Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Vigils Reading
2026-07-23
A reading from
ST JOHN HENRY NEWMAN
◊◊◊
Great is the difference between sincere and insincere Christians, however
like their words may be to each other. All men and women, even after the gift of
God’s grace, sin: God’s true servants profess and sin, – sin, and are sorry; and
hypocrites profess and sin, – sin, and are sorry. Thus the two parties look like each
other. But the word of God discriminates one from the other by this test, – that
Christ dwells in the conscience of one not of the other; that the one opens his heart
to God, the other does not; the one views Almighty God only as an accidental guest,
the other as Lord and owner of all that he is; the one admits Him as if for a night, or
some stated season, the other gives himself over to God, and considers himself
God’s servant and instrument now and for ever.
Not more different is the intimacy of friends from mere acquaintance; not
more different is it to know a person in society, to be courteous and obliging to him,
to interchange civilities, from opening one’s heart to another, admitting him into it,
seeing into his, loving him, and living in him; – than the external worship of the
hypocrite, from the inward devotion of true faith; approaching God with the lips,
from believing on Him with the heart; so opening to the Spirit that He opens to us,
from so living to self as to exclude the light of heaven…
Do you, then habitually thus unlock your hearts and subject your thoughts to
Almighty God? Are you living in this conviction of His Presence, and have you this
special witness that that Presence is really set up within you unto your salvation,
that is, that you live in the sense of it? Do you believe, and act on the belief, that His
light penetrates and shines through your heart, as the sun’s beams through a
room? You know how things look when the sun’s beams are on it, – the very air then
appear full of impurities, which, before it came out, were not seen. So is it with our
souls. We are full of stains and corruptions, we see them not, they are like the air
before the sun shines; but though we see them not, God sees them: He pervades us
as the sunbeam.
Our souls, in His view, are full of things which offend, things which must be
repented of, forgiven, and put away. He, in the words of the Psalmist, “has set our
misdeeds before Him, our secret sins in the light of His countenance.” This is most
true, though it be not at all welcome doctrine to many. We cannot hide ourselves
from Him; and our wisdom, as our duty, lies in embracing this truth, acquiescing
in it, and acting upon it. Let us then beg Him to teach us the Mystery of His
Presence in us, that, by acknowledging it, we may thereby possess it fruitfully…
Let us submit ourselves to His guidance and sovereign direction; let us come to
Him that He may forgive us, cleanse us, change us, guide us, and save us.

Vigils Reading - St Mary Magdalene
2026-07-22
A reading from
BLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY
◊◊◊
Brethren, this is the day which the Lord has made, let us exult and rejoice
in it. Let us exult in the hope it brings, that we may see and rejoice in its light.
Abraham exulted that he might see the day of Christ and by this token he saw
and rejoiced.
You too, if you keep watch daily at the doors of wisdom, steadfast at its
threshold, if you stay awake through the night with Magdalene at the entrance
of his tomb, if I am not mistaken you will experience with Mary how true are the
words we read of the Wisdom which is Christ: “She is easily seen by those who
love her and she is found by those who seek her. She anticipates those who
desire her and shows herself to them first. He who, as soon as it is light, keeps
watch for her will not have to toil, for he will find her seated at his doors.” So
did Christ, Wisdom himself, promise in the words: “I love those who love me,
and they who from early morning keep watch for me will find me.”
Mary found Jesus in the flesh. For this she was keeping watch. Over his
tomb she had come to mount guard while it was still dark. You, who no longer
ought to know Jesus according to the flesh but according to the spirit, will be
able to find him spiritually if you seek him with a [similar] desire, if he finds you
likewise vigilant in prayer. Say then to the Lord Jesus with the desire and the
affection of Mary: “My soul has longed for you during the night, my spirit too,
deep within me; from early morning I will keep watch for you.” Say with the
voice and the mind of the Psalmist: “God, my God, for you as soon as it is light I
keep watch, my soul is athirst for you”. And see if it is not your lot to sing with
him: “We have been filled early in the morning with your mercy, we have
exulted and been delighted.”
Keep watch then, brethren, intent in prayer; keep watch and carefully
guard your actions; especially since the morning of that day which has no sunset
has already shone upon us. For already eternal light has come back to us from
the nether regions, more serene and more pleasing, and the morning has given
its welcome to the newly restored Sun. Indeed it is time now for us to arise from
sleep; the night has passed away, while the day has drawn near.
Keep watch, I say, that the morning light may rise for you, that is Christ,
whose coming forth has been made ready like the dawn, ready to renew often
the mystery of the morning of his resurrection in those who keep watch for him.
Then you will sing with jubilant heart: “God the Lord has shone upon us. This is
the day which the Lord has made; let us exult and rejoice in it”. For then he will
give you a glimpse of the light which he has hidden in his hands, telling his
friend that it is his possession and he can attain to it.

Vigils Reading
2026-07-21
A reading from “Ut Unum Sint” by
POPE ST JOHN PAUL II
◊◊◊
The Bishop of Rome is the Bishop of the Church which preserves the mark
of the martyrdom of Peter and of Paul: “By a mysterious design of Providence it
is at Rome that [Peter] concludes his journey in following Jesus, and it is at
Rome that he gives his greatest proof of love and fidelity. Likewise, Paul, the
Apostle of the Gentiles, gives his supreme witness at Rome. In this way, the
Church of Rome became the Church of Peter and of Paul.”
The Gospel of Matthew gives a clear outline of the pastoral mission of
Peter in the Church: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood
has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you,
you are Peter, and on this Rock I will build my Church and the powers of death
shall not prevail against it…” It is just as though, against the backdrop of
Peter’s human weakness, it were made fully evident that his particular ministry
in the Church derives altogether from grace.
It is important to know how the weakness of Peter and of Paul clearly
shows that the Church is founded upon the infinite power of grace. Peter,
immediately after receiving his mission, is rebuked with unusual severity by
Christ, who tells him, “You are a hindrance to me.” How can we fail to see that
the mercy which Peter needs is related to the ministry of that mercy which he
first must experience? And yet, Peter will deny Jesus three times… Peter
receives the charge of shepherding the flock on the occasion of a threefold
profession of love, which corresponds to his threefold denial.
As for Paul, he is able to end the description of his ministry with the
amazing words which he had heard from the Lord himself: “My grace is
sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”; consequently,
he can exclaim: “When I am weak, then I am strong.” This is a basic
characteristic of the Christian experience.
As the heir to the mission of Peter in the Church, which has been made
fruitful by the blood of the Prince of the Apostles, the Bishop of Rome exercises
a ministry originating in the manifold mercy of God. This mercy converts hearts
and pours forth the power of grace where the disciple experiences the bitter
taste of his personal weakness and helplessness. The authority proper to this
ministry is completely at the service of God’s merciful plan and it must always
be seen in this perspective…
Associating himself with Peter’s threefold profession of love, which
corresponds to the earlier threefold denial, his Successor knows that he must be
a sign of mercy. His is a ministry of mercy, born of an act of Christ’s own
mercy… The Church of God is called by Christ to manifest to a world ensnared
by its sins and evil designs that, despite everything, God in his mercy can
convert hearts to unity and enable them to enter into communion with him.
At the dawn of a new millennium, how can we not implore from the Lord,
with renewed enthusiasm and deeper awareness, the grace to prepare ourselves,
together, to offer this sacrifice of unity?

Vigils Reading
2026-07-20
A reading from
WILLIAM OF ST THIERRY
◊◊◊
[The Apostle Paul says that], if because of your food your brother is
grieved, you no longer walk according to charity. Do not destroy with your
food him for whom Christ died. For a proper reason we should sometimes avoid
what is licit, but we are not commanded to do what is illicit for any reason.
[He also says,] Let our good not be spoken of as evil. What is this good of
ours? It is the good proper to Christ’s disciples, of which he himself says, ‘By this
shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another’.
Just as the disciples of Christ are distinguished by the sign of mutual charity, so
when charity is neglected the entire brilliance of the Christian religion seems to
be obscured. Then this wonderful teacher proclaims the mystery of the kingdom
of heaven in order to restrain the faults of the present time by the authority of a
future mystery, and in order to establish the form of the Church.
[He says]: For the kingdom of God is not food and drink. As if he said,
‘Why do we deal so much with food when we are hastening to the kingdom of
heaven? For there, just as they do not marry, and are not given in marriage, so
they neither eat nor drink, but are like the angels of God.’ Thus, with a most
perfect and clear teaching the Apostle establishes that there is no need of food
and drink in the kingdom of heaven, but that there is justice and peace. And
because fleshly joy usually accompanies food and drink, he adds here joy, but in
the Holy Spirit.
These things effect the kingdom of heaven in us here, but in the future
they lead us where these same things are possessed more certainly and more
firmly. There is justice in work; peace is in the heart or conscience; joy is in the
Lord. Whoever has these things already has the kingdom of God within him.
For he who in this way serves Christ pleases God and is approved by
men. He who serves Christ in the Holy Spirit pleases God and is approved by
men in justice, and he dwells harmoniously with himself in peace.
Let us pursue the things of peace outside because of the disposition of
peace that we enjoy within; and from a disposition for justice let us keep the
things that are edifying. What does justice demand more clearly than that we
not destroy on account of food the work of Christ’s redemption in our brothers?
All things are indeed clean, but it is evil for a man to eat with offense, because
he wounds the conscience of inner justice if the soul of his brother is endangered
by that with which he refreshes himself.

Vigils Reading - 16th Sunday
2026-07-19
A reading from
ST GREGORY PALAMAS
◊◊◊
Now as the Lord himself explains, the darnel is the offering of the evil one.
They bear his mark because they behave the way he does; they are seeds of his
sowing, and his children by adoption. Harvest time will be the end of the world,
for although it began long since and continues now through death, only then
will all things come to an end.
The reapers are the angels, for they are, and will be especially at that time,
the servants of the King of heaven. As Scripture says: Just as the darnel is
collected and burnt in the fire, so it will be at the end of the world. The Son of
Man, who is the son of the Father Most High, will send his angels, and they will
gather out of his kingdom all evil doers and every cause of sin.
And so the Lord’s servants, the angels of God, seeing the darnel in the
field, that is, the wicked and impious folk living among the good people, and
that even within the Church, said to the Lord: Do you wish us to go and gather
it up? In other words: “Shall we kill them, to remove them from the earth?” But
the Lord’s reply was: No, for fear that in collecting the darnel you may also
uproot the wheat.
How then would the wheat, the good people, be uprooted as well if the
angels gathered up the darnel, cutting off the wicked by death to separate them
from the just? The fact is that many godless sinners who live among people who
are upright and devout repent in time and are converted, and learning new
habits of piety and virtue they cease to be darnel and become wheat. And so
some wheat would be uprooted in the gathering of the darnel if the angels
snatched the wicked away before they repented.
Moreover, many while living evil lives produce children of good
disposition, or they may have other rightly disposed descendants. This is why he
who sees everything before it comes into being would not permit the darnel to
be uprooted until the appointed time. But he says: At harvest time I will say to
the reapers: “First collect the darnel and bind it into bundles to be burnt, but
gather the wheat into my barn.”
Those therefore who wish to be saved from eternal punishment and to
inherit the everlasting kingdom of God must be not darnel but wheat. They
must avoid saying or doing anything evil or useless, and practice the opposite
virtues, thus bringing forth the fruits of repentance. In this way they will
become worthy of the heavenly granary; they will be called children of the
Father Most High, and as heirs will enter his kingdom rejoicing, resplendent
with divine glory. To this may we all attain through the grace and loving
kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ. To whom with his eternal Father and the
most holy, good and life-giving Spirit belongs glory now and always and for
endless ages.

Skema
2026-07-19
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
16th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (II)
July 19 – 25, 2026

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

Office
16th Sunday
Weekday
Weekday
St Mary Magdalene
Weekday
Office for Vocations
St James

Vigils
Jud 14:11-15:13
Jud 15:14-16:17
Jud 16:18-25
Exodus 15:1-21
1 Maccabees 1:1-28
1 Mac 1:29-64
Jerm 26:1-15

Lauds
Hos 8:8-14
Hos 9:1-9
Hos 9:10-17
Isa 12:1-6
Hos 10:1-8
Hos 10:9-15
Wis 3:1-9

Mass
106
395
396
603
398
399
605

1st
Wis 12:13, 16-19
Mic 6:1-4, 6-8
Mic 7:14-15, 18-20
Song 3:1-4b
Jer 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13
Jer 3:14-17
2 Cor 4:7-15

2nd
Rom 8:26-27

Gospel
Matt 13:24-43
Matt 12:38-42
Matt 12:46-50
John 20:1-2, 11-18
Matt 13:10-17
Matt 13:18-23
Matt 20:20-28

Vespers
1 Timothy 1:1-11
1 Tim 1:12-20
1 Tim 2:1-8
Acts 13:26-31
1 Tim 3:1-7
1 Tim 3:8-13
1 Tim 3:14-4:5

Vigils Reading - Memorial of BVM
2026-07-18
A reading from “Mary, the Mother of the Lord” by
FR KARL RAHNER
◊◊◊
All that the faith says about the realization of redemption, about salvation
and grace and the fullness of grace, is realized in Mary. This human person
whom we call Mary is as it were the very point in the whole history of our
redemption at which the saving grace of the living God descends from him into
this history, and from which it is diffused over the whole of humankind. For her
Son, whom she accepted in the strength of her heart, whom she conceived in
faith and love, is the Redeemer of the world.
And since, as Scripture testifies, the consent she gave in faith and
obedience belongs not only to her private life-story, but to the public history of
redemption, it must correspond, in harmony of person and function, to the
purpose for which it was given; in short it must be perfect.
It follows too that Mary is one of us. We honor her, praise her, love and
revere her unique dignity. But if, in view of the mystery of her son, we ask, where
does Mary stand? We must reply, she belongs entirely with us. She must receive
God’s mercy just as we must, for she lives and typifies to perfection what we
ourselves are to be in Christ’s sight. We too are to become what she is. She comes
before God with us – like us and as one of our company – in the innumerable
host of humanity.
In our midst, within the history of humankind as a whole, as a part of it,
she accomplishes her own life-story, which takes on a unique importance for
our salvation, and which, once lived through with this significance, endures
eternally in God’s sight. Precisely because Mary, in this position as
intermediary, is entirely one of us, and only occupies that position because she
belongs with us, as a mere creature, to the one human family, is she so near and
dear to us. That is why we love her. And have an almost too merely human trust
in her. And feel her intercession, protection and love to be so near and human,
although, or rather because this dear and familiar humanity has been taken up,
unimpaired and transfigured, into the eternal life of God himself.

Vigils Reading
2026-07-17
A reading from
ST LEO THE GREAT
◊◊◊
I rejoice, dearly beloved, in the pious affection of your devotion, and I give
thanks to God that I see in you the love of Christian unity. For your very
presence here testifies that you understand that the annual return of this day is
a matter for common rejoicing; and that in celebrating the annual festival of the
Shepherd, you are honoring the whole flock. For though the universal Church is
ordered in varying degrees, so the whole is made up from the diverse members
of the sanctified Body, we are all, nevertheless, as the Apostle says, one in
Christ; and no one is separated by office from another, so that even the least
among us is related to the head.
Therefore, Beloved, in its unity of faith and baptism, our society is
undivided, and its dignity is the dignity of all its members; according to the
words of the blessed Peter, spoken by his own consecrated voice: Be you as
living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. And a little later: You are a
chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people.
For all who are born again in Christ, the sign of the Cross makes kings,
and the anointing of the Holy Spirit consecrates priests; so that apart from the
special service of our ministry, let all spiritual and reasoning Christians know
that they are of royal birth, and sharers of the priestly office. For what is so
kingly as the soul that is subject to God, and the ruler of its own body?
And what is so priestly as to dedicate to the Lord a pure conscience, and to
offer him on the altar of our hearts the unstained gift of our love? And since by
God’s grace this has been given to us all, it is for you a devout and praiseworthy
thing to rejoice on the day of our coronation as though the honor were your own.

Vigils Reading - Bl Virgin Martyrs of Orange
2026-07-16
A reading from “The Catholic Encyclopedia” on
THE MARTYRS OF ORANGE
◊◊◊
The Martyrs of Orange were a group of 32 beatified religious women
martyred at Orange, France, during the French Revolution between July 5 and
26, 1794. Two were Cistercian nuns from Avignon, the others were from
Bollene, near Avignon. The others were from Bollene, near Avignon and
included 16 Ursulines, 13 Sacramentine nuns and one Benedictine nun. For
refusing to take the oath of Liberty of the new regime, the nuns were expelled
from their convents, arrested and held in La Cure prison in Orange. These and
other nuns formed a kind of religious community, and spent hours in prayer
daily and religious exercises until condemned for fanaticism and superstition.
Besides these, many others were imprisoned and died under dire
circumstances at this same time. The martyrs of the prison ships or on islands
off the shore of La Rochelle who died of starvation or illness off the shore of La
Rochelle included over 547. Yet for the cause of beatification, only 64 among
these were retained as martyrs, namely, those who were explicitly mentioned in
the lists of the deported.
On October 1, 1995, Pope John Paul II beatified three other Cistercians at
the same time as 61 other priests and religious of various Congregations. The
martyrs of the prison ships of Rochefort died in 1794, the same year as the nuns
of Orange, and were declared martyrs in 1925. They were not the only
Cistercians who died of starvation or illness in the slave ships or on the islands
off the shore of La Rochelle. Our Menology mentions several others. Yet for the
cause of beatification, only 64 among the 547 who died, were retained as
martyrs, namely, those who were explicitly mentioned in the list of the
deported.11
The three Cistercians were: Bro, Elias Desgardin, a lay Brother from Sept
Fons. He cared for his sick companions. A martyr of charity, he died of typhoid
fever at the age of forty-four. He was buried on the island of Aix. Also Dom Paul
Charles, the Prior of Sept Fons. Detained on the ship Les Deux Associes, he died
at the age of fifty-one, esteemed and loved by his companions in captivity, he
was buried on the island called Madame. The third beatified martyr was Dom
Gervais Brunel, Superior of La Trappe, who died at the age fifty in a provisional
hospital on the island Madame. Stricken with typhoid fever, he arrived there on
the point of dying, dying on the very day of the disembarkment.
One of them made a statement that can be applied to all these beatified
religious and to many others condemned to die on the prison ships: “If we are
the most unhappy of men, we are also the happiest of Christians”.

Vigils Reading - St Bonaventure
2026-07-15
A reading from “Butler’s Lives of the Saints” on
ST BONAVENTURE
◊◊◊
This greatest successor of St Francis of Assisi…was born at Bagnorea, near
Viterbo, in the year 1221… He was clothed in the order of Friars Minor and
studied at the University of Paris under Alexander of Hales… Bonaventure, who
was to become known as the Seraphic Doctor, taught theology and Holy
Scripture at the University from 1248 to 1257.
He was called by his priestly obligation to labor for the salvation of his
neighbor, and to this he devoted himself with enthusiasm. He preached to the
people with an energy which kindled a flame in the hearts of those that heard
him. While at the University of Paris he produced one of the best-known of his
written works, the Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, which
covers the whole field of scholastic theology. The years of his public lecturing at
Paris were greatly disturbed, however, by the attack made on the mendicant
friars by the other professors at the university. Jealousy of their pastoral and
academic success and the standing reproof to worldliness and ease of the friars’
lives were in part behind this attempt to get them excluded from the schools.
The leader of the secular party was William of Saint-Amour, who made a
bitter onslaught on the mendicants in a book called The Perils of the Last Times.
Bonaventure, who had to suspend lecturing for a time, replied in a treatise on
evangelical poverty, named Concerning the Poverty of Christ. Pope Alexander
IV appointed a commission of cardinals to go into the matter at Anagni, and on
their findings ordered Saint-Amour’s book to be burnt, vindicated and
reinstated the friars, and ordered the offenders to withdraw their attack. A year
later, in 1257, St Bonaventure and St Thomas Aquinas received the degree of
doctor of theology together.
In 1257 Bonaventure was chosen minister general of the Friars Minor. He
was not yet thirty-six years old, and the order was torn by dissensions, some of
the friars being for an inflexible severity, others demanding certain mitigation
of the rule; between the two extremes were a number of other interpretations.
Some of the extreme rigorists, called Spirituals, had even fallen into error and
disobedience, and thus given a handle to the friars’ opponents in the Paris
dispute. Bonaventure wrote a letter to his provincials in which he made it clear
that he required a disciplined observance of the rule, involving a reformation of
the relaxed, but giving no countenance to the excesses of the Spirituals.
At Narbonne in 1260, the first of the five general chapters which
Bonaventure held, he produced a set of constitutions on the rule, which were
adopted and had a permanent effect on Franciscan life, but they failed to pacify
the excessive rigorists. At the request of the friars assembled in this chapter, he
undertook to write the life of St Francis, with a spirit which shows him to have
been filled with the virtues of the founder whose life he wrote. St Bonaventure
governed his order for seventeen years and has been justly called its second
founder.

Vigils Reading - St Kateri Tekaqwitha
2026-07-14
A reading by Daniel Sargent on
ST KATERI TEKAKWITHA
◊◊◊
On the fourteenth of October, 1682, a Frenchman living in Canada began
a letter to a Frenchman living in France. He had seen many wonders in Canada,
and was therefore eager to tell about them.
He was a missionary, a priest, a Jesuit, a certain Father Chauchetière, now
only thirty-seven years old, and who had spent seven years already among the
Indians of Canada whom he was trying to Christianize. The great astonishment
of his life as a missionary had not been the size of the St Lawrence River, but the
piety which he had found among the Indians at his St Lawrence Mission.
He had expected to be horrified by the Indians even though he was willing
to give his life for them. Instead he had been edified by them. But how was he
going to convince the Jesuit Superior, to whom he was writing his letter, of this
Indian holiness?… He dwelt on the inconvenience of this fervor: it led the
Indians to adopt immoderate penances, and forced him to step in and restrain
them. Only grudgingly did he add, as the sole flash of his enthusiasm, that “They
would be admired in France if what they do were known there.”
[Then] he came to what was most incredible of all: “During the past two
years their fervor has greatly increased since God has removed from this world
one of these devout savage women who live like nuns, and she died with the
reputation of sanctity. Journeys are continually made to her tomb; and the
savages, following her example, have become better Christians than they were.
We daily see wonders worked through her intercession. Her name was [Kateri]
Tekakwitha.”…
Tekakwitha’s ancestors were an old people. Not merely that they had had
as many ancestors as any other person alive, but they remembered those
ancestors. They carried the past with them in their traditions, from generation
to generation… The ancestors of [Tekakwitha] had been suffering and longing
for ages… The gaining of salvation had been their age-long preoccupation…
If we look at the past of [Tekakwitha’s] ancestors, as Fr. Chauchetière did
not and could not, and if we look at the story of the French missionaries, then
the spiritual blossoming of this [Kateri Tekakwitha] becomes a climax of a long
drama. Instead of exclaiming as Chauchetière did, “How suddenly she has
come,” our sigh is, “How long, how long, the world has waited!”

Vigils Reading
2026-07-13
A reading from
JOHN TAULER
◊◊◊
Our Lord said to his disciples: “You shall be witnesses unto me in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the
earth.” Jerusalem was a city of peace, but also of tribulation, for there it was that
Christ underwent such infinite suffering and a bitter death. Children, we are to
be his witnesses in this city, not by mere words but in truth, by our life and by
following him according to our strength.
There are plenty of persons who would gladly be Christ’s witnesses in
peace, when everything goes along just as they would wish. They would like to
be holy, provided that their pious exercises and work never become irksome;
they would be glad enough to enjoy, desire, or know the things of God, if there
were no bitterness, labor, or tedium involved. But once they are assailed by
strong temptations and spiritual darkness, as soon as they no longer feel or
enjoy the nearness of God, and are left destitute inwardly and outwardly, they
fall away and are not true witnesses at all.
Peace is what all are striving for; they seek after it in every direction, in
every occupation, and in all their ways of life. Oh, if we could only shake
ourselves free from this tendency, and learn to seek peace in tribulation. Only
there is true peace born, peace which will last and really endure. To seek
elsewhere is to go astray inevitably. You will always find that this is true. If only
we could seek joy in sadness, peace in trouble, simplicity in multiplicity, comfort
in bitterness! This is the way to become true witnesses to God.
Before his death our Lord always promised his disciples peace, and also
after his resurrection he promised them all peace. Yet they never obtained peace
externally. Nonetheless, they found peace in tribulation and love in suffering. In
death they found life; to be cross-examined, judged, and condemned was for
them a joyous victory. These were true witnesses.
There are many who have been inundated with consolation in body and
soul. I have known some who were filled with such sweetness in every fiber of
their being. And yet, when suffering and darkness came upon them, when they
were forsaken inwardly and outwardly, they did not know which way to turn.
They stopped short, and it all came to nothing.
When terrible storms break upon us, buffeting us with desolations and
temptations, then it is, if only we can break through and weather the storm, that
we shall find essential peace, a peace that no one can take from us.

Vigils Reading - 15th Sunday
2026-07-12
A reading from
ST GREGORY THE GREAT
◊◊◊
Dearly beloved, the reading from the holy gospel about the sower requires
no explanation, but only a word of warning. In fact the explanation has been
given by Truth himself, and it cannot be disputed by a frail human being.
However, there is one point in our Lord’s exposition which you ought to weigh
well. It is this. If I told you that the seed represented the word, the field the
world, the birds the demons, and the thorns riches, you would perhaps be in two
minds as to whether to believe me. Therefore the Lord himself deigned to
explain what he had said, so that you would know that a hidden meaning is to be
sought also in those passages which he did not wish to interpret himself.
Would anyone have believed me if I had said that thorns stood for riches?
After all, thorns are piercing and riches pleasurable. And yet riches are thorns
because thoughts of them pierce the mind and torture it. When finally they lure
a person into sin, it is as though they were drawing blood from the wound they
have inflicted… The only true riches are those that make us rich in virtue.
Therefore, if you want to be rich, beloved, love true riches. If you aspire to the
heights of real honor, strive to reach the kingdom of heaven. If you value rank
and renown, hasten to be enrolled in the heavenly court of the angels.
Store up in your minds the Lord’s words which you receive through your
ears, for the word of the Lord is the nourishment of the mind. When his word is
heard but not stored away in the memory, it is like food which has been eaten
and then rejected by an upset stomach. A person’s life is despaired of if he
cannot retain his food; so if you receive the food of holy exhortations, but fail to
store in your memory those words of life which nurture righteousness, you have
good reason to fear the danger of everlasting death.
Be careful, then, that the word you have received through your ears
remains in your heart. Be careful that the seed does not fall along the path, for
fear that the evil spirit may come and take it from your memory. Be careful that
the seed is not received in stony ground, so that it produces a harvest of good
works without the roots of perseverance. Many people are pleased with what
they hear and resolve to undertake some good work, but as soon as difficulties
begin to arise and hinder them they leave the work unfinished. The stony
ground lacked the necessary moisture for the sprouting seed to yield the fruit of
perseverance.
Good earth, on the other hand, brings forth fruit by patience. The reason
for this is that nothing we do is good unless we also bear with equanimity the
injuries done us by our neighbors. In fact, the more we progress, the more
hardships we shall have to endure in this world; for when our love for this
present world dies, its sufferings increase. This is why we see many people
doing good works and at the same time struggling under a heavy burden of
afflictions. They now shun earthly desires, and yet they are tormented by
greater sufferings. But, as the Lord said, they bring forth fruit by patience,
because, since they humbly endure misfortunes, they are welcomed when these
are over into a place of rest in heaven.

Skema
2026-07-12
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
15th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (II)
July 12 – 18, 2026

Sun
12
Mon
13
Tue
14
Wed
15
Thu
16
Fri
17
Sat
18

Office
15th Sunday
Weekday
St Kateri Tekaqwitha
St Bonaventure
Bl Virgin Martyrs of Orange
Weekday
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Jud 10:1-10
Jud 10:11-23
Jud 11:1-23
Jud 12:1-20
Jud 13:1-11
Jud 13:12-20
Jud 14:1-10

Lauds
Hos 5:1-7
Hos 5:8-15
Hos 6:1-6
Hos 6:7-7:2
Hos 7:3-10
Hos 7:11-16
Hos 8:1-7

Mass
103
389
390
391
392
393
394

1st
Isa 55:10-11
Isa 1:10-17
Isa 7:1-9
Isa 10:5-7, 13b-16
Isa 26:7-9, 12, 16-19
Isa 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8
Mic 2:1-5

2nd
Rom 8:18-23

Gospel
Matt 13:1-23
Matt 10:34-11:1
Matt 11:20-24
Matt 11:25-27
Matt 11:28-30
Matt 12:1-8
Matt 12:14-21

Vespers
Eph 6:18-24
2 Thess 1:1-10
2 Thess 1:11-12
2 Thess 2:1-10
2 Thess 2:11-17
2 Thess 3:1-10
2 Thess 3:11-18

Chicago LCG 9 am CDT
2026-07-11 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago)
Please join our Chicago LCG community at our Zoom meeting at 9:00 am CDT. All LCG folk are welcome.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86028356465
Meeting ID: 860 2835 6465
One tap mobile
+13126266799,,86028356465# US (Chicago)
+13092053325,,86028356465# USC
Our Agenda:
9:00 Gather for Opening prayer.
We also pray for all our lay Cistercian sisters and brothers in the US and around the world. Specially we pray for our Gethsemani monks. Finally, we pray this month specially for:
Fr. Anton Rusnak
Br. Aaron Schulte
Br. Gaetan Blanchette

9:10 Lectio. Our lectio piece will be led by Tom Kosnik .
9:50 Reading. Our reading this month will be the first half of Anthony De Mello’s Awareness. Life.
10:45 Housekeeping. Volunteer to lead lectio next month? Chicago Report on LCG Advisory Council activity. Chicago LCG at Gethsemani Fall Retreat? What’s happening with the International Lay Cistercians? Tina With Pope Leo XIV at La Sagrada Familia.
11:00 Update. Share how the Holy Spirt has entered our lives as lay Cistercians since our last meeting.
11:45 Closing worship and prayer. We will pray the liturgical hour of None as with our Gethsemani monks (identical Psalms as done today at Gethsemani Abbey.)
Our next meeting: August 8, 2026.

Vigils Reading - St Benedict
2026-07-11
A reading from “Butler’s Lives of the Saints” on
ST BENEDICT
◊◊◊
Benedict was of good birth, and was born and brought up at the ancient
Sabine town of Nursia. He was sent to Rome for his ‘liberal education’, being
accompanied by a ‘nurse’, probably to act as housekeeper. He was then in his
early teens, or perhaps a little older. But Benedict, revolted by the licentiousness
of his companions in the city, made up his mind to leave Rome. He made his
escape without telling anyone of his plans excepting his nurse, who
accompanied him. They made their way to the village of Enfide in the
mountains thirty miles from Rome. What was the length of his stay we do not
know, but it was sufficient to enable him to determine his next step. Absence
from the temptations of Rome, he soon realized, was not enough; God was
calling him to be a solitary and to abandon the world.
In search of complete solitude Benedict started forth once more, alone,
and climbed further among the hills until he reached a place now known as
Subiaco. In this wild and rocky country he came upon a monk called Romanus,
to whom he opened his heart, explaining his intention of leading the life of a
hermit. Romanus assisted the young man, clothing him with a sheepskin habit
and leading him to a cave in the mountain. In this desolate cavern Benedict
spent the next three years of his life…
Disciples began to gather about him, attracted by his sanctity and by his
miraculous powers… We do not know how long the saint remained at Subiaco,
but he stayed long enough to establish his monasteries on a firm and permanent
basis. His departure was sudden.
Having set all things in order, he withdrew from Subiaco to the territory of
Monte Cassino… Upon the site of a big temple he built two chapels and round
about these sanctuaries there rose little by little a great building which was
destined to become the most famous abbey the world has ever known, the
foundation of which is likely to have been laid by St Benedict in the year 530…
It is probably that Benedict, who was now in middle age, again spent some
time as a hermit; but disciples soon flocked to Monte Cassino too…
The holy abbot, far from confining his ministrations to those who would
follow his rule, extended his solicitude to the population of the surrounding
country: he cured their sick, relieved the distressed, distributed alms and food
to the poor, and is said to have raised the dead on more than one occasion. The
great saint who had foretold so many other things was also forewarned of his
own approaching death. He notified it to his disciples… He was stricken with
fever, and on the last day he received the Body and Blood of the Lord. Then,
while the loving hands of the brethren were supporting his weak limbs, he
uttered a few final words of prayer and died – standing on his feet in the chapel,
with his hands uplifted towards heaven.

Vigils Reading
2026-07-10
A reading from
ST AELRED OF RIEVAULX
◊◊◊
For when in bitterness of soul
I view my former life,
it scares and frightens me that I should be called shepherd,
for I am surely crazy if I do not know myself
unworthy of the name.
Your holy mercy is upon me,
to snatch my wretched soul out of hell.
You show mercy as you will;
your pity succors him whom you are pleased to pity;
and such is your forgiveness of my sin,
that you do not avenge yourself by damning me,
nor do you even overwhelm me with reproaches;
and, even when you do accuse, you love me no less.
Nevertheless, I am disturbed and troubled,
for I am mindful of your goodness, yes—
but I am not unmindful of my own ingratitude.
See, then,
before you is my heart’s confession of the countless sins,
from which your mercy has been pleased to free my
hapless soul.
My whole heart renders thanks and praise to you
with all its might for all these benefits.
6 (CF 2 : 106-107).12
But I am no less in your debt
for all the evil things I have not done.
For, most assuredly, whatever evil thing
I have not done, it was your guiding hand
that made me abstain from doing it;
since either you took away the means to do it,
or else you corrected my inclination,
or gave me the power to resist.
But what am I to do, O Lord my God,
about the ills whereby, in your just judgment,
you suffer your servant, the son of your handmaiden,
still to be wearied and be overcome?
The things concerning which my sinful soul
is troubled in your sight, O Lord, cannot be counted;
yet, for all that,
neither my sorrow for them nor my care
to shun their repetition is as great
as they demand, and as my will desires.

Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
2026-07-09 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York)
A reading from
FR LOUIS BOUYER
◊◊◊
It is not purely and simply by dying that we shall live, but by dying such a
death that it kills death itself – and it is only the death of Christ that can do that.
For it is not the life of the mortal body which has injured the life of the soul. It is,
on the contrary, the death of the soul which has injured the body and made it
mortal. Life will be won back by the resurrection, not of the soul alone, but of the
human being in its unity, inseparably body and soul. And if the passage through
death can lead to the resurrection, it is only in as much as the soul, which has
become alive again in Christ, has been made capable of burning away the death
of the body as with a red-hot iron and of causing it to evaporate in its own flame.
The monk goes forward to meet death because he believes that this
miracle, the greatest of all, has been accomplished in the death of Christ:
because he believes that Christ was Life, the very Life of God, and that in making
physical death his own, he has robbed the evil one of all his power and all his
empire which are annihilated by this very act. Again he goes forward to meet
death because he believes that Christ now and for the future lives in him: and
finally because he believes that what has taken place in Christ will be
reproduced in himself, in the same manner.
The death of the monk, so desired and sought after day after day, is then
only the supreme evidence of his faith, his faith in Christ vanquishing death in
himself, his faith in Christ present in his followers to vanquish it in them. The
monk’s mortification is ultimately nothing more than his witness given to
Christ, the witness of his faith, which makes it clear that it is not only an
intellectual thing but an engagement of the whole being.

Vigils Reading - Bl Eugene III
2026-07-08 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York)
A reading from St Bernard of Clairvaux for
POPE BLESSED EUGENE III
◊◊◊
It has occurred to me to write something which might edify, delight or
console you, Blessed Father Eugene. But I do not know the rules for writing a
formal yet intimate treatise. Two opposites, your majesty and my love, vie to
dictate my style. Love draws me on; majesty holds me back. But you graciously
intervene and request rather than command this treatise, although it would be
more fitting for you to command it. Since your majesty so admirably
condescends, why does my hesitancy persist? What if you have ascended the
throne? Even if you were to walk on the wings of the wind, you would not escape
my affection. Love knows no master. It recognizes a son even though he wear
the tiara. It is the nature of a lover to be suitably humble, willingly submissive,
freely compliant, respectful without duress.
This is not the way with others however; they are driven either by fear or
by greed. Such men bless openly, but harbor evil in their hearts. They flatter you
when you are present, yet fail you in time of need. But charity never fails. It is
true that I have been freed of maternal obligation toward you, but I am not
stripped of affection for you. You were once in my womb; you will not be drawn
from my heart so easily. Ascend to the heavens, descend to the depths, you will
not escape me. I will follow you wherever you go. I loved you when you were
poor in spirit; I shall love you still as father of the poor and the rich.
If I know you, you did not cease being poor in spirit when you became the
father of the poor. I am confident that this change has been thrust on you and
was not of your doing, that this promotion has not replaced your former state,
but rather has enhanced it. Therefore I will instruct you not as a teacher, but as a
mother, indeed as a lover. I may seem more the fool, but only to one who does
not love, to one who does not feel the force of love.

Vigils Reading
2026-07-07
A reading from
FR KARL RAHNER
◊◊◊
What must we do in order to avoid stifling the Spirit? This is a dark and
difficult question. If it could ever be thought easy to answer it would be no
question at all. The real answer to it is itself a factor in the movement and
guidance of the Spirit, who himself ensures that he shall not be stifled. It can be
found, in the last analysis, not by the reflexive processes of theory and
speculation, but rather, at basis, through the sureness of instinct to be found in
Christian living.
The first thing that we could do, and do with all our hearts, would be to
acquire an attitude of caring; of recognizing with anxiety that it is possible to
stifle the Spirit. The Spirit can be stifled not indeed throughout the entire
Church, but still over so wide an area, and to such a terrible extent that we have
to fear that judgment which begins with the house of God. And for this reason
we must all face the possibility with fear and trembling that we could be the ones
who stifle the Spirit – stifle him through that pride in ‘knowing better’, that
inertia of heart, that cowardice, that unteachableness with which we react to
fresh impulses and new pressures in the Church.
How different many things would be if we did not so often react to what is
new with a self-assured superiority, an attitude of conservatism, adopted as a
defense not of the honor of God and the teaching and institutions of the Church,
but of our own selves, of what we have always been accustomed to, of the usual,
with which we can live without daily experiencing the pain of the new metanoia.
But if we realized, and with burning conviction, that we can also be judged for
our omissions, for a general obtuseness and inertia of heart which, though
indefinable, extends over all spheres of our lives, for our culpable lack of
creative imagination and boldness of spirit, then we should lend a sharper ear,
keener eye, a livelier anticipation to the slightest indication that somewhere that
Spirit is stirring whose inspiration is not merely confined to the official
pronouncements and directives of the Church, or to the holders of official
positions in her.
Then we should be eagerly on the watch to see whether charisms were not
appearing, of which only a glimpse and a feeling can initially be obtained. Then
we would not make it a condition for admitting those charisms which the Spirit
wills to impart (a condition to which, however, we do not subject our own lives
and activities) that such charisms must have no element of the human in them,
nothing which has not yet been purified out. For this is not possible in view of
the fact that even the fire of the Holy Spirit burns up from the thorn-bush of our
human – all too human – nature.

Vigils Reading
2026-07-06
A reading from the Encyclical “Ut Unum Sint” by
POPE ST JOHN PAUL II
◊◊◊
The Second Vatican Council exhorts all Christ’s faithful to remember that
the more they strive to live according to the Gospel, the more they are fostering
and even practicing Christian unity. For they can achieve depth and ease in
strengthening mutual brotherhood to the degree that they enjoy profound
communion with the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit. This change of heart
and holiness of life, along with public and private prayer for the unity of
Christians should be regarded as the soul of the whole ecumenical movement,
and can rightly be called ‘spiritual ecumenism’.
We proceed along the road leading to the conversion of hearts guided by
love which is directed to God and, at the same time, to all our brothers and
sisters, including those not in full communion with us. Love gives rise to the
desire for unity, even in those who have never been aware of the need for it. Love
builds communion between individuals and between Communities. If we love
one another, we strive to deepen our communion and make it perfect. Love is
given to God as the perfect source of communion – the unity of Father, Son and
Holy Spirit – that we may draw from that source the strength to build
communion between individuals and communities or to reestablish it between
Christians still divided. Love is the great undercurrent which gives life and adds
vigor to the movement toward unity.
This love finds its most complete expression in common prayer. When
brothers and sisters who are not in perfect communion with one another come
together to pray, the Second Vatican Council defines their prayer as the soul of
the whole ecumenical movement. This prayer is “a very effective means of
petitioning for the grace of unity”, “a genuine expression of ties which even
now bind Catholics to their separated brethren.” Even when prayer is not
specifically offered for Christian unity, but for other intentions such as peace, it
actually becomes an expression and confirmation of unity. The common prayer
of Christians is an invitation to Christ himself to visit the community of those
who call upon him: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I
in the midst of them.”
Along the ecumenical path to unity, pride of place certainly belongs to
common prayer; the prayerful union of those who gather together around Christ
himself. If Christians, despite their divisions, can grow ever more united in
common prayer around Christ, they will grow in the awareness of how little
divides them in comparison to what unites them. Fellowship in prayer leads
people to look at the Church and Christianity in a new way. It must not be
forgotten in fact that the Lord prayed to the Father that his disciples might be
one, so that their unity might bear witness to his mission and that the world
would believe that the Father had sent him. “Ecumenical prayer” is at the
service of the Christian mission and its credibility. It must be especially present
in the life of the Church and in every activity aimed at fostering Christian unity.

Vigils Reading - 14th Sunday
2026-07-05
A reading from
ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
◊◊◊
Our Master is always the same, gentle and benevolent. In his constant
concern for our salvation, he says explicitly in the gospel: Come, learn of me,
for I am gentle and humble of heart.
What great condescension on the part of the Creator! And yet the creature
feels no shame! Come, learn from me. The Master came to console his fallen
servants. This is how Christ treats us. He shows pity when a sinner deserves
punishment. When the race that angers him deserves to be annihilated, he
addresses the guilty ones in the kindly words: Come, learn from me, for I am
gentle and humble of heart.
God is humble, and we are proud! The judge is gentle; the criminal
arrogant! The potter speaks in lowered voice; the clay discourses in tones of a
king! Come, learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Our master
carries a whip not to wound, but to heal us. Reflect upon his indescribable
kindness. Who could fail to love a master who never strikes his servants? Who
would not marvel at a judge who beseeches a condemned criminal? Surely the
self-abasement of these words must astound you.
I am the Creator and I love my work. I am the sculptor and I care for what
I have made. If I thought of my dignity, I should not rescue fallen humankind. If
I failed to treat its incurable sickness with fitting remedies, it would never
recover its strength. If I did not console it, it would die. If I did nothing but
threaten it, it would perish. This is why I apply the salve of kindness to it where
it lies. Compassionately I bend down very low in order to raise it up. No one
standing erect can lift a fallen man without putting a hand down to him.
Come learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. I do not make
a show of words; I have left you the proof of my deeds. You can see that I am
gentle and humble of heart from what I have become. Consider my nature,
reflect upon my dignity, and marvel at the condescension I have shown you.
Think of where I came from, and of where I am as I speak to you. Heaven is my
throne, yet I talk to you standing on the earth! I am glorified on high, but
because I am long-suffering I am not angry with you, for I am gentle and
humble in heart.

Skema
2026-07-05
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
14th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (II)
July 5 – 11, 2026

Sun
5
Mon
6
Tue
7
Wed
8
Thu
9
Fri
10
Sat
11

Office
14th Sunday
Weekday
Weekday
Bl Eugene III
Office for the Dead
Weekday
St Benedict

Vigils
Jud 6:1-21
Jud 7:1-18
Jud 7:19-32
Jud 8:1-23
Jud 8:24-36
Jud 9:1-14
Tobit 4:14-19, 21

Lauds
Hos 2:13-17
Hos 2:18-25
Hos 3:1-5
Hos 4:1-6
Hos 4:7-12
Hos 4:13-19
Sir 45:1-5

Mass
100
383
384
385
386
387
*597, 477, 810

1st
Zech 9:9-10
Hos 2:16, 17c-18, 21-22
Hos 8:4-7, 11-13
Hos 10:1-3, 7-8, 12
Hos 11:1-4, 8e-9
Hos 14:2-10
Prov 2:1-9

2nd
Rom 8:9, 11-13

Eph 4:1-6

Gospel
Matt 11:25-30
Matt 9:18-26
Matt 9:32-38
Matt 10:1-7
Matt 10:7-15
Matt 10:16-23
Luke 22:24-27

Vespers
Eph 5:6-14
Eph 5:15-20
Eph 5:21-33
Eph 6:1-9
Eph 6:10-17
Gal 5:22-6:2
Col 3:12-17

Vigils Reading - Memorial of the BVM
2026-07-04
A reading from
ST THEODORE THE STUDITE
◊◊◊
Never has anyone been nearer to God than the blessed and most
wonderful Virgin Mary. Who could be purer? Who more sinless? She was loved
so ardently by God, the Divine, infinitely pure light, that he made himself of one
substance with her through the power of the Holy Spirit and was born of her as
perfect man, while keeping entire his own unchangeable and unblended nature.
How marvelous this is! In his immense love for man, God was not ashamed to
take for his mother her who was his handmaid. What condescension! In his
infinite goodness he did not hesitate to become a child of her whom he himself
had made. He was truly in love with the most gracious of his creatures, and he
took her who was of greater worth than the heavenly powers.
The words of Zechariah the prophet do indeed apply to her: “Sing and
rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for lo, I come and I will dwell in the midst of you,
says the Lord”. And again it is she whom blessed Joel is addressing, so it seems
to me, when he writes: “Fear not, O land: be glad and rejoiced, for the Lord has
done great things!”. For Mary is a land: that land on which Moses the man of
God was told to remove his shoe, figure of the law, for grace was going to take
the place of law.
Again, she is that land which is established by the Holy Spirit himself, as
we sing: “He laid the foundation of the earth”. She is a land that, without having
been sown, has yielded the fruit which nourishes everything that exists. She is a
land on which the thorn of sin has never grown: on the contrary, she has given
the light of day to him who has torn up sin by the root. In short, she is a land that
has not been cursed, as the first one has, with harvests of thorns and thistles, for
she is one on which the Lord’s blessing rests, a land bearing in her womb a
blessed fruit, as the sacred word declares.
Rejoice, House of God, land on which God has stepped, you who have
contained in your body him whose divinity overflows all bounds. For he who is
simplicity itself has taken man’s complex nature; the Eternal has entered into
time and the infinite into limits. Rejoice, House of God, resplendent with the
light of divinity. Rejoice, full of grace: your deed and your name are more joy-
giving than all joy. For your immortal joy, Christ, has come into the world, the
cure for the sadness of man. Rejoice, Paradise happier than the garden of Eden,
where all virtue has grown and where the tree of Life has flourished.

Vigils Reading - St Thomas
2026-07-03
A reading from
ST PETER CHRYSOLOGUS
◊◊◊
When Thomas heard from his fellow disciples that they had seen the
Lord, he answered: Unless I see the wounds made by the nails and put my
hand into his side, I will not believe. Why did Thomas thus demand proof before
believing? Why was he so devout toward the suffering Christ, but so resistant to
the risen Christ? Why did a pious hand open again the wounds made by a
wicked hand? Why did the hand of a follower strive to plunge anew into the side
opened by the spear of a wicked soldier?…
When the Lord died, the devil’s power collapsed, the prison of hell was
thrown open, the fetters of the dead were broken, tombs were destroyed; when
the Lord rose again death’s nature was completely changed. The stone before
the Lord’s most holy sepulcher was rolled away, and the linen cloths were
loosened; at his rising in glory death took to flight and life returned; his body
arose never to die again. Why then, Thomas, were you the only one to make such
a shrewd inquiry, demanding that the Lord’s wounds be shown as the only way
to convince you? Suppose those wounds had vanished with all the other marks
of suffering – what danger to your faith would not your curiosity have
engendered?
My brothers and sisters, piety made this search and devotion these
demands to ensure that impiety should not thereafter raise doubts about the
Lord’s resurrection. It was not only the doubts in his own heart that Thomas was
healing, but everyone else’s as well; and as he was to proclaim these things to the
nations, this energetic advocate was diligently trying to discover how he could
support the profession of so great a faith. Beyond question his spirit of prophecy
was greater than his doubt. For why should he have made such a request unless
he had learned from the Lord by prophetic inspiration that these wounds alone
were to be retained as proof of the resurrection?
Furthermore, the Lord of his own accord had shown the others what this
man subsequently demanded. The text says: Jesus came and stood in their
midst and showed them his hands and his side. For he who had entered through
closed doors and was with good reason thought by the disciples to be a ghost
could not prove himself to their doubting minds except by the wounds that told
of his passion. Then he came and said to Thomas: Put your finger here, and see
my hands, and put out your hand and put it into my side, and be not faithless
but believing. Do this so that when you reopen these wounds which have
already poured forth water and blood to cleanse and ransom all humankind,
faith may pour out over the whole world. Thomas answered: My Lord and my
God!
See how scripture shows not only a human body but also, through the
suffering this body endured, that Christ is, as Thomas acclaims him, God and
Lord. Truly he is God who lives again after being dead, who rose after suffering a
mortal wound; for although he endured so much suffering and received such
great wounds, he lives and reigns as God for countless ages.

Vigils Reading
2026-07-02
A reading from
WILLIAM OF ST THIERRY
◊◊◊
In order that your solitude may not appall you and that you may dwell the
more safely in your cell three guardians have been assigned to you: God, your
conscience and your spiritual father. To God you owe devotion and the entire
gift of yourself; to your conscience the respect which will make you ashamed to
sin in its presence; to your spiritual father the obedience of charity and recourse
in everything.
In addition, to make you grateful to me, I will add a fourth and provide
you with a monitor for as long as you are small and have not learned to keep the
presence of God before your mind.
If you will take my advice, you will choose for yourself a man whose life is
such that it will serve as a model to impress upon your heart, one whom you will
so revere that whenever you think of him you will rise up because of the respect
you feel for him and put yourself in order. Think of him as if he were present and
let the charity you feel for one another act in you to correct all that needs to be
corrected, while your solitude suffers no infringement of its secret. Let him be
present to you whenever you wish and let him come sometimes when you would
have preferred him to stay away. The thought of his holy severity will make it
seem as if he were rebuking you; the thought of his kindness and goodness will
bring you consolation; the purity and sanctity of his life will set you a good
example.
For you will be driven to correct even all your thoughts, as if they were
open to his gaze and visited by his rebuke, when you consider that he is
watching. So, as the Apostle bids: “Keep guard on yourself” with the greatest
care and, in order to have your eyes always on yourself, turn your gaze away
from all else. The eye is a remarkable instrument of the body – if only it could
see itself as it sees other things. Now the inner eye is enabled to do this. If then it
follows the example of the outward eye and neglects itself, giving its attention to
the affairs of others, it will not be able to return to itself, however much it may
wish to do so.
Give your attention to yourself; you yourself constitute abundant matter
for solicitude for yourself. Shut out also from your outward eyes what you have
grown unaccustomed to see, from your inner eyes what you no longer love, since
nothing so easily reasserts its claims as love, especially in younger and more
tender souls.
Make bold also to be wise at times and desire the better gifts. Be yourself a
parable of edification for yourself. You have one cell outwardly, another within
you. The outward cell is the house in which your soul dwells together with your
body; the inner cell is your conscience and in that it is God who should dwell
with your spirit, he who is more interior to you than all else that is within you.
The door of the outward enclosure is a sign of the guarded door within you, so
that as the bodily senses are prevented from wandering abroad by the outward
enclosure, so the inner senses are kept always within their own domain.

The Golden Epistle – William of St Thierry – Cistercian Fathers Series #12 – Kalamazoo, MI – 1971 – pg 45.11

Vigils Reading
2026-07-01
A reading from
ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
◊◊◊
Suppose a pagan should say: “Where is your proof that Christ is God?” I
must first lay this proof as a foundation since everything follows from it. But I
shall not draw my demonstration from heaven or any such divine source. For if
I say that God created heaven, earth and sea, no pagan will stand for this as
proof nor will he believe me; if I say that Christ raised the dead, cured the blind,
and drove out demons, no pagan will accept that either; if I say that he promised
a kingdom and ineffable blessings, if I talk about the resurrection, the pagan will
not only reject my arguments but he will laugh at them as well.
How shall I persuade him, especially if he is ignorant and ill-informed?
What source of proof can I use other than one on which we both together agree,
one which is undeniable and admits no doubt? If I base my argument on the fact
that he created heaven and the other things of which I spoke, the pagan would
not find it easy to believe me. What is there which even the pagan admits that
Christ has done and which not even he would deny?
The pagan must admit that from Christ came the family of Christians. He
must admit that Christ founded the Churches everywhere throughout the world.
From these facts I shall furnish proof of Christ’s power; I shall show that Christ
is God; I shall maintain that it is not the mark of a mere man to bring under his
sway so much land and sea in so short a time; I shall make clear that it is not the
mark of a mere human to call men to such lofty deeds, especially men who were
preoccupied with such strange customs or, rather men who were caught in the
trap of such an evil way of life.
And still Christ had the power to set the human race free from all these
evils – not only the Romans, but the Persians, and simply every race of
barbarians. And he succeeded in doing this with no force of arms, nor
expenditure of money, nor by starting wars of conquest, nor by inflaming men
to battle. He had only eleven men to start with, men who were undistinguished,
without learning, ill-informed, destitute, poorly clad, without weapons, or
sandals, men who had but a single tunic to wear.
Why do I say that he succeeded in doing this? He was able to persuade so
many nations of men to pursue the true doctrine, not only in what concerns the
present life but also the life hereafter. He succeeded in winning over these men
to drag down their ancestral laws, to tear out their ancient customs, long and
deeply rooted as they were, and to plant in their place other ways, which led
them from the easygoing life to his own program of austerity. And he succeeded
in doing this when the whole world was waging war against him, when they
jeered at him and forced him to endure the most shameful death of the cross.
The pagans will not deny that the Jews crucified him and subjected him to
countless tortures; they will not deny that he still preaches his message every
day. And this message flourishes not only here but also among the Persians,
who even today are still waging war against him. For among the Persians, at this
very hour, there are multitudes of martyrs. Men who were more savage than
wolves hear his message, become more gentle than sheep, and accept the true
doctrine on immortality, the resurrection, and the ineffable blessings of the
mysteries.

