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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260603
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260604
DTSTAMP:20260607T091829
CREATED:20260531T123513Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260531T123513Z
UID:14978-1780444800-1780531199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Charles Lwanga & Companions
DESCRIPTION:A reading from a homily by \nPOPE ST PAUL VI \n◊◊◊ \nThe African martyrs add another page to the martyrology – the Church’s \nroll of honor – an occasion both of mourning and of joy. This is a page worthy in \nevery way of being added to the annals of that Africa of earlier times\, which we\, \nliving in this era and being people of little faith\, never expected to be repeated. \nIn earlier times there occurred those famous deeds\, so moving to the \nspirit\, of the martyrs of Scilli\, of Carthage\, and of that “white robed army” of \nUtica commemorated by Saint Augustine and Prudentius; of the martyrs of \nEgypt so highly praised by Saint John Chrysostom\, and of the martyrs of the \nVandal persecution. Who would have thought that in our days we should have \nwitnessed events as heroic and glorious? \nWho would have predicted to the famous African confessors and martyrs \nsuch as Cyprian\, Felicity\, Perpetua and – the greatest of all – Augustine\, that we \nwould one day add names so dear to us as Charles Lwanga and Matthias \nMulumba Kalemba and their twenty companions? Nor must we forget those \nmembers of the Anglican Church who also died in the name of Christ. These \nAfrican martyrs herald the dawn of a new age. If only the human mind might be \ndirected not toward persecutions and religious conflicts but toward a rebirth of \nChristianity and civilization! Africa has been washed by the blood of these latest \nmartyrs\, the first of this new age (and God willing\, let them be the last\, although \nsuch a holocaust is precious indeed). Africa is reborn free and independent.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-charles-lwanga-companions-4/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260604
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260605
DTSTAMP:20260607T091829
CREATED:20260531T123629Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260531T123629Z
UID:14980-1780531200-1780617599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A reading from a sermon by \nST JOHN HENRY NEWMAN \n◊◊◊ \nThat all Christians are\, in some sense or other\, one\, in our Lord’s eyes is \nplain\, from various parts of the New Testament. In his mediatorial prayer for \nthem to the Almighty Father\, before His Passion\, He expressed His purpose that \nthey should be one. St Paul\, in like manner\, writing to the Corinthians\, says\, “As \nthe body is one\, and has many members\, and all the members of that one body\, \nbeing many\, are one body\, so also is Christ… Now you are the Body of Christ\, \nand members in particular.” To the Ephesians\, he says\, “There is one Body\, \nand one Spirit\, even as you are called in one hope of your calling: one Lord\, \none faith\, one baptism\, one God and Father of all.“ \nAnd\, further\, it is to this one Body\, regarded as one\, that the special \nprivileges of the Gospel are given. It is not that this person receives the blessing\, \nand that one\, but one and all\, the whole body\, as one being\, one new spiritual \nreality\, with one accord\, seeks and gains it. The Holy Church throughout the \nworld\, “the Bride\, the Lamb’s wife\,” is one\, not many\, and the elect souls are all \nelected in her\, not in isolation. For instance: “He is our peace who has made \nboth (Jews and Gentiles) one\, …to make in himself one new humanity.“ \nIn the same epistle\, it is said\, that all nations are “fellow- heirs\, and of the \nsame body and fellow-partakers of Hid promise in Christ;” and that we must “ \none and all come\,” or converge\, “in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge \nof the Son of God\, unto a perfect creation\, unto the measure of the stature of the \nfullness of Christ;” that as “the husband is the head of the wife\,” so “Christ is the \nHead of the Church\,” having “loved her and given Himself for her\, that He \nmight sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word.“ \nThese are a few out of many passages which connect Gospel privileges \nwith the circumstance or condition of unity in those who receive them; the \nimage of Christ and token of their acceptance being stamped upon them then\, at \nthat moment\, when they are considered as one; so that henceforth the whole \nmultitude\, no longer viewed as mere individuals\, become portions or members \nof the indivisible Body of Christ Mystical\, so knit together in Him by Divine \nGrace\, that all have what He has\, and each has what all have. \nThe same great truth is taught us in such texts as speak of all Christians \nforming one spiritual building\, of which the Jewish Temple was the type. They \nare temples one by one\, simply as being portions of that one Temple which is the \nChurch. “You are built up\,” says St Peter\, “a spiritual house\, a holy priesthood\, \nto offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.“ \nHence the word “edification“\, which properly means this building up of \nall Christians in one\, has come to stand for individual improvement; for it is by \nbeing incorporated into the one Body\, that we have the promise of life; by \nbecoming members of Christ\, we have the gift of His Spirit.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-434/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260605
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260606
DTSTAMP:20260607T091829
CREATED:20260531T123804Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260531T123804Z
UID:14982-1780617600-1780703999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Boniface
DESCRIPTION:A reading by Christopher Dawson on \nST BONIFACE \n◊◊◊ \nIn art and religion\, in scholarship and literature\, the Anglo-Saxons of the \neighth century were the leaders of their age. At the time when continental \ncivilization was at its lowest ebb\, the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons marked \nthe turn of the tide. The Saxon pilgrims flocked to Rome as the center of the \nChristian world and the Papacy found its most devoted allies and servants in the \nAnglo-Saxon monks and missionaries. The foundations of the new age were \nlaid by the greatest of them all\, St Boniface of Crediton\, “the apostle of \nGermany“\, a man who had a deeper influence on the history of Europe than any \nEnglishman who has ever lived. \nUnlike his Celtic predecessors\, he was not an individual missionary\, but a \nstatesman and organizer\, who was\, above all\, servant of the Roman order. To \nhim is due the foundation of the medieval German Church and the final \nconversion of Hesse and Thuringia\, the heart of the German land. With the help \nof his Anglo-Saxon monks and nuns he destroyed the last strongholds of \nGermanic heathenism and planted abbeys and bishoprics on the site of the old \nFolkburgs and heathen sanctuaries\, such as Buraburg\, Amoneburg\, and Fulda. \nOn his return from Rome in 739 he used his authority as Papal Vicar in \nGermany to reorganize the Bavarian Church and to establish the new dioceses \nwhich had so great an importance in German history. \nFor Germany beyond the Rhine was still a land without cities\, and the \nfoundation of the new bishoprics meant the creation of new centers of cultural \nlife. It was through the work of St Boniface that Germany first became a living \nmember of the European society. \nBut in addition to this\, Boniface was the reformer of the whole Frankish \nchurch. The decadent Merovingian dynasty had already given up the substance \nof its power to the mayors of the palace\, but in spite of their military prowess\, \nwhich saved France from conquest by the Arabs in 735\, they had done nothing \nfor culture and had only furthered the degradation of the Frankish Church. \nCharles Martel had used the abbeys and bishoprics to reward his lay partisans\, \nand had carried out a wholesale secularization of Church property. \nAs Boniface wrote to the Pope\, “Religion is trodden under foot. Benefices \nare given to greedy laymen or unchaste and publican clerics. All their crimes do \nnot prevent their attaining the priesthood; at last rising in rank as they increase \nin sin they become bishops\, and those of them who can boast that they are not \nadulterers or fornicators\, are drunkards\, given up to the chase\, and soldiers who \ndo not shrink from shedding Christian blood.” \nNevertheless\, the successors of Charles Martel\, Pepin and Carloman\, \nwere favorable to Boniface’s reforms. Armed with his special powers as Legate \nof the Holy See and personal representative of the Pope\, he undertook the \ndesecularization of the Frankish Church.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-boniface-4/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260606
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260607
DTSTAMP:20260607T091829
CREATED:20260531T123934Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260531T123934Z
UID:14984-1780704000-1780790399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Memorial of BVM
DESCRIPTION:A reading by \nFR ROMANO GUARDINI \n◊◊◊ \nElizabeth calls the Virgin Blessed because she had faith – for everything \nwould happen as the Lord had told her; through the power of the Holy Spirit she \nwould become the Mother of the Redeemer\, and in this find the fulfillment of \nher life and salvation. To be assured of this was not always easy. When the \nGospel speaks of Mary and her son\, one perceives a great love\, but also a \nremoteness. \nThe answer of the twelve-year-old boy in the temple; the answer Jesus \ngave at the wedding feast of Cana; his words to the bystanders\, when Mary\, at \nthe door\, asks for him; what he said to the woman who exalted his Mother; and \nhis last testament in which he committed her to the care of the disciple – in each \nof these\, something is revealed that removes him from her\, and we always sense \nthe possibility that she might have become perplexed about God’s guidance. But \neach time her confidence increased and she placed all into his hands. Mary lived \ncompletely through her confidence in God’s power\, a power that is capable of \nconsummating all\, even in darkness and opposition. \nHope is confidence in God’s power to accomplish all things. He has \npromised that we shall become new persons\, and that his creation shall be a \n“new heaven and a new earth”. This is gainsaid by the impression made on us by \nworldly things; by the course our life is taking; by the opinions of people around \nus; by our own daily insufficiency and sin – by everything. \nHope is the “nevertheless” of faith. In spite of all contradiction\, the new \nlife is within us\, and God will complete it if we trust in him despite all \nopposition. But that is difficult\, sometimes impossible. So we must ask again \nthat the Lord “may strengthen our hope.“
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-memorial-of-bvm-21/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260607
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260608
DTSTAMP:20260607T091829
CREATED:20260607T013729Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260607T013729Z
UID:14987-1780790400-1780876799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema: 9th Week in Ordinary Time
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass \n9th Week in Ordinary Time \n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (A)\, Weekdays (II) \nMay 31 – June 6\, 2026 \n\n\n \nSun \n31 \nMon \n1 \nTue \n2 \nWed \n3 \nThu \n4 \nFri \n5 \nSat \n6 \n\n\nOffice \nHoly Trinity \nSt Justin Martyr \nWeekday \nSt Charles Lwanga & Companions \nWeekday \nSt Boniface \nMemorial of the BVM \n\n\nVigils \nSir 36:1-22 \nNeh 9:1-11 \nNeh 9:12-20 \nNeh 9:21-28 \nNeh 9:29-37 \nNeh 10:1-2; 29-40 \nTobit 1:1-15 \n\n\nLauds \nSir 42:15-25 \nEccles 2:24-3:8 \nEccles 3:9-15 \nEccles 3:16-22 \nEccles 4:1-6 \nEccles 4:7-12 \nEccles 4:13-17 \n\n\nMass \n164 \n353 \n354 \n355 \n356 \n357 \n358 \n\n\n1st \nExod 34:4b-6\, 8-9 \n2 Pet 1:2-7 \n2 Pet 3:12-15a\, 17-18 \n2 Tim 1:1-3\, 6-12 \n2 Tim 2:8-15 \n2 Tim 3:10-17 \n2 Tim 4:1-8 \n\n\n2nd \n2 Cor 13:11-13 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n\nGospel \nJohn 3:16-18 \nMark 12:1-12 \nMark 12:13-17 \nMark 12:18-27 \nMark 12:28-34 \nMark 12:35-37 \nMark 12:38-44 \n\n\nVespers \n1 Cor 2:11-16 \nGal 3:1-9 \nGal 3:10-14 \nGal 3:15-22 \nGal 3:23-29 \nGal 4:1-11 \nHeb 9:18-22 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-9th-week-in-ordinary-time/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260607
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260608
DTSTAMP:20260607T091829
CREATED:20260607T014859Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260607T014859Z
UID:14989-1780790400-1780876799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Corpus Christi
DESCRIPTION:A reading from the Papal Bull “Transiturus” of\nPOPE URBAN IV 1\n◊◊◊\nBishop Urban\, servant of the servants of God\, to the venerable brothers\,\nPatriarchs\, Archbishops\, Bishops\, and other prelates of the Church\, health and\nthe apostolic blessing. About to pass from this world to the Father\, our Saviour\nthe Lord Jesus Christ\, since the time of his Passion was at hand\, instituted the\ngreat and wonderful Sacrament of his Body and Blood\, bestowing his Body as\nfood and his Blood as drink. For\, as often as we eat this bread and drink this\ncup\, we announce the death of the Lord.\nIndeed\, at the institution of this Sacrament\, he himself said to the\nApostles: Do this in memory of me: so that for us the special and outstanding\nmemorial of his love would be this venerable Sacrament; a memorial in which\nwe attain the corporeal Presence of the Saviour himself.\nOther things which we remember we embrace spiritually and mentally:\nwe do not thereby obtain their real presence. However\, in this sacramental\ncommemoration\, Jesus Christ is present with us in his proper substance\,\nalthough under another form. As he was about to ascend into heaven\, he said to\nthe Apostles and their helpers\, I will be with you all days even unto the\nconsummation of the world.\nHe comforted them with a gracious promise that he would remain and\nwould be with them even by his corporeal presence. Therefore he gave himself\nas nourishment\, so that\, since man fell by means of the food of the death-giving\ntree; man is raised up by means of the food of the life-giving tree. Eating\nwounded us\, and eating healed us. Thus the Saviour says\, My Flesh is real food. \nThis bread is taken but truly not consumed\, because it is not transformed into\nthe eater. Rather\, if it is worthily received\, the recipient is conformed to it.\nWe should celebrate continuously the memory of this memorial\, because\nthe more frequently his gift and favor are looked upon\, so much the more firmly\nare they kept in memory. Therefore\, although this memorial Sacrament is\nfrequented in the daily solemnities of the Mass\, we nevertheless think suitable\nand worthy that\, at least once a year – especially to confound the lack of faith\nand the infamy of heretics – a more solemn and honorable memory of this\nSacrament be held. This is so because on Holy Thursday\, the day on which the\nLord himself instituted this Sacrament\, the universal Church\, occupied with the\nreconciliation of penitents\, blessing the chrism\, fulfilling the Commandments\nabout the washing of the feet and many other such things\, is not sufficiently free\nto celebrate so great a Sacrament.\nMoreover we know that\, while we were constituted in a lesser office\, it was\ndivinely revealed to certain Catholics that a feast of this kind should be\ncelebrated generally throughout the Church. Therefore\, to strengthen and exalt\nthe Catholic Faith\, we decree that\, besides the daily memory that the Church\nmakes of this Sacrament\, there be celebrated a more solemn and special annual\nmemorial. Then let the hearts and mouths of all break forth in hymns of saving\njoy; then let faith sing\, hope dance\, charity exult\, devotion applaud\, the choir be\njubilant\, and purity delight. Then let each one with willing spirit and prompt\nwill come together\, laudably fulfilling his duties\, celebrating the Solemnity of so\ngreat a Feast. \n1\nPope Urban IV\, The Bull Transiturus; tr. O’Connor (1988) from The Hidden Manna
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/corpus-christi/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260608
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260609
DTSTAMP:20260607T091829
CREATED:20260607T015430Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260607T015430Z
UID:14991-1780876800-1780963199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Weekday
DESCRIPTION:A reading by\nFR HUGO RAHNER 2\n◊◊◊\nThe Catholic Church is a house full of glory extending far and wide into every land of this our terrestrial world. We sing her praises because we love her. For she is the hidden queen of human history…\nAll this would be\, however\, only “boasting according to the flesh” and not “glory in the cross of Christ” – all would be counterfeit\, falsified\, and therefore filled with that furtive disappointment that we so often experience after ecclesiastical ceremonies\, if we did not also speak of the incomprehensible mystery of Christian existence which Paul describes with the words: “If I must boast\, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness.” The Apostle is speaking here of his own wretchedness. However\, one of the principle truths of the revelation of the New Testament\, as sketched by Paul\, is that the strength of God reveals itself in human weakness.\nThe salvific work of the Father\, which was contained in love before the very foundation of the universe\, reveals itself to us in the Word which became flesh\, and will be completed through the instrument of the Church in the power of grace victorious up to its blessed conclusion in weakness. For as Scripture tells us: “The power of God reaches its perfection in weakness”. Let us leave these words as they stand. Indeed let us keep the expression in the shocking bluntness of the Greek words: “The dynamis of God reaches perfection in asthenia.” \nThe force of these words can be vaguely perceived from what technology has to say today about dynamics\, and from what medicine has to say about asthenia. So\, let us read: the power of God reaches its goal in asthenia\, in stunted asthenic growth\, in frailty\, therefore in all that is in contrast to what is big\, strong\, healthy\, well formed\, humane\, rational.\nSo\, and only so\, does the explosive power of the Father’s salvific love reveal itself\, passionately driving onward to victory in the mystical Christ. “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men\, and the weakness of God is stronger than men…and the base things of the world and the despised has God chosen…lest any flesh should pride itself before him. So that\, just as it is written: ‘Let him who takes pride\, take pride in the Lord'”. \n2\n“The Church\, God’s Strength in Human Weakness\,” in The Church\, Readings in Theology\, LaPierre et. al.\, eds. P.J. Kenedy & Sons\, New York 1963. pp3-4.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/weekday-28/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260609
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260610
DTSTAMP:20260607T091829
CREATED:20260607T020007Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260607T020007Z
UID:14993-1780963200-1781049599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:St. Ephrem the Syrian
DESCRIPTION:A reading from\nST EPHREM THE SYRIAN 3\n◊◊◊\nLet us awake from sleep and with sighs call out to the Lord. Day and night let us labor\, attending to our correction while our life still lasts\, until the time comes when there will be no more place for repentance. Let us stand vigilant at the Bridegroom’s door\, that we might enter with the Bridegroom into His bridal chamber and inherit eternal life. Come\, let us all sing praises to God at night and imitate the hosts of angels who ceaselessly praise Him. And our Savior\, when He arises and comes\, accompanied by the angels\, and sees our wakefulness and our vigilance\, will call us His good servants and will seat us at His banquet.\nWith the righteous\, who have pleased God day and night\, let us labor in good things\, beg our Lord for mercy; and\, singing with David\, let us say: at midnight I arose to give thanks to You because of Your righteous judgments. Spare me and have mercy on me and grant me the inheritance of Your kingdom. I will not cease to praise You\, O our Lord. Ceaselessly will I sing of Your glory\, that Your truth might not condemn me. I know the extent of my guilt. I know that if You punish me according to my sins\, then my inheritance will be gehenna. Then all hope will be lost. My prayer will be silenced. Have mercy on me therefore\, and forgive me my debts… Extend to me Your right hand and I will arise\, like the harlot in Simon’s house\, like the thief on the cross. Have mercy on me\, You Who art kindhearted to sinners…\nTo You\, O only good Lord Who bears no grudges\, do I confess my sins. Even were I to keep silent\, You\, O Lord\, know all\, and nothing is hidden before your eyes. For You\, O Lord\, have said by Your Prophet: declare Your sins beforehand and You will be justified. And so I will say: I have sinned\, O Lord\, and I am not worthy to look up and behold the heights of heaven because of the multitude of my iniquities… What am I to do\, I who am the most miserable of all men? I shall weep over myself day and night\, while there is yet time to offer tears… Grant me tears of contrition\, O only good and merciful Lord\, that with them I might gain from You purification from the defilement of my heart…\nGod requires from us only our consummate determination; it is He Who gives us strength and grants us victory… He gave these lips of dust the capacity to magnify Him\, so that through them all creation might sing praise unto Him.\nCome\, you who are endowed with speech\, let us sing praise unto Him until we repose in the sleep of death. Let us rouse our bodies with psalms and spiritual hymns that we might join the wise virgins whom our Lord praised\, and in vigilance behold His glory in the night that will cause the world to tremble… The body that burdened itself with prayer shall soar through the air on the day of the resurrection; without shame shall it behold its Lord; with Him shall it enter into the habitation of light\, where it will be cherished by the angels and by those who here burdened themselves with vigilance and prayer.\nBlessed is He Who made us instruments of His glory and put exaltation in our unworthy lips! Praise be to His compassion\, for He has made those who were of dust concelebrants with the angels\, that every night and at all times they might sing His holy name. \n3\nEphraim the Syrian. A Spiritual Psalter or Reflections on God. Excerpted by Bishop Theophan the Recluse. Trans. Antonina Janda. Liberty\, TN: The St. John of Kronstadt Press\, 1997. 150-155.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/st-ephrem-the-syrian/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260610
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260611
DTSTAMP:20260607T091829
CREATED:20260607T020514Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260607T020514Z
UID:14995-1781049600-1781135999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Weekday
DESCRIPTION:A reading from the Dogmatic Constitution\nLUMEN GENTIUM 4\n◊◊◊\nThe Church\, to which we are all called in Christ Jesus\, and in which by the grace of God we acquire holiness\, will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven\, when will come the time of the renewal of all things. At that time\, together with the human race\, the universe itself\, which is so closely related to humankind and which attains its destiny through him\, will be perfectly reestablished in Christ.\nChrist lifted up from the earth\, has drawn all to himself. Rising from the dead he sent his life-giving Spirit upon his disciples and through him set up his Body which is the Church as the universal sacrament of salvation. Sitting at the right hand of the Father he is continually active in the world in order to lead all to the Church and\, through it\, join them more closely to himself; and\, by nourishing them with his own Body and Blood\, make them partakers of his glorious life. The promised and hoped for restoration\, therefore\, has already begun in Christ. It is carried forward in the sending of the Holy Spirit and through him continues in the Church in which\, through our faith\, we learn the meaning of our earthly life\, while we bring to term\, with hope of future good\, the task allotted to us in the world by the Father\, and so work out our salvation.\nAlready the final age of the world is with us and the renewal of the world is irrevocably under way; it is even now anticipated in a certain real way\, for the Church on earth is endowed already with a sanctity that is real though imperfect. However\, until there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells the pilgrim Church\, in its sacraments and institutions\, which belong to this present age\, carries the mark of this world which will pass\, and she herself takes her place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and await the revelation of the children of God.\nSo it is\, united with Christ in the Church and marked with the Holy Spirit “who is the guarantee of our inheritance” that we are truly called and indeed are children of God though we have not yet appeared with Christ in glory in which we will be like to God\, for we will God as God is. “While we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord” and having the firstfruits of the Spirit we groan inwardly and we desire to be with Christ.\nThat same charity urges us to live more for him who died for us and who rose again. We reckon then that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” and we look for the “blessed hope”\, the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body.” \n4\nVatican II Documents\, “The Pilgrim Church”. Austin Flannery\, OP\, Costello Pub. Co.\, 1975\, pp. 407-408.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/weekday-29/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260611
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260612
DTSTAMP:20260607T091829
CREATED:20260607T021000Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260607T021951Z
UID:14997-1781136000-1781222399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:St. Barnabas
DESCRIPTION:A reading on St Barnabas by\nST JOHN HENRY NEWMAN 5\n◊◊◊\nOn two occasions the conduct [of St Barnabas] is scarcely becoming an Apostle\, as instancing somewhat of that infirmity which uninspired persons of his peculiar character frequently exhibit. Both are cases of indulgence towards the faults of others\, yet in a different way; the one\, an over-easiness in a matter of doctrine\, the other\, in a matter of conduct.\nWith all his tenderness for the Gentiles\, yet on one occasion he could not resist indulging the prejudices of some…brethren\, who came from Jerusalem to Antioch. Peter first was carried away; before they came\, “he did eat with the Gentiles\, but when they came\, he withdrew\, and separated himself\, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch\, that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.”\nThe other instance was his indulgent treatment of Mark\, his sister’s son\, which occasioned the quarrel between him and St Paul. “Barnabas determined to take with them\,” on their Apostolic journey\, “John\, whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought not good to take him with them\, who departed from them from Pamphylia\, and went not with them to the work.”\nNow it is very plain what description of character\, and what kind of lesson\, is brought before us in the history of this Holy Apostle. Holy he was\, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith; still the characteristics and the infirmities of man remained in him\, and thus he is “unto us for an example\,” consistently with the reverence we feel towards him as one of the foundations of the Christian\nChurch. He is an example and warning to us\, not only as showing us what we ought to be\, but as evidencing how the highest gifts and graces are corrupted in our sinful nature\, if we are not diligent to walk step by step\, according to the light of God’s commandments.\nBe our mind as heavenly as it may be\, most loving\, most holy\, most zealous\, most energetic\, most peaceful\, yet if we look off from Him for a moment\, and look towards ourselves\, at once these excellent tempers fall into some extreme or mistake. Charity becomes over-easiness\, holiness is tainted with spiritual pride\, zeal degenerates into fierceness\, activity eats up the spirit of prayer\, hope is heightened into presumption. We cannot guide ourselves. God’s revealed word is our sovereign rule of conduct; and therefore\, among other reasons\, is faith so principal a grace\, for it is the directing power which receives the commands of Christ\, and applies them to the heart. \n5\nPAROCHIAL & PLAIN SERMONS\, John. H. Newman (Ignatius Press\, CA 1987) pp. 401-403.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/st-barnabas-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:14999-1781222400-1781308799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Sacred Heart of Jesus
DESCRIPTION:A reading from “Christ\, the Ideal of the Monk” by\nBLESSED COLUMBA MARMION 6\n◊◊◊\nWhen a person fails in charity\, and receives Christ in Holy Communion\, he cannot say to him: ‘My Jesus\, I love you with all my heart.’ It would be a lie\, since he does not envelop Christ and his members with a self-same love. He has not accepted the mystery of the Incarnation in its totality; he stops at Christ’s individual manhood\, and forgets the spiritual prolongation of the Incarnation which is the Mystical Body of Jesus. So\, then\, when we communicate\, we ought ever to be ready to embrace\, in one and the same charity\, Christ and all that is united to him; for the measure of the giving of Christ to our souls is that of our own donation to our brethren. The Eucharist is a Sacrament of union with Christ\, and of union between souls.\nThus a soul who draws near to our Lord\, in Communion\, in these dispositions of unreserved love towards the neighbour is very pleasing to the Sacred Heart. Christ showers magnificent gifts upon it; moreover\, faults and shortcomings in respect to the other virtues are at once forgiven\, because of this fervent love it bears towards the members of Jesus. When\, on Maundy Thursday\, the Abbot has communicated all the members of the monastic family\, the angels who behold us see that we are all one in Christ\, each one being united to Christ Jesus\, and Christ being one\, we are then truly one in him. We thus fulfill the dearest desire of the Word Incarnate.\nIndeed\, at the supreme farewell hour\, when Christ Jesus spoke for the last time with his Apostles before entering into his sorrowful Passion and sacrificing himself for the world’s salvation\, what is the exclusive theme of his discourse and the first object of his prayer? Spiritual charity. A new commandment I give unto you… by this shall all men know that you are my disciples… Father… that they may be one\, as we also are one\, I in them\, and you in me\, that they may become perfectly one. That is the testament of Christ’s Heart.\nOur Blessed Father St Benedict\, in concluding his Rule\, also leaves us as his last testament\, his magnificent teaching on good zeal. After having set forth in detail the ordering of our life\, he sums up all his doctrine in this short chapter. And what does he tell us? Does he speak to us of prayer? Of contemplation? Of mortification? Undoubtedly\, the holy Patriarch forgets nothing of all this\, as we have seen; but having reached the end of his long life so full of experience\, at the moment of closing the monastic code which contains for us the secret of perfection\, he speaks to us\, before all else\, of mutual love; he wishes\, with that intense desire which was that of Jesus at the Last Supper\, to see us excel in most fervent love. This chapter is the worthy crowning of a Rule which is but the pure reflection of the Gospel. \n6\nBlessed Columba Marmion\, Christ\, the Ideal of the Monk\, 2.17.5
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/sacred-heart-of-jesus-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:15001-1781308800-1781395199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Immaculate Heart of Mary
DESCRIPTION:A reading from\nST ELIZABETH OF THE TRINITY 7\n◊◊◊\n“The Virgin kept all these things in her heart”: her whole history can be summed up in these few words! It was within her heart that she lived\, and at such a depth that no human eye can follow her. When I read in the gospel “that Mary went in haste to the hill country of Judea” to perform her loving service for her cousin Elizabeth\, I imagine her passing by so beautiful\, so calm and so majestic\, so absorbed in recollection of the Word of God within her. Like him her prayer was always this: “Ecce\, here I am!” Who? “The servant of the Lord\,” the lowliest of his creatures: she\, his Mother! Her humility was so real for she was always forgetful\, unaware\, freed from self. And she could sing: “The Almighty has done great things for me\, henceforth all peoples will call me blessed.”\nThis Queen of virgins is also Queen of martyrs; but again it was in her heart that the sword pierced\, for with her everything took place within! Oh! How beautiful she is to contemplate during her long martyrdom\, so serene\, enveloped in a kind of majesty that radiates both strength and gentleness. She learned from the Word himself how those must suffer whom the Father has chosen as victims\, those whom he has decided to associate with himself in the great work of redemption\, those whom he “has foreknown and predestined to be conformed to his Christ\,” crucified by love.\nShe is there at the foot of the Cross\, standing\, full of strength and courage\, and here my Master says to me: [“Behold your Mother.”] He gives her to me for my Mother. And now that he has returned to the Father and has substituted me for himself on the Cross so that “I may suffer in my body what is lacking in his passion for the sake of his body\, which is the Church\,” the Blessed Virgin is again there to teach me to suffer as he did\, to tell me\, to make me hear those last songs of his soul which no one else but she\, his Mother\, could overhear. \n7\nComplete Works\, vol. 1\, translated by Sr. Aletheia Kane\, OCD\, Washington\, D.C.: ICS Publications\, 1984\, pp. 160-161.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/immaculate-heart-of-mary-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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