Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Skema
2022-10-30
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
31st Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (II)
September 30 – November 5, 2022

Sun
30
Mon
31
Tue
1
Wed
2
Thu
3
Fri
4
Sat
5

Office
31st Sunday
Weekday
All Saints
All Souls
St Martin de Porres
St Charles Borromeo
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Sir 30:14-25
Jon 1:1-16
Rev 5:1-14
Ezek 37:1-14
Jon 2:1-11
Jon 3:1-10
Jon 4:1-11

Lauds
Hag 1:9-15
Hag 2:1-9
Isa 65:17-25
Isa 38:9-20
Hag 2:10-14
Hag 2:15-19
Hag 2:20-23

Mass
153
485
667
668
488
489
490

1st
Wis 11:22-12:2
Phil 2:1-4
Rev 7:2-4, 9-14
Wis 3:1-9
Phil 3:3-8a
Phil 3:17-4:1
Phil 4:10-19

2nd
2 Thess 1:11-2:2

1 Jn 3:1-3
2 Cor 5:1, 6-10

Gospel
Luke 19:1-10
Luke 14:12-14
Matt 5:1-12a
John 11:17-27
Luke 15:1-10
Luke 16:1-8
Luke 16:9-15

Vespers
1 Pet 3:8-12
Heb 11:32-12:2
Rev 19:5-9
1 Thess 4:13-18
1 Pet 3:13-17
1 Pet 3:18-22
1 Pet 4:1-6

Vigils Reading - Memorial B.V.M.
2022-10-29
A reading about the silence and prayer of Mary,
from a book by Adrienne von Speyr. [1]

A life of faith is a life of silence. Mary’s existence as Mother is hidden in a great silence. All around and about her is silence. People knew nothing of her real life, of the mysteries of her virginity. Not even Joseph understood her. An angel had to enlighten him about her mystery. The silence that surrounds her is simply a reflection of her own silence. She did not become a subject of conversation, because she did not talk about herself. And in that way she safeguarded her secret. Later, too, when the Son appeared in public, she remained silent because it was not her task or mission to speak. But in her silence she participates in the dialogue between Father and Son which is the very substance of prayer. She remained silent out of respect, and in order not to drown the word of God with her own words.

Her silence also manifests her activity and her passivity, her strength and her weakness. Her activity and strength consist in her self-control, her weakness and passivity in allowing herself to be led. She is simply and solely the instrument of God. Strength and weakness, doing and suffering, all the tensions and stresses of life meet and join in her without occasioning the predominance of any one in particular. The priority is always decreed by the need of her mission. She did not cultivate, tend or encourage her good qualities for their goodness’ sake (in the way that people do when they are conscious of their own gentleness and are disposed to go further in the same direction). She did not practice her virtues with a definite end in view; on the contrary, she quite simply allowed God to decide everything, to decree everything in accordance with her mission–and this is where her silence is so profound–without losing or giving up any of her complementary qualities. In her, silence is both complete self-renunciation and complete indifference. – over –

All this co-exists in her with a perseverance that knows no limits, because her mission flows on accompanied by a parallel discretion that disturbs nothing. All her qualities participate to some extent in the glory of her conversation with the Angel: each decision is taken in the solitude and isolation imposed by the relation of her soul to God. Discretion, in this instance, is but another name for humility that asks no questions and never raises the dust. She asked the Angel of God one simple factual question, and with that she became the answer to all that God expected. Her life is therefore community in the Lord, solitude in God, and this communal solitude is called prayer.
[1] The Handmaid of the Lord, New York,1955, pp. 19-21.

Vigils Reading - SS Simon and Jude
2022-10-28
The zeal of the apostles:
a reading from a sermon on Sts Simon and Jude
by St. John Henry Newman. 1

The Apostles commemorated on this Festival direct our attention to the subject of Zeal. St. Simon is called Zelotes, which means the Zealous; a title given him (as is supposed) from his belonging before his conversion to the Jewish sect of Zealots, which professed extraordinary Zeal for the Law. Anyhow, the appellation marks him as distinguished for this particular Christian grace. St. Jude’s Epistle, which forms part of the service of the day, is almost wholly upon the duty of manifesting Zeal for Gospel Truth, and opens with a direct exhortation to contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints.
It will be a more simple account of Zeal, to call it the earnest desire for God’s honor, leading to strenuous and bold deeds in His behalf; and that in spite of all obstacles. Now Zeal is one of the elementary religious qualifications; that is, one of those which are essential in the very notion of a religious man. A man cannot be said to be in earnest in religion, till he magnifies his God and Savior; till he so far consecrates and exalts the thought of Him in his heart, as an object of praise, and adoration, and rejoicing, as to be pained and grieved at dishonor shown to Him, and eager to avenge Him. In a word, a religious temper is one of loyalty towards God; and we all know what is meant by being loyal from the experience of civil matters. To be loyal is not merely to obey; but to obey with promptitude, energetic dutifulness, disinterested devotion, disregard of consequences. And such is Zeal, except that it is ever attended with that reverential feeling which is due from a creature and a sinner towards his Maker, and towards Him alone. It is the main principle in all religious service to love God above all things; now, Zeal is to love Him above all other people, above our dearest and most intimate friends. This was the especial praise of the Levites, which gained for them the reward of the Priesthood, that is , their executing judgment on the people in the sin of the golden calf. Zeal is the very consecration of God=s Ministers to their office. Accordingly our Blessed Savior, the One Great High Priest, the Antitype of all Priests who went before Him and the Lord and Strength of all who come after, began His manifestation of Himself by two acts of Zeal. When twelve years old he deigned to put before us in representation the sacredness of this duty, when He remained in the Temple Awhile His father and mother sought Him sorrowing, and on their finding Him, returned answer, Do you not know that I must be about My Father’s business? And again, at the opening of His public ministry, He went into the Temple, and made a scourge of small cords, and drove out the sheep and oxen, and overthrew the changer’s tables that profaned it: thus fulfilling the prophecy contained in the text, Zeal for your house has eaten me up. Being thus consumed by Zeal Himself, no wonder He should choose His followers from among the Zealous.

1
“Christian Zeal,” in Parochial and Plain Sermons, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1987, pp. 464 ff.

Vigils Reading
2022-10-27
TO COMPREHEND WITH THE SAINTS THE DEPTH OF GOD, from the Works of St Bernard[1]

[“That you may have the power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth..”(Eph 3:18) St Paul says] “comprehend” not “know” so that we should not be content to be curious for knowledge, but seek with all our power to comprehend. The reward lies not in knowing but in comprehending. To put it another way, as someone says, it is a sin for someone to know what is good and not to do it(Jas 4:17). And Paul himself says in another place, “So run that you may comprehend (1Cor 9:24).
What then is God? He is “length,” I say. What is that? Eternity. Eternity is so long that it has no end of place or time. He is also breadth. And what is that? Love. And who shall draw boundaries to God’s love, for he hates nothing that he has made? Indeed, he causes his sun to rise upon the good and the wicked and rain falls upon the just and the unjust. Therefore his bosom enfolds even his enemies. And not satisfied with that, it stretches to infinity. He goes beyond every bound not only of love but of knowledge, as the Apostle goes on to say, “And to know the love of Christ, which passes all understanding”(Eph 3:19). What more can I say? He is eternal, or perhaps even greater, eternity itself. Do you see that the width is as great as the length? Would that you could see not only what it is like but what it actually is! To be breadth is to be depth. The one no less than two; the two no more than one. God is eternity; “God is love” (1Jn 4:16). He is length without extension, breadth without distension. In both equally he exceeds local and temporal limits, but by the freedom of his nature, not by the vastness of his substance. He who made everything according to measure is immense in this way, and although he is immense, this is the measure of his immensity.
Again, what is God? “The height and the depth.” In one he is above all, in the other, he is within all. It is clear that nowhere in the Godhead is equality limited. It stands square on all sides and is utterly consistent. Consider his power as the height and his wisdom as the depth. They correspond to one another symmetrically, and while the height is beyond reach the depth is equally beyond seeing into. Paul wonders at it and exclaims, “O height of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God; how inscrutable are his judgments, and his ways are beyond searching out”(Rom 11:33). Let us exclaim with Paul, gazing upon the most simple unity of those attributes with God and in God. O powerful wisdom, reaching everywhere in strength. O wise power, disposing all things sweetly! One reality, many effects, different acts; And this one reality is length because it is eternity, breadth because it is love, height because it is majesty, depth because it is wisdom.
[1]BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX (Classics of Western Spirituality) Trans. by G R Evans (Paulist Press NY 1987) pp. 169-170.

Vigils Reading
2022-10-26
A Commentary on the Book of Sirach by Origen [1]

Take the whole number of the human race and pick out those who are faithful from all the nations: doubtless they will be fewer than the whole. Then select the better ones from the number of the faithful; it is certain that the number will be far smaller. And again from those you have chosen, select the more perfect ones: you will find even fewer. And the more you continue to make choices, the more you will find them to be scanty and very few, until you finally come to a certain one who confidently says: “U labored more than all of them”,
Thus “those who are more” will receive more land and more of a physical inheritance, but the few will attain to a small amount of land, since they have more in the Lord; but some will receive no earthly inheritance, if they become worthy to become priests and ministers of God; for “of these” the Lord will be their whole inheritance. And who is so blessed that among the few he receives either a small amount of land or that among the chosen priests and ministers he merits in the allotment of his inheritance to have room for the Lord alone? For granted they receive some land on account of their beasts of burden, yet it is from the land that borders on cities and attached to cities.
Yet these words that say that the inheritance is multiplied to those who are more can be understood in still another way as well. For one just person is considered as “more” in accordance with the fact that he is accepted by God. After all. It is even written: “Through one wise person a city will be considered but the tribes of the unjust will be desolated”. And one just person is reckoned for the whole world, but the unjust, even if they are many, are considered by God as scanty and as nothing.
So there is a praiseworthy multitude, as we see was said to Abraham as well, when “he led him outside and said to him: look at the sky if you are able to number the stars; thus will be your seed.” Consider here how the just person is interior and always abides in what is interior, since it is “inside” that he prays to the Father in secret, and all the glory of the king’s daughter, that is, of the royal soul, is within.” Nevertheless God “leads him outside,” when circumstances demand it and the rational order of visible things demands it. Therefore, even in this way, to the many who are “as stars of the heaven in multitude”, an inheritance is multiplied’ and to the scanty few, name;y. those who. Even if they are many in number, nevertheless are considered scanty due to the unworthiness of their life, a scanty inheritance is appointed.
[1] Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture = Old Testament = vol. XV – InterVarsity Press – Downers Grove, IK – 2010 – pg 255

Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
2022-10-25
The narrow way to God,
a reading from a sermon by St. Aelred of Reivaulx (CSQ 4:80-81)

As Saint Gregory has said, this present life is nothing other than a way. He who lives well and praiseworthily passes to God, and to life eternal. But the man who lives an evil life is journeying towards hell and eternal death. This is the way of sinners. David speaks of it in the first psalm: “Happy the man who never follows the advice of the wicked, or loiters in the way of sinners”.
Very logically, indeed, he says the death of sinners is the worst because their way is evil. And as the Apostle says: “Evil men go from bad to worse; erring themselves, they lead others into error”. The death of sinners therefore is said to be the “worst”, because as long as they live they become more and more evil, until, having reached the depths, they merit to be cut off and thrown into the fire.

But our blessed Father Benedict did not follow this way. He did not lead an evil life but held fast to the way of which it is said : “The way of the just is straight”. Although narrow, it leads to life. For those who are beginning, it is indeed narrow, as it was for David when he said “Because of the words of your mouth I have followed difficult ways”. But did this prophet ever say that because he found it difficult in the beginning he left or he thought he should leave it? God forbid! Rather he held fast until he could make this very different statement: “I have run in the way of your commandments because you have enlarged my heart”. Saint Benedict also found the way narrow at the beginning of his conversion. But in the end he found it wide open. Was not the way difficult for him? As we read in his Life, in order not to consent to lust, he threw himself into a thorn bush. But when he found the way difficult, what did he do? He did not depart from it ; rather he held fast and manfully stood his ground. He first did what he later taught, so that he might teach his followers what he himself did. Thus Pope Saint Gregory said of him: “Just as he lived, so he taught. He could not teach other than he lived”. That he stood manfully in the way of God we can learn from his own words, since in his Rule he warns one shaken by fear not to depart from the way of salvation.

Vigils Reading
2022-10-24
A Commentary on the Book of Sirach by Origen [1]

The last story that is related in the book of Numbers is the one in which the Lord commands Moses “to give orders to the children of Israel” that when “they have entered the holy land” they may know how to take possession of their inheritance and that they shall observe the boundaries pf their limits in these things. And after this, with the Lord now describing this, it is said, “toward Africa” that is, toward the west, the boundary of that place should be observed, and of that place toward the east, and thus the Lord indicates through the four regions of the sky certain names that the people of God ought to keep in that earthly Judea.
Thus one of the more simple hearers will say that here there are things that are necessary and useful even according to the letter, in that no one should go beyond the borders that have been appointed through the Lord’s command and one tribe should not dare to violate the boundaries of another. And what will we do when no possibility remains for the Jews, not merely to invade the borders of another nation in those lands, but even of possessing them at all? For they have ben banished from that land, they are exiles and refugees, and those who now possess and guard the boundaries are not those whom the divine law appointed but those whom they have entrusted the rights of victors. What, I ask, will we do who read these things in the church? If we read them according to the sense of the Jews, they will seem superfluous to is and pointless.
But I am one who reads what is written about Wisdom: “I went after her as a tracker,” I want to go out after her and since I do not find her in the physical realities, I desire to pursue her tracks and investigate where she is going and to see into which rooms she leads my understanding. For I think that if I am able to follow her with care and to investigate her ways, she will give me some opportunities from the Scriptures to understand how it is even in these passages we need to explain, if we believe what Paul says in a mystery, that those who serve through the law are serving “the shadow and image of heavenly things”. And if, bo les in accordance with the judgment of that man, the law of which this reading that we have in hand is a portion. “contains a shadow of the good things to come, “ it seems logical and necessary that everything that is described in the law, as it were concerning earthly things, is a shadow of the good things of heaven and the whole inheritance of that land, which is called the “holy land” and the “good land” is an image of the good things of heaven. These things, as we have said, that are mentioned as good things on earth contain a shadow and an image of these.
[1] Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture – Old Testamennt – vol. XV = InterVarsity Press – Downers Grove, IL = 2010 – pg. 249

Skema
2022-10-23
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
30th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (II)
October 23 – 29, 2022

Sun
23
Mon
24
Tue
25
Wed
26
Thu
27
Fri
28
Sat
29

Office
30th Sunday
Weekday
Office for Vocations
Weekday
Weekday
SS Simon & Jude
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Sir 27:16-30
Sir 28:1-11
Sir 28:12-26
Sir 29:1-13
Sir 29:14-28
1 Macc 2:42-66
Sir 30:1-13

