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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240117
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240118
DTSTAMP:20260403T203434
CREATED:20240113T203303Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240113T203303Z
UID:11485-1705449600-1705535999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Anthony
DESCRIPTION:HE KEPT HIS HEART WATCHFUL \nFrom the writing of Nikiphorus the monk4 \n◊◊◊ \nOnce two brothers were on their way to visit St Antony\, but on the journey \ntheir water gave out and one of them died and the other was near to dying. \nUnable to go any further\, he too lay down on the ground and awaited death. But \nAntony\, seated on the mountain\, called two monks who happened to be with \nhim and said to them urgently\, ‘Take a jar of water and go as fast as you can \nalong the road leading to Egypt: two men were on their way here\, but one has \njust died and the other will also die if you don’t hurry. This was revealed to me \nas I was praying.’ \nThe monks set off; and finding the one man dead they buried him\, while \nthey revived the other with water and brought him to the elder. It was about a \nday’s journey off. Should you ask why Antony did not speak before the first man \ndied\, I would say that the question is inapt: the decision about death rested not \nwith Antony but with God\, and He allowed the first man to die and sent a \nrevelation to St Antony about the second. The miracle happened to St Antony\, \nand to him alone\, because while seated on the mountain he kept \nhis heart watchful\, and so the Lord showed him what was happening a long way \noff. \nDo you see how through watchfulness of heart St Antony was able to \nperceive God…? For it is in the heart that God manifests Himself to \nthe intellect…as fire that purifies the lover and then as light that illumines \nthe intellect and renders it godlike. \nWe cannot be reconciled with God and assimilated to Him unless we \nfirst…enter into ourselves\, in so far as this lies within our power. For the miracle \nconsists in tearing ourselves away from the distraction and vain concerns of the \nworld and in this way relentlessly seizing hold of the kingdom of heaven within \nus \n4 https://orthodoxchurchfathers.com/fathers/philokalia/nikiphoros-the-monk-from-the-life-of-our-holy-father- \nantony.html. Accessed: Jan. 11\, 2024.9 \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-anthony-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240118
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240119
DTSTAMP:20260403T203434
CREATED:20240113T203437Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240113T203437Z
UID:11487-1705536000-1705622399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:UNCEASING PRAYER AND SELF-KNOWLEDGE \nBy Elder Paisios of Mount Athos5 \n◊◊◊ \nIn regards to unceasing prayer\, if you want\, use a simple method if you \nare a simple person… Unfortunately\, some people don’t have as their aim the \nputting off of their old man\, repentance\, humility and the placing of asceticism \nas a supporting means for the sanctification of their soul in order to sense deeply \ntheir sinfulness and feel profoundly the need for God’s mercy\, and say with \nsweet pain\, “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me”. Instead\, they begin with arid \nascesis and pursue divine pleasures and divine lights… When they believe that \nthey have become holy\, immediately the enemy approaches… \nTherefore\, my brother\, ask for repentance in your prayer and nothing \nelse\, neither for divine lights\, nor miracles\, nor prophecies\, nor spiritual gifts – \n– nothing but repentance. Repentance will bring you humility\, humility will \nbring the Grace of God\, and God will have in His Grace everything you need for \nyour salvation\, or anything you might need to help another soul. \nThings are very simple and there is no reason why we should complicate \nthem. If we regard matters in this way\, we will feel…prayer as a necessity and \nwill not grow weary. We will…feel a sweet pain and then Christ Himself will \nshed His sweet consolation inside our heart. \nThus prayer does not tire but invigorates. It is tiresome only when we do \nnot enter into its meaning and do not understand the sense given it by our Holy \nFathers. Once we comprehend the need of God’s mercy\, the desire of this \nhunger will compel us\, without pressuring ourselves in prayer\, to open our \nmouth like a nursing infant\, and we will feel\, simultaneously\, all the security \nand joy of a baby in its mother’s embrace… \nWe should be in frequent contact with God and\, if possible\, in “constant \nvigilance” for more safety in order to continuously have an abundance of divine \nstrength. Of course\, the enemy does not rest and is constantly attacking us in a \nvariety of ways. However\, we can turn it to our advantage\, and render him into \nan unpaid worker\, who assists us in our unceasing prayer. For example\, when \nhe brings us evil or blasphemous thoughts\, we should start the Jesus Prayer and \nsay to the devil: “It’s good that you pricked at me\, for I had forgotten my Christ”. \nWhen we do this\, even if we were to keep the devil near\, he won’t remain\, since \nhe is not so dumb as to work for free and to bring benefit to our soul. \nIf we want to engage in fine and painstaking work\, let us take\, in order\, \nthe most difficult passions we have\, and whatever fault we detect during the \nday\, and humbly ask for God’s mercy so that we can be redeemed… In this way\, \nthe passions are uprooted… \nWhen someone first gets to know himself and becomes conscious of his \ngreat sinfulness and the great benevolence of God\, his heart breaks even if it is \nas hard as granite. Then\, real tears flow naturally and man does not pressure \nhimself neither in prayer nor in order to shed tears. Humility and <gratitude> \ncontinually work to “drill” on his heart\, and the wellsprings increase\, and God’s \nhand constantly caresses His hardworking grateful child. \n  \n5 Elder Paisios of Mount Athos. Epistles. Souroti\, Thessaloniki\, Greece: Holy Monastery “Evangelist John the \nTheologian\, 2002. 71-73.11 \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-151/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240119
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240120
DTSTAMP:20260403T203434
CREATED:20240113T203600Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240113T203600Z
UID:11489-1705622400-1705708799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE WAY OF REPENTANCE \nFrom the writing of Jacob Boehme6 \n◊◊◊ \nWhen…a man finds within himself a hunger\, so that he would eagerly repent\, \nbut finds in himself no proper sorrow for his past sins\, and yet a hunger for sorrow \n(as the poor\, captured soul ever groans\, fears itself and acknowledges itself as guilty \nof sins before God’s judgement)\, he can do no better than to gather sense\, mind \nand all reason together into one and…when he feels a desire to repent he is to make \na powerful resolution\, that in this hour\, in this minute\, he will enter into \nrepentance\, and leave his godless way\, give no attention to any worldly power and \nhonour and\, if it must be\, leave all for true repentance and esteem nothing. \nAnd [he] is to make such a firm and stern resolution for himself that he will \nnever again leave [repentance]\, even if the whole world considers him a fool; and \nthat he will wish to lead his mind obediently away from the beauties and pleasures \nof this world into the sufferings and death of Christ\, under His cross\, and order his \nwhole hope to the coming life and enter into Christ’s vineyard\, in righteousness \nand truth to do God’s will\, and begin and complete all his work in this world in \nChrist’s spirit and will. For the sake of Christ’s word and promise by which He \npromised us heavenly reward\, he should eagerly suffer and bear all misfortune and \nsuffering\, so that he may be counted among the community of Christ’s children…by \nthe blood of Jesus Christ. \nHe is strongly to consider\, and completely wrap his soul [in the idea] that he \nhas made the resolution to gain the love of God in Christ Jesus\, and that according \nto His true promise God will give him the noble pledge of the Holy Spirit as a \nbeginning so that in himself he might be reborn in Christ’s humanity\, according to \nthe heavenly divine being\, and that the spirit of Christ might renew his mind…and \nstrengthen his weak faith so that in his soul’s desire… he might receive…from the \nsweet fountain\, Jesus Christ\, the water of eternal life… \nHe is to consider fully the great love of God\, that God does not wish the death \nof the sinner\, but that he be converted and live. And he is also to [consider] how \nChrist\, in a friendly manner\, calls poor sinners to Himself\, since He desires to \nrevive them; and that God sent His son into the world to seek and to make holy \nthat which was lost\, the poor\, repentant\, converted sinner; and how\, for the sake \nof the poor sinner\, He gave His life unto death\, and for him died in our humanity\, \ntaken on [for us]. \nHe is to consider strongly also that God in Christ Jesus will more readily hear \n[him] and receive him into grace than he himself wants to come to Him; and that \nin the love of Christ\, in the very precious Name JESUS\, God can desire no evil\, that \nthere is no glimpse of wrath in this Name\, but that He is the highest and deepest \nlove and faithfulness… so that He would pour His sweet love into us so that the \nFather’s wrath\, which was enflamed in us\, might be put out and changed into love. \nAll of this occurred for the sake of the poor sinner so that he might again gain the \nopen gate of grace. \nIn such a consideration he should firmly imagine that at this hour and \nmoment he stands in the presence of the Holy Trinity\, and that God is truly present \nin him and outside of him… Thus\, he is to know and believe for certain that he \nstands\, with his soul\, before the face of Jesus Christ\, before the holy Godhead\, and \nthat his soul has turned from God’s face; and that he now\, this hour\, wishes to turn \nhis soul’s eyes and desire to God\, and\, with the poor\, prodigal and returning son \n[desires to] come to the Father. \n  \n6 Jacob Boehme. The Way to Christ. Trans. Peter Erb. New York: Paulist Press\, 1978. 31-34.13 \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-152/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240120
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240121
DTSTAMP:20260403T203434
CREATED:20240113T203746Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240113T203746Z
UID:11491-1705708800-1705795199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Memorial of BVM
DESCRIPTION:ALL WHO HUNGER AND THIRST \nFrom a homily by Ogier of Locedio7 \n◊◊◊ \nHow sweet and delightful it is\, ever to call to mind our heavenly mother\, \nthat fragrant spikenard\, about whom roses waft the scent of Paradise!… For \nthus sang Mary\, Queen of the world and Mother of Humility: He cast down the \nmighty from their thrones and raised up the lowly… Therefore be meek of \nheart\, you who wear the habit of humility: let what your habit professes \noutwardly preserve you inwardly in virtue… Thus you will be pleasing to God\, \nwho emptied himself and\, accepting the form of a servant\, gave himself up to \nsuffer\, dying on the rood\, lest humankind die and for ever live in the abyss of \nsavage cruelty… \nWhatever your past\, take no pleasure in what is displeasing to your \nCreator\, but in him alone\, whom you have vowed yourself to please in all your \nactions. If you have lived chastely\, if you have not strafed the citadel of humility \nwith bolts of pride\, then you will be comely and beautiful in the sight of the Most \nHigh. He himself — who filled the hungry with good things and sent away the \nwealthy empty-handed –– will find it good to be your spouse. \nHow blessed the hungry whom the Lord fills with his lasting goodness… \nAll who hunger and thirst for justice will be fed by the Bread of Angels that came \ndown from heaven to give life to the world. These hungry ones Jesus does not \nturn away empty-handed; he satisfies their desires with his goodness\, by \nenriching them with the good of everlasting life. They are indeed rich when they \nshare in the wealth of joy in the glory of heaven. There true wealth lies\, where \nno one is wretched or poor; for there dwell glory and life\, utter joy\, and total \nbliss. With such good things the author of goodness will fill those who in this \nlife have rid themselves of sin\, who suffer torment in order to possess Him\, and \nwho find no pleasure except in the true joy of God\, and the supreme bliss of \nChrist. \nHe enriches holy paupers with his ineffable goodness\, but he \nimpoverishes the wicked wealthy\, and sends them away empty. Death separates \nthe rich from their passing wealth\, but when the poor of Christ pass on\, they \ngain eternity… The true pauper has nothing of mortal sin. Even if he has earthly \nriches\, he reckons them as worthless\, because he does not yet possess the true \nwealth of the Lord Jesus. To see him\, to hold him: this is the desire towards \nwhich he labors with all his heart. \nThe rich…are those whose lives are doubly mortal: they covet passing \ngains\, and neglect to live for God. O what an evil wealth is the enormity of sin \nand vice\, which plunders the soul of divine riches! The greater the accumulation \nof such wealth\, the more its possessors will be cast down and despised by Christ\, \nwho will dismiss them empty-handed\, saying: Depart from me\, workers of \niniquity; in truth I tell you\, I do not know you!… Let us rid ourselves of worldly \nwealth and sin. Let the rich whose true wealth is Christ bestow their goods on \nthe poor and needy\, so that they—and we—may join the company of the angels \nin the Kingdom of his Father\, and he says those wondrous words of welcome: \nCome\, blessed of my Father\, receive the kingdom prepared for you before the \nbeginning of the world… This promise of eternal inheritance knows no end\, for \nbelievers will want for nothing at the end of time\, but will enjoy beatific glory \nfor ever and beyond. May the Mother of glory deign through her merits to bring \nus to that bliss. \n  \n7 Ogier of Locedio. In Praise of God’s Holy Mother. CF 70. Trans. D. Martin Jenni. Kalamazoo\, MI: Cistercian \nPublications\, 2006. 111\, 120-122\, 128.15 \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-memorial-of-bvm-4/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240121
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240122
DTSTAMP:20260403T203434
CREATED:20240120T145515Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240120T145515Z
UID:11501-1705795200-1705881599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema: Week 3 of Ordinary Time
DESCRIPTION:  \n\n\n\nBiblical Readings for Office and Mass\n3rd Week in Ordinary Time\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (B)\, Weekdays (II)\nJanuary 21 – 27\, 2024\n\n\n\nSun\n21\nMon\n22\nTue\n23\nWed\n24\nThu\n25\nFri\n26\nSat\n27\n\n\nOffice\n3rd Sunday\nWeekday\nWeekday\nSt Francis de Sales\nConversion of St Paul\nSS Robert\, Alberic & Stephen\nMemorial of the BVM\n\n\nVigils\nNum 20:1-13; 21:4-9\nNum 21:21-35\nNum 22:2-21\nNum 22:22-40\nActs 26:1-23\nLev 26:3-13\nNum 22:41-23:12\n\n\nLauds\nEccles 5:1-6\nEccles 5:7-11\nEccles 5:12-19\nEccles 6:1-6\nSir 39:1-10\nEzek 34:23-31\nEccles 6:7-12\n\n\nMass\n68\n317\n318\n319\n519\n606\, 322\, 815.8\n322\n\n\n1st\nJon 3:1-5\, 10\n2 Sam 5:1-7\, 10\n2 Sam 6:12b-15\, 17-19\n2 Sam 7:4-17\nActs 22:3-16\nSir 44:1\,10-15\n2 Sam 12:1-7a\, 10-17\n\n\n2nd\n1 Cor 7:29-31\n\n\n\n\nHeb 11:1-2\, 8-16\n\n\n\nGospel\nMark 1:14-20\nMark 3:22-30\nMark 3:31-35\nMark 4:1-20\nMark 16:15-18\nMark 10:24b-30\nMark 4:35-41\n\n\nVespers\n2 Cor 7:5-10\n2 Cor 7:11-16\n2 Cor 8:1-7\n2 Cor 8:8-15\n1 Jn 4:13-21\n2 Cor 4:7-18\n2 Cor 9:6-15
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-week-3-of-ordinary-time/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240121
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240122
DTSTAMP:20260403T203434
CREATED:20240120T150402Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240120T150402Z
UID:11503-1705795200-1705881599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
DESCRIPTION:THE GREATNESS OF GOD’S LOVE\nFrom a commentary by St Caesarius of Arles1\n◊◊◊\nIn today’s gospel\, beloved\, we heard the exhortation to repent\, for the\nkingdom of heaven is at hand. Now the kingdom of heaven is Christ\, who\, as we\nknow\, is the judge of good and evil and scrutinizes the motives for all our\nactions. We should therefore do well to forestall God’s judgment by freely\nacknowledging our sins and correcting our wrongheaded attitudes; for by\nfailing to seek out the needful remedies and apply them\, we place ourselves in\ndanger. And our knowledge that we have to account for the motives behind our\nshortcomings makes the need for such a change of heart even greater. \nWe must recognize the greatness of God’s love for us; so generous is it\nthat he is willing to be appeased by the amends we make for our evil deeds\,\nprovided only that we freely admit them before he has himself condemned\nthem. And though his judgments are always just\, he gives us a warning before\nhe passes them\, so as not to be compelled to apply the full rigor of his justice. It\nis not for nothing that our God draws floods of tears from us; he does so to incite\nus to recover by penance and a change of heart what we had previously let slip\nthrough carelessness. God is well aware that human judgment is often at fault\,\nthat we are prone to fleshly sins and deceitful speech. He therefore shows us the\nway of repentance\, by which we can compensate for damage done and atone for\nour faults. And so to be sure of obtaining forgiveness\, we ought to be always\nbewailing our guilt. Yet no matter how many wounds our human nature has\nsustained\, we are never justified in giving ourselves over to despair\, for our Lord\nis magnanimous enough to pour out his compassion abundantly on all who\nneed it. \nBut perhaps one of you will say: “What have I to fear? I have never done\nanything wrong.” On this point hear what the apostle John says: If we claim to\nbe sinless\, we deceive ourselves and are blind to the truth. So let no one lead\nyou astray; the most pernicious kind of sin is the failure to recognize one’s own\nsinfulness. Once let wrongdoers admit their guilt and repent of it\, and this\nchange of heart will bring about their reconciliation with the Lord; but no sinner\nis more in need of the tears of others than the one who thinks he has nothing to\nweep for. So I implore you\, beloved\, to follow the advice given you by the holy\nScripture and humble yourselves beneath the all-powerful hand of God. \nAs none of us can be wholly free from sin\, so let none of us fail to make\namends; here too we do ourselves great harm if we presume our own innocence.\nIt may be that some are less guilty than others\, but no one is entirely free from\nfault; there may be degrees of guilt\, but no one can escape it altogether. Let\nthose then whose offenses are more grievous be more earnest in seeking\npardon; and let those who have so far escaped contamination by the more\nheinous crimes pray that they may never be defiled by them…. \n1\nJourney with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – 1999 – pg 74-75.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/third-sunday-in-ordinary-time/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240122
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240123
DTSTAMP:20260403T203434
CREATED:20240120T150801Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240120T151012Z
UID:11505-1705881600-1705967999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Blessed Madeleine Delbrel
DESCRIPTION:WHEREVER LOVE IS PRESENT\nFrom the writing of Blessed Madeleine Delbrêl 2\n◊◊◊\nAnywhere we are\, God is there\, too. The space where we join him is the\nplace of our love\, a love that does not want to be separated from God\, that wants\nto encounter God. Whoever has not tried to know who Jesus is – truly\, fully\,\npresently – will not desire him. He will desire him less than a child desires an\norange from the grocery store. \nBut those who have struggled to climb toward the mystery of God\, who\nthought him possible\, who believed him possible\, who\, in the end\, believed him\nto be true\, who found the joy of joys in this truth; those who had to make room\nin themselves for still more joy in knowing that this mystery was made\nperceptible to the eyes of men in a man who was both man and God; those who\nknow that this man will remain with them until the end of time\, with his body\,\nwith his blood\, with his glory\, those who believed and who still believe in all\nthis\, we who believe it – will we lack the desire to find him wherever he says he\ncan be found? To knock down or pierce through all the obstacles that would\nkeep us from being with him forever\, ever more deeply? It is this desire that\nmakes prayer and that makes it anywhere. Wherever love is present\, it carries\nwithin itself this desire. To love God enough to want to be with him\, to carry\nwithin ourselves the desire of this love\, gives us strength enough to cut through\neven the hardest\, most hectic of lives\, so that in prayer we can reach the One we\nlove. \nA few minutes of such prayer will give us to God and give us God more\nthan hours of powerful meditation if they are not preceded by a free and living\ndesire. The retreat to the desert can be…at the end of the day\, after we have\nspent all day “digging” a well toward these few brief moments; in contrast\, this\nsame desert could be without retreat if we put off our desire to meet the Lord.\nOur comings and goings – and not only the big ones\, but also those we make\nfrom one room to the next – the moments when we are required to wait…are\nmoments of prayer prepared for us\, as long as we are prepared for them. To\nwaste them through lack of preparation can rightly be called a small fault. But\nif one day we find that\, with the Lord\, it is not a question of sin but one of love\,\nperhaps we will realize that we have been strange lovers. \n2 Delbrêl\, Madeleine. The Dazzling Light of God. Trans. Mary Dudro Gordon. San Francisco: Ignatius Press\,\n2023. 119-120.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/st-caesarius-of-arles/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240123
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240124
DTSTAMP:20260403T203434
CREATED:20240120T151917Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240120T154417Z
UID:11509-1705968000-1706054399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Weekday
DESCRIPTION:OUR NEIGHBOUR IS THE IMAGE OF GOD \nFrom the writing of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov 3 \n◊◊◊ \nHoly monks constantly remembered Christ’s words: Truly I tell you\, when you did it to one of the least of these My brethren\, you did it to Me. They did not stop to consider whether their neighbour deserved their respect or not; they paid no attention to his numerous and obvious defects. Their attention was taken up with seeing that they did not somehow fail to realize that our neighbour is the image of God\, and that Christ accepts what we do to our neighbour as if it were done to Him… \nIt requires considerable spiritual effort and it requires the co-operation of divine grace for the heart damaged by sin to grasp this notion so as to have it constantly in mind\,” in our relations with our brethren. But when by the mercy of God we grasp this notion\, it becomes a source of the purest love for our neighbour\, a love for all equally. Such love has a single cause — the Christ Who is honoured and loved in every neighbour. \nThe realization of this truth becomes a source of the sweetest compunction\, of the most fervent\, undistracted\, most concentrated prayer. Holy Abba Dorotheus used to say to his disciple\, St. Dositheus\, whenever he was overcome by anger: ‘Dositheus! You get angry\, and are you not ashamed that you get angry and offend your brother? Do you not realize that he is Christ and that you offend Christ?’ \nThe great Saint Apollos often used to tell his disciples regarding the reception of who came to him that they must be given honour with a prostration to the earth. In bowing to them we bow not to them but to God… And that we must welcome and show hospitality to the brethren we have learnt from Lot who urged the Angels to spend the night at his house. \nThis way of thought and behaviour was adopted by all the monks of Egypt… St. Cassian the Roman… of the fourth century\, relates the following: “When we…wishing to learn the rules of the elders\, arrived from the region of Syria in the province of Egypt\, we were astonished to find that they received us there with extraordinary kindness. Moreover they never observed the rule for the use of food\, for which a fixed hour is appointed\, contrary to what we had learnt in the Palestinian monasteries. Wherever we went the regular fast for that day was relaxed\, with the exception of the canonical fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. We asked one of the elders: “Why do you all without distinction disregard the daily fasting?” He replied: “Fasting is always with me\, but you I must send away eventually and I cannot always have you with me. Although fasting is beneficial and constantly necessary\, yet it is a gift and a voluntary sacrifice\, whereas the observance of love…is an invariable duty required by the commandment. I receive Christ in your person\, and I must show Him wholehearted hospitality… Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But when the bridegroom is taken away from them\, then they will fast lawfully”… \nThrough humility in your dealings with your neighbour\, and through love for your neighbour\, hardness and callousness is expelled from the heart. It is rolled away like a heavy rock from the entrance to a tomb\, and the heart revives for spiritual relations with God. \n3 Brianchaninov\, Ignatius. The Arena: An Offering to Contemporary Monasticism. Trans. from the Russian. Madras\, 1970. 62-65.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/ignatius-brianchaninov/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240124
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240125
DTSTAMP:20260403T203434
CREATED:20240120T152950Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240120T152950Z
UID:11511-1706054400-1706140799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:St. Francis de Sales
DESCRIPTION:HOW CHARITY PRODUCES LOVE OF NEIGHBOR\nBy St Francis de Sales 4\n◊◊◊ \nJust as God has created “us in his image and likeness\,” so also has he\nordained for us a love in the image and likeness of the love due to his divinity.\nHe says: “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart\, and with your\nwhole soul\, and with your whole mind.” This the greatest and the first\ncommandment. and the second is like it\, “You shall love your neighbor as\nyourself.”… Why do we love God? “The reason for which we love God is God\nhimself.” says St. Bernard\, as if to say that we love God because he is the most\nsupreme and most infinite goodness. Why do we love ourselves in charity?\nSurely\, it is because we re God’s image and likeness. \nSince all persons have this same dignity\, we also love them as ourselves\,\nthat is\, in their character is most holy and living images of the divinity. It is in\nthis character…that we are related to God by such close alliance and such loving\ndependence that nothing prevents him from saying that he is our Father and\nfrom calling us his children. It is in this character that we are capable of being\nunited to his divine essence by enjoyment of his supreme goodness and bliss. It\nis in this character that we receive his grace and our spirits are associated with\nhis most holy Spirit\, and as it were “are made partakers of his divine nature\,” as\nSt. Leo says. \nHence\, the same charity that produces acts of love of God produces at the\nsame time those of love of neighbor. Just as Jacob saw that one and the same\nladder touched heaven and earth and equally served the angels both to descend\nand to ascend\, so also we know that one and the same dilection reaches out to\ncherish both God and neighbor. Thus it raises us up to unite our spirit with God\nand it brings us back again to loving association with our neighbors. However\,\nthis is always on condition that we love our neighbors in as much as they are\nGod’s image and likeness\, created to communicate with the divine goodness\, to\nparticipate in his grace\, and to enjoy his glory… \nTo love our neighbor in charity is to love God in the human being or the\nhuman being in God. It is to cherish God alone for love of himself and creatures\nfor love of him. When we see our neighbor created in the likeness and image\nof God\, should we not say to one another\, “Stop\, do you see this created being\,\ndo you see how it resembles the Creator?” Should we not cast ourselves upon\nhim\, caress him\, and weep over him with love? Should we not give him a\nthousand\, thousand blessings? Why so?… It is for love of God who made us in\nhis own image and likeness and therefore capable of sharing in his goodness in\ngrace and glory. \n4 On the Love of God\, Tan Books & Pub. Inc.\, 1975\, pp. 170-171.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/st-francis-de-sales/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11513-1706140800-1706227199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Conversion of St. Paul
DESCRIPTION:FROM A HOMILY ON THE PRAISE OF ST PAUL\nBy St John Chrysostom 5\n◊◊◊ \nPaul\, more than anyone else\, has shown us what humankind really is\, and\nin what our nobility consists\, and of what virtue this particular animal is\ncapable. Each day he aimed ever higher; each day he rose up with greater ardor\nand faced with new eagerness the dangers that threatened him. He summed up\nhis attitude in the words: I forget what is behind me and push on to what lies\nahead. When he saw death imminent\, he bade others share his joy: Rejoice and\nbe glad with me! And when danger\, injustice and abuse threatened\, he said: I\nam content with weakness\, mistreatment and persecution. These he called the\nweapons of righteousness\, thus telling us that he derived immense profit from\nthem. \nThus\, amid the traps set for him by his enemies\, with exultant heart he\nturned their every attack into a victory for himself; constantly beaten\, abused\nand cursed\, he boasted of it as though he were celebrating a triumphal\nprocession and taking trophies home\, and offered thanks to God for it all:\nThanks be to God who is always victorious in us! \nThe most important thing of all to him\, however\, was that he knew\nhimself to be loved by Christ. Enjoying this love\, he considered himself happier\nthan anyone else; were he without it\, it would be no satisfaction to be the friend\nof principalities and powers. He preferred to be thus loved and be the least of\nall\, or even to be among the damned\, than to be without that love and be among\nthe great and honored. \nTo be separated from that love was\, in his eyes\, the greatest and most\nextraordinary of torments; the pain of that loss would alone have been hell\, and\nendless\, unbearable torture. \nSo too\, in being loved by Christ he thought of himself as possessing life\,\nthe world\, the angels\, present and future\, the kingdom\, the promise and\ncountless blessings. Apart from that love nothing saddened or delighted him;\nfor nothing earthly did he regard as bitter or sweet. \nDeath itself and pain and whatever torments might come were but child’s\nplay to him\, provided that thereby he might bear some burden for the sake of\nChrist. \n5 Hom. 2 de laudibus sancti Pauli: PG 50\, 477-480.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/conversion-of-st-paul/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11515-1706227200-1706313599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:SS Robert\, Alberic\, and Stephen
DESCRIPTION:THE JOURNEY TO THE WILDERNESS OF CITEAUX\nFrom the “Exordium Magnum” of Conrad of Eberbach 6\n◊◊◊ \nIn the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1098\, Dom Robert\, the abbot of\nthe Abbey of Molesme…and with him went those brothers whose hearts God had\ntouched\, set out from Molesme\, making the same choice as their father Saint\nBenedict\, to tire themselves out in working for God rather than settling down in a\ncomfortable way of life. They hurried eagerly to that place which by the grace of\nGod had been offered them beforehand as suitable to their endeavor\, that is\, to the\nwilderness called Citeaux. Situated in the diocese of Chalon\, it was at that time a\nplace but seldom approached by human beings because of the woods and dense\nbriars and inhabited only by wild beasts. \nThe men of God arrived at this place of horror and vast solitude; and thought\nit quite suitable for the sort of religious observance which they had long had in\nmind and for which they had come\, all the more so when they realized that the\ndensity of woods and briars would make the monastery remote and cut off\, quite\nforgotten by and inaccessible to the world. So by the will of the bishop of Chalon\nand the consent of the person to whom the place belonged\, they began to build\nthere… on 21 March\, that is\, on the solemnity of the birth [to eternal life] of Saint\nBenedict\, which was also Palm Sunday and therefore celebrated with double joy\,\nto the rejoicing of angels and the casting down of demons…By a happy omen\, those\nwho had decided to arrange the ordering of their life and the guidelines for divine\nservices according to the form prescribed in the Rule began this undertaking on\nthe birthday of the very person who had\, through the life-giving Spirit\, given the\nsaving law to many. \n…Just as at the beginning of grace\, when Christ our Lord and Savior was\nborn\, the world\, while it knew him not\, received a pledge of new redemption\, of\nancient reconciliation\, of eternal happiness\, so too in these last days\, when charity\nis cold and iniquity everywhere abounds\, the almighty and merciful Lord planted\nthe seed of that same grace in the wilderness of Citeaux. Watered by the rain of\nthe Holy Spirit\, it gathered an incredibly plentiful harvest of spiritual riches\,\ngrowing and developing into a great tree so surpassingly beautiful and fruitful that\npeople of various nations\, tribes\, and tongues delighted to rest in its shade and\nsatisfy themselves with its fruits. Yet although this fruit makes bitter the stomach\nof carnal desire by the work of repentance\, it is as sweet as honey in the mouth of\nthe developing conscience. \n6 Conrad of Eberbach. The Great Beginnning of Citeaux: A Narrative of the Beginning\nof the Cistercian Order: The Exordium Magnum of Conrad of Eberbach. CF 72. Trans.\nBenedicta Ward\, SLG\, and Paul Savage. Collegeville\, MN: Cistercian Publications\, 2012.\n75-78.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/ss-ropbert-alberic-and-stephen/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11517-1706313600-1706399999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Memorial of the BVM
DESCRIPTION:ACCORDING TO YOUR WORD\nFrom the writing of St Bernard of Clairvaux 7\n◊◊◊ \n‘And the Lord will give to him the throne of his father David’. Those are\nthe very words spoken by the angel to the Virgin about the Son who had been\npromised to her\, and by them he promised also that He should possess the\nkingship of David… \nAt first\, as long as she was doubtful\, she prudently kept silence…\npreferring\, of course\, humbly to give no reply rather than to speak hastily about\nmatters of which she knew nothing. But once she was reassured… for the Lord\nwas with her as the angel had said… once she was strengthened by the faith\nwhich casts out fear\, and by the joy which casts out confusion\, she said to the\nangel\, ‘How can this be\, since I know no man?’ She does not doubt the event\,\nbut wonders how it shall occur… \nHe said then\, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you\, and the power of the\nMost High will overshadow you.’… It is as if the angel replied to the Virgin\, ‘Why\nask me about something which you are going soon to experience in yourself?\nYou will find out…how happily you will find out\, and your teacher will be none\nother than he who works this [within you]\, I have been sent only to announce\nthis virginal conception\, not to bring it about. This is something which can only\nbe taught by the giver\, and learnt only by the receiver. “Therefore the Holy to be\nborn of you will be called the Son of God.”… \nWhat then? Are you the one who was promised\, or must we look for\nanother? No\, it is you and no one else… So\, answer the angel quickly or rather\,\nthrough the angel\, answer God. Only say the word and receive the Word: give\nyours and conceive God’s. Breathe one fleeting word and embrace the\neverlasting Word. Why do you delay? Why be afraid? Believe\, give praise and\nreceive. Let humility take courage and shyness confidence… Blessed Virgin\,\nopen your heart to faith\, your lips to consent and your womb to your Creator.\nBehold\, the long-desired of all nations is standing at the door and knocking. Oh\,\nwhat if he should pass by because of your delay and\, sorrowing\, you should\nagain have to seek him whom your soul loves? Get up\, run\, open! Get up by\nfaith\, run by prayer\, open by consent! \n‘Behold\,’ she says\, ‘I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be to me\naccording to your word’… May the Word who in the beginning was with God\,\nbecome flesh of my flesh\, according to your word… I do not want it to be a word\nproclaimed to me in discourse\, symbolized in figures\, or dreamed in the\nimagination\, but one silently inspired\, personally incarnate\, corporally\ninviscerate. May the Word which could not…be made in himself\, deign to be in\nme\, deign to be to me according to your word. Let it be for the whole world\, but\nlet it be to me uniquely ‘according to your word’. \n7 Bernard of Clairvaux. Homilies in Praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary. CF 18A. Trans. Marie-Bernard Saïd. Kalamazoo\, MI:\nCistercian Publications\, 1993. 45\, 48-50\, 54-55.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/memorial-of-the-bvm/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260403T203434
CREATED:20240127T121253Z
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UID:11522-1706400000-1706486399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n4th Week in Ordinary Time\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (B)\, Weekdays (II)\nJanuary 28 – February 3\, 2024\n\n\n\nSun\n28\nMon\n29\nTue\n30\nWed\n31\nThu\n1\nFri\n2\nSat\n3\n\n\nOffice\n4th Sunday\nOffice for the Dead\nWeekday\nSt John Bosco\nWeekday\nPresentation of the Lord\nMemorial of the BVM\n\n\nVigils\nNum 23:13-26\nNum 23:27-24:13\nNum 25:1-17\nJosh 1:1-18\nJosh 2:1-24\nExod 13:1-16\nJosh 3:1-17\n\n\nLauds\nEccles 7:1-9\nEccles 7:10-14\nEccles 7:15-22\nEccles 7:23-29\nEccles 8:1-9\n1 Sam 1:20-28\nEccles 8:10-13\n\n\nMass\n71\n323\n324\n325\n326\n524\n328\n\n\n1st\nDeut 18:15-20\n2 Sam 15:13-14\, 30; 16:5-13\n2 Sam 18:9-10\, 14b\, 24-25a\, 30-19:3\n2 Sam 24:2\, 9-17\n1 Kgs 2:1-4\, 10-12\nHeb 2:14-18\n1 Kgs 3:4-13\n\n\n2nd\n1 Cor 7:32-35\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nMark 1:21-28\nMark 5:1-20\nMark 5:21-43\nMark 6:1-6\nMark 6:7-13\nLuke 2:22-40\nMark 6:30-34\n\n\nVespers\n2 Cor 10:1-11\n2 Cor 11:1-6\n2 Cor 11:7-15\n2 Cor 11:21b-30\n2 Cor 12:1-10\nRom 12:1-5\n2 Cor 12:11-18
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-60/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260403T203434
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UID:11524-1706400000-1706486399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - 4th Sunday ORD
DESCRIPTION:A MOST SURPRISINGLY MIRACLE OF MERCY \nFrom a commentary by St John Henry Newman1 \n◊◊◊ \nAt the time appointed Christ came forth from the Father and showed \nhimself in this external world\, first as its Creator\, then as its teacher\, the \nrevealer of secrets\, the mediator\, the effluence of God’s glory\, and the express \nimage of his person. Neither cloud nor image\, emblem nor words\, are \ninterposed between the Son and his eternal Father. No language is needed \nbetween the Father and him\, who is the very Word of the Father; no knowledge \nis imparted to him\, who by his very nature and from eternity knows the Father \nand all that the Father knows. Such are his own words\, No one knows the Son \nbut the Father\, neither does anyone know the Father except the Son\, and \nanyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Again he says\, Whoever has \nseen me has seen the Father; and he accounts for this when he tells us that he \nand the Father are one\, and that he is in the bosom of the Father and so can \ndisclose him to humankind\, as he was still in heaven\, even while he was on \nearth. \nAccordingly the blessed apostle draws a contrast between Moses and \nChrist to our comfort. The Law\, he says\, was given by Moses\, but grace and truth \ncame by Jesus Christ. In him God is fully and truly seen\, so that he is absolutely \nthe way\, and the truth\, and the life. All our duties are summed up for us in the \nmessage he brings us. Those who look towards him for teaching\, who worship \nand obey him\, will by degrees see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God \nin his face\, and will be changed into the same image from glory to glory\, And \nthus it happens that people of the lowest class and the humblest education may \nknow fully the ways and works of God; fully\, that is\, as human beings can know \nthem; far better and more truly than the most sagacious of this world from \nwhom the gospel is hidden. \nReligion has a store of wonderful secrets which no one can communicate \nto another\, and which are most pleasant and delightful to know. Call on me\, \nsays God by the prophet\, and I will answer you\, and show you great and mighty \nthings of which you have no knowledge. This is no great mere idle boast\, but a \nfact which all who seek God will find to be true\, though they cannot perhaps \nclearly express their meaning. Strange truths about ourselves\, about God\, about \nour duty\, about the world\, about heaven and hell\, new modes of viewing things\, \ndiscoveries which cannot be put into words\, marvelous prospects and thoughts \nhalf understood\, deep convictions inspiring joy and peace\, these are a part of \nthe revelation which Christ\, the Son of God\, brings to those who obey him. \nMoses had much toil to gain from the great God\, some scattered rays of the \ntruth\, and that for his personal comfort\, not for all Israel; but Christ has brought \nfrom his Father for all of us the full and perfect way of life. Thus he brings grace \nas well as truth\, a most surprising miracle of mercy. \n  \n1 Journey with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – 1999 – pg 76-77.3 \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-4th-sunday-ord/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11526-1706486400-1706572799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Office of the Dead
