Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Cleveland LCG Meeting
2023-08-19 14:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York)
Cleveland LCG Meeting
August 19th at 2:00 pm
Place: St. Martin of Tours/zoom

Blessed Guerric of Igny
2023-08-19
ALL GENERATIONS WILL CALL HER BLESSED
From a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny 7
◊◊◊
“Mary has chosen the best part.” This was said of Mary, the sister of
Martha, but it was realized… with greater fullness and holiness in Mary, Mother of
the Lord. For… the blessed Virgin Mary chose the best part; or rather she entered…
into unending possession of what she had chosen long before: to keep close to the
Lord, to be inseparable from him, and to enjoy God’s Word for all eternity.
After her Son ascended to where he was before, the mother, released from
all temporal anxiety and more fully enlightened by the Holy Spirit, rejoiced to be
still and see that Jesus is God. A vision of wholly ineffable joy and supreme delight
for all who love Jesus, but before all others for her who gave birth to Jesus. As the
grace of giving birth to God was conferred on her apart from all others, so was the
privilege of glorying in him to whom she gave birth. Altogether her own and
without comparison was the glory of the Virgin Mother, to see God the King of all
in the diadem of the flesh with which she crowned him, so as to recognize God and
adore him in her own body and see her own body glorified in God. These are the
truths which in the meantime Mary rejoiced to contemplate, this is the best part
which she has chosen, which… has not been taken away from her but brought to
perfection in her. For since she was not careless or remiss in Martha’s work she
has not been left without Mary’s fruit. Toil is in action, fruit or reward in
contemplation.
We say these things to you, brethren, so that if you feel a desire for that best
part which is praised in Mary, you may know that it is the reward of the one who
cannot be reproached for failing to do Martha’s part: it is not right that reward
should be sought before merit. It behooves Jacob first to be united with Leah
before enjoying Rachel’s embraces; and he himself has to be called and to be Jacob
before becoming Israel. “If they will make you master of the feast,” says the Wise
Man, “make good provision for the guests, and so take your place among them; your
duty done, recline at ease and rejoice on their account and receive the crown that
marks their favor.” The toil involved in work or the anxieties of administration are
seeds of justice, through which joys are to be reaped from the fruit of consoling
mercy. For so the Prophet says: “Sow for yourselves in justice, reap from the fruit of
mercy”. But one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly; and one who sows
with a blessing will also reap with a blessing.
No one to be sure sowed with so generous a blessing as she who was blessed
among women and brought forth blessed seed from her womb. So let Mary reap
her blessings; let her who sowed the blessing of all nations receive in a way all her
own the blessing of all nations. “All generations,” she says, “will call me blessed.”
7
“Fourth Sermon for the Assumption,” Liturgical Sermons, vol. 2 (Cistercian Fathers Series 32),
Spencer MA: Cistercian Publications, 1971, pp. 186-191.

Blessed Martyrs of Rochefort
2023-08-18
AN EXCERPT FROM THE ENCYCLICAL “SALVIFICI DOLORIS”
by Pope St John Paul II 6
◊◊◊
The Cross of Christ throws salvific light, in a most penetrating way, on man’s
life and in particular on his suffering. For through faith the Cross reaches
man together with the Resurrection: the mystery of the Passion is contained in the
Paschal Mystery. The witnesses of Christ’s Passion are at the same time witnesses
of his Resurrection. Paul writes: “That I may know him (Christ) and the power of
his Resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that
if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead”. Truly, the Apostle first
experienced the “power of the Resurrection” of Christ, on the road to Damascus,
and only later, in this paschal light, reached that ” sharing in his sufferings”…
The witnesses of the Cross and Resurrection were convinced that “through
many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God”… Thus to share in the
sufferings of Christ is, at the same time, to suffer for the Kingdom of God. In the
eyes of the just God, before his judgment, those who share in the suffering of Christ
become worthy of this Kingdom. Through their sufferings… they repay the infinite
price of the Passion and death of Christ, which became the price of our
Redemption: at this price the Kingdom of God has been consolidated anew in
human history, becoming the definitive prospect of man’s earthly existence. Christ
has led us into this Kingdom through his suffering…
To the prospect of the Kingdom of God is linked hope in that glory which has
its beginning in the Cross of Christ… If, in fact, the Cross was to human eyes
Christ’s emptying of himself, at the same time it was in the eyes of God his being
lifted up. On the Cross, Christ attained and fully accomplished his mission: by
fulfilling the will of the Father, he at the same time fully realized himself. In
weakness he manifested his power, and in humiliation he manifested all his
messianic greatness. Are not all the words he uttered during his agony on Golgotha
a proof of this greatness, and especially his words concerning the perpetrators of
his crucifixion: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”? To those
who share in Christ’s sufferings these words present themselves with the power
of a supreme example…
In the Paschal Mystery Christ began the union with man in the community of
the Church. The mystery of the Church is expressed in this: that already in the act
of Baptism, which brings about a configuration with Christ, and then through his
Sacrifice—sacramentally through the Eucharist—the Church is continually being
built up spiritually as the Body of Christ. In this Body, Christ wishes to be united
with every individual, and in a special way he is united with those who suffer…
Christ has in a sense opened his own redemptive suffering to all human suffering.
In so far as man becomes a sharer in Christ’s sufferings—in any part of the world
and at any time in history—to that extent he in his own way completes the suffering
through which Christ accomplished the Redemption of the world… Only within
this radius and dimension of the Church as the Body of Christ, which continually
develops in space and time, can one think and speak of “what is lacking” in the
sufferings of Christ.
6 Pope John Paul II. Salvifici Doloris. Part 21. www.holysee.org. Accessed: August 11, 2023.

Weekday
2023-08-17
A BRIGHT CLOUD OF SPIRITUALITY
RISING FROM EVERY HOME AND EVERY HEART
From the writing of Servant of God Dolindo Ruotolo 5
◊◊◊
I am writing to you in the light of the Holy Rosary, the prayer that brings us
so close to Our Lord. With this prayer… Mary Most Holy comes to meet Christians
in the same way that she meets them at Lourdes, Fatima, Tre-Fontane and any
other place where She appeared. She comes with all the riches of the mysteries of
the Life, Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord. Do we not honor the wheat
that is used for the Sacrament of the Eucharist? The Rosary is a granary of Graces.
Do we not honor the grapes used for… the Eucharist? The Rosary is the vineyard
that produces the fruits of Jesus and Mary. It has been and still is the vineyard of
God and the fullness of life for us.
Mary Most Holy wanted the beads to be called a Rosary, that is, a rosebush.
Roses bloom in the mild weather, but they remain in bloom all year round. The
same is true of the Rosary for Christian people. The Rosary is newly born every
day. It is a rosebush that we daily offer to God, much as incense was offered to God,
on an altar of gold, in ancient times… It is a heavenly garland of precious pearls, in
which every part affords a treasure of Indulgences and assurance of mercy for the
merits of Jesus and Mary…
Who can recall well the Mysteries of our Redemption without the Rosary?
The secret of our interior life is in the recalling of the mysteries… Amid the
disharmony of our chaotic lives, the Rosary is the instrument, the harp or the
psaltery with its ten chords for each group of harmonies. With the Rosary we
continually raise a song of love from earth… It is a bright cloud of spirituality, rising
from every home and every heart. Does not the harpist play music written by a
master? Does he not go over it again and again, with his finger on the chords,
making the sweet sounds, written from the heart and produced by the press of his
fingers? Well then, so do we. We recite the Rosary going over the keys of love
flowering from the life of Jesus and Mary in the mysteries of their life. On the beads
of the Rosary we sing those canticles of love that redeemed us.
As an army has its march music, marking the time for the soldiers, so does
the Rosary lovingly mark time for the Church Militant. It is like the clashing of the
trumpets accompanying the siege of Jericho and it shook its walls to the
foundation…
O Most Holy Rosary, the incense kindled by Mary Most Holy, you are the
fragrance mixed by Her with the art of master, because the Joyful, Sorrowful,
Luminous and Glorious Mysteries raise a fragrant cloud of the prayer. O Most Holy
Rosary, may your flowers bloom on the desolate flowerbeds of unbelievers and let
simple and lively Faith come to bloom again.
5 Ruotolo, Dolindo. Meditations on the Holy Rosary of Mary. Trans. Giovanna Invitti Ellis. Selfpublished online, 2006. www.donlindo.org. Accessed: April 20, 2022.

Weekday
2023-08-16
IN PRAISE OF THE VIRGIN MARY
From the devotional poems of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz 4
◊◊◊
Clear the way for the entrance of the bold adventuress who undoes injustice, who smashes insults. The sun’s rays are her resplendent armor, the stars her helmet, the moon her boots. On her shining shield with which she dazzles hell, a mountain is emblazoned and golden letters: Most beautiful .
Celebrated for her beauty, feared for her ferocity, she is jaunty and valiant, and angelic is her beauty… She dispelled the charms of the ancient serpent whose conspiracy set us under slavery’s yoke. She avenges wrongs and annuls unjust laws, gives refuge to orphans’ and shelter to widows. She liberated prisoners from that prison where, were it not for her daring spirit, still they’d await their release. All hell trembles at the mere mention of her name. And they say its very kings fast on her vigil. She’s the one who bore for us a Lion, whose fierce roar has put to shameful flight the Dragon and his sorcery. Warrior most valiant amid the cheering throng, her service to the Holy Empire entitles her to the imperial crown.
The celebrated champion who with spirit and skill won over the Holy Land, where she triumphs forever. She is the one, whose tread no demon can endure. When he sees her feet, He takes to his heels.
Crowned with glory and honor, the deeds that brought her fame, since they cannot be contained on earth, send her riding out of this world.
As knight errant of the spheres on a new adventure, she finds the hidden treasure sought by so many. There with a certain virtue secretly sheltering her, she is assured of life eternal. She comes just in time, and it would be only just, for her not to die like the others who lived like no other.
4 Sor Juana Inén de la Cruz. Selected Writings. Trans. Pamela K. Rapparport. New York: Paulist Press, 2005. 45, 49-51.

Assumption of the BVM
2023-08-15
SHE FOUND HIM WHOM HER SOUL LOVES
From a sermon by St Aelred of Rievaulx 3
◊◊◊
Among all those who are Christ’s, she who tastes his goodness more
intimately and more delicately is of greater excellence, more blessed, and more
attractive. She is to him not only a creature, a handmaid, a friend, and a daughter,
but also a mother. So then it is only right that we welcome her feast with greater
delight and gladness. But today even more we should rejoice with her because
today her joy was completely fulfilled. Great was her joy when the angel greeted
her. Great was her joy when she felt the coming of the Holy Spirit, when that
marvelous fusion of the Son of God with her flesh took place in her womb, so that
he, one and the same, was the Son of God and her Son. Great was her joy when she
held such a Son in her arms, when she listened to his words, when she saw his
miracles. And because her sorrow was so great at the Passion, she took wondrous
joy again in his resurrection and greater still at his ascension. But all these joys
were surpassed by the joy which she receives today.
Up to this day, brothers, Mary, the blessed Mother of God, knew her dearest
Son in the flesh. Although she fastened all her desires and all her love there, where
he was, after her dearest Son and Lord ascended into heaven, so long as she
remained in this corruptible flesh, what she had seen of him in the flesh could not
fade from her memory. For his deeds and words were always coming to her mind
and above all there lingered in her heart the features of his exquisite face. Today,
however, she passed from this world and went up to the heavenly kingdom. There
she began to contemplate his brightness, power, and divinity, and her joy and her
longing were fulfilled. So with good reason could she say: “I have found him whom
my soul loves”. She holds him and she does not let him go…
Today the Blessed Virgin… entered that heavenly court. She saw the white
robes of the virgins, the ruddy crowns of the martyrs, the thrones of the apostles,
and in the midst of them she found her Son reigning. Ascending higher than the
very highest of the saints, she has arrived at such knowledge of the divinity that
she then glories in having found him for the first time.
O blessed soul, who left behind not only the patriarchs and prophets, the
apostles, martyrs, confessors, and virgins, but also the angels… and all heaven’s
array, and so reached her dearest Son. Then she utterly found him whom now her
soul loves utterly. She found him and she held him. She holds him in the embraces
of an utterly perfect love and she can never lose him because she can never love
him any less.
Let us lift up our hearts therefore, brothers, to Our Lady, our Advocate. Let
us reflect on how much hope we have in her. Just as she surpasses every creature
in excellence, so also she is more merciful and kinder than any creature. Let us
then confidently entreat her who can by her excellence assist us and by her mercy
chooses to do so, that she may implore her Son for us so that as he deigned to be
born of her for us, he may through her deign to have mercy on us.
3 Aelred of Rievaulx. The Liturgical Sermons – CF #58 – Cistercian Publications,Kalamazoo – 2001.

St. Maximilian Kolbe
2023-08-14
A MIGHTY EXPLOSION OF LIGHT
From a testimony at the beatification of St Maximilian Kolbe 2
◊◊◊
Fr Kolbe and I worked together in May or June 1941. We were bringing sand up from the Sola River. This was some of Auschwitz’s heaviest work, so our squad had a very hard time indeed. The work itself was very painful; we were lightly and very insufficiently dressed, and yet we had to wade into the cold water to dig the sand. In addition the guards beat us cruelly or sometimes killed prisoners outright. From the first time I saw Father Maximilian I was struck by his dignity and calm, so different from others. In spite of the terrible conditions and bad treatment, he never complained nor did he curse. Instead he tried to comfort the other prisoners and lift our spirits. During the three weeks we worked together, I sometimes saw beat Father Kolbe with a big stick. Each time, Father Kolbe took it without a murmur.
The news of his death was an enormous shock to the whole camp. We became aware someone among us in this spiritual dark night of the soul was raising the standard of love on high. Someone unknown, like everyone else, tortured and bereft of name and social standing, went to a horrible death for the sake of someone not even related to him. Therefore it is not true, we cried, that humanity is cast down and trampled in the mud, overcome by oppressors, and overwhelmed by hopelessness. Thousands of prisoners were convinced the true world continued to exist and that our torturers would not be able to destroy it. More than one individual began to look within himself for this real world, found it, and shared it with his camp companion, strengthening both in this encounter with5 evil. To say that Father Kolbe died for one of us or for that person’s family is too great a simplification. His death was the salvation of thousands. And on this, I would say, rests the greatness of that death. That’s how we felt about it. And as long as we live, we who were at Auschwitz will bow our heads in memory of it as at that time we bowed our head before the bunker of death by starvation. That was a shock full of optimism, regenerating and giving strength; we were stunned by his act, which became for us a mighty explosion of light….
2 Beatificationis et Canonizationis Servi Dei Maximiliani M Kolbe, Sacerdotis Professi Ordinis Fratrum Minor Conventualium, Cracow, 1971, in Patricia Treece, ” A Man For Others”, San Francisco, 1982, pp 139, 178- 179.

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
2023-08-13
LORD, I AM DROWNING, SAVE ME!
From a commentary by St Augustine 1
◊◊◊
The gospel tells us how Christ the Lord walked upon the waters of the sea,
and how the apostle Peter did the same until fear made him falter and lose
confidence. Then he began to sink and emerged from the water only after calling
on the Lord with renewed faith.
Now we must regard the sea as a symbol of the present world, and the
apostle Peter as a symbol of the one and only Church. For Peter, who ranked first
among the apostles and was always the most ready to declare his love for Christ,
often acted as a spokesman for them all. For instance, when the Lord Jesus asked
who people thought he was and the other disciples had cited various opinions, it
was Peter who responded to the Lord’s further question, But who do you say that I
am? With the affirmation: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. One replied
for all because all were united.
When we consider Peter as a representative member of the Church we
should distinguish between what was due to God’s action in him and what was
attributable to himself. Then we ourselves shall not falter, then we shall be
founded upon the rock and remain firm and unmoved in the face of the wind, rain,
and floods, which are the trials and temptations of this present world. Look at
Peter, who in this episode is an image of ourselves; at the moment he is all
confidence, at the next all uncertainty and doubt; now he professes faith in the
immortal One, now he fears for his life.
Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you upon the water. When the Lord said:
Come Peter climbed out of the boat and began to walk on the water. This is what
he could do through the power of the Lord; what by himself? Realizing how
violently the wind was blowing, he lost his nerve and as he began to sink he called
out: “Lord, I am drowning, save me. When he counted on the Lord’s help it enabled
him to walk on the water; when human frailty made him falter he turned once
more to the Lord, who immediately stretched out his hand to help him, raised him
up as he was sinking, and rebuked him for his lack of faith.
Think, then, of this world as a sea, whipped up to tempestuous heights by
violent winds. A person’s own private tempest will be his or her unruly desires. If
you love God you will have the power to walk upon the waters, and all the world’s
swell and turmoil will remain beneath your feet. But if you love the world it will
surely engulf you, for it always devours its lovers, never sustains them. If you feel
your foot slipping beneath you, if you become a prey to doubt or realize that you
are losing control, if, in a word, you begin to sink, say: Lord, I am drowning, save
me! Only he who for your sake died in your fallen nature can save you from a death
inherent in that fallen nature.
1
Journey with the Fathers – Year A – New City Press, NY – 1984 – p. 114-115.

