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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260516
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260517
DTSTAMP:20260520T151446
CREATED:20260509T231620Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260509T231620Z
UID:14911-1778889600-1778975999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A reading from “On the Sacraments” by \nST AMBROSE \n◊◊◊ \nYou were asked: ‘Do you believe in God the Father almighty?’ You replied: \n‘I believe’\, and you were immersed: that is\, buried. You were asked for a second \ntime: ‘Do you believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and in his Cross?’ You replied: ‘I \nbelieve’\, and you were immersed: which means that you were buried with \nChrist. For one who is buried with Christ rises again with Christ. You were asked \na third time: ‘Do you believe also in the Holy Spirit?’ You replied: ‘I believe’\, and \nyou were immersed a third time\, so that the threefold confession might absolve \nthe manifold lapses of the past. \nWe can give you an illustration of this. The holy Apostle Peter appeared to \nlapse through human weakness during the Lord’s Passion. To wipe out and \nabsolve the fault of his denial\, he was asked by Christ three times if he loved \nhim. Peter replied: Lord\, you know that I love you. He answered three times so \nas to be absolved three times. \nThus the Father forgives sin\, so does the Son\, and so does the Holy Spirit. \nDo not be surprised that we are baptized in one name: in the name\, that is\, of the \nFather and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; because Christ spoke of only one \nname where there is one substance\, one divinity\, one majesty. This is the name \nof which it is written: In this must all find salvation. It is in this name that you \nhave all been saved\, that you have been restored to the grace of life. \nSo the Apostle exclaims\, as you have just heard in the reading\, Whoever is \nbaptized\, is baptized in the death of Jesus. What does in the death mean? It \nmeans that just as Christ died\, so you will taste death; that just as Christ died to \nsin and lives to God\, so through the Sacrament of Baptism you are dead to the \nold enticements of sin and have risen again through the grace of Christ. This is a \ndeath\, then\, not in the reality of bodily death\, but in likeness. When you are \nimmersed\, you receive the likeness of death and burial\, you receive the \nSacrament of his Cross; because Christ hung upon the Cross and his body was \nfastened to it by the nails. So you are crucified with him. \nThe font has the shape and appearance of a sort of tomb. When we believe \nin the Father\, the Son and the Holy Spirit\, we are received and immersed in it; \nthat is\, we are restored to life. You also receive the myrrh\, that is\, the chrism\, \nover your heads. Why over your heads? Because the faculties of the wise man \nare situated in his head\, says Solomon. Wisdom without grace is inert; but \nwhen wisdom receives grace\, then its work begins to move toward fulfillment. \nThis is called regeneration. \nWhat is regeneration? You can read in the Acts of the Apostles that a verse \nfrom the second Psalm\, You are my son\, today I have begotten you\, seems to \nrefer to the Resurrection. That is why he is also called The firstborn from the \ndead. For what is resurrection except that we rise from death to life? So it is in \nBaptism\, which is an image of death: when you are immersed and rise up again\, \nthere\, certainly\, is an image of the Resurrection. So as Christ’s Resurrection is \ninterpreted by the Apostle as a regeneration\, so also this resurrection from the \nfont is a regeneration.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-432/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260517
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260518
DTSTAMP:20260520T151446
CREATED:20260517T180750Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260517T185721Z
UID:14929-1778976000-1779062399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema: 7th Week of Easter
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n7th Week of Easter\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (A)\, Weekdays (II)\nMay 17 – 23\, 2026\n\n\n\nSun\n17\nMon\n18\nTue\n19\nWed\n20\nThu\n21\nFri\n22\nSat\n23\n\n\nOffice\nAscension of the Lord\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\n\n\nVigils\nEph 4:1-24\nActs 25:1-27\nActs 26:1-32\nActs 27:1-20\nActs 27:21-44\nActs 28: 1-14\nActs 28:15-31\n\n\nLauds\nDan 7:9-14\n1 Jn 2:24-27\n1 Jn 3:4-10\n1 Jn 3:19-24\n1 Jn 4:7-12\n1 Jn 5:1-5\n1 Jn 5:13-21\n\n\nMass\n58\n297\n298\n299\n300\n301\n302\n\n\n1st\nActs 1:1-11\nActs 19:1-8\nActs 20:17-27\nActs 20:28-38\nActs 22:30; 23:6-11\nActs 25:13b-21\nActs 28:16-20\, 30-31\n\n\n2nd\nEph 1:17-23\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nMatt 28:16-20\nJohn 16:29-33\nJohn 17:1-11a\nJohn 17:11b-19\nJohn 17:20-26\nJohn 21:15-19\nJohn 21:20-25\n\n\nVespers\nEph 2:1-10\n1 Jn 2:28-3:3\n1 Jn 3:11-18\n1 Jn 4:1-6\n1 Jn 4:13-21\n1 Jn 5:6-12\nRom 8:9:17
