Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Vigils Reading - SS Simon & Jude
2024-10-28
THE ZEAL OF
SAINTS SIMON AND JUDE
By St John Henry Newman2
The Apostles commemorated on this Festival direct our attention to the subject of Zeal. St. Simon is called Zealot, which means the Zealous; a title given him (as is supposed) from his belonging before his conversion to the Jewish sect of Zealots, which professed extraordinary Zeal for the Law… St. Jude’s Epistle, which forms part of the service of the day, is almost wholly upon the duty of manifesting Zeal for Gospel Truth, and opens with a direct exhortation to “contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints.”
It will be a more simple account of Zeal, to call it the earnest desire for God’s honor, leading to strenuous and bold deeds in His behalf; and that in spite of all obstacles. Now Zeal is one of the elementary religious qualifications; that is, one of those which are essential in the very notion of a religious man. A man cannot be said to be in earnest in religion, till he magnifies his God and Savior; till he so far consecrates and exalts the thought of Him in his heart, as an object of praise, and adoration, and rejoicing, as to be pained and grieved at dishonor shown to Him, and eager to avenge Him. In a word, a religious temper is one of loyalty towards God; and we all know what is meant by being loyal from the experience of civil matters.
To be loyal is not merely to obey; but to obey with promptitude, energetic dutifulness, disinterested devotion, disregard of consequences. And such is Zeal, except that it is ever attended with that reverential feeling which is due from a creature and a sinner towards his Maker, and towards Him alone. It is the main principle in all religious service to love God above all things; now, Zeal is to love Him above all other people, above our dearest and most intimate friends. This was the especial praise of the Levites, which gained for them the reward of the Priesthood, that is , their executing judgment on the people in the sin of the golden calf. Zeal is the very consecration of God’s Ministers to their office.
Accordingly our Blessed Savior, the One Great High Priest, the Antitype of all Priests who went before Him and the Lord and Strength of all who come after, began His manifestation of Himself by two acts of Zeal. When twelve years old he deigned to put before us in representation the sacredness of this duty, when He remained in the Temple “while His father and mother sought Him sorrowing,” and on their finding Him, returned answer, “Do you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” And again, at the opening of His public Ministry, He went into the Temple, and “made a scourge of small cords, and drove out the sheep and oxen, and overthrew the changers’ tables” that profaned it: thus fulfilling the prophecy contained in the text, “Zeal for your house has eaten me up.” Being thus consumed by Zeal Himself, no wonder He should choose His followers from among the Zealous.
2
“Christian Zeal,” in Parochial and Plain Sermons, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1987, pp. 464 ff.

Vigils Reading - Weekday
2024-10-29
A VIRGIN LIFE
From the writing of Louis Bouyer3
Baptism is our union with Christ’s cross, our union with his death, so that we may also be united with him in his risen life of glory. Baptism therefore implies, and has always implied, in some way the abandonment, the renunciation of everything in human life as this is lived in a “natural”, that is, a fallen and sinful way. This fact was made clear to the first Christians by the very conditions in which God’s providence allowed them to live; they knew that if they wanted to be members of Christ by faith and baptism, they had to be prepared for martyrdom. They had to be ready at any moment to witness to the reality of their attachment to Christ. They had to be ready to give a witness which might imply the abandonment, not only of all the pleasures of human life, but of life itself.
And thus from the very beginning it was understood that someone could not be a Christian without in some way struggling with the world, without accepting a permanent and lifelong struggle with their own “flesh”, with their own sinful self. Christians understood, of course, that they were called to take part in Christ’s work of saving the world, but they knew that they could not take this part unless in some way they escaped from the world. Christ saved the world because he engaged in the struggle to death with the powers of evil… He was willing to abandon the life of this world for the sake of the salvation of humanity. A struggle with the evil in oneself and the world, and abandonment and escape from the world, is a necessary preliminary to taking part with Christ in his work of redeeming the world.
From the very beginning of Christianity, therefore, a virgin life, all life consecrated to Christ to the exclusion of all human attachment, even the most legitimate, has been proposed as the ideal realization of the will of God. It has always been considered better that Christians, in order to fight most effectively against the powers of this world, should abandon their hopes of realizing the fullness of life in this world, so as to be free and ready to meet Christ with his cross and to follow him through death to the world of eternal life.
This virgin life, this life of freedom from the claims and attachments of this world, was thought of first as the ideal preparation for the possibility of martyrdom – a possibility which faced every Christian in the first Christian generations. But when the persecutions of the first centuries ended, it came to be understood that this free and spontaneous offering of one’s own life to Christ in virginity, this consecration to him which implies the abandonment of the hope of realizing human love and love in this world – that this consecration was not only the ideal preparation for martyrdom, for full union with Christ and his cross, but that it was itself a spiritual martyrdom. For it is a spiritual witnessing by our whole lives to the love of God revealed and given to us in Christ, and to our desire to respond fully to that love.
3
Liturgy and Religious Life, St. Louis, 1959, pp. 20-22.

Vigils Reading - Weekday
2024-10-30
THE SAINT AND THE MISSION
An excerpt from “The World of Prayer” by Adrienne von Speyr4
A saint’s standing before God with a community within is no plain and simple fact. The saints can be in God’s presence in such a personal way that, involuntarily or even voluntarily, they forget their mission. And between these two poles there is a whole spectrum. It may happen involuntarily when God alone wishes it so because he wants to have his saint to himself. It happens voluntarily when the saint feels it right on this occasion to be alone in God’s presence, leaving the particular mission out of focus in the background.
There is another extreme in relation to these two forms of prayer, namely, the prayer of those saints who never appear before God except in the very midst of their mission, whether because God wills it so or because the saint will not have it otherwise. Here too there are gradations. One is inclined to a certain suspicion of those who always do everything completely deliberately and of their own free will, choosing whether to go before God with or without the mission entrusted to them, whereas there can be no grounds for suspicion in the case of the saint who, involuntarily and only as God requires, is always standing before God in one sense or another. In general, however, there is an alternation: There are times and moments in which the saint is more important to God than the individual mission, and others when the mission itself is the most important thing.
If the saints themselves make no choice, God can work in them or in their mission or in both, within the relationship he chooses. But if the saint and the mission constitute a single unity as willed by God, God’s shaping influence on the one will always benefit the other. It can happen, then, that when a particular mission begins to make itself felt it brings difficulties for the saint in standing before God in prayer. But these difficulties and their mastery contribute to the saint’s fruitfulness. They never take the form of insuperable obstacles but of a gain at a higher level, be it a deeper insight or a better adaptation to God’s will or a closer integration of saint and mission. Mission here always means an embodiment of the community. It is what, in the saint, is of and for the community: the seed of community, a task within the community, a fruit entrusted to the community. This fruit is greater than the I; it is the Thou, in all its manifold forms, which has been entrusted to the I. Ultimately this multiplicity belongs to the Church and indeed can be the Church.
4
The World of Prayer, Adrienne von Speyr, Ignatius: San Francisco 1985. pp.255-256.

Vigils Reading - Weekday
2024-10-31
THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST
From the Second Vatican Council’s declaration Nostra Aetate5
For the Church of Christ acknowledges that, according to the mystery of God’s saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election are already found among the patriarchs, Moses, and the prophets. She professes that all who believe in Christ, Abraham’s sons according to faith are included in the same patriarch’s call, and likewise that the salvation of the Church was mystically foreshadowed by the chosen people’s exodus from the land of bondage.
The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people with whom in God’s inexpressible mercy deigned to establish the Ancient Covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that good olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild olive branches of the Gentiles. Indeed, the Church believes that by His cross Christ, our Peace, reconciled Jew and Gentile, making them both one in Himself.
Also, the Church ever keeps in mind the words of the Apostle about his kinsmen, “who have the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenant and the legislation and the worship and the promises; who have the fathers, and from whom is Christ according to the flesh”, the son of the Virgin Mary. The Church recalls too that from the Jewish people sprang the apostles, her foundation stones and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who proclaimed Christ to the world.
As holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her visitation, nor did the Jews in large number accept the gospel; indeed, not a few opposed the spreading of it. Nevertheless, according to the Apostle, the Jews still remain most dear to God because of their fathers, for He does not repent of the gifts He makes nor of the calls He issues. In company with the prophets and the same Apostle, the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and “serve him with one accord”.
Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred Synod wishes to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit above all of biblical and theological studies, and of brotherly dialogues.
True, authorities of the Jews and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be blamed upon all the Jews then living, without distinction, nor upon the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as repudiated or cursed by God, as if such views followed from the Holy Scriptures. All should take pains, then, lest in catechetical instruction and in the preaching of God’s Word they teach anything out of harmony with the truth of the gospel and the spirit of Christ.
5
The Documents of Vatican II, Decree on Non-Christians. General Ed. Walter M. Abbott SJ, Herder & Herder, 1966, pp. 664-666.

Vigils Reading - All Saints
2024-11-01
MERCY AND JUDGMENT
by Isaac of Stella6
“Happy are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Even a righteous person cannot contend safely with the all-righteous God. It is silly to go out with ten thousand men to meet him who comes against you with twenty. The sensible thing is to send a messenger and ask for terms, before the other has advanced too far; to say, in a word, “Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord, for in thy sight shall no one living be justified.” Who, then, is this ambassador of peace? His name is mercy. For only by showing mercy can we hope to get it. Without mercy, righteousness is cruel and brings no one salvation. Only the merciful will have the joy, at the last day, of hearing the king say, “Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me meat… For that is as much as to say, “You showed mercy, and now you are obtaining it.” “Happy,” therefore, “are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”
David, you remember, sings of “mercy and judgment” in that order, mercy first. For mercy must first be shown, and then sought at the judgment seat. The one who has shown no mercy will be sentenced without mercy too.
There are two kinds of mercy, one giving, one forgiving. “Give, and it shall be given unto you,” says the Lord, “forgive, and you shall be forgiven.” And that in proportion to what we ourselves do. “Forgive us, as we forgive them that trespass against us.” “With what measure you mete, it shall be meted unto you.”
In the first degree of giving mercy a person gives to others some of his own possessions. This is in accord with the Lord’s command, “Give alms, and all things shall be pure unto you.”
In the second degree one gives all one’s possessions. In that, one is like the apostles, who said, “Lo, we have left all and followed thee. What shall we have, then?”
In the third degree one gives oneself. The apostle Paul did that, who said, “I will very gladly spend and be spent for you.” No one has a greater love than this. One who possesses it gives himself to the Lord to the full extent of his capacity for giving.
The matter stands similarly with the other kind of mercy, the forgiving kind. You can remit some of the debts that other people owe you. Or you can remit them all. Or you can give back the debtor’s very self to him, as when an owner frees a slave.
We religious have renounced all property. We cannot practice either kind of mercy in material things. But there are other things that we can give: advice, our prayers, a good example and so forth. And we can forgive injuries.
6
Cistercian Studies , vol.2, no.1 1967. “Selections From the Sermons of Isaac of Sella” by Sr. Penelope. pp.262-263.

Vigils Reading - All Souls
2024-11-02
PRAYING TO THE SAINTS
by Fr Karl Rahner7
Nothing can come ‘between’ God and us. On the other hand, one of the conditions for this closeness to God is that we should belong to the communion of the saints. But perhaps this still does not make it quite clear how the communion of the saints, which can certainly be effected by means of a specific, explicit act, can take the concrete form of appealing to the saints to ask for their intercession. Although this communion with the saints is included in the official liturgy of the Church, the saints themselves are not addressed directly. Why? How can this still be possible? No clear-cut answer has so far been found to this question, chiefly because we cannot take it for granted that we can address the saints directly simply because they exist, as is attempted in spiritualist gatherings.
The following short anecdote might help us to proceed in our investigations. When I was in Rome during the Council I had the opportunity, together with a group of others, to meet the great Protestant theologian Karl Barth. Our discussion turned to the veneration of the Virgin. I asked Karl Barth whether an individual may ask another Christian to pray for him. After a short hesitation, he replied that the individual should ask his fellow Christian to pray with him. The conversation then moved on to other topics. I admit that for many years I thought Barth’s answer was intentionally evasive, that he wished to avoid the issue of veneration of the Virgin. Now I wonder if we should not pursue his point.
To start with, there is nothing new about the saints’ intercession on our behalf with God. On the contrary it is central to their entire history and to eternal salvation; they rest in God’s presence yet are also joined in perpetual communion with us. Their intercession for us depends of course on the degree of intensity, explicit or otherwise, with which we participate in their act of communion, which in turn reflects on our relationship to God. The saints pray ‘with us’ and thus ‘for us’. Our plea for their intercession is not therefore an attempt to create some new, individualistic kind of spiritualistic communication. The concrete reality of the communion of saints exists already, and through it we worship God. It is the practical realization of this communion which freely embraces a wide variety of religious acts. Hence it can include a petition for intercession, while still remaining essentially the faithful realization of the communion of saints in which we stand before God, and in which we may expect his mercy and help. Seen in these terms, calling on the saints for their intercession in no way interposes ‘between’ us and God.
On the contrary it provides concrete evidence of the fact that God loves each one of us as a unique being. He loves every single being he has created, and forms us into a community in which we can all love one another. We do not invoke the help of the saints because otherwise they would not intercede on our behalf; rather, in their eternal salvation they do nothing but intercede for us. In praying to the saints we show that we believe in this perpetual intercession because it enables us to accept and make use of its beneficial effects.
7
THE COURAGE TO PRAY, by Karl Rahner (Crossroad, NY 1981) pp. 69-71.

Skema
2024-11-03
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
31st Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
November 3 – 9, 2024

Sun
3
Mon
4
Tue
5
Wed
6
Thu
7
Fri
8
Sat
9

Office
31st Sunday
St Charles Borromeo
Weekday
Weekday
Office for Vocations
Weekday
Lateran Basilica

Vigils
Wis 14:12-24
Wis 14:25-15:6
Wis 15:7-19
Wis 16:1-15
Wis 16:16-29
Wis 17:1-15
Exodus 40:1-34

Lauds
Job 7:7-11
Job 9:1-12
Job 9:13-21
Job 9:25-10:1a
Job 10:1b-9
Job 11:1-9
1 Macc 4:52-59

Mass
152
485
486
487
488
489
671

1st
Deut 6:2-6
Phil 2:1-4
Phil 2:5-11
Phil 2:12-18
Phil 3:3-8a
Phil 3:17-4:1
Ezek 47:1-2, 8-9, 12

2nd
Heb 7:23-28

1 Cor 3:9c-11, 16-17

Gospel
Mark 12:28b-34
Luke 14:12-14
Luke 14:15-24
Luke 14:25-33
Luke 15:1-10
Luke 16:1-8
John 2:13-22

Vespers
Rom 5:1-11
Rom 6:1-11
Rom 8:18-27
Rom 6:16-23
Rom 7:14-25
Rom 8:1-6
Heb 10:19-25

Vigils Reading - 31st Sunday
2024-11-03
OUR REASON FOR LOVING
From a commentary by St Francis de Sales1
◊◊◊
Because God created us in is own image and likeness, he ordained that our
love for one another should be in the image and likeness of the love we owe him,
our God. He said: You must love the Lord our God with your whole heart. This
is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it. You must love
your neighbor as yourself.
What is our reason for loving God? God himself is the reason we love him;
we love him because he is the supreme and infinite goodness. What is our
reason for loving ourselves? Surely because we are the image and likeness of
God. And since all men and women possess this same dignity we love them as
ourselves, that is, as holy and living images of the Godhead. It is as such that we
belong to God through a kinship so close and a dependence so lovable that he
does not hesitate to call himself our Father, and to name us his children. It is as
such that we are capable of being united to him in the fruition of his sovereign
goodness and joy. It is as such that we receive his grace and that our spirits are
associated with his most Holy Spirit and rendered, in a sense, sharers in the
divine nature.
So it is then that the same charity produces together acts of love of God
and of our neighbor. As Jacob saw that the same ladder touching heaven and
earth was used by the angels both for ascending and descending, so we can be
sure that the same charity cherishes both God and our neighbor, raising us even
to spiritual union with God, and bringing us back to loving companionship with
our neighbors.
It must always be understood, however, that we love our neighbors for
this reason, that they are made in the image and likeness of God, created to
communicate in his goodness, share in his grace, and rejoice in his glory.
To have a Christian love for our neighbors is to love God in them, or them
in God; it is to cherish God alone for his own sake, and his creatures for love of
him. When we look upon our neighbors, created in the image and likeness of
God, should we not also say to each other: “Look at these people he has made –
are they not like their maker?” Should we not be drawn irresistibly toward
them, embrace them, and be moved to tears for love of them? Should we not call
down upon them a hundred blessings? And why? For love of them? No indeed,
since we cannot be sure whether, of themselves, they are worthy of love or hate.
Then why? For love of God, who created them in his own image and likeness,
and so capable of sharing in his goodness, grace, and glory; for love of God, I say,
unto whom they exist, for whom they exist, through whom they exist, for whom
they exist, and whom they resemble in a very special manner.
This is why divine Love not only repeatedly commands us to love our
neighbors, but also itself produces this love and pours it out into our hearts,
since they bear its own image and likeness; for just as we are the image of God,
so our holy love for one another is the true image of our heavenly love for God.

Vigils Reading - St Charles Borromeo
2024-11-04
THE LEGACY OF
ST CHARLES BORROMEO
From a homily by Fr Ronald Knox2
◊◊◊
When our Lord’s apostles came to look back upon that terrible night in the
Lake of Galilee, when they strained every nerve against the tempest while their
Master lay sleeping in the boat, they found in it an allegory of their own
situation, as they launched out the frail bark of his Church upon waves so
troubled, with prospects so uncertain. And in every age the Church has looked
back to that picture and taken comfort from it in times of adversity. [With great
confidence], the Church of God, which is Peter’s boat, has breasted the waves all
through her troubled history. It is not upon the captain’s judgment or the pilot’s
experience, not human wisdom or human prudence, that she depends for her
safe voyage: she rests secure in the presence of her inviolable passenger.
Yet we should do ill if we grudged recognition and gratitude to those
servants of his who at various times have steered our course for us through
difficult waters, and especially to the saints of the Counter-Reformation — that
remarkable group of saints whom God raised up at the time of Europe’s
apostasy, by whose influence, humanly speaking, the faith survived that terrible
ordeal. And not the least, nor the least prominent, of these is [St. Charles
Borromeo], who ruled the Church of Milan in the latter part of the sixteenth
century…
Whatever be the rights and wrongs of all the controversies we hear about
the medieval Church, this at least is clear, that in the days of the Council of Trent
its organization needed reform. And reform needs more than mere legislation to
decree it; it needs administration to execute it. That is St. Charles’s
characteristic legacy to the Church: it was the influence of his example, in great
measure, that molded her organization on the new model which Trent had
decreed. The bishop has got to be the center of everything in his diocese, and the
clergy of the diocese are to be his clergy — a family of which he is to be the father,
a guild of which he is to be the master.
See how fond St. Charles was of synods: the whole of his comparatively
short episcopate is a long record of the synods he gathered amongst his clergy.
See how enthusiastic he is for the seminary idea; the bishop, henceforth, is not
merely to ordain people, he is to know whom he is ordaining. And above all what
was characteristic of St. Charles was the institute which he left behind him — a
body of secular priests, putting themselves at the disposal of the bishop as
absolutely as the religious puts himself at the disposal of his superior. Yes, there
is much about St. Charles’s life which is more exciting, and much which is more
attractive, than all this; his boundless generosity to the poor, the relentless
mortification that regulated his busy, competent life. But what makes him stand
out among the saints more than either is his intense devotion even to the most
uninspiring details of diocesan routine.

Vigils Reading
2024-11-05
VOLUNTARY POVERTY
From a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux3
◊◊◊
Jesus entered into a certain fortified town, and a certain woman, named
Martha, received him into her home. The fortified town where Christ entered is
voluntary poverty, which protects its inhabitants from twin attacks that assault
lovers of this world: one’s own envy, of course, and that of another. You see,
poverty, as long as it is considered wretched, is not envied by others. And
because poverty is voluntary, it envies no one anything.
These two sisters signify the two lifestyles of those who love poverty.
Certain careful people, with Martha, prepare two dishes, that is, correction of
works with the salt of contrition, and works of piety with the seasoning of
devotion. But those who, with Mary, give all their time to God alone,
contemplating what God is in the world, what in human beings, what in angels,
what in himself, what in the condemned, contemplate God as ruler and pilot in
the world, liberator and helper of human beings, flavor and beauty of angels,
beginning and end in himself, terror and horror of the condemned: wonderful
in creatures, lovable in human beings, desirable in angels, incomprehensible in
himself, intolerable in the condemned.
3Sermo 48, Bernard of Clairvaux Monastic Sermons, CF 68. pg. 244.

Vigils Reading
2024-11-06
GOD REQUIRES ONLY LOVE
A letter to Hugh the Recluse from St Anselm of Canterbury4
◊◊◊
The person who will have the grace to reign in the kingdom of heaven will
see the realization of everything desired in heaven and on earth, and nothing
unwanted will be realized in heaven or on earth. The love which will unite God
with those who will live there, and the latter among themselves, will be such that
all will love one another as themselves, and all will love God more than
themselves.
If someone asks what price, here is the response: the one who offers a
kingdom in heaven has no need of earthly money. No one can give God what
already belongs to God, since everything that exists is God’s. Yet God does not
give such a great thing unless one attaches value to it; God does not give it to one
who does not appreciate it. For no one gives what he prizes to someone who
attaches no value to it. Hence, although God has no need of your goods, God will
not give you such a great thing as long as you disdain to love it; God requires
only love, but without it nothing obliges God to give. Love, then, and you will
receive the Kingdom. Love, and you will possess it.
And since to reign in heaven is nothing other than to adhere to God and all
the saints, through love, in a single will, to the point that all together exercise
only one power, love God more than yourself, and you will already begin to have
what you wish to possess perfectly in heaven. Put yourself at peace with God and
with others – if the latter do not separate themselves from God – and you will
already begin to reign with God and all the saints. For to the extent that you now
conform to the will of God and to that of all others, God and all the saints will
concur with your will. Hence, if you want to be king in heaven, love God and all
others as you should, and you will merit to be what you desire.
However, you will not be able to possess it to perfection unless you empty
your heart of every other love… This is why those who fill their hearts with love
for God and their neighbor have no other will than that of God – or that of
another, provided it is not contrary to God. That is why they are faithful in
praying as well as in carrying on a dialogue with and remembering heaven; for it
is pleasing to them to desire God and to speak of someone whom they love, to
hear him spoken about, and to think of him. It is also why they rejoice with
those who are joyful, weep with those who are in pain, have compassion on the
suffering, and give to the poor; for they love others as themselves.

Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
2024-11-07
DIVINE CALLS
From a sermon by St John Henry Newman5
◊◊◊
We find in scripture a remarkable instance of a Divine Call, and the
manner in which it is our duty to meet it. Samuel was a mere child when he was
brought to the house of the Lord; and in due time he was called to a sacred
office, and made a prophet. He was called, and he forthwith answered the call.
He did not understand at first who called, and what was meant; but on going to
Eli he learned who spoke, and what his answer should be. So when God called
again, he said: “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.” Here is prompt obedience.
Very different in its circumstances was St Paul’s call, but resembling
Samuel’s in this respect, that, when God called, he also promptly obeyed. When
St Paul heard the voice from heaven, he said at once, trembling and astonished,
“Lord, what will you have me do?” This same obedience is stated or implied in
two accounts which he himself gives of his miraculous conversion. In chapter 22
he says, “And I said, What shall I do, Lord?” and in ch. 26 he tells King Agrippa:
“Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision”.
Such is the account given us in St Paul’s case of that first step in God’s gracious
dealings with him, which ended in his eternal salvation. “Whom He foreknew,
He also predestined – and whom He predestined, He also called” – here was the
first act which took place in time – “and whom He called He also justified, and
whom He justified, He also glorified”. Such is the Divine series of mercies; and
you see that it was prompt obedience on St Paul’s part which moved Divine
grace forward.
This, then, is the first lesson taught us by St Paul’s conversion, promptly
to obey the call. If we do obey it, to God be the glory, for He it is Who works in us.
If we do not obey, to ourselves be all the shame, for sin and unbelief work in us.
Such is the state of mind expressed by holy David: “When you said, Seek
My face, my heart said to you: Your face, O Lord, will I seek”. And this also is
illustrated in the case of many other saints in scripture shown in word and deed.
For instance, we read of the apostles that “Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee,
saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net
into the sea, for they were fishers. And He said to them, Follow me, and I will
make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets and followed him”.
Again, when He saw James and John with their father Zebedee, “He called
them; and they immediately left the ship, and their father and followed Him.”
And so also with St Matthew at the custom house, “He said to him, Follow Me;
and he left all, rose up and followed Him.”

Vigils Reading
2024-11-08
HIS CROSS IS MY GLORY
From a homily by William of St-Thierry6
◊◊◊
It is to my crucified one that I turn. His cross is my glory: its mark is on my
brow; it gives joy to my mind, direction to my life, love even for death itself. May
they not despise me for this, O Lord, they who are worthy to behold you, seated
as you are on your throne, the exaltation of your godhead, filling all the earth
with your majesty. The mysteries of your dealings with men here and now fill
the temple of every mind, great and small. May your holy angels have the
honour that is their due in heaven: but may they sometimes also share their
grace and favours with us here on earth. For he loves us to make progress in our
lives: and their blessed perfection is sweet to him.
As the Apostle says: God’s many-splendoured wisdom has been
manifested to principalities and powers in heaven through his dealings with the
Church. Wherefore may they pardon us, Lord, even if your love should
sometimes so captivate us that we desire to see, with them, what with them we
already love: with a full heart we felicitate them, as they behold what we are not
yet worthy to behold.
May they blissfully contemplate your divine majesty residing in your
eternal wisdom: those things to be, seen before this our mortal wayfaring and
after it, everything that is, past and future, enfolding it all within his eternal
present: it reaches in its power and strength from one extremity to another. But
our temporal passage, belonging to your dealings with men as a whole, he has
strewn with his charity, disposing all things in sweetness, for the sake of the
daughters of Jerusalem, the devout but as yet infirm souls. They who have not
thus far their elevated gaze fixed on contemplating the sublime would fain
undergo hardship for your servants and be transformed so as to belong among
their fellows. Among these, O Lord, may my spirit some day be taught to adore
you, spirit as you are, in spirit and in truth, flesh no longer desiring what is
contrary to the spirit, nor yet holding it back.
But now that for the moment you are kept from boldly taking possession
of what is to be yours, make a proper disposition of what is his, with what grace
and harmony you best can, as befits him, the true owner. I have not yet risen
above the rough-hewn figures of my earthly imagination: but may you indulge
and be gracious to my feeble spirit, as it expresses its true nature in letting its
fancy play on your more humble creatures. Behold! the meager enfolding the
newly born, the holy child being adored; the footprints of the crucified one being
licked, as he hangs on the cross; his feet being held and kissed now that he is
risen; the hand, put in the place where the nails went; and then the exclamation
– My Lord and my God!

Vigils Reading - Lateran Basilica
2024-11-09
DEDICATION OF
THE LATERAN BASILICA7
◊◊◊
The blessed Pope Sylvester I instituted the rites which the Roman Church
observes in consecrating churches and altars. For although from the ages of the
apostles places had been dedicated to God where assemblies were held every
Sabbath, yet those places had not been consecrated by a solemn rite before this.
Up to the time of Sylvester an altar was not erected under title, which, anointed
with chrism, symbolizes our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Altar, our Victim, our
Priest
But when the Emperor Constantine obtained health and salvation
through the sacrament of Baptism, then for the first time, by an edict published
by him, the Christians throughout the world were permitted to build churches;
he himself encouraged this holy building by his own example, as well as by this
edict. For in his own Lateran palace he dedicated a church to the Savior and
founded adjacent to it a Basilica, under the title of St John the Baptist, on the
very spot where he had been baptized by St Sylvester and cleansed from the
leprosy of unbelief. This basilica the same Pope consecrated on November 9,
and the memory of this consecration is celebrated today, when, for the first
time, a church was publicly consecrated at Rome, and there appeared to the
Roman people an image of the Savior depicted on the wall.
Although later on St Sylvester decreed that from that time forward all
altars should be built of stone, yet the altar of the Lateran Basilica was built of
wood. This is not surprising. For since, from St Peter down to Sylvester, because
of persecutions, the Pontiffs could not dwell in any fixed abode, they offered the
Holy Sacrifice [of the Mass] wherever necessity compelled them, whether in
crypts or in cemeteries, or in the homes of the faithful, upon a wooden altar
which was hollow like a cheSt
When this altar had been placed in the first church, the Lateran, St
Sylvester decreed that from that time on, no one except the Roman Pontiff
should celebrate Mass upon it, in honor of the Prince of the Apostles and of the
rest of the Popes who had been accustomed to use it. This same church, having
been destroyed by fires, pillaging, and earthquakes, and repaired by the
laborious effort of the Supreme Pontiffs, was afterwards rebuilt anew. Pope
Benedict XIII, a Dominican, consecrated it on April 28, 1726, by a solemn rite.

LCG Chicago Monthly Meeting 9 am CST
2024-11-09 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago)
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9:00 Gather for Opening prayer and lighting of the candles illuminating the Theotokos icon of Blessed Mother Mary and the baby Jesus.
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 these Gethsemani monks:
Br. Godric Hathorn
Fr. Raphael Hodari
Br. Alberic Henry
9:10 Lectio. Our lectio piece will be led by Tom Kosnik.
9:50 Reading. Our reading this month is to prepare for Advent by reading Pope Benedict’s The Infancy Narratives: Jesus of Nazareth (chapters 1 and 2).
10:45 Housekeeping. Volunteer to lead lectio next month? Chicago Report on LCG Advisory Council activity. Plans for international meeting in 2025 and Anglophone lead-ins thereto. Finally, we will celebrate Mary Ann’s LCG commitment and share thoughts about the October, 2023 LCG Retreat at Gethsemani.
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: December 14, 2024.

