Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Vigils Reading
2025-10-21
CHRISTIAN UNITY
From the Encyclical “Ut Unum Sint” by Pope St John Paul II
◊◊◊
The Second Vatican Council exhorts “all Christ’s faithful to remember
that the more they strive to live according to the Gospel, the more they are
fostering and even practicing Christian unity. For they can achieve depth and
ease in strengthening mutual brotherhood to the degree that they enjoy
profound communion with the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit. “This
change of heart and holiness of life, along with public and private prayer for the
unity of Christians should be regarded as the soul of the whole ecumenical
movement, and can rightly be called ‘spiritual ecumenism’.”
We proceed along the road leading to the conversion of hearts guided by
love which is directed to God and, at the same time, to all our brothers and
sisters, including those not in full communion with us. Love gives rise to the
desire for unity, even in those who have never been aware of the need for it. Love
builds communion between individuals and between Communities. If we love
one another, we strive to deepen our communion and make it perfect. Love is
given to God as the perfect source of communion – the unity of Father, Son and
Holy Spirit – that we may draw from that source the strength to build
communion between individuals and Communities or to reestablish it between
Christians still divided. Love is the great undercurrent which gives life and adds
vigor to the movement toward unity.
This love finds its most complete expression in common prayer. When
brothers and sisters who are not in perfect communion with one another come
together to pray, the Second Vatican Council defines their prayer as the soul of
the whole ecumenical movement. This prayer is “a very effective means of
petitioning for the grace of unity”, “a genuine expression of ties which even now
bind Catholics to their separated brethren. Even when prayer is not specifically
offered for Christian unity, but for other intentions such as peace, it actually
becomes an expression and confirmation of unity. The common prayer of
Christians is an invitation to Christ himself to visit the community of those who
call upon him: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the
midst of them.”
Along the ecumenical path to unity, pride of place certainly belongs to
common prayer; the prayerful union of those who gather together around Christ
himself. If Christians, despite their divisions, can grow ever more united in
common prayer around Christ, they will grow in the awareness of how little
divides them in comparison to what unites them. Fellowship in prayer leads
people to look at the Church and Christianity in a new way. It must not be
forgotten in fact that the Lord prayed to the Father that his disciples might be
one, so that their unity might bear witness to his mission and that the world
would believe that the Father had sent him. “Ecumenical prayer” is at the
service of the Christian mission and its credibility. It must be especially present
in the life of the Church and in every activity aimed at fostering Christian unity.

Vigils Reading - St John Paul II
2025-10-22
THE ONE SAVIOR OF ALL
From the Encyclical “Redemptoris Missio” by Pope St John Paul II
◊◊◊
The redemption event brings salvation to all, “for each one is included in
the mystery of the redemption and with each one Christ has united himself
forever through this mystery.” It is only in faith that the Church’s mission can be
understood and only in faith that it finds its basis.
If we go back to the beginnings of the Church, we find a clear affirmation
that Christ is the one Savior of all, the only one able to reveal God and lead to
God. In reply to the Jewish religious authorities who question the apostles
about the healing of the lame man, Peter says: “There is no other name under
heaven given men by which we must be saved”. This statement, which was made
to the Sanhedrin, has a universal value, since for all people – Jews and Gentiles
alike – salvation can only come from Jesus Christ.
The universality of this salvation in Christ is asserted throughout the New
Testament. St Paul acknowledges the risen Christ as the Lord. He writes:
“Although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth – as indeed there
are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’ – yet for us there is only one God, the Father,
from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ,
through whom are all things and through whom we exist”. One God and one
Lord are asserted by way of contrast to the multitude of “gods” and “lords”
commonly accepted. Paul reacts against the polytheism of the religious
environment of his time and emphasizes what is characteristic of the Christian
faith: belief in one God and one Lord sent by God.
In the Gospel of St John, this salvific universality of Christ embraces all
the aspects of his mission of grace, truth and revelation: the Word is “the true
light that enlightens every person”. And again: “no one has ever seen God; the
only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known”. God’s
revelation becomes definitive and complete through his only-begotten Son: “In
many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in
these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all
things, through whom he created the world”.
In this definitive Word of his revelation, God has made himself known in
the fullest possible way. He revealed to mankind who he is. This definitive self-
revelation of God is the fundamental reason why the Church is missionary by
her very nature. She cannot do otherwise than proclaim the Gospel, that is, the
fullness of the truth which God has enabled us to know about himself…
No one, therefore, can enter into communion with God except through
Christ, by the working of the Holy Spirit. Christ’s one, universal mediation, far
from being an obstacle on the journey toward God, is the way established by
God himself… It is precisely this uniqueness of Christ which gives him an
absolute and universal significance, whereby, while belonging to history, he
remains history’s center and goal: “…the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the
last, the beginning and the end.”

Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
2025-10-23
THE CALL OF THE APOSTLES
By Fr Romano Guardini
◊◊◊
What are “Apostles” really? Frankly; the impression we get from the New
Testament hardly permits us to claim that these men were great or ingenious in
the worldly sense. It is difficult even to count them “great religious
personalities,” if by this we mean bearers of inherent spiritual talents. John and
Paul were probably exceptions, but we only risk misunderstanding them both
by overstating this. On the whole, we do “Apostles” no service by considering
them great religious personalities. This attitude is usually the beginning of
unbelief. Personal importance, spiritual creativeness, dynamic faith are not
decisive in their lives. What counts is that Jesus Christ has called them, pressed
his seal upon them, and sent them forth.
“You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and have appointed you
that you should go and bear fruit”. Apostles then are those who are sent. It is
not they who speak, but Christ in them.
In his first Corinthian [letter] Paul distinguishes nicely between the
instructions of “the Lord” and what he, Paul, has to say. The Lord’s words are
commands; his own, suggestions. Each apostle is filled with Christ, saturated
with thought of Christ; the Lord, whom they represent, is the substance of their
life. What they teach is not what they have learned from personal “experience”
or “revelation,” it is God’s word, uttered upon God’s command: “Go, therefore,
and make disciples of all nations teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you”. To this end alone have the apostles been called, and their
very limitations seem an added protection to the truth they bear.
When Jesus says: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that
you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed
them to little ones”, it is an outburst of jubilation over the unutterable mystery
of God’s love and creative glory. Spiritually, the apostles are seldom more than
“little ones;” [and it is] precisely this [that] guarantees the purity of their role as
messenger.
To be nothing in oneself, everything in Christ; to be obliged to contain
such tremendous contents in so small a vessel; to be a constant herald with no
life of one’s own; to forego once and forever the happy unity of blood and heart
and spirit in all one does and is—something of the trials of such an existence
dawns on us when we read the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians, of that
Paul who experienced so deeply the simultaneous greatness and
questionableness of apostledom: “For I think God has set forth us the apostles
last of all, as men doomed to death, seeing that we have been made a spectacle
to the world, and to angels, and to men.”

Vigils Reading
2025-10-24
THE TRUE NATURE
OF THE CHURCH
From “Life and Holiness” by Thomas Merton
◊◊◊
We must not regard the Church purely as an institution or an
organization. She is certainly visible and clearly recognizable in her teachings,
her government, and her worship. These are the external lineaments through
which we may see the interior radiance of her soul. This soul is not merely
human, it is divine. It is the Holy Spirit itself. The Church, like Christ, lives and
acts in a manner at once human and divine. Certainly there is imperfection in
the human members of Christ, but their imperfection is inseparably united to
his perfection, sustained by his power, and purified by his holiness, as long as
they remain in living union with him by faith and love.
Through these members of his the Almighty Redeemer infallibly
sanctifies, guides, and instructs us, and he uses us also to express his love for
them. Hence the true nature of the Church is that of a body in which all the
members “bear one another’s burdens” and act as instruments of divine
providence in regard to one another. Those are most sanctified who enter most
fully into the life-giving Communion of Saints who dwell in Christ. Their joy is to
taste the pure streams of that river of life whose waters gladden the whole City of
God.
Our perfection is therefore not just an individual affair, it is also a
question of growth in Christ, deepening of our contact with him in and through
the Church… This means, of course, a closer union with our brethren in Christ, a
closer and more fruitful integration with them in the living, growing spiritual
organism of the Mystical Body.
This does not mean that spiritual perfection is a matter of social
conformism. The mere fact of becoming a well working cog in an efficient
religious machine will never make anyone into a saint if he does not seek God
interiorly in the sanctuary of his own soul.
For example, the common life of religious, regulated by traditional
observances and blessed by the authority of the Church, is obviously a most
precious means of sanctification. It is, for the religious, one of the essentials of
his state. But it is still only a framework. As such, it has its purpose. It must be
used. But the scaffolding must not be mistaken for the actual building. The real
building of the Church is a union of hearts in love, sacrifice, and self-
transcendence. The strength of this building depends on the extent to which the
Holy Spirit gains possession of each person’s heart, not on the extent to which
our exterior conduct is organized and disciplined by an expedient system.
Human social life inevitably requires a certain order, and those who love
their brother and sister in Christ will generously sacrifice themselves to
preserve this order. But…the most important, the most real, and lasting work of
the Christian is accomplished in the depths of his own soul. It cannot be seen by
anyone, even by himself. It is…the interior, anguished, almost desperately
solitary act by which we affirm our total subjection to God…

Vigils Reading - Memorial of BVM
2025-10-25
THE HUMILITY OF
GOD’S HANDMAIDEN
By St Bernard of Clairvaux
◊◊◊
You can be saved without virginity; without humility you cannot be.
Humility which deplores the loss of virginity can still find favor. Yet I dare say
that without humility not even Mary’s virginity would have been acceptable.
The Lord says, “Upon whom shall my Spirit rest, if not upon him that is humble
and contrite in spirit?” On the humble, he says, not on the virgin. Had Mary not
been humble, then the Holy Spirit would not have rested upon her. Had he not
rested upon her, she would not have become pregnant. How indeed could she
have conceived by him without him?
It seems evident then that she conceived by the Holy Spirit because, as she
herself said, God “regarded the humility of his handmaiden” rather than her
virginity. And even if it was because of her virginity that she found favor, she
conceived nevertheless on account of her humility. Thus there is no doubt that
her virginity was found pleasing because her humility made it so.
What have you to say to that, haughty virgin? Mary, making no account of
her virginity, was happy in her humility. Yet you, heedless of humility, preen
yourself on your virginity? “God has regarded the humility of his handmaiden,”
she says. Who is she? A holy virgin, if ever there was one! A sober virgin, a
devout virgin. Would you be more chaste than she? More devout? Do you fancy
that your modesty is so much more pleasing than Mary’s chastity that you on
your own can do without the humility she needed to find favor with God? If so,
to the extent that you are more worthy of respect because you have received a
singular gift of chastity, you do yourself more harm, because you tarnish its
beauty by the adulteration of pride.
It is better for you not to be a virgin than to be puffed up over your
virginity. Not everyone is a virgin, but there are still fewer who join humility to
virginity. So if you can do no more than admire Mary’s virginity, try to imitate
her humility and for you this will be enough. But if you are both a virgin and
humble, then whoever you are, you are great.

Skema 30th Week in Ordinary Time
2025-10-26
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
30th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
Oct. 26 – Nov. 1, 2025

Sun
26
Mon
27
Tue
28
Wed
29
Thu
30
Fri
31
Sat
1

Office
30th Sunday
Weekday
SS Simon & Jude
Weekday
Weekday
Weekday
All Saints

Vigils
Daniel 1:1-21
Daniel 2:1-25
1 Cor 4:1-16
Daniel 2:26-49
Daniel 3:1-23
Daniel 3:24-45
Rev 5:1-14

Lauds
Zech 8:12-17
Zech 8:18-23
Jerm 3:11-18
Zech 9: 1-7
Zech 9:8-10
Zech 9:11-17
Sir 44:1-15

Mass
150
479
666
481
482
483
667

1st
Sir 35:12-14, 16-18
Rom 8:12-17
Eph 2:19-22
Rom 8:26-30
Rom 8:31b-39
Rom 9:1-5
Rev 7:2-4, 9-14

2nd
2 Tim 4:6-8, 16-18

1 Jn 3:1-3

Gospel
Luke 18:9-14
Luke 13:10-17
Luke 6:12-16
Luke 13:22-30
Luke 13:31-35
Luke 14:1-6
Matt 5:1-12a

Vespers
Jas 3:5b-12
Jas 3:13-18
Jude 17-21
Jas 4:1-4
Jas 4:5-12
Heb 11:32-12:2
Rev 19:5-9

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
2025-10-26
THE TAX COLLECTOR
AND THE PHARISEE
From a commentary by St Gregory Palamas1
◊◊◊
The spiritual champion of evil is full of resources for its furtherance. It has often happened that as soon as the foundations of virtue have been laid in a soul, he has begun to undermine them with despair and lack of faith. Often too, when the walls of the house of virtue were being built, he has assaulted them by means of inertia and indolence. Even when the house has been roofed over with good works, he has used arrogance and presumption to destroy it.
Nevertheless, stand firm and do not be afraid, for anyone zealous in doing good is even more resourceful. In resisting evil, virtue has the greater power, since it receives heavenly assistance from him who can do all things. And who confirms all virtue’s lovers in goodness. Consequently, virtue not only remains unmoved by the manifold wicked wiles of the adversary, but even has the power to raise up and restore those sunk in the depths of evil, and easily to lead them back to God through repentance and humility…
The tax collector, in spite of his profession and of having lived in the depths of sin, joins the ranks of those living upright lives through a single prayer, and that a short one, he is relieved of his burden of sin, he is lifted up, he rises above all evil, and is admitted to the company of the righteous, justified by the impartial judge himself. The Pharisee, on the other hand, is condemned by his prayer in spite of being a Pharisee, and in his own eyes a person of importance. Because his “righteousness” is false and his indolence extreme, every syllable he utters provokes God’s anger.
But why does humility raise us to the heights of holiness, and self-conceit plunges us into the abyss of sin? It is because when we have a high regard of ourselves, and that in the presence of God, He quite reasonably abandons us, since we think we have no need of His assistance. But when we regard ourselves as nothing and therefore look to heaven for mercy, it is not unreasonable that we should obtain God’s compassion, help and grace. For, as Scripture says: “The Lord resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
“This man went away justified, and not the other”, says the Lord; “because all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be exalted”. For since the devil is pride itself, and arrogance his own particular vice, this sin conquers and drags down with itself every human virtue tinged with it. Similarly, humility before God is the virtue of the good angels, and it conquers every human vice to which a sinner has fallen prey.
Humility is the chariot in which the ascent to God is made upon the clouds that are to carry up to Him those destined to be with God for endless ages, according to the apostle’s prophecy: “We shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we always be with the Lord.” For humility is like a cloud. Produced by repentance, it draws streams of tears from the eyes, makes unworthy people worthy, and raises up and presents to God those freely justified by reason of their right dispositions
1 Journey with the Fathers – New City Press – 1984 – pg 128.

