Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Vigils Reading - St Martin of Tours
2023-11-11
ON THE FEAST OF ST MARTIN
From a homily by St Aelred of Rievaulx7
◊◊◊
Today Christ mercifully raised up Martin to the joys of the kingdom of heaven… Martin, this poor and modest one, enters heaven a rich man. Happy and necessary, voluntary poverty, which scorns the world, flees vainglory, restrains luxury of the flesh, nourishes self-control, fosters sobriety, and inflames love of God in the human heart, happily attains eternal reward without hindrance. Blessed Martin loved this, preferred it to riches and status; on account of this he scorned thepalaces of kings, he discarded his soldier’s belt. But after corporeal military service, he transferred himself to the spiritual battle and, girded with the sword of God, vigorously fought the wars of his God, fighting against flesh and blood and the leaders of darkness.
So not long after his conversion, on a journey he came to meet a spiteful spirit who envied his sanctity and the glory of his merits, and as an adversary threatened the holy man wherever he went. But the Lord’s man Martin, fervent with charity and filled with faith, despised the horrible beast, taking refuge in God’s garrison and saying, “The Lord is my helper; I do not fear your threats.” Great was the fortitude of this athlete of the Lord, who while near to death looked at the devil, who was standing nearby, and did not fear. Recalling his past life, and discovering nothing in his conscience about which our adversary the devil should boast… he proclaimed, “What are you doing here, you bloodthirsty beast? Nothing in me… will you discover. May the bosom of Abraham receive me.”

This true Israelite, in whom there is no guile, ought to be honored. For if we diligently examine his life and behavior, he was fervent in charity, strong in faith, frequent in prayer, perfect in humility, eager in obedience, truthful in speech, efficacious in deed, powerful in the accomplishment of miracles… I do not find anyone after the apostles who could be compared to blessed Martin in virtues, in miracles, in signs and wonders.
So that we may glean a few things about many matters, fringes of his clothing and threads of that goat-hair garment liberated many <people> from various illnesses. Beautiful and pleasing to God was the praise of God in Martin’s mouth, who cleansed a leper by a kiss…at the gate of the city of Paris… Indeed, rightly enough through the touch of his mouth the leprosy was put to flight, because the law of his God was in his heart. His mouth contemplated wisdom, because there was“never anything on his mouth except peace, except Christ, except compassion.”
He gave light to the blind, restored hearing to the deaf, healed paralytics, raised the dead, commanded flames, trees, birds, and beasts. Martin the priest of God worked these and many other boundless signs and wonders while he still lived in the mortal flesh. Therefore, what great things do we believe that he can do now that he is joined to his Creator, from whom he received so that he was capable of these and similar things? Certainly, as I may truly confess, he is capable of all things in God the all-powerful, to whom now he eternally adheres, because he has served him faithfully, in person, regarding temporal matters…
Therefore protect us, chosen and beloved priest of God, Martin, so that with your merits lending support, may we deserve to attain to that blessed rest that today you have happily entered..

7 Aelred of Rievaulx. The Liturgical Sermons: The Reading-Cluny Collection, 2 of 2. CF 87. Trans. Daniel Griggs. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2022. 306-308.

Skema
2023-11-12
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
32nd Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
November 12 – 18, 2023

Sun
12
Mon
13
Tue
14
Wed
15
Thu
16
Fri
17
Sat
18

Office
32nd Sunday
All Benedictine Saints
Weekday
Gethsemani Church
St Gertrude the Great
Weekday
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Jud 5:1-24
Dan 7:1-3, 9-22, 27
Jud 6:1-21
Rev 21:9-22:5
Jud 7:1-18
Jud 7:19-32
Jud 8:1-23

Lauds
Zeph 1:1-6
Wisdom 5:1-5, 14-16
Zeph 1:7-13
Ezek 37:21-28
Zeph 1:14-18
Zeph 2:1-7
Zeph 2:8-15

Mass
154
573, 677
492
701.2, 704.2, 706.4
494
495
496

1st
Wis 6:12-16
Isa 61:9-11
Wis 2:23-3:9
2 Chron 5:6-10, 13-6:2
Wis 7:22b-8:1
Wis 13:1-9
Wis 18:14-16; 19:6-9

2nd
1 Thess 4:13-18

Eph 2:19-22

Gospel
Matt 25:1-13
John 15:1-8
Luke 17:7-10
John 4:19-24
Luke 17:20-25
Luke 17:26-37
Luke 18:1-8

Vespers
2 Cor 10:1-11
Rev 7:9-17
2 Cor 6:14-7:1
Heb 3:1-6
2 Cor 10:12-18
2 Cor 11:1-6
2 Cor 11:7-15

Vigils Reading - 32nd Sunday ORD
2023-11-12
TO BE FREE AND FAITHFUL
From a commentary attributed to St Anthony the Great1
◊◊◊
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, since purity of heart leads to perfection. Two things are contained within the heart — goodness which is natural to it and evil which is unnatural. This latter gives rise to such passions of the soul as murmuring, envy, detraction, and all the rest. Goodness, on the other hand, promotes knowledge of God and rids the soul of all these passions. If people honestly try to root out vice and avoid evil, if they repent with tears and sighs, devoting themselves humbly to a life of prayer, fasting, and watching, the Lord in his goodness will come to their aid and free them from all sinful inclinations.
Many who have lived a celibate monastic life for a long time have failed to learn what purity of heart is, because instead of studying the teaching of the fathers, they have followed their own wayward desires. So evil spirits and rebel marauders of the air have prevailed against them, hurling invisible darts by day and night, and thus preventing them from finding rest anywhere. Moreover they fill their hearts with pride, vanity, jealousy, criticism, raging anger, strife, and any number of other passions.
Such people are to be reckoned with the five foolish virgins because they have spent their time foolishly. They have not controlled their tongues nor cleansed their eyes and bodies from concupiscence, neither have they purged their hearts of lust and other deplorable defilements. It was enough for them merely to wear a woolen garment signifying virginity. Consequently they lack the heavenly joy which would kindle their lamps, and the Bridegroom does not open the door to them but repeats what he said to the foolish virgins: Truly I say to you, I know you not.

My only reason for writing you this letter is my desire for your salvation. I want you to be free and faithful and pure brides of Christ, the Bridegroom of all holy souls; as Saint Paul says: I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste bride to Christ.
Let us awake, then, while we are still in this body, and grieve over ourselves, lamenting day and night from the bottom of our hearts, so that we may escape the bitter torment, the weeping, wailing, and remorse that will have no end. We must beware of entering through the wide gate and taking the easy road that leads to perdition, for many go that way. Instead we must enter by the narrow gate and take the path of sorrow and affliction that leads to life. Few people enter this gate, but those who do are real workers who will have the joy of receiving the reward of their labors and will inherit the kingdom.
If any are prepared to set out I do beg them not to delay and waste time, for they may be like the foolish virgins and find no one willing to sell them oil. These virgins burst into tears and cried out: Lord, open to us. But he answered: Truly I say to you, I know you not. And this happened to them simply because of their laziness.
I beg you by the grace of God to obey me as I also will obey you; and may we all obey the Lord who said by the tongue of the Prophet: Who longs for life and desires to see good days? Keep your tongue from evil talk and your lips from deceitful speech. Turn away from evil and do good; seek and strive after peace

1 Journey with the Fathers – Year A – New City Press – NY -1999 – pg 140-41.

Vigils Reading - Alternate
2023-11-12
ITS LAMPS ARE LAMPS OF FIRE
From a sermon by John of Ford[1]

◊◊◊

The simplicity of the just man is a lamp, as holy Job tells us; a sense of honor is a lamp, a very bright one; self respect is a lamp, a very lovely one; every appearance and encounter with him is a lamp. A most brilliant lamp are all the words of truth that come forth from the mouth of Wisdom and dispel the darkness of error. They refute the night of sin with the light of justice. There is a still darker night, the excuses wemake for our sins, and this too they drive with a serene brightness. In fact, all that a just man is shows itself outwardly like brightness, and like a lamp, he is all on fire to save us. When he is silent, his silence does us good, and away when he speaks, it is as if he speaks the words of God, a source of grace for those who hear him. And ‘when he renders service,’ as the apostle says, ‘it is as one who renders it by the strength which God supplies.’

Because the fire flaming in this lamp is so great, a holy light appears outwardly, dazzling our eyes. This is not the light of knowledge, which we can obtain from someone by begging for it, nor does it come from the witness of somebody else’s conscience, namely, of those who are accustomed to sell oil to the foolish virgins. ‘All the glory of the king’s daughter is from within.’ Outwardly she makes her lamp luminous, but the glory is reserved for within. Inwardly, the oil of gladness and a wealth of charity makes her burn to the glory of God, and outwardly she shines to give grace to men. As scripture puts it: ‘Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven’.

[1] John of Ford. Sermons on the Final Verses of the Song of Songs – Vol. 7. Trans. Wendy Mary Beckett. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1984. Sermon 108.