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-7th-week-of-easter-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260517
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260518
DTSTAMP:20260520T151446
CREATED:20260517T182125Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260517T182125Z
UID:14931-1778976000-1779062399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Ascension of the Lord
DESCRIPTION:A reading from\nST GREGORY OF NYSSA 1\n◊◊◊\nThe Gospel describes the Lord’s life upon earth and his return to heaven. But the sublime prophet David\, as though unencumbered by the weight of his body\, rose above himself to mingle with the heavenly powers and record for us their words as they accompanied the Master when he came down from heaven. Ordering the angels on earth entrusted with the care of human life to raise the gates\, they cried: Lift up your gates\, you princes; be lifted up you everlasting doors. Let the King of glory enter. \nBut because wherever he is\, he who contains all things in himself makes himself like those who receive him\, not only becoming a man among men\, but also when among angels conforming his nature to theirs\, the gatekeepers asked: Who is this King of glory? He is the strong one\, they were told\, mighty in battle\, the one who is to grapple with and overthrow the captor of the human race who has the power of death. When this last enemy has been destroyed\, he will restore us to freedom and peace. \nNow the mystery of Christ’s death is fulfilled\, victory is won\, and the Cross\, the sign of triumph\, is raised on high. He who gives us the noble gifts of life and a kingdom has ascended into heaven\, leading captivity captive. Therefore the same command is repeated. Once more the gates of heaven must open for him. Our guardian angels\, who have now become his escorts\, order them to be flung wide so that he may enter and regain his former glory. \nBut he is not recognized in the soiled garments of our life\, in clothes reddened by the winepress of human sin. Again the escorting angels are asked: Who is this King of glory? The answer is no longer\, The strong one\, mighty in battle\, but\, The lord of hosts\, he who has gained power over the whole universe\, who has recapitulated all things in himself who is above all things\, who has restored all creation to its former state: He is the King of glory. \nYou see how much David has added to our joy in this feast and contributed to the gladness of the Church. Therefore as far as we can let us imitate the prophet by our love for God\, by gentleness and by patience with those who hate us. Let the prophet’s teaching help us to live in a way pleasing to God in Christ Jesus our Lord\, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. \n1\nSt Gregory of Nyssa\, On the Ascension (Jaeger 9.1.323-327); Word in Season III\, 1st ed. Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Eastertide Year II.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/ascension-of-the-lord/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260518
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260519
DTSTAMP:20260520T151446
CREATED:20260517T182438Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260517T182438Z
UID:14933-1779062400-1779148799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Easter Weekday
DESCRIPTION:A reading from\nST MAXIMUS OF TURIN 2\n◊◊◊\nUnless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies\, it remains alone; but if it dies\, it bears much fruit. Our Lord blossomed afresh when he rose from the tomb\, and he bore fruit when he ascended to heaven. As a flower he burgeoned from the depths of the earth; as the fruit he took his place on his lofty throne. Enduring the torment of the Cross alone\, he is that grain which he himself describes; surrounded by his Apostles\, now unshakable in their faith\, he is the fruit. In his converse with his disciples during those forty days after his Resurrection\, he taught them the fullness of mature wisdom\, and reaped from them an abundant harvest by the life-giving power of his words. \nThen he ascended to heaven\, bringing his Father the fruits of his incarnate life\, and leaving in his disciples the seed of holiness. Just as the eagle leaves the low lying ground\, makes for the heights\, and climbs high to heaven\, in like manner our Saviour left the lower regions\, made for the heights of Paradise\, and reached heaven’s highest summit. \nBut what of the fact that an eagle often steals its prey by carrying off what belongs to another? Even so\, our Saviour did something not unlike that\, for in a manner of speaking he stole his prey when he snatched the manhood he had assumed from the jaws of hell and carried it off to heaven\, freeing the human race from slavery to an alien prince\, that is\, from the power of the devil\, and leading it captive into a higher captivity. As the prophet says\, Ascending on high he led captivity captive; he gave gifts to men. \nThe undoubted meaning of these words is this: that since the devil held the human race captive\, our Lord\, by wresting it from him\, took it captive himself and as the prophet tells us led that very captivity to the heights of heaven. Both captivities do indeed bear the same name\, but they differ one from the other. The devil’s captivity means enslavement; Christ’s\, on the contrary\, means restoration to freedom. \n2\nSt Maximus of Turin\, Sermon 56\, 1-2 (CCL 23:224-225); Word in Season III\, 1st ed. Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Eastertide Year II.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/easter-weekday-12/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260519
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260520
DTSTAMP:20260520T151446
CREATED:20260517T183010Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260517T183010Z
UID:14935-1779148800-1779235199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Easter Weekday
DESCRIPTION:A reading from\nST AUGUSTINE 3\n◊◊◊\nThe Lord said\, I tell you the truth: it is for your own good that I am going away\, because unless I go the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go I will send him to you. \nIn other words\, it is to your advantage that I should be taken from you as I am now\, in the condition of a servant. Now indeed I dwell among you as the Word made flesh; but I do not want you to go on loving me with a merely natural affection\, content with baby’s milk and lacking any ambition to leave the nursery. It is for your own good that I am going away\, because unless I do the Advocate will not come to you. So far I have given you nothing but children’s food. Unless I wean you\, you will never have any appetite for solid meat. As long as you cling to my bodily presence in a purely natural way you will remain incapable of receiving the Holy Spirit. \nA question arises\, however: when the Lord said that he had to go before the Advocate could come to the disciples\, and that if he went he would send him to them\, did he mean that it was impossible for him to send the Holy Spirit while he was still on earth? Surely no one would make such an assertion. He had never left the dwelling-place of the Spirit; nor had he come from the Father in such a way as no longer to be with the Father. Besides\, how could it have been impossible for Christ to send the Holy Spirit while he was yet on earth\, when we know he had received the abiding presence of the Spirit at his Baptism? In fact\, we know that he and the Holy Spirit were inseparable. \nWhat this Gospel passage means is that the disciples could not receive the Holy Spirit as long as they only knew Christ according to the flesh. Hence the assertion made by the Apostle Paul after he himself had received the Holy Spirit: Even if we used to think of Christ according to the flesh\, we do so no longer. When we know the incarnate Word spiritually\, our knowledge even of his flesh becomes more than merely according to the flesh. This\, without any doubt\, is the lesson their good Master wanted to give the disciples when he told them he was going away for their own good\, otherwise the Advocate would not come to them. \nThe withdrawal of Christ’s bodily presence from his disciples meant not only that the Holy Spirit would come to them\, but that the Father and the Son would also dwell with them in a spiritual manner. Christ’s departure did not mean that the Holy Spirit would simply take his place. It meant rather that together with Christ the Spirit would make his home in the hearts of the disciples. If this were not so\, what would become of our Lord’s promise to be with his disciples always\, to the end of time? \nAnd what of that other saying of his\, The Father and I will come to him and make our home with him? The fact is that our Lord promised to send the Holy Spirit in such a way that he himself would always remain with his disciples. And when through the coming of the Spirit their purely natural and human affections had become spiritualised\, then they would be capable of the indwelling of Father\, Son\, and Holy Spirit. \n3\nSt Augustine\, Commentary on John’s Gospel\, 94.4-5 (PL 35:1869-1870);Word in Season III\, 1st ed.\nMonday of the Sixth Week in Eastertide Year II.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/easter-weekday-13/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260520
