Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Skema
2023-03-19
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
4th Week of Lent

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
March 19 – 25, 2023

Sun
19
Mon
20
Tue
21
Wed
22
Thu
23
Fri
24
Sat
25

Office
4th Sunday of Lent
St Joseph
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Annunciation of the Lord

Vigils
Exod 18:1-27
Hosea 11:1-11
Exod 19:16-25
Exod 20:1-21
Exod 22:20-23:9
Exod 24:1-18
1 Chron 17:1-15

Lauds
Deut 11:1-7
Zech 10:6-12
Deut 11:13-17
Deut 11:18-25
Deut 11:26-32
Deut 26:16-19
Ezek 43:27-44:4

Mass
31
543
245
246
247
248
545

1st
1 Sam 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a
2 Sam 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16
Ezek 47:1-9, 12
Isa 49:8-15
Exod 32:7-14
Wis 2:1a, 12-22
Isa 7:10-14; 8:10

2nd
Eph 5:8-14
Rom 4:13, 16-18, 22

Heb 10:4-10

Gospel
John 9:1-41
Matt 1:16, 18-21, 24a
John 5:1-3a, 5-16
John 5:17-30
John 5:31-47
John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
Luke 1:26-38

Vespers
Heb 11:1-7
Eph 3:14-21
Heb 11:17-22
Heb 11:23-31
Heb 11:32-40
Heb 2:5-10
Heb 12:7-13

Vigils Reading - 4th Sun Lent
2023-03-19
Come to Siloam1
A commentary by St Ambrose
You have heard that story in the gospel where we are told that the Lord Jesus, as he was passing by, caught sight of a man who had been blind from birth. Since the Lord did not overlook him, neither ought we to overlook this story of a man whom the Lord considered worthy of his attention. In particular we should notice the fact that he had been blind from birth. This is an important point.
There is, indeed, a kind of blindness, usually brought on by serious illness, which obscures one’s vision, but which can be cured, given time; and there is another sort of blindness, caused by cataract, that can be remedied by a surgeon: he can remove the cause and so the blindness is dispelled. Draw your own conclusion: this man, who was actually born blind, was not cured by surgical skill, but by the power of God.
When nature is defective the Creator, who is the author of nature, has the power to restore it. This is why Jesus also said, As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world, meaning: all who are blind are able to see, so long as I am the light they are looking for. Come, then, and receive the light, so that you may be able to see.
What is he trying to tell us, he who brought human beings back to life, who restored them to health by a word of command, who said to a corpse, Come out! And Lazarus came out from the tomb; who said to a paralytic, Arise and pick up your stretcher, and the sick man rose and picked up the very bed on which he used to be carried as a helpless cripple? Again, I ask you, what is he trying to convey to us by spitting on the ground, mixing his spittle with clay and putting it on the eyes of a blind man, saying: Go and wash yourself in the pool of Siloam (a name that means “sent”)? What is the meaning of the Lord’s action in this? Surely one of great significance, since the person whom Jesus touches receives more than just his sight.

In one instant we see both the power of his divinity and the strength of his holiness. As the divine light, he touched this man and enlightened him; as priest, by an action symbolizing baptism he wrought in him his work of redemption. The only reason for his mixing clay with the spittle and smearing it on the eyes of the blind man was to remind you that he who restored the man to health by anointing his eyes with clay is the very one who fashioned the first man out of clay, and that this clay that is our flesh can receive the light of eternal life through the sacrament of baptism.
You, too, should come to Siloam, that is, to him who was sent by the Father (as he says in the gospel, My teaching is not my own, it comes from him who sent me). Let Christ wash you and you will then see. Come and be baptized, it is time; come quickly, and you too will be able to say, I went and washed; you will be able to say, I was blind and now I can see, and as the blind man said when his eyes began to receive the light, The night is almost over and the day is at hand.

Compline
2023-03-19 19:25 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
Sunday, March 19th at 7:25 pm
Zoom Link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/3917499727

Vigils Reading - St Joseph
2023-03-20
St. Joseph’s Intercession2
From the writings of St Teresa of Avila
Finding myself so crippled while still young, and earthly doctors having failed to cure me, I turned to heavenly physicians for help…
I took the glorious St. Joseph for my advocate and protector, and commended myself earnestly to him; and it was clearly he who both healed me of this sickness and delivered me from great dangers that threatened my good name and the salvation of my soul. His aid has brought me more good than I could ever hope for from him. I do not remember once having asked anything of him that was not granted. I am full of wonder at the great graces God has bestowed on me, and the perils to body and soul from which he has freed me, at the intercession of this blessed saint. God seems to have given other saints power to help us in particular circumstances, but I know from experience that this glorious St. Joseph helps in each and every need. Our Lord would have us understand that, since on earth He was subject to this man who was called His father, whom as His guardian He had to obey, so now in Heaven He still does all that Joseph asks. Others, who have turned to Joseph on my advice, have had the like experience; and today there are many people who honor him and keep on finding out the truth of what I say…
I wish I could persuade everybody to be devoted to this glorious saint, for long experience has taught me what blessings he can obtain from God for us. Of all the people I have known with a true devotion and particular veneration for St. Joseph, not one has failed to advance in virtue; he helps those who turn to him to make real progress. For several years now, I believe, I have always made some request to him on his feast day, and it has always been granted; and when my request is not quite what it ought to be, he puts it right for my greater benefit.

…All I ask, for the love of God, is that anyone who does not believe me will put what I say to the test, and he will then learn for himself how advantageous it is to commend oneself to this glorious patriarch Joseph and to have a special devotion for him…
I do not know how anyone can think of the Queen of angels, at the time when she was undergoing so much with the Child Jesus, without giving thanks to St. Joseph for looking after them in the way he did. If anyone has not got a guide to teach him how to pray, let him take this glorious saint as his master and he will not go astray..

2 Taken from: Rondet, Henri, S.J. Saint Joseph. Trans. and Ed. Donald Attwater. New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons, 1956. 75-77.

Vigils Reading
2023-03-21
From the Letters of Armand-Jean de Rancé3
I see, my very dear Monsieur, that your ills are not at an end, and that God is not yet content with what you have suffered up till now; but I see that your patience is renewed and that neither your faith nor your constancy have been shaken by the length of your sufferings. You see them too clearly in their true light, and you know too well that the sovereign master is using in your case the right he has over all creatures for you… <to> accept all its moves with profound submission. Most men, that is, those whose conduct follows natural inclinations, grow weary and forget to suffer as their sufferings progress; but those who live by faith learn this knowledge of the saints by suffering, and the feeling given them by God increases proportionately to their afflictions.
You will agree, my very dear Monsieur, that we have cause to say, whatever the state in which we find ourselves, <I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us>, that everything we endure on earth is unrelated to the goods and advantages we hope for. God’s eternity will console us for everything, and the faith which teaches us that affliction and pain are the means whereby we open its doors to ourselves should make all our ills, however great they may be, tolerable. Our souls must be purified in the fire of tribulations to become worthy of the happiness God prepares for us, and our bodies will only be clothed in immortality after they have been reduced to dust and ashes… His goodness will make up for everything, and your trust in him will be the great remedy for bodily as for spiritual ills…
God alone contains those goods which are proper to us, he is himself our true riches… and if we belong to Christ as much as we should, and I am sure you do, each of us should say to him from the depths of his heart, <My kingdom does not belong to this world>, all the more as we have his word and he himself has promised to his elect, who are his disciples, to give them his kingdom

3 The Letters of Armand-Jean de Rancé: Abbot and Reformer of la Trappe – Volume One. Presented by A.J. Krailsheimer. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1984. 278-279, 291.

Vigils Reading
2023-03-22
The Power of Virtue4
From the discourses and sayings of Dorotheos of Gaza
At the time when I was one of Abba Seridos’ disciples there came a disciple of a great old monk from the region of Ascalon about some business for his abbot. He had the command from his senior to return after vespers to his own cell. When the time came to leave, a violent thunderstorm arose, with rain heavy enough to cause flooding, and yet he wanted to leave as the senior had told him. We begged him to stay, seeing that it was impossible to get safely across the river. He would not be persuaded to stay with us. At last we said, ‘Let us go with him as far as the river. When he sees it, he will return of his own accord.’ So we went off with him, and when we reached the river he took off his cloak and bound it round his head, tied up his scapular and jumped into the raging waters of the river. We just stood there astonished and fearful that he would be drowned, but he kept afloat, and very soon he was seen on the other bank. He put on his cloak, threw us a profound bow from there, received ours in return, and went off at a run. But we stood in wonder, astonished at the power of virtue. We came near with fear, but he went through without danger because of his obedience.
Another Brother was sent by his abba on some necessary business to a correspondent in the country. When he saw himself solicited by the [man’s] daughter to a shameful act and himself in danger of falling, simply cried out, ‘O God of my Father, deliver me’, and straightway he was found on the road to<the> Skete, fleeing toward his spiritual father.
Notice the power of virtue, notice the efficacy of prayer… Mark well the humility and discretion of both… Each of them was counting on the prayers of his father. See how they yoked obedience to humility! Just as horses are yoked together in a chariot so that one does not outstep the other, so obedience needs to have humility yoked together with it. How can a man be worthy of this grace, unless… he treats himself harshly to cut off the desires of his own and to give himself, after God, to his [spiritual] father, without hesitation, doing everything with full confidence as though obeying God. Such a man is worthy to find mercy, such a man is worthy to find salvation.

The story is told of Blessed Basil that, making a visitation of his monasteries, he said to one of the Heads, ‘Have you any saints here?’ The Abba said, ‘Through your prayers, my Lord, we all desire to be saints.’ And again Blessed Basil said to him, ‘No! I mean have you got any saints here?’ And the Abba tumbled to it (for he, too, had spiritual insight). ‘Yes,” he <said>, and he sent for a certain brother. When he arrived, the Saint said to him, ‘ Wash my feet’ and he went and fetched what was necessary. And after his feet were washed, Basil said to the brother, ‘Wait till I wash your feet.’ And without a murmur heallowed himself to be washed by the holy man. After testing the brother in this way, he said, ‘When I enter the sanctuary, you come, too! And remind me to ordain you.’ Again without a murmur, the brother obeyed, and when he saw the holy Basil in the inner sanctuary he went up and reminded him, and Basil ordained him and took him with him, for who else but this blessed brother was suitable to be with this holy godbearing father?… Everyone who throws himself completely into obedience to the Fathers shall surely possess this state of freedom from care and peacefulness of soul

4 Dorotheos of Gaza. Discourses and Sayings. CS 33. Trans. Eric P. Wheeler. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, INC., 1977. 89-92.

Vigils Reading
2023-03-23
You, O Lord, are My Hope5
From the Sermons on Conversion by St Bernard of Clairvaux
Whatever must be done, whatever must be refused, whatever must be borne, whatever must be chosen, YOU, O LORD, ARE MY HOPE. This is the only reason for all the promises made to me, this is the whole reason for my expectation. Someone else may pretend to have merit, he may pride himself on having borne the burden and heat of day, he may say he has fasted twice a week, and finally he may boast that he is not like other men. But ‘for me it is good to cling to my God; to place my hope in the Lord my God’… If rewards are promised me, it is through you I hope to obtain them; if a host encamps against me, if the world fumes, if the evil one rages, if the flesh itself lusts against the spirit, I will hope in you.
Brothers, to savor this is to live by faith… The person who is inwardly persuaded by the Spirit… casts his burden upon the Lord, knowing that he will be cared for by him, as is in keeping with what the apostle Peter said, ‘Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you. Why then, if we have savored all this, do we hesitate to throw away all our wretched, vain, useless, seductive hopes, and cling with fervor of our spirit, with all the devotion of our mind to this one so solid, so perfect, so blessed hope? If there is something impossible to him, if there is anything difficult, then look for someone else in whom to hope. But he can do all things by his word… You probably have no doubt about the ease with which he can do all this, but do you perhaps wonder whether it is his will? Surely the testimonies to this will are very creditable… He has said, ‘They will call to me in any tribulation whatever, and I will hear them’. Look at how many tribulations there are. According to the number of them, his consolations are going to cheer your soul, as long as you do not turn aside to others, as long as you call out to him, as long as you hope in him and take your refuge in the Most High and not in any lowly or earthly thing. ‘Who ever hoped in him and was put to shame?’ It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for his word to be cancelled out.

A soul thirsting for God… does not want with Peter to make a shrine on the earthly mountain, nor wish with Mary to touch him on earth… for it has heard him say, ‘If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I’. It has heard him say, ‘Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father’… Atop all power and dominion, atop the angels and the archangels, even the cherubim and the seraphim… surely at the right hand of the Father, where the Father will no longer be greater than he, the soul goes, desiring to grasp the right hand of him who is co-equal with the Most High. This then, brothers, is eternal life, that we should know the Father, the true God, and him whom he has sent, Jesus Christ, true God and one with him, God over all and blessed for ever

5 Bernard of Clairvaux. Sermons on Conversion. CF 25. Trans. Marie-Bernard Saïd, OSB. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1981. 186-191.

Vigils Reading
2023-03-24
An Excerpt from the Meditations6
by William of Saint-Thierry
When I desire to stimulate, exercise, and accustom my heart for praying continually and effectively, I prefer to be instructed by no one in this schooling other than you, O Lord Jesus, Wisdom of God the Father. Consequently, I call to mind the ways of prayer that you used… sometimes praying alone, sometimes in the midst of a crowd, sometimes in exultation of spirit, once in a bloody sweat, and once exalted on the cross…
Because of habit itself, we are desensitized when seeing you crucified, thinking of you as dead and buried. What should pierce through further into the heart and more penetratingly is this: struck on the face with blows, scourged, mocked, spat upon, pierced by nails and the lance, crowned with thorns, given gall and vinegar to drink, you on your cross were thirsting for nothing but our salvation. The earth trembled when you were crucified; we laugh. Heaven with its lights was obscured; we burn to shine in the world. Rocks were rent; we harden our hearts… Unless repentance removes these sins, unless a bloody sweat expels them and the cross crucifies them, I do not find persons sinning willingly and knowingly to have a share in the prayer of the one sweating blood or hanging in sacrifice on the cross… For if you appear to have excluded all who sin knowingly, woe to the entire world, because you may appear to have embraced a very, very few persons…
But, Lord, transform your judgment into mercy, and condemn sin by sin. As you have justly condemned me for the so little love with which I love you then, now having received from your grace the fullness of your love, may I come before your Judgment and appear in your holy place, and before the eyes of your mercy, by the same reason by which that sinful woman appeared of whom you said, Many sins are forgiven her for she has loved much.

…Deign to let the fire of your perfect love set my heart on fire. Let its great ardor well up within me and boil away all poison of sin… May your cross crucify whatever has been collected through concupiscence of the flesh, concupiscence of the eyes, and pride of life, in the vast expanse of my negligence. May whatever has been singed and undermined by the flesh’s will and the mind’s consent be destroyed at the rebuke of your countenance…
I present my case before you and not before anyone else. I lie at the feet of your mercy. There I will lie, there I will lament until you make me hear your kind voice, the judgment of your mouth, the verdict of your justice and mine also, for you have given it to me: since she has loved much, many sins are forgiven her.
Lord, because the Father has handed over to you every judgement, today, come to me in advance with kindness. And judge me with this judgment. For because of the love of your love, I prefer to be justified and saved by this judgment than to be magnified and glorified in any other way. Lord, do not exclude me from the embrace of your redemption. For in everything I desire to share in your cross… And give to my heart a form of penitence pleasing to you. Furthermore, grant to me, Lord, a faith unadulterated and devoted, conscientious, strong, and unshaken, so that, giving grace for grace, you can also say to me, Go, for your faith has made you alive

6 William of Saint-Thierry. The Meditations with a Monastic Commentary. CF 91. Trans. Thomas X. Davis. Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2022. 29-35.

Vigils Reading - Annunciation of the Lord
2023-03-25
On the Annunciation of Saint Mary7
A sermon by St Aelred of Rievaulx
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you… The sacred solemnity of this day ought to be taken up and venerated with the whole of devotion, all enthusiasm and reverence. For this annunciation is the beginning of our salvation. This is the first of all the Blessed Virgin’s feast days in dignity andimportance, rightly more excellent and more fruitful than a sacrament.
Let us celebrate the conception of her who was going to conceive God’s Son, because it has happened today. It is appropriate to celebrate the nativity of her from whom God’s Son was going to be born, because it was announced by the angel today. It is religious to venerate the conception of her who was going to conceive God’s Son, because it has happened today. Let us venerate her purification and the presentation of her son in the temple, because as it happens, they received their cause and origin from the sacrament of this holy annunciation. In the same way, if we attend other feast days of the Lord himself or of his saints, this holy solemnity is the beginning and origin of each one, if we consider it in the right way. For whatever was done today is divine and sacramental. Today the Blessed Virgin consented in order that she should be full of grace. From that fullness, honor and reverence have flowed to all the remaining feast days that the holy church celebrates. Today she conceived God and humankind, and would give birth with the integrity of her virginity unharmed.
This is the mystery hidden from the ages, promised by the prophets, hoped for by the patriarchs, rendered in the end, destined to be beneficial without end. Humans are ignorant of this mystery, wise people wonder, philosophers are astounded, angels venerate, stars speak, demons tremble, kings adore, Herod fears, children testify and proclaim by their death. This mystery transcends nature, goes beyond codes of law, empties every custom, surpasses all understanding… it demands from us only faith and reverence for God, rather than the investigation of human reason or assertion of arguments…

For just as in the first condition the work of the whole Trinity was expressed (where it says, Let us make humankind to our image and likeness), similarly by one and indivisible work of the whole Trinity, the fall of our mortality was repaired and our condition restored. For the Father has sent his Son into the flesh. The Son descended into a woman, the Holy Spirit came upon the virgin, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her…The former came down in divine power, the latter obeys in virgin sincerity. The angel announces lofty realities, the virgin responds in humble ways.
Rightly therefore this feast is raised up for a singular celebration, which enriched the world with a singular benefit of divine compassion. For whatever of grace, whatever of sweetness and of love for her son we reserve in our hearts, this lady experienced wholly today in her praises, so that we love and praise her as much as we can and however we can. But what weakness lacks in possibility, may our devotion supply to a loving purpose. And just as we need her constant influence, so may we venerate her by constant deference, the lady of the universe, the queen of heaven, who took away servitude, restored our freedom, and furnished salvation and life while she brought forth the Savior for us, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God over all the blessed forever

7 Aelred of Rievaulx. The Liturgical Sermons: The Reading-Cluny Collection, 2 of 2 – Sermons 134-182. Trans. Daniel Griggs. Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2022. 169-173.

Skema 5th Week in Lent
2023-03-26
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
5th Week of Lent

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
March 26 – April 1, 2023

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

Office
5th Sunday of Lent
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday

Vigils
Exod 29:1-21
Exod 31:1-18
Exod 32:1-20
Exod 32:21-33:6
Exod 33:7-23
Exod 34:1-16, 27-35
Exod 40:1-38

Lauds
Deut 29:1-8
Deut 30:1-6
Deut 30:9-14
Deut 30:15-20
Deut 31:1-6
Deut 31:9-13
Deut 32:45-47

Mass
34
251
252
253
254
255
256

1st
Ezek 37:12-14
Dan 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62
Num 21:4-9
Dan 3:14-20, 91-92, 95
Gen 17:3-9
Jer 20:10-13
Ezek 37:21-28

2nd
Rom 8:8-11

Gospel
John 11:1-45
John 8:1-11
John 8:21-30
John 8:31-42
John 8:51-59
John 10:31-42
John 11:45-56

Vespers
Heb 12:14-17
Heb 12:18-24
Heb 12:25-29
Heb 13:1-8
Heb 13:9-16
Heb 13:17-25
Gal 3:7-14

Reading: 5th Sunday of Lent
2023-03-26
The Resurrection and the Life 1
A Commentary by St Peter Chrysologus
On his return from the underworld, Lazarus comes forth from the tomb
like death confronting its conqueror, an image of the resurrection to come.
Before we can fathom the depths of meaning behind this miracle, we must
consider the way in which our Lord raised Lazarus to life. This action appears to
us as the greatest of all his signs; we see in it the supreme example of divine
power, the most marvelous of all his wonderful works.
Our Lord had raised up the daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue;
but although he restored life to the dead girl, he left the law of death still in force.
He also raised the widow’s only son. He halted the bier, forestalled the young
man’s burial, arrested the onset of physical decay; but the life he restored had not
completely fallen into the power of death. The case of Lazarus was unique. His
death and resurrection to life had nothing in common with the other two. Death
had already exerted its full power over him, so that in him the sign of the
resurrection shone out in all its fullness…
His sisters sent a message to Jesus saying, Lord, the friend whom you
love is sick. By these words they appeal to his affection, they lay claim to his
friendship, they call on his love, urging their familiar relationship with him to
persuade him to relieve their distress. But for Christ it was more important to
conquer death than to cure disease. He showed his love for his friend not by
healing him but by calling him back from the grave. Instead of a remedy for his
illness, he offered him the glory of rising from the dead.
We are next told that when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, he
remained where he was for two days. You see how he gives full scope to death.
He grants free reign to the grave; he allows corruption to set in. He prohibits
neither putrefaction nor stench from taking their normal course; he allows the
realms of darkness to seize his friend, drag him down to the underworld, and take
possession of him. He acts like this so that human hope may perish entirely and
human despair reach its lowest depths. The deed he is about to accomplish may
then clearly be seen to be the work of God, not of man.
He waited for Lazarus to die, staying in the same place until he could tell
his disciples that he was dead; then he announced his intention of going to him.
Lazarus is dead, he said, and I am glad. Was this a sign of his love for his
friend? Not so. Christ was glad because their sorrow over the death of Lazarus
was soon to be changed into joy at his restoration to life. I am glad for your
sake, he said. Why for their sake? Because the death and raising of Lazarus were
a perfect prefiguration of the death and resurrection of the Lord himself. What
the Lord was soon to achieve in himself had already been achieved in his servant.
This explains why he said to them: I am glad for your sake not to have been
there, because now you will believe. It was necessary that Lazarus should die, so
that the faith of the disciples might also rise with him from the dead.
1 Journey with the Fathers: Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels – Year A. Ed. Edith Barnecut, OSB.
New York: New City Press, 1992. 44-45.

Reading: Lenten Weekday
2023-03-27
Morality and Psychoanalysis 2
An excerpt from “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis
Human beings judge one another by their external actions. God judges
them by their moral choices… When a man who has been perverted from his
youth and taught that cruelty is the right thing, does some tiny little kindness, or
refrains from some cruelty he might have committed, and thereby, perhaps, risks
being sneered at by his companions, he may, in God’s eyes, be doing more than
you and I would do if we gave up life itself for a friend.
…Some of us who seem quite nice people may, in fact, have made so little
use of a good heredity and a good upbringing that we are really worse than those
whom we regard as fiends. Can we be quite certain how we should have behaved
if we had been saddled with the psychological outfit, and then with the bad
upbringing, and then with the power, say, of Himmler? That is why Christians
are told not to judge. We see only the results which a man’s choices make out of
his raw material. But God does not judge him on the raw material at all, but on
what he has done with it. Most of the man’s psychological make-up is probably
due to his body: when his body dies all that will fall off him, and the real central
man, the thing that chose, that made the best or the worst out of this material,
will stand naked. All sorts of nice things which we thought our own, but which
were really due to a good digestion, will fall off some of us: all sorts of nasty
things which were due to complexes or bad health will fall off others. We shall
then, for the first time, see every one as he really was. There will be surprises.
…People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which
God says, “If you keep a lot of rules I’ll reward you, and if you don’t I’ll do the
other thing.”… I would much rather say that every time you make a choice you
are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a
little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all
your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central
thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a
creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or
else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellowcreatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is it is joy
and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror,
idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness…
One man may be so placed that his anger sheds the blood of thousands,
and another so placed that however angry he gets he will only be laughed at. But
the little mark on the soul may be much the same in both. Each has done
something to himself which, unless he repents, will make it harder for him to
keep out of the rage next time he is tempted, and will make the rage worse when
he does fall into it. Each of them, if he seriously turns to God, can have that twist
in the central man straightened out again: each is, in the long run, doomed if he
will not. The bigness or smallness of the thing, seen from the outside, is not what
really matters…
When a man is getting better, he understands more and more clearly the
evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own
badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a
thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right… Good people know about both good
and evil: bad people do not know about either.
2 Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1966. 85-87.

Reading: Lenten Weekday
2023-03-28
On Despising the Things of This World and
On the Hope of Heavenly Things 3
A sermon by Alan of Lille
…The hope of earthly goods leads only to promises for the future; it
destroys our joys before they arrive. [Earthly hope] corrupts the mind by too
much anxiety, for fear trips up hope and mortgages the joys to come; it stretches
desire into infinity. O man, you depend on earthly things; you rely upon what is
uncertain; you lean upon a reed cane which is easily broken. Do not therefore
trust in that which is fragile and slippery; it quickly sinks away and destroys you.
Set your mind on the clouds of adversity rather than on the clear skies of
prosperity. If you set your hope on earthly prosperity… not only will you fail to
find there what you hope for, but you will discover instead the tinder of sin and of
ruin, a snare for your soul and the leavening of justice.
Rather direct your hope towards tribulations, which although they present
an external bitterness, yet – for those who stand firm – they bring forth in the
spirit the sweetness of the hope of heaven. Nor may he who has not been pricked
by the bitterness of tribulation enjoy the sweet fruit of patience. Tribulation is
the furnace which refines gold, the file which burnishes iron, the flail by which
the grain is separated from the chaff. In this warfare of tribulation, patience is
exercised, fortitude does battle, constancy is strengthened, hope is summoned
heavenwards…
O how happy is that heavenly hope, which fear does not overpower, in
which fear is not engendered by falsehood, where desire does not dream
reason invite us to believe and hope in this. What fear is able to weaken the
human mind, if heavenly hope pleads for it before God? What harm will the
thundering of tyrants, the precipices of fortune, the weaknesses of the body, the
groanings of poverty do to the man whose mind is fortified with heavenly hope?
This is the hope which governs the assemblies [of men], and directs their actions.
This it is which finds its height in charity, that we may direct our actions towards
God; this it is which expands its breadth in charity, that we may extend charity to
our enemy. This it is which stretches out its length in charity, that we may
persevere in charity to the very end of life.
Between this [hope] and fear, as between two millstones, the Christian
should be ground smooth and fine. Whence it is said in Deuteronomy: ‘You shall
not accept the upper or the lower millstone as a pledge’. The upper millstone is
hope, the lower, fear. The one must not be accepted without the other. Anyone
who hopes and does not fear is neglectful; anyone who fears and does not hope is
downcast.
3 Alan of Lille. The Art of Preaching. CF 23. Trans. Gillian R. Evans. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian
Publications, Inc., 1981. 58-61.

