she has for some time exercised herself in virtue and has
become accustomed to dwelling in the cell of self-knowledge in order to know
better God’s goodness toward her, since upon knowledge follows love. And
loving, she seeks to pursue truth and clothe herself in it.
But there is no way she can so savor and be enlightened by this truth as in
continual humble prayer, grounded in the knowledge of herself and of God. For
by such prayer the soul is united with God, following in the footsteps of Christ
crucified, and through desire and affection and the union of love he makes of her
another himself. So Christ seems to have meant when he said, “If you will love
me and keep my word, I will show myself to you, and you will be one thing
with me and I with you.”. And we find similar words in other places from which
we can see it is the truth that by love’s affection the soul becomes another
himself.
To make this clearer still, I remember having heard from a certain servant
of God that, when she was at prayer, lifted high in spirit, God would not hide
from her mind’s eye his love for his servants. No, he would reveal it, saying
among other things, “Open your mind’s eye and look within me, and you will see
the dignity and beauty of my reasoning creature. But beyond the beauty I have
given the soul by creating her in my image and likeness, look at those who are
clothed in the wedding garment of charity, adorned with many true virtues: they
are united with me through love. So I say, if you should ask me who they are, I
would answer,” said the gentle loving Word, “that they are another me, for they
have lost and drowned their own will and have clothed themselves and united
themselves and conformed themselves with mine.” It is true, then, that the soul
is united to God through love’s affection.

Vigils Reading
2025-04-30
MAKE NO PROVISION
FOR THE FLESH
From a sermon by Pope St Leo the Great
◊◊◊
Though we once knew Christ according to the flesh, we now do so no
longer. The resurrection of the Lord did not mean the end of his flesh, but its
transformation, and his bodily substance was not consumed by its increase in
power. The quality changed, but the nature did not pass away. What could die
became immortal, what could be harmed became incorruptible. And so he says
correctly that he no longer knows the body of Christ in its former state, because
there remains nothing in it subject to suffering or to weakness. It remains
essentially human, but surpasses itself through the glory of the resurrection.
It is not surprising that Paul says this of the body of Christ, when he says
about Christians who live according to the Spirit, From now on, we know no
one according to the flesh. From now on, he says, resurrection in Christ has
begun in us; from Christ who died for all comes the shape of all our hope. We do
not hold back through diffidence, nor are we held in suspense through
uncertainty: we have received the beginnings of what we are promised, and see
already with the eyes of faith the things that will be ours. Rejoicing in the lifting
up of our nature, we possess already all that we believe.
Therefore, let us not be taken up by the appearances of things that pass,
nor let things which are merely of this earth turn our thoughts from the things of
heaven. Let us take as passing those things which have even now scarcely any
reality; and with our minds intent on those that endure, let us fix our desire
there, where what is offered is eternal. For though we are saved only in hope,
and carry with us still our corruptible and mortal body, yet we rightly claim to be
no longer in the flesh if carnal passions do not rule us: rightly do we disclaim
allegiance to something which no longer holds us in its power. And so when the
Apostle says: “Make no provision for the flesh, to follow its desires, we
understand that he has not forbidden those things consistent with our bodily
health, or those demanded by human weakness. But in that we are not to cater
to all our desires, or fulfill all that the flesh covets, we recognize that he has
warned us to observe a certain measure of temperance, that the flesh, which is
created subject to the soul, is not given too much, nor is denied what is
necessary.

Vigils Reading - St Joseph the Worker
2025-05-01
ST JOSEPH
THE WORKER
A reflection by Pope Francis
◊◊◊
St Joseph concretely expressed his fatherhood by making an offering of
himself in love, placed at the service of the Messiah who was growing to
maturity in his home. And because of his role at the crossroads between the Old
and New Testament, St Joseph has always been venerated as a father of the
Christian people. In him, Jesus saw the tender love of God, the one that helps us
accept our weakness, because it is through and despite our fears, our frailties,
and our weakness that most divine designs are realized. Only tender love will
save us from the snares of the accuser, and it is by encountering God’s mercy in
the Sacrament of Reconciliation that we experience His truth and tenderness,
because we know that God’s truth does not condemn us, but instead welcomes,
embraces, sustains and forgives us.
Joseph is also a father in obedience to God with his “fiat”. He protects
Mary and Jesus and teaches his son to do the Will of the Father… At the same
time, Joseph is an accepting father because he accepted Mary unconditionally –
an important gesture even today in our world where psychological, verbal and
physical violence towards women is so evident. But the Bridegroom of Mary is
also the one who, trusting in the Lord, accepts in his life even the events that he
does not understand, setting aside his own ideas and reconciling himself with
his own history.
Joseph’s spiritual path is not one that explains but accepts – which does
not mean that he is “resigned”. Instead he is courageously and firmly proactive.
Because with the Holy Spirit’s Gift of fortitude, and full of hope, he is able to
accept life as it is, with all its contradictions, frustrations and disappointments.
In practice, through St Joseph, it is as if God were to repeat to us: “Do not be
afraid” because faith gives meaning to every event, however happy or sad, and
makes us aware that God can make flowers spring up from stony ground.
Joseph did not look for shortcuts but confronted reality with open eyes and
accepted personal responsibility for it. For this reason, he encourages us to
accept and welcome others as they are, without exception and to show special
concern for the weak… Consequently every poor, needy, suffering or dying
person, every stranger, every prisoner, every infirm person is “the child” whom
Joseph continues to protect. From St Joseph, we must learn to love the Church
and the poor.
As a carpenter who earned an honest living to provide for his family, St
Joseph also teaches us the value, the dignity and the joy of what it means to eat
bread that is the fruit of one’s own labor. This aspect of Joseph’s character
provides the opportunity to appeal in favor of work… There is a renewed need to
appreciate the importance of dignified work, of which St Joseph is an exemplary
patron. Work is a means of participating in the work of salvation, an
opportunity to hasten the coming of the Kingdom, to develop our talents and
abilities, and to put them at the service of society and fraternal communion.
Those who work are cooperating with God Himself, and in some way become
creators of the world around us.

