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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260524
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260525
DTSTAMP:20260607T191830
CREATED:20260524T151754Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260524T151754Z
UID:14953-1779580800-1779667199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Pentecost Sunday
DESCRIPTION:A reading from\nST AUGUSTINE 1\n◊◊◊\nThe blessed day has dawned for us on which holy Church makes her first radiant appearance to the eyes of faith and sets the hearts of believers on fire. It is the day on which we celebrate the sending of the Holy Spirit by our Lord Jesus Christ\, after he had risen from the dead and ascended into glory. \nIn the Gospel it is written: If anyone is thirsty\, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me\, rivers of living water shall flow from his heart. The evangelist explains these words by adding: Jesus said this about the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. Now the glorification of Jesus took place when he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven\, but all was not yet accomplished. The Holy Spirit still had to be given; the one who made the promise had to send him. This is precisely what occurred at Pentecost. \nAfter being in the company of his disciples for the forty days following his Resurrection\, the Lord ascended into heaven\, and on the fiftieth day – the day we are now celebrating – he sent the Holy Spirit. The account is given in Scripture: Suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind\, and there appeared to them tongues like fire\, which separated and came to rest on each one of them\, and they began to speak in other tongues\, as the Holy Spirit gave them power of utterance. That wind cleansed the disciples’ hearts\, blowing away fleshly thoughts like so much chaff. The fire burnt up their unregenerate desires as if they were straw. \nThe tongues in which they spoke as the Holy Spirit filled them were a foreshadowing of the Church’s preaching of the Gospel in the tongues of all nations. After the flood\, in pride and defiance of the Lord\, an impious generation erected a high tower and so brought about the division of the human race into many language groups\, each with its own peculiar speech which was unintelligible to the rest of the world. \nAt Pentecost\, by contrast\, the humble piety of believers brought all these diverse languages into the unity of the Church. What discord had scattered\, love was to gather together. Like the limbs of a single body\, the separated members of the human race would be restored to unity by being joined to Christ\, their common head\, and welded into the oneness of a holy body by the fire of love. Anyone therefore who rejects the gift of peace and withdraws from the fellowship of this unity cuts himself off from the gift of the Holy Spirit. \nSo then\, my fellow members of Christ’s body\, you are the fruits of unity and the sons of peace. Keep this day with joy\, celebrate it in freedom of spirit\, for in you is fulfilled what was foreshadowed in those days when the Holy Spirit came. At that time\, whoever received the Holy Spirit spoke in many languages\, individual though he was. Now in the same way unity itself speaks through all nations in every tongue. If you yourselves are established in that unity you have the Holy Spirit among you\, and nothing can separate you from the Church of Christ which speaks in the languages of every nation of the world. \n1\nSt Augustine\, Sermon 271 (PL 38:1245-1246); Word in Season III\, 2nd ed.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/pentecost-sunday-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260525
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260526
DTSTAMP:20260607T191830
CREATED:20260524T152232Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260524T152232Z
UID:14955-1779667200-1779753599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Mary\, Mother of the Church
DESCRIPTION:A reading from\nFR HUGO RAHNER 2\n◊◊◊\nThe valiant woman [in the Book of Proverbs] as symbolizing both Mary and the Church on the road from Nazareth to Golgotha. The beginning is at the moment of the incarnation in the heart of Mary\, at the supreme instant of her acceptance of the task\, when she became the mother of the Word. The precious blood that was to redeem the world was her blood\, and in this way her road was already marked out\, the road through those everyday years\, leading direct to Golgotha. \nIt is to this mystery of her life\, and her life already at Nazareth\, where love is strong as death\, that the Cistercian mystic\, Adam of Perseigne\, refers when he sees in the moment of the incarnation the fulfillment of the valiant woman: “A Lady full of bravery: she traveled through her mortal life amidst the evil of the world\, yet through the majesty of her spirit she surpassed all creation. For it was to her\, the valiant woman\, that Gabriel was sent — his very name means ‘God’s valiant one.’ Was she not indeed valiant\, this woman – Mary\, whose love was stronger than death?” \nFor her acceptance of the incarnation was the acceptance of death. Her blood she gave him\, only for him to shed it. And this also is fulfilled in the Church: The Church\, like Mary\, is the woman who brings Christ into the world\, only to be sacrificed upon the altar. Incarnation and death are made one in the Church’s sacraments\, for in the sacrificial death\, Christ’s body is every day reborn. \nThus the symbol of the valiant woman is fulfilled also in the Church and her vocation on earth: valiant indeed is this great woman of the world\, since as the mystical mother of Christ crucified\, daily she meets death again. This acceptance of death\, in which she follows Mary\, is verified in her day-to-day history\, her persecutions\, and her daily cares. In this she is truly valiant. This is what Epiphanius of Salamis once told his people: “You are the children of that wise and valiant woman\, of whom Solomon said; ‘Who shall find a valiant woman?’ This valiant woman\, is she not the Church\, your mother? for none is braver than she\, who every time a persecution is raised against her is ready to go to death for the name of her beloved.” \n2\nPantheon Books\, 1961\, pp. 82-83.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/mary-mother-of-the-church-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260526
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260527
DTSTAMP:20260607T191830
CREATED:20260524T152734Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260524T152734Z
UID:14957-1779753600-1779839999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Weekday
DESCRIPTION:A reading from “The Mirror of Faith” by\nWILLIAM OF SAINT-THIERRY 3\n◊◊◊\nIf you feel a natural hesitation when confronted with the more profound mysteries of faith\, take courage\, Christian soul\, and say not contentiously but with loving submission: ‘How can these things be?’ Let your question be a prayer\, let it be an expression of love\, piety\, and humble longing. Seek not to explore the heights of the divine majesty\, but to find salvation in the saving deeds of God our Saviour. \nThen the Messenger of God’s great design will reply: When the Paraclete comes\, whom I shall send you from the Father\, he will remind you of everything and teach you all truth. Even as no one knows the thoughts of man except the spirit of the man that is within him\, so no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. \nHasten therefore to share in the Holy Spirit. He is with you when you call upon him; you can call upon him only because he is already present. When he comes in answer to your prayer\, he comes with an abundance of divine blessings. He is the river whose streams give joy to the city of God. \nIf when he comes he finds you humble\, silent\, and trembling at the words of God\, he will rest upon you and reveal what God the Father has hidden from the wise and the prudent of this world. You will then begin to understand the things holy Wisdom could have told his disciples on earth\, but which they were unable to bear until the Spirit of truth came who was to teach them all truth. \nWe cannot hope to learn from the lips of any man truths that Truth himself could not convey. For he himself has told us: God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth\, so those who wish to know him must seek understanding of their faith and perception of its pure and simple truth only through the Holy Spirit. \nIn the darkness and ignorance of this life the Holy Spirit is the light that enlightens the poor in spirit\, the love that draws them on\, the sweetness that attracts them\, their access to God\, the love of the loving. The Spirit is devotion and piety. From one degree of faith to the next the Spirit reveals to believers the justice of God\, so that grace follows grace\, and the faith that comes from hearing gives place to a faith enlightened by understanding. \n3\nBlessed William of Saint-Thierry\, The Mirror of Faith (PL 180:384); Word in Season III\, 1st ed. \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/weekday-25/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260527
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260528
DTSTAMP:20260607T191830
CREATED:20260524T153954Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260524T153954Z
UID:14959-1779840000-1779926399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:St. Augustine of Canterbury
DESCRIPTION:A reading from Butler’s Lives of the Saints on\nST AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY 4\n◊◊◊\nWhen Pope St Gregory the Great decided that the time had come for the evangelization of Anglo-Saxon England\, he chose as missionaries some thirty or more monks from his monastery of St Andrew… As their leader he gave them their own prior\, Augustine. The party set out from Rome in the year 596; but no sooner had they arrived in Provence than they were assailed with warnings about the ferocity of the Anglo-Saxons and the dangers of the Channel. Greatly discouraged\, they persuaded Augustine to return to Rome and obtain leave to abandon the enterprise. St Gregory\, however\, had received definite assurance that the English were well disposed towards the Christian faith; he therefore sent Augustine back to his brethren with words of encouragement which gave them heart to proceed on their way. \nThey landed in the Isle of Thanet in the territory of Ethelbert\, king