Vigils Reading
2023-09-18
THE GREATNESS OF DIVINE MERCY
From the maxims of Stephen of Muret2
◊◊◊
Blessed are you when none but God and you yourself see your own sins; this is one of the superlative mercies of God. He rarely rids you of any of your mortal flaws totally while you live on earth. Rather he covers them, like one covers embers with ash, so that only you and he perceive them. If you are a servant of God, knowing your sins are still with you will produce conflict within, and this disharmony is the first step toward inner peace…
If we could see other’s thoughts, no one would be considered good. Often something is seem where it is not, and unnoticed where it is. You might see a person’s body engaged in doing good, though their heart be not in it. So, consider it a huge kindness shown you if God keeps you ignorant of other’s thoughts.
When God shows mercy to anyone, the very same kind of compassion is being shown, whether its object be one who has lived long years in doing good, or a sinner who has just turned to God at the end of life. If you question this state of affairs and insist that a sinner, who has never bothered to labor at a good life, must then be more tenderly loved by God than the decent person who has worked hard to be so, I will answer you in this way: If you have been enabled to live a dutiful sort of life all these years, you do not merely have an equal share with the sinner in God’s compassion, but yours is a greater share. For had you not been held safely in the hands of God, be quite sure that you would have fallen into the same sins, perhaps sinking even lower!

Where wrongdoing is concerned, we are all infected with the same rot. So then, if you are one of the favored ones who were not only made whole, but for whom moral goodness has long been a source of joy, consider yourself twice as tenderly loved by God. Is it not a greater advantage, therefore, to be able to endure the fire and heat of any passion without being burnt thereby, than it is to have escaped the fire altogether? After all, you were given a certain freedom from your sinfulness, while others will have to suffer for theirs, either in this life or in the fiery purification of death.
Here is another token of compassion which turns out to be a greater favor for those whom God saves early in life. The more upright your life, the more intense will be your felt need and desire for the wholeness God alone accomplishes. Indeed, God can more lovingly care for those who know their need and poverty (when they choose it) than for any who think they need nothing. It is a mark of a genuinely shameless person to experience neither aspiration nor interest toward receiving salvation; whereas one who is dutiful can be heard sighing and weeping when that grace is yet far off. When this is so, God, with the tenderest pity, fulfills that desire..

2 Stephen of Muret. Maxims. Trans. Deborah van Doel, OCD. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2002. 125, 129-130.

Vigils Reading
2023-09-19 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York)
IN GOD’S ETERNAL DESIGNS
From the writings of St Charles de Foucauld3
◊◊◊
My Lord Jesus, you are with us even to the end of the world.’ Not only in the Holy Eucharist, but also in your grace. Your grace dwells in the Church, it dwells also in every faithful soul. The Church is your spouse, and so also is the faithful soul your spouse.
Your grace works in them, conforming them to yourself. It works without ceasing in the Church to perfect her. She grows more perfect by the increasing number of her saints. Always new ones are being added to the old ones, and the crown of saints is completed every day by new jewels; she grows more perfect through her dogmas being more and more clearly defined… she grows more perfect through the fresh crosses which you lay upon her daily and the victories she wins daily against the Prince of this world. She grows more perfect by the persecutions that she bears in one century after another, and in her suffering she grows more and more like to her Spouse; she grows more perfect through the merits of her members added daily to the merit of past days. A sum of holiness growing unceasingly, a sum which glorifies God anew, adding itself always to the ancient glory which is ever living before the Lord.
She grows more perfect by the multitude of masses, by the tabernacles, by the communions in which Jesus is daily offered on earth to God, fresh offerings adding themselves to former ones; she grows more perfect because the grace of today added to the past graces cannot fail to carry the spouse from height to height ever nearer to her Lover. Jesus is the soul of the Church, he gives to her what the soul gives to the body — life. He gives her immortal life so that she shall never be destroyed, he gives her light, making her infallible in declaring the truth; he works through her and carries on through her the work that he began whilst he lived amongst men. He works for the glory of God through the sanctifying of man. This work is the aim of the Church as it was the aim of Christ; through her Jesus accomplishes it unceasingly through the centuries.

You dwell in the souls of the faithful, Lord… You become, as it were, the soul of their soul, your grace supports it in everything, enlightens its intellect, directs its will; it is no longer the soul that acts, it is you who work in her. You give her life, the life of grace, sowing the seeds of the glorified life with increasing abundance; you give her the truth and you establish it in her, you make her understand it, you unbind her eyes and make her see all things with the eyes of faith; you set her thus in the divine life high above the shadows of the world. You continue your work in her.
The end of all men, as it is the end of the earth, and your own aim, my Lord Jesus, is the glory of God, that is to say, the outward manifestation of his glory, and the sanctification of men. You love us: therefore the more perfect we are the greater is your consolation; we should desire with all our might to please you, for you tell us to love you with all our strength. It is our duty to desire to be as perfect as possible. Make then our thoughts, words, actions, like to yours, live in us, reign in us that it may no longer be we that live, but you, my God, that live in us, and who, using our bodies and our souls, which we give to you without reserve, may continue through them your life and your work in this world. That work is the glory of God and the salvation of men in that measure which you have decreed yourself in your eternal designs; in you, by you, and for you

3 Charles de Foucauld. Meditations of a Hermit. Trans. by Charlotte Balfour. London: Burns & Oates, 1981. 56-58.

Vigils Reading - St Andrew Kim & Companions
2023-09-20
THE CROWN OF FAITH
From the final exhortation of St Andrew Kim Taegon, priest and martyr[1]

In this world of perils and hardship if we did not recognize the Lord as our Creator, there would be no benefit either in being born or in our continued existence. We have come into this world by God’s grace; by that same grace we have received baptism, entrance into the Church, and the honor of being called Christians. Yet what good will this do us if we are Christians in name alone and not in fact? We would have come into the world for nothing, we would have entered the Church for nothing, and we would have betrayed even God and his grace. It would be better never to have been born than to receive the grace of God and then to sin against him…

When he was in the world, the Lord Jesus bore countless sorrows and by his own passion and death founded his Church; now he gives it increase through the sufferings of his faithful. No matter how fiercely the powers of this world oppress and oppose the Church, they will never bring it down. Even since his ascension and from the time of the apostles to the present, the Lord Jesus has made his Church grow even in the midst of tribulation.

For the last fifty or sixty years, ever since the coming of the Church to our own land of Korea, the Faithful have suffered persecution over and over again. Persecution still rages and as a result many who are friends in the household of the faith, myself among them, have been thrown into prison and like you are experiencing severe distress. Because we have become the one Body, should not our hearts be grieved for the members who are suffering? Because of the human ties that bind us, should we not feel deeply the pain of our separation? But, as the Scriptures say, God numbers the very hairs of our head and in his all-embracing providence he has care over us all. Persecution, therefore, can only be regarded as the command of the Lord or as a prize he gives or as a punishment he permits.

Hold fast, then, to the will of God and with all your heart fight the good fight under the leadership of Jesus; conquer again the diabolical power of this world that Christ has already vanquished. I beg you not to fail in your love for one another, but to support one another and to stand fast until the Lord mercifully delivers us from our trials. There are twenty of us in this place and by God’s grace we are so far all well. If any of us is executed, I ask you not to forget our families. I have many things to say, yet how can pen and paper capture what I feel? I end this letter. As we are all near the final ordeal, I urge you to remain steadfast in faith, so that at last we will reach heaven and there rejoice together.
[1] Pro Corea Documenta, ed. Mission Catholique Seoul (Seoul-Paris, 1938) v. 1, pp. 74-75; trans. in NCCB Newsletter, v. 21, August/September 1985.

Vigils Reading - St Matthew
2023-09-21
A MAN CALLED MATTHEW
From a homily by St Bede the Venerable5
◊◊◊
Jesus saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him: Follow me. Jesus saw Matthew, not merely in the usual sense, but more significantly with his merciful understanding of men.
He saw the tax collector and, because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him, he said to him: Follow me. This following meant imitating the pattern of his life – not just walking after him. Saint John tells us: Whoever says he abides in Christ ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
And he rose and followed him. There is no reason for surprise that the tax collector abandoned earthly wealth as soon as the Lord commanded him. Nor should one be amazed that neglecting his wealth, he joined a band of men whose leader had, on Matthew’s assessment, no riches at all. Our Lord summoned Matthew by speaking to him in words. By an invisible, interior impulse flooding his mind with the light of grace, he instructed him to walk in his footsteps. In this way Matthew could understand that Christ, who was summoning him away from earthly possessions, had incorruptible treasures of heaven in his gift.
As he sat at table in the house, behold many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. This conversion of one tax collector gave many men, those from his own profession and other sinners, an example of repentance and pardon. Notice also the happy and true anticipation of his future status as apostle and teacher of the nations. No sooner was he converted than Matthew drew after him a whole crowd of sinners along the same road to salvation. He took up his appointed duties while still taking his first steps in the faith, and from that hour he fulfilled his obligation and thus grew in merit.

To see a deeper understanding of the great celebration Matthew held at his house, we must realize that he not only gave a banquet for the Lord at his earthly residence, but far more pleasing was the banquet set in his own heart which he provided through faith and love. Our Savior attests to this: Behold I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hearts my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me.
On hearing Christ’s voice, we open the door to receive him, as it were, when we freely assent to his promptings and when we give ourselves over to doing what must be done. Christ, since he dwells in the hearts of his chosen ones through the grace of his love, enters so that he might eat with us and we with him. He ever refreshes us by the light of his presence insofar as we progress in our devotion to and longing for the things of heaven. He himself is delighted by such a pleasing banquet

5 The Liturgy of the Hours: Vol. IV. New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1975. 1418-1419.

Vigils Reading
2023-09-22
AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS
From the writings of St Edith Stein6
◊◊◊
We hear repeatedly that St. John of the Cross desired nothing for himself but to suffer and be despised. We want to know the reason for this love of suffering. Is it merely the loving remembrance of the path of suffering of our Lord on earth, a tender impulse to be humanly close to him by a life resembling his? This does not seem to correspond to the lofty and strict spirituality of the mystical teacher. And in relation to the Man of Sorrows, it would almost seem that the victoriously enthroned king, the divine conqueror of sin, death, and hell is forgotten. Did not Christ lead captivity captive? Has he not transported us into a kingdom of light and called us to be happy children of our heavenly Father?
The sight of the world in which we live, the need and misery, and the abyss of human malice, again and again dampens jubilation over the victory of light. The world is still deluged by mire, and still only a small flock has escaped from it to the highest mountain peaks. The battle between Christ and the Antichrist is not yet over. The followers of Christ have their place in this battle, and their chief weapon is the cross.
What does this mean? The burden of the cross that Christ assumed is that of corrupted human nature, with all its consequences in sin and suffering to which fallen humanity is subject. The meaning of the way of the cross is to carry this burden out of the world. The restoration of freed humanity to the heart of the heavenly Father, taking on the status of a child, is the free gift of grace, of merciful love. But this may not occur at the expense of divine holiness and justice. The entire sum of human failures from the first Fall up to the Day of Judgment must be blotted out by a corresponding measure of expiation. The way of the cross is this expiation… Thus, when someone desires to suffer, it is not merely a pious reminder of the suffering of the Lord. Voluntary expiatory suffering is what truly and really unites one to the Lord intimately…

But because being one with Christ is our sanctity, and progressively becoming one with him our happiness on earth, the love of the cross in no way contradicts being a joyful child of God. Helping Christ carry his cross fills one with a strong and pure joy, and those who may and can do so, the builders of God’s kingdom, are the most authentic children of God. And so those who have a predilection for the way of the cross by no means deny that Good Friday is past and that the work of salvation has been accomplished. Only those who are saved, only children of grace, can in fact be bearers of Christ’s cross. Only in union with the divine Head does human suffering take on expiatory power. To suffer and to be happy although suffering, to have one’s feet on the earth, to walk on the dirty and rough paths of this earth and yet to be enthroned with Christ at the Father’s right hand, to laugh and cry with the children of this world and ceaselessly sing the praises of God with the choirs of angels — this is the life of the Christian until the morning of eternity breaks forth

6 Stein, Edith. The Collected Works of Edith Stein: Vol IV. The Hidden Life – Essays, Meditations, Spiritual Texts. Trans. Waltraut Stein, PH.D. Washington, D.C., ICS Publications, 1992. 91-93.

Vigils Reading - St Pius of Pietrelcina
2023-09-23
A LETTER FROM PADRE PIO TO HIS SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR7
◊◊◊
I reply to your last letter after a slight delay, not because I felt less need to speak to my father, but solely on account of the exceptional state of my health… Your own letter… brought some slight relief to my poor soul, sufficient to make it possible to bear – I do not say lightheartedly, but at least steadfastly – the cross to which the Lord in his mercy has been pleased to subject me. For this may the goodness of the heavenly Father ever be blessed. To you my most heartfelt thanks and infinite blessings, while I solemnly promise before the Lord to continue to raise my voice to heaven for you and with greater fervor than before.
In order that God may more readily hear my poor prayers, I will make every effort with the assistance of divine grace to be a good religious priest, so that I may be able to say one day with the Apostle: “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ”. I promise myself this much with Jesus’ assistance. Unfortunately I don’t deserve his assistance but I am led to hope for it by his inexhaustible charity towards all of us.
I told you, Father, that your letter, thank heaven, brought me a little relief. But I submit to you also the very great terror I experienced when I learned that you consider suspect those threats which I mentioned in my last. As you know, Father, I would not wish to be a victim of the devil in anything whatsoever and although I am more certain of the reality of those locutions than I am of my own existence, I am still struggling against myself and protest that I want to believe nothing of all this, for the sole reason that you, my director, have cast a doubt upon it. Am I right or wrong in this?

You must know, moreover, Father, that Jesus has not shown offense by any means at my failure to attach importance to what he said and to give my accidental assent to it. I say accidental to distinguish it from that deep and substantial conviction which still endures after all the efforts of my soul not to believe it. I am not free to divest myself of this conviction. What am I to do, Father? Am I unwittingly a victim of the enemy? Enlighten me, for pity’s sake, on this point, which I too would prefer to remain obscure.
How difficult, dear Father, is the way of Christian perfection for a soul as ill- disposed as mine! My wickedness makes me fearful at every step I take: may the good God sustain me and prevent me from betraying him! You know, Father, that I attach no importance at all to this extraordinary state of mine. For this reason I never stop asking Jesus to lead me by the ordinary path followed by everyone else, for I am well aware that the way by which divine mercy is leading me is not suitable for my soul, accustomed as it is to very material food. What I say to the Lord is that I am seeking the amendment of my life, my spiritual resurrection, true and substantial love, the sincere conversion of my whole self to him.
Speak to me at length, my dear Father, about all this and if you find me at fault, do not keep silence. Raise your voice, punish me again: I want to love Jesus as I should. I desire this love; I know I love him, but – dear God! – how inferior my love is to my desire to love! Ought it not be the opposite, that my love should surpass the desire for it? Speak to me about this, knowing as you do that it is one of the many thorns which contribute my spiritual martyrdom… I kiss your hand and ask you not to refuse me your fatherly blessing.

7 Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, Letters, vol. 1, p. 622, Editions “Voce di Padre Pio”, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, 1980.

Skema
2023-09-24
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
25th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
September 24 – 30, 2023

Sun
24
Mon
25
Tue
26
Wed
27
Thu
28
Fri
29
Sat
30

Office
25th Sunday
Weekday
Office for Vocations
St Vincent de Paul
Weekday
St Michael & All Angels
St Jerome

Vigils
1 Sam 12:1-25
1 Sam 13:2-22
1 Sam 13:23-14:23a
1 Sam 14:23b-48
1 Sam 15:1-23
Dan 10:4-11:1
1 Sam 15:24-16:13

Lauds
Amos 5:7, 10-15
Amos 5:16-20
Amos 5:21-27
Amos 6:1-7
Amos 6:8-14
Gen 28:10-17
Amos 7:1-6

Mass
133
449
450
451
452
647
454

1st
Isa 55:6-9
Ezra 1:1-6
Ezra 6:7-8, 12b, 14-20
Ezra 9:5-9
Hag 1:1-8
Rev 12:7-12a
Zech 2:5-9, 14-15a

2nd
Phil 1:20c-24, 27a

Gospel
Matt 20:1-16a
Luke 8:16-18
Luke 8:19-21
Luke 9:1-6
Luke 9:7-9
John 1:47-51
Luke 9:43b-45

Vespers
1 Pet 2:18-25
1 Pet 3:8-12
1 Pet 3:13-17
1 Pet 3:18-22
1 Pet 4:1-6
Heb 1:5-14
1 Pet 4:7-11

Vigils Reading - 25th Sun ORD
2023-09-24
THE 11th HOUR
From a commentary by St Augustine1
◊◊◊
The gospel story about the vineyard workers is appropriate to this time of year, the season of the earthly grape harvest. But there is also another harvest, the spiritual one, at which God rejoices in the fruits of his vineyard.
The kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out to hire men to work in his vineyard. In the evening he gave orders for all to be paid, beginning with the last comers and ending with the first. Now why did he pay the last comers first? Will not everyone be rewarded at the same time? We read in another gospel passage how the king will say to those placed on his right hand: Come, you whom my Father has blessed: take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. If all, then, are to receive their wages together, how should we understand this statement about those who arrived at the eleventh hour being paid first, and those who had been working since daybreak being paid last? If I can say anything to further your understanding, thanks be to God. Give thanks to him who teaches you through me, for my own knowledge is not the source of my teaching.
To take an example, then, let us ask which of two workers receives his wages sooner, one who is paid after an hour, or one who is paid after twelve hours? Anyone will answer: “One who is paid after an hour.” So also in our parable. All the workmen were paid at the same time, but because some were paid after an hour and others after twelve hours, the former, having had a shorter time to wait, may be said to have received their wages first.

The earliest righteous people like Abel and Noah, called as it were at the first hour, will receive the joy of resurrection at the same time as we do. So also will others who came later, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and those contemporary with them, called as we may say at the third hour; Moses and Aaron and those called with them at the sixth hour; and after them the holy prophets, called at the ninth hour. At the end of the world all Christians, called at the eleventh hour, will receive the joy of resurrection together with those who went before them. All will be rewarded at the same time, but the first comers will have had the longest to wait. Therefore, if they receive their reward after a longer period and we after a shorter one, the fact that our reward is not delayed will make it seem as though we were receiving it first, even though we all receive it together.
In that great reward, then, we shall all be equal-the first to the last and the last to the first. For the denarius stands for eternal life, in which all will have the same share. Although through diversity of merit some will shine more brilliantly than others, in the possession of eternal life there will be equality. What is endless for all will not be longer for one and shorter for another. What has no bounds will have none either for you or for me. Those who lived chastely in the married state will have one kind of splendor; virgins will have another. The reward for good works will differ from the crown of martyrdom; but where eternal life is concerned there can be no question of more or less for anyone. Whatever may be the individual’s degree of glory, each one will live in it eternally. This is the meaning of the denarius

1 Letter LIII in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series Two, Volume 6; translated by W. H. Fremantle, p. 101-102.

Vigils Reading
2023-09-25
TRUE PRAYER
From the writings of St Macarius2
◊◊◊
The person, that wishes to come to the Lord and to be deemed worthy of eternal life and to become the dwelling place of Christ and to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that he may be able to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit and perform the commandments of Christ purely and blamelessly, ought to begin first by believing firmly in the Lord and giving himself completely to the words of His commands and renouncing the world in all things so that his whole mind may be taken up with nothing ephemeral…
Then the Lord, seeing such an intention and his good diligence, how he strives to remember the Lord and always seeks to do good and is humble and meek and loving, how he guides his heart, whether he wishes or not, to the best of his ability with force, has mercy on him and frees him from his enemies and the indwelling sin. He fills him with the Holy Spirit. And gradually without force or struggle he keeps all the Lord’s commandments in truth. Or, rather, it is the Lord who keeps in him His very own commandments and then He brings forth the fruits of the Spirit purely.
It is, however, necessary at first for one coming to the Lord to force himself thus to do good and even if he should not in his heart be so inclined, he must constantly await His mercy with unshakened faith and push himself to love, even if he does not have love. He ought to push himself to meekness, even if he has none, to mercy and to have a merciful heart. He must force himself to be disregarded, and when he is looked down by others, let him rejoice. When he is made light of or dishonored, let him not become angry according to the saying: “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves”. Let him push himself to prayer even when he does not possess the prayer of the Spirit. And so, God, seeing him striving so and pushing himself by determination, even if the heart is unwilling, gives him the authentic prayer of the Spirit, gives him true charity, true meekness… true kindness, and, simply put, fills him with the fruits of the Spirit.

But, if anyone pushed to attain for himself only prayer… but he does not strive earnestly for meekness and humility and charity and all the other commandments of the Lord, neither taking pains or struggling and battling to succeed in these…sometimes he may be given a grace of prayer… but he has the same traits he had before. He has no meekness because he did not seek it with effort and he did not prepare himself beforehand to become such. He has no humility since he did not ask for it and did not push himself to have it. He has no charity toward all men because he was not concerned with this and did not strive for it in his asking for the gift of prayer. And in doing his work, he has no faith nor trust in God since he did not know himself, that he appeared without it… For just as he forces himself to prayer even when unwilling, so everyone must push himself likewise to trust, so also to humility, so to charity, so to meekness, sincerity and simplicity…
Let us pray that the Spirit may teach us true prayer which now we are unable to accomplish even through our earnest striving. He will teach us how to accomplish, with hearts of compassion, kindness and all the other commandments of the Lord truly without any trouble and force since the Spirit Himself knows how to fill us with His fruit. And so we fulfill the commandments of God through His Spirit who alone knows the will of the Lord

2 Intoxicated with God – The Fifty Spiritual Homilies of Macarius. Trans. George A. Maloney, S.J., Denville, NJ: Dimension Books, 1978. 128-131.

Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
2023-09-26
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
From the writing of John Ruusbroec3
◊◊◊
Now you should note three things which make a person good. The first thing which a person must have in order to be good is a purified conscience, free from any reproach of mortal sin… The second thing… is the need to obey God, the holy Church, and his own conscience in all things…The third thing… is that he primarily intends God’s glory in all his works… These three things, when possessed in this way, make a person good. Whoever lacks a single one of them is not a good person and does not abide in God’s grace. But whenever a person resolves in his heart to bring about these three things in his own life, then in that very moment — regardless of how evil he was previously — he becomes a good person, open to God and full of God’s grace.
If this good person is to go on and become an interiorly fervent and spiritual person, then three further things are necessary: The first is a heart unencumbered by images; the second is spiritual freedom in his desires; and the third is an experience of interior union with God… In his exercises a person should make use of good images, such as our Lord’s passion and anything else which can stir a person to greater devotion. In possessing God, however, a person must descend to that imageless bareness which is God himself. This is the first thing necessary for a spiritual life and is its very foundation.
The second thing is interior freedom, which means that a person can be raised to God in all his interior exercises without hindrance and without the encumbrance of images. Such exercises are thanksgiving, praise, worship, devout prayers… and all the other things which longing and affection can bring about with the help of God’s grace… By means of these interior exercises a person attains the third thing necessary for a spiritual life, which is that he experiences spiritual union with God. Whoever, then, in his interior exercises ascends freely and without images to his God and intends nothing but God’s glory will savor God’s goodness and will experience true interior union with God… In this way, activity and union are constantly renewed, and this renewal in work and in union constitutes a spiritual life…

You should also know that if this spiritual person is to become a contemplative three more things are necessary: The first is that he must experience the depth of his being as having no ground and must possess it in this way; the second is that his exercises must be devoid of particular form or measure; and the third is that his turning within himself must be characterized by the enjoyment of God…
You can thus see that this Unity of God which draws all things to itself is nothing other than a love which has no ground and which lovingly draws the Father and the Son and all that lives in them into a state of eternal enjoyment. In this love we will ceaselessly burn and be consumed by fire for all eternity, for in this lies the blessedness of all spirits… Through the same love we will ascend and transcend ourselves as we rise to an incomprehensible height. In this formless love we will wander about, and it will lead us to the measureless breadth of God’s love. In it we will flow forth and flow out of ourselves into the uncomprehended abundance of God’s riches and goodness. In it we will also melt and be dissolved, revolve and be eternally whirled around in the maelstrom of God’s glory

3 John Ruusbroec. The Spiritual Espousals and Other Works. Trans. James A. Wiseman, O.S.B. New York: Paulist Press, 1985. 156-159.

Vigils Reading - St Vincent de Paul
2023-09-27
GOD LOVES THE POOR
From the writings of St Vincent de Paul4
◊◊◊
Even though the poor are often rough and unrefined, we must not judge them from external appearances nor from the mental gifts they seem to have received. On the contrary, if you consider the poor in the light of faith, then you will observe that they are taking the place of the Son of God who chose to be poor. Although in his passion he almost lost the appearance of a man and was considered a fool by the Gentiles and a stumbling block by the Jews, he showed that his mission was to preach to the poor… We also ought to have this same spirit and imitate Christ’s actions, that is, we must take care of the poor, console them, help them, support their cause.
Since Christ willed to be born poor, he chose for himself disciples who were poor. He made himself the servant of the poor and shared their poverty. He went so far as to say that he would consider every deed which either helps or harms the poor as done for or against himself. Since God surely loves the poor, he also loves those who love the poor. For when one person holds another dear, he also includes in his affection anyone who loves or serves the one he loves. That is why we hope that God will love us for the sake of the poor. So when we visit the poor and needy, we try to be understanding where they are concerned. We sympathize with them so fully that we can echo Paul’s words: I have become all things to all people. Therefore we must try to be stirred by our neighbor’s worries and distress. We must beg God to pour into our hearts sentiments of pity and compassion and to fill them again and again with these dispositions.

It is our duty to prefer the service of the poor to everything else and to offer such service as quickly as possible. If a needy person requires medicine or other help during prayer time, do whatever has to be done with peace of mind. Offer the deed to God as your prayer. Do not become upset or feel guilty because you interrupted your prayer to serve the poor. God is not neglected if you leave him for such service. One of God’s works is merely interrupted so that another can be carried out. So when you leave prayer to serve some poor person, remember that this service is performed for God. Charity is certainly greater than any rule. Moreover, all rules must lead to charity. Since she is a noble mistress, we must do whatever she commands. With renewed devotion, then, we must serve the poor, especially beggars and outcasts. They have been given to us as our masters and patrons

4 The Liturgy of the Hours vol. IV Catholic Book Publishing Co – New York – 1975 – pg 1424.

Vigils Reading
2023-09-28
HOW JESUS IS THE CONSUMMATION
From the writings of Nicholas of Cusa5
◊◊◊
We experience, O Lord, that your… Spirit, infinite in its power, is received in many ways. For it is received in one way in one in whom it produces a prophetic spirit, in another in one who is given skill to interpret, and in another by one to whom it teaches knowledge, and it is received still otherwise in others. For its gifts are diverse …just as the same heat of the sun produces different fruit of different trees. I see, Lord, that your Spirit cannot be lacking to any… because it is the Spirit of spirits and the movement of movements and fills the whole world…
O Lord, who work all things for yourself, you have created this entire world… as if you were a painter who mixes different colors in order finally to be able to paint oneself and to have an image of oneself wherein one may be delighted and one’s art find rest… For each… sees in you, my God, something which must be revealed to the others if they would attain to you… The spirits, full of love, therefore, reveal their secrets to one another, and thereby the knowledge of the beloved is increased as well as the desire for the beloved, and the sweetness of joy grows ardent… All come to rest in this Spirit as in the final perfection of the image of God, of whose image they have attained likeness and some degree of perfection…
All things rouse me to turn toward you; all Scripture strives to do nothing else but to disclose you… Above all, you have given me Jesus as Master, as ‘the Way, the Life, and the Truth’, so that nothing at all can be lacking to me. You strengthen me by your Holy Spirit, through whom you inspire choices of life and holy desires.

You draw me by a foretaste of the sweetness of the life of glory to love you, the infinite Good. You enrapture me in order to be above myself and to foresee the place of glory to which you invite me. You show me many most delectable dishes which draw me by their excellent savor. You permit me to see the treasury of riches, of life, of joy, and of beauty. In nature as well as in art, you uncover the fountain from which flows all that is desirable. You keep nothing secret. You do not hide the channel of love, nor of peace, nor of rest. You offer all things to me, wretched as I am, whom you have created from nothing.
Why then do I delay? Why do I not hasten to the aroma of the ointments of my Christ? Why do I not enter into the joy of my Lord? What holds me back? If ignorance of you, Lord, has restrained me, and the vain delight of the sensible world, they will hold me back no longer. For because you grant me to will, I will to forsake the things of this world, for the world wills to forsake me. I hasten toward the goal; I have almost finished my course; I look forward to its end, for I strive after the crown. Draw me, Lord, for no one may come to you unless drawn by you, so that drawn to you, I may be made absolute from this world and may be joined to you, the absolute God, in the eternity of the glorious life

5 Nicholas of Cusa. Selected Spiritual Writings (Classics of Western Spirituality). Paulist, 1997. 287-289.

Vigils Reading - St Michael & All Angels
2023-09-29
THE ANGELS
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church6
◊◊◊
St. Augustine says: “Angel’ is the name of their office, not of their nature. If you seek the name of their nature, it is ‘spirit’; if you seek the name of their office, it is ‘angel’: From what they are, ‘spirit’, from what they do, ‘angel’.” With their whole beings the angels are servants and messengers of God. Because they ‘always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven’ they are the “mighty ones who do his word, harkening to the voice of his word.”
As purely spiritual creatures angels have intelligence and will: they are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all visible creatures, as the splendor of their glory bears witness.
Christ is the center of the angelic world. They are his angels: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him…” They belong to him because they were created through and for him: “for in him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities – all things were created through him and for him.” They belong to him still more because he has made them messengers of his saving plan: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation?”
Angels have been present since creation throughout the history of salvation, announcing this salvation from afar or near and serving the accomplishment of the divine plan: they closed the earthly paradise; protected Lot; saved Hagar and her child; stayed Abraham’s hand; communicated the law by their ministry; led the People of God; announced births and callings; and assisted the prophets, just to cite a few examples. Finally, the angel Gabriel announced the birth and the Precursor and that of Jesus himself.

From the Incarnation to the Ascension, the life of the Word incarnate is surrounded by the adoration and service of angels. When God “brings the firstborn into the world, he says: “Let all God’s angels worship him”. Their song of praise at the birth of Christ has not ceased resounding in the Church’s praise: “Glory to God in the highest!” They protect Jesus in his infancy, serve him in the desert, strengthen him in his agony in the garden, when he could have been saved by them from the hands of his enemies as Israel had been. Again, it is the angels who “evangelize” by proclaiming the Good News of Christ’s Incarnation and Resurrection. They will be present at Christ’s return, which they will announce, to serve at his judgment.
In the meantime, the whole life of the Church benefits from the mysterious and powerful help of angels. In her liturgy, the Church joins with the angels to adore the thrice-holy God. She invokes their assistance… in the funeral liturgy’s “May the angels lead you into Paradise”. Moreover, in the “Cherubic Hymn” of the Byzantine Liturgy, she celebrates the memory of certain angels more particularly St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, and the guardian angels.
From infancy to death human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession. “Besides each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.” Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and humanity united in God

6 The Catechism of the Catholic Church,USCC,Libreria Editrice Vaticana,’94, p.85-87.

Vigils Reading - St Jerome
2023-09-30
ON THE LOVE OF SCRIPTURE
A letter from St Jerome to Paulinus7
◊◊◊
You see how, carried away by my love of the scriptures, I have exceeded the limits of a letter yet have not fully accomplished my object. We have heard only what it is that we ought to know and to desire, so that we too may be able to say with the psalmist: “My soul breaks out with the fervent desire it always has had for your judgments”. But the saying of Socrates about himself— “I only know this: that I know nothing”—is fulfilled in our case also.
The New Testament I will briefly deal with. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the Lord’s team of four, the true cherubim or store of knowledge. [Like the description in the prophet Ezekiel,] with them the whole body is full of eyes, they glitter as sparks, they run and return like lightning, their feet are straight feet, and lifted up, their backs also are winged, ready to fly in all directions. They hold together each by each and are interwoven one with another: like wheels within wheels they roll along and go wherever the breath of the Holy Spirit wafts them. The apostle Paul writes to seven churches (for the eighth epistle, that to the Hebrews, is not generally counted in with the others). He instructs Timothy and Titus; he interceded with Philemon for his runaway slave. Of him I think it better to say nothing than to write inadequately.
The Acts of the Apostles seem to relate a mere unvarnished narrative, descriptive of the infancy of the newly born church; but when once we realize that their author is Luke the physician whose praise is in the gospel, we shall see that all his works are medicine for the sick soul. The apostles James, Peter, John and

Jude have published seven epistles at once spiritual and to the point, short and long, short that is in words but lengthy in substance so that there are few indeed who do not find themselves in the dark when they read them. The apocalypse of John has as many mysteries as words. In saying this I have said less than the book deserves. All praise of it is inadequate; manifold meanings lie hid in its every word.
I beg of you, my dear brother, to live among these books, to meditate upon them, to know nothing else, to seek nothing else. Does not such a life seem to you a foretaste of heaven here on earth? Let not the simplicity of the scripture or the poorness of its vocabulary offend you: for these are due either to the faults of translators or else to deliberate purpose: for in this way it is better fitted for the instruction of an unlettered congregation as the educated person can take one meaning and the uneducated another from one and the same sentence. I am not so dull or so forward as to profess that I myself know it, or that I can pluck upon the earth the fruit which has its root in heaven, but I confess that I should like to do so. I put myself before the man who sits idle and, while I lay no claim to be a master, I readily pledge myself to be a fellow-student. “Every one that asks, receives; and those that seek, find; and to those that knock, it shall be opened”.
Let us learn upon earth that knowledge which will continue with us in heaven

7 Letter LIII in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series Two, Volume 6; translated by W. H. Fremantle, p. 101-102.