DESCRIPTION:FEAR AND HOPE \nFrom the writing of Michael Schmaus2 \n◊◊◊ \nTo understand God’s call as one of love does not do away with the \nawesomeness of death; even the faithful anticipate it with fear. Indeed\, the \nelement of fear in the believer is liable to be stronger than in the atheist or \nnihilist\, who has resolved to his own satisfaction the problem of what comes \nafter death and is chiefly disturbed by the knowledge the one must abandon a \nwork which one has begun\, leaving something unfinished. The believer\, \nhowever\, sees in death the moment of encounter with God\, that moment \ntowards which the person has been journeying\, in an anticipation never free of \ntension\, during one’s whole lifetime. As the person awaits the judgment God \nwill pronounce\, anxiety can be overcome only in a loving confidence. The \ndeath of the faithful Christian is a death in the Lord. It is a death which will not \nbring condemnation\, since no one who lives and has faith in Christ will ever \ndie. \nAlthough God is an impenetrable mystery\, the person of faith perceives \nthe meaning of the divine summons in a way that prevents one from falling \ninto despair. When the time had come for him to take leave of his disciples\, \nChrist said: “Trust in God always; trust also in me.” In that hour Christ gave \nhis own assurance that they would have life\, and have it abundantly. He never \npromised them an untroubled existence within time\, but only a life of joy in \nGod. Thus anxiety is changed into tremulous expectation: the Lord comes. In \nthe First Letter of John\, Jesus’ exhortation to his disciples to have confidence \nin the Father and in himself is made explicit when he says: “There is no room \nfor fear in love; perfect love banishes fear. For fear brings with it the pains of \njudgment\, and anyone who is afraid has not attained to love in its perfection.” \nSo\, in the face of death\, there remains to everyone only trust and hope with \nwhich to meet the unavoidable fear of death. \n  \n2 Dogma 6\, Justification & the Last Things. Michael Schmaus\, Sheed & Ward\, 1977\, pp.220-221.5 \n  \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-office-of-the-dead-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11528-1706572800-1706659199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE DIVINE POWER OF THE MESSAGE \nBy St Pope Paul VI3 \n◊◊◊ \nFor the Church\, evangelizing means bringing the Good News into all the \nstrata of humanity\, and through its influence transforming humanity from within \nand making it new… But there is no new humanity if there are not first of all new \npersons renewed by Baptism and by lives lived according to the Gospel. The \npurpose of evangelization is therefore precisely this interior change\, and if it had \nto be expressed in one sentence the best way of stating it would be to say that the \nChurch evangelizes when she seeks to convert\, solely through the divine power \nof the Message she proclaims\, both the personal and collective consciences of \npeople\, the activities in which they engage\, and the lives and concrete milieux \nwhich are theirs. \nWith regard to the strata of humanity which are to be transformed: for the \nChurch it is a question not only of preaching the Gospel in ever wider geographic \nareas or to ever greater numbers of people\, but also of affecting and as it were \nupsetting\, through the power of the Gospel\, the popular criteria of judgment\, \ndetermining values\, points of interest\, lines of thought\, sources of inspiration and \nmodels of life\, which are in contrast with the Word of God and the plan of \nsalvation. \nAll this could be expressed in the following words: what matters is to \nevangelize human culture and cultures (not in a purely decorative way as it were \nby applying a thin veneer\, but in a vital way\, in depth and right to their very \nroots… taking the person as one’s starting-point and always coming back to the \nrelationships of people among themselves and with God. \nThe Gospel\, and therefore evangelization\, are certainly not identical with \nculture\, and they are independent in regard to all cultures. Nevertheless\, the \nKingdom which the Gospel proclaims is lived by people who are profoundly \nlinked to a culture\, and the building up of the Kingdom cannot avoid borrowing \nthe elements of human culture or cultures. Though independent of cultures\, the \nGospel and evangelization are not necessarily incompatible with them; rather \nthey are capable of permeating them all without becoming subject to any one of \nthem. \n  \n3 Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi\, nn 18-20.7 \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-153/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260403T203434
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UID:11530-1706659200-1706745599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St John Bosco
DESCRIPTION:GIVE ME SOULS\, AND TAKE ALL THE REST AWAY \nA reading on St Don Bosco4 \n◊◊◊ \nDon Bosco has struck the imagination of all who have known him and his \nwork. There is no doubt that he was one of the most wonderful of men\, and even \nin that galaxy of great names which is the catalogue of Saints\, he occupies a \nplace apart. \n[Paul Claudel said that “In the Church there are some who made a \nprofession of sanctity…; who\, from the very first\, had the Calendar of Saints as \na goal. Don Bosco had no time for this\, and we can readily believe that if he \nbecame a saint it was not his fault.”] \nGenius as well as Saint\, it is often difficult to see where the one ends and \nthe other begins. Simple as a child and mostly to be found in the dust and clamor \nof a playground crowded with children\, he plays also with miracles and \nprophecies\, which he seems to make for fun. His speech is simple: so simple \nthat children listen fascinated to his new kind of eloquence — an eloquence very \ndifferent from that of the pulpit orators of the time. And his mind is so wise\, \nthat ministers\, kings and popes listen to his advice. \nA poor man\, of poor parents\, more millions passed through his hands \nthan through those of many a banker. He spent them with the prodigality of an \nAmerican playboy\, when it was a question of the salvation of souls; but he was \nas tight with each cent as the peasants he came from\, when it was a question of \nhis person\, or his comfort. He had the shrewdness of a captain of industry and \na trust in God that made him undertake even the impossible when he saw it was \nfor God’s glory. \nAbove all\, he was the most lovable of men. To know him was to love him\, \nand often to be so fascinated as to be physically unable to leave him. \nHis chosen\, or better\, his God-given mission was education\, and he is the \neducator of modern times. A man who could do with children what no man has \never done; he could attach to himself the little ruffians that roam the streets and \nmake of them lovable\, ideal young men. \nIndeed\, Don Bosco as a man\, as a Saint\, as an Educator occupies a place \napart. [He had a tremendous love for God and for souls\, and not much for \nanything else.] His motto was “Give me souls\, and take all the rest \naway.”  \n  \n 4 From the Preface to Saint John Bosco\, by A. Auffray; Salesian House: Tirpattur\, India\, 1959.9 \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-john-bosco/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240201
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240202
DTSTAMP:20260403T203434
CREATED:20240127T122418Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240127T122418Z
UID:11532-1706745600-1706831999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE GREAT DISCOVERY \nBy Fr Louis Bouyer5 \n◊◊◊ \nThe discovery of grace\, the discovery of love which loves us without \nlooking for any return\, which loves us although we are sinners\, which loves us \nin our sin\, but which alone will lead us\, by obscure ways known to God alone\, \nfrom sin to sanctity\, that is\, in the last analysis\, the great discovery. Then it is \nthat God reveals Himself to us as One who speaks to us\, as One whose Word for \nthe second time draws us out of nothingness to being\, as One whom we have \nnot so much to seek as to discover seeking us. It is He\, the Shepherd who left \nthe ninety-nine sheep in safety to seek and save that which was lost. It is He\, the \nFather of the prodigal who goes along the road to welcome his son when he has \nscarcely started out to meet his father\, and takes him in his arms. \n“To seek God”\, to seek Him as a person\, as the Person par excellence\, and \nnot only as the “Thou” to whom all our love should be addressed\, but as the “I” \nwho has first approached us\, whose word of love\, addressed to the primeval \nchaos\, drew us forth from it in the first place\, and\, spoken to us in our sin\, draws \nus forth from it again: to be a monk is nothing else than this. To be a monk\, \nthen\, is simply to be an integral Christian. And regarded in this light\, the \nChristian is simply the person restored by the Word of the Gospel to the \nvocation which the creative Word destined for each: to respond to the Word of \nAgape by the word of faith\, in order eventually to meet God face to face. \nCommenting on Canticle of Canticles\, Origen tells us that the Church\, \nunder the old dispensation\, only heard the Bridegroom’s voice\, whereas in the \nnew\, she is offered the sight of his countenance. And he adds that the \ndevelopment of the Christian life is made up solely of this transition. The monk \nis the one who does not limit him or herself to accepting it in some measure \npassively\, by yielding to grace slothfully and reluctantly. The monk is one who \nresponds with the whole heart to the call which comes from the very heart of \nGod. Monks are of the number of the violent who will not allow the divine \nKingdom to fall upon them as it were unawares\, but who take it by storm in \nadvance. For that the monks have staked their all\, they have burned their boats. \nTo the one who believes that life consists in what is possessed\, the monk \nseems to be consenting to\, even to be deliberately seeking\, a fatal renunciation. \nTo the one who knows that being is of greater value than having\, and that being \nwhich is of value is not that which passes but that which endures\, the monk will \nseem to be the only true humanist. For the human person is born only as subject \nto the divine Word and will only be fully that person the day when\, freed from \nthe nothingness which holds one prisoner\, fully surrendered to the Word which \ncalls\, the person will at last come to discover the Face which promised us being \nin promising us His own image. \n  \n5 The Meaning of the Monastic Life\, Louis Bouyer\, New York\, 1955\, p.19 & 22.11
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-154/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11534-1706832000-1706918399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Presentation of the Lord
DESCRIPTION:THE PASCHAL SIGNIFICANCE \nOF JESUS’ PRESENTATION \nFrom “Sign of Contradiction” by St John Paul II6 \n◊◊◊ \nForty days after the nativity the Church celebrates an event full of \nspiritual significance. On that day the Son of God\, as a tiny child of poor parents\, \nborn in a rough stable in Bethlehem\, was carried to the temple in Jerusalem. \nThis was his own temple\, the temple of the living God\, but he came to it not as \nthe Lord but as one under the law. For the poor the law prescribed that forty \ndays after the birth of the firstborn two turtle-doves or two young pigeons must \nbe offered in sacrifice\, as a sign that the child was consecrated to the Lord. \nThe message which the Spirit of God allowed the old man Simeon to sense \nand express so wonderfully was implicitly in the event itself\, in this first \nencounter between the Messiah and his temple. On seeing the child\, Simeon \nbegins to utter words that are not of human provenance. He prophesies\, \nprompted by the Holy Spirit; he speaks with the voice of God\, the God for whom \nthe temple was built and who is its rightful master. \nSimeon’s words begin\, in what the liturgy calls the Song\, by bearing \nwitness to the light… They end…by bearing witness to the cross\, in which \ncontradiction of Jesus\, the Christ\, is to find tangible expression. The cost of the \ncross was shared by the mother\, whose soul — according to Simeon’s words — \nwas to be pierced by a sword\, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be laid \nbare. \nChronologically the presentation of Jesus in the temple is linked with the \nnativity\, but in its significance it belongs with the mystery of the pasch. It is the \nfirst of the events which clearly reveal the messianic status of the newborn child. \nWith him are linked the fall and the rising of many in the old Israel and also the \nnew. On him the future of humankind depends. It is he who is the true Lord of \nthe ages to come. His reign begins when the temple sacrifice is offered in \naccordance with the law\, and it attains full realization through the sacrifice on \nthe cross\, offered in accordance with an eternal plan of love. \n  \n6 pp. 40-41; reprinted in Meditations on the Sunday Gospels: Year A; introduced and edited by John E. Rotelle\, Hyde Park\, \nNY: New City Press\, 1995\, pp. 144-145.13
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-presentation-of-the-lord/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11536-1706918400-1707004799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Memorial of the BVM
DESCRIPTION:THE NATURE OF MARY’S MATERNITY \nFrom “The Divine Motherhood” by Anscar Vonier7 \n◊◊◊ \nLet us always bear in mind the great truth that the Blessed Virgin’s \nmaternity was a most natural maternity in the sense that she fully responded to \nit\, was not overwhelmed by it\, that there was no separation between her and her \noffspring; Christ came from her as her own dear child\, the fruit of her own \nblessed womb. I am right\, therefore\, in asserting that Mary’s maternal function \nin the conception of Christ was raised to an incredibly high plane of vitality so \nas to make her maternity not only an instrumental\, but a natural maternity. If \nMary’s mission had been merely to minister the human element to the Word \nwhen he became flesh\, her maternity would have been just instrumental; it \nwould have existed only to serve a higher purpose. But Mary’s role is more than \nthat; she is permanently the Mother of God; her maternity is not a transient \nministration\, but an abiding dignity that makes her share with God the Father\, \nin literal truth\, the parenthood of Jesus Christ. \nA threefold hypothesis may make this point clearer still. We can think of \na woman being made a mother by the direct productive act of God; in that case \nthe offspring of that mother would not be divine\, but human. Then there can be \nthe conception in a woman’s womb of a divine person\, as happened in the \nincarnation\, but the woman being merely instrumental to the production of the \nbody; in such a case it would be divine maternity in the most restricted \nphysiological sense. Thirdly\, there is the glorious possibility of perfect divine \nmaternity with all the graces and privileges\, with all the rights and splendors\, of \none who shares to the full\, with God the Father\, the parenthood of the God \nIncarnate. Such is Mary’s maternity; such is the meaning of Elizabeth’s \nsalutation\, or rather the salutation of the Holy Spirit through the mouth of \nElizabeth\, when full of the divine Spirit she cried with a loud voice: Blessed are \nyou among women\, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And whence is this \nto me\, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? \nElizabeth was the first creature to call Mary “the Mother of God”; she gave \nus the grandest title of our Lady: “Mother of God.” The archangel\, indeed\, had \nsaid as much\, but only by implication; Elizabeth\, the happiest of human \nmothers\, has the privilege of having spoken for the first time the words “Mother \nof God.” When\, moreover\, in the same breath she calls blessed the Mother and \nthe fruit of her womb\, bestowing the same encomium on the two lives which \nwere not yet disjoined\, she gives us an additional reason for saying that Mary’s \nmaternity had been raised to the divine plane of dignity and perfection\, where \none and the same blessedness holds mother and offspring wrapped in a \nmatchless sanctity. \n  \n7 pp. 345-346; reprinted in Meditations on the Sunday Gospels: Year A; introduced and edited by John E. Rotelle\, Hyde \nPark\, NY: New City Press\, 1995\, pp. 28-29.15 \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-memorial-of-the-bvm-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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CREATED:20240203T123016Z
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UID:11548-1707004800-1707091199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n5th Week in Ordinary Time\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (B)\, Weekdays (II)\nFebruary 4 – 10\, 2024\n\n\n\nSun\n4\nMon\n5\nTue\n6\nWed\n7\nThu\n8\nFri\n9\nSat\n10\n\n\nOffice\n5th Sunday\nSt Agatha\nSt Paul Miki & Comp.\nWeekday\nOffice for Vocations\nWeekday\nSt Scholastica\n\n\nVigils\nJosh 4:1-24\nJosh 5:1-15\nJosh 6:1-27\nJosh 7:1-26\nJosh 8:1-29\nJosh 8:30-9:2\nJosh 9:3-27\n\n\nLauds\nEccles 8:14-17\nEccles 11:3-10\nEccles 12:1-8\nEccles 12:9-14\nWis 1:1-8\nWis 1:9-15\nWis 4:7-19\n\n\nMass\n74\n329\n330\n331\n332\n333\n334\n\n\n1st\nJob 7:1-4\, 6-7\n1 Kgs 8:1-7\, 9-13\n1 Kgs 8:22-23\, 27-30\n1 Kgs 10:1-10\n1 Kgs 11:4-13\n1 Kgs 11:29-32; 12:19\n1 Kgs 12:26-32; 13:33-34\n\n\n2nd\n1 Cor 9:16-19\, 22-23\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nMark 1:29-39\nMark 6:53-56\nMark 7:1-13\nMark 7:14-23\nMark 7:24-30\nMark 7:31-37\nMark 8:1-10\n\n\nVespers\n2 Cor 12:19-13:4\n2 Cor 13:5-13\nGal 1:1-10\nGal 1:11-24\nGal 2:1-10\nGal 2:11-14\nGal 2:15-21
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-61/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11550-1707004800-1707091199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - 5th Sunday ORD
DESCRIPTION:MERCY AND HELP TO ALL \nFrom a commentary by St Peter Chrysologus1 \n◊◊◊ \nThose who have listened attentively to today’s gospel will have learnt why \nthe Lord of heaven\, by whom all creation was renewed\, entered the houses of \nhis servants on earth. Nor should it surprise us that he so courteously adapted \nhimself to every situation\, since his motive in coming among us was to bring \nmercy and help to all. \nYou can easily see what drew Christ to Peter’s house on this particular \noccasion; it was not to sit down and rest himself\, but compassion for a woman \nstricken down by sickness. He was prompted not by the need to eat but by the \nopportunity to heal\, his immediate preoccupation being the performance of a \nwork which only his divine power could carry out\, rather than the enjoyment of \nhuman company at table. In Peter’s house that day it was not wine that flowed\, \nbut tears. Consequently Christ did not enter to obtain sustenance for himself\, \nbut to restore vitality to another. God wants human beings\, not human goods. \nHe desires to bestow what is heavenly\, not to acquire anything earthly. Christ \ncame to seek not our possessions but us. \nAs soon as Jesus crossed the threshold he saw Peter’s mother in-law lying \nin bed with a fever. On entering the house he immediately saw what he had come \nfor. He was not interested in the comfort the house itself could offer\, nor the \ncrowds awaiting his arrival\, nor the formal welcome prepared for him\, nor the \nassembled household. Still less did he look for any outward signs of preparation \nof his reception. All he had eyes for was the spectacle of a sick woman\, lying \nthere consumed with a raging fever. At a glance he saw her desperate plight\, and \nat one stretched out his hands to perform their divine work of healing; nor would \nhe sit down to satisfy his human needs before he had made it possible for the \nstricken woman to rise up and serve her God. So he took her by the hand\, and \nthe fever left her. Here you see how fever loosens its grip on a person whose \nhand is held by Christ’s; no sickness can stand its ground in the face of the very \nsource of health. Where the Lord of life has entered\, there is no room for death. \n  \n1 Journey with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – 1999 – pg 78-79.3 \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-5th-sunday-ord/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11552-1707091200-1707177599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading -St Agatha
DESCRIPTION:ST AGATHA \nFrom Butler’s Lives of the Saints2 \n◊◊◊ \nSt Agatha has retained her place in the Universal Calendar following the \nreforms of 1969\, even though nothing that can be called historical fact is known \nof her life. There is\, however\, good evidence of an early cult\, with many versions \nof her legend recorded in both Greek and Latin\, the Greek being the earlier\, with \nthe Latin dating from the sixth century. This means that however fictitious the \ndetails of her Acts\, she cannot be dismissed as a mere fiction altogether. Her \nActs\, though\, are more of an indication of the type of woman held up for \nveneration as a saint in the early centuries than anything else. \nShe is described as a wealthy woman who had dedicated her virginity to \nChrist. This\, then\, rather than her life\, is the most precious thing she has to \noffer. Her birthplace is assigned to either Palermo or Catania in Sicily\, and she \nis said to have died at Catania\, which has the stronger historical claim to be her \nbirthplace. Among those who try to take the precious gift she has vowed to \nChrist from her is a consul named Quintianus. He used the imperial edict \nagainst Christians to have her brought before him\, then placed in a brothel run \nby a woman with the appropriate name of “Aphrodisia” and her assistants\, \nreferred to as her daughters. All tricks\, assaults and threats to make her yield \nher virginity fail\, and so she stands as an example of “virginity as a sacred power\, \na concrete realization within this world of the divine spirit”. \nQuintianus then handed her over to be tortured\, and her Acts dwell on \nthe tortures inflicted on her\, culminating in the cutting off of her breasts\, which \nwere placed on a platter. Perhaps because further details of her tortures involve \nher being rolled over live coals\, she is invoked against fire in general. This may\, \nthough\, be an extension of her protection against eruptions from Mount Etna\, \nbecause she is associated with Sicily\, and her legend states that after her death \na flow of lava from Mount Etna was miraculously diverted by her silken veil held \nup on a staff. This is last recorded as happening in the 1840s\, and her veil is still \ncarried in solemn procession on her feast day in Catania. By extension she \nprotects against earthquakes everywhere. She is also patron saint of bell- \nfounders. The association is ancient and certain\, but the reason has not been \ndetermined. It may be that it derives from her protection against volcanic \neruptions and fire\, as bells were rung to warn of both. Another explanation \ngiven is that the molten metal involved in casting bells suggests the flow of \nmolten lava. Her breasts also brought a more appropriate patronage\, as she is \ninvoked against diseases of the breast. Her breasts on a dish were often \nmistaken for loaves in the Middle ages\, from which arose the custom of blessing \nbread on a dish at her altar on her feast day. \nPope Damasus I composed a hymn in her honor. Two churches were \ndedicated to her in the sixth century. Pope St Gregory the Great had rich shrines \nmade for some of her relics in Rome\, then moved them to the monastery of San \nStefano on the island of Capri. Other relics remained in Catania until 1840\, \nwhen they were moved to Constantinople. \nWhatever the facts behind her legend\, Agatha remains one of the best- \nloved and most invoked saints in the Christian devotional life. \n  \n2 Butlers Lives of the Saints.5 \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-agatha/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11554-1707177600-1707263999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Paul Miki & Companions
DESCRIPTION:THE MARTYRDOM OF ST PAUL MIKI \nAND HIS COMPANIONS \nBy a contemporary writer3 \n◊◊◊ \nThe crosses were set in place. Fr Pasio and Fr Rodriguez took turns \nencouraging the victims. Their steadfast behavior was wonderful to see. The \nFather Bursar stood motionless\, his eyes turned heavenward. Brother Martin \ngave thanks to God’s goodness by singing psalms. Again and again he repeated: \n“Into your hands\, Lord\, I entrust my life.” Brother Francis Branco also thanked \nGod in a loud voice. Brother Gonsalvo in a very loud voice kept saying the Our \nFather and Hail Mary. \nOur brother\, Paul Miki\, saw himself now standing in the noblest pulpit he \nhad ever filled. To his “congregation” he began by proclaiming himself a \nJapanese and a Jesuit. He was dying for the Gospel he preached. He gave thanks \nto God for this wonderful blessing and he ended his “sermon” with these words: \n“As I come to this supreme moment of my life\, I am sure none of you would \nsuppose I want to deceive you. And so I tell you plainly: there is no way to be \nsaved except the Christian way. My religion teaches me to pardon my enemies \nand all who have offended me. I do gladly pardon the Emperor and all who have \nsought my death. I beg them to seek baptism and be Christians themselves.” \nThen he looked at his comrades and began to encourage them in their \nfinal struggle. Joy glowed in all their faces\, and in Louis’ most of all. When a \nChristian in the crowd cried out to him that he would soon be in heaven\, his \nhands\, his whole body strained upward with such joy that every eye was fixed \non him. \nAnthony\, hanging at Louis’ side\, looked toward heaven and called upon \nthe holy names – “Jesus\, Mary!” He began to sing a psalm: “praise the Lord\, you \nchildren!”… Others kept repeating “Jesus\, Mary!” Their faces were serene. Some \nof them even took to urging the people standing by to live worthy Christian lives. \nIn these and other ways they showed their readiness to die. \nThen\, according to Japanese custom\, the four executioners began to \nunsheathe their spears. At this dreadful sight\, all the Christians cried out\, \n“Jesus\, Mary!” And the storm of anguished weeping then rose to batter the very \nskies. The executioners killed them one by one. One thrust of the spear\, then a \nsecond blow. It was over in a very short time.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-paul-miki-companions/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11556-1707264000-1707350399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE HOLY SPIRIT BESTOWS \nTHE UNDERSTANDING OF FAITH \nFrom a treatise by William of St Thierry4 \n◊◊◊ \nIf your whole being hesitates before the all too profound mysteries \nof faith\, say without fear\, not in disagreement but out of a desire to obey\, \n“How can this be?” Let your question be a prayer\, let it be love\, devotion\, \nhumble desire. Do not let it look haughtily at the divine majesty\, but seek \nfor salvation in the means of salvation which the God of our deliverance \nprovides. Then the Angel of great Counsel will answer you: “When the \nCounsellor comes whom I shall send to you from the Father\, …he will \nbear witness to me and will teach you all things: all truth will come to you \nfrom the Spirit of truth.” “Who\, for example\, knows one’s own innermost \nself but one’s own spirit within him? Similarly\, no one knows what lies at \nthe depths of God but the Spirit of God.” \nHasten\, then\, to come into communion with the Holy Spirit: and he \nis invoked only when he is present. When called upon\, he comes; he \narrives in the abundance of divine blessings. It is he who is the swift- \nflowing river which makes glad the city of God. At his coming\, if he finds \nyou humble and free from anxiety\, reflecting on the word of God\, he will \nrest upon you and reveal to you what God hides from the wise and prudent \nof this world. You will then be enlightened by all the things which \nWisdom\, when on earth\, could have said to the disciples\, but which they \ncould not bear before the coming of the Spirit of truth who would lead \nthem into all truth. \nTo receive and learn this truth\, it is useless to expect from the mouth \nof another human person what one was not able to receive or learn from \nthe lips of the Truth himself. For as this Truth declared\, “God is Spirit”; \nand just as those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth\, \nso those who desire to know him must seek only in the Holy Spirit to \nunderstand faith and the meaning of this pure and unalloyed truth. \nIn the darkness and ignorance of this life the Holy Spirit is himself\, \nfor the poor in spirit\, the light which lightens\, the love which attracts\, the \ngentleness which charms\, the love of one who loves\, the piety of one who \ngives himself without reserve. It is he who from one conviction to another\, \nreveals the justice of God to those who believe; he gives grace for grace \nand enlightenment for the faith which “comes from hearing. \n  \n4 THE MIRROR OF FAITH; PL 180\, 384-D.9 \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-155/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11558-1707350400-1707436799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
DESCRIPTION:THE DIVINE CALL \nFrom a book by Hans Urs von Balthasar5 \n◊◊◊ \nChristian revelation is primarily a revelation of hearing\, not of seeing. \nAlthough the image of seeing is not excluded – for “we see now through a mirror \nin an obscure manner”; wisdom\, when it appears\, is the “mirror … and image” \nof the divine goodness; and Christ is “the image of the invisible God” so that\, in \nseeing him\, we also see the Father – nevertheless the comparison with hearing \nis the dominant one in revelation: the Second Person is heard primarily as \n“Word” – and faith in him comes by hearing. \nThe hearing of the Word is by no means a temporary substitute for the \nseeing that is wanting to us here below. On the contrary\, it is the lasting proof \nthat God never is and never will be a mere “object” of knowledge to us\, but is \nrather the infinitely sovereign majesty of a Trinity of Persons that makes itself \nknown in whatever way and to whomever it wills. That God speaks to us in his \npersonal word is a greater grace than that we are allowed to see him: That we \nare deemed worthy of his word is the grace of graces that makes us partners in \na divine\, even Trinitarian\, conversation. That the word of God is spoken to us is \nthe highest revelation and honor the personal God can bestow upon us\, for it \npresumes that God considers us capable of understanding his word through the \ngift of his grace and of possessing the Spirit who “searches all things\, even the \ndeep things of God\, that we may know all things that have been given us by \nGod”. \nSo tremendous is this grace that the creature thus addressed by God must \nforget its own wishes and desires\, even its longing for “eternal happiness” and \nfor the “vision of God” so that\, trembling in the depths of its being\, it may fall to \nthe ground and hear his voice only to ask: “What shall I do\, Lord?” \nBut one who has been thrown to the ground by the impact of this \ncompelling voice is also “set upon his feet” by it. When God speaks\, He wants a \npartner. He wants one who is erect\, who\, hearing his voice\, is yet able to stand \nupon his feet and answer: “…I fell upon my face\, and I heard the voice of the one \nthat spoke. And he said to me: Son of man\, stand upon your feet\, and I will speak \nto you. And the Spirit entered into me after he spoke to me\, and he set me upon \nmy feet; and I heard him speaking to me…”. When God speaks personally\, he \nwants to be understood personally; when he utters his personal word into the \nworld\, he wants that word to be returned to him\, not as a dead echo\, but as a \npersonal response from his creature in an exchange that is genuinely a dialogue \neven though it can be conducted only in the unity of the divine Word that \nmediates between the Father and us. But just as that divine Word proceeds from \nthe Father\, yet is not the Father\, but only declares the Father\, so the creature \ncan give back to the Father this word it has received by uttering itself in it – or \nbetter\, by letting itself be uttered by it. \n  \n5 The Christian State of Life – Hans Urs von Balthasar – Ignatius Press – San Francisco – 1983 – \npg 393.11 \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-office-for-vocations-11/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11560-1707436800-1707523199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THANKFULNESS IN OUR EVERYDAY LIVES \nFrom a sermon by St John Henry Newman6 \n◊◊◊ \nIt would be well if we were in the habit of looking at all we have as God’s \ngift\, undeservedly given\, and day by day continued to us solely by his mercy. He \ngave; He may take away. He gave us all we have\, life\, health\, strength\, reason\, \nenjoyment\, the light of conscience; whatever we have good and holy within us; \nwhatever faith we have; whatever of a renewed will; whatever love towards him; \nwhatever power over ourselves; whatever prospect of heaven. He gave us \nrelatives\, friends\, education\, training\, knowledge\, the Bible\, the Church. All \ncomes from him. He gave; he may take away. Did he take away\, we should be \ncalled on to follow Job’s pattern\, and be resigned: “The Lord gave\, and the Lord \nhas taken away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.” While he continues his \nblessings\, we should follow David and Jacob\, by living in constant praise and \nthanksgiving\, and in offering up to him of his own. \nWe are not our own\, any more than what we possess is our own. We did \nnot make ourselves; we cannot be supreme over ourselves. We cannot be our \nown masters. We are God’s property by creation\, by redemption\, by \nregeneration. He has a triple claim upon us. Is it not our happiness thus to view \nthe matter? Is it any happiness\, or any comfort\, to consider that we are our \nown? It may be thought so by the young and prosperous. These may think it a \ngreat thing to have everything\, as they suppose\, their own way\, — to depend on \nno one\, — to have to think of nothing out of sight\, — to be without the \nirksomeness of continual acknowledgment\, continual prayer\, continual \nreference of what they do to the will of another. But as time goes on\, they\, as all \nothers\, will find that independence was not made for man — that it is an \nunnatural state — may do for a while\, but will not carry us on safely to the end. \nNo\, we are creatures; and\, as being such\, we have two duties\, to be resigned and \nto be thankful. \nLet us then view God’s providences towards us more religiously than we \nhave hitherto done. Let us try to gain a truer view of what we are\, and where we \nare\, in his kingdom. Let us humbly and reverently attempt to trace his guiding \nhand in the years which we have hitherto lived. Let us thankfully commemorate \nthe many mercies he has vouchsafed to us in time past\, the many sins he has \nnot remembered\, the many dangers he has averted\, the many prayers he has \nanswered\, the many mistakes he has corrected\, the many warnings\, the many \nlessons\, the much light\, the abounding comfort which he has from time to time \ngiven. Let us dwell upon times and seasons\, times of trouble\, times of joy\, times \nof trial\, times of refreshment. \nHow did he cherish us as children? How did he guide us in that dangerous \ntime when the mind began to think for itself\, and the heart to open to the world! \nHow did he with his sweet discipline restrain our passions\, mortify our hopes\, \ncalm our fears\, enliven our heaviness\, sweeten our desolateness\, and strengthen \nour infirmities! How did he gently guide us towards the strait gate! How did he \nallure us along his everlasting way\, in spite of its strictness\, in spite of its \nloneliness\, in spite of the dim twilight in which it lay! He has been all things to \nus. He has been\, as he was to Abraham\, Isaac\, and Jacob\, our God\, our shield\, \nand great reward\, promising and performing\, day by day. \n  \n6 Parochial and Plain Sermons\, San Francisco: Ignatius Press\, 1987\, pp. 1003-1005.13 \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-156/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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UID:11562-1707523200-1707609599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Scholastica
DESCRIPTION:THE LIFE OF ST SCHOLASTICA \nFrom Butler’s Lives of the Saints7 \n◊◊◊ \nSt Scholastica\, who was St Benedict’s sister\, traditionally his twin\, \nconsecrated herself to God from her earliest years\, as we learn from St Gregory. \nIt is not known where she lived\, whether at home or in a community\, but after \nher brother had moved to Monte Cassino\, she settled at Plombariola in that \nsame neighborhood\, probably founding and ruling a nunnery about five miles \nto the south of St Benedict’s monastery. St. Gregory tells us that St. Benedict \ngoverned the nuns as well as the monks\, and it seems clear that St Scholastica \nmust have been their Abbess\, under his direction. She used to visit her brother \nonce a year and\, since she was not allowed to enter his monastery\, he used to go \nwith some monks to meet her at a house a little way off. They spent these visits \nin praising God and in conferring together on spiritual matters. \nSt. Gregory gives a remarkable description of the last of these visits. After \nthey had passed the day as usual they sat down in the evening to have supper. \nWhen it was finished\, Scholastica\, possibly foreseeing that it would be their last \nvisit in this world\, begged her brother to delay his return till the next day that \nthey might spend the time discoursing of the joys of Heaven. Benedict\, who was \nunwilling to transgress his rule\, told her that he could not pass a night away \nfrom the monastery. When Scholastica found that she could not move him\, she \nlaid her head upon her hands which were clasped together on the table and \nbesought God to interpose on her behalf. Her prayer was scarcely ended when \nthere arose such a violent storm of rain that St. Benedict and his companions \nwere unable to set foot outside the door. He exclaimed\, “God forgive you sister; \nwhat have you done?” Whereupon she answered\, “I asked a favor of you and \nyou refused it. I asked it of God\, and He has granted it.” Benedict was therefore \nforced to comply with her request\, and they spent the night talking about holy \nthings. The next morning they parted\, and three days later St. Benedict saw the \nsoul of his sister rising to heaven like a dove. \n  \n7 Butler’s Lives of the Saints \, pg 42\, edited by Michael Walsh – revised version \, Harper Collins\, San Francisco\, \n1991.15 \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-scholastica-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240212
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UID:11569-1707609600-1707695999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema: 6th Week in Ordinary Time
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n6th Week in Ordinary Time\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (B)\, Weekdays (II)\nFebruary 11 – 17\, 2024\n\n\n\nSun\n11\nMon\n12\nTue\n13\nWed\n14\nThu\n15\nFri\n16\nSat\n17\n\n\nOffice\n6th Sunday\nBl Humbeline\nOffice for the Dead\nAsh Wednesday\nThursday after Ash Wednesday\nFriday after Ash Wednesday\nSaturday after Ash Wednesday\n\n\nVigils\nJosh 10:1-15\nJosh 10:16-27\nJosh 10:28-43\nIsa 58:1-14\nDeut 1:1-25\nDeut 1:26-46\nDeut 2:24-3:7\n\n\nLauds\nWis 4:20-5:5\nWis 5:6-13\nWis 5:15-23\nSir 17:22-32\nExod 1:6-14\nExod 1:15-22\nExod 2:1-10\n\n\nMass\n77\n335\n336\n219\n220\n221\n222\n\n\n1st\nLev 13:1-2\, 44-46\nJas 1:1-11\nJas 1:12-18\nJoel 2:12-18\nDeut 30:15-20\nIsa 58:1-9a\nIsa 58:9b-14\n\n\n2nd\n1 Cor 10:31-11:1\n\n\n2 Cor 5:20-6:2\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nMark 1:40-45\nMark 8:11-13\nMark 8:14-21\nMatt 6:1-6\, 16-18\nLuke 9:22-25\nMatt 9:14-15\nLuke 5:27-32\n\n\nVespers\nGal 3:1-9\nGal 3:10-14\nGal 3:15-22\nRom 5:1-11\nHeb 1:1-9\nHeb 1:13-2:4\nHeb 2:5-9
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-6th-week-in-ordinary-time/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240211
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240212
DTSTAMP:20260403T203434
CREATED:20240210T224946Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240210T224946Z
UID:11571-1707609600-1707695999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
DESCRIPTION:PURIFIED BY FAITH\nFrom a commentary by Paschasius Radbertus 1\n◊◊◊\nHowever great our sinfulness\, each one of us can be healed by God\nevery day. We have only to worship him with humility and love\, and wherever\nwe are\, to say with faith: Lord\, if you want to you can make me clean. It is by\nbelieving from the heart that we are justified\, so we must make our petitions\nwith utmost confidence\, and without the slightest doubt of God’s power. If\nwe pray with a faith springing from love\, God’s will need be in no doubt. He\nwill be ready and able to save us by an all-powerful command. He\nimmediately answered the leper’s request\, saying: I do want to. Indeed\, no\nsooner had the leper begun to pray with faith than the Savior’s hand began\nto cure him of his leprosy. \nThis leper is an excellent teacher of the right way to make petitions. He\ndid not doubt the Lord’s willingness through disbelief in his compassion\, but\nneither did he take it for granted\, for he knew the depths of his own\nsinfulness. Yet because he acknowledged that the Lord was able to cleanse\nhim if he wished\, we praise this declaration of firm faith just as we praise the\nLord’s mighty power. For obtaining a favor from God rightly depends as\nmuch on having a real living faith as on the exercise of the Creator’s power\nand mercy. If faith is weak\, it must be strengthened\, for only then will it\nsucceed in obtaining health of body or soul. The Apostle’s words\, purifying\ntheir hearts by faith referred\, surely\, to strong faith like this. And so if the\nhearts of believers are purified by faith\, we must give thought to this virtue\nof faith\, for\, as the Apostle says\, Anyone who doubts is like a wave in the sea. \nA faith shown to be living by its love\, steadfast by its perseverance\,\npatient by its endurance of delay\, humble by confession. Strong by its\nconfidence\, reverent by its way of presenting petitions\, and discerning with\nregard to their content – such a faith may be certain that in every place it will\nhear the Lord sating: I do want to. \nPondering this wonderful reply put the words together in their proper\nsequence. The leper began: Lord\, if you want to\, and the Savior said: I do\nwant to. The leper continued: You can make me clean\, and the Lord spoke\nhis powerful word of command: Be clean. All that the sinner’s true confession\nmaintained with faith\, love and power immediately conferred. And in case\nthe gravity of his sins should make anyone despair\, another Evangelist says\nthis man who was cured had been completely covered with leprosy. For all\nhave sinned and forfeited the glory of God. Since\, as we rightly believe\, God’s\npower is operative everywhere\, we ought to believe the same of his will\, for\nhis will is that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. \n1 \nJourney with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – 1999 – pg 80-81.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/6th-sunday-in-ordinary-time/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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