Skema:19th Week in Ordinary Time
2023-08-13
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
19th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
August 13 – 19, 2023

Sun
13
Mon
14
Tue
15
Wed
16
Thu
17
Fri
18
Sat
19

Office
19th Sunday
St Maximilian Kolbe
Assumption of the BVM
Weekday
Weekday
Blessed Martyrs of Rochefort
Bl Guerric

Vigils
Josh 2:1-24
Josh 3:1-17
Eph 1:15-2:10
Josh 4:1-24
Josh 5:1-15
Josh 6:1-27
Josh 7:1-26

Lauds
Hos 8:8-14
Hos 9:1-9
1 Chron 15:1-4, 14-16, 25-28; 16:1-2
Hos 9:10-17
Hos 10:1-8
Hos 10:9-15
Hos 11:1-7

Mass
115
413
622
415
416
417
418

1st
1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-13a
Deut 10:12-22
Rev 11:19a; 12:1-6a; 10ab
Deut 34:1-12
Josh 3:7-10a, 11, 13-17
Josh 24:1-13
Josh 24:14-29

2nd
Rom 9:1-5

1 Cor 15:20-27

Gospel
Matt 14:22-33
Matt 17:22-27
Luke 1:39-56
Matt 18:15-20
Matt 18:21-19:1
Matt 19:3-12
Matt 19:13-15

Vespers
1 Tim 6:11-16
Eph 2:1-10
Rom 8:28-39
1 Tim 6:17-21
Titus 1:1-9
Titus 1:10-16
2 Tim 1:6-14

Vigils Reading - Memorial of B.V.M.
2023-08-12
THE GLORIOUS AND HAPPY TRANSITION OF THE MOST HOLY MARY
From “The Mystical City of God” by Venerable Mary of Agreda7
◊◊◊
The day was approaching in which the true and living Ark of the covenant was to be placed in the temple of the celestial Jerusalem… Three days before the most happy Transition of the great Lady, the Apostles and disciples were gathered in Jerusalem and in the Cenacle. The first one to arrive was saint Peter…
The great Lady came to the entrance of her oratory in order to receive the vicar of Christ our Savior. Kneeling at his feet She asked his blessing and said: “I give thanks and praise to the Almighty, that He has brought to me the holy Father for assisting me in the hour of my death.” Then came saint Paul, to whom the Queen showed the same reverence with similar tokens of her pleasure at seeing him…
The great Lady looked upon them all with her accustomed modesty and reverence and spoke to them as follows: “My dearest children, give permission to your servant to speak in your presence and to disclose my humble desires.” Saint Peter answered that all listened with attention and would obey Her in all things… She then prostrated Herself and kissed the feet of saint Peter as the vicar of Christ… From saint Peter She went to saint John, and kneeling likewise at his feet, said: “Pardon, my son and my master, my not having fulfilled toward thee the duties of a Mother as I ought and as the Lord had commanded me, when from the Cross He appointed thee as my son and me as thy mother. I humbly and from my heart thank thee for the kindness which thou hast shown me as a son. Give me thy benediction for entering into the vision and company of Him who created me.” …

She rose to her feet and addressed them all, saying: “Dearest children and my masters, always have I kept you in my soul and written in my heart. I have loved you with that tender love and charity, which was given to me by my divine Son, whom I have seen in you, his chosen friends. In obedience to his holy and eternal will, I now go to the eternal mansions, where I promise you as a Mother I will look upon you by the clearest light of the Divinity, the vision of which my soul hopes and desires in security. I commend unto you my mother, the Church, the exaltation of the name of the Most High, the spread of the evangelical law, the honor and veneration for the words of my divine Son, the memory of his Passion and Death, the practice of his doctrine. My children, love the Church, and love one another with that bond of charity, which your Master has always inculcated upon you. To thee, Peter, holy Pontiff, I commend my son John and all the rest.”
The words of the most blessed Mary, like arrows of a divine fire, penetrated the hearts of all the Apostles and hearers… All of them wept, and with them wept also the sweetest Mary, who could not resist this bitter and well-founded sorrow of her children…
Only saint John and some of the Apostles were enlightened as to the presence of Christ the Savior, yet the others felt in their interior its divine and powerful effects… Her tunic was folded about her sacred body, her hands were joined and her eyes fixed upon her divine Son, and She was entirely inflamed with the fire of divine love… She pronounced those words of her Son on the Cross: “Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.” Then She closed her virginal eyes and expired

7 Mary of Agreda. City of God – The Coronation. Trans. Fiscar Marison. Washington, NJ: Ave Maria Institute, 1971. 620-626.

Vigils Reading - St Clare
2023-08-11
THE TESTAMENT OF SAINT CLARE
From “The Life and Writing of St Clare of Assisi6
◊◊◊
Among the many graces which we have received and continue daily to receive from the liberality of the Father of mercies, and for which we must give deepest thanks to our glorious God, our vocation holds first place. Indeed, because it is the more perfect and the greater among these graces, so much the more does it claim our gratitude. Therefore the Apostle says: “Know your vocation”.
The Son of God became for us the Way; and that Way our Blessed Father Francis, His true lover and imitator, has shown and taught us by word and example. For when the Saint as yet had neither Friars nor companions and, shortly after his conversion, was repairing the Church of San Damiano and there, filled completely with divine consolation, was led to abandon the world wholly and forever, in great joy and in the illumination of the Holy Spirit he prophesied concerning us what the Lord later fulfilled. For at that time he mounted the wall of the church and cried with a loud voice… “Come and help me in building the Monastery of San Damiano; for here will dwell Ladies whose good name and holy life will glorify our Heavenly Father throughout His holy Church.”
In this therefore we can behold the great kindness of God toward us, who of the abundance of His mercy and love deigned to speak thus through His Saint of our vocation and election. And it was not of us alone that our most blessed Father prophesied these things, but of all others likewise who were to enter the holy calling to which God has called us. With what solicitude, therefore, and fervor of mind and body must we not observe the commandments of God and of our Father,

that with the help of God we may return to Him with increase the talent He has given us! For the Lord has placed us as an example and mirror not only for other men, but also for our Sisters whom God has called to our way of life, that they in turn should be a mirror and an example to those living in the world.
Since therefore the Lord has called us to such heights of holiness that in us our other Sisters may behold themselves who are to be an example to mankind, we are truly bound to bless the Lord and praise Him and to be strengthened in Him more and more to do good. Wherefore if we live according to the pattern given us, we shall leave others a noble example and after life’s short labor gain the prize of eternal happiness.
After the most high celestial Father had deigned to enlighten my heart by His mercy and grace to do penance after the example and teaching of our most Blessed Father Francis… I voluntarily promised him obedience with the few Sisters whom the Lord had given me… And thus by the will of God and of our most blessed Father Francis we came to dwell at the church of San Damiano. There in a short time the Lord by His mercy and grace increased our number that what He had prophesied through His Saint might come to pass…
For this reason I bend my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that through the prayers and merits of the glorious and holy Virgin Mary, His Mother, and of our most blessed Father Francis and all the Saints, the Lord Himself who has given us a good beginning will give also the increase, and likewise constant perseverance to the end

6 The Life and Writings of Saint Clare of Assisi. St. Bonaventure, NY: The Franciscan Institute, 1953. 82-84, 87.

Vigils Reading - St Lawrence
2023-08-10
CONCERNING BURNED LOVE
From the writings of St Mechthild 5
◊◊◊
“Ah, dear Lord, have mercy on one who has been consumed here in the fire of your love and has been absorbed in your humility and has been annihilated in all things.” God speaks: “My Godhead burned you; My humanity recognized you; My Holy Spirit sanctified you in your poverty…”
Whenever I think of death… my desire reaches back to the time of the martyrs, that I might shed my sinful blood in true Christian faith for the sake of Jesus whom I love. A special gift forces me to dare to state this: that I love God. For whenever vice and suffering come my way, my soul begins to burn in the fire of true love of God with such sweetness that my body floats suspended in divine pleasure. But a sadness remains in my senses, and I pray to God for all who slander me or revile me, that God preserve them from sin…
When I come to die… I shall thank God that I bear the name of Christian and that I came to true Christian faith. And if I were to remain here longer, I would strive to be a help to Holy Christianity that is afflicted with many sins…
An unworthy person pondered in her simplicity God’s nobility. And God let her recognize in her senses and see with the eyes of her soul a fire that burned unceasingly in the heights above all things. The fire had been burning without a beginning and shall keep on burning without end. This fire is God eternal, who holds within himself eternal life and from whom all things have come forth. The sparks of the fire that have shot forth are the holy angels. The bright flickerings of the fire are all the saints of God… The ever-glowing coals of the fire are all the blessed here on earth who are on fire with heavenly love and shine with good example. All those who have grown cold in sin can warm themselves on the coals…

The smoke of the fire is all earthly things that one often makes use of with improper pleasure. How beautifully they shine in our eyes. How wantonly they play in our hearts. And yet they bear hidden within them a great amount of bitterness, for they disappear like smoke and blind the best. They make even the holiest persons bleary-eyed.
The comfort of the fire is the delightful pleasure that our soul receives inwardly from God through the warmth of the divine fire, so sacred that we, on fire, reflect back toward the heavenly fire, and we persevere in virtue so that we are not extinguished. The bitterness of the fire is the word that God shall speak on the last day: “Go from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!” The radiance of the fire is the gleaming sight of the divine countenance of the Holy Trinity that shall flood our body and soul with light, so that we shall see and know there the marvelous bliss that here we cannot even name. These things have come out of this fire and flow back into it, each according to God’s disposition, in eternal praise.
Whoever wishes to speak more about this, Let him prostrate himself in this fire And see and taste how the Godhead flows, How humanity pours,
How the Holy Spirit wrestles
And vanquishes many a heart, Forcing it to love God in many different ways

5 St Mechthild of Magdeburg. The Flowing Light of the Godhead. Trans. Frank Tobin. New York: Paulist Press, 1998. 252-256.