Vigils Reading - St Athanasius
2025-05-02
HE HIGHLY
EXALTED HIM
By St Athanasius
◊◊◊
Since…the Word, being the Image of the Father and immortal, took the
form of a servant, and as man underwent for us death in His flesh, that thereby
He might offer Himself for us through death to the Father; therefore also, as
man, He is said because of us and for us to be highly exalted, that as by His death
we all died in Christ, so again in the Christ Himself we might be highly exalted,
being raised from the dead, and ascending into heaven, “where the forerunner
is for us entered, not into the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us.”
But if now for us the Christ is entered into heaven itself, though He was
even before and always Lord of the heavens, for us therefore is that present
exaltation also written. And as He Himself, who sanctifies all, says also that He
sanctifies Himself to the Father for our sakes, not that the Word may become
holy, but that He Himself may in Himself sanctify all of us, in like manner we
must take the present phrase, “He highly exalted Him“, not that He Himself
should be exalted, for He is the highest, but that He may become righteousness
for us; and we may be exalted in Him, and that we may enter the gates of heaven,
which He has also opened for us, the forerunners saying, “Lift up your heads, O
gates, and be lift up everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in.“
For here also not on Him were shut the gates, who is Lord and Maker of all, but
because of us is this too written, to whom the door of paradise was shut. And
therefore in a human relation, because of the flesh which He bore, it is said of
Him, “Lift up, O gates” “and the King of Glory shall come in”, as if humanity
were entering; but in a divine relation on the other hand it is said of Him, since
the “Word was God“, that He is the “Lord” and the “King of Glory”. For as
Christ died and was exalted as man, so, as man, is He said to take what, as God
He ever had, that even this so high a grant of grace might reach to us.

Vigils Reading - SS Philip & James
2025-05-03
THE APOSTOLIC WITNESS
By Jean Frisque
◊◊◊
They were still talking about all this when he himself stood among them
and said to them, “Peace be with you!”
The preeminent witnesses to the resurrection of Christ were the apostles.
From the time of Jesus’ baptism to his death, they accompanied him in his
public ministry. His death on the cross at the first threw them into a panic, but
soon afterwards it clarified everything for them, once it had been placed in its
Scriptural context, through the aid of the resurrected Christ himself.
But was the testimony of the apostles limited to this single well-founded
assertion: He whom you crucified has risen from the dead through the power of
God? In reality, there was much more: the apostles did not only offer an
eyewitness account of an event but the testimony of their faith. Only their faith
enabled them to discover why the death on the cross was the key-event of
salvation-history and in what way it led to the life of the resurrection. And theirs
was not simply any faith, but faith in the paschal experience itself, the faith
which had perceived that in Jesus Christ all people were called to share in the
divine filiation and to contribute on their own behalf to the construction of the
Kingdom.
Nor was this all. The witness which the apostles rendered to the
resurrection of Christ was above all an authorized witness. The apostles had
received from the resurrected Christ himself their power to testify validly to
him. They had received the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the resurrected Christ. Thus
the very life of the resurrected Christ was given to the apostolic group, and the
Church which they would construct in his name would be animated by this same
life. The Church was to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, and the life which
circulated in her would testify until the end of time to the resurrection of her
Head!
Thus we can see why the apostolic witness rendered to the resurrected
Christ was inseparable from the life which animated the first Christian
community. This witness was necessarily communal. The preaching in which
this witness took shape was absolutely inseparable from the grace of
communion given to the primitive community and its efforts to be entirely
faithful to the law of universal charity.
Today’s Christians are not wrong, therefore, when they insist upon the
importance of the testimony of their life. But the life to which they must witness
in order to testify to the resurrected Christ is the life of Christ himself. This life is
displayed here on earth by the way of total obedience unto death for the love of
all people, for such an obedience leads us constantly from death to life. Such a
sign can only be displayed by the Church herself.

Skema
2025-05-04
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
3rd Week of Easter

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
May 4 – 10, 2025

Sun
4
Mon
5
Tue
6
Wed
7
Thu
8
Fri
9
Sat
10

Office
3rd Sunday of Easter
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday
Bl Christian de Cherge
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday

Vigils
Rev 6:1-17
Rev 7:1-17
Rev 8:1-13
Rev 9:1-12
Rev 9:13-21
Rev 10:1-11
Rev 11:1-19

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

Mass
48
273
274
275
276
277
278

1st
Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41
Acts 6:8-15
Acts 7:51-8:1a
Acts 8:1b-8
Acts 8:26-40
Acts 9:1-20
Acts 9:31-42

2nd
Rev 5:11-14

Gospel
John 21:1-19
John 6:22-29
John 6:30-35
John 6:35-40
John 6:44-51
John 6:52-59
John 6:60-69

Vespers
Acts 9:1-9
Acts 9:10-19a
Acts 9:19b-22
Acts 9:23-31
Acts 10:1-8
Acts 10:9-16
Acts 10:17-28

Vigils Reading - 3rd Sunday of Easter
2025-05-04
LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER
From a commentary by St Augustine
◊◊◊
The Lord appeared once again to his disciples after his resurrection, and
questioning Peter, who from fear had thrice denied him, extracted from him a
threefold declaration of love. Christ had been raised to life in the flesh, and Peter
to life in the spirit, for when Christ died as a result of the torments he endured,
Peter was also dead as a result of denying his master. Christ the Lord was raised
from the dead; Christ the Lord raised up Peter through Peter’s love for him. And
having obtained from him the assurance of that love, he entrusted his sheep to
Peter’s care.
We may wonder what advantage there could be for Christ in Peter’s love
for him. If Christ loves you, you profit, not Christ; and if you love him, again the
advantage is yours, not his. But wishing to show us how we should demonstrate
our love for him, Christ the Lord made it plain that it is by our concern for his
sheep. Do you love me?, he asked. I do love you. Then feed my sheep. Once,
twice, and a third time the same dialogue was repeated. To the Lord’s one and
only question, Peter had no other answer than I do love you. And each time the
Lord gave Peter the same command: Feed my sheep. Let us love one another
then, and by doing so we shall be loving Christ.
Christ, the eternal God, was born in time as man. A true member of the
human race, he appeared as one of us; but as God in human form he performed
many wonderful signs. As a human being, he suffered much from other human
beings; but as God in human form he rose from the dead. For forty days he lived
on earth as one of us; then, before the eyes of his disciples, he ascended to
heaven, where, as God in human form, he is now seated at the right hand of the
Father. We believe all these things, though we have never seen them; we are
commanded to love Christ the Lord, whom we have never seen. And we all cry
out and say that we love Christ.
But listen to John’s words: If you do not love the brother or sister that
you can see, how can you love the God you cannot see? It is by loving the sheep
that you show your love for the shepherd, for the sheep are the members of the
shepherd. Indeed, it was to make the sheep members of his own body that the
Lord became one of them himself, that he allowed himself to be led like a lamb
to the slaughter, and that he allowed the baptist to point him out and say:
Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Surely a
crushing burden for a lamb! But that lamb possessed tremendous strength. Do
you wish to know how much strength was in this lamb? Because the lamb was
crucified, the lion was overcome. If he could vanquish the devil by his own
death, think with what power he is able to rule the world! May nothing, then,
ever be dearer to us than Christ the Lord; let us love him with all our hearts.

Vigils Reading
2025-05-05
THE LIFE THAT CONQUERS
From “The Eternal Year” by Fr Karl Rahner
◊◊◊
Because [Jesus] did not begin to heal, to save, and to transfigure the world
by transfiguring the symptoms on the surface, but began rather at the
innermost root, we suppose that nothing has happened to the essence beneath
this superficial area. Because the waters of grief and guilt still flow on the
surface where we stand, we fancy that their source in the depths is not yet dried
up. Because evil still carves new marks in the face of the earth, we conclude that
in the deepest heart of reality love is dead. But these are only appearances,
which we take for the reality of life.
Christ is risen because in death he conquered, and redeemed forever, the
innermost center of all earthly existence. And, having risen, he has kept this
innermost center in his control, and he continues to preserve it. If we
acknowledge that he has gone away to God’s heaven, this is only another way of
saying that he withdraws from us for a while the tangibility of his transfigured
humanity. But this is only another way of saying that there is no longer any
abyss between God and the world.
Christ is already in the midst of the poor things of this earth… He is in the
ineffable yearning of all creatures who, without knowing it, yearn for a share in
the transfiguration of his body. He is in the history of the earth, whose blind
course, with all its victories and all its crashing defeats, steers with uncanny
precision towards the day when his splendor, transforming everything, will
erupt out of the earth’s own depths. He is in all the tears as hidden joy, and in
every death as the life that conquers by seeming to die. He is the heart of this
earthly world and the mysterious seal of its eternal validity.

Vigils Reading
2025-05-06
THE REDEMPTION
OF OUR BODIES
From a sermon by Fr Ronald Knox
◊◊◊
I am content to think of my present body as merely the inadequate symbol
of that body which will be mine in eternity. A symbol, yes; but we must remind
ourselves again, it isn’t merely a kind of book token, entitling me to the
possession of a body in eternity; it is rather a kind of cloak-room ticket, entitling
me to the possession of my body in eternity. Our Lord’s Resurrection meant an
empty tomb; our Lord’s Ascension meant, presumably, the disappearance from
earth of a certain quantum of matter which had previously been part of earth. If
it is going to be possible to establish identity between that body of yours which
will lie in the cemetery, and that body of yours which will, we hope, attain the
enjoyment of heaven, aren’t we going to land ourselves in rather difficult
physical speculations to account for it?
What is certain is that the thing, whatever it is, which expresses itself here
and now in terms of a mass of matter about six feet high, will persist, although it
may be expressed in quite different terms, in that order of creation, whatever it
be, which will succeed when the material creation itself has passed away.
The practical importance of that truth for us is, I take it, that as Christians
we are bound to think of our bodies as part of ourselves, as included not only in
the scheme of our creation but in the scheme of our redemption, as having…a
supernatural importance, and as demanding reverence in our treatment of
them. We look forward, as St Paul says, to the redemption of our bodies; they
are not encumbrances which we drag about with us, they are first-fruits of
eternity, entrusted to our keeping…
If you lean towards Eastern spiritualism, you will find yourself talking,
like the man in that poem of Lyall’s, about your body as if it were something that
didn’t matter; it “is a garment no more fitting, is a tent that I am quitting, is a
snare, from which at last, like a hawk, my soul hath passed“. If you lean
towards Western materialism, you will find yourself talking about your body as
if it were the only thing that mattered, like that poem of Housman’s, “The
Immortal Part“, which ends up: “And leave with endless night alone the
steadfast and enduring bone“. If you avoid both those excesses, you will find
yourself talking like Thomas a’ Kempis:
Ah, frail body, earth forsaking,
In what glory wilt thou rise,
Passing fair in thy remaking,
Strong and whole and swift and wise,
Free, and joy in freedom taking,
Framed for life that never dies!
Up, and stir thee, onward spur thee;
What, though toil be hard to bear,
If God’s grace shall count thee worthy
Those unguessed rewards to share?
Brief the pains that shall prefer thee
To eternal glory there.

Vigils Reading
2025-05-07
CHRIST IS THE DOOR
From “Symbols of Christ” by Dom Damasus Winzen
◊◊◊
To pass through a door is an initiation and a consecration, because it
means to leave behind the past and to enter a new life. To the Romans of old, the
victorious army, by marching through the arch of triumph, was cleansed of past
offenses and consecrated to a new era of peace. For the people of the Old
Testament, the temple gate of Jerusalem took the place of the arch of triumph.
No armies marched through it, but the festive throngs of the pilgrims
approached it in solemn procession on the Feast of the Tabernacles. Their
summons rang out to the warders: “This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous
shall enter into it!”
The real door to the Messianic era, however, is not made of stone. It is the
living heart of the Saviour. The very shape of the door indicates salvation
through Christ, because its two side-posts, holding up the lintel, form a gallows-
shaped cross. Every wall effects a separation between those within, whom it
protects, and those without, whom it excludes. Walls, therefore, are needed
only in a world where enmity exists between those who share in the blessedness
of a common life and those who are strangers and exiles. The door, however,
pierces the wall, and unites the two groups – in the power of the cross.
After the earth had been cursed, and enmity placed between the serpent
and the woman, Paradise was walled off from the rest of the world. But the gate
remained, guarded by the cherub with the flaming sword – waiting for the time
of man’s re-entrance. God also hid his Holy Presence behind the walls of the
temple, but a door remained, through which, once a year, the high priest was
allowed to enter the Holy of Holies.
When Christ extended his hands on the Cross he became the Door
through which the wall of separation between God and ourselves was opened.
The cherub at the gate of Paradise put away his sword when God’s Eternal Love,
hanging on the Cross, said to the good thief: “This day you shall be with me in
Paradise!” When Christ gave up the spirit, the curtain of the Holy of Holies was
rent, to indicate that we can “enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus.”
Christ is the Door through which we have access to the Father, because he is the
sacrificial victim which reconciles us in one body to God, so that we are citizens
with the saints and members of God’s household.
This Door was foreshadowed in the door of Noah’s ark, which,
significantly enough, “was set in the side thereof”; the Door was opened when
the lance of the soldier pierced the side of Jesus. We enter through this Door by
being baptized into the Death and Resurrection of Christ, through which we are
cleansed from past offenses and consecrated as children of the Heavenly Father.

Vigils Reading - Br Christian de Cherge
2025-05-08
CHRISTIAN DE CHERGÉ
MARTYR, MONK, AND MYSTIC
By Dom Bernardo Olivera
◊◊◊
In its early stages, monastic life was interpreted in various ways. Not a few
understood monasticism as an authentic martyrdom. The martyr, the monk and
the mystic are people who have oriented their lives toward mystery and entered
deeply therein. They long for one thing only: to enter into communion with their
Lord in death in order to be joined with him in the Resurrection.
Christian de Chergé was born on January 18, 1937 at Colmar into a
distinguished family of eight children. His father was a military man, as would
be his older brother later on. During his childhood he spent three years in
Algeria during the Second World War. From the time of his childhood he always
remained impressed by the Muslim’s way of approaching God.
On October 6, 1956, at the age of nineteen he entered the seminary of the
Carmelites in Paris. His studies were interrupted in 1959 when he had to report
for military service. Set on becoming an officer, he took the required courses
and in July of the following year he was made second lieutenant. That same
month, at the time of the war of independence, he arrived in Algeria at the age of
twenty-three.
An event occurred during this time that left its mark on him for the rest of
his life. He had made friends with an Algerian who worked as a warden under
the French authorities, a position that made him susceptible to the violence of
the National Liberation Army. Mohamed tried to be faithful at one and the same
time to his Christian friend, to his Islamic faith, and to his own people. It so
happened one day that they were involved in a scuffle in the street. Mohamed10
protected his friend and tried to pacify his aggressors. The following day, he was
found dead. This painful episode was never to be forgotten. Christian came back
to it in later years, writing: “I know at least one beloved brother, a convinced
Muslim, who gave his life for love of another, in a concrete way, by spilling his
own blood. Indeed, since then, in my hope for communion of all the elect in
Christ, I can fix my eyes on this friend who lived, even in his death, the one
commandment.”
For Christian de Chergé all of this was a foundational experience and the
seed of a vocation. In the blood of his friend, assassinated for not having wanted
to bargain with hatred, Christian said in 1982: “I knew my calling to follow
Christ would end up living itself out sooner or later in the same country where
I had been given the pledge of the greater love, ‘shed for you and for many’”.
On March 21, 1964, he was ordained a priest and shortly thereafter was sent to
Algeria and to the monastic life. On September 14, 1976, he made his perpetual
vows. In it he expressed his desire to “live in Prayer in the service of the Church
of Algeria, listening to the Muslim soul, God willing, until the final gift of my
death.”
Christian was elected Titular Prior of Atlas monastery in 1984. He was
already deeply involved in the interreligious dialogue. On May 21, 1996, united
with his six brothers of the community, he sealed with his blood the witness of
his life.

Vigils Reading
2025-05-08

Vigils Reading
2025-05-09
THE SECRET OF THE LORD
From a sermon by St John Henry Newman
◊◊◊
Our Lord expressly promises all Christians a certain gracious
manifestation of himself, which it is natural, at first sight, to suppose a sensible
one: and many persons understand it to be such, as if it were not more blessed to
believe than to see. Our Lord says; “He that has my commandments and keeps
them, he it is that loves me; and he that loves me, shall be loved of my Father,
and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.” When Jude asked him,
“Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself unto us, and not unto the
world?” Our Lord answered, “If one loves me, he will keep my words; and my
Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with
him.” In accordance with this promise, St Paul says, “The Spirit itself bears
witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God”; and St John, “He that
believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself.”
Now, that this great gift, whatever it be, is of a nature to impart
illumination, sanctity, and peace, to the soul to which it comes, far from
disputing, I would earnestly maintain. And, in this indirect way, doubtless, it is
in a certain sense apprehended and perceived; perceived in its effects, with a
consciousness that those effects cannot come of themselves, but imply a gift
from which they come, and a presence of which they are, as it were, the shadow,
a voice of which they are the echo.
But there are persons who desire the inward manifestation of Christ to be
much more sensible than this. They will not be contented without some sensible
sign and direct evidence that God loves them; some assurance, in which faith
has no part, that God has chosen them; and which may answer to their
anticipations of what Scripture calls “the secret of the Lord,” and “the hidden
manna” which Christ invites us to partake. Some, for instance, hold that their
conscience would have no peace, unless they recollected the time when they
were converted from darkness to light, from a state of wrath to the kingdom of
God.
Others consider that, in order to possess the seal of election, they must be
able to discern in themselves certain feelings or frames of mind, a renunciation
of their own merit, and an apprehension of gospel salvation; as if it were not
enough to renounce ourselves and follow Christ, without the lively
consciousness that we are doing so; and that in this lies “the secret of the Lord.”
Others go further; and think that without a distinct inward assurance of his
salvation, one is not in a saving state.
This is what men and women often conceive; not considering that
whatever be the manifestation promised to Christians by our Lord, it is not
likely to be more sensible and more intelligible than the great sign of his own
Resurrection. Yet even that, like the miracle wrought upon Jonah, was in secret,
and they who believed without seeing it were more blessed than those who saw.

Vigils Reading
2025-05-10
NOT AS THE WORLD GIVES PEACE
From a homily by St Oscar Romero
◊◊◊
Justice is not enough; love also is necessary… We have said that the power
of the Christian is love, and we repeat it: the power of the church is love.
Love enables us to feel that we are sisters and brothers to one and all… As
long as we do not reach that strength of love, we cannot be true peacemakers.
Those whose hearts are filled with resentment, violence, and hatred cannot be
forgers of peace. We have to know how to love like Jesus, who loved even those
who crucified him: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do… If they
knew you, they would love you… Give them love also, Lord.” How much good
the powerful would do if they truly loved and were not selfish and envious! How
beautiful the world would be… if we all were to expand this power of love!
Here the Second Vatican Council was careful to define two kinds of peace,
and we should pay close attention to this. One kind of peace is that which Christ
reserved for his closest friends, those who understood the redemption and the
need to root out sin from themselves. As long as there is sin in the heart, there
can be no truly divine peace, such as the peace Christ achieved when he
reconciled us with the Father by dying on the cross and bearing the sins of all of
us in his body. For us Christians and Catholics, this is the culmination of peace:
peace in the grace of God, the peace of those who have left sin and controlled
their passions, the peace of holy souls. This is the peace that Christ spoke of: “I
leave you peace; my peace I give to you, not as the world gives peace.”
Romero Vol. 1 (of 6). Trans. Joseph Owens, SJ. Miami: Convivium Press, 2015. 181-184.14
Here we distinguish another kind of peace, the peace that the church
shares with the world, the peace that non-Christians can also possess, the peace
of people of good will that we sing about in the Gloria of the Mass… Here is
meant this other peace, the peace that proceeds from natural love. It is the
peace of those who, even though they do not know God, are able to discover the
intense power of being in solidarity with those who suffer. It is the peace that
enables people to bring a little comfort to the grief-stricken and to denounce
injustices… This is the peace that all people can possess…
The problem of peace is immense, and it needs many peacemakers:
priests, men and women religious, laity… the call goes out to all… Let each one
of us, according to our means, nurture this vocation to become instruments of
peace… Those whose hearts feel the need for God, those who find the joy of life
in the cross and sacrifice, those who have learned the true secret of peace in the
crucified One. This secret consists of loving God to the extreme of letting
oneself be killed for him and of loving one’s neighbors to the point of being
crucified for them. This is the love of the modern redeemers, the love of Christ,
this love that endures forever. Let us promise this to the Lord while we proceed
to proclaim our faith in him.

Skema, 4th Easter
2025-05-11
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
4th Week of Easter

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
May 11 – 17, 2025

Sun
11
Mon
12
Tue
13
Wed
14
Thu
15
Fri
16
Sat
17

Office
4th Sunday of Easter
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday
St Mathias
St Pachomius
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday

Vigils
Rev 12:1-18
Rev 13:1-18
Rev 14:1-13
Phil 3:13-4:1
Rev 15:5-16:21
Rev 17:1-18
Rev 18:1-20

Lauds
Eph 5:15-20
Eph 6:10-17
Col 1:1-8
1 Jn 2:18-25
Col 1:15-23
Col 1:24-29
Col 2:1-8

Mass
51
279
280
564
282
283
284

1st
Acts 13:14, 43-52
Acts 11:1-18
Acts 11:19-26
Acts 1:15-17, 20-26
Acts 13:13-25
Acts 13:26-33
Acts 13:44-52

2nd
Rev 7:9, 14b-17

Gospel
John 10:27-30
Jn 10:1-10
John 10:22-30
John 15:9-17
John 13:16-20
John 14:1-6
John 14:7-14

Vespers
Acts 10:34-43
Acts 10:44-49
Acts 12:1-5
1 Cor 4:1-7
Acts 13:6-12
Acts 14:1-7
Acts 16:16-24

4th Sunday of Easter
2025-05-11
PERMANENT MYSTICAL KINSHIP
From a commentary by St Cyril of Alexandria 1
◊◊◊
The mark of Christ’s sheep is their willingness to hear and obey, just as the sign of those who are not his is their disobedience. We take the word “hear” to imply obedience to what has been said. People who hear God are known by him. No one is entirely unknown by God, but to be known in this way is to become his kin. Thus, when Christ says, “I know mine. I will receive them, and give them permanent mystical kinship with myself.”
It might be said that inasmuch as he has become man, he has made all human beings his kin, since all are members of the same race; we are all united to Christ in a mystical relationship because of his incarnation. Yet those who do not preserve the likeness of his holiness are alienated from him. “My sheep follow me”, says Christ. By a certain God given grace, believers follow in the footsteps of Christ. No longer subject to the shadows of the law, they obey the commands of Christ, and guided by his words rise through grace to their own dignity, for they are called children of God. When Christ ascends into heaven, they also follow him.
Christ promises his followers as a recompense and reward eternal life, exemption from death and corruption, and from the torments the judge inflicts upon transgressors. By giving life Christ shows that by nature he is life. He does not receive it from another, but supplies it from his own resources. And by eternal life we understand not only length of days which all, both good and bad, shall possess after the resurrection, but also the passing of those days in peace and joy.
We may also see in the word “life” a reference to the Eucharist. By means of which Christ implants in believers his own life through their sharing in his flesh, according to the text: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life”.
1
Journey with the Fathers = Year C – New City Press – 1984 – pg 54.

Vigils: Easter Weekday
2025-05-12
GOD HAS CONQUERED DEATH
From “The Eternal Year” by Fr Karl Rahner 2
◊◊◊
To do justice to the mystery of Easter joy with the stale words of human speech is rather difficult. This is so not only because every mystery of the Gospel penetrates only with difficulty into the narrow confines of human life – thereby making it even harder for our words to grasp and contain and express these mysteries – but because the Easter message is the most human tidings of Christianity. That is why we find it the most difficult message to understand. For what is most true, most obvious, and most easy, is the most difficult to be, to do, and to believe. That is to say, we modern people base our life on the unexpressed, and therefore all the more self-evident, prejudice that anything “religious” is merely an affair of the most interior heart and of the loftiest spirit – something that we must bring about by ourselves, something, therefore, that involves the difficulties and unreality of the heart’s thoughts and moods.
But Easter tells us that God has done something. God himself. And his action has not merely gently touched the heart of one here and there, so that they tremble slightly from an ineffable and nameless someone. God has raised his Son from the dead. God has quickened the flesh. God has conquered death. He has done this – he has conquered – not merely in the realm of inwardness, in the realm of thought, but in the realm where we, the glory of the human mind notwithstanding, are most really ourselves: in the actuality of this world, far from all “mere” thoughts and “mere” sentiments. He has conquered in the realm where we experience practically what we are in essence: children of the earth, who die.
2
The Eternal Year, Karl Rahner, Baltimore: Helicon Press 1964. pp.87f

Vigils: Easter Weekday
2025-05-13
THE CRUCIAL CHALLENGE
OF OUR CHRISTIAN FAITH
By Thomas Merton 3
◊◊◊
The season of Lent summoned us to change our hearts, to effect in ourselves the Christian metanoia…awakening in us perhaps some sense of that existential “dread” of the creature whose freedom suspends him over an abyss which may be an infinite meaninglessness, and unbounded despair…
But now the power of Easter has burst upon us with the resurrection of Christ. Now we find in ourselves a strength which is not our own, and which is freely given to us whenever we need it, raising us above the Law, giving us a new law which is hidden in Christ: the law of his merciful love for us. Now we no longer strive to be good because we have to, because it is a duty, but because our joy is to please him who has given all his love to us! Now our life is full of meaning.
Easter is the hour of our own deliverance – from what? Precisely from Lent and from its hard Law which accuses and judges our infirmity. We are no longer under the Law. We are delivered from the harsh judgment! Here is all the greatness and all the unimaginable splendor of the Easter mystery. Here is the “grace” of Easter which we fail to lay hands on because we are afraid to understand its full meaning. To understand Easter and live it, we must renounce our dread of newness and of freedom!
Death exercises a twofold power in our lives: it holds us by sin, and it holds us by the Law. To die to death and live a new life in Christ we must die not only to sin but also to the Law.
Every Christian knows that he must die to sin. But the great truth that St Paul exhausted himself to preach in season and out is a truth that we Christians have barely grasped, a truth that has got away from us, that constantly eludes us and has continued to do so for twenty centuries. We cannot get it into our heads what it means to be no longer slaves of the Law. And the reason is that we do not have the courage to face this truth which contains in itself the crucial challenge of our Christian faith, the great reality that makes Christianity different from every other religion.
3
New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1965, pp. 145-146.

Vigils: St. Matthias
2025-05-14
OUR VERY GLORY
IS OUR WARNING
By St John Henry Newman 4
◊◊◊
<The feast of St Matthias> is the only day which is to be celebrated with mingled feelings of joy and pain. It records the fall as well as the election of an Apostle. St Matthias was chosen in place of the traitor Judas. In the history of the latter we have the warning recorded in very deed, which our Lord in the text gives us in word, “Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” And doubtless many were the warnings such as this, addressed by our Lord to the wretched man who in the end betrayed him.
The reflection which rises in the mind on a consideration of the election of St Matthias, is this: how easily God may affect His purposes without us, and put others in our place, if we are disobedient to Him. It often happens that those who have long been in His favor grow secure and presuming. They think their salvation certain, and their service necessary to Him who has graciously accepted it. Now, this feeling of self-importance is repressed all through the Scriptures, and especially by the events we commemorate today.
What solemn overpowering thoughts must have crowded on St Matthias, when he received the greetings of the eleven Apostles, and took his seat among them as their brother! His very election was a witness against himself if he did not fulfill it. And such surely will ours be in our degree. We take the place of others who have gone before, as Matthias did; we are “baptized for the dead,” filling up the ranks of soldiers, some of whom, indeed, have fought a good fight, but many of whom in every age have made void their calling. Many are called, few are chosen. The monuments of sin and unbelief are set up around us. The casting away of the Jews was the reconciling of the Gentiles. The fall of one nation is the conversion of another. The Church loses old branches and gains new. God works according to His own inscrutable pleasure…
Thus the Christian of every age is but the successor of the lost and of the dead. How long we of this country shall be put in trust with Gospel, we know not; but while we have the privilege, assuredly we do but stand in the place of Christians who have either utterly fallen away, or are so corrupted as scarcely to let their light shine before others. We are at present witnesses of the Truth; and our very glory is our warning. By the superstitions, the profanities, the indifference, the unbelief of the world called “Christian”, we are called upon to be lowly-minded while we preach aloud, and to tremble while we rejoice. Let us then, as a Church and as individuals, one and all, look to Him who alone can keep us from falling. Let us with single heart look up to Christ our Saviour, and put ourselves into His hands, from whom all our strength and wisdom is derived.
4
Parochial and Plain Sermons, San Francisco: Ignatius, 1987, pp. 300-301, 304-305.

Vigils: St. Pachomius
2025-05-15
OUR RIGHTEOUS
FATHER PACHOMIUS
From “The Life of Pachomius” 5
◊◊◊
Theodore began to tell the brothers of the life of our father Pachomius from his childhood on and of all the labors he underwent from the beginning when he established the holy Koinonia. He told them of the temptations of demons and how he snatched away from them the souls which the Lord gave him and of the revelations which the Lord disclosed to him. And he told them everything he had heard from that saint’s mouth as well as those things he had seen with his own eyes.
He spoke to them as follows:
‘Listen to me, my brothers, and understand well the things I am telling you. For the man whom we are exalting is truly the father of us all after God. God established a covenant with him to save a great many souls by means of him. And us also the Lord has saved through his holy prayers… Our righteous father Pachomius – is also one of the holy people of God and one who did his will always and everywhere. I am fearful that we may forget his labors and actually be unmindful of who it was who made this multitude one spirit and one body. It was accomplished by means of him and of our other holy fathers who aided him in the establishment of this holy institution. We believe that the blessing of our father will remain with us and with those who come after us before God forever. Now then, let us not be negligent and forget his laws and his commandments, which he gave us while he was still with us in the body.’
‘Pachomius pursued in its entirety the way of life of the prophets and the way of service in which, according to the Gospel, our Lord walked. He was without blame before all, as you yourselves bear witness. You are also not unaware how he used to teach us frequently with tears, as Paul said in the book of the Acts of those whom he was teaching. You know how he used to gather us together daily and speak to us about the holy commandments so that we might observe each of the commandments in the holy Scriptures of Christ, and how he used first to put them into practice before giving them to us.
It is through our contact with such a righteous man that we have learned the will of God even in such details as the manner of stretching our hands upward to the Lord and how one should pray to God. It is he who taught it to us. Is it not right for us to bless him next after the Lord who created us? Indeed, did God not say to Abraham, who had done his will, I will bless him who blesses you and I will curse him who curses you? Now then, my brothers, let us all say, “Blessed be God and our righteous father Pachomius who through the labors of his prayers has become for us a guide to eternal life”‘.
5
Pachomian Koinonia, Vol One, Trans., Armand Veilleux, Kalamazoo, 1980; pp 237-8.

Vigisl: Easter Weekday
2025-05-16
THE LIGHT THAT IS LIFE
By Fr Gerald Vann 6
◊◊◊
The tree of death is also the tree of life; the tomb of death is the womb of life; it is through going down with Christ into his death that we are to be ourselves reborn; the dry bones shall live again because the Lord will send his Spirit into the bones: the rebirth is made possible through water and the Holy Spirit. Life, in other words, must come from without, from God; but at the same time we must be able to receive it: there are conditions to be fulfilled on our side and it is these that are expressed in terms of going down into the darkness, into the dark waters, into death.
For in death and darkness we can be freed from our pride and learn to be humble of heart: we can imitate the Word who ‘dispossessed himself and took the nature of a slave’ and then ‘lowered his own (human) dignity, accepted an obedience which brought him to death, death on a cross.’ And that is why, St Paul goes on, that is why ‘God has raised him to such a height, given him a name which is greater than any other name’: that is why: because of his self-humbling even to death.
Everywhere the spectacle confronts us of the destruction of what makes life worth living: our garden is laid waste, the beauty we have made is ravaged, the home is destroyed, the hearth a heap of dead ashes; and these things are images of a much deeper tragedy, the death of the soul. And the dry bones, it is clear, will never find life again of themselves, from within themselves. A dead heart can live again only if the two conditions are fulfilled, a dying world can live again only if the two conditions are fulfilled: if life is brought them from without, and if they themselves are able to receive it. But to be able to receive it they must first admit their own death; and human nature finds that very difficult to do. People will sometimes say that God is dead; they will very seldom admit that they themselves are dead; and if they do, it is all too often, like Judas, only with the sterile voice of despair.
In the Garden of Eden, the symbol of the life we might have had, the life we long for but have lost, there is a tree of life and a tree of knowledge: but we would not receive life, we wanted to seize it for ourselves, dominate over it; we would not receive knowledge of the truth, we wanted to fashion it for ourselves; and so the life is lost; we are expelled from the garden, and the soul dies. The soul dies because we wanted in our pride to make ourselves God; we tried to take to ourselves a glory that was not ours.
But now there is hope for us again because the Son of God did exactly the opposite: he dispossessed himself of the glory that was his and became a slave; and so in him humanity was healed, and in him we may each of us be healed, provided only that we in our turn do the same thing, reverse in the same way the primal sin, become humble enough to admit the death that is in us, the evil that is in us, and so, in that act of going down into the darkness where pride is killed, find again the light that is life.
6
The Water and the Fire, Gerald Vann O.P. Collins 1953 p.181-2.

Vigils: Easter Weekday
2025-05-17
THE FRATERNAL
CITY OF GOD
By Thierry Maertens & Jean Frisque 7
◊◊◊
Faith in the paschal mystery makes the world appear as an enormous edifice under construction! All are called, in Jesus Christ, to take their part in the building up of the fraternal city of God. This is a gigantic labour which demands the co-operation of all peoples and all cultures. Christ planted once and for all the seed of true salvation-history; this seed was his own life as human, lived with perfect fidelity unto death on the cross, a life whose significance is eternal because it was that of the Son. Beginning with this unique seed, the process of growth must continue until the Body of Christ has attained its perfect stature. This slow growth of the Kingdom here on earth – where the Kingdom takes shape without manifesting itself as such – progressively concerns humanity and the entire creation.
To the degree to which he takes part in the mission, the Christian will necessarily experience those “tribulations” of which St. Paul often speaks. How can they be avoided? The Kingdom is not constructed without a constant passage from death to life, and this work of love inevitably provokes the fierce resistance of the wisdom of this world. But, like St. Paul, the Christian “is overjoyed amid all afflictions”, because he knows that through them the final city is being built.
Christian hope is no longer the hope of Judaic person. For Israel, the Kingdom was not a thing to be built; it would appear fully achieved, so to speak. The Christian lives a hope in the dynamism of a task to be accomplished: the mission. The accomplishment will not come until the gospel has been preached to all the nations. But what does such a proclamation involve? It is a matter of implanting the mystery of Christ in time and space so that the light of Easter may effectively illumine the spiritual journey of all the peoples and cultures of the earth. This is a very long enterprise, because no sector of human life remains foreign to it. After twenty centuries, we are only beginning to measure the very close connection that exists between the mission of the Church and the history of humanity. St. Paul believed that the universal mission was a task he could undertake himself – at least he thought so for a time! Today, we have not finished discovering its whole amplitude.
7
Guide for the Christian Assembly. T. Maertens & J. Frisque. Biblica, Belgium, 1965, pp. 119-120.

Skema
2025-05-18
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
5th Week of Easter

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
May 18 – 24, 2025

Sun
18
Mon
19
Tue
20
Wed
21
Thu
22
Fri
23
Sat
24

Office
5th Sunday of Easter
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday

Vigils
Rev 18:21-19:10
Rev 19:11-21
Rev 20:1-15
Rev 21:1-8
Rev 21:9-27
Rev 22:1-9
Rev 22:10-21

Lauds
Col 2:9-15
Col 3:1-11
Col 3:12-17
1 Tim 1:1-7
1 Tim 1:12-17
1 Tim 2:1-7
1 Tim 4:6-10

Mass
54
285
286
287
288
289
290

1st
Acts 14:21-27
Acts 14:5-18
Acts 14:19-28
Acts 15:1-6
Acts 15:7-21
Acts 15:22-31
Acts 16:1-10

2nd
Rev 21:1-5a

Gospel
John 13:31-33a, 34-35
John 14:21-26
John 14:27-31a
John 15:1-8
John 15:9-11
John 15:12-17
John 15:18-21

Vespers
Acts 16:35-40
Acts 17:1-5a
Acts 17:10-15
Acts 17:16-23
Acts 18:18-23
Acts 19:8-12
Acts 19:13-20

Vigils Reading - 5th Sunday of Easter
2025-05-18
A LOVE THAT
TRANSCENDS THE LAW
From a commentary by St Cyril of Alexandria
◊◊◊
I give you a new commandment, said Jesus: Love one another. But how,
we might ask, could he call this commandment new? Through Moses, he said to
the people of old: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your mind. And your neighbor as yourself. Notice what follows. He was not
content simply to say, I give you a new commandment: love one another. He
showed the novelty of his command and how far the love he enjoined surpassed
the old conception of mutual love by going on immediately to add: Love one
another as I have loved you.
To understand the full force of these words, we have to consider how
Christ loved us. Then it will be easy to see what is new and different in the
commandment we are now given. Paul tells us that although his nature was
divine, he did not cling to his equality with God, but stripped himself of all
privilege to assume the condition of a slave. He became as we are, and
appearing in human form humbled himself by being obedient even to the
extent of dying on a cross. And elsewhere Paul writes: Though he was rich, he
became poor.
Do you not see what is new in Christ’s love for us? The law commanded
people to love their brothers and sisters as they love themselves, but our Lord
Jesus Christ loved us more than himself. He who was one in nature with God the
Father and his equal would not have descended to our lowly state, nor endured
in his flesh such a bitter death for us, nor submitted to the blows given him by
his enemies, to the shame, the derision, and all the other sufferings that could
not possibly have been enumerated, nor being rich, would he have become poor,
had he not loved us far more than himself. It was indeed something new for love
to go as far as that.
Christ commands us to love as he did, putting neither reputation, nor
wealth nor anything whatever before love of our brothers and sisters. If need be,
we must even be prepared to face death for our neighbor’s salvation as did our
Savior’s blessed disciples and those who followed in their footsteps. To them,
the salvation of others mattered more than their own lives and they were ready
to do anything or to suffer anything to save souls that were perishing. I die daily
, said Paul. Who suffers weakness without my suffering too? Who is made to
stumble without my heart blazing with indignation?
The Savior urged us to practice this love that transcends the law as the
foundation of true devotion to God. He knew that only in this way could we
become pleasing in God’s eyes, and that it was by seeking the beauty of the love
implanted in us by himself that we should attain to the higher blessings.

Vigils Reading
2025-05-19
THE MANY SECRET
RESURRECTIONS
From “The Risen Christ” by Caryll Houselander
◊◊◊
Christ seems to have fallen in love with our suffering, so passionately has
he laid hold of it and made it his. He is known to the whole world as the Man of
Sorrows. Yet he came to give us life, life full of joy. It was not with our suffering
that Christ fell in love, but with us. He identified himself so wholly with our
suffering, because our lives are necessarily made up of it. It is the inescapable
consequences of sin. No one can escape it; everyone must somehow either make
friends with suffering or be broken by it. No one can come close to another, let
alone love him, without coming closer to his suffering. Christ did far more, he
wed himself to our suffering, he made Death his bride, and in the
consummation of his love, he gave her his life. Christ has lived each of our lives,
he has faced all our fears, suffered all our griefs, overcome all our temptations,
labored in all our labors, loved in all our loves, died all our deaths.
He took our humanity, just as it is, with all its wretchedness and ugliness,
and gave it back to us just as his humanity is, transfigured by the beauty of his
living, filled full of his joy. He came back from the long journey through death,
to give us his Risen Life to be our life, so that no matter what suffering we meet,
we can meet it with the whole power of the love that has overcome the world. “I
have said this to you, so that in me you may find peace. In the world, you will
only find tribulation; but take courage, I have overcome the world“.
He has come back as spring comes back out of the ground, renewing the
earth with life, to be a continual renewing of life in our hearts, that we may
continually renew one another’s life in his love, that we may be his Resurrection
in the world. We are the resurrection, going on always, always giving back
Christ’s life to the world.
In every life there are many secret resurrections. In our sin, we are the
tombs in which Christ lies dead, but at the first movement of sorrow for sin he
rises from the dead in us, the life of the world is renewed by our sorrow, the soul
that was in darkness radiates the morning light. In the moment that we are
forgiven, the world is flooded with forgiveness. No wonder that angels rejoice
when one sinner does penance more than over the ninety-nine who need no
penance, for the resurrection in the soul of the sinner is complete. It is not just
the poor sinner licking his wounds and limping on, crippled by the past; it is
Christ risen, alive, whole.