of Kent\, who was baptized at Pentecost 597. Almost immediately afterwards St Augustine paid a visit to France\, where he was consecrated bishop of the English by St Virgilius\, metropolitan of Arles. At Christmas of that same year\, many of Ethelbert’s subjects were baptized. Augustine sent two of his monks\, Laurence and Peter\, to Rome to give a full report of his mission\, to ask for more helpers and obtain advice on various points. They came back bringing the pallium for Augustine and accompanied by a fresh band of missionaries\, amongst whom were St Mellitus\, St Justus and St Paulinus… \nIn Canterbury itself St Augustine rebuilt an ancient church which\, with an old wooden house\, formed the nucleus for his metropolitan basilica and for the later monastery of Christ Church… Outside the walls of Canterbury he made a monastic foundation\, which he dedicated in honour of St Peter and St Paul… \nCut off from much communication with the outside world\, the British church clung to certain usages at variance with those of the Roman tradition. St Augustine invited the leading ecclesiastics to meet him at some place just on the confines of Wessex\, still known in Bede’s day as Augustine’s Oak. There he urged them to comply with the practices of the rest of Western Christendom\, and more especially to co-operate with him in evangelizing the Anglo-Saxons. Fidelity to their local traditions\, however\, made them unwilling. A second conference proved a said failure. Because St Augustine failed to rise when they arrived\, the British bishops decided that he was lacking in humility and would neither listen to him nor acknowledge him as their metropolitan. \nThe saint’s last years were spent in spreading and consolidating the faith throughout Ethelbert’s realm\, and episcopal sees were established at London and Rochester. About seven years after his arrival in England\, St Augustine passed to his reward\, on May 26\, 605. \nButler’s Lives of Saints. Harper\, 1991\, pp. 158-159.ngland\, St Augustine passed to his reward\, on May 26\, 605. \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/st-augustine-of-canterbury/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260528
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260529
DTSTAMP:20260607T191830
CREATED:20260524T154348Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260524T154348Z
UID:14961-1779926400-1780012799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Weekday
DESCRIPTION:A reading from the dogmatic constitution “Lumen Gentium” from\nTHE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL 5\n◊◊◊\nOn the day of Pentecost when the Son had completed the work on earth assigned to him by the Father\, the Holy Spirit was sent to sanctify the Church unceasingly so that through Christ\, in the one Spirit\, believers would have access to the Father. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life\, a fountain of water welling up to give a life that is eternal. Through him the Father gives life to those who were dead because of their sins\, and at last raises up their mortal bodies. \nBuilding up and guiding the Church by means of varied gifts\, both hierarchical and charismatic\, and adorning her with his fruits\, the Spirit leads her into all truth and gives her unity in communion and service. The Spirit is perpetually renewing the Church’s youth by the power of the Gospel and leading her to perfect union with her Bridegroom. The Spirit and the bride say to the Lord Jesus: ‘Come!’ \nThe whole Church is thus shown to be a people made one as the Father\, Son\, and Holy Spirit are one.\nThe body of believers as a whole\, each one of whom has been anointed by the Holy One\, cannot err in matters of faith. They demonstrate this special inerrancy of theirs when their supernatural instinct of faith causes all from the Bishops down to the most humble lay person to agree in matters of faith and morals. \nThrough this instinct of faith\, which is awakened and kept alive by the Spirit of truth\, the people of God hold indefectibly to the faith once delivered to the Saints; with true insight they penetrate it more deeply and they apply it ever more perfectly in their lives. They do all this under the guidance of the sacred Magisterium of the Church to which they loyally defer\, not as to the words of men\, but as to the very word of God. \nThe Holy Spirit sanctifies and guides God’s people and enriches them with virtues through the Sacraments and other ministrations of the Church. He also distributes special graces among believers in every state of life\, apportioning his gifts to each one as he wills. By these gifts the Spirit prepares them and makes them eager to undertake various tasks and offices which serve the renewal and building up of the Church. As Scripture says: The power of the Spirit is shown in a particular way in each one for the good of all. \nThese charisms\, the simpler and more widespread as well as the most outstanding\, should fill us with a sense of gratitude\, for they are especially adapted to the needs of the Church and are of the greatest value to her. \n5\nSecond Vatican Council\, Lumen Gentium 4\, 12; Word in Season III\, 1st ed.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/weekday-26/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260529
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260530
DTSTAMP:20260607T191830
CREATED:20260524T154848Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260524T154848Z
UID:14963-1780012800-1780099199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:St. Paul VI
DESCRIPTION:A reading from The New Catholic Encyclopedia on\nPOPE ST PAUL VI 6\n◊◊◊\nHe was born with the name of Giovanni Baptista Montini in September 26\, 1897. His father\, Giorgio was a lawyer\, politician and member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. The young Montini was plagued with numerous physical ailments. He was ordained at the age of 22 on May 29\, 1920. He was then sent to Rome where he attended the Academy which was geared to the training of diplomats. He began his service of thirty years in the Vatican Secretariat of State. During those years he was also active as a chaplain to the Catholic Students at the University of Rome. \nHe was named Undersecretary of State in 1924. He served in that office for thirty years. He was named Archbishop of Milan in 1954. He rebuilt churches that had been destroyed during the war and made every effort to win back the working class from Communist influences. Devoted to the disadvantaged\, he was a frequent visitor to hospitals\, orphanages\, homes of the aged and prisons.\nAfter Pope John XXIII was elected and announced the Second Vatican Council\, he appointed Montini to the Central Preparatory Commission. He took a very active part in the First Session of the Council in 1962. Pope John died in 1963 and Montini was elected as his successor. It was felt that he would continue the process of the Council. He chose the name of Paul VI and was determined that\, like Paul the Apostle\, his pontificate would spread the Gospel to the entire world. In his first message as Pope he set forth his agenda: to continue Vatican II\, to revise Canon Law\, to work for peace and justice at all levels\, and to seek Christian Unity. \nPaul was well equipped to deal with the Council because of his long experience in the Secretariat of state. He knew the Curia thoroughly. Their actions may not have always pleased him\, but they rarely surprised him. He was actively involved in the three sessions of the Council over which he presided. He suggested amendments to several of the documents: ecumenism\, missionary activity\, revelation\, Eastern Catholic Churches and religious liberty. \nOne issue that he held back from the Council was that of Birth Control. He set up a Commission of Lay people to consider the issue. However eventually he came to his own conclusion and issued the encyclical Humanae Vitae which forbade the use of artificial contraceptives. The encyclical created a crisis in the Church. Paul himself came to refer to the document as “a painful document in our episcopacy”. \nThe last ten years of his pontificate were difficult for Paul VI. He was more withdrawn and troubled by the negative reaction to Humanae Vitae\, the polarity between conservatives and liberals\, the massive departure from priestly and religious life\, and the lack of vocations. The Pope told Jean Guiton that Archbishop Lefebvre\, who defiantly opposed the liturgical reform was “the greatest cross of my pontificate”. \nDebilitating arthritis and acute cystitis weakened him in the summer of 1978. On August 6\, 1978 he died of a heart attack at Castel Gandolfo. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI and canonized by Pope Francis. \n6\nNew Catholic Encyclopedia – vol. 11 = Catholic University of America – Washington D.C.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/st-paul-vi/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260530
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260531
DTSTAMP:20260607T191830
CREATED:20260524T155431Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260524T155431Z
UID:14965-1780099200-1780185599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Weekday
DESCRIPTION:A reading from “On the Trinity” by\nDIDYMUS THE BLIND 7\n◊◊◊\nThe Holy Spirit renews us in Baptism through his Godhead\, which he shares with the Father and the Son. Finding us in a state of deformity\, the Spirit restores our original beauty and fills us with his grace\, leaving no room for anything unworthy of our love. The Spirit frees us from sin and death\, and changes us from the earthly men we were\, made of dust and ashes\, into spiritual men\, sharers in the divine glory\, sons and heirs of God the Father\, who bear a likeness to the Son and are his coheirs and his brothers\, destined to reign with him and to share his glory. In place of earth the Spirit reopens heaven to us and gladly admits us into Paradise\, giving us even now greater honor than the angels\, and by the holy waters of Baptism extinguishing the unquenchable fires of hell. \nWe have two conceptions: to the human body we owe our first conception; to the divine Spirit\, our second. John says: To all who received him\, who believed in his name\, he gave power to become children of God; who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh\, nor of the will of man\, but of God. All who believed in Christ\, he says\, received power to become children of God\, that is\, of the