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260521
DTSTAMP:20260520T151446
CREATED:20260517T183621Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260517T185456Z
UID:14937-1779235200-1779321599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Easter Weekday
DESCRIPTION:A reading from\nST JOHN HENRY NEWMAN 4\n◊◊◊\nChrist’s going to the Father is at once a source of sorrow because it involves his absence\, and of joy because it involves his presence. And out of the doctrine of his Resurrection and Ascension spring those Christian paradoxes\, often spoken of in Scripture\, that we are sorrowing yet always rejoicing; as having nothing yet possessing all things. \nThis\, indeed\, is our state at present; we have lost Christ and we have found him; we see him not\, yet we discern him. We embrace his feet\, yet he says\, Touch me not. How is this? It is thus: we have lost the sensible and conscious perception of him; we cannot look on him\, hear him\, converse with him\, follow him from place to place; but we enjoy the spiritual\, immaterial\, inward\, mental\, real sight and possession of him; a possession more real and more present than that which the Apostles had in the days of his flesh\, because it is spiritual\, because it is invisible. When he says that he should go away\, and come again and abide forever\, he is speaking not merely of his omnipresent\, divine nature\, but of his human nature. As being Christ he says that he\, the incarnate mediator\, shall be with his Church forever. \nBut again\, you may be led to explain his declaration thus: ‘He has come again\, but in his Spirit; that is\, his Spirit has come instead of him; and when it is said that he is with us\, this only means that his Spirit is with us.’ \nNo one\, doubtless\, can deny this most gracious and consolatory truth\, that the Holy Spirit has come; but why has he come? To supply Christ’s absence\nor to accomplish his presence? Surely to make him present. Let us not suppose that God the Holy Spirit comes in such sense that God the Son remains away. No; he has not so come that Christ does not come\, but rather he comes that Christ may come in his coming. Through the Holy Spirit we have communion with Father and Son. In Christ we are built together\, says St Paul\, for a dwelling place of God through the Spirit. You are the temple of God\, the Spirit of God dwells in you. \nThus the Holy Spirit does not take the place of Christ in the soul\, but secures that place for Christ. St Paul insists much on this presence of Christ in those who have his Spirit. Do you not know\, he says\, that your bodies are the members of Christ? By one Spirit we are all baptized one body… you are the body of Christ\, and each one of you is a part of it? \nThe Holy Spirit\, then\, vouchsafes to come to us\, that by his coming Christ may come to us\, not carnally or visibly\, but may enter into us. And thus he is both present and absent\, absent in that he has left the earth\, present in that he has not left the faithful soul; or\, as he says himself: The world sees me no more\, but you see me. \n4\nJohn Henry Newman\, Parochial and Plain Sermons\, VI\, 121-127; Word in Season III\, 2nd ed.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/easter-weekday-14/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260521
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260522
DTSTAMP:20260520T151446
CREATED:20260517T184055Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260517T184055Z
UID:14939-1779321600-1779407999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Easter Weekday
DESCRIPTION:A reading from\nST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA 5\n◊◊◊\nAs the reason for his departure\, our Lord mentioned his desire to open the way for our ascent to the heavenly places and to prepare a safe passage for us by making smooth the road that had previously been impassable. For heaven was then completely inaccessible to us – human foot had never trodden that pure and holy country of the angels. It was Christ who first prepared the way for our ascent there. By offering himself to God the Father as the first-fruits of all who are dead and buried\, he gave us a way of entry into heaven and was himself the first man the inhabitants of heaven ever saw. \nThe angels in heaven\, knowing nothing of the sacred and profound mystery of the incarnation\, were astonished at his coming and almost thrown into confusion by an event so strange and unheard of. Who is this coming from Edom? they asked; that is\, from the earth. But the Spirit did not leave the heavenly throng ignorant of the wonderful wisdom of God the Father. Commanding them to open the gates of heaven in honor of the king and master of the universe\, he cried out: Lift up your gates\, you princes\, and be lifted up\, you everlasting doors\, that the king of glory may come in. \nAnd so our Lord Jesus Christ has opened up for us a new and living way\, as Paul says\, not by entering a sanctuary made with hands\, but by entering heaven itself to appear before God on our behalf. For Christ has not ascended in order to make his own appearance before God the Father. \nHe was\, is\, and ever will be in the Father and in the sight of him from whom he receives his being\, for he is his Father’s unfailing joy. But now the Word\, who had never before been clothed in human nature\, has ascended as a man to show himself in a strange and unfamiliar fashion. And he has done this on our account and in our name\, so that being like us\, though with his power as the Son\, and hearing the command\, Sit at my right hand\, as a member of our race\, he might transmit to all of us the glory of being children of God. \nAs man then he appeared before the Father on our behalf\, to enable us whom original sin had excluded from his presence to see the Father’s face once more. As the Son he took his seat to enable us as sons through him to be called children of God. So Paul\, who claims to speak for Christ\, teaching that the whole human race has a share in the events of Christ’s life\, says that God has raised us up with him and enthroned us with him in heaven. To Christ as the Son by nature belongs the prerogative of sitting at the Father’s side; this honor can rightly and truly be ascribed to him alone. \nYet because his having become man means that he sits there as one who is in all respects like ourselves\, as well as being as we believe God from God\, in some mysterious way he passes this honor on to us. \n5\nSt Cyril of Alexandria\, Commentary on St John’s Gospel\, 9 (PG 74:182-183);Word in Season III\, 2nd ed.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/easter-weekday-15/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260522
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260523
DTSTAMP:20260520T151446
CREATED:20260517T184712Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260517T184712Z
UID:14941-1779408000-1779494399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Easter Weekday
DESCRIPTION:A reading from\nST LEO THE GREAT 6\n◊◊◊\nAfter the blessed and glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ\, when the divine power in three days raised the true Temple of God…on this very day\, dearly beloved\, the number of the forty holy days is completed. While the Lord draws out the time of his bodily presence\, our faith in his Resurrection is being strengthened by the necessary signs. The Death of Christ had greatly disturbed the hearts of the disciples. When the holy women\, as the Gospel story has told us\, proclaimed that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb\, the sepulcher was empty\, and that angels were witnesses of the living Lord\, their words seemed to the Apostles and other disciples as pure nonsense. \nThe Spirit of Truth would by no means have permitted this wavering in human weakness to enter the hearts of his preachers\, if their trembling anxiety and questioning delay were not to have established the foundations of our faith. Consequently\, it was our doubts\, our danger\, that was being considered in the Apostles. We\, in the guise of the Apostles\, were being instructed against the slanders of the wicked and the proofs of earthly wisdom. Let us give thanks for necessary slowness of the Holy Fathers. They doubted so that we need not doubt. \nThese days\, dearly beloved\, between the Resurrection of the Lord and his Ascension provided the opportunity to confirm great mysteries\, to reveal great secrets. In these days the Holy Spirit was poured into all the Apostles by the breath of the Lord; and to blessed Peter above all the others\, after the keys of the kingdom\, the care of the Lord’s sheep is entrusted. Through all this time which\nwent by between the Resurrection of the Lord and his Ascension\, the providence of God took thought for this: that they should recognize the Lord Jesus Christ as truly risen\, who was truly born\, truly suffered\, and truly died. \nThe result was that not only were they not afflicted with sadness but were filled with great joy when the Lord went into the heights of heaven. Truly it was a great and indescribable source of rejoicing when\, in the sight of the heavenly multitudes\, the nature of our human race ascended over the dignity of all heavenly creatures\, to pass the angelic orders and to be raised beyond the heights of archangels. In its ascension it did not stop at any other height until this same nature was received at the seat of the eternal Father\, to be associated on the throne of the glory of that One to whose nature it was joined in the Son. \nSince the Ascension of Christ is our elevation\, and since\, where the glory of the Head has preceded its\, there hope for the body is also invited\, let us exult\, dearly beloved\, with worthy joy and be glad with a holy thanksgiving. \nToday we are established not only as possessors of Paradise\, but we have even penetrated the heights of the heavens in Christ\, prepared more fully for it through the indescribable grace of Christ which we had lost through the ill will of the devil. Those whom the violent enemy threw down from the happiness of our first dwelling\, the Son of God has placed\, incorporated within himself\, at the right hand of the Father\, the Son of God who lives and reigns with God the Father Almighty and with the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen. \n6\nSt Leo the Great\, Sermon 73; FoC 93 (1996) tr. Freeland & Conway.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/easter-weekday-16/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260523
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260524
DTSTAMP:20260520T151446
CREATED:20260517T185342Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260517T185342Z
UID:14943-1779494400-1779580799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Easter Weekday
DESCRIPTION:A reading from\nST LEO THE GREAT 7\n◊◊◊\nThe faith of the infant Church was increased by the Lord’s Ascension and strengthened by the gift of the Spirit; it was to remain unshaken by fetters and imprisonment\, exile and hunger\, fire and ravening beasts\, and the most refined tortures ever devised by brutal persecutors. Even the blessed Apostles\, though they had been strengthened by so many miracles and instructed by so much teaching\, took fright at the cruel suffering of the Lord’s Passion and could not accept his Resurrection without hesitation. \nYet they made such progress through his Ascension that they now found joy in what had terrified them before. They were able to fix their minds on Christ’s divinity as he sat at the right hand of the Father\, since what was presented to their bodily eyes no longer hindered them from turning all their attention to the realization that he had not left his Father when he came down to earth\, nor abandoned his disciples when he ascended into heaven. \nThe truth is that the Son of Man was revealed as Son of God in a more perfect and transcendent way once he had entered into his Father’s glory. He now began to be indescribably more present in his divinity to those from whom he was further removed in his humanity. A more mature faith enabled their minds to stretch upward to the Son in his equality with the Father; it no longer needed contact with Christ’s tangible body\, in which as man he is inferior to the Father. \nFor while his glorified body retained the same nature\, the faith of those who believed in him was now summoned to heights where\, as the Father’s equal\, the only-begotten Son is reached not by physical handling but by spiritual discernment. This explains why our Lord said to the Church in the person of Mary Magdalene\, as she ran forward to cling to him: Do not touch me\, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. In other words\, I do not want you to come to me corporeally\, to recognize me by what your bodily senses tell you; I want you to wait for something higher. \nAnd when the eyes of his disciples\, rapt in wonder\, followed their ascending Lord to heaven\, there stood beside them two angels\, in garments of marvelously shining whiteness\, who said to them: Men of Galilee\, why are you standing looking up to heaven? This Jesus who has been taken from you will come again in the same way as you have seen him going up to heaven. By these words all the Church’s children have been taught to believe that Jesus Christ will come again visibly in the same flesh in which he ascended\, and that there can be no doubt concerning the subjection of all things to him who was served by angels from the moment of his birth. \nAs it was an angel who announced to the blessed Virgin that Christ would be conceived of the Holy Spirit\, so too it was the song of heavenly beings that told the shepherds of his virginal birth; and as the first attestations of his rising from the dead were delivered by messengers from on high\, so it was the task of angels to proclaim that he would come in the same flesh to judge the world. All these things were intended to make us realize what tremendous angelic powers are to accompany him when he comes to judge\, since such mighty spirits ministered to him even when he came to be judged himself. \n7\nSt Leo the Great\, Sermon 74\, 3-4 (CCL 138A:457-459); Word in Season III\, 1st ed.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/easter-weekday-17/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR