Easter Weekday
2023-05-16
WE SCARCELY KNOW OURSELVES
From the writings of Servant of God Dorothy Day 3
◊◊◊
Much as we want to, we do not really know ourselves. Do we really want
to see ourselves as God sees us, or even as our fellow human beings see us?
Could we bear it, weak as we are?… We do not want to be given that clear inward
vision which discloses to us our most secret faults. In the Psalms there is that
prayer “Deliver me from my secret sins.”… They were what I read most when I
was in jail… I read with a sense of coming back to something that I had lost.
There was an echoing in my heart. And how can anyone who has known human
sorrow and human joy fail to respond to these words?
Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice. Let thy
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. If thou, O Lord, wilt mark
iniquities: Lord who shall stand it. For with thee there is merciful forgiveness…
All through those weary first days in jail when I was in solitary
confinement, the only thoughts that brought comfort to my soul were those lines
in the Psalms that expressed the terror and misery of man suddenly stricken and
abandoned. Solitude and hunger and weariness of spirit – these sharpened my
perceptions so that I suffered not only my own sorrow but the sorrows of those
about me. I was no longer myself. I was mankind… The sorrows of the world
encompassed me. I was like one gone down into the pit. Hope had forsaken me…
And yet if it were not the Holy Spirit that comforted me, how could I have been
comforted, how could I have endured, how could I have lived in hope?…
“What glorious hope!” Mauriac writes. “There are all those who will
discover that their neighbor is Jesus himself, although they belong to the mass of
those who do not know Christ or who have forgotten Him… Even some of those
who think they hate Him have consecrated their lives to Him; for Jesus is
disguised and masked in the midst of men, hidden among the poor, among the
sick, among prisoners, among strangers. Many who serve Him officially have
never known who He was, and many who do not even know His name will hear
on the last day the words that open to them the gates of joy. ‘Those children
were I, and I those working men. I wept on the hospital bed. I was that murderer
in his cell whom you consoled.’”
But always the glimpses of God came most when I was alone. Objectors
cannot say that it was fear of loneliness and solitude and pain that made me turn
to Him. It was in those few years when I was alone and most happy that I found
Him. I found Him at last through joy and thanksgiving, not through sorrow. Yet
how can I say that either? Better let it be said that I found Him through His poor,
and in a moment of joy I turned to Him… If Christ established His Church on
earth with Peter as its rock, that faulty one who denied Him three times, who fled
from Him when he was in trouble, then I, too, wanted a share in that tender
compassionate love that is so great…
The experiences that I have had are more or less universal. Suffering,
sadness, repentance, love, we all have known these. They are easiest to bear
when one remembers their universality, when we remember that we are all
members or potential members of the Mystical Body of Christ. A conversion is a
lonely experience. We do not know what is going on in the depths of the heart
and soul of another. We scarcely know ourselves.
3 Day, Dorothy. By Little and By Little – The Selected Writings of Dorothy Day. Ed.
Robert Ellsberg. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983. 4-7, 9.

Easter Weekday
2023-05-17
THE SACRAMENT OF POVERTY
From “The Starved and the Silent” by Fr Aloysius Schwartz4
◊◊◊
Christ lives on in the world today and exerts his influence upon it in three
ways: 1) the Eucharist, 2) the inspired word of Scripture, and 3) the person of the
poor. He who made us dwells among us. He can be found not only in the silence
of our tabernacles and in the solemn language of our sacred books, but also on
our streets and in our marketplaces. The living Christ is as close to us as the
nearest poor person…
Down through the history of the Church, the saints, with that penetrating
insight and clairvoyance which characterized them, always saw Christ in the
person of the poor… A typical story is that related in the life of St. Martin of
Tours. Of a cold wintry night Martin of Tours was returning to Amiens on
horseback. A beggar, half-frozen from the cold, asks for alms in the name of
Christ. Martin has nothing except his weapons and his clothes, so he rents his
cloak in two, gives one half to the beggar, and continues on his way. The
following night Christ appears to Martin, clothed in the half-cloak which he gave
the beggar, and speaks these words: “Martin, catechumen, has covered me with
his garment.”…
It requires faith of the deepest kind to see God present in the person of the
poor. It requires the faith of the centurion… who could look up at the crushed
figure of Christ upon the cross, a figure in whom there was neither beauty nor
comeliness… an object of scorn and ridicule… and say: “Indeed this was the Son
of God.”…
The Son of God could have cast himself down unhurt from the pinnacle of
the temple and in a blaze of spectacular circus glory forced the belief of all
onlookers in the divinity of his person. He also could have fed the crowds with
loaves and fishes not once or twice, but every day in order to buy their love. But
God did not want to force belief nor to buy love. He wanted it given in humility
and lowliness or he wanted it not at all…
So it is that the Infinite God chooses to reveal himself to man through the
most finite of finite things: the commonplace, everyday elements of bread and
wine, the simple words of human language, a child born in a stable and later
nailed to a tree, and the teeming masses of the poor who will always be with us.
Man’s eyes must be washed with truth and his heart cleansed with humility if he
is to come to God on these lowly terms…
The poor have been… anointed by poverty and suffering to become
mediators between man and God. Through them, men are permitted to sacrifice
themselves to God, and in turn, God gives himself to men. Christ’s presence in
the poor marvelously complements his presence in the Eucharist. In the
Sacrament of the Eucharist, the Son of God gives himself to us in the form of
bread; and we approach the table of communion as spiritual beggars – with
outstretched hand and hungry heart. In the “sacrament of poverty,” the roles are
mysteriously reversed: Christ is now the beggar, and he humbly approaches us
and pleads with us to give him bread… Although the mode, manner, and means
may differ, there is a great similarity between Christ dwelling in the Eucharist
and Christ dwelling in the person of the poor. In one case the presence is
sacramental, in the other social or mystical. In both cases the presence is real.
4 Schwartz, Aloysius. The Starved and the Silent. Garden City, NY: Doubleday &
Company, INC., 1966. 156-159, 161.

Easter Weekday
2023-05-18
EVERYONE GIVING BIRTH WILL SUFFER
From the “Homilies on the Prophetic Burdens of Isaiah” by St Aelred of Rievaulx5
◊◊◊
Oh brothers, there is no pain as of one giving birth. But there is a physical
birth, a spiritual birth, and a punitive birth. And certainly, a woman is sad when
she is in labor, because her hour has come. Pain takes hold of her members; death,
her eyes; and fear, her conscience. She does not know how it will turn out.
A spiritual birth takes place when the holy ones give birth to spiritual
children by instruction and care. One such holy person said, My little children,
with whom I am again in labor. And this birth is not without pain. For such a
person must rejoice with those rejoicing, weep with those weeping, be weak with
the weak, burn with the scandalized, and much more. It is also a spiritual birth
when the barren and unfruitful soul conceives by fear of the Lord. Turned toward
the Lord, such a soul gives birth to the beginnings of good works. And what pain
lies in this birth when the flesh resists the spirit and habit resists the will! One
moment, the mind desires good works, and the next it does not; one moment it
fears, and the next it trusts; one moment, desire for the good impels it, and the
next, the pleasure of evil pulls it back!
A harmful birth takes place when a person conceives pain and gives birth
to iniquity, when it conceives from a desire to acquire and gives birth by carrying
out that desire. This is why the Lord said in the gospel, Woe to you who are
pregnant or nursing! Woe indeed to those conceiving and giving birth in this
way. Even if now they exult when they do evil and rejoice in wicked things, as
though giving birth they will suffer pain when death draws near. For just as a
woman who conceives in pleasure suffers great pain when she is in labor, so too
the soul, corrupted by pleasures and vices, is crushed by sadness and pain when
the wages of corruption begin to appear at death. When the soul’s belated
repentance is turned back on itself, it will begin to feel what is written: Walk in
the light of your fire and in the flame that you lit for yourselves.
We can call a birth punitive when someone dies in a condition of
punishment as though giving birth. The dead receive the punishment they
conceived by sinning, as though giving birth to a most unhappy progeny. How
much more happily does a person conceive repentance for sins from the fear of
God and give birth to conversion of life! This birth, although not without pain,
prepares joy in tranquility of conscience, because when she gives birth to the
child, she does not remember her distress anymore on account of her joy, and
whoever sows tearfully will reap joyfully, and Blessed are those who mourn, for
they will be consoled. Therefore, everyone who abandoned the faith – whether
overcome by torture during persecution or corrupted by vice during peacetime –
as though giving birth will suffer pain, either by profitably repenting or unhappily
dying.
5 St Aelred of Rievaulx. Homilies on the Prophetic Burdens of Isaiah. CF 83. Trans.
Lewis White. Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2018. 86-87.

Easter Weekday
2023-05-19
EVERYTHING IS OBTAINABLE
FOR SOMEONE WHO PRAYS
From “The Commendation of Faith” by Baldwin of Forde6
◊◊◊
The Lord says to his disciples: ‘Truly, truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of
the Father in my name he will give it to you.’ And in the gospel of Mark:
‘Whatever you ask when you pray, believe that you will receive them and they
will come to you.’ In the gospel of Matthew: ‘If two of you on earth agree about
anything, whatever you ask will be given you by my Father who is in heaven.’
From these passages, note that everything is obtainable for someone who
prays, just as it is said that everything is possible for someone who believes.
Faith and prayer are recognized to have similar power, and one helps the other
in turn… The Lord shows the disciples the power of faith and at once adds the
power of prayer, thereby showing that it is conjoined to [faith] by a kind of
similarity: ‘Have faith in God. Truly I tell you: whoever says to this mountain,
“Get up and throw yourself into the sea”, and does not doubt in his heart, but
believes that what he said will be done, will be done for him’… Consider from
these words how powerful faith is in everything that is said without any doubt
that it will be done, and, equally, how powerful prayer is in everything that is
asked for in the faith that it will come to pass…
But what if someone says: ‘Who can say to this mountain without any
doubt: “Get up, and throw yourself into the sea”? Does it not seem just as
impossible not to doubt this as actually to do it? But if these two things – doing it
and not doubting it – are not possible for us, but only for divine power, then it
can seem unworthy of God to make such a promise. How can he promise that a
mountain will be moved by a simple utterance, provided we have said it without
any doubt, when that very doubt, so far as it is in our power, is as immovably
fixed in our heart as this mountain is in its place?’…
For although the Lord promises us his help in all things, and although he
says that not a hair of our head shall perish and thereby says that he will make us
secure, who is there who is firm in faith at all times and secure in all places? Who
can always stand by himself? Who does not sometimes waver? Who never
doubts? Thus it follows that we, who have only a little faith, need to have our
faith increased and are always bound to offer to God our confession of faith and
to beg him unceasingly to help our unbelief, saying: ‘Lord, I believe: help my
unbelief.’… He helps our weakness when he gives us the capacity to be capable of
little. He helps our unbelief when he makes us believe that we believe little…
This is a wonderful dispensation of God by which he allows those he has chosen
to fall for a time so that they may rise up all the stronger, so that they may be
more cautious, so that they trust less in themselves, so that they recognize their
weakness more perfectly, so that they cling to God more firmly, so that they hold
his grace, without which they can do nothing….
6 Baldwin of Forde. The Commendation of Faith. CF 59. Trans. Jane Patricia Freeland
and David N. Bell. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2000. 145-147,151-152, 155

Easter Weekday
2023-05-20
HOW SHE SAW JESUS STANDING AT THE RIGHT HAND
OF THE POWER OF GOD
From the “The Life of Beatrice of Nazareth”7
◊◊◊
…It happened that the adversary of the human race, with all the vices
assembled in their bands, rushed in upon her ready to fight, and cruelly attacked
her valiant heart with as many assaults of temptation as there are different kinds
of vices. Christ’s soldier, seeing herself in the midst of the sea, rocked and
overwhelmed by stormy waves, and harassed on all sides with heavy storms and
weighty struggles, began to waste away, unnerved by great fear… She did not
fear single combat with any one of them, if it reared up alone, but with all of them
rushing in together and each of them exercising its own wicked activity, such a
need for resistance on all sides arose that, her strength worn out and confidence
all but collapsing, she nearly despaired of God’s mercy.
Beatrice, seeing that faith and hope, that most constant of virtues, were
almost on the point of perishing within her, and that no virtue remained with
which to defend herself in such a crisis, no longer presumed to enter such a
struggle; grief-stricken and worn-out she prepared herself, and rising up fled
quickly to the church, and with a great storm of tears, with bitter groans, sighs,
and weeping she besought the divine clemency to have mercy on her in such a
dangerous crisis…
When Beatrice had poured… forth… the great bitterness of her heart, she
quickly fled to the solace of prayer, and she called upon the divine mercy… The
loving and merciful Lord, who never deserts those who trust in his mercy, who is
close to the troubled of heart and always saves the humble in spirit… did not
refuse to turn the eyes of his mercy on his chosen spouse in the time of her need.
Regarding his faithful fighter and understanding that she was laboring in a
weighty struggle, he put forth his merciful hand to console her, and putting to
flight the insults of the demonic powers and all the troubles caused by the vices,
he with his unspeakable kindness and mercy called her back into the harbor of
tranquility.
…She was caught up beyond herself and saw in ecstasy of mind – with the
eyes of the mind, not of the flesh, – the heavens opened and Jesus standing at the
right hand of the power of God, prepared to help her, leaning over mercifully
toward her to raise her up, console, and snatch her from the attacks of the
opposing powers. When the Lord’s virgin… had gazed on him with longing eyes,
she perceived two things, mercy and love, radiating from him toward her, and
immediately with an enlightened mind she recognized what they meant. In the
ray of mercy she saw, she deserved to be rebuked by the Lord for being so
disturbed in the struggle, so weighed down with fear and sorrow… In the ray of
love she recognized clearly that the Lord was propitious and merciful toward
her, that his kindness was helping her, not beating her down or casting her off
from the divine mercy… but rather exalting her, raising her up and lifting her to
the summit of the virtues.
…She gave thanks to Almighty God with exultation of heart… recognizing
clearly the divine mercy toward her… With the Lord’s help she henceforth
remained stronger in faith, more constant in hope, more valiant in tribulation,
and more spiritual against the opposing powers.
7 The Life of Beatrice of Nazareth. CF 50. Trans. Roger De Ganck. Kalamazoo, MI:
Cistercian Publications, 1991. 175, 177, 179.

Cleveland LCG Meeting
2023-05-20 15:00 - 16:30 (America/New_York)
Content is protected.

Skema
2023-05-21
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
7th Week of Easter

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
May 21 – 27, 2023

Sun
21
Mon
22
Tue
23
Wed
24
Thu
25
Fri
26
Sat
27

Office
Ascension of the Lord
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday
St Bede the Venerable
Easter Weekday
St Augustine of Canterbury

Vigils
Eph 4:1-24
1 Jn 4:1-10
1 Jn 4:11-21
1 Jn 5:1-12
1 Jn 5:13-21
2 Jn 1-13
3 Jn 1-15

Lauds
Dan 7:9-14
2 Tim 3:10-17
2 Tim 4:1-5
2 Tim 4:6-8
Titus 1:1-9
Titus 2:11-15
Titus 3:1-8

Mass
58
297
298
299
300
301
302

1st
Acts 1:1-11
Acts 19:1-8
Acts 20:17-27
Acts 20:28-38
Acts 22:30; 23:6-11
Acts 25:13b-21
Acts 28:16-20, 30-31

2nd
Eph 1:17-23

Gospel
Matt 28:16-20
John 16:29-33
John 17:1-11a
John 17:11b-19
John 17:20-26
John 21:15-19
John 21:20-25

Vespers
Eph 2:1-10
Acts 24:10-16
Acts 25:7-12
Acts 26:24-31
Acts 28:16-23
Acts 28:24-31
Rom 8:9:17

Vigils Reading - Ascension of the Lord
2023-05-21
LET THE KING OF GLORY ENTER
A commentary by St Gregory of Nyssa1
The gospel describes the Lord’s life upon earth and his return to heaven. But the sublime prophet David, as though unencumbered by the weight of his body, rose above himself to mingle with the heavenly powers and record for us their words as they accompanied the Master when he came down from heaven. Ordering the angels on earth entrusted with the care of human life to raise the gates, they cried: Lift up your gates, you princes; be lifted up you everlasting doors. Let the King of glory enter.
But because wherever he is he who contains all things in himself makes himself like those who receive him, not only becoming a man among human beings, but also when among angels conforming his nature to theirs, the gatekeepers asked: Who is this King of glory?
He is the strong one, they were told, mighty in battle, the one who is to grapple with and overthrow the captor of the human race who has the power of death. When this last enemy has been destroyed, he will restore us to freedom and peace.
Now the mystery of Christ’s death is fulfilled, victory is won, and the cross, the sign of triumph, is raised on high. He who gives us the noble gifts of life and a kingdom has ascended into heaven, leading captivity captive. Therefore the same command is repeated. Once more the gates of heaven must open for him. Our guardian angels, who have now become his escorts, order them to be flung wide so that he may enter and regain his former glory. But he is not recognized in the soiled garments of our life, in clothes reddened by the winepress of human sin. Again the escorting angels are asked: Who is this King of glory? The answer is no longer, The strong one, mighty in battle but, The lord of hosts, he who has gained power over the whole universe, who has recapitulated all things in himself, who is above all things, who has restored all creation to its former state: He is the King of glory.

You see how much David has added to our joy in this feast and contributed to the gladness of the Church. Therefore as far as we can let us imitate the prophet by our love for God, by gentleness and by patience with those who hate us. Let the prophet’s teaching help us to live in a way pleasing to God in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen

1 Journey with the Fathers: Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels – Year A. Ed. Edith Barnecut, OSB. New York: New City Press, 1992. 68-69.

Compline
2023-05-21 19:25 - 20:00
Sunday, May 21th at 7:25 pm
Zoom link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/3917499727

Vigils Reading
2023-05-22
THAT WE MAY ASCEND TO WHERE HE IS
A Sermon by St. Aelred of Rievaulx2
For some time now we have been keeping before our minds the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the same length of time as he spent in the world after his resurrection. Today we celebrate the day on which he showed us openly that all the things which he did and suffered in this world he did to lead us from the death into which we fell through Adam to true life, and to raise us up from this exile to our homeland for which we were created – that is, to heaven.
He died for our sins and he rose for our justification and he ascended into heaven for our glorification… That blessedness which we are awaiting… he willed to show forth today in his own person by ascending into heaven. He did this so that we might be certain that we, who are his members, may ascend to where he, who is our head, has ascended.
Therefore, dearest brothers, we ought to celebrate this day with great joy because there can be no greater glorification of the human person than what has been shown to us today. This nature of ours which has been so depraved and degraded that it was even compared to brute animals – as the Prophet says, Man, when he was in honor, did not understand and became comparable to stupid beasts. This nature was in our Lord Jesus Christ so exalted that every other creature is beneath it and even the angels adore it as something beyond them.
As you have often heard, after his resurrection Our Lord willed to remain in this world in bodily form for forty days for many reasons. He wanted to confirm his resurrection and to demonstrate in many ways that he truly rose from the dead in the flesh. Therefore he often ate and drank with his disciples and he openly showed them his wounds. And when the Apostle Thomas was unwilling to believe that the other apostles had seen him, he allowed Thomas to touch his side and his hands. By his bodily presence he wanted to reassure his disciples, grieved beyond measure during his passion and almost in despair, and to prove to them on the authority of the Scriptures that it was necessary for him to die and to rise again. Moreover he opened for them the meaning of the Scriptures that they might understand them.

Yet – and we should notice this – before his passion and resurrection he fasted for the same length of time that he chose to be physically with his disciples after the resurrection. By his fasting he commended to us the value of the physical affliction which we ought to endure in this life. By his physical presence which he revealed to his own after his resurrection, we are able to understand the consolation of his utterly sweet presence which we will experience after our own resurrection. Both were commended to us over the same length of time because it is in the measure to which we bear affliction for Christ in this life that we shall receive consolation in the life to come…
Let it be our sole concern: to remain attached to him with our whole heart, our whole mind, our whole strength, recognizing who our Head is, where our Head is. Let us live as befits the members of that Head, with our minds fixed not here where our lower part is, but there where our Head has today ascended, beseeching God, the Father almighty, to deign to give us his grace, so that all the attachment of our devotion may be directed to where our very substance, Jesus our Lord, is with him, with whom he lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit through all the ages of ages

2 Aelred of Rievaulx. The Liturgical Sermons. CF 58. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2001. 205.

Vigils Reading
2023-05-23
HOW JESUS IS HEAVEN TO THE SOUL
From “The Scale of Perfection” by Walter Hilton3
What is heaven to a reasoning soul? Surely, nothing other than Jesus, our God. For if heaven is that which is above all things, then God alone is heaven to a man’s soul, for he alone is superior to the nature of the soul. Therefore if grace enables a soul to perceive the divine nature of Jesus, it sees heaven itself, for it sees God…
It is commonly said that a soul shall see God in all things and within itself. It is true that God is in all created things, but not in the way that a kernel is hidden within the shell of a nut, or as a small object is contained within a greater. He is within all things, maintaining and preserving them in being, but he is present in a spiritual way, exercising the power of his own blessed nature and invisible purity. For just as an object that is very precious and pure is laid in a secure place, so by the same analogy the nature of God, which is supremely precious, pure, and spiritual, utterly unlike any physical nature, is hidden within all things. Anyone who desires to seek God within must therefore forget all material things, for these are exterior; he must cease to consider his own body or even his own soul, and consider the uncreated nature of God who made him, endowed him with life, upholds him, and gives him reason, memory, and love. All these gifts come to him through the power and sovereign grace of God. This must be the soul’s course of action when it is touched by grace; otherwise it will be of little use to seek God within itself or in his creation…
The soul that by grace possesses the fullest knowledge of truth has the clearest vision of God… For as the sun reveals itself and all material things to the eye by its own light, so God, who is also truth, reveals himself first to the understanding of the soul, and by this means bestows all the spiritual knowledge that the soul requires. For the prophet says: Lord, in your light we shall see all light. That is: we shall see that you are truth by the light of yourself.

In the same way, God is described as fire: Our God is a consuming fire. This does not mean that God is the element of fire which heats and consumes physical objects, but that God is love and charity. For just as fire consumes all material objects that can be destroyed by it, so the love of God burns and consumes all sin out of the soul and makes it clean, as fire purifies all kinds of metal. These descriptions and all other material comparisons applied to God in holy scripture must be understood in a spiritual sense, for otherwise they are meaningless. But the reason why such words are employed to describe God is that we are so worldly in our outlook that we cannot speak of God without at first using such expressions. However, when the eyes of the soul are opened by grace, and we are enabled to catch a glimpse of God, then our souls can quite easily interpret these material descriptions in a spiritual sense…
This is the beginning of contemplation, of which St Paul said: We do not contemplate the things that are seen, but those that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporal, but those that are not seen are eternal. It is these things that the soul should aspire to gain, partially indeed in this present life, but fully in the bliss of heaven. For the full bliss and eternal life of the rational soul consist in this vision and knowledge of God. Father, this is eternal life, that your chosen souls should know you, and Jesus Christ your son whom you have sent, to be the one true God

3 Hilton, Walter. The Scale of Perfection. St. Meinrad, IN: Abbey Press, 1975. 106-108.

Vigils Reading
2023-05-24
WHAT TRUE FAITH IS
From the writing of Johann Arndt4
◊◊◊
He who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God. Faith is a deep assent and unhesitating trust in God’s grace promised in Christ and in the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. It is ignited by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit…
By this deep trust and heartfelt assent, man gives his heart completely and utterly to God, rests in God alone… becomes one spirit with God, receives from him new power, new life, new consolation… This is the new birth that comes from faith in Christ… a certain true assurance of things on which man hopes and a conviction concerning things man does not see. The consolation of living faith becomes powerful in the heart; it convinces the heart, in that one finds in one’s soul heavenly goodness, namely, rest and peace in God, so certain and true that one might then die with a happy heart…
Through this power of God we are once again drawn into God, inclined toward God, transplanted and set in God, taken out of Adam and as a cursed vine placed in Christ the blessed and living vine. Thus, in Christ we possess all his goods and are made righteous in him… Just as once through Adam’s fall, through the deception and treachery of the Devil, the seed of the serpent was sowed in man – that is, the evil, satanic pattern of life out of which an evil, poisonous fruit grew – so by God’s word and the Holy Spirit faith was sowed in man as a seed of God in which all divine virtues, qualities, and characteristics, in a hidden manner, were contained and grew out to a beautiful and new image of God, to a beautiful and new tree on which the fruits are love, patience, humility, meekness, peace, chastity, righteousness, the new man, and the whole kingdom of God. The true sanctifying faith renews the whole man, purifies the heart, unites with God, makes the heart free from earthly things, hungers and thirsts after righteousness, works love, gives peace, joy, patience, consolation in all suffering, conquers the world, makes children heirs of God and of all heavenly eternal good and co-heirs of Christ…

If we fall in weakness and stumble, God’s grace does not fall away if we arise again through true repentance. Christ remains always Christ and the Sanctifier. He may be grasped with weak or with strong faith. Weak faith belongs as much to Christ as strong. Whether a man is weak or strong of faith, he is Christ’s own just the same. The grace that is promised is common to all Christians and is eternal. On this, faith must rest, whether it be weak or strong. In his time, God will allow you to come to refreshing, joyous consolation, whether he bring it to your heart in a short time or in a longer period

4 Johann Arndt. True Christianity. Trans. Peter Erb. New York: Paulist Press, 1979. 45-48.

Vigils Reading - St Bede the Venerable
2023-05-25
AND YOU TOO WILL BEAR WITNESS
A homily from St Bede the Venerable5 ◊◊◊
We find from many places in the holy gospel that before the coming of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were less capable of understanding the hidden mysteries of the divine sublimity, and were less brave in tolerating the adversities brought on by human depravity. When the Spirit came upon them with an increase of divine insight, there was given them the constancy [needed] to overcome human persecution as well. Hence it is said to them now, in the Lord’s promise, ‘When the Paraclete comes, whom I shall send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me; and you too will bear witness’…
The Spirit, upon his coming, bore witness concerning the Lord. Breathing into the hearts of the disciples, he revealed to them by his bright light everything about which mortals were to have knowledge concerning [the Lord], namely, that he was equal and of the same substance with the Father before the ages; that he became of the same substance as we at the end of the ages; that he was born of a virgin and lived in the world without sin; that he went forth from the world when he wished and by the kind of death that he wished; that by rising from the dead he truly destroyed death and raised up the true flesh in which he had suffered, and at his ascension took it up into heaven, and established it at the right hand of his Fathers’ glory; that all the writings of the prophets bear witness to him; that the confession of his name was to be extended even to the end of the earth, and that the rest of the mysteries of his faith were unlocked for his disciples by the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Nor was whatever they correctly discerned conceded to them alone by the gift of the Spirit, but also to all who believe in the Lord through their word.

‘He’, Jesus says, ‘will bear witness concerning me, and you will bear witness’. Once they had put aside their initial fear, they ministered outwardly by telling others what they had received inwardly by the Spirit’s teaching. The Spirit himself both illumined their hearts by knowledge of the truth, and by the preeminence of his power roused them to teach what they knew. Hence in Isaiah the Spirit is rightly called ‘of strength and knowledge’. He is indeed the Spirit ofknowledge, since it is by his help that we rightly acknowledge what we must do and even think; he is also the Spirit of strength, since it is by his help that we receive [the strength] to carry out what we know well that we should do, lest we be driven away by some adversity from the good deeds we have begun…
He who warned them ahead of time that the hour of persecution would come is the one who, a little later, pledged his help to his faithful in the persecution, saying, ‘You will have distress in the world; but have confidence; I have overcome the world’. He elsewhere promised the crown of life to those who are sincerely engaged in strife, saying, ‘Blessed are those who suffer persecution for the sake of justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’

5 Bede the Venerable. Homilies on the Gospels: Book Two – Lent to the Dedication of the Church. Trans. Lawrence T. Martin and David Hurst, OSB. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1991. 149-151.

Vigils Reading
2023-05-26
CONCERNING THE TRIPLE LOVE OF GOD
A sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux6 ◊◊◊
Love not the world nor the things which are in the world. For all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father…Whoever therefore will be a friend of this world becomes an enemy of God… Blessed Gregory explains that love itself is knowledge. Love therefore is triple, love that excludes that triple worldly passion that is not from the Father. And besides, three times, I believe, Peter was asked by Christ, Do you love me, do you love me, do you love me? Perhaps this love about which the Law teaches is also triple: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength. That is, you shall love sweetly or affectionately, you shall love prudently, you shall love bravely…
Did he not make himself somehow foolish, he who has delivered his soul unto death and has borne the sins of many…? Was he not drunk with the wine of charity and unmindful of himself, against the advice of Peter, who said, “Take care for yourself”?… What is more, we have said that this mystery certainly reaches to the heart’s affectionate love… Therefore this love counteracts concupiscence of the flesh. For how could carnal sweetness compare to the genuine sweetness of Christ’s passion?
However, this sweetness can be deceptive if it lacks prudence. And besides, poison in the honey can be avoided only with difficulty. In that case, prudence must be present, by which we can diligently investigate interior mysteries, so that we may be ready always to satisfy everyone who asks for a

reason… Indeed this earnest soul cannot be curious about worldly matters, saying with the prophet, O how have I loved your Law, O Lord! It is my meditation all the day.
The third way is so that each of us loves bravely: to the extent that we cannot be deceived, so also we cannot be compelled; thus we are prepared to suffer all things for the sake of justice. For everyone knows that the King of heaven did not seek earthly rule and honors, but rejected them instead…
And so it was that Peter was questioned about these three types of love, for earlier he had been found wanting… Though he loved Christ sweetly, as it were, he said, Far be it from you, for he loved foolishly. So he also deserved to hear, Get behind me, Satan, because you understand not the things that are of God… But on the night in which the Lord was to be handed over, both sweetly and wisely was Peter loving when he said, Lord, I am ready to go with you both into prison and to death. But he was not loving bravely, because “He that is fallen low did never firmly stand.” The power from on high had not yet come, which, once accepted, Peter did not refuse, but using his liberated voice, he said, You be the judge whether we ought to obey God rather than human beings.
Is it not fitting that Peter, who was put in charge of feeding the flock, was asked to give an account of his love? For one who is intoxicated and burning with the wine of charity should lead others, unmindful of himself, so that he seeks not things that are his own but rather things that are Jesus Christ’s. And note that when Peter was asked if he loved more than these others, he only answered that he loved. He was upset, for he dared not assert what he had rashly said before. And perhaps for that reason he was deeply grieved, for he had said before, Even if all shall be scandalized in you, yet not I

6 St Bernard of Clairvaux. Monastic Sermons. CF 68. Trans. Daniel Griggs. Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2016. 166-170.

Vigils Reading - St Augustine of Canterbury
2023-05-27
ST. AUGUSTINE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
From the writings of Alban Butler7 ◊◊◊
When Pope St. Gregory the Great decided that the time had come for the evangelization of Anglo-Saxon England, he chose as missionaries some thirty or more monks from his monastery of St. Andrew… As their leader he gave them their own prior, Augustine. The party set out from Rome in the year 596; but no sooner had they arrived in Provence than they were assailed with warnings about the ferocity of the Anglo-Saxons and the dangers of the Channel. Greatly discouraged, they persuaded Augustine to return to Rome and obtain leave to abandon the enterprise. St. Gregory, however, had received definite assurance that the English were well disposed towards the Christian faith; he therefore sent Augustine back to his brethren with words of encouragement which gave them heart to proceed on their way.
They landed in the Isle of Thanet in the territory of Ethelbert, king of Kent, who was baptized at Pentecost 597. Almost immediately afterwards St. Augustine paid a visit to France, where he was consecrated bishop of the English by St. Virgilius, metropolitan of Arles. At Christmas of that same year, many of Ethelbert’s subjects were baptized, as St. Gregory joyfully related in a letter to Eulogius, the patriarch of Alexandria. Augustine sent two of his monks, Laurence and Peter, to Rome to give a full report of his mission, to ask for more helpers and obtain advice on various points. They came back bringing the pallium for Augustine and accompanied by a fresh band of missionaries, amongst whom were St. Mellitus, St. Justus and St. Paulinus.

Gregory outlined for Augustine the course he should take to develop a hierarchy for the whole country, and both to him and to Mellitus gave very practical instructions on other points. Pagan temples were not to be destroyed, but were to be purified and consecrated for Christian worship. Local customs were as far as possible to be retained, days of dedication and feasts of martyrs being substituted for heathen festivals.
In Canterbury itself St. Augustine rebuilt an ancient church which, with an old wooden house, formed the nucleus for his metropolitan basilica and for the later monastery of Christ Church. These buildings stood on the site of the present cathedral begun by Lanfranc in 1070. Outside the walls of Canterbury he made a monastic foundation, which he dedicated in honour of St. Peter and St. Paul. After his death this abbey became known as St. Augustine’s, and was the burial place of the early archbishops.
Cut off from much communication with the outside world, the British church clung to certain usages at variance with those of the Roman tradition. St. Augustine invited the leading ecclesiastics to meet him at some place just on the confines of Wessex, still known in Bede’s day as Augustine’s Oak. There he urged them to comply with the practices of the rest of Western Christendom, and more especially to co-operate with him in evangelizing the Anglo-Saxons. Fidelity to their local traditions, however, made them unwilling. A second conference proved a said failure. Because St. Augustine failed to rise when they arrived, the British bishops decided that he was lacking in humility and would neither listen to him nor acknowledge him as their metropolitan.
The saint’s last years were spent in spreading and consolidating the faith throughout Ethelbert’s realm, and episcopal sees were established at London and Rochester. About seven years after his arrival in England, St. Augustine passed to his reward, on May 26, 605

7Butler’s Lives of Saints. Harper, 1991, pp. 158-159.

Skema
2023-05-28
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
8th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
May 28 – June 3, 2023

Sun
28
Mon
29
Tue
30
Wed
31
Thu
1
Fri
2
Sat
3

Office
Pentecost Sunday
Mary, Mother of the Church
Weekday
Visitation of the BVM
St Justin Martyr
Weekday
St Charles Lwanga & Companions

Vigils
* Special Vigil
Gen 1:1-1:19
Gen 1:20-2:3
Gal 3:15-29
Gen 2:4-25
Gen 3:1-24
Gen 4:1-26

Lauds
Joel 3:1-5
Prov 1:1-7
Prov 1:8-19
Zech 2:10-17
Prov 1:20-33
Prov 2:1-11
Prov 3:1-12

Mass
63
BVM Lect pg 118-138
348
572
350
351
352

1st
Acts 2:1-11
Acts 1:12-14
Sir 35:1-12
Zeph 3:14-18a
Sir 42:15-25
Sir 44:1, 9-13
Sir 51:12cd-20

2nd
1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13
Psalm 87[86]: 1-2, 3+5, 6-7

Gospel
John 20:19-23
John 19:25-34
Mark 10:28-31
Luke 1:39-56
Mark 10:46-52
Mark 11:11-26
Mark 11:27-33

Vespers
Gal 5:16-25
Gal 1:1-10
Gal 1:11-24
Rom 12:9-21
Gal 2:1-10
Gal 2:11-14
1 Cor 2:1-10

*1) Gen 11:1-9 2) Exod 19:3-8a, 16-20 3) Ezek 36:16-28 4) Acts 2:1-11 5) Rom 8:5-27

Vigils Reading - Pentecost Sunday
2023-05-28
RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT
From a commentary by St Augustine1 ◊◊◊
The happy day has dawned for us on which Holy Church makes her first radiant appearance to the eyes of faith and sets the hearts of believers on fire. It is the day on which we celebrate the sending of the Holy Spirit by our Lord Jesus Christ, after he had risen from the dead and ascended into glory. In the gospel it is written: If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, rivers of living water shall flow from his heart. The Evangelist explains these words by adding: Jesus said this about the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. Now the glorification of Jesus took place when he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, but all was not yet accomplished. The Holy Spirit still had to be given; the one who made the promise had to send him. This is precisely what occurred at Pentecost.
After being in the company of his disciples for the forty days following his resurrection, the Lord ascended into heaven, and on the fiftieth day – the day we are now celebrating – he sent the Holy Spirit. The account is given in Scripture: Suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and there appeared to them tongues like fire which separated and came to rest on each one of them. And they began to speak in other tongues, as the Holy Spirit gave them power of utterance. That wind cleansed the disciples’ hearts, blowing away fleshly thoughts like so much chaff. The fire burnt up their unregenerate desires as if they were straw. The tongues in which they spoke as the Holy Spirit filled them were a foreshadowing of the Church’s preaching of the Gospel in the tongues of all nations.

After the flood, in pride and defiance of the Lord, an impious generation erected a high tower and so brought about the division of the human race into many language groups, each with its own peculiar speech which was unintelligible to the rest of the world. At Pentecost, by contrast, the humble piety of believers brought all these diverse languages into the unity of the Church. What discord had scattered, love was to gather together. Like the limbs of a single body, the separated members of the human race would be restored to unity by being joined to Christ, their common head, and welded into the oneness of a holy body by the fire of love. Anyone therefore who rejects the gift of peace and withdraws from the fellowship of this unity cuts himself off from the gift of the Holy Spirit.
So then, my fellow members of Christ’s body, you are the fruits of unity and the children of peace. Keep this day with joy, celebrate it in freedom of spirit, for in you is fulfilled what was foreshadowed in those days when the Holy Spirit came. At that time whoever received the Holy Spirit spoke in many languages, individual though he was. Now in the same way unity itself speaks through all nations in every tongue. If you yourselves are established in that unity you have the Holy Spirit among you, and nothing can separate you from the Church of Christ which speaks in the language of every nation of the world

1 Journey with the Fathers: Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels – Year A. Ed. Edith Barnecut, OSB. New York: New City Press, 1992. 72-73.

Vigils Reading - Mary, Mother of the Church
2023-05-29
MARY’S EDUCATION AS MOTHER OF THE CHURCH
From the writing of Hans Urs Von Balthasar2 ◊◊◊
At first it was the Mother who introduced the Son into the Old Covenant and thereby trained him for his messianic office. However, it was not she but his own knowledge of the Father’s mission in the Holy Spirit that showed him who he was and what he had to do. The relationship is thus reversed: from now on it is the Son who educates the Mother for the greatness of his task, cultivating in her the maturity she needs to stand under the Cross and, finally, to receive, at prayer within the Church, the universal gift of the Holy Spirit.
From the very outset, this education reflects Simeon’s prophecy that a sword would pierce the Mother’s soul. It is a pitiless process. All the episodes handed down for us are more or less brusque rejections. It is not as though Jesus had been disobedient for thirty years; we have an explicit affirmation to the contrary. However, the merely physical relationship to which faith was so intimately tied in the Old Testament is sovereignly, ruthlessly forced open. Henceforth faith in Jesus, the incarnate Word of God, is the only thing that counts…
The scene in which Jesus, teaching those gathered around him in a certain house, refuses to receive the visit of his Mother, who is standing outside, seems almost unbearable to us. “Here are my mother and my brethren! Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother”. Jesus means her more than anyone, though he does not mention her by name. Yet who understands his meaning? Did Mary herself understand it? We have to accompany Mary in spirit as she makes her way home and try to imagine her state of mind. The sword gnaws

at her soul; she feels as if bereft of her inmost self, as if the point of her life has been drained away. Her faith, which at the beginning received so many sensible confirmations, is plunged into a dark night. It is as if the Son, who sends her no news about what he is doing, has run away from her, yet she cannot simply let him go away: she has to accompany him, full of dread, in her night of faith…
The purpose of this constant training in the naked faith Mary will need under the Cross is often insufficiently understood; people are astonished and embarrassed by the way in which Jesus treats his Mother, whom he addresses both in Cana and at the Cross only as “woman”. He himself is the first one to wield the sword that must pierce her. But how else would she have become ready to stand by the Cross, where not only her Son’s earthly failure, but also his abandonment by the God who sends him is revealed. She must finally say Yes to this, too, because she consented a priori to her child’s whole destiny. And as if to fill her bitter chalice to the brim, the dying Son expressly abandons his Mother, withdrawing from her and foisting on her another son: “Woman, behold, your son”. This gesture is usually understood primarily as evidencing Jesus’ concern about where his Mother will live after he is gone… This must not, however, lead us to overlook a second motif: just as the Son is abandoned by the Father, so, too, he abandons his Mother, so that the two of them may be united in a common abandonment. Only thus does she become inwardly ready to take on ecclesial motherhood toward all of Jesus’ new brothers and sisters

2 Hans Urs Von Balthasar and Pope Benedict XVI. Mary: The Church at the Source. Trans. Adrian Walker. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005. 107-110.

Vigils Reading
2023-05-30
CONCERNING THE AIM OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE
A conversation of St Seraphim of Sarov with Nicholas Motovilov3 ◊◊◊
“The Lord has revealed to me,” began the great elder, “that in your childhood you longed to know the aim of our Christian life and continually asked questions about it of many and great ecclesiastical dignitaries.”… “But no one,” continued Father Seraphim, “has given you a precise answer… Prayer, fasting, watching, and all other Christian acts, however good they may be, do not alone constitute the aim of our Christian life, although they serve as the indispensable means of reaching this aim. The true aim of our Christian life, is to acquire the Holy Spirit of God…
“How do you mean acquire?” I asked Father Seraphim…
“To acquire is the same as to gain,” he answered. “You understand what acquiring money means. Acquiring God’s Spirit, it’s all the same… Acquire, my son, the grace of the Holy Spirit by all the other virtues in Christ; trade in those that are most profitable to you… Thus, if prayer and watching give you more of God’s grace, pray and watch; if fasting give much of God’s Spirit, fast; if almsgiving gives more, give alms. In such manner decide about every virtue in Christ…
We have become very inattentive to the work of our salvation, whence it comes about that many other words also in the Holy Scriptures we do not take in the proper sense; and all because we do not seek the grace of God, because in the pride of our minds we do not allow it to enter our souls, and therefore we have no true enlightenment from the Lord, which is sent into the hearts of men, to all who hunger and thirst in heart for God’s truth.

When our Lord Jesus Christ had accomplished the whole work of salvation, after His resurrection, He breathed on the Apostles to restore the breath of life which had been lost by Adam, and gave them that same grace of the Holy Spirit of God which had been Adam’s. On the day of Pentecost He triumphantly sent down on them the Holy Spirit in the rushing of a mighty wind like tongues of fire, which sat upon each one of them and entered in and filled them with the strength of Divine flame-like grace; whose breath is laden with dew, and it creates joy in the souls partaking of its power and influence. And, when this same fire-inspired grace of the Holy Spirit is given to all the faithful in Christ in the sacrament of Holy Baptism, they seal it in the chief places appointed by the Holy Church on our flesh, as the eternal vessel of this grace… If we were never to sin after our baptism, we should remain forever holy, spotless, exempt from all foulness of flesh and spirit, like the saints of God. But the trouble is that, though we increase in stature, we do not increase in the grace and mind of God, as our Lord Jesus Christ increased; but on the contrary, growing dissipated bit by bit, we are deprived of the grace of God’s Holy Spirit and become sinners of many degrees and many sins.
But, when a man, stirred by the Divine Wisdom which seeks our salvation, is resolved for her sake to rise early before God and keep watch for the attainment of his eternal salvation, then must he in obedience to her voice hasten to repent truly of all his sins and to perfect the virtues that are their contrary, and thus by virtuous acts done for Christ’s sake to acquire the Holy Spirit, which works in us and sets up in us the kingdom of God. Notwithstanding man’s repeated falls, notwithstanding the darkness around the soul, the grace of the Holy Spirit… shines still in the heart with the Divine immemorial light of the precious merits of Christ. When the sinner turns to the way of repentance, this Christ-Light smooths out all trace of past sin and clothes the former sinner once more in a robe of incorruption woven from the grace of the Holy Spirit..

3 The Spiritual Instructions of Saint Seraphim of Sarov. Ed. Franklin Jones. Los Angeles: The Dawn Horse Press, 1973. 41-44, 46-48, 50.

Vigils Reading - Visitation of BVM
2023-05-31
SHE MAGNIFIES THE LORD
From the letters of Adam of Perseigne4 ◊◊◊
She, now saluted by the angel, now made fruitful by the Holy Spirit, now raised to the height of all the virtues, honored by the leaping of the yet unborn <John>, commended by the prophetic words of Elizabeth, cries out and says: ‘my soul magnifies the Lord’…
The soul of Mary magnifies the Lord because she herself is magnified by the Lord. For unless she were first magnified by the Lord, Mary’s soul could not magnify the Lord… Many magnify him with their tongue but blaspheme him with their deeds and become persecutors through the arrogance of their hearts. Of them it is written: ‘They confess that they know God but deny him by their deeds’. They do not magnify him, but as much as in them lies they belittle the name of the Lord. These are they to whom the apostle says: ‘Through you my good name is blasphemed among the nations.’… But in Mary her tongue, her life, her soul, all magnify the Lord…
How do you magnify him? Do you make greater him whose magnificence has no end?… How then do you magnify one whom you cannot from small make great nor from great greater? But you magnify because you praise, you magnify because amid the darkness of the world, being brighter than the sun, lovelier than the moon, more fragrant than the rose, whiter than snow, you spread abroad the splendor of the knowledge of God. You magnify him therefore not by increasing his surpassing greatness but by bringing the unknown radiance of the true deity to the world’s darkness. For the Lord whom you magnify, since he is eternal,

knows no failure and, since he is perfect, knows no increase. He is eternal for he has neither beginning nor end. He is perfect for his fulness nothing is lacking. But him you magnify when you so far raise yourself by your surpassing merits that you receive the fulness of grace [and] merit the coming upon you of the Holy Spirit, [and] that, being made the Mother of God, remaining still a pure virgin, you bring forth for the perishing world a Saviour.
But for what reason? Because the Lord is with you and he has made your merits his gift. Therefore the more you are magnified in him and by him, the more you are said to magnify him… You are drenched with all the dew of the Holy Spirit, you are inundated wholly with heavenly unction… For you are Moses’ basket, you are the vessel containing the Word, you are the storehouse of the new wine by which the soberness of believers becomes inebriated. You are the Mother of God, the limit set to sin, by whom men rise from the depths of vice and reach the delights of angels…
Draw me after you that I may be strong enough to run in the odor of your perfumes, breathe in the examples of your virtues, be aided by the winds of your discourses, so that at your petition, my soul may first learn by fearing God to withdraw from evil and afterwards, with you, by loving and doing justice may learn to magnify the Lord, to whom is honour and glory and might and power for ever and ever

4 Adam of Perseigne. The Letters of Adam of Perseigne: Volume I. CF 21. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, INC. 1976. 58-63.

Vigils Reading - St Justin Martyr
2023-06-01
HE DID IT SOLELY FOR THE SAKE OF MAN
From the Dialogue with Trypho by St Justin Martyr5 ◊◊◊
When I had finished, Trypho said, ‘…Explain to me the following words of Isaias: “There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. And the spirit of God shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety; and he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord.” Now you have admitted (he said) that these words were spoken of Christ, who, you claim, already existed as God, and, becoming incarnate by the will of God, was born of a virgin. This, then, is my question: How can you prove that Christ already existed, since He is endowed with those gifts of the Holy Spirit which the above-quoted passages of Isaias attribute to Him as though He had lacked them?’
‘You proposed a very sensible and intelligent question,’ I remarked, ‘which appears to raise a real difficulty… The Scriptures state that these gifts of the Holy Spirit were bestowed upon Him, not as though He were in need of them, but as though they were about to rest upon Him, that is, to come to an end with Him, so that there would be no more Prophets among your people as of old (as is plainly evident to you, for after Him there has not been a prophet among you)…
The Spirit therefore rested, that is, ceased, when Christ came. For, after man’s redemption was accomplished by Him, these gifts were to cease among you, and, having come to an end in Him, should again be given, as was foretold, by Him, from the grace of His Spirit’s powers, to all His believers according to their merits. I have already affirmed, and I repeat, that it had been predicted that He would do this after His Ascension into Heaven. It was said, therefore: “He ascended on high; He led captivity captive; He gave gifts to the sons of men.” And in another prophecy it is said: “And it shall come to pass after this, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh, and upon My servants, and upon My handmaids, and they shall prophesy.”

…We indeed know that He did not approach the river because He needed either the baptism or the Spirit who came down upon Him in the shape of a dove. So, too, He did not condescend to be born and to be crucified because He was in need of birth or crucifixion; He did it solely for the sake of man, who from the time of Adam had become subject to death and the deceit of the serpent, each man having sinned by his own fault…
For, when John, wearing only a cincture of skins and a cloak of camel’s hair, and eating only locusts and wild honey, sat by the River Jordan and preached the baptism of repentance, men supposed that he was the Christ, but he cried out to his listeners: “I am not the Christ, but the voice of one crying: for there will come He that is stronger than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to carry.” When Jesus came to the Jordan… the Holy Spirit for the sake of mankind descended upon Him in the form of a dove, and at the same instant a voice out of the heavens spoke the words which had also been uttered by David, when he , in the person of Christ, spoke what was later to be said to Christ by the Father: “Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee,” meaning that His birth really began for men when they first realized who He was.

5 Saint Justin Martyr. Writings of Saint Justin Martyr. Trans. Thomas B. Falls, D.D. New York: Christian Heritage, INC., 1948. 286-290.

Vigils Reading
2023-06-02
THE RECORDED EXHORTATION OF THE DYING ELDER ZOSIMA
An excerpt from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky6 ◊◊◊
Remember especially that you cannot be the judge of anyone. For there can be no judge of a criminal on earth until the judge knows that he, too, is a criminal, exactly the same as the one who stands before him, and that he is perhaps most guilty of all for the crime of the one standing before him. When he understands this, then he will be able to be a judge. However mad that may seem, it is true. For if I myself were righteous, perhaps there would be no criminal standing before me now. If you are able to take upon yourself the crime of the criminal who stands before you and whom you are judging in your heart, do so at once, and suffer for him yourself, and let him go without reproach. And even if the law sets you up as a judge, then, too, act in this spirit as far as you can, for he will go away and condemn himself more harshly than you would condemn him. And if, having received your kiss, he goes away unmoved and laughing at you, do not be tempted by that either: it means that his time has not yet come, but it will come in due course; and if it does not come, no matter: if not he, then another will know, and suffer, and judge, and accuse himself, and the truth will be made full. Believe it, believe it without doubt, for in this lies all hope and all the faith of the saints.
…Have faith to the end, even if it should happen that all on earth are corrupted and you alone remain faithful: make your offering even so, and praise God, you who are the only one left. And if there are two of you who come together thus, there is already a whole world, a world of living love; embrace each other in tenderness and give praise to the Lord: for his truth has been made full, if only in the two of you.

If you yourself have sinned, and are sorrowful even unto death for your sins, or for your sudden sin, rejoice for the other, rejoice for the righteous one, rejoice that though you have sinned, he still is righteous and has not sinned.
If the wickedness of people arouses indignation and insurmountable grief in you, to the point that you desire to revenge yourself upon the wicked, fear that feeling most of all; go at once and seek torments for yourself, as if you yourself were guilty of their wickedness. Take these torments upon yourself and suffer them, and your heart will be eased, and you will understand that you, too, are guilty, for you might have shone to the wicked, even like the only sinless One, but you did not. If you had shone, your light would have lighted the way for others, and the one who did wickedness would perhaps not have done so in your light. And even if you do shine, but see that people are not saved even with your light, remain steadfast, and do not doubt the power of the heavenly light; believe that if they are not saved now, they will be saved later. And if they are not saved, their sons will be saved, for your light will not die, even when you are dead.
…When you are alone, pray. Love to throw yourself down on the earth and kiss it. Kiss the earth and love it, tirelessly, insatiably, love all men, love all things, seek this rapture and ecstasy, treasure it, for it is a gift from God, a great gift, and it is not given to many, but to those who are chosen.

6 Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov. Trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. 320-322.

Vigils Reading - St Charles Lwanga & Companions
2023-06-03
SAINTS CHANGE THE WORLD
The witness of St Charles Lwanga and Companions7 ◊◊◊
In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Catholic and Anglican missionaries began to evangelize Buganda, part of modern Uganda in eastern Africa. Its king expelled the missionaries in 1882, but in 1885 his son and successor Mwanga invited them back. They happily discovered that their original converts were living truly Christian lives and were reaching out to evangelize everyone around them. Christianity was thus spreading rapidly. This produced in Mwanga and his closest advisors a panic that his power, which had been total, might be undermined by a group that seemed not to fear him.
Mwanga’s first victims were an Anglican bishop and six other Anglican missionaries whom he murdered because they sought entry to his kingdom. Twenty- six-year-old Joseph Mkasa, Mwanga’s majordomo and a Catholic, sought unsuccessfully to prevent the murders, at which point Mwanga concluded that Joseph himself was a threat, especially since he was a leading catechist and had taken on the role of protecting the king’s pages who had become Christian, hiding or sending away those whom the king wanted in order to use them sexually. Mwanga ordered Joseph to be burned alive, but the assigned executioner instead beheaded him and then burned the body. Joseph’s last message to the king was one of both forgiveness and a call to repentance from his debauched way of life.
Charles Lwanga succeeded to Joseph’s post and role as protector of the pages. A catechumen himself, he also catechized the pages. He and other catechumens, likely soon to face execution themselves, were baptized by the White Fathers – and then freely went back to their positions at court. Some months after the execution of Joseph, the king called for one of his pages and discovered that all of the Christian ones were missing. When he discovered that they had been receiving instruction in the faith from the page Denis Ssebuggwawo, he sent for Denis and murdered him by a thrust of his spear. Nevertheless, the Christian pages did not flee – they did not want to be seen as disloyal to their monarch.

