Vigils Reading - St Francis de Sales
2025-01-24
A DELICATE SENSE
OF GOD’S PRESENCE
By St Francis de Sales
◊◊◊
The soul thus inwardly recollected in God or in God’s presence is at times
rendered so sweetly attentive to the goodness of its beloved as to think that its
attention is not actually attention, so simply and so delicately is it exercised. It
is like certain rivers which flow so calmly and smoothly that those who look at
them or sail on them seem neither to see nor to feel any motion, since they see
no waves or currents whatever. This loving repose of the soul is called the
“prayer of quiet” by the holy virgin Teresa of Jesus, and is scarcely different
from that which she calls “the sleep of the powers,” at least if I understand her
properly.
Indeed, even men in love are at times content with being near or within
sight of the one they love without actually speaking to her and without thinking
especially either of her or of her perfections. They seem to be pleased and
satisfied with enjoying this dear presence, not by any consideration they give it
but by a certain calm and repose their spirit finds in it…
Sometimes this repose goes so deep in its tranquility that the whole soul
and all its powers remain as if sunk in sleep. They make no movement or action
whatsoever, except the will alone and even it does no more than receive the joy
and contentment that it receives but enjoys it insensibly. It does not think of
itself but of him whose presence gives it such pleasure. It is like what often
happens when we drop off unaware into a light sleep. We only half hear what
our friends are saying around us, or feel their caresses almost imperceptibly
without feeling that we feel.
Nevertheless, the soul enjoying in this sweet repose such a delicate sense
of God’s presence, even though it does not have perception of such enjoyment,
still shows clearly how precious to it and how worthy of love is this happiness.
For when anyone tries to deprive the soul of it or something turns it from it, then
that poor soul complains, cries out, even weeps at times. It is like a little child
awakened before it has slept enough; by the pain it feels on being awakened
clearly shows the pleasure it had in sleep. For this reason the heavenly shepherd
adjures the daughters of Sion, “by the roes and harts of the fields,” not to cause
the beloved to awaken up until she pleases, that is, to let her awaken by herself.
A soul thus at peace in its God would not change that repose for all the world’s
greatest goods.

Vigils Reading - Conversion of St Paul
2025-01-25
THE BEARER OF A MISSION
By Fr Lucien Cerfaux
◊◊◊
In terms of today, Paul passed from the Jewish religion to Christianity. He
is the first of the great “converts” who distinguish the pages of Christian history
and provide the apologists with proof of the supremacy of our religion. Yet he
himself would not have used the term “conversion” if this implied abandoning
one religion for another. For him Christianity was not a new religion, distinct
from Judaism. If it had been suggested to Paul that he was no longer a Jew, he
would not have understood what was meant. The many protests in the epistles
do not apply to the past: Paul is and continues to be Hebrew and Jew, in race
and religion…
We can state definitely that St Paul interprets the event which took place
on the road to Damascus as a call from God, a vocation to a mission which ranks
him with the prophets of the Old Testament. Like the prophets, he has been
granted a vision; like them, he has been given a mission, and like them too, he is
constrained to answer the call: his human resolve is endowed by grace to such
an extent that it is God himself who carries out the work with which the Apostle
is entrusted.
The book of Acts confirms these conclusions. Paul is the chosen instru-
ment to “carry” the name of Christ, that is, to bear witness, in the midst of
persecution, before kings, nations and Israel. The three accounts of the vision at
Damascus agree with the Epistle to the Galatians; Paul changed abruptly from
being an active persecutor of the church and submitted himself to the orders
transmitted by Christ…
There are two distinct aspects of his vocation. The first concerns salvation
only: the chosen are destined for the messianic era; they are called children of
God, they receive the messianic graces. The summons to the messianic feast was
known to the rabbis from the first century and was used by Jesus. A second
series of texts reserves the call to outstanding leaders in the Old Testament such
as Abraham, Moses, Joshua, the prophets, who were predestined before their
birth and “called” at the chosen moment by God. When he calls someone by
name it is to entrust that one with a mission.
St Paul is called as the bearer of a mission. He is ranked on the same level
as the spiritual leaders of Israel and shares their privileges. His mission is
addressed to the gentiles, to whom he will transmit the call to the messianic
graces.

Skema
2025-01-26
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
3rd Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
Jan. 26 – Feb. 1, 2025

Sun
26
Mon
27
Tue
28
Wed
29
Thu
30
Fri
31
Sat
1

Office
SS Robert, Alberic, & Stephen
SS Timothy & Titus
St Thomas Aquinas
Office for the Dead
Weekday
Weekday
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Lev 26:3-13
1 Kings 7:23-51
1 Kings 8:1-21
1 Kings 8:22-40
1 Kings 8:41-53
1 Kings 8:54-66
1 Kings 9:1-14

Lauds
Sir 2:1-11
Amos 1:1-5
Amos 1:6-10
Amos 1:11-15
Amos 2:1-5
Amos 2:6-16
Amos 3:1-8

Mass
606, 322, 815.8
520, 317
318
319
320
321
322

1st
Sir 44:1,10-15
2 Tim 1:1-8
Heb 10:1-10
Heb 10:11-18
Heb 10:19-25
Heb 10:32-39
Heb 11:1-2, 8-19

2nd
Heb 11:1-2, 8-16

Gospel
Mark 10:24b-30
Mark 3:22-30
Mark 3:31-35
Mark 4:1-20
Mark 4:21-25
Mark 4:26-34
Mark 4:35-41

Vespers
Eph 4:1-6
1 Cor 4:14-21
1 Cor 5:6-13
1 Cor 6:1-11
1 Cor 6:12-20
1 Cor 7:17-24
Rom 12:1-5

Vigils Reading - SS Robert, Alberic, & Stephen
2025-01-26
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE
CISTERCIAN ORDER
A reading from the “Exordium Parvum”
◊◊◊
We Cistercians, the first founders of this Church, in this document hereby
relate to our successors how this Monastery and its way of life took its beginning
according to the Laws of Holy Mother the Church; by what authority it began,
and also by what persons and at what times; so that by the telling of the plain
and unadulterated truth, they may be moved to a deep love for this Monastery
and for the observance of the Holy Rule of St Benedict which was begun in it by
us through the Grace of God; and that they might pray for us who have borne the
heat and the burden of the day without losing courage; that they might labor
with great fervor in the straight and narrow way which the Rule describes, even
unto complete union with God, when, having shed the garments of this flesh,
they might happily rest in eternal peace.
In the year 1098, Robert of blessed memory, the first Abbot of the Church
of Molesme founded in the Diocese of Langre, together with some of the
brethren from the same Monastery, came to the venerable Hugh, who was at
that time the Legate of the Holy See and the Archbishop of the Church of Lyons,
stating that they desired to live their life under the guidance of the Holy Rule of
Father Benedict, and that in order that they might follow out these designs with
greater freedom and security, they earnestly entreated him that he would bless
and endorse their project with his Apostolic Authority. The Legate was happily
pleased with their desire, and he laid the foundation of their beginnings by his
Letter.
After these affairs, Robert and those who sided with him returned to
Molesme and chose from that community of brethren those who wished to
associate with themselves, brothers who had made their vows according to the
Rule; so that between those who had spoken to the Legate at Lyons and those
who had been chosen from the Monastery, there were twenty-one monks.
Accompanied by such a troop, they made their way in all haste to the desert
which was called Citeaux… Because of the thickness of the woods and
undergrowth, it was very rarely visited by people and it was inhabited by
nothing but wild animals.
When they arrived there, the men of God immediately conceived a great
and holy reverence for the place, for the more contemptible and inaccessible it
was to the people of the world, the more they considered it fit for their life. This
was the very reason for which they had come there. Far away and hidden by the
density of trees and undergrowth, they began to construct a monastery there
with the help of the Bishop of Chalons-sur-Saone and the consent of the one
who owned the property. For these men, while they were still at Molesme,
inspired by the grace of God, had frequently spoken among themselves about
the transgressions of the Rule of Blessed Benedict, Father of Monks. They had
lamented and grown sad in spirit, seeing that both they and the rest of the
monks who had promised by their Solemn Profession that they would observe
this Rule, kept that promise to a very small degree. On account of this, by the
authority of the Holy See, they came to this solitude in order that they might
fulfill their profession by the observance of the Holy Rule.

Vigils Reading - SS Timothy & Titus
2025-01-27
THE VIRTUE OF ST TIMOTHY
AS A PATTERN FOR CHRISTIANS
From a sermon by St John Henry Newman
◊◊◊
“Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and
for your other infirmities”. This is a remarkable verse, because it accidentally tells
us so much. It is addressed to Timothy, St Paul’s companion, the first Bishop of
Ephesus. Of Timothy we know very little, except that he did minister to St Paul,
and hence we might have inferred that he was a man of very saintly character; but
we know little or nothing of him, except that he had been from a child a careful
reader of Scripture…
Timothy…had so read the Old Testament, and had so heard from St Paul the
New, that he was a true follower of the Apostle, as the Apostle was of Christ. St Paul
accordingly calls him “my own son”, or “my true son in the faith”. And elsewhere
he says to the Philippians that he has “no man like-minded to Timothy, who would
naturally” or truly “care for their state”… St Paul does not expressly tell us that he
was a man of mortified habits; but he reveals the fact indirectly by cautioning him
against an excess of mortification. “Drink no longer water,” he says, “but use a little
wine.” It should be observed that wine, in the southern countries, is the ordinary
beverage; it is nothing strong or costly. Yet even from such as this, Timothy was in
the habit of abstaining, and restricting himself to water; and, as the Apostle
thought, imprudently, to the increase of his “frequent infirmities.”
There is something very striking in this accidental mention of the private
ways of this Apostolic Bishop. We know indeed from history the doctrine and the
life of the great saints, who lived some time after the Apostles’ age; but we are
naturally anxious to know something more of the Apostles themselves and their
associates. We say, “Oh that we could speak to St Paul – that we could see him in his
daily walk, and hear his…teaching! – that we could ask him what he meant by this
expression in his Epistles, or what he thought of this or the other doctrine.” This is
not given to us. God might give us greater light than He does; but it is His gracious
will to give us the less. Yet perhaps much more has been given us in Scripture, as it
has come to us, than we think, if our eyes were enlightened to discern it there. Such,
for instance, is this text; it is a sudden revelation, a glimpse of the personal
character of Apostolic Christians; it is a hint which we may follow out. For no one
will deny that a very great deal of doctrine, and a very great deal of precept, goes
with such a fact as this: namely, that this holy man, without impiously disparaging
God’s creation, and thanklessly rejecting God’s gifts, yet, on the whole, lived a life
of abstinence.
I cannot understand why such a life is not excellent in a Christian now, if it
was the characteristic of Apostles and friends of Apostles then. I really do not see
why the trials and persecutions, which surrounded them from Jews and Gentiles,
their forlorn despised state, and their necessary discomforts, should not even have
exempted them from voluntary sufferings in addition, unless such self-imposed
hardships were pleasing to Christ. Such were the holy men of old. How far are we
below them! Alas for our easy sensual life, our cowardice, our sloth! Is this the way
by which the kingdom of God is won?

Vigils Reading - St Thomas Aquinas
2025-01-28
THE ATTITUDE OF ST THOMAS
AQUINAS BEFORE THE TRUTH
By Josef Pieper
◊◊◊
In considering the teaching of St Thomas, we should not understand it
merely as the material substance of an explicitly formulated set of doctrines.
Much too rarely does one remember that the substance of the content [of his
writings] has its origin in a very special attitude of St Thomas, human as well as
intellectual, not only in the sense that this attitude colors the work with its
particular emphasis, but also in the sense that without this special human
attitude, what has been written might never have been written at all.
Should we therefore not consider this attitude, this temper of mind –
though Thomas himself never expressly formulated it – as part and parcel of the
spirit of the ratio of the Universal Doctor of Christendom – the bold intrepidity
which impelled and enabled the young mendicant friar at the University of Paris
to “re-cognize” the truth of the Aristotelian worldview, to re-integrate it as an
essential part into the intellectual heritage of the Christian West, undaunted by
the opposition of the defenders of traditional doctrine. And should we not see in
the personal “style” of this bold recognition of truth and reality likewise an
element of “timeliness,” in the sense of an exemplary attitude?…
In times such as these it is imperative to call to mind the qualities which
make Thomas what he was: the all-inclusive, fearless strength of his
affirmation, his generous acceptance of the whole of reality, the trustful
magnanimity of his thought. And we find occasion, also, to remember: The
formal and theoretical justification for this attitude is found precisely in
Thomas’s doctrine of the infinitely many-sided truth of things. Truth cannot be
exhausted by any (human) knowledge; it remains therefore always open to new
formulation.
On the other hand, what we call here the “Thomist attitude” would have to
include, in order to remain true to its master, the resolution not to relinquish a
single particle of the heritage of truth; for it is the hallmark of the “modernity” of
Albert and Thomas that both refused to disrupt and abandon, for the sake of new
ideas, the realm of tradition. They relinquished neither the Bible nor Augustine
(nor, consequently, Plato) for the sake of Aristotle. The new territory which awaits
conquest today…is of virtually immeasurable scope… Thomas Aquinas might
attain to a new timeliness, both affirmative and corrective.

Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
2025-01-29
THE HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN
From a letter by St Alphonsus Liguori
◊◊◊
While we remain on earth, it is difficult, if not impossible, to understand
or describe the happiness of heaven. One reason for this is that we think and
imagine only in terms of earthly enjoyments. If a horse were made capable of
reasoning and then were promised a rich feast from its owner, the animal would
envision a meal made up of the choicest hay and oats. Our concept of heaven is
formed under the same limitations. In heaven we will be totally enthralled with
a beauty far surpassing anything we have experienced here on earth. In heaven
we will be sure that we love God and he loves us.
What is more, this love of ours will be constantly extended by the ever
increasing knowledge that we will gain of the magnitude of God’s love for us. We
will see how God showed this love, for example, by becoming man and dying on
the cross for us and by giving us himself in the holy Eucharist.
Also, we will see how many graces God gave us in our lifetime; how he
delivered us from so may temptations; how much patience he showed by
enduring our many weaknesses and sins; how merciful he was to us in giving us
so many lights, so many chances, so much love.
In heaven we will forever enjoy a kind of happiness which, even as eternity
progresses, will always be as new as at the first moment we began to enjoy it. We
shall be always satisfied, yet always craving. We will be forever hungry, yet always
sated with infinite delights, because desires in heaven produce no pain, and
pleasure in heaven never becomes boring.

Vigils Reading
2025-01-30
THE FIRE OF LOVE
By John of Ford
◊◊◊
‘May your will’, Lord Jesus, ‘be done on earth as it is in heaven for you,̓
said that it was your will that fire be enkindled on this earth, the fire you came to
send upon it. What you desired has happened. The furnace that is in Jerusalem
has enkindled a furnace on earth. Here on earth, just as in heaven, you have
made your ministers flames of fire, and like a devouring fire, they devour to the
right and to the left.
Indeed, love is never satisfied. It feels distaste for nothing, it does not
think anything should be rejected. It issues its call equally to the good and to the
bad, receiving them indiscriminately and making no distinction in favor of one
rather than the other. The only distinction, perhaps, is that it usually overflows
more copiously for those in whom sin has abounded. It is characteristic of love
that, like fire, it burns more fiercely where it finds sturdier tinder, and the
quality and quantity of what instigates it, makes its flame grow ever stronger.
Jesus makes this crystal clear in his parable of the two debtors; it is the one who
is forgiven most who loves most). He loves more, says Jesus, to whom more is
given; he loves more, meaning that he is urged by the debt and the material is
there to prompt him to greater love.
In my opinion, this is why Zechariah said those words I quoted above, that he
would make ‘the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a
flaming torch among the sheaves Obviously, because wood is harder than hay, it is.̓
better material for fires, and the more difficult it is to set it burning, the more it
blazes up once it has begun. It seems to change into the very substance of fire,
taking on its color as well as its heat. The sheaves, on the other hand, are those
whose sins are venial, and the flaming torch, that is, the opportunity to be forgiven
and receive unmerited grace, consumes them with a spark. Yet it is not a fiery spark
that touches the wood, but a furnace, so that, in some wonderful way, the wood
itself becomes fire by the intensity of the heat. And the wood takes to itself not only
the ability to burn, but also to enkindle.

Vigils Reading
2025-01-31
SIMPLICITY AND OPENNESS
From the Collected Works of Saint Rafael Arnaiz
◊◊◊
One must walk so many tortured paths to arrive at simplicity. Complication
is such an uncomfortable thing…and we human beings like to complicate
everything for ourselves. Often, if we fail to practice virtue, it’s because our
complicated nature rejects what is simple. Often, we fail to appreciate the
magnificence hidden within an act of simplicity, because we look for greatness in
complicated things; we judge the magnificence of things based on their difficulty…
I clearly see that what seemed dark and complicated to me before is actually
rather simple and straightforward. Virtue…God…the interior life, how difficult I
thought it was to live that! It’s not that I’m virtuous now, or that I have a
completely clear knowledge of God and spiritual life, but I’ve realized that you get
there without complications or complexities, without clever philosophy, without
technical challenges. I’ve come to see that you reach God in precisely the opposite
manner. You come to know Him through simplicity of heart and being
uncomplicated. There’s nothing difficult about acts of love… What’s truly difficult
is wanting to know God by searching out His mysteries. The former leads us to
God, and the latter does not…
So, then, why do we lack virtue at times? Because we aren’t simple; because
we complicate our desires; because everything we want is made difficult by our
weak will, which gets carried away by whatever is pleasing, comfortable, and
unnecessary, and often by its passions. We lack virtue not because it is difficult, but
because we don’t want it. We lack patience…because we don’t want it. We lack
temperance…because we don’t want it. We lack chastity…for the same reason. We
would be saints if we wanted to be…it’s much harder to become an engineer than it
is to become a saint. If only we had faith!
The interior life…the spiritual life, a life of prayer. “My God! That must be
difficult!” But it’s not at all. Get rid of everything in your heart that’s in the way,
and you’ll find God there. That’s it. Often we look for things that aren’t there, and
on the other hand we’ll walk right by a treasure without seeing it…We look for Him
in a whole tangled mess of things, and to us, the more complicated they are, the
better. And all the while, we are carrying God around inside of us, yet we don’t look
for Him there. Collect yourself within…gaze upon your nothingness, gaze upon the
nothingness of the world, place yourself at the foot of the cross, and if you are
simple, you will see God… All we have to do is want Him, and God will fill the soul
again in such a way that you’d have to be blind not to see it.
If a soul wants to live according to God’s ways…it must be rid of everything
that is not Him…and that is it. It’s quite easy. If we wanted to, and if we asked God
with simplicity, we would make great progress in the spiritual life. If we wanted to
be saints, we would be… But we’re such fools that we don’t want to…We prefer to
waste time on stupid vanities. We’ll regret that someday.
But I am very happy, because I have come to see that everything is simple
and straightforward…and this is within my reach.

Vigils Reading - Memorial of the BVM
2025-02-01
SHE HEARD THE WORD OF GOD
AND KEPT IT
By Fr Hans Urs von Balthasar
◊◊◊
Mary is a “prototype of the church,” and this for two reasons: she is the
place of the real and bodily indwelling of the Word in the most intimate union of
Mother and Child sharing the same flesh; and, in the spiritual sphere, she is –
and to this the former is due – a servant, in her entire person, body and soul, one
who knows no law of her own, but only conformity to the Word of God. Because
she was a virgin, which means a pure, exclusive hearer of the word, she became
mother, the place of the incarnation of the Word. Her womb was blessed, only
because she “heard the word of God and kept it”, because she “kept all these
words and pondered them in her heart”. She is the model which should govern
contemplation, if it is to keep clear of two dangers: one, that of seeing the word
only as something external, instead of the profoundest mystery within our own
being, that in which we live, move and are: the other, that of regarding the word
as so interior to us that we confuse it with our own being, with a natural wisdom
given us once and for all, and ours to use as we will….
The hearer par excellence is the virgin who became pregnant with the
Word, and bore him as her own and the Father’s son. She herself, even when
mother, remained a servant; the Father alone is the Master, together with the
Son, who is her life and who molds her life. She lives wholly for the fruit of her
womb. Even after she has given him birth, she continues to carry him within
her; she only needs to look into her heart to find him. But she does not omit, on
that account, to turn her gaze uninterruptedly upon the child growing up by her
side, upon the youth and the man, whose ideas and actions seem to her ever
more unpredictable and astonishing.
More and more she “understood not” what he meant – when he stayed
behind in the Temple without telling her, when he failed to receive her, when, in
his public life, he concealed his power and spent himself in vain and, in the end,
detached himself from her as she stood at the foot of the cross, substituting for
himself a stranger, John, to be her son. With all the force of her body, she obeys
the word that resounds ever more strongly and divinely but seems more and
more alien and almost tears her asunder, although, in spite of all, she has given
herself to it wholly and radically in advance. She lets herself be led whither she
“knows not”; so far is the word she follows from being her own wisdom. Yet she
is wholly in accord with its leading, so surely is the word she loves “engrafted” in
her heart.

Skema
2025-02-02
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
4th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
February 2 – 8, 2025

Sun
2
Mon
3
Tue
4
Wed
5
Thu
6
Fri
7
Sat
8

Office
Presentation of the Lord
Weekday
Weekday
St Agatha
St Paul Miki & Comp
Weekday
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Exod 13:1-16
1 Kings 9:15-28
1 Kings 10:1-13
1 Kings 10:14-29
1 Kings 11:1-13
1 Kings 11:14-25
1 Kings 11:26-40

Lauds
Isa 42:1-7
Amos 3:9-12
Amos 3:13-15
Amos 4:1-5
Amos 4:6-10
Amos 4:11-13
Amos 5:1-6, 8-9

Mass
524
323
324
325
326
327
328

1st
Mal 3:1-4
Heb 11:32-40
Heb 12:1-4
Heb 12:4-7, 11-15
Heb 12:18-19, 21-24
Heb 13:1-8
Heb 13:15-17, 20-21

2nd
Heb 2:14-18

Gospel
Luke 2:22-40
Mark 5:1-20
Mark 5:21-43
Mark 6:1-6
Mark 6:7-13
Mark 6:14-29
Mark 6:30-34

Vespers
1 Jn 3:1-8
1 Cor 8:4-13
1 Cor 9:1-12a
1 Cor 9:12b-18
1 Cor 9:19-27
1 Cor 10:1-13
1 Cor 10:14-22

Vigils Reading - Presentation of the Lord
2025-02-02
THE PASCHAL SIGNIFICANCE
OF JESUS’ PRESENTATION
From “Sign of Contradiction” by Pope St John Paul II
◊◊◊
Forty days after the nativity the Church celebrates an event full of
spiritual significance. On that day the Son of God, as a tiny child of poor parents,
born in a rough stable in Bethlehem, was carried to the temple in Jerusalem.
This was his own temple, the temple of the living God, but he came to it not as
the Lord but as one under the law. For the poor the law prescribed that forty
days after the birth of the firstborn two turtle-doves or two young pigeons must
be offered in sacrifice, as a sign that the child was consecrated to the Lord.
The message which the Spirit of God allowed the old man Simeon to sense
and express so wonderfully was implicitly in the event itself, in this first
encounter between the Messiah and his temple. On seeing the child, Simeon
begins to utter words that are not of human provenance. He prophesies,
prompted by the Holy Spirit; he speaks with the voice of God, the God for whom
the temple was built and who is its rightful master.
Simeon’s words begin, in what the liturgy calls the Song, by bearing
witness to the light… They end…by bearing witness to the cross, in which
contradiction of Jesus, the Christ, is to find tangible expression. The cost of the
cross was shared by the mother, whose soul — according to Simeon’s words —
was to be pierced by a sword, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be laid
bare.
Chronologically the presentation of Jesus in the temple is linked with the
nativity, but in its significance it belongs with the mystery of the pasch. It is the
first of the events which clearly reveal the messianic status of the newborn child.
With him are linked the fall and the rising of many in the old Israel and also the
new. On him the future of humankind depends. It is he who is the true Lord of
the ages to come. His reign begins when the temple sacrifice is offered in
accordance with the law, and it attains full realization through the sacrifice on
the cross, offered in accordance with an eternal plan of love.