Vigils Reading
2026-06-30
A reading from
HANS URS VON BALTHASAR
◊◊◊
The Apostles are the founders of the Church, officially chosen and called
by the Lord, whose first function will be to be eyewitnesses. They are drawn into
living community with the Messiah, a relationship in which they will enjoy with
this man, who is ‘God among us’, a commerce that is fully human, that engages
both their senses and their spirit. They are ‘those with him’, ‘those who
accompany him’, and ‘those around him’. This is what they are, and they will
grow more and more into this way of life in the course of Jesus’ life. They
constitute the original cell of God’s community with us, which had been
promised and is now being realized.
All those coming after them who wish to have community with God must
become a part of this original cell. There are many others who come to the Lord,
only to go away again, many others who stay with him a while only then to leave
him, or simply others who have a loose connection with him without any
particular calling. By contrast, the Apostles enjoy a community with Jesus
which has precise contours, a community which he has consciously established
and maintained, which is founded on the definitive life-long renunciation of all
else: it is something wholly formed, distinctive in shape. And yet it is not
something magical imposed from above, since the son of perdition will indeed
fall away; rather, it is the realization of the covenant-partnership between God
and ourselves.
Eyewitness, in turn, is an association with the Lord in his public life, in his
Passion, and in his death which is the communal, human, and realistic
experience of God which continues and fulfills the Old Testament’s promise of
an earthly God-with-us. But this phase comes to an end with Jesus’ death; the
Apostles’ senses, accustomed to his existence, now fall into the void; there is no
longer anything there to see, to hear, to touch; the Apostles’ whole human
experience breaks off with the three-days-in-death, then to resume anew,
without any traceable continuity, with Christ’s Resurrection, at a place whose
distance from the point of disruption can be known and measured only by God;
and now, during the forty days, the association with the Lord will be
experienced with wholly new senses.
The eyewitness of the Apostles draws all its force from this last phase, to
be sure; otherwise they could hardly bear witness to anything more than an
extraordinary man who was prophetically gifted and who performed miracles.
But it draws its force not, indeed, solely from the witness of the Resurrection,
but from the fact that the man who appeared to them was the same whom they
had known previously from long association and whom they had seen suffer and
die. Seeing him, hearing him, touching him, observing how he eats, the proof of
the wounds; all of this receives its full significance only in that light.

Vigils Reading - SS Peter & Paul
2026-06-29
A reading from
ST AELRED OF RIEVAULX
◊◊◊
Though the earth and all who dwell in it may rock, it is I who uphold its pillars.
The pillars of the earth, my brothers, are the holy apostles, especially
these two whose feast we celebrate today. They are the pillars who support holy
Church through their doctrine, their prayers, and through the example of their
patience. These are the pillars our Lord upholds. Previously, they were very
weak and unable to support themselves or others. Yet this was a great
dispensation of the Lord. For if they had always been strong, someone could
think that they had always had this strength from themselves. For that reason
our Lord wished to show first what they were of themselves, and then
afterwards to uphold them, so that all might know that all their strength was
from God…
For these pillars were very weak: obviously saint Peter was weak, for
example, when the voice of one maidservant cast him down. Afterward, the
Lord upheld that pillar: first, when He asked him three times, Peter, do you love
Me? and three times Peter answered, I do love you. For as Peter diminished that
love of our Lord in himself when he denied Him three times, and therefore this
pillar failed and was broken; so through Peter’s confessing his love three times,
this pillar was upheld.
That other pillar, Paul, was undoubtedly weak, too… When he was
prostrate and blind and led into the city; when Ananias came to him and
instructed him, then he was weak. But hear how strong he was afterwards: I am
certain, he says, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor any other creature
can separate me from the Love of God.
And note that when Peter answered, I do love you, the Lord immediately
said to him Feed My sheep; as if to say: Show me the love you have for Me in this
way: by feeding My sheep. Therefore, my brothers, he who does not wish to feed
Christ’s sheep, falsely says that he loves God…
In each soul our Lord also has some sheep, that is, some virtues which he
who loves Christ must feed. These sheep are: charity, humility, spiritual joy,
and the like. We feed these sheep when we do works that make these virtues
grow in us. And each one of us must also feed these sheep, these virtues, in the
others. We do this if we so conduct ourselves before our brothers that their
charity, their joy, their humility and patience grow by our example. For how do I
feed humility in my brother, if I am proud before him, if I speak proudly, answer
him proudly, walk proudly? How do I feed obedience in my brother, if he sees
me contrary and disobedient? How do I feed his patience if I grumble, am
irascible, or speak or make signs harshly before him?
Therefore if you love Christ, my brothers, feed Christ’s sheep, and you will
belong to these pillars which are upheld by Christ’s love. And let us place before
our eyes the life and death of these saints and their reward; let us think that if we
imitate their sufferings as we can, without doubt we will be joined to their lot.

Vigils Reading - 13th Sunday
2026-06-28
A reading from
ST HILARY OF POITIERS
◊◊◊
Christ commanded the apostles to leave everything in the world
that they held most dear, adding: Whoever does not take up his cross and
follow me is not worthy of me. For those who belong to Christ have crucified
their lower nature with its sinful passions and desires. No one is worthy of him
who refuses to take up his cross, that is to say, to share the Lord’s passion, death,
burial, and resurrection, and to follow him by living out the mystery of faith in
the newly received grace of the Spirit.
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake
will find it. This means that thanks to the power of the word and the
renunciation of past sins, temporal gains are death to the soul, and temporal
losses are salvation. Apostles must therefore take death into their new life and nail
their sins to the Lord’s cross. They must confront their persecutors with
contempt for things present, holding fast to their freedom by a glorious
confession of faith, and shunning any gain that would harm their souls. They
should know that no power over their souls has been given to anyone, and that
by suffering loss in this short life they will achieve immortality.
Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the
one who sent me. Christ gives us all a love for his teaching and a disposition to
treat our teachers with courtesy. Earlier he had shown the danger facing those
who refused to receive the apostles by requiring these to shake the dust off their
feet as a testimony against them; now he commends those who do receive the
apostles, assuring them of a greater recompense than they might have expected
for their hospitality, and he teaches that since he still acts as mediator, when we
receive him God enters us through him because he comes from God.
Thus whoever receives the apostles receives Christ, and whoever receives
Christ receives God the Father, since what is received in the apostles is nothing
else than what is received in Christ; nor is there anything in Christ but what is in
God. Through this disposition of graces to receive the apostles is to receive God,
because Christ is in them and God is in Christ.
