Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Vigils Reading - 4th Sunday of Advent
2024-12-22
WAIT PATIENTLY
FOR THE LORD TO COME
From a commentary by Blessed Guerric of Igny
◊◊◊
Our King and Savior is coming; let us go to meet him! Good news from a
far country, in the words of Solomon, is like cold water to a thirsty soul; and to
announce the coming of our Savior and the reconciliation of the world, together
with the good things of the life to come, is to bring good news indeed. How
beautiful are the feet of those who bring good tidings and publish peace! Such
messengers truly bear a refreshing draught to the soul that thirsts for God; with
their news of the Savior’s coming, they joyfully draw and offer us water from the
springs of salvation. In the words and spirit of Elizabeth, the soul responds to
the message, whether it be of Isaiah or his fellow-prophets: Why is this granted
to me, that my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the voice of your
greeting came to my ears, my spirit leapt for joy within me in eager longing to
run ahead to meet my Lord and Savior.
Let us too arise with joy and run in spirit to meet our Savior. Hailing him
from afar, let us worship him, saying: Come, Lord, save me and I shall be saved!
Come and show us your face, and we shall all be saved. We have been waiting
for you; be our help in time of trouble. This is how the prophets and saints of old
ran to meet the Messiah, filled with intense desire to see with their eyes, if
possible, what they already saw in spirit…
I believe that the many texts of scripture which urge us to go out to meet
him speak of Christ’s first coming as well as his second… Between these two
comings of his, the Lord frequently visits us individually in accordance with our
merits and desires, forming us to the likeness of his first coming in the flesh, and
preparing us for his return at the end of time. He comes to us now, to make sure
that we do not lose the fruits of his first coming nor incur his wrath at his
second. His purpose now is to convert our pride into the humility which he
showed when he first came, so that he may refashion our lowly bodies into the
likeness of that glorious body which he will manifest when he comes again.
Grace accompanied his first coming, glory will surround his last; this
intermediate coming is a combination of both, enabling us to experience in the
consolations of his grace a sort of foretaste of his glory. Blessed are those whose
burning love has gained for them such a privilege!
And so, my brothers, though we have not yet experienced this wonderful
consolation, we are encouraged by firm faith and a pure conscience to wait
patiently for the Lord to come. In joy and confidence let us say with St. Paul: I
know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am confident of his power to
guard what has been put into my charge until the day when our great God and
Savior Jesus Christ comes in glory.

Vigils Reading
2024-12-23
O EMMANUEL
From a commentary by St Cyril of Alexandria
◊◊◊
Isaiah speaks at some length of Cyrus, king of the Medes and Persians.
Raised up against the Chaldeans, he was urged on by God himself, who opened
their bronze doors to him and shattered their iron bars. Having conquered the
land of Babylonia and laid it waste, Cyrus released enslaved Israel from captivity
and caused the foundations of the temple in Jerusalem to be laid.
But this is only part of the story, for after indicating that the rejoicing and
the release from captivity were for those of Israelite blood and them alone,
Isaiah goes on to apply these images to Emmanuel, who was consecrated by God
the Father to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the
blind; that is to say, to deliver those inescapably bound by the chains of their
own sins, to declare them free from tyranny, and so to prepare the inhabitants of
the earth to return to himself, to be led by him to God the Father.
He has become the mediator between God and ourselves, and through
him we have been reconciled in the one Spirit to the Father. He is our peace.
He himself has rebuilt his own holy temple, which is the Church, and has taken
her to himself as a pure virgin, having neither spot or wrinkle, nor any such
imperfection. Thus one can easily see in Cyrus and his deeds an image of the
divine blessings bestowed by God upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
Let heaven rejoice, and let the clouds rain down justice. Let
earth open and bring forth both mercy and justice. Mercy is the love
which is the fulfillment of the law, for it goes hand in hand with the justice of the
gospel that Christ himself teaches us and bestows on us. It could also be said
that mercy and justice coming forth and growing from the earth is our Lord5
Jesus Christ himself. For if we think it strange that the earth is commanded to
bring forth justice, let us remember that Emmanuel himself wrought justice in
the midst of the earth. That is, Christ did not bring his own body down to us
from heaven, but was born in the body of a woman who was one of the
inhabitants of the earth.

Vigils Reading
2024-12-24
HOLY NIGHT
By Karl Rahner
◊◊◊
Why do we call the feast we are keeping tonight a “sacred night”? Night
because a beginning, holy night because a blessed and unconquerable
beginning; of such a beginning we would have to say: holy night, sacred night.
And so the church sings “Silent night, holy night.” Everywhere in the world
these words are sung for this feast… For this hour is the holy and sacred night.
Faith tells the Christians: that was the beginning. There God himself
came gently forth from the terrifying radiance in which he dwells as God and
Lord, and came to us; he quietly entered the poor dwelling of our earthly
existence and was found as a man; he began where we begin, quite poor,
vulnerable, quite childlike and gentle, quite helpless. He who is infinite, distant
future which of ourselves we never reach because it seems to retreat farther and
farther away as we hurry towards it on the hard roads of life, he himself has
approached us, arrived among us, because otherwise we should never have
found our way to him. He has accompanied us on our way to him so that this
may find a blessed end, because the very end itself has become our beginning.
God is near; his eternal word of mercy is where we are; it is a pilgrim on
our paths, experiences our joy and our distress, lives our life and dies our death.
He has brought his eternal life quietly and gently into this world and its death.
He has redeemed us, for he shared our lot. He made our beginning his own,
followed the path of our destiny and so opened it up into the infinite expanses of
God. And because he accepted us irrevocably, because God’s Word will never
cease to be human, this beginning which is ours and his is a beginning of
indestructible promises…
The eternal future has entered our time. Its radiance still dazzles us, so
that we think it is night. But at all events it is a blessed night, a night in which
there is already warmth and light, which is beautiful, welcoming and secure by
reason of the eternal day which it bears hidden within it. It is a silent, holy night
for us, however, only if we admit the holy silence of this night into our inner
selves, only if our heart too keeps watch in solitude. It can do so easily. For such
solitude and quiet is not hard. For of course we are solitary. There exists in our
heart an interior land where we are alone, to which no one finds his way but
God. This innermost, unfrequented chamber of our heart is really there – the
only question is whether we ourselves avoid it foolishly out of guilty fear,
because no one and no familiar things of this earth can accompany us if we enter
it. The silent and solitary soul sings here to the God of the heart its quietest and
most ardent song. And it can have confidence that he hears it. For this song no
longer has to seek a beloved God beyond the stars in that inaccessible light in
which he dwells and which makes him invisible to all.
Because of Christmas, because the Word was made flesh, God is near and
the quietest word in the stillest room of the heart, the word of love, comes to his
ear and his heart. And those who have entered into themselves even when it is
night, hear in this nocturnal quiet in the depth of the heart God’s gentle word of
love… Let us enter quietly and shut the door behind us. Let us listen to the
unutterable melody which sounds in the silence of that night. For the ultimate
is only spoken in the silence of the night, now that…through the gracious
coming of the Word, there has come to be Christmas, holy night, silent night.

Vigils Reading - Nativity of the Lord
2024-12-25
THE NATIVITY KERYGMA
By Thomas Merton3
◊◊◊
In its prayers, the Church plunges us into the Light of God shining in the
darkness of the world, in order that we may be illuminated and transformed by
the presence of the newborn Savior, and thus that he may be born and truly live
in us by making all our thoughts and actions light in himself. What joy, then,
that he who dwells eternally in the inaccessible light and peace of the Father has
left the throne of his glory and descended to be one of us! Or rather, without
leaving the bosom of the Father, veiling the too brilliant light of his glory in the
cloud of human nature, he who is enthroned above the cherubim takes up his
abode among us in a poor manger.
This Child who the shepherds, dazzled by the brilliance of the angelic
host, can scarcely see in the darkness of the cave lit by Joseph’s lantern, this
Child is (by his divinity) the Ancient of Days, the Creator and Judge of Heaven
and earth, of whom the prophet Daniel wrote: “I beheld till thrones were placed
and the Ancient of Days sat, his garment was as white as snow, and the hair of
his head like clean wool; his throne like flames of fire: the wheels of it like a
burning fire. A swift stream of fire issued forth before him: thousands of
thousands ministered to him and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood
before him.”
This, is Daniel’s vision of the divinity of the Word Who, in his human
nature, lies here helpless in the dark. But the Son of Man, who is here born, is
himself the Word, consubstantial with the Father. To this only-begotten Son,
who is equal to the Father in all things as God, but less than the Father in so far
as he is human, all power is given by the Father. So, Daniel says again: “I beheld
therefore in the vision of the night, and lo one like the Son of Man came with the
clouds of heaven, and he came even to the Ancient of Days and they presented
him before him, and he gave him power and glory and a kingdom, and all
peoples, tribes and tongues shall serve him, his power is an everlasting power
that shall not be taken away and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed.” This,
then is the King promised from the beginning of the world and of whose
Kingdom there shall be no end.
Do not be afraid of him. God has emptied himself and come to us as a
child, in order that we who have not been saved by fear, but only destroyed by it,
may now take heart and be saved by confidence. In “Emptying himself” and
taking the form of a servant the Lord laid aside his majesty and his divine power,
in order to dwell among us in goodness and mercy.

3 SEASONS OF CELEBRATION by Thomas Merton (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, NY 1965) pp. 108-08.9

Vigils Reading - St Stephen
2024-12-26
THE GIFT OF LOVE
From a sermon by St Fulgentius
◊◊◊
Yesterday we celebrated the birth in time of our eternal king; today we
celebrate the triumphant suffering of a soldier. For yesterday our king, nobly
arrayed in flesh, proceeding from the chaste womb of the Virgin Mary, deigned
to visit this world; today a soldier, leaving the confines of the body, made his
way in triumph to heaven.
Our king, though he is the Most High, for our sake came in humility; yet
he could not come empty-handed. It was indeed a generous gift that he brought
for us, one by which he not only abundantly enriched us but gave us the strength
to do battle and never be vanquished. What he brought was the gift of love,
which was to lead us to become sharers in the godhead. He brought it only to
expend it, without in any way diminishing his own store; while turning the
poverty of his followers into riches he remained himself, as by a miracle, fully
possessed of his own inexhaustible treasury.
Love then, the same love that brought Christ down from heaven to earth,
raised Stephen from earth to heaven; the same love shown first in the king was
reproduced in its splendor in the warrior.
And so Stephen, in order to earn his right to the crown his name signifies,
armed himself with love, and by that same love won every battle. It was love of
God that made him yield not an inch, love of his neighbor that led him to
intercede for those who stoned him. It was through love that he was able to
expose those in error so that they might change their ways; through love that he
prayed for those who stoned him so that they should not be punished. Trusting
only in love, he overcame Saul’s cruel rage, and the very man who had been his
persecutor on earth he won as his companion in heaven. That same holy and
untiring love longed to win over by prayer those whom it could not convert by
persuasion…
Love is therefore the source and origin of every good, an unrivaled
protection, the road that leads to heaven. Those who walk in love can be neither
lost nor afraid; love is the guide and protector, and brings them to the end of
their journey. For this reason, beloved, since Christ has set up a stairway of love
by which every Christian can mount up to heaven, keep a firm hold on love
alone; love one another, and by growing in love climb together up to heaven.

Vigils Reading - St John
2024-12-27
THE ROOT OF CHARITY
From a sermon by St John Henry Newman
◊◊◊
The love of God is not the same thing as the love of our parents, though
parallel to it; but the love of mankind in general should be in the main the same
habit as the love of our friends, only exercised towards different objects… What
is meant by loving all people is, to feel well disposed to all, to be ready to assist
them, and to act towards those who come in our way, as if we loved them. We
cannot love those about whom we know nothing; except indeed we view them in
Christ, as the objects of his Atonement, that is, rather in faith than in love. And
love, besides, is a habit, and cannot be attained without actual practice, which
on so large a scale is impossible.
We see then how absurd it is when writers (as is the manner of some who
slight the Gospel) talk magnificently about loving the whole human race with a
comprehensive affection, of being the friends of all, and the like. Such vaunting
professions, what do they come to? That such men or women have certain
benevolent feelings towards the world, — feelings and nothing more – nothing
more than unstable feelings, the mere offspring of an indulged imagination,
which exist only when their minds are wrought upon, and are sure to fail them
in the hour of need. This is not to love people; it is but to talk about love. The
real love of another must depend on practice, and therefore, must begin by
exercising itself on our friends around us; otherwise it will have no existence.
By trying to love our relations and friends, by submitting to their wishes,
though contrary to our own, by bearing with their infirmities, by overcoming
their occasional waywardness by kindness, by dwelling on their excellences, and
trying to copy them, thus it is that we form in our hearts that root of charity,
which, though small at first, may, like the mustard seed, at last even overshadow
the earth. The vain talkers about philanthropy…usually show the emptiness of
their profession, by being morose and cruel in the private relations of life, which
they seem to account as subjects beneath their notice.
Far different indeed, far different…with the great Apostle, whose memory
we are today celebrating, utterly the reverse of this fictitious benevolence was
his elevated and enlightened sympathy for all men. We know he is celebrated for
his declarations about Christian love. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love
is of God. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in
us…”
Now did he begin with some vast effort at loving on a large scale? Nay, he
had the unspeakable privilege of being the friend of Christ. Thus he was taught
to love others; first his affection was concentrated then it was expanded. Next he
had the solemn and comfortable charge of tending our Lord’s Mother, the
Blessed Virgin, after his departure. Do we not here discern the secret sources of
his especial love of the brethren? Could he, who first was favored with his
Savior’s affection, then trusted with a son’s office towards his Mother, could he
be other than a memorial and pattern (as far as man or woman can be), of love,
deep, contemplative, fervent, unruffled, unbounded?

Vigils Reading - Holy Innocents
2024-12-28
THE HOLY INNOCENTS
From the letters of St Cyprian
◊◊◊
The martyrdom of children marked the very beginning of Christ’s life: for
his name’s sake, all those of two years old and under were put to death. Too
young to fight, they were yet able to win a martyr’s crown, and by their
innocence bear witness to the innocence of all who shed their blood for Christ.
When even such as these make martyrs, clearly no one is immune from the peril
of persecution.
What a shameful thing it would be for Christ’s servants to recoil from
suffering when their Master suffered first; for us to be unwilling to endure
something for our sins, when he, though sinless, endured so much for us! The
Son of God suffered in order to make us children of God; will the children of this
world refuse to persevere in that sonship through suffering? If we have to bear
with the world’s hatred, we must remember that Christ bore it before we did.
We may have to endure insults, exile, torture in this world, but the Creator and
Lord of the world knew them first in harsher form, and warned us of them,
saying, “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me before you. If you
belonged to the world, the world would love its own. But you are not of the
world; I chose you out of it, and therefore it hates you. Remember the saying I
gave you, ‘The servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecute me, they
will persecute you also.” Our Lord and God practiced all he taught, so there can
be no excuse for a disciple who hears his teaching but does not act on it…
Let these be the sentiments, dearly beloved brethren, that ever abide in
your hearts. And may we thus make ready our arms by fixing our thoughts, day
and night, on this reflection, by holding before our eyes and turning over
constantly in our minds and our hearts what tortures are inflicted upon the
wicked, what rewards are merited by the just, what the Lord threatens by way of
punishment to those who deny, what, by contrast, He promises by way of glory
to those who confess. If the day of persecution should come upon us whilst we
meditate upon and contemplate these thoughts, then the soldier of Christ, being
thus instructed by His precepts and counsels, shows no fear in the face of battle
but is now ready for his crown.

Skema
2024-12-29
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
Christmas Season

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
Dec. 29, 2024 – Jan. 4, 2025

Sun
29
Mon
30
Tue
31
Wed
1
Thu
2
Fri
3
Sat
4

Office
Holy Family
6th Day in Octave
7th Day in Octave
Mary, Mother of God
SS Basil & Gregory
Christmas Weekday
St Elizabeth Ann Seton

Vigils
Eph 5:21-6:4
Col 1:15-2:3
Col 2:4-15
Sir 24:1-12, 19-22
Col 2:16-3:4
Col 3:5-16
Col 3:17-4:1

Lauds
Sir 26:1-4, 13-16
Isa 44:1-5
Isa 44:6-8, 21-23
1 Sam 2:1-10
Isa 54:1-5
Isa 54:6-10
Isa 55:1-5

Mass
17
203
204
18
205
206
207

1st
1 Sam 1:20-22, 24-28
1 John 2:12-17
1 John 2:18-21
Num 6:22-27
1 John 2:22-28
1 John 2:29-3:6
1 John 3:7-10

2nd
1 John 3:1-2, 21-24

Gal 4:4-7

Gospel
Luke 2:41-52
Luke 2:36-40
John 1:1-18
Luke 2:16-21
John 1:19-28
John 1:29-34
John 1:35-42

Vespers
1 Cor 13:1-8a
Eph 1:11-14
Heb 2:10-18
James 3:13-18
Eph 1:15-23
Eph 2:1-10
Rev 21:22-27

Vigils Reading - Holy Family Sunday
2024-12-29
THE FAMILY AT NAZARETH
By Fr Ambroise-Marie Carré
◊◊◊
In these days when the Church is experiencing a renewal of its youth, how
many families would be enriched by contemplation of the extraordinary beauty
to be seen in the unique love of the family at Nazareth! For centuries it has been
by constantly returning to the marriage of Joseph and Mary, to the home to
which Jesus first brought his radically new message of salvation, that
theologians have defined the principles of marriage for those baptized into the
Christian faith. St Augustine never spoke of marriage without reference to the
Holy Family. And there are wonderful pages in Bossuet devoted to the subject
of that union, which was, he said, “most true,” because Mary and Joseph,
trusting each other with their virginity, “gave themselves to each other” in love.
A sentence of St. Luke’s sheds light on this great mystery: Mary “kept all
these things in her heart”. The family at Nazareth lived in complete harmony,
cherishing “compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience”. The
presence of God incarnate, and of his love, transfigured all in joy and wonder.
Such things as Mary and Joseph were able to understand penetrated them to the
very depths of their being. And what they could not understand, such as that
occasion when their young son disappeared and was later found in the temple,
they kept within them, so that those gestures and words of his whose meaning
they could not grasp with their minds might act on their hearts, and gradually
open them to the measure of the Father’s will.
Surely this is, very specially, the right way to live for any who have taken
vows in the name of the Lord. If you wish the ideal, you must let Christ live
among you and within you. Whatever you find in your lives that seems to you
clear, happy and fruitful, you should learn how to appreciate it: there are so
many who do not! And as for your misunderstanding, which are the cause of
suffering in so many homes…you should keep all these things in your heart, not
to swell into bitterness, but so as to let suffering and the divine force of you
sacramental vow transform that self-centered heart. Nor will the love which is
blessed by God and which follows God’s command ever leave us: it can only be
dismissed. But you have not dismissed love. So let God purify and renew your
love, as he purifies and renews the faith of those who seek him. On the third day,
in the love of Jesus, it will rise again.

Vigils Reading - 6th Day in Octave
2024-12-30
THE ABSOLUTE GOODNESS
OF GOD
From a treatise by St John Eudes
◊◊◊
Our loving Savior, in various places in the Scriptures, assures us that he is
ever watchful over us, that we are and always will be in his most compassionate
care. How he carries us in his heart… In one place [in Isaiah] he even repeats it
five times in succession: Hearken to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of
the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from your birth, carried from
the womb; even to your old age I am He, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I
have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.
Elsewhere [in Scripture] he tells us the same thing in many ways.
Although, he says, it may sometimes happen that a mother can forget her child,
yet he will never forget us, and he has engraved us on his hands to have us ever
before him. Whoever touches one of us, he says, touches the apple of his eye.
Again, we should not be anxious about how we are going to get enough to eat or
wear, because he well knows our needs and takes care of them. He has even
counted the very hairs of our heads, and not one shall perish. He also tells us
that as he loves his Father so his Father loves us, and that his own love for us is
the same as his Father’s love for him. He wishes us to be where he is — that is, he
wishes us to dwell with him in his Father’s heart…
Let us beware of being dependent on the power or favor of our friends, or
on our own possessions, on our minds, knowledge, strength, good desires and
resolutions, prayers, or even on the faith we believe we have in God, or on
human means of any sort, or on anything in creation, but rely entirely on the
mercy of God. We should indeed use all these things I have mentioned, and
contribute in every way we can to the suppression of vice, the practice of virtue,
the carrying to completion of whatever God has entrusted to our care, and the
fulfillment of the duties which accompany our station in life. What we have to do
is to give up all tendency to rely on our own means, and put our trust in the
absolute goodness of our Lord. Therefore we must take as much care, and work
as hard, as if we expected no help from God, and at the same time regard this
work of ours as nothing, and put all our hope in God’s mercy.
This is what the Holy Spirit exhorts us to do, speaking through the mouth
of the King and Prophet David: Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and
he will act. And elsewhere: Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain
you. And in the words of Peter, the leader of the Apostles, the Spirit advises us to
cast all our anxieties on God, for he cares about us. Our Lord spoke the same
comfort to Saint Catherine of Siena: “My daughter, forget yourself and think of
me, and I shall never cease to think of you.”

Vigils Reading - 7th Day in Octave
2024-12-31
GOD’S DESIGN FOR LOVE
From the writing of Pope St Paul VI
◊◊◊
As holy scripture teaches us, before it is a sacrament marriage is a great
earthly reality: God created man in his own image; he created him in the image
of God: he created them man and woman. We always have to go back to that
first page of the Bible if we want to understand what a human couple, a family,
really is and what it ought to be. Psychological analyses, psychoanalytical
research, sociological surveys, and philosophical reflection may of course have a
contribution to make with the light they shed on human sexuality and love; but
they would blind us if they neglected this fundamental teaching which was given
to us at the very beginning: the duality of the sexes was decreed by God, so that
together man and woman might be the image of God and, like him, the source of
life: Be fruitful and increase, fill the earth and subdue it…
The Christian knows that human love is good by its very origin; and if, like
everything else in us, it is wounded and deformed by sin, it finds its salvation
and redemption in Christ. Besides, isn’t this the lesson that twenty centuries of
Christian history have taught us? How many couples have found the way to
holiness in their conjugal life, in that community of life which is the only one to
be founded on a sacrament!
Love one another, as I have loved you. The ways in which they express
their affection are, for Christian husband and wife, full of the love which they
draw from the heart of God. And if its human source threatens to dry up, its
divine source is as inexhaustible as the unfathomable depths of God’s affection.
That shows us the intimacy, strength, and richness of the communion which
conjugal love aims at. It is an inward and spiritual reality, transforming the
community of life of husband and wife into what might be called…“the domestic
Church”…
Such is the mystery in which conjugal love takes root, and which
illuminates all its expressions. The rapture which moves husband and wife to
unite is the carrier of life, and enables God to give himself children. On
becoming parents, the husband and wife discover with a sense of wonder, at the
baptismal font, that their child is from now on a child of God, reborn from
water and the Spirit; and that the child is entrusted to them so that they may
watch over its physical and moral growth, certainly, but also the opening out
and blossoming in him of the new nature. Such a child is no longer just what
they see, but just as much what they believe, “an infinity of mystery and love
which would dazzle us if we say it face to face”… Therefore [the] upbringing [of
children] becomes true service of Christ, according to his own saying: whatever
you do for one of these little ones, you do for me.

Vigils Reading - Mary, Mother of God
2025-01-01
LOOK TO MARY
From the letters of Adam of Perseigne
◊◊◊
You, Lady, are my all. In your hands has been stored for me the fullness of
all good. With you have been hidden the unfailing treasures of truth and grace,
of peace and pity, of salvation and wisdom, of glory and of honor. You are my
anchor amid the billows, port in shipwreck, support in tribulation, comfort in
grief. You are, for those who are yours, aid in oppression, help in time of crisis,
temperance in prosperity, joy in time of waiting, refreshment in toil…
When you conceive the sun of righteousness, you like the moon are
illumined by the good office of the blazing sun… Therefore whatever beauty it
possesses it has through the gift of its borrowed splendor. When you bring forth
the sun of righteousness, you are compared to the sun because of the close
likeness. Just as the body of the sun is not injured or diminished when it puts
forth its rays, so the bringing forth of the holy birth does not violate the mother.
And what, you who are glorious as the sun, what is your offspring but the eternal
splendor of a certain sun?…
Therefore, dear friend, all our confidence lies in the childbearing of our
Virgin and though I may be unworthy I shall not cease to dwell upon her praises.
If you stand in need of mercy, it is found in full measure in the heart of the
Virgin. If you reverence the truth, give thanks to the Virgin, since from the
ground of her virgin flesh the truth which you worship has arisen. No less give
thanks to the Virgin if you follow after peace, since from her is born for you the
peace which passes all understanding. If you pursue justice, see that you are not
ungrateful to the Virgin, for at the opening of her womb justice looked forth
from heaven.
If your faith is shaken by some assault from an enemy, turn your eyes
upon the Virgin and that in which was wavering will be firmly fixed. If the lust of
the flesh delights you, turn your gaze upon the Virgin, and the danger to your
chastity is removed. If pride disturbs your spirit, turn your gaze upon the
Virgin, and by the merit of her unsullied humility your swelling spirit will
subside. If you are set on fire by anger’s torches, lift your eyes to the Virgin and
you will grow gentle through her calm. If ignorance or error have led you astray
from the way of life, look to Mary, star of the sea, and in her light you will be led
back to the path of truth… In every peril the goodness of the Virgin comes to our
aid. Give thanks for her childbearing… For us the Virgin brought forth, ours is
the birth, for us the child was born and to us the son was given.

Vigils Reading - SS Basil & Gregory
2025-01-02
THE QUALITIES OF THE MONK
From a discourse by St Basil the Great
◊◊◊
First and foremost, the monk should own nothing in this world, but he
should have as his possessions solitude of the body, modesty of bearing, a
modulated tone of voice, and a well-ordered manner of speech. He should be
without anxiety as to his food and drink, and should eat in silence. In the
presence of his superiors, he should hold his tongue; before those wiser than he,
he should hearken to their words. He should have love for his equals, give
charitable counsel to his inferiors, and keep aloof from the wicked, the carnal,
and the officious. He ought to think much but speak little, be not forward in
speech nor given to useless discoursing, not easily moved to laughter, respectful
in bearing, keeping his eyes cast down and his spirit uplifted, not answering
contradiction with contradiction, docile. He should work with his hands, be ever
mindful of his last end, joyful in hope, patient in adversity, unceasingly
prayerful, giving thanks in all things, humble toward everyone, hating pride,
sober and watchful to keep his heart from evil thoughts.
He ought to heap up treasures in heaven by observing the
commandments, examining himself as to his daily thoughts and actions, not
entangling himself in the occupations and superfluities of the world. It ill befits
him to concern himself about those who lead careless lives; he should emulate
the life of the holy fathers, rejoicing with those who are successful in the practice
of virtue and not envying them. He must sympathize with the suffering and
weep with them, sorrowing deeply for these, but not on any account should he
condemn them, nor upbraid him who has renounced his sin, nor ever justify
himself. He should, above all, confess before God and men that he is a sinner. It
is his duty, moreover, to admonish the undisciplined, encourage the faint-
hearted, minister to the sick, wash the feet of the saints, and be mindful of the
duties of hospitality and fraternal charity. He must preserve peace with the
members of the household of the faith, shun the heretic, read the canonical
Scriptures. He should spend his time in good words and deeds. He should
converse without deceit, speak no word against anyone, and neither gossip nor
take pleasure in listening to gossip. He should not be quick to trust evil report of
anyone, nor be mastered by ill temper nor overcome by despondency. He ought
not to become angry with his neighbor without cause, nor nurse wrath against
anyone, nor return evil for evil. It behooves him to be reviled rather than to
revile, to be struck rather than to strike, to be wronged rather than to do wrong,
to be despoiled rather than to despoil.
He must not grow weary in observing the precepts of the Lord to the best
of his ability, but he should await reward and praise from Him, continuing in his
desire for the enjoyment of everlasting life. Moreover he should love God as a
son, with his whole heart and strength and mind and with all the power that is in
him; but as a servant he should reverence, fear, and obey Him and work out his
salvation in fear and trembling, fervent in spirit, girt about with the full armor of
the Holy Spirit.
But, over and above all this, he must be mindful of the words of the
Apostle: “For the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with
the glory to come that will be revealed in us”.

Vigils Reading
2025-01-03
CHRIST AMONG US
From a homily by St Basil the Great
◊◊◊
God is on earth, God is among us, not now as lawgiver – there is no fire,
trumpet blast, smoke-wreathed mountain, dense cloud, or storm to terrify
whoever hears him but as one gently and kindly conversing in a human body
with his fellow men and women. God is in the flesh. Now he is not acting
intermittently as he did through the prophets. He is bringing back to himself the
whole human race, which he has taken possession of and united to himself. By
his birth he has made the human race his own kin.
But how can glory come to all through one man? How can the Godhead be
in the flesh? In the same way as fire can be in iron: not by moving from place to
place but by the one imparting to the other its own properties. Fire does not
speed toward iron, but without itself undergoing any change it causes the iron to
share in its own natural attributes. The fire is not diminished and yet it
completely fills whatever shares in its nature. So is it also with God the Word.
He did not relinquish his own nature and yet he dwelt among us. He did not
undergo any change and yet the Word became flesh. Earth received him from
heaven, yet heaven was not deserted by him who holds the universe in being.
Let us strive to comprehend the mystery. The reason God is in the flesh is
to kill the death that lurks there. As diseases are cured by medicines and
assimilated by the body, and as darkness in a house is dispelled by the coming of
light, so death, which held sway over human nature, is done away with by the
coming of God. As ice formed on water covers its surface as long as night and
darkness last but melts under the warmth of the sun, so death reigned until the
coming of Christ; but when the grace of God our Savior appeared and the Sun of13
Justice arose, death was swallowed up in victory, unable to bear the presence of
true life. How great is God’s goodness, how deep his love for us!
Let us join the shepherds in giving glory to God, let us dance with the
angels and sing: Today a Savior has been born to us. He is Christ the Lord. The
Lord is God and he has appeared to us!

Vigils Reading - St Elizabeth Ann Seton
2025-01-04
O SOUL OF MY SOUL
By St Elizabeth Ann Seton
◊◊◊
How often have I felt my soul awakened by your Light and warmed by the
fire of your Love – then I approach you – I find you – but Alas instantly after, I
lose you; often I think myself received – then fear I am rejected – and in this
continual change of interior dispositions I walk in darkness and often go astray
– I desire and know not how to desire, I love, and know not how to love, nor how
to find what I love.
Thus my soul loses itself without ceasing to hope in you – It knows by its
own experience that it desires much, and is unable to do anything – you see its
trouble O lord – and in that happy moment when fatigued with so many
vicissitudes it falls at last into entire diffidence of itself then you open its eyes
and it sees the true way to Peace and Life – it knows you were nearer than it
imagined – you instruct it all at once without Voice or Words, it thinks only of
what possesses it, abandoning all things else it then possesses you – It sees
without knowing what it sees, it hears, and is ignorant of what it hears, it knows
only Who he is to whom it is attentive, it contents itself with loving HIM, it loves
Him continually more and more – Words cannot express, nor the mind
comprehend what it receives from you O MY GOD even in this place of
Banishment.
How happy is that moment O divine Jesus! How pure is that Light, how
ineffable is that communion of your Blessings! You know O Lord how precious
that gift is, and your Creature that receives it knows also – Ah! if it were faithful,
if it never departed from you – if it knew how to preserve the Grace it had
received, how happy would it be! And yet this is but a drop of that infinite Ocean
of Blessings which you are one day to communicate to it.
O Soul of my Soul – what is my Soul and What Good can it have without
possessing you – Life of my Life! What is my Life when I live not in you – Is it
possible that my Heart is capable of possessing you – of enjoying you all alone –
of extending and dilating itself in you – can your creature thus be elevated above
itself to repose in your Breast, and after that depart from you? Bury itself in the
Earth? Ah Lord I know not what I ought to say to You: but hear the voice of your
love and of my misery; live always in me, and let me live perpetually in You and
for You as I live only by You.
Enlighten me, O Divine Light! Conduct me, O supreme Truth! Raise me
again, O uncreated Life! Separate me from every thing that displeases you.
Suffer me to remain at your Feet!