Vigils Reading
2025-02-03
THE EYEWITNESS OF THE APOSTLES
By Fr Hans Urs von Balthasar
◊◊◊
The Apostles are the founders of the Church, officially chosen and called
by the Lord, whose first function will be to be eyewitnesses. They are drawn into
living community with the Messiah, a relationship in which they will enjoy with
this man, who is ‘God among us’, a commerce that is fully human, that engages
both their senses and their spirit. They are ‘those with him’, ‘those who
accompany him’, and ‘those around him’. This is what they are, and they will
grow more and more into this way of life in the course of Jesus’ life. They
constitute the original cell of God’s community with us, which had been
promised and is now being realized. All those coming after them who wish to
have community with God must become a part of this original cell. There are
many others who come to the Lord, only to go away again, many others who stay
with him a while only then to leave him, or simply others who have a loose
connection with him without any particular calling.
By contrast, the Apostles enjoy a community with Jesus which has precise
contours, a community which he has consciously established and maintained,
which is founded on the definitive life-long renunciation of all else: it is
something wholly formed, distinctive in shape. And yet it is not something
magical imposed from above, since the son of perdition will indeed fall away;
rather, it is the realization of the covenant-partnership between God and
ourselves.
Eyewitness, in turn, is an association with the Lord in his public life, in his
Passion, and in his death which is the communal, human, and realistic
experience of God which continues and fulfills the Old Testament’s promise of
an earthly God-with-us. But this phase comes to an end with Jesus’ death. The
Apostles’ senses, accustomed to his existence, now fall into the void. There is no
longer anything there to see, to hear, to touch. The Apostles’ whole human
experience breaks off with the three days in death, then to resume anew,
without any traceable continuity, with Christ’s Resurrection, at a place whose
distance from the point of disruption can be known and measured only by God.
And now, during the forty days, the association with the Lord will be
experienced with wholly new senses.
The eyewitness of the Apostles draws all its force from this last phase, to
be sure; otherwise they could hardly bear witness to anything more than an
extraordinary man who was prophetically gifted and who performed miracles.
But it draws its force not, indeed, solely from the witness of the Resurrection,
but from the fact that the man who appeared to them was the same whom they
had known previously from long association and whom they had seen suffer and
die. Seeing him, hearing him, touching him, observing how he eats, the proof of
the wounds” all of this receives its full significance only in that light.

Vigils Reading
2025-02-04
ON PREACHING CHRIST
By St Albert the Great
◊◊◊
Just as the body is borne about on legs, so Christ is borne about by
preachers. Professional preachers have the gospel in their heart through love and
understanding, in their lips through their preaching and doctrine, and in their
hand through the accomplishment of their work.
Gregory says: “The preacher’s tongue works to no avail unless there is the
grace of redemption at work within.” Hence, the office of preaching must not be
entrusted to those who lead a shady life and perform works of darkness. The
preacher must put off the old association with sin. The word of the Lord must
proceed maturely and orderly, as befits the word of God and as it proceeds from
the mouth of God.
Thus preaching requires instruction, and study, and meditation. Just as
the eagle has a more sublime flight, so must the preacher soar by means of
contemplation. For a sermon which proceeds from a preacher’s innermost being
warms and gladdens the heart like wine and is often brought back to the mind
and pondered.
The things to be preached are those above nature which our intelligence
can only understand through faith. Especially to be preached are those things
that must be believed, which works are to be avoided and which to be
accomplished. Preaching should summon sinners to repentance, strengthen the
weak, warn of the punishment for sinners, and promise glory. Preachers must
offer not their own teaching of truth but the teaching of the one who sent them.
They must lead an exemplary life as well.
Preachers who are sent, going out from their comfort into the field to sow
the word of God, will find the Church of believers to be united with themselves in
a spiritual marriage. Just as the sight of open fields will impel a horse to run,
which is one of its skills, so the sight of a place filled with people eager to listen
will inspire a preacher to preach. Preachers will thus proceed to insure their own
spiritual growth, that by contemplating they might imbibe the truth which by
preaching they give forth; they are converted from an external work, which they
directed toward their neighbor, to familiar conversation with God in the secret of
their own conscience.
The scribe is the Holy Spirit, and the preacher’s tongue is the pen by which
the Holy Spirit speaks. And just as we do not praise the pen for fine writing but
rather the writer, so the preacher should not be praised for good preaching but
the Holy Spirit.
The word of God is to be preached to everyone without respect to persons.
It must be taught in a human way and inserted into the human heart by the finger
of God. It should be taught to the unlearned by the examples of corporal things
through the bodily examples with which they are acquainted and by which they
can in some way understand heavenly things.

Vigils Reading - St Agatha
2025-02-05
ST AGATHA
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints
◊◊◊
St Agatha has retained her place in the Universal Calendar following the
reforms of 1969, even though nothing that can be called historical fact is known
of her life. There is, however, good evidence of an early cult, with many versions
of her legend recorded in both Greek and Latin, the Greek being the earlier, with
the Latin dating from the sixth century. This means that however fictitious the
details of her Acts, she cannot be dismissed as a mere fiction altogether. Her
Acts, though, are more of an indication of the type of woman held up for
veneration as a saint in the early centuries than anything else.
She is described as a wealthy woman who had dedicated her virginity to
Christ. This, then, rather than her life, is the most precious thing she has to
offer. Her birthplace is assigned to either Palermo or Catania in Sicily, and she is
said to have died at Catania, which has the stronger historical claim to be her
birthplace. Among those who try to take the precious gift she has vowed to
Christ from her is a consul named Quintianus. He used the imperial edict
against Christians to have her brought before him, then placed in a brothel run
by a woman with the appropriate name of “Aphrodisia” and her assistants,
referred to as her daughters. All tricks, assaults and threats to make her yield
her virginity fail, and so she stands as an example of “virginity as a sacred power,
a concrete realization within this world of the divine spirit”.
Quintianus then handed her over to be tortured, and her Acts dwell on the
tortures inflicted on her, culminating in the cutting off of her breasts, which
were placed on a platter. Perhaps because further details of her tortures involve
her being rolled over live coals, she is invoked against fire in general. This may,
though, be an extension of her protection against eruptions from Mount Etna,9
because she is associated with Sicily, and her legend states that after her death a
flow of lava from Mount Etna was miraculously diverted by her silken veil held
up on a staff. This is last recorded as happening in the 1840s, and her veil is still
carried in solemn procession on her feast day in Catania. By extension she
protects against earthquakes everywhere. She is also patron saint of bell-
founders. The association is ancient and certain, but the reason has not been
determined. It may be that it derives from her protection against volcanic
eruptions and fire, as bells were rung to warn of both. Another explanation
given is that the molten metal involved in casting bells suggests the flow of
molten lava. Her breasts also brought a more appropriate patronage, as she is
invoked against diseases of the breast. Her breasts on a dish were often
mistaken for loaves in the Middle ages, from which arose the custom of blessing
bread on a dish at her altar on her feast day.
Pope Damasus I composed a hymn in her honor. Two churches were
dedicated to her in the sixth century. Pope St Gregory the Great had rich shrines
made for some of her relics in Rome, then moved them to the monastery of San
Stefano on the island of Capri. Other relics remained in Catania until 1840,
when they were moved to Constantinople.
Whatever the facts behind her legend, Agatha remains one of the best-
loved and most invoked saints in the Christian devotional life.

Vigils Reading - St Paul Miki & Comp
2025-02-06
THE MARTYRDOM OF ST PAUL MIKI
AND HIS COMPANIONS
By a contemporary writer
◊◊◊
The crosses were set in place. Fr Pasio and Fr Rodriguez took turns
encouraging the victims. Their steadfast behavior was wonderful to see. The
Father Bursar stood motionless, his eyes turned heavenward. Brother Martin
gave thanks to God’s goodness by singing psalms. Again and again he repeated:
“Into your hands, Lord, I entrust my life.” Brother Francis Branco also thanked
God in a loud voice. Brother Gonsalvo in a very loud voice kept saying the Our
Father and Hail Mary.
Our brother, Paul Miki, saw himself now standing in the noblest pulpit he
had ever filled. To his “congregation” he began by proclaiming himself a
Japanese and a Jesuit. He was dying for the Gospel he preached. He gave thanks
to God for this wonderful blessing and he ended his “sermon” with these words:
“As I come to this supreme moment of my life, I am sure none of you would
suppose I want to deceive you. And so I tell you plainly: there is no way to be
saved except the Christian way. My religion teaches me to pardon my enemies
and all who have offended me. I do gladly pardon the Emperor and all who have
sought my death. I beg them to seek baptism and be Christians themselves.”
Then he looked at his comrades and began to encourage them in their
final struggle. Joy glowed in all their faces, and in Louis’ most of all. When a
Christian in the crowd cried out to him that he would soon be in heaven, his
hands, his whole body strained upward with such joy that every eye was fixed on
him.
Anthony, hanging at Louis’ side, looked toward heaven and called upon
the holy names – “Jesus, Mary!” He began to sing a psalm: “praise the Lord, you
children!”… Others kept repeating “Jesus, Mary!” Their faces were serene. Some
of them even took to urging the people standing by to live worthy Christian lives.
In these and other ways they showed their readiness to die.
Then, according to Japanese custom, the four executioners began to
unsheathe their spears. At this dreadful sight, all the Christians cried out,
“Jesus, Mary!” And the storm of anguished weeping then rose to batter the very
skies. The executioners killed them one by one. One thrust of the spear, then a
second blow. It was over in a very short time.

Vigils Reading
2025-02-07
THE WATERS OF REGENERATION
From a sermon by St Ambrose
◊◊◊
What is regeneration? You can read in the Acts of the Apostles a verse
which is cited from the second psalm: “You are my son, I have begotten you
today”. The words seem to refer to the resurrection. Indeed, the holy apostle
Peter interprets them in this way in the Acts of the Apostles: when the Son rose
from the dead the Father’s voice was heard proclaiming: “You are my son, I have
begotten you today.” That is why he is also called “the first-born from the dead.
For what is resurrection except that we rise from death to life? So it is in baptism,
which is an image of death: when you are immersed and rise up again, there,
certainly, is an image of the resurrection. And as Christ’s resurrection, according
to the right interpretation of the apostle Peter, is a regeneration, so also this
resurrection here is a regeneration.
But what conclusions do you draw from the fact that it is in water that you
are immersed. Are you a little lost here? Does some doubt creep in. We read:
“Let the earth produce for herself fruits which germinate.” You have read the
same about the waters: “Let the waters produce living things; and living things
were born”. These were born in the beginning, at the creation; but this gift was
kept for you: that the waters should regenerate you in grace, even as those other
waters generated into life. Imitate the fish; it received a lesser grace than you, but
you should still consider it a marvel. It is in the sea and the waves. It is in the sea
and swims on the waves. On the sea the tempest rages, violent winds blow; but
the fish swims on. It does not drown because it is used to swimming. In the same
way this world is the sea for you. It has various currents, huge waves, fierce
storms. You too, must be a fish, so that the waves of this world do not drown you.
Those are lovely words of the Father: “I have begotten you today.” It means
“when you have redeemed the world, when you have summoned hearts to the
kingdom of heaven, when you have fulfilled my will, you have proved that you are
my son.”

Vigils Reading - Memorial of BVM
2025-02-08
MARY, THE MOTHER OF JESUS
By St Thérèse of Lisieux
◊◊◊
In speaking of our Lady, we ought not to make improbable assertions
about matters that are beyond our knowledge, for example, that when she
was a small child she went up to the Temple to offer herself to God with
extraordinary fervor and a heart on fire with love. For all we know, she went
simply in obedience to her parents.
If a sermon on the Blessed Virgin is to bear fruit, it must describe her
real life, such as the Gospel gives us a glimpse of, and not her fancied life.
And we perceive clearly that her real life at Nazareth and later on must have
been quite ordinary…”He was subject to them”. How simple it all is!
Sometimes the Blessed Virgin is represented as being quite
unapproachable. Instead, we ought to show that she was imitable in her
practice of hidden virtues; we ought to point out that she lived a life of faith,
just as we do.
We know well that the Blessed Virgin is queen of heaven and earth; but
she is more of a mother than a queen, and we ought not to give out the idea,
as I have heard it done more than once, that because of her prerogatives she
eclipses the glory of all the saints, just as the sun, rising in brilliance, makes
the stars disappear. My God, what a strange thing to say! A mother who
makes the glory of her children disappear! For my part, I believe just the
opposite; I think that she will greatly increase the splendor of the elect.
We do well to speak of her prerogatives. But we should not stop there.
We should make her loved. If, when we hear a sermon on the Blessed Virgin,
the preacher tries to do nothing from beginning to end but call forth our
admiration, we become bored, and that does not lead to love and imitation.
Who knows but what some souls will not experience a certain sense of
estrangement from a creature so lofty?

skema: 5th Week in Ordinary Time
2025-02-09
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
5th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
February 9 – 15, 2025

Sun
9
Mon
10
Tue
11
Wed
12
Thu
13
Fri
14
Sat
15

Office
5th Sunday
St Scholastica
St Benedict Aniane
Bl Humbeline
Weekday
SS Cyril & Methodius
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
1 Kings 11:41-12:16
1 Kings 12:17-31
1 Kings 12:32-13:10
1 Kings 13:11-34
1 Kings 14:1-20
1 Kings 14:21-31
1 Kings 15:1-15

Lauds
Amos 5:7, 10-15
Amos 5:16-20
Amos 5:21-27
Amos 6:1-7
Amos 6:8-14
Amos 7:1-6
Amos 7:7-9

Mass
75
329
330
331
332
333
334

1st
Isa 6:1-2a, 3-8
Gen 1:1-19
Gen 1:20-2:4a
Gen 2:4b-9, 15-17
Gen 2:18-25
Gen 3:1-8
Gen 3:9-24

2nd
1 Cor 15:1-11

Gospel
Luke 5:1-11
Mark 6:53-56
Mark 7:1-13
Mark 7:14-23
Mark 7:24-30
Mark 7:31-37
Mark 8:1-10

Vespers
1 Cor 10:23-11:1
1 Cor 11:17-22
1 Cor 11:23-27
1 Cor 11:28-34
1 Cor 12:1-11
1 Cor 12:12-18
1 Cor 12:19-26

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
2025-02-09
PROPHECY AND CONFIRMATION
From a commentary by St Augustine of Hippo 1
◊◊◊
While he was on the mountain with Christ the Lord in company with the
two other disciples James and John, the blessed apostle Peter heard a voice
from heaven saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen
to him. The apostle remembered this and made it known in his letter. We heard
a voice coming from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain;
and he added: so we have confirmation of what was prophesied. A voice came
from heaven, and prophecy was confirmed.
How great was Christ’s courtesy! This Peter who spoke these words was
once a fisherman, and in our day a public speaker deserves high praise if he is
able to converse with a fisherman! Addressing the first Christians the apostle
Paul says: Brothers and sisters, remember what you were when you were
called. Not many of you were wise according to human standards; not many
of you were influential or of noble birth. But God chose what the world regards
as weak in order to disconcert the strong; God chose what the world regards
as foolish in order to abash the wise; God chose what the world regards as
common and contemptible, of no account whatever, in order to overthrow the
existing order.
If Christ has first chosen a man skilled in public speaking, such a man
might well have said: “I have been chosen on account of my eloquence.” If he
had chosen a senator, the senator might have said: “I have been chosen because
of my rank.” If his first choice had been an emperor, the emperor surely might
have said: “I have been chosen for the sake of the power I have at my disposal.”
Let these worthies keep quiet and defer to others; let them hold their peace for a
while. I am not saying that they should be passed over or despised; I am simply
asking all those who can find any grounds for pride in what they are to give way
to others just a little.
Christ says: Give me this fisherman, this man without education or
experience, this man to whom no senator would deign to speak, not even if he
were buying fish. Yes, give me him; once I have taken possession of him it will be
obvious that it is I who am at work in him. Although I mean to include senators,
orators and emperors among my recruits, even when I have won over the
senator I shall still be surer of the fisherman. The senator can always take pride
in what he is; so can the orator and the emperor, but the fisherman can glory in
nothing except Christ alone. Any of these other men may come and take lessons
from me in the importance of humility for salvation, but let the fisherman come
first. He is the best person to win over an emperor.
Remember this fisherman, then. This holy, just, good, Christ-filled
fisherman. In his nets cast throughout the world he has the task of catching this
nation as well as others. So remember that claim of his: We have confirmation
of what was prophesied.
1
Journey with the Fathers – Year C – New City Press – 1994 – pg 78.

ST. Scholastica
2025-02-10
THE LIFE OF ST SCHOLASTICA
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints 2
◊◊◊
St Scholastica, who was St Benedict’s sister, traditionally his twin,
consecrated herself to God from her earliest years, as we learn from St Gregory.
It is not known where she lived, whether at home or in a community, but after
her brother had moved to Monte Cassino, she settled at Plombariola in that
same neighborhood, probably founding and ruling a nunnery about five miles to
the south of St Benedict’s monastery. St Gregory tells us that St. Benedict
governed the nuns as well as the monks, and it seems clear that St Scholastica
must have been their Abbess, under his direction. She used to visit her brother
once a year and, since she was not allowed to enter his monastery, he used to go
with some monks to meet her at a house a little way off. They spent these visits
in praising God and in conferring together on spiritual matters.
St Gregory gives a remarkable description of the last of these visits. After
they had passed the day as usual they sat down in the evening to have supper.
When it was finished, Scholastica, possibly foreseeing that it would be their last
visit in this world, begged her brother to delay his return till the next day that
they might spend the time discoursing of the joys of Heaven. Benedict, who was
unwilling to transgress his rule, told her that he could not pass a night away
from the monastery. When Scholastica found that she could not move him, she
laid her head upon her hands which were clasped together on the table and
besought God to interpose on her behalf. Her prayer was scarcely ended when
there arose such a violent storm of rain that St Benedict and his companions
were unable to set foot outside the door. He exclaimed, “God forgive you sister;
what have you done?” Whereupon she answered, “I asked a favor of you and you
refused it. I asked it of God, and He has granted it.” Benedict was therefore
forced to comply with her request, and they spent the night talking about holy
things. The next morning they parted, and three days later St Benedict saw the
soul of his sister rising to heaven like a dove.
2
Butler’s Lives of the Saints, pg 42, edited by Michael Walsh – revised version, Harper Collins, San Francisco,
1991.

St. Benedict Aniane
2025-02-11
ST BENEDICT OF ANIANE
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints 3
◊◊◊
Benedict was the son of Aigulf of Maguelone and served King Pepin and
his son, Charlemagne, as cupbearer. At the age of twenty he made a resolution
to seek the kingdom of God with his whole heart. He took part in the campaign
in Lombardy, but, after having been nearly drowned in the river Tesino, near
Pavia, in endeavoring to save his brother, he made a vow to quit the world
entirely. Upon his return to Languedoc he was confirmed in this determination
by the advice of a hermit called Widmar, and he went to the abbey of SaintSeine,
fifteen miles from Dijon, where he was admitted as a monk. He spent two
and a half years here learning the monastic life and bringing himself under
control by severe austerities. Not satisfied with observing the rule of St
Benedict, he practiced those other points of perfection which he found
prescribed in the Rules of St Pachomius and St Basil. When the abbot died, the
brethren were disposed to elect him to fill the post, but he was unwilling to
accept the charge because he knew that the monks were opposed to anything in
the shape of systematic reform.
Benedict accordingly quitted Saint-Seine and, returning to Languedoc,
built a small hermitage beside the brook Aniane upon his own estate. Here he
lived for some years in self-imposed destitution, praying continually that God
would teach him to do His will. Some solitaries, of whom the holy man Widmar
was one, placed themselves under his direction, and they earned their livelihood
by manual labor, living on bread and water except on Sundays and great
festivals when they added a little wine or milk if it was given them in alms. The
superior worked with them in the fields and sometimes spent his time in
copying books. When the number of his disciples increased, Benedict left to
build a monastery in a more spacious place. In a short time he had many
religious under his direction, and at the same time exercised a general
inspection over all the monasteries of Provence, Languedoc and Gascony,
becoming eventually the director and overseer of all the monasteries in the
empire; he reformed many with little or no opposition.
In order to have him close at hand, the Emperor Louis the Pious obliged
Benedict to dwell first at the abbey of Maurmünster in Alsace and then, as he
wanted him yet nearer, he built a monastery upon the Inde, later known as
Cornelimünster, near Aachen, the residence of the emperor and court. Benedict
lived in the monaster yet continued to help in the restoration of monastic
observance throughout France and Germany. He was the chief instrument in
drawing up the canons for the reformation of monks at the council of Aachen in
817, and presided in the same year over the assembly of abbots to enforce the
restoration of discipline… Benedict also wrote the Codex Regularum (Codex of
Rules), a collection of all the monastic regulations which he found extant; he
likewise compiled a book of homilies for the use of monks, collected from the
works of the fathers; but his most important work was the Concordia
Regularum, the Concord of Rules, in which he gives those of St Benedict of
Nursia in combination with those of other patriarchs of monastic observance to
show their similarity.
This great restorer of monasticism in the West, worn out by
mortifications and fatigues, suffered much from continual sickness in the latter
part of his days. He died at Inde with great tranquility in 821, being then
seventy one years of age.
3
Lives of the Saints. Butler, Harper San Francisco, 1991, pp. 43-44.

Bl Humbeline
2025-02-12
BLESSED HUMBELINE
From the Life of St Bernard 4
◊◊◊
From earliest childhood Humbeline and Bernard had been drawn together
by a special bond of affection and sympathy… After her marriage, forgetful of her
mother’s example and exhortations, she began to follow the fashions of the world.
In 1117 she came to Clairvaux surrounded with all the splendor of dress and
attendants that unlimited wealth could bestow, thinking, so it seems, that she was
doing her brother honor. Her brother Andrew, the porter, in announcing her
arrival, did not omit to describe to his Abbot the pomp and ceremony that attended
her. It grieved Bernard to hear that his beloved sister had become a worshiper at
the shrine of vanity. He refused to see her himself, nor would he allow any of his
brothers to see her, but told Andrew to tell her…that with these worldly ornaments
she was making herself the devil’s instrument for the ruin of immortal souls.
Andrew delivered the message, adding on his own: “Why so much solicitude to
embellish a body destined for worms and rottenness, while the soul that now
animates it is burning in everlasting flames?”
Humbeline burst into tears, crying out: “I deserve it all because I am a
sinner. Yet it is for such as I that Christ suffered on the Cross. Indeed it is because of
my sinfulness that I seek counsel and encouragement from the saints. If my brother
Bernard, who is the servant of God, despises my body, let him at least have pity on
my soul. Let him come; let him command; and whatever he thinks proper to enjoin
I am prepared to carry out.” There was no resisting such an appeal. Bernard and
his brothers hastened to meet her and to confirm her in these good dispositions. It
was the holy Abbot’s desire that she should enter religion; but as this was unlawful
without her husband’s consent, he recommended her to live as much as possible
like a recluse in the world, shunning ostentation and all kinds of vanity, and
devoting herself, after her mother’s example, to the service of God and the poor.
She promised to do so.
Five years later, in 1122, having obtained after much resistance her
husband’s consent, she left the world altogether and entered the convent of Jully
where Elizabeth, her sister-in-law, was superioress. When the latter went forth
about 1130 to found a new convent in the neighborhood of Dijon, Humbeline was
appointed to succeed her. Under her direction the house flourished greatly; the
noblest ladies of the land sought admission in such numbers that she was forced to
make about a dozen new foundations. She rivaled Bernard himself in her love of
the Cross. Of food and sleep she allowed herself much less than the minimum
which nature demands; her clothes were the meanest she could find, and it was her
happiness to be employed in the humblest occupations. When her nuns begged her
to be more careful of her health, which seemed in danger of breaking down under
such austere practices, she replied: “For you, my dear sisters, whose lives have been
consecrated to the service of God, this is an excellent counsel. But for me, who have
lived so long amidst worldly vanities, no kind of penance can be excessive.”…
Her last hours were consoled by the presence of three of her brothers,
Bernard, Andrew and Nivard… When about to breathe her last she looked with a
radiant smile at Bernard and said: “Oh, how happy I am to have followed your
counsel and consecrated myself to God! And what a beautiful reward I expect to
receive for the love I have entertained for you in this life! It is to that love that I owe
the joy and glory awaiting me in the homeland.” Then turning to the others she
cried out: “I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: we shall go into the house of
the Lord.” With these words, she gave up her spirit.
4
Life and Teaching of St Bernard by Ailbe J. Luddy, O. Cist., pg. 68-69, M.H. Gill & Son, Dublin, 1937.

Weekday
2025-02-13
THE MEANING OF SUFFERING IN THE
LIGHT OF THE MIRACLES AT
LOURDES
By Pope St John Paul II 5
◊◊◊
The reality of faith, of hope and of charity, the reality of suffering
sanctified and sanctifying. The reality of the presence of the Mother of God in
the mystery of Christ and His Church on earth: a presence which is particularly
alive in that elect portion of the church which consists of the sick and the
suffering.
These persons, if animated by faith, turn to Lourdes. Why? Because they
know that there, as at Cana, “There is the Mother of Jesus” and where She is,
Her Son cannot be absent. Sick of all sorts go on pilgrimage to Lourdes, born up
by hope that, through Mary, Christ’s saving power – reveals itself in the
spiritual sphere above all.
It is in the hearts of the sick that Mary makes Her Son’s wonderworking
voice heard, a voice which prodigiously resolves the rigidity of sourness of heart
and rebellion and gives the soul back eyes with which to see the world, others,
one’s own destiny in a new light.
At Lourdes the sick discover the inestimable value of their suffering – the
meaning that pain may have in their lives, when interiorly renewed by that
flame which consumes and transforms in the life of the Church.
Upright by the Cross of Her Son on Calvary, the Most Holy Virgin
courageously shared in His Passion and knows how to convince ever fresh souls
to unite their sufferings with Christ’s sacrifice, in a joint “offertory,” which
surpasses time and space and embraces the whole of mankind and saves it.
5
from Prayers and Devotions from John Paul II; the K. S. Gininger Company, Inc., 1984.

SS Cyril & Methodius
2025-02-14
SAINTS CYRIL AND METHODIUS
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints 6
◊◊◊
In 862 there arrived in Constantinople an ambassador charged by
Rostislav, prince of Moravia, to ask if the emperor would send him missionaries
capable of teaching his people in their own language. Photius, now patriarch of
Constantinople, decided that Cyril and Methodius were most suitable for the
work; they were learned men, who knew Slavonic.
In 863 the two brothers set out with a number of assistants and came to
the court of Rostislav. The new missionaries made free use of the vernacular in
their preaching and ministrations, and this made immediate appeal to the local
people. To the German clergy this was objectionable, and their opposition was
strengthened when the Emperor Louis forced Rostislav to take an oath of fealty
to him. The Byzantine missionaries, armed with their pericopes from the
Scriptures and liturgical hymns in Slavonic, pursued their way with much
success, but were soon handicapped by their lack of a bishop to ordain more
priests. The German prelate, the bishop of Passau, would not do it, and Cyril
therefore determined to seek help elsewhere, presumably from Constantinople
whence he came.
On their way the brothers arrived in Venice. It was at a bad moment.
Photius at Constantinople had incurred excommunication; the proteges of the
Eastern emperor and their liturgical use of a new tongue were vehemently
criticized. They came to Rome bringing with them alleged relics of Pope St
Clement, which St Cyril had recovered when in the Crimea on his way back from
the Khazars. Adrian II warmly welcomed the bearers of so great a gift. He
examined their cause, and he gave judgment: Cyril and Methodius were to
received episcopal consecration, their neophytes were to be ordained, and the
use of the liturgy in Slavonic was approved.
While still in Rome Cyril died, on February 14, 869. He was buried with
great pomp in the church of San Clemente on the Coelian, where the relics of St
Clement had been enshrined. St Methodius now took up his brother’s
leadership. Having been consecrated bishop he returned, bearing a letter from
the Holy See recommending him as a man of “exact understanding and
orthodoxy”. Kosel, prince of Pannonia, asked that the ancient archdiocese of
Sirmium (now Mitrovitsa) be revived. Methodius was made metropolitan and
the boundaries of his charge extended to the borders of Bulgaria.
6
Butler’s Lives of the Saints, edited by M. Walsh, New York: HarperCollins, 1991, pp. 46-47.

Memorial of the BVM
2025-02-15
MARY AND THE FRUITFULNESS
OF VIRGINITY
From “The Seat of Wisdom” by Fr Louis Bouyer 7
◊◊◊
Virginity consecrated to God in Christ has its justification in that it is a
means for engendering offspring without number; and therein lies the real
nature of its sacrifice. This is the supreme truth revealed to us by Mary’s virginal
motherhood, and, at the same time, its supreme justification. By her
renunciation in a spirit of perfect faith, of the very possibility of generation on
the earthly plane, that of the first creation, she lent herself to be used to generate
the human body of the Son of God. And, since he is, in himself, not only the
origin but the whole of the new creation, she also brought this to birth in bearing
him. The sacrifice inherent in her chosen virginity was fulfilled in that the “Holy
One” born of her was the Son of God, since this made him, the fruit of her own
life, the absolute Stranger to her. though belonging wholly to her as to no one
else, Christ could not but be the one who was apart from her from the very
moment of his birth, more so than any other child from its parents. At the same
time, her virginity was justified in that it made a birth of the kind possible. And
all the hopes of renewal that this birth held out to mankind, in the state it then
was in, justified the seeming refusal of human love by the one most worthy of
loving and being loved that had been seen on earth since Eve.
The counterpart of this is that it is by their participation in Mary’s destiny
that, henceforth, those vowed to virginity will see and fulfill the purpose of their
own sacrifice. They renounce all possibility of prolonging and continuing the
present order of creation in order to dedicate themselves wholly to engendering
the new order which is to redeem the old. Such entire devotion to bringing about
the new birth of a humanity regenerated in Christ makes of their virginity, not a
negation of love, but an act of love of the most exalted kind.
7
New York, 1962, p. 98.

Skema
2025-02-16
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
6th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
February 16 – 22, 2025

Sun
16
Mon
17
Tue
18
Wed
19
Thu
20
Fri
21
Sat
22

Office
6th Sunday
Weekday
Weekday
Office for the Dead
Weekday
St Peter Damien
Chair of St Peter

Vigils
1 Kings 15:16-32
1 Kings 15:33-16:14
1 Kings 16:15-34
1 Kings 17:1-24
1 Kings 18:1-16
1 Kings 18:17-40
Ezek 3:1-11, 22-27

Lauds
Amos 7:10-17
Amos 8:1-8
Amos 8:9-14
Amos 9:1-6
Amos 9:7-10
Amos 9:11-15
Ezek 34:11-16

Mass
78
335
336
337
338
339
535

1st
Jer 17:5-8
Gen 4:1-15, 25
Gen 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10
Gen 8:6-13, 20-22
Gen 9:1-13
Gen 11:1-9
1 Pet 5:1-4

2nd
1 Cor 15:12, 16-20

Gospel
Luke 6:17, 20-26
Mark 8:11-13
Mark 8:14-21
Mark 8:22-26
Mark 8:27-33
Mark 8:34-9:1
Matt 16:13-19

Vespers
1 Cor 12:27-13:3
1 Cor 13:4-13
1 Cor 14:1-5
1 Cor 14:6-12
1 Cor 14:13-19
1 Cor 14:20-25
1 Cor 15:1-11

Vigils Reading - 6th Sun Ordinary Time
2025-02-16
THE CROWNS OF VICTORY
From a commentary by St John Chrysostom1
◊◊◊
Only Christians have a true sense of values, their joys and sorrows are not
the same as other people’s. The sight of a wounded boxer wearing a victor’s
crown would make someone ignorant of the games think only of the boxer’s
wounds and how painful they must be. Such a person would know nothing of the
happiness the crown gives. And it is the same when people see the things we
suffer without knowing why we do so. It naturally seems to them to be suffering
pure and simple. They see us struggling and facing danger, but beyond their
vision are the rewards, the crowns of victory – all we hope to gain through the
contest!
When Paul said. We possess nothing, and yet we have everything, what
did he mean by “everything”? Wealth of both the earthly and the spiritual order.
Did he not possess every earthly gift when whole cities received him as an angel,
when people were ready to pluck out their eyes for him, or bare their neck to the
sword? But if you would think of spiritual blessings, you will see that it was in
these above all that he was rich. The King of the universe and Lord of angels
loved him so much that he shared his secrets with him. Did he not surpass all
others in wealth then? Did he not possess all things? Had it been otherwise,
demons would not have been subject to him, nor sickness and suffering put to
flight by his presence.
We too, then. when we suffer anything for Christ’s sake, should do so not
only with courage, but even with joy. If we have to go hungry, let us be glad as if
we were at a banquet. If we are insulted, let us be elated as though we had been
showered with praises. If we lose all we possess, let us consider ourselves the
gainers. If we provide for the poor, let us regard ourselves as the recipients.
Anyone who does not give in this way will find it difficult to give at all. So when
you wish to distribute alms. Do not think only of what you are giving away; think
rather of what you are gaining, for your gain will exceed your loss.
And not only in the matter of almsgiving, but also with every virtue you
practice: do not think of the painful effort involved, but of the sweetness of the
reward; and above all remember that your struggles are for the sake of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Then you will easily rise above them, and live out your whole
lifetime in happiness; for nothing brings more happiness than a good
conscience.

Vigils Reading
2025-02-17
THE BEGINNING OF
CHRIST’S PUBLIC MINISTRY
From “The Lord” by Fr Romano Guardini
◊◊◊
What a privilege it must have been to see the Lord at the beginning of his
public ministry as he carried holiness into the crowds. How clearly he spoke to
the souls of men! Pressed forward by the elan of the Spirit, he reached out to
people with both hands. The Holy Spirit swept the kingdom of God forward and
the human spirit was shaken to its foundations. The accounts of these first
events are vibrant with spiritual power. Thus Saint Mark: And they were
astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one having authority,
and not as the scribes. They were astonished, literally shaken out of themselves.
Such was the divine power that poured from his words. Jesus’ sentences were
not merely correct as were those of the scribes, they were the words of one
having authority. His speech stirred, it tore the spirit from its security, the heart
from its rest; it commanded and created. It was impossible to hear and ignore.
Saint Mark’s account continues with a description of the casting out of an
unclean spirit. Obviously we have here a case of “possession.” The Lord’s
acceptance of the inevitable struggle with satanic powers belongs to the kernel
of his messianic consciousness. He knows that he has been sent not only to bear
witness to the truth, to establish contact between God and man, but also to
break the power of those forces which oppose the divine will. He is to penetrate
Satan’s artificial darkness with the ray of God’s truth, to dispel the cramp of
egoism and the brittleness of hate with God’s love, to conquer evil’s
destructiveness with God’s constructive strength. The murkiness and confusion
which Satan creates in people’s groping hearts are to be clarified by the holy
purity of the Most High. Thus Jesus stands squarely against the powers of
darkness; he strives to enter into the ensnared human souls – to bring light to
their consciences, quicken their hearts, and liberate their powers for good.

Vigils Reading
2025-02-18
THE MISSIONARY LIFE
OF THE CHURCH
By Fr Jean Danielou
◊◊◊
The mission of today is, first of all, a mystery of unity. The Apostles were
sent to the ends of the earth to teach all nations, because Christ, having risen to
heaven, must be present in all creation. It is no more a question, as at the time of
the old covenant, of God’s taking one people in particular under his protection.
The new mission, determined upon by God from all eternity, is to reconcile all
things by Christ’s blood “and to restore all things in him.” This mystery involves
all mankind, and more than mankind, the whole spiritual universe.
In the second place, the mystery of the mission is the mystery of the
missionary. Christ entrusted the spreading of his Kingdom to the Apostles, to
those he had chosen as his tools in the work of evangelizing. This vocation is a
great mystery. It is clear that God could have communicated directly with each
individual, yet he wanted his word to be handed on and his Kingdom to be
spread by human intermediaries. He wanted us to have a share in saving the
world and converting the nations, and the Apostles’ mission is a direct
continuation of the mission of the Word and the mission of the Holy Spirit. The
mission of the Apostles is at once a single thing and a very diverse one… Some
are to be apostles, some prophets, evangelists or teachers. The forms of the
apostolate are many, but they are all one, because all get life from the same
Spirit, all seek the same end.
This unity in the diversity of functions is something St Paul insists on as of
vital importance. Even then he felt the danger of a possible loss of charity
threatening the work of the missions. We must, said St Bernard, put all the force
of our action into our own vocation, but our charity must cover the whole
world… He explains that in the order of action we must put our particular duty
before everything else – do not let the contemplative try to do the apostle’s
work, nor the teacher try to care for the sick – but, he adds, “in our prayers we
must put first what is most excellent in itself.” We must pray more for the most
important interests of the Kingdom, even if they are not the ones we ourselves
are engaged in. Charity will then become perfect in us, for it is proportioned to
the reality of things, not to our personal point of view; selfishness will then be
overcome at every moment. Outwardly we go humbly about our work, inwardly
we are working out the salvation of the whole world. We must be ready to be at
once limited in our work and unlimited in the interior order of charity.