Holy Spirit\, and to gain kinship with God. To show that their parent was God the Holy Spirit\, he adds these words of Christ: I give you this solemn warning\, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. \nVisibly\, through the ministry of priests\, the font gives symbolic birth to our visible bodies. Invisibly\, through the ministry of angels\, the Spirit of God\, whom even the mind’s eye cannot see\, baptizes into himself both our souls and bodies\, giving them a new birth. \nSpeaking quite literally\, and also in harmony with the words\, of water and the Spirit\, John the Baptist says of Christ: He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Since we are only vessels of clay\, we must first be cleansed in water and then hardened by spiritual fire – for God is a consuming fire. We need the Holy Spirit to perfect and renew us\, for the fire of the Spirit can also wash us and the water of the Spirit can also melt us down and recast us. \n7\nDidymus the Blind\, On the Trinity\, 2.12 (PG 39:667-674); Word in Season III\, 1st ed.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/weekday-27/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260531
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260601
DTSTAMP:20260607T191830
CREATED:20260531T122938Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260531T122938Z
UID:14970-1780185600-1780271999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
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-155/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260531
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260601
DTSTAMP:20260607T191830
CREATED:20260531T123136Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260531T123136Z
UID:14972-1780185600-1780271999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Holy Trinity
DESCRIPTION:A reading from a sermon by \nBLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY \n◊◊◊ \n[Christ the Lord] is to be not merely invited but drawn into the guest \nchamber of our heart by the violence of our prayers and the vehemence of our \nfervor. [But] sometimes he makes as though he would go farther on; he does so \nfor no other reason than that he may prove the zeal of your love. \nBut what does it mean\, you say\, that Jesus makes as though he would go \nfurther? What else than what Ecclesiastes tells us of himself: “I have said\, I will \nbe wise\, and [wisdom] departed farther from me.” The Spouse speaks more \nexplicitly when\, giving voice to our daily complaint\, she says: “I rose up to open \nto my beloved\, but he had turned aside and was gone. I sought him\, and found \nhim not\, I called\, and he did not answer me\,” just as he did not answer the \nCanaanite woman either. \nYou too are wont to call on the Spirit of wisdom\, you are accustomed to \nseek the Spirit of grace in prayer. If it seems that he draws farther away from \nyou\, do not despair but be more importunate in your pleading until you hear \nhim answer you: “Great is your faith\, be it done to you as you will.” \nBut when you invite Jesus take care that you do not invite the God of \nmajesty into an unclean and unworthy dwelling where a wrangling [spouse] or \nclouds of smoke or a dripping roof would not allow even yourself to dwell in \npeace. For his place is in peace and nowhere else. Right and justice are the \npillars of his throne. \n“Now they seek me\,” he says\, “from day to day\, and desire to know my \nways as a nation that has done justice and has not forsaken the will of their \nGod.” “Right\,” he says\, “and justice are the pillars of his throne.” Do not plead \nthat it is a lavish dwelling you have to prepare for so great and so powerful a \nguest and that it is beyond the limits of your poverty. You have the means at \nhand. I speak in human terms because of the infirmity of your flesh\, or rather \nbecause of the narrowness of your mind. Make a perfect confession of your past \nlife\, have a good will in respect to all else (for there is peace to men of good will)\, \nand in this way you will have prepared with right and justice a throne for the \nMost High.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-holy-trinity/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260601
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260602
DTSTAMP:20260607T191830
CREATED:20260531T123233Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260531T123233Z
UID:14974-1780272000-1780358399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Justin Martyr