The king having shut everyone in his compound, Charles quickly baptized five of the pages he had been instructing, including the youngest, thirteen-year-old Kizito. All the pages were summoned and the Christians were ordered to identify themselves. Led by Charles, fifteen boys and young men (some Catholic, some Anglican) obeyed the order, not quaking with fear but filled with joy. One of the king’s own bodyguards then made <himself> part of the group. When asked if they intended to adhere to their faith, they all said they would, until death. The king then sentenced them to die and sent them out, together with other prisoners also scheduled for execution. A Catholic missionary priest who witnessed the group as it was led to the place of execution some miles away saw that they showed courage, happiness, and resignation to what they faced, even the youngest of them. Along the way several members of the group were martyred, including some who joined the original group as it was taken to the place of execution… As the martyrs died, they called on Jesus’ name. With his last breath, Charles evangelized an executioner who subsequently became a catechumen.
Altogether, twenty-two Catholic martyrs who died on May 26 and June 3, 1886 and on January 27, 1887, became the protomartyrs of Uganda. The Ugandan martyrs showed exceptional fortitude and loyalty to their Christian beliefs. “God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control”. The heroic witness of these martyrs is one of the reasons why sub-Saharan Africa has nearly one hundred twenty million Catholics today. Saints change the world

7 The Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM). https://kcgolddome.org/~kcgolddo/oldsite/uploads/1332611439.pdf. Accessed: 5.24.23.

Skema
2023-06-04
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
9th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
June 4 – 10, 2023

Sun
4
Mon
5
Tue
6
Wed
7
Thu
8
Fri
9
Sat
10

Office
Most Holy Trinity
St Boniface
St Norbert
Office for the Dead
Weekday
St Ephrem
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Sir 36:1-22
Gen 5:1-32
Gen 6:1-22
Gen 7:1-24
Gen 8:1-22
Gen 9:1-29
Gen 11:1-9, 27-32

Lauds
Sir 42:15-25
Prov 3:13-24, 35
Prov 3:25-34
Prov 4:1-9
Prov 4:10-18
Prov 4:20-27
Prov 5:1-14

Mass
164
353
354
355
356
357
358

1st
Exod 34:4b-6, 8-9
Tob 1:3; 2:1a-8
Tob 2:9-14
Tob 3:1-11a, 16-17a
Tob 6:10-11; 7:1bcde, 9-17; 8:4-9a
Tob 11:5-17
Tob 12:1, 5-15, 20

2nd
2 Cor 13:11-13

Gospel
John 3:16-18
Mark 12:1-12
Mark 12:13-17
Mark 12:18-27
Mark 12:28-34
Mark 12:35-37
Mark 12:38-44

Vespers
1 Cor 2:11-16
Gal 2:15-21
Gal 3:1-9
Gal 3:10-14
Gal 3:15-22
Gal 3:23-29
Heb 9:18-22

Vigils Reading - Most Holy Trinity
2023-06-04
GOD SENT HIS SON
From a commentary by St Gregory Nazianzen1 ◊◊◊
To speak of the Godhead is, I know, like crossing the ocean on a raft, or like flying to the stars with wings of narrow span. Even heavenly beings are unable to speak of God’s decrees or of his government of the world. But enlighten my mind and loosen my tongue, Spirit of God, and I will sound aloud the trumpet of truth, so that all who are united to God may rejoice with their whole heart.
There is one eternal God, uncaused and uncircumscribed by any being existing before him or yet to be. He is infinite, and all time is in his hands. He is the mighty Father of one mighty and noble Son. In no way does the birth of this Son resemble human birth, for God is spirit. The Word of God is another divine Person, but not another Godhead. He is the living seal of the Father, the only son of the only God. He is equal to the Father, so that although the Father always remains wholly the Father, the Son is the creator and ruler of the world and is the Father’s power and wisdom.
Let us praise the Son first of all, venerating the blood that expiated our sins. He lost nothing of his divinity when he saved me, when like a good physician he stooped to my festering wounds. He was a mortal man, but he was also God. He was of the race of David, but Adam’s creator. He who has no body clothed himself with flesh. He had a mother, but she was a virgin. He who is without bounds bound himself with the cords of our humanity. He was victim and high priest – yet he was God. He offered up his blood and cleansed the whole world. He was lifted up on the cross, but it was sin that was nailed to it. He became as one among the dead, but he rose from the dead, raising to life also many who had died before him. On the one hand, there was the poverty of his humanity; on the other, the riches of his divinity. Do not let what is human in the Son permit you wrongfully to detract from what is divine. For the sake of the divine, hold in the greatest honor the humanity which the immortal Son took upon himself for love of you.

My soul, why do you hold back? Sing praise to the Holy Spirit as well, lest your words tear asunder what is not separated by nature. Let us tremble before the great Spirit who also is God, through whom we have come to know God, who transforms us into God. He is the omnipotent bestower of diverse gifts and the giver of life both in heaven and on earth. He is the divine strength, proceeding from the Father and subject to no power. He is not the Son, for there is only one Son, but he shares equally in the glory of the Godhead.
In the one God are three pulsations that move the world. Through them I became a new and different person when I came out of the font, where my death was buried, into the light – a man restored to life from the dead. If God cleansed me so completely, then I must worship him with my whole being

1 Journey with the Fathers: Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels – Year A. Ed. Edith Barnecut, OSB. New York: New City Press, 1992. 74-75.

Vigils Reading - St Boniface
2023-06-05
A MEDITATIVE READING OF THE ATHANASIAN CREED
by St Athanasius of Alexandria2 ◊◊◊
Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith. Which faith unless every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one, the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Ghost uncreated. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost eternal. And yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal. As also there are not three uncreated, nor three infinites, but one uncreated, and one infinite. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not three Almighties, but one Almighty.
So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not three Gods, but one God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord. And yet not three Lords, but one Lord. For, like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the Catholic religion, to say, There are three Gods, or three Lords. The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten. The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son, neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

So there is one Father, not three Fathers, one Son, not three Sons, one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity none is before, or after another, none is greater, or less than another. But the whole three Persons are coeternal, and coequal. So that in all things, as aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved, let him thus think of the Trinity.
Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting Salvation, that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man.
God, of the Substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds, and Man, of the Substance of his Mother, born in the world. Perfect God, and perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching his Manhood. Who although he is God and Man, yet he is not two, but one Christ. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by assumption of the Manhood into God. One altogether, not by confusion of Substance, but by unity of Person.
For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one Christ, Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead. He ascended into heaven, he sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from whence he will come to judge the living and the dead. At whose coming all men will rise again with their bodies, And shall give account for their own works. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting, and they that have done evil, into everlasting fire. This is the Catholic faith, which except a man believe truly and firmly, he cannot be saved

2 Athanasius of Alexandria. The Athanasian Creed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanasian_Creed . Accessed on: May 31, 2023.

Vigils Reading - St Norbert
2023-06-06
ANSWERING THE DEMAND OF GOD’S TRINITY AND UNITY
From the writing of Hadewijh3 ◊◊◊
The most sublime life and the most rapid growth lie in dying away and wasting away in the pain of Love… the great debt-payment of which is being demanded every hour-that Love demands of Love… By the demand of the Father’s omnipotence, through the wisdom of the Son and the goodness of the Holy Spirit, in the Trinity, man was created. But because man did not answer the demand of the Unity, he fell. By the demand of the Trinity God’s Son was born, and to satisfy the debt to the Unity he died. By the demand of the Trinity he rose again among men; and to satisfy the debt to the Unity he ascended to his Father.
So it is also with us. When payment of the debt we owe is demanded of us by the Trinity, grace is given us to live worthily according to the noble Trinity, as is fitting. But if, because our will is estranged, we thwart this and fall back from this unity into our own self-complacency, we no longer grow and no longer make progress in that perfection which was thus demanded of us from the beginning by the Unity and the Trinity. But if rational man’s noble reason would recognize its just debt and follow Love’s leading into her land—that is, follow Love according to her due then he would be capable of attaining that great object and being enriched in God with divine riches…
There are three things through which one lives for Love, here with the Trinity and, in the beyond, in the Unity. First, here, one desires Love under the guidance of reason, and one desires to content her with all just works of perfection, and to be perfect and worthy of all perfection. In this manner one lives the Son of God. Second, at all hours one wills in this way the will of Love with new ardor, and exercises all the virtues with overflowing desire, and enlightens all creatures according to what they are and according to the due of the nobility he recognizes in them, be it in nobility or in lowness; so shall we, for the honor of love, do the pure will of our God in our works and love. In this manner one lives the Holy Spirit.

Third, one is held by sweet constraint to be in perpetual exertion; and with never-conquered power to be a match for this Being; and strong and unconquered and joyful – by ardent striving to grow up as <the> loved one in the Beloved in every respect: to work with his hands; to walk with his feet; to hear with his ears where the voice of the Godhead never ceases to speak through the mouth of the Beloved, in all truth of counsel, of justice, of sweet sweetness, of consolation for everyone according to each person’s need, and of caution against sin; to appear like the Beloved, unadorned and without beauty live for no one else but for the Beloved in love alone, live in him as the loved one in the Beloved, with the same way of acting, with one spirit, and with one heart; and in one another to taste the unheard-of sweetness he merited by his sufferings. Oh yes! To feel heart in heart, with one single heart and one single sweet love and continually have fruition of one full-grown love. And lastly, that one must ever know certainly, without any doubt, that one is wholly in the Unity of Love. In this state one is the Father.
Thus one pays off here on earth the debt that the Trinity demands, and that it has always demanded of the Unity from all eternity

3 Hadewijch. The Complete Works. Trans. Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B. New York: Paulist Press, 1980. 116-118.

Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
2023-06-07
A CONTEST OF LOVE
From the writing of Servant of God Dolindo Ruotolo4 ◊◊◊
According to the revelation of Saints and we might even say according to logic, Purgatory is divided into different areas, depending on the degree of purification that the soul has to endure in proportion to the sin committed…
Saint Francesca Romana saw Purgatory divided into three distinct parts: in the upper region are the souls who suffer only the pain of loss, that is the lack of the vision of God or some small pain… which prepares them for the vision and enjoyment of God. In the middle region, …suffer the souls who committed venial sins or those… who must atone for the punishment due to mortal sin already forgiven. At the bottom of the abyss, close to Hell, the Saint saw the third region, which she calls the “lower Purgatory”, filled with a clear and penetrating fire, different from that of Hell, where <it> is dark and gloomy.
This third region she saw divided <into> three further areas where the pain increases according to the responsibility of the soul and the degree of glory and happiness they are destined to reach. The first is for the laity; the second for the non-ordained Clergy; the third for the Priests and Bishops. It should be understood that this third area has an even lower level reserved for members of Religious Orders: men and women, who had higher means of sanctification and light from God and now have to bear greater responsibility for their faults and, therefore, a greater need of expiation.

Both Priests and Religious, called to the greatest sanctity, are called to a very high state of glory… In consequence, their pains are likewise stronger and lengthier… The intensity of the pain is in exact proportion to the sins committed and… is intensely dominated by the pain of loss, which is the sense of abandonment by God and the desire to possess Him, because of the intensity of love that the souls feel for Him and the even more intense love that God has for the souls.
That is why we call Purgatory “a contest of love”. The Lord is not very severe with souls. Instead, He is very loving and He purifies them since He wants perfect happiness for them. The soul realizes this love of God and, even more, it soars toward Him: it yearns and groans for His love; it is aware of the dark fog that envelops it, knowing that it is loved and the soul loves in return. It begs for help to come out of this state, that it may be shortened. Yet <the soul> cannot shorten the time with its own merits, being unable to acquire merits. All this anxiety it has is love.
The groaning of love the soul has for God and the attraction to the Divine Love, feeling that God wants its happiness, is the pain of loss and the contest of love… It seems like a paradox but… the contest of love itself makes the soul look at each purifying pain as a step that brings it closer to the Supreme Good and to its eternal happiness

4 Ruotolo, Dolindo. Who Dies Shall See: Purgatory and Heaven. Trans. Giovanna Invitti Ellis. Self- Published online by Giovanna Invitti Ellis: www.dolindo.org/english, 2008. 29-30.

Vigils Reading
2023-06-08
THE ETERNAL PROMISE
By the 19th century Quaker Thomas R. Kelly5 ◊◊◊
The old self, the little self-how weak it is, and how absurdly confident and how absurdly timid it has been! How jealously we guard its strange precious pride! Famished for superiority… its defeats must be offset by a dole of petty victories. In religious matters we still thought that we should struggle to present to God a suitable offering of service. We planned, we prayed, we suffered, we carried the burden. The we, the self, how subtly it intrudes itself into religion! And then steals in, so sweetly, so all-replacing, the sense of Presence, the sense of Other, and he plans, and he bears the burdens, and we are a new creature.
Prayer becomes not hysterical cries to a distant God, but gentle upliftings and faint whispers, in which it is not easy to say who is speaking, we, or an Other through us. Perhaps we can only say: praying is taking place. Power flows through us, from the Eternal into the rivulets of Time. Amazed, yet not amazed, we stride the stride of the tender giant who dwells within us, and wonders are performed. Active as never before, one lives in the passive voice, alert to be used, fearful of nothing, patient to stand and wait.
It is an amazing discovery, at first, to find that a creative Power and Life is at work in the world. God is no longer the object of a belief; He is a Reality, who has continued, within us, his real Presence in the world. God is aggressive. He is an intruder, a lofty lowly conqueror on whom we had counted too little, because we had counted on ourselves. Too long have we supposed that we must carry the banner of religion, that it was our concern. But religion is not our concern; it is God’s concern. Our task is to call men to “be still,” and… hearken to that of God within them, to invite, to unclasp the clenched fists of self-resolution, to be pliant in his firm guidance, sensitive to the inflections of the inner voice.

For there is a life beyond earnestness to be found. It is the life rooted and grounded in the Presence, the Life which has been found by the Almighty. Seek it, seek it. Yet it lies beyond seeking. It arises in being found. To have come only as far as religious determination is only to have stood in the vestibule. But our confidence in our shrewdness, in our education, in our talents, in some aspect or other of our self-assured self, is our own undoing. So earnestly busy with anxious, fevered efforts for the kingdom of God have we been, that we failed to hear the knock upon the door, and to know that our chief task is to open that door and be entered by the Divine Life.
…To become unselfed is to become truly integrated as a richer self. The little, time-worn self about which we fretted – how narrow its boundaries, how unstable its base, how strained its structure. But the experience of discovering that life is rooted and grounded in the actual, active, loving Eternal One is also to experience our own personal life firm-textured and stable.
…There is an introduction to suffering which comes with the birth pains of Love. And in such suffering one finds for the first time how deep and profound is the nature and meaning of life. And in such suffering one sees, as if one’s eye were newly opened upon a blinding light, the very Life of the Eternal God himself. And there too is suffering, but there, above all, is peace and victory

5 Kelly, Thomas R. Quaker Spirituality: Selected Writings. New York: Paulist Press, 1984. 307-309.

Vigils Reading - St Ephrem
2023-06-09
THE DAYS ARE PASSING,
AND SOON YOU WILL ENCOUNTER THE END
From the prayers of Ephraim the Syrian6 ◊◊◊
Let us awake from sleep and with sighs call out to the Lord. Day and night let us labor, attending to our correction while our life still lasts, until the time comes when there will be no more place for repentance. Let us stand vigilant at the Bridegroom’s door, that we might enter with the Bridegroom into His bridal chamber and inherit eternal life. Come, let us all sing praises to God at night and imitate the hosts of angels who ceaselessly praise Him. And our Savior, when He arises and comes, accompanied by the angels, and sees our wakefulness and our vigilance, will call us His good servants and will seat us at His banquet.
With the righteous, who have pleased God day and night, let us labor in good things, beg our Lord for mercy; and, singing with David, let us say: at midnight I arose to give thanks unto Thee because of Thy righteous judgements. Spare me and have mercy on me and vouchsafe me the inheritance of Thy kingdom. I will not cease to praise Thee, O our Lord. Ceaselessly will I sing of Thy glory, that Thy truth might not condemn me. I know the extent of my guilt. I know that if Thou dost punish me according to my sins, then my inheritance will be gehenna. Then all hope will be lost. My prayer will be silenced. Have mercy on me therefore, and forgive me my debts… Extend to me Thy right hand and I will arise, like the harlot in Simon’s house, like the thief on the cross. Have mercy on me, Thou Who art kindhearted to sinners…

To Thee, O only good Lord Who bearest no grudges, do I confess my sins. Even were I to keep silent, Thou, O Lord, knowest all, and nothing is hidden before Thine eyes. For Thou, O Lord, hast said by Thy Prophet: declare your sins beforehand and you will be justified. And so I will say: I have sinned, O Lord, and I am not worthy to look up and behold the heights of heaven because of the multitude of mine iniquities… What am I to do, I who am the most miserable of all men? I shall weep over myself day and night, while there is yet time to offer tears… Grant me tears of contrition, O only good and merciful Lord, that with them I might gain from Thee purification from the defilement of my heart…
God requires from us only our consummate determination; it is He Who gives us strength and grants us victory… He gave these lips of dust the capacity to magnify Him, so that through them all creation might sing praise unto Him.
Come, ye who are endowed with speech, let us sing praise unto Him until we repose in the sleep of death.. Let us rouse our bodies with psalms and spiritual hymns that we might join the wise virgins whom our Lord praised, and in vigilance behold His glory in the night that will cause the world to tremble… The body that burdened itself with prayer shall soar through the air on the day of the resurrection; without shame shall it behold its Lord; with Him shall it enter into the habitation of light, where it will be cherished by the angels and by those who here burdened themselves with vigilance and prayer.
Blessed is He Who made us instruments of His glory and put exaltation in our unworthy lips! Praise be to His compassion, for He has made those who were of dust concelebrants with the angels, that every night and at all times they might sing His holy name

6 Ephraim the Syrian. A Spiritual Psalter or Reflections on God. Excerpted by Bishop Theophan the Recluse. Trans. Antonina Janda. Liberty, TN: The St. John of Kronstadt Press, 1997. 150-155.
