Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Jim Finley - Turning to the Mystics
2022-09-16 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York)
Topic: LCG Jim Finley Turning to the Mystics
Time: Dec. 14, 2020 12:00 PM
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Vigils Reading - SS Cornelius & Cyprian
2022-09-16
St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage – from Butler=s Lives of Saints [1]

Caecilius Cyprianus was born about the year 200, probably at Carthage. According to St. Jerome, he was a native of Proconsular Africa. Very little is known of his life before he became a Christian. He was a public orator, teacher of rhetoric, and pleader in the courts, and engaged to the full in the life of Carthage, both public and social. God=s instrument of his conversion, somewhere about middle age, was an old priest, Caecilian, and Cyprian ever reverenced him as his father and guardian angel. Caecilian, in turn, had the greatest confidence in his virtue and on his deathbed recommended his wife and children to Cyprian=s care and protection. A complete change came over Cyrpian=s life. Before his baptism he made a vow of perfect chastity, which greatly astonished the Carthaginians.
With the study of the Holy Scriptures St Cyprian joined that of their best expositors, and in a short time became acquainted with the works of the great religious writers. He particularly delighted in the writings of his countryman Tertullian. Cyprian was soon made a priest, and in 248 he was designated for the bishopric of Carthage. At first he refused and sought to flee, but ultimately yielded and was consecrated.
The Church continued to enjoy peace for about a year after Cyprian=s promotion to the see of Carthage, till the Emperor Decius began his reign by raising a persecution. Years of quiet and prosperity had had a weakening effect among the Christians, and when the edit reached Carthage there was a stampede to the capitol to register apostasies with the magistrates, amid cries of ACyprian to the lions@! from the pagan mob. The bishop was proscribed and his goods ordered forfeited, but Cyprian had already retired to a hiding-place, something that brought upon him much adverse criticism both from Rome and in Africa. He felt placed on the defensive, and set out justifying reasons for his actions in several letters to the clergy.
During the absence of Cyprian a priest who had opposed his Episcopal election, named Novatus, went into open schism. Some among the lapsed, as well as some who were displeased at Cyprian=s discipline toward the former, adhered to him, for Novatus received all apostates who desired to return to the communion of the Church without requiring any canonical penance. Cyprian denounced Novatus, and at a council convened at Carthage when the persecution slackened he read a treatise on the unity of the Church.
The leaders of the schismatics were excommunicated, and Novatus departed to Rome to stir up trouble there, where Novatian had set himself up as antipope. Cyprian recognized Cornelius as the true pope and was active in his support both in Italy and Africa during the ensuing schism. With Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, he rallied the bishops of the East to Cornelius, making it clear to them that to adhere to a false bishop of Rome was to be out of communion with the Church. In connection with these disturbances he added to his treatise on Unity one on the question of the Lapsed.
Cyprian complained in many parts of his works that the peace that the Church had enjoyed enervated some Christians in the watchfulness and spirit of their profession, and had opened the door to many converts who had no true spirit of faith, and many lacked courage to stand the trial. These, whether apostates who had sacrificed to idols or those who had purchased for money certificates that they had offered sacrifice, were the lapsed, who gave rise to the great controversy which raged during and after the Decian persecution. On the side of excessive leniency Novatus went into schism, while Novatian=s severity crystallized into heresy that the Church cannot absolve an apostate at all. At this time those guilty of less heinous sins than apostasy were not admitted to assist at the holy Mysteries before they had gone through a rigorous course of public penance, consisting of several years penance. Relaxations of these penances were granted on extraordinary occasions, and it was also customary to grant Indulgences@ to penitents who received a recommendation from some martyr, or some confessor in prison for the faith. In Cyprian=s time this custom degenerated into an abuse by being granted in too vague and peremptory terms, without examination or discernment.
Cyprian condemned these abuses severely, yet he himself pursued a middle way, and in practice was considerate and lenient. After consulting the Roman clergy, he insisted that his episcopal rulings must be followed without question until the matter could be brought up for discussion by all the African bishops and priests. This was eventually done in 251, at the Council of Carthage.
Between the years 252 and 254 Carthage was visited by a terrible plague. Cyprian organized the Christians of the city and spoke to them strongly on the duty of mercy and charity, teaching them that they ought to extend their care not only to their own people, but also to their enemies and persecutors.
In August 257 was promulgated the first edict of Valerian=s persecution, which forbade all assemblies of Christians and which required bishops, priests and deacons to take part in official worship under pain of exile. On August 30 the bishop of Carthage was brought before the proconsul. Paternus ordered him into exile, but when Galerius replaced him ads proconsul, Cyprian was recalled from exile and again put on trial. Once more, however, he refused to offer sacrifice to pagan gods, and on this occasion he was sentenced to death by beheading. The sentence was carried out immediately. It was September 14, 258.
[1] Butler=s Lives of the Saints, Revised edition, edited by Michael Walsh, Harper, San Francisco,
1991m p. 289

Vigils Reading - Our Lady of Sorrows
2022-09-15
From a Sermon in Honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Amadeus of Lusanne (CF 18:105-106)
With deep calling to deep, two loves had come together into one and from the two loves was made a single love when the Virgin mother gave to her Son the love she gave to God, and showed her love for her son in loving God. Therefore the more she loved, the more she grieved and the greatness of her love brought the increase of her suffering.
What was she doing when she stood on Calvary and saw the cross, the nails, the wounds of the One who was dying in innocence and the insatiable cruelty of the Pharisee afire with malice? [Jesus] hung there atoning not for his sins but for ours, and the Pharisees with the Scribes, mocking him, struck him on the head and offered to his lips vinegar mingled with gall that there might be fulfilled the prophecy of David, saying in the person of Christ, ‘They added to the pain of my wounds.’ In the midst of this the Mother of God was distressed in mind, and sorrows seized upon her as upon a woman in childbirth. There are groans, sobs, sighs, sorrow, grief, agony, distress of heart, fires, a death more cruel than death. There life is not taken away yet the bitterness of death is suffered. O memory to be revered, full of devotion and tears, to recall how that glorious holy soul suffered, and what anguish she endured in the death of Christ. The pale face of Jesus reflected the bloodless face of his mother. He suffered in the flesh, she in her heart. Finally the insults and scoffing of the wicked came back upon his mother’s head. The Lord’s death was to her more bitter than her own [would have been]. Although, taught by the Spirit, she would not doubt the resurrection, yet she had to drink the Father’s cup and to know the hour of her own passion. Concerning this, the venerable Simeon prophesied to her: ‘A sword shall pierce your soul.’ O Lord Jesus, terrible in your counsels beyond the sons of men, you did not spare your mother from the sword piercing her soul. By this road must we all pass by the fiery sword turning this way and that to the tree of life which is in the midst of paradise.
But to return: Blessed Mary was able to cry out that which was especially appropriate to Christ: ‘O all you who pass by, behold and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow. What a sorrow and how great! And in that sorrow what was Mary like? Alas, as she was then, how different from the girl who had once tended her son amid a choir of angels while shepherds worshiped and Magi adored him with an offering of mystic gifts. Very different, not indeed in virtue but in sadness, not in grace but in grief. For she increased in virtue and grew in grace. For set in the midst of adversity she neither relaxed her modesty nor lost the strength of her constancy.

Vigils Reading - Exaltation of Holy Cross
2022-09-14
The Triumph of the Cross: a reading from a treatise by St. John Chrysostom.1

Isaiah made it clear that Christ will raise up all men when he said: “The dead shall be raised up again, even those in the tombs shall be raised up. For the dew from you is healing for them.” That was not all. After his cross, after his slaughter, his glory will shine forth more brightly; after his resurrection, he will advance the message of his Gospel still more.
He was bound, betrayed by an apostle, spat upon, outraged with insults, scourged, nailed to the cross, and, as far as [some] were concerned, he did not deserve to be buried in a tomb. His executioners divided his garments. They suspected that he aspired to be a king, and he died for it. “For everyone who makes himself king, sets himself against Caesar.” They suspected him of blasphemy, and he died for it. “Behold, you have heard his blasphemy.”
Even though he would undergo all these torments, he roused up those who would listen, he stirred them to courage by saying: “Do not be afraid because of these things which they did to me. I was crucified, I was scourged, I was outraged and insulted by robbers, I was arrested on suspicion of blasphemy and of being a king. But after my death and resurrection, people will look on my sufferings in such a way that no one will say that they were not filled with abundant value and honor.”
Certainly, this did come to pass. And a prophet predicted it long beforehand when he said: “There shall be the root of Jesse, even he who rises up to rule nations. In him nations will put their trust, and his resting place shall be glorious.” This kind of death is more glorious than a crown. Certainly, kings have laid aside their crowns and taken up the cross, the symbol of his death. On their purple robes is the cross, on their crowns is the cross, at their public prayers is the cross, on their weapons is the cross, on the sacred table of their altar is the cross. Everywhere in the world, the cross shines forth more brightly than the sun. As it says in the Scriptures: “And his resting place shall be glorious.”
In human affairs things do not generally happen that way. Men of distinction flourish while they are alive; after they die, their exploits are reduced to nothing. Anyone could see how true this is not only in the case of the wealthy and rulers but even in the case of the emperor himself. Their laws are abrogated, their images are obscured, people’s memory of them is blotted out, their name is forgotten, those who enjoyed their favor are held in scorn. This is the lot even of those emperors who waged wars, of those who, by their nod, changed the conditions of peoples, cities, and affairs, of those who had the power to put men to death, of those who could give a reprieve to men on their way to execution. But all their great powers have perished despite the great honors shown to them while they were alive.
With Christ it is quite the opposite. Before the cross, his situation was one of shame and dejection. Judas betrayed him, Peter denied him, the others fled. He stood alone and was led off in the midst of his foes; many who had believed in him now deserted him. But after he had died on the cross, his situation was not destroyed but became brighter, more glorious, and more sublime. From this you may understand that the crucified one was no mere man.

1 Demonstration Against the Pagans That Christ is God. Trans. Paul W. Harkins, Fathers of the Church Series, vol. 73. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1985. pp.221ff.

Vigils Reading - St John Chrysostom
2022-09-13
St John Chrysostom – from a book:
The Fathers of the Church” By Pope Benedict XVI [1]

St John Chrysostom was born on Antioch in Syria om 344.. His father died when he was an infany, and his mother Anthusa raised him. He studied with the most famous rhetorician of the day, Libanus. Baptized as a young adult in 368, John undertook an ascetic life for four years, living alone on the neighboring Mount Silpius. He extended his stay for a further two years, living alone in a cave under the guidance of an old hermit.
Having fallen ill, he found it impossible to care for himself and returned to the city and was ordained a deacon and then a priest from 386 to 397 he preached in the cathedral at Antioch, perhaps the most satisfying and happiest years of his life. There he delivered courses of sermons on books of the Bible. John was nicknamed “Chrysostom”, that is, “golden mouthed”, because of his elqquebce,
In 397 he was taken, almost by force, to Constantinople, ordained bishop, and made patriarch of the capitol city. He lives ascetically and showed deep concern fpr the poor and the sick. But his style of life offended some powerful people, including the Empress Eudoxia. Theophilus, the patriarch of Alexandria, was also among his enemies, and in 403 Theophilus presided at a synod near Constantinople that deposed John. John was banished twice, the first time for only a short while. But during the second exile he died on September 14, 407 while being forced to travel in harsh weather. John is known for a large corpus of homilies, most of them on Scripture. Among his best known and most read books are the six books On the Priesthood.
[1] Fathwers of the Church – Pope Benedict XVI =erdmans Publishing C0 – Grahnd Rapids, MI – 2020 – pg 169

Vigils Reading
2022-09-12
Wisdom as the source of life,
from Pathways in Scripture by Damasus Winzen. [1]

The most wonderful field for contemplation is the way in which God led his chosen people through the vicissitudes of history. Sections of the book of Wisdom, as well as Sirach reviews the course of Jewish history to praise the magnitude of God=s mercy in which he delivered Israel, his firstborn, out of the hands of them that sought his life. There is no better way to a deep understanding of the Scripture than the passages of Wisdom which refer the whole history of the patriarchs to the constant presence of wisdom in God=s chosen ones. A few words are sufficient, for example, to put Noah in the full light of God=s eternal designs fulfilled in Christ: When the deluge destroyed the earth, wisdom healed it again, steering the course of the just one with contemptible wood. When wisdom throw=s her light on the great fathers of the chosen people, they begin to shine as the images of him in whom they were all fulfilled. Sirach is a master in the art of painting, with a few strokes, a faithful picture of the great spiritual leaders of Israel and in their portraits we recognize the features of Christ…

The teaching of the sapiential books would not be complete, however, without the revelation of two other great mysteries, which represent in some way the beginning and the end of God’s ways: the mystery of the divine personality of the Word of God, and that of the eternal life of the just. Wisdom is not a mental image or an abstract thought or a guiding principle. It is a divine person. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made anything from the beginning. I was set up from eternity and of old before the earth was made. I was with him in forming all things; and was delighted every day, playing before him at all times, playing in the world, and my delights were to be with the children of men (Prov 8:22ff). It is the inner nature of wisdom to be the true, substantial image of the Father=s glory. The words of wisdom: For she is the breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of his almighty glory, a reflection of the everlasting light and a spotless mirror of God’s majesty, and the image of his goodness were used in the letter to the Hebrews (1:3) to describe the only-begotten Son of God.

If wisdom were only a personification of the law she would be dead. Only as a divine person can she become a source of life. Though she is one, she can do all things, and while remaining in herself she makes everything new (Wis 7:27). As this is shown in the beginning of creation, so still more gloriously at the end. The last triumph of wisdom is the last judgment, which will bring eternal life to the just. In the earlier periods of the Old Testament revelation, the immortality of the soul was shrouded in mystery. Now it enters into the full light of faith. The souls of the just are in the hands of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them. In the eyes of the unwise they seemed to die, but they are in peace (Wis 3:1-2).

From the beginning to the end the universal rule of wisdom has been established. Nevertheless, those whose eyes have been opened in baptism to the light of Christ will realize that the teaching of Solomon lacks one thing: the foolishness of God, Christ crucified. Wisdom was going to be more than a guide to the wise, more than eternal life for the just, more, even, than the beginning of creation. She was to become the Lamb who should not only expose but take away the sin of the world. The Wisdom of Solomon preached reward to the virtuous and death to those who hate her. But more than Solomon is here, where Christ Jesus becomes unto us sinners wisdom and justice and sanctification, and redemption through the foolishness of the cross (1Cor 1:30).
[1] Ann Arbor, Michigan: Word of Life, 1976, pp. 192-194.

Vigils Reading
2022-09-11
A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke by Peter Chrysologus 1
Finding something we have lost gives us a fdresh joy, and we are happier at having found the lost object that we should have been had we never lost it. This parable, however, is concerned more with divine tenderness and compassion than with human behavior, and it expresses a great truth. Humans are too greedy to forsake things of value for love of anything inferior. That is something only God can do. For God not only brought what was not into being, but he also went after what was lost while still protecting what he left behind, but he also went after what was lost while still protecting what he had left behind, and found what was lost without losing what he had in safe keeping.
This story, then, speaks of no earthly shepherd but of a heavenly one , and far from being a portrayal of human activity, this whole parable conceals divine mysteries, as becomes clear from the number mentioned when Christ says: Which of you, if you had a hundred sheep and lost one of them… You see how the loss of a single sheep made the shepherd grieve as though the whole flock were no longer in safe keeping but had gone astray, and how this made him leave the ninety-nine to go after the lost one and search for it, so that its recovery might make the flock complete again.
But let us now unfold the hidden meaning of this heavenly parable. The man who owns the hundred sheep is Christ. He is the good shepherd, the loving shepherd, who in a single sheep, that is in Adam, fashioned the whole flock of humankind. He set this sheep in a place of rich pasturage amidst the pleasures of paradise, but heedless of the shepherd’s voice it trusted in nthe howling of wolves, lost the protection of the sheepfold, and was pierced through by deadly wounds.
Christ therefore came into the world to loook for it, and he found it in nthe Virgin’s womb. He came in the body assumed at his human birth, and raising that body on the cross, he placed the lost bsheep on his own shoulders by his passion. Then in the intense joy of the resurrection he brought it to his heavenly home. And he called his friends and neighbors, that is the angels, and said to them: Rejoice with me, for I have found the sheep that was lost.
The angels joined Christ in gladness and rejoicing at the return of the Lord’s sheep. They did not take it amiss that he now reigned over them upon the throne of majesty, for the sin of envy had long since been banished from heaven together with the devil, and it could not gain entry there again through the Lamb who took away the sin of the world!
Brothers and sisters, Christ sought us on earth; let us seek him in heaven. He has borne us up to the glory of his divinity; let us bear him in our bodies by holiness. As the apostle says: Glorify and bear God in your bodies. That person bears God in his b0ody whose bodily activities are free from sin.
1Journey with the Fathers – Year C – New City Press – New York – 1971 – pg 116

Skema Wk 24 ORD
2022-09-11
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
24th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (II)
September 11 – 17, 2022

Sun
11
Mon
12
Tue
13
Wed
14
Thu
15
Fri
16
Sat
17

Office
24thSunday
Weekday
St John Chrysostom
Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Our Lady of Sorrows
SS Cornelius & Cyprian
Office for the Dead

Vigils
2 Macc 9:13-29
2 Macc 10:1-19
2 Macc 10:20-38
Isa 52:13-53:12
2 Macc 7:20-41
2 Macc 11:1-15
2 Macc 11:16-38

Lauds
Amos 6:8-14
Amos 7:1-6
Amos 7:7-9
Isa 45:21-25
Baruch 4:9b-20
Amos 7:10-17
Amos 8:1-8

Mass
132
443
444
638
639
447
448

1st
Exod 32:7-11, 13-14
1 Cor 11:17-26, 33
1 Cor 12:12-14, 27-31a
Phil 2:6-11
Heb 5:7-9
1 Cor 15:12-20
1 Cor 15:35-37, 42-49

2nd
1 Tim 1:12-17

Gospel
Luke 15:1-32
Luke 7:1-10
Luke 7:11-17
John 3:13-17
John 19:25-27
Luke 8:1-3
Luke 8:4-15

Vespers
1 Tim 1:12-20
1 Tim 2:1-8
1 Tim 3:1-7
Gal 6:14-18
Col 1:21-24
1 Tim 3:8-13
1 Tim 3:14-4:5

Weekday
2022-09-10
A READING ABOUT THE ORDER AND HARMONY WHICH GOD HAS GIVEN TO THE WORLD, from a letter to the Corinthians by St Clement, pope[1].
Let us fix our gaze on the Father and Creator of the whole world, and let us hold on to his peace and blessings, his splendid and surpassing gifts. Let us contemplate him in our thoughts and with our mind’s eye reflect upon the peaceful and restrained unfolding of his plan; let us consider the care with which he provides for the whole of his creation.
By the Creator’s direction the heavens are in motion, and they are subject to him in peace. Day and night fulfill the course the Creator has established without interfering with each other. The sun, the moon and the choirs of stars revolve in harmony at his command in their appointed paths without deviation. By the will of the Creator the earth blossoms in the proper seasons and produces abundant food for us and for animals and all the living things on it without reluctance and without any violation of what he has arranged.
Yet unexplored regions of the abysses and inexpressible realms of the deep are subject to the Creator’s laws. The mass of the boundless sea, joined together by his ordinance in a single expanse, does not overflow its prescribed limits but flows as he commanded it. For God said: “Thus far shall you come, and your waves will be halted here.” The ocean, impassable for humankind, and the worlds beyond it are governed by the same edicts of the Lord.
The seasons, spring, summer, autumn and winter, follow one another in harmony. The quarters from which the winds blow function in due season without the least deviation. And the ever-flowing springs, created for our health as well as our enjoyment, unfailingly offer their breasts to sustain human life. The tiniest of living creatures meet together in harmony and peace. The great Creator and Lord of the universe commanded all these things to be established in peace and harmony, in his goodness to all, and in overflowing measure to us who seek refuge in his mercies through our Lord Jesus Christ; to him be glory and majesty for ever and ever. Amen.
[1]The Letter to the Corinthians, Cap 19,2–20,12:Funk 1, 87-89.

St. Peter Claver
2022-09-09
The patron of all missionary enterprises among Negroes: a reading about St. Peter Claver from Butler’s Lives of the Saints.
He was born in Catalonia, about 1581, and as he showed fine qualities of mind and spirit was destined for the Church and sent to study at the University of Barcelona. Here he graduated with distinction [and entered] the Society of Jesus. He left Spain forever in April 1610, and was ordained priest at Cartagena, in what is now the republic of Colombia. By the time of his ordination the slave trade had been established in the Americas for nearly a hundred years, and the port of Cartagena was one of its principal centers, being conveniently situated as a clearing house. The trade had recently been given a considerable impetus, for the local Indians were not physically fitted to work in the gold and silver mines, and there was a big demand for Negroes from Angola and the Congo.
At this time the leader of the work among the Negroes was Father Alfonso de Sandoval, a great Jesuit missionary who spent forty years in the service of the slaves, and after working under him Peter Claver declared himself “the slave of the Negroes forever”. Although by nature shy and without self-confidence he threw himself into the work with method and organization. He enlisted bands of assistants, and as soon as a slave-ship entered the port he went to wait on its living freight. The slaves were disembarked and shut up in the yards. Into these yards or sheds St. Peter Claver plunged, with medicines and food, bread, brandy, lemons, tobacco to distribute among the Negroes, some of whom were too frightened, others too ill, to accept them. “We must speak to them with our hands, before we try to speak to them with our lips”, Claver would say. When he came upon any who were dying he baptized them, and then sought out all babies born on the voyage that he might baptize them. He had a band of seven interpreters, one of whom spoke four Negro dialects, and with their help he taught the slaves and prepared them for baptism, not only in groups but individually. He made use of pictures, showing our Lord suffering on the cross for the; above all he tried to instill in them some degree of self-respect, to give them at least some idea that as redeemed human beings they had dignity and worth, even if as slaves they were outcast and despised.
It is estimated that in forty years St. Peter Claver instructed and baptized over 300,000 slaves. When there was time and opportunity he took the same trouble to teach them how properly to use the sacrament of penance, and in one year is said to have heard the confessions of more than five thousand. Many of the stories both of the heroism and of the miraculous powers of St. Peter Claver concern his nursing of sick and diseased Negroes, in circumstances often that no one else, black or white, could face.
In 1650 he went to preach the jubilee among the Negroes along the coast, but sickness attacked his emaciated and weakened body, and he was recalled to the Jesuit residence at Cartagena. But here a virulent epidemic had begun to show itself, and one of the first to be attacked among the Jesuits was the debilitated missionary, so that his death seemed at hand. After receiving the last sacraments he recovered, but he was a broken man. For the rest of his life pain hardly left him, and a trembling in his limbs made it impossible for him to celebrate Mass. He perforce became almost entirely inactive, but would sometimes hear confessions, especially of his dear friend Doŋa Isabella de Urbina, who had always generously supported his work with her money. Otherwise he remained in his cell, not only inactive but even forgotten and neglected.
On September 6, 1654 he was taken very ill and became comatose. The rumor of his approaching end spread round the city, everyone suddenly remembered the saint again, and numbers came to kiss his hands before it was too late; his cell was stripped of everything that could be carried off as a relic. St. Peter Claver never fully recovered consciousness, and died two days later on the birthday of our Lady. The civil authorities who had looked askance at his solicitude for mere Negro slaves, and the clergy, who had called his zeal indiscreet and his energy wasted, now vied with one another to honor his memory.
St. Peter Claver was never again forgotten and his fame spread throughout the world: he was canonized in 1888 and was declared by Pope Leo XIII patron of all missionary enterprises among Negroes.

Nativity of B. V. M.
2022-09-08
A reading from a sermon for Our Lady’s Birthday
by Blessed Guerric of Igny (CF 32:192-193)
As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odor. Today we celebrate the birthday of the blessed Virgin Mother from whom the Life of all things took his birth. Today is the birthday of that Virgin from whom the Savior of all men willed to be born in order that he might give to all who were born to death the power to be reborn to life. Today is the birthday of that new Mother who has destroyed the curse brought by the first mother’ so that all those who through the fault of the first had been born under the yoke of eternal condemnation might instead, through her, inherit a blessing. She is indeed the new Mother, for she has brought new life to her children already hardening with age and has healed the defect of both inborn and acquired senility. Yes indeed. She is the new Mother, who by an unheard of miracle has given birth in such a way that, becoming a mother, she has not ceased to be a Virgin. And she has given birth to the Child who created all things, even the Mother herself.
It is indeed a wonderful new thing, this fruitful virginity, but far more wonderful is the novelty of the Child born of it. No one who admits that the Child was God, finds any difficulty in believing his Mother remained a Virgin. His birth in no wise could injure the physical integrity of his Mother, this Child who went about making even the diseased whole. Nor could the reality of the body he assumed be thought to limit the power of the Creator as if he could not retain for himself what he gives to many of his creatures. For you find not a few creatures that are born without any harm to the integrity of the parents. In their own way all these bear witness to their Creator’s own immaculate birth.
But the Mother herself, who was quite aware of the mystery surrounding her, has spoken and taught us how and what she brought forth. She speaks however not in contemporary or recent arguments but in the ancient oracles of prophecy, because, as the Apostle Peter tells us, the word of prophecy is a stronger witness than miracles. Indeed what is less open to deceit or suspect of falsity than the testimony from heaven about one not yet born? Long before her birth therefore the Spirit, who would later make his abode in her, borrowed Mary’s voice to defend both the divinity of the Child and the integrity of the Mother – all his own handiwork – against the blasphemies of unbelievers. In her person, if we are to follow a common opinion, he uttered the words you have just heard: As the vine, I have brought forth a pleasant odor
In their context, these words must be applied to the Person of Wisdom himself, that is, the Son. But you know quite well from the rules of Sacred Scripture that this does not mean they cannot be applied also to the Mother, like so many other passages. You know too that there is other evidence, enough, and more than enough, bearing on this question, which is more familiar to you and much clearer than this. But you must not be cheated in your expectations of what today’s lesson can teach us.

Weekday
2022-09-07
TO KNOW THE FATHER THROUGH THE INCARNATE WISDOM,
from a Discourse by St Athanasius[1]
The only-begotten Son, the Wisdom of God, created the entire universe. Scripture says: ” You have made all things by your wisdom, and the earth is full of your creatures”. Yet simply to be was not enough: God also wanted his creatures to be good. That is why God was pleased that his own wisdom should descend to their level and impress upon each of them singly and upon all of them together a certain resemblance to their Model. It would then be manifest that God’s creatures shared in his wisdom and that his works were worthy of him.
For the word we speak is an image of the Word who is God’s Son, so also is the wisdom implanted in us an image of the Wisdom who is God’s Son. It gives us the ability to know and understand and so makes us capable of receiving him who is the all-creative Wisdom, through whom we can come to know the Father. “Whoever has the Son has the Father also”, Scripture says, and “Whoever receives me receives the One who sent me”. And so, since this image of the Wisdom of God has been produced in us and in all creatures, the true and creative Wisdom rightly takes to himself what applies to his image and says: “The Lord created me in his works.”
But because “the world was not wise enough to recognize God in his wisdom,” as we have explained it, “God determined to save those who believe by means of the ‘foolish’ message that we preach.” Not wishing to be known any longer, as in former times, through the mere image and shadow of his wisdom existing in creatures, he caused the true Wisdom himself to take flesh, to become like us, and to suffer death on the cross so that all who believed in him might be saved by faith.
Yet this was the same Wisdom of God who had in the beginning revealed himself and his Father through himself by means of his image in creatures (which is why Wisdom too is said to be created). Later, as John declares, that Wisdom who is also the Word, became flesh and after destroying the power of death and saving our race, he revealed himself and the Father through himself with greater clarity. “Grant”, he prayed, “that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
So now the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of God, since it is one and the same thing to know the Father through the Son, and to know the Son who comes from the Father. The Father rejoices in his Son, and with the same joy the Son delights in the Father and says: “I was his joy; every day I took delight in his presence.”
[1]ORATIO 2, 78. 81-82: PG 26, 311. 319.

Rule of Benedict: Reflection. 7 pm CDT
2022-09-06 19:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago)
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Jan. 6-May 7-Sept. 6-Prologue 39-44
So, brothers and sisters, we have asked the Lord who is to dwell in His tent, and we have heard His commands to anyone who would dwell there; it remains for us to fulfill those duties. Therefore we must prepare our hearts and our bodies to do battle under the holy obedience of His commands; and let us ask God that He be pleased to give us the help of His grace for anything which our nature finds hardly possible. And if we want to escape the pains of hell and attain life everlasting, then, while there is still time, while we are still in the body and are able to fulfill all these things by the light of this life, we must
hasten to do now what will profit us for eternity.
END OF READING

Weekday
2022-09-06
From a Homily by St Valerian of Cimiez 1
Dearly beloved, our yearning for eternal life is fired with great hope if from time to time we recall the deeds of individual martyrs. As often as the mother of the Maccabees occurs to our memory, our soul bestirs itself with a joy somehow far greater to love God and win his favor. By the encouragement she gave, she on one day put the crown of martyrdom on seven sons. She was just as strong in faith as she was fruitful in offspring.
In her case there are as many proofs of her virtues as she had sons. For, on one day she gave to the almighty God as many martyrs as she had gained sons on separate occasions of motherhood. Blessed is she among mothers, and more fortunate still in her bereavement! Her faith brought her this great blessing: to migrate on one day with all her offspring to the glory of the heavenly kingdom.
Turn your attention from her to that passage in the gospel which tells us that we should prefer neither parents nor children to Christ. Let it be, perhaps, with some a glorious thing, to be explained with salutary examples, that they have offered one son as a victim to God. This mother has exceeded all the power and wishes of souls – so much so that in the grief of her fierce suffering she did not let the affections of her motherly love keep back even one of her sons.
Furthermore, notice through how many degrees of virtue her precious faith grew. It is enough to acquiesce once. Yet, because of her love of the Lord, through her willing bereavement she did violence to her motherly love seven times. She was well aware of what she was about, since she knew that all her offspring were taking their place in that eternity of liffe, according to the scriptural statement: He who loves his life will lose it; and he who hates his life, keeps it to everlasting life.
O new and admirable example of virtue! A mother rejoices in her own bereavement, and her love gains profit from the same source which brought it loss After she has sent ahead her youngest son whom she loves so tenderly, she herself enters the way of glorious death. Pained for a short while by innumerable tortures, she followed her sons in triumph. Despising this short-lived light, she extended her grasp toward heavenly and eternal goods.
Therefore, dearly beloved, if any mother has anxiety for the children of her womb, let her imitate the numerous and brave examples this mother has left. If anyone has gazed on her with eagerness to emulate her, without any doubt he makes his way gifted with the honor of far greater glory. Hence, let any mother whatever judge her children worthy of this honor.
Furthermore, let those who serve Christ imitate the struggles of those brave men.
1A Word in Season – vol. VIII – Augustinian Press – 1999 – pg 234

Weekday--Labor Day
2022-09-05
THE HUMAN DIMENSIONS OF ECONOMY, a Statement by the Catholic Bishops of the United States[1]
Our own rich heritage of Catholic teaching offers important direction and insight. Most importantly, we are guided by the concern for the poor and afflicted shown by Jesus, who came to “bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, new sight to the blind, and to set the downtrodden free” (Lk 4:18). In addition, the social encyclicals of the popes and documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Synod of Bishops defend the basic human right to useful employment, just wages, and decent working conditions as well as the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively. They condemn unemployment, maldistribution of resources, and other forms of economic injustice and call for the creation of useful work experiences and new forms of industrial organization enabling workers to share in decision making, increased production, and even ownership. Again and again they point out the interrelation of economics and ethics, urging that economic activity be guided by social morality.
Catholic teaching on economic issues flows from the Church’s commitment to human rights and human dignity. This living tradition articulates a number of principles which are useful in evaluating our current economic situation. Without attempting to set down an all-inclusive list, we draw the following principles from the social teachings of the Church and ask that policymakers and citizens ponder their implications.
Economic activity should be governed by justice and be carried out within the limits of morality. It must serve people’s needs. The right to have a share of earthly goods sufficient for oneself and one’s family belongs to everyone. Economic prosperity is to be assessed not so much from the sum total of goods and wealth possessed as from the distribution of goods according to norms of justice. Opportunities to work must be provided for those who are able and willing to work. Every person has the right to useful employment, to just wages, and to adequate assistance in case of real need.
Economic development must not be left to the sole judgment of a few persons or groups possessing excessive economic power, or to the political community alone. On the contrary, at every level the largest possible number of people should have an active share in directing that development. A just and equitable system to taxation requires assessment according to ability to pay. Government must play a role in the economic activity of its citizens. Indeed, it should promote in a suitable manner the production of a sufficient supply of material goods. Moreover, it should safeguard the rights of all citizens, and help them find opportunities for employment.
[1]PASTORAL LETTERS, Vol. IV, 1975-1983, Ed. by Hugh J. Nolan (U.S. Cath. Conference, 1984) pp. 93-94.

Skema: 23rd Week in Ordinary Time
2022-09-04 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York)
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
23rd Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (II)
September 4 – 10, 2022

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

Office
23rd Sunday
Weekday Labor Day
Weekday
Weekday
Nativity of the BVM
St Peter Claver
Weekday

Vigils
2 Macc 6:18-31
2 Macc 7:1-19
2 Macc 7:20-42
2 Macc 8:1-21a
Gen 3:8-20
2 Macc 8:21b-36
2 Macc 9:1-12

Lauds
Amos 4:11-13
Amos 5:1-6, 8-9
Amos 5:7, 10-15
Amos 5:16-20
Baruch 5:1-9
Amos 5:21-27
Amos 6:1-7

Mass
129
437
438
439
636
441
442

1st
Wis 9:13-18b
1 Cor 5:1-8
1 Cor 6:1-11
1 Cor 7:25-31
Micah 5:1-4a
1 Cor 9:16-19, 22b-27
1 Cor 10:14-22

2nd
Phlm 9-10, 12-17

Gospel
Luke 14:25-33
Luke 6:6-11
Luke 6:12-19
Luke 6:20-26
Matt 1:18-23
Luke 6:39-42
Luke 6:43-49

Vespers
2 Thess 1:1-7, 11-12
2 Thess 2:1-10
2 Thess 2:11-17
2 Thess 3:1-10
Rom 8:28-39
2 Thess 3:11-18
1 Tim 1:1-11

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
2022-09-04
A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke by John Cassian [1]
The tradition of the Fathers and the authority of holy scriptures both affirm that there are three renunciations which every one of us must strive to practice. To these let us turn our attention.
First, on the material level, we have to despise all worldly wealth and possessions; secondly, we must reject our former way of life with its vices and attachments, both physical and spiritual; and thirdly, we should withdraw our mind from all that is transitory and visible to contemplate solely what lies in the future and to desire what is unseen
We read that the Lord commended Abraham to make all three renunciations at once when he said to him: Leave your country and your kindred and your father’s house. First he said your country, meaning worldly wealth and possessions; secondly your kindred, that is our former way of living, with its habits and vices which have grown up with us and are as familiar to us as kith and kin; thirdly your father’s house, in other words every secular memory aroused by what you see.
This forgetfulness will be achieved when, dead with Christ to the elemental spirits of this world, we contemplate as the apostle says not the things that are seen, for what is seen is temporal but what is unseen is eternal. It will be achieved when in our hearts we leave this temporal and visible house and turn the eyes of our mind toward that in which we shall live for ever; when, though living in the world, we cease to follow the spirit of the world in order to fight for the Lord, proclaiming by our holy way of life that, as the apostle says, our homeland is in heaven. `
It avails little to undertake the first of these renunciations, even with wholehearted devotion inspired by faith, unless we carry out the second with the same zeal and fervor. Then having accomplished this as well we shall be able to go on to the third, whereby we leave the house of our former father, of him who fathered us as members of a fallen race, children of wrath like everyone else, and turn our inward gaze solely toward heavenly things.
We shall attain to the perfection of this third renunciation when our mind, no longer dulled by contact with a pampered body, has been cleansed by the most searching refinement from every worldly sentiment and attitude, and raised by constant meditation on divine things and spiritual contemplation to the realm of the invisible. It will then lose all awareness of the frail body enclosing it or the place it occupies, so absorbed will it be by things divine and spiritual.
Journey with the Fathers – Year C -,New York City Press – 1994 – pg 114
[1] Journey wuth the Fathers 0 Year C 0 New City Press – 1994 0 pg 114

Vigils Reading - St Gregory the Great
2022-09-03
A reading using our gifts for the service of others,
from St. Gregory the Great’s treatise Pastoral Care.

There are those who are gifted with virtues in a high degree and who are exalted by great endowments for the training of others; men who are unspotted in their zeal for chastity, strong in the vigor of their abstinence, replete with feasts of knowledge, humble in their long-suffering patience, erect in the fortitude of authority, gentle in the grace of loving-kindness, strict and unbending in justice. Such, indeed in declining to undertake supreme rule when invited to do so, deprive themselves, for the most part, of the gifts which they have received not for their own sakes only, but for the sake of others also.

When these regard their own personal advantage, not that of others, they lose such advantages in wishing to retain them for themselves, Hence it was that the Truth said to the disciples: “A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house” (Mt 5.14-15). [For this reason] He said to Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” And when Simon replied at once that he loved Him, he was told: “If you love me, feed my sheep” (Jn 21.17). If, then, the care of feeding is a testimony of love, he who, abounding in virtues, refuses to feed the flock of God, is convicted of having no love for the Supreme Shepherd. [It is because of this that] Paul says: “If Christ died for all, then all were dead. And if He died for all, it remains that they also who live, may not now live only for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Cor 5.14-15). Thus, Moses says that the surviving brother must take the wife of his brother who died without children, and raise up children for his brother’s name; and should he refuse to take her, she shall spit in his face…

Now, the deceased brother is [the Lord] who, appearing after the glory of the Resurrection, said: “Go, tell my brethren;” for He died, as it were, without sons, because He had not yet filled up the number of the elect. The surviving brother is ordered to take the wife, because it is fitting that the care of Holy [Mother] Church should be assigned to him who is best fitted to rule it well. If he proves unwilling, the woman spits in his face, because, whosoever does not care to assist others by the favors which he has received, is reprobated by Holy Church also for the good he has, and as it were, she casts spittle in his face….

So, there are those who, endowed, as we have said, with great gifts, in their eagerness for the pursuit of contemplation only, decline to be of service to the neighbor by preaching; they love to withdraw in quietude and desire to be alone for meditation. Now, if they are judged strictly on their conduct, they are certainly guilty in proportion to the public service which they were able to afford. Indeed, what disposition of mind is revealed in him, who could perform conspicuous public benefit on coming to his task, but prefers his own privacy to the benefit of others, seeing that the Only-Begotten of the Supreme Father came forth from the bosom of His Father into our midst, that He might benefit many?

Vigils Reading - Opening of General Chapter
2022-09-02
A Commentary on the Book of Maccabees by St. Augustine 1
When the astonishing martyrdom of the Maccabees is related, not merely do we hear the tale told, but we see it enacted, as it were, before us. It all happened before the incarnation, before the passion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In that ancient nation, where the prophets lived their lives, there had been those who foretold what was now happening. Let no one think that before there was a Christian people there were no people dedicated to God either. For indeed, if one may speak as the truth dictates, rather than as ordinary language dictates, the people we are thinking about were even then a Christian people. For not even Christ himself began to have a people of his own until after his passion: but yet these people of his were descended from Abraham. Abraham lobged to see my day; he saw it and rejoiced. This then is to be commended to your charity: that in your admiration for those martyrs you might think that they were not Christians; but Christians indeed they were, though the word “Christians”, current only later, must here be understood as preceding what was to happen later.
A Jew might object and say: How do you reckon these people of ours to be martyrs of yours? What an outrage for you to celebrate their memory! Take what they actually said and just see whether they confessed Christ! Well, what can we say to that? No, indeed, they did not confess Christ openly, or explicitly: for the mystery of Christ was still under a veil. The Old Testament is a veiled version of the New and the New Testament is the unveiled Old Testament. From it, Christ began to be preached most openly of all only after the resurrection. The prophetic sayings contained in it then began to be most manifestly fulfilled.
The Christian martyrs overtly confessed him whom the Maccabees have confessed covertly. Some martyrs died for the Christ revealed and unveiled in the gospels; but the Maccabees died for the name of Christ still veiled in the old law. Christ has both kinds in his service, like some great general making a conquest with his army of subjects, some far ahead and some following on behind. And that you may clearly understand how it is that those who die for the law of Moses die for Christ, here are Christ’s own words: If you had believed Moses you would believe me also. The Maccabees, then, are martyrs for Christ. We venerate their memory, we keep hold of it; their sufferings have been imitated by thousands of holy martyrs throughout the world. So let no one hesitate, dear brethren, to imitate the Maccabees, thinking that he would not thereby be imitating Christians. Let the will to imitate them be fervent and strong in our hearts. Let husbands learn to die for the truth. Let wives learn from that mother’s heroic patience, from that virtue beyond telling; for she knew well how she could have saved her sons. She knew how to keep them but feared not to lose them.
1A Word in Season – vol. VIII – Augustinian Press – 1999 – pg 232

Vigils Reading
2022-09-01
A Commentary on the Second Book of Maccabees by Damasus Winzen 1
In the books of Maccabees the opposition between Judaism and Hellenism reaches its climax, but these books also point to the eventual absorption of both Judaism and Hellenism into the unity of the far higher Christian revelation. Hellenism cultivated the idea of harmony between beauty and goodness through equal devekopment of mind and body but it scoffed at the idea of the resurrection of the flesh, and thus rejected what would have been its own last fulfillment. The ideals of Judaism, on the other hand, transcended this visible world to such a degree that the human body did not seem to matter much. The books of Maccabees put before us the ideal of the martyr. He reaches the unity of mind and body by completely surrendering both as a sacrifice ro God for the redemption of the people. In martyrdom the spirit of God’s selfless love takes absolute possession of the body, and therefore leads to the resurrection of the flesh. The story of the Maccabeab brothers points to the “faithful martyr”, Jesus Christ, who judged Hellenism when he said: “Whoever loves his life (i.e. the whole person, mind and body) will lose it; whoever hates his life in this world, will keep it for eternal life”. Through his passion and glorification the Word of God made flesh fulfilled the ultimate aims both of Judaism and of Hellenism. The latter had rejected the idea of the resurrection of the flesh because it did not know the omnipotence of the Creator. Judaism did not understand how God could become man and die for sinners, because it had not grasped the fullness of his love. Christianity accepted both in the risen Christ who lives in every member of his mystical body.
The Maccabees lived and died for the temple and for the law. Ultimately their struggle ended in failure, because the Jews showed themselves unable to reconcile the two. The bitter antagonism between the men of the temple, the Saducees and the high priests, and the men of the law, the scribes and Pharisees, contributed much to the final destruction of the temple by the Romans in A.D. 70. In the mantime temple and law, body and mind, had found their true unity in the word of God made man. With the coming of the reality the shadows vanished. Judaism was fulfilled in Christ. In the martyrs of the books of Maccabees it touched the very heart of Christianity, the resurrection. By the fact that the Church numbers these heroes of Judaism among her saints, celebrating their anniversary on the first of August, she shows that she is the heir of Judaism. Christ brought that peacebetween Judaism and Hellenism which the heroism of the Maccabees was not able to achieve.
1Pathways in Scripture – Damasus Winzen – Word of Life – Ann Arbor, MI – 1976 – pg 157

Vigils Reading
2022-08-31
A Commentary on the Second Book of Maccabees by Damasus Winzen 1
The second book of Maccabeesd, which presents itself as an abridgement of five volumes which a certain Jason of Cyrene wrote, covers nearly the same period as 1 Maccabees. As introduction the author gives two letters from the Jews in Jerusalem to the Jews in Egypt, recommending the celebration of the dedication of the temple. The main part of the book is divided into two sections, each of which ends in the institution of the anniversary feast: the dedication of the temple and Nicanor’s day in memory of Judas’ greatest victory. Each of the two sections is again divided into two, each treating one of the kings of Syria who persecuted the Jews.
The author of 2 Maccabees evidently stresses the practical and devotional aspects of the valiant struggle of Judas Maccabeus. Of greatest importance to him is the story of the fire, which was given from heaven to the second temple under Nehemiah to show that it equals the tabernacle as well as the temple of Solomon, both of which were dedicated through heavenly fire. The fire descending from heaven is symbolic of “the manifestations that came from heaven to them that behaved manfully on behalf of the Jews, so that, being but a few, they made themselves masters of the whole country, and recovered again the most renowned temple, and delivered the city and restored the laws that were abolished, the Lord with all clemency showing mercy to them”. This fire from heaven triumphed over bodily pains in Eleazar, “one of the leading scribes, and advanced in years,” who groaning under the stripes of the executioners prayed to God: “O Lord, you know I endure dreadful pains in my body, but in my heart I am glad to suffer this because I fear you”. The fire burned in the hearts of the seven brothers who with their mother suffered martyrdom for the law. It gave courage to Judas and his followers in face of overwhelming odds. “They trust in their arms and daring, but we trust in the almighty God, for he is able with a mere nod to strike down not only our enemies but the whole world”.
With these words Judas characterized the spirit in which he conquered. In this spirit he prepared his soldiers for battle through prayer, fasting and reading of God’s word. In this spirit they sang hymns of thanksgiving after victory was won and shared the spoils with orphans and widows. “The help of God” and “the victory of God” were their watchwords. So “fighting with their hands, but praying to God with their hearts” they overcame the rage of the kings, their armor and their elephants, under the leadership of Judas, “who was altogether ready, in body and mind, to die for his countrymen”.

Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
2022-08-30
From Tractate 15 on the Cenobitic or Common Life, by Baldwin of Ford (CF 41:156-157)

It is by no slight or mean or ordinary authority that the institution of the common life is supported and sustained. The primitive Church was built on the common life, and the infancy of the newborn Church began with the common life. It is from the Apostles themselves that the common life has received its form and expression, its title of honor, the privilege of its high position, the testimony of its authority, the protection which defends it, and the foundation of its hope.

It was the Apostles who were established by God as princes over all the earth; princes of the people, gathered together with the God of Abraham; strong gods of the earth who are exceedingly exalted; friends of God, who are greatly honored and whose principality is greatly strengthened; nobles of heaven, judges of the earth, to whom was made the promise that they should sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel; members of the [celestial] senate, who receive swords in their hands to execute vengeance upon the nations and chastisements upon the people, to bind their kings with fetters and their nobles with manacles of iron, to execute upon them the prescribed judgement.

Such men as these, so powerful and so noble, were clothed in virtue from above, and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit they undertook to observe the common life. They confirmed it by their example, sanctioned it by their conduct, and handed it down to us so that we might also keep it. Thus, through the common life, we who are set upon the earth can begin to be fashioned in the likeness of the angels of God, for in the eternal life to come, we shall be united with them as their like and their equal. The common life was instituted by celestial models; it was brought down from heaven and adopted by us from the heavenly way of life of the holy angels.

If the fact that the common life came down from the angels of God to the Apostles and from the Apostles to us is still not sufficient to recommend it to you, then there is a further factor which we can add, something beyond all praise: the common life flowed out from the Fount of Life itself. I am speaking now of that fount of which it is written, With you is the fount of life, and in your light we shall see light. The common life, then, is a sort of radiance from the eternal light, a sort of emanation from the eternal life, a sort of effluence from the everlasting fountain, from which flow living waters, springing up into eternal life.

Vigils Reading - Martyrdom of St John Baptist
2022-08-29
John the Baptist – the Precursor of Christ in birth and death –
From a Homily by St Bede the Venerable [1]

As a forerunner of our Lord’s birth, preaching and death, John showed in his struggle a goodness worthy of the sight of heaven. In the words of Scripture: “Though in the sight of men he suffered torments, his hope is full of immortality.” We justly commemorate the day of his birth with a joyful celebration , a day which he himself made festive for us through his suffering and which he adorned with the crimson splendor of his own blood. We do rightly revere his memory with joyful hearts, for he stamped with the seal of martyrdom the testimony which he delivered on behalf of our Lord.

There is no doubt that blessed John suffered imprisonment and chains as a witness to our Redeemer, whose forerunner he was, and gave his life for him. His persecutor had demanded not that he deny Christ, but only that he should keep silent about the truth. Nevertheless, he died for Christ. Does Christ not say: “I am the truth?” Therefore, because John shed his blood for the truth, he surely died for Christ. Through his birth, preaching and baptizing, he bore witness to the coming birth, preaching and baptism of Christ, and by his own suffering he showed that Christ also would suffer.

Such was the quality and strength of the man who accepted the end of this present life by shedding his blood after the long imprisonment. He preached the freedom of heavenly peace, yet was thrown into irons by ungodly men; he was locked away in the darkness of prison, though he came bearing witness to the Light of life and deserved to be called a bright and shining lamp by that Light itself, which is Christ. John was baptized in his own blood, though he had been privileged to baptize the Redeemer of the world, to hear the voice of the Father above him, and to see the grace of the Holy spirit descending upon him. But to endure temporal agonies for the sake of the truth was not a heavy burden for such men as John; rather it was easily borne and even desirable, for he knew eternal joy would be his reward.

Since death was ever near at hand through the inescapable necessity of nature, such men considered it a blessing to embrace it and thus gain the reward of eternal life by acknowledging Christ’s name. Hence the apostle Paul rightly says: “You have been granted the privilege not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for his sake.” He tells us why it is Christ’s gift that his chosen ones should suffer for him: “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.”

[1] The Liturgy of the Hours – vol. IV – Catholic Book Publishing Co – New York – 1975 – p 1359.

Vigils Reading
2022-08-28
Commentary on the Gospel of Luke by Bruno of Segni 1
Invited to a wedding feast, the Lord looked around and noticed how all were choosing the first and most honorable places, each person wanting to take precedence over the others and to be raised above them. He told them this parable, which even taken literally is most useful and appropriate for all who like to be honored, and fear being put to shame. To those of lower station it accords courtesy, and to those of higher condition respect. However, since it is called a parable, it must have some other interpretation besides the literal one. Let us see then what this wedding feast is, and who are the people invited to it.
This wedding feast takes place in the Church every day. Every day the Lord makes a wedding feast, for every day he unites faithful souls to himself, some coming to be baptized, others leaving this world for the kingdom of heaven. We are all invited to this wedding feast – all of us who have received faith in Christ and the seal of baptism. This table set before us is that of which it is said: You have prepared a table before me in the sight of those who trouble me. Here is the showbread, here the fatted calf, here the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Here is the living bread come down from heaven, here placed before us is the chalice of the New Covenant, here are the gospels and the letters of the apostles, here the books of Moses and the prophets. It is as though a dish containing every delight was brought and set before us. What more can we desire? What reason is there for choosing the first seats? There is plenty for all no matter where we sit. There is nothing we shall lack.
But whoever you may be who still desire the first place here – go and sit in the last place. Do not be lifted up by pride, inflated by knowledge, elated by nobility, but the greater you are the more you must humble yourself in every way, and you will find grace with God. In his own time he will say to you: Friend, go up higher, and then you will be honored by all who sit at table with you. Moses sat in the last place whenever he had the choice. When the Lord wishing to send him to the Israelites, invited him to take a higher place, his answer was: I beg you, Lord, send someone else. I am not a good speaker. It was the same as saying: “I am not qorthy of so great an office.” Saul, too, was of small account in his own eyes when the Lord made him king. And Jeremiah, similarly, was afraid of rising to the first place: Ah, Lord, God, he said, look, I cannot speak – I am only a child.
In the church, then, the first seat, or the highest place, is to be sought not by ambition but by humility; not by money but by holiness.

Skema
2022-08-28
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
22nd Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (II)
August 28 – September 3, 2022

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

Office
22ndSunday
Passion of St John the Baptist
Office for Vocations
Weekday
Weekday
Weekday Opening of the G.C.
St Gregory the Great

Vigils
2 Macc 4:1-17
Jerm 37:12-38:6
2 Macc 4:18-29
2 Macc 4:30-50
2 Macc 5:1-14
2 Macc 5:15-27
2 Macc 6:1-17

Lauds
Amos 2:6-16
Wis 3:1-9
Amos 3:1-8
Amos 3:9-12
Amos 3:13-15
Amos 4:1-5
Amos 4:6-10

Mass
126
634
432
433
434
*635, 639
436

1st
Sir 3:17-18, 20, 28-29
Jerm 1:17-19
1 Cor 2:10b-16
1 Cor 3:1-9
1 Cor 3:18-23
Phil 2:1-4
1 Cor 4:6b-15

2nd
Heb 12:18-19, 22-24a

Gospel
Luke 14:1, 7-14
Mark 6:17-29
Luke 4:31-37
Luke 4:38-44
Luke 5:1-11
Jn 14:23-29
Luke 6:1-5

Vespers
1 Thess 2:17-3:5
Acts 13:16-26
1 Thess 3:6-13
1 Thess 4:1-12
1 Thess 4:13-18
1 Thess 5:1-11
1 Thess 5:12-28

Vigils Reading - St Monica
2022-08-27
ON THE PRAYER OF HIS MOTHER MONICA FOR HIS CONVERSION, from the Confessions of St Augustine[1]

You, O God, sent down your help from above (ps 143:7) and rescued my soul from the depths of this darkness because my mother, your faithful servant, wept to you for me, shedding more tears for my spiritual death than other mothers shed for the bodily death of a son. For in her faith and in the spirit which she had from you she looked on me as dead. You heard her and did not despise the tears which streamed down and watered the earth in every place where she bowed her head in prayer. You heard her, for how else can I explain the dream with which you consoled her, so that she agreed to live with me and eat at the same table in our home? Lately she had refused to do this, because she loathed and shunned the blasphemy of my false beliefs.
She dreamed that she was standing on a wooden rule, and coming towards her in a halo of splendor she saw a young man who smiled at her in joy, although she herself was sad and quite consumed with grief. He asked her the reason for her sorrow and her daily tears, not because he did not know, but because he had something to tell her, for this is what happens in visions. When she replied that her tears were for the soul I had lost, he told her to take heart for, if she looked carefully, she would see that where she was, there also was I. And when she looked, she saw me standing beside her on the same rule.
Where could this dream have come from, unless it was that you listened to the prayer of her heart? For your goodness is almighty; you take good care of each of us as if you had no others in your care, and you look after all as you look after each. And surely it was for the same reason that, when she told me of the dream and I tried to interpret it as a message that she need not despair of being one day such as I was then, she said at once and without hesitation ‘No! He did not say “Where he is, you are”, but “Where you are, he is”.’ – over –

I have often said before and, to the best of my memory, I now declare to you, Lord, that I was much moved by the answer, which you gave me through my mother. She was not disturbed by my interpretation of her dream, plausible though it was, but quickly saw the true meaning, which I had not seen until she spoke. I was more deeply moved by this than by the dream itself, in which the joy for which this devout woman had still so long to wait was foretold so long before to comfort her in the time of her distress. For nearly nine years were yet to dome during which I wallowed deep in the mire and the darkness of delusion. Often I tried to lift myself, only to plunge the deeper. Yet all the time this chaste, devout, and prudent woman, a widow such as is close to your heart, never ceased to pray at all hours and to offer you the tears she shed for me. The dream had given new spirit to her hope, but she gave no rest to her sighs and her tears. Her prayers reached your presence (ps 87:3) and yet you still left me to twist and turn in the dark.
[1]THE CONFESSIONS, by St Augustine trans. by R. S. Pine-Coffin (Penguin Books 1961) pp. 68-69.

Vigils Reading
2022-08-26
From a Homily of Isaac the Syrian 1
Let us shun the body with all our strength, surrender our souls to God, and in the Lord’s name enter into the arena of temptations. May he that preserved Joseph in the land of Egypt and showed him forth as an icon and exemplar of chastity, who kept Daniel unharmed in the lion’s den and the three youths in the firey furnace, and who delivered Jeremiah from the pit of mire and bestowed mercy upon him in the camp of the Chaldeans, and who brought Peter out of prison while the doors were shut and saved Peter from the synagogue of the Jews and, to speak simply, he that always continues with his servants in every place and country, who manifests his power and victory in them, who preserves them with manifest wonders and who reveals his salvation to them in all their afflictions, may he give us strength also, and rescue us from amid the waves that encompass us.
Let us, therefore, acquire zeal in our souls against the devil and his commissaries even such as the Maccabees had, and the holy prophets, apostles, martyrs, the righteous and the just. For these men proved allies of the divine laws and the commandments of the Spirit in fearful places and amid grievous tribulations. Mightily did they put the world and the flesh behind their backs and persevere in their righteousness; and they were not overcome by the perils that encircled both their soul and body, but courageously they took the victory, and their names are written in the book of life until the coming of Christ. By God’s decree their teaching has been preserved for our instruction and strengthening, as the blessed apostle testifies, that we might become wise and learn the ways of God, and keep their histories and lives in view as living and breathing icons, and take our example from them, and run their course, and make ourselves like unto them. The words of God are as sweet to the soul possessed of great understanding, as food that delights the body; and the histories of the righteous are as desirable to the ears of the meek, as continual watering to a newly planted tree.
1A Word in Season – vol. VIII – Augustinian Press – 1999 – pg 245

Vigils Reading
2022-08-25
A Reading on the Book of Maccabees from a book by Dom Damasus Winzen 1
During the exile, a great winnowing took place: out of it emerged a remnant of those who were determined to remain faithful. They were certain of the unique character of their religion and their chosenness, and this very certainty gave them an absolute determination to survive and an abiding hope in the future. When the dawn of a new day seemed to arise with the downfall of Babylon, and Cyrus, king of Persia, ended the Babylonian exile in 537 B.C., through a decree which allowed the Jews to return into their homeland, forty thousand were ready. Under the leadership of Zerubbabel, a prince of the house of David, as governor, and Jeshua, son of Josadak, as high priest, they set out to rebuild the temple and the city. After long years of rivalries, intrigues and open hostilities on the part of the neighboring tribes the second temple was finished and dedicated in the year 516 B.C. When the attacks from the outside did not cease, Nehemiah, a high official of Jewish blood at the Persian court, was sent to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Despite determined opposition on the part of Israel’s enemies this task was carried out successfully. Now the most important step in this whole work of reconstruction was taken by Ezra, the scribe. He was a man of the book. He represented all that Israel had learned in the school of the exile.
Now all the essential factors that were going to determine this period of Jewish history were set up: the temple with its ritual and its leading official, the high priest; the walls of Jerusalem under the guardianship of the governor; the law, entrusted to the scribes. Divine Providence, which was now leading the chosen people into the last phase of preparation for the coming of the Messiah Jesus, arranged the course of events in such a way that all the hopes put on these things by the Jewish people came to nought. The temple with its treasures and the high priests with their enormous revenues became objects for foreign powers to plunder or buy. The walls of Jerusalem, the symbol of political power, conquered after bloody battles by Judas Maccabeus, were held thereafter by Jewish kings until “the scepter was taken was taken away from Judah” by Herod, the Idumaean. The “fence” which the Pharisees built around the religion finally eclipsed the law of Moses, so that when the Messiah came he could say to the scribes: “You make void the commandments of God that you may keep your own traditions”. (Mk 7:9). The entire period of reconstruction which followed the Babylonian exile was designed to make it clear that this temple, and this Jerusalem, and these doctors of the law were not the fulfillment of the glorious promise which God had made through Isaiah and Jeremiah about the new covenant he was going to make with his people.
This was also the tragedy of the Maccabees. With all their valor and all their heroism, their restoration of the temple and of the Jewish state was never wholly successful. In the eyes of orthodox Jews they remained usurpers, and for that reason the two books which tell of their great deeds were never received into the Jewish canon of holy Scripture. For us Christians, however, they are of greatest importance, because they give us a picture of the conflict between Judaism and Hellenism which developed in the 3rdand 2nd century B.C. As a consequence of the invasion by Greek civilization that took place in the wake of Alexander’s conquest of the Persian empire. The process of Hellenization might have gone much further had not Antiochus Epiphanes of Syria attempted to substitute pagan worship for Jewish. This brought about the Maccabean revolt recounted in the books of Maccabees.
1Pathways in Scripture – Damasus Winzen – Word of Life – Ann Arbor, MI – 1976 – pg 152

Vigils Reading - St Bartholomew
2022-08-24
Feast of St Bartholomew -taken from Butler’s Lives of Saints

Bartholomew was one of the twelve apostles. Only the synoptic gospel, however, refer to him by the name Bartholomew. The Gospel of John seems to refer to him as Nathanael. Nothing much more is actually known of him. The gospels continually put together Philip and Bartholomew, just as John says that Philip and Nathanael came together to Christ. Of him Christ said: “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guilt/”
Popular traditions and legends say that Bartholomew preached the gospel in India, then went to greater Armenia. After converting a number of people there he was flayed alive by the barbarians, whereupon King Astyages ordered him to be beheaded.
Bartholomew is said to have preached in Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt and elsewhere. Eusebius in the early fourth cemtury gives the earliest reference to India. When later missionaries came to India, the native people showed them a copy of the Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew which they said Bartholomew had given to them.
The travels attributed to the relics of St Bartholomew seem even broader than his travels when alive. His legendary loss of skin made him the patron of tanners.
[1] Nut;ler’s Lives of Saints – The Liturgical Press = Collegeville, M1998n- pg 232.

Vigils Reading - St Rose of Lima
2022-08-23
From the writings of St. Rose of Lima [1]

Our Lord and Savior lifted up his voice and said with incomparable majesty: Let all know that grace comes after tribulation. Let them know that without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. Let them know that the gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase. Let them take care not to stray or be deceived. This is the only true stairway to paradise, and without the cross they can find no road to climb to heaven.
When I heard these words, a strong force came upon me and seemed to place me in the middle of a street, so that I might say in a loud voice to people of every age, sex and status: Hear, O people; hear, O nations. I am warning you about the commandment of Christ by using words that came from his own lips: We cannot obtain grace unless we suffer afflictions. We must heap trouble upon trouble to attain a deep participation in the divine nature, the glory of the children of God and perfect happiness of soul.
That same force strongly urged me to proclaim the beauty of divine grace. It pressed me so that my breath came slow and forced me to sweat and pant. I felt as if my soul could no longer be kept in the prison of the body, but that it had burst its chains and was free and alone and was going very swiftly through the whole world saying: AIf only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! Without doubt they would devote all their care and concern to winning for themselves pains and afflictions. All people throughout the world would seek trouble, infirmities and torments, instead of good fortune, in order to attain the unfathomable treasure of grace. This is the reward and the final gain of patience. No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to souls.
[1] The Liturgy of the Hours, vol. iv, pg. 1342, Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York, 1975