Vigils Reading - St Teresa Benedicta
2023-08-09
I WILL REMAIN WITH YOU
From the writings of Edith Stein (St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) 4
◊◊◊
You reign at the Father’s right hand in the kingdom of his eternal glory as God’s Word from the beginning. You reign on the Almighty’s throne also in transfigured human form, ever since the completion of your work on earth. I believe this because your word teaches me so, and because I believe, I know it gives me joy, and blessed hope blooms forth from it. For where you are, there also are your own. Heaven is my glorious homeland, I share with you the Father’s throne.
The Eternal who made all creatures, Who, thrice holy, encompasses all being, in addition has a silent, special kingdom of his own. The innermost chamber of the human soul is the Trinity’s favorite place to be, His heavenly throne on earth. To deliver this heavenly kingdom from the hand of the enemy, the Son of God has come as Son of Man, He gave his blood as the price of deliverance.
In the heart of Jesus, which was pierced, the kingdom of heaven and the land of earth are bound together. Here is for us the source of life. This heart is the heart of the triune Divinity, and the center of all human hearts that bestows on us the life of God. It draws us to itself with secret power, it conceals us in itself in the Father’s bosom and floods us with the Holy Spirit. This Heart, it beats for us in a small tabernacle where it remains mysteriously hidden in that still, white host.

That is your royal throne on earth, O Lord, which visibly you have erected for us, and you are pleased when I approach it. Full of love, you sink your gaze into mine and bend your ear to my quiet words and deeply fill my heart with peace.
Yet your love is not satisfied with this exchange that could still lead to separation: Your heart requires more. You come to me as early morning’s meal each daybreak. Your flesh and blood become food and drink for me and something wonderful happens. Your body mysteriously permeates mine and your soul unites with mine: I am no longer what once I was.
You come and go, but the seed that you sowed for future glory, remains behind buried in this body of dust. A luster of heaven remains in the soul, a deep glow remains in the eyes, a soaring in the tone of voice. There remains the bond that binds heart to heart, the stream of life that springs from yours and animates each limb. How wonderful are your gracious wonders! All we can do is be amazed and stammer and fall silent because intellect and words fail

4 Stein, Edith. The Collected Works of Edith Stein IV – The Hidden Life: Essays, Meditations, Spiritual Texts. Ed. Dr. L Gelber and Michael Linssen, O.C.D. Trans. Waltraut Stein, PH.D. Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1992. 141-145.

Vigils Reading - St Dominic
2023-08-08
THE SIX VIRTUES OF ST. DOMINIC
From the writings of St Mechthild 3
◊◊◊
On the feast of St. Dominic I prayed to our Lord for the whole Order of Preachers. Our dear Lord deigned to come to me himself and he brought along St. Dominic… Our Lord said: “My son Dominic had four things about him while on earth that all priors should have about them. He loved his fellow Dominicans so much that he could never bear to trouble them with things arising from some whim of his own. The second is that he often improved the food to help and show affection for his brethren, so that the young brothers might not think back on the world and so that the older ones might not succumb on the way. The third is that in holy wisdom he provided for them the model for being moderate, for the sake of God, in their whole being, in all their customs, and in all their wants. The fourth is that he was so merciful that he never wanted to burden his dear brethren with any kind of penance that the order did not require for wrongdoing.”…
After this our dear Lord said: “I love two things in the Order of Preachers so much that my divine heart unceasingly smiles upon it. The first is the holiness of their life; the second is their great value for the church. In addition, they greet my Holy Trinity with seven things. These are: deep sighs, sincere weeping, intense longing, strict discipline, distressful exile, genuine humility, and joyous love.”…
In the Order of Preachers a brother <Heinrich> died on the solemn feast of Easter… After he was buried, a certain person went to where his dead body was and greeted both soul and body. She did this regularly upon the death of religious people. There God celebrated in her soul a divine feast, and his soul was shown to her in God’s embrace in great glory. She saw clearly that his glory was not yet complete, and she asked our Lord how long he was going to remain like that and whether he had suffered at all in purgatory. Our Lord said: “He shall remain like this for a week.” That is, seven days and seven nights. He had rested himself on God’s breast in untold bliss of spiritual fervor that he had not experienced on earth. Very quickly had he come there without suffering, just as a mother takes up her dear child out of the ashes onto her lap…

Then he invited me to his feast, where he was going to receive his glory. The whole heavenly army prepared for it and joined together in a beautiful procession. St. Dominic came with a whole throng. They were all preachers, and they all wore the golden crowns of those who died in the order, crowns that differed in value according to how holy they had been in the order. St. Dominic brought a shining crown toward Brother Heinrich that sparkled as beautifully as the sun at its brightest. He gave it to him as a reward from God, because he had followed his holy example in the Dominican order. St. Dominic is indescribably more beautiful than the others because he receives a special honor from each brother as a reward. I saw him especially well clothed because of three qualities. He wears a white garment of innate purity; in addition, a green garment of growing wisdom of God, and also a red garment decorated with clasps because he had suffered spiritual martyrdom. They carry a military standard displaying the order’s honor, one that no one else carries…
Our Lord sat in his omnipotence and crowned this brother with three kinds of honors. They were simple obedience, voluntary poverty, constant humiliation. Brother Heinrich thanked our Lord thus: “I thank you, Lord, that you found me, preserved me, and received me.” He then bowed to our Lord and turned to his brothers. St. Dominic said: “Welcome, dear son, now enter into the glory of your Lord!

3 St Mechthild of Magdeburg. The Flowing Light of the Godhead. Trans. Frank Tobin. New York: Paulist Press, 1998. 164-167.

Vigils Reading - St Cajetan
2023-08-07
ST CAJETAN
From the writings of Alban Butler2
◊◊◊
St Cajetan was son of Caspar, Count of Thiene, of the nobility of Vicenza, where he was born in 1480. Two years later his father was killed, fighting for the Venetians against King Ferdinand of Naples. Cajetan went for four years to Padua University, where he distinguished himself in theology, and took the degree of doctor in civil and canon law in 1504. He then returned to his native town, of which he was made senator. In pursuance of his resolve to serve God as a priest he received the tonsure. In 1506 he went to Rome. Soon after his arrival Pope Julius II conferred on him the office of protonotary… On the death of Julius Cajetan refused his successor’s request to continue in that office, and devoted three years to preparing himself for the priesthood. He was ordained in 1516, being thirty-three years old, and returned to Vicenza in 1518.
Cajetan had re-founded a confraternity in Rome called “The Oratory of the Divine Love”, which was an association of zealous and devout clerics who devoted themselves to labor with all their power to promote God’s honor and the welfare of souls… but consisted only of men in the lowest station of life. This circumstance gave great offence to his friends, who thought it a reflection on the honor of his family. He persisted, however, and sought out the sick and the poor throughout the whole town, served them and cared for those who suffered from the most loathsome diseases in the hospital of the incurables. He founded a similar oratory at Verona and then went in 1520 to Venice where he took up his lodgings in the new hospital of that city… He introduced exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in that city, as well as continuing the promotion of frequent communion.

The state of Christendom at this time shocked and distressed Cajetan, and in 1523 he went back to Rome to confer with his friends of the Oratory of Divine Love. They agreed that little could be done other than by reviving in the clergy the spirit and zeal of those holy pastors who first planted the faith, and a plan was formed for instituting an order of regular clergy upon the model of the lives of the Apostles. The first associates of Cajetan were John Peter Caraffa, who later became pope under the name of Paul IV. The institute was approved by Clement VII, and Caraffa was chosen as the first provost general. From the name of his episcopal see of Theatensis these clerks regular came to be distinguished from others as Theatines.
The success of the new congregation was not immediate, and in 1527, when it still numbered only a dozen members, the army of Emperor Charles V sacked Rome. The Theatines house was demolished and the members had to escape to Venice. Cajetan was sent to Verona, where both the clergy and the laity were opposing the reformation of discipline, which their bishop was endeavoring to introduce among them. A general improvement was the fruit of his example, preaching and labors.
Worn out with trying to appease civil strife in Naples, and disappointed at the suspension of the Council of Trent, from which he hoped so much for the Church’s good, Cajetan had to take to his bed in the summer of 1547. The end came on Sunday, August 7. Many miracles wrought by his intercession were approved at Rome after rigorous scrutiny, and he was canonized in 1671

2 Butler’s Lives of the Saints, revised edition by Michael Walsh, Harper, San Francisco, 1991, pg. 240.

Vigils Reading - Transfiguration of the Lord
2023-08-06
THE BOMBING OF HIROSHIMA AUGUST 6th, 1945
From the recorded account of Fr. Pedro Arrupe 1
◊◊◊
It was 8:15 when a magnesium flash ripped across the blue sky. I was in my office with another Jesuit… The whole house shook, the windows shattered, the doors twisted, and the fragile walls of mud and cane broke like cards crushed by a giant hand. That terrible force, which we thought would rip the building from its foundation, threw us to the ground… When that initial earthquake finished, we stood up… I saw that not a single one was wounded… Immediately afterward, a gigantic mountain of clouds swept up into the sky. In the very center of the explosion, there appeared a horrific thunderhead and, with it, a fierce five hundred-mile an hour wind that swept away everything within a six-kilometer radius…
Everywhere there was death and destruction, and we were reduced to impotence. And he was there, knowing everything, contemplating everything, and waiting for our offering to take part in the work of rebuilding everything. I left the chapel, and my decision was immediate. We would turn the house into a hospital… But there were more than two hundred thousand victims. Where to begin?… Within a few minutes the wounded people began to appear, like walking ghosts, with their skin torn and their bodies covered with boils and red and violet spots… All of them had expressions of horror on their faces, as if they had just escaped from hell… It was an uninterrupted flow of half-burned bodies stumbling forward…
After taking care of the most urgent medical problems, <I> prepared to celebrate Mass… The half-destroyed chapel was full of shuddering sick people who were lying next to one another on the ground; they were suffering terribly and writhing in pain. I began the Mass as best I could in the midst of that human mass that had not the slightest idea of what was happening on the altar. I will never forget the horrible impression I had when I turned toward them at the Dominus vobiscum and contemplated that spectacle from the altar. I could not utter a word. I was as if paralyzed, with my arms stretched open, beholding that human tragedy… They looked at me with anguish-filled eyes, with desperation, as if they were hoping that some consolation would reach them from the altar. What a terrible scene that was! A few minutes later, the One of whom John the Baptist said, “In the midst of you is one whom you do not know” came down on the altar.

I have never felt again as I felt then the sadness of the unbelievers’ incomprehension regarding Jesus Christ. Their Savior was there among them, the one who had given his life for them… but they did not know that he was in the midst of them. I was the only one who knew it. From my lips came spontaneously a prayer for those who had had the savage cruelty to drop the atomic bomb: “Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do,” and for those who were lying near me, twisting in pain: “Lord, grant them faith […], so that they see; give them the strength to put up with the pain.” When I raised the host’ before those wounded, destroyed bodies, a cry rose from my heart: “My Lord and my God, have pity on this flock that has no Shepherd.” “So that I may believe in you, Lord, remember that they also have to come to know you.”
Torrents of grace no doubt flowed from that host and from that altar. Six months later, when all the patients had recovered and left our house (only two persons died in our care), many of them had been baptized, and all had had the experience of a Christian charity that knows how to understand, help, and console in ways that surpass all human expectation. Such charity had communicated to them a serenity that helped them to smile despite the pain and to pardon even those who had caused their suffering

1 Lamet, Pedro Miguel. Pedro Arrupe: Witness of the Twentieth Century, Prophet of the Twenty-First. Boston College: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2020. 173-175, 177, 179-180.

Skema
2023-08-06
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
18th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
August 6 – 12, 2023

Sun
6
Mon
7
Tue
8
Wed
9
Thu
10
Fri
11
Sat
12

Office
Transfiguration of the Lord
St Cajetan
St Dominic
St Teresa Benedicta
St Lawrence
St Clare
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
2 Cor 3:7-4:6
Gen 47:27-48:22
Gen 49:1-27
Gen 49:28-50:14
Sir 51:1-12
Gen 50:15-26
Josh 1:1-18

Lauds
Exod 24:12-18
Hos 6:1-6
Hos 6:7-7:2
Hos 7:3-10
Acts 6:1-6
Hos 7:11-16
Hos 8:1-7

Mass
614
407
408
409
618
411
412

1st
Dan 7:9-10, 13-14
Num 11:4b-15
Num 12:1-13
Num 13:1-2, 25-14:1, 26a-29a, 34-35
2 Cor 9:6-10
Deut 4:32-40
Deut 6:4-13

2nd
2 Peter 1:16-19

Gospel
Matt 17:1-9
Matt 14:13-21
Matt 14:22-36
Matt 15:21-28
John 12:24-26
Matt 16:24-28
Matt 17:14-20

Vespers
1 Jn 5:9-12
1 Tim 4:11-16
1 Tim 5:1-8
1 Tim 5:9-16
Rev 7:9-17
1 Tim 5:17-25
1 Tim 6:1-10

Vigils Reading - Dedication of Santa Maria Maggiore
2023-08-05
OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS
Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major 7
◊◊◊
As the Church in Rome was continuing to find its way, legend has it that the Mother of God decided to do her part to help. In the year 352, wealthy Roman aristocrats named John and his wife, who were childless and faithful Christians, wanted to use their money to help expand the Church. After praying for direction, John had a dream on the night of August 4, 352, in which our Blessed Mother appeared to him and informed him that she wanted a church built in Rome on the Esquiline Hill. She said that, despite it being the middle of summer, snow would fall on the spot the following day. When John arose on August 5, he went to see Pope Liberius to tell him about his dream… To John’s surprise, Pope Liberius had a similar dream the night before, so they decided to see if snow had fallen on the Esquiline Hill. Sure enough, upon their arrival, they found fresh snow in the form of a foundation for a church. The Pope used the snow to outline the foundation and ordered the church to be built…
In the century that followed, a controversy arose over the appropriate title of Jesus’ mother. Should she be called… the Mother of Christ, or the Mother of God? Nestorius, who was the Archbishop of Constantinople from 428 to 431, argued that Mary was only the mother of Christ’s human side, suggesting that there were two persons in Christ, a divine person and a human person. Archbishop Cyril of Alexandria, on the other hand, argued that Christ was only one Person and that His humanity and divinity were united as one in His personhood. The natural consequence of his argument was that if Mary was the mother of the Person, and the Person was God, then Mary was and is the Mother of God.

To resolve the controversy, Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II called for a church council to be held in Ephesus in 431. Nestorius and Cyril both attended, although Nestorius arrived late, and Cyril’s position won the day. Nestorius was deposed and exiled. Pope Celestine I approved the council’s decision but died shortly afterward. Pope Sixtus III was elected to succeed him in 432 and did much to implement the teachings of the Council of Ephesus. Among them was to rebuild and enlarge the Basilica Liberiana, and to give it a new name in honor of the Mother of God. The core of the current structure of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (Saint Mary Major) on the Esquiline Hill in Rome was built and dedicated by Pope Sixtus sometime before his death in 440.
Today, Santa Maria Maggiore is one of the four main basilicas in Rome, along with Saint Peter’s Basilica on Vatican Hill, Saint John Lateran Basilica (the official cathedral of the Diocese of Rome), and Saint Paul Outside the Walls…
Within the basilica, under the main altar, is the church’s most sacred relic, the wood of the manger in which the baby Jesus was laid… Another important relic is the Salus Populi Romani, an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to legend, this ancient icon is the first icon to be painted of Mary and was painted by Saint Luke, the Gospel writer. For centuries, as a reminder of the legend of the miraculous summer snowfall, white rose petals have been dropped on the faithful from the dome of the Basilica every August 5.
Though the relics, history, and legends attached to this ancient church are inspirational, perhaps the most enduring inspiration we can take from this church is that it has been a place of divine worship for more than 1,600 years. Since that time, almost every pope has offered Mass there, countless millions have prayed there, numerous saints have made a pilgrimage to that holy church, and our Blessed Mother has certainly received and answered many prayers within those walls

7 https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/august-5-dedication-of-the-basilica-of-saint- mary-major/Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major. Accessed: July 24, 2023.

Vigils Reading - St John Vianney
2023-08-04
THE CROSS IS THE LADDER TO HEAVEN
From the writings of St. John Vianney 6
◊◊◊
You must love while you’re suffering and suffer while you’re loving. On the road to the cross, it’s only the first few yards that hurt. Souls who give themselves completely to God in their suffering feel an extraordinary contentment. Vinegar will always be vinegar, but oil softens its sharpness so that you scarcely taste it.
There was a little boy, quite near here, in one of the neighboring parishes, who was lying in his bed a mass of sores, very sick and in great pain. I said to him: ‘My poor boy, you must be suffering!’ He replied: ‘No, Monsieur le Curé, today I don’t feel my pain of yesterday, and tomorrow I shan’t feel my pain of today.’ ‘But surely you’d like to get well?’ ‘No, I was bad before I was ill and I might become bad again. I’m all right as I am.’ There was vinegar there, sure enough, but the oil had drowned the taste of it…We don’t understand that, because we’re too earthly. Children in whom the Holy Spirit takes up His Home put us to shame.
The cross is the ladder to heaven. The crosses we meet on the road to heaven are like a fine stone bridge on which you can cross a river. Christians who don’t suffer cross this river on a shaky bridge that’s always in danger of giving way under their feet. Once they’ve been transformed in the flames of love, crosses are like a bundle of hawthorn that you throw on the fire and that the fire reduces to ashes. The hawthorn is thorny, but the ashes are soft. The hawthorn exudes balm and the cross exudes sweetness. But you’ve got to press the thorns in your hands and clasp the cross to your heart if you want them to distil the essence they contain.

Put a good bunch of grapes under the winepress, and a delicious juice will come out. Under the winepress of the cross our soul produces a juice which feeds and strengthens it. When we haven’t got any crosses, we are dry: if we carry them with resignation, what happiness, what sweetness we feel! The cross is the gift God makes to his friends. Contrarieties bring us to the foot of the cross and the cross to the gate of heaven

6 Translated from L’Esprit du Curé d’Ars, by A. Monnin in The Curé D’Ars, F. Trochu, Westminster MD, 1955 pp 101-102.

Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
2023-08-03
THE LAST STAGE OF LOVE
From “Purgation and Purgatory” by St Catherine of Genoa 5
◊◊◊
In its creation the soul was endowed with all the means necessary for coming to its perfection, for living as it ought to, for not contaminating itself by sin. Once sullied by sin, original and actual, it loses those gifts and dies. It can be brought back to life only by God. The inclination to evil still remains in the soul revivified by Baptism, and unless it is strenuously fought leads back to death.
Afterwards, God revivifies the soul with a special grace of His. In no other way could the soul renounce its self-centeredness or return to the pristine state of its creation; and as the soul makes its way to its first state,its ardor in transforming itself into God is its purgatory, the passionate instinct to overcome its impediments. The last stage of love is that which comes about and does its work without man’s doing. If man were to be aware of the many hidden flaws in him he would despair. These flaws are burned away in the last stage of love. God then shows that weakness to man, so that the soul might see the workings of God, of that flaming love.
Things man considers perfect leave much to be desired in the eyes of God, for all the things of man that are perfect in appearance — what he seeks, feels, knows –contaminate him. If we are to become perfect, the change must be brought about in us and without us; that is, the change is to be the work not of man but of God. This, the last stage of love, is the pure and intense love of God alone. In this transformation, the action of God in penetrating the soul is so fierce

that it seems to set the body on fire and to keep it burning until death. The overwhelming love of God gives it a joy beyond words.
Yet this joy does not do away with one bit of pain in the suffering of the souls in purgatory. As the soul grows in its perfection, so does it suffer more because of what impedes the final consummation, the end for which God made it; so that in purgatory great joy and great suffering do not exclude one another. If contrition could purge it, the soul would turn to it in an instant and forthwith pay its debt; and it would do so impetuously, since it has a clear appreciation of the meaning of that impediment in its way…
The soul, for its part, no longer has a choice of its own. It can seek only what God wills, nor would it want otherwise; and that too is in keeping with God’s decree. Andifthelivingweretoofferalmsforthebenefitofthesoulsinpurgatory, to shorten the assigned time of their purgation, still those souls could not turn with affection to watch, but would leave all things to God, who is paid as He wishes. If those souls could, in gratitude, turn their attention, that would be a self-seeking act that would distract them from the contemplation of the divine will — and that distraction would be hell. The souls in purgatory attend to all that God gives them, injoyandsuffering; norcantheyhaveanyfurtherconcernforthelesserselfsince they have been radically transformed by the will of God.
What He wills for them is what gives them joy. Were a soul to appear in the presence of God with one hour of purgation still due, that would be to do it great harm. It would then suffer more than if it were cast into ten purgatories, for it could not endure the justice and pure goodness of God, nor would it be fitting on the part of God. That soul, aware that complete satisfaction was not as yet fully rendered to God, even if the time lacking were but the twinkling of an eye, would prefer to submit to a thousand hells rather than so appear in God’s presence

5 St Catherine of Genoa. Purgation and Purgatory – The Spiritual Dialogue. Trans. Serge Hughes. New York: Paulist Press, 1979. 80-83.

10

Vigils Reading
2023-08-02
THE PARADISE OF THE HEART
From the spiritual writings of John Comenius 4
◊◊◊
I walked between the rows of coffins until I came to the end of the world and the light. There people closed their eyes and blindly threw their dead into the abyss. Throwing off the glasses of delusion and rubbing my eyes, I proceeded as far as I was able… I beheld fearful darkness and gloom of which neither the bottom nor the end could be fathomed by human reason… I was terrified and fell swooning to the ground… I cried out dolefully “…Oh God… if you are God, have mercy on me, a wretched man!” When I stopped speaking but was still trembling all over with horror, I heard behind me a soft voice saying, “Return!” I lifted my head, and I looked around… but I saw nothing…
Then the voice sounded again: “Return!” Not knowing where to return or how to get out of the darkness, I began to grieve. But then the voice called out a third time: “Return whence you came, to the home of your heart, and shut the door behind you!” I obeyed this counsel as far as I understood it… Then, collecting my thoughts as well as I could and closing my eyes, ears, mouth, nostrils, and all external passages, I entered into my heart and found that it was dark… Then behold, a bright light burst forth from above. Raising my eyes toward it, I saw the upper window full of brilliance, out of which a man came down to me…
“Welcome, welcome, my dear son and brother.”… Seeing me so overwhelmed with joy, he spoke further to me: “Where have you been, my son?… What have you been seeking in the world? Happiness? And where should you have sought it but in God? And where should you have sought God but in his temple? And what is the temple of the living God but the living temple that he has prepared for himself, your own heart? I have watched, my son, while you wandered, but I did not want to see you stray any longer. I have led you to myself by leading you into yourself, for here I have chosen a palace for my dwelling. If you wish to dwell here with me, you will find here what you sought in vain in the world — rest, happiness, glory, and an abundance of everything. I promise you, my son, that here you will not be disappointed as you were there.”

Hearing this speech and realizing that this was my Savior, Jesus Christ, of whom I had heard some mention even in the world, I clasped my hands, not with fear and doubt as in the world, but with full joy and complete trust. Reaching out to him, I said, “Here I am, my Lord Jesus, take me to yourself. I wish to be yours and to remain yours forever… May I be nothing that you alone may be everything.”
I receive that from you, my son,” he said. “Stand firm in this: be mine, call yourself mine, and remain my own. Indeed, from eternity you were and are mine, but you did not know this before… I have led you to myself along strange paths, through circuitous and winding ways that you did not know… But I was with you everywhere, and that is why I led you through these roundabout ways, that in the end I might bring you closer to myself… I will teach you everything. I will enrich you. I will satisfy you.
This only I ask of you, that you transfer and turn over to me whatever you have seen in the world, whatever human efforts you have witnessed for the sake of earthly goods… Let the highest point of your learning be to search for me in my deeds, to see how wonderfully I guide you and all things… Thus ridding yourself of all created beings and denying and renouncing even your own self, I promise that you will find me, and in me the fullness of peace.

4 Comenius, John. The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart. Trans. Howard Louthan and Andrea Sterk. New York: Paulist Press, 1998. 186-191, 194-195.

Vigils Reading - St Alphonsus Ligouri
2023-08-01
THOSE WHO LOVE GOD ARE ALWAYS HAPPY
From the writing of St Alphonsus de Ligouri 3
◊◊◊
Alphonsus the Great, King of Aragon, being asked one day whom he considered the happiest person in the world, answered: “He who abandons himself to the will of God and accepts all things, prosperous and adverse, as coming from his hands.” “To those that love God, all things work together unto good.” Those who love God are always happy, because their whole happiness is to fulfill, even in adversity, the will of God. Afflictions do not mar their serenity, because by accepting misfortune, they know they give pleasure to their beloved Lord: “Whatever shall befall the just man, it shall not make him sad. Indeed, what can be more satisfactory to a person than to experience the fulfillment of all his desires? This is the happy lot of the man who wills only what God wills, because everything that happens, save sin, happens through the will of God.
There is a story to this effect in the “Lives of the Fathers” about a farmer whose crops were more plentiful than those of his neighbors. On being asked how this happened with such unvarying regularity, he said he was not surprised because he always had the kind of weather he wanted. He was asked to explain. He said: “It is so because I want whatever kind of weather God wants, and because I do, he gives me the harvests I want.” If souls resigned to God’s will are humiliated, says Salvian, they want to be humiliated; if they are poor, they want to be poor; in short, whatever happens is acceptable to them, hence they are truly at peace in this life. In cold and heat, in rain and wind, the soul united to God says: “I want it to be warm, to be cold, windy, to rain, because God wills it.’…

The fool, that is, the sinner, is as changeable as the moon, which today waxes and tomorrow wanes; today he laughs, tomorrow he cries; today he is meek as a lamb, tomorrow cross as a bear. Why? Because his peace of mind depends on the prosperity or the adversity he meets; he changes with the changes in the things that happen to him. The just man is like the sun, constant in his serenity, no matter what betides him. His calmness of soul is founded on his union with the will of God; hence he enjoys unruffled peace. This is the peace promised by the angel of the Nativity: “And on earth, peace to men of good will.”…
The devout Father John Tauler relates this personal experience: For years he had prayed God to send him someone who would teach him the real spiritual life. One day, at prayer, he heard a voice saying: “Go to such and such a church and you will have the answer to your prayers.” He went and at the door of the church he found a beggar, barefooted and in rags. He greeted the mendicant saying: “Good day, my friend.” “Thank you, sir, for your kind wishes, but I do not recall ever having had a ‘bad’ day.” “Then God has certainly given you a very happy life.” “That is very true, sir. I have never been unhappy. In saying this I am not making any rash statement either. This is the reason: When I have nothing to eat, I give thanks to God; when it rains or snows, I bless God’s providence; when someone insults me, drives me away, or otherwise mistreats me, I give glory to God. I said I’ve never had an unhappy day, and it’s the truth, because I am accustomed to will unreservedly what God wills. Whatever happens to me, sweet or bitter, I gladly receive from his hands as what is best for me. Hence my unvarying happiness.”…
Union with God brought this poor beggar to the very heights of perfection. In his poverty he was richer than the mightiest monarch; in his sufferings, he was vastly happier than worldlings amid their worldly delights

3 St Alphonsus de Liguori. Uniformity with God’s Will. Trans. Thomas W. Tobin, C. SS. R., Rockford, IL: Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., 1977. 11-13.

Vigils Reading - St Ignatius Loyola
2023-07-31
CONSOLATION AND DESOLATION
From the “Spiritual Exercises” of St Ignatius of Loyola2
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In the case of those who go from one mortal sin to another, the enemy is generally wont to set before them apparent pleasures, causing them to imagine sensual gratifications and pleasures, in order to keep them fast and to plunge them deeper in their vices and sins. Towards such persons the good spirit acts in a contrary way, pricking and stinging with remorse their conscience by the judgment of reason.
In those who are striving earnestly to purify themselves from their sins, and to advance from good to better in the service of God our Lord, the contrary to what is noted in the first rule takes place; for then it is the way of the evil spirit to cause anxiety and sadness, and to place obstacles in the way, disquieting the soul by false reasonings, in order to stop its progress; and it is the property of the good spirit to give courage and strength, consolation, tears, inspirations, and peace, making things easy, and removing every hindrance, in order that the soul may make further progress in good works.
I call it consolation when an interior movement is aroused in the soul, by which it is inflamed with love of its Creator and Lord, and as a consequence, can love no creature on the face of the earth for its own sake, but only in the Creator of them all. It is likewise consolation when one sheds tears that move to the love of God, whether it be because of sorrow for sins, or because of the sufferings of Christ our Lord, or for any other reason that is immediately directed to the praise and service of God. Finally, I call consolation every increase of faith, hope, and love, and all interior joy that invites and attracts to what is heavenly and to the salvation of one’s soul by filling it with peace and quiet in its Creator and Lord.

I call it desolation what is entirely the opposite of what is described above, as darkness of soul, turmoil of spirit, inclination to what is low and earthly, restlessness rising from many disturbances and temptations which lead to want of faith, want of hope, want of love. The soul is wholly slothful, tepid, sad, and separated, as it were, from its Creator and Lord. For just as consolation is the opposite of desolation, so the thoughts that spring from consolation are the opposite of those that spring from desolation.
In time of desolation we should never make any change, but remain firm and constant in the resolution and decision which guided us the day before the desolation, or in the decision to which we adhered in the preceding consolation. For just as in consolation the good spirit guides and counsels us, so in desolation the evil spirit guides and counsels. Following his counsels we can never find the way to a right decision. Though in desolation we must never change our former resolutions, it will be very advantageous to intensify our activity against the desolation. We can insist more upon prayer, upon meditation, and on much examination of ourselves. We can make an effort in a suitable way to do some penance.
When we are in desolation, we should be mindful that God has left us to our natural powers to resist the different agitations and temptations of the enemy in order to try us. We can resist with the help of God, which always remains, though we may not clearly perceive it. For though God has taken from us the abundance of fervor and overflowing love and the intensity of His favors, nevertheless, we have sufficient grace for eternal salvation

2 Trans., Louis J Puhl SJ, Loyola Chicago, 316. 3. pp 142-143.

Vigils Reading - 17th Sun ORD
2023-07-30
SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND
A Commentary by Origen 1
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To the seeker after the fine pearls may be applied the words: Seek and you shall find, and Everyone who seeks will find. If you ask what is to be sought, and what will be found by everyone who seeks for it, I say with confidence: pearls – especially that pearl which will be acquired for those who give their all, who sacrifice everything for it, the pearl Paul meant when he said: I have accepted the loss of everything in order to gain Christ. Everything means beautiful pearls; to gain Christ refers to the one pearl of great price.
Admittedly, a lamp is precious to people in darkness, and they need it until sunrise. Precious too was the radiance on the face of Moses – and I believe on the faces of the other prophets also. It was a sight of beauty leading to the point of being able to see the glory of Christ, to whom the Father bore witness in the words: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. But compared with this surpassing glory, what formerly was glory now seems to have no glory at all. We need at first a glory destined to be outshone by an all-surpassing glory, just as we need the partial knowledge which will be superseded when that which is perfect has come.
Thus everyone beginning to live a spiritual life and growing toward maturity needs tutors, guardians, and trustees until the fullness of time arrives for him, so that after all this, he who at first was no different from a slave although he owned the whole estate, may on his emancipation receive his patrimony from his tutor, guardians, and trustees.

This patrimony is the pearl of great price, and the coming of what is perfect to supersede what is imperfect when, after acquiring the forms of knowledge, if we may call them so, which are inferior to knowledge of Christ, one becomes able to understand the supreme value of knowing Christ. The law and the prophets fully comprehended are the preparation for the full comprehension of the gospel and the complete understanding of the acts and words of Christ Jesus

1 Journey with the Fathers – Year A – New City Press, NY – 1984 – pg 110-111.

Skema
2023-07-30
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
17th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
July 30 – August 5, 2023

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

Office
17th Sunday
St Ignatius Loyola
St Alphonsus Ligouri
Weekday
Office for the Dead
St John Vianney
Dedication St Mary Major

Vigils
Gen 42:1-17
Gen 42:18-38
Gen 43:1-34
Gen 44:1-34
Gen 45:1-28
Gen 46:1-7, 26-34
Gen 47:1-26

Lauds
Hos 2:18-25
Hos 3:1-5
Hos 4:1-6
Hos 4:7-12
Hos 4:13-19
Hos 5:1-7
Hos 5:8-15

Mass
109
401
402
403
404
405
406

1st
1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12
Exod 32:15-24, 30-34
Exod 33:7-11; 34:5b-9, 28
Exod 34:29-35
Exod 40:16-21, 34-38
Lev 23:1, 4-11, 15-16, 27, 34b-37
Lev 25:1, 8-17

2nd
Rom 8:28-30

Gospel
Matt 13:44-52
Matt 13:31-35
Matt 13:36-43
Matt 13:44-46
Matt 13:47-53
Matt 13:54-58
Matt 14:1-12

Vespers
1 Tim 2:1-8
1 Tim 2:9-15
1 Tim 3:1-7
1 Tim 3:8-13
1 Tim 3:14-4:5
1 Tim 4:6-10
Heb 12:18-29

Vigils Reading - SS Martha, Mary & Lazarus
2023-07-29
OF THE FOUR DAYS OF LAZARUS
A sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux7
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He who is our life hastens to a tomb to lead out of the tomb someone four days dead. He seeks Lazarus so he might be sought and found by him. In this is charity, not that we loved him, but that he first loved us. Come then, Lord, seek him whom you love, that you may make him love and seek you. Ask where they have laid him, for he lies captive, bound, and burdened…
But what of this: Lord, he now stinks, for it is the fourth day? Maybe someone doesn’t immediately get the meaning of this stinking and of these four days. I think the first day is the day of fear. By its brilliance in our hearts we die to sin and, as it were, are buried in our conscience. The second day, if I am not mistaken, is spent in strife. It is usually true that in the first stages of conversion, temptation to bad habits rises up more fiercely, and the fiery darts of the devil cannot easily be extinguished. The third seems to be one of grief, when a person looks back upon his life in bitterness of soul and does not so much work for a change of direction in the future as bewail a lamentable past.
Are you surprised that I call these days? But such as these are destined for the grave, days of mist and darkness, days of grief and bitterness. There follows a day of shame, not unlike the other three, when the pitiful soul is covered in dreadful confusion while it looks unceasingly at its sins, considering their nature and magnitude, and under the gaze of the heart it keeps mulling over the disgraceful images of its sins. A soul of this kind doesn’t dissemble but judges; it piles up everything…

Therefore, Lazarus, come forth. Deep calls to deep, the deep of light and pity, the deep of misery and darkness. His goodness is greater than your iniquity, and where there is abundance of sin, he gives abundance of grace. Lazarus, come forth, he says. And if he were to speak more openly, he would say “How long will the darkness of your conscience hold you back? How long will you weep in your bed with a heavy heart? Come forth, advance, breathe freely of the light of my pity.” This is what you read in the prophet: For my praise I restrained my mouth from you, lest you perish. Another prophet spoke of himself more clearly: My soul is troubled within me; therefore I will remember you.”…
The prophet sings more plainly in the Psalms about this raising of Lazarus, you will not leave my soul in hell, because, as I remember I said on the second day of the observance of this feast, the consciousness of a guilty mind is an imprisoning hell. You will not leave your holy one — not a holiness that is his own, obviously, but yours, the one you yourself make holy — to see corruption. Indeed the fourth day is near to corruption, for he began to stink.
He was approaching complete decay and entering the abyss of evil where the impious reviles. But when the powerful voice comes and he is brought back to life by it, he gives thanks, saying, you have shown me the path of life, you have filled me with joy in your presence. You have called me to contemplate it; you have led my soul out of the depths while my spirit within me was troubled by seeing the dreadful face of my conscience. He called with a loud voice, says the gospel, Lazarus, come forth: in a loud voice surely filled not so much with sound as with piety and great strength

7 St Bernard of Clairvaux. Sermons for the Autumn Season. CF 54. Trans. Irene Edmonds, OCSO. Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2016. 33-37.

Vigils Reading
2023-07-28
THE REMEMBRANCE OF GOD’S PRESENCE AND THE GUARDING OF THE HEART
From the writings of Nil Sorsky6
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By fighting against the first appearance of the thought… we cut off all that would follow. Such a person who battles in so wise a manner turns away the mother of evil, namely, the wicked assault. And he ought to strive to make his mind deaf and speechless in prayer…
However, if you cannot pray without thoughts in a silenced heart, but you find the thoughts multiplying, do not become discouraged, but remain in prayer. It is a well- known experience, as blessed Gregory of Sinai insists, that we who are laden by passions are aware that no beginner can control his mind and drive away thoughts that attack him unless God supports him and helps him to dispel such thoughts. It is the prerogative of the strong to hold the mind in check and drive away all thoughts, but even these do not turn away all thoughts by themselves, but they are supported in their struggles by God, who arms them with his grace and all his defenses.
If you see, Gregory says, the impurity of evil spirits in the thoughts that are presented in your mind, do not be frightened and do not wonder, even if such thoughts seem good to you. Do not give any attention to them, but… enclose your mind in your heart, as you arm yourself by calling on the Lord Jesus. Appeal to him, as often and consciously as possible, and the thoughts will dissolve as they are burnt up by the fiery, invisible rays radiating from your calling on the divine Name…

If you find yourself becoming a bit slothful and fatigued, then call on God for help and force yourself to continue praying as best you can, never giving up on praying. Then all such thoughts will depart from you, as they are driven out by God’s help. When you calm the mind from such phantasms, then enter into your heart and pray the prayer of the heart… For even though there are many good works, their value is only a partial good. The prayer of the heart is the source of all good and is likened to gardens that are refreshed by water, so does this prayer of the heart refresh the soul…
The attaining of this work, namely, the pushing of the mind down into the heart, which becomes freed of all thoughts, is difficult to accomplish, not only for beginners, but also for well-advanced persons in this work, if the latter have not yet received and maintained the sweetness of prayer in their hearts through the workings of grace. And we know from experience that for weak persons this work is very difficult and not very agreeable. However, when any person has obtained grace, then he prays without difficulty and lovingly, since he is comforted by grace. “And when the action of the prayer takes over,” Gregory of Sinai says, “then truly the mind lives within the heart and brings joy and freedom to the person from all enslavement.”..

6 Nil Sorsky. The Complete Writings. Trans. George A. Maloney, S.J. New York: Paulist Press, 2003. 53-56.

Vigils Reading
2023-07-27
PERFECT SIMPLICITY
An Excerpt from “The Spirit of Simplicity”5 ◊◊◊
The union of wills, making us one Spirit with God, is the highest and purest and most intimate union that can possibly be achieved by two individuals remaining essentially distinct. This is the culminating ideal of Cistercian simplicity! The paradox is, that the soul itself is more perfectly simple when absorbed in this union than it could ever be outside of it. The soul is never so truly itself as it is when it is lost in God and it is never so unlike itself as when it is completely separated from God and left entirely to itself. The reason for this paradox is in the fact that it is of the very essence of the soul to be like God and therefore it is most truly itself when it becomes, as nearly as is possible to a creature, identified with Him.
In this perfect identification of the soul with God the soul is rightly said to lose itself in God: not in the sense of losing its substance, but in the sense of losing its own will in a perfect union of love with God’s will that makes them truly one will, one spirit. In such a state, the soul has completely forgotten itself and its own interests and desires for the simple reason that it no longer has any interests or desires other than those of God. It no longer has anything whatever of its own… The soul in this perfection of simplicity now loves itself exactly as God loves it, in the same degree, in the same manner — indeed, with the very same love. Even self- love is at last vindicated in this ultimate beatification of the soul!…
St. Bernard describes this union in the tenth chapter of “On Loving God”… “I should call that man holy and blessed, to whom it may be granted to experience such love, even were it only rarely, or but once, and that in a brief flash which might pass and be all over in an instant. For to lose yourself, in a manner of speaking, and to become as though you did not exist, and to lose absolutely all consciousness of yourself, and to go forth from yourself, and to be practically annihilated, all that belongs to heaven. and is utterly above natural human love.”

“However, since Holy Scripture says that God made all things for Himself the creature must surely at some time conform itself to its Creator. Some day, then, we must attain to the same love that God has for us… We shall then delight, not in the fact that all our needs have been satisfied, and all our happiness carried to the ultimate consummation but in the fact that His will in us and for us will then be seen to be completely accomplished and carried out. And this is what we daily ask for in our prayers when we say: Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Oh holy and chaste love! Oh sweet and delightful affection! Oh pure, utterly clean intention of the will, all the cleaner and more pure because no admixture of self remains therein; all the sweeter and more delightful in that what we feel is entirely divine. To love like this is to become a god.”
This, then, is the ultimate limit of Cistercian simplicity: the simplicity of God Himself, belonging to the soul, purified of all admixture of self-love, admitted to a participation in the Divine Nature, and becoming one Spirit with the God of infinite love

5 The Spirit of Simplicity: Characteristic of the Cistercian Order. Trappist, KY: The Joseph Berning Printing Co., 1948. 131-135.

Vigils Reading - SS Joachim and Ann
2023-07-26
SHE CALLED HER MARY
From the Protoevangelium of James4
◊◊◊
In the records of the twelve tribes of Israel was Joachim, a man rich exceedingly… And he searched, and found that all the righteous had raised up seed in Israel. And he called to mind the patriarch Abraham, that in the last day God gave him a son Isaac. And Joachim was exceedingly grieved, and did not come into the presence of his wife; but he retired to the desert, and there pitched his tent, and fasted forty days and forty nights, saying in himself: I will not go down either for food or for drink until the Lord my God shall look upon me…
And his wife Anna… went down to the garden to walk. And she saw a laurel, and sat under it, and prayed to the Lord, saying: O God of our fathers, bless me and hear my prayer, as You blessed the womb of Sarah, and gave her a son Isaac.
And gazing towards the heaven, she saw a sparrow’s nest in the laurel, and made a lamentation in herself, saying: Alas! Who begot me? And what womb produced me?… Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like these waters, because even these waters are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like this earth, because even the earth brings forth its fruits in season, and blesses You, O Lord.
And, behold, an angel of the Lord stood by, saying: Anna, Anna, the Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth; and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world. And Anna said: As the Lord my God lives, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God; and it shall minister to Him in holy things all the days of its life. And, behold, two angels came, saying to her: Behold, Joachim your husband is coming with his flocks. For an angel of the Lord went down to him, saying: Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God has heard your prayer. Go down hence; for, behold, your wife Anna shall conceive. And Joachim went down and called his shepherds, saying: Bring me hither ten she- lambs without spot or blemish, and they shall be for the Lord my God; and bring me twelve tender calves, and they shall be for the priests and the elders; and a hundred goats for all the people. And, behold, Joachim came with his flocks; and Anna… saw Joachim coming, and she ran and hung upon his neck, saying: Now I know that the Lord God has blessed me exceedingly; for, behold… I the childless shall conceive…

And Joachim brought his offerings, and… when he went up to the altar of the Lord… he saw no sin in himself. And Joachim said: Now I know that the Lord has been gracious unto me, and has remitted all my sins. And he went down from the temple of the Lord justified, and departed to his own house… And in the ninth month Anna brought forth. And she said to the midwife: What have I brought forth? And she said: A girl. And said Anna: My soul has been magnified this day. And she laid her down. And the days having been fulfilled, Anna was purified, and gave the breast to the child, and called her…Mary

4 Protoevangelium of James. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0847.htm Accessed July 18, 2023.

Vigils Reading - St James
2023-07-25
CAN YOU DRINK THE CUP
A homily by St John Chrysostom3
◊◊◊
The sons of Zebedee press Christ: “Promise that one may sit at your right side and the other at your left”. What does he do? He wants to show them that it is not a spiritual gift for which they are asking, and that if they knew what their request involved, they would never dare make it. So he says: “You do not know what you are asking”, that is, what a great and splendid thing it is and how much beyond the reach even of heavenly powers. Then he continues: “Can you drink the cup which I must drink and be baptized with the baptism which I must undergo?” He is saying: “You talk of sharing honors and rewards with me, but I must talk of struggle and toil. Now is not the time for rewards or the time for my glory to be revealed. Earthly life is the time for bloodshed, war, and danger.”
Consider how by his manner of questioning he exhorts and draws them. He does not say: “Can you face being slaughtered? Can you shed your blood?” How does he put his question? “Can you drink the cup?” Then he makes it attractive by adding: “which I must drink”, so that the prospect of sharing it with him may make them more eager. He also calls his suffering a baptism, to show that it will affect a great cleansing of the entire world. The disciples answer him: “We can!” Fervor makes them answer promptly, though they do not know what they are saying but still think they will receive what they ask for.
How does Christ reply? “You will indeed drink my cup and be baptized with my baptism”. He is really prophesying a great blessing for them, since he is telling them:” You will be found worthy of martyrdom; you will suffer what I suffer and end your life with a violent death, thus sharing all with me. ‘But seats at my right and left side are not mine to give; they belong to those for whom the Father has prepared them.’” Thus after lifting their minds to higher goals and preparing them to meet and overcome all that will make them desolate, he sets them straight on their request.

“Then the other ten became angry at the two brothers”. See how imperfect they all are: the two who tried to get ahead of the other ten, and the ten who were jealous of the two! But… show them to me at a later date in their lives, and you will see that all these impulses and feelings have disappeared. Read how John, the very man who here asks for the first place, will always yield to Peter when it comes to preaching and performing miracles in the Acts of the Apostles. James, for his part, was not to live very much longer; for from the beginning he was inspired by great fervor and, setting aside all purely human goals, rose to such splendid heights that he straightway suffered martyrdom

3 The Liturgy of the Hours – vol. III – Catholic Publishing Co. – New York – 1975 – pg 1551.