Vigils Reading - All Benedictine Saints
2023-11-13
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS
From the writing of Baldwin of Ford2
◊◊◊
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… 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
2023-11-14
I KNOW YOUR WORKS
From a sermon by Geoffrey of Auxerre[1]

◊◊◊

The Lord knows the works of each, he knows everything fully, not only superficially but in the depth and hidden intention of the heart. He knows what, why, and how they have performed their works, and he fully comprehends the works of them all.

Let us not reckon as works only what is done with the hands, but whatever is done by word, deed, or thought, whatever its merit may be. ‘We must all stand before the tribunal of Christ, for each to receive as he has done in the body’, says the Apostle. That is, he will receive according to what he merited while in the body. Now is the time of meriting, the time of sowing; the future life is the time of receiving and of reaping… Hence he had regard for Abel and his offerings by accepting them, while he had no regard for Cain and his offerings. To Cain he says, I know your works, that you have the name of being alive and you are dead…

Are we surprised that a dead person is said to be alive?… Thus do the demons fool unfortunate souls by making them appear to themselves and to others to be alive even though they are dead in sin… Some hearers may perhaps find it difficult to believe… but we know that the lives of the fathers contain something similar, and this is the tale.

The evil one envied a religious man who applied himself assiduously to hospitality along with his other pious works. Dreaming up a novel sort of malice, the evil one occupied the corpse of an unfortunate woman who had died without confession and viaticum. Dressed as a man, he entered the monk’s cell, and accepted for an annual wage the necessary service of receiving guests. For a while he showed himself diligent, quick, and ready, seeking an opportunity to upset him with the malign sting of carnal desires.

But divine loving-kindness was ahead of his cunning. A holy bishop endowed with a prophetic spirit arrived to visit his parishes. Observing the hired servant at work, he perceived the hidden intent of the evil spirit. In private he anxiously asked his host who he was and where he came from. When the monk responded openly and unsuspectingly, the priest began to ask whether he ever saw him enter the oratory or participate in the divine mysteries. He answered that, when he himself arose for vigils, the man remained asleep outside with the rest of the seculars, but beyond this he had noticed nothing. The bishop called the man, and commanded him by authority of the divine name and of his episcopal office to tell who he was, what he was called, and why he came. But, gnashing his teeth and melting away, he replied, ‘Truly, is what concerns you so well finished – or perhaps so neglected – that you have come to inquire about my affairs, which are none of your business? If you had delayed your prying visit a few days, I would have gotten what I came for’.

But, O great power of the divine name, and episcopal authority… At the bishop’s command this creation of diabolical fraud vanished, and the corpse fell into dust and dry bones. The power of malignant spirits to simulate this visible and bodily life is so great – yet only with God’s leave – that they craftily try many things, and sometimes they succeed in the measure that God’s just judgment permits. With every form of malice they try to bring it about that those reputed by themselves and others to be living in spirit and truth may be condemned as dead before God. May the merciful and gracious Lord protect us always from this, for he alone truly gives life who lives and reigns without end, true God over all and blessed forever.
[1] Geoffrey of Auxerre. Geoffrey of Auxerre: On the Apocalypse. Trans. Joseph Gibbons, CSSP. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2000. 162-165.

Vigils Reading - Gethsemani Church
2023-11-15
THE DEDICATION OF OUR CHURCH
From a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux4
◊◊◊
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, dearly beloved, 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 sakes 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

4 St. Bernard’s Sermons – vol. II – The Carroll Press – Westminster, MD – 1950 – p 385.

Vigils Reading - St Gertrud the Great
2023-11-16
MY HEART IS OPEN TO YOU
From the “Spiritual Exercises” of St Gertrud the Great5 ◊◊◊
O love, the fruition of you is that worthiest coupling of your Word and the soul which is brought about by perfect union with God. To use you is to become intertwined in God. To enjoy you is to be one with God. You are that peace which surpasses all understanding and you are the road by which one comes to the inner chamber.
Oh, if only it happened to me, too, miserable as I am, to repose for a moment under your dearest cloak of cherishing-love so that my heart might be emboldened by one consolatory utterance of your living Word, or that my soul might hear this good and pleasant word from your mouth: ‘I am your salvation; behold, now the bedchamber of my heart is open to you.’
Why, then, O love so unwavering, have you deeply loved someone so foul, so ugly, if not to make her beautiful in you? Your loving-kind charity attracts and allures me, O tender flower of the virgin Mary.
Let me not be confounded in my expectation but grant me to find rest for my soul in you. I have found nothing more desirable, I have judged nothing more lovable, I have wished for nothing more dear than to be held tight, O love, in your embraces, to rest under the wings of my Jesus, and to dwell in the tabernacle of divine charity.

O love, O radiant noonday, I would die a thousand times to be at rest in you. If only you would bend to me your face of such beautiful cherishing-love, O dearest one.
Oh, if I were granted to come exceedingly close to you so that I might now find myself not only next to you but within you. Then, through you, sun of justice, flowers of all the virtues might arise in me, who am dust and ashes. With you as a husband, my Lord, such fecundity might enter my soul that the renowned offspring of total perfection would be born in me. Then, having been snatched from the valley of this misery, I might be able to glory in you forever in the presence of your desirable face; for you, mirror without spot, have not scorned to be, in truth, coupled with a sinner like me

5 SPIRITUAL EXERCISES, by St Gertrude the Great, Trans. by G. J. Lewis & J. Lewis (Cistercian Publications Kalamazoo 1989) pp. 78-79.

Vigils Reading
2023-11-17
THE LOVE OF GOD AND AFFLICTION
From the writing of Simone Weil6
◊◊◊
The great enigma of human life is not suffering but affliction… Affliction makes God appear to be absent for a time, more absent than a dead man, more absent than light in the utter darkness of a cell. A kind of horror submerges the whole soul. During this absence there is nothing to love. What is terrible is that if, in this darkness where there is nothing to love, the soul ceases to love, God’s absence becomes final. The soul has to go on loving in the emptiness, or at least to go on wanting to love, though it may only be with an infinitesimal part of itself. Then, one day, God will come to show himself to this soul and to reveal the beauty of the world to it, as in the case of Job. But if the soul stops loving it falls, even in this life, into something almost equivalent to hell…
Because no other could do it, he himself went to the greatest possible distance, the… infinite distance between God and God, this supreme tearing apart, this agony beyond all others, this marvel of love, is the crucifixion. Nothing can be further from God than that which has been made accursed. This tearing apart, over which supreme love places the bond of supreme union, echoes perpetually across the universe in the midst of the silence, like two notes, separate yet melting into one, like pure and heart-rending harmony. This is the Word of God. The whole creation is nothing but its vibration…
Those who persevere in love hear this note from the very lowest depths into which affliction has thrust them. From that moment they can no longer have any doubt. Men struck down by affliction are at the foot of the Cross, almost at the

greatest possible distance from God. It must not be thought that sin is a greater distance. Sin is not a distance, it is a turning of our gaze in the wrong direction… From the beginning, we are told, humanity turned its gaze away from God and walked in the wrong direction for as far as it could go. That was because it could walk then. As for us, we are nailed down to the spot, only free to choose which way we look… It rests with them to keep or not to keep their eyes turned toward God through all the jolting…
When an apprentice gets hurt, or complains of being tired, the workmen and peasants have this fine expression: “It is the trade entering his body.” Each time that we have some pain to go through, we can say to ourselves quite truly that it is… the obedience of creation to God that are entering our body. After that how can we fail to bless with tenderest gratitude the Love that sends us this gift? Joy and suffering are two equally precious gifts both of which must be savored to the full, each one in its purity, without trying to mix them. Through joy, the beauty of the world penetrates our soul. Through suffering it penetrates our body…
The man to whom such a thing happens has no part in the operation. He struggles like a butterfly pinned alive into an album. But through all the horror he can continue to want to love. There is nothing impossible in that, no obstacle, one might almost say no difficulty. For the greatest suffering, so long as it does not cause the soul to faint, does not touch the acquiescent part of the soul, consenting to a right direction. It is only necessary to know that love is a direction and not a state of the soul. If one is unaware of this, one falls into despair at the first onslaught of affliction. He whose soul remains ever turned toward God though the nail pierces it finds himself nailed to the very center of the universe. It is the true center; it is not in the middle; it is beyond space and time; it is God

6 Weil, Simone. Waiting for God. Trans. Emma Craufurd. New York: Harper & Row, 1951. 119-125, 131-132.

Vigils Reading - Memorial of BVM
2023-11-18
ABOUNDING IN EVERY DELIGHT
From a homily by Amadeus of Lausanne7
◊◊◊
EAT, MY FRIENDS, drink and be inebriated, beloved. I invite you to the table of wisdom and to libations of wine which she [wisdom] has mixed for you in the bowl. I invite you to the banquet of the glorious lady, to the feast of the Mother of God. Happy he who, received at such a banquet, shall shine forth in the marriage garment amidst the guests. The bread of life will be set before him, strengthening, filling, satisfying him with its wondrous sweetness, and the wine of gladness, the wine coming forth from the fruit of the vine, truly the wine of the resurrection pressed from the tree of the Lord’s passion… hung upon the bar of wood… Abounding then in every delight he will invite others with him to the feast, saying, ‘Eat, my friends, drink and be inebriated, beloved.’
I, too, brothers, invite you to this feast… Eat the bread of life, drink the wine of gladness, be inebriated with the joy of the resurrection. This inebriation is the height of sobriety. It blots out remembrance of the world and always stamps upon the mind the thought of God’s presence. Everyone drunk with this forgets all things and remembers only the charity of God… Therefore, be you also drunken… Rejoice in her joy, you who have mourned with her grief…
For he has risen and he has raised up his mother’s soul. She lay as in a narrow tomb of grief while the Lord lay in the sepulchre. As he arose, her spirit lived again and, waking as if from deep slumber, she saw in the morning light the sun of justice and the rays of his rising… She feasted her eyes upon the glowing flesh of the risen Lord and in her heart perceived the glory of his godhead, so that within and

without, leaving and entering, she enjoyed the pasturage of true and everlasting felicity. Beside herself, therefore, forgetting self for joy, she clung with all her heart to the Father of spirits and bound fast to God she poured out upon him her whole self and was wholly flooded in the immensity of his love…
Therefore, O blessed lady, you have your joy, the object of your desire and the crown of your head have been granted you. He has brought to you the sovereignty of heaven through his glory, the kingdom of the world through his mercy, the subjugation of hell through his power. All things with their diverse feelings respond to your great and unspeakable glory: angels by honor, men by love, demons by terror. For you are venerated in heaven, loved in the world, feared in hell…
And you, glorious lady, saw your Son rising from hell. You saw with your blessed eyes your son’s glory. You saw and you fainted. Your flesh and your heart failed. You turned to water when you heard the voice of your beloved son speaking to you. His word became like a fire burning in your bones. Therefore inflamed by the divine words you became wholly like a fire and you offered yourself as a sweet sacrifice to God. O phoenix, sending forth perfume more pleasing than cinnamon and balsam, sweeter than nard delighting the king by its presence. O phoenix, gathering together all chosen beauties, surrounded by… fire, that you may fill the heaven of heavens and the angelic powers of heaven with a wondrous sweet incense… This incense… comes forth from the censer of Mary’s heart and sweetly surpasses every perfume

7 Amadeus of Lausanne. Eight Homilies on the Praise of Blessed Mary. CF 18B. Trans. Grace Perigo. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1979. 49-50, 55, 57-58.

Skema. 33rd Week in Ordinary Time
2023-11-19
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
33rd Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
November 19 – 25, 2023

Sun
19
Mon
20
Tue
21
Wed
22
Thu
23
Fri
24
Sat
25

Office
33rd Sunday
Weekday
Presentation of the BVM
St Cecilia
St Columban Thanksgiving
St Andrew & Companions
St Catherine of Alexandria

Vigils
Jud 8:24-36
Jud 9:1-14
Jud 10:1-10
Jud 10:11-23
Jud 11:1-23
Jud 12:1-20
Jud 13:1-11

Lauds
Zeph 3:1-7
Zeph 3:8-13
Zeph 3:14-20
Mal 1:1-5
Mal 1:6-10
Mal 1:11-14
Mal 2:1-9

Mass
157
497
Anointing
499
943.3, 944.3, 947.6
501
502

1st
Prov 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
1 Macc 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63

2 Macc 7:1, 20-31
Isa 63:7-9
1 Macc 4:36-37, 52-59
1 Macc 6:1-13

2nd
1 Thess 5:1-6

Col 3:12-17

Gospel
Matt 25:14-30
Luke 18:35-43

Luke 19:11-28
Luke 17:11-19
Luke 19:45-48
Luke 20:27-40

Vespers
2 Cor 11:16-21a
2 Cor 11:21b-33

2 Cor 12:11-18
2 Cor 12:19-13:4
2 Cor 13:5-13
Eph 1:15-23

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
2023-11-19
SHARE YOUR MASTER’S JOY
From a commentary by St John Chrysostom 1
◊◊◊
In the parable of the talents the Master entrusted money to his servants and
then set out on a journey. This was to help us understand how patient he is, though
in my view this story also refers to the resurrection. Here it is a question not of a
vineyard and vine dressers, but of all workers. The Master is addressing everyone,
not only rulers, or the Jews.
Those bringing him their profit acknowledge frankly what is their own, and
what is their Master’s. One says: Sir, you gave me five talents; another says: You
gave me two, recognizing that they had received from him the means of making a
profit. They are extremely grateful, and attribute to him all their success.
What does the Master say then? Well done, good and faithful servant (for
goodness shows itself in concern for one’s neighbor). Because you have proved
trustworthy in managing a small amount, I will give you charge of a greater sum:
come and share your Master’s joy.
But one servant has a different answer. He says: I knew you were a hard man,
reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not winnowed; and
I was afraid, and hid your talent. Here it is – you have back what belongs to you.
What does the Master say to that? You wicked servant! You should have put
my money in the bank, that is, “You should have spoken out and given
encouragement and advice.” “But no one will pay attention.” “That is not my concern. You should have deposited the money” he says, “and left me to reclaim it,
which I would have done with interest,” meaning by interest the good works that
are seen to follow the hearing of the word. “The easier part is all you were expected
to do, leaving the harder part to me.” Because the servant failed to do this, the
Master said: Take the talent away from him, and give it to the servant who has ten
talents. For to everyone who has more will be given, and he will have enough and to
spare; but the one who has not will forfeit even the little he has.
What is the meaning of this? That whoever has received for the good of
others the ability to preach and teach, and does not use it, will lose that ability,
whereas the zealous servant will be given greater ability, even as the other forfeits
what he had.
1
Journey with the Fathers – Year A – New City Press – NY -1999 – pg 142-143.

Weekday
2023-11-20
SEE YOUR FAITH HAS SAVED YOU
From a homily by St Gregory the Great 2
◊◊◊
And it came to pass, as Jesus was approaching Jericho, that a blind man was
sitting by the roadside and begging… Jesus, stopping, asked him “What do you
want me to do for you?” He answered, “Lord, let me see!”…
But let us listen to what happened while the blind man shouted, “Those who
walked before reprimanded him to silence him.” What do those who precede the
arrival of Jesus represent, if not the crowd of carnal desires and the tempest of
vices, who, before the coming of Jesus in our heart, dispel our thoughts by their
assaults and hinder the calls of our prayer? Often, indeed, when we want to return
to the Lord after sinning, and strive to overcome…the vices of which we have been
guilty, the images of our past faults are pressed into our hearts; they blunt the tip
of our mind, disturb our soul and stifle the voice of our prayer. Yes, “those who
walked before reprimanded him to silence him,” since before the coming of Jesus
into our hearts, our past faults, whose memory strikes our thought, throw us into
trouble in the midst of our prayer.
Let’s hear what the blind man did then, before finding the light again… “He
cried out,” Son of David, have mercy on me!” See, he whom the crowd reprimands
in order to silence him cries again and again; it is thus that the more the storm of
carnal thoughts torments us, the more we must intensify our prayer… The crowd
wants to prevent us from shouting, since we often suffer even in prayer the
harassing memory of our sins. But it is necessary that the voice of our heart
persists with all the more force that the resistance which it meets is harder, in
order to control the storm of our guilty thoughts, and to touch, by the very excess
of its importunity, the merciful ears of the Lord… When we turn our minds from
this world to turn to God, and apply ourselves to prayer… we endure prayer as an
unwelcome and painful thing, the very thing we had done with delight…
But if we persevere insistently in our prayer, we stop in our soul Jesus who
passes… Indeed, as long as the crowds of images oppress us in prayer, we have the
impression that Jesus is passing; but when we persevere insistently in our prayer,
Jesus stops to give us light, since God is fixed in our heart, and the lost light is
restored to us…
Let us also notice what he says to the blind man who approaches: “What do
you want me to do for you?”… He wants us to ask for things, although in advance
he knows we will ask for them and he will give them to us. He exhorts us to pray
to the point of being unwelcome, who says, however, “Your heavenly Father knows
what you need before you ask him”… So the blind man immediately adds, “Lord,
let me see!” What the blind man asks of the Lord is not gold, but light. He does not
care to ask anything other than light, for even if it is possible for a blind man to
possess something, he cannot, without light, see what he has.
Let us imitate, dear brothers, this man… Let us not ask the Lord for deceitful
riches, earthly gifts, nor transient honors, but light; not the light circumscribed by
space, limited by time, interrupted by night… but let us ask for this light …which
does not begin with any beginning and is bounded by no end. But the way to reach
this light is faith. It is therefore with reason that the Lord responds immediately to
the blind man to whom he will give light: “See! Your faith saved you. “…
2 Accessed online: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/.

Presentation of the BVM
2023-11-21
THE VIRGIN AND THE TEMPLE
From the writing of Fr Yves Congar 3
◊◊◊
The only occasion on which the Gospels expressly mention the Virgin Mary
in connection with the Temple are in the account of her Purification and of the
Presentation of Jesus in the Temple and the finding of the child Jesus in the Temple
after four days’ absence on his part and three anxious searching by his parents. To
these very brief indications, the piety of Christians very soon added the idea of the
presentation of Mary in the Temple at the age of three to be consecrated to the
service of God. We are dealing here with a symbolical representation of a
profound spiritual reality about which the tradition and the doctrine of the Church
provide us with valid information. Mary, predestined to be the Mother of Jesus,
true God and true man, and to be worthy of her vocation, was prepared by the gift
of exceptional graces and lived with unfailing fidelity a most pure life of inner
consecration to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. As the type of all faithful
souls and of the Church herself, Mary expressed spiritually and supremely in her
life the “presentation” which, for each one of us, is to begin by the service of faith
and to be consummated in heaven.
It is obvious that the tradition and doctrine of the Church may, without
falling prey to the imaginary productions of the apocrypha, propound statements
concerning the status of the Mother of God in relation either to the Jewish
messianic temple going far beyond what we are explicitly told in the three short
passages from the Gospel which narrate the incidents mentioned above. If Mary
is the Mother of God, she has a special relation to the body of Christ which is the
true temple — to his physical body and doubtless also, in a certain sense, to his
body the Church. She is herself a temple of God in a quite specific and sublime
way, both because Christ was within her from the moment of his conception until
that of his birth, and because of the exceptional spiritual gifts she received in
preparation for her divine motherhood and as a reward for her free acceptance of
this vocation, not only after the Annunciation but during the whole of her life.
Hence the liturgy — the Oriental liturgy in particular — shows a profound
understanding of the mystery of Mary when it constantly uses the texts concerning
the Temple and the tabernacle in order to express it.
3 The Mystery of the Temple,Westminster(Maryland) 1962, p.254-255.

St. Cecilia
2023-11-22
THE GRACE OF BEING A MARTYR
From “Story of a Soul” by St Thérèse of Lisieux 4
◊◊◊
It was night when we arrived and as we were all asleep we were awakened
by the shouts of the porters crying: “Rome! Rome!” It was not a dream, I was in
Rome!… One of my sweetest memories was the one that filled me with delight
when I saw the Colosseum. I was finally gazing upon that arena where so many
martyrs had shed their blood for Jesus… One thought raced through my mind: get
down into the arena!… I cried to Céline: “Come quick! We can get through!” We
crossed the barrier where there was an opening, the fallen masonry hardly
reaching up to the barrier, and we were climbing down over the ruins that
rumbled under our feet… We…threw ourselves on our knees on this sacred soil,
and our souls were united in the same prayer. My heart was beating hard when
my lips touched the dust stained with the blood of the first Christians. I asked for
the grace of being a martyr for Jesus and felt that my prayer was answered!… Papa,
seeing us so happy, didn’t have the heart to scold us and I could easily see he was
proud of our courage…
The Catacombs, too, left a deep impression on me. They were exactly as I
had imagined them when reading the lives of the martyrs. After having spent part
of the afternoon in them, it seemed to me we were there for only a few moments,
so sacred did the atmosphere appear to me. We had to carry off some souvenir
from the Catacombs; having allowed the procession to pass on a little, Céline and
Thérèse slipped down together to the bottom of the ancient tomb of St. Cecilia and
took some earth which was sanctified by her presence.
Before my trip to Rome I didn’t have any special devotion to this saint, but
when I visited her house transformed into a church, the site of her martyrdom,
when learning that she was proclaimed patroness of music not because of her
beautiful voice or her talent for music, but in memory of the virginal song she sang
to her heavenly Spouse hidden in the depths of her heart, I felt more than devotion
for her; it was the real tenderness of a friend. She became my saint of predilection,
my intimate confidante. Everything in her thrilled me, especially her
abandonment, her limitless confidence that made her capable of virginizing souls
who had never desired any other joys but those of the present life. St. Cecilia is like
the bride in the Canticle; in her I see “a choir in an armed camp.” Her life was
nothing else but a melodious song in the midst of the greatest trials, and this does
not surprise me because “the Gospel rested on her heart,” and in her heart reposed
the Spouse of Virgins!…
Martyrdom was the dream of my youth and this dream has grown with me
within Carmel’s cloisters. But here again, I feel that my dream is a folly, for I cannot
confine myself to desiring one kind of martyrdom. To satisfy me I need all. Like
You, my Adorable Spouse, I would be scourged and crucified. I would die flayed
like St. Bartholomew. I would be plunged into boiling oil like St. John; I would
undergo all the tortures inflicted upon the martyrs. With St. Agnes and St. Cecilia,
I would present my neck to the sword, and like Joan of Arc, my dear sister, I would
whisper at the stake Your Name, O JESUS. When thinking of the torments which
will be the lot of Christians at the time of Anti-Christ, I feel my heart leap with joy
and I would that these torments be reserved for me. Jesus, Jesus, if I wanted to
write all my desires, I would have to borrow Your Book of Life, for in it are reported
all the actions of all the saints, and I would accomplish all of them for You.
4
Story of A Soul: The Autobiography of St Thérèse of Lisieux. Trans. John Clarke, O.C.D. Washington, DC: ICS Publications,
1996. 163-165, 222-223. PDF ONLINE VERSION.

St. Columban/Thanksgiving
2023-11-23
THE GIFT OF HIMSELF
From “The Reed of God” by Caryll Houselander 5
◊◊◊
On the night before He died Christ took bread into His hands, blessed and
broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying: “This is my Body.” The Blessed
Sacrament is Christ, the whole Christ. He was giving us Himself… Yet, in giving
Himself to the world, He deliberately chose to emphasize the body. Why? The
body is, for us, the means by which we can give ourselves wholly. We say: “God,
my thoughts are with you,” or “My soul goes with you.” And we know that, though
something of ourself is with the traveler, essentially we remain separate from
him… But when we give our body willingly to another as the means of deliberate
self-donation, then our union with the other is complete…
We surrender our intimacy, the secret of ourselves, with the giving of our
body; and we cannot give it without our will, our thoughts, our minds, and our
souls. Christ surrendered the secret of Himself to each one of us when He gave us
His Body. In Holy Communion this surrender of the secret of Himself goes on.
“With desire,” He said, “have I desired this hour.” The hour when He was to
consecrate bread, in order that not only to the whole race would He give His Spirit,
but to each individual, the gift of Himself. He had longed for it – that is what the
phrase means; longed for the moment when He would give us the Body that Mary
had given to Him in Communion. He waited thirty-three years in time for the Last
Supper; two thousand years for me…
He gave Himself through His body from the beginning to the end in tears, in
sweat, in weariness; with spoken words, with glances of love; walking the dusty
roads, visiting the homes of His friends and His enemies; in the gift of His blood.
The part that the pain and privation of His body played in our redemption we
know and meditate often: the poverty, the toil, the fasting, the crucifixion. We
think less often of the joy that should be ours through Christ’s body… No one ever
enjoyed life as he did. He gathered up the color, sound, touch, meaning of
everything about him and united it all to the exquisite sensitiveness, the most pure
capacity for delight.
Most people know the sheer wonder that goes with falling in love, how not
only does everything in heaven and earth become new, but the lover himself
becomes new. It is literally like the sap rising in the tree, putting forth new green
shoots of life. The capacity for joy is doubled, the awareness of beauty sharpened,
the power to do and enjoy creative work increased immeasurably. The heart is
enlarged, there is more sympathy, more warmth, in it than ever before. The lover’s
mind is vibrant with his new life, every sense quickened; and while his blood races,
an immense power of tenderness makes him so much the ruler and master of all
this passion of joy, that he is able to bestow it on another with such restraint, such
gentleness, that however frail she is, she can receive it…
Christ on earth was a human being in love. His love gave life to all loves. He
was love itself. He infused his life with all the grace of its outward and inward
joyfulness, with all its poetry and song, with all its gaiety and laughter and grace.
With His body He united Himself to the world… It is not in making our flesh
unfeeling that we hallow God’s name on earth but in offering it to God burning
with the flame of life. Everything can be put into the fire that Christ came to kindle;
and whether it be the bitter wood of sorrow or the substance of joy, it will burn
upwards with the same splendor of light.
5 The Reed of God, NY 1944, 84-87, 90.

St. Andrew & Companions
2023-11-24
THE MARTYRS’ SHARE IN CHRIST’S VICTORY
From a letter of St Paul Le-Bao-Tinh 6
◊◊◊
I, Paul, in chains for the name of Christ, wish to relate to you the trials
besetting me daily, in order that you may be inflamed with love for God and join
with me in his praises, “for his mercy is forever.” The prison here is a true image
of everlasting hell: to cruel tortures of every kind; shackles, iron chains, manacles;
are added hatred, vengeance, calumnies, obscene speech, quarrels, evil acts,
swearing, curses, as well as anguish and grief. But the God who once freed the
three children from the fiery furnace is with me always; he has delivered me from
these tribulations and made them sweet, “for his mercy is forever.”
In the midst of these torments, which usually terrify others, I am, by the
grace of God, full of joy and gladness, because I am not alone — Christ is with me.
Our Master bears the whole weight of the cross, leaving me only the tiniest, last
bit. He is not a mere onlooker in my struggle, but a contestant and the victor and
champion in the whole battle. Therefore upon his head is placed the crown of
victory, and his members also share in his glory.
How am I to bear with the spectacle, as each day I see emperors, mandarins,
and their retinue blaspheming your holy name, O Lord, “who are enthroned above
the Cherubim and Seraphim”? Behold, the pagans have trodden your cross
underfoot! Where is your glory? As I see all this, I would, in the ardent love I have
for you, prefer to be torn limb from limb and to die as a witness to your love. O
Lord, show your power, save me, sustain me, that in my infirmity your power may
be shown and may be glorified before the nations: grant that I may not grow weak
along the way, and so allow your enemies to hold their heads up in pride.
Beloved brothers, as you hear all these things may you give endless thanks
in joy to God, from whom every good proceeds; bless the Lord with me, “for his
mercy is forever.”… For “God chose what is weak in the world to confound the
strong, God chose what is low and despised” to confound the noble. Through my
mouth he has confused the philosophers who are disciples of the wise of this
world, “for his mercy is forever.”I write these things to you in order that your faith
and mine may be united. In the midst of this storm I cast my anchor toward the
throne of God, the anchor that is the lively hope in my heart.
Beloved brothers, for your part “so run that you may attain the crown,” put
on the “breastplate of faith” and take up “the weapons” of Christ “for the right hand
and for the left,” as my patron Saint Paul has taught us. “It is better for you to enter
life with one eye or crippled” than, with all your members intact, to be cast away.
Come to my aid with your prayers, that I may have the strength to fight according
to the law, and indeed “to fight the good fight” and to fight until the end and so
finish the race. We may not again see each other in this life, but we will have the
happiness of seeing each other again in the world to come, when, standing at the
throne of the spotless Lamb, we will together join in singing his praises and exult
for ever in the joy of our triumph.
6 Le Clerge Tonkinois et Ses Pretres Martyrs, A. Launay (Paris: Paris Foreign Mission Society, 1925), pp. 80-83.

St. Catherine of Alexandria
2023-11-25
ST CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA
From the writing of St Mechthild of Hackeborn7
◊◊◊
As the Soul wondered what praise she should offer God to honor his saints,
he told her, “Praise me because I am the crown of all saints.” She immediately
began to praise and bless the most blessed, ever-venerable Trinity as best she
could because he deigned to be the crown and marvelous dignity of the saints –
and by a singular privilege, he is the golden crown of all virgins. At once she saw
that the glorious Virgin and all the saints were wearing crowns of inconceivable
beauty. No words could express their glory… Now it is true that the beauty and
glory of all the saints is perfected by the blood of Christ, his innocence, and his
other virtues; and there is a tender intimacy and delight between the Lord and
every soul. Yet, by a special privilege, virgins enjoy God with a more delightful
intimacy, a greater pleasure, and a sweeter taste because he is their bridegroom…
On the Feast of the illustrious virgin Catherine, she appeared to the Soul in
a robe all patterned with golden wheels. At the top were two golden hands that
together held up the garment, symbolizing the blissful, undivided union of God
with her soul. Christ’s handmaid reverently greeted her with the antiphon
Hail, beautiful virgin. After this she asked, “Tell me, I pray, what is meant by that
verse we sing to you, whose face and beauty the Lord desired? What is that face of
yours that the Lord desired?”
“My face is the image of the venerable Trinity, which the Lord desired in me
because I had never corrupted it with serious sins. My beauty is that exceptional
beauty that Christ has given his faithful, inexpressibly beautifying them with the
color of his blood. And you should know that every time a person receives
communion, that beauty is renewed and increased. For example, someone who
receives communion even once doubles the beauty in her soul. But if a person
communicates a hundred or a thousand times, she increases the beauty in her soul
a hundred or a thousandfold.”
Then the virgin Mechthild prayed to St. Catherine for someone who was
devoted to her. She replied, “Tell her to recite for me the… antiphon ‘Come my
beloved, come and enter the chamber of your Bridegroom.’… Let her remind me of
the joy I had when Christ the King, my bridegroom, called me with those words.
For when that voice came to my ears, my heart was set ablaze with so much love
and I was dissolved in such unspeakable joy that all the horror of death was
reduced to nothing.”
7 Mechthild of Hackeborn. The Book of Special Grace. Trans. Barbara Newman. New York: Paulist Press, 2017. 111-113.

Skema
2023-11-26
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
34th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
November 26 – December 2, 2023

Sun
26
Mon
27
Tue
28
Wed
29
Thu
30
Fri
1
Sat
2

Office
Christ the King
Weekday
Weekday
Office for Vocations
St Andrew
Office for the Dead
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Isa 33:2-22
Jud 13:12-20
Jud 14:1-10
Jud 14:11-15:13
1 Cor 1:18-2:5
Jud 15:14-16:17
Jud 16:18-25

Lauds
Jerm 23:1-6
Mal 2:10-16
Mal 2:17-3:5
Mal 3:6-12
Deut 30:8-14
Mal 3:13-18
Mal 3:19-24

Mass
160
503
504
505
684
507
508

1st
Ezek 34:11-12, 15-17
Dan 1:1-6, 8-20
Dan 2:31-45
Dan 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28
Rom 10:9-18
Dan 7:2-14
Dan 7:15-27

2nd
1 Cor 15:20-26, 28

Gospel
Matt 25:31-46
Luke 21:1-4
Luke 21:5-11
Luke 21:12-19
Matt 4:18-22
Luke 21:29-33
Luke 21:34-36

Vespers
Rev 3:14-22
2 John 1-6
2 John 7-13
3 John 1-8
1 Thess 2:8-13
3 John 9-15
Rev 1:1-8

Vigils Reading - Sunday Christ the King
2023-11-26
YOUR KINGDOM COME
From a notebook on prayer by Origen1
◊◊◊
The kingdom of God, in the words of our Lord and Savior, does not come for all to see; nor shall they say: Behold, here it is, or behold, there it is; but the kingdom of God is within us, for the word of God is very near, in our mouth and in our heart. Thus it is clear that he who prays for the coming of God’s kingdom prays rightly to have it within himself, that there it may grow and bear fruit and become perfect. For God reigns in each of his holy ones. Anyone who is holy obeys the spiritual laws of God, who dwells in him as in a well-ordered city. The Father is present in the perfect soul, and with him Christ reigns, according to the words: We shall come to him and make our home with him.
Thus the kingdom of God within us, as we continue to make progress, will reach its highest point when the Apostle’s words are fulfilled, and Christ, having subjected all his enemies to himself, will hand over his kingdom to God the Father, that God may be all in all. Therefore, let us pray unceasingly with that disposition of soul which the Word may make divine, saying to our Father who is in heaven: Hallowed be your name; your kingdom come.
Note this too about the kingdom of God. It is not a sharing of justice with iniquity, nor a society of light with darkness, nor a meeting of Christ with Belial. The kingdom of God cannot exist alongside the reign of sin.
Therefore, if we wish God to reign in us, in no way should sin reign in our mortal body; rather we should mortify our members which are upon the earth and bear fruit in the Spirit. There should be in us a kind of spiritual paradise where God may walk and be our sole ruler with his Christ. In us the Lord will sit at the right hand of that spiritual power which we wish to receive. And he will sit there until all his enemies who are within us become his footstool, and every principality, power and virtue in us is cast out.

All this can happen in each one of us, and the last enemy, death, can be destroyed; then Christ will say in us: O death, where is your sting? O hell, where is your victory? And so, what is corruptible in us must be clothed in holiness and incorruptibility; and what is mortal must be clothed, now that death has been conquered, in the Father’s immortality. Then God will reign in us, and we shall enjoy even now the blessings of rebirth and resurrection

1 Liturgy of the Hours. IV – Ordinary Time – Weeks 18-34. New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1975. 576-577.

Vigils Reading
2023-11-27
THOSE WHO WOULD PRAISE GOD OVER ALL
From the commentary by St Cyril of Alexandria2
◊◊◊
And as He looked He saw the rich casting their gifts into the treasury: and He saw also a certain poor widow who cast in thither two farthings: and He said, Of a truth I say to you, that this poor widow has cast in more than they all…
What mouth will suffice for those who would praise God over all!… He counts as offerings, and takes to Himself, what we do for the brethren who are grieved by poverty. For He has said, “Verily I say to you, that whatsoever you have done to one of these little ones, you have done it to Me.”… Our deeds then are indeed done… to those who are our fellows and brethren, but God takes it to Himself, because He is loving to man, and counts it as spiritual fruitfulness, in order that He may have an occasion of showing mercy upon those who habitually thus act, and may free them from all sin. For it is written, that mercy glories against judgment.”…
Some of the rich then drew near, bringing the appointed gifts, and casting their offerings into the treasury: and as being possessed of great wealth, and ample riches, the gifts that each one offered were, as is likely, in themselves large: and yet, on the other hand, small, and not in proportion to the offerers’ means. And so after them there came in a woman oppressed by hard and unendurable poverty, and whose whole hope of sustenance lay in the kindness of the compassionate, and who by scraps scarcely and laboriously gathered a scant and miserable provision, barely sufficient for the day. And finally, she offered two farthings: for it was not possible for her to bestow more, but rather, so to speak, she had stripped herself

of all that she had, and was leaving the sacred courts with empty hands. Wonderful deed! She who constantly asked alms of others, lends to God, making even poverty itself fruitful to His honour.
She therefore vanquishes the rest, and by a just sentence is crowned by God… For it is God that receives, and requites it, not with equal, but rather with overflowing measure. “For good measure, He says, pressed down, and running over, shall they pour into your bosom.” And as the very wise Paul says, “God loves a cheerful giver.”…For love shown to poverty is not unfruitful, but is a debt that will be largely repaid.
We ought therefore to be diligent in fulfilling this duty, as being well assured, that if we distribute with bountiful hand, we shall benefit ourselves: for so the blessed Paul again teaches us saying, “But this, — he that sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly: and he that sows with blessings shall also reap in blessings: every man as he is prepared in his heart.” And, as if to cut away the slothfulness of our good exertions, immediately he adds these words; “And God is able to make all grace abound in you, that in every thing always possessing every sufficiency you may abound in every good work…” For he who shows mercy to the poor, shall never be forsaken, but shall be counted worthy rather of indulgence from Christ, the Saviour of us all; by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion

2 Patristic Bible Commentary – https://sites.google.com/site/aquinasstudybible/. Accessed online: Nov. 23, 2023.

Vigils Reading
2023-11-28
TO A PRIEST ABOUT THE WORLD CRISIS
From the “Missionary Letters” of Saint Nikolai Velimirovich3 ◊◊◊
You ask me, O man of God, where did today’s crisis come from and what does it mean? Who am I to be asked about such a great thing? “You should only speak when what you have to say is better than silence,” says St. Gregory the Theologian. And even though I believe that silence would be better right now, I will give you my opinion on it for the sake of my love for you.
Crisis is a Greek word, and it means judgment. In the Holy Scripture this word is used many times. The Psalmist says, “therefore, the godless will not stand up in judgment”. In another place, it says, “I sing of mercy and judgment”. Wise Solomon writes, “the judgment of all comes from the Lord”. The Savior Himself said that “the Father has given all judgment to the Son,” and later “now is the judgment of the world come”. Apostle Peter writes, “for it is time that the judgment of God’s house begin”. Replace the word judgment with crisis and read, “therefore, the godless will not stand up in crisis — I sing of mercy and crisis — the crisis of all comes from the Lord — the Father has given all crisis to the Son — now is the crisis of the world come — for it is time that the crisis of God’s house begin…
Now, the old word is replaced with the new – the understandable with the incomprehensible. When there was a drought, people would say, “God’s judgment!” When there was a flood, “God’s judgment!” When there was a war or a plague, “God’s judgment!” When there was hail, earthquakes, pests, mice and other troubles, again and every time – God’s judgment! And that means – crisis through droughts, crisis through floods, through wars, plagues… Today’s… economic trouble is also

considered by the people to be God’s judgment, but they don’t say judgment, but crisis. So that the trials are multiplied through confusion! For when we used an understandable word, judgment, we also understood the cause of the trouble; we knew the Judge who allowed the trials; and the goal of the trial was also known. However, as soon as we used the word crisis, a word incomprehensible to all and every one, nobody knows how to explain anything — why, where from, to what end? That is the only difference between today’s crisis and those crises of drought, flood, war, plague, insects or other pestilences.
Do you ask me about the cause of today’s crisis or today’s judgment of God? The cause is the same forever and ever. The cause of droughts, floods, plagues, and other whips of mankind is also the cause of today’s crisis. Apostasy of the people. The people have caused this crisis by the sin of apostasy, and God has allowed it in order to awaken the people, that they might come to their senses, become more spiritual and return to Him.
Through modern sins comes modern crisis. God really did use modern means to put some sense into modern people — He struck the banks, the stock markets, finances and currencies. He has overturned the tables of the exchangers around the world, just as He did a long time ago in the Temple in Jerusalem. He has created an unprecedented panic among the merchants and money exchangers. He lifts, casts down, stirs, confuses, frightens. All to make… men wake up, come to their senses and become more spiritual. So that being anchored in the harbors of material security, they might remember their souls; confess their transgressions and bow down to the Almighty God — the Living God. How long will the crisis last? As long as the people’s spirit remains unchanged. Until those haughty people who caused this crisis capitulate before the Almighty. Until the peoples and nations remember to translate the incomprehensible word crisis into their own languages so that they may say “God’s judgment!” You also, honorable father, ought to say “God’s judgment” instead of crisis and everything will be clear

3 Saint Nikolai Velimirovich. Missionary Letters of Saint Nikolai Velimirovich. Trans. Hierdeacon Serafim. Grayslake, IL: New Gracania Monastery, 2008. 16-18.

Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
2023-11-29
BEGINNINGS
From the writing of Servant of God Dorothy Day4
◊◊◊
It was in Chicago, where… in a glimpse of supernatural beauty… Mrs. Barrett, mother of Kathryn and six other little Barretts, who lived upstairs… gave me my first impulse toward Catholicism. It was around ten o’clock in the morning that I went up to Kathryn’s to call for her to come out and play… In the front bedroom Mrs. Barrett was on her knees, saying her prayers. She turned to tell me that Kathryn and the children had all gone to the store and went on with her praying. And I felt a warm burst of love toward Mrs. Barrett that I have never forgotten, a feeling of gratitude and happiness that still warms my heart when I remember her. She had God, and there was beauty and joy in her life.
All through my life, what she was doing remained with me. And though I became oppressed with the problem of poverty and injustice, though I groaned at the hideous sordidness of man’s lot, though there were years when I clung to the philosophy of economic determinism as an explanation of man’s fate, still there were moments when, in the midst of misery and class strife, life was shot through with glory. Mrs. Barrett in her sordid little tenement flat finished her breakfast dishes at ten o’clock in the morning and got down on her knees and prayed to God.
The Harrington family also lived in that block of tenements, and there were nine children, the eldest a little girl of twelve…Mary Harrington… One occasion… she told me of the life of some saint… I can only remember the feeling of lofty enthusiasm I had, how my heart seemed almost bursting with desire to take part in such high endeavor. One verse of the Psalms often comes to my mind: “Enlarge

Thou my heart, O Lord, that Thou mayest enter in.” This was one of those occasions when my small heart was enlarged. I could feel it swelling with love and gratitude to such a good God for such a friendship as Mary’s, for conversation such as hers, and I was filled with lofty ambitions to be a saint, a natural striving, a thrilling recognition of the possibilities of spiritual adventure.
I, too, wanted to do penance for my own sins and for the sins of the whole world, for I had a keen sense of sin, of natural imperfection and earthliness. I often felt clearly that I was being deliberately evil in my attitudes, just as I clearly recognized truth when I came across it. And the thrill of joy that stirred my heart when I came across spiritual truth and beauty never abated, never left me as I grew older.
The sad thing is that one comes across it so seldom. Natural goodness, natural beauty, brings joy and a lifting of the spirit, but it is not enough, it is not the same. The special emotions I am speaking of came only at hearing the word of God. It was as though each time I heard our Lord spoken of, a warm feeling of joy filled me. It was hearing of someone you love and who loves you

4 Day, Dorothy. Selected Writings: By Little and By Little. Ed. Robert Ellsberg. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2005. 9-12.

Vigils Reading - St Andrew
2023-11-30
O CROSS, SO LONG DESIRED
From a sermon by St Bernard5
◊◊◊
Today we celebrate the festival of St Andrew, and if we ponder it lovingly we shall find much for the building up of our souls…
You will surely have noticed how St Andrew, when he reached the place where the cross was prepared, was strengthened in the Lord, and began to utter those burning words, through the Spirit whom he had received in tongues of fire, along with the other apostles… His mouth spoke from the abundance of his heart, and that love which burned in his heart flashed forth as bright flame in his voice. And what did blessed Andrew say, when as I said, he saw in the distance the cross which had been prepared for him? ‘O cross,’ he said, ‘so long desired and now made ready for my eager spirit! With joy and confidence I come to you, therefore do you too receive me gladly, as the disciple of him who hanged on you; for I have always been your lover and have longed to embrace you’…
From where come such hitherto unknown joy and exultation? Whence such constancy in fragility? Whence, in a mere human, such spiritual ardor, such burning love, such vigor of soul? Far be it from us to imagine that it comes from his own strength. It is a perfect gift coming down from the Father of lights, for he alone does great wonders. It was indeed the Spirit, beloved brethren, who came to the aid of his weakness, through whom that love strong as death was poured into our hearts, indeed it is stronger than death. May God give us a share in it!… If we grow weary and sleep at vigils, it is only because of our feeble spirit. If the Holy Spirit is present, doubtless he helps our infirmity; what he did for St Andrew on

the cross and in his death, he will also do for us in our toil and penance: not only will he make these seem no longer burdensome, he will even make them a desire and a delight. ‘My Spirit’, says the Lord, ‘is sweeter than honey’, so that the bitterness of death, no matter how bitter, would not be able to lessen its sweetness…
Let us seek this Spirit, my brethren, let us do our utmost to gain him, or to possess him more fully if he is not already in us. Because ‘anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him’. ‘We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God’.
We must take up our cross with St Andrew, or rather, with him whom St Andrew followed, the Lord our Savior. The cause of his joy and exultation was that he was dying not only for his Lord but also with him, in like manner, that suffering with him he might reign with him. And we too, if we are to be crucified with him, let us listen with the ears of our heart to his voice saying: ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’… For in the cross is our salvation, provided we cleave to it firmly… To us who are being saved it is the power of God’. May he make us worthy too, victoriously to carry to the end whatever cross of repentance we have taken up in his name, he who is God above all, blessed through the ages

5 Deuxieme sermon pour la fete de St Andre, 1, 3-5, 7: PL 183, 509-512.

Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
2023-12-01
WAIL, FOR THE DAY OF THE LORD IS NEAR
From “Homilies on the Prophetic Burdens of Isaiah” by St Aelred of Rievaulx6 ◊◊◊
The prophecy calls the Day of Judgment the day of the Lord. On that day, the Lord appearing in power and majesty will render to each according to their works. That day, of course, begins for each of us when we leave the body. We will then receive either the firstfruits of beatitude in rest, or the beginning of damnation in the soul, which we will later also receive in the body.
This day will certainly come as desolation from the Lord… For what will that day not lay waste? Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb…and naked I will return there. Where, then, is the wealth, where are the pleasures, where are the heaps of gold or silver, where are the crammed storehouses, flowing from here to there? Where are the fruitful sheep and the fattened cattle, where the silk garments and the warhorses? All things are brought to nothing for the dying person. For when people die, they do not lay claim to anything, nor does their glory go down with them. That day overtakes and devours whatever strength was in their body, whatever enjoyment in their flesh, whatever pleasure in their senses, and whatever pleasing in their habits.
Happy is the mind from which the memory of this day does not fade. Solomon bears witness to how useful it is to meditate on death when he says, Child, always remember your last moments and you will never sin. For who would take pleasure in sinning if that hour were always before their eyes? Therefore, wail in repentance, O sinner, so that you are not compelled to wail in punishment. May the Lord’s Day in your memory make you bitter against the world’s pleasures so that it does not make

you bitter in experience… because…all hands will grow slack, and every human heart will waste away and crumble.
Those who work well send their good works before them to God. After they die, they may rest and boast in their works with slack hands. Likewise, those who work badly send their evil works before them to hell, where they will be forever punished. For torments will powerfully afflict those who are powerful in evil here, the cruel will be cruelly tormented, the stench of sulfur will plague those stinking of lust, the Tartar- ean flames will burn those whom avarice kindles, and never-dying worms will feed on those whom gluttony and drunkenness defile. Pay attention to yourself, O human! For as often as you sin, you send before you to hell the material for punishment with which you could be tormented. You yourself light the fire that will torment you, you provoke the stench that will torture you, you bring to life the worms that will consume you, you prepare the darkness that will blind you. Then your hands will grow slack, so that they are neither fit to work nor strong enough to resist, but can only passively suffer…
Therefore, everyone must wail. The wicked must wail to avoid the damnation that comes from continuing in their wickedness. The lazy and lukewarm must wail so that God does not spit them out of his mouth because they are neither hot nor cold. So too those who do good badly, so that they do not enter the land by two roads. But those who do good well should also wail, so that the hidden Judgment of God does not condemn them. Thus, the prophet says, Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as a desolation it will come from the Lord, so that the good may fear and the wicked may mourn upon glimpsing death nearby. May those who do not wish to wail in punishment thus learn to wail in repentance… Therefore, dear brothers, do not let this hour fade from your memory. If it has been a cause of fear, may it later become a gate of salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord

6 St Aelred of Rievaulx. Homilies on the Prophetic Burdens of Isaiah. CF 83. Trans. Lewis White. Collegville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2018. 78-83.

Vigils Reading - Memorial of B.V.M.
2023-12-02 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York)
COME MY SPOUSE, THOU SHALL BE CROWNED
From “The Glories of Mary” by St Alphonsus de Liguori7 ◊◊◊
After Jesus Christ our Saviour had completed, by His death, the work of redemption, the angels ardently desired to possess Him in their heavenly country; hence they were continually supplicating Him in the words… “Arise, O Lord, into Thy resting-place, Thou and the ark which Thou hast sanctified. Come, O Lord, come quickly, now that Thou hast redeemed men; come to Thy kingdom and dwell with us, and bring with Thee the living ark of Thy sanctification, Thy Mother, who was the ark which Thou didst sanctify by dwelling in her womb…”
Saint Anselm also says, ‘that it was precisely for this purpose that the Redeemer was pleased to ascend to heaven before His Mother that is, He did so not only to prepare a throne for her in that kingdom, but also that He might Himself accompany her with all the blessed spirits, and thus render her entry into heaven more glorious and such as became one who was His Mother.’… For this reason the Abbot Guarric supposes the Divine Word thus speaking: ‘To honour the Father, I descended from heaven; to honour My Mother, I reascended there that thus I might be enabled to go forth to meet her, and myself accompany her to Paradise…’
On first meeting her, and to console her, He said: “Arise, make haste, My love, My dove, My beautiful one, and come; for winter is now past and gone.” Come, My own dear Mother, My pure and beautiful dove; leave that valley of tears, in which, for My love, thou hast suffered so much. “Come… My Spouse… thou shalt be crowned. Come in soul and body, to enjoy the recompense of thy holy life. If thy sufferings have been great on earth, far greater is the glory which I have prepared

for thee in heaven. Enter, then, that kingdom, and take thy seat near Me; come to receive that crown which I will bestow upon thee as Queen of the universe…”
Then all the blessed spirits begin to bless and praise her; singing with far more reason than the Hebrews did to Judith: “Thou art the glory of Jerusalem; thou art the joy of Israel; thou art the honour of our people.” Ah, our Lady and our Queen, thou… art the glory of Paradise, the joy of our country, thou art the honour of us all…
All the angels then came to salute her; and she, the great Queen, thanked all for the assistance they’ had given her on earth, and more especially she thanked the archangel Gabriel, who was the happy ambassador, the bearer of all her glories, when he came to announce to her that she was the chosen Mother of God. The humble and holy Virgin, then kneeling, adored the Divine Majesty, and, all absorbed in the consciousness of her own nothingness, thanked Him for all the graces bestowed upon her by His pure goodness, and especially for having made her the Mother of the Eternal Word.
And then, let him who can, comprehend with what love the Most Holy Trinity blessed her. Let him comprehend the welcome given to His Daughter by the Eternal Father, to His Mother by the Son, to His Spouse by the Holy Ghost. The Father crowned her by imparting His power to her; the Son, His wisdom; the Holy Ghost, His love. And the three Divine Persons, placing her throne at the right of that of Jesus, declared her Sovereign of heaven and earth; and commanded the angels and all creatures to acknowledge her as their Queen, and as such to serve and obey her

7 St Alphonsus de Liguori. The Glories of Mary. Rockford, IL: TAN BOOKS AND PUBLISHERS, INC., 1977. 389-394.

Skema
2023-12-03
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
1st Week of Advent

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
December 3 – 9, 2023

Sun
3
Mon
4
Tue
5
Wed
6
Thu
7
Fri
8
Sat
9

Office
1st Sunday of Advent
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
St Ambrose
Immaculate Conception
Advent Weekday

Vigils
Isa 6:1-13
Isa 7:1-17
Isa 8:1-18
Isa 9:7-20
Isa 10:5-21
Rom 5:12-21
Isa 13:1-22

Lauds
Micah 7:14-20
Isa 1:10-18
Isa 1:21-27
Isa 2:6-11
Isa 2:12-21
Judges 6:34-40
Isa 5:1-7

Mass
2
175
176
177
178
689
180

1st
Isa 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7
Isa 2:1-5
Isa 11:1-10
Isa 25:6-10a
Isa 26:1-6
Gen 3:9-15, 20
Isa 30:19-21, 23-26

2nd
1 Cor 1:3-9

Eph 1:3-6, 11-12

Gospel
Mark 13:33-37
Matt 8:5-11
Luke 10:21-24
Matt 15:29-37
Matt 7:21, 24-27
Luke 1:26-38
Matt 9:35-10:1, 5a, 6-8

Vespers
Rev 22:12-21
Rom 1:1-12
Rom 1:13-17
Rom 2:1-11
Rom 8:28-39
1 Jn 3:4-9
Rom 3:21-26

Vigils Reading - 1st Sun Advent
2023-12-03
PRAYING FOR THE COMING OF CHRIST
From a sermon by St John Henry Newman1
◊◊◊
Before Christ came, the faithful remnant of Israel were consoled with the promise that “their eyes should see” him, who was to be their “salvation.” “Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.” Yet it is observable that the prophecy, though cheering and encouraging, had with it something of an awful character too.
This reflection leads us to a parallel thought concerning the state and prospects of all Christians in every age. We who are looking out for Christ’s coming, we are bid to look out, we are bid to pray for it; and yet it is to be a time of judgment. It is to be the deliverance of all saints from sin and sorrow for ever; yet they, every one of them, must undergo an awful trial. How then can any look forward to it with joy, not knowing (for no one knows) the certainty of his own salvation?
And the difficulty is increased when we come to pray for it, to pray for its coming soon: how can we pray that Christ would come, that the day of judgment would hasten, that his kingdom would come, that his kingdom may be at once, may come on us this day or tomorrow, when by so coming he would be shortening the time of our present life, and cut off those precious years given us for conversion, amendment, repentance, and sanctification? Is there not an inconsistency in professing to wish our judge already come, when we do not feel ourselves ready for him? In what sense can we really and heartily pray that he would cut short the time, when our conscience tells us that, even were our life longest, we should have much to do in a few years?

When we pray for the coming of Christ, we do but pray in the Church’s words, that he would “accomplish the number of his elect and would hasten his kingdom.” That is, we do not pray that he would simply cut short the world, but, so to express myself, that he would make time go quicker, and the wheels of his chariot speed on. Before he comes, a certain space must be gone over; all the saints must be gathered in, and each saint must be matured. Not a grain must fall to the ground; not an ear of corn must lose its due rain and sunshine. All we pray is that he should please to crowd all this into a short space of time; that he would “finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,” and “make a short work upon the earth”; that he would accomplish – not curtail, but fulfill – the circle of his saints, and hasten the age to come without disordering this. Indeed it cannot be otherwise.
All God’s works are in place and season; they are all complete. As in nature, the structure of its minutest portions is wrought out to perfection, and an insect is as wonderful as Leviathan; so, when in his providence he seems to hurry, he still keeps time, and moves upon the deep harmonies of truth and love. When then we pray that he would come, we pray also that we may be ready; that all things may converge and meet in him; that he may draw us while he draws near us, and makes us the holier the closer he comes. We pray that we may not fear that which at present we justly fear; that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming

1Parochial and Plain Sermons V, pp. 46-51; reprinted in Meditations on the Sunday Gospels: Year B; introduced and edited by John E. Rotelle, Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1995, pp. 14-15.

Vigils Reading
2023-12-04
THE COMING OF THE LORD
From a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny2 ◊◊◊
Come…Lord, save me and I shall be saved. Come and smile upon us and we shall find deliverance. We have waited for you, be our stronghold, our deliverer in time of trouble… Abraham, our father, was full of joy to see the day of Christ. He saw it – but in the lower regions – and rejoiced. In that day the coldness and hardness of our hearts will be greatly punished… if we do not look forward with joy of spirit to the anniversary of Christ’s birth… In fact Holy Scripture seems to insist we have such joy so that our spirit, lifted out of itself, may run to meet the arrival of Christ in transports of joy, and, straining forward impatient of delay, may strive to pierce the future even now…
I believe that when we are admonished in many places in Scripture to meet the coming of Christ it is not only the second coming that is referred to but the first also… Because just as in the second coming we shall go to meet him, our bodies rising up in exultation, so we must greet his first coming with hearts straining with desire and leaping with joy. For you know that in the resurrection, when we have put on new bodies, as the Apostle says, we shall be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so we shall ever be with the Lord…
In this fashion it may happen that before his actual coming the Lord may come to us, and before he arrives for the world in general he may pay us a friendly visit. “I will not leave you orphans,” he says, “I will come to you.” And indeed, be it for a person’s merit or ardent striving, that coming of the Lord to the individual is frequent in this middle time between his first coming and his final coming, conforming us to the first, preparing us for the last. He comes to us now of course so that his first coming will not have been in vain nor his last in anger against us. In this coming he is intent to reform our spirit of pride, making it conform to his humility which he manifested in his first coming, so that he might also refashion our lowly body, making it like to his glorious body which he will manifest when he comes again the second time… For “God loves mercy and truth; the Lord will give grace and glory,” granting grace through his mercy, conferring glory through his truth…

Into what a sweet and happy state of absorbed admiration of himself does he plunge and keep the soul contemplating him; all the inward man exclaims: “Lord who is like you?”…
Since then the first coming brought grace and the last will bring glory, this one indeed partakes both of grace and of glory; for in it, through the consolation of grace, we are given a foretaste of future glory… Utterly wonderful and lovable it is when God, the Love of the lover, is grasped even in the senses, when the Bridegroom embraces the Bride and they become one in the Spirit, as she is transformed into the same image in which as in a mirror she sees the glory of the Lord. How blessed are they who because of their burning love have already merited to receive this privilege. Blessed too are they whose holy simplicity leads them to hope for it… We who have not had experience of such a wonderful consolation are in the meantime encouraged by firm faith and a pure conscience to wait patiently for the coming of the Lord… that is, of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever

2 Liturgical Sermons – Guerric of Igny – Cistercian Fathers – vol.8 – pg. 10-13. Cistercian Publications.

Vigils Reading
2023-12-05
THE WOLF SHALL DWELL WITH THE LAMB
From a sermon by St Aelred of Rievaulx3 ◊◊◊
The prophet Isaiah said: “You came down and the mountains dissolved before your face.” Oh dearest brothers, if only we, now that we see this fulfilled, could feel as much joy as he felt when he saw that it was yet to be fulfilled. We see it now. We can turn to the Lord and say with great joy: “Lord, you have come down and the mountains dissolved before your face”. This has now been fulfilled. And look how the proud of this earth were dissolved, that is how they were humbled. They began to weep for their sins. Do you not see this every day, brothers? Do you not see the proud of this world turning to the Lord in great confusion, with great fear humbling themselves and weeping for their sins? Even if it does not happen before our eyes every day, it is happening every day in the holy Church.
Accordingly… we see what holy Isaiah says… is to happen at the Lord’s coming, he says: The wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the goat; the calf and the lion shall graze together and a little child will herd them.
Reflect how God has gathered you here – from what diverse parts of the country, from what diverse backgrounds. One of you, when he was in the world – what was he but a lion in his wealth and pride, despising others and vaunting himself as superior to them? Another of you – was he not like a wolf, living by plunder, trying to grab the property of others? The leopard is an animal characterized by changeableness; so were some of you in your slyness, your trickery, your deceit.

Again there are many in this community who reeked of wantonness. Those… were like goats, for the goat is an evil-smelling animal. There were some, too, who when they were in the world lived innocently; they can well be compared to lambs. There were yet others who in the simple lives they led were like sheep. Now look, brothers, in what harmony and peace God has gathered all of them together in one fellowship… Why has all this come about, except because our Lord came down and the mountains dissolved before his face…
And a little child shall herd them. Who is this little child if not he of whom Isaiah says: For us a child is born and a little one is given to us? It was he, surely, who herded Paul and made him go to Ananias. It was also he who herded the wolves and the lions who have come into this fellowship from the world and he still herds them along in front of himself towards all the things we do. He has to herd us ahead of himself, brothers, until we are in the condition of being able to follow him… Yet someone who has already often tasted how sweet our Lord is, who has begun to love him… that person is now following Christ. His shepherd has no need to herd him but has only to go before him and show him the way by which he wants him to follow. This person can say: I have run the way of your commandments now that you have enlarged my heart… Surely, brothers, we should not only follow, but run, after him

3 Aelred of Rievaulx – The Liturgical Sermons – Cistercian Fathers Series #58 – Cistercian Publications – Kalamazoo – 2001 pg 66.