Advisory Council Meeting
2023-09-30 14:00 - 16:00
Advisory Council Meeting
September 30th, 2:00 pm on zoom

Skema
2023-10-01
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
26th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
October 1 – 7, 2023

Sun
1
Mon
2
Tue
3
Wed
4
Thu
5
Fri
6
Sat
7

Office
26th Sunday
Weekday
Louisville Cathedral
St Francis
Weekday
St Bruno
Our Lady of the Rosary

Vigils
1 Sam 16:14-17:11
1 Sam 17:12-37
2 Chron 7:1-16
1 Sam 17:38-18:5
1 Sam 18:6-30
1 Sam 19:1-24
Judith 15:8-16:2, 11-16

Lauds
Amos 7:7-9
Amos 7:10-17
Ezek 43:1-7a
Amos 8:1-8
Amos 8:9-14
Amos 9:1-6
Sir 39:12-22

Mass
136
455
701.1, 706.2
457
458
459
460

1st
Ezek 18:25-28
Zech 8:1-8
1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30
Neh 2:1-8
Neh 8:1-4a, 5-6, 7b-12
Bar 1:15-22
Bar 4:5-12, 27-29

2nd
Phil 2:1-11

Gospel
Matt 21:28-32
Luke 9:46-50
Luke 19:1-10
Luke 9:57-62
Luke 10:1-12
Luke 10:13-16
Luke 10:17-24

Vespers
1 Pet 4:12-19
1 Pet 5:1-7
Rev 21:1-5
1 Pet 5:8-14
2 Pet 1:1-9
2 Pet 1:10-15
2 Pet 1:16-19

Vigils Reading - 26th Sunday ORD
2023-10-01
WHAT I WANT IS MERCY, NOT SACRIFICE
A commentary by St Clement of Alexandria1
◊◊◊
The doors are open for all who sincerely and wholeheartedly return to God; indeed the Father is most willing to welcome back a truly repentant son or daughter. The result of true repentance, however, is that you do not fall into the same faults again, but utterly uproot from your souls the sins for which you consider yourself worthy of death. When these have been destroyed God will again dwell within you, since Scripture says that for the Father and his angels in heaven the festal joy and gladness at the return of one repentant sinner is great beyond compare. That is why the Lord cried out: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. I desire not the death of the sinner but his conversion. Even if your sins are like crimson wool I will make them as white as snow; even if they are blacker than night. I will wash them as white as wool.
Although only God has power to forgive sin and to cancel transgressions, the Lord commands us also to forgive our repentant brothers and sisters every day. So if we who are evil know how to give good gifts, how much more generous must be the Father of mercies, the good Father of all consolation, who is full of compassion and mercy, and whose nature it is to be patient and await our conversion! Genuine conversion, however, means ceasing to sin without any backward glance.
God pardons what is past, then, but for the future we are each responsible for ourselves. By repenting we condemn our past misdeeds and beg forgiveness of the Father, the only one who can in his mercy undo what has been done, and wipe away our past sins with the dew of the Spirit. And so, if you are a thief and desire to be forgiven, steal no more. If you are a robber, return your gains with interest. If you have been a false witness, practice speaking the truth. If you are a perjurer, stop taking oaths. You must also curb all the other evil passions: anger, lust, grief, and fear. No doubt you will be unable all at once to root out passions habitually given way to, but this can be achieved by God’s power, human prayers, the help of your brothers and sisters, sincere repentance, and constant practice

1 Journey with the Fathers – Year A – New City Press – NY – 1999 – pg128-129.

Vigils Reading
2023-10-02
DEATH AND THE MONK
From “The Meaning of the Monastic Life” by Fr Louis Bouyer2 ◊◊◊
It is not purely and simply by dying that we shall live, but by dying such a death that it kills death itself — and it is only the death of Christ that can do that. For it is not the life of the mortal body which has injured the life of the soul. It is, on the contrary, the death of the soul which has injured the body and made it mortal. Life will be won back by the resurrection, not of the soul alone, but of the human being in its unity, inseparably body and soul. And if the passage through death can lead to the resurrection, it is only in as much as the soul, which has become alive again in Christ, has been made capable of burning away the death of the body as with a red-hot iron and of causing it to evaporate in its own flame.
The monk goes forward to meet death because he believes that this miracle, the greatest of all, has been accomplished in the death of Christ: because he believes that Christ was Life, the very Life of God, and that in making physical death his own, he has robbed the evil one of all his power and all his empire which are annihilated by this very act. Again he goes forward to meet death because he believes that Christ now and for the future lives in him: and finally because he believes that what has taken place in Christ will be reproduced in himself, in the same manner.
The death of the monk, so desired and sought after day after day, is then only the supreme evidence of his faith, his faith in Christ vanquishing death in himself, his faith in Christ present in his followers to vanquish it in them. The monk’s mortification is ultimately nothing more than his witness given to Christ,

the witness of his faith, which makes it clear that it is not only an intellectual thing but an engagement of the whole being

2 New York, 1955, pp. 53-54.

Vigils Reading - Louisville Cathedral
2023-10-03
THE CATHEDRAL OF THE ASSUMPTION3 ◊◊◊
Catholics were a small and scattered lot in the earliest days after Louisville’s founding in 1778… The roots of the first real Catholic congregation can be traced to about 1805 when the small Catholic community of Louisville was served by regular priestly visits from Father Stephen Badin, the first Catholic priest ordained in the United States. Badin and other clerics came up from “the Kentucky Holy Land” to minister to that primal congregation that was to become the Cathedral of the Assumption. The congregation got its first building in 1811 on Tenth Street, between Main Street and the Ohio River. The name St. Louis was adopted for the parish, commemorating the saintly King Louis IX of France. But presumably the name of Louis was also a reference to Louisville’s own naming in honor of France’s Louis XVI, for the aid he rendered to the American Revolution…
When the seat of the Bardstown diocese was transferred to Louisville in 1841, St. Louis became the new cathedral, and Bishop Benedict Joseph Flaget took up his residence next door. Perhaps his last public act was his blessing of the cornerstone for a new structure, today’s Cathedral of the Assumption, on August 15, 1849. Because that was the Feast of the Blessed Virgin’s Assumption, that name was affixed to the Cathedral that had been known under the patronage of Saint Louis… The new American Gothic structure… was dedicated October 3, 1852, with eight bishops and the first American cardinal present.
The Cathedral parish immediately began to function. It established the St. Vincent de Paul Society for relief of the poor in 1853…

At heart, the Cathedral of the Assumption retains its identity as a vital, truly Catholic community of faith <and> has marched into the third millennium with renewed hope and promise

3 Cathedral of the Assumption. Accessed online: https://www.archlou.org/parishes/cathedral-of-the-assumption/.

Vigils Reading - St Francis
2023-10-04
THE HUMILITY OF ST FRANCIS
From “The Life of St Francis” by St Bonaventure4 ◊◊◊
In order to render himself contemptible to others, he did not spare himself the embarrassment of bringing up his own faults when he preached before all the people. Once it happened that when he was weighed down with sickness, he relaxed a little the rigor of his abstinence in order to recover his health. When his strength of body returned, he was aroused to insult his own body out of true self- contempt: “It is not right,” he said, “that the people should believe I am abstaining while, in fact, I eat meat on the sly.”
Inflamed with the spirit of true humility, he called the people together in the square of the town of Assisi and solemnly entered the principal church with many of the friars whom he had brought with him. With a rope tied around his neck and stripped to his underwear, he had himself dragged before the eyes of all to the stone where criminals received their punishment. He climbed up upon the stone and preached with much vigor and spirit although he was suffering from a fever and the weather was bitter cold. He asserted to all his hearers that he should not be honored as a spiritual man but rather he should be despised by all as a carnal man and a glutton.
Therefore those who had gathered there were amazed at so great a spectacle. They were well aware of his austerity, and so their hearts were struck with compunction; but they professed that his humility was easier to admire than to imitate. Although this incident seemed to be more a portent like that of the Prophet [Isaiah] than an example, nevertheless it was a lesson in true humility instructing the follower of Christ that he should despise the fame of transitory praise, suppress the arrogance of bloated bragging and reject the lies of deceptive pretense.

He often did many things like this so that outwardly he might become like a discarded utensil while inwardly possessing the spirit of holiness. He strove to hide the gifts of his Lord in the secret recesses of his heart, not wanting them to be exposed to praise, which could be an occasion of a fall. For often when he was praised by the crowds, he would answer like this: “I could still have sons and daughters; don’t praise me as if I were secure! No one should be praised whose end is still uncertain.” This is what he would say to those who praised him, and to himself he would say: “If the Most High had given so much to a brigand, he would be more grateful than you, Francis.” He often used to tell the friars: “No one should flatter himself for doing anything a sinner can also do. A sinner,” he said, “can fast, pray, weep and mortify his flesh. This one thing he cannot do: be faithful to his Lord. Therefore we should glory in this: if we give back to the Lord the glory that is his, if we serve him faithfully and ascribe to him whatever he gives to us.

4 Translation and introduction by Ewert Cousins, (Classics of Western Spirituality series), New York: Paulist Press, 1978, pp. 230-231.

Vigils Reading
2023-10-05
TRUE LOVE
From “The Story of a Soul” by St Thérèse of Lisieux5 ◊◊◊
At the beginning of my religious life Jesus wanted to have me experience how sweet it is to see Him in the souls of His brides. When I was guiding Sister St. Pierre, I did it with so much love that I could not possibly have done better had I been guiding Jesus Himself. The practice of charity… was not always so sweet for me, and to prove it to you I am going to recount certain little struggles which will certainly make you smile. For a long time at evening meditation, I was placed in front of a Sister who had a strange habit… during meditation. This is what I noticed: as soon as this Sister arrived, she began making a strange little noise which resembled the noise one would make when rubbing two shells, one against the other. I was the only one to notice it because I had extremely sensitive hearing (too much so at times). Mother, it would be impossible for me to tell you how much this little noise wearied me. I had a great desire to turn my head and stare at the culprit who was very certainly unaware of her “click.” This would be the only way of enlightening her. However, in the bottom of my heart I felt it was much better to suffer this out of love for God and not to cause the Sister any pain. I remained calm, therefore, and tried to unite myself to God and to forget the little noise.
Everything was useless. I felt the perspiration inundate me, and I was obliged simply to make a prayer of suffering; however, while suffering, I searched for a way of doing it without annoyance and with peace and joy, at least in the interior of my soul. I tried to love the little noise which was so displeasing; instead of trying not to hear it (impossible), I paid close attention so as to hear it well, as

though it were a delightful concert, and my prayer (which was not the Prayer of Quiet) was spent in offering this concert to Jesus.
Another time, I was in the laundry doing the washing in front of a Sister who was throwing dirty water into my face every time she lifted the handkerchiefs to her bench; my first reaction was to draw back and wipe my face to show the Sister who was sprinkling me that she would do me a favor to be more careful. But I immediately thought I would be very foolish to refuse these treasures which were being given to me so generously, and I took care not to show my struggle. I put forth all my efforts to desire receiving very much of this dirty water, and was so successful that in the end I had really taken a liking to this kind of aspersion, and I promised myself to return another time to this nice place where one received so many treasures.
My dear Mother, you can see that I am a very little soul and that I can offer God only very little things. It often happens that I allow these little sacrifices which give such peace to the soul to slip by; this does not discourage me, for I put up with having a little less peace and I try to be more vigilant on another occasion. Ah! the Lord is so good to me that it is quite impossible for me to fear Him. He has always given me what I desire or rather He has made me desire what He wants to give me; thus a short time before my trial against the faith began, I was saying to myself: Really, I have no great exterior trials and for me to have interior ones God would have to change my way… what means, then, will Jesus find to try me? The answer was not long in coming, and it showed me that the One whom I love is not at a loss as to the means He uses

5 Story of A Soul: The Autobiography of St Thérèse of Lisieux. Trans. John Clarke, O.C.D. Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1996. 279-280. PDF ONLINE VERSION.

Vigils Reading - St Bruno
2023-10-06
A READING FROM THE STATUTES OF THE CARTHUSIAN ORDER6
◊◊◊

12

Master Bruno and six companions entered the desert of Chartreuse in the year of our Lord 1084 and settled there; under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they and their successors, learning from experience, gradually evolved a special form of hermit life, which was handed on to succeeding

generations, not by the written word, but by example…
The more sublime the path that opens before us in the holy way of life handed down to us by our Fathers, the more easily can we fall away from it; not only by obvious transgressions, but also by the drag innate, as it were, in routine. Since, however, God gives his grace to the humble, let us have recourse to him above all and stand fast in the combat, lest the chosen vineyard fall into ruin.
For the continuing quality of our life will depend more on the fidelity of each individual than on the multiplication of laws, or the updating of customs, or even the zeal of Priors. It is not, indeed, enough to obey the commands of our superiors and observe faithfully the letter of the Statutes, unless, led by the Spirit, we savor the things of the Spirit… Now no longer a child, but a man, let him not be tossed to and fro and carried about with

every new wind, but rather let him try to find out what would please God and do it of his own free will, enjoying with sober wisdom that liberty of God’s children, concerning which he will have to render an account before God. Let no one, however, be wise in his own eyes; for it is to be feared that he who neglects to open his heart to an enlightened guide, will lose the

quality of discretion and go less quickly than is necessary, or too fast and grow weary, or stop on the way and… fall asleep… In simplicity of heart, then, and in purity of mind let us strive with all our power to fix our thoughts and affections continually on God. Let each be forgetful of self and what lies behind, and press on towards the goal to win the prize which is God’s call to the life above, in Christ Jesus.

“But he who has no love for the brother he has seen, what love can he have for the God he has not seen?” And since brotherly fellowship between men can never be perfect unless based on mutual esteem, it is certainly fitting in the highest degree that we, who live in the house of God, should bear witness to the love that comes from God by lovingly welcoming our brothers with whom we live, and by making a real effort to understand with heart and mind their characters and temperaments, however different from our own. For the source of hostilities, disagreements, and the like, often lies in contempt of others. Let us carefully avoid anything that could injure the blessing of peace…
Finally, in these times, we must be extremely careful not to model ourselves on the behavior of the world around us. For, too eagerly to seek and too readily to accept the comforts of modern life is altogether opposed to our state of life; especially as novelty always calls for more novelty. The resources granted us by divine Providence are not given that we may seek

the good things of life; indeed, if the way to God is easy, it is because it is traveled not by loading ourselves with burdens, but by getting rid of them. Let us then, free ourselves from possessions to the point that, having given up everything and having left even self behind, we may share in the way of life of our first Fathers

6 The Statutes of the Carthusian Order. Accessed online: https://carthusiansusa.org/book-i/.

Vigils Reading - Our Lady of the Rosary
2023-10-07
THE ROSARY IS NOT A ROAD, BUT A PLACE
From the writings of Fr Romano Guardini7
◊◊◊
To linger in the domain of Mary is something divinely great. One does not ask about the utility of truly noble things, because they have their meaning within themselves. So it is of infinite meaning to draw a deep breath of this purity, to be secure in the peace of this union with God.
With this we come back to what was said in the beginning. We need a place of holy tranquility that is pervaded by the breath of God and where we meet the great figures of the faith. This place is really the inaccessibility of God himself which is opened to us only through Christ. All prayer begins when we become silent, when we recollect our scattered thoughts and feel remorse at our trespasses, when we direct our thoughts toward God. If we do all this, the place is thrown open, not only as a domain of spiritual tranquility and mental concentration, but as something that comes from God.
We are always in need of this place, especially when the convulsions of the times make clear something that has always existed but which is sometimes hidden by outward well-being and a prevailing “peace of mind”: namely, the homelessness of our lives. In such times, a great courage is demanded from us: not only a readiness to dispense with more and to accomplish more than usual, but to persevere in a vacuum we do not otherwise notice. So, we require more than ever this place of which we speak, not to creep into to hide, but as a place to find the core of things, to become calm and confident once more. For this reason the Rosary is so important in times like ours — assuming, of course, that all slackness and exaggeration are done away with, and it is used in its clear and original forcefulness. This is all the more important because the Rosary does not require any special preparation. We do not need to generate thoughts of which we are not capable at the moment or at any other time. We step into a well- ordered world, meet familiar images and find roads that lead us to the essential.

The Rosary has the character of a sojourn. Its essence is the sheltering security of a quiet, holy world that envelops the person who is praying. This is particularly evident when we compare it with the Stations of the Cross, which have the character of a journey. We follow the Master from one “station” to another, and feel at the end that we have reached our goal. The Rosary is not a road, but a place, and it has no goal but a depth. To linger in it has great compensations

7 The Rosary of Our Lady, New York 1955, 33-36.

Skema
2023-10-08
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
27th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
October 8 – 14, 2023

Sun
8
Mon
9
Tue
10
Wed
11
Thu
12
Fri
13
Sat
14

Office
27th Sunday
Office for the dead
Weekday
St John XXIII
Weekday
Weekday
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
1 Sam 20:1-24a
1 Sam 20:24b-21:1
1 Sam 21:2-22:5
1 Sam 22:6-23
1 Sam 23:1-28
1 Sam 24:1-25:1
1 Sam 25:2-22

Lauds
Amos 9:7-10
Amos 9:11-15
Obad 1-7
Obad 8-14
Obad 15-18
Mic 1:1-9
Mic 2:1-5

Mass
139
461
462
463
464
465
466

1st
Isa 5:1-7
Jonah 1:1-2:2, 11
Jonah 3:1-10
Jonah 4:1-11
Mal 3:13-20b
Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2
Joel 4:12-21