Vigils Weekday
2025-10-27
THE ENJOYMENT OF GOD
From “The Golden Epistle” by William of St Thierry 2
◊◊◊
To “seek the face of God” is to seek knowledge of him face to face, as Jacob saw him. It is of this knowledge the Apostle says: “Then I shall know as I am known; now we see in a confused reflection in a mirror, but then we shall see face to face, we shall see him as he is.” Always to seek God in this life by keeping the hands unstained and the heart clean is that piety which, as Job says, “is the worship of God.” The man who lacks it “has received his soul in vain,” that is to say, lives to no purpose or does not live at all, since he does not live the life to live which he received his soul.
This piety is the continual remembrance of God, an unceasing effort of the mind to know him, an unwearied concern of the affections o love him, so that, I will not say every day, but every hour finds the servant of God occupied in the labor of ascesis and the effort to make progress, or in the sweetness of experience and the joy of fruition. This is the piety concerning which the Apostle exhorts his beloved disciple in the words: “Train yourself to grow up in piety; for training the body avails but little, while piety is all-availing, since it promises well both for this life and for the next.
The habit you wear promises not only the outward form of piety but its substance, in all things and before all things, and that is what your vocation demands. For, as the apostle says again, there are some who exhibit the outward form of religion although they are strangers to its meaning.
If anyone among you does not possess this in his heart, display it in his life, practice it in his cell, he is to be called not a solitary but a man who is alone, and his cell is not a cell for him but a prison in which he is walled. For truly to be alone is not to have God with one. Truly to be walled in is not to be at liberty in God. Solitude and being walled in are words that denote wretchedness, whereas the cell should never involve being walled in by necessity but rather be the dwelling-place of peace, an inner chamber with closed door, a place not of concealment but of retreat.
The man who has God with him is never less alone than when he is alone. It is then he has undisturbed fruition of his joy. It is then he is his own master and is free to enjoy God in himself and himself in God. It is then that in the light of truth and the serenity of a clean heart a pure soul stands revealed to itself without effort, and the memory enlivened by God freely pours itself out in itself. Then either the mind is enlightened and the will enjoys its good or human frailty freely weeps over its shortcomings.
Accordingly as your vocation demands, dwelling in heaven rather than in cells, you have shut out the world, whole and entire, from yourselves and shut up yourselves, whole and entire, with God. For the cell (cella) and heaven (coelum) are akin to one another: the resemblance between the words is borne out by the devotion they both involve. For both appear to be derived from celare, to hide, and the same thing is hidden in cells as in heaven, the same occupation characterizes both the one and the other. What is this? Leisure devoted to God, the enjoyment of God.
2
The Golden Epistle – William of St Thierry – Cistercian Fathers Series #12 – Cistercian Publications – Kalamazoo, MI – 1971 – pg.

Weekday Vigils
2025-10-27
THE ENJOYMENT OF GOD
From “The Golden Epistle” by William of St Thierry 2
◊◊◊
To “seek the face of God” is to seek knowledge of him face to face, as Jacob saw him. It is of this knowledge the Apostle says: “Then I shall know as I am known; now we see in a confused reflection in a mirror, but then we shall see face to face, we shall see him as he is.” Always to seek God in this life by keeping the hands unstained and the heart clean is that piety which, as Job says, “is the worship of God.” The man who lacks it “has received his soul in vain,” that is to say, lives to no purpose or does not live at all, since he does not live the life to live which he received his soul.
This piety is the continual remembrance of God, an unceasing effort of the mind to know him, an unwearied concern of the affections to love him, so that, I will not say every day, but every hour finds the servant of God occupied in the labor of ascesis and the effort to make progress, or in the sweetness of experience and the joy of fruition. This is the piety concerning which the Apostle exhorts his beloved disciple in the words: “Train yourself to grow up in piety; for training the body avails but little, while piety is all-availing, since it promises well both for this life and for the next.
The habit you wear promises not only the outward form of piety but its substance, in all things and before all things, and that is what your vocation demands. For, as the apostle says again, there are some who exhibit the outward form of religion although they are strangers to its meaning.
If anyone among you does not possess this in his heart, display it in his life, practice it in his cell, he is to be called not a solitary but a man who is alone, and his cell is not a cell for him but a prison in which he is walled. For truly to be alone is not to have God with one. Truly to be walled in is not to be at liberty in God. Solitude and being walled in are words that denote wretchedness, whereas the cell should never involve being walled in by necessity but rather be the dwelling-place of peace, an inner chamber with closed door, a place not of concealment but of retreat.
The man who has God with him is never less alone than when he is alone. It is then he has undisturbed fruition of his joy. It is then he is his own master and is free to enjoy God in himself and himself in God. It is then that in the light of truth and the serenity of a clean heart a pure soul stands revealed to itself without effort, and the memory enlivened by God freely pours itself out in itself. Then either the mind is enlightened and the will enjoys its good or human frailty freely weeps over its shortcomings.
Accordingly as your vocation demands, dwelling in heaven rather than in cells, you have shut out the world, whole and entire, from yourselves and shut up yourselves, whole and entire, with God. For the cell (cella) and heaven (coelum) are akin to one another: the resemblance between the words is borne out by the devotion they both involve. For both appear to be derived from celare, to hide, and the same thing is hidden in cells as in heaven, the same occupation characterizes both the one and the other. What is this? Leisure devoted to God, the enjoyment of God.
2
The Golden Epistle – William of St Thierry – Cistercian Fathers Series #12 – Cistercian Publications – Kalamazoo, MI – 1971 – pg.

SS. Simon & Jude
2025-10-28
THE ZEAL OF THE APOSTLES
From a sermon by St John Henry Newman 3
◊◊◊
The Apostles commemorated on this Festival <of St Simon and St Jude> direct our attention to the subject of Zeal. St Simon is called…the Zealous; a title given him (as is supposed) from his belonging before his conversion to the Jewish sect of Zealots, which professed extraordinary Zeal for the Law… The <designation> marks him as distinguished for this particular Christian grace. St Jude’s Epistle, which forms part of the service of the day, is almost wholly upon the duty of manifesting Zeal for Gospel Truth, and opens with a direct exhortation to “contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints.”
It will be a more simple account of Zeal, to call it the earnest desire for God’s honor, leading to strenuous and bold deeds in His behalf; and that in spite of all obstacles. Now Zeal is one of the elementary religious qualifications; that is, one of those which are essential in the very notion of a religious man. A man cannot be said to be in earnest in religion, till he magnifies his God and Savior; till he so far consecrates and exalts the thought of Him in his heart, as an object of praise, and adoration, and rejoicing, as to be pained and grieved at dishonor shown to Him, and eager to avenge Him. In a word, a religious temper is one of loyalty towards God; and we all know what is meant by being loyal from the experience of civil matters.
To be loyal is not merely to obey; but to obey with promptitude, energetic dutifulness, disinterested devotion, disregard of consequences. And such is Zeal, except that it is ever attended with that reverential feeling which is due from a creature and a sinner towards his Maker, and towards Him alone. It is the main principle in all religious service to love God above all things; now, Zeal is to love Him above all other people, above our dearest and most intimate friends. This was the special praise of the Levites, which gained for them the reward of the Priesthood, that is, their executing judgment on the people in the sin of the golden calf. Zeal is the very consecration of God’s Ministers to their office.
Accordingly our Blessed Savior, the One Great High Priest… of all Priests who went before Him and the Lord and Strength of all who come after, began His manifestation of Himself by two acts of Zeal. When twelve years old he deigned to put before us in representation the sacredness of this duty, when He remained in the Temple “while His father and mother sought Him sorrowing,” and on their finding Him, returned answer, “Do you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?
And again, at the opening of His public Ministry, He went into the Temple, and “made a scourge of small cords, and drove out the sheep and oxen, and overthrew the changers’ tables” that profaned it: thus fulfilling the prophecy contained in the text, “Zeal for your house has eaten me up.” Being thus consumed by Zeal Himself, no wonder He should choose His followers from among the Zealous.
3
“Christian Zeal,” in Parochial and Plain Sermons, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1987, pp. 464 ff.