Skema
2024-11-10
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
32nd Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
November 10 – 16, 2024

Sun
10
Mon
11
Tue
12
Wed
13
Thu
14
Fri
15
Sat
16

Office
32nd Sunday
St Martin of Tours
Weekday
All Benedictine Saints
Weekday
Gethsemani Church
St Gertrude the Great

Vigils
Wis 17:16-18:4
Wis 18:5-13
Wis 18:14-25
Dan 7:1-3, 9-22, 27
Wis 19:1-12
Rev 21:9-22:5
Wis 19:13-22

Lauds
Job 11:13-20
Isa 58:6-12
Job 12:1-10
Wisdom 5:1-5, 14-16
Job 13:6-19
Ezek 37:21-28
Job 13:20-27

Mass
155
491
492
573, 677
494
701.2, 704.2, 706.4
496

1st
1 Kgs 17:10-16
Titus 1:1-9
Titus 2:1-8, 11-14
Isa 61:9-11
Phlm 7-20
2 Chron 5:6-10, 13-6:2
3 John 5-8

2nd
Heb 9:24-28

Eph 2:19-22

Gospel
Mark 12:38-44
Luke 17:1-6
Luke 17:7-10
John 15:1-8
Luke 17:20-25
John 4:19-24
Luke 18:1-8

Vespers
Rom 8:9-17
Gal 6:1-5
Rom 9:1-8
Eph 6:10-18
Heb 3:1-6
2 Cor 6:14-7:1
Rom 10:1-13

Vigils reading - 32nd Sunday
2024-11-10
LET US GIVE GLADLY
From a commentary by St Paulinus of Nola1
◊◊◊
What have you, asks the Apostle, that you have not received? This
means, beloved, that we should not be miserly, regarding possessions of our
own, but should rather invest what has been entrusted to us. We have been
entrusted with the administration and use of temporal wealth for the common
good, not with the everlasting ownership of private property. If you accept the
fact that ownership on earth is only for a time, you can earn eternal possessions
in heaven.
Call to mind the widow who forgot herself in her concern for the poor, and
thinking only of the life to come, gave away all her means of subsistence, as the
judge himself bears witness. Others, he says, have given of their superfluous
wealth, but she, possessed of only two small coins and more needy perhaps than
many of the poor – though in spiritual riches she surpassed all the wealthy – she
thought only of the world to come, and had such a longing for heavenly treasure
that she gave away, all at once, whatever she had that was derived from the earth
and destined to return there.
Let us then invest with the Lord what he has given us, for we have nothing
that does not come from him; we are dependent upon him for our very
existence. And we ourselves particularly, who have a special and greater debt,
since God not only created us but purchased us as well – what can we regard as
our own when we do not possess even ourselves?
But let us rejoice that we have been bought at a great price, the price of the
Lord’s own blood, and that because of this we are no longer worthless slaves.
For there is a freedom that is baser than slavery, namely, freedom from justice.
Whoever has that kind of freedom is a slave of sin and a prisoner of death. So let
us give back to the Lord the gifts he has given us; let us give to him who receives
in the person of every poor man or woman. Let us give gladly, I say, and great joy
will be ours when we receive his promised reward.

Vigils Reading - St Martin of Tours
2024-11-11 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York)
ST MARTIN,
A MAN OF PRAYER
From a letter by Pope John XXIII2
◊◊◊
If St Martin was a bishop and a zealous pastor who can well be imitated in
the practice of charity, he was also and first of all a monk. You might even say
that the only reason he was such a marvelous man of action was that he was first
of all a man of prayer. And from this point of view too, he has a great lesson to
give to the Christians of today.
Eager for solitude and union with God, this giant of the apostolate lived in
constant prayer: “he never turned his mind away from prayer,” according to the
expression -later picked up by the liturgy- of his contemporary and first
biographer Sulpicius Severus, who adds that once he was elevated to the
episcopacy, the servant of God “remained what he had been before and bore the
dignity of bishop without abandoning the design of life and the virtue of a
monk.”
Was not his principal means of evangelization to found churches and
monasteries everywhere?… And thus it was that, thanks to him, monasticism
was introduced into France.
Throwing light on this side of the activity of the great convert-maker is a
way of reminding us of the immense benefits that the monks brought to their
country; it is a way of drawing their attention, which is so easily distracted at the
present time by the agitated pace of modern life, back to the lasting greatness
and beauties of monastic life; it is a way of inviting them to hold this form of life,
and, in general, the grace of a religious vocation, high in their esteem…
The example of St Martin, which has been confirmed by the experience of
centuries, shows what invaluable instruments for spiritual elevation cloisters
are in Christian society and what an effective contribution they make to the
apostolate of the Church.…
May the great Bishop, model of the monk and the pastor, succeed in
stirring up a new spirit of fervor for the service of God.

Vigils Reading
2024-11-12
THE CALL TO REPENTANCE
By Pope Paul VI3
◊◊◊
Christ, who during his life always did what he taught, spent forty days and
forty nights in fasting and prayer before beginning his ministry. He began his
public mission with this joyful message: “The kingdom of God is at hand”, and
immediately added this command, “Repent, and believe in the Good News”. In a
certain way, the whole Christian life is summarized in these words.
Repentance is the only way of attaining to the kingdom which Christ
proclaimed, in other words, by the total and intimate change and renewal of the
whole person, in thought, judgment, and life. This change and renewal effects
itself in man through the light of that holiness and love of God which has been
shown and communicated to us wholly in the Son.
The Son’s call to repentance becomes all the more obligatory for us
because he not only preached it but offered himself as an example. Christ is, in
fact, the supreme example for penitents. He chose to suffer, not for his own sins
but for those of others.
When anyone comes into Christ’s presence they are enlightened by a new
light, for they see the holiness of God and the gravity of sin. Through Christ’s
word they receive the message which summons them to conversion and bestows
pardon on sin. They receive these gifts in their fulness through baptism which
molds them in the likeness of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. After
baptism, their whole life is lived in the light of this mystery.
Therefore every Christian must follow their Master in self-renunciation,
in bearing their cross and in sharing Christ’s suffering. Thus, transformed in the
likeness of his death, they are able to meditate on the glory of the resurrection.
They also follow the Master in living no longer for themselves, but for Christ
who loved them and gave himself for them, and for their brothers and sisters as
well, completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body,
that is the Church.
Moreover, [because] the Church [is] intimately bound to Christ, the
penitence of each Christian is also a real and intimate link with the whole
ecclesial community. Indeed, it is not only in the womb of the Church that,
through baptism, they receive the initial gift of repentance, but this gift is
restored and reaffirmed—through the sacrament of penance—for those
members of the body of Christ who have fallen into sin. Those who come to this
sacrament of penance receive there, through God’s mercy, pardon for the wrong
that they have done. At the same time they are reconciled with the Church,
whom their sin has wounded and who, by means of love, example and prayer,
labors for their conversion.
Lastly, in the Church, the little work of penance imposed on each penitent
in the sacrament has a special part in Christ’s infinite expiation; while, within
the order of the Church, the penitent may unite to sacramental satisfaction
everything that they do, suffer and endure. Thus the baptized Christian, at each
moment and in every aspect of their life, bears the sufferings and death of Jesus
in his body and soul.

Vigils Reading - All Benedictine Saints
2024-11-13
IN PRAISE OF
THE MONASTIC VOCATION
From “The Golden Epistle” by William of St-Thierry4
◊◊◊
Surely it is right to feast in the Lord and rejoice because the fairest part of
the Christian religion, which seemed to come into close contact with heaven, has
returned to life after having died, has been found after being lost.
Our ears had heard tell of it, but we did not believe, we read in books of it
and marveled at the ancient glory of the solitary life and at the great grace of God
manifested in it; when suddenly we found it in the clearings of a wood, on
God’s mountain, on the fertile mountain, where the fair places of the desert now
wax fat on its richness and the hills are girt with exultation.
For there, through you it now offers itself to all and in you it displays itself.
Hitherto unknown, it stands revealed in a few simple men. He who brings it
among us is the same who by means of a few simple men subjected the whole
world to himself, to the amazement of that world. “Do not be afraid then, you,
my little flock,” says the Lord, “but show utter trust, because your Father has
determined to give you his kingdom”… It is not for you to concern yourselves
feebly with the ordinary commandments nor to give your attention only to what
God lays down as of obligation; you must seek his desires, fulfill in yourselves
what is God’s will, the good thing, the desirable thing, the perfect thing.
It is for others to serve God, it is for you to cling to him; it is for others to
believe in God, know him, love him and revere him; it is for you to taste him,
understand him, be acquainted with him, enjoy him.
This is no slight matter, no easy goal; but he who, in his love, makes you
such promises is almighty and good. He will be faithful in fulfilling them and
untiring in giving help. To those who in their great love for him pledge
themselves to great things and, believing and trusting in his grace, undertake
what is beyond their own strength, he imparts both the will and the desire; and
he follows up the grace to will by bestowing also the power to achieve. Let the
calumniator calumniate as he will: if a person faithfully does what is humanly
possible for him to do, God himself in his mercy will give judgment for his poor
one, will champion his cause, because the person did what he could.
Yet…let all exaltation be far from the opinion you have of yourselves.
Consider [others] as being far above you in strength and admire their glory,
those who are mighty with both hands – who use their left hand as readily as
their right. As long as they are allowed, they love to stay inside and devote their
leisure with all devotion to the contemplation of truth in charity; then when
necessity summons or duty impels, they go out without a moment’s hesitation to
give themselves to the practice of charity in truth.
Rather, in fear and trembling work out your own salvation. Do not
wonder what others are like but, to the best of your ability, what they may
become through your influence; not only those who are now alive but also those
who will come after you and take you as their models in the pursuit of their
vocation. For it is from you, from your example, from your authority that all the
future of this holy Order in these parts will derive its character.

Vigils Reading
2024-11-14
THE INSTRUCTIONS OF MARY
QUEEN OF THE ANGELS
Given to Venerable Mary of Agreda5
◊◊◊
Your astonishment at the singular favor conferred by me on my
servant…at his death, affords me an occasion to tell you of a privilege confirmed
to me by the Almighty at the time when I bore the soul…to heaven. Although I
have already on other occasions revealed to you something of this secret, you
shall now understand it more fully in order to increase your filial devotion
toward me. When I brought to heaven the happy soul…the eternal Father spoke
to me:
“My Daughter and Dove…let my courtiers, angels and saints
understand that, for the exaltation of my holy name, for your glory and for the
benefit of mortals, I now give you my royal word, that if men, in the hour of
their death invoke you and call upon you with affection…I will bend to them in
clemency and look upon them with eyes of fatherly mercy; I will defend and
guard them against the dangers of that last hour; I will ward off the cruel
enemies that seek the perdition of souls in that hour; I will furnish them
through you with great helps for resisting these enemies and gaining grace, if
they wish to avail themselves of this help; and you shall present to Me their
souls to be rewarded by my liberal hands.”
For this privilege the whole triumphant Church, and I with it, sang hymns of
thanks and praise to the Most High.
Since I see you desirous of knowing how you can obtain from me this
favor so precious to the soul, I answer your pious wish by exhorting you to take
care lest you make yourself unworthy by ingratitude and forgetfulness; and
before all, to gain for yourself that inviolate purity, which I expect of you… For
the great love which I owe and cherish toward God, obliges me, with sincerest
affection and charity to demand of all the observance of his holy law and the
preservation of their friendship and grace with God. This you must prefer before
your life and be willing to die rather than offend your God and highest Good.
I wish that you set about obeying me, act out my instructions, and work
with all your might to imitate what you see and write of me; that you permit no
intermission in your love, nor forget for one moment the heartfelt affection you
owe to the liberal mercy of your Lord; that you be thankful for all his blessings
and to me, since your obligations are far beyond the power of fulfillment by you
in this mortal life. Be faithful in your correspondence, fervent in your devotion,
ready to do what is most holy and perfect. Let your heart expand and do not
narrow it…following the instigations of the devil. Extend your hand to strong
and powerful deeds, filled with confidence in the Lord; be not oppressed by
adversities, thus impeding the will of the Lord in you, and the high ends of his
glory. Retain vivid faith and hope, even in the greatest assaults and temptations.
In all this let…the certain knowledge of possessing through me the happy
security of those who live under the protection of the Most High… Raise up your
heart…and withdraw it from these deceits; aspire to that which is most pure and
holy, since with you shall be the arm of the Almighty, who wrought such great
wonders in Me.

Vigils Reading - Gethsemani Church
2024-11-15
THE FOUNDATION OF
GETHSEMANI ABBEY
By Dom Eutropius Proust6
◊◊◊
We left Louisville on the twentieth of December, and were to arrive that
evening at Bardstown. Here we were to call on the Jesuit Fathers, who conducted
the College of St Joseph, and to whom we had a letter of introduction from Mgr.
Flaget. We should arrive by daylight at Bardstown, which was twelve miles from
Gethsemani; but the unfavorable weather delayed us very much, and we were yet
nine miles from the town, when a dark and dreary night set in. We did not stop to
take any nourishment by the wayside, but refreshed ourselves as best we could, in
the wagons, with bread, cheese and fruit. The good God supplied the drink. The
rain did not cease to fall abundantly the entire day, so that, alighting from the
wagons, we resembled water rats that came out of the river.
We arrived at eleven o’clock. The streets were so full of water and mud that
we were knee-deep therein. We went directly to St Joseph’s College… Our difficulty
was to find the entrance, for one could not see a yard ahead. Taking with me two
Irish religious, we made a circuit of the house to find the entrance…We kept on
seeking and groping until we succeeded in finding the door. We knocked again and
again, but no answer. Not knowing what to do, we called aloud together the word
“Trappist.” In this we were successful. As soon as the good fathers heard that word
they opened the windows. I told them who we were, where we were going, and that
I had a letter of introduction to them from Mgr. Flaget, asking them to give us
lodging for the night. In an instant three or four of the fathers arose, with as many
brothers, and the doors were opened for us. A good fire was made in the hall, and
the brothers prepared for us something to eat. At the end of half an hour we were
led into the refectory, where we took at the same time our breakfast, dinner and
supper.
The following day, having heard Holy Mass and received Holy Communion,
our conductors arrived, with a new wagon, borrowed by them at Bardstown. After
thanking our hosts for their kind hospitality, we installed ourselves in the wagons
and pursued our way to Gethsemani. About two o’clock in the afternoon, we
arrived at the entrance of a large forest, after passing the little village of New Haven
on the Nashville Railroad. We were informed that this was the beginning of our
property. It is difficult to express the feelings that this announcement produced in
our souls. I had the wagons stop. Falling on our knees we recited a “Pater and Ave”
to salute the good guardian angels of Gethsemani; and we kissed the earth soon to
be watered by our sweat and even by our tears. We re-entered our wagons and
continued our journey through the woods for three-quarters of an hour. Our hearts
swelled with emotion. With what feelings of joy and admiration, did we not
contemplate these magnificent woods. We were astonished in finding ourselves so
rich, after having made the vow of poverty…We climbed a hill on which are situated
wooden cottages, declining with age. We were going to find at last the crib of our
Divine Saviour at Bethlehem. Such, too, were the thoughts of all our religious.
They were in transports of joy in beholding these ten or twelve cottages, thrown
here and there on the sloping hillside, facing the sun. These composed the entire
monastery of Gethsemani.

Vigils Reading - St Gertrude the Great
2024-11-16
TO BE ONE WITH GOD
From “The Spiritual Exercises” by St Gertrude the Great7
◊◊◊
O love, the fruition of you is that worthiest coupling of your Word and the
soul which is brought about by perfect union with God. To use you is to become
intertwined in God. To enjoy you is to be one with God. You are that peace which
surpasses all understanding and you are the road by which one comes to the
inner chamber.
Oh, if only it happened to me, too, miserable as I am, to repose for a
moment under your dearest cloak of cherishing-love so that my heart might be
emboldened by one consolatory utterance of your living Word, or that my soul
might hear this good and pleasant word from your mouth: ‘I am your salvation;
behold, now the bedchamber of my heart is open to you.’
Why, then, O love so unwavering, have you deeply loved someone so foul,
so ugly, if not to make her beautiful in you? Your loving-kind charity attracts
and allures me…
Let me not be confounded in my expectation but grant me to find rest for
my soul in you. I have found nothing more desirable, I have judged nothing
more lovable, I have wished for nothing more dear than to be held tight, O love,
in your embraces, to rest under the wings of my Jesus, and to dwell in the
tabernacle of divine charity.
O love, O radiant noonday, I would die a thousand times to be at rest in
you. If only you would bend to me your face of such beautiful cherishing-love…
Oh, if I were granted to come exceedingly close to you so that I might now
find myself not only next to you but within you. Then, through you, sun of
justice, flowers of all the virtues might arise in me, who am dust and ashes. With
you as a husband, my Lord, such fecundity might enter my soul that the
renowned offspring of total perfection would be born in me. Then, having been
snatched from the valley of this misery, I might be able to glory in you forever in
the presence of your desirable face; for you, mirror without spot, have not
scorned to be, in truth, coupled with a sinner like me.

Skema
2024-11-17
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
33rd Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
November 17 – 23, 2024

Sun
17
Mon
18
Tue
19
Wed
20
Thu
21
Fri
22
Sat
23

Office
33rd Sunday
Weekday
St Mechtild
Weekday
Presentation of the BVM
St Cecilia
St Columban

Vigils
Bar 1:1-22
Bar 2:1-26
Bar 2:27-3:14
Bar 3:15-38
Bar 4:1-29
Bar 4:30-5:9
Bar 6:1-28

Lauds
Job 14:1-6
Job 16:1-12b
Job 29:1-10
Job 30:9-19
Job 30:20-28
Job 31:2-11
Job 31:16-23

Mass
158
497
498
499
500
501
502

1st
Dan 12:1-3
Rev 1:1-4; 2:1-5
Rev 3:1-6, 14-22
Rev 4:1-11
Rev 5:1-10
Rev 10:8-11
Rev 11:4-12

2nd
Heb 10:11-14, 18

Gospel
Mark 13:24-32
Luke 18:35-43
Luke 19:1-10
Luke 19:11-28
Luke 19:41-44
Luke 19:45-48
Luke 20:27-40

Vespers
Rom 11:13-20
Rom 11:25-36
Rom 13:8-14
Rom 15:4-13
1 Cor 15:1-11
1 Cor 15:12-19
Rev 19:11-16

Vigils Reading - 33rd Sunday ORD
2024-11-17
THE REAPERS OF THE HARVEST
From a commentary by St Gregory Palamas1
◊◊◊
All those who hold to the true faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and show
proof of their faith by good works, guarding themselves from sins or cleansing
themselves from their stains by confession and repentance; who practice the
virtues opposed to those sins – temperance, chastity, love, almsgiving, justice
and fair dealing – all these, I say, will rise again to hear the king of heaven
himself saying to them: Come, my Father’s blessed ones, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you since the creation of the world. So they will reign with Christ,
receiving as their inheritance that heavenly kingdom which cannot be shaken,
living forever in the ineffable light that knows no evening and is interrupted by
no night, having fellowship with all the saints who have lived from the
beginning of time, and enjoying delights beyond description in Abraham’s
embrace, where all pain has fled away and all grief and groaning.
For just as there is a harvest for inanimate sheaves of wheat, so for the
rational wheat which is the human race, there is a harvest that cuts people away
from unbelief, and gathers into faith those who accept the proclamation of the
good news. The reapers of this harvest are the Lord’s apostles and their
successors, and in the course of time the teachers of the Church. Of them the
Lord said: The reaper receives his wages, and gathers a crop for eternal life,
for teachers who instruct others in piety will in their turn receive from God such
recompense as befits those who gather the obedient into eternal life.
But there is yet another harvest: the transfer of each one of us by death
from the present life into that which is to come. The reapers of this harvest are
not the apostles but the angels, who have a greater responsibility than the
apostles, because after the harvesting they sort out the good and separate them
from the wicked like wheat from darnel. The good they send on to the kingdom
of heaven, but the wicked they throw into hell fire.
As for us, who in this present age are God’s chosen people, a priestly race,
the Church of the living God separated from all the impious and ungodly, may
we be found separated from the darnel in the age to come as well, and united to
those who are saved in Christ our Lord, who is blessed for ever.

Vigils Reading
2024-11-18
CHRIST THE CORNERSTONE
By Dom Damasus Winzen2
◊◊◊
Stone is firm and lasting. Builders test their stones, selecting the most
solid for foundations on which to rear the whole building, for cornerstones to
hold the wall together, or for headstones which will lock into a single mass the
entire structure. Stone likewise offers firm resistance to the thrust of an enemy;
it will crush him upon whom it falls; it will bruise those who fall against it.
God is the “Stone of Israel”, because he is a God of truth and his mercies
endure forever. His faithfulness towards his people is the firm and precious
cornerstone which is laid in Zion. In Christ Jesus, God’s loyalty becomes
manifest. He is the stone that the leaders of Israel rejected when they crucified
him… He became the cornerstone when he rose from the dead. When we try to
penetrate into the meaning of the symbolism of the cornerstone, we discover
that various ideas are fused in this picture. The idea of the foundation stone is
clearly expressed in Isaiah: Thus says the Lord God: behold I laid in Zion for a
foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation:
he that believes shall not make haste. Christ is the foundation stone, for
another foundation no one can lay but that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.
He alone has wrought our redemption by dying for us and rising for us. We
depend entirely on his work and on his strength. The Hebrew word used in
Psalm 117, rosch pinnah — still surviving in our word “pinnacle” — has been
translated in various ways as “head of the corner,” “cornerstone,” or “head
stone.” The idea of the cornerstone implies that Christ is a part of the
foundation, but its most important, visible part, the part which binds the walls.
This is true of Christ, because in him the two walls of God and mankind, of the
Jews and the Gentiles, and the Old and the New Testament meet…
In recent years, more and more scholars agree that rosch pinnah is rather
the head stone, or capstone, which holds a vault or arch together. The Risen
Savior is indeed the headstone of the spiritual Temple in which the whole
building culminates, which holds it together and defines its design. This three-
fold meaning of Christ as the cornerstone is well expressed by Cynewulf in his
poem “Christ.”…
Thou art the wall stone
that the workers once threw out from the work,
well it becomes thee that thou be head
of a mighty hall and weld together
its wide walls in fast union,
Flint unbreakable, that throughout earth’s dwelling
all that have eyes may wonder ever more,
O Lord of glory.

Vigils Reading - St Mechthild of Hackeborn
2024-11-19
OUR SERVICE OF GOD
An excerpt from “The Book of Special Grace” by St Mechthild of Hackeborn3
◊◊◊
If any obstacle arises in our service of God, whether from the attitude of
others, from external circumstances, from our own desires, memories, or from
any other cause – whatever the impediment, we should take it as a messenger
from God, sending it back to Him, so to speak, with praise and thanksgiving.
Three things very pleasing to God are: first, never to abandon one’s
neighbors in their needs, and to excuse their shortcomings and sins as much as
possible; second, in tribulation to seek refuge only in God, abandoning to Him
alone all that disquiets the heart; third, to walk with Him in truth.
When it is time to eat or to sleep, say in your heart: “Lord, in union with
the love with which you created this useful thing for me, and yourself made us of
it when you were on earth, I take it for your eternal praise and for my bodily
need.” The Blessed Virgin tells us: “if you wish to be truly holy, stay close to my
Son; he is holiness itself, making all things holy.”
We should be lovingly grateful not only for the spiritual blessings God
gives us, but for all bodily necessaries, such as food and clothing, receiving them
with a sincerely thankful heart and considering ourselves unworthy of them.
We should also thank God for everything that he has given to his Mother and to
the angels.
Works which give no human satisfaction may nevertheless be very
pleasing to God. What best pleases God in members of religious orders is purity
of heart, holy desires, gentle kindness in conversation, and works of charity.
When you are alone, raise your heart constantly to God, speak with him and
direct all your desire to him with great intensity. You can never be in so large a
crowd that your are not alone with him.
When those who receive from the Lord the gift of a fine orchard, they
cannot taste the fruit until it is ripe. Likewise, when one receives a special grace,
any interior joy is not experienced until by the practice of mortification one has
broken the hard rind of earthly pleasure.

Vigils Reading
2024-11-20 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York)
DISCIPLINE IS A CROSS
By Baldwin of Ford4
◊◊◊
A person who is tempted by the flesh, and who yields to this temptation,
however, is someone who feels his passions and gives them his full consent. The
more carnal he is, the more provision he makes for the flesh in gratifying its
desires. He does not give his consent to the spirit against the flesh but allies
himself with the flesh, whose desires are opposed to the spirit.
Such a person loves wine and good things, ease and security and plenty.
[He loves] to be clothed in purple and fine linen and to feast sumptuously every
day. Nor does he refuse his eyes whatever they desire. He allays all his desires
impulsively and willingly, and whatever does not serve the delights of flesh he
regards as vain. He reckons that the best thing for him is to enjoy good things in
his lifetime, and he gains nothing more than this by all the toil at which he toils
under the sun. The end that carnal man will come to is shown in the gospel
parable of the rich man and the poor man, where it says, “The rich man died and
was buried in hell.” And of Babylon it is written, “As she exalted herself and lived
in her delights, so give her a like measure of torment and sorrow!”
It is better for us, then, to deliver such a man to death for the destruction
of the flesh than to be drawn with him into the pit of destruction. Our flesh,
therefore, should be mortified and crucified, so that the body of sin may be
destroyed. Such is in accord with the voice of the prophet speaking to the Lord:
‘Pierce my flesh with your fear’.
Because it is said to carnal man, ‘You have hated discipline, If we can find
no better cross on which to crucify carnal man than the austerity of regular
discipline, for the discipline which he hates is a torment to him. Regular
discipline is a cross, and the two pieces of wood from which it is built symbolize
the laws of abstinence and continence. Abstinence tempers gluttony, and the
law of continence restrains excess in all the senses of mind and body: and it is
precisely these things which are characteristic of the carnal man.’

Vigils Reading - Presentation of the BVM
2024-11-21
THE VIRGIN AND THE TEMPLE
From the writing of Fr Yves Congar5
◊◊◊
The only occasion on which the Gospels expressly mention the Virgin
Mary in connection with the Temple are in the account of her Purification and of
the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple and the finding of the child Jesus in the
Temple after four days’ absence on his part and three anxious searching by his
parents. To these very brief indications, the piety of Christians very soon added
the idea of the presentation of Mary in the Temple at the age of three to be
consecrated to the service of God. We are dealing here with a symbolical
representation of a profound spiritual reality about which the tradition and the
doctrine of the Church provide us with valid information.
Mary, predestined to be the Mother of Jesus, true God and true man, and
to be worthy of her vocation, was prepared by the gift of exceptional graces and
lived with unfailing fidelity a most pure life of inner consecration to the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. As the type of all faithful souls and of the Church
herself, Mary expressed spiritually and supremely in her life the “presentation”
which, for each one of us, is to begin by the service of faith and to be
consummated in heaven.
It is obvious that the tradition and doctrine of the Church may, without
falling prey to the imaginary productions of the apocrypha, propound
statements concerning the status of the Mother of God in relation either to the
Jewish messianic temple going far beyond what we are explicitly told in the
three short passages from the Gospel which narrate the incidents mentioned
above.
If Mary is the Mother of God, she has a special relation to the body of
Christ which is the true temple – to his physical body and doubtless also, in a
certain sense, to his body the Church. She is herself a temple of God in a quite
specific and sublime way, both because Christ was within her from the moment
of his conception until that of his birth, and because of the exceptional spiritual
gifts she received in preparation for her divine motherhood and as a reward for
her free acceptance of this vocation, not only after the Annunciation but during
the whole of her life. Hence the liturgy – the Oriental liturgy in particular –
shows a profound understanding of the mystery of Mary when it constantly uses
the texts concerning the Temple and the tabernacle in order to express it.

Vigils Reading - St Cecilia
2024-11-22
THE VIRGINITY OF
ST CECILIA
From a homily by Fr Ronald Knox6
◊◊◊
The legends of the early Roman saints, among whom St Cecilia is
numbered, do not always command great attention from the critically minded
historian. But whether the story of St Cecilia as it is told in her acts is all true or
only partly true, there is a simplicity about the whole story and a simplicity
about St Cecilia’s character in the story which demands a retelling. Let me
remind you in the most general way of her story: how she was married to a
young pagan called Valerian, but persuaded him to respect her vow of virginity,
because her guardian angel would make him sorry for it if he did otherwise; how
Valerian wanted to see this guardian angel, but Cecilia, with her innocent craft,
said he could not do that unless he was baptized first; how he was baptized, and
saw the angel at her side as she prayed; how he made a convert of his brother
Tiburtius, and how first the two brothers, and then Cecilia herself were
punished with death for professing the Christian religion. It is an old story, and
a familiar one: and while we do all homage to other great saints for their public
witness to Christ, we shall always need St Cecilia as well, quietly working at
home for the conversion of her own husband and his family.
Not that St Cecilia herself was in the position of a modern wife. Like so
many Christian ladies of her time, she had taken, in imitation of our blessed
Lady, a vow of perpetual virginity. These virgin martyrs were martyrs because
they were virgins: it was because they insisted on keeping their vow when their
parents wished them to marry that the secret of their attachment to the
Christian faith was discovered; and it was their persistency in maintaining it
that led to their martyrdom. It would be hard to estimate, I think, how much the
unpopularity in Roman society of the Christian faith owed to its tradition of
virginity. Virginity is an ideal which the pagan had no right to misunderstand.
For, in theory, they, too, honored it; and it should have commended itself to
their heathen instinct for sacrifice. For the point of a sacrifice is that the victim
should be spotless, the best of its kind. You must offer not what you can well
afford to spare, but what will cost you something. That is the pagan idea of
sacrifice; and the Christian idea of sacrifice is based on the same principle. In
order to give up something to God, we forgo, not the sinful pleasures which we
have no right to in any case, but the lawful pleasures which he has given us to
enjoy if we will.
So, let St. Cecilia’s feast remind us to take our Christian vocation
seriously, to follow out in our lives the words we profess with our lips. And may
this Roman maiden pray for us who worship here and for those who minister to
us, that when Christ, the Master she served, comes again in judgment, we may
be found blameless before almighty God.
