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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240827
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240828
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240825T113047Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240825T113047Z
UID:12443-1724716800-1724803199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Monica
DESCRIPTION:RECOLLECTIONS OF HIS MOTHER \nBy St Augustine1 \n◊◊◊ \nWhen I was still a boy\, I had heard about eternal life promised to us \nthrough the humility of our Lord God\, coming down to our pride\, and I was \nalready signed with the sign of the cross and seasoned with salt from the time I \ncame from my mother’s womb. She greatly put her trust in you. You say\, Lord\, \nhow one day\, when I was still a small boy\, pressure on the chest suddenly made \nme hot with fever and almost at death’s door. You say\, my God\, because you \nwere already my guardian\, with what fervour of mind and with what faith I than \nbegged for the baptism of your Christ\, my God and Lord\, urging it on the \ndevotion of my mother and of the mother of us all\, your Church. \nMy physical mother was distraught. With a pure heart and faith in you \nshe even more lovingly travailed in labour for my eternal salvation. She hastily \nmade arrangements for me to be initiated and washed in the sacraments of \nsalvation\, confessing you\, Lord Jesus\, for the remission of sins. But suddenly I \nrecovered. My cleansing was deferred on the assumption that\, if I lived\, I would \nbe sure to soil myself; and that after that solemn washing the guilt would be \ngreater and more dangerous if I then defiled myself with sins. \nSo\, I was already a believer\, as were my mother and the entire household \nexcept for my father alone. Though he had not yet come to faith\, he did not \nobstruct my right to follow my mother’s devotion. so as to prevent me believing \nin Christ. She anxiously laboured to convince me that you\, my God\, were my \nfather rather than he\, and in this endeavour you helped her to gain victory over \nher husband. His moral superior\, she rendered obedient service to him\, for in \nthis matter she was being obedient to your authority….6 \nAt the end when her husband had reached the end of his life in time\, she \nsucceeded in gaining him for you. After he was a baptized believer\, she had no \ncause to complain of behaviour which she had tolerated in one not yet a believer. \nShe was also a servant of your servants: any of them who knew her found much \nto praise in her\, held her in honour and loved her; for they felt your presence in \nher heart\, witnessed by the fruits of her holy way of life. She had been the wife \nof one husband. She repaid the mutual debt to her parents; she had governed \nher house in a spirit of devotion. She had testimony to her good works. she had \nbrought up her children\, enduring travail as often as she saw them wandering \naway from you. \nLastly\, Lord — by your gift you allow me to speak for your servants\, for \nbefore her falling asleep we were bound together in community in you after \nreceiving the grace of baptism — she exercised care for everybody as if they were \nall her own children. She served us as if she was a daughter to all of us.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-monica-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240828
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240829
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240825T113153Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240825T113153Z
UID:12445-1724803200-1724889599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Augustine
DESCRIPTION:THE TRINITY OF THE MIND \nFrom a treatise by St Augustine1 \n◊◊◊ \nNow this trinity of the mind is the image of God\, not because the mind \nremembers\, understands\, and loves itself\, but because it also has the power to \nremember\, understand\, and love its Maker. And in doing this it attains wisdom. \nIf it does not do this\, the memory\, understanding and love of itself is no more \nthan an act of folly. Therefore\, let the mind remember its God\, to whose image \nit was made\, let it understand and love Him. \nIn brief\, let it worship the uncreated God who created it with the capacity \nfor himself\, and in whom it can be made partaker. Hence it is written: “Behold\, \nthe worship of God is wisdom“. By participating in that supreme Light\, wisdom \nwill belong to the mind not by its own light\, and it will reign in bliss only where \nthe eternal Light is. The wisdom is so called human wisdom as to be also that of \nGod. If wisdom were only human\, it would be vain\, for only God’s wisdom is \ntrue wisdom. Yet when we call it God’s wisdom\, we do not mean the wisdom by \nwhich God is wise: He is not wise by partaking in himself as the mind is wise by \npartaking in God. It is more like speaking of the justice of God not only to mean \nthat God is just but to mean the justice he gives to us when he “justifies the \nungodly“: to which the Apostle alludes when speaking to those who “being \nignorant of God’s justice\, and wanting to establish their own justice\, were not \nsubject to the justice of God”. In this way we might speak of those who\, ignorant \nof the wisdom of God and wanting to establish their own\, were not subject to \nthe wisdom of God. \nThere is an uncreated Being who has made all other beings great and \nsmall\, certainly more excellent than everything he made\, and thus also more \nexcellent than the rational and intellectual being which we have been8 \ndiscussing\, namely\, the human mind\, made to the image of its Creator. And the \nBeing more excellent than all others is God. Indeed\, he is “not far from any one \nof us\,” as the Apostle says\, adding\, “for in him we live and move and have our \nbeing“. Were this said in a material sense we could understand it of our material \nworld: for in it also\, in respect to our body\, we live and move and are. The text \nshould be taken\, however\, in a more excellent and also invisible and intelligible \nway\, namely\, with respect to the mind that has been made to his image. \nIn fact\, what is there that is not in him of whom Holy Scripture says: “For \nfrom him and through him and in him are all things“? If all things are in Him\, in \nwhom except in him in whom they are can the living live or the moving more? Yet \nall are not with him in the sense in which he says “I am always with you”. Nor is \nhe with all things in the sense in which we say\, “The Lord be with you.” Our great \nmisery\, therefore\, is not to be with him without whom we cannot exist. \nUnquestionably\, we are never without him in whom we are; but if one does not \nremember him\, does not understand him or love him\, he is not with him.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-augustine-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240829
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240830
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240825T113256Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240825T113256Z
UID:12447-1724889600-1724975999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Martyrdom of St John Baptist
DESCRIPTION:THE DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST \nBy Cardinal Jean Daniélou1 \n◊◊◊ \nJohn’s death appears as the supreme expression of sin. It revealed the sin \nof the world. Herodias’ action in obtaining the head of John the Baptist was a \nclear manifestation of the human desire to be self-sufficient and to set oneself \nup apart from God. It was a victory for the inhabitants of the earth who\, as \nRevelation says\, rejoiced over the death of the prophets\, “because they had been \na torment to those who dwell on the earth“. It was an expression of a \ntriumphant world\, a world which had done away with God. No longer could \nanything disturb its pretension that it was giving itself its own law. In that \nrespect John’s death set a pattern: in a decisive moment of history\, it summed \nup the whole world of sin. \nJohn’s death was also the expression of the supreme condemnation of the \nworld. His blood “fell upon this generation“\, together with all the innocent \nblood that has been shed. Thus\, did it call for the supreme condemnation. It was \nthe judgment on the world\, bringing down on it the cup of wrath spoken of by \nRevelation. It showed forth the mystery of iniquity; it revealed clearly that \nmankind is the slave of sin. Just as John the Baptist marked the last stage in the \npreparation for the parousia in the long line of the prophets\, so his death \nmarked the last stage in the preparation for the parousia in the order of the \nmystery of sin… \nBut John’s death also marked the end of this history of condemnation for\, \nafter John’s blood\, another blood was going to be shed. It would not fall as a \ncondemnation upon those who shed it\, but it would be poured out as \nredemption for many. John’s death prefigured the death of Jesus. Jesus wished \nto say first of all that his death resembled John’s: ‘”I tell you that Elijah has10 \nalready come\, and they did not know him\, but did to him whatever they \npleased. So also the Son of man will suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples \nunderstood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.’ The rejection and \ndeath of John the Baptist prefigured the rejection and death of Jesus. This latter \ndeath was really the high point of evil. Jesus fulfilled completely the figure of \nthe servant of Yahweh rejected by the sinful world. \nBut John only prefigured Jesus\, for with Jesus the shedding of blood \ntakes on a different meaning. Blood was not shed for condemnation but for \nredemption. The unresolved conflict between prophets and sinners came to an \nend with the prophet who took the sins of the world upon himself. John had \npointed out Jesus as that lamb. He knew that he himself still belonged to the \nworld of denunciation of sin\, not that of liberation from sin. The Spirit had been \ngiven to the prophets; blood had been poured out by sinners. The Spirit had \nbeen poured out as a blessing\, but blood had been poured out as a curse. John’s \nblood was the last to belong to this order. Henceforth the blood which would \ngush forth from the side of Jesus would be spirit and life.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-martyrdom-of-st-john-baptist-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240830
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240831
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240825T113433Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240825T113433Z
UID:12449-1724976000-1725062399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - SS Warren & Amadeus
DESCRIPTION:ST AMADEUS OF LAUSANNE1 \n◊◊◊ \nAmadeus’ religious formation began\, in fact\, well before the days of his \nyouth. He was only a few years past the days of his babyhood when his father\, Lord \nAmadeus d’Hauterives of the ancient and noble house of Clermont\, turned apostle \nof monastic life and\, sometime around 1119\, brought to the newly founded \nCistercian abbey of Bonnevaux\, near Vienne\, not only himself but his ten-year old \nboy\, Amadeus junior\, and seventeen knight-companions as well. \nWhatever else the senior Amadeus had given up in coming to the poor\, \nstruggling community of Bonnevaux\, he had not given up the idea that his son \nshould receive a solid education. At Bonnevaux the lad did begin receiving an \neducation\, but hardly of the sort deemed suitable by his concerned father. The \nphilosophy of education held by the saintly Abbot John was that the anointing of \nthe Paraclete could teach the lad more in a second than the teachings of an apostate \ngrammarian like Priscian in a stretch of many years. The force of the argument \nwas lost on Amadeus senior. In a moment of depression\, he apostatized; and one \nday\, probably in the year 1122\, he took his son and rode off with him to the great \nabbey of Cluny\, with its tradition of enlightened humanism. \nThe account of Amadeus senior’s brief\, unhappy life as a monk of Cluny\, his \nanguished repentance\, and his return to Bonnevaux\, belongs to another story. But \nif Bonnevaux could not provide Amadeus junior with a suitable education\, neither \ncould Cluny; for almost immediately the lad was sent for further studies to the \ncourt of his kinsman\, Conrad of Hohenstaufen\, the future Emperor Conrad. The \nthree years Amadeus spent in Germany could hardly have sufficed to complete the \neducation of the adolescent\, but we nevertheless find him in 1125\, shortly after \nhaving fulfilled the minimum age-requirement for acceptance as a Cistercian \nnovice\, knocking at the gate of Clairvaux…12 \nFor fourteen years young Amadeus had the joy of living under the tutelage \nof Saint Bernard himself; and it was in this setting of Clairvaux\, with all its \ncontagious enthusiasm\, devotio iocunda\, and seriousness of purpose\, that the \nstripling Amadeus grew to full manhood. The attainments of the mature Amadeus \nmust have impressed even Saint Bernard\, who\, in 1139\, deemed him ready to \nbecome abbot of the Savoyard abbey of Hautecombe. This monastery had been \nfounded much earlier in the century\, but had become affiliated with the Cistercian \nOrder only in 1135. Amadeus’ abbacy coincided with the change of location of the \noriginal abbey and the construction of the monastic buildings; and it was also \nunder Amadeus that the consolidation of the Cistercian ideals in the recently \naffiliated community took place. \nThe young abbot’s gifts as administrator and spiritual father were \nconsiderable enough to draw attention to him well outside the immediate sphere \nof the Cistercian family. For when the deplorable Guy de Maligny finally resigned \nhis episcopal dignity in 1144\, it was the thirty-four-year-old Abbot Amadeus of \nHautecombe whom the clergy and faithful of Lausanne chose to succeed Bishop \nGuy. Accepting the burden of the episcopal office only at the insistence of Pope \nLucius II\, Bishop Amadeus remained very much Amadeus the monk. At no time \nduring the troubled fourteen years of his episcopacy did the faithful of Lausanne \nfind reason to regret their choice of pastor; and when Amadeus died on 27 August \n1159\, those who were with him were well aware that they were attending the \ndeathbed of a saint.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-ss-warren-amadeus/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240831
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240901
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240825T113534Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240825T113534Z
UID:12451-1725062400-1725148799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Memorial of BVM
DESCRIPTION:THE SILENCE OF MARY \nBy Adrienne von Speyr1 \n◊◊◊ \nA life of faith is a life of silence. Mary’s existence as Mother is hidden in \na great silence. All around and about her is silence. People knew nothing of her \nreal life\, of the mysteries of her virginity. Not even Joseph understood her. An \nangel had to enlighten him about her mystery. The silence that surrounds her \nis simply a reflection of her own silence. She did not become a subject of \nconversation\, because she did not talk about herself. And in that way she \nsafeguarded her secret. Later\, too\, when the Son appeared in public\, she \nremained silent because it was not her task or mission to speak. But in her \nsilence she participates in the dialogue between Father and Son which is the \nvery substance of prayer. She remained silent out of respect\, and in order not \nto drown the word of God with her own words. \nHer silence also manifests her activity and her passivity\, her strength and \nher weakness. Her activity and strength consist in her self-control\, her \nweakness and passivity in allowing herself to be led. She is simply and solely \nthe instrument of God. Strength and weakness\, doing and suffering\, all the \ntensions and stresses of life meet and join in her without occasioning the \npredominance of any one in particular. The priority is always decreed by the \nneed of her mission. She did not cultivate\, tend or encourage her good qualities \nfor their goodness’ sake (in the way that people do when they are conscious of \ntheir own gentleness and are disposed to go further in the same direction). She \ndid not practice her virtues with a definite end in view; on the contrary\, she \nquite simply allowed God to decide everything\, to decree everything in \naccordance with her mission — and this is where her silence is so profound– \nwithout losing or giving up any of her complementary qualities. In her\, silence \nis both complete self-renunciation and complete indifference.14 \nAll this co-exists in her with a perseverance that knows no limits\, because \nher mission flows on accompanied by a parallel discretion that disturbs nothing. \nAll her qualities participate to some extent in the glory of her conversation with \nthe Angel: each decision is taken in the solitude and isolation imposed by the \nrelation of her soul to God. Discretion\, in this instance\, is but another name for \nhumility that asks no questions and never raises the dust. She asked the Angel \nof God one simple factual question\, and with that she became the answer to all \nthat God expected. Her life is therefore community in the Lord\, solitude in God\, \nand this communal solitude is called prayer.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-memorial-of-bvm-9/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240901
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240902
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240901T085322Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240901T085322Z
UID:12463-1725148800-1725235199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n22nd Week in Ordinary Time\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (B)\, Weekdays (II)\nSeptember 1 – 7\, 2024\n\n\n\nSun\n1\nMon\n2\nTue\n3\nWed\n4\nThu\n5\nFri\n6\nSat\n7\n\n\nOffice\n22nd Sunday\nWeekday \nLabor Day\nSt Gregory the Great\nWeekday\nSt Teresa of Calcutta\nWeekday\nMemorial of the BVM\n\n\nVigils\nNeh 9:21-28\nNeh 9:29-37\nNeh 10:1-2; 29-40\nEzra 1:1-10; 2:68-70\nEzra 3:1-13\nEzra 4:1-24\nEzra 5:1-17\n\n\nLauds\nZech 3:1-10\nZech 6:9-15\nZech 8:1-8\nZech 8:11-17\nZech 8:18-23\nZech 9:11-17\nZech 10:6-12\n\n\nMass\n125\n431\, 559\n432\n433\n434\n435\n436\n\n\n1st\nDeut 4:1-2\, 6-8\n1 Thess 4:13-18\n1 Cor 2:10b-16\n1 Cor 3:1-9\n1 Cor 3:18-23\n1 Cor 4:1-5\n1 Cor 4:6b-15\n\n\n2nd\nJas 1:17-18\, 21b-22\, 27\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nMark 7:1-8\, 14-15\, 21-23\nMatt 13:54-58\nLuke 4:31-37\nLuke 4:38-44\nLuke 5:1-11\nLuke 5:33-39\nLuke 6:1-5\n\n\nVespers\n1 Pet 1:13-16\n\n1 Pet 1:17-21\n1 Pet 1:22-25\n1 Pet 2:1-10\n1 Pet 2:11-17\n1 Pet 2:18-25
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-83/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240901
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240902
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240901T085420Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240901T085420Z
UID:12465-1725148800-1725235199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - 22nd Sunday
DESCRIPTION:THE ESSENCE OF THE LAW \nFrom a commentary by St Irenaeus1 \n◊◊◊ \nThe Pharisees claimed that the traditions of their elders safeguarded the \nLaw\, but in fact it contravened the Law that Moses had given. By saying: Your \nmerchants mix water with wine Isaiah shows that the elders mixed their watery \ntradition with God’s strict commandment. In other words\, they enjoined an \nadulterated law which went against the Law\, as the Lord also made clear when \nhe asked them: Why do you transgress God’s commandment for the sake of your \ntradition? \nBy their transgression they not only falsified God’s Law\, called to this day \nthe Pharisaic law. In this their rabbis suppress some of the commandments\, add \nnew ones\, and give others their own interpretation\, thus making the law serve \ntheir own purposes. \nTheir desire to justify these traditions kept them from submitting to God’s \nLaw that taught them about the coming of Christ. Instead\, they even found fault \nwith the Lord for healing on the Sabbath\, which was not forbidden by the Law\, \nfor in a sense the Law itself healed by causing circumcision to be performed on \nthe Sabbath. On the other hand\, they found no fault with themselves for \nbreaking God’s commandment by their tradition and the Pharisaic law just \nmentioned\, or by lacking the essence of the Law\, which is love for God. \nThat this is the first and greatest commandment\, the second being love of \nour neighbor\, the Lord taught by saying that the whole of the Law and the \nprophets depend on these two commandments. He himself taught no greater \ncommandment than this\, but he renewed this same commandment by bidding \nhis disciples love God with their whole heart\, and their neighbor as themselves.3 \nPaul also says that love is the fulfillment of the Law. When all other \ncharisms fail\, faith\, hope and love remain\, but the greatest of all is love. \nKnowledge is of no avail without the love of God\, nor is understanding of \nmysteries\, faith or prophecy. Without love all are vain and pointless. Love on \nthe other hand perfects a person\, and one who loves God is perfect both in this \nworld and in the next\, for we shall never stop loving God – the longer we gaze \nupon Him the more our love for Him will grow.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-22nd-sunday/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240902
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240903
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240901T085549Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240901T085549Z
UID:12467-1725235200-1725321599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT \nBy Karl Rahner1 \n◊◊◊ \nAre there not people today who\, if they are true to their character as willed \nby God\, are a people of small means\, of hard work\, of only a few words\, of loyalty \nof heart and simple sincerity? Certainly\, every Christian and every Christian \nnation is charged with the entire fullness of Christian perfection as a duty that \nis never completed. But every nation and every person has\, so to speak\, his own \ndoor\, his own approach\, through which he alone can come nearer to the fullness \nof Christianity. Not all of us will find access to the boundless vistas of God’s \nworld through the great gate of surging rapture and burning ardor. Some must \ngo through the small gate of quiet loyalty and the ordinary\, exact performance \nof duty. And it is this fact\, I am inclined to think\, that can help us to discover a \nrapport between earth and heaven\, between Christians today and their heavenly \nintercessor… \n[Joseph] received into his family the One who came to redeem his nation \nfrom their sin\, One to whom he himself gave the name of Jesus\, a name which \nmeans “Yahweh is Salvation.” Silent and loyal\, he served the eternal Word of \nthe Father\, the Word who had become a child of this world. And they called \ntheir Redeemer the son of a carpenter. When the eternal Word was audible in \nthe world in the message of the gospels\, Joseph\, having quietly done his duty\, \nwent away without any notice on the part of this world. \nBut the life of this insignificant man did have significance; it had one \nmeaning that\, in the long run\, counts in each one’s life: God and his incarnate \ngrace. To him it could be said: “Good and faithful servant\, enter into the joy of \nyour Lord.” Who can doubt that this man is a good patron for us? This man of \nhumble\, everyday routine\, this man of silent performance of duty\, of honest5 \nrighteousness and of manly piety\, this man who was charged with protecting \nthe grace of God in its embodied life. \nChristians of today might find their way back to what is best in them if the \nindividuality of this man\, their patron\, were again producing more stature in \nthem. Granted\, a nation must have greatness of spirit and pioneers who will \nlead her towards new goals. Just as much\, if not more so\, however\, a nation \nneeds men and women of life-long performance of duty\, of clear-headed loyalty\, \nof discipline of heart and body. \nA nation needs those who know that true greatness is achieved only in \nselfless service to the greater and holy duty that is imposed upon each life; those \nof genuine reverence\, conquerors of themselves\, who hear the word of God and \ncarry out the inflexible decrees of conscience. It needs those who through their \nlives bear the childlike\, defenseless grace of God past all those who\, like Herod\, \nattempt to kill this grace. A nation needs those who do not lose confidence in \nGod’s grace\, even when they have to seek it as lost\, as Joseph once sought the \ndivine child. Such as these are urgently needed in every situation and in every \nclass. We have a good patron\, who is suitable for everyone. For he is a patron of \nthe poor\, a patron of working men and women\, a patron of exiles\, a model for \nworshipers\, an exemplar of the pure discipline of the heart\, a prototype of \nfathers who protect in their children the Son of the Father.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-214/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240903
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240904
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240901T085702Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240901T085702Z
UID:12469-1725321600-1725407999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Gregory the Great
DESCRIPTION:THE UNENCOMPASSED LIGHT \nBy St Gregory the Great1 \n◊◊◊ \nThere is in contemplation a great effort of the mind\, when it raises itself \nup to heavenly things\, when it fixes its attention on spiritual things\, when it tries \nto pass over all that is outwardly seen\, when it narrows itself that it may be \nenlarged. And sometimes indeed it prevails and soars above the resisting \ndarkness of its blindness\, so that it attains to somewhat of the unencompassed \nLight by stealth and scantily; but for all that\, to itself straightaway beaten back \nit returns\, and out of that light into which panting it had passed\, into the \ndarkness of its blindness sighing it returns. \nIn the wrestling of Jacob with the Angel\, the Angel symbolizes the Lord\, \nand Jacob\, who contends with the Angel\, represents the soul of each perfect \none\, who exercises contemplation. Such a soul\, when it strives to contemplate \nGod\, as if placed in a wrestle\, now comes uppermost\, because by understanding \nand feeling it tastes somewhat of the unencompassed Light; and now falls \nunderneath\, because in the very tasting it faints away. Therefore\, so to say\, the \nAngel is worsted when by the innermost intellect God is apprehended. \nAlmighty God\, when He is now known through desire and intellect\, dries \nup in us every fleshly pleasure; and whereas before we seemed to be both \nseeking God and cleaving to the world\, after the perception of the sweetness of \nGod\, the love of the world grows feeble in us\, and the love of God alone waxes \nstrong; and while there increases in us the strength of inmost love\, without \ndoubt the strength of the flesh is weakened. \nThe sweetness of contemplation is worthy of love exceedingly\, for it \ncarries away the soul above itself\, it opens out things heavenly\, and shows that7 \nthings earthly are to be despised; it reveals things spiritual to the eyes of the \nmind\, and hides things bodily. \nBut we must know that so long as we live in this mortal flesh no one so \nadvances in power of contemplation as to fix the mind’s eyes as yet on the \nunencompassed ray itself of Light. For the Almighty God is not yet seen in this \nbrightness\, but the soul beholds something beneath it\, by which refreshed it \nmay progress\, and hereafter attain to the glory of the sight of Him. When the \nmind has made progress in contemplation it does not yet contemplate that \nwhich God\, but that which is under Him. But in that contemplation already the \ntaste of interior quiet is experienced.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-gregory-the-great-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240901T085833Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240901T085833Z
UID:12471-1725408000-1725494399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:PREPARING OURSELVES \nTO MEET THE LORD \nBy Blessed Guerric of Igny1 \n◊◊◊ \n“BE PREPARED now Israel to meet the Lord\, for he is coming”. And you \ntoo my dear brethren be prepared as well; for the Son of Man will come when \nyou least expect him. He is coming\, nothing is more certain than that; but when \nhe will arrive—nothing is less certain. Right up to the last moment we will not \nknow the actual time the Father in his almighty power has appointed. Even the \nangels who stand before him have not been given the privilege of knowing that \nday or hour. Our last day most certainly must come to us; but it is very uncertain \nwhen it will come\, where we will be or whence it will come. All we can say is that \nit is knocking at the door for the old\, and lies in wait for the young. \nO that they would keep careful guard over themselves who see death so \nready to enter\, nay rather who see it already entering. For has it not already \nentered\, at least to some extent\, a body grown senile and decrepit Yet in many \nwho are already half-dead one can see worldly desires still alive. The limbs are \ngrowing cold and the fire of avarice still burns within; life is coming to its end \nand ambition still strains ahead. Because our youth or health perhaps appear to \npromise some more years ahead of us death is not often before our eyes\, but this \nis just the very reason why\, if we are wise\, it should be in our thoughts\, lest that \nday come like a thief in the night and find us unprepared and unready. It is lying \nin wait for us and we should fear it all the more for its being hidden\, for we can \nneither see it nor get warning of it. \nThere is therefore only one thing that makes us safe: never to think that \nwe are safe. For fear makes a careful man always prepared until at length fear \ncan give way to security and not security to fear. The wise man says: “I shall9 \nkeep myself from my iniquity\, seeing that I am powerless in respect to my \ndeath.” He knows that the just man\, if he is surprised by death\, will be at rest? \nIn fact that man triumphs over death who was not overcome by iniquity during \nhis life.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-215/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240906
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240901T085957Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240901T085957Z
UID:12473-1725494400-1725580799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Teresa of Calcutta
DESCRIPTION:GENEROSITY \nFrom the book “In My Own Words” by St Mother Teresa1 \n◊◊◊ \nWithout a spirit of sacrifice\, without a life of prayer\, without an intimate \nattitude of penance\, we would not be capable of carrying our work. We feed \nourselves\, not to please our senses\, but to show our Lord that we want to work \nfor him and with him\, to live a life of sacrifice and reparation… \nOne night\, a man came to our house to tell me that a Hindu family\, a \nfamily of eight children\, had not eaten anything for days. They had nothing to \neat. I took enough rice for a meal and went to their house. I could see the hungry \nfaces\, the children with their bulging eyes. The sight could not have been more \ndramatic! The mother took the rice from my hands\, divided it in half and went \nout. When she came back a little later\, I asked her: “Where did you go? What \ndid you do?” She answered\, “They also are hungry.” “They” were the people next \ndoor\, a Muslim family with the same number of children to feed and who did \nnot have any food either. That mother was aware of the situation. She had the \ncourage and the love to share her meager portion of rice with others. In spite of \nher circumstances\, I think she felt very happy to share with her neighbors the \nlittle I had taken her. In order not to take away her happiness\, I did not take her \nanymore rice that night. I took her some more the following day. \n“What is a Christian?” someone asked a Hindu man. He responded\, “The \nChristian is someone who gives.” I ask you one thing: do not tire of giving\, but \ndo not give your leftovers. Give until it hurts\, until you feel the pain. Open your \nhearts to the love God instills in them. God loves you tenderly. What he gives \nyou is not to be kept under lock and key\, but to be shared. The more you save\, \nthe less you will be able to give. The less you have\, the more you will know how11 \nto share. Let us ask God\, when it comes time to ask him for something\, to help \nus to be generous. \nIt was late in the day (around ten at night) when the doorbell rang. I \nopened the door and found a man shivering from the cold. “Mother Teresa\, I \nheard that you just received an important prize. When I heard this I decided to \noffer you something too. Here you have it: this is what I collected today.” It was \nlittle\, but in his case it was everything. I was moved more than by the Nobel \nprize. \nOne day a young couple came to our house and asked for me. They gave \nme a large amount of money. I asked them\, “Where did you get so much \nmoney?” They answered\, “We got married two days ago. Before we got married \nwe had decided not to celebrate the wedding\, not to buy wedding clothes\, not to \nhave a reception or a honeymoon. We wanted to give you the money I saved.” I \nknow what such a decision meant\, especially for a Hindu family. That is why I \nasked them\, “But how did you think of such a thing?” “We love each other so \nmuch\,” they answered\, “that we wanted to share the joy of our love with those \nyou serve.” \nTo share: what a beautiful thing! We should learn how to give. If we worry \ntoo much about ourselves\, we won’t have time for others.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-teresa-of-calcutta-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240906
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240907
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240901T090101Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240901T090101Z
UID:12475-1725580800-1725667199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE ENCOURAGMENT \nOF THE SAINTS \nBy Bishop John Vaughan1 \n◊◊◊ \nWe may study learned treatises of ascetical theology; we may know the \ntheory of sanctity…but such knowledge will never affect us as does the \ncontemplation of it when reduced to practice\, and exhibited in the actual life of \nsome great servant of God. To lay down the broad principles of holiness is one \nthing\, but to see these principles carried out and acted upon in real life is \nsomething far more inspiring. \nTo know what is just\, and right\, and loyal\, and generous is no doubt \nimportant\, but such knowledge does not stir us like the concrete example of \nsome fervent soul whom we can actually watch\, step by step\, battling with evil \nin many a hand-to-hand encounter\, and struggling and striving to keep a \nfoothold on the narrow path of virtue amid the fiercest winds and storms of \ntemptation. \nThe very difficulties appeal to us; the falls and the occasional weaknesses \nreveal character as well as the difficulties of the way; the courage and \ndetermination to surmount them at any cost\, the stern refusal to allow obstacles \nor even the most serious disasters to discourage or check the advance of the \nonward course infuse fresh courage and hope even into ourselves. \nAnd what adds immensely to our zest is the fact that\, in contemplating \nthe saints\, we are contemplating men and women like ourselves. Their nature \nis the same as ours\, and their innate strength no greater than our own. If they \nwrestled successfully with evil\, if they beat down every rebellious passion and \npassed in safety through fire and water\, it was not because they were formed13 \nfrom a different clay\, but because they had learned the value of prayer and had \ntrusted in God and not in themselves. For the rest\, they were human as we are.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-216/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240907
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240908
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240901T090210Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240901T090210Z
UID:12477-1725667200-1725753599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Memorial of BVM
DESCRIPTION:MARY IS IN SILENCE \nBy Pierre de Bérulle1 \n◊◊◊ \nIt falls to the Virgin to keep silence. It is her condition\, her road\, her life. \nHer life is a life of silence\, which adores the eternal Word. Seeing before her \neyes\, at her breast\, in her arms\, this same Word\, the substantial Word of the \nFather\, to be dumb and reduced to silence by the condition of his childhood\, she \nenters again into a new silence and is transformed by it after the example of the \nincarnate Word who is her Son\, her God and her sole love. And in that way her \nlife goes on\, from silence to silence\, from a silence of adoration to a silence of \ntransformation. \nMary is in silence\, enraptured by the silence of her Son Jesus. One of the \nsacred and divine effects of the silence of Jesus is to put the most holy Mother \nof Jesus into a life of silence: a silence that is humble\, profound\, and that adores \nthe incarnate Wisdom with more holiness and eloquence than the words of \neither angels or humans. This silence on the part of the Virgin is not a silence of \none who hesitates in speech or of one who is helpless: it is a silence more \neloquent\, in its praise of Jesus\, than eloquence itself. And so it is marvelous to \nsee that\, in this condition of the silence and the childhood of Jesus\, everyone \nspeaks and Mary says nothing at all: the silence of Jesus has more power to hold \nher in sacred silence than the words of either angels or saints have the power to \nbring her in and make her speak of things so worthy of praise\, things that \nheaven and earth are at one in celebrating and adoring. \nThe angels speak of these things among themselves and to the shepherds\, \nand Mary is in silence. The shepherds hurry away and speak\, and Mary is in \nsilence. The kings arrive and speak\, and make the whole city\, the whole state\, \nall the sacred synod of Judea\, speak: and Mary has withdrawn and is in silence.15 \nThe whole state is moved\, and everyone is astonished and speaks of the new \nking sought by the kings\, and Mary is in her repose and holy silence. Simeon \nspeaks in the temple\, and Anna the prophetess\, and all those who await the \nsalvation of Israel: and Mary offers\, gives\, receives and brings back her Son in \nsilence; so powerful and secretly impressive is the silence of Jesus on the spirit \nand heart of the Virgin\, keeping her powerfully and divinely occupied and \nenraptured in silence. For\, again\, during the time of his childhood\, we have \nnothing but these words which have been brought to us about the conduct of \nthe Virgin and about her holiness in regard to her Son and to the things which \nare reported of him and accomplished in him: “But Mary kept all these things\, \npondering them in her heart”. There we see the condition and occupation of the \nVirgin\, there are her daily duties and her life in regard to Jesus during his holy \nchildhood
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-memorial-of-bvm-10/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240908
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240909
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240907T232040Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240907T232040Z
UID:12497-1725753600-1725839999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n23rd Week in Ordinary Time\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (B)\, Weekdays (II)\nSeptember 8 – 14\, 2024\n\n\n\nSun\n8\nMon\n9\nTue\n10\nWed\n11\nThu\n12\nFri\n13\nSat\n14\n\n\nOffice\n23rd Sunday\nSt Peter Claver\nWeekday\nOffice for Vocations\nSt Peter II Tarentaise\nSt John Chrysostom\nExaltation of the Holy Cross\n\n\nVigils\nEzra 6:1-12\nEzra 6:13-22\nEzra 7:11-28\nEzra 8:21-36\nEzra 9:1-15\nEzra 10:1-17\nIsa 52:13-53:12\n\n\nLauds\nMalachi 1:1-5\nMal 1:6-10\nMal 1:11-14\nMal 2:1-9\nMal 2:10-16\nMal 2:17-3:4\nIsa 45:21-25\n\n\nMass\n128\n437\n438\n439\n440\n441\n638\n\n\n1st\nIsa 35:4-7a\n1 Cor 5:1-8\n1 Cor 6:1-11\n1 Cor 7:25-31\n1 Cor 8:1b-7\, 11-13\n1 Cor 9:16-19\, 22b-27\nNum 21:4b-9\n\n\n2nd\nJas 2:1-5\n\n\n\n\n\nPhil 2:6-11\n\n\nGospel\nMark 7:31-37\nLuke 6:6-11\nLuke 6:12-19\nLuke 6:20-26\nLuke 6:27-38\nLuke 6:39-42\nJohn 3:13-17\n\n\nVespers\n1 Pet 3:8-12\n1 Pet 3:13-17\n1 Pet 3:18-22\n1 Pet 4:1-6\n1 Pet 4:7-11\n1 Pet 4:12-19\nGal 6:14-18
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-84/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240908
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240909
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240907T232218Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240907T232218Z
UID:12499-1725753600-1725839999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading -  23rd Sunday
DESCRIPTION:CHRIST HAS DONE \nALL THINGS WELL \nFrom a commentary by St Lawrence of Brandisi1 \n◊◊◊ \nJust as the divine law says that when God created the world\, he saw all \nthat he had made and it was very good\, so the gospel\, speaking of our \nredemption and re-creation\, affirms: He has done all things well. A good tree \nbears good fruit; no good tree can bear bad fruit. As fire can give out nothing \nbut heat and is incapable of giving out cold; and as the sun gives out nothing \nbut light and is incapable of giving out darkness\, so God is incapable of doing \nanything but good\, for He is infinite goodness and light. He is a sun giving out \nendless light\, a fire producing endless warmth. He has done all things well. \nAnd so today we must wholeheartedly unite with that holy throng in \nsaying: He has done all things well. He has made the deaf hear and the dumb \nspeak. Like Balaam’s ass. This crowd certainly spoke under the inspiration of \nthe Holy Spirit who said through its mouth: He has done all things well; in other \nwords\, he is truly God\, because making the deaf hear and the dumb speak are \nthings that only God can do. There is a transition here from the particular to the \ngeneral. This man has worked a miracle that only God could work; therefore\, he \nis God. Who has done all things well. \nHe has done all things well. The law says that all God did was good; the \ngospel says that he has done all things well. Doing a good deed is not quite the \nsame as doing it well. Many do good deeds but fail to do them well. The deeds \nof hypocrites\, for example\, are good\, but they are done in the wrong spirit\, with \na perverse and defective intention. Everything God does\, however\, is not only \ngood\, but done well. The Lord is just in all his ways and holy in all his deeds.3 \nWith wisdom you have done them all: that is to say\, most wisely and well. So\, \nhe has done all things well\, they say. \nNow if God has done all his good works and done them well for our sake\, \nknowing that we take pleasure in goodness\, why I ask do we not endeavor to \nmake our works good and to do them well\, knowing that such works are pleasing \nto God? \nIf you ask what we should do in order to enjoy the divine blessings forever\, \nI will tell you in a word. Since the Church is called the bride of Christ and of \nGod\, we must do what a good wife does for her husband. Then God will treat us \nas a good husband treats a dearly loved wife. This is what the Lord says through \nHosea: I will betroth you to myself with justice and integrity\, with tenderness \nand compassion; I will betroth you to myself with faithfulness\, and you shall \nknow that I am the Lord. So even in this present life we shall be happy\, this \nworld will be an earthly paradise for us\, with the Hebrews we shall feast on \nheavenly manna in the desert of this life\, if only we follow Christ’s example by \nstriving to do everything well\, so that he has done all things well may be said of \neach one of us.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-23rd-sunday/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240909
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240910
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240907T232315Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240907T232315Z
UID:12501-1725840000-1725926399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Peter Claver
DESCRIPTION:ST PETER CLAVER \nTHE SLAVE OF THE NEGROES \nFrom Butler’s Lives of the Saints1 \n◊◊◊ \nHe was born in Catalonia\, about 1581… He graduated with distinction \n[and entered] the Society of Jesus. He left Spain forever in April 1610\, and was \nordained priest at Cartagena\, in what is now the republic of Colombia. By the \ntime of his ordination the slave trade had been established in the Americas for \nnearly a hundred years\, and the port of Cartagena was one of its principal \ncenters… \nAt this time the leader of the work among the Negroes was Father Alfonso \nde Sandoval\, a great Jesuit missionary who spent forty years in the service of \nthe slaves\, and after working under him Peter Claver declared himself “the slave \nof the Negroes forever”. Although by nature shy and without self-confidence he \nthrew himself into the work with method and organization. He enlisted bands \nof assistants\, and as soon as a slave-ship entered the port… St. Peter Claver \nplunged\, with medicines and food\, bread\, brandy\, lemons\, tobacco to distribute \namong the Negroes\, some of whom were too frightened\, others too ill\, to accept \nthem. “We must speak to them with our hands\, before we try to speak to them \nwith our lips”\, Claver would say. When he came upon any who were dying\, he \nbaptized them\, and then sought out all babies born on the voyage that he might \nbaptize them. He had a band of seven interpreters\, one of whom spoke four \nNegro dialects\, and with their help he taught the slaves and prepared them for \nbaptism\, not only in groups but individually. He made use of pictures\, showing \nour Lord suffering on the cross; above all he tried to instill in them… some idea \nthat as redeemed human beings they had dignity and worth\, even if as slaves…5 \nIt is estimated that in forty years St. Peter Claver instructed and baptized \nover 300\,000 slaves… He took the same trouble to teach them how properly to \nuse the sacrament of penance\, and in one year is said to have heard the \nconfessions of more than five thousand. Many of the stories both of the heroism \nand of the miraculous powers of St. Peter Claver concern his nursing of sick and \ndiseased Negroes\, in circumstances often that no one else\, black or white\, could \nface. \nIn 1650… sickness attacked his emaciated and weakened body\, and he \nwas recalled to the Jesuit residence at Cartagena. But here a virulent epidemic \nhad begun to show itself\, and one of the first to be attacked among the Jesuits \nwas the debilitated missionary… After receiving the last sacraments\, he \nrecovered\, but he was a broken man… \nOn September 6\, 1654 he was taken very ill and became comatose. The \nrumor of his approaching end spread round the city\, everyone suddenly \nremembered the saint again\, and numbers came to kiss his hands before it was \ntoo late. His cell was stripped of everything that could be carried off as a relic. \nSt. Peter Claver never fully recovered consciousness\, and died two days later on \nthe birthday of our Lady. The civil authorities who had looked askance at his \nsolicitude for mere Negro slaves\, and the clergy\, who had called his zeal \nindiscreet and his energy wasted\, now vied with one another to honor his \nmemory… He was canonized in 1888 and was declared by Pope Leo XIII patron \nof all missionary enterprises among Negroes.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-peter-claver-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240911
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240907T232407Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240907T232407Z
UID:12503-1725926400-1726012799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:MARY’S BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD \nFrom a homily by Ogier of Locedio1 \n◊◊◊ \nThis most holy Virgin Mary was of royal lineage: Joachim was her father\, \nand Anne her mother. She is that mighty woman presaged by the Lord when\, \nat the time of Eve’s undoing\, he told the serpent\, ‘You shall lie in wait for her \nheel\, and she shall trample your head.’ She is that mighty Virgin who trampled \nthe head of the dragon by her power… Through her the Lord delivered our first \nparents\, Adam and Eve\, from everlasting death… She is that valiant woman\, \nendowed with strength and choicest virtue\, of whom Solomon spoke: Who shall \nfind a valiant woman? Hers is a prize far beyond all bounds. Indeed\, her prize \nwas none other than the Son of God the Father\, who from far beyond all \nbounds… marvelously and ineffably entered the enclosure of the virginal \nwomb… \nHow greatly God’s angels rejoiced when thus the restoration of \nhumankind was secured! The whole world leapt for joy\, heaven thundered with \npraise\, the earth danced for delight\, her song of joy soon joined by the skies \nabove and the seas below… so the whole universe took on its pristine glory as \nthat most blessed daughter was told: Virgin Mother of God\, your birth is news \nof joy to all the world! If therefore all the orders of angels rejoice in the birth \nof Mary the Mother of God\, let all orders of monks rejoice therein as well. If \nheaven and earth rejoice\, then all Christ’s consecrated virgins also. Let \neveryone rejoice… with great joy\, for the birth of Mary the sacred Virgin spells \njoy for the whole of heaven and earth. \nThus Mary\, the morning star that drives away all darkness\, came forth \nfrom her mother’s womb beautiful as the moon\, sought-out as the sun\, dreadful \nas a well-armed camp\, the glorious light that came forth from the darkness\,7 \nwithin whose womb Light itself would shine. From Jesse’s root there came the \nVirgin who would bear the flower. It is she who says\, I am the flower of the \nfield and the lily of the valleys’. Before that fragrant flower all other flowers lose \nthe sweetness of their scent… By means of Anna and Joachim God created that \nremedy whereby humankind would be freed from everlasting death. Through… \nblessed Mary\, the Lord gives light to the blind\, heals the sick\, raises the dead\, \nfrees us from sin\, justifies us through grace\, and crowns us with his glory. \nLet therefore all the just rejoice at the birth of her through whom they \nhave been justified. Let the blessed rejoice who through her have been made \nblessed… Let them approach the blessed child\, the sublime Queen on high. Let \nthem embrace her\, let them cradle her in the arms of perfect love. Let them \nbear her in their hearts\, her praises ever on their tongues\, so as to possess her \nwith their love. For this is no woman to be slighted\, this is no ordinary mother: \nthis is blessed Mary\, wholly sweet and lovable… \nShe is the sweetness of myrrh\, the absence of all bitterness. She who was \nnever to dwell in the bitterness of sin is rightly named Mary. She never sinned \nnor ever wished to sin\, in thought or word or deed. Wholly beautiful\, there was \nno blemish in her; only thus could she become the Mother of the Lord…
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-217/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240911
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240912
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240907T232457Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240907T232457Z
UID:12505-1726012800-1726099199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
DESCRIPTION:THE CALL OF GOD \nBy Hans Urs von Balthasar1 \n◊◊◊ \nEvery call of God is a proclamation of the eternal election by which he \n“chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world\, that we should be holy \nand without blemish in his sight in love”; by which he “predestined us to be \nadopted through Jesus Christ as his sons”. It is an act of love\, and its goal is the \nholiness that is always a form of love. Because it has been formed and shaped \nby the laws of love\, it can be comprehended only in terms of love. \nIt follows that God can issue the commandment of love\, which is the \nessential content of every genuine call\, in varying degrees of urgency and clarity. \nFor many\, its sound is dissipated; they regard it as something to be taken for \ngranted\, as something that does not require their special attention. Of course\, \nGod demands love; of course there is such a thing as a first and greatest \ncommandment; of course every Christian is called to obey it\, whether well or \nbadly\, to the best of his ability. And God will help our weakness\, and\, we hope\, \nforgive our failings. So far as its content is concerned\, the commandment of love \nsounds plainly enough\, but it strikes no answering chord in the one who hears \nit. It compels him to no conclusions that could force him out of the rut he is in. \nThe call to love God boundlessly is always\, at the same time\, God’s \noffering of his own love to the one thus called. Because this is so\, the call bears \nin itself the possibility not only of understanding\, but also of responding to the \nlove to which it calls. Indeed every special form of the divine call contains also \nthe special grace of the response. All forms of God’s special call are forms of love \nand\, for that reason\, different from the mere command that a master might \nissue to his servant… The manner and the very sound of God’s voice can be9 \ndifferent depending on…the personal love of God that is reflected in the \ninvitation to personal discipleship.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-office-for-vocations-16/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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CREATED:20240907T232551Z
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UID:12507-1726099200-1726185599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Peter of Tarentaise
DESCRIPTION:SAINT PETER II\, \nARCHBISHOP OF TARENTAISE \nFrom Butler’s Lives of the Saints1 \n◊◊◊ \nSt Peter of Tarentaise was born near Vienne in the French province of the \nDauphine. He early displayed a remarkable memory\, coupled with great \ninclination for religious studies\, and at the age of twenty he entered the abbey \nof Bonnevaux. After a time\, his father and the other two sons followed Peter to \nBonnevaux\, while his mother\, with the only daughter\, entered a neighboring \nnunnery. \nHe was not quite thirty when he was chosen superior of a new house built \nat Tamie\, in the desert mountains of Tarentaise. It over looked the pass which \nwas then the chief route from Geneva to Savoy\, and the monks were able to be \nof great use to travellers. There\, with the help of Amadeus III\, Count of Savoy\, \nwho held him in high esteem\, he founded a hospice for the sick and for \nstrangers\, in which he was wont to wait upon his guests with his own hands. \nIn 1142 came his election to the archbishopric of Tarentaise\, and Peter \nwas compelled by St Bernard and the general chapter of his order\, though much \nagainst the grain\, to accept the office. He found the diocese in a deplorable state\, \ndue mainly to the mismanagement of his predecessor\, an unworthy man who \nhad eventually to be deposed. In place of the cathedral clergy whom he found \nlax and careless; St Peter substituted canons regular of St Augustine. He \nundertook the constant visitation of his diocese; recovered property which had \nbeen alienated; appointed good priests to various parishes; made excellent \nfoundations for the education of the young and relief of the poor; and \neverywhere provided for the due celebration of the services of the Church..11 \nIn 1155\, after he had administered the diocese for thirteen years\, Peter \nsuddenly disappeared. Actually\, he had made his way to a remote Cistercian \nabbey in Switzerland\, where\, he was accepted as a lay-brother. Not until a year \nlater was he discovered. His identity having been revealed to his new superiors\, \nPeter was obliged to leave and return to his see\, where he was greeted with great \njoy. He took up his duties more zealously than ever. He rebuilt the hospice of \nthe Little St Bernard and founded other similar refuges for travellers in the \nAlps… \nIt was not granted to the saint to die among his mountain flock. His \nreputation as a peacemaker led Alexander III to send him in 1174 to try effect a \nreconciliation between King Louis VII of France and Henry II of England. St \nPeter\, though he was old\, set out at once\, preaching everywhere on his way. As \nhe approached Chaumont in the Vexin\, where the French court was being held\, \nhe was met by King Louis and by Prince Henry\, the rebellious heir to the English \nthrone. The latter\, alighting from his horse to receive the archbishop’s blessing\, \nasked for the saint’s old cloak\, which he reverently kissed. Both at Chaumont \nand at Gisors where he interviewed the English king\, St Peter was treated with \nutmost honor\, but the reconciliation for which he labored did not take place \nuntil after his death. As he was returning to his diocese he was taken ill on the \nroad near Besancon\, and died as he was being carried into the abbey of \nBellevaux. This St Peter was canonized in 1191.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-peter-of-tarentaise/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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CREATED:20240907T232656Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240907T232656Z
UID:12509-1726185600-1726271999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St John Chrysostom
DESCRIPTION:ST CHRYSOSTOM’S CHARM \nFrom “Historical Sketches” by St John Henry Newman1 \n◊◊◊ \nWhence this devotion to St. John Chrysostom\, which leads me to dwell \nupon the thought of him\, and makes me kindle at his name\, when so many other \ngreat Saints command indeed my veneration\, but exert no personal claim upon \nmy heart? Many holy people have died in exile\, many holy people have been \nsuccessful preachers; and what more can we write upon St. Chrysostom’s \nmonument than this\, that he was eloquent and that he suffered persecution? He \nis not an Athanasius\, expounding a sacred dogma with a luminousness which is \nalmost an inspiration. Nor\, except by the contrast\, does he remind us of that \nAmbrose who kept his ground obstinately in an imperial city\, and fortified \nhimself against the heresy of a court by the living rampart of a devoted \npopulation. Nor is he Gregory or Basil\, rich in the literature and philosophy of \nGreece\, and embellishing the Church with the spoils of heathenism. Nor is he a \nJerome\, so dead to the world that he can imitate the point and wit of its writers \nwithout danger to himself or scandal to his brethren. He has not trampled upon \nheresy\, nor smitten emperors\, nor beautified the house or the service of God\, \nnor knit together the portions of Christendom\, nor founded a religious order\, \nnor built up the framework of doctrine\, nor expounded the science of the Saints; \nyet I love him\, as I love David or St. Paul. \nHow am I to account for it? I consider St. Chrysostom’s charm to lie in his \nintimate sympathy and compassionateness for the whole world\, not only in its \nstrength\, but in its weakness; in the lively regard with which he views everything \nthat comes before him\, taken in the concrete\, whether as made after its own \nkind or as gifted with a nature higher than its own. It is the interest which he \ntakes in all things\, not so far as God has made them alike\, but as he has made \nthem different from each other…13 \nI speak of the kindly spirit and the genial temper with which he looks \nround at all things which this wonderful world contains; of the graphic fidelity \nwith which he notes them down upon the tablets of his mind\, and of the \npromptitude and propriety with which he calls them up as arguments or \nillustrations in the course of his teaching as the occasion requires. Possessed \nthough he be by the fire of ardent charity\, he has not lost one fibre\, he does not \nmiss one vibration\, of the complicated whole of human sentiment and affection; \nlike the miraculous bush in the desert\, which for all the flame that wrapt it \nround\, was not thereby consumed. \nThat loving scrutiny\, with which he follows the Apostles as they reveal \nthemselves to us in their writings\, he practices in various ways towards all \npeople\, living and dead\, high and low\, those whom he admires and those whom \nhe weeps over. He writes as one who was ever looking out with sharp but kind \neyes upon the world of humans and their history; and hence he has always \nsomething to produce about them\, new or old\, to the purpose of his argument\, \nwhether from books or from the experience of life… This is why his manner of \nwriting is so rare and special; and why\, when once a student enters into it\, he \nwill ever recognize him\, wherever he meets with extracts from him.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-john-chrysostom-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240914
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240915
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240907T232754Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240907T232754Z
UID:12511-1726272000-1726358399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Exaltation of the Holy Cross
DESCRIPTION:THE TRIUMPH OF THE CROSS \nFrom a treatise by St John Chrysostom1 \n◊◊◊ \nIsaiah made it clear that Christ will raise up all men when he said: “The \ndead shall be raised up again\, even those in the tombs shall be raised up. For \nthe dew from you is healing for them.” That was not all. After his cross\, after his \nslaughter\, his glory will shine forth more brightly; after his resurrection\, he will \nadvance the message of his Gospel still more. \nHe was bound\, betrayed by an apostle\, spat upon\, outraged with insults\, \nscourged\, nailed to the cross\, and\, as far as the Jews were concerned\, he did not \ndeserve to be buried in a tomb. His executioners divided his garments. They \nsuspected that he aspired to be a king\, and he died for it. “For everyone who \nmakes himself king\, sets himself against Caesar.” They suspected him of \nblasphemy\, and he died for it. “Behold\, you have heard his blasphemy.” \nEven though he would undergo all these torments\, he roused up those \nwho would listen\, he stirred them to courage by saying: “Do not be afraid \nbecause of these things which they did to me. I was crucified\, I was scourged\, I \nwas outraged and insulted by robbers\, I was arrested on suspicion of blasphemy \nand of being a king. But after my death and resurrection\, people will look on my \nsufferings in such a way that no one will say that they were not filled with \nabundant value and honor.” \nCertainly\, this did come to pass. And a prophet predicted it long \nbeforehand when he said: “There shall be the root of Jesse\, even he who rises \nup to rule nations. In him nations will put their trust\, and his resting place shall \nbe glorious.” This kind of death is more glorious than a crown. Certainly\, kings \nhave laid aside their crowns and taken up the cross\, the symbol of his death. On15 \ntheir purple robes is the cross\, on their crowns is the cross\, at their public \nprayers is the cross\, on their weapons is the cross\, on the sacred table of their \naltar is the cross. Everywhere in the world\, the cross shines forth more brightly \nthan the sun. “And his resting place shall be glorious.”
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-exaltation-of-the-holy-cross-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240915
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240916
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240915T103350Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240915T103350Z
UID:12518-1726358400-1726444799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n24th Week in Ordinary Time\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (B)\, Weekdays (II)\nSeptember 15 – 21\, 2024\n\n\n\nSun\n15\nMon\n16\nTue\n17\nWed\n18\nThu\n19\nFri\n20\nSat\n21\n\n\nOffice\n24th Sunday\nSS Cornelius & Cyprian\nSt Hildegard of Bingen\nWeekday\nWeekday\nSt Andrew Kim & Companions\nSt Matthew\n\n\nVigils\nTob 1:1-15\nTob 1:16-2:8\nTob 2:9-3:6\nTob 3:7-17\nTob 4:1-21\nTob 5:1-8\nJob 28:1-28\n\n\nLauds\nMal 3:6-12\nMal 3:13-21\nHos 1:1-9\nHos 2:1-6\nHos 2:7-12\nHos 2:13-17\nProv 15:27-33\n\n\nMass\n131\n443\n444\n445\n446\n447\n643\n\n\n1st\nIsa 50:4-9a\n1 Cor 11:17-26\, 33\n1 Cor 12:12-14\, 27-31a\n1 Cor 12:31-13:13\n1 Cor 15:1-11\n1 Cor 15:12-20\nEph 4:1-7\, 11-13\n\n\n2nd\nJas 2:14-18\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nMark 8:27-35\nLuke 7:1-10\nLuke 7:11-17\nLuke 7:31-35\nLuke 7:36-50\nLuke 8:1-3\nMatt 9:9-13\n\n\nVespers\n1 Pet 5:1-7\n1 Pet 5:8-14\n2 Pet 1:1-9\n2 Pet 1:10-15\n2 Pet 1:16-19\n2 Pet 1:20-2:3\n2 Pet 2:4-10a
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-85/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240915
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240916
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240915T103454Z
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UID:12520-1726358400-1726444799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - 24th Sunday
DESCRIPTION:FOLLOWING CHRIST \nFrom a commentary by Caesarius of Arles1 \n◊◊◊ \nWhen the Lord tells us in the gospel that anyone who wants to be his \nfollower must renounce himself\, the injunction seems harsh; we think he is \nimposing a burden on us. But an order is no burden when it is given by one who \nhelps in carrying it out. \nTo what place are we to follow Christ if not where he has already gone? \nWe know that he has risen and ascended into heaven: there\, then\, we must \nfollow him. There is no cause for despair – by ourselves we can do nothing\, but \nwe have Christ’s promise. Heaven was beyond our reach before our Head \nascended there\, but now\, if we are his members\, why should we despair of \narriving there ourselves? Is there any reason? True\, many fears and afflictions \nconfront us in this world\, but if we follow Christ\, we shall reach a place of perfect \nhappiness\, perfect peace\, and everlasting freedom from fear. \nYet let me warn anyone bent on following Christ to listen to Saint Paul: \nOne who claims to abide in Christ ought to walk as he walked. Then be humble \nas he was humble\, do not scorn his lowliness if you want to reach his exaltation. \nHuman sin made the road rough but Christ’s resurrection leveled it; by passing \nover it himself he transformed the narrowest of tracks into a royal highway. \nTwo feet are needed to run along this highway; they are humility and \ncharity. Everyone wants to get to the top – well\, the first step to take is humility. \nWhy take strides that are too big for you – do you want to fall instead of going \nup? Begin with the first step\, humility\, and you will already be climbing.3 \nAs well as telling us to renounce ourselves\, our Lord and Savior said that \nwe must take up the cross and follow him. What does it mean to take up one’s \ncross? Bearing every annoyance patiently. That is following Christ. When \nsomeone begins to follow his way of life and his commandments\, that person \nwill meet resistance on every side. He or she will be opposed\, mocked\, even \npersecuted\, and this not only by unbelievers\, but also by people who to all \nappearances belong to the body of Christ\, though they are really excluded from \nit by their wickedness people who\, being Christians in name only\, never stop \npersecuting true Christians. \nIf you want to follow Christ\, then take up his cross without delay. Endure \ninjuries\, do not be overcome by them. If we would fulfill the Lord’s command: \nIf anyone wants to be my disciple\, let him take up his cross and follow me; we \nmust strive with God’s help to do as the Apostle says: As long as we have food \nand clothing\, let this content us. Otherwise\, if we seek more material goods than \nwe need and desire to become rich\, we may fall prey to temptation. The devil \nmay trick us into wanting the many useless and harmful things that plunge \npeople into ruin and destruction. May we be free from this temptation through \nthe protection of our Lord\, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy \nSpirit for ever and ever.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-24th-sunday/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240915T103559Z
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UID:12522-1726444800-1726531199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - SS Cornelius & Cyprian
DESCRIPTION:A LETTER FROM ST CYPRIAN \nTO ST CORNELIUS \n◊◊◊ \nMy very dear brother\, we have heard of the glorious witness given by your \ncourageous faith. On learning of the honor you had won by your witness\, we \nwere filled with such joy that we felt ourselves sharers and companions in your \npraiseworthy achievements. After all\, we have the same Church\, the same mind. \nThe same unbroken harmony. Why then should a priest not take pride in the \npraise given to a fellow priest as though it were given to him? What brotherhood \nfails to rejoice in the happiness of its brothers wherever they are? \nWords cannot express how great was the exaltation and delight here when \nwe heard of your good fortune and brave deeds: how you stood out as a leader \nof your brothers in their declaration of faith\, while the leader’s confession was \nenhanced as they declared their faith. You led the way to glory\, but you gained \nmany companions in that glory; being foremost in your readiness to bear \nwitness on behalf of all\, you prevailed on your people to become a single \nwitness. We cannot decide which we ought to praise\, your own ready and \nunshaken faith or the love of your brothers who would not leave you. While the \ncourage of the bishop who thus led the way has been demonstrated\, at the same \ntime the unity of the brotherhood who followed has been manifested. Since you \nhave one heart and one voice\, it is the Roman Church as a whole that has thus \nborne witness. \nDearest brother\, bright and shining is the faith which the blessed Apostle \npraised in your community. He foresaw in the spirit the praise your courage \ndeserves and the strength that could not be broke; he was heralding the future \nwhen he testified to your achievements; his praise of the fathers was a challenge5 \nto the sons. Your unity\, your strength have become shining examples of these \nvirtues to the rest of the brethren. \nDivine providence has now prepared us. God’s merciful design has \nwarned us that the day of our own struggle\, our own contest\, is at hand. By that \nshared love which binds us closely together\, we are doing all we can to exhort \nour congregation\, to give ourselves unceasingly to fastings\, vigils and prayers in \ncommon. These are the heavenly weapons which give us strength to stand firm \nand endure; they are the spiritual defenses\, the God-given armaments that \nprotect us. \nLet us then remember one another\, united in mind and heart. Let us pray \nwithout ceasing\, you for us\, we for you; by the love we share we shall thus relieve \nthe strain of these great trial
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-ss-cornelius-cyprian-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240917
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240918
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240915T103856Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240915T103856Z
UID:12524-1726531200-1726617599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Hildegard of Bingen
DESCRIPTION:ST HILDEGARD OF BINGEN \nFrom Butler’s Lives of the Saints1 \n◊◊◊ \nHildegard of Bingen would have been remarkable in any century. In her \nown century her achievements and her influence\, particularly as a woman\, were \nextraordinary. She was born at Bermersheim…in the summer of 1098. Apart \nfrom the fact that her father\, Hildebert of Bermersheim\, was a nobleman and \npossibly in the service of the bishop of Speyer\, little is known of her family \nbackground. When she was only eight years old\, she was sent to be educated by \na recluse\, Blessed Jutta\, who was living at Disbodenberg in an anchorhold. Over \nthe years girls came to join her and Jutta gave them the Rule of St Benedict. \nHildegard was a delicate child\, but…her inner life was far from ordinary. \nFrom the age of three she experienced visions or revelations that in the early \nstages caused her pain and embarrassment. The revelations continued into her \nadult life\, and she experienced chronic ill health. \nIn 1136 Jutta died\, and Hildegard became abbess in her place. Her \nrevelations and visions were still causing her anxiety. Her writings were \nsubmitted to the archbishop of Mainz. The archbishop and his theologians \nconcluded that her visions were “from God”. Over the years with the help of a \nyoung monk named Volmar and others she produced her principal work\, “Know \nthe Ways of the Lord”. \nIn 1147 the archbishop of Mainz passed Hildegard’s work to the pope\, \nBlessed Eugenius III. With the advice of his close advisors\, including St Bernard \nof Clairvaux\, the pope told her to live with her sisters faithfully observing the \nRule. \nHildegard and eighteen nuns moved to the Rupertsberg sometime \nbetween 1147 and 1150. She found time to research and write on subjects that \nfascinated her – a book on natural history\, another on medicine. There was also \nher voluminous correspondence\, a substantial part of which has survived. \nPeople from all walks of life came to consult her\, but at the same time there were \nothers who denounced her as fraudulent\, mad or worse. \nHeidegard continued to the end of her life to stand her ground against \nwhat she saw as the wrong use of authority. When over eighty she was frail \nphysically but continued to write\, advise\, instruct her nuns and encourage all \nwho came to her for help\, until she died peacefully at St Rupert’s on September \n17th\, 1179. Miracles\, which had also been recorded during her life\, were \nimmediately reported at her tomb. In 1324 Pope John XXII gave permission for \npublic veneration\, and she appears in local martyrologies from the fifteenth \ncentury. Her relics\, which were taken to Eibingen during the Thirty Years War\, \nwere recognized in 1489 and again in 1498. Although she has never been \nformally canonized\, she is named as a saint in the Roman Martyrology\, and \nseveral German dioceses commemorate her on this day.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-hildegard-of-bingen/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240918
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240919
DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240915T104012Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240915T104012Z
UID:12526-1726617600-1726703999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE CHURCH AND ITS MINISTERS \nFrom a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux1 \n◊◊◊ \n“Our bed is covered with flowers; the beams of our houses are of cedar\, \nthe paneling of cypress.” She is singing her marriage-song\, describing in \nbeautiful language the marriage bed and bridal suite. She invites the \nbridegroom to repose: for the better thing is to remain at ease and be with \nChrist; but necessity drives one forth to help those who are to be saved. So now \nwhen she feels that the opportunity presents itself\, she announces that the \nbridal suite has been furnished\, and pointing to the bed with her finger she \ninvited…the Beloved to rest there. Like the disciples on the way to Emmaus she \ncannot contain the ardor in her heart\, but entices him to be the guest of her soul\, \ncompels him to spend the night with her. With Peter she says: “Lord it is good \nfor us to be here.” \nLet us now seek the spiritual content of these words. And indeed\, in the \nChurch the ‘bed’ where one reposes is\, in my opinion\, the cloisters and \nmonasteries\, where one lives undisturbed by the cares of the world and the \nanxieties of life. This bed is seen to be adorned with flowers when the conduct \nand life of the brothers brightly reflect the examples and rules of the Fathers\, as \nif strewn with sweet smelling flowers. By ‘houses’ understand the ordinary \ncommunities of Christians. Those who enjoy high office\, the Christian leaders \nof both orders\, strongly bind them together with laws justly imposed\, as beams \nbind the walls\, lest living by their own law and will\, they should fall apart from \neach other like tilting walls and tottering fences\, and thus the whole building \nfall to the ground and be destroyed. The paneling however\, which is firmly \nattached to the beams\, and impressively adds to the beauty of the house\, seems \nto me to designate the courteous and disciplined behavior of a well-trained \nclergy\, who carry out their duties correctly. For how shall the clerical orders9 \nstand and fulfill their duties unless they are sustained\, as by beams\, by the \nbeneficence and munificence of those who govern and protect by their power? \nSince the beams are described as cedar and the paneling as cypress\, these \ntimbers must possess natural properties that liken them to the aforesaid orders. \nThe cedar\, an incorruptible and fragrant wood of great height\, sufficiently \nindicates the qualities of the men who ought to be selected for the role of beams. \nHence it is necessary that those who are appointed over others should be strong \nand reliable\, tenacious in hope\, their mind directed to supernatural truths\, \nradiating everywhere the good odor of their faith and conduct. With the Apostle \nthey can say: We are the incense offered by Christ to God in every place. The \ncypress too\, a wood that is equally incorruptible and fragrant\, shows that every \ncleric ought to be of unblemished life and faith\, that he may be seen as an \nornamental paneling for the beauty of the house. For it is written: “Holiness \nbefits your house\, O Lord\, for evermore\,” which expresses both the beauty of \nvirtue and the constancy of unfailing grace. It is necessary therefore that the \nman who is chosen for the adornment and beauty of the house should have an \nexcellent moral character\, and though living always within\, nevertheless be well \nthought of by those outside.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-218/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240919
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DTSTAMP:20260403T135120
CREATED:20240915T104119Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240915T104119Z
UID:12528-1726704000-1726790399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:PREPARING A THRONE \nFOR THE MOST HIGH \nFrom a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny1 \n◊◊◊ \n[Christ the Lord] is to be not merely invited but drawn into the guest \nchamber of our heart by the violence of our prayers and the vehemence of our \nfervor. [But] sometimes he makes as though he would go farther on; he does so \nfor no other reason than that he may prove the zeal of your love. \nBut what does it mean\, you say\, that Jesus makes as though he would go \nfurther? What else than what Ecclesiastes tells us of himself: “I have said\, I will \nbe wise\, and [wisdom] departed farther from me.” The Spouse speaks more \nexplicitly when\, giving voice to our daily complaint\, she says: “I rose up to open \nto my beloved\, but he had turned aside and was gone. I sought him\, and found \nhim not\, I called\, and he did not answer me\,” just as he did not answer the \nCanaanite woman either. You too are wont to call on the Spirit of wisdom\, you \nare accustomed to seek the Spirit of grace in prayer. If it seems that he draws \nfarther away from you\, do not despair but be more importunate in your pleading \nuntil you hear him answer you: “Great is your faith\, be it done to you as you \nwill.” \nBut when you invite Jesus take care that you do not invite the God of \nmajesty into an unclean and unworthy dwelling where a wrangling [spouse] or \nclouds of smoke or a dripping roof would not allow even yourself to dwell in \npeace. For his place is in peace and nowhere else. Right and justice are the \npillars of his throne. “Now they seek me\,” he says\, “from day to day\, and desire \nto know my ways as a nation that has done justice and has not forsaken the will \nof their God.” “Right\,” he says\, “and justice are the pillars of his throne.” Do not \nplead that it is a lavish dwelling you have to prepare for so great and so powerful11 \na guest and that it is beyond the limits of your poverty. You have the means at \nhand. I speak in human terms because of the infirmity of your flesh\, or rather \nbecause of the narrowness of your mind. Make a perfect confession of your past \nlife\, have a good will in respect to all else (for there is peace to men of good will)\, \nand in this way you will have prepared with right and justice a throne for the \nMost High.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-219/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:12530-1726790400-1726876799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Andrew Kim & Companions
DESCRIPTION:THE KOREAN MARTYRS \nA reading from Butler’s Lives of the Saints1 \n◊◊◊ \nChristianity came late to Korea\, for it was the policy of that country’s \nrulers to keep it isolated from foreign influence. Not until the late eighteenth \ncentury\, more than two hundred years after Francis Xavier had reached Japan\, \ndid the Church begin very slowly to take root. The earliest missionaries were \nlay people who had been converted outside their country. Pietro Yi was baptized \nat Pechino in 1784: he was the first Korean to be received into the church\, but \nhe was also the first to apostatize\, when persecution broke out in 1791. \nThrough the last years of the eighteenth-century persecution was \nsporadic and localized\, but in 1801 it was extended to the whole of the country. \nOne Chinese priest\, who had succeeded in entering Korea\, offered himself for \nmartyrdom in the hope that his death would bring the sufferings of his fellow \nChristians to an end. He was beheaded on May 31\, 1801\, and the persecution \nwent on. \nYet these early martyrs were not among those canonized by Pope John \nPaul II in the cathedral of Seoul\, where the relics of so many of them lie… Of \nthe many thousand – perhaps more than 8\,000 not counting those who died of \ncold or starvation as they fled the tortures of the persecutors – 103 were chosen \nby name as representatives of the rest. They were selected from those who died \nin the persecutions which began in 1839 and lasted until 1846\, and those which \nlasted from 1861 to the beginning of 1866. \nBy the time of the renewed persecution – brought about both in 1839 and \n1861 by the return to power of the conservative faction of the Korean ruling class \n– there was a small number of missionaries in the country\, two French priests13 \nand a bishop\, all three died by beheading on September 21\, 1839. On September \n16\, 1846 there died Andrew Kim\, the first and at that time only\, Korean-born- \npriest. Two more bishops\, and a number of other French missionaries died in \nthe later persecution. \nThese were the clergy\, but by far the greatest number of those named as \nsaints by the pope near the spot where so many of them had died by beheading \nor strangulation\, were ordinary lay people. Some of them were of high rank\, \nbut most were ordinary men and women\, often linked by family ties as well as \nby the bonds of faith\, mothers and their children\, wives and their husbands. For \nseveral their crime was that they had worked as catechist in spreading the faith \nwhich\, until 1881\, was referred to in official documents as “the perverse \ndoctrine”. \nThe persecution…lasted until 1866. Religious liberty was conceded in \n1886\, and today the Church flourishes. Though the 103 whose sanctity was \nformally recognized were canonized together\, they had been beatified in two \ngroups: those of the earlier persecution by Pius XI in July 1925\, those of the \nlater one by Paul VI in October 1968.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-andrew-kim-companions-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:12532-1726876800-1726963199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Matthew
DESCRIPTION:ST MATTHEW\, \nAPOSTLE AND EVANGELIST \nFrom “The Saints” by John Coulson1 \n◊◊◊ \nFew people love the tax collector… Much more was this so in the Palestine \nof the first century\, when it was in his interests to bully and harry and falsify. \nBut even the mild and honest tax collector was not acceptable to official \nJudaism: he did business with the gentile and handled his money; he was legally \nimpure\, socially outcast. A Jewish Rabbi would be bold indeed to invite him to \njoin his inner circle of disciples: it would be a gesture of defiance to the \nestablished prejudice. And so\, the formula ‘publicans and sinners’ slipped even \ninto the phrase book of the evangelist and\, quaintly enough\, into the Gospel of \nMatthew the publican. This term ‘publican’…does not accurately describe \nMatthew’s profession but flatters it. The Pharisees might despise it\, but the \ntrade was a profitable one and much sought after: whether it be pursued \nhonestly or dishonestly would depend on the character of the officer. \n“And Jesus passed further on\, he saw Levi\, the son of Alpheus\, sitting at \nwork in the customs-house and said to him\, “Follow me”; and he rose and \nfollowed him. That this was a call to the apostolate there is no doubt – its terms \ntoo closely match those of the call of Simon and Andrew to be otherwise. Yet \n‘Levi’ does not appear in any list of the Twelve. Now the vocation of the tax \ncollector is reported in the first Gospel too\, but there he is called ‘Matthew’\, thus \nidentifying him with the Matthew who appears in all the apostolic lists. The \nwidely accepted and most natural explanation is that Matthew and Levi are one \nperson with two Semitic names. It may be that our Lord himself gave him the \nname Matthew (Mattai\, ‘gift of God’\, in Aramaic) as he gave Kepha to Simon.15 \nThis Matthew then got up from his registers… The change destroyed all \nMatthew’s worldly prospects: Simon and Andrew might return to their fish\, but \nMatthew had thrown over a coveted business and could never recover it. He \nleft it gladly…and completely. It was not he but Judas who kept the accounts \nfor the apostolic group… \nWhen the need for a written gospel record began to be felt\, upon which of \nthe Apostles would the choice fall? Upon one who used the pen\, no doubt. Poor \nMatthew was back where he started\, but this time with an eager will and high \npurpose. In Palestine\, sometime between the years 40 and 50\, this ex-civil \nservant produced not the lively and artless Gospel of St. Mark but the orderly\, \nalmost ledger like\, treatise\, which we know as ‘The Gospel according to St. \nMatthew.’ \nAnd so\, Matthew’s old trade entered a new service; the accountant \nbecame an evangelist. It is not surprising that he alone records his Master’s \nwords; “Every scholar whose learning is of the kingdom of heaven…knows how \nto bring both new and old things out of his treasure house. For there is no poor \ntool of ours that God’s service will not perfect and dignify. \nIt is commonly but not unanimously affirmed he died a martyr’s death; \nbut we know for certain that he lived a martyr’s life – and that is enough. And \nfor us he will always be the man who knew what money was and what it was \nnot.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-matthew-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:12541-1726963200-1727049599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n25th Week in Ordinary Time\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (B)\, Weekdays (II)\nSeptember 22 – 28\, 2024\n\n\n\nSun\n22\nMon\n23\nTue\n24\nWed\n25\nThu\n26\nFri\n27\nSat\n28\n\n\nOffice\n25th Sunday\nSt Pius of Pietrelcina\nWeekday\nOffice for the Dead\nWeekday\nSt Vincent de Paul\nMemorial of the BVM\n\n\nVigils\nTob 5:9-6:1\nTob 6:2-18\nTob 7:1-17\nTob 8:1-21\nTob 9:1-6\nTob 10:1-13\nTob 11:1-18\n\n\nLauds\nHos 2:18-25\nHos 3:1-5\nHos 4:1-6\nHos 4:7-12\nHos 4:13-19\nHos 5:1-7\nHos 5:8-15\n\n\nMass\n134\n449\n450\n451\n452\n453\n454\n\n\n1st\nWis 2:12\, 17-20\nProv 3:27-34\nProv 21:1-6\, 10-13\nProv 30:5-9\nEccl 1:2-11\nEccl 3:1-11\nEccl 11:9-12:8\n\n\n2nd\nJas 3:16-4:3\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nMark 9:30-37\nLuke 8:16-18\nLuke 8:19-21\nLuke 9:1-6\nLuke 9:7-9\nLuke 9:18-22\nLuke 9:43b-45\n\n\nVespers\n2 Pet 2:10b-16\n2 Pet 2:17-22\n2 Pet 3:1-7\n2 Pet 3:8-13\n2 Pet 3:14-18\n1 John 1:1-4\n1 John 1:5-10
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-86/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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