Reading: Lenten Weekday
2023-03-29
Father and Son 4
from the Paschal Homilies of St Cyril of Alexandria
In the account of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac, the Bible portrays
the mystery of our Savior in all its aspects. Because I want you to have a clear
understanding of this deep mystery of our religion, I must show you the
connection between the events that typified the truth itself, and explain how each
part of the story should be interpreted.
The holy Abraham took his son and hastened to the place that God had
shown him. The fact that the boy was brought to be sacrificed by his father is
meant to teach us by way of type or sign that the Lord Jesus Christ was not raised
upon the cross by any human power, nor by the wickedness of those who laid
snares for him, but by the will of the Father, whose providential plan permitted
him to suffer death for the whole world. The Savior himself said as much when
he answered Pilate: you would have no power over me if it had not been given
you from above. At another time, speaking to his Father in heaven, he said:
Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. But your will, not mine, be done.
Abraham laid the wood for the sacrifice on his son’s shoulders. In the
same way, the Jews laid the wood of the cross on the Savior’s shoulders and they
did this with the consent, one might almost say the cooperation of the Father; for
it is not possible to compel the divine power. The prophet Isaiah bears reliable
witness to this when he says: He bore the punishment which brings us peace,
and by his wounds we are healed. We had all strayed like sheep, everyone had
gone his own way and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.
When the patriarch eventually arrived at the appointed place, he put all his
skill into building a good altar. This too we are meant to interpret in a spiritual
way and so to understand that what appears to the human eye as a cross and a
gibbet is in fact in the eyes of the Father of the whole universe a vast and towering
altar raised up for the salvation of the world, and blackened by the smoke of a
pure and most holy sacrifice.
By his words, I bared my back to the scourge, and let myself be struck on
the face Isaiah foretold the blows that his enemies would shamelessly inflict on
the Savior’s body, and their spitting upon it… Our Lord Jesus Christ, disregarding
the shame, humbled himself in obedience to the Father, even to the extent of
dying for our salvation. He died to give us life through the Holy Spirit and to
raise us up with himself, to open the gates of heaven to us and to lead us in, thus
restoring to the Father the human race whose sin had long ago made it fly from
his presence.
Therefore, beloved, let this great work of our Savior be acclaimed by every
voice, let his praise be on every tongue. Let the sweet sound of that ancient song
be heard again: God has gone up with shouts of jubilation, the Lord has
ascended with a fanfare of trumpets. He completed the work of our salvation
and then ascended, indeed he not only ascended but he also led captivity captive
and gave gifts to mortals.
4 A Word in Season – vol. II – Exordium Books – 1982 – pg 147

Reading: Lenten Weekday
2023-03-30
The Origin of Death 5
From the writing of Fr. Alexander Schmemann
…Death as the liberation from the oppressiveness of the body; death as the
liberation from suffering; death as freedom from this changing, busy, evil world;
death as the beginning of eternity. Here, in fact, is the sum total of religious and
philosophical teaching before Christ and outside of Christianity… But Christ
weeps at the grave of his friend, and in so doing he reveals his own struggle with
death, his refusal to acknowledge it and to come to terms with it. Suddenly,
death ceases to be a normal and natural fact, it appears as something foreign, as
unnatural, as fearsome and perverted, and it is acknowledged as an enemy: “The
last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
In order to feel the whole depth and revolutionary force of this change we
must begin at the beginning, at the source of this new and unprecedented
approach to death. We find it as a brief statement in Holy Scripture: “God did
not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living”. This means
that in the world, in creation, there is a power that does not have its origin in
God, which he did not desire, which he did not create, which opposes him and is
independent of him…Death is the denial of God, and if death is natural, if it is the
ultimate truth about life and about the world, if it is the highest and immutable
law about all of creation, then there is no God, then this whole story about
creation, about joy, and about the light of life is a total lie.
Therefore, the most important and more profound question of the
Christian faith must be, How and from where did death arise, and why has it
become stronger than life? Why has it become so powerful that the world itself has become a kind of cosmic cemetery, a place where a collection of people
condemned to death live either in fear or terror, or in their efforts to forget about
death find themselves rushing around one great big burial plot?
To this question Christianity answers with equal force, brevity, and
conviction. Here is the text: “and through sin death has come into the world”. In
other words, for Christianity, death first of all is revealed as part of the moral
order, as a spiritual catastrophe. In some final and indescribable sense man
desired death, or perhaps one might say, he did not desire that life that was given
to him by God freely, with love and joy… Man did not desire this life with God
and for God. He desired life for himself, and in himself he found the purpose, the
goal, and the content of life. And in this free choice of himself, and not of God, in
his preference for himself over God, without realizing it, man became inextricably
a slave of the world, a slave of his own dependence on the world…
“God did not create death.” It is man who introduced death into the world,
freely desiring life only for himself and in himself, cutting himself off from the
source, the goal, and content of life – from God. And this is why death -as
disintegration, as separation, as temporality, transitoriness – has become the
supreme law of life, revealing the illusory nature of everything on earth.
In order to console himself, man created a dream of another world where
there is no death, and for that dream he forfeited this world, gave it up decidedly
to death. Only if we fully return to the Christian understanding about death, as
the root of man’s own perversion of the understanding of the very content of life,
can we hear once more, as new, the Christian proclamation about the destruction
of death in the resurrection.
5
Schmemann, Alexander. O Death Where is Thy Sting?. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003. 29-36.

Reading: Lenten Weekday
2023-03-31
Humility 6
From the Epistles of Elder Paisios of Mount Athos
Blessed are those who manage to imitate the humble earth, which, while it
is stepped on by everyone, lifts everyone with its love and nurtures them with
affection like a good mother, which has also provided the material for our flesh.
It accepts with joy anything we throw away, good fruits as well as dirty trash,
converts them quietly into vitamins and, with its fruits, offers them back
plentifully to both good and evil people, without discrimination.
The humble person, as is manifest, is the strongest in the world because he
is always triumphant, but also because he bears other people’s loads with an
untroubled conscience. Although he lives scorned and unjustly treated due to the
errors of others that he assumes out of love, internally he feels the greatest joy in
the world, for he has disregard for this vain world. Insults, injustices… are the
best lancets for those who are at fault, because old wounds are thus cleansed. For
those who are not at fault, however, they are like the executioner’s knives; people
who joyfully accept them for the love of Christ are considered martyrs.
Adults who do not accept insults and biting criticism, that they might be
healed or receive a reward (when not at fault), are more foolish than little
children who don’t want to even hear about the doctor, for fear of the injection
(not wanting to be pierced by the needle). Hence, they continually suffer from a
cough and fever… He who humbly prostrates himself and accepts blows from
other people, removes his own tumours, becomes beautified spiritually as an
angel, and thus fits through the narrow gate of Paradise.
…No one climbs to Heaven through worldly ascent, but through spiritual
descent. He who walks lowly always walks with surety and never falls. He who
does not seek counsel on his spiritual journey, confuses the routes, becomes
exhausted, and is delayed. If he does not humble himself and solicit counsel,
even if at a later stage, he will hardly reach his destination. Those who take
counsel, however, walk tirelessly, with surety, and are covered by the Grace of
God and are enlightened, inasmuch as they have been humbled… He who lacks
humility and good thoughts is full of doubts and questions. Since he will be
constantly perplexed, in the beginning he has need of an Elder with great
patience to constantly provide him with explanations until his mind and heart are
cleansed so he can see clearly.
As the humble and kind-hearted man has purity and internal as well as
external serenity, he also has spiritual depth, perceives profoundly the divine
meanings, and is greatly benefited, and his faith increases even more, for he lives
the mysteries of God. He who is proud, apart from being darkened, is always
unsettled inwardly as well outwardly. Due to the flightiness of his egotism, he
always stands on the surface of things and cannot proceed to the depths, where
the divine pearls are found, so as to be spiritually enriched.
6 Elder Paisios of Mount Athos. Epistles. Vasilika, Thessaloniki, Greece: Holy Monastery of the
Evangelist John the Theologian, 2002. 116-119.

Reading: Lenten Weekday
2023-04-01
Submission to God in Suffering is a Source of Peace 7
From the writings of Dom Columba Marmion
When we thus submit ourselves entirely to Christ Jesus, when we abandon
ourselves to Him, when our soul only responds, like His own, with a perpetual
Amen to all that He asks of us in the name of His Father… then Christ Jesus
establishes His peace in us: His peace, not that which the world promises, but the
true peace which can only come from Himself…
Doubtless, here below, peace is not always sensible; upon earth we are in a
condition of trial and, most often, peace is won by conflict… We may be slighted,
opposed, persecuted, be unjustly treated, our intentions and deeds may be
misunderstood; temptation may shake us, suffering may come suddenly upon us;
but there is an inner sanctuary which none can reach; here is the sojourn of our
peace, because in this innermost secret of the soul dwell adoration, submission
and abandonment to God. “I love my God,” said St. Augustine, “no one takes
Him from me: no one takes from me what I ought to give Him, for that is
enclosed within my heart…
Death cannot trouble the soul that has sought only God. Has it not
confided itself to the One Who says: “He that believeth in Me, although he be
dead, shall live”…
In one of her “Exercises,” St. Gertrude allows her assurance, which the
infinite merits of Jesus give her, to overflow. “Woe, woe unto me, if, when I come
before Thee, I had no advocate to plead my cause!… Come Thou with me to
judgment… there let us stand together. Judge me, for the right is Thine; but
remember Thou are also my Advocate. In order that I be fully acquitted, Thou
has but to recount what Thou didst become for love of me, the price wherewith
Thou hast purchased me…
For souls moved by such sentiments, death is but a transition; Christ
comes Himself to open to them the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem… There will
be no more darkness, trouble, tears, or sighs; but peace, infinite and perfect
peace. “Peace first becomes ours with the longing and seeking for the Creator; it
is in the full vision and eternal possession of Him that peace is made perfect.”
7 Marmion, Dom Columba, O.S.B. Suffering with Christ: An anthology of the Writings of Dom Columba
Marmion, O.S.B. Compiled by Dom Raymund Thibaut, O.S.B. Westminster, Maryland: The Newman
Press, 1954. 220-221, 232-233.

Skema
2023-04-02
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
Holy Week

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
April 2 – 8, 2023

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

Office
Palm Sunday
Mon. of Holy Week
Tues. of Holy Week
Wed. of Holy Week
Holy Thursday
Good Friday
Holy Saturday

Vigils
Zech 9:9-17
Lam 1:1-16
Lam 2:1-10
Lam 2:18-22
Lam 3:19-54
Lam 4:1-6
Lam 5:1-22

Lauds
Zeph 3:14-20
Lam 1:17-22
Lam 2:11-17
Lam 3:1-18
Lam 3:55-66
Wis 2:10-22
Isa 63:1-6

Mass
38
257
258
259
39
40

1st
Isa 50:4-7
Isa 42:1-7
Isa 49:1-6
Isa 50:4-9a
Exod 12:1-8, 11-14
Isa 52:13-53:12

2nd
Phil 2:6-11

1 Cor 11:23-26
Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9

Gospel
Matt 26:14-27:66
John 12:1-11
John 13:21-33, 36-38
Matt 26:14-25
John 13:1-15
John 18:1-19:42

Vespers
1 Tim 6:11-16
Rom 5:6-11
1 Cor 1:18-25
1 Pet 2:20-25

1 Pet 4:1-8

Vigils Reading - Palm Sunday
2023-04-02
The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ1
A Commentary by St Augustine
Jesus’ hour had not yet come – not the hour when he would be forced to die, but the hour when he would choose to be put to death. He knew the appointed hour for him to die; he had pondered all the prophecies concerning himself and was waiting until everything had taken place that the prophets said would occur before his passion began.
…Among the other things that were foretold of Christ, it is written: They mingled gall with my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. How this came about we know from the gospel. First they gave Jesus gall; he took it, tasted it, and rejected it. Then, to fulfill the Scriptures as he hung on the cross, he said: I am thirsty. They took a sponge soaked in vinegar, tied it to a reed, and lifted it up to him where he hung. When he had taken it he said: It is finished. What did he mean by that? It is as though he said: “All the prophecies foretelling what would happen before my passion have been fulfilled. What then is left for me to do?” So, after saying It is finished, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Did the thieves crucified beside him choose when to die? They were imprisoned in the flesh with no power over its limitations. But it was when he himself chose to do so that the Lord took flesh in a virgin’s womb. He chose the moment of his coming among us and the duration of his life on earth. He also chose the hour when he would depart this earthly life. It was in his power to do all this; he was under no compulsion. So in waiting for the hour of his choice, not the hour decreed by fate, he made sure that everything that had to be fulfilled before he suffered was duly accomplished. How could Christ be subject to the decree of fate, when elsewhere he had said: I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again. No one can take it from me; I lay it down of my own accord, and I will take it up again? He showed that power when the Jewish authorities came in search of him. Who are you looking for? he asked them. Jesus of Nazareth, they answered, and he in turn replied: I am he. At these words they recoiled and fell to the ground.

Someone is sure to ask: If he had such power, why did he not demonstrate it when his enemies were taunting him and saying: If he is the son of God, let him come down from the cross? He was showing us how to endure; that was why he deferred the exercise of his power. If he were to come down because he was stung by their words, they would think he had succumbed to their mockery. He chose not to come down. He chose to stay where he was, refusing to die until the moment of his choice.
If Jesus had the power to rise from the tomb, could he have found it so very difficult to come down from the cross? We, then, for whom all these things were done, should understand that the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was then hidden, will be revealed at the Last Judgment…
Thus, unless he had been willing he would not have suffered, his blood would not have been shed; and if that blood had not been shed, the world would not have been redeemed. So let us pour out our thanks to him, both for the power of his divinity and for the compassion of his suffering humanity.

1 Journey with the Fathers: Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels – Year A. Ed. Edith Barnecut, OSB. New York: New City Press, 1992. 48-49.

Vigils Reading - Monday of Holy Week
2023-04-03
The Vice of Covetousness 2
From a homily on the Gospel of John by St John Chrysostom
Six days before the Passover, [Jesus] came to Bethany where Lazarus was; and he shared a meal with them, and Martha served… However, Mary was not serving at table, for she was His disciple. In this case once again she was more deeply spiritual than Martha. For she was not lending her services as if called on to do so, nor did she minister to all the guests in common, but she paid honor to Him alone, and she approached Him, not as man, but as God. Indeed, that is why she poured out the ointment and wiped it dry with her hair, because she did not have the kind of opinion of Him which most people had.
Yet Judas rebuked her, with a pretense of piety in what he said. Therefore, what did Christ say? ‘She has done a good turn for my burial.’… Once again He was admonishing the traitor by speaking of His burial. However the warning did not give [Judas] pause, nor did the words soften him, even though they wereenough to plunge him into grief… Nothing of this caused the bestial and crazed man to yield, even though [Jesus]… both washed his feet on the night of the betrayal and shared with him His table and hospitality…
A terrible vice is covetousness, a terrible vice. It disables both eyes and ears, and makes men fiercer than wild beasts, not permitting them to consider conscience, or friendship, or association, or the salvation of their own soul… This vice made Giezi a leper instead of a disciple and prophet; it destroyed Ananias and his followers; it made Judas a traitor… It has brought on innumerable wars, and filled the roads with bloodshed, and the cities with mourning and weeping… For, when men saw beautiful homes, and extensive fields… and silver vessels, and a great accumulation of garments, they made every effort to get better ones… Let us think about our ancestors. Is not their property still standing, preserving only their names: the bath of this one, the suburban house and dwelling of that one? On seeing them do we not at once groan, thinking of how much toil he expended, how many frauds he perpetrated. Yet he is nowhere in sight, but others enjoy the fruits of his toil, people whom he never intended to enjoy them – perhaps even his enemies – while he suffers the extreme penalty…

However, this is not the case in the everlasting mansions, in the dwellings of the next life… Let us, then, strive for that type of possessions. Let us prepare dwellings for ourselves there, that we may find rest in Christ Jesus our Lord..

2 Saint John Chrysostom. Commentary on Saint John The Apostle and Evangelist: Homilies 48-88. Trans. Sister Thomas Aquinas Goggin, S.C.H. New York: Fathers of the Church, Inc, 1960. 209-215.

Vigils Reading - Tuesday of Holy Week
2023-04-04
One of You will Betray Me3
From a Commentary by Origen
There are many… who condemn Jesus and say, “Crucify him, crucify him,” and, “Away with such a one from the earth.” But to betray him was the work of one who had seen and observed him; for because he was acquainted with him as a teacher of such great and numerous teachings, which he had heard in private with the apostles, and because he knew him as Lord, when he betrayed him he betrayed his greatness, which he had known, something that one who had not beheld his greatness could not have done…
If Judas’ evil had been obvious to Jesus’ disciples it would have been known who was to betray the teacher, since Jesus had said, “One of you will betray me.” But now the disciples look “at one another, doubting of whom he spoke.” Perhaps indeed the apostles were ashamed to suspect anything wicked ofJudas because of his previous worthy deeds. It may have been, too, that Judas did not belong totally to evil, even though the devil had already put it in his heart that Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, should betray him. It was because there was still a remnant of good choice in him that, when he saw that Jesus wascondemned when “they bound him and lead him away and delivered him to Pilate the governor,” he repented and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned in betraying innocent blood.” When they replied, “What is that to us?”… Judas, who loved money, threw the money down and “went and hanged himself.” He did not even wait to see the end of Jesus’ judgment before Pilate.
In Judas’ case neither was his repentance without error, nor his evil unmixed with something better. For had his repentance been pure, even as that of the thief when he said, “Remember me, Jesus, when you come in your kingdom,” he would have approached the Savior and would have done what was in his power to make atonement for the treason that had already taken place. On the other hand, if he had cast the thought of good from his soul completely, he would not have repented when he saw that Jesus was condemned, but in addition would have accused him and added words proper to his treason. And furthermore, as a lover of money… he would not have returned it to the chief priests and elders, nor would he have confessed before those very men, on the one hand accusing himself, [but on the other], praising the teacher in the statement, “I have sinned in betraying just blood.”

“It is He with Whom I shall Dip the Morsel”… Jesus said this, then, and “when he had dipped the morsel, he took it and gave it to Judas… To understand how the Lord gave a morsel to Judas, and Judas then laid aside something better that was in him, perhaps even peace, which returns to the speaker from the one who hears it and does not accept it, according to the words, “If there be a son of peace there, your peace shall rest upon him, but if there is not a son of peace there, your peace shall return to you”… Once his peace was removed, the one who was watching for opportunities to enter his soul [entered] Judas, who also gave him a place to enter. Now observe at the same time that Satan did not enter Judas earlier, but only put it into his heart “that Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, should betray the teacher.”… Wherefore, let us also be on guard that the devil may not put it into our heart by one of his fiery darts, for if he does this, he afterwards watches to enter himself

3 Origen. The Fathers of the Church: Origen – Commentary on the Gospel of John Books 13-32. Vol. 89. Trans. Ronald Heine. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1993. 386-388, 394- 395.

Vigils Reading - Wednesday of Holy Week
2023-04-05
Is It I Rabbi?4
A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew by St Jerome
And while they were eating, he said: “Amen I say to you that one of you is going to hand me over.” The one who had predicted his suffering also predicts his betrayer. He was giving room for repentance, so that when he had understood that Jesus knew his thoughts and secret plans, he might repent of his deed. And yet Jesus does not specifically point him out. For he might have become more impudent, had he been manifestly exposed. He casts the charge against the group, that the one who is aware of it might do penance.
And being very saddened, they each began to say: “Is it I, Lord?” At least eleven apostles knew that they were thinking no such thing against the Lord, but they believe the Master more than themselves. They fear their own weakness and ask him sorrowfully about the sin of which they did not have awareness. But he answered and said: “He will hand me over who dips his hand in the dish with me.” How admirable is the Lord’s patience! First he said: “One of you is going to hand me over.” The betrayer perseveres in his malice. Jesus exposes him more openly but does not reveal his proper name. While the others are saddened and are retracing their hands and are keeping food from their mouths, Judas, with the temerity and impudence by which he was going to commit the betrayal, even puts his hand in the dish with the Master. Thus he feigns a good conscience by this audacity…
Judas does not retrace his steps, even after being rebuked for his treachery not one time but twice. Instead, the Lord’s patience feeds his impudence, and he treasures up wrath for himself on the day of wrath. Punishment is predicted, that the threatened penalties might correct the one whom shame did not conquer. As for what follows: “It would be good for that man if he had not been born”; it is not to be thought on account of these words that he existed prior to his birth, on the grounds that it could not be well for anyone except for one who existed. Instead, it has been spoken literally, that it is much better not to exist than to exist badly…

The others were sad and had very sorrowfully asked: “Is it I, Lord?” Thus, lest he seem to betray himself by his silence, Judas himself asks in similar fashion: “Is it I, Rabbi?” He who had boldly put his hand in the dish was stung in his conscience. But in his words he adds either the affection of a flatterer or thesign of unbelief. For the others who were not going to betray say: “Is it I, Lord?” But he who was going to betray calls him not “Lord” but “Teacher.” It is as if he would have an excuse if he betrayed at most a teacher, having denied that he was Lord. “And he said to him: ‘You have said it.’” The betrayer is put to silence with the same response by which [Jesus] would later answer Pilate

4 St Jerome. The Fathers of the Church: St. Jerome – Commentary on Matthew. Vol. 117. Trans. Thomas P. Scheck. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2008. 294-297.

Vigils Reading - Holy Thursday
2023-04-06
On the Lord’s Words to His Disciples at the Last Supper5
by Ogier of Locedio
When the Lord Jesus began to wash the disciples’ feet, he came first to Simon Peter, the first among his disciples. That God should wash a man’s feet filled Peter with terror and dread; he could not bear to see the Lord so humbled. He had watched him pour the water into the basin and wrap himself in the towel; perhaps he wondered what Jesus meant to do. But then he saw him come before him with the vessel, watched him kneel in preparation, and his apprehension was more than words can tell. Terrified, Peter groaned and cried out, ‘Lord! You – wash my feet?’ Was the Lord about the serve his servant, the Master his disciple? Would God so humble himself before a man, the Creator before his creature, He who from nothing made all things – before one who was made of clay? Get up, Lord, my God! What are you doing? It is too much, I cannot bear it!… Do not do what I see you mean to do! Never shall you wash my feet, Lord!’
At this, Jesus replied, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand. Do not be terrified, Peter. This is to be sure a great gesture of humility, but you will soon see greater and limitless evidence… It is an object- lesson I mean to leave you with as I go to the Father; do not prevent me from doing as I will… ‘I am the water that washes, I am the water that sanctifies: if I do not wash you, you can have no share with me.’ Hearing these latter words, Peter shudders profoundly. ‘What does it mean when you say, “You can have no share with me”? No share with you? What bitter words! You are my life, my sweetness, all my hope, my well-being, my every desire!’ Then, no longer contradicting the Master, he offers to be washed not only his feet but himself entirely: ‘Here I am, Lord. Do with me what you will! Wash my feet – and not only my feet: wash my hands, my head!’

If it is true, Lord Jesus, that no one you have not first washed can have a share with you, then have mercy on me, have mercy!… Do not despise me, O God my saviour! God , be merciful to me, a sinner! Wash what is filthy, wash what is befouled! Wash my feet, my hands, my head, my whole body! Wash my mind, wash my soul; wash me within and without… Who but you, Lord Jesus, will grant it to me to come into my heart and inebriate me with your water, so that I can forget all my former evil and… embrace you, that Life that shall never die? My sinful soul awaits the inspiration of your grace, that I might sufficiently repent and worthily live.
…O blessed Peter, O fortunate apostles, before whose feet knelt in all humility the creator of the angels!… O unhappy Judas! You eat the Lord’s bread and lift up your heel against him…
You therefore, my brothers, disciples of Christ, reflect on Judas’s deed… Judas lifted up his heel against Christ; you must prostrate yourselves, body and soul, before him. Judas turned away and left him; you must follow him. Judas sold him out to the authorities; you must sell all you possess – yourselves as well– for love of that pearl of such beauty. Exert yourselves to the limit in pleasing him, and him alone. Then you and I may be able to attain those joys that last forever, which are Christ Jesus himself..

5 Ogier of Locedio. Ogier of Locedio: Homilies. CF 70. Trans. D. Martin Jenni. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2006. 184-192.