Skema
2025-01-05
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
Epiphany Week

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
January 5 – 11, 2025

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

Office
Epiphany of the Lord
Weekday after Epiphany
Weekday after Epiphany
Weekday after Epiphany
Weekday after Epiphany
St Gregory of Nyssa
Weekday after Epiphany

Vigils
Isa 60:1-22
Isa 61:1-11
Isa 62:1-12
Isa 63:7-19
Isa 64:1-11
Isa 65:13-25
Isa 66:10-14, 18-23

Lauds
Baruch 4:36-5:9
Isa 59:14-21
Isa 60:1-7
Isa 60:10-14
Isa 60:15-22
Baruch 4:30-37
Baruch 5:1-9

Mass
20
212
213
214
215
216
217

1st
Isa 60:1-6
1 John 3:22-4:6
1 John 4:7-10
1 John 4:11-18
1 John 4:19-5:4
1 John 5:5-13
1 John 5:14-21

2nd
Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6

Gospel
Matt 2:1-12
Matt 4:12-17, 23-25
Mark 6:34-44
Mark 6:45-52
Luke 4:14-22a
Luke 5:12-16
John 3:22-30

Vespers
2 Tim 1:6-14
Eph 4:1-6
Eph 4:17-24
Eph 4:25-32
Eph 5:6-20
Eph 6:10-17
Col 2:8-15

Vigils Reading - Epiphany of the Lord
2025-01-05
THE GLORY OF CHRIST
From a sermon by St John Henry Newman
◊◊◊
The Epiphany is a season especially set apart for adoring the glory of
Christ. The word may be taken to mean the manifestation of His glory, and leads
us to the contemplation of Him as a King upon His throne in the midst of His
court, with His servants around Him, and His guards in attendance. At
Christmas we commemorate His grace; and in Lent His temptation; and on
Good Friday His sufferings and death; and on Easter Day His victory; and on
Ascension Thursday His return to the Father; and in Advent we anticipate His
second coming. And in all of these seasons He does something, or suffers
something: but in the Epiphany and the weeks after it, we celebrate Him, not as
on His field of battle, or in His solitary retreat, but as an august and glorious
King; we view Him as the Object of our worship.
Then only, during His whole earthly history, did He fulfil the type of
Solomon, and held (as I may say) a court, and received the homage of His
subjects; namely, when He was an infant. His throne was His undefiled
mother’s arms; His chamber of state was a cottage or a cave; the worshippers
were the wise men of the East, and they brought Him presents, gold,
frankincense and myrrh. All around and about Him seemed of earth, except to
the eye of faith; one note alone had He of divinity. As the great of this world are
often plainly dressed, and look like other people, except for having some one
costly ornament on their breast or on their brow; so the Son of Mary in His lowly
dwelling, and in an infant’s form, was declared to be the Son of God Most High,
the Father of ages, and the Prince of Peace, by His star; a wonderful appearance
which had guided the wise men all the way from the East, even unto Bethlehem.
This being the character of this Sacred Season, our services throughout it,
as far as they are proper to it, are full of the image of a king in his royal court, of a
sovereign surrounded by subjects, of a glorious prince upon a throne. There is
no thought of war, or of strife, or of suffering, or of triumph, or of vengeance
connected with the Epiphany, but of august majesty, of power, of prosperity, of
splendor, of serenity, of benignity. Now, if at any time, it is fit to say, “The Lord
is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him.” “The Lord sits
above the waters, and the Lord remains a king forever.” “The Lord of Hosts is
with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” “O come, let us worship, and fall down,
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.” “O magnify the Lord our God, and fall
down before His footstool, for He is holy.” “O worship the Lord in the beauty of
holiness; bring presents, and come into His courts.”

Vigils Reading
2025-01-06
THE SEASON OF MAJESTY
The continuation of a sermon by St John Henry Newman
◊◊◊
You will observe, then, that the only display of royal greatness, the only
season of majesty, homage and glory, which our Lord had on earth, was in His
infancy and youth. Gabriel’s message to Mary was in its style and manner such as
befitted an Angel speaking to Christ’s Mother. Elizabeth, too, saluted Mary, and the
future Baptist his hidden Lord, in the same honorable way. Angels announced His
birth, and the shepherds worshiped. A star appeared, and the wise men rose from
the East and made Him offerings. He was brought to the temple, and Simeon took
Him in his arms, and returned thanks for Him. He grew to twelve years old, and
again He appeared in the temple, and took His seat in the midst of the doctors. But
here His earthly majesty had its end, or if seen afterwards, it was but now and then,
by glimpses and by sudden gleams, but with no sustained light and no diffused
radiance.
We are told at the close of the last-mentioned narrative, “And He went down
with His parents, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them.” His subjection
and servitude now began in fact. He had come in the form of a servant, and now He
took on a servant’s office. How much is contained in the idea of His subjection! and
it began, and His time of glory ended, when He was twelve years old.
Solomon, the great type of the Prince of Peace, reigned for forty years, and
his name and greatness was known far and wide through the East. Joseph, the
much-loved son of Jacob, who in an earlier age of the Church, was a type of Christ
in His kingdom, was in power and favor eighty years, twice as long as Solomon. But
Christ, the true Revealer of secrets, and the Dispenser of the Bread of life, the true
wisdom and majesty of the Father, manifested His glory only in His early years,
and then the sun of Righteousness was clouded. For He was not to reign really, till
He left the world. He has reigned ever since; nay, reigned in the world, though He is
not sensible presence in it – the invisible King of a visible kingdom – for He came
on earth only to show what His reign would be, after He had left it, and to submit to
suffering and dishonor, that He might reign. Christ descends to the shadows of this
world, with the transitory tokens on Him of that future glory into which He could
not enter till He had suffered. The star burned brightly over Him for a while,
though it then faded away.

Vigils Reading
2025-01-07
A HYMN ON THE MANIFESTATION
OF CHRIST
By St Ephrem the Syrian
◊◊◊
Blessed is the King Who has come and will come!
The Redeemer shone forth to the blind, but they looked to others.
The Sun showed His rays, but they were clothed in darkness.
The Resplendent One sent His light, and it summoned the children of light
to reveal to the children of darkness, “Behold in your midst is the light,
but over your eyes a veil.” To You be glory, New Sun!
The prophets announced His birth but did not specify His time.
He sent the Magi, and they came and declared His time.
But the Magi who made known the time did not specify where the Infant was.
The glorious star of light ran and showed were the Infant was…
A pair of announcers expressed the properties of the Only-Begotten:
the star of light and John – one a shining forth, the other a voice.
For the One Announced was also a Word and a Light.
Voice and ray serve Him. The shining forth announced His light
and the voice His wisdom. More blessed is the First-born than His announcers!
John gazed at Him and cried, “This is the Lamb of God!”
The Lamb grew fat and matured, and He came to be an offering.
John was not afraid to cry, “Behold, it is He!” –
even if the slayers attack, even if it was the time of sprinkling
so that forgiveness would be by His blood, Blessed is the Compensator of our
sins.
The glorious star of light was not like John,
for there was a place where it rose and made straight the way for the simple,
but there was a place where it sank and made the path of the wolves go astray.
It kept the Lamb from the slaughter so that the day for the slaughter would
come, that in Him the flock would be pardoned. Blessed is He in Whom
His possessions were redeemed!

Vigils Reading
2025-01-08
TAKING GOD ON HIS OWN TERMS
By Fr Edward Leen4
◊◊◊
Everybody knows that the call of the Magi typifies the vocation of the
Gentiles to the Church of God. But to penetrate more deeply into this mystery
and to read therein an experience common to a multitude of souls demands a
deeper understanding of God’s way of manifesting himself to his creatures, and
a keener discernment of his action in human souls. God is a hidden God, and
must be so for us. He manifests himself obscurely. God does not hide himself
from us purposely or to make approach to him more difficult. He desires
revelation of himself to us, and approach to him on our part. God in his
approach to us but tempters his brilliancy to accommodate it to our weak and
diseased spiritual vision. He, as it were, takes care not to hurt our soul’s sight.
But he aims at revelation through dimmed radiance. The incarnation, which is
the utmost concealment of the Godhead that there is, or that can be — except
that of the Eucharist alone — is the greatest revelation of God.
That we are dull of perception is certainly not due to the mode in which
God reveals himself, but must be traceable to our fault. It is the poor quality of
our faith that is responsible for this dullness. We do not take God on his own
conditions. We are always given to imposing ours on him. We have a tendency
to decide for ourselves what shall be the sensible exterior vesture of God’s
message. We clothe that message with a garment woven of our own ideas and
imaginings, and we reject the material selected by God himself for his
revelation.
Not so the wise men. They took God on his own terms. We choose a
certain mode for his manifestation, and they acknowledged him as God in the
lowliness of the guise in which he appeared. They looked on a babe and they said
God. Their faith was superb. That the three wise men were able to discern in the
form of a helpless babe, lying in an earthly Mother’s frail arms, under a
miserable roof, the king of kings, the great redeemer of the human race that had
been spoken of in prophecy for centuries before, was a truly marvelous thing. It
is a proof that they must have been men of very pure lives and to a large extent
immune from the corruption of the world in which they lived. Gifted with great
science, as their name implies, they must have had clear and docile and simple
minds, minds eager to acquire the truth and ready to submit to it, no matter how
much it might conflict with the traditions and prejudices of their race.
The wonderful faith of these men passes all belief. Their appearance in the
pages of Saint Matthew is like a sudden burst of glorious sunshine, breaking in a
flood of glory, through a sky wrapped in a mantle of somber grey. And the star
went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was; and seeing
the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And entering into the house
they found the child with Mary his Mother. Their long quest had come to an
end. As they saw the humble roof under which the child was, and as they
perceived the lowly simple conditions of his parents, were they taken aback?
Had they any misgivings? Were they harassed by any doubts? Were they
expected to discern in this humble babe an object of their kingly homage? It was
the supreme test to which they were put, and their magnificent faith triumphed
over all appearances. Their hearts responded loyally to the touch of grace, for
they were unprejudiced and ready to concede to God whatever form he should
choose for his manifestation.

4 In the Likeness of Christ, pp. 56-68; reprinted in Meditations on the Sunday Gospels: Year A; introduced and edited by John
E. Rotelle, Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1995, pp. 32-33.9

Vigils Reading
2025-01-09
GOD’S DISCRETION IN
REVEALING HIMSELF
By Réné Voillaume
◊◊◊
Jesus appears in the world without giving any warning of his coming and
without making known to any neighbor who he is. Had he come into the world
in his house at Nazareth, all his relatives would have made an event of his birth
with the neighbors and the other inhabitants of the town. He would have been
heralded and celebrated. He would thus have allowed himself to behave well
enough like a true little Nazarene, but he would have been confiscated, as it
were, by his earthly family and his earthly country. Quite to the contrary, he
elects to be born away from home, on a journey, amid an anonymous crowd; in
this way, he would really belong to everybody, and could come quietly and
discreetly, with no tumult and excitement.
God, if he had so wished, could naturally have made all sorts of efforts to
spread the news abroad. And if any proof were needed of this, one could point to
his having mobilized the angels but contented himself with bringing a few poor
shepherds to the manger. It is also clear from this that he could easily have
brought the whole of Jerusalem and all the just among the Israelites with pure
and upright hearts, worshipers of God and living in expectancy of the Messiah.
And there were in fact many of them, all true friends of his, in the country of
Judea and Galilee!
But it is obvious that God did not wish to impose his Son: people must
come to him by seeking and discovering him. Even the shepherds and the Wise
Men, though warned personally, had to search for him with the help of a sign
which, rather than leading them easily and directly to the manger, was little
more than a suggestion to send them on their way. The shepherds must have
gone to many houses and stables before they found the right babe wrapped in
swaddling clothes.
As for the Magi, they had to show some initiative in order to discover, by
the normal means at their disposal, the birthplace of the young king of Israel.
Jesus was infinitely discreet; he simply waited, and such a way of appearing
could have made us somewhat impatient, had it not been proved for centuries
back that people have found in this very discretion a true sign of God. That sign
of weakness, which draws people in spite of themselves, makes them surrender
and acknowledge themselves outdone, without Jesus ever having forced himself
upon them in any way other than a certain presence — a presence that waits, and
invites, and demonstrates God’s heaven in a humble manner which gives hope
and humility, peace and love — just how, one does not really know! God is a
master who knows how to go about speaking to us with the use of the things of
the earth — these various beings, both animate and inanimate — and the events
of human history.

Vigils Reading - St Gregory of Nyssa
2025-01-10
ON PURITY OF HEART
From a commentary by St Gregory of Nyssa
◊◊◊
Now the divine nature, as it is in itself, according to its essence,
transcends every act of comprehensive knowledge, and it cannot be approached
or attained by our speculation. Mortals have never discovered a faculty to
comprehend the incomprehensible; nor have we ever been able to devise an
intellectual technique for grasping the incomprehensible. For this reason the
great Apostle calls God’s ways unsearchable, teaching us that the way that leads
to knowledge of the divine nature is inaccessible to our reason; and hence none
of those who have lived before us has given us the slightest hint of
comprehension suggesting that we might know that which in itself is above all
knowledge.
Yet the Lord does not deceive us when he promises that the pure of heart
shall see God; nor does Paul deceive us when he teaches that no one has seen
God nor can see Him. The Lord does not say that it is blessed to know something
about God, but rather to possess God in oneself: Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they shall see God. And this teaches us that the one who purifies his heart of
every creature and of every passionate impulse will see the image of the divine
nature in his own beauty. So too in this short sentence the Word, I think, is
giving us the following advise: All you mortals who have within yourselves a
desire to behold the supreme Good, when you are told that the majesty of God is
exalted above the heavens, that the divine glory is inexpressible, its beauty
indescribable, its nature inaccessible, do not despair at never being able to
behold what you desire. For you do have within your grasp that degree of the
knowledge of God which you can attain. For, when God made you, Hr at once
endowed your nature with this perfection: upon the structure of your nature He
imprinted an imitation of the perfections of His own nature, just as one would
impress upon wax the outline of an emblem. But the wickedness that has been
poured all over this divine engraving has made your perfection useless and
hidden it with a vicious coating. You must then wash away, by a life of virtue, the
dirt that has come to cling to your heart like plaster, and then your divine beauty
will once again shine forth.
It is just like those who look at the sun in a mirror. Even though they
cannot look up directly at the heavens, they do see the sun in the mirror’s
reflection just as much as those who look directly at the sun. So it is, says our
Lord, with you. Even though you are not strong enough to see the light itself, yet
you will find within yourselves what you are seeking, if you would but return to
the grace of that image which was established within you from the beginning.
For the Godhead is all purity, freedom from passion, the absence of all evil. And
if you possess these qualities, God will surely be within you. When your mind is
untainted by any evil, free of passion, purified of all stain, then will you be
blessed because your eye is clear. Then because you have been purified you will
perceive things that are invisible to the unpurified. The dark cloud of matter will
be removed from the eye of your soul, and then you will see clearly the blessed
vision within the pure brilliance of your own heart. And what is this vision? It is
purity, holiness, simplicity, and other such brilliant reflections of the nature of
God; for it is in these that God is seen.

Vigils Reading
2025-01-11
TODAY HE MANIFESTED
HIS GLORY
From a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny
◊◊◊
“Arise, be enlightened, Jerusalem, for your Light has come.” This present
day of lights has been enlightened for us and consecrated by the Light of Light.
He had lain hidden and unknown, but today he has vouchsafed to reveal himself
to the world for the enlightenment of all nations. For today he revealed himself
to the Chaldeans by the sign of a new star, dedicating in them as in first fruits the
faith of all nations. Today he revealed himself to the Jews, by the witness not
only of John but also of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, when, baptized in the
Jordan, he consecrated the baptism of all. Today he manifested his glory before
his disciples when by changing water into wine he prefigured that ineffable
mystery in which by his word the substance of things are changed…
The Lord indeed had come; he was in the world, and the world was made
through him, but the world did not know him. He was born, but he was not
known, until the day of light began to manifest him. So the Prophet says: “O new
Jerusalem, great city of the new king, arise, be enlightened, for your light has
come.” Arise, you who sit in darkness; look at the light which has risen up in the
darkness but is not mastered by the darkness. Draw near to him and be
enlightened, in his light you shall see the light, and it will be said to you: “You
were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Look upon the Eternal
Light which has tempered itself to your gaze, so that he who dwells in
inaccessible light affords access even to weak and bleary eyes. See the Light in a
lamp of earthenware, the Sun in a cloud, God in man, the Splendor of Glory and
Brightness of Eternal Light in the clay vessel of your flesh.
Majesty indeed lies hid in human nature, power in lowliness; but signs
and prodigies break through the covering and leave no doubt as to their origin.
“The works which I do,” he says, “bear witness to me.” Great indeed is the
witness of John, who came to bear witness as a lamp to the light. But much
greater is that heavenly witness which the Father and the Holy Spirit bore to the
Son, the Father by his voice, the spirit in the form of a dove; since on the
evidence of two witnesses every claim is established… A new-born child cries on
earth while in the heavens he creates a new star, so that light may witness to
Light, a star to the Sun, and so that kings in the splendor of its rising may be led
to the Eternal Splendor which has also risen up…
Thanks be to you who bade light shine out of darkness and have kindled a
light in our hearts whose shining is to make known your glory as you have
revealed it in the features of Jesus Christ… We know indeed through faith,
holding on to it as to a trustworthy pledge so that we shall know by sight too. In
the meantime increase our faith, leading us on from faith to faith, from
brightness to brightness, by your Spirit, so that from day to day we may enter
more deeply into the treasures of light…until, through faith, we are led to the
vision of your face, as if led by a leading star to our Leader at Bethlehem.

Skema
2025-01-12
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
1st Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
January 12 – 18, 2025

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

Office
Baptism of the Lord
Weekday
Weekday
SS Maur & Placid
Office for Vocations
St Anthony, Abbot
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Isa 42:1-9, 49:1-9
1 Kings 1:1-31
1 Kings 1:32-53
1 Kings 2:1-12
1 Kings 2:13-35
1 Kings 2:36-46
1 Kings 3:1-15

Lauds
Acts 19:1-7
Joel 1:1-8
Joel 1:9-12
Joel 1:13-20
Joel 2:1-6
Joel 2:7-11
Joel 2:12-17

Mass
21
305
306
307
308
309
310

1st
Isa 40:1-5, 9-11
Heb 1:1-6
Heb 2:5-12
Heb 2:14-18
Heb 3:7-14
Heb 4:1-5, 11
Heb 4:12-16

2nd
Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7
1 Cor 1:1-9

Gospel
Luke 3:15-16, 21-22
Mark 1:14-20
Mark 1:21-28
Mark 1:29-39
Mark 1:40-45
Mark 2:1-12
Mark 2:13-17

Vespers
Rev 21:1-7
1 Cor 1:1-9
1 Cor 1:10-17
1 Cor 1:18-25
1 Cor 1:26-31
1 Cor 2:1-5
1 Cor 2:6-13

Vigils Reading - Baptism of the Lord
2025-01-12
BY WATER AND
THE HOLY SPIRIT
From a commentary by Hippolytus of Rome
◊◊◊
As soon as he had been baptized, Jesus came out of the water. The
heavens were opened to him and the Spirit of God in the form of a dove came
down and rested on him. Then a voice from heaven said: This is my beloved
son, in whom I am well pleased.
If the Lord had yielded to John’s persuasion and had not been baptized,
do you realize what great blessings and how many we should have been
deprived of? Heaven was closed until then; our homeland on high was
inaccessible. Once we had descended into the depths we were incapable of rising
again to such lofty heights. The Lord was not only baptized himself; he also
renewed our fallen nature and restored to us our status as God’s children. At
once the heavens were opened to him. The world we see was reconciled with the
world that lies beyond our vision; the angels were filled with joy, earthly
disorders were remedied; mysteries were revealed; enemies were made friends.
The heavens were opened to him you have heard the evangelist say. This
happened for three wonderful reasons. The heavenly bridal chamber had to
open its shining gates to Christ at his baptism because he was himself the
bridegroom. The gates of heaven also had to be lifted up to allow the Holy Spirit
to descend in the form of a dove and the Father’s voice to resound far and wide.
The heavens were opened to him and a voice said: This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased.
This is my beloved Son who appeared on earth without leaving his
Father’s side. He both appeared and did not appear, for he was not what he
seemed. As far as appearance goes the one who gives baptism is superior to the
one who receives it. This is why the Father sent the Holy Spirit down on him
from heaven. As in Noah’s ark a dove revealed God’s love for the human race, so
now it was in the form of a dove, as though with an olive branch in its beak that
the spirit descended. He did so to make sure that the Father’s voice would be
recognized and the ancient mystery would be believed. Which prophesy? The
one that says: The Father’s voice resounded over the waters. The God of glory
thunders. The Lord thunders across many waters. And what does he say? This
is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
Pay close attention now, I beg you, for I want to return to the fountain of
life and contemplate its healing waters at their source. The Father of
immortality sent His immortal Son and Word into the world; he came to us to
cleanse us with the water and the spirit. To give us a new birth that would make
our bodies and souls immortal, He breathed into us the Spirit of life and armed
us with incorruptibility.
Therefore in a herald’s voice I cry: Peoples of every nation; come and
receive the immortality given in baptism. To you who have spent all the days of
your life in the darkness of ignorance I bring the good news of life. Leave your
slavery for freedom, the tyrant’s yoke for a kingdom. corruptibility for eternal
life. Do you wish to know how to do this? By water and the Holy Spirit. That is to
say, by the water through which we are born again and given life, and by the
Spirit who is the Comforter sent for your sake to make you a child of God.

Vigils Reading
2025-01-13
THE LIVING
APOSTOLIC CHURCH
By Cardinal Jean Danielou
◊◊◊
It is the manhood of Jesus that is the Temple of the new Law, but this
manhood must be taken as a whole, that is to say, it is the Mystical Body in its
entirety; this is the complete and final Temple. The dwelling of God is the
Christian community whose Head is in heaven, and whose members are still
making their earthly pilgrimage; it is the true Temple of which the Temple of
stone was the figure. “Be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a
holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus
Christ“…
There is a basic difference between the Temple at Jerusalem and the
Christian Church. Under the old law, the presence of God is connected with the
building of stone; under the new law, it is connected with the spiritual
community. The church of stone is not in the succession of the Temple, but of the
synagogue; it is the assembly, the ecclesia, the meeting-place. Or rather, at the
same time it continues both of them, since it is the normal place for the sacrifice.
But it can be dispensed with; it is not necessary that it should be there for the
celebration of the Mass, while the community is necessary.
Thus is fulfilled the saying of Jesus: “Where there are two or three
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them“. It is the
essential condition required for the offering of an acceptable host that is
presented in the Sermon on the Mount, where it is written: “If you offer your gift
at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has any thing against
you, go first to be reconciled to your brother: and then coming you shall offer
your gift“. No offering is accepted save that which is made in charity, in
community. For there the temple is, the one and only place where man is in the
presence of God.
This is an extraordinary fact, as extraordinary in its own order as the
presence of God in the Temple at Jerusalem. God enters into relationship not
with isolated souls, but with the community. Through the baptismal rites, the
entry of the catechumen into the church of stone is a figure of entry into the living
Church, into the community which is the place of meeting with God. Of this
meeting the Eucharist is the permanent sign, being at once the sacrament of the
mystical body and the sign of the real presence, and bringing about at the same
time union with God and the strengthening of the bonds of charity. Sin has the
effect simultaneously of alienating the sinner from the presence of God, and of
separating the sinner from the community. The primitive discipline of the
Church made this clear when it excluded the sinner publicly from the community.
The sinner still remains excluded from communion; and reconciliation with God
is necessarily required by the community as intermediary. This is the meaning of
confession, in which the priest represents the people, which itself represents God.
This is why the Church has the deposit of the living Word of God. It is in her
that the Word mysteriously dwells, thus continuing the Incarnation of the Logos.
We come to faith in Christ not by the study of dead literary documents, but in a
preliminary way through the living witness of an organism sustained and
animated by Christ, through the teaching of the living Apostolic Church; in a full
and effective way by immediate contact with the living Christ in the Church,
through the operation of grace acting in all its fullness in the sacrament.

Vigils Reading
2025-01-14
HE INCLINES TO ME
AND I TO HIM
From a sermon on the Song of Songs by St Bernard of Clairvaux
◊◊◊
[In the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, he quotes Scripture, saying “It
is written in the law of Moses: ‘Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the
grain.'”] It is obvious that what the Apostle says about oxen has no reference to the
Bride [of Christ, which is the Church]; he who loves her and gave himself for her
must needs care for her. Is she not that lost sheep whose care came before even that of
the heavenly flock? The shepherd left the rest and came to earth to find her. He
sought her diligently, and when he found her he did not lead her, but carried her
back! Then on her account he called the angels together and celebrated a new and
joyful festival with her. How then can it be said that he will not care for her, when he
deigned to carry her on his shoulders?
She is not mistaken, then, when she says, ‘The Lord takes thought for me’, nor
is she deceived when she says, ‘The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me’, or when she
says anything else which shows God’s love for her. Thus it is that she speaks of the
Lord of Hosts as her beloved, and glories that he who judges all things in tranquility
cares for her. Why should she not glory? She has heard him saying to her, ‘Can a
woman forget her child, and not have compassion on him? And even if she does
forget him, yet I will not forget you.’ Again, ‘The eyes of the Lord are upon the
righteous.’
Now what is the Bride but the congregation of the righteous? What is she but the
generation of those who seek the face of the Bridegroom? It cannot be that he should
incline to her, and she not incline to him. Therefore she says, ‘He inclines to me and I
to him.’ He inclines to me because he is good and gracious; I incline to him because I
am not ungrateful. He gives me grace from his graciousness; I give him gratitude for
grace. He has a care for my deliverance and my salvation; I for his honor and the
fulfillment of his will. He has a care for me, and for no other, for I am his only dove; I
have a care for him and for no other; I do not hear the voice of others, nor do I listen to
those who say “Look, here is Christ” or “look, there he is!”’ It is the Church who
speaks.

Vigils Reading - SS Maur & Placid
2025-01-15
SAINTS MAUR AND PLACID
From the “Dialogues” of St Gregory the Great
◊◊◊
The holy man, St Benedict, having returned to Subiaco, long continued to
shine by his virtue and miracles, and assembled a great number of solitaries
who consecrated themselves to the service of God, so that, with the aid of our
Lord Jesus Christ, he built twelve monasteries, placing in each twelve Religious
with an Abbot to govern them. He retained with himself only a few of his
disciples who, he thought, still needed his presence to be better formed to
perfection. It was at this time that many persons in Rome, conspicuous for their
nobility and virtue, began to visit him and offer their children that he might
mold them to piety, and teach them to live for God alone. Aequitas and
Tertullus, who had the honor of being Roman Patricians, came to see the saint
and confided to his care their two children; the former was distinguished for
spotless innocence of life, and merited, though young, to be chosen by his
master to assist him in his functions. As to Placid, being only a boy, he was
subject to the weaknesses inseparable from tender age…
The venerable Benedict being one day in his cell, the boy Placid…went out
to fetch water from the lake, but, when dipping his pitcher into the water, not
taking sufficient heed, his body followed the vessel and he fell into the lake. The
waves immediately bore him out from the land as far as the usual flight of an
arrow. The saint, who was in his cell, knew of the sad accident at that very
instant, and at once calling Maurus, his disciple, said to him: “Brother Maurus,
run with all speed; the boy who went to fetch water fell into the lake and has
been already carried off a long distance.”
The thing wonderful and unheard of since that instance of the Apostle
Peter! Maurus having asked and received the blessing, ran to the lake to execute
the order of his Abbot. Thinking he was treading upon dry land, he advanced to
the very place whither the waves had carried off the child, and laying hold of him
by the hair, brought him back with great haste to the shore. Having reached the
land, he began to reflect on what he did, and casting a look behind, saw that he
had been running over the waves. He was astonished thereat and very much
afraid, seeing that he had performed what he would not have dared to undertake
if he had been aware of what he was doing. Having returned to the monastery,
he narrated the whole occurrence to the Abbot. The venerable Benedict did not
attribute this miracle to his own merit, but to the obedience of the disciple.
Maurus, on the other hand, said he was only fulfilling a command, and could
have no share in a miracle which he unconsciously performed.
During this pious dispute arising from the humility of the holy Abbot and
his disciple, the boy rescued from peril presented himself as arbitrator, and put
an end to the contest thus: “When I was being drawn out of the waves, I saw the
Abbot’s robe above my head, and it seemed to me that it was he who delivered
me from the water.”…
An ancient tradition says that the monk Maurus was sent into Gaul by the
same holy Father. There, according to the same tradition, he founded a
monastery at Glannofol; after having governed it for a long time, he died in the
Lord in a good old age, renowned for his sanctity and miracles… while Placid died
a martyr’s death in Sicily in 541, a few years before the death of St Benedict
himself.

Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
2025-01-16
THE PROMISES WHICH
YOUR LIPS HAVE UTTERED
From “The Mirror of Charity” by St Aelred of Rievaulx
◊◊◊
These three elements — stability, conversion of life, and obedience —
constitute the essential character of monastic profession… Blessed Benedict
recommends obedience, which he wants to be neither tardy nor tepid, neither
morose nor grumbling, unwavering in the face of injuries and adversities, and
unflagging even in the face of death…
How then can anyone who does not keep these things keep to his
profession? Someone will say: if someone is proud, stubborn, impatient, and yet
observes all the things mentioned above, must we say that he keeps the Rule of
Saint Benedict? I maintain that if a monk has committed any of these faults
against God’s law, he will not be guilty of transgressing his profession if he
makes amends for them according to the means prescribed by the Rule.
But what if someone looks at the Rule of Saint Benedict as a tool for
pruning away vices more easily and fulfilling the gospel precepts more carefully,
and yet, as could happen, abusing this excellent tool, he neither prunes away his
vices nor acquires virtues by it. Does he not keep the Rule to his peril then, and
still not fulfill Christ’s precepts? Does blessed Benedict not allude to this? We
are going to establish, he says, a school of the Lord’s service, in which we hope
not to institute anything harsh or burdensome…
To beginners, of course, this strictness seems not inconsiderable when
they think about the meager, paltry quantity of food and drink, the roughness of
the clothing, the discomforts of fasts and vigils, the wearing grind of daily work,
and all the other things we find he instituted in the Rule. If anyone does not
agree that the Rule consists of these alone, at least let him admit what cannot be
denied except by stubborn obstinacy: that our profession and Rule consist of
both, that is, of virtues and observances, and let him therefore not refuse to
admit that we necessarily practice both.
If you have charity it is not necessary for you to be forced to fulfill the
promises which your lips have uttered. If you scorn fulfilling the things you
promised by putting your signature to them and calling on God and his saints as
your witnesses, you can be very sure you do not have charity. For do you love
someone you mock? If anyone does other than he has promised, he said, let him
know that he will be condemned by the God whom he mocks.

Vigils Reading - St Anthony, Abbot
2025-01-17
THE PATH OF VIRTUE
From “The Life of Anthony” by St Athanasius
◊◊◊
All the monks were one day gathered around Anthony so as to hear his
words. He said to them with the authority of a prophet: “The Holy Scriptures are
sufficient for our instruction; nevertheless it is a good thing to encourage each
other mutually in the faith and to urge one another in discourse. You, therefore,
in a filial manner, bring what you know to your father, and I, your elder, will
transmit to you something of what I have experienced.
In the first place, let us all endeavor together not to become lax after
having begun well, and not to be discouraged in the face of difficulties. Let us
not say to ourselves: We have been living the ascetical life for a long time. On
the contrary, let us increase our ardor every day as if we were just beginning, for
a person’s whole life is very short compared with the centuries to come, and the
whole of time present is nothing compared with eternal life… After combating
on earth we shall obtain no earthly inheritance but a celestial one, and when we
have left this corruptible body we shall receive it again incorruptible. Therefore,
dear sons, let us not be discouraged nor find the time long. Let us not believe
ourselves doing too much, for ‘The sufferings of this present time cannot be
compared to the glory that will be revealed in us.’
For this reason, my sons, let us remain firm in asceticism and flee from
sloth. The Lord is working with us, as it is written: ‘God collaborates for good
with the one who has chosen what is good.’ In order to avoid negligence we will
do well to meditate upon the Apostle’s words: ‘I die every day’. If, in fact, we live
as if each day were that of our death, we shall not sin. This means that every day,
on waking, we must think that we shall not last until evening; and every night, in
falling asleep, we must think that we shall not reawaken.
Having thus begun and walked along the path of virtue, let us press
straight on, straining forward. Let no one look back, like Lot’s wife, especially as
the Lord has said: ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for
the kingdom of God.’ Looking back is nothing else than feeling regret, and
renewing a taste for things of the world.
Do not fear, on hearing talk of virtue, that it will remain foreign to you. It is
not far from us nor outside of us. It is a work which is taking place within us, and
an easy thing if only we wish it. The Greeks leave their country and cross the sea
to gain learning, but as for us we have no need to travel to obtain the kingdom of
heaven, nor to cross the ocean to become instructed in virtue. The Lord indeed
said: ‘The kingdom of God is within you.’ So virtue has need only of our will, as it
is in us and finds its source in ourselves… If we had to go outside of ourselves to
acquire virtue, it would be difficult; but since it is actually within us, let us keep
ourselves from evil thoughts and preserve our soul for the Lord as a trust received
from him, to the end that he may recognize his handiwork, for it is in the state in
which he formed it.
