BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey - ECPv6.17.4//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20250309T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20251102T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20260308T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20261101T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20270314T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20271107T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260908
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260909
DTSTAMP:20260906T130631Z
CREATED:20260906T130631Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260906T130631Z
UID:15450-1788825600-1788911999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Nativity of the BVM
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nBLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY \n◊◊◊ \nAs the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odor. Today we celebrate the \nbirthday of the blessed Virgin Mother from whom the Life of all things took his \nbirth. Today is the birthday of that Virgin from whom the Savior of all men \nwilled to be born in order that he might give to all who were born to death the \npower to be reborn to life. Today is the birthday of that new Mother who has \ndestroyed the curse brought by the first mother\, so that all those who through \nthe fault of the first had been born under the yoke of eternal condemnation \nmight instead\, through her\, inherit a blessing. \nShe is indeed the new Mother\, for she has brought new life to her children \nalready hardening with age and has healed the defect of both inborn and \nacquired senility… She is the new Mother\, who by an unheard of miracle has \ngiven birth in such a way that\, becoming a mother\, she has not ceased to be a \nVirgin. And she has given birth to the Child who created all things\, even the \nMother herself. \nIt is indeed a wonderful new thing\, this fruitful virginity\, but far more \nwonderful is the novelty of the Child born of it. No one who admits that the \nChild was God\, finds any difficulty in believing his Mother remained a Virgin. \nHis birth in no way could injure the physical integrity of his Mother\, this Child \nwho went about making even the diseased whole. Nor could the reality of the \nbody he assumed be thought to limit the power of the Creator as if he could not \nretain for himself what he gives to many of his creatures. For you find not a few \ncreatures that are born without any harm to the integrity of the parents. In their \nown way all these bear witness to their Creator’s own immaculate birth. \nBut the Mother herself\, who was quite aware of the mystery surrounding \nher\, has spoken and taught us how and what she brought forth. She speaks \nhowever not in contemporary or recent arguments but in the ancient oracles of \nprophecy\, because\, as the Apostle Peter tells us\, the word of prophecy is a \nstronger witness than miracles. Indeed what is less open to deceit or suspect of \nfalsity than the testimony from heaven about one not yet born? \nLong before her birth therefore the Spirit\, who would later make his \nabode in her\, borrowed Mary’s voice to defend both the divinity of the Child and \nthe integrity of the Mother – all his own handiwork – against the blasphemies of \nunbelievers. In her person…he uttered the words: As the vine\, I have brought \nforth a pleasant odor.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-nativity-of-the-bvm-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260909
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260910
DTSTAMP:20260906T130740Z
CREATED:20260906T130740Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260906T130740Z
UID:15452-1788912000-1788998399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Peter Claver
DESCRIPTION:A reading from Butler’s Lives of the Saints on \nST PETER CLAVER \n◊◊◊ \nHe was born in Catalonia\, about 1581… He graduated with distinction \n[and entered] the Society of Jesus. He left Spain forever in April 1610\, and was \nordained priest at Cartagena\, in what is now the republic of Colombia. By the \ntime of his ordination the slave trade had been established in the Americas for \nnearly a hundred years\, and the port of Cartagena was one of its principal \ncenters… \nAt this time the leader of the work among the Negroes was Father Alfonso \nde Sandoval\, a great Jesuit missionary who spent forty years in the service of the \nslaves\, and after working under him Peter Claver declared himself “the slave of \nthe Negroes forever”. Although by nature shy and without self-confidence he \nthrew himself into the work with method and organization. He enlisted bands \nof assistants\, and as soon as a slave-ship entered the port… St Peter Claver \nplunged\, with medicines and food\, bread\, brandy\, lemons\, tobacco to distribute \namong the Negroes\, some of whom were too frightened\, others too ill\, to accept \nthem. “We must speak to them with our hands\, before we try to speak to them \nwith our lips”\, Claver would say. \nWhen he came upon any who were dying\, he baptized them\, and then \nsought out all babies born on the voyage that he might baptize them. He had a \nband of seven interpreters\, one of whom spoke four Negro dialects\, and with \ntheir help he taught the slaves and prepared them for baptism\, not only in \ngroups but individually. He made use of pictures\, showing our Lord suffering \non the cross; above all he tried to instill in them… some idea that as redeemed \nhuman beings they had dignity and worth\, even if as slaves… \nIt is estimated that in forty years St. Peter Claver instructed and baptized \nover 300\,000 slaves… He took the same trouble to teach them how properly to \nuse the sacrament of penance\, and in one year is said to have heard the \nconfessions of more than five thousand. Many of the stories both of the heroism \nand of the miraculous powers of St. Peter Claver concern his nursing of sick and \ndiseased Negroes\, in circumstances often that no one else\, black or white\, could \nface. \nIn 1650… sickness attacked his emaciated and weakened body\, and he \nwas recalled to the Jesuit residence at Cartagena. But here a virulent epidemic \nhad begun to show itself\, and one of the first to be attacked among the Jesuits \nwas the debilitated missionary… After receiving the last sacraments\, he \nrecovered\, but he was a broken man… \nOn September 6\, 1654 he was taken very ill and became comatose. The \nrumor of his approaching end spread round the city\, everyone suddenly \nremembered the saint again\, and numbers came to kiss his hands before it was \ntoo late. His cell was stripped of everything that could be carried off as a relic. \nSt. Peter Claver never fully recovered consciousness\, and died two days later on \nthe birthday of our Lady. The civil authorities who had looked askance at his \nsolicitude for mere Negro slaves\, and the clergy\, who had called his zeal \nindiscreet and his energy wasted\, now vied with one another to honor his \nmemory… He was canonized in 1888 and was declared by Pope Leo XIII patron \nof all missionary enterprises among Negroes.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-peter-claver-4/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260910
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260911
DTSTAMP:20260906T130847Z
CREATED:20260906T130847Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260906T130847Z
UID:15454-1788998400-1789084799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nWILLIAM OF ST THIERRY \n◊◊◊ \nNow we on our part hold you dear by the affection of Love which you have \nimplanted in us. But how is it with you? Do you\, the Creator of all things\, both of \nthe good dispositions and of souls that are to be affected by them\, do you love \nthose whom you do love by some extraneous\, incidental activity? And are you\, \nthe Maker of all people and all things\, in some way\, in some respect\, affected in \nso doing? It is unthinkable! It would be ridiculous and contrary to faith to \nimpute such a thing to the Creator of all! \nWell\, then\, how do you love us\, if you do not love us with love? But\, O you \nwho are the One supremely good and the ultimate Goodness\, your love is your \ngoodness\, the Holy spirit proceeding from the father and the Son! From the \nbeginning of creation he has been borne upon the waters – on the tossing souls \nof mortals\, that is – offering himself to all\, drawing all to himself. And by \nbreathing into and upon them\, by warding off things harmful and supplying \nthings useful\, he unites God to us and us to God. Your Holy Spirit\, who is called \nthe Love\, and the Unity\, and the Will of the Father and the Son\, dwells in us by \nhis grace and implants in us the charity of God; and through that charity he \nreconciles God to us. And thus he unites us to God through the good will that he \nbreathes into us. And with us this vehement good will goes by the name of love\, \nby which we love what we ought to love\, namely you. For love is nothing other \nthan a vehement\, well-ordered will… \nWe first hoped\, because we knew your name\, O Lord; we gloried in you as \nLord and loved the name of the Lord in you. But now\, through the grace \ninbreathed into us by the Spirit of your adoption\, we have confidence that all \nthat the father has is ours also. So\, through the grace of adoption\, we invoke you \nnow under the same name as your only Son invokes you by right of nature. But \nbecause all this derives exclusively from you\, O sovereign Father of lights\, for \nwhom to love is to do good and from whom comes every good endowment and \nevery perfect gift\, you\, I say\, love yourself in us\, and us in yourself\, when we love \nyou through you. \nWe are…God’s offspring\, we\, all of us\, are gods and children of the Most \nHigh through a kind of spiritual kinship. We claim for ourselves a closer \nrelationship with you\, because through the Spirit of adoption your Son does not \nscorn to be known by the same name as we\, and because with and by him\, taught \nby saving precepts and schooled by God’s ordinance\, we are bold to say: “Our \nFather\, who art in heaven.”
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-465/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260911
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260912
DTSTAMP:20260906T130949Z
CREATED:20260906T130949Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260906T130949Z
UID:15456-1789084800-1789171199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nCARDINAL JEAN DANIELOU \n◊◊◊ \nThe Christian Life is altogether an act of waiting. Christians know that \nthey are made for greater things. They feel acutely the misery of their present \ncondition. They aspire to be relieved of the weight of animal life and its \nservitude. “I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ”. While the carnal in us \ngrasps desperately at pleasures and possessions\, the Christian lives already in \nthe order of being\, detached\, free\, making use of time\, so long as it is given\, to \nperform works of charity towards all – an activity invisible to the eyes of the \nworld. The Christian life is a hidden life. \nBut when the world is folded up like a tent\, the reality that has been \nhidden until that moment will be clearly revealed. It is to prepare oneself for this \nsolemn act\, which is the entry of every person into the heavenly Temple\, \nthrough the veil that still conceals it\, that one’s whole life must be devoted. \nThat life consists for the Christian in being endowed little by little with \ndivine manners. And the education that proceeds till the hour of death – for all \nlife is only an adolescence – consists\, as Jean Guitton says\, “in that discipline by \nwhich we prepare the child for temporal life\, the adult for eternal life\, so that \nwhatever we see\, we feel we have seen it already.” We must not be without a \ncountry on our arrival in heaven. Our life is an apprenticeship. It is a matter of \nlearning the rudiments of what we shall have one day to do. \nSo let us already try in prayer to stammer what will later be the \n‘conversation in heaven’ with God and his angels; so we must try to make less \ncrude this intellect of ours\, which is so immersed in the world of time and space\, \nand to acclimatize it gradually to heavenly things through the action of the gifts \nof the Holy Spirit. Thus charity itself is the clumsy beginning of that complete \ncommunion which will embrace all the saints. So doing\, we begin to do what we \nhave always to do. It is our real life which is being mapped out. Let us begin it.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-office-for-the-dead-29/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260912
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260913
DTSTAMP:20260906T131058Z
CREATED:20260906T131058Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260906T131058Z
UID:15458-1789171200-1789257599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Peter Tarentaise
DESCRIPTION:A reading from Butler’s Lives of the Saints on \nST PETER OF TARENTAISE \n◊◊◊ \nSt Peter of Tarentaise was born near Vienne in the French province of the \nDauphine. He early displayed a remarkable memory\, coupled with great \ninclination for religious studies\, and at the age of twenty he entered the abbey of \nBonnevaux. After a time\, his father and the other two sons followed Peter to \nBonnevaux\, while his mother\, with the only daughter\, entered a neighboring \nnunnery. \nHe was not quite thirty when he was chosen superior of a new house built \nat Tamie\, in the desert mountains of Tarentaise. It over looked the pass which \nwas then the chief route from Geneva to Savoy\, and the monks were able to be of \ngreat use to travelers. There\, with the help of Amadeus III\, Count of Savoy\, who \nheld him in high esteem\, he founded a hospice for the sick and for strangers\, in \nwhich he was wont to wait upon his guests with his own hands. \nIn 1142 came his election to the archbishopric of Tarentaise\, and Peter \nwas compelled by St Bernard and the general chapter of his order\, though much \nagainst the grain\, to accept the office. He found the diocese in a deplorable state\, \ndue mainly to the mismanagement of his predecessor\, an unworthy man who \nhad eventually to be deposed. In place of the cathedral clergy whom he found lax \nand careless; St Peter substituted canons regular of St Augustine. He undertook \nthe constant visitation of his diocese; recovered property which had been \nalienated; appointed good priests to various parishes; made excellent \nfoundations for the education of the young and relief of the poor; and \neverywhere provided for the due celebration of the services of the Church.. \nIn 1155\, after he had administered the diocese for thirteen years\, Peter \nsuddenly disappeared. Actually\, he had made his way to a remote Cistercian \nabbey in Switzerland\, where\, he was accepted as a lay-brother. Not until a year \nlater was he discovered. His identity having been revealed to his new superiors\, \nPeter was obliged to leave and return to his see\, where he was greeted with great \njoy. He took up his duties more zealously than ever. He rebuilt the hospice of the \nLittle St Bernard and founded other similar refuges for travelers in the Alps… \nIt was not granted to the saint to die among his mountain flock. His \nreputation as a peacemaker led Alexander III to send him in 1174 to try effect a \nreconciliation between King Louis VII of France and Henry II of England. St \nPeter\, though he was old\, set out at once\, preaching everywhere on his way. As \nhe approached Chaumont in the Vexin\, where the French court was being held\, \nhe was met by King Louis and by Prince Henry\, the rebellious heir to the English \nthrone. The latter\, alighting from his horse to receive the archbishop’s blessing\, \nasked for the saint’s old cloak\, which he reverently kissed. \nBoth at Chaumont and at Gisors where he interviewed the English king\, St \nPeter was treated with utmost honor\, but the reconciliation for which he labored \ndid not take place until after his death. As he was returning to his diocese he was \ntaken ill on the road near Besançon\, and died as he was being carried into the \nabbey of Bellevaux. This St Peter was canonized in 1191.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-peter-tarentaise/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR