Vigils Reading - Memorial of BVM
2025-07-05
MARY’S VIRGINITY
From the writing of Lucien Legrand
◊◊◊
The significance of Mary’s virginity is entirely different from both cultic
virginity and philosophical continence. Mary knows that her virginity has no
value of its own and no power but that of the Spirit. She does not speak of the
greatness of her virginity. For her, it is not virginity that makes her great: it is
the Lord. As far as she is concerned, she is nothing and her virginity seals her
nothingness. Because she is a virgin, she is ‘poor’, a contemptible thing,
considered worthless by the world.
Of course, in the case of Mary as in that of the ‘Poor of Yahweh’ in the Old
Testament, poverty should be taken in the biblical sense. It is not merely
negative. It does not mean only destitution. As we find it in the life of the great
biblical figures such as Jeremiah, Job the anawim in the Psalms and the
Suffering Servant in Isaiah, poverty is a religious attitude which underlies the
spiritual development of the Old Testament and prepares the way for the
abasement of the cross, the imprint of which it bears by anticipation.
Biblical poverty does indeed mean life deprived of any human hope but
also and mostly at its deepest, radical detachment, total humility and
consequently utter confidence in God. Mary’s virginity belongs to this type of
poverty. It is a form of that religious attitude made up of faith and abandon, joy
and confidence; it is akin to humility and can be summarized as an attitude of
religious expectation. It is silence, readiness, emptiness. And her greatness
comes from the faith and confidence in god which spring in the heart on that
emptiness, and from the answer God gave to that faith and confidence.
Virginity of this kind differs entirely from its pagan counterparts. It does
not represent an attempt to substitute our influence for God’s power: on the
contrary, Mary has no other ambition than to be the handmaid of the Lord.
Neither does Mary’s virginity correspond to a merely human longing for purity
and moral greatness. Her virginity does not belong so much to the moral as to
the theological virtues. It manifests an attitude before god rather than an effort
of moral perfection and of self-achievement. Luke’s Gospel of the Infancy does
not describe in Mary a heroic form of the virtue of chastity. What it sees in her is
sheer faith and hope which has no reliance in creatures but is entirely turned
toward God.

Skema
2025-07-06
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
14th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
July 6 – 12, 2025

Sun
6
Mon
7
Tue
8
Wed
9
Thu
10
Fri
11
Sat
12

Office
14th Sunday
Weekday
Bl Eugene III
Weekday
Office for the Dead
St Benedict
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Gen 19:15-38
Gen 20:1-18
Gen 21:1-21
Gen 21:22-34
Gen 22:1-24
Exod 34:27-35; 35:20-29
Gen 23:1-20

Lauds
Eccles 7:23-29
Eccles 8:1-9
Eccles 8:10-13
Eccles 8:14-17
Eccles 9:1-10
Sir 2:1-9
Eccles 9:11-18

Mass
102
383
384
385
386
597, 477, 810
388

1st
Isa 66:10-14c
Gen 28:10-22a
Gen 32:23-33
Gen 41:55-57; 42:5-7a, 17-24a
Gen 44:18-21, 23b-29; 45:1-5
Prov 2:1-9
Gen 49:29-32; 50:15-26a

2nd
Gal 6:14-18

Eph 4:1-6

Gospel
Luke 10:1-12, 17-20
Matt 9:18-26
Matt 9:32-38
Matt 10:1-7
Matt 10:7-15
Luke 22:24-27
Matt 10:24-33

Vespers
Gal 6:1-10
Gal 6:11-18
Eph 1:1-10
Eph 1:11-14
1 Cor 3:5-17
Gal 5:22-6:2
Eph 1:15-23

Vigils Reading - 14th Sunday ORD
2025-07-06
THE LORD OF THE HARVEST
From a commentary by St Augustine
◊◊◊
The gospel for today raises a question. When the Lord told his disciples
that the harvest was indeed abundant but laborers were scarce and urged them
to ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers out to harvest his crop, which
crop did he have in mind? That was the point at which he increased the group of
twelve disciples whom he had named his apostles by the addition of another
seventy-two, and his words make it clear that he sent all these out to gather in
the ripe grain.
But which crop did he mean? Evidently not a crop of Gentiles, from whom
there was nothing to be reaped because there had as yet been no sowing among
them. The conclusion must be that the crop in question consisted of Jews. The
Jewish people were the harvest to which the Lord of the harvest came, and to
which he dispatched his reapers. To the Gentiles he could send no reapers at
that time, only sowers. We may understand, then, that harvest time among the
Jews coincided with sowing time among the Gentiles, for out of the Jewish crop,
sown by the prophets and now ripe for harvesting, the apostles were chosen…
For the seed to sprout it was sufficient for the prophets to sow, but the ripe grain
had to wait for the apostles’ sickle…
Then the reapers were sent out, wielding the gospel as their sickle. They
were to greet no one on the road, which meant they were to have no aim or
activity apart from proclaiming the Good News in a spirit of brotherly love.
When they arrived at a house they were to say: Peace be to this house. This
greeting was no mere formula; being filled with peace themselves, the apostles
spread it abroad, proclaiming peace and at the same time possessing it.
Consequently when one of them, fully at peace with himself, pronounced the
blessing: Peace be to this house, then if a lover of peace were in that house, the
apostle’s peace would rest upon him.

Vigils Reading
2025-07-07
A THRONE
FOR THE MOST HIGH
From a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny
◊◊◊
[Christ the Lord] is to be not merely invited but drawn into the guest
chamber of our heart by the violence of our prayers and the vehemence of our
fervor. [But] sometimes he makes as though he would go farther on; he does so
for no other reason than that he may prove the zeal of your love.
But what does it mean, you say, that Jesus makes as though he would go
further? What else than what Ecclesiastes tells us of himself: “I have said, I will
be wise, and [wisdom] departed farther from me.” The Spouse speaks more
explicitly when, giving voice to our daily complaint, she says: “I rose up to open
to my beloved, but he had turned aside and was gone. I sought him, and found
him not, I called, and he did not answer me,” just as he did not answer the
Canaanite woman either. You too are wont to call on the Spirit of wisdom, you
are accustomed to seek the Spirit of grace in prayer. If it seems that he draws
farther away from you, do not despair but be more importunate in your pleading
until you hear him answer you: “Great is your faith, be it done to you as you
will.”
But when you invite Jesus take care that you do not invite the God of
majesty into an unclean and unworthy dwelling where a wrangling [spouse] or
clouds of smoke or a dripping roof would not allow even yourself to dwell in
peace. For his place is in peace and nowhere else. Right and justice are the
pillars of his throne.
“Now they seek me,” he says, “from day to day, and desire to know my
ways as a nation that has done justice and has not forsaken the will of their
God.” “Right,” he says, “and justice are the pillars of his throne.” Do not plead
that it is a lavish dwelling you have to prepare for so great and so powerful a
guest and that it is beyond the limits of your poverty. You have the means at
hand. I speak in human terms because of the infirmity of your flesh, or rather
because of the narrowness of your mind. Make a perfect confession of your past
life, have a good will in respect to all else (for there is peace to men of good will),
and in this way you will have prepared with right and justice a throne for the
Most High.

Vigils Reading - Bl Eugene III
2025-07-08
FROM THE TREATISE “ON
CONSIDERATION”
By St Bernard of Clairvaux for Pope Eugenius III
◊◊◊
It has occurred to me to write something which might edify, delight or
console you, Blessed Father Eugene. But I do not know the rules for writing a
formal yet intimate treatise. Two opposites, your majesty and my love, vie to
dictate my style. Love draws me on; majesty holds me back. But you graciously
intervene and request rather than command this treatise, although it would be
more fitting for you to command it. Since your majesty so admirably
condescends, why does my hesitancy persist? What if you have ascended the
throne? Even if you were to walk on the wings of the wind, you would not escape
my affection. Love knows no master. It recognizes a son even though he wear
the tiara. It is the nature of a lover to be suitably humble, willingly submissive,
freely compliant, respectful without duress.
This is not the way with others however; they are driven either by fear or
by greed. Such men bless openly, but harbor evil in their hearts. They flatter you
when you are present, yet fail you in time of need. But charity never fails. It is
true that I have been freed of maternal obligation toward you, but I am not
stripped of affection for you. You were once in my womb; you will not be drawn
from my heart so easily. Ascend to the heavens, descend to the depths, you will
not escape me. I will follow you wherever you go.
I loved you when you were poor in spirit; I shall love you still as
father of the poor and the rich. If I know you, you did not cease being poor in
spirit when you became the father of the poor. I am confident that this change
has been thrust on you and was not of your doing, that this promotion has not
replaced your former state, but rather has enhanced it. Therefore I will instruct
you not as a teacher, but as a mother, indeed as a lover. I may seem more the
fool, but only to one who does not love, to one who does not feel the force of love.

Vigils Reading
2025-07-09
BE PERFECT,
AS YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER
From a treatise by St Cyprian
◊◊◊
Dearly Beloved in the Lord, let us try to understand more fully that
patience is an attribute of God and that whoever is gentle, patient, and meek is
an imitator of God the Father. The Lord Jesus said as much in his Gospel
teaching. For when he was giving out precepts unto salvation, and he was
instructing his disciples unto perfection with holy advice, he said thus: You
have heard that it was said:
‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love
your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of
your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the
good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who
love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others?
Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect, as your
heavenly Father is perfect.’
He said that it is in this way that the children of God are made perfect; He
showed that it is in this way that we reach our consummation, and he taught
that we are restored by a heavenly birth, if the patience of God the Father abide
in us, and if the divine likeness which our first parents lost by sin be manifested
and shine in our actions. What glory it is to become like God! What wonderful
and what great happiness it is to possess in virtues what can be put on the same
level with the divine praises.
Jesus Christ, Our Lord and God, did not teach this by words only, but He
also fulfilled it by His deeds. For He said that He came down for this purpose,
namely, to do the will of His Father. By other miracles of virtue, He gave proof
of his divine majesty. But he also preserved and exemplified His Father’s
patience by His own habitual forbearance.

Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
2025-07-10
LIVING FOR GOD ALONE
From “The Spiritual Exercises” of St Gertrud the Great
◊◊◊
Earnestly wish with the cherished one to become inebriated with the wine
of love and in union with God to become unconscious to the world; in the
embrace of the cherished one to expire from yourself into God; and already
almost totally stripped of your humanness, to go pleasantly to sleep on the
breast of Jesus. Thus, dying daily to yourself in love and living for God alone,
you may, at the hour of death, trustfully run up to death, looking on it as the end
of your exile, the door of the kingdom, and the gate of heaven. And say this with
prayer and verse:
Hide me, most loving Jesus, in the hiding-place of your face from all
those plotting crafty devices against me, and let my soul not be confounded
when it speaks with its enemies at the gate; but fill it full of gladness with your
mellifluous face.
O God, love, you are the consummation and the end of all good: to the
very end, you cherish what you choose; whatever comes into your hand, you do
not toss out but preserve most diligently for yourself. Ah! By right of possession
make all my being and my consummation’s end your own forever. Spare me
now no longer, but wound my heart to the spirit’s very marrow until you leave
no spark of life within me. Rather, take away with you my entire life, reserving
for yourself my soul in you.
Who will grant me to be consummated in you, O charity, and to be
delivered by your death from the prison of this body and to be freed from this
sojourn? How good, O love, to see you, have you, and possess you for eternity.
On the day I depart this life, may you yourself be present, regardful of
great consolation, and may you bless me then in the beautiful dawn of the
manifest contemplation of you. Now, O love, I here leave you behind and
commend to you my life and, at the same time, my soul: allow me, allow me now
to rest and fall asleep in you in peace.

Vigils Reading - St Benedict
2025-07-11
THE TABERNACLE OF GOD
From a sermon by St Aelred of Rievaulx
◊◊◊
Benedict was filled not only with the spirit of Moses, he was also
somehow, as someone has said, filled with the spirit of all the just. He built a
spiritual tabernacle from the offerings of the children of Israel. In his Rule
sparkles the god of blessed Augustine, the silver of Jerome, the double-dyed
purple of Gregory, not to mention the jewel-like sayings of the holy fathers; with
all these this heavenly edifice is embellished. You, my brothers, are the
tabernacle of God; you are the temple of God. As the apostle says: Holy is the
temple of God, which you are. A temple, because the Lord will reign forever in
you. Yet still a tabernacle, because he is on pilgrimage in you, he hungers in you,
he thirsts in you…
This, my brothers, is what a tabernacle puts up with as long as it is being
carried through the desert of this world, until it is taken into the Land of
Promise and becomes a temple instead of a tabernacle. Then a twofold stole will
be given to each – immortality for the body, blessedness for the soul. Yet even
now, brothers, let each of us make our own offering for the construction of this
tabernacle.
For each one of us has his unique gift from God, one this but another that.
One person can make an offering of more work; another, more vigils; another,
more fasting; another, more prayer; and another more lectio or meditation.
From all these offerings let one tabernacle be made, so that, as our legislator
commands: No one may presume that anything is his own but al things are
common to all. This is to be understood, brothers, not only of cowls or robes but
far more of our strengths and spiritual gifts.
No one therefore should boast on his own about any grace given by God as
if it were exclusively his own. No one should envy his brother because of some
grace, as if it were exclusively his. Whatever he has, he should consider the
property of all his brothers, and whatever his brother has, he should never
doubt is also his. For in his caring way…he causes each person to need the other
and to have in this other what one does not possess in oneself. Thus humility is
preserved, charity increased and unity recognized. Therefore each belongs to all
and all belong to each.
If, then, we are buried with Jesus, like him in his death, we shall be his
companions also in the resurrection, walking in newness of life. When Christ
our life appears, we, too, shall appear with him in glory. Through the merits and
prayers of our blessed Father Benedict may this be granted to us by our Lord
Jesus Christ Himself who with the Father and Holy Spirit, lives and reigns God
through all the ages of ages.

Vigils Reading - Memorial of BVM
2025-07-12
CRUCIFIED BY LOVE
By St Elizabeth of the Trinity
◊◊◊
No one has penetrated the depths of the mystery of Christ except the
Blessed Virgin. John and Mary Magdalene penetrated deeply this mystery; St P
aul often speaks of “the understanding of it which was given to him“; and yet,
how all the saints remain in the shadows when we look at the Blessed Virgin’s
light!
This is the unspeakable “secret” that she kept in mind and pondered in
her heart” which no tongue can tell or pen describe!… “The Virgin kept all these
things in her heart“: her whole history can be summed up in these few words! It
was within her heart that she lived, and at such a depth that no human eye can
follow her. When I read in the Gospel “that Mary went in haste to the hill
country of Judea” to perform her loving service for her cousin Elizabeth, I
imagine her passing by so beautiful, so calm and so majestic, so absorbed in
recollection of the Word of God within her. Like Him, her prayer was always
this: “Ecce, here I am!”… “The servant of the Lord,” the lowliest of His creatures
: she, His Mother! Her humility was so real for she was always forgetful,
unaware, freed from self. And she could sing: “The Almighty has done great
things for me, henceforth all peoples will call me blessed.“
This Queen of virgins is also Queen of martyrs; but again it was in her
heart that the sword pierced, for with her everything took place within!… Oh!
How beautiful she is to contemplate during her long martyrdom, so serene,
enveloped in a kind of majesty that radiates both strength and gentleness… She
learned from the Word Himself how those must suffer whom the Father has
chosen as victims, those whom He has decided to associate with Himself in the
great work of redemption, those whom He “has foreknown and predestined to
be conformed to His Christ,” crucified by love.
She is there at the foot of the Cross, standing, full of strength and courage
, and here My Master says to me: “Behold your mother”. He gives her to me for
my Mother… And now that He has returned to the Father and has substituted
me for Himself on the Cross so that “I may suffer in my body what is lacking in
His passion for the sake of His body, which is the Church,” the Blessed Virgin i
s again there to teach me to suffer as He did, to tell me, to make me hear those
last songs of His soul which no one else but she, His Mother, could overhear.

Skema - 15th Week Ord
2025-07-13
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
15th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
July 13 – 19, 2025

Sun
13
Mon
14
Tue
15
Wed
16
Thu
17
Fri
18
Sat
19

Office
15th Sunday
St Kateri Tekakwitha
St Bonaventure
Our Lady of Mt Carmel
Weekday
Weekday
Weekday

Vigils
Gen 24:1-27
Gen 24:28-49
Gen 24:50-67
Gen 25:1-18
Gen 25:19-34
Gen 26:1-22
Gen 26:23-35

Lauds
Eccles 10:1-10
Eccles 10:11-20
Eccles 11:1-10
Eccles 12:1-8
Eccles 12:9-14
Hosea 1:1-9
Hos 2:1-6

Mass
105
389
390
391
392
393
394

1st
Deut 30:10-14
Exod 1:8-14, 22
Exod 2:1-15a
Exod 3:1-6, 9-12
Exod 3:13-20
Exod 11:10-12:14
Exod 12:37-42

2nd
Col 1:15-20

Gospel
Luke 10:25-37
Matt 10:34-11:1
Matt 11:20-24
Matt 11:25-27
Matt 11:28-30
Matt 12:1-8
Matt 12:14-21

Vespers
Eph 2:1-10
Eph 2:11-22
Eph 3:1-7
Eph 3:8-13
Eph 3:14-21
Eph 4:1-6
Eph 4:7-16

Vigils Reading - 15th Sunday Ord
2025-07-13
THE PARABLE OF
THE GOOD SAMARITAN
From a commentary by Origen of Alexandria
◊◊◊
To interpret the parable of the Good Samaritan, one of the elders used to
say that the man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho was Adam. He said
Jerusalem was paradise, Jericho was the world, and the brigands were enemy
powers. The priest was the law, the Levite the prophets, and the Samaritan
Christ. Adam’s wounds were his disobedience, the animal that carried him was
the body of the Lord, and the “inn”, open to all who wished to enter, was the
Church. The two denarii represented the Father and the Son, and the innkeeper
was the head of the Church, who was entrusted with its administration. The
promised return of the Samaritan was a figure of the second coming of the
Savior.
The Samaritan was carrying oil – oil to make his face shine as Scripture
says, referring surely to the face of the man he cared for. He cleansed the man’s
wounds with oil to soothe the inflammation and with wine that made them
smart, and then placed him on his own mount, that is, on his own body, since he
had condescended to assume our humanity. This Samaritan bore our sins and
suffered on our behalf; he carried the half dead man to the inn which takes in
everyone, denying no one its help; in other words, to the Church. To this inn
Jesus invites all when he says: Come to me, all who labor and are
overburdened, and I will give you new strength.
After bringing in the man half dead the Samaritan did not immediately
depart, but remained and dressed his wounds by night as well as by day,
showing his concern and doing everything he could for him. In the morning
when he wished to set out again he took from his own purse silver coins, from
his own sterling money, two denarii to pay the innkeeper – clearly the angel of
the Church – and ordered him to nurse with all diligence and restore to health
the man whom for a short time he himself had personally tended.
I think the two denarii stand for knowledge of the Father and the Son in
the Father. This was given to the angel as a recompense, so that he would care
more diligently for the man entrusted to him. He was also promised that
whatever he spent of his own in healing him would be repaid.
This guardian of souls who showed mercy to the man who fell into the
hands of robbers was a better neighbor to him than were either the law or the
prophets, and he proved this more by deeds than by words. Now the saying: Be
imitators of me as I am of Christ makes it clear that we can imitate Christ by
showing mercy to those who have fallen into the hands of brigands. We can go to
them, bandage their wounds after pouring in oil and wine, place them on our
own mount, and bear their burdens. And so the Son of God exhorts us to do
these things, in words addressed not only to the teacher of the law but to all of
us: Go and do likewise. If we do, we shall gain eternal life in Christ Jesus, to
whom belongs glory and power for ever and ever.

Vigils Reading - St Kateri Tekakwitha
2025-07-14
THE VIRGINITY OF
KATERI TEKAKWITHA
From the writings of Fr Francis Xavier Weiser
◊◊◊
Tekakwitha was seventeen and still without a boyfriend to whom, like the
other Indian girls, she might have given her love and affection. In her
surroundings this was unusual, for the Indian girls started quite early “playing
the field.” Most of them married at the age of eighteen or nineteen.
Despite the urgings of her aunts she refused to meet the young men of the
village or dance with them. Was it natural shyness, due to her weak sight and
her pockmarked face? In any case, she had no inclination to fall in love.
Something deep down in her soul seemed to hold her back with unexplainable,
quiet force. She was a normal happy girl and knew how natural it was for a
young Indian maiden to find, as soon as possible, a good hunter or warrior who
would take her as co-worker and companion in the heavy toil that marriage
imposed on husband and wife. The family, the village, the whole tribe took it for
granted that girls should enter an early marriage and assume the many duties of
their calling.
She had not the slightest idea of celibate life among women, nor had she
ever seen or heard anything concerning the voluntary state of virginity such as
the Catholic nuns observed it. The Mohawks knew, of course, that the black-
robes lived without marriage and woman’s love for the sake of their priestly
vocation; this was for them a source of constant marvel and admiration. They
did not know, however, that such an ideal was also practiced by women. Even
the Christian Indians had no inkling of it, for the Jesuits never mentioned this
fact; it was a hard enough task for them to raise their spiritual children to the
level of a sound, morally good married life according to the demands of the
sacrament of matrimony.
Thus, Tekakwitha, who had no instruction at all in Christianity, followed
the path of a splendid Christian ideal without being aware of it. All she knew
was that an inner force, a strange spirit in the depth of her heart drove her with
constant, quiet urgings to keep herself free from the bonds of human love that
led to marriage. Gladly and willingly she obeyed her parents in everything; but
on this point she remained adamant and rather followed the guidance of that
mysterious voice in her soul. Had she only known that it was the grace of…the
true God, directing her on this path, how happy would she have been!

Vigils Reading - St Bonaventure
2025-07-15
THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE
From “The Tree of Life” by St Bonaventure
◊◊◊
You, soul devoted to God, whoever you are, run with living desire to this
Fountain of life and light and with the innermost power of your heart cry out to
him: “O inaccessible beauty of the most high God and the pure brightness of
the eternal light, life vivifying all life, light illumining every light, and keeping
in perpetual splendour a thousand times a thousand lights brilliantly shining
before the throne of your Divinity since the primeval dawn! O eternal and
inaccessible, clear and sweet stream from the fountain hidden from the eyes of
all mortals, whose depth is without bottom, whose height is without limit,
whose breadth cannot be bounded, whose purity cannot be disturbed.“
From this Fountain flows the stream of the oil of gladness, which
gladdens the city of God, and the powerful fiery torrent, the torrent, I say, of the
pleasure of God, from which the guests at the heavenly banquet drink to joyful
inebriation and sing without ceasing hymns of jubilation.
Anoint us with this sacred oil and refresh with the longed-for waters of
this torrent the thirsting throat of our parched hearts so that amid shouts of joy
and thanksgiving we may sing to you a canticle of praise, proving by experience
that with you is the fountain of life, and in your light we will see light…
Believing, hoping and loving with my whole heart, with my whole mind
and with my whole strength, may I be carried to you, beloved Jesus, as to the
goal of all things, because you alone are sufficient, you alone are good and
pleasing to those who seek you and love your name. “For you, my good Jesus,
are the redeemer of the lost, the Saviour of the redeemed, the hope of exiles, the
strength of laborers, the sweet solace of anguished spirits, the crown and
imperial dignity of the triumphant, the unique reward and joy of all the
citizens of heaven, the renowned offspring of the supreme God and the sublime
fruit of the virginal womb, the abundant fountain of all graces, of whose
fullness we have all received.“

Vigils Reading - Our Lady of Mt Carmel
2025-07-16
THE SCAPULAR OF
THE VIRGIN OF CARMEL
From the writings of Fr Lawrence Lovasik
◊◊◊
The feast of the scapular is that of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The
Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the best known, most celebrated, and
most widespread of the small scapulars.…
[The word scapular is derived from the Latin, and means the shoulder
blade, or … the shoulders. As a garment, it is a broad piece of cloth, with an
opening in it for the head, and which hangs down in front and in back almost to
the ground, as may be seen in the habits of the Carmelites, the Benedictines, and
some other religious Orders. The scapular worn by the faithful is but a symbol of
that worn by the religious of the Order of Mount Carmel.]
According to tradition, a number of men who embraced the Christian
faith on Pentecost Day [as recounted in the book of Acts] erected a church to the
Blessed Virgin on Mount Carmel. They were called Brethren of Blessed Mary of
Mount Carmel. These religious came to Europe in the thirteenth century, when
Mary appeared to their General, Simon Stock, at Cambridge, England, on
Sunday, July 16, 1251. In answer to his appeal for help for his oppressed order,
she appeared to him with a scapular in her hand and said, “Take, beloved son,
this scapular of thy order as a badge of my confraternity; and for thee and all
Carmelites a special sign of grace; whoever dies in this garment, will not
suffer everlasting fire. It is the sign of salvation, a safeguard in dangers, a
pledge of peace and of the covenant.” Indirectly, the promise is extended to all
who from devotion to the Mother of God wear her habit until death and are
thus…affiliated with the Carmelite Order…
The Scapular Devotion is one of the oldest devotions to Our Lady. It has
been widespread in the Church for nearly seven centuries… [Pope] Leo XIII
wrote: “Its nobility of origin, its venerable antiquity, its extraordinary spread
in the Church, the spiritualizing effects produced by it and the outstanding
miracles worked in virtue of it, render the Scapular of Carmel commendable
to a wondrous degree.” And [Pope] Benedict XV wrote: “Let all of you have a
common language and a common armor; the language, the sayings of the
Gospel; the common armor, the Scapular of the Virgin of Carmel, which you
all ought to wear and which enjoys the singular privilege of protection even
after death.”
The scapular is the sign of being devoted to the Blessed Virgin, just as the
carrying of your mother’s picture would be a sign of your being devoted to her.
Do you wear a scapular…? It should remind you that you belong entirely to her
and that through her you can best give yourself to God.

Vigils Reading
2025-07-17
THE PROOF OF
CHRIST’S DIVINE POWER
From a treatise by St John Chrysostom
◊◊◊
[The success of the Church in to have converted so many nations, to have
won over so many peoples,] is a great thing, truly a great thing. Rather, it
surpasses greatness and provides a proof of [Christ’s] divine power. Let us
suppose that many men were disposed to work together, and no one was
inclined to oppose them. Even under such ideal circumstances, it would have
been a great thing that a world as large as this could suddenly be set free from
the wicked ways which had preoccupied it for so long a time; it would have been
miraculous that it could change over to another and far more difficult way of life.
For two tyrannical factors opposed this change: habit and pleasure. For
many years their fathers, grandfathers, great grandfathers, their ancestors,
their philosophers, and public speakers had given them a certain way of life. Yet
people were persuaded to reject this, even though it was a difficult thing to do.
They were also persuaded to accept a strange and very hard way of life which
was introduced to replace their old ways. And this was a still more difficult
thing to do.
The new way drove them from luxurious living and led them to fasting; it
drove them from the love of money and led them to poverty; it drove them from
wanton ways and led them to temperance; it drove them away from anger and
led them to mildness; it drove them away from envy and led them to kindliness;
it drove them from the broad way and the wide street and led them onto a way
which was narrow, strait, and steep, despite the fact that they were used to the
wide road.
For the Church did not take a different kind of human being who lived
outside this world and its ways. It took those very men who had grown rotten
here and who had become softer than mud; it told them to travel on the strait
and narrow, the rough road of austerity. And it won them over to this way of life.
How many did the Church win over? Not two, or ten, or twenty, or a
hundred, but almost every man living under the sun. With whose help did it win
them over? With the help of eleven men. And these men are unlettered,
ignorant, ineloquent, undistinguished, and poor. They could not rely on the
fame of their homelands, on any abundance of wealth, or strength of body, or
glorious reputation, or illustrious ancestry. They were neither forceful nor
clever in speech; they could make no parade of knowledge. They were
fishermen and tentmakers, men of a foreign tongue. They did not speak the
same language as those whom they won over to the faith. Their speech – I mean
Hebrew – was strange and different from all others. But it was with the help of
these men that Christ founded this Church which reaches from one end of the
world to the other.

Vigils Reading
2025-07-18
WHEN ALL WILL BE ONE
From the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration “Nostra Aetate”
◊◊◊
The Church of Christ acknowledges that, according to the mystery of
God’s saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election are already
found among the patriarchs, Moses, and the prophets. She professes that all
who believe in Christ, Abraham’s sons according to faith are included in the
same patriarch’s call, and likewise that the salvation of the Church was
mystically foreshadowed by the chosen people’s exodus from the land of
bondage.
The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of
the Old Testament through the people with whom in God’s inexpressible mercy
deigned to establish the Ancient Covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws
sustenance from the root of that good olive tree onto which have been grafted
the wild olive branches of the Gentiles. Indeed, the Church believes that by His
cross Christ, our Peace, reconciled Jew and Gentile, making them both one in
Himself.
Also, the Church ever keeps in mind the words of the Apostle about his
kinsmen, “who have the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenant and
the legislation and the worship and the promises; who have the fathers, and
from whom is Christ according to the flesh“, the son of the Virgin Mary. The
Church recalls too that from the Jewish people sprang the apostles, her
foundation stones and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who
proclaimed Christ to the world.
As holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her
visitation, nor did the Jews in large number accept the gospel; indeed, not a few
opposed the spreading of it. Nevertheless, according to the Apostle, the Jews
still remain most dear to God because of their fathers, for He does not repent of
the gifts He makes nor of the calls He issues. In company with the prophets and
the same Apostle, the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all
peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and “serve him with one accord“.

Vigils Reading
2025-07-19
THE DEPTH OF
REPENTANCE
By St Ambrose
◊◊◊
How many sins each of us commits every hour, yet people feel no need to
confess their sins! By contrast, the great and mighty King David could not abide
the awareness of his sin even for a moment, but immediately confessed it and
with immense sorrow laid it before the Lord. Can you show me nowadays any
wealthy and distinguished person who will not take it amiss if he or she is
accused of some sin? Yet that renowned King, approved by so many divine
oracles, was not displeased and angered at being charged by a private person
with grave sin, but admitted it and sorrowfully lamented his guilt. The result
was that his deep sorrow moved the Lord, so that Nathan could say: Because
you have repented the Lord has taken away your sin. The King’s prompt
pardon was proof of the depth of his repentance, since it could remove even an
offense as heinous as his was.
Others, when reproached by priests, make their sin worse by trying to
deny or defend it, so that when one might have expected a change of heart their
guilt is actually increased. By contrast, when the Lord’s saints, who long to fight
the holy combat to the finish and to run the race of salvation, happen to fall
through the frailty of human nature rather than from any inclination to sin,
their sense of shame brings them to their feet again, more eager than ever to run
the race; their energy is renewed for even harder struggles, so that their fall, far
from being a hindrance, becomes the motive for an even speedier advance.
We can see another way in which sin can benefit us, and how it is
providential that it surprised the saints. They are set before us as models, and
therefore the Lord has seen to it that they too should sometimes fall; for if they
had run their course untouched by faults despite the many hazards of this
world, they would have made us who are weaker think of them as possessed of a
higher and even superhuman nature that prevented them from sinning and
sharing the experience of guilt. Such a view would deter those lacking this
nature from imitating them, for they would regard it as impossible. The grace of
God therefore passed them by momentarily, so that their lives might be models
for us to follow, and we might learn from their actions not only to be blameless,
but also to repent.

Skema
2025-07-20
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
16th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
July 20 – 26, 2025

Sun
20
Mon
21
Tue
22
Wed
23
Thu
24
Fri
25
Sat
26

Office
16th Sunday
Weekday
St Mary Magdalen
Office for Vocations
`Weekday
St James
SS Joachim & Ann

Vigils
Gen 27:1-29
Gen 27:30-46
Exodus 15:1-21
Gen 28:1-22
Gen 29:1-30
Jerm 26:1-15
Gen 29:31-30:24

Lauds
Hos 2:7-12
Hos 2:13-17
Isa 30:18-21
Hos 2:18-25
Hos 3:1-5
Jerm 16:14-21
Hos 4:1-6

Mass
108
395
603
397
398
605
400

1st
Gen 18:1-10a
Exod 14:5-18
Song 3:1-4b
Exod 16:1-5, 9-15
Exod 19:1-2, 9-11, 16-20b
2 Cor 4:7-15
Exod 24:3-8

2nd
Col 1:24-28

Gospel
Luke 10:38-42
Matt 12:38-42
John 20:1-2, 11-18
Matt 13:1-9
Matt 13:10-17
Matt 20:20-28
Matt 13:24-30

Vespers
Eph 4:17-24
Eph 4:25-32
Acts 13:26-31
Eph 5:1-5
Eph 5:6-14
Acts 11:27-12:5
Eph 5:15-20

Vigils Reading - 16th Sunday
2025-07-20
MARTHA AND MARY
From a commentary by St Bruno of Segni
◊◊◊
Everything our Savior did was full of sacred teaching. In every situation
his actions were meant to point beyond themselves. For example, his outward
actions in the hillside village of Bethany are repeated every day in his holy
church. Daily the Lord Jesus enters in, not thinking frequent visits beneath his
dignity. There he is welcomed by Martha who takes him into her home.
Let us see then what Martha stands for, and what Mary symbolizes. Each
of them denotes something important, for these two make up the entire church.
One of them, namely Martha, symbolizes the active life; the other, Mary,
the contemplative. That is why Scripture says it was Martha, not Mary, who
received Christ into her house. Mary, of course, does not own a house, since the
contemplative life entails the renunciation of all worldly possessions. All that
contemplatives want to do is sit at the feet of the Lord – to read, pray, and give
themselves up to contemplating God is their whole desire. It is enough for them
to be always listening to the word of God and feeding their minds rather than
their stomachs. Such as these were the apostles and prophets, such are many
others who leave everything, flee from the world and cling to the Lord. They
seem to possess nothing, yet they have everything…
Now the reason the active life is so called is because it consists of constant
activity, weariness and toil, so that scarcely a moment’s quiet can be found in it.
We are not referring here though to that kind of active life that occupies thieves,
impels tyrants, tempts misers, stirs up adulterers, and incites all wicked people
to commit evil deeds. For just as we speak only of one Martha who was Mary’s
sister, so we are referring only to that type of active life which is most closely
related to the contemplative life, that is, an active life that is pure and blameless.
When the apostle preached and baptized, worked with his hands to gain a
livelihood, journeyed from city to city, and showed solicitude for all the
churches, was he not living the active life? In the same way then our text says of
Martha that she was busy with much serving. In fact, right down to the present
day we see prelates in charge of the churches and the other clergy devotedly
hurrying to and fro about their work, hot and bothered, sweating over the needs
of their brothers and sisters in various ways, so that we may rightly describe
them also as busy with much serving. The contemplative life then is superior to
the active because it is free from anxiety and will never end. Nevertheless the
active life is so indispensable that in this life the contemplative life itself cannot
exist without it.

Vigils Reading
2025-07-21
MAKING THE MOST OF
UNFAVORABLE CIRCUMSTANCES
By Alessandro Pronzato
◊◊◊
I have always been impressed by this detail: “the night in which he was
betrayed“. In an atmosphere of betrayal, in a climate of tiredness and sleep, in a
difficult situation, while the shadows of suspicion, evil, vileness and fear are
thickening, Christ offers us his supreme gift. The Eucharist is instituted
precisely in the midst of unfavorable circumstances. On that night, men and
women put together a whole collection of damaged goods: opportunism,
sleepiness, dirty business, suspicious alliances, malice, stupidity and
fanaticism. And it is precisely in this gloomy situation, which is the opposite of
encouraging, that Christ gives us the gift of himself as our food.
At the moment – certainly not ideal – when man presents his most hateful
face, Christ “invents” the way to remain always at man’s disposal. At the
moment when man sells him off and abandons him, Christ assures his own
presence at man’s table.
Reflecting on this paradox, it is all too easy to discover a new occupation
for our ordinary days: to take advantage of unfavorable circumstances. We
should not wait to do something or to give our best when certain situations that
we consider “ideal” occur. Instead, look for the less favorable circumstances.
Take advantage of the less opportune moments. Yes, precisely in this paltry
environment, in this impossible climate, in the midst of the most shameless
falsehood and hypocrisy with these unbearable individuals, you are called to do
something good.
If you wait for the ideal superior, the understanding brothers, the work of
your liking, the perfect community, to do something, to fulfill yourself, to
provide your contribution to the common life, you will probably have to remain
unemployed all your life. Take advantage, then, of unfavorable circumstances…
When it seems that everything is going smoothly… a chain of disasters
rains down on you. Precisely then is the “right” moment to sing. When you are
the victim of suspicions, of unfair accusations. You find yourself involved in a
tangle of envy. You are the target of slander. Then it is the “favorable” moment
to build your inner peace. When you taste the bitter taste of disappointment
and ingratitude. You hit a wall of indifference. Then it is the “apt” moment to
offer others something else, something beautiful. When you don’t feel like
praying. You feel distrustful and dry. You have nothing to say to the Lord. You
have so many other things to think about. Then it is the “ideal” time to pray.
Do not miss…these unfavorable occasions. You would find yourself
empty-handed. And others will never receive anything from you. So, do not wait
for extraordinary, exceptional occasions. Tenaciously build your greatness with
the ordinary materials you find at hand… True greatness passes through the
seasons of your ordinary days. If you wait for it at the rendezvous of the
exceptional, you will never see its face.
Work patiently with what you have, with what you are, if you don’t want to
accumulate delays and disappointments. It is the heart you put inside that
makes even the most trivial things great… The choice is, then, between
exclusively ideal situations and situations that are less than ideal at the starting
point, but which open the possibility of encountering, along the way, the
transforming action of God.

Vigils Reading - St Mary Magdalene
2025-07-22
KEEP WATCH
AT THE DOORS OF WISDOM
From a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny
◊◊◊
Abraham exulted that he might see the day of Christ and by this token he
saw and rejoiced. You too, if you keep watch daily at the doors of wisdom,
steadfast at its threshold, if you stay awake through the night with Magdalen at
the entrance of his tomb, if I am not mistaken you will experience with Mary
how true are the words we read of the Wisdom which is Christ: “She is easily
seen by those who love her and she is found by those who seek her. She
anticipates those who desire her and shows herself to them first. He who, as
soon as it is light, keeps watch for her will not have to toil, for he will find her
seated at his doors.” So did Christ, Wisdom himself, promise in the words: “I
love those who love me, and they who from early morning keep watch for me
will find me.”
Mary found Jesus in the flesh. For this she was keeping watch… You, who
no longer ought to know Jesus according to the flesh but according to the spirit,
will be able to find him spiritually if you seek him with a [similar] desire, if he
finds you likewise vigilant in prayer. Say then to the Lord Jesus with the desire
and the affection of Mary: “My soul has longed for you during the night, my
spirit too, deep within me; from early morning I will keep watch for you”. Say
with the voice and the mind of the Psalmist: “God, my God, for you as soon as it
is light I keep watch, my soul is athirst for you”. And see if it is not your lot to
sing with him: “We have been filled early in the morning with your mercy, we
have exulted and been delighted”.
Keep watch then, brethren, intent in prayer; keep watch and carefully
guard your actions; especially since the morning of that day which has no sunset
has already shone upon us. For already eternal light has come back to us from
the nether regions, more serene and more pleasing, and the morning has given
its welcome to the newly restored Sun. Indeed it is time now for us to arise from
sleep; the night has passed away, while the day has drawn near. Keep watch, I
say, that the morning light may rise for you, that is Christ, whose coming forth
has been made ready like the dawn, ready to renew often the mystery of the
morning of his resurrection in those who keep watch for him. Then you will sing
with jubilant heart: “God the Lord has shone upon us… For then he will give you
a glimpse of the light which he has hidden in his hands, telling his friend that it
is his possession and he can attain to it.

Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
2025-07-23
FOR GOD ALONE
From the decree “Perfectae Caritatis” by Pope St Paul VI
◊◊◊
From the beginning of the Church there have been men and women who
have sought to follow Christ with greater freedom, and to imitate him with
closer fidelity through the practice of the evangelical counsels. They have led
lives dedicated to God, each in his or her own way. Many of them, under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, have lived in solitude or have founded religious
communities, which the Church willingly recognized and approved.
As a result, in accordance with God’s plan, there has grown up a
wonderful variety of religious families. These have been of great service to the
Church in equipping it “for every good work” and preparing it “for the work of
the ministry for the building up of the Body of Christ“, and also in adorning it
with the different gifts of its children, so that the Church may appear in beauty “
as a bride adorned for her husband, and show forth the many-faceted wisdom
of God.“
Surrounded by this rich profusion of gifts, all who are called by God to the
practice of the evangelical counsels and profess them with fidelity, dedicate
themselves to the Lord in a special way. They follow Christ, who in virginity and
poverty redeemed and sanctified humankind through obedience, “even to
death upon a cross.“
Driven thus by the love that the Holy Spirit pours into their hearts, they
live more and more for Christ and for “his Body which is the Church.” The more
fervent their union with Christ through this gift of self throughout their lives,
the richer is the life of the Church, and the more vigorous and fruitful its
apostolate.
The members of each institute should remember above all that in
professing the evangelical counsels they have given their response to the call of
God in such a way that they are to live for God alone, not only by dying to sin but
also by renouncing the world. They have surrendered to his service the whole of
their lives: this constitutes a special consecration, deeply rooted in the
consecration of baptism, to which it gives fuller expression.
Those who profess the evangelical counsels should seek and love above all
things the God who has first loved us. In every circumstance of life they should
strive to foster a life hidden with Christ in God; such a life is a source of, and
stimulus to, the love of one’s neighbor for the salvation of the world and the
building up of the Church. This love is the animating and guiding principle for
the practice of the evangelical counsels.

Vigils Reading
2025-07-24
VIRTUES AND OBSERVANCES
From “The Mirror of Charity” by St Aelred of Rievaulx
◊◊◊
It remains for us to inquire what conversion of life according to the Rule
of Saint Benedict is. If we resort to virtues here, so that, for example, a once
proud person is hereafter humble and a once hot-tempered person meek, surely
we can say that this conversion of life is enjoined not so much on monks by the
Rule of Saint Benedict as on all Christians by the Gospel. Hence for some
diversity to be found among the diverse types of conversion of life which are
professed according to the diverse rules, there is nothing to which we may have
recourse except those traits which constitute the diversity among the diverse
rules…
How then can anyone who does not keep these things keep to his
profession? Someone will say: if someone is proud, stubborn, impatient, and yet
observes all the things mentioned above, must we say that he keeps the Rule of
Saint Benedict? I maintain that if a monk has committed any of these faults
against God’s law, he will not be guilty of transgressing his profession if he
makes amends for them according to the means prescribed by the Rule.
But what if someone looks at the Rule of Saint Benedict as a tool for
pruning away vices more easily and fulfilling the gospel precepts more carefully,
and yet, as could happen, abusing this excellent tool, he neither prunes away his
vices nor acquires virtues by it. Does he not keep the Rule to his peril then, and
still not fulfill Christ’s precepts? Does blessed Benedict not allude to this? We
are going to establish, he says, a school of the Lord’s service, in which we hope
not to institute anything harsh or burdensome, “but if reason and fairness
dictate being a little stricter to correct faults or to persevere love, do not then
and there become daunted by fear and run from the way of salvation”.
Now…what is this strictness which he encourages beginners not to fear?
He certainly confirms that what he has established is situated in this strictness.
If patience, humility, and the other virtues were meant, would he say he was
going to establish them, as though they were something new? Assuredly, there is
nothing to which we have recourse – except to the new practices he institutes.
Neither the law nor the prophets nor Christ himself gave these precepts.
To beginners, of course, this strictness seems not inconsiderable when
they think about the meager, paltry quantity of food and drink, the roughness of
the clothing, the discomforts of fasts and vigils, the wearing grind of daily work,
and all the other things we find he instituted in the Rule. If anyone does not
agree that the Rule consists of these alone, at least let him admit what cannot be
denied except by stubborn obstinacy: that our profession and Rule consist of
both, that is, of virtues and observances, and let him therefore not refuse to
admit – that we necessarily practice both.

Vigils Reading - St James
2025-07-25
CAN YOU DRINK THE CHALICE?
From a homily by St John Chrysostom
◊◊◊
Let no one take scandal if we say now that the apostles were not perfect,
for the mystery of the cross had as yet not been consummated; the grace of the
Holy Spirit had not yet been infused into their hearts. If you are desirous of
knowing their virtue, consider what kind of men they were after the grace of the
Spirit had been given, and you will see that they overcame every perverse
inclination in them. For this very purpose their imperfection is now revealed
that you might clearly see what they suddenly became through the operation of
grace.
That they once sought nothing spiritual, nor thought about the Kingdom
of Heaven, is very clear. But still let us consider how they approached our Lord
and what they said. “We desire,” they said, “that whatsoever we ask of thee,
thou wilt grant us.” To which Christ replied, “What do you desire?” – certainly
not because He did not know, but that He might compel them to answer and
thereby might lay open the wound and thus apply the remedy. But they,
blushing and held back by shame because they had come to Him motivated by
human aspirations, took Christ apart from the rest and questioned Him. They
moved aside lest perhaps they be heard by the rest.
And so at last they said what they wished. I conjecture that they had heard
that the disciples were to be seated on twelve thrones and they wished to ask for
the place of honor in this assembly; they knew that at other times they were
given precedence over the rest, but fearing that Peter might be put before them,
they were bold enough to request, “Say that one may sit on thy right hand, the
other on they left.” And they pressed Him saying, “Speak thus.“
And what did He say? That He might show that they sought nothing
spiritual, and did not even realize what they were asking – for had they known
they would not have asked it – Jesus said to them, “You know not what you ask;
you know not how great, how admirable a thing this is, far surpassing even
the higher Powers.“
And He added further: “Can you drink the chalice which I shall drink,
and be baptized with the baptism wherewith I am baptized?” Notice how He
moves them from their present state of mind by bringing to their attention
things entirely contrary. “For,” He says, “you ask me for crowns and honors,
but I speak to you of struggle and perspiration. This is not a time for rewards,
nor will my glory appear at this time, but the present is the time of death and
dangers.” But observe how by His very manner of questioning He exhorts and
consoles. He did not say, “Can you undergo suffering? Can you shed your
blood?” But He said, “Can you drink the chalice?” Then by way of consolation
He adds, “which I am to drink.” So that by their very union with Him they
might become more eager for hardships.

Vigils Reading - SS Joachim & Ann
2025-07-26
JOACHIM AND ANN
From a sermon by St John Damascene
◊◊◊
Ann was to be the mother of the Virgin Mother of God, and hence nature
did not dare to anticipate the flowering of grace. Thus nature remained sterile,
until grace produced its fruit. For she who was to be born had to be a first-born
daughter, since she would be the mother of the first-born of all creation, in
whom all things are held together.
Joachim and Ann, how blessed a couple! All creation is indebted to you.
For your hands the Creator was offered a gift exceeding all other gifts: a chaste
mother, who alone was worthy of him.
And so rejoice, Ann, that you were sterile and have not borne children;
break forth into shouts, you who have not given birth. Rejoice, Joachim,
because from your daughter a child is born for us, a son is given us, whose
name is Messenger of great counsel and universal salvation, mighty God. For
this child is God.
Joachim and Ann, how blessed and spotless a couple! You will be known
by the fruit you have borne, as the Lord says: “by their fruits you will know
them”. The conduct of your life pleased God and was worthy of your daughter.
For by the chaste and holy life you led together, you have fashioned a jewel of
virginity; she who remained a virgin before, during and after giving birth. She
alone for all time would maintain her virginity in mind and soul as well as in
body. Joachim and Ann, how chaste a couple! While safeguarding the chastity
prescribed by the law of nature, you achieved with God’s help something which
transcends nature in giving the world the Virgin Mother of God as your
daughter. While leading a devout and holy life in your human nature, you gave
birth to a daughter nobler than the angels, whose queen she now is.
Girl of utter beauty and delight, daughter of Adam and mother of God,
blessed the loins and blessed the womb from which you come! Blessed the arms
that carried you, and blessed your parent’s lips, which you were allowed to cover
with chaste kisses, ever maintaining your virginity. Rejoice in God, all the earth.
Sing, exult and sing hymns. Raise your voice, raise it and be not afraid.

Skema
2025-07-27
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
17th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
July 27 – Aug.2, 2025

Sun
27
Mon
28
Tue
29
Wed
30
Thu
31
Fri
1
Sat
2

Office
17th Sunday
Weekday
SS Martha, Mary & Lazarus
Weekday
St Ignatius Loyola
St Alphonsus Ligouri
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Gen 30:25-43
Gen 31:1-24
Gen 31:25-54
Gen 32:1-22
Gen 32:23-33:20
Gen 34:1-31
Gen 35:1-29

Lauds
Hos 4:7-12
Hos 4:13-19
Hos 5:1-7
Hos 5:8-15
Hos 6:1-6
Hos 6:7-7:2
Hos 7:3-10

Mass
111
401
402, 607
403
404
405
406

1st
Gen 18:20-32
Exod 32:15-24, 30-34
Exod 33:7-11; 34:5b-9, 28
Exod 34:29-35
Exod 40:16-21, 34-38
Lev 23:1, 4-11, 15-16, 27, 34b-37
Lev 25:1, 8-17

2nd
Col 2:12-14

Gospel
Luke 11:1-13
Matt 13:31-35
John 11:19-27
Matt 13:44-46
Matt 13:47-53
Matt 13:54-58
Matt 14:1-12

Vespers
Eph 6:1-9
Eph 6:10-17
Eph 6:18-24
Phil 1:1-11
Phil 1:12-18a
Phil 1:18b-26
Phil 1:27-30

Vigils Reading - 17th Sunday
2025-07-27
ASK, SEEK, AND KNOCK
From a commentary by The Venerable Bede
◊◊◊
Our Lord and Savior wishes us to attain the joy of the heavenly kingdom,
and so he taught us to pray for it, promising to give it to us if we did so. Ask, he
said, and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be
opened to you.
We should consider most seriously and attentively what these words of
the Lord may mean for us, for they warn that not the idle and lazy but those who
ask, seek, and knock will receive, find and have the door opened to them. We
must therefore ask for entry into the kingdom by prayer, seek it by upright
living, and knock at its door by perseverance. Merely to ask verbally is not
enough; we must also diligently seek to discover how to live so as to be worthy of
obtaining what we ask for. We know this from our Savior’s words: Not everyone
who says to me, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those
who do the will of my heavenly Father.
There is a need, then, for constant and unflagging prayer. Let us fall upon
our knees with tears before our God and Maker; and that we may deserve a
hearing, let us consider carefully how he who made us wishes us to live, and
what he has commanded us to do…
Seek first the kingdom of God and its justice, and these other things will
be given you as well. To seek the kingdom of God and its justice is to long for the
graces of our heavenly homeland, and to give constant thought to the kind of
upright living that will deserve to obtain them; for should we chance to stray
from the path that leads there we shall never be able to reach our goal.
To ask God for the justice of his kingdom is to ask principally for faith,
hope and love. These virtues above all we should strive to obtain, for Scripture
says: Mercy surrounds those who hope in the Lord; and To love is to fulfill the
law, for the whole law is summed up in one word: You shall love your neighbor
as yourself. And so the Lord graciously promises that the Father will give the
good Spirit to those who ask him, in order to show that those who of themselves
are evil can become good only by receiving the grace of the Spirit…
As we do our best, then, to follow in our Lord’s footsteps, let us ask God
the Father for the grace of his Spirit to lead us along the path of that true faith
which works through love… Then, if we keep the almighty Father’s
commandments, he will certainly reward us with the eternal blessing which
from the beginning he prepared as our heritage through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who with the Holy Spirit lives and reigns with him, God for ever and ever.

Vigils Reading
2025-07-28
THE GLORY OF GOD
From a commentary by Eric Peterson
◊◊◊
Angels are more than poetic extras from the repertoire of folk-lore. They
have to do with Christ and with the Holy Spirit; but they have to do with us well.
They represent for us a possibility in our own nature, an enhancement and
intensification of our being – but never the possibility of a new and different
faith. They teach us about dark depths in our being wherein is movement and
impulse, independent, it may be, of ourselves, and which we may not even
recognize for what they really are, nor attribute yet awhile to angelic influence.
An impulse might simply be felt as an urge towards purity of heart; or one might
become conscious of an overwhelming desire for mental clarity and a true
existence.
We hurry towards the angels along many paths, not as though we
expected to become an angel, but because our own being is only a preliminary
existence and it does not yet appear what we shall be. And if we do not hurry
towards those angels who stand in God’s presence, then we shall most certainly
hasten towards those who have turned away from God; we shall rush towards
the demons. For we always live so that we transcend ourselves and thus move
toward either the angels or the demons. And we who transcend ourselves – for
to do this is our being – are able to ascend higher and higher, not in the moral
but in the metaphysical sense, until we become an associate of the angels and
arrive at the frontier of that realm where stand the cherubim and seraphim.
This boundary line, marked out neither by ourselves nor by any
archangel, arrests our progress: here we begin to join in the music of the
spheres and in the singing of the angels. Our song is no mere imitation of the
angelic song, no modest joining in the cry of Holy, holy, holy which resounds
from their lips majestically and without ceasing; but it is also something which
erupts from our innermost being when we reach the bounds of all things – the
bounds of ourselves as creatures.
What do we learn on reaching the angelic world but the creation praises
God, praises him from the last star down to the least blade of grass? What
applies to the highest grade of creation applies equally to the lowest, to plant-
life, animals and things which stand much lower than we in the scale of being.
When in the psalms let us say, animals and mountains break froth in praise of
God, this is no mere hyperbole or excess of poetic fancy, an unwarrantable
human personifying of inanimate nature. It is something based ultimately in
the nature of the created thing, and which runs fight through the whole scale of
creation from the cherubim and seraphim down to the least thing in the world.
As the Gospel has told us, the whole creation is full of the glory of God.

Vigils Reading - SS Martha, Mary & Lazarus
2025-07-29
THE HAPPINESS OF
MARTHA AND MARY
From a sermon by St Aelred of Rievaulx
◊◊◊
Jesus entered a certain fortress, and a certain woman named Martha
received him into her house. And she had a sister named Mary. You have heard
in the Gospel about the great happiness of the two women. Truly, brothers, great
was the happiness of Martha, who welcomed such a guest, who waited upon
him, who was completely engaged with serving him. Great was the happiness of
Mary, who recognized the excellence of her guest, who listened to his wisdom
and tasted his sweetness…
If therefore…our soul according to what we have said, becomes a fortress,
it is fitting that two women live in it: one who sits at the feet of Jesus and listens
to his words, the other who waits upon Jesus and feeds him. Consider this: if
Mary were alone in this house, there would be no one to feed the Lord; if Martha
were alone, there would be no one to take delight in the discourses and presence
of the Lord. Therefore…Martha signifies that action by which a person labors
for Christ, and Mary signifies that rest by which a person ceases from bodily
activities and takes delight in the sweetness of God, either through reading,
prayer, or contemplation. Therefore…as long as Christ is poor and goes about
afoot on earth, and is hungry and thirsty, and is tempted, it is necessary that
both of these women dwell in one house, that both of their actions be in one
soul.
As long as you or I or anyone else is on earth, he himself is present in the
world, if we are his members. Whenever those who are his members are hungry,
thirsty, and tempted, then Christ will be hungry, thirsty, and tempted. For this
reason, Christ himself will say on the day of judgment: “Whenever you, did it to
one of the least of my brothers or sisters, you did it to me”. Therefore…in this
miserable and burdensome life, it is necessary that Martha be in our house, that
is, that our soul be busy with bodily activities. As long as we must eat and drink,
then we have to labor. As long as we are tempted by carnal pleasures, it is
necessary for us to tame the flesh by vigils, fasts, and bodily labor. This part is
Martha’s.
Mary also should be in our soul, for she represents activity of spirit. We
should not always give ourselves to bodily exercises but occasionally should rest
and see how delightful, how sweet, is the Lord; we should sit at the feet of Jesus
and listen to his word. In no way ought you to neglect Mary because of Martha,
nor again Martha because of Mary. If you neglect Martha who will feed Jesus? If
you neglect Mary, what will it benefit you that Jesus entered your house, since
you taste nothing of his sweetness?

Vigils Reading
2025-07-30
ASCETICISM
AS A WAY OF LOVE
By Paul Evdokimov
◊◊◊
The methods provided for asceticism reflect the epoch which practices it
and adapt themselves to its way of thinking. In the conditions of modern life,
under the weight of overwork and nervous exhaustion, emotional reaction
changes. Medicine protects and prolongs life but at the same time diminishes
the resistance to suffering and to privations. Christian asceticism is never an
end in itself; it is only a means, a method in the service of life, and it will seek to
be in harmony with new requirements.
Formerly, the asceticism of the desert Fathers imposed fasts of a severe
kin, and constraints; today the battle is shifting to other ground. Man has no
need to impose supplementary suffering upon himself; to use [highly artificial
methods] would be to risk breaking him to no purpose.
Today ‘mortification’ means being relaxed from all necessity to ‘dope’
oneself: through speed, noise, excitements, drugs, alcohol, [and similar] stimuli
of all kinds. Asceticism would be, rather, the repose that is imposed upon us, the
discipline of calmness and silence in which a man rediscovers the faculty to
pause for prayer and contemplation, even at the heart of all the noises of the
world, in the [train and bus stations], in the crowd, at the crossroads of a town;
but above all it is the faculty of appreciating the presence of others, the friends of
each encounter.
Fasting, contrary to the maceration which one inflicts upon oneself,
would be the joyous renunciation of all that is superfluous, sharing it with the
poor, and a smiling, natural, peaceful equilibrium. Back beyond the [bodily] and
psychological asceticism of the Middle Ages, we should seek the eschatological
asceticism of the first centuries, that act of faith which transformed the whole
human being into the joyous expectation of the Second Coming, an expectation
which was not chronological, but qualitative, and which discerns the final and
sole necessity, for, according to the Gospel, the time is short and “the Spirit and
the Bride say ‘Come!’”
Asceticism thus becomes a means of paying attention to the challenges of
the Gospel, to the standard of the Beatitudes: it will seek for humility and purity
of heart, in order to deliver its neighbor and to restore him to God. In a world
that is weary, crushed with cares, living to an intensely accelerated rhythm, the
task is to find and to live a ‘spiritual childhood’, the freshness and the
evangelical simplicity of the ‘little way’ which leads to sitting at the table of
sinners, to blessing and breaking bread together.…
Thus, [asceticism] is never anything but a means, a strategy… The
evangelical asceticism of the Gospel goes to extremes, not out of fear, but out of
a love that overflows with tenderness towards the world. St. Dorotheus gives a
beautiful picture of salvation, in the form of a circle. Its center is God, and all the
people stand at the circumference. The nearer one draws to the center — God —
the nearer do the rays of the circle — one’s neighbor — draw to one another.
[And so] St. Isaac can say [a similar thing] to his disciple: “Here is a
commandment for you: let mercy always [be the measure] your scale, until…
you feel within yourself the mercy that God feels towards you and towards the
world.”