Vigils Reading - Good Friday
2023-04-07
Living United to Your Cross 6
A Meditation by St Rafael Arnaiz
Today, at Holy Communion, I felt the consolation of being close to You when it seems that everything else has abandoned me. Lord, I wanted to nail to Your heart the words I say every day: “Lord, do not permit me to be parted from You.” May I remain, Lord, in the shadow of the stark wood of the cross forever. Put my cell and my bed at Your feet… There may I find all my delight, Lord, and my rest amid my suffering too… Water the ground at Calvary with my tears… There, at the foot of the cross, may I pray and examine my conscience… “Lord, do not permit me to be parted from You.”
What a great joy it is to be able to live at the foot of the cross. There I find Mary, and Saint John, and all those who love You. There is no pain there because, looking up at Your own, Lord, who would dare to suffer? There everything is forgotten. No one desires joy, no one thinks of suffering… Upon seeing Your wounds, Lord, only one thought reigns in the soul…love…yes, love, to wipe away Your sweat; love, to tend Your wounds; love, to relieve such great and immense pain. Lord, do no permit me to be parted from You.
Let me live at the foot of your cross without thinking of myself, or wanting or desiring anything other than gazing wildly upon the divine blood that is pouring down upon the earth… Let me weep, Lord, but weep for how little I can do for You, and how much I have offended You while I was far away from Yourcross… Let me weep for the forgetfulness that humanity shows You, even those who are good… Let me live at the foot of Your cross, Lord… day and night, at work and at rest, in prayer and study, while eating and sleeping…always… always.

I only came to know the gentleness of Christ’s ways such a short time ago, but I have always found consolation in the cross. What little I know, I have learned from the cross… I have always done my prayer and meditation at the cross… In truth, I don’t know a better place, and I’m not going looking for one… so stay still, then. Therefore, Lord, as I consider the divine school of your cross, as I consider that it is only on Calvary, at Mary’s side where I can learn to be better, to love You, and to forget and disregard myself: “Do not permit me to be parted from You.”
God is so good to me. I truly don’t have the words for it. He forcibly removes me from the world. He sends me a cross, and draws me near to His own… and so all I have to do is wait, wait with faith and love, wait, embracing His cross… Therefore, Lord, clinging to the cross with all my strength, uniting mytears to Your blood, shouting, wailing, howling… wanting to go mad… mad for Your most holy cross… Hear me, O Lord! Listen to my supplications, and od not spurn them… With the water pouring from Your side, wash away my great sins, my faults, and my ingratitude; fill my heart with Your divine blood, and give rest to my soul as it unceasingly cries out, “Lord, let me live united to Your cross, and do not permit me to be parted from it.”
Virgin Mary, Mother of Sorrows, when you gaze upon Your Son, bleeding on Calvary, let me humbly tend to Your great sorrow, and unworthy though I am, allow me to wipe away Your tears.

6 Saint Rafael Arnaiz. The Collected Works. Ed. Sr. Maria Gonzalo-Garcia, OCSO. Trans. Catherine Addington. Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2022. 629-631.

Vigils Reading - Holy Saturday
2023-04-08
A Flash in the Darkness7
From the writings of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
There is a loneliness in us that hears. When the soul parts from the company of the ego and its retinue of petty conceits; when we cease to exploit all things but instead pray the world’s cry, the world’s sigh, our loneliness may hear the living grace beyond all power. We must first peer into the darkness, feel strangled and entombed in the hopelessness of living without God, before we are ready to feel the presence of His living light…When ignorance and confusion blot out all thoughts, the light of God may suddenly bust forth in the mind like a rainbow in the sky. Our understanding of the greatness of God comes about as an act of illumination… “like a lightning that all of a sudden illumines the whole world, God illumines the mind of man, enabling him to understand the greatness of our Creator.” This is what is meant by the words of the Psalmist: “He sent out His arrows and scattered [the clouds]; He shot forth lightnings and discomfited them.” The darkness retreats, “The channels of water appeared, the foundations of the world were laid bare”.
…Reminders of what has been disclosed to us are hanging over our souls like stars, remote and of mind-surpassing grandeur. They shine through dark and dangerous ages, and their reflection can be seen in the lives of those who guard the path of conscience and memory in the wilderness of careless living. Since those perennial reminders have moved into our minds, wonder has never left us. Heedfully we stare through the telescope of ancient rites lest we lose the perpetual brightness beckoning to our souls. Our mind has not kindled the flame, has not produced these principles. Still our thoughts glow with their light…

Every one of us stood at the foot of Sinai and beheld the voice that proclaimed, I am the Lord thy God. Every one of us participated in saying, We shall do and we shall hear…Then the startling moment occurred: God appeared to Moses “in a flame of fire out of the bush; and he looked, and lo, the bush wasburning, yet it was not consumed”. In the face of that startling fact, Moses said: “I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.”… A new element was brought into being: fire that burns but does not consume. It indicated a new order in God’s relation to man, namely, that to reveal He must conceal, that to impart His wisdom He must hide His power. It made revelation possible…
Unless we learn how to appreciate and distinguish moments of time as we do things of space, unless we become sensitive to the uniqueness of individual events, the meaning of revelation will remain obscure… Two stones, two things in space may be alike; two hours in a person’s life or two ages in human history are never alike… Absurd it must be to all those who have no sense for the uniqueness that is in time, for the uniqueness of what happens in time. Why indeed, should one hour out of an infinite number of hours be of particular importance to the history of man?…
The lack of realism, the insistence upon generalizations at the price of a total disregard of the particular and concrete is something which would be alien to prophetic thinking… Theirs is not a timeless, abstract message; it always refers to an actual situation. The general is given in the particular, and the verification of the abstract is in the concrete

7 Heschel, Abraham Joshua. God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism. New York: Meridian Books, Inc, 1960. 140-141, 191, 202-204.

Skema
2023-04-09
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
Easter Octave

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
April 9 – 15, 2023

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

Office
Easter Sunday
Easter Monday
Easter Tuesday
Easter Wednesday
Easter Thursday
Easter Friday
Easter Saturday

Vigils
* Easter Vigil
1 Pt 1:1-21
1 Pt 1:22-2:10
1 Pt 2:11-25
1 Pt 3:1-17
1 Pt 3:18-4:11
1 Pt 4:12-5:14

Lauds
Acts 13:28-33
1 Cor 15:1-11
1 Cor 15:12-19
1 Cor 15:20-28
1 Cor 15:35-41
1 Cor 15:42-49
1 Cor 15:50-58

Mass
42
261
262
263
264
265
266

1st
Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Acts 2:14, 22-33
Acts 2:36-41
Acts 3:1-10
Acts 3:11-26
Acts 4:1-12
Acts 4:13-21

2nd
Col 3:1-4

Gospel
John 20:1-9
Matt 28:8-15
John 20:11-18
Luke 24:13-35
Luke 24:35-48
John 21:1-14
Mark 16:9-15

Vespers
Rev 1:12-18
Acts 1:1-5
Acts 1:12-14
Acts 1:15-26
Acts 2:42-47
Acts 4:32-37
Acts 5:1-11

Easter Vigil Readings* 1) Gen 1:1-2:2 2) Gen 22:1-18 3) Exod 14:15-15:1 4) Isa 54:5-14 5) Isa 55:1-11 6) Bar 3:9-15,32-4:4
7) Ezek 36:16-17a,18-28 Epistle Rom 6:3-11 Gospel Matt 28:1-10

Easter Sunday
2023-04-09
He is Risen1
From the writings of Thomas Merton
The risen life is not easy; it is also a dying life. The presence of the Resurrection in our lives means the presence of the Cross, for we do not rise with Christ unless we also first die with him. It is by the Cross that we enter the dynamism of creative transformation, the dynamism of resurrection and renewal, the dynamism of love. The teaching of St. Paul is centered entirely on the Resurrection. How many Christians really understand what St. Paul is talking about when he tells us that we have “died to the Law” in order to rise with Christ? How many Christians dare to believe that whoever is risen with Christ enjoys the liberty of the sons and daughters of God and is not bound by the restrictions and taboos of human prejudice?
To be risen with Christ means not only that one has a choice and that one may live by a higher law – the law of grace and love – but that one must do so. The first obligation of the Christian is to maintain their freedom from all superstitions, all blind taboos and religious formalities, indeed from all empty forms of legalism. Read the Epistle to the Galatians again sometime. Read it in the light of the Church’s summons to complete renewal.
The Christian must have the courage to follow Christ. The Christian who is risen in Christ must dare to be like Christ: one must dare to follow conscience even in unpopular causes. One must, if necessary, be able to disagree with the majority and make decisions one knows to be according to the Gospel and teaching of Christ, even when others do not understand why the person is acting this way.
“The followers of Christ are called by God not according to their accomplishments, but according to God’s own purpose and grace.” This statement from the Constitution on the Church of Vatican II effectively disposes of a Christian inferiority complex which makes people think that because they never have amounted to anything in the eyes of others, they can never amount to anything in the eyes of God. Here again we see another aspect of St. Paul’s teaching on freedom. Too many Christians are not free because they submit to the domination of other people’s ideas. They submit passively to the opinions of the crowd. For self-protection they hide in the crowd, and run along with the crowd – even when it turns into a lynch mob. They are afraid of the aloneness, the moral nakedness, which they feel apart from the crowd.

But the Christian in whom Christ is risen dares to think and act differently from the crowd. He has ideas of his own, not because he is arrogant, but because he has the humility to stand alone and pay attention to the purpose and the grace of God, which are often quite contrary to the purposes and the plans of an established human power structure. If we have risen with Christ then we must dare to stand by him in the loneliness of his Passion, when the entire establishment, both religious and civil, turned against him as a modern state would turn against a dangerous radical. In fact, there were “dangerous radicals” among the Apostles. If we study the trial and execution of Jesus we find that he was condemned on the charge that he was a revolutionary, a subversive radical, fighting for the overthrow of legitimate government. This was not true in the political sense. Jesus stood entirely outside of all Jewish politics, because his Kingdom was not of this world. And yet he was a “freedom fighter” in a different way. His death and resurrection were the culminating battle in his fight to liberate us from all forms of tyranny, all forms of domination by anything or anyone except the Spirit, the Law of Love, the “purpose and grace” of God.

1He is Risen. Thomas Merton. Argus Communications. 1975. p.18

Easter Monday
2023-04-10
On the Resurrection2
From the “Songs for the Fast and Pascha” by St Ephrem the Syrian
See the cheerful feast day… Voices with voices woven, and all of them have risen up to reach heaven… Blessed are the silent who have thundered forth through him!
See how the earth has thundered forth below, and above, heaven has thundered forth! / April has mixed voices with voices: exalted ones with low ones, / voices of the sanctified church mixed with the thunder of divinity, / and amidst the glow of its lamps are mixed flashes of lightning. / With the rain, the passion’s weeping, and with the field, the fast of Pascha.
In the same way, on the ark, every voice shouted joyfully from every mouth. / Outside were terrible waves, but inside were beautiful voices… Glory to the Lord of the ark!
At this feast, when each has brought his victorious deeds as his offerings, / I lamented for myself, my master, for I saw that I stand [here] meagerly. / My intellect, moistened by your dew, became an April anew… Blessed is the cloud that has poured down upon me!…
Exquisite, eloquent flowers did the children scatter before the king: / the donkey was crowned with them, the road was full of them. / Praises did they scatter like flowers, and melodies like lilies. / Now, too, in [this] feast, / the assembly of children scatters for you, my Lord, / Hallelujahs like blossoms. Blessed is he who was praised by the young!…

Let us summon and call the victorious martyrs, apostles, and prophets, / whose blossoms are like them: victorious are their flowers, / and rich are their roses, the sweet fragrance of their lilies / they gather from the garden of delights, and bring lovely flowers / to crown our beautiful feast. Glory to you from [all] the blessed!
The crowns of kings are impoverished before the richness of your crown, / in which purity is plaited, in which faith shines, / in which humility gleams, in which holiness is woven. / in which great love glimmers. See how perfect is the beauty of your crown…
Our King, receive our offering, and give us salvation in its stead! / Bring peace to the lands which were ruined, build up the churches which were burned, / so that when there is great peace [again], we may plait for you a great crown, / as blossoms and those who plait them come in from all sides, / that the Lord of peace might be crowned. Blessed is he who has acted and can act

2 St. Ephrem the Syrian. The Fathers of the Church: Songs for the Fast and Pascha. Trans. Joshua Falconer, Blake Hartung, and J. Edward Walters. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2022. 195-199.

Easter Tuesday
2023-04-11
The Self-Revelation of the Risen Christ3
from the writings of Caryl Houselander
In the five recorded incidents of Christ appearing in his Risen Body, he allowed each of those to whom he showed himself to discover that it was he in their own way, through their own medium. His approach to them, always exquisite in courtesy, miraculous in humility, was in each case one that showed his intimate knowledge of each one individually. He knew which would be the most natural way for that particular person to respond to his love, and what each needed to lift his or her heart from the sorrow or shame which was crushing it and restore it to the joy that would enable it to enter into communion with him.
To Mary Magdalene the revelation was a word of tenderness, and at the same time of restraint, followed immediately by entrusting her with the news of his Resurrection to give to his apostles.
A woman whose experience had been the opposite to Magdalene’s — one who had lived a sheltered, protected life, a life of virtue, who had always been esteemed by her contemporaries, who could not even imagine what it is like to be held in contempt, to hold oneself in contempt, to be regarded even by those who love one as being capable only of emotionalism and instability — simply could not have understood the sheer glory it must have been to Magdalene to be asked by Christ for the pure, supernatural love implied by his words, following that intimate utterance of her name -“Mary”: “Do not cling to me thus; I have not yet gone up to my Father’s side”. And then, to be given a commission which could only be entrusted to one whom he knew to be levelheaded and wholly trustworthy, and which was the final message of Christ’s Incarnation and Resurrection to the whole world. “Return to my brethren, and tell them this, I am going up to him who is my Father and your Father, who is my God and your God”.

There was no proof needed for Magdalene other than the stirring of life in her own heart in response to the illimitable courtesy of Christ’s love for her; but it was otherwise with the apostles. Those amazingly incredulous men, who had been warned, who had had the prophecies that were to be fulfilled pointed out to them, who had been told that Christ would rise on the third day, who had actually seen him raise another man from the dead, were still unconvinced, they frankly disbelieved Magdalene and, as men are so apt to do when faced by the courage of a woman’s love, they thought that she was, at least temporarily, insane. They were frightened, trembling for their own lives, bewildered by what had happened and by what might be going to happen, and they locked themselves up “for fear of the Jews.”
Christ knew their need — their need for reassurance, for courage; that they must be calmed like frightened children: he knew the turmoil within them, like the tossing waves of the sea which he had once calmed with a word; so he came secretly yet wonderfully through the doors, and his first word was “Peace!” He knew too the smarting humiliation of their failure through weakness in his hour of need, and once again the genius of his human love shines out; they are given the power to forgive, to absolve sin, to strengthen and comfort the weak, and to reunite the scattered, frightened world of sinners to himself. “With that, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. When you forgive men’s sins, they are forgiven, when you hold them bound, they are held bound’”.

3 The Risen Christ, New York 1958; pp. 39-45.

Easter Wednesday
2023-04-12
An Easter Reflection4
by a Carthusian
He is there, the Lord, beside us, the same and yet different. He takes part in our usual activities, he watches the fishing, he eats with us around the fire, he walks with us along the road, he explains the Scriptures to us, he shares our bread. But he has changed, and at first we do not recognize him. Then, a familiar continuity with Jesus of Nazareth. He bears the marks of the nails in his hands, but he is Lord and God; to him all power in heaven and on earth is given.
We hesitate, we hang on to the familiar contours of the sadness that followed the ruination of our hopes. It is painful, but it is within our reach, ‘we are well-versed in it’… Why disturb [us] with your light that is too pure, your life that is too strong, your love that is too demanding? If we agree to believe – again! – to what suffering, to what disappointment are we opening the door? We will be changed, everything will have to be begun again, we will be obliged to open our heart, to throw ourselves into a life of love, and suffering lies in wait on the road… A dead Christ leaves the world to us – a world that does not amount to much, but is within our reach. A living Christ, present – that changes everything… It opens onto an abyss from all sides. We are no longer sufficient to ourselves…
The Lord Speaks
Do not be afraid! I love you exactly as you are. I have taken your weaknesses upon myself, I shared them, all except your sin… Your weaknesses remain, so that my power in you may appear as coming from me and your pride may not appropriate it. The effort, the risk, the responsibility of your freedom remain, so that… you may come to me of your own accord. I want you to have a share in my entire mystery, not only in my glory, but in my laboriously lived love and in my death. In that way, life will pass through you to your brothers. Your powerlessness to love truly with all your heart, that will also remain, but only to the extent that you must learn to climb the road of love… not to count on your own strength to love, so that you let me love in you.

For that is the ultimate answer to all your doubts. What I bring you is the gift of my risen life, my light which sees the Father face to face, my love which is the love of the Father in me and my love in the Father; a love which is the bond of communion in the Trinity of God, and between you and all your brothers in my body, the Church. You have only to open up by faith so that the divine power of this light-life-love may unfold freely in you…
The meaning of life, the meaning of time, is to strain towards that final victory, not to realise it fully in your life… A poor man, rich in love, in my love for you. I give you my poverty: be my love. Love! That is the substance of eternal life. It is already present, because I am present, to the extent of your faith and your love

4 From Advent to Pentecost: Carthusian Novice Conferences. CS 188. Trans. Carmel Brett. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1999. 142-145.
