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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260418
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260419
DTSTAMP:20260419T092306
CREATED:20260412T003133Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260412T003133Z
UID:14819-1776470400-1776556799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:From a commentary by \nWILLIAM OF ST THIERRY \n◊◊◊ \n“Come\, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord\, and to the house of the \nGod of Jacob\, and He will teach us his ways.” \nYearnings\, strivings\, thoughts and affections\, and all that is within me\, \ncome and let us go up to the mountain or place where the Lord both sees and is \nseen! But worries and anxieties\, concerns and toils\, and all the sufferings \ninvolved in my enslaved condition\, all of you must stay here with the donkey – I \nmean my body – while I and the lad – my intellectual faculties – hasten up the \nmountain; so that when we have worshiped\, we may come back to you. \nFor we shall come back\, and that unfortunately\, all too soon. Love of the \ntruth does indeed lead us far from you; but for the brethren’s sake\, the truth of \nthe love forbids us to abandon or reject you. But\, though you need thus call us \nback\, that sweet experience must not be wholly forgotten on your account. \nBut alas\, O Lord\, alas! To want to see God when one is unclean in heart is \nsurely quite outrageous\, rash and presumptuous\, and altogether out of order \nand against the rule of the word of truth and of your wisdom! Yet you are he who \nis supremely good\, goodness itself\, the life of our hearts and the light of our \ninward eyes. For your goodness’ sake\, then\, have mercy on me\, Lord; for the \nbeholding of your goodness is of itself my cleansing\, my confidence\, my \nholiness… \nSince it happens only by your gift\, you know how from the inmost depths \nof my being and after I have put away from me all striving after worldly honors \nand delights and pleasures\, and everything else that can – and often does – \narouse in me the lust of the flesh\, or of the eyes\, or that stirs me in a wrong \nambition – you know how my heart then says to you: “My face has sought you; \nyour face will I seek. Do not turn your face from me; do not turn away in anger \nfrom your servant.”… \nLet your voice testify deep down within my soul and spirit\, shaking my \nwhole being like a raging storm\, while my inward eyes are dazzled by the \nbrightness of your truth\, which keeps on telling me: “No man shall see you and \nlive.” For I indeed am as yet wholly in my sins\, I have not learned yet how to die \nto myself in order to live to you. \nAnd yet it is by your command and by your gift that I stand upon the rock \nof faith in you\, the rock of the Christian faith\, and in the place where truly you \nare present. On that rock I take my stand meanwhile\, with such patience as I can \ncommand\, and I embrace and kiss your right hand that covers and protects me. \nAnd sometimes\, when I gaze with longing\, I do see the “back” of him who sees \nme; I see your Son Christ “passing by” in the abasement of his incarnation.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-420/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260419
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260420
DTSTAMP:20260419T092306
CREATED:20260419T105607Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260419T105607Z
UID:14824-1776556800-1776643199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n3rd Week of Easter\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (A)\, Weekdays (II)\nApril 19 – 25\, 2026\n\n\n\nSun\n19\nMon\n20\nTue\n21\nWed\n22\nThu\n23\nFri\n24\nSat\n25\n\n\nOffice\n3rd Sunday of Easter\nEaster Weekday\nSt Anselm\nBl Maria Gabriella\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\nSt Mark\n\n\nVigils\nActs 8:4-25\nActs 8:26-40\nActs 9:1-22\nActs 9:23-43\nActs 10:1-33\nActs 10:34-11:4\, 18\n1 Thess 2:1-13\n\n\nLauds\nRev 7:13-17\nRev 10:8-11\nRev 12:1-6\nRev 12:13-18\nRev 14:6-13\nRev 15:2-4\nSir 51:13-22\n\n\nMass\n46\n273\n274\n275\n276\n277\n555\n\n\n1st\nActs 2:14\, 22-33\nActs 6:8-15\nActs 7:51-8:1a\nActs 8:1b-8\nActs 8:26-40\nActs 9:1-20\n1 Pet 5:5b-14\n\n\n2nd\n1 Pet 1:17-21\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nLuke 24:13-35\nJohn 6:22-29\nJohn 6:30-35\nJohn 6:35-40\nJohn 6:44-51\nJohn 6:52-59\nMark 16:15-20\n\n\nVespers\nRev 8:1-5\nRev 11:15-19\nRev 12:7-12\nRev 14:1-5\nRev 14:14-16\nRev 19:1-4\nRev 19:11-16
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-151/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260419
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260420
DTSTAMP:20260419T092306
CREATED:20260419T105749Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260419T105749Z
UID:14826-1776556800-1776643199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - 3rd Sunday of Easter
DESCRIPTION:From a commentary by a \n12th CENTURY AUTHOR \n◊◊◊ \nTheir eyes were opened and they knew him when he broke the bread. \nWhen bread is broken\, it is in a way diminished\, or “emptied”. By \nbreaking understand the virtue of humility\, by which Christ – even he who is the \nbread of life – broke\, diminished\, and emptied himself. And by emptying \nhimself he gave us knowledge of himself. \nThe hidden Wisdom of the Father\, and a treasure whole and concealed – \nwhat are they? Break your bread for the hungry\, Lord\, the bread that is yourself\, \nso that human eyes may be opened\, and it may not be regarded as a sin for us to \nlong to be like you\, knowing good and evil. Let him who from the beginning \nwished to strive after or grope for you in your undiminished state\, know you \nthrough the breaking of bread. \nBreak yourself that we may learn to break our own selves\, for you are not \nknown through the breaking of bread. Balaam heard the words of God and saw \nvisions of the Almighty\, but he fell with open eyes because he did not know the \nLord through the breaking of bread. It is the same today: you see many studying \nthe Scriptures\, teaching in cathedrals\, preaching in churches\, but their works do \nnot agree with their words. With words they claim to have a knowledge of God\, \nbut with their deeds they deny it\, because God cannot be known except through \nthe breaking of the bread. \nAnd in fact\, the Lord became our bread and we are his bread. He \ncondescended to eat his bread with sweat on his brow\, so that we might eat with \njoy. If you want to know him\, break yourself as he did\, because anyone who \nclaims to abide in Christ ought to live as he lived. The kingdom of God lies not in \nwords\, but in power. \nBreak yourself\, then\, by the labor of obedience\, by the humiliation of \nrepentance. Bear in your body the marks of Jesus Christ by accepting the \ncondition of a servant\, not of a superior. And when you have emptied yourself\, \nyou will know the Lord through the breaking of bread. True humility opens our \neyes\, “breaking” and diminishing the other virtues which might blind us with a \nspirit of pride\, and teaching us that of ourselves we are nothing. And when we \nhumble ourselves by self-contempt\, so much the more do we grow in the \nknowledge of God.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-3rd-sunday-of-easter-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260420
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260421
DTSTAMP:20260419T092306
CREATED:20260419T105905Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260419T105905Z
UID:14828-1776643200-1776729599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:From the writing of \nDOM DAMASUS WINZEN \n◊◊◊ \nThe fact that the Church is rather a gift of the Spirit than the fruit of \nhuman endeavor gives to the apostolic Church a unique position in the history \nof the Church\, and makes the Acts of the Apostles of vital importance to the \nChristians of all ages. We people of the “century of progress” do not look into \nthe past to find there the pattern for the future. Accustomed as we are to think in \nterms progress\, any beginnings bear to us the mark of imperfection. The life of \nthe Church\, however\, is not ruled by the laws of human progress. Not being built \nup from the ground\, but descending from above\, the growth of the Church is like \nthat of a seed\, the gradual unfolding of a fundamental structure which is wholly \npresent already in the initial stage. \nThe risen Christ is the “seed” out of which the Church grows as an \noverflow of his abundance. From Christ the Church receives the divine life in the \nvessel of the sacraments\, to be administered\, not to be produced. From Christ \nshe receives the full light of revelation as an unalterable deposit\, to be handed \ndown\, not to be invented. The risen Christ sends to his Church the fullness of the \nHoly Spirit so that St Peter can truly state\, on the very day when the Church is \nborn\, that this outpouring of the Spirit is the fulfillment of an event which\, as \nJoel had announced\, would come about “in the last days”. The apostolic Church \nis the Church of “the first love”. The apostles who govern her are endowed with a \nfullness of grace never to be given to any of their successors. \nThe Church is built\, once and forever\, upon “the foundation of the \napostles”. For this reason the history of the Church is to a large extent the \nhistory of “reformations”. Again and again the Church has returned to the \napostolic pattern. \nTo restore the spirit of the apostolic Church in its original purity and zeal \nwas the avowed purpose of all the great saints and reformers. The Rule of St \nBenedict is nothing but an attempt to reestablish the ideal apostolic Church \nwithin the confines of a monastery. St Francis\, St Dominic\, St Ignatius and the \ngreat number of their followers received the inspiration for their Orders from \nthe Acts of the Apostles. The apostolic Church remains a model for our times \ntoo; not that we want to turn back the wheel of history and copy the external \nforms of a past age\, which is impossible\, but because we realize that the waters \nof the Holy Spirit are nowhere as pure as at their source.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-421/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260421
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260422
DTSTAMP:20260419T092306
CREATED:20260419T110007Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260419T110007Z
UID:14830-1776729600-1776815999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Anselm
DESCRIPTION:he life of \nST ANSELM \n◊◊◊ \nAnselm\, son of a Lombard nobleman\, was one of the outstanding figures \nof the church in England. After a restless youth\, in 1059 he entered the \nmonastery of Bec in Normandy\, whose prior was Lanfranc\, who was to precede \nhim in the see of Canterbury. During the next thirty years Anselm wrote several \nof the philosophical and theological works that have been so influential\, works \nthat are characterized by a use of rational argument that made him “the father of \nScholasticism”; but his intellectual figure was softened by the sensitiveness of \nhis mind and the generosity of his heart. He was elected abbot of Bec in 1078\, \nand in 1093 King William II consented to nominate him to the archbishopric of \nCanterbury. \nHenceforth. Anselm’s public life was almost wholly conditioned by \ndissensions with William II and Henry I over relations between the church and \nthe state as represented by the king. Among the principles at stake was the \nelection of bishops without interference from the crown. William II soon made \ndetermined efforts to get rid of the archbishop\, and in 1097 Anselm went to \nRome\, where he remained for three years. During that time he wrote “Cur Deus \nHomo”\, one of the best known works on the Atonement. He also attended the \nCouncil of Bari\, and was instrumental in resolving the doubts of the Greek \nbishops in southern Italy about the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Son \n(Filioque). \nHe returned to England when Henry I came to the throne\, but Henry soon \nclaimed rights in respect of bishops and abbots that a council in Rome had been \nunable to recognize; Anselm was again in exile abroad from 1003 to 1007. \nAs a pastor he encouraged the ordination of native Englishmen among his \nclergy for whom he enforced celibacy; he emulated St Wulfstan in his opposition \nto slavery\, and he restored to the calendar the names of some of the English \nsaints that his predecessor Lanfranc had removed. As a statesmen he was \ndeficient: the monastery\, not the court\, was where he was at home. Many \nincidents recorded of his life testify no less than his writings to the \nattractiveness of his personal character. Anselm was canonized by being \nincluded among the doctors of the church by Pope Clement XI in 1720.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-anselm-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260422
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260423
DTSTAMP:20260419T092306
CREATED:20260419T110354Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260419T110354Z
UID:14832-1776816000-1776902399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Bl Maria Gabriella
DESCRIPTION:From an article by Mother Martha Driscoll on \nBLESSED MARIA GABRIELLA \n◊◊◊ \nBorn in Sardinia on March 17\, 1914\, Maria Sagheddu grew up in a typical \nshepherd’s family. Life was not easy\, and the death of her father when she was \nonly four accustomed her to poverty and hard work from earliest childhood. A \nstubborn and willful child\, she had a passion to win\, both at school and at play\, \nand a strong determination to overcome any challenge. \nAt the age of eighteen\, Maria experienced some kind of conversion \nexperience. At the same time\, she voiced her desire to consecrate herself to God \nin religious life. She enrolled in Catholic Action and became active in teaching \ncatechism\, serving the poor\, the sick\, the unwanted. The most profound change\, \nhowever\, was in herself. “She became sweet and calm\,” was her mother’s brief \ncomment about a daughter who no longer lost her temper or became annoyed \nby the contradictions of life. \nAfter two and a half years of determined conversion\, her parish priest \nchose for her the hard and simple life of the Trappists. At the age of twenty-one\, \nshe entered the small\, poor Trappist monastery of Grottaferrata\, not far from \nRome. She received the habit on April 13\, 1936\, made her first vows on the Feast \nof Christ the King in October\, 1937\, contracted tuberculosis in the spring of \n1938\, and died on April 22\, 1939\, at the age of twenty-five. \nSr Maria Gabriella\, as she was called in the monastery\, became aware of \nprayer for Christian Unity through her Abbess\, Mother Pia Gullini. She \nencouraged the movement of prayer for the unity of Christians as promoted by \nAbbe Paul Couturier in his Octave of Prayer. Mother Pia began to direct the \nentire community to the special vocation of prayer… \nAlmost immediately an elderly Sister approached the Abbess and asked to \noffer her life for this cause. Exactly a month after the Novena\, the seventy-eight \nyear old Mother Immaculata died peacefully as a result of a stroke the week \nbefore. The community was informed of her offering\, and fervor for the cause of \nunity grew… During the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity…the next year\, it \nwas Sr Maria Gabriella who felt called to offer her life. The Abbess told her: “I \nwon’t say yes or no. Offer yourself to the will of God.” \nShortly afterward\, Sr Gabriella developed a cough and loss of energy. By \nEaster the abbess sent her for an x-ray. She spent forty days in a large public \nhospital in painful but futile attempts to cure the tuberculosis that had been \ndiagnosed. When she returned to the monastery\, she was taken to the infirmary\, \nwhere she spent the remaining ten months of her life in peace\, abandonment \nand growing joy as the definitive encounter with Christ grew near. \nSr Maria Gabriella went to the Lord on the evening of April 23\, 1939. It \nwas the fourth Sunday after Easter\, the Sunday of the Good Shepherd\, and the \nGospel proclaimed: “I have other sheep as well that are not of this fold. I must \nlead these also so that there will be but one Shepherd and one fold”. The \ncircumstance was seen as a confirmation that the offering of her life had been a \nresponse to a divine inspiration. On January 25\, 1983\, Maria Gabriella \nSagheddu was proclaimed Blessed by Pope John Paul II during the annual \necumenical celebration in the basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls at the end of \nthe Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-bl-maria-gabriella/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260423
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260424
DTSTAMP:20260419T092306
CREATED:20260419T110500Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260419T110500Z
UID:14834-1776902400-1776988799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:From the treatise “On Prayer” by \nORIGEN \n◊◊◊ \n[Jesus] says\, “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the \nbread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world”. \nThe true bread is He who nourishes the true Man\, made in the image of God; \nand the one who has been nourished by it will come to be in the likeness of Him \nwho Created him. And what is more nourishing to the soul than the Word\, or \nwhat is more honorable than the Wisdom of God to the mind that holds it? What \nmore rightly corresponds to a rational nature than truth? \nBut if someone objects to this and says that He would not have taught us \nto ask for “daily bread” if He meant something else\, let him hear that even in the \nGospel according to John sometimes He speaks about it as though it were \nsomething other than Himself\, and sometimes as though He were Himself \n“bread.” An example of the first is\, “Moses gave you bread from heaven\, not the \ntrue bread\, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven”. An example \nof referring it to Himself is what he says to those who said to him\, “Give us this \nbread always”: “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger\, \nand he who believes in me shall never thirst”. \nNow all food is called “bread” in Scripture\, as is clear from what is written \nabout Moses\, “For forty days I neither ate bread nor drank water”. How \nmanifold and varying\, then\, is the nourishing Word\, since not everyone can be \nnourished by the solid and vigorous food of divine teachings. That is why\, when \nHe wishes to offer food for an athlete\, suitable for the more perfect\, He says\, \n“The bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh”\, and a little \nfurther on\, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood\, you \nhave no life in you..”. This is the “True food”\, the “flesh” of Christ… \nJust as the corporeal bread distributed to the body of the person to be \nnourished goes into his being\, so also “the living bread which came down from \nheaven” and is distributed to the mind and the soul gives a share in its own \npower to the person who provides himself food from it. And thus the bread we \nask will be “daily” in the sense that it will be “for our being.” \nMoreover\, just as the person nourished becomes empowered in differing \nways according to the quality of the food…so also it follows that the Word of God \nis given either as milk suitable for children or as vegetables fit for the sick or as \nmeat special for those taking part in the contests. And the different ones\, each \nnourished in proportion to how he places himself in the power of the Word\, are \nable to do different things and become different kinds of people. \nTherefore\, “daily bread\,” that is\, “bread for being\,” is what corresponds \nmost closely with a rational nature and is akin to Being itself. It procures at one \ntime health\, vigor\, and strength to the soul; and since the Word of God is \nimmortal\, it shares its own immortality with the one who eats it.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-422/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260424
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260425
DTSTAMP:20260419T092306
CREATED:20260419T110640Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260419T110640Z
UID:14836-1776988800-1777075199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:From the encyclical “Ut Unum Sint” by \nPOPE JOHN PAUL II \n◊◊◊ \nAt the Second Vatican Council\, the Catholic Church committed herself \nirrevocably to following the path of the ecumenical venture\, thus heeding the \nspirit of the Lord\, who teaches people to interpret carefully the “signs of the \ntimes”. The experiences of these years have made the Church even more \nprofoundly aware of her identity and mission in history. The Catholic Church \nacknowledges and confesses the weaknesses of her members\, conscious that \ntheir sins are so many betrayals of and obstacles to the accomplishment of the \nSavior’s plan. Because she feels herself constantly called to be renewed in the \nspirit of the Gospel\, she does not cease to do penance. At the same time\, she \nacknowledges and exalts still more the power of the Lord\, who fills her with the \ngift of holiness\, leads her forward\, and conforms her to his Passion and \nResurrection. \nTaught by the events of her history\, the Church is committed to freeing \nherself from every purely human support\, in order to live in depth the Gospel \nlaw of the Beatitudes. Conscious that the truth does not impose itself except “by \nvirtue of its own truth\, as it makes its entrance into the mind at once quietly and \nwith power”\, she seeks nothing for herself but the freedom to proclaim the \nGospel. Indeed her authority is exercised in the service of truth and charity. \nTogether with all Christ’s disciples\, the Catholic Church bases upon God’s \nplan her ecumenical commitment to gather all Christians into unity. Indeed\, \n“the Church is not a reality closed in on herself. Rather\, she is permanently open \nto missionary and ecumenical endeavor\, for she is sent to the world to announce \nand witness\, to make present and spread the mystery of communion which is \nessential to her\, and to gather all people and all things into Christ\, so as to be for \nall an “inseparable sacrament of unity”. \nThe unity of all divided humanity is the will of God. For this reason He \nsent His son\, so that by dying and rising for us he might bestow on us the Spirit \nof love. On the eve of his sacrifice on the Cross\, Jesus himself prayed to the \nFather for his disciples and for all those who believe in him\, that they might be \none\, a living communion. This is the basis not only of the duty\, but also of the \nresponsibility before God and his plan\, which falls to those who through \nBaptism become members of the Body of Christ\, a Body in which the fullness of \nreconciliation and communion must be made present. How is it possible to \nremain divided\, if we have been “buried” through Baptism in the Lord’s death\, \nin the very act by which God\, through the death of His Son\, has broken down the \nwalls of division? Division openly contradicts the will of Christ\, provides a \nstumbling block to the world\, and inflicts damage on the most holy cause of \nproclaiming the Good News to every creatures.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-423/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260425
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260426
DTSTAMP:20260419T092306
CREATED:20260419T110754Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260419T110754Z
UID:14838-1777075200-1777161599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Mark
DESCRIPTION:From a sermon by \nST JOHN HENRY NEWMAN \n◊◊◊ \nThe chief points of St Mark’s history are these: first\, that he was nephew to \nBarnabas\, and taken with him and St Paul on their first apostolic journey; next\, \nthat after a short time he deserted them and returned to Jerusalem; then\, that \nafter an interval\, he was St Peter’s assistant at Rome\, and composed his Gospel \nthere principally from the accounts which he received from that Apostle; lastly\, \nthat he was sent by him to Alexandria\, in Egypt\, where he founded one of the \nstrictest and most powerful churches of the primitive times. \nThe points of contrast in his history are as follows: that first he abandoned \nthe cause of the Gospel as soon as danger appeared; afterwards\, he proved \nhimself\, not merely an ordinary Christian\, but a most resolute and exact servant \nof God\, founding and ruling the strictest Church of Alexandria. And the \ninstrument of this change was\, as it appears the influence of St Peter\, a fit \nrestorer of a timid and backsliding disciple. \nThe encouragement which we derive from these circumstances in St \nMark’s history\, is that the feeblest among us may through God’s grace become \nstrong. And the warning to be drawn from it is\, to distrust ourselves; and again\, \nnot to despise weak brethren\, or to despair of them\, but to bear their burdens \nand help them forward\, if so be we may restore them… \nSome are naturally impetuous and active; others love quiet and readily \nyield. The over-earnest must be sobered\, and the indolent must be roused. The \nhistory of Moses supplies us with an instance of a proud and rash spirit\, tamed \ndown to an extreme gentleness of deportment. In the greatness of the change \nwrought in him\, when from a fierce\, though honest avenger of his brethren\, he \nbecame the meekest of human beings on earth\, he evidences the power of faith\, \nthe influence of the Spirit on the heart. \nSt Mark’s history affords a specimen of the other\, and still rarer change\, \nfrom timidity to boldness. Difficult as it is to subdue the more violent passions\, \nyet I believe it to be still more difficult to overcome a tendency to sloth\, \ncowardice\, and despondency. These evil dispositions cling about a person\, and \nweigh him down. They are minute chains\, binding him on every side to the \nearth\, so that he cannot even turn himself or make an effort to rise. It would \nseem as if right principles had yet to be planted in the indolent mind; whereas \nviolent and obstinate tempers had already something of the nature of firmness \nand zeal in them\, or rather what will become so with care\, exercise\, and God’s \nblessing. Besides\, the events of life have a powerful influence in sobering the \nardent or self-confident temper. Disappointments\, pain anxiety\, advancing \nyears\, bring with them some natural wisdom as a matter of course; and\, though \nsuch tardy improvement bespeaks but a weak faith\, yet we may believe that the \nHoly Spirit often blesses these means\, however slowly and imperceptibly… \nSt Mark’s change\, therefore\, may be considered even more astonishing in \nits nature than that of the Jewish Lawgiver. “By faith\,” he was “out of weakness \nmade strong\,” and becomes a memorial of the more glorious and marvelous \ngifts of the last and spiritual Dispensation.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-mark-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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