2nd
Phil 4:6-9

Gospel
Matt 21:33-43
Luke 10:25-37
Luke 10:38-42
Luke 11:1-4
Luke 11:5-13
Luke 11:15-26
Luke 11:27-28

Vespers
2 Pet 1:20-2:3
2 Pet 2:4-10a
2 Pet 2:10b-16
2 Pet 2:17-22
2 Pet 3:1-7
2 Pet 3:8-13
2 Pet 3:14-18

Vigils Reading - 27th Sunday ORD
2023-10-08
THE VINE AND THE VINEDRESSER
A commentary by St Basil the Great1
◊◊◊
You need only look at the vine to be reminded of your own nature, that is, if you observe it intelligently. No doubt you remember the image used by the Lord in which he says that he is the vine and the Father the vinedresser. Each of us who have been grafted onto the Church by faith he calls branches, and he urges us to bear much fruit so as not to be rejected as useless and thrown into the fire.
Throughout the Scriptures the Lord continually likens human souls to vines. He says for instance: My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hillside; and again: I planted a vineyard and put a hedge around it. Clearly it is human souls that he calls his vineyard, and the hedge he has put round them is the security of his commandments and the protection of the angels; for the angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him. Moreover, by establishing in the Church apostles in the first place, prophets in the second, and teachers in the third, he has surrounded us as though by a firmly planted palisade.
In addition, the Lord has raised our thoughts to heaven by the examples of saints of past ages. He has kept them from sinking to the earth where they would deserve to be trampled on, and he wills that the bonds of love, like the tendrils of a vine, should attach us to our neighbors and make us rest on them, so that always climbing upward like the vines growing on trees, we may reach the loftiest heights.
He also requires that we allow ourselves to be weeded. To be spiritually weeded means to have renounced worldly ambitions that burdened our hearts.

Anyone who has renounced the love of material things and attachment to possessions, or who has come to regard as despicable and deserving of contempt the poor, wretched glory of this world, is like a weeded vine. Freed from the profitless burden of earthly aspirations, that person can breathe again.

Finally, following out the implications of the comparison, we must not run to wood, or, in other words, show off or seek the praise of outsiders. Instead, we must bear fruit by reserving the display of our good works for the true vine dresser

1 Journey with the Fathers – Year A – New City Press – NY – 1999 – pg 130-31.

Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
2023-10-09
THE INVISIBLE CHURCH
From “The Paradise of the Heart” by John Comenius2 ◊◊◊
A still greater light began to shine around me… He who spoke to me, my Lord… said, “I live in two places, in my glory in heaven and in the penitent heart on earth. So from this time forward, I want you also to have two dwellings: one here at home, where I have promised to dwell with you; the other with me in heaven… Whenever you wish, you will be able to raise yourself up to me so that we may experience delight in one another.”… Go, then,” he said, “and return to the place you passed over earlier…”
Remembering where it was that I went astray, I arose and hurried back eagerly. Although surrounded by the turmoil of the world, I paid no attention to it. Entering the temple called Christianity and seeing in its innermost part, which is the choir, a curtain or screen, I went directly toward it not even looking at the <factions> quarreling on the sides… The curtain had two parts. The exterior, which could be seen from the outside, was dark-colored and was called… ‘contempt of the world.’ The interior was brilliant and was called… the ‘love of Christ.’…
Still standing outside and observing, I saw something strange and amazing taking place. Although many thousands of people were constantly walking around the enclosure, they did not enter it. I do not know whether they simply did not notice it or whether it seemed unattractive to them from the outside. I saw those learned in the Scriptures, as well as priests, bishops, and many others who pretended to be holy walking around it. Some even stopped to look at it, but they did not enter. This made me sad. I saw that when someone stepped closer, a ray of light flashed through a crevice or a fragrance wafted out and attracted him, so that he wanted to find its source. But even some of these people, while beginning to look for the door, turned back. The brilliance of the world dazzled them once more, and they went away again.

When I approached the door of the enclosure, however, I saw the real reason why so few people arrived there; namely, because of the very rigorous examination that was held there. Those who wished to enter had to surrender all their possessions and even their eyes, ears, minds, and hearts; for, they said, whoever wants to be wise in God’s sight must become simple in his own; whoever wishes to know God must forget all else; whoever wants to possess God must forsake all else. Therefore, some who did not want to relinquish their possessions or their learning, contending that these were aids to heaven, remained outside and did not enter…
Having observed this at the door, I went further beyond the screen to look at these things… With unspeakable delight, I observed that everything here was in opposition to the world. In the world I had seen blindness and darkness everywhere, but here bright light; in the world deception, here truth; the world was full of disorder, here was marvelous order; in the world was striving, here peace… For although upon entering, Christians must lay aside and relinquish reason, yet it is returned to them again by the Holy Spirit, refined and polished. Thus, they are as if full of eyes; wherever they go in the world, whatever they see, hear, smell, or taste above them, below them, or around them, they see everywhere the footprints of God and know well how to turn everything into the fear of God. Therefore, they are wiser than all philosophers of the world, whom God blinds by his righteous judgment so that while supposing they know everything, they know nothing… Their learning is fixed only on the outer shell, that is, a survey of the exterior; it does not penetrate to the inner kernel where God’s glory pervades all. But in everything that he sees, hears, touches, smells, or tastes, a Christian sees, hears, touches, smells, and tastes God, having the certainty within that this is not mere supposition but the real truth

2 John Comenius. The Labyrinth of the World and The Paradise of the Heart. Trans. Howard Louthan and Andrea Sterk. New York: Paulist Press, 1998. 195-199.

Vigils Reading
2023-10-10
MARY AND MARTHA
From a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux3
◊◊◊
Jesus entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. Why is it, my brethren, that we read that only one of the two sisters welcomed him, and she was the one who seems to have been less important? After all, the one whom Martha received affirms that Mary chose the better part. Martha appears to have been the elder, and action has a greater claim on the beginnings of salvation than contemplation does. Christ praises Mary, but he is received by Martha. Jacob loves Rachel, but Leah is substituted unawares. When he complains about the trickery, he is told that it is not the custom for the younger to be given in marriage first.
If you picture this house as made of clay, it will be easy to acknowledge that Martha should receive him in it rather than Mary. When the apostle says glorify and bear God in your body, it is said to Martha, not to Mary. The first uses her body as an instrument, whereas to the other it is a hindrance. A perishable body, it is said, weighs down the soul, and its frame of clay burdens the soul, which is full of thoughts. It is not the same for the one who works, is it? Martha, then, receives the Lord into her home on earth, but Mary thinks rather how she may be received by him in a house not made with hands but an eternal one in heaven. Yet perhaps even she seems to have received the Lord, but in spirit…
You notice that each received the Word, the one in the flesh, the other in the voice. But Martha was busy about much serving, and she stood and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me alone to serve?” Is it possible, do you think,

for murmuring to be heard in the house where Christ is received? Happy the house, and blessed the community where Martha complains about Mary! On the contrary, it is altogether both shameful and out of bounds for Mary to be jealous of Martha. Where do you read of Mary lodging the accusation, “My sister has left me alone to be still”? God forbid, and I repeat, God forbid that the person who is empty for God should aspire to the turbulent life of the brothers holding responsibilities in the monastery. Let Martha always seem to herself insufficient and hardly qualified, and let her wish that the work she is entrusted with be confided to others instead!
But Jesus replies to her, “Martha, Martha, you are troubled and anxious about many things.” See Mary’s privilege, that in every conflict she has an advocate. The Pharisee is indignant, the sister complains, and even the disciples murmur, but Mary remains silent, and Christ speaks for her. Mary, he says, has chosen for herself the better part, which shall not be taken away from her. For that is the one thing necessary, that one thing that the prophet so constantly asked for: one thing have I asked for from the Lord; this I seek…
Truly this is the better part that shall not be taken away; this is the best intention that will not change, whatever you call her to… Rejoice and give thanks, Mary, because you have chosen the part. Blessed are the eyes that see what you see, and the ears that are worthy to hear what you hear

3 Bernard of Clairvaux. Sermons for the Autumn Season. CF 54. Trans. Irene Edmonds, OCSO. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2016. 26-28, 32.

Vigils Reading - St John XXIII
2023-10-11
THE SPIRITUAL TESTAMENT
of St Pope John XXIII4
◊◊◊
On the point of presenting myself before the One and Triune Lord who created me, redeemed me, chose me to be his priest and bishop, and covered me with unending graces, I entrust my poor soul to His mercy; I humbly ask pardon for my sins and deficiencies. I offer Him the little good, although petty and imperfect, that with His aid I have succeeded in doing, for His glory, for the service of Holy Church, for the edification of my brethren, begging Him finally to receive me, like a good and kind Father, with His Saints into eternal happiness.
I profess once again with all my heart my entire Christian and Catholic faith, my adherence and subjection to the Holy Apostolic and Roman Church, and my complete devotion and obedience to her August Head, the Supreme Pontiff, whom it was my great honor to represent for long years in various regions of the East and West, who at the end chose me to come to Venice as Cardinal and Patriarch, and whom I have always followed with sincere affection, aside from and above any dignity conferred upon me. The sense of my own littleness and nothingness has always been my good companion, keeping me humble and calm, and making me employ myself to the best of my ability in a constant exercise of obedience and charity for souls and for the interests of the Kingdom of Jesus, my Lord and my all. To Him be all glory; for me and for my merit, His mercy. “My merit is the mercy of the Lord. O Lord, You know everything: You know that I love You.” This alone is enough for me.
I ask pardon of those whom I have unwittingly offended, of all to whom I have not been a source of edification. I feel that I have nothing to forgive anyone, for all who have known and dealt with me – including those who have offended me, scorned me, held me in bad esteem (with good reason, for that matter), or have been a source of affliction for me – I regard solely as brothers and benefactors, to whom I am grateful and for whom I pray and always will pray.

Born poor, but of honorable and humble people, I am particularly happy to die poor, having given away, in accord with the various demands and circumstances of my simple and modest life, for the benefit of the poor and of Holy Church that had nurtured me, all that came into my hands – which was little enough as a matter of fact – during the years of my priesthood and episcopacy. Outward appearances of ease and comfort often veiled hidden thorns of distressing poverty and kept me from giving with all the largess I would have liked. I thank God for this grace of poverty which I vowed in my youth, poverty of spirit as a priest of the Sacred Heart, and real poverty. This grace has sustained me in never asking for anything, neither positions nor money, nor favors – never, not for myself, nor for my relatives or friends.
The goodness directed toward my poor person by all whom I met along the path made my life serene. As I face death, I recall each and every one – those who preceded me in taking the final step, those who will survive me and who will follow me. May they pray for me. I will repay them from Purgatory or from Paradise, where I hope to be received. I repeat it once again, not because of my merits, but because of the mercy of the Lord.
At the moment for saying farewell, or better still, arrivederci, I once more remind everyone of what counts most in life: blessed Jesus Christ, His Holy Church, His Gospel; and in the Gospel, above all, the Pater noster in the spirit and heart of Jesus and the Gospel, the truth and goodness, the goodness meek and kind, active and patient, victorious and unbowed.
My children, my brethren, arrivederci. In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit

4 The Encyclicals and Other Messages of John XXIII – TPS Press – Washington DC – 1964 – pg 465

Vigils Reading
2023-10-12
A MAN WHO IS HUNTED
From a sermon by John Tauler5
◊◊◊
The hypocrites, or Pharisees, are those who rank themselves good spiritual men, and yet are full of self-esteem. Their own plans and customs are the only rule they follow, and their one aim in life is to be praised by men… These men take the discipline, they pray and fast and watch, and yet God is not purely and simply the motive of any of these practices, but only poor, deluded human nature… This vineyard was never planted by the heavenly Father, but will be disowned and destroyed, as our Lord Himself declared: “He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth.” When the time of the harvest has come, then God will gather in His corn, that is to say, His elect; and those who do not gather with Him shall be rejected; in whatsoever souls He finds a harvest that He has not planted, those also shall be rejected…
Alas, dear children, how few men there are who appreciate the value of interior suffering and of interior persecution, or being hunted! Yet nothing in the world is so honorable or so precious as that both these trials should meet together in our souls. When one has safely gone through such an experience, then alone can he understand what nobility of soul and what fruit of virtue result from these bitter struggles. But what do I mean by a man who is hunted? I mean that an interior man must insist on being always close to God as the only true state of his soul, and this forces him incessantly to hunt and drive himself inward to God’s presence in his interior consciousness. Now, this provokes the violent resistance of the outward man that is in us all; we would ever and again seek to return forcibly to the outward things that minister to our natural weakness. Here, then,

is the conflict. The inner man’s proper place is with God; of this he ever thinks and for it he ever yearns, and toward that union with God our Lord is ever driving and hunting him. Now, to our outward man this is always offensive and against nature, and he always fights against it. St. Paul tells of this struggle: “I am delighted with the law of God according to the inward man, but I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind.”…
You can easily understand… that from this constant hunting of a man’s soul bitter anguish results. But when at last he is content to abide, for God’s sake, without any consolation, then will Jesus surely come to him and possess him… For there are many trials of body and of soul whose end and purpose is little observed by us, and which, if humbly and thankfully received from God and patiently endured, will end happily with the inpouring of Divine grace…
What can this poor, belated and desolate man do that he may hold his own, and not be driven to extremities in this dreadful hunted condition? No otherwise than the <Canaanite Woman> did in her deep sorrow—run to Jesus Christ and call out to Him with all her strength: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Ah, children, in this hunted state of soul, there is granted a voice to utter a holy call to God; the answer will be the measureless joys of the interior life. Our prayer is a sigh of the spirit yearning for God, so deep and so sad that it flies through measureless space far over all the range of nature — straight to the Divine heart. Indeed, it is the Holy Spirit Himself that now assumes charge of and perfects this work in us; and as St. Paul says, it is His voice that pleads for us: “The Spirit Himself <asks> for us with unspeakable groanings.” And, dear children, when the Holy Ghost thus prepares us, no other preparation can compare with it..

5 John Tauler. The Sermons and Conferences. Trans. Very Rev. Walter Elliott. Washington, D.C.: Apostolic Mission House, 1910. 194-197.

Vigils Reading
2023-10-13
ON HUMILITY
From a discourse by Dorotheos of Gaza6
◊◊◊
ONE OF THE FATHERS used to say, ‘Before anything else we need humility: a being ready to listen whenever a word is spoken to us, and to say, “I submit”, because through humility every device of the enemy, every kind of obstacle, is destroyed,’ What is the force of this saying? Why did he say, ‘before anything else we need humility’, and not, ‘we have need of self-control’? Because, the Apostle says, ‘Everyone who strives for mastery abstains from all things.’ Or why did he not say, ‘Before anything else we have need of the fear of God’? For it is written, ‘The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord’ and again, ‘With the fear of the Lord a man turns away from evil.’ Or why did he not say, ‘Before all else we need almsgiving, or faith’? For it is said that by faith and almsgiving we are cleansed from sin, and the Apostle says, ‘Without faith it is impossible to please God.’ If, therefore, it is impossible to please God without faith, and faith and almsgiving cleanse from sin, and by fear a man turns aside from evil, and the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and a man who strives for the mastery abstain from all things, why does he say, ‘Before all else we need humility’ and leaves aside all these very necessary things?
The holy man wishes to show us that neither the fear of God, nor faith, nor self-control, nor any one of the other virtues can set us right without humility, and therefore he says, ‘Before anything else we need humility, being ready to listen whenever a word is said to us, and to say, “I submit”, because through humility every device of the enemy and every kind of obstacle is destroyed.’

Consider well, brothers, how great is the power of humility. Consider how great is the spiritual energy behind saying, ‘Pardon me’. Why is the devil called not only ‘enemy’, but also ‘adversary’? He is called ‘enemy’ because he is a hater of men, one who hates what is good, a traitor; an ‘adversary’, because he always puts obstacles in the way of good. If someone wants to pray he puts obstacles in the way through evil suspicions, shameful thoughts, and spiritual torpor. If a man wants to give alms he obstructs it through avarice or procrastination. If a man wants to keep vigil he obstructs it with hesitations or laziness. In every single thing he is against us when we desire to do good. This is why he is called the enemy and the adversary and why, by lowliness, all his attacks and devices are brought to nothing. Lowliness is really a great thing, for every kind of good is advanced by lowliness, and by working at it we cut short our journey, as it says, ‘See my humility and my toil, and take away all my sins,’ and ‘I was humiliated, and the Lord saved me’! For humility alone can bring us into the spiritual life… even if slowly.
Therefore, let us also be humble for a short time and we shall be saved. Even if we cannot endure much labor because we are weak, let us be set on humbling ourselves. I firmly believe that, in the mercy of God, the little thing done with humility will enable us to be found there, in the same place as the saints who have labored much and been true servants of God…
We are very weak, and cannot labor very much, but can we not at least be humble? Happy indeed, brothers, is the one who has true humility. A great thing is humility; rightly was it pointed out by that holy man who had true humility and who said, ‘Humility does not grow angry, and does not anger anyone.’… May God, who is so good, grant us the grace of humility which delivers man from so many evils and delivers him from the greatest temptations

6 Dorotheos of Gaza. Discourses and Sayings. CS 33. Trans. Eric P. Wheeler. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1977. ,94-95, 102.
