Vigils Reading
2024-01-30
THE DIVINE POWER OF THE MESSAGE
By St Pope Paul VI3
◊◊◊
For the Church, evangelizing means bringing the Good News into all the
strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within
and making it new… But there is no new humanity if there are not first of all new
persons renewed by Baptism and by lives lived according to the Gospel. The
purpose of evangelization is therefore precisely this interior change, and if it had
to be expressed in one sentence the best way of stating it would be to say that the
Church evangelizes when she seeks to convert, solely through the divine power
of the Message she proclaims, both the personal and collective consciences of
people, the activities in which they engage, and the lives and concrete milieux
which are theirs.
With regard to the strata of humanity which are to be transformed: for the
Church it is a question not only of preaching the Gospel in ever wider geographic
areas or to ever greater numbers of people, but also of affecting and as it were
upsetting, through the power of the Gospel, the popular criteria of judgment,
determining values, points of interest, lines of thought, sources of inspiration and
models of life, which are in contrast with the Word of God and the plan of
salvation.
All this could be expressed in the following words: what matters is to
evangelize human culture and cultures (not in a purely decorative way as it were
by applying a thin veneer, but in a vital way, in depth and right to their very
roots… taking the person as one’s starting-point and always coming back to the
relationships of people among themselves and with God.
The Gospel, and therefore evangelization, are certainly not identical with
culture, and they are independent in regard to all cultures. Nevertheless, the
Kingdom which the Gospel proclaims is lived by people who are profoundly
linked to a culture, and the building up of the Kingdom cannot avoid borrowing
the elements of human culture or cultures. Though independent of cultures, the
Gospel and evangelization are not necessarily incompatible with them; rather
they are capable of permeating them all without becoming subject to any one of
them.

3 Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, nn 18-20.7

Vigils Reading - St John Bosco
2024-01-31
GIVE ME SOULS, AND TAKE ALL THE REST AWAY
A reading on St Don Bosco4
◊◊◊
Don Bosco has struck the imagination of all who have known him and his
work. There is no doubt that he was one of the most wonderful of men, and even
in that galaxy of great names which is the catalogue of Saints, he occupies a
place apart.
[Paul Claudel said that “In the Church there are some who made a
profession of sanctity…; who, from the very first, had the Calendar of Saints as
a goal. Don Bosco had no time for this, and we can readily believe that if he
became a saint it was not his fault.”]
Genius as well as Saint, it is often difficult to see where the one ends and
the other begins. Simple as a child and mostly to be found in the dust and clamor
of a playground crowded with children, he plays also with miracles and
prophecies, which he seems to make for fun. His speech is simple: so simple
that children listen fascinated to his new kind of eloquence — an eloquence very
different from that of the pulpit orators of the time. And his mind is so wise,
that ministers, kings and popes listen to his advice.
A poor man, of poor parents, more millions passed through his hands
than through those of many a banker. He spent them with the prodigality of an
American playboy, when it was a question of the salvation of souls; but he was
as tight with each cent as the peasants he came from, when it was a question of
his person, or his comfort. He had the shrewdness of a captain of industry and
a trust in God that made him undertake even the impossible when he saw it was
for God’s glory.
Above all, he was the most lovable of men. To know him was to love him,
and often to be so fascinated as to be physically unable to leave him.
His chosen, or better, his God-given mission was education, and he is the
educator of modern times. A man who could do with children what no man has
ever done; he could attach to himself the little ruffians that roam the streets and
make of them lovable, ideal young men.
Indeed, Don Bosco as a man, as a Saint, as an Educator occupies a place
apart. [He had a tremendous love for God and for souls, and not much for
anything else.] His motto was “Give me souls, and take all the rest
away.”

4 From the Preface to Saint John Bosco, by A. Auffray; Salesian House: Tirpattur, India, 1959.9

Vigils Reading
2024-02-01
THE GREAT DISCOVERY
By Fr Louis Bouyer5
◊◊◊
The discovery of grace, the discovery of love which loves us without
looking for any return, which loves us although we are sinners, which loves us
in our sin, but which alone will lead us, by obscure ways known to God alone,
from sin to sanctity, that is, in the last analysis, the great discovery. Then it is
that God reveals Himself to us as One who speaks to us, as One whose Word for
the second time draws us out of nothingness to being, as One whom we have
not so much to seek as to discover seeking us. It is He, the Shepherd who left
the ninety-nine sheep in safety to seek and save that which was lost. It is He, the
Father of the prodigal who goes along the road to welcome his son when he has
scarcely started out to meet his father, and takes him in his arms.
“To seek God”, to seek Him as a person, as the Person par excellence, and
not only as the “Thou” to whom all our love should be addressed, but as the “I”
who has first approached us, whose word of love, addressed to the primeval
chaos, drew us forth from it in the first place, and, spoken to us in our sin, draws
us forth from it again: to be a monk is nothing else than this. To be a monk,
then, is simply to be an integral Christian. And regarded in this light, the
Christian is simply the person restored by the Word of the Gospel to the
vocation which the creative Word destined for each: to respond to the Word of
Agape by the word of faith, in order eventually to meet God face to face.
Commenting on Canticle of Canticles, Origen tells us that the Church,
under the old dispensation, only heard the Bridegroom’s voice, whereas in the
new, she is offered the sight of his countenance. And he adds that the
development of the Christian life is made up solely of this transition. The monk
is the one who does not limit him or herself to accepting it in some measure
passively, by yielding to grace slothfully and reluctantly. The monk is one who
responds with the whole heart to the call which comes from the very heart of
God. Monks are of the number of the violent who will not allow the divine
Kingdom to fall upon them as it were unawares, but who take it by storm in
advance. For that the monks have staked their all, they have burned their boats.
To the one who believes that life consists in what is possessed, the monk
seems to be consenting to, even to be deliberately seeking, a fatal renunciation.
To the one who knows that being is of greater value than having, and that being
which is of value is not that which passes but that which endures, the monk will
seem to be the only true humanist. For the human person is born only as subject
to the divine Word and will only be fully that person the day when, freed from
the nothingness which holds one prisoner, fully surrendered to the Word which
calls, the person will at last come to discover the Face which promised us being
in promising us His own image.

5 The Meaning of the Monastic Life, Louis Bouyer, New York, 1955, p.19 & 22.11

Vigils Reading - Presentation of the Lord
2024-02-02
THE PASCHAL SIGNIFICANCE
OF JESUS’ PRESENTATION
From “Sign of Contradiction” by St John Paul II6
◊◊◊
Forty days after the nativity the Church celebrates an event full of
spiritual significance. On that day the Son of God, as a tiny child of poor parents,
born in a rough stable in Bethlehem, was carried to the temple in Jerusalem.
This was his own temple, the temple of the living God, but he came to it not as
the Lord but as one under the law. For the poor the law prescribed that forty
days after the birth of the firstborn two turtle-doves or two young pigeons must
be offered in sacrifice, as a sign that the child was consecrated to the Lord.
The message which the Spirit of God allowed the old man Simeon to sense
and express so wonderfully was implicitly in the event itself, in this first
encounter between the Messiah and his temple. On seeing the child, Simeon
begins to utter words that are not of human provenance. He prophesies,
prompted by the Holy Spirit; he speaks with the voice of God, the God for whom
the temple was built and who is its rightful master.
Simeon’s words begin, in what the liturgy calls the Song, by bearing
witness to the light… They end…by bearing witness to the cross, in which
contradiction of Jesus, the Christ, is to find tangible expression. The cost of the
cross was shared by the mother, whose soul — according to Simeon’s words —
was to be pierced by a sword, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be laid
bare.
Chronologically the presentation of Jesus in the temple is linked with the
nativity, but in its significance it belongs with the mystery of the pasch. It is the
first of the events which clearly reveal the messianic status of the newborn child.
With him are linked the fall and the rising of many in the old Israel and also the
new. On him the future of humankind depends. It is he who is the true Lord of
the ages to come. His reign begins when the temple sacrifice is offered in
accordance with the law, and it attains full realization through the sacrifice on
the cross, offered in accordance with an eternal plan of love.

6 pp. 40-41; reprinted in Meditations on the Sunday Gospels: Year A; introduced and edited by John E. Rotelle, Hyde Park,
NY: New City Press, 1995, pp. 144-145.13

Vigils Reading - Memorial of the BVM
2024-02-03
THE NATURE OF MARY’S MATERNITY
From “The Divine Motherhood” by Anscar Vonier7
◊◊◊
Let us always bear in mind the great truth that the Blessed Virgin’s
maternity was a most natural maternity in the sense that she fully responded to
it, was not overwhelmed by it, that there was no separation between her and her
offspring; Christ came from her as her own dear child, the fruit of her own
blessed womb. I am right, therefore, in asserting that Mary’s maternal function
in the conception of Christ was raised to an incredibly high plane of vitality so
as to make her maternity not only an instrumental, but a natural maternity. If
Mary’s mission had been merely to minister the human element to the Word
when he became flesh, her maternity would have been just instrumental; it
would have existed only to serve a higher purpose. But Mary’s role is more than
that; she is permanently the Mother of God; her maternity is not a transient
ministration, but an abiding dignity that makes her share with God the Father,
in literal truth, the parenthood of Jesus Christ.
A threefold hypothesis may make this point clearer still. We can think of
a woman being made a mother by the direct productive act of God; in that case
the offspring of that mother would not be divine, but human. Then there can be
the conception in a woman’s womb of a divine person, as happened in the
incarnation, but the woman being merely instrumental to the production of the
body; in such a case it would be divine maternity in the most restricted
physiological sense. Thirdly, there is the glorious possibility of perfect divine
maternity with all the graces and privileges, with all the rights and splendors, of
one who shares to the full, with God the Father, the parenthood of the God
Incarnate. Such is Mary’s maternity; such is the meaning of Elizabeth’s
salutation, or rather the salutation of the Holy Spirit through the mouth of
Elizabeth, when full of the divine Spirit she cried with a loud voice: Blessed are
you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And whence is this
to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?
Elizabeth was the first creature to call Mary “the Mother of God”; she gave
us the grandest title of our Lady: “Mother of God.” The archangel, indeed, had
said as much, but only by implication; Elizabeth, the happiest of human
mothers, has the privilege of having spoken for the first time the words “Mother
of God.” When, moreover, in the same breath she calls blessed the Mother and
the fruit of her womb, bestowing the same encomium on the two lives which
were not yet disjoined, she gives us an additional reason for saying that Mary’s
maternity had been raised to the divine plane of dignity and perfection, where
one and the same blessedness holds mother and offspring wrapped in a
matchless sanctity.

7 pp. 345-346; reprinted in Meditations on the Sunday Gospels: Year A; introduced and edited by John E. Rotelle, Hyde
Park, NY: New City Press, 1995, pp. 28-29.15

Skema
2024-02-04
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
5th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
February 4 – 10, 2024

Sun
4
Mon
5
Tue
6
Wed
7
Thu
8
Fri
9
Sat
10

Office
5th Sunday
St Agatha
St Paul Miki & Comp.
Weekday
Office for Vocations
Weekday
St Scholastica

Vigils
Josh 4:1-24
Josh 5:1-15
Josh 6:1-27
Josh 7:1-26
Josh 8:1-29
Josh 8:30-9:2
Josh 9:3-27

Lauds
Eccles 8:14-17
Eccles 11:3-10
Eccles 12:1-8
Eccles 12:9-14
Wis 1:1-8
Wis 1:9-15
Wis 4:7-19

Mass
74
329
330
331
332
333
334

1st
Job 7:1-4, 6-7
1 Kgs 8:1-7, 9-13
1 Kgs 8:22-23, 27-30
1 Kgs 10:1-10
1 Kgs 11:4-13
1 Kgs 11:29-32; 12:19
1 Kgs 12:26-32; 13:33-34

2nd
1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23

Gospel
Mark 1:29-39
Mark 6:53-56
Mark 7:1-13
Mark 7:14-23
Mark 7:24-30
Mark 7:31-37
Mark 8:1-10

Vespers
2 Cor 12:19-13:4
2 Cor 13:5-13
Gal 1:1-10
Gal 1:11-24
Gal 2:1-10
Gal 2:11-14
Gal 2:15-21

Vigils Reading - 5th Sunday ORD
2024-02-04
MERCY AND HELP TO ALL
From a commentary by St Peter Chrysologus1
◊◊◊
Those who have listened attentively to today’s gospel will have learnt why
the Lord of heaven, by whom all creation was renewed, entered the houses of
his servants on earth. Nor should it surprise us that he so courteously adapted
himself to every situation, since his motive in coming among us was to bring
mercy and help to all.
You can easily see what drew Christ to Peter’s house on this particular
occasion; it was not to sit down and rest himself, but compassion for a woman
stricken down by sickness. He was prompted not by the need to eat but by the
opportunity to heal, his immediate preoccupation being the performance of a
work which only his divine power could carry out, rather than the enjoyment of
human company at table. In Peter’s house that day it was not wine that flowed,
but tears. Consequently Christ did not enter to obtain sustenance for himself,
but to restore vitality to another. God wants human beings, not human goods.
He desires to bestow what is heavenly, not to acquire anything earthly. Christ
came to seek not our possessions but us.
As soon as Jesus crossed the threshold he saw Peter’s mother in-law lying
in bed with a fever. On entering the house he immediately saw what he had come
for. He was not interested in the comfort the house itself could offer, nor the
crowds awaiting his arrival, nor the formal welcome prepared for him, nor the
assembled household. Still less did he look for any outward signs of preparation
of his reception. All he had eyes for was the spectacle of a sick woman, lying
there consumed with a raging fever. At a glance he saw her desperate plight, and
at one stretched out his hands to perform their divine work of healing; nor would
he sit down to satisfy his human needs before he had made it possible for the
stricken woman to rise up and serve her God. So he took her by the hand, and
the fever left her. Here you see how fever loosens its grip on a person whose
hand is held by Christ’s; no sickness can stand its ground in the face of the very
source of health. Where the Lord of life has entered, there is no room for death.

1 Journey with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – 1999 – pg 78-79.3

Vigils Reading -St Agatha
2024-02-05
ST AGATHA
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints2
◊◊◊
St Agatha has retained her place in the Universal Calendar following the
reforms of 1969, even though nothing that can be called historical fact is known
of her life. There is, however, good evidence of an early cult, with many versions
of her legend recorded in both Greek and Latin, the Greek being the earlier, with
the Latin dating from the sixth century. This means that however fictitious the
details of her Acts, she cannot be dismissed as a mere fiction altogether. Her
Acts, though, are more of an indication of the type of woman held up for
veneration as a saint in the early centuries than anything else.
She is described as a wealthy woman who had dedicated her virginity to
Christ. This, then, rather than her life, is the most precious thing she has to
offer. Her birthplace is assigned to either Palermo or Catania in Sicily, and she
is said to have died at Catania, which has the stronger historical claim to be her
birthplace. Among those who try to take the precious gift she has vowed to
Christ from her is a consul named Quintianus. He used the imperial edict
against Christians to have her brought before him, then placed in a brothel run
by a woman with the appropriate name of “Aphrodisia” and her assistants,
referred to as her daughters. All tricks, assaults and threats to make her yield
her virginity fail, and so she stands as an example of “virginity as a sacred power,
a concrete realization within this world of the divine spirit”.
Quintianus then handed her over to be tortured, and her Acts dwell on
the tortures inflicted on her, culminating in the cutting off of her breasts, which
were placed on a platter. Perhaps because further details of her tortures involve
her being rolled over live coals, she is invoked against fire in general. This may,
though, be an extension of her protection against eruptions from Mount Etna,
because she is associated with Sicily, and her legend states that after her death
a flow of lava from Mount Etna was miraculously diverted by her silken veil held
up on a staff. This is last recorded as happening in the 1840s, and her veil is still
carried in solemn procession on her feast day in Catania. By extension she
protects against earthquakes everywhere. She is also patron saint of bell-
founders. The association is ancient and certain, but the reason has not been
determined. It may be that it derives from her protection against volcanic
eruptions and fire, as bells were rung to warn of both. Another explanation
given is that the molten metal involved in casting bells suggests the flow of
molten lava. Her breasts also brought a more appropriate patronage, as she is
invoked against diseases of the breast. Her breasts on a dish were often
mistaken for loaves in the Middle ages, from which arose the custom of blessing
bread on a dish at her altar on her feast day.
Pope Damasus I composed a hymn in her honor. Two churches were
dedicated to her in the sixth century. Pope St Gregory the Great had rich shrines
made for some of her relics in Rome, then moved them to the monastery of San
Stefano on the island of Capri. Other relics remained in Catania until 1840,
when they were moved to Constantinople.
Whatever the facts behind her legend, Agatha remains one of the best-
loved and most invoked saints in the Christian devotional life.

2 Butlers Lives of the Saints.5

Vigils Reading - St Paul Miki & Companions
2024-02-06
THE MARTYRDOM OF ST PAUL MIKI
AND HIS COMPANIONS
By a contemporary writer3
◊◊◊
The crosses were set in place. Fr Pasio and Fr Rodriguez took turns
encouraging the victims. Their steadfast behavior was wonderful to see. The
Father Bursar stood motionless, his eyes turned heavenward. Brother Martin
gave thanks to God’s goodness by singing psalms. Again and again he repeated:
“Into your hands, Lord, I entrust my life.” Brother Francis Branco also thanked
God in a loud voice. Brother Gonsalvo in a very loud voice kept saying the Our
Father and Hail Mary.
Our brother, Paul Miki, saw himself now standing in the noblest pulpit he
had ever filled. To his “congregation” he began by proclaiming himself a
Japanese and a Jesuit. He was dying for the Gospel he preached. He gave thanks
to God for this wonderful blessing and he ended his “sermon” with these words:
“As I come to this supreme moment of my life, I am sure none of you would
suppose I want to deceive you. And so I tell you plainly: there is no way to be
saved except the Christian way. My religion teaches me to pardon my enemies
and all who have offended me. I do gladly pardon the Emperor and all who have
sought my death. I beg them to seek baptism and be Christians themselves.”
Then he looked at his comrades and began to encourage them in their
final struggle. Joy glowed in all their faces, and in Louis’ most of all. When a
Christian in the crowd cried out to him that he would soon be in heaven, his
hands, his whole body strained upward with such joy that every eye was fixed
on him.
Anthony, hanging at Louis’ side, looked toward heaven and called upon
the holy names – “Jesus, Mary!” He began to sing a psalm: “praise the Lord, you
children!”… Others kept repeating “Jesus, Mary!” Their faces were serene. Some
of them even took to urging the people standing by to live worthy Christian lives.
In these and other ways they showed their readiness to die.
Then, according to Japanese custom, the four executioners began to
unsheathe their spears. At this dreadful sight, all the Christians cried out,
“Jesus, Mary!” And the storm of anguished weeping then rose to batter the very
skies. The executioners killed them one by one. One thrust of the spear, then a
second blow. It was over in a very short time.

Vigils Reading
2024-02-07
THE HOLY SPIRIT BESTOWS
THE UNDERSTANDING OF FAITH
From a treatise by William of St Thierry4
◊◊◊
If your whole being hesitates before the all too profound mysteries
of faith, say without fear, not in disagreement but out of a desire to obey,
“How can this be?” Let your question be a prayer, let it be love, devotion,
humble desire. Do not let it look haughtily at the divine majesty, but seek
for salvation in the means of salvation which the God of our deliverance
provides. Then the Angel of great Counsel will answer you: “When the
Counsellor comes whom I shall send to you from the Father, …he will
bear witness to me and will teach you all things: all truth will come to you
from the Spirit of truth.” “Who, for example, knows one’s own innermost
self but one’s own spirit within him? Similarly, no one knows what lies at
the depths of God but the Spirit of God.”
Hasten, then, to come into communion with the Holy Spirit: and he
is invoked only when he is present. When called upon, he comes; he
arrives in the abundance of divine blessings. It is he who is the swift-
flowing river which makes glad the city of God. At his coming, if he finds
you humble and free from anxiety, reflecting on the word of God, he will
rest upon you and reveal to you what God hides from the wise and prudent
of this world. You will then be enlightened by all the things which
Wisdom, when on earth, could have said to the disciples, but which they
could not bear before the coming of the Spirit of truth who would lead
them into all truth.
To receive and learn this truth, it is useless to expect from the mouth
of another human person what one was not able to receive or learn from
the lips of the Truth himself. For as this Truth declared, “God is Spirit”;
and just as those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth,
so those who desire to know him must seek only in the Holy Spirit to
understand faith and the meaning of this pure and unalloyed truth.
In the darkness and ignorance of this life the Holy Spirit is himself,
for the poor in spirit, the light which lightens, the love which attracts, the
gentleness which charms, the love of one who loves, the piety of one who
gives himself without reserve. It is he who from one conviction to another,
reveals the justice of God to those who believe; he gives grace for grace
and enlightenment for the faith which “comes from hearing.

4 THE MIRROR OF FAITH; PL 180, 384-D.9

Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
2024-02-08
THE DIVINE CALL
From a book by Hans Urs von Balthasar5
◊◊◊
Christian revelation is primarily a revelation of hearing, not of seeing.
Although the image of seeing is not excluded – for “we see now through a mirror
in an obscure manner”; wisdom, when it appears, is the “mirror … and image”
of the divine goodness; and Christ is “the image of the invisible God” so that, in
seeing him, we also see the Father – nevertheless the comparison with hearing
is the dominant one in revelation: the Second Person is heard primarily as
“Word” – and faith in him comes by hearing.
The hearing of the Word is by no means a temporary substitute for the
seeing that is wanting to us here below. On the contrary, it is the lasting proof
that God never is and never will be a mere “object” of knowledge to us, but is
rather the infinitely sovereign majesty of a Trinity of Persons that makes itself
known in whatever way and to whomever it wills. That God speaks to us in his
personal word is a greater grace than that we are allowed to see him: That we
are deemed worthy of his word is the grace of graces that makes us partners in
a divine, even Trinitarian, conversation. That the word of God is spoken to us is
the highest revelation and honor the personal God can bestow upon us, for it
presumes that God considers us capable of understanding his word through the
gift of his grace and of possessing the Spirit who “searches all things, even the
deep things of God, that we may know all things that have been given us by
God”.
So tremendous is this grace that the creature thus addressed by God must
forget its own wishes and desires, even its longing for “eternal happiness” and
for the “vision of God” so that, trembling in the depths of its being, it may fall to
the ground and hear his voice only to ask: “What shall I do, Lord?”
But one who has been thrown to the ground by the impact of this
compelling voice is also “set upon his feet” by it. When God speaks, He wants a
partner. He wants one who is erect, who, hearing his voice, is yet able to stand
upon his feet and answer: “…I fell upon my face, and I heard the voice of the one
that spoke. And he said to me: Son of man, stand upon your feet, and I will speak
to you. And the Spirit entered into me after he spoke to me, and he set me upon
my feet; and I heard him speaking to me…”. When God speaks personally, he
wants to be understood personally; when he utters his personal word into the
world, he wants that word to be returned to him, not as a dead echo, but as a
personal response from his creature in an exchange that is genuinely a dialogue
even though it can be conducted only in the unity of the divine Word that
mediates between the Father and us. But just as that divine Word proceeds from
the Father, yet is not the Father, but only declares the Father, so the creature
can give back to the Father this word it has received by uttering itself in it – or
better, by letting itself be uttered by it.

5 The Christian State of Life – Hans Urs von Balthasar – Ignatius Press – San Francisco – 1983 –
pg 393.11

Vigils Reading
2024-02-09
THANKFULNESS IN OUR EVERYDAY LIVES
From a sermon by St John Henry Newman6
◊◊◊
It would be well if we were in the habit of looking at all we have as God’s
gift, undeservedly given, and day by day continued to us solely by his mercy. He
gave; He may take away. He gave us all we have, life, health, strength, reason,
enjoyment, the light of conscience; whatever we have good and holy within us;
whatever faith we have; whatever of a renewed will; whatever love towards him;
whatever power over ourselves; whatever prospect of heaven. He gave us
relatives, friends, education, training, knowledge, the Bible, the Church. All
comes from him. He gave; he may take away. Did he take away, we should be
called on to follow Job’s pattern, and be resigned: “The Lord gave, and the Lord
has taken away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.” While he continues his
blessings, we should follow David and Jacob, by living in constant praise and
thanksgiving, and in offering up to him of his own.
We are not our own, any more than what we possess is our own. We did
not make ourselves; we cannot be supreme over ourselves. We cannot be our
own masters. We are God’s property by creation, by redemption, by
regeneration. He has a triple claim upon us. Is it not our happiness thus to view
the matter? Is it any happiness, or any comfort, to consider that we are our
own? It may be thought so by the young and prosperous. These may think it a
great thing to have everything, as they suppose, their own way, — to depend on
no one, — to have to think of nothing out of sight, — to be without the
irksomeness of continual acknowledgment, continual prayer, continual
reference of what they do to the will of another. But as time goes on, they, as all
others, will find that independence was not made for man — that it is an
unnatural state — may do for a while, but will not carry us on safely to the end.
No, we are creatures; and, as being such, we have two duties, to be resigned and
to be thankful.
Let us then view God’s providences towards us more religiously than we
have hitherto done. Let us try to gain a truer view of what we are, and where we
are, in his kingdom. Let us humbly and reverently attempt to trace his guiding
hand in the years which we have hitherto lived. Let us thankfully commemorate
the many mercies he has vouchsafed to us in time past, the many sins he has
not remembered, the many dangers he has averted, the many prayers he has
answered, the many mistakes he has corrected, the many warnings, the many
lessons, the much light, the abounding comfort which he has from time to time
given. Let us dwell upon times and seasons, times of trouble, times of joy, times
of trial, times of refreshment.
How did he cherish us as children? How did he guide us in that dangerous
time when the mind began to think for itself, and the heart to open to the world!
How did he with his sweet discipline restrain our passions, mortify our hopes,
calm our fears, enliven our heaviness, sweeten our desolateness, and strengthen
our infirmities! How did he gently guide us towards the strait gate! How did he
allure us along his everlasting way, in spite of its strictness, in spite of its
loneliness, in spite of the dim twilight in which it lay! He has been all things to
us. He has been, as he was to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, our God, our shield,
and great reward, promising and performing, day by day.

6 Parochial and Plain Sermons, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1987, pp. 1003-1005.13

Vigils Reading - St Scholastica
2024-02-10
THE LIFE OF ST SCHOLASTICA
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints7
◊◊◊
St Scholastica, who was St Benedict’s sister, traditionally his twin,
consecrated herself to God from her earliest years, as we learn from St Gregory.
It is not known where she lived, whether at home or in a community, but after
her brother had moved to Monte Cassino, she settled at Plombariola in that
same neighborhood, probably founding and ruling a nunnery about five miles
to the south of St Benedict’s monastery. St. Gregory tells us that St. Benedict
governed the nuns as well as the monks, and it seems clear that St Scholastica
must have been their Abbess, under his direction. She used to visit her brother
once a year and, since she was not allowed to enter his monastery, he used to go
with some monks to meet her at a house a little way off. They spent these visits
in praising God and in conferring together on spiritual matters.
St. Gregory gives a remarkable description of the last of these visits. After
they had passed the day as usual they sat down in the evening to have supper.
When it was finished, Scholastica, possibly foreseeing that it would be their last
visit in this world, begged her brother to delay his return till the next day that
they might spend the time discoursing of the joys of Heaven. Benedict, who was
unwilling to transgress his rule, told her that he could not pass a night away
from the monastery. When Scholastica found that she could not move him, she
laid her head upon her hands which were clasped together on the table and
besought God to interpose on her behalf. Her prayer was scarcely ended when
there arose such a violent storm of rain that St. Benedict and his companions
were unable to set foot outside the door. He exclaimed, “God forgive you sister;
what have you done?” Whereupon she answered, “I asked a favor of you and
you refused it. I asked it of God, and He has granted it.” Benedict was therefore
forced to comply with her request, and they spent the night talking about holy
things. The next morning they parted, and three days later St. Benedict saw the
soul of his sister rising to heaven like a dove.