Weekday
2025-10-29
THE SPIRIT OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH
By Dom Damasus Winzen 4
◊◊◊
The fact that the Church is rather a gift of the Spirit than the fruit of human endeavor…makes the Acts of the Apostles of vital importance to the Christians of all ages. We people of the “century of progress” do not look into the past to find there the pattern for the future. Accustomed as we are to think in terms of progress, any beginnings bear to us the mark of imperfection. The life of the Church, however, is not ruled by the laws of human progress. Not being built up from the ground, but descending from above, the growth of the Church is like that of a seed, the gradual unfolding of a fundamental structure which is wholly present already in the initial stage.
The risen Christ is the “seed” out of which the Church grows as an overflow of his abundance. From Christ the Church receives the divine life in the vessel of the sacraments, to be administered, not to be produced. From Christ she receives the full light of revelation as an unalterable deposit, to be handed down, not to be invented. The risen Christ sends to his Church the fullness of the Holy Spirit so that St Peter can truly state, on the very day when the Church is born, that this outpouring of the Spirit is the fulfillment of an event which, as Joel had announced, would come about “in the last days”.
The apostolic Church is the Church of “the first love”. The apostles who govern her are endowed with a fullness of grace never to be given to any of their successors. The Church is built, once and forever, upon “the foundation of the apostles”. For this reason the history of the Church is to a large extent the history of “reformations”. Again and again the Church has returned to the apostolic pattern.
To restore the spirit of the apostolic Church in its original purity and zeal was the avowed purpose of all the great saints and reformers. The Rule of St Benedict is nothing but an attempt to reestablish the ideal apostolic Church within the confines of a monastery. St Francis, St Dominic, St Ignatius and the great number of their followers received the inspiration for their Orders from the Acts of the Apostles. The apostolic Church remains a model for our times too; not that we want to turn back the wheel of history and copy the external forms of a past age, which is impossible, but because we realize that the waters of the Holy Spirit are nowhere as pure as at their source.
4
Damasus Winzen, Pathways in Scripture, Ann Arbor, MI: Word of Life, 1976, pp. 280-81.

Weekday
2025-10-30
A JOYFUL AND GENUINE
HUMILITY
From a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux 5
◊◊◊
Do you see that humility makes us righteous? I say humility and not humiliation. How many are humiliated who are not humble! There are some who meet humiliation with rancor, some with patience, some again with cheerfulness. The first kind are culpable, the second are innocent, the last just. Innocence is indeed a part of justice, but only the humble possess it perfectly. He who can say: “It was good for me that you humiliated me,” is truly humble.
The person who endures it unwillingly cannot say this; still less the one who murmurs. To neither of these do I promise grace on the grounds of being humiliated, although the two are vastly different from each other, since the one possesses his own soul in his patience, while the other perishes in his murmuring. For even if only one of them does merit anger, neither of them merits grace, because it is not to the humiliated but to the humble that God gives grace. But he is humble who turns humiliation into humility, and he is the one who says to God: “It was good for me that you humiliated me.”
What is merely endured with patience is good for nobody, it is an obvious embarrassment. On the other hand we know that “God loves a cheerful giver.” Hence even when we fast we are told to anoint our head with oil and wash our face, that our good work might be seasoned with spiritual joy and our holocaust made fat. For it is the possession of a joyful and genuine humility that alone enables us to receive grace. But the humility that is due to necessity or constraint, that we find in the patient person who keeps his self-possession, cannot win God’s favor because of the accompanying sadness, although it will preserve his life because of patience. Since he does not accept humiliation spontaneously or willingly, one cannot apply to such a person the scriptural commendation that the humble man may glory in his exaltation.
If you wish for an example of a humble person glorying with all due propriety, and truly worthy of glory, take Paul when he says that gladly will he glory in his weaknesses that the power of Christ may dwell within him. He does not say that he will bear his weaknesses patiently, but he will even glory in them, and that willingly, thus proving that to him it is good that he is humiliated, and that it is not sufficient that one keep his self-possession by patience when he is humbled; to receive grace one must embrace humiliation willingly.
You may take as a general rule that everyone who humbles himself will be exalted. It is significant that not every kind of humility is to be exalted, but that which the will embraces; it must be free of compulsion or sadness. Nor on the contrary must everyone who is exalted be humiliated, but only he who exalts himself, who pursues a course of vain display. Therefore it is not the one who is humiliated who will be exalted, but he who voluntarily humiliates himself; it is merited by this attitude of will. Even suppose that the occasion of humiliation is supplied by another, by means of insults, damages or sufferings, the victim who determines to accept all these for God’s sake with a quiet, joyful conscience, cannot properly be said to be humiliated by anyone but himself.
5
(CF 7:162-163).

Weekday
2025-10-31
THE PATIENCE OF GOD
From a treatise by St Cyprian 6
◊◊◊
Dearly Beloved in the Lord, when we speak of patience and when we preach on its benefits and advantages, what better way to begin than to point out the fact that now, just for you to listen to me, patience is necessary. For you could not hear and learn without patience. Only then is the word of God and the way of salvation effectively learned, if one listens with patience to what is being said. For nothing is more to be preferred to it in all the ways of heavenly discipline, when it comes to seeking the God-given rewards of our hope and faith. Patience is the virtue we should maintain in a special way and with extreme care, whether we find it beneficial to our life or to the attainment of glory. Either way, it befits us who strive to follow the Lord’s precepts with fear and devotion.
How wonderful and how great is the patience of God! He endures most patiently the profane temples, the earthly images and idolatrous rites that our ancestors set up in insult to His majesty and honor. He makes the day to rise and the sun to shine equally over the good and the evil. When He waters the earth with showers no one is excluded from His benefits, but He bestows His rains without distinction on the just and the unjust alike. His Patience has an unbroken equality toward the guilty and the innocent, the religious and the impious, the grateful and the ungrateful. On one and all alike, the seasons obey and the elements serve, the winds blow, fountains flow, harvests increase in abundance, the fruits of the vines ripen, trees are heavy with fruit, the groves become green, and the meadows burst into flower.
And although God is provoked by frequent, yes even continual, offenses, He tempers His anger and patiently waits for the day of retribution which He once foreordained. And although vengeance is in His power, He prefers to be longsuffering in His patience, that is, waiting steadfastly and delaying in His mercy so that, if it is at all possible, the long career of malice at some time may change, and we, however deeply we are infected with the contagion of error and crime, may be converted to God even at a late hour, as He Himself warns and says: I have no pleasure in the death of anyone. And again: Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, patient, and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil.
6
De Bono Patientiae, CCL IIIa, cc 1,4; pp. 118-119.

All Saints
2025-11-01
UNDER GOD’S
MIGHTY HAND
From a sermon by St Aelred of Rievaulx 7
◊◊◊
My brothers, if we are not qualified to speak of one of God’s saints and proclaim her glory, how qualified are we to give a sermon of all of the saints? It is all the more necessary that we bear ourselves in a way enabling us to come to share their glory. What then must we do? How can we attain these heights? Accordingly…let us listen to some wholesome advice. For whom should we be more ready to believe than someone who has already attained that glory? He certainly knows the way by which he went up. Let us listen then to one of the great friends of Jesus telling us: Humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand that he may raise you up.
You know how today throughout the entire world everyone is praising God’s saints – the angels and archangels, the apostles, the martyrs, confessors, virgins… Ponder, if you can, how exalted in heaven are those who can be exalted and honored in this way on earth. Surely…if we could behold all the glory of the world and all the praise of the world and all the joy of the world at the same time, in comparison with their joy it is nothing but absolute misery…
As for us…who do not see these things, let us ponder and delight in the true loveliness in which the saints live free of corruption; in those spiritual ornaments that the saints possess in righteousness and holiness: in the hymns and praises with which they praise God without weariness; and in that light which they see in the face of God. And let us keep our feasts in such a way that our mind is not turned back to those earthly and perishable delights but rather is roused to those that are spiritual and eternal. And so let us reflect on their glory and exaltation.
To enable us to reach this exaltation, let us listen to the advice of the Apostle: Humble yourselves beneath the mighty hand of God. The Apostle was very aware of the reason why we are cast down, why we have lost that exaltation in which we were created, why we were driven out into this unhappiness. What is this reason…if not pride? Therefore, to counteract this pride he taught humility. Humble yourselves, he says. But because he knew that not all those who humble themselves humble themselves wisely, he therefore added: under the mighty hand of God...
Therefore…let us humble ourselves beneath God’s mighty hand that he may lift us up at the time of his visitation. May he lift us up through good deeds and through holy desires, so that when he comes at that great visitation when he will demand from everyone an account of what they have done in this life, he may lift us up totally and we may hear that endearing voice saying: Come, you blessed of my Father. Receive the kingdom that has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world.
7
Aelred of Rievaulx – The Liturgical Sermons – Cistercian Fathers Series – #58 – Cistercian Publications – Kalamazoo – 2001 – pg 346.

Skema: 31st Week in Ordinary Time
2025-11-02
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
31st Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
November 2 – 8, 2025

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

Office
All Souls
Weekday
St Charles Borromeo
Weekday
Weekday
Weekday
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Ezek 37:1-14
Daniel 3:46-70
Daniel 3:71-90
Daniel 3:91-100
Daniel 4:1-15
Daniel 4:16-34
Daniel 5:1-12

Lauds
Job 14:1-12
Zech 10:1-5
Zech 10:6-12
Zech 11:1-6
Zech 11:7-14
Zech 11:15-17
Zech 12:1-6

Mass
668
485
486
487
488
489
490

1st
Wis 3:1-9
Rom 11:29-36
Rom 12:5-16ab
Rom 13:8-10
Rom 14:7-12
Rom 15:14-21
Rom 16:3-9, 16, 22-27

2nd
2 Cor 5:1, 6-10

Gospel
John 11:17-27
Luke 14:12-14
Luke 14:15-24
Luke 14:25-33
Luke 15:1-10
Luke 16:1-8
Luke 16:9-15

Vespers
1 Thess 4:13-18
Jas 4:13-17
Jas 5:1-6
Jas 5:7-12
Jas 5:13-20
2 Pet 1:1-9
1 Pet 2:1-10

31st Sunday
2025-11-02
THE LOVE BETWEEN
GOD AND THE SOUL
From “Purgation and Purgatory” by St Catherine of Genoa 1
◊◊◊
The souls in purgatory cannot think, “I am here, and justly so because of my sins,” or “I wish I had never committed such sins for now I would be in paradise,” or “That person there is leaving before me,” or “I will leave before that one.” They cannot remember the good or evil in their past nor that of others.
Such is their joy in God’s will, in his pleasure, that they have no concern for themselves but dwell only in their joy in God’s ordinance. They see only the goodness of God, his mercy toward all. Should they be aware of other good or evil, theirs would not be perfect charity. Only once do they understand the reason for their purgatory: the moment in which they leave this life. After this moment, that knowledge disappears. Immersed in charity, incapable of deviating from it, they can only will or desire pure love. There is no joy save that in paradise to be compared with the joy of the souls in purgatory.
As the rust of sin is consumed the soul is more and more open to God’s love. Just as a covered object left out in the sun cannot be penetrated by the sun’s rays, in the same way, once the covering of the soul is removed, the soul opens itself fully to the rays of the sun. Having become one with God’s will, these souls, to the extent that he grants it to them, see into God…
All that I have said is nothing compared to what I feel within, the witnessed correspondence of love between God and the soul; for when God sees the soul pure as it was in its origins, he tugs at it with a glance, draws it and binds it to himself with a fiery love. God so transforms the soul into himself that it knows nothing other than God. He will not cease until he has brought the soul to its perfection.
That is why the soul seeks to cast off any and all impediments, so that it can be lifted up to God; and such impediments are the cause of the suffering of the souls in purgatory. Not that the souls dwell on their suffering; they dwell rather on the resistance they feel within themselves against the will of God, against his intense and pure love bent on nothing but drawing them up to him. And I see rays of lightning darting from that divine love to the creature, so intense and fiery… The soul becomes like gold that becomes purer as it is fired, all dross being cast out…
These flaws are burned away in the last stage of love. God shows the soul its weakness, so that the soul may see the workings of God. If we are to become perfect, the change must be brought about in us and without us; that is, the change is to be the work not of human beings but of God… The overwhelming love of God gives the soul a joy beyond words. In purgatory great joy and great suffering do not exclude one another.
1
A Word in Season – vol. IV – Sanctoral – Augustinian Press – 1991 – pg 215.

Vigils Weekday
2025-11-03
THE SPOUSE OF THE VIRGIN
By St Ambrose 2
◊◊◊
What is virginal chastity but purity free from stain? And whom can we judge to be its author but the immaculate Son of God, whose flesh saw no corruption, whose Godhead experienced no infection? Consider, then, how great are the merits of virginity. Christ was before the Virgin, Christ was of the Virgin. Begotten indeed of the Father before the ages, but born of the Virgin for the ages. The former was of His nature, the latter is for our benefit. The former always was, the latter He willed.
Consider, too, another merit of virginity. Christ is the spouse of the Virgin, and if one may so say “spouse” of virginal chastity, for virginity is of Christ, not Christ of virginity. He is, then, the Virgin who was espoused, the Virgin who bore us, who fed us with her milk, of whom we read: “What great things has the virgin of Jerusalem done! The breasts shall not fail from the rock, nor snow from Lebanon, nor the water which is borne by the strong wind.”
Who is this virgin that is watered with the streams of the Trinity, from whose rock waters flow, whose breasts fail not, and whose honey is poured forth? Now, according to the Apostle, the rock is Christ. Therefore, from Christ the breasts fail not, nor brightness from God, nor the river from the Spirit. This is the Trinity which waters their Church, the Father, Christ, and the Spirit.
But let us now come down from the mother to the daughters. “Concerning virgins,” says the Apostle, “I have no commandment of the Lord.” If the teacher of the Gentiles had none, who could have one? And in truth he had no commandment, but he had an example. For virginity cannot be commanded, but must be wished for, for things which are above us are matters for prayer rather than under mastery. “But I would have you,” he says, “be without care. For he who is without a wife is careful for the things which are the Lord’s, how he may please God… And the virgin takes thought for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy in body and in spirit. For she that is married takes thought for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.”
I am not indeed discouraging marriage, but am enlarging upon the benefits of virginity.
2
The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Vol.X, Cp.V, p.366-7.

Vigils: St. Charles Borromeo
2025-11-04
THE LEGACY OF
ST CHARLES BORROMEO
From a homily by Fr Ronald Knox 3
◊◊◊
When our Lord’s apostles came to look back upon that terrible night in the Lake of Galilee, when they strained every nerve against the tempest while their Master lay sleeping in the boat, they found in it an allegory of their own situation, as they launched out the frail bark of his Church upon waves so troubled, with prospects so uncertain.
And in every age the Church has looked back to that picture and taken comfort from it in times of adversity. [With great confidence], the Church of God, which is Peter’s boat, has breasted the waves all through her troubled history. It is not upon the captain’s judgment or the pilot’s experience, not human wisdom or human prudence, that she depends for her safe voyage: she rests secure in the presence of her inviolable passenger.
Yet we should do ill if we grudged recognition and gratitude to those servants of his who at various times have steered our course for us through difficult waters, and especially to the saints of the Counter-Reformation — that remarkable group of saints whom God raised up at the time of Europe’s apostasy, by whose influence, humanly speaking, the faith survived that terrible ordeal. And not the least, nor the least prominent, of these is [St Charles Borromeo], who ruled the Church of Milan in the latter part of the sixteenth century…
Whatever be the rights and wrongs of all the controversies we hear about the medieval Church, this at least is clear, that in the days of the Council of Trent its organization needed reform. And reform needs more than mere legislation to decree it; it needs administration to execute it. That is St Charles’s characteristic legacy to the Church: it was the influence of his example, in great measure, that molded her organization on the new model which Trent had decreed. The bishop has got to be the center of everything in his diocese, and the clergy of the diocese are to be his clergy — a family of which he is to be the father, a guild of which he is to be the master.
See how fond St Charles was of synods: the whole of his comparatively short episcopate is a long record of the synods he gathered amongst his clergy. See how enthusiastic he is for the seminary idea; the bishop, henceforth, is not merely to ordain people, he is to know whom he is ordaining. And above all what was characteristic of St Charles was the institute which he left behind him — a body of secular priests, putting themselves at the disposal of the bishop as absolutely as the religious puts himself at the disposal of his superior.
Yes, there is much about St Charles’s life which is more exciting, and much which is more attractive, than all this; his boundless generosity to the poor, the relentless mortification that regulated his busy, competent life. But what makes him stand out among the saints more than either is his intense devotion even to the most uninspiring details of diocesan routine.
3
from Occasional Sermons of Ronald Knox, ed. by Philip Caraman, S.J., New York: Sheed and Ward, 1960, pp. 79-82.

Vigils: Weekday
2025-11-05
THE SAINT AND THE CHRISTIAN
From “The Faith and Modern Man” by Fr Romano Guardini 4
◊◊◊
We associate the word saints with the idea of exceptional persons. In the New Testament, however, it signifies Christians generally. Being a Christian at all was extraordinary. For the Christians stood out sharply from the environment; either one lived in the Old Testament world, or in the Hellenistic-pagan world, and by both they were regarded as something strange if not hostile. The experience of conversion lifted them out of the environment. A sense of the reality of God not learned from natural religious experience or from the teaching of the Old Testament had shaken and, at the same time, blessed them.
In the existence of Christ, God’s countenance had been unveiled. The life of Christ had made them aware of how God is minded toward us. These experiences had changed their whole lives. They had acquired new ideas of God, new standards of judging the world. The “renewal of mind” of which the Gospel speaks and which they had begun to fulfill, now consisted not only in a conversion to a good and pious life, but in a change of direction in their whole way of thinking. Thus for them, actually, “all things had become new” – and with all these “new things” they found themselves still in an old world, a world which regarded them with distrust and hostility. All this is, in itself, extraordinary – indeed the very essence of the extraordinary, and the “saint” was one who led this existence.
But the spread of Christianity and its increase in members tended to obscure its unique nature. Time went on, the Gospel grew familiar, and the sense of newness wore off. Christianity became the state religion and, as such, the official order of society. Thus the fact that being a Christian at all was in itself extraordinary faded out of people’s consciousness, and Christianity grew to be regarded as normal and usual.
4
The Faith and Modern Man, New York 1952, 128-133.

Vigils: Weekday
2025-11-06
CHRIST THE CORNERSTONE
By Dom Damasus Winzen 5
◊◊◊
Stone is firm and lasting. Builders test their stones, selecting the most solid for foundations on which to rear the whole building, for cornerstones to hold the wall together, or for headstones which will lock into a single mass the entire structure. Stone likewise offers firm resistance to the thrust of an enemy; it will crush him upon whom it falls; it will bruise those who fall against it.
God is the “Stone of Israel”, because he is a God of truth and his mercies endure forever. His faithfulness towards his people is the firm and precious cornerstone which is laid in Zion. In Christ Jesus, God’s loyalty becomes manifest. He is the stone that the leaders of Israel rejected when they crucified him… He became the cornerstone when he rose from the dead. When we try to penetrate into the meaning of the symbolism of the cornerstone, we discover that various ideas are fused in this picture. The idea of the foundation stone is clearly expressed in Isaiah: Thus says the Lord God: behold I laid in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste.
Christ is the foundation stone, for another foundation no one can lay but that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. He alone has wrought our redemption by dying for us and rising for us. We depend entirely on his work and on his strength. The Hebrew word used in Psalm 117, rosch pinnah — still surviving in our word “pinnacle” — has been translated in various ways as “head of the corner,” “cornerstone,” or “head stone.” The idea of the cornerstone implies that Christ is a part of the foundation, but its most important, visible part, the part which binds the walls. This is true of Christ, because in him the two walls of God and mankind, of the Jews and the Gentiles, and the Old and the New Testament meet…
In recent years, more and more scholars agree that rosch pinnah is rather the head stone, or capstone, which holds a vault or arch together. The Risen Savior is indeed the headstone of the spiritual Temple in which the whole building culminates, which holds it together and defines its design. This three-fold meaning of Christ as the cornerstone is well expressed by Cynewulf in his poem “Christ.”…
Thou art the wall stone
that the workers once threw out from the work,
well it becomes thee that thou be head
of a mighty hall and weld together
its wide walls in fast union,
Flint unbreakable, that throughout earth’s dwelling
all that have eyes may wonder ever more,
O Lord of glory.
5
Symbols of Christ, New York, 1955, pp. 56-58.

Vigils: Weekday
2025-11-07
THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH
From “The Spirit of Catholicism” by Fr Karl Adam 6
◊◊◊
Wherever we encounter the God of revelation, we do not find a characterless God of some feeble pastoral play, but a God of holiness and justice, a God who requires vigorous action and moral decision, the athlete’s struggle for the crown and perseverance in the race until the prize be won. The new order of grace does not displace the old order of moral responsibility before God. And that is true not only of the members of the Church, but also of the Church as such.
The Church too is subject to the great law that the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence. It is true that as the supra-personal unity of redeemed mankind, a unity based upon the God-man, the Church has her own essential nature, her own law and her own life. And the Holy Spirit will abide always with her, so that she may remain true to her God-given nature. But on the other hand it is equally true that the nature of the Church must be expressed through the faithful, and not without them. The Body of Christ must maintain and perfect itself in its members and through them. Therefore the Church is not only a gift to the faithful, but also a task for them. They have to prepare and foster that good earthly kingdom in which the seed of the Kingdom of Heaven may take root and flourish.
In other words, the life of the Church, the development of her faith and her love, the progress of doctrine, morals, worship and law, stand in an immediate relation to the faithful and loving personal life of the members of the Body of Christ. God rewards the merit or punishes the demerit of the faithful by the rise and fall of the earthly Church. We may truly say, therefore, with St Paul that the Church founded by Christ is at the same time co-built by the faithful. St Augustine says profoundly: “The temple of God is still being built” and “The house (the Church) is now being constructed.”
God willed a Church which in her ripening and perfecting should be the fruit of the true grace-inspired life of the faithful, of their prayer and love, of their fidelity, penitence and devotion, and therefore God did not found her from the beginning as a thing complete and perfect, but as an incomplete thing, which leaves room for and calls for a continual activity of construction, and in whose inward history God’s Holiness and Justice continually triumph.
6
The Spirit of Catholicism, New York 1948, 261-262.

Vigils: Memorial of the BVM
2025-11-08
LET US PRAISE MARY
From a sermon by St Aelred of Rievaulx 7
◊◊◊
Let us…behold [Mary]; let us behold her excellence, her humility, her charity, and her purity; let us behold her and praise her not only in voice, but by our imitation of her. For if we truly wish to praise her, let us as much as we can imitate her most holy way of life and—what is of greatest use to us—her humility… If our soul still experiences some servitude to sin and suffers some contrariness from its servant, that is, from the flesh, and if we dare not praise, then let us not be slow to pray and implore her help…
We can be sure that as she is more excellent and blessed than any creature, so she is more favorable and merciful than every creature. Therefore let us confidently beseech her and place our trust in her. For we have many examples of her love. We know that many have been snatched away from the snares of the devil through her love; many, who were often in despair were reconciled through her favor; many who were in great torments after death were snatched from these very punishments, because they loved her and zealously commended themselves to her in their lifetime.
Therefore let her be our common joy, our common glory, our common hope, our common consolation, our common reconciliation, and our common refuge. If we are sad, let us fly to her so that she may gladden us. If we are disheartened, let us fly to her so that she may make us cheerful. If we are in despair, let us fly to her so that she may raise us up. If we are troubled, let us fly to her so that she may console us. If we are suffering persecutions, let us fly to her so that she may protect us. If we are at odds with her son, let us fly to her so that she may reconcile us. Let her be our guardian in this life and our protection at death. May she protect us from sin even now, and later may she present us to her beloved son…
Let us lift our hearts and the eyes of our heart to her, our Lady, our advocate, our helper. Think of how much confidence we can have in her who, having been wonderfully illuminated by the sun of justice, dispels by her own brilliant light the darkness that the first woman, Eve, brought into this world. Therefore let us confidently pray to her who is able to help us through her excellence and wishes to do so through her mercy. Let us pray that she may intercede for us as much as she can to her son, so that just as he deigned to be born from her for us, through her he may deign to have mercy [on us].
Therefore let us honor her as much as we can…and let us love her as much as we can, calling upon her most tender mercy, so that she may deign to pray for us to her most sweet son, that what we are unable to do by our own merits we may obtain by her patronage and the efficacy of the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever.
7
(CSQ 32:124-125).

Skema
2025-11-09
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
32nd Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
November 9 – 15, 2025

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

Office
Lateran Basilica
St Leo the Great
St Martin of Tours
Weekday
All Benedictine Saints
Weekday
Gethsemani Church

Vigils
Exodus 40:1-34
Daniel 5:13-6:1
Daniel 6:2-29
Daniel 7:1-15
Dan 7:1-3, 9-22, 27
Daniel 7:16-28
Rev 21:9-22:5

Lauds
Jerm 7:1-7
Zech 12:7-14
Isa 58:6-12
Zech 13:1-6
Wisdom 5:1-5, 14-16
Zech 13:7-9
Ezek 37:21-28

Mass
671
491
492
493
573, 677
495
701.2, 704.2, 706.4

1st
Ezek 47:1-2, 8-9, 12
Wis 1:1-7
Wis 2:23-3:9
Wis 6:1-11
Isa 61:9-11
Wis 13:1-9
2 Chron 5:6-10, 13-6:2

2nd
1 Cor 3:9c-11, 16-17

Eph 2:19-22

Gospel
John 2:13-22
Luke 17:1-6
Luke 17:7-10
Luke 17:11-19
John 15:1-8
Luke 17:26-37
John 4:19-24

Vespers
Heb 10:19-25
2 Pet 1:10-15
Gal 6:1-5
2 Pet 1:16-19
Rev 7:9-17
2 Cor 6:14-7:1
Heb 3:1-6

Vigils Reading - 32nd Sunday
2025-11-09
DEDICATION OF
THE LATERAN BASILICA
◊◊◊
The blessed Pope Sylvester I instituted the rites which the Roman Church
observes in consecrating churches and altars. For although from the ages of the
apostles places had been dedicated to God where assemblies were held every
Sabbath, yet those places had not been consecrated by a solemn rite before this.
Up to the time of Sylvester an altar was not erected under title, which, anointed
with chrism, symbolizes our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Altar, our Victim, our
Priest.
But when the Emperor Constantine obtained health and salvation
through the sacrament of Baptism, then for the first time, by an edict published
by him, the Christians throughout the world were permitted to build churches;
he himself encouraged this holy building by his own example, as well as by this
edict. For in his own Lateran palace he dedicated a church to the Savior and
founded adjacent to it a Basilica, under the title of St John the Baptist, on the
very spot where he had been baptized by St Sylvester and cleansed from the
leprosy of unbelief. This basilica the same Pope consecrated on November 9,
and the memory of this consecration is celebrated today, when, for the first
time, a church was publicly consecrated at Rome, and there appeared to the
Roman people an image of the Savior depicted on the wall.
Although later on St Sylvester decreed that from that time forward all
altars should be built of stone, yet the altar of the Lateran Basilica was built of
wood. This is not surprising. For since, from St Peter down to Sylvester, because
of persecutions, the Pontiffs could not dwell in any fixed abode, they offered the
Holy Sacrifice [of the Mass] wherever necessity compelled them, whether in
crypts or in cemeteries, or in the homes of the faithful, upon a wooden altar
which was hollow like a chest.
When this altar had been placed in the first church, the Lateran, St
Sylvester decreed that from that time on, no one except the Roman Pontiff
should celebrate Mass upon it, in honor of the Prince of the Apostles and of the
rest of the Popes who had been accustomed to use it. This same church, having
been destroyed by fires, pillaging, and earthquakes, and repaired by the
laborious effort of the Supreme Pontiffs, was afterwards rebuilt anew. Pope
Benedict XIII, a Dominican, consecrated it on April 28, 1726, by a solemn rite.

Vigils Reading - St Leo the Great
2025-11-10
THE WORKS OF
GOD’S SERVANTS
By St Leo the Great
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It is a great and very precious thing, beloved, in the Lord’s sight, when
Christ’s whole people engage together in the same duties, and all ranks and
degrees of either sex co-operate with the same intent: when one purpose
animates all alike of declining from evil and doing good; when God is glorified in
the works of God’s servants, and the Author of all godliness is blessed in
unstinted giving of thanks.
The hungry are nourished, the naked are clothed, the sick are visited, and
people seek not their own but “that which is another’s”, so long as in relieving
the misery of others each one makes the most of one’s own means; and it is easy
to find “a cheerful giver,” where one’s performances are only limited by the
extent of one’s power.
By this grace of God, “which works all in all,” the benefits and the deserts
of the faithful are both enjoyed in common. For they, whose income is not like,
can yet think alike, and when one rejoices over another’s bounty, his feelings put
him on the same level with him whose powers of spending are on a different
level.
In such a community there is no disorder nor diversity, for all the
members of the whole body agree in one strong purpose of godliness, and one
who glories in the wealth of others is not put to shame by personal poverty. For
the excellence of each portion is the glory of the whole body, and when we are all
led by God’s Spirit, not only are the things we do ourselves our own but those of
others also over the doing of which we rejoice…
But because we possess this greatness of heart, and yet it is truly a pious
thing for each one not to forsake the care of one’s own, we, without prejudice to
the more perfect sort, lay down for you this general rule and exhort you to
perform God’s bidding according to the measure of your ability.
For cheerfulness becomes one who is benevolent, who should so manage
liberality that while the poor rejoice over the help supplied, home needs may not
suffer. “And he who ministers seed to the sower shall provide bread to be eaten
and multiply your seed and increase the fruits of your righteousness.”

Vigils Reading - St Martin of Tours
2025-11-11
ST MARTIN AND THE PAUPER
By St Sulpicius Severus
◊◊◊
One day, at the gate of the city of Amiens, Martin met a poor man who was
naked. Martin’s clothing was reduced to his armor and his simple military
cloak. It was the middle of a winter which had been more severe than usual,
and, indeed, many had perished from the extreme cold. Those who had passed
that way had been begged by the pitiable pauper to have compassion on him,
but all had gone by. Martin, however, filled with God’s grace, saw that it was for
him, when others had denied their mercy, that the suppliant was being reserved.
Yet, what should he do?
He had nothing except the cloak he was wearing; he had already devoted
the rest of his clothing to similar purposes. Then, drawing the sword which he
was wearing, he cut the cloak in two; one part he gave to the pauper; in the other
he again dressed himself. Meanwhile, some of the bystanders began to laugh,
for it was an inelegant figure Martin cut, dressed in half a garment. Yet, many,
of saner mind, sighed deeply. When they, who had more to give, might have
clothed the pauper with out making themselves naked, they had done nothing of
the sort.
When night had come and he was deep in sleep, Martin beheld Christ,
clothed in that part of his own cloak with which he had covered the pauper. He
was bidden to look attentively upon the Lord and to recognize the garment he
had given. And soon, to the throng of angels standing about, he heard Jesus
saying in a clear voice: Martin, still a catechumen, has covered me with this
cloak.
The Lord, in declaring that it was He who had been clothed in the person
of the pauper, was truly mindful of His own words uttered long ago: As long as
you did it to one of these my least, you did it to me. Further, to strengthen the
evidence of such a good deed, he deigned to show Himself in the very garment
the pauper had received.
The blessed man was not puffed up with human pride because of this
vision. Rather, recognizing God’s goodness in his own act, he was baptized
without delay. He was then eighteen.

Vigils Reading
2025-11-12
GLORIFY THE LORD
From the Catechetical Lectures of St Cyril of Jerusalem
◊◊◊
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”; for in the
thought of God, let the thought of Father be included, so that the glory we
ascribe to the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit may be perfectly free from
difference. For the Father has one glory and the Son another, but their glory is
one and the same; since the Son is the Father’s sole-begotten, and when the
Father is glorified the Son shares in enjoyment of His glory… And whenever the
Son is glorified the Father of so excellent a Son is greatly honored.
Now the mind thinks with great rapidity, but the tongue needs
expressions and a long outpouring of words before it reaches a conclusion. For
in one instant, the eye takes in a vast multitude of stars, but if anyone should
want to discourse on any particular stars…he will need to say a good deal. Again
in like manner the mind comprehends earth and sea and all the bounds of the
world in a flash, but it takes many words to express what it understands in an
instant…
What we say about God is not what should be said (for that is known only
to Him) but only what human nature takes in, and only what our infirmity can
bear. For what we expound is not what God is… We have no sure knowledge
about Him… Our chief theological knowledge is confessing that we have none.
Therefore, “magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His Name together”…
Now if the heavens and all they contain cannot worthily sing the praises of
God, how possibly can earth and ashes, the least and slightest of existing things,
raise a worthy hymn to God, “who holds in His hand the circle of the earth, and
considers the inhabitants of it as grasshoppers.” If anyone would attempt to
discourse on God, let them first expound what are the bounds of the earth. The
earth is your dwelling, and yet you do not know the extent of your dwellingplace,
earth! How then can you have any adequate thoughts of its Creator?
But someone will ask: If the divine Being is incomprehensible, what is the
good of the things you have been saying? Come now, am I not to take a
reasonable drink because I cannot drink the river dry? Or supposing I were to go
into a huge garden where I could not possibly eat all the fruit on the trees, would
you have me leave it still hungry? I praise and glorify our Maker, seeing that “Let
everything that breathes praise the Lord” is a divine command. I am now trying
to glorify the Master, not to expound His Nature, for I know quite well that I
shall fall far short even of glorifying Him as He deserves. Nevertheless I hold it
to be a religious duty at least to make the attempt. For the Lord Jesus comforts
me for my insufficiency by saying “No one has seen God at any time.”

Vigils Reading - All Benedictine Saints
2025-11-13
THE COMMUNION OF THE SAINTS
By Baldwin of Ford
◊◊◊
I believe, O Lord, in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the
communion of saints. Here is my hope, here is my trust, here is my confidence,
here is my security -however small it may be- which I have in the confession of
my faith, in the generosity of the Holy Spirit, in the unity of the catholic Church,
in the communion of the saints. If it be granted me from above to love you and to
love my neighbour, then even though my own merits are poor and meager, I
have a hope which is above and beyond all my merits: I am sure that through the
communion of charity the merits of the saints will profit me and that the
communion of the saints can make good my own imperfection and
insufficiency. The prophet comforts me when he says, “I have seen an end of all
perfection, but your commandment is exceeding broad.”
O charity, so broad and so extensive, how great is the house of God, how
vast is the place of his possession! We need not be distressed in our heart; we
need not be confined by the boundaries and limits of our insignificant
righteousness. Charity extends our hope to the communion of the saints, and we
can therefore share with them their merits and their rewards. But the sharing of
their rewards is [reserved] for the time to come, for it is the sharing of the glory
which shall be revealed in us.
Thus there are three sorts of sharing, [three forms of communion, three
ways in which we have things in common]: the sharing of nature, which is
associated with the sharing of sin and the sharing of wrath; then the sharing of
grace; and thirdly, the sharing of glory. By the sharing of grace, the sharing of
nature begins to be restored and the sharing of sin is removed, but by the
sharing of glory, the sharing of nature will be fully and perfectly restored and the
sharing of wrath wholly removed. It is then that God shall wipe away all the
tears from the eyes of the saints. It is then that all the saints will be as one heart
and one soul, and they will have all things in common when God will be all in all.
[Our hope is] that we, too, may come in common to this communion and
come together as one [and therefore we pray that] the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ and the charity of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit may be with
us all always.

Vigils Reading
2025-11-14
THE TRUE CHRISTIAN
From a treatise by St Augustine
◊◊◊
Let us not flatter ourselves in the mere fact that we are called Christians;
rather, let us believe that we deserve to be judged if we assume a name to which
we have no claim. Or, if there are any who are so unbelieving, so unfaithful, so
persistent, so obstinate, so bold, that they do not fear the imminent anger and
indignation of God the judge, let them at least feel abashed before human
judgments. Let them realize how dull, how foolish, and how senseless they are
considered even by other people, since their vanity and madness are so great
that they take upon themselves a name to which they are not entitled. For, who
is so conceited and so pitiable that he would dare to establish himself as a lawyer
if he is uneducated? Who is so mad and bereft of reason that he would proclaim
himself a soldier if he does not know how to use arms? One does not choose
such a name without reason.
To be called a cobbler, one must repair shoes; to be looked upon as an
artisan or workman, one must produce proof of one’s art; to be recognized as a
trader, one exhibits costly objects originally purchased at a smaller price. From
examples of this sort we realize that there is no name without the corresponding
act and, furthermore, that every name is derived from the antecedent act. Now,
then, are you called a Christian when you perform no distinctively Christian
acts?
The name Christian connotes justice, goodness, integrity, patience,
chastity, prudence, humility, kindliness, innocence and piety; how do you
defend your assumption of that name when your conduct manifests so few out
of so many virtues? One is truly a Christian who is one not in name only but also
in deed; who imitates and follows Christ in all respects; who is holy, innocent,
undefiled, chaste; in whose heart evil finds no room, since this heart is
dominated by piety and by a goodness which, knowing only how to bring help to
all, knows not how to harm or injure anybody.
We are Christians when, according to the example of Christ, we are
accustomed to do good to those who oppose us and to pray for our persecutors
and our enemies rather than to hate them. Whoever is quick to hurt or harm
another person lies when he calls himself a Christian; we are truly Christians
when we can say in all honesty: “I have harmed nobody; I have lived in justice
with all.”

Vigils Reading - Gethsemani Church
2025-11-15
THE DEDICATION OF OUR CHURCH
From a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux
◊◊◊
My brethren, we ought to observe today’s festivity all the more devoutly
for the reason that it is so peculiarly our own. All the other sacred solemnities
which we keep are common to us with the faithful in general. But this is so
proper to ourselves that if we do not keep it, it will not be kept at all. It is our own
feast, because it is the feast of the dedication of our own church. It is still more
our own because it is the feast of our own selves. For what of sanctity can belong
to these dead walls which cause them to be honored with a religious solemnity?
They are undoubtedly holy, but it is because of your bodies. Will anyone
question that your bodies are holy, since they are “the temples of the Holy
Spirit”?
Consequently your souls are sanctified because of the spirit of God “Who
is in you”, your bodies are sanctified because of your souls, and this house is
sanctified also because of your bodies. The Psalmist prayed “Preserve my soul
for I am holy”. Truly “God is wonderful in His saints”, not alone in His saints in
heaven, but also those on earth. For He has His saints in both places and shows
Himself wonderful in them all, beatifying those above, consummating the
sanctity of those below.
Accordingly it is your own festival, dearest brethren, your very own, that
you are celebrating today. You have been dedicated to the Lord and the Lord has
chosen and adopted you as His own peculiar people. Oh, how wisely you have
acted…in renouncing all that you might have possessed in this world, since by
doing so you have deserved to become the peculiar people of the world’s
Creator, and to have Him as your special possession, for He is undoubtedly “the
portion and inheritance” of His own!
See, therefore, if it is not right to observe as a festival the day on which the
Lord adopted us as His own and took formal possession of us through His
ministers, thus accomplishing in fact what He had promised long ago, saying, “I
in the midst of them shall be their God”, while we should be “the people of His
pasture and the sheep of His hand”. For when this house was consecrated to the
Lord by the ministry of the Bishop, it was manifestly for our sake it was done;
not only for the sake of those who were actually present then, but also for the
sake of all those who until the end of time shall serve God in this holy place.
Therefore, dearest brethren, it is necessary that what has already been
accomplished in the walls in a visible manner should be invisibly accomplished
in ourselves.