Lauds
Hab 2:9-14
Hab 2:15-20
Hab 3:1-7
Hab 3:8-15
Hab 3:16-19
Deut 32:1-9
Hag 1:1-8

Mass
150
479
480
481
482
666
484

1st
Sir 35:12-14, 16-18
Eph 4:32-5:8
Eph 5:21-33
Eph 6:1-9
Eph 6:10-20
Eph 2:19-22
Phil 1:18b-26

2nd
2 Tim 4:6-8, 16-18

Gospel
Luke 18:9-14
Luke 13:10-17
Luke 13:18-21
Luke 13:22-30
Luke 13:31-35
Luke 6:12-16
Luke 14:1, 7-11

Vespers
1 Pet 1:13-16
1 Pet 1:17-21
1 Pet 1:22-25
1 Pet 2:1-10
1 Pet 2:11-17
Jude 17-21
1 Pet 2:18-25

Vigils Reading - 30th Sun ORD
2022-10-23
Commentary on the Gospel of Luke by Gregory Palamas [1]

The spiritual champion of evil is full of resources for its furtherance. It has often happened that as soon as the foundations of virtue have been laid in a soul, he has begun to undermine them with despair and lack of faith. Often too, when the walls of the house of virtue were being built, he has assaulted them by means of inertia and indolence. Even when the house has been roofed over with good works, he has used arrogance and presumption to destroy it.
Nevertheless, stand firm and do not be afraid, for anyone zealous in doing good is even more resourceful. In resisting evil, virtue has the greater power, since it receives heavenly assistance from him who can do all things. And who confirms all virtue’s lovers in goodness. Consequently, virtue not only remains unmoved by the manifold wicked wiles of the adversary, but even has the power to raise up and restore those sunk in the depths of evil, and easily to lead them back to God through repentance and humility.
The present parable is sufficient proof; for the tax collector, in spite of his profession and of having lived in the depths of sin, joins the ranks of those living upright lives through a single prayer, and that a short one, he is relieved of his burden of sin, he is lifted up, he rises above all evil, and is admitted to the company of the righteous, justified by the impartial judge himself. The Pharisee, on the other hand, is condemned by his prayer in spite of being a Pharisee, and in his own eyes a person of importance. Because his “righteousness” is false and his indolence extreme, every syllable he utters provokes God’s anger.
But why does humility raise us to the heights of holiness, and self-conceit plunges us into the abyss of sin? It is because when we have a high regard of ourselves, and that in the presence of God, He quite reasonably abandons us, since we think we have no need of His assistance. But when we regard ourselves as nothing and therefore look to heaven for mercy, it is not unreasonable that we should obtain God’s compassion, help and grace. For, as Scripture says: “The Lord resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
“This man went away justified, and not the other”, says the Lord; “because all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be exalted”. For since the devil is pride itself, and arrogance his own particular vice, this sin conquers and drags down with itself every human virtue tinged with it. Similarly, humility before God is the virtue of the good angels, and it conquers every human vice to which a sinner has fallen prey.
Humility is the chariot in which the ascent to God is made upon the clouds that are to carry up to Him those destined to be with God for endless ages, according to the apostle’s prophecy: “We shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we always be with the Lord.” For humility is like a cloud. Produced by repentance, it draws streams of tears+ from the eyes, makes unworthy people worthy, and raises up and presents to God those freely justified by reason of their right dispositions.

[1] Journey with the Fathers – New City Press – 1984 – pg 128

Vigils Reading - Memorial B.V.M.
2022-10-22
The silence of Mary: a reading from the works of Pierre de Bérulle. [1]

It falls to the Virgin to keep silence. It is her condition, her road, her life. Her life is a life of silence, which adores the eternal Word. Seeing before her eyes, at her breast, in her arms, this same Word, the substantial Word of the Father, to be dumb and reduced to silence by the condition of his childhood, she enters again into a new silence and is transformed by it after the example of the incarnate Word who is her Son, her God and her sole love. And in that way her life goes on, from silence to silence, from a silence of adoration to a silence of transformation.
Mary is in silence, enraptured by the silence of her Son Jesus. One of the sacred and divine effects of the silence of Jesus is to put the most holy Mother of Jesus into a life of silence: a silence that is humble, profound, and that adores the incarnate Wisdom with more holiness and eloquence than the words of either angels or humans. This silence on the part of the Virgin is not a silence of one who hesitates in speech or of one who is helpless: it is a silence more eloquent, in its praise of Jesus, than eloquence itself. And so it is marvelous to see that, in this condition of the silence and the childhood of Jesus, everyone speaks and Mary says nothing at all: the silence of Jesus has more power to hold her in sacred silence than the words of either angels or saints have the power to bring her in and make her speak of things so worthy of praise, things that heaven and earth are at one in celebrating and adoring.
The angels speak of these things among themselves and to the shepherds, and Mary is in silence. The shepherds hurry away and speak, and Mary is in silence. The kings arrive and speak, and make the whole city, the whole state, all the sacred synod of Judea, speak: and Mary has withdrawn and is in silence. The whole state is moved, and everyone is astonished and speaks of the new king sought by the kings, and Mary is in her repose and holy silence. Simeon speaks in the temple, and Anna the prophetess, and all those who await the salvation of Israel: and Mary offers, gives, receives and brings back her Son in silence; so powerful and secretly impressive is the silence of Jesus on the spirit and heart of the Virgin, keeping her powerfully and divinely occupied and enraptured in silence. For, again, during the time of his childhood, we have nothing but these words which have been brought to us about the conduct of the Virgin and about her holiness in regard to her Son and to the things which are reported of him and accomplished in him: ABut Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart@ (Lk 2.19). There we see the condition and occupation of the Virgin, there are her daily duties and her life in regard to Jesus during his holy childhood.
[1] Opuscules de pieté, 39, dans Oeuvres complètes de Bérulle, Édit. Migne, Paris, 1856, pp. 988-989; reprinted in ALectures chrétiennes pour notre temps@: 8 1971, Abbaye d’Orval, Belgium (M-77).

Vigils Reading
2022-10-21
From a letter of Saint Jerome of Jerusalem [1]

Scripture says: “I shall destroy the wisdom of the wise, and condemn the intelligence of the intelligent”. True wisdom will destroy the false; and although preaching about the cross is foolishness, yet Paul speaks wisdom among the mature. “Not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, who pass away”, but he speaks “the wisdom of God which was hidden in a mystery, and which God predestined from the beginning”. The wisdom of God is Christ. For “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God”. This wisdom was hidden in a mystery, in which all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge were hidden, and he who was hidden in the mystery was predestined from the beginning. He was predestined and prefigured in the law and the prophets. That is why the prophets were also called seers: for they saw him whom the rest did not see. “Abraham saw his day and rejoiced”. The heavens were opened to Ezekiel on behalf of a sinful people. “Open my eyes”, said David, “so that I may gaze on the wonders of your law”. For the law is spiritual and needs to be revealed to be understood, and so that we may contemplate the glory of God when his face is revealed.

In the Acts of the Apostles there is a holy eunuch who was reading Isaiah, and when Philip asked him: “Do you really understand what you are reading?” he answered: “How can I without a teacher?” To speak of myself for a moment, I am neither holier nor more zealous than that eunuch, who came to the temple from Ethiopia, that is, from the ends of the earth. He loved the law and divine knowledge so much that even when sitting in his chariot he read the sacred writings. And yet all the time that he was holding the book, ruminating on the Lord’s words, reading them fluently and out loud, he did not know whom he was unwittingly revering in the book. Then Philip came and showed him Jesus, who lay enclosed in the text in secret. The marvelous power of a teacher! In that same hour the eunuch believed, was baptized, was faithful and holy, and turned from a pupil into a master.

I beg you, dearest brother, to live in the midst of these things, meditate on them, know nothing else, look for nothing – does that not seem to you to be a dwelling-place in the heavenly kingdom already here on earth? The petitioner receives what he asks for; the door is opened to one who knocks; the seeker finds. Let the knowledge that we acquire on earth be such as to continue to be ours in heaven.

[1] A Word in Season – vol. VIII – Augustinian Press – 1999 – p 185f

Vigils Reading
2022-10-20
From the writings of St. Gregory of Nyssa [1]

There is one way to guard and care for our souls, and that is to remember God with longing and to cling without fail to good thought. Our zeal must therefore continue at all times, whether we are eating, drinking, resting, working or conversing, so that whatever we do may be done for the glory of God and not for our own, and so that our lives may suffer no stain or pollution from the snares of the devil.

But all the same, for those who love God, to practice his commandments is an easy and enjoyable task, since our love for him lightens the struggle and makes it welcome. It is for that reason that the devil strives by every means to drive out the fear of the Lord from our souls, and to destroy our love for him with unlawful pleasure and treacherous delights. It is why he does his best to catch our soul off guard and without its spiritual armor, and so to destroy our labors, offering us earthly in place of heavenly glory, and confusing our vision of true beauty with its deceptive image. For if he finds the guards careless, he is quick to seize the opportunity to appear to the field of virtue, and amidst the growing corn to sow his own weeds, that is, slander, arrogance, vainglory, desire for honor, quarreling, and all the other products of evil. Therefore we must be vigilant and keep watch for our enemy on all sides, so that whatever shameless device he uses against us we may drive him off before he lays hands on our souls.

You must often remember that story of how Abel and Cain offered sacrifice to the Lord, Abel with some of his firstborn sheep and their fat, Cain with fruits of the earth, but no first fruits. And God observed Abel’s sacrifice, as Scripture tells us, but the gifts of Cain he ignored. What then is the moral of the story? It teaches us that God accepts whatever we offer him in fear and faith, but has no use for the costliest gift offered without love. The very reason why Abraham received Melchizedek’s blessing is that he offered the priest of God the first fruits and the richest spoils. Now the richest spoils and the first fruits that we ourselves possess are our souls and our minds; and thus we are commanded to make no trivial sacrifice of praise and prayer to God, nor to offer the Lord any chance gift but what is best in our souls, or rather to dedicate to God our entire souls with all possible love and desire. So continuously nourished by the grace of the Spirit and taking to ourselves the power that comes from Christ, we shall run with ease the race of salvation and make the struggle for righteousness carefree and joyous. For God himself with help us to toil with zeal, and will accomplish his righteous works through us.
[1] A Word in Season – vol. VIII – Augustinian Press – 1999 – pg 166f

Vigils Reading - North American Martyrs
2022-10-19
The North American Martyrs,
from Butler’s Lives of the Saints.[1]

On March 16, 1649, the Iroquois attacked the village at which Brebeuf and Lalemant were stationed. The torture of these two missionaries was as atrocious as anything recorded in history. At the height of the torments Father Lalemant raised his eyes to Heaven and invoked God’s aid, whilst Father de Brebeuf set his face like a rock as though insensible to the pain. Then, like one recovering consciousness, he preached to his persecutors and to the Christian captives until the savages gagged his mouth, cut off his nose, tore off his lips, and then, in derision of baptism, deluged him and his companion martyrs with boiling water. Finally, large pieces of flesh were cut out of the bodies of both the priests and roasted by the Indians, who tore out their hearts before their death by means of an opening above the breast, feasting on them and their blood, which they drank while it was still warm.

Before the end of the year 1649 the Iroquois had penetrated as far as the Tobacco nation, where Father Garnier had founded a mission in 1641 and where the Jesuits now had two stations. The inhabitants of the village of Saint-Jean hearing that the enemy was approaching, sent out their men to meet the attackers, who, however, took a roundabout way and arrived at the gates unexpectedly. An orgy of incredible cruelty followed, in the midst of which Garnier, the only priest in the mission, hastened from place to place, giving absolution to the Christians and baptizing the children and catechumens, totally unmindful of his own fate. While thus employed he was shot down by the musket of an Iroquois. He strove to reach a dying man whom he thought he could help, but after three attempts he collapsed, and subsequently received his death-blow from a hatchet which penetrated to the brain.

Father Noel Chabanel, the missionary companion of Garnier, was immediately recalled. He had started on his way back with some Christian Hurons when they heard the cries of the Iroquois returning from Saint-Jean. The father urged his followers to escape, but was too much exhausted to keep up with them. His fate was long uncertain, but a Huron apostate eventually admitted having killed the holy man out of hatred of the Christian faith.

These martyrs of North America, SS John de Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues, Anthony Daniel, Gabrial Lalemant, Charles Garnier, Noel Chabanel, Rene Goupil and John Lalande, were canonized in 1930.
[1]Butler’s Lives of the Saints, ed. Michael Walsh, Harpers San Francisco, 1985, p.136-137.

Rule of Benedict: Reflections. 7 pm CDT
2022-10-18 19:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago)
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Oct. 18-Chapter 14: How the night office is to be said on the feasts of the saints
On the feasts of Saints and on all festivals let the Office be performed as we have prescribed for Sundays, except that the Psalms, the antiphons and the lessons belonging to that particular day are to be said. Their number, however, shall remain as we have specified above.

Vigils Reading - St Luke
2022-10-18
The Right Use of Material Posessions,
commentary by Joseph A Fitzmyer,SJ[1]

No other New Testament writer, save perhaps the author of the Epistle of James, speaks so forthrightly as does Luke about the use of material possessions by Christian disciples. More than the other evangelists Luke either preserves sayings of Jesus about this topic or puts on his lips statements that concern wealth, money, and material goods in general. In Acts Luke further sketches an idyllic picture of the early Jewish Christian community in Jerusalem with is common ownership of property and the sharing of wealth and possessions as a model for the community of his own day. Luke was clearly not happy about what he had seen of the use of wealth and possessions by Christian disciples.
So he portrays Jesus speaking about this matter both in sayings that he has taken over from Mark and “Q” and also in a number of sayings that he has composed himself or derived from his own source “L.” For instance, in Mark Jesus tells a rich young man to sell what he possesses, give the proceeds to the poor, and come, follow him, whereas in Luke Jesus tells “the magistrate”: “Sell all that you have”. Again in Mark, the first disciples called leave their nets to follow Jesus, but in Luke they leave “everything” to do so.
The contrast between the rich and the poor surfaces often in the Lucan story, in Mary’s Magnificat, in the instruction of John the Baptist to the poor, in Jesus’ interpretation of Isaiah 61:1-2 in his Nazareth synagogue sermon, in the first beatitude and first woe, in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, and in Jesus’ advice to “invite the poor” to dinner instead of rich neighbors who might reciprocate.
In the special Lucan material, in particular, one detects a twofold attitude toward material possessions’: (1) a moderate attitude, in which the Lucan Jesus advocates a prudent use of such posessions to give assistance to human beings who are less fortunate: “Give to everyone who begs from you”, as well as in the story of the dishonest manager a radical attitude, which recommends the absolute renunciation of all wealth: “Everyone of you who does not say goodbye to all he has cannot be a disciple of mine”; or “No servant can serve two masters; either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon”. For Luke all of this is not merely a question of haves and have-nots, since there is an eschatological dimension to the topic, which the first beatitude and the first woe make clear, as well as does Mary’s Magnificat. Having and not having material possessions ultimately symbolize an important aspect of the disciple’s inner response to the call of God and to his visitation of his people in and through the ministry of Jesus. Material possessions are liable to stand in the way of the proper response, and Luke is concerned that they do not.

[1]Luke the Theologian, Joseph A Fitzmyer,SJ, Paulist Press, 1989, p.137-138

Vigils Reading - St Ignatius of Antioch
2022-10-17
From a Letter to the Romans by St. Ignatius, bishop and martyr [1]

I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way. I plead with you: show me no untimely kindness. Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God’s wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become God’s pure bread. Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God.

No earthly pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way. I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire. The time for my birth is close at hand. Forgive me, my brothers. Do not stand in the way of my birth to real life; do not wish me stillborn. My desire is to belong to God. Do not, then, hand me back to the world. Do not try to tempt me with material things. Let me attain pure light. Only on my arrival there can I be fully a human being. Give me the privilege of imitating the passion of my God. If you have him in your heart, you will understand what I wish. You will sympathize with me because you will know what urges me on.

The prince of this world is determined to lay hold of me and to undermine my will which is intent on God. Let none of you here help him; instead show yourselves on my side, which is also God’s side. Do not talk about Jesus Christ as long as you love this world. Do not harbor envious thoughts. And supposing I should see you, if then I beg you to intervene on my behalf, do not believe what I say. Believe instead what I am now writing to you. For though I am alive as I write to you, still my real desire is to die. My love for this life has been crucified, and there is no yearning in me for any earthly thing. Rather within me is the living water which says deep inside me: “Come to the Father.” I no longer take pleasure in perishable food or in the delights of this world. I want only God’s bread, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, formed of the seed of David, and for drink I crave his blood, which is love that cannot perish.

I am no longer willing to live a merely human life, and you can bring about my wish if you will. Please, then, do me this favor, so that you in turn may meet with equal kindness. Put briefly, this is my request: believe what I am saying to you. Jesus Christ himself will make it clear to you that I am saying the truth. Only truth can come from that mouth by which the Father has truly spoken. Pray for me that I may obtain my desire. I have not written to you as a mere man would, but as one who knows the mind of God. If I am condemned to suffer, I take it that you wish me well. If my case is postponed, I can only think that you wish me harm.
[1] The Liturgy of the Hours – vol. IV – Catholic Book Publishing Co – New York – 1975 – pg 1490

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2022-10-16 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
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Vigils Reading - 29th Sun ORD
2022-10-16
A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke by Gregory of Nyssa [1]

The divine Word teaches us how to pray, explaining to disciples worthy of him, and eagerly longing for knowledge of prayer, what word to use to gain a hearing from God.
Those who fail to unite themselves to God through prayer cut themselves off from God, so the first thing we have to learn from the Word is that we need to pray continually and not lose heart. Prayer brings us close to God, and when we are close to God we are far from the Enemy. Prayer safeguards chastity, controls anger, and restrains arrogance. It is the seal of virginity, the assurance of marital fidelity, the shield of travelers, the protection of sleepers, the encouragement of those who keep vigil, the cause of the farmer’s good harvest and of the sailor’s safety. Therefore I think that even of we spent the whole of our lives in communion with God through thanksgiving and prayer, we should still be as far from adequately repaying pur benefactor as we should have been had we not even desired to repay him.

Time has three divisions, past, present and future. In all three we experience the Lord’s kindly healings with us. If you consider the present, you live in him; if you consider the future, your hope of obtaining what you look forward to is in him; if you consider the past, you would not have existed had you not been created by him. Your birth is his kindly gift to you, and after birth his kindness toward you continued, since as the apostle says, you live and move in him. On this same kindness depend all your hopes for the future. Only over the present have you any control. Therefore, even if you give thanks to God unceasingly throughout your life, you will hardly meet the measure of your debt for present blessings, and as for those of the past and future, you will never find a way of repaying what you owe. – over –

And yet we, who are so far from being capable of showing due gratitude, do not even give thanks to the best of our ability. We fail to set aside, I do not say the whole day, but even the smallest portion of the day, to be spent with God.

Who restored to its original beauty that divine image in me that was blurred by sin? Who draws me back to the blessedness I knew before I was driven out of paradise, deprived of the tree of life, and submerged in the abyss of worldliness? As scripture says, There is no one who understands. If we realize these things we would give thanks continually, endlessly, throughout the whole of our lives.
[1] Journey with the Fathers – Year C – New City Press – 1994 – pg 126

Skema
2022-10-16
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
29th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (II)
October 16 – 22, 2022

Sun
16
Mon
17
Tue
18
Wed
19
Thu
20
Fri
21
Sat
22

Office
29th Sunday
St Ignatius of Antioch
St Luke
North American Martyrs
Weekday
Weekday
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Sir 24:1-15
Sir 24:16-33
Ezek 1:1-14
Sir 25:1-11
Sir 25:13-26
Sir 26:1-6, 13-29
Sir 27:1-15

Lauds
Nahum 3:14-19
Hab 1:1-4
Isa 52:7-10
Hab 1:5-11
Hab 1:12-17
Hab 2:1-4
Hab 2:5-8

Mass
147
473
661
475
476
477
478

1st
Exod 17:8-13
Eph 2:1-10
2 Tim 4:10-17b
Eph 3:2-12
Eph 3:14-21
Eph 4:1-6
Eph 4:7-16

2nd
2 Tim 3:14-4:2

Gospel
Luke 18:1-8
Luke 12:13-21
Luke 10:1-9
Luke 12:39-48
Luke 12:49-53
Luke 12:54-59
Luke 13:1-9

Vespers
Jas 4:13-17
Jas 5:1-6
Acts 11:19-26
Jas 5:7-12
Jas 5:13-20
1 Pet 1:1-7
1 Pet 1:8-12

Vigils Reading - St Teresa of Avila
2022-10-15
From a Work by St. Teresa of Avila [1]

If Christ Jesus dwells in a person as his friend and noble leader, that one can endure all things, for Christ helps and strengthens us and never abandons us. He is a true friend. And I clearly see that if we expect to please him and receive an abundance of his graces, God desires that these graces must come to us from the hands of Christ, through his most sacred humanity, in which God takes delight.

Many, many times I have perceived this through experience. The Lord has told it to me. I have definitely seen that we must enter by this gate if we wish his Sovereign Majesty to reveal to us great and hidden mysteries. A person should desire no other path, even if he is at the summit of contemplation; on this road he walks safely. All blessings come to us through Our Lord. He will teach us, for in beholding his life we find that he is the best example.

What more do we desire from such a friend at our side? Unlike our friends in the world, he will never abandon us when we are troubled or distressed. Blessed is the one who truly loves him and always keeps him near. Let us consider the glorious St. Paul: it seems that no other name fell from his lips than that of Jesus, because the name of Jesus was fixed and embedded in his heart. Once I had come to understand this truth, I carefully considered the lives of the saints, the great contemplatives, and found that they took no other path: Francis, Anthony of Padua, Bernard, Catherine of sienna. A person must walk along this path in freedom, placing himself in God’s hands. If God should desire to raise us to the position of one who is an intimate and shares his secrets, we ought to accept this gladly.

Whenever we think of Christ we should recall the love that led him to bestow on us so many graces and favors, and also the great love God showed in giving us in Christ a pledge of his love; for love calls for love in return. Let us strive to keep this always before our eyes and to rouse ourselves to love him. For if at some time the Lord should grant us the grace of impressing his love on our hearts, all will become easy for us and we shall accomplish great things quickly and without effort.
[1] The Liturgy of the Hours – vol IV – Catholic Book Publishing Co – New York – 1975 – pg 1483

Vigils Reading
2022-10-14
The wisdom of Ben Sirach –
from a book by Fr Evode Beaucamp, O.F.M. [1]

At a time when Greek civilization and culture are about to submerge the Near East, the Book of Ben Sirach prepares Israel so that it will not allow itself to be swallowed up. This was not the first time the Chosen People, strong in the privilege of their election, had withstood the unifying force of history. They owed their success to their prophets and their allies of the Temple and royal house. Already Israel had reached to the gods of Canaan; already David’s small kingdom in the Fertile Crescent had been one of the last States to succumb to the attacks of the invaders from Assyria and Babylon. Even then, in spite of the frightful crisis of the seventh century, branded by Zephaniah and Jeremiah, and even into the Exile itself, the best part of Israel was fiercely obstinate in safeguarding its personality and in believing in the independence of its absolute destiny.

But now, since the Macedonian invasion Jewish exclusiveness will have to face up to an entirely new kind of imperialism and a new type of danger. While other conquerors were content with imposing their military, social and political domination upon the vanquished, along with the dangerous presence of their pantheon, Alexander intended to bend the minds of the Barbarians and render them pliant to a wisdom with universal pretensions. Hence it was inevitable that the Jews themselves would be called upon to welcome the civilization of the conqueror and to commune with the rest of the world in the ideal he made of beauty, truth and humanism.

At the time when Ben Sirach was working on his book, Judea was in the process of changing its rulers. It appeared to Antiochus III that the only way to bring about unity was to impose Hellinization upon all. He set to work and was very successful, except in the case of the Jews who opposed his efforts with great energy. They were resolved never to be dispossessed of the Wisdom which they regarded as the best part of their patrimony.

Sirach must be seen as the first builder of this resistance which would end in victory for the Jews. Their intransigence can be explained only by their enthusiastic and powerful faith. It was not up to Israel to dispose of this Wisdom since it did not chose her, but she came and established herself in Israel. If she imposes herself invincibly upon Israel, it is because she has issued from the mouth of God. The people have not in any way taken part in building her up; and if they enjoy her it is because the Lord has granted her as a free gift to whomever he pleases. As Sirach says: “All wisdom comes from the Lord and is with him for ever. The sand of the sea, the drops of the rain, and the days of eternity, who can count them? The height of heaven, the breadth of the earth, the abyss, and wisdom, who can search them out? Wisdom was created before all things, and prudent understanding from eternity. The root of wisdom, to whom has it been revealed? The Lord himself created wisdom; and he supplied her to those who love him.” (1: 1-10)
[1] Man’s Destiny in the Books of Wisdom – Evode Beaucamp, OFM – Alba House – Staten Island, NY – 1970 – pg 116 f

Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
2022-10-13
A reading about the Church and our anticipated victory over death, from Sacraments and Orthodoxy by Fr. Alexander Schmemann. 1

The liturgy of Christian death does not begin when a man has come to the inescapable end and his corpse lies in church for the last rites while we stand around, the sad yet resigned witnesses of the dignified removal of a man from the world of the living. It begins every day as the Church ascending into heaven, “puts aside all earthly care”; it begins every feast day; it begins especially in the joy of Easter. The whole life of the Church is in a way the sacrament of our death, because all of it is the proclamation of the Lord’s death, the confession of his resurrection.

The Church is the entrance into the risen life of Christ, communion in life eternal, “joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.” And it is the expectation of the “day without evening” of the Kingdom; not of any “other world,” but of the fulfillment of all things and all life in Christ. In him death itself has become an act of life, for he has filled it with himself, with his love and light. In him “all things are yours; whether the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s” (1 Cor 3.21-23). And if I make this new life mine, mine this hunger and thirst of the Kingdom, mine this expectation of Christ, mine the certitude that Christ is Life, my very death will be an act of communion with Life. For neither life nor death can separate us from the love of Christ. I do not know when and how the fulfillment will come. I do not know when all things will be consummated in Christ. I know nothing about the “whens” and “hows.” But I know that in Christ this great Passage, the Pascha of the world has begun, that the light of the “world to come” comes to us in the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit, for Christ is risen and Life reigns.
1 New York, 1965, pp. 130-133.

Vigils Reading
2022-10-12
A Commentary on Ben Sirac by St John Chrysostom [1]

Ben Sirac recommends great caution in the choice of friends. St John Chrysostom develops this further. “A friend is truly more to be desired than light itself, I mean a genuine friend. I am speaking of spiritual friends, who care for friendship more than anything else. Let me show you what friendship is like: friends, Christ’s friends, surpass parents and children. Do not quote the people of today to me. Think of how, in the days of the apostles, the ordinary Christians had one soul and one heart, and claimed not a single possession as their own, but gave to each whatever was needed. There was no mine or yours in those days. This is friendship, that none should think of their property as their own, but as belonging to their neighbor or to anyone other than themselves. In this way they must care for the souls of others as for their own, and others likewise must show the same attitude. But how, you ask, is such a thing possible? It is only not possible because we are unwilling to try it. If we were really willing to try it, it would be perfectly possible. For if it had been impossible, Christ would not have commanded it, nor would he have spoken about love in the way he did. Friendship is a great thing, just how great no one could know nor could any words describe without the experience of it.

Those who love do not wish to command or rule, they prefer to be ruled and commanded themselves. They prefer to give rather than receive a favor, for they love and always feel as if they could never do enough for another. They do not enjoy being well treated themselves as much as doing good to others, for they prefer to be in the debt of others and have others in their debt as well. And they want to show kindness to others without appearing to do so, but rather to be in their debt. And they want to be first in kindness without appearing to be first but rather to be repaying it, just as God did with humanity. He intended to give His Son for us, but so that He might not appear to give but rather to owe him to us, he commanded Abraham to give his son, so that his own great deed should not appear to be great. For when there is no friendship our kindness is full of reproaches, and we exaggerate our small acts; but when there is friendship, we try to hide our kindness, and are also anxious to show that our great acts are small, so as not to make our friends feel they are debtors, but that in having them as our debtors we ourselves are in debt to them.
[1] A Word in Season – vol. VIII -Augustinian Press – 1999 pg 156

Vigils Reading - St John XXIII
2022-10-11
Spiritual Testament and Last Wishes by St. Pope John XXIII 1
On the point of presenting myself before the One and Triune Lord who created me, redeemed me, chose me to be his priest and bishop, and covered me with unending graces, I entrust my poor soul to His mercy; I humbly ask pardon for my sins and deficiencies. I offer Him the little good, although petty and imperfect, that with His aid I have succeeded in doing, for His glory, for the service of Holy Church, for the edification of my brethren, begging Him finally to receive me, like a good and kind Father, with His Saints into eternal happiness.
I profess once again with all my heart my entire Christian and Catholic faith, my adherence and subjection to the Holy Apostolic and Roman Church, and my complete devotion and obedience to her August Head, the Supreme Pontiff, whom it was my great honor to represent for long years in various regions of the East and West, who at the end chose me to come to Venice as Cardinal and Patriarch, and whom I have always followed with sincere affection, aside from and above any dignity conferred upon me. The sense of my own littleness and nothingness has always been my good companion, keeping me humble and calm, and making me amploy myself to the best of my ability in a constant exercise of obedience and charity for souls and for the interests of the Kingdom of Jesus, my Lord and my all. To Him be all glory; for me and for my merit, His mercy. “My merit is the mercy of the Lord. O Lord, You know everything: You know that I love You.” This alone is enough for me.
I ask pardon of those whom I have unwittingly offended, of all to whom I have not been a source of edification. I feel that I have nothing to forgive anyone, for all who have known and dealt with me – including those who have offended me, scorned me, held me in bad esteem (with good reason, for that matter), or have been a source of affliction for me – I regard solely as brothers and benefactors, to whom I am grateful and for whom I pray and always will pray. – over –
Born poor, but of honorable and humble people, I am particularly happy to die poor, having given away, in accord with the various demands and circumstances of my simple and modest life, for the benefit of the poor and of Holy Church that had nurtured me, all that came into my hands – which was little enough as a matter of fact – during the years of my priesthood and episcopacy. Outward appearances of ease and comfort often veiled hidden thorns of distressing poverty and kept we from giving with all the largess I would have liked. I thank God for this grace of poverty which I vowed in my youth, poverty of spirit as a priest of the Sacred Heart, and real poverty. This grace has sustained me in never asking for anything, neither positions nor money, nor favors – never, not for myself, nor for my relatives or friends.
The goodness directed toward my poor person by all whom I met along the path made my life serene. As I face death, I recall each and every one – those who preceded me in taking the final step, those who will survive me and who will follow me. May they pray for me. I will repay them from Purgatory or from Paradise, where I hope to be received. I repeat it once again, not because of my merits, but because of the mercy of the Lord.
At the moment for saying farewell, or better still, arrivederci, I once more remind everyone of what counts most in life: blessed Jesus Christ, His Holy Church, His Gospel; and in the Gospel, above all, the Pater nosterin the spirit and heart of Jesus and the Gospel, the truth and goodness, the goodness meek and kind, active and patient, victorious and unbowed.
My children, my brethren, arrivederci. In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
1The Encyclicals and Other Messages of John XXIII – TPS Press – Washington DC – 1964 – pg 465

Vigils Reading
2022-10-10
A Reading on the Book of Sirach from Fr. Raymond MacKenzie S.J. [1]

As a follow-up to the preceding sections, against pride and against superficial judgments, Ben Sira now considers the golden mean, the middle way between two extremes. This is his version of the Greek slogan meden agan , “Nothing too much”.
The sage begins by condemning premature judgments, as also involvement in others’ business. Then, with renewed address “My son”, he warns against being a “workaholic” in pursuit of wealth. As always, Ben Sira insists that human beings must not “play God”; they must act, of course, as prudently and effectively as they can, but realizing always that the last word belongs to the Lord. Ben Sira expresses reverent amazement at the Lord’s actions in reversing human fortunes; he does not suggest that such reverses can be explained as reward or punishment for human acts.

Verse 14 brings a favorite doctrine of Ben Sirra: the universal causality of the God of Israel. All dualism is excluded from this sapiential theology. There is not – as there was in Zoroastrianism, for example – any evil Spirit on a level with the Lord, to whom things wrong or displeasing might be attributed. Ben Sira affirms the origin in the Lord of evil as well as good, death as well as life, etc. leaving for later discussion how this is to be understood.

Verses 18-19 are as follows: “There is a man who is rich through his diligence and self-denial, and this is the reward allotted to him: when he says: “I have found rest and now I shall enjoy my goods!” he does not know how much time will pass until he leaves them to others and dies.” This is expanded in dramatic dialogue form in the Lucan parable of Lk 12:16-21: “I will pull down my barns and build larger ones… and I will say to my soul, Soul, take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you.”
[1] Sirach – R.A.F. MacKenzie SJ – Old Testament Message – vol. 19 – Michael Glazier Inc – Wilmington, DE – 1983 – pg60

Vigils Reading - 28th Sun ORD
2022-10-09
A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke by Bruno of Segni [1]

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus passed through the border between Samaria and Galilee, and when he entered one of the villages ten lepers came to meet him. What do these ten lepers stand for if not the sum total of all sinners? When Christ the Lord came not a;; men and women were leprous in body, but in soul they were, and to have a soul full of leprosy is much worse than to have a leprous body.
But let us see what happened next. Standing a long way off they called out to him: “Jesus, Master. Take pity on us.” They stood a long way off because no one in their condition dared come too close. We stand a long way off too while we continue in sin. To be restored to health and cured of the leprosy of sin, we also must cry out: “Jesus, Master, take pity on us. That cry, however, must come not from our lips but from our heart, for the cry of the heart is louder: ot pierces the heavens. Rising up to the very throne of God.
When Jesus saw the lepers he told them to go and show themselves to the priests. God has only to look at people to be filled with compassion. He pitied these lepers as soon as he saw them, and sent them to the priests not to be cleansed by them, but to be pronounced clean.
And as soon as they went they were cleansed. Let all sinners listen to this and try to understand it. It is easy for the Lord to forgive sins. Sinners have often been forgiven before they come to a priest. In fact their repentance and healing occur simultaneously : at the very moment of their conversion they pass from death to life. Let them understand, however, what this conversion means, let them understand the Lord’s words: Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping and mourning;and rend your hearts and not your garments. To be really converted one must be converted inwardly, in one’s heart, for a humbled contrite heart God will not spurn.
One of them, when nhe saw that he was cured, went back again, praising God at the top of his voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. Now this man was a Samaritan.He stands for all those who, after their cleansing by the waters of baptism or healing by the sacrament of penance, renounce the devil and take Christ as their model, following him with praise, adoration and thanksgiving, and nevermore abandoning his service.
And Jesus said to him: “Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you/” Great therefore is the power of faith- Without it, as the Apostle says, it is impossible to please God. Abraham believed God and because of this God regarded him as righteous. Faith saves, faith justifies, faith heals both body and soul.
[1] Journey with the Fathers – Yea5r C –New City Press – 1984 – pg 124

Skema, 28th Week ORD
2022-10-09
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
28th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (II)
October 9 – 15, 2022

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

Office
28th Sunday
Weekday
St John XXIII
Weekday
Office for the Dead
Weekday
St Teresa of Avila

Vigils
Sir 20:16-31
Sir 21:1-14
Sir 21:15-28
Sir 22:1-15
Sir 22:16-27
Sir 23:1-15
Sir 23:16-27

Lauds
Mic 7:14-20
Nahum 1:1-8
Nahum 1:9-2:1
Nahum 2:2-8
Nahum 2:9-14
Nahum 3:1-7
Nahum 3:8-13

Mass
144
467
468
469
470
471
472

1st
2 Kgs 5:14-17
Gal 4:22-24, 26-27, 31-5:1
Gal 5:1-6
Gal 5:18-25
Eph 1:1-10
Eph 1:11-14
Eph 1:15-23

2nd
2 Tim 2:8-13

Gospel
Luke 17:11-19
Luke 11:29-32
Luke 11:37-41
Luke 11:42-46
Luke 11:47-54
Luke 12:1-7
Luke 12:8-12

Vespers
Jas 2:14-17
Jas 2:18-26
Jas 3:1-5a
Jas 3:5b-12
Jas 3:13-18
Jas 4:1-4
Jas 4:5-12

Vigils Reading - St Theresa of Child Jesus
2022-10-08
The mission of St. Thérèse of Lisieux: a reading from a book by Hans Urs von Balthasar. 1

There can be no doubt that Thérèse of Lisieux was directly entrusted by God with a mission to the Church. Thérèse’s mission, at the very first glance, displays the marks of a clearly defined, and quite exceptional character. This is much less due to the personal drama of the little saint than to the sacred Form into which the trickling grains of petty anecdotes are compressed, into a hard, unbreakable block, by a firm invisible hand. It is contrary to all expectation that the simple, modest story of this little girl should eventually culminate, as it irrefutably does, in the enunciation of theological truths. Originally she herself never dreamt that she might be chosen to bear some fundamental message to the Church. She only became aware of it gradually; in fact, it did not occur to her until her task was almost completed, after she had already lived out her teaching and was writing the last chapters of her book. Suddenly, as she saw it all laid out before her, she recognized its strangeness, that in her obedience she had unwillingly conceived something beyond her own personality. And now that she saw it she also understood it, and seized it with a kind of violence.

Ever since her childhood Thérèse had shown a striking inclination to meditating and reflecting upon herself. [This] meant that when she discovered her mission she became intensely conscious of it in a manner rare amongst the saints. At that moment she realized she was to be set on a pedestal, and that every bit of her life, even its smallest details, would be used as a pattern for many of the little ones. She regards the publication of her manuscript as an important work; she knows that all the world will love me, and that her writings will do a great deal of good. During her last months, as if making her last will and testament, she repeats constantly: One must tell souls. Exactly the same expressions recur in reference to the mission she is soon to begin in heaven: I feel that my mission will soon begin to teach souls to love God as I love Him, to give them my little way. If my wishes are realized, I shall spend my Heaven on earth until the end of the world. Similarly she recognizes the function within the Church of her mission. She not only foresees the proclamation of her own sanctity but she also, as it were, foresaw the canonization of her doctrine. The two are not separable. It is not so much her writings as her life itself which is her doctrine, especially since her writings speak about her life more than anything else. Nor does she hesitate to propose her life as an example for the Church, because it is in her life that she sees the realization of that doctrine which can do so much good.

So her life only contains exemplary value for the Church insofar as the Holy Spirit has possessed her and used her in order to demonstrate something for the sake of the Church, opening up new vistas onto the Gospels. That, and that alone, should be the motive for the Church’s interest in Thérèse. That, and that alone, should engage the attention of those who feel themselves put off my many features of her cultus, or even of her character, or who experience indefinable objections to them. In fact, there are few other cases in which it is so prudent to distinguish between the mission of a saint and its essentials.

In the case of Thérèse of Lisieux the dramatic tension between her mission and her person needs specially to be borne in mind, and to be appreciated primarily in theological terms; the essence of sanctity has to be grasped as truly evangelical, as belonging to the Church, as a mission and not simply as an individual ascetical, mystical manifestation. Moreover it is not just because of contemporary needs, but because of the depth of revealed truth that portraits of the saints must in future be remodeled, so that the saints can again live amongst us, and in us, as the best protectors and inspirers of the community of the saints, which is the Church.

1
Thérèse of Lisieux: The Story of a Mission, trans. by Donald Nicholl, New York: Sheed and Ward, 1954, pp xix ff.

Our Lady of the Rosary
2022-10-07
From the Apostolic Letter of Pope John Paul II on the Rosary [1]
The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, which gradually took form in the second millenium under the guidance of the Spirit of God, is a prayer loved by countless saints and encouraged by the magisterium. Simple yet profound, it still remains, at the dawn of this third millenium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness. It blends easily into the spiritual journey of the Christian life, which after 2,000 years, has lost none of the freshness of its beginnings and feels drawn by the Spirit of God to set out into the deep (duc in altum!) in order once more to proclaim, and even to cry out, before the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, the way, and the truth and the life@ (Jn.14:6), the goal of human history and the point on which the desires of history and civilization turn@.
The Rosary, though clearly Marian in character, is at heart a Christocentric prayer. In the sobriety of its elements, it has all the depth of the Gospel message in its entirety, of which it can be said to be a compendium. It is an echo of the prayer of Mary, her perennial Magnificat for the work of the redemptive Incarnation that began in her virginal womb. With the Rosary, the Christian people sit at the school of Mary and are led to contemplate the beauty of the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the mother of the Redeemer.
The Rosary, reclaimed in its full meaning, goes to the very heart of Christian life; it offers a familiar yet fruitful spiritual and educational opportunity for personal contemplation, the formation of the people of God, and the new evangelization. But the most important reason for strongly encouraging the practice of the Rosary is that it represents a most effective means of fostering among the faithful that commitment to the contemplation of the Christian mystery that I have proposed as a genuine training in holiness. What is needed is a Christian life distinguished above all in the art of prayer. Inasmuch as contemporary culture, even amid so many indications to the contrary, has witnessed the flowering of a new call for spirituality, due also to the influence of other religions, it is more urgent than ever that our Christian communities should become a genuine schools of prayer.
The Rosary belongs among the finest and most praiseworthy traditions of Christian contemplation. Developed in the West, it is a typically meditative prayer, corresponding in some way to the prayer of the heart, or Jesus prayer, that took root in the soil of the Christian East.
The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary. In a unique way, the face of the Son belongs to Mary. It was in her womb that Christ was formed, receiving from her a human resemblance that points to an even greater spiritual closeness. No one has ever devoted themselves to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as Mary. The eyes of her heart already turned to Him at the Annunciation, when she conceived him by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Mary lived with her eyes fixed on Christ, treasuring His every word: She kept all these things, pondering them in her heart (Lk 2:19). The memories of Jesus, impressed on her heart, were always with her, leading her to reflect on the various moments of her life at her Son’s side. In a way those memories were to be the rosary that she recited uninterruptedly throughout her earthly life.
Even now, amid the joyful songs of the heavenly Jerusalem, the reasons for her thanksgiving and praise remain unchanged. They inspire her maternal concern for the pilgrim Church, in which she continues to relate her personal account of the Gospel. Mary constantly sets before the faithful the mysteries of her Son, with the desire that the contemplation of those mysteries will release all their saving power. In the recitation of the Rosary, the Christian community enters into contact with the memories and the contemplative gaze of Mary.
[1] Rosarium Virginis Mariae of Pope John Paul II – The Pope Speaks – vol. 48, #2, March, April, 2003

St. Bruno
2022-10-06
From a letter to his Carthusian sons by St. Bruno [1]
From the frequent and pleasant reports of our most blessed brother, I know of your reasoned and truly praiseworthy discipline, carried out with unwavering rigor. Since I have heard of your holy love and constant pursuit of honesty and virtue, my spirit rejoices in the Lord. I rejoice and am drawn to praise and give thanks to God, and still I long to love him. I rejoice, as I should, in the growing fruits of your strength, and yet I grieve and am ashamed that I lie idle and senseless in the mire of my sins.
Therefore rejoice, my dearest brothers, because you are so blessed and because of the bountiful hand of God’s grace upon you. Rejoice, because you have escaped the various dangers and shipwrecks of the stormy world. Rejoice, because you have reached the quiet and safe anchorage of a secret harbor. Many wish to come into this port, and many make great efforts to do so, yet do not achieve it. Indeed many, after reaching it, have been thrust out, since it was not granted them from above.
Therefore, my brothers, you should consider it certain and well-established that whoever partakes of this desirable good, should he in any way lose it, will grieve to his death, if he has any regard or concern for the salvation of his soul.
My dearest lay brothers, of you I say: “My soul magnifies the Lord”. For I have learned of the generosity of his mercy toward you from the report of your Prior and dearest father; he rejoices and takes great pride in you. And let us rejoice that since you are acquainted with the knowledge of letters, almighty God will inscribe in your hearts with his finger not only his love but also the knowledge of his holy law. By your work you show what you love and what you know. When you observe true obedience with prudence and enthusiasm, it is clear that you wisely pick the most delightful and nourishing fruit of divine Scripture.
[1] The Liturgy of the Hours – vol. IV – Catholic Book Publishing Co – New York – 1975 – pg 1468