7 Butler’s Lives of the Saints , pg 42, edited by Michael Walsh – revised version , Harper Collins, San Francisco,
1991.15

LCG Chicago
2024-02-10 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago)
Welcome to our monthly meeting: by Zoom, at 9:00 am CT on the second Saturday of each month.
We will read the intro and chapters 1-3 of Erik Varden’s book The Shattering of Loneliness.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86028356465
Meeting ID: 860 2835 6465

Skema: 6th Week in Ordinary Time
2024-02-11
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
6th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
February 11 – 17, 2024

Sun
11
Mon
12
Tue
13
Wed
14
Thu
15
Fri
16
Sat
17

Office
6th Sunday
Bl Humbeline
Office for the Dead
Ash Wednesday
Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Friday after Ash Wednesday
Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Vigils
Josh 10:1-15
Josh 10:16-27
Josh 10:28-43
Isa 58:1-14
Deut 1:1-25
Deut 1:26-46
Deut 2:24-3:7

Lauds
Wis 4:20-5:5
Wis 5:6-13
Wis 5:15-23
Sir 17:22-32
Exod 1:6-14
Exod 1:15-22
Exod 2:1-10

Mass
77
335
336
219
220
221
222

1st
Lev 13:1-2, 44-46
Jas 1:1-11
Jas 1:12-18
Joel 2:12-18
Deut 30:15-20
Isa 58:1-9a
Isa 58:9b-14

2nd
1 Cor 10:31-11:1

2 Cor 5:20-6:2

Gospel
Mark 1:40-45
Mark 8:11-13
Mark 8:14-21
Matt 6:1-6, 16-18
Luke 9:22-25
Matt 9:14-15
Luke 5:27-32

Vespers
Gal 3:1-9
Gal 3:10-14
Gal 3:15-22
Rom 5:1-11
Heb 1:1-9
Heb 1:13-2:4
Heb 2:5-9

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
2024-02-11
PURIFIED BY FAITH
From a commentary by Paschasius Radbertus 1
◊◊◊
However great our sinfulness, each one of us can be healed by God
every day. We have only to worship him with humility and love, and wherever
we are, to say with faith: Lord, if you want to you can make me clean. It is by
believing from the heart that we are justified, so we must make our petitions
with utmost confidence, and without the slightest doubt of God’s power. If
we pray with a faith springing from love, God’s will need be in no doubt. He
will be ready and able to save us by an all-powerful command. He
immediately answered the leper’s request, saying: I do want to. Indeed, no
sooner had the leper begun to pray with faith than the Savior’s hand began
to cure him of his leprosy.
This leper is an excellent teacher of the right way to make petitions. He
did not doubt the Lord’s willingness through disbelief in his compassion, but
neither did he take it for granted, for he knew the depths of his own
sinfulness. Yet because he acknowledged that the Lord was able to cleanse
him if he wished, we praise this declaration of firm faith just as we praise the
Lord’s mighty power. For obtaining a favor from God rightly depends as
much on having a real living faith as on the exercise of the Creator’s power
and mercy. If faith is weak, it must be strengthened, for only then will it
succeed in obtaining health of body or soul. The Apostle’s words, purifying
their hearts by faith referred, surely, to strong faith like this. And so if the
hearts of believers are purified by faith, we must give thought to this virtue
of faith, for, as the Apostle says, Anyone who doubts is like a wave in the sea.
A faith shown to be living by its love, steadfast by its perseverance,
patient by its endurance of delay, humble by confession. Strong by its
confidence, reverent by its way of presenting petitions, and discerning with
regard to their content – such a faith may be certain that in every place it will
hear the Lord sating: I do want to.
Pondering this wonderful reply put the words together in their proper
sequence. The leper began: Lord, if you want to, and the Savior said: I do
want to. The leper continued: You can make me clean, and the Lord spoke
his powerful word of command: Be clean. All that the sinner’s true confession
maintained with faith, love and power immediately conferred. And in case
the gravity of his sins should make anyone despair, another Evangelist says
this man who was cured had been completely covered with leprosy. For all
have sinned and forfeited the glory of God. Since, as we rightly believe, God’s
power is operative everywhere, we ought to believe the same of his will, for
his will is that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
1
Journey with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – 1999 – pg 80-81.

Blessed Humbeline
2024-02-12
BLESSED HUMBELINE
From the Life of St Bernard 2
◊◊◊
From earliest childhood Humbeline and Bernard had been drawn together
by a special bond of affection and sympathy, due to identity of interests and tastes.
After her marriage, forgetful of her mother’s example and exhortations, she began
to follow the fashions of the world. In 1117 she came to Clairvaux surrounded with
all the splendor of dress and attendants that unlimited wealth could bestow,
thinking, so it seems, that she was doing her brother honor. Her brother Andrew,
the porter, in announcing her arrival, did not omit to describe to his Abbot the
pomp and ceremony that attended her. It grieved Bernard to hear that his beloved
sister had become a worshipper at the shrine of vanity. He refused to see her
himself, nor would he allow any of his brothers to see her, but told Andrew to tell
her from him that with these worldly ornaments she was making herself the devil’s
instrument for the ruin of immortal souls. Andrew delivered the message, adding
on his own: “Why so much solicitude to embellish a body destined for worms and
rottenness, while the soul that now animates it is burning in everlasting flames?”
Humbeline burst into tears, crying out: “I deserve it all because I am a
sinner. Yet it is for such as I that Christ suffered on the Cross. Indeed it is because
of my sinfulness that I seek counsel and encouragement from the saints. If my
brother Bernard, who is the servant of God, despises my body, let him at least have
pity on my soul. Let him come; let him command; and whatever he thinks proper
to enjoin I am prepared to carry out.”
There was no resisting such an appeal. Bernard and his brothers hastened
to meet her and to confirm her in these good dispositions. It was the holy Abbot’s
desire that she should enter religion; but as this was unlawful without her
husband’s consent, he recommended her to live as much as possible like a recluse
in the world, shunning ostentation and all kinds of vanity, and devoting herself,
after her mother’s example, to the service of God and the poor. She promised to do
so.
Five years later, in 1122, having obtained after much resistance her
husband’s consent, she left the world altogether and entered the convent of Jully
where Elizabeth, her sister-in-law was superioress. When the latter went forth
about 1130 to found a new convent in the neighborhood of Dijon, Humbeline was
appointed to succeed her. Under her direction the house flourished greatly; the
noblest ladies of the land sought admission in such numbers that she was forced
to make about a dozen new foundations. She rivaled Bernard himself in her love of
the Cross. Of food and sleep she allowed herself much less than the minimum
which nature demands; her clothes were the meanest she could find, and it was her
happiness to be employed in the humblest occupations. When her nuns begged her
to be more careful of her health, which seemed in danger of breaking down under
such austere practices, she replied: “For you, my dear sisters, whose lives have been
consecrated to the service of God, this is an excellent counsel. But for me, who have
lived so long amidst worldly vanities, no kind of penance can be excessive.”…
Her last hours were consoled by the presence of three of her brothers,
Bernard, Andrew and Nivard… When about to breathe her last she looked with a
radiant smile at Bernard and said: “Oh, how happy I am to have followed your
counsel and consecrated myself to God! And what a beautiful reward I expect to
receive for the love I have entertained for you in this life! It is to that love that I
owe the joy and glory awaiting me in the homeland.” Then turning to the others
she cried out: “I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: we shall go into the
house of the Lord.” With these words, she gave up her spirit.
2 Life and Teaching of St Bernard by Ailbe J. Luddy, O. Cist., pg. 68-69, M.H. Gill & Son, Dublin, 1937.

Office For the Dead
2024-02-13
CHRIST WILL DRAW ALL PEOPLE TO HIMSELF
From a sermon by St Athanasius of Antioch 3
◊◊◊
“To this end Christ died and rose to life that he might be Lord both of the
dead and of the living. But God is not God of the dead, but of the living.”
That is why the dead, now under the dominion of one who has risen to
life, are no longer dead but alive. Therefore life has dominion over them and,
just as Christ having been raised from the dead, will never die again, so too they
will live and never fear death again. When they have been thus raised from the
dead and freed from decay, they shall never again see death, for they will share
in Christ’s resurrection just as he himself shared in their death.
That is why Christ descended into the underworld, with its imperishable
prison-bars: to shatter the doors of bronze and break the bars of iron and, from
decay, to raise our life to himself by giving us freedom in place of servitude.
But if this plan does not yet appear to be perfectly realized – for people
still die and bodies still decay in death – this should not occasion any loss of
faith. For, in receiving the first-fruits, we have already received the pledge of all
the blessings we have mentioned; with them we have reached the heights of
heaven, and we have taken our place beside him who has raised us up with
himself, as Paul says: In Christ God has raised us up with him, and has made us
sit with him in the heavenly places.
And the fulfillment will be ours on the day predestined by the Father,
when we shall put off our childish ways and come to perfect manhood. For this
is the decree of the Father of the ages: the gift, once given, is to be secure and
no more to be rejected by a return to childish attitudes.
There is no need to recall that the Lord rose from the dead with a spiritual
body, since Paul in speaking of our bodies bears witness that they are sown as
animal bodies and raised as spiritual bodies: that is, they are transformed in
accordance with the glorious transfiguration of Christ who goes before us as our
leader.
The Apostle, affirming something he clearly knew, also said that this
would happen to all peoples through Christ, who will change our lowly body to
make it like his glorious body.
If this transformation is a change into a spiritual body and one,
furthermore, like the glorious body of Christ, then Christ rose with a spiritual
body, a body that was sown in dishonor, but the very body that was transformed
in glory.
Having brought this body to the Father as the first-fruits of our nature, he
will also bring the whole body to fulfillment. For he promised this when he said:
I, when I am lifted up, will draw all people to myself.
3 Oratio 5, de Resurrectione Christi, 6-7,9: PG 89,1358-1359. 1361-1362. From the Liturgy of the Hours vol. III, p. 1886.

Ash Wednesday
2024-02-14
RETURN WITH YOUR WHOLE HEART
From a homily by St Faustus of Riez 4
◊◊◊
Our Lord and Savior exhorts us through the prophet and advises us how
we ought to come to Him after many negligences, saying: “Come let us bow
down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord who made us”; and again: “Return
to me with your whole heart, with fasting, with weeping and mourning”. If we
notice carefully, dearest brethren, the holy days of Lent signify the life of the
present world, just as Easter prefigures eternal bliss. Now just as we have a kind
of sadness in Lent in order that we may rightly rejoice at Easter, so as long as
we live in this world we ought to do penance in order that we may be able to
receive pardon for our sins in the future and arrive at eternal joy. Each one
ought to sigh over his own sins, shed tears and give alms in such a way that with
God’s help he may always try to avoid the same faults as long as he lives. Just as
there never has been, is not now, and never will be a soul without slight sins, so
with the help and assistance of God we ought to be altogether without serious
sins.
Now in order that we may obtain this, if burdens of the world keep us
occupied at other times, at least during the holy days of Lent let us reflect on the
law of the Lord, as it is written, by day and by night. Let us so fill our hearts with
the sweetness of the divine law that we leave no place within us devoid of virtues
so that vices could occupy it. Just as at the time of the harvest or
vintage…enough is gathered so that the body may be fed, so during the days of
Lent as at a time of spiritual harvest or vintage we ought to gather the means
whereby our soul may live forever. Whenever a careless person fails to gather
anything at the time of harvest or vintage, he will be distressed by hunger
throughout the entire space of the year. In the same way if anyone at this season
neglects to provide and gather spiritual wheat and heavenly wine in the
storehouse of his soul by fasting, reading and prayer, he will suffer forever the
most severe thirst and cruel want. Know for sure, dearest brethren, that the soul
which is not fed continuously by the word of God is like a body which receives
food only after many days. Just as the body becomes thin and dehydrated,
almost like a shadow, through hunger and want, so the soul which is not fed on
God’s word is found to be parched and useless, fit for no good work. Consider,
brethren, if every year we fill the barn and wine cellar and storehouse in order
that our body may have food for one year, how much do you think we ought to
store up so that our soul may be nourished forever?
4 St Caesarius of Arles, Sermons, vo. 3, The Fathers of the Church, vol. 66, Catholic University of America Press,
Washington DC, 1973, pg. 48.

Thursday After Ash Wednesday
2024-02-15
NOW IS THE TIME
From a sermon by St Leo the Great 5
◊◊◊
“Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold now is the day of salvation”.
For though there is no season that is not filled with the divine gifts, and though
at each moment we have, through His grace, access to the Divine Mercy, yet
now is the time in which the souls of all mortals should be stirred with greater
fervor towards spiritual perfection, and inspired with greater confidence; now
when the return of that day when we were redeemed invites us once more to the
fulfillment of all our sacred duties, so that purified in body and soul we may
celebrate the supreme Mystery of the Passion of Our Lord. Indeed such
unending reverence and unceasing devotion is due to these sacred mysteries,
that we should ever be in the Presence of God as we now are obliged to be for
the worthy celebration of the Paschal Feast.
But since there are few that have this strength of soul, and since because
of the weakness of our flesh, the more severe observance is relaxed, and since
the manifold duties of the present life take up so much of our care, it will happen
that even the most devout of heart are stained with the dust of earth.
Accordingly, with great solicitude has this divine means been given us, so that
these forty days of reflection may assist us to restore the purity of our souls, and
so that during them we may by good works make satisfaction for our past sins,
and by devout mortification purge ourselves of them.
As we are therefore beginning this sacred season, dedicated to the
purification of the soul, let us be careful to fulfill the Apostolic command that
“we cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit”, so that
restraining the conflict that exists between the one and the other substance, the
soul, which in the Providence of God is meant to be the ruler of the body, may
regain the dignity of its rightful authority, so that, giving offence to no one, we
may not incur the punishment of evildoers. For the sum total of our fasting does
not consist in merely abstaining from food. In vain do we deny our body food if
we do not withhold our heart from iniquity, and restrain our lips that they speak
no evil.
We must then so moderate our rightful use of food that our other desires
may be subject to the same rule. For this is also a time for gentleness and
patience, a time of peace and serenity, in which having put away all stains of evil
doing we strive after steadfastness in what is good. Now is the time when
generous Christian souls forgive offences, pay no heed to insults, and wipe out
the memory of past injuries. Now let the Christian soul exercise itself in the
armor of justice, on the right hand and on the left, so that amid honor and
dishonor, evil report and good, the praise of men will not make proud the virtue
that is well rooted, the conscience that has peace, nor dishonor cast it down.
The moderation of those who worship God is blameless.
5 The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, vol. 2, Henry Regnery Co, Chicago, 1958, pg. 29.

Friday After Ash Wednesday
2024-02-16
THIS FAST OF FORTY DAYS
From a sermon by St Maximus the Confessor 6
◊◊◊
We must accept with all reverence…the sacred days of Lent, and not recoil
because of the length of the season; for the longer the days of our fasting, the
greater the grounds of our forgiveness; the longer the time of our self-denial,
the greater the price paid for our soul’s salvation; the severer the treatment of
our wounds, the more sure the healing of our offences. For God who is the
Physician of our souls has instituted an appropriate time; sufficient for the just
to make reparation and for sinners to ask for mercy; the one praying for peace,
the other imploring pardon.
For the days of Lent are suited to our purposes; not short, so that we may
plead in prayer; not long, for our need to gain merit. For in this fast of forty days
any offence may be wiped out, and the severity of any judge softened. The time
may be long and tedious for the one neither pleads for his sins, nor hopes for
forgiveness. For he who despairs will neither confess his sins, nor hope in the
mercy of the Judge.
Holy and salutary therefore is the time of Lent, in which the Judge is
moved to mercy, the sinner to repentance, and the just to peace. For in these
days the Divinity is inclined to be more merciful, the sinner to repent, and grace
to be obtained. All things are now prepared: the heavens to pardon, the sinner
to confess, the tongue to plead.
Mystical and salutary is this number forty. For when in the beginning the
iniquity of mortals covered the earth, God, dissolving the clouds of heaven for
the space of this number of days, covered the whole earth with a flood. You see
then already that in this time the Mystery is put before us in Figure. For as it
then rained for forty days, to cleanse the world, so now it also happens. Yet the
deluge of those days must be called a mercy; in that through it iniquity was
crushed, and justice upheld. For it took place out of mercy, to deliver the just,
and that the wicked might no longer sin. We see clearly it was through mercy it
came, as a sort of baptism, in which the face of the earth was renewed; that is,
so that mortals who wallowed in the dreadful sin of those abandoned might
come to grace in the dwelling of Noah, and so that he who was then an abode of
iniquity, might become a dwelling of holiness.
Holy and dedicated is this time of forty days, which immediately from the
beginning began to divide the just from the unjust; and by a kind of judgment
separate the good from the bad. And this takes place even in our time of forty
days. For in these forty days the good are divided from the bad, that is, the
chaste from the unchaste, the temperate from the intemperate, the Christian
from the heathen. The wicked, as I say, are separated from the good, that is, the
sinner from the just, the devil from the saint, the heretic from the faithful. For
those others are lost, as in the Flood, in the disaster of this world, while the
Church alone, with all its virtues, is like the Ark sustained above the deep.
6 The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, vol. 2, Henry Regnery Co. Chicago, 1958, pg 92.

Saturday After Ash Wednesday
2024-02-17
LIFE RISES THROUGH DEATH
From “The Eternal Year” by Fr Karl Rahner 7
◊◊◊
There is a distance of God that permeates the pious and the impious, that
perplexes the mind and unspeakably terrifies the heart. The pious do not like to
admit it, because they suppose that such a thing should not happen to them
(although the Lord himself cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?”); and the others, the impious, draw false consequences from the admitted
facts.
If this God-distance of choked-up hearts is the ultimate bitterness of the
fasting season of our life, then it is fitting to ask how we are to deal with it,
and…how we can today celebrate the fasting season of the Church. For when
the bitter God-distance becomes a divine service, the fasting season of the world
changes into the fasting season of the Church.
The first thing we have to do is this: stand up and face this God-distance
of a choked-up heart. We have to resist the desire to run away from it either in
pious or in worldly business. We have to endure it without the narcotic of the
world, without the narcotic of sin or of obstinate despair. What God is really far
away from you in this emptiness of heart? Not the true and living God; for he is
precisely the intangible God, the nameless God; and that is why he can really be
the God of your measureless heart. Distant from you is only a God who does not
exist: a tangible God, a God of our small thoughts and our cheap, timid feelings,
a God of earthly security, a God whose concern is that the children don’t cry and
that philanthropy doesn’t fall into disillusion, a very venerable – idol! That is
what has become distant…
Do not be frightened over the loneliness and abandonment of your
interior dungeon, which seems to be so dead – like a grave. For if you stand firm
– this is already a wonder of grace – then you will suddenly perceive that your
grave-dungeon only blocks the futile finiteness; you will become aware that
your deadly void is only the breadth of God’s intimacy, that the silence is filled
up by a word without words, by the one who is above all name and is all in all.
That silence is God’s silence. It tells you that God is there.
That is the second thing you should do in your despair: notice that God is
there. Know with faith that he is with you. Perceive that for a long time now he
has been waiting for you in the deepest dungeon of your blocked-up heart, and
that for a long time he has been quietly listening to you, even though you, after
all the busy noise that we call our life, do not even let him get a word in edgewise,
and his words to the person-you-were-until-now seem only deadly silence. You
shall see that you by no means make a mistake if you give up your anxiety over
yourself and your life, that you by no means make a mistake if you relax your
hold on self, that you are by no means crushed with despair if once and for all
you despair of yourself, of your wisdom and strength, and of the false image of
God that is snatched away from you…
If we do this, then peace comes all by itself. Peace is the most genuine
activity: the silence that is filled with God’s word, the trust that is no longer
afraid, the sureness that no longer needs to be assured, and the strength that is
powerful in weakness – it is, then, the life that rises through death…
7 The Eternal Year, K. Rahner, Helicon: Baltimore MD 1964. pp 68ff.

Skema, 1st Week of Lent
2024-02-18
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
1st Week of Lent

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
February 18 – 24, 2024

Sun
18
Mon
19
Tue
20
Wed
21
Thu
22
Fri
23
Sat
24

Office
1st Sunday of Lent
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Chair of St Peter
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday

Vigils
Deut 3:18-4:8
Deut 4:9-24
Deut 4:25-40
Deut 4:44-5:21
Acts 11:1-18
Deut 6:4-25
Deut 7:1-11

Lauds
Exod 2:23-3:6
Exod 3:7-10
Exod 3:11-15
Exod 3:16-22
Num 27:15-23
Exod 5:1-5
Exod 6:2-9

Mass
23
224
225
226
535
228
229

1st
Gen 9:8-15
Lev 19:1-2, 11-18
Isa 55:10-11
Jonah 3:1-10
1 Pet 5:1-4
Ezek 18:21-28
Deut 26:16-19

2nd
1 Pet 3:18-22

Gospel
Mark 1:12-15
Matt 25:31-46
Matt 6:7-15
Luke 11:29-32
Matt 16:13-19
Matt 5:20-26
Matt 5:43-48

Vespers
Heb 2:10-18
Heb 3:1-6
Heb 3:7-13
Heb 3:14-19
Acts 4:8-13
Heb 4:12-16
Heb 5:1-10

1 st Sunday of Lent
2024-02-18
PREPARE YOUR SOUL FOR AN ORDEAL
From a commentary by John Justus Landsberg 1
◊◊◊
Everything the Lord Jesus decided to do, everything he chose to endure,
was ordained by him for our instruction, our correction, and our advantage, and
since he knew that the teaching and consolation we should derive from it all was
far from negligible, he was loath to let slip any opportunity that might profit us.
And so when he was led out into the wilderness there is no doubt that his guide
was the Holy Spirit whose intention was to take him to a place where he would
be exposed to temptation, a place where the devil would have the audacity to
accost him and put him to the test. The circumstances were so greatly in the
devil’s favor that he was prompted to capitalize on them; here was Jesus alone
at prayer, physically worn out by fasting and abstinence. A chance indeed to
find out whether this man really was the Christ, whether or not he was the Son
of God.
From this episode therefore our first lesson is that human life on earth
is a life of warfare, and the first thing Christians must expect is to be tempted
by the devil. As Scripture tells us, we have to be prepared for temptation, for it
is written: When you enter God’s service, prepare your soul for an ordeal. For
this reason, the Lord desires that newly baptized and recent converts too find
comfort in his own example. Reading in the gospel that Christ too was tempted
by the devil immediately after he was baptized, they will not grow fainthearted
and fearful if they experience keener temptations from the devil after their
conversion or baptism than before – even if persecution should be their lot.
The second lesson Christ desires to impress upon us by his own example
is that we should not lightly expose ourselves to temptation, for we read that it
was the Holy Spirit who led Jesus into the wilderness. Mindful of our frailty
rather, we must be on the watch, praying not to be put to the test, and keeping
ourselves clear of every occasion of temptation.
1
Journey with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – 1999 – pg 82-83.

Lenten Weekday
2024-02-19
THE LIGHT OF LENT
By Thomas Merton 2
◊◊◊
There is confidence everywhere in Lent, yet that does not mean unmixed
and untroubled security. The confidence of the Christian is always a confidence
in spite of darkness and risk, in the presence of peril, with every evidence of
possible disaster. “Let us amend for the better in those things in which we have
sinned through ignorance: lest suddenly overtaken by the day of death we seek
space for repentance and are not able to find it.” The last words are sobering
indeed. And note, it is the sins we have not been fully aware of that we must
amend. Once again, Lent is not just a time for squaring conscious accounts: but
for realizing what we had perhaps not seen before. The light of Lent is given us
to help us with this realization…
Nevertheless the liturgy of Lent is not focused on the sinfulness of the
penitent but on the mercy of God. The question of sinfulness is raised precisely
because this is a time of mercy, and the just do not need a Savior. Nowhere will
we find more tender expressions of the divine mercy than at this season. His
mercy is kind… How good are these words of Wisdom in a time when on all
sides the Lord is thought by mortals to be a God who hates. Those who deny
Him say they do so because evil in the world could be the work only of a God
that hated the world.
But even those who profess to love Him regard Him too often as a furious
Father, who seeks only to punish and revenge Himself for the evil that is done
“against Him” – One who cannot abide the slightest contradiction but will
immediately mark it down for retribution, and will not let a farthing of the debt
go unpaid.
This is not the God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who Himself
“hides” our sins and gets them out of sight, like a mother making quick and
efficient repairs on the soiled face of a child just before entering a house where
he ought to appear clean. The words of the Lenten liturgies know Him only as
the “God who desires not the death of the sinner”, “who is moved by
humiliation and appeased by satisfaction”. He is everywhere shown to us as
“plenteous in mercy”.
And from the infinite treasure of His mercies He draws forth the gift of
compunction. This is a sorrow without servile fear, which is all the more deep
and tender as it receives pardon from the tranquil, calm love of the merciful
Lord… The God of Lent is like a calm sea of mercy. In Him there is no anger.
This “hiding” of God’s severity is not a subterfuge. It is a revelation of His true
nature. He is not severe, and it is not theologically accurate to say that He
becomes angry, that He is moved to hurt and to punish.
He is love. Love becomes severe only to those who make Him severe for
themselves. Love is hard only to those who refuse Him. It is not, and cannot be
Love’s will to be refused. Therefore it is not and cannot be Love’s will to be
severe and punish. But it is the very nature of Love that His absence is sorrow
and death and punishment. His severity flows not from His own nature but
from the fact of our refusal. Those who refuse Him are severe to themselves,
and immolate themselves to the blood-thirsty god of their own self-love. It is
from this idol that Love would deliver us. To such bitter servitude, Love would
never condemn us.
2 Seasons of Celebration – Farrar, Straus & Giroux – NY – 1965 – pg. 118.

Lenten Weekday
2024-02-20
REND YOUR HEARTS,
BUT KEEP YOUR GARMENTS WHOLE
From a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux
3
◊◊◊
If you grieve for your sin or your neighbor’s, you do well, and this sadness
leads to salvation. If you rejoice at the gifts of grace, this is a holy joy and a true
joy in the Holy spirit. You must rejoice in the love of Christ with your brothers,
in their successes and grieve with them in adversity, as it is written: Rejoice with
those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
This does not mean that we should value lightly the physical turning. As
we know, it is no small support for the spiritual. That is why when the Lord had
said “with all your heart” here, he immediately added “with fasting”, for that is
of the body. Yet I would have you warned, my brothers, that that means not only
abstaining from food, but from all fleshly lusts and all bodily pleasures; indeed
you must fast from vices far more than from food. But there is a bread from
which I do not wish you to fast lest you faint on the way; if you do not know
what it is, I am speaking of the bread of tears. The text goes on, with fasting,
with weeping, and with mourning. It demands mourning of us by way of
repentance for our former way of life; it demands weeping with desire for future
beatitude. You do not have sufficient cravings for the joys to come if you do not
beg for them every day with tears; if your soul does not refuse comfort until they
come, then you know too little of them.
Let the Spirit rend your heart with his sword, which is the Word of God;
let him rend it and speedily shatter it into many fragments. There is no way to
turn to the Lord with all your heart except your heart be rent. Listen to one
whom God found to be after his own heart. My heart is ready, O God, my heart
is ready, he says – ready for both adversity and prosperity, ready for what is
low and what is lofty; ready for whatever you command. Who is faithful as David
in his going out and coming in? He used to say of sinners, Their heart is curdled
like milk, but I have meditated on your law. This is the reason for hardness of
heart and obstinacy of mind, that someone does not meditate on the law of the
Lord but on his own will.
Let us rend our hearts, dearly beloved, but keep our garments whole. Our
garments are our virtues; love is a good garment, obedience is a good garment.
Happy is the one who cares for these garments that he may not walk naked.
Happy are those whose sins are covered; love covers a multitude of sins. Let
us rend our hearts, as was said before, that we may keep our garments whole,
as was our Savior’s tunic. The rending of the heart not only keeps the garment
whole, but also makes it long and of many colors, like the coat the holy patriarch
Joseph gave the son whom he loved more than the others. From this comes
perseverance in virtue, from this the many-colored unity of a beautiful way of
life.
We may also take this rending of the heart in another way; if the heart is
wicked it may be rent by confession; if hard, by compassion. Is not an ulcer rent
so that the diseased matter may flow out? Is not the heart rent to overflow in
compassion? Both rendings are expedient, that the poison of sin may not be
hidden in the heart, and we may not shut off our compassion from our
neighbor’s need, that we may receive mercy from Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is
over all, blessed forever.
3 Bernard of Clairvaux – Sermons for Lent – Cistercian Fathers Series – #52 – Collegeville, MN –
pg. 34.

Lenten Weekday
2024-02-21
CAST YOUR CARE UPON THE LORD
From a sermon by St Leo the Great 4
◊◊◊
Apostolic teaching, Beloved, exhorts us that we put off the old man with
his deeds, and renew ourselves from day to day by a holy manner of life. For if
we are the temple of God, and if the Holy Spirit is a Dweller in our souls, as the
Apostle says: You are the temple of the living God; we must strive with all our
vigilance that the dwelling of our heart be not unworthy of so great a Guest. And
just as in houses made with hands, we see to it with praiseworthy diligence that
whatever may be damaged, either through the rain coming in, or by the wind in
storms, or by age itself, is promptly and carefully repaired, so must we with
unceasing concern take care that nothing disordered be found in our souls, that
nothing unclean be found there. For though this dwelling of ours does not
endure without the support of its Maker, nor would the structure be safe
without the watchful care of the Builder, nevertheless, since we are rational
stones, and living material, the Hand of our Maker has so fashioned us, that
even he who is being repaired may cooperate with his Maker.
Let human obedience then not withdraw itself from the grace of God, nor
turn away from that Good without which it cannot be good. And should it find
in the fulfillment of His commands something that is difficult to accomplish or
beyond its powers, let it not remain apart, but rather turn to Him who
commands us, and Who has laid on us this precept that He may both help us
and awaken in us the desire of Him, as the Prophet tells us: Cