Vigils Reading
2024-12-18
O ADONAI
From a sermon by St Gregory of Nazianzus
◊◊◊
The very Son of God, older than the ages, the invisible, the
incomprehensible, the incorporeal the beginning of beginning, the light of light,
the fountain of life and immortality, the image of the archetype, the immovable
seat the perfect likeness, the definition and word of the Father: he it is who
comes to his own image and takes our nature for the good of our nature, and
unites himself to an intelligent soul for the good of my soul to purify like by like.
He takes to himself all that is human except for sin. He was conceived by the
Virgin Mary, who had been first prepared in soul and body by the Spirit; his
coming to birth had to be treated with honor, virginity had to receive new honor.
He comes forth as God, in the human nature he has taken, one being, made of
two contrary elements, flesh and spirit. Spirit gave divinity, flesh received it.
He who makes rich is made poor; he takes on the poverty of my flesh, that
I may gain the riches of his divinity. He who is full is made empty; he is emptied
for a brief space of his glory, that I may share in his fullness. What is this wealth
of goodness? What is this mystery that surrounds me? I received the likeness of
God, but failed to keep it. He takes on my flesh, to bring salvation to the likeness
and immortality to the flesh. He enters a second union with us, a union far more
wonderful than the first.
Holiness had to be brought to us by the humanity assumed by one who is
God, so that God might overcome the tyrant and so deliver us and lead us back
to himself through the mediation of his Son. The Son arranged this for the honor
of the Father, to whom the Son is clearly obedient in all things. The Good
Shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep, came in search of the straying
sheep to the mountains and hills on which we used to offer sacrifice.9
Christ, the light of all lights, follows John, the lamp that goes before him.
The Word of God follows the voice in the wilderness; the bridegroom follows the
bridegroom’s friend, who prepares a worthy people for the Lord by cleansing
them by water in preparation for the Spirit. We need God to take our flesh and
die, that we might live. We have died with him, that we may be purified. We have
risen again with him, because we have died with him. We have been glorified
with him, because we have risen again with him.

Vigils Reading
2024-12-19
O ROOT OF JESSE
From a homily by Fr Geoffrey Preston
◊◊◊
Jesus does not come of a particularly good family. His family is in fact
particularly ungood for much of its past. In the Te Deum we sing to Christ “You
did not scorn the Virgin’s womb.” At first sight that seems rather strange
language to use about the Virgin when she is honored as Mary Immaculate. But
surely it is Mary’s ancestry which is in debate here. The hymn celebrates the
extraordinary condescension of Jesus in being prepared to take not the flesh of
Adam before the Fall but the flesh of all those generations stretching from Adam
through Abraham and David down to Mary.
So we pray to him: “O Root of Jesse.” This means praying to him as Son
of David, as son of all those kings after David, people like Solomon and Asa and
Manasseh and Jeconiah. If he was prepared to come to an Israel and a world
that had produced people like that, then we can fairly expect that he will be
prepared to come to our world and our hearts with all their accumulated weight
of sin. We can be confident that he will come to us as we are, coming through our
past and making it his own. In this way he will reach us where we are and
transform our past so that when we tell the story of our lives we will be able to
include all the mistakes we have made and all the blind alleys we have explored.
Not that we cease to regret. Not that we excuse ourselves for our mistakes.
Not that we become complacent about our evil deeds and thoughts and words. It
is not as though what was once bad has now become good. But if and when the
Messiah comes to us, then we can sing the story of our lives as the story of the
path which he took to come to us, leaping upon the mountains and bounding
over the hills as we hear in the Song of Songs. When he comes we can tell the11
story of our past all over again, as nations retell their history after a change in
their fortunes.
It is a mistake to brood over our past. It is a misunderstanding of what
Messiah means for us to worry about the past. That past is only the raw material
of a story. What matters is how we tell the story using the raw materials. If the
Messiah has come, then the story can be solemnly and gladly sung, to the
accompaniment of all that makes for rejoicing.

Vigils Reading
2024-12-20
O KEY OF DAVID
From a sermon by St Odilo of Cluny
◊◊◊
The testimony of the ancient prophets to Christ’s eternal being and his
boundless divine presence is indeed trustworthy and true, and is confirmed by the
resounding call of that inspired heavenly trumpet: Jesus Christ, yesterday and today,
the same for ever. Our Savior himself tells the Jews in the gospel: Before Abraham
ever existed, I am. With God the Father from all eternity, before Abraham existed
(more accurately, before anything existed,) he had his eternal being; and yet he chose
to be born in time from the stock of Abraham — Abraham who was told by God the
Father: In your posterity all the peoples of the earth will be blessed.
The blessed patriarch David was also granted the sublime privilege of a
similar promise. Revealing to him the hidden secrets of his wisdom, God the Father
told him: The fruits of your body I will set upon your throne.
These two received the promise of the Savior’s coming more plainly than any
of our other forebears, and so they deserved to be given the first and most important
place in the records of our Lord’s ancestry according to the evangelist, Matthew, the
opening words of whose gospel are: The genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of
David, the son of Abraham. With these sacred words of the evangelist both the
prophetic oracles and the apostolic preaching are in accord. It is evident that when
the prophet Isaiah said in the person of God the Father: And so, Israel my servant,
Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend in whom I took
possession of you, his message was that the mediator between God and humankind
would be born according to the flesh from the stock of Abraham.13
The man in the Gospel who was freed from the darkness of ignorance and
enlightened by faith addressed God’s Son as Son of David. Not only did he receive
spiritual insight, but he also deserved to have his bodily sight restored. Christ the
Lord desires to be called by this name, knowing that there is no other name by which
the world can be saved. And if we ourselves wish to be saved by him who is the one
and only Savior, each of us must also say to him: Lord, son of David, have mercy on
me.

Vigils Reading
2024-12-21
O RADIANT DAWN
By St Irenaeus
◊◊◊
There is one God who, through the Word and Wisdom, made everything
and brought everything into harmony. It is he who is the Creator and who gave
this world over to the human race. Because of his greatness he is unknown to all
the beings whom he has made; for no one, either in ancient times or today, has
looked upon the great eminence in which he dwells. Yet because of his love he is
known at all times, thanks to him through whom he created all things. He is
none other than the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, who in these latter times
became a human being among humans in order to join the end to the beginning
again, humanity to God. That is why the prophets, when they had received the
gift of prophecy, foretold in their preaching that he would come according to the
flesh and that the uniting and communion of God and humanity would be
realized according to the Father’s good pleasure.
From the very beginning the Word proclaimed that God would be seen by
humans, that he would live and talk with them on earth and that he would take
part in the work which he himself had planned. He proclaimed that he would do
this to save his work, and proclaimed that he would let himself be seized by it,
“to save us from the hands of all who hate us”, from all spirit of transgression.
He also proclaimed that he would act in such a way that “we shall serve him
without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life”, so that,
caught up by the Spirit of God, humanity might attain to the glory of the
Father… The prophets, then, foretold that God would be seen among
humankind, according again to what the Lord said: “Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they shall see God”.
It is true that because of his greatness and inexpressible glory, “no one
shall see God and live”, for the Father is unattainable. But because of his love
and goodness towards humanity and of his power to do all things, he goes so far
as to grant to those who love him the privilege of seeing God — just as the
prophets foretold — “for what is impossible with humans is possible with God”.
By their own power humans will never be able to see God; but God, if he
wills it, will be seen by humans, by those whom he intends to see him, when –
and how – he intends it. For God can do all things: seen of old through the
intervention of the Spirit in the manner of the prophets; then seen again
through the mediation of the Son in accordance with the adoption, he will be
seen again in the Kingdom in accordance with the Fatherhood, the Holy
Spirit preparing humanity in advance for the Son of God, the Son leading
them to the Father, and the Father bestowing on them that incorruptibility
and eternal life which comes to everyone from the fact of their seeing God.
Just as those who see the light are themselves in the light and share in its
splendor, so those who see God are in God and share in his splendor.

Skema
2024-12-22
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
4th Week of Advent

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
December 22 – 28, 2024

Sun
22
Mon
23
Tue
24
Wed
25
Thu
26
Fri
27
Sat
28

Office
4th Sunday of Advent
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Nativity of the Lord
St Stephen
St John
Holy Innocents

Vigils
Isa 49:8-26
Isa 51:1-11
Isa 51:17-52:10
*vigil and midnight mass
Acts 6:1-15
Wis 7:21-8:1
Exod 1:6-22

Lauds
Isa 41:17-20
Isa 43:9-13
Isa 63:15-19
Baruch 3:36-4:4
Wis 4:7-15
Prov 8:22-30
Jer 31:15-20

Mass
12
199
200
16
696
697
698

1st
Mic 5:1-4a
Mal 3:1-4, 23-24
2 Sam 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16
Isa 52:7-10
Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59
1 John 1:1-4
1 John 1:5-2:2

2nd
Heb 10:5-10

Heb 1:1-6

Gospel
Luke 1:39-45
Luke 1:57-66
Luke 1:67-79
John 1:1-18
Matt 10:17-22
John 20:1a, 2-8
Matt 2:13-18

Vespers
1 Cor 4:1-5
Jas 5:7-11
2 Pet 3:8-14
Acts 13:16-26
Gal 2:15-21
Acts 4:13-20
Phil 2:1-11

* Mass during the Night: 1) Isa 9:1-6 2) Titus 2:11-14 Gospel) Luke 2:1-14

Vigils Reading - 4th Sunday of Advent
2024-12-22
WAIT PATIENTLY
FOR THE LORD TO COME
From a commentary by Blessed Guerric of Igny
◊◊◊
Our King and Savior is coming; let us go to meet him! Good news from a
far country, in the words of Solomon, is like cold water to a thirsty soul; and to
announce the coming of our Savior and the reconciliation of the world, together
with the good things of the life to come, is to bring good news indeed. How
beautiful are the feet of those who bring good tidings and publish peace! Such
messengers truly bear a refreshing draught to the soul that thirsts for God; with
their news of the Savior’s coming, they joyfully draw and offer us water from the
springs of salvation. In the words and spirit of Elizabeth, the soul responds to
the message, whether it be of Isaiah or his fellow-prophets: Why is this granted
to me, that my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the voice of your
greeting came to my ears, my spirit leapt for joy within me in eager longing to
run ahead to meet my Lord and Savior.
Let us too arise with joy and run in spirit to meet our Savior. Hailing him
from afar, let us worship him, saying: Come, Lord, save me and I shall be saved!
Come and show us your face, and we shall all be saved. We have been waiting
for you; be our help in time of trouble. This is how the prophets and saints of old
ran to meet the Messiah, filled with intense desire to see with their eyes, if
possible, what they already saw in spirit…
I believe that the many texts of scripture which urge us to go out to meet
him speak of Christ’s first coming as well as his second… Between these two
comings of his, the Lord frequently visits us individually in accordance with our
merits and desires, forming us to the likeness of his first coming in the flesh, and
preparing us for his return at the end of time. He comes to us now, to make sure
that we do not lose the fruits of his first coming nor incur his wrath at his
second. His purpose now is to convert our pride into the humility which he
showed when he first came, so that he may refashion our lowly bodies into the
likeness of that glorious body which he will manifest when he comes again.
Grace accompanied his first coming, glory will surround his last; this
intermediate coming is a combination of both, enabling us to experience in the
consolations of his grace a sort of foretaste of his glory. Blessed are those whose
burning love has gained for them such a privilege!
And so, my brothers, though we have not yet experienced this wonderful
consolation, we are encouraged by firm faith and a pure conscience to wait
patiently for the Lord to come. In joy and confidence let us say with St. Paul: I
know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am confident of his power to
guard what has been put into my charge until the day when our great God and
Savior Jesus Christ comes in glory.

Vigils Reading
2024-12-23
O EMMANUEL
From a commentary by St Cyril of Alexandria
◊◊◊
Isaiah speaks at some length of Cyrus, king of the Medes and Persians.
Raised up against the Chaldeans, he was urged on by God himself, who opened
their bronze doors to him and shattered their iron bars. Having conquered the
land of Babylonia and laid it waste, Cyrus released enslaved Israel from captivity
and caused the foundations of the temple in Jerusalem to be laid.
But this is only part of the story, for after indicating that the rejoicing and
the release from captivity were for those of Israelite blood and them alone,
Isaiah goes on to apply these images to Emmanuel, who was consecrated by God
the Father to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the
blind; that is to say, to deliver those inescapably bound by the chains of their
own sins, to declare them free from tyranny, and so to prepare the inhabitants of
the earth to return to himself, to be led by him to God the Father.
He has become the mediator between God and ourselves, and through
him we have been reconciled in the one Spirit to the Father. He is our peace.
He himself has rebuilt his own holy temple, which is the Church, and has taken
her to himself as a pure virgin, having neither spot or wrinkle, nor any such
imperfection. Thus one can easily see in Cyrus and his deeds an image of the
divine blessings bestowed by God upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
Let heaven rejoice, and let the clouds rain down justice. Let
earth open and bring forth both mercy and justice. Mercy is the love
which is the fulfillment of the law, for it goes hand in hand with the justice of the
gospel that Christ himself teaches us and bestows on us. It could also be said
that mercy and justice coming forth and growing from the earth is our Lord5
Jesus Christ himself. For if we think it strange that the earth is commanded to
bring forth justice, let us remember that Emmanuel himself wrought justice in
the midst of the earth. That is, Christ did not bring his own body down to us
from heaven, but was born in the body of a woman who was one of the
inhabitants of the earth.

Vigils Reading
2024-12-24
HOLY NIGHT
By Karl Rahner
◊◊◊
Why do we call the feast we are keeping tonight a “sacred night”? Night
because a beginning, holy night because a blessed and unconquerable
beginning; of such a beginning we would have to say: holy night, sacred night.
And so the church sings “Silent night, holy night.” Everywhere in the world
these words are sung for this feast… For this hour is the holy and sacred night.
Faith tells the Christians: that was the beginning. There God himself
came gently forth from the terrifying radiance in which he dwells as God and
Lord, and came to us; he quietly entered the poor dwelling of our earthly
existence and was found as a man; he began where we begin, quite poor,
vulnerable, quite childlike and gentle, quite helpless. He who is infinite, distant
future which of ourselves we never reach because it seems to retreat farther and
farther away as we hurry towards it on the hard roads of life, he himself has
approached us, arrived among us, because otherwise we should never have
found our way to him. He has accompanied us on our way to him so that this
may find a blessed end, because the very end itself has become our beginning.
God is near; his eternal word of mercy is where we are; it is a pilgrim on
our paths, experiences our joy and our distress, lives our life and dies our death.
He has brought his eternal life quietly and gently into this world and its death.
He has redeemed us, for he shared our lot. He made our beginning his own,
followed the path of our destiny and so opened it up into the infinite expanses of
God. And because he accepted us irrevocably, because God’s Word will never
cease to be human, this beginning which is ours and his is a beginning of
indestructible promises…
The eternal future has entered our time. Its radiance still dazzles us, so
that we think it is night. But at all events it is a blessed night, a night in which
there is already warmth and light, which is beautiful, welcoming and secure by
reason of the eternal day which it bears hidden within it. It is a silent, holy night
for us, however, only if we admit the holy silence of this night into our inner
selves, only if our heart too keeps watch in solitude. It can do so easily. For such
solitude and quiet is not hard. For of course we are solitary. There exists in our
heart an interior land where we are alone, to which no one finds his way but
God. This innermost, unfrequented chamber of our heart is really there – the
only question is whether we ourselves avoid it foolishly out of guilty fear,
because no one and no familiar things of this earth can accompany us if we enter
it. The silent and solitary soul sings here to the God of the heart its quietest and
most ardent song. And it can have confidence that he hears it. For this song no
longer has to seek a beloved God beyond the stars in that inaccessible light in
which he dwells and which makes him invisible to all.
Because of Christmas, because the Word was made flesh, God is near and
the quietest word in the stillest room of the heart, the word of love, comes to his
ear and his heart. And those who have entered into themselves even when it is
night, hear in this nocturnal quiet in the depth of the heart God’s gentle word of
love… Let us enter quietly and shut the door behind us. Let us listen to the
unutterable melody which sounds in the silence of that night. For the ultimate
is only spoken in the silence of the night, now that…through the gracious
coming of the Word, there has come to be Christmas, holy night, silent night.

Vigils Reading - Nativity of the Lord
2024-12-25
THE NATIVITY KERYGMA
By Thomas Merton3
◊◊◊
In its prayers, the Church plunges us into the Light of God shining in the
darkness of the world, in order that we may be illuminated and transformed by
the presence of the newborn Savior, and thus that he may be born and truly live
in us by making all our thoughts and actions light in himself. What joy, then,
that he who dwells eternally in the inaccessible light and peace of the Father has
left the throne of his glory and descended to be one of us! Or rather, without
leaving the bosom of the Father, veiling the too brilliant light of his glory in the
cloud of human nature, he who is enthroned above the cherubim takes up his
abode among us in a poor manger.
This Child who the shepherds, dazzled by the brilliance of the angelic
host, can scarcely see in the darkness of the cave lit by Joseph’s lantern, this
Child is (by his divinity) the Ancient of Days, the Creator and Judge of Heaven
and earth, of whom the prophet Daniel wrote: “I beheld till thrones were placed
and the Ancient of Days sat, his garment was as white as snow, and the hair of
his head like clean wool; his throne like flames of fire: the wheels of it like a
burning fire. A swift stream of fire issued forth before him: thousands of
thousands ministered to him and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood
before him.”
This, is Daniel’s vision of the divinity of the Word Who, in his human
nature, lies here helpless in the dark. But the Son of Man, who is here born, is
himself the Word, consubstantial with the Father. To this only-begotten Son,
who is equal to the Father in all things as God, but less than the Father in so far
as he is human, all power is given by the Father. So, Daniel says again: “I beheld
therefore in the vision of the night, and lo one like the Son of Man came with the
clouds of heaven, and he came even to the Ancient of Days and they presented
him before him, and he gave him power and glory and a kingdom, and all
peoples, tribes and tongues shall serve him, his power is an everlasting power
that shall not be taken away and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed.” This,
then is the King promised from the beginning of the world and of whose
Kingdom there shall be no end.
Do not be afraid of him. God has emptied himself and come to us as a
child, in order that we who have not been saved by fear, but only destroyed by it,
may now take heart and be saved by confidence. In “Emptying himself” and
taking the form of a servant the Lord laid aside his majesty and his divine power,
in order to dwell among us in goodness and mercy.

3 SEASONS OF CELEBRATION by Thomas Merton (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, NY 1965) pp. 108-08.9

Vigils Reading - St Stephen
2024-12-26
THE GIFT OF LOVE
From a sermon by St Fulgentius
◊◊◊
Yesterday we celebrated the birth in time of our eternal king; today we
celebrate the triumphant suffering of a soldier. For yesterday our king, nobly
arrayed in flesh, proceeding from the chaste womb of the Virgin Mary, deigned
to visit this world; today a soldier, leaving the confines of the body, made his
way in triumph to heaven.
Our king, though he is the Most High, for our sake came in humility; yet
he could not come empty-handed. It was indeed a generous gift that he brought
for us, one by which he not only abundantly enriched us but gave us the strength
to do battle and never be vanquished. What he brought was the gift of love,
which was to lead us to become sharers in the godhead. He brought it only to
expend it, without in any way diminishing his own store; while turning the
poverty of his followers into riches he remained himself, as by a miracle, fully
possessed of his own inexhaustible treasury.
Love then, the same love that brought Christ down from heaven to earth,
raised Stephen from earth to heaven; the same love shown first in the king was
reproduced in its splendor in the warrior.
And so Stephen, in order to earn his right to the crown his name signifies,
armed himself with love, and by that same love won every battle. It was love of
God that made him yield not an inch, love of his neighbor that led him to
intercede for those who stoned him. It was through love that he was able to
expose those in error so that they might change their ways; through love that he
prayed for those who stoned him so that they should not be punished. Trusting
only in love, he overcame Saul’s cruel rage, and the very man who had been his
persecutor on earth he won as his companion in heaven. That same holy and
untiring love longed to win over by prayer those whom it could not convert by
persuasion…
Love is therefore the source and origin of every good, an unrivaled
protection, the road that leads to heaven. Those who walk in love can be neither
lost nor afraid; love is the guide and protector, and brings them to the end of
their journey. For this reason, beloved, since Christ has set up a stairway of love
by which every Christian can mount up to heaven, keep a firm hold on love
alone; love one another, and by growing in love climb together up to heaven.

Vigils Reading - St John
2024-12-27
THE ROOT OF CHARITY
From a sermon by St John Henry Newman
◊◊◊
The love of God is not the same thing as the love of our parents, though
parallel to it; but the love of mankind in general should be in the main the same
habit as the love of our friends, only exercised towards different objects… What
is meant by loving all people is, to feel well disposed to all, to be ready to assist
them, and to act towards those who come in our way, as if we loved them. We
cannot love those about whom we know nothing; except indeed we view them in
Christ, as the objects of his Atonement, that is, rather in faith than in love. And
love, besides, is a habit, and cannot be attained without actual practice, which
on so large a scale is impossible.
We see then how absurd it is when writers (as is the manner of some who
slight the Gospel) talk magnificently about loving the whole human race with a
comprehensive affection, of being the friends of all, and the like. Such vaunting
professions, what do they come to? That such men or women have certain
benevolent feelings towards the world, — feelings and nothing more – nothing
more than unstable feelings, the mere offspring of an indulged imagination,
which exist only when their minds are wrought upon, and are sure to fail them
in the hour of need. This is not to love people; it is but to talk about love. The
real love of another must depend on practice, and therefore, must begin by
exercising itself on our friends around us; otherwise it will have no existence.
By trying to love our relations and friends, by submitting to their wishes,
though contrary to our own, by bearing with their infirmities, by overcoming
their occasional waywardness by kindness, by dwelling on their excellences, and
trying to copy them, thus it is that we form in our hearts that root of charity,
which, though small at first, may, like the mustard seed, at last even overshadow
the earth. The vain talkers about philanthropy…usually show the emptiness of
their profession, by being morose and cruel in the private relations of life, which
they seem to account as subjects beneath their notice.
Far different indeed, far different…with the great Apostle, whose memory
we are today celebrating, utterly the reverse of this fictitious benevolence was
his elevated and enlightened sympathy for all men. We know he is celebrated for
his declarations about Christian love. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love
is of God. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in
us…”
Now did he begin with some vast effort at loving on a large scale? Nay, he
had the unspeakable privilege of being the friend of Christ. Thus he was taught
to love others; first his affection was concentrated then it was expanded. Next he
had the solemn and comfortable charge of tending our Lord’s Mother, the
Blessed Virgin, after his departure. Do we not here discern the secret sources of
his especial love of the brethren? Could he, who first was favored with his
Savior’s affection, then trusted with a son’s office towards his Mother, could he
be other than a memorial and pattern (as far as man or woman can be), of love,
deep, contemplative, fervent, unruffled, unbounded?

Vigils Reading - Holy Innocents
2024-12-28
THE HOLY INNOCENTS
From the letters of St Cyprian
◊◊◊
The martyrdom of children marked the very beginning of Christ’s life: for
his name’s sake, all those of two years old and under were put to death. Too
young to fight, they were yet able to win a martyr’s crown, and by their
innocence bear witness to the innocence of all who shed their blood for Christ.
When even such as these make martyrs, clearly no one is immune from the peril
of persecution.
What a shameful thing it would be for Christ’s servants to recoil from
suffering when their Master suffered first; for us to be unwilling to endure
something for our sins, when he, though sinless, endured so much for us! The
Son of God suffered in order to make us children of God; will the children of this
world refuse to persevere in that sonship through suffering? If we have to bear
with the world’s hatred, we must remember that Christ bore it before we did.
We may have to endure insults, exile, torture in this world, but the Creator and
Lord of the world knew them first in harsher form, and warned us of them,
saying, “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me before you. If you
belonged to the world, the world would love its own. But you are not of the
world; I chose you out of it, and therefore it hates you. Remember the saying I
gave you, ‘The servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecute me, they
will persecute you also.” Our Lord and God practiced all he taught, so there can
be no excuse for a disciple who hears his teaching but does not act on it…
Let these be the sentiments, dearly beloved brethren, that ever abide in
your hearts. And may we thus make ready our arms by fixing our thoughts, day
and night, on this reflection, by holding before our eyes and turning over
constantly in our minds and our hearts what tortures are inflicted upon the
wicked, what rewards are merited by the just, what the Lord threatens by way of
punishment to those who deny, what, by contrast, He promises by way of glory
to those who confess. If the day of persecution should come upon us whilst we
meditate upon and contemplate these thoughts, then the soldier of Christ, being
thus instructed by His precepts and counsels, shows no fear in the face of battle
but is now ready for his crown.

Skema
2024-12-29
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
Christmas Season

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
Dec. 29, 2024 – Jan. 4, 2025

Sun
29
Mon
30
Tue
31
Wed
1
Thu
2
Fri
3
Sat
4

Office
Holy Family
6th Day in Octave
7th Day in Octave
Mary, Mother of God
SS Basil & Gregory
Christmas Weekday
St Elizabeth Ann Seton

Vigils
Eph 5:21-6:4
Col 1:15-2:3
Col 2:4-15
Sir 24:1-12, 19-22
Col 2:16-3:4
Col 3:5-16
Col 3:17-4:1

Lauds
Sir 26:1-4, 13-16
Isa 44:1-5
Isa 44:6-8, 21-23
1 Sam 2:1-10
Isa 54:1-5
Isa 54:6-10
Isa 55:1-5

Mass
17
203
204
18
205
206
207

1st
1 Sam 1:20-22, 24-28
1 John 2:12-17
1 John 2:18-21
Num 6:22-27
1 John 2:22-28
1 John 2:29-3:6
1 John 3:7-10

2nd
1 John 3:1-2, 21-24

Gal 4:4-7

Gospel
Luke 2:41-52
Luke 2:36-40
John 1:1-18
Luke 2:16-21
John 1:19-28
John 1:29-34
John 1:35-42

Vespers
1 Cor 13:1-8a
Eph 1:11-14
Heb 2:10-18
James 3:13-18
Eph 1:15-23
Eph 2:1-10
Rev 21:22-27

Vigils Reading - Holy Family Sunday
2024-12-29
THE FAMILY AT NAZARETH
By Fr Ambroise-Marie Carré
◊◊◊
In these days when the Church is experiencing a renewal of its youth, how
many families would be enriched by contemplation of the extraordinary beauty
to be seen in the unique love of the family at Nazareth! For centuries it has been
by constantly returning to the marriage of Joseph and Mary, to the home to
which Jesus first brought his radically new message of salvation, that
theologians have defined the principles of marriage for those baptized into the
Christian faith. St Augustine never spoke of marriage without reference to the
Holy Family. And there are wonderful pages in Bossuet devoted to the subject
of that union, which was, he said, “most true,” because Mary and Joseph,
trusting each other with their virginity, “gave themselves to each other” in love.
A sentence of St. Luke’s sheds light on this great mystery: Mary “kept all
these things in her heart”. The family at Nazareth lived in complete harmony,
cherishing “compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience”. The
presence of God incarnate, and of his love, transfigured all in joy and wonder.
Such things as Mary and Joseph were able to understand penetrated them to the
very depths of their being. And what they could not understand, such as that
occasion when their young son disappeared and was later found in the temple,
they kept within them, so that those gestures and words of his whose meaning
they could not grasp with their minds might act on their hearts, and gradually
open them to the measure of the Father’s will.
Surely this is, very specially, the right way to live for any who have taken
vows in the name of the Lord. If you wish the ideal, you must let Christ live
among you and within you. Whatever you find in your lives that seems to you
clear, happy and fruitful, you should learn how to appreciate it: there are so
many who do not! And as for your misunderstanding, which are the cause of
suffering in so many homes…you should keep all these things in your heart, not
to swell into bitterness, but so as to let suffering and the divine force of you
sacramental vow transform that self-centered heart. Nor will the love which is
blessed by God and which follows God’s command ever leave us: it can only be
dismissed. But you have not dismissed love. So let God purify and renew your
love, as he purifies and renews the faith of those who seek him. On the third day,
in the love of Jesus, it will rise again.

Vigils Reading - 6th Day in Octave
2024-12-30
THE ABSOLUTE GOODNESS
OF GOD
From a treatise by St John Eudes
◊◊◊
Our loving Savior, in various places in the Scriptures, assures us that he is
ever watchful over us, that we are and always will be in his most compassionate
care. How he carries us in his heart… In one place [in Isaiah] he even repeats it
five times in succession: Hearken to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of
the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from your birth, carried from
the womb; even to your old age I am He, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I
have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.
Elsewhere [in Scripture] he tells us the same thing in many ways.
Although, he says, it may sometimes happen that a mother can forget her child,
yet he will never forget us, and he has engraved us on his hands to have us ever
before him. Whoever touches one of us, he says, touches the apple of his eye.
Again, we should not be anxious about how we are going to get enough to eat or
wear, because he well knows our needs and takes care of them. He has even
counted the very hairs of our heads, and not one shall perish. He also tells us
that as he loves his Father so his Father loves us, and that his own love for us is
the same as his Father’s love for him. He wishes us to be where he is — that is, he
wishes us to dwell with him in his Father’s heart…
Let us beware of being dependent on the power or favor of our friends, or
on our own possessions, on our minds, knowledge, strength, good desires and
resolutions, prayers, or even on the faith we believe we have in God, or on
human means of any sort, or on anything in creation, but rely entirely on the
mercy of God. We should indeed use all these things I have mentioned, and
contribute in every way we can to the suppression of vice, the practice of virtue,
the carrying to completion of whatever God has entrusted to our care, and the
fulfillment of the duties which accompany our station in life. What we have to do
is to give up all tendency to rely on our own means, and put our trust in the
absolute goodness of our Lord. Therefore we must take as much care, and work
as hard, as if we expected no help from God, and at the same time regard this
work of ours as nothing, and put all our hope in God’s mercy.
This is what the Holy Spirit exhorts us to do, speaking through the mouth
of the King and Prophet David: Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and
he will act. And elsewhere: Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain
you. And in the words of Peter, the leader of the Apostles, the Spirit advises us to
cast all our anxieties on God, for he cares about us. Our Lord spoke the same
comfort to Saint Catherine of Siena: “My daughter, forget yourself and think of
me, and I shall never cease to think of you.”

Vigils Reading - 7th Day in Octave
2024-12-31
GOD’S DESIGN FOR LOVE
From the writing of Pope St Paul VI
◊◊◊
As holy scripture teaches us, before it is a sacrament marriage is a great
earthly reality: God created man in his own image; he created him in the image
of God: he created them man and woman. We always have to go back to that
first page of the Bible if we want to understand what a human couple, a family,
really is and what it ought to be. Psychological analyses, psychoanalytical
research, sociological surveys, and philosophical reflection may of course have a
contribution to make with the light they shed on human sexuality and love; but
they would blind us if they neglected this fundamental teaching which was given
to us at the very beginning: the duality of the sexes was decreed by God, so that
together man and woman might be the image of God and, like him, the source of
life: Be fruitful and increase, fill the earth and subdue it…
The Christian knows that human love is good by its very origin; and if, like
everything else in us, it is wounded and deformed by sin, it finds its salvation
and redemption in Christ. Besides, isn’t this the lesson that twenty centuries of
Christian history have taught us? How many couples have found the way to
holiness in their conjugal life, in that community of life which is the only one to
be founded on a sacrament!
Love one another, as I have loved you. The ways in which they express
their affection are, for Christian husband and wife, full of the love which they
draw from the heart of God. And if its human source threatens to dry up, its
divine source is as inexhaustible as the unfathomable depths of God’s affection.
That shows us the intimacy, strength, and richness of the communion which
conjugal love aims at. It is an inward and spiritual reality, transforming the
community of life of husband and wife into what might be called…“the domestic
Church”…
Such is the mystery in which conjugal love takes root, and which
illuminates all its expressions. The rapture which moves husband and wife to
unite is the carrier of life, and enables God to give himself children. On
becoming parents, the husband and wife discover with a sense of wonder, at the
baptismal font, that their child is from now on a child of God, reborn from
water and the Spirit; and that the child is entrusted to them so that they may
watch over its physical and moral growth, certainly, but also the opening out
and blossoming in him of the new nature. Such a child is no longer just what
they see, but just as much what they believe, “an infinity of mystery and love
which would dazzle us if we say it face to face”… Therefore [the] upbringing [of
children] becomes true service of Christ, according to his own saying: whatever
you do for one of these little ones, you do for me.

Vigils Reading - Mary, Mother of God
2025-01-01
LOOK TO MARY
From the letters of Adam of Perseigne
◊◊◊
You, Lady, are my all. In your hands has been stored for me the fullness of
all good. With you have been hidden the unfailing treasures of truth and grace,
of peace and pity, of salvation and wisdom, of glory and of honor. You are my
anchor amid the billows, port in shipwreck, support in tribulation, comfort in
grief. You are, for those who are yours, aid in oppression, help in time of crisis,
temperance in prosperity, joy in time of waiting, refreshment in toil…
When you conceive the sun of righteousness, you like the moon are
illumined by the good office of the blazing sun… Therefore whatever beauty it
possesses it has through the gift of its borrowed splendor. When you bring forth
the sun of righteousness, you are compared to the sun because of the close
likeness. Just as the body of the sun is not injured or diminished when it puts
forth its rays, so the bringing forth of the holy birth does not violate the mother.
And what, you who are glorious as the sun, what is your offspring but the eternal
splendor of a certain sun?…
Therefore, dear friend, all our confidence lies in the childbearing of our
Virgin and though I may be unworthy I shall not cease to dwell upon her praises.
If you stand in need of mercy, it is found in full measure in the heart of the
Virgin. If you reverence the truth, give thanks to the Virgin, since from the
ground of her virgin flesh the truth which you worship has arisen. No less give
thanks to the Virgin if you follow after peace, since from her is born for you the
peace which passes all understanding. If you pursue justice, see that you are not
ungrateful to the Virgin, for at the opening of her womb justice looked forth
from heaven.
If your faith is shaken by some assault from an enemy, turn your eyes
upon the Virgin and that in which was wavering will be firmly fixed. If the lust of
the flesh delights you, turn your gaze upon the Virgin, and the danger to your
chastity is removed. If pride disturbs your spirit, turn your gaze upon the
Virgin, and by the merit of her unsullied humility your swelling spirit will
subside. If you are set on fire by anger’s torches, lift your eyes to the Virgin and
you will grow gentle through her calm. If ignorance or error have led you astray
from the way of life, look to Mary, star of the sea, and in her light you will be led
back to the path of truth… In every peril the goodness of the Virgin comes to our
aid. Give thanks for her childbearing… For us the Virgin brought forth, ours is
the birth, for us the child was born and to us the son was given.

Vigils Reading - SS Basil & Gregory
2025-01-02
THE QUALITIES OF THE MONK
From a discourse by St Basil the Great
◊◊◊
First and foremost, the monk should own nothing in this world, but he
should have as his possessions solitude of the body, modesty of bearing, a
modulated tone of voice, and a well-ordered manner of speech. He should be
without anxiety as to his food and drink, and should eat in silence. In the
presence of his superiors, he should hold his tongue; before those wiser than he,
he should hearken to their words. He should have love for his equals, give
charitable counsel to his inferiors, and keep aloof from the wicked, the carnal,
and the officious. He ought to think much but speak little, be not forward in
speech nor given to useless discoursing, not easily moved to laughter, respectful
in bearing, keeping his eyes cast down and his spirit uplifted, not answering
contradiction with contradiction, docile. He should work with his hands, be ever
mindful of his last end, joyful in hope, patient in adversity, unceasingly
prayerful, giving thanks in all things, humble toward everyone, hating pride,
sober and watchful to keep his heart from evil thoughts.
He ought to heap up treasures in heaven by observing the
commandments, examining himself as to his daily thoughts and actions, not
entangling himself in the occupations and superfluities of the world. It ill befits
him to concern himself about those who lead careless lives; he should emulate
the life of the holy fathers, rejoicing with those who are successful in the practice
of virtue and not envying them. He must sympathize with the suffering and
weep with them, sorrowing deeply for these, but not on any account should he
condemn them, nor upbraid him who has renounced his sin, nor ever justify
himself. He should, above all, confess before God and men that he is a sinner. It
is his duty, moreover, to admonish the undisciplined, encourage the faint-
hearted, minister to the sick, wash the feet of the saints, and be mindful of the
duties of hospitality and fraternal charity. He must preserve peace with the
members of the household of the faith, shun the heretic, read the canonical
Scriptures. He should spend his time in good words and deeds. He should
converse without deceit, speak no word against anyone, and neither gossip nor
take pleasure in listening to gossip. He should not be quick to trust evil report of
anyone, nor be mastered by ill temper nor overcome by despondency. He ought
not to become angry with his neighbor without cause, nor nurse wrath against
anyone, nor return evil for evil. It behooves him to be reviled rather than to
revile, to be struck rather than to strike, to be wronged rather than to do wrong,
to be despoiled rather than to despoil.
He must not grow weary in observing the precepts of the Lord to the best
of his ability, but he should await reward and praise from Him, continuing in his
desire for the enjoyment of everlasting life. Moreover he should love God as a
son, with his whole heart and strength and mind and with all the power that is in
him; but as a servant he should reverence, fear, and obey Him and work out his
salvation in fear and trembling, fervent in spirit, girt about with the full armor of
the Holy Spirit.
But, over and above all this, he must be mindful of the words of the
Apostle: “For the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with
the glory to come that will be revealed in us”.

Vigils Reading
2025-01-03
CHRIST AMONG US
From a homily by St Basil the Great
◊◊◊
God is on earth, God is among us, not now as lawgiver – there is no fire,
trumpet blast, smoke-wreathed mountain, dense cloud, or storm to terrify
whoever hears him but as one gently and kindly conversing in a human body
with his fellow men and women. God is in the flesh. Now he is not acting
intermittently as he did through the prophets. He is bringing back to himself the
whole human race, which he has taken possession of and united to himself. By
his birth he has made the human race his own kin.
But how can glory come to all through one man? How can the Godhead be
in the flesh? In the same way as fire can be in iron: not by moving from place to
place but by the one imparting to the other its own properties. Fire does not
speed toward iron, but without itself undergoing any change it causes the iron to
share in its own natural attributes. The fire is not diminished and yet it
completely fills whatever shares in its nature. So is it also with God the Word.
He did not relinquish his own nature and yet he dwelt among us. He did not
undergo any change and yet the Word became flesh. Earth received him from
heaven, yet heaven was not deserted by him who holds the universe in being.
Let us strive to comprehend the mystery. The reason God is in the flesh is
to kill the death that lurks there. As diseases are cured by medicines and
assimilated by the body, and as darkness in a house is dispelled by the coming of
light, so death, which held sway over human nature, is done away with by the
coming of God. As ice formed on water covers its surface as long as night and
darkness last but melts under the warmth of the sun, so death reigned until the
coming of Christ; but when the grace of God our Savior appeared and the Sun of13
Justice arose, death was swallowed up in victory, unable to bear the presence of
true life. How great is God’s goodness, how deep his love for us!
Let us join the shepherds in giving glory to God, let us dance with the
angels and sing: Today a Savior has been born to us. He is Christ the Lord. The
Lord is God and he has appeared to us!

Vigils Reading - St Elizabeth Ann Seton
2025-01-04
O SOUL OF MY SOUL
By St Elizabeth Ann Seton
◊◊◊
How often have I felt my soul awakened by your Light and warmed by the
fire of your Love – then I approach you – I find you – but Alas instantly after, I
lose you; often I think myself received – then fear I am rejected – and in this
continual change of interior dispositions I walk in darkness and often go astray
– I desire and know not how to desire, I love, and know not how to love, nor how
to find what I love.
Thus my soul loses itself without ceasing to hope in you – It knows by its
own experience that it desires much, and is unable to do anything – you see its
trouble O lord – and in that happy moment when fatigued with so many
vicissitudes it falls at last into entire diffidence of itself then you open its eyes
and it sees the true way to Peace and Life – it knows you were nearer than it
imagined – you instruct it all at once without Voice or Words, it thinks only of
what possesses it, abandoning all things else it then possesses you – It sees
without knowing what it sees, it hears, and is ignorant of what it hears, it knows
only Who he is to whom it is attentive, it contents itself with loving HIM, it loves
Him continually more and more – Words cannot express, nor the mind
comprehend what it receives from you O MY GOD even in this place of
Banishment.
How happy is that moment O divine Jesus! How pure is that Light, how
ineffable is that communion of your Blessings! You know O Lord how precious
that gift is, and your Creature that receives it knows also – Ah! if it were faithful,
if it never departed from you – if it knew how to preserve the Grace it had
received, how happy would it be! And yet this is but a drop of that infinite Ocean
of Blessings which you are one day to communicate to it.
O Soul of my Soul – what is my Soul and What Good can it have without
possessing you – Life of my Life! What is my Life when I live not in you – Is it
possible that my Heart is capable of possessing you – of enjoying you all alone –
of extending and dilating itself in you – can your creature thus be elevated above
itself to repose in your Breast, and after that depart from you? Bury itself in the
Earth? Ah Lord I know not what I ought to say to You: but hear the voice of your
love and of my misery; live always in me, and let me live perpetually in You and
for You as I live only by You.
Enlighten me, O Divine Light! Conduct me, O supreme Truth! Raise me
again, O uncreated Life! Separate me from every thing that displeases you.
Suffer me to remain at your Feet!

Skema
2025-01-05
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
Epiphany Week

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
January 5 – 11, 2025

Sun
5
Mon
6
Tue
7
Wed
8
Thu
9
Fri
10
Sat
11

Office
Epiphany of the Lord
Weekday after Epiphany
Weekday after Epiphany
Weekday after Epiphany
Weekday after Epiphany
St Gregory of Nyssa
Weekday after Epiphany

Vigils
Isa 60:1-22
Isa 61:1-11
Isa 62:1-12
Isa 63:7-19
Isa 64:1-11
Isa 65:13-25
Isa 66:10-14, 18-23

Lauds
Baruch 4:36-5:9
Isa 59:14-21
Isa 60:1-7
Isa 60:10-14
Isa 60:15-22
Baruch 4:30-37
Baruch 5:1-9

Mass
20
212
213
214
215
216
217

1st
Isa 60:1-6
1 John 3:22-4:6
1 John 4:7-10
1 John 4:11-18
1 John 4:19-5:4
1 John 5:5-13
1 John 5:14-21

2nd
Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6

Gospel
Matt 2:1-12
Matt 4:12-17, 23-25
Mark 6:34-44
Mark 6:45-52
Luke 4:14-22a
Luke 5:12-16
John 3:22-30

Vespers
2 Tim 1:6-14
Eph 4:1-6
Eph 4:17-24
Eph 4:25-32
Eph 5:6-20
Eph 6:10-17
Col 2:8-15

Vigils Reading - Epiphany of the Lord
2025-01-05
THE GLORY OF CHRIST
From a sermon by St John Henry Newman
◊◊◊
The Epiphany is a season especially set apart for adoring the glory of
Christ. The word may be taken to mean the manifestation of His glory, and leads
us to the contemplation of Him as a King upon His throne in the midst of His
court, with His servants around Him, and His guards in attendance. At
Christmas we commemorate His grace; and in Lent His temptation; and on
Good Friday His sufferings and death; and on Easter Day His victory; and on
Ascension Thursday His return to the Father; and in Advent we anticipate His
second coming. And in all of these seasons He does something, or suffers
something: but in the Epiphany and the weeks after it, we celebrate Him, not as
on His field of battle, or in His solitary retreat, but as an august and glorious
King; we view Him as the Object of our worship.
Then only, during His whole earthly history, did He fulfil the type of
Solomon, and held (as I may say) a court, and received the homage of His
subjects; namely, when He was an infant. His throne was His undefiled
mother’s arms; His chamber of state was a cottage or a cave; the worshippers
were the wise men of the East, and they brought Him presents, gold,
frankincense and myrrh. All around and about Him seemed of earth, except to
the eye of faith; one note alone had He of divinity. As the great of this world are
often plainly dressed, and look like other people, except for having some one
costly ornament on their breast or on their brow; so the Son of Mary in His lowly
dwelling, and in an infant’s form, was declared to be the Son of God Most High,
the Father of ages, and the Prince of Peace, by His star; a wonderful appearance
which had guided the wise men all the way from the East, even unto Bethlehem.
This being the character of this Sacred Season, our services throughout it,
as far as they are proper to it, are full of the image of a king in his royal court, of a
sovereign surrounded by subjects, of a glorious prince upon a throne. There is
no thought of war, or of strife, or of suffering, or of triumph, or of vengeance
connected with the Epiphany, but of august majesty, of power, of prosperity, of
splendor, of serenity, of benignity. Now, if at any time, it is fit to say, “The Lord
is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him.” “The Lord sits
above the waters, and the Lord remains a king forever.” “The Lord of Hosts is
with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” “O come, let us worship, and fall down,
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.” “O magnify the Lord our God, and fall
down before His footstool, for He is holy.” “O worship the Lord in the beauty of
holiness; bring presents, and come into His courts.”

Vigils Reading
2025-01-06
THE SEASON OF MAJESTY
The continuation of a sermon by St John Henry Newman
◊◊◊
You will observe, then, that the only display of royal greatness, the only
season of majesty, homage and glory, which our Lord had on earth, was in His
infancy and youth. Gabriel’s message to Mary was in its style and manner such as
befitted an Angel speaking to Christ’s Mother. Elizabeth, too, saluted Mary, and the
future Baptist his hidden Lord, in the same honorable way. Angels announced His
birth, and the shepherds worshiped. A star appeared, and the wise men rose from
the East and made Him offerings. He was brought to the temple, and Simeon took
Him in his arms, and returned thanks for Him. He grew to twelve years old, and
again He appeared in the temple, and took His seat in the midst of the doctors. But
here His earthly majesty had its end, or if seen afterwards, it was but now and then,
by glimpses and by sudden gleams, but with no sustained light and no diffused
radiance.
We are told at the close of the last-mentioned narrative, “And He went down
with His parents, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them.” His subjection
and servitude now began in fact. He had come in the form of a servant, and now He
took on a servant’s office. How much is contained in the idea of His subjection! and
it began, and His time of glory ended, when He was twelve years old.
Solomon, the great type of the Prince of Peace, reigned for forty years, and
his name and greatness was known far and wide through the East. Joseph, the
much-loved son of Jacob, who in an earlier age of the Church, was a type of Christ
in His kingdom, was in power and favor eighty years, twice as long as Solomon. But
Christ, the true Revealer of secrets, and the Dispenser of the Bread of life, the true
wisdom and majesty of the Father, manifested His glory only in His early years,
and then the sun of Righteousness was clouded. For He was not to reign really, till
He left the world. He has reigned ever since; nay, reigned in the world, though He is
not sensible presence in it – the invisible King of a visible kingdom – for He came
on earth only to show what His reign would be, after He had left it, and to submit to
suffering and dishonor, that He might reign. Christ descends to the shadows of this
world, with the transitory tokens on Him of that future glory into which He could
not enter till He had suffered. The star burned brightly over Him for a while,
though it then faded away.

Vigils Reading
2025-01-07
A HYMN ON THE MANIFESTATION
OF CHRIST
By St Ephrem the Syrian
◊◊◊
Blessed is the King Who has come and will come!
The Redeemer shone forth to the blind, but they looked to others.
The Sun showed His rays, but they were clothed in darkness.
The Resplendent One sent His light, and it summoned the children of light
to reveal to the children of darkness, “Behold in your midst is the light,
but over your eyes a veil.” To You be glory, New Sun!
The prophets announced His birth but did not specify His time.
He sent the Magi, and they came and declared His time.
But the Magi who made known the time did not specify where the Infant was.
The glorious star of light ran and showed were the Infant was…
A pair of announcers expressed the properties of the Only-Begotten:
the star of light and John – one a shining forth, the other a voice.
For the One Announced was also a Word and a Light.
Voice and ray serve Him. The shining forth announced His light
and the voice His wisdom. More blessed is the First-born than His announcers!
John gazed at Him and cried, “This is the Lamb of God!”
The Lamb grew fat and matured, and He came to be an offering.
John was not afraid to cry, “Behold, it is He!” –
even if the slayers attack, even if it was the time of sprinkling
so that forgiveness would be by His blood, Blessed is the Compensator of our
sins.
The glorious star of light was not like John,
for there was a place where it rose and made straight the way for the simple,
but there was a place where it sank and made the path of the wolves go astray.
It kept the Lamb from the slaughter so that the day for the slaughter would
come, that in Him the flock would be pardoned. Blessed is He in Whom
His possessions were redeemed!

Vigils Reading
2025-01-08
TAKING GOD ON HIS OWN TERMS
By Fr Edward Leen4
◊◊◊
Everybody knows that the call of the Magi typifies the vocation of the
Gentiles to the Church of God. But to penetrate more deeply into this mystery
and to read therein an experience common to a multitude of souls demands a
deeper understanding of God’s way of manifesting himself to his creatures, and
a keener discernment of his action in human souls. God is a hidden God, and
must be so for us. He manifests himself obscurely. God does not hide himself
from us purposely or to make approach to him more difficult. He desires
revelation of himself to us, and approach to him on our part. God in his
approach to us but tempters his brilliancy to accommodate it to our weak and
diseased spiritual vision. He, as it were, takes care not to hurt our soul’s sight.
But he aims at revelation through dimmed radiance. The incarnation, which is
the utmost concealment of the Godhead that there is, or that can be — except
that of the Eucharist alone — is the greatest revelation of God.
That we are dull of perception is certainly not due to the mode in which
God reveals himself, but must be traceable to our fault. It is the poor quality of
our faith that is responsible for this dullness. We do not take God on his own
conditions. We are always given to imposing ours on him. We have a tendency
to decide for ourselves what shall be the sensible exterior vesture of God’s
message. We clothe that message with a garment woven of our own ideas and
imaginings, and we reject the material selected by God himself for his
revelation.
Not so the wise men. They took God on his own terms. We choose a
certain mode for his manifestation, and they acknowledged him as God in the
lowliness of the guise in which he appeared. They looked on a babe and they said
God. Their faith was superb. That the three wise men were able to discern in the
form of a helpless babe, lying in an earthly Mother’s frail arms, under a
miserable roof, the king of kings, the great redeemer of the human race that had
been spoken of in prophecy for centuries before, was a truly marvelous thing. It
is a proof that they must have been men of very pure lives and to a large extent
immune from the corruption of the world in which they lived. Gifted with great
science, as their name implies, they must have had clear and docile and simple
minds, minds eager to acquire the truth and ready to submit to it, no matter how
much it might conflict with the traditions and prejudices of their race.
The wonderful faith of these men passes all belief. Their appearance in the
pages of Saint Matthew is like a sudden burst of glorious sunshine, breaking in a
flood of glory, through a sky wrapped in a mantle of somber grey. And the star
went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was; and seeing
the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And entering into the house
they found the child with Mary his Mother. Their long quest had come to an
end. As they saw the humble roof under which the child was, and as they
perceived the lowly simple conditions of his parents, were they taken aback?
Had they any misgivings? Were they harassed by any doubts? Were they
expected to discern in this humble babe an object of their kingly homage? It was
the supreme test to which they were put, and their magnificent faith triumphed
over all appearances. Their hearts responded loyally to the touch of grace, for
they were unprejudiced and ready to concede to God whatever form he should
choose for his manifestation.

4 In the Likeness of Christ, pp. 56-68; reprinted in Meditations on the Sunday Gospels: Year A; introduced and edited by John
E. Rotelle, Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1995, pp. 32-33.9

Vigils Reading
2025-01-09
GOD’S DISCRETION IN
REVEALING HIMSELF
By Réné Voillaume
◊◊◊
Jesus appears in the world without giving any warning of his coming and
without making known to any neighbor who he is. Had he come into the world
in his house at Nazareth, all his relatives would have made an event of his birth
with the neighbors and the other inhabitants of the town. He would have been
heralded and celebrated. He would thus have allowed himself to behave well
enough like a true little Nazarene, but he would have been confiscated, as it
were, by his earthly family and his earthly country. Quite to the contrary, he
elects to be born away from home, on a journey, amid an anonymous crowd; in
this way, he would really belong to everybody, and could come quietly and
discreetly, with no tumult and excitement.
God, if he had so wished, could naturally have made all sorts of efforts to
spread the news abroad. And if any proof were needed of this, one could point to
his having mobilized the angels but contented himself with bringing a few poor
shepherds to the manger. It is also clear from this that he could easily have
brought the whole of Jerusalem and all the just among the Israelites with pure
and upright hearts, worshipers of God and living in expectancy of the Messiah.
And there were in fact many of them, all true friends of his, in the country of
Judea and Galilee!
But it is obvious that God did not wish to impose his Son: people must
come to him by seeking and discovering him. Even the shepherds and the Wise
Men, though warned personally, had to search for him with the help of a sign
which, rather than leading them easily and directly to the manger, was little
more than a suggestion to send them on their way. The shepherds must have
gone to many houses and stables before they found the right babe wrapped in
swaddling clothes.
As for the Magi, they had to show some initiative in order to discover, by
the normal means at their disposal, the birthplace of the young king of Israel.
Jesus was infinitely discreet; he simply waited, and such a way of appearing
could have made us somewhat impatient, had it not been proved for centuries
back that people have found in this very discretion a true sign of God. That sign
of weakness, which draws people in spite of themselves, makes them surrender
and acknowledge themselves outdone, without Jesus ever having forced himself
upon them in any way other than a certain presence — a presence that waits, and
invites, and demonstrates God’s heaven in a humble manner which gives hope
and humility, peace and love — just how, one does not really know! God is a
master who knows how to go about speaking to us with the use of the things of
the earth — these various beings, both animate and inanimate — and the events
of human history.

Vigils Reading - St Gregory of Nyssa
2025-01-10
ON PURITY OF HEART
From a commentary by St Gregory of Nyssa
◊◊◊
Now the divine nature, as it is in itself, according to its essence,
transcends every act of comprehensive knowledge, and it cannot be approached
or attained by our speculation. Mortals have never discovered a faculty to
comprehend the incomprehensible; nor have we ever been able to devise an
intellectual technique for grasping the incomprehensible. For this reason the
great Apostle calls God’s ways unsearchable, teaching us that the way that leads
to knowledge of the divine nature is inaccessible to our reason; and hence none
of those who have lived before us has given us the slightest hint of
comprehension suggesting that we might know that which in itself is above all
knowledge.
Yet the Lord does not deceive us when he promises that the pure of heart
shall see God; nor does Paul deceive us when he teaches that no one has seen
God nor can see Him. The Lord does not say that it is blessed to know something
about God, but rather to possess God in oneself: Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they shall see God. And this teaches us that the one who purifies his heart of
every creature and of every passionate impulse will see the image of the divine
nature in his own beauty. So too in this short sentence the Word, I think, is
giving us the following advise: All you mortals who have within yourselves a
desire to behold the supreme Good, when you are told that the majesty of God is
exalted above the heavens, that the divine glory is inexpressible, its beauty
indescribable, its nature inaccessible, do not despair at never being able to
behold what you desire. For you do have within your grasp that degree of the
knowledge of God which you can attain. For, when God made you, Hr at once
endowed your nature with this perfection: upon the structure of your nature He
imprinted an imitation of the perfections of His own nature, just as one would
impress upon wax the outline of an emblem. But the wickedness that has been
poured all over this divine engraving has made your perfection useless and
hidden it with a vicious coating. You must then wash away, by a life of virtue, the
dirt that has come to cling to your heart like plaster, and then your divine beauty
will once again shine forth.
It is just like those who look at the sun in a mirror. Even though they
cannot look up directly at the heavens, they do see the sun in the mirror’s
reflection just as much as those who look directly at the sun. So it is, says our
Lord, with you. Even though you are not strong enough to see the light itself, yet
you will find within yourselves what you are seeking, if you would but return to
the grace of that image which was established within you from the beginning.
For the Godhead is all purity, freedom from passion, the absence of all evil. And
if you possess these qualities, God will surely be within you. When your mind is
untainted by any evil, free of passion, purified of all stain, then will you be
blessed because your eye is clear. Then because you have been purified you will
perceive things that are invisible to the unpurified. The dark cloud of matter will
be removed from the eye of your soul, and then you will see clearly the blessed
vision within the pure brilliance of your own heart. And what is this vision? It is
purity, holiness, simplicity, and other such brilliant reflections of the nature of
God; for it is in these that God is seen.

Vigils Reading
2025-01-11
TODAY HE MANIFESTED
HIS GLORY
From a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny
◊◊◊
“Arise, be enlightened, Jerusalem, for your Light has come.” This present
day of lights has been enlightened for us and consecrated by the Light of Light.
He had lain hidden and unknown, but today he has vouchsafed to reveal himself
to the world for the enlightenment of all nations. For today he revealed himself
to the Chaldeans by the sign of a new star, dedicating in them as in first fruits the
faith of all nations. Today he revealed himself to the Jews, by the witness not
only of John but also of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, when, baptized in the
Jordan, he consecrated the baptism of all. Today he manifested his glory before
his disciples when by changing water into wine he prefigured that ineffable
mystery in which by his word the substance of things are changed…
The Lord indeed had come; he was in the world, and the world was made
through him, but the world did not know him. He was born, but he was not
known, until the day of light began to manifest him. So the Prophet says: “O new
Jerusalem, great city of the new king, arise, be enlightened, for your light has
come.” Arise, you who sit in darkness; look at the light which has risen up in the
darkness but is not mastered by the darkness. Draw near to him and be
enlightened, in his light you shall see the light, and it will be said to you: “You
were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Look upon the Eternal
Light which has tempered itself to your gaze, so that he who dwells in
inaccessible light affords access even to weak and bleary eyes. See the Light in a
lamp of earthenware, the Sun in a cloud, God in man, the Splendor of Glory and
Brightness of Eternal Light in the clay vessel of your flesh.
Majesty indeed lies hid in human nature, power in lowliness; but signs
and prodigies break through the covering and leave no doubt as to their origin.
“The works which I do,” he says, “bear witness to me.” Great indeed is the
witness of John, who came to bear witness as a lamp to the light. But much
greater is that heavenly witness which the Father and the Holy Spirit bore to the
Son, the Father by his voice, the spirit in the form of a dove; since on the
evidence of two witnesses every claim is established… A new-born child cries on
earth while in the heavens he creates a new star, so that light may witness to
Light, a star to the Sun, and so that kings in the splendor of its rising may be led
to the Eternal Splendor which has also risen up…
Thanks be to you who bade light shine out of darkness and have kindled a
light in our hearts whose shining is to make known your glory as you have
revealed it in the features of Jesus Christ… We know indeed through faith,
holding on to it as to a trustworthy pledge so that we shall know by sight too. In
the meantime increase our faith, leading us on from faith to faith, from
brightness to brightness, by your Spirit, so that from day to day we may enter
more deeply into the treasures of light…until, through faith, we are led to the
vision of your face, as if led by a leading star to our Leader at Bethlehem.

Skema
2025-01-12
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
1st Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
January 12 – 18, 2025

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

Office
Baptism of the Lord
Weekday
Weekday
SS Maur & Placid
Office for Vocations
St Anthony, Abbot
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Isa 42:1-9, 49:1-9
1 Kings 1:1-31
1 Kings 1:32-53
1 Kings 2:1-12
1 Kings 2:13-35
1 Kings 2:36-46
1 Kings 3:1-15

Lauds
Acts 19:1-7
Joel 1:1-8
Joel 1:9-12
Joel 1:13-20
Joel 2:1-6
Joel 2:7-11
Joel 2:12-17

Mass
21
305
306
307
308
309
310

1st
Isa 40:1-5, 9-11
Heb 1:1-6
Heb 2:5-12
Heb 2:14-18
Heb 3:7-14
Heb 4:1-5, 11
Heb 4:12-16

2nd
Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7
1 Cor 1:1-9

Gospel
Luke 3:15-16, 21-22
Mark 1:14-20
Mark 1:21-28
Mark 1:29-39
Mark 1:40-45
Mark 2:1-12
Mark 2:13-17

Vespers
Rev 21:1-7
1 Cor 1:1-9
1 Cor 1:10-17
1 Cor 1:18-25
1 Cor 1:26-31
1 Cor 2:1-5
1 Cor 2:6-13

Vigils Reading - Baptism of the Lord
2025-01-12
BY WATER AND
THE HOLY SPIRIT
From a commentary by Hippolytus of Rome
◊◊◊
As soon as he had been baptized, Jesus came out of the water. The
heavens were opened to him and the Spirit of God in the form of a dove came
down and rested on him. Then a voice from heaven said: This is my beloved
son, in whom I am well pleased.
If the Lord had yielded to John’s persuasion and had not been baptized,
do you realize what great blessings and how many we should have been
deprived of? Heaven was closed until then; our homeland on high was
inaccessible. Once we had descended into the depths we were incapable of rising
again to such lofty heights. The Lord was not only baptized himself; he also
renewed our fallen nature and restored to us our status as God’s children. At
once the heavens were opened to him. The world we see was reconciled with the
world that lies beyond our vision; the angels were filled with joy, earthly
disorders were remedied; mysteries were revealed; enemies were made friends.
The heavens were opened to him you have heard the evangelist say. This
happened for three wonderful reasons. The heavenly bridal chamber had to
open its shining gates to Christ at his baptism because he was himself the
bridegroom. The gates of heaven also had to be lifted up to allow the Holy Spirit
to descend in the form of a dove and the Father’s voice to resound far and wide.
The heavens were opened to him and a voice said: This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased.
This is my beloved Son who appeared on earth without leaving his
Father’s side. He both appeared and did not appear, for he was not what he
seemed. As far as appearance goes the one who gives baptism is superior to the
one who receives it. This is why the Father sent the Holy Spirit down on him
from heaven. As in Noah’s ark a dove revealed God’s love for the human race, so
now it was in the form of a dove, as though with an olive branch in its beak that
the spirit descended. He did so to make sure that the Father’s voice would be
recognized and the ancient mystery would be believed. Which prophesy? The
one that says: The Father’s voice resounded over the waters. The God of glory
thunders. The Lord thunders across many waters. And what does he say? This
is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
Pay close attention now, I beg you, for I want to return to the fountain of
life and contemplate its healing waters at their source. The Father of
immortality sent His immortal Son and Word into the world; he came to us to
cleanse us with the water and the spirit. To give us a new birth that would make
our bodies and souls immortal, He breathed into us the Spirit of life and armed
us with incorruptibility.
Therefore in a herald’s voice I cry: Peoples of every nation; come and
receive the immortality given in baptism. To you who have spent all the days of
your life in the darkness of ignorance I bring the good news of life. Leave your
slavery for freedom, the tyrant’s yoke for a kingdom. corruptibility for eternal
life. Do you wish to know how to do this? By water and the Holy Spirit. That is to
say, by the water through which we are born again and given life, and by the
Spirit who is the Comforter sent for your sake to make you a child of God.