DESCRIPTION:A reading from Butler’s Lives of the Saints \nST JUSTIN MARTYR \n◊◊◊ \nJustin was a Greek from Samaria who became Christian about the year \n115. He is the first notable Christian philosopher. He was born at Nablus in \nSamaria. He was not a Jew\, either by birth or by religion. He was a Greek and \nwas given a classical Greek education. He studied rhetoric\, poetry and history\, \nand then turned to philosophy\, searching\, as he himself said\, for the “vision of \nGod”. He traveled widely\, joining philosophy schools in Ephesus and \nAlexandria\, and he was attracted to the schools of the Stoics\, the Peripatetic’s \nand the Pythagoreans. In Platonism\, he found some of the answers to the \nquestions he was asking\, and he was trained in dialectic. \nOne day while walking by the seashore\, probably at Ephesus\, he met a \nrespectable old man who told him about the Hebrew prophets and Christianity. \nJustin wrote: “My spirit was immediately set on fire\, and an affection for the \nprophets and for those who are friends of Christ took hold of me. I discovered \nthat his was the only sure and useful philosophy.” \nIn Christianity he found the answer to his search. He taught at Ephesus. \nHe debated publicly with the Jews and the Gnostics and with those who \nworshiped the Roman gods. In about the year 150 he went to Rome where he \ntaught the Christian apologetics\, founded a school of philosophy and wrote his \nmajor works. Justin wrote an intellectual defense of Christian beliefs against \noutside attacks. \nHe is said to have lived a very ascetic and austere life. His pleasure was in \npublic debates. Justin’s fearless defense of Christianity and his thorough \ndemolition of his opponents must have made him many enemies.5 \nHis martyrdom took place in the reign of Marcus Aurelius\, and an \nauthentic record of the proceedings survives. He stated his beliefs\, refused to \nsacrifice to the Roman gods\, and accepted suffering and death as the means to \nsalvation. He was beheaded with six other Christians about the year 165.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-justin-martyr-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260602
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260603
DTSTAMP:20260607T191830
CREATED:20260531T123340Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260531T123340Z
UID:14976-1780358400-1780444799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A reading from a sermon by \nBLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY \n◊◊◊ \n[Christ the Lord] is to be not merely invited but drawn into the guest \nchamber of our heart by the violence of our prayers and the vehemence of our \nfervor. [But] sometimes he makes as though he would go farther on; he does so \nfor no other reason than that he may prove the zeal of your love. \nBut what does it mean\, you say\, that Jesus makes as though he would go \nfurther? What else than what Ecclesiastes tells us of himself: “I have said\, I will \nbe wise\, and [wisdom] departed farther from me.” The Spouse speaks more \nexplicitly when\, giving voice to our daily complaint\, she says: “I rose up to open \nto my beloved\, but he had turned aside and was gone. I sought him\, and found \nhim not\, I called\, and he did not answer me\,” just as he did not answer the \nCanaanite woman either. \nYou too are wont to call on the Spirit of wisdom\, you are accustomed to \nseek the Spirit of grace in prayer. If it seems that he draws farther away from \nyou\, do not despair but be more importunate in your pleading until you hear \nhim answer you: “Great is your faith\, be it done to you as you will.” \nBut when you invite Jesus take care that you do not invite the God of \nmajesty into an unclean and unworthy dwelling where a wrangling [spouse] or \nclouds of smoke or a dripping roof would not allow even yourself to dwell in \npeace. For his place is in peace and nowhere else. Right and justice are the \npillars of his throne. \n2 (CF 8 : 19).7 \n“Now they seek me\,” he says\, “from day to day\, and desire to know my \nways as a nation that has done justice and has not forsaken the will of their \nGod.” “Right\,” he says\, “and justice are the pillars of his throne.” Do not plead \nthat it is a lavish dwelling you have to prepare for so great and so powerful a \nguest and that it is beyond the limits of your poverty. You have the means at \nhand. I speak in human terms because of the infirmity of your flesh\, or rather \nbecause of the narrowness of your mind. Make a perfect confession of your past \nlife\, have a good will in respect to all else (for there is peace to men of good will)\, \nand in this way you will have prepared with right and justice a throne for the \nMost High.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-433/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260603
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260604
DTSTAMP:20260607T191830
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:20260607T191830
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:20260607T191830
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
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260606
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260607
DTSTAMP:20260607T191830
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:20260607T191830
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:20260607T191830
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:20260607T191830
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:20260607T191830
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:20260607T191830
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
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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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CREATED:20260607T021417Z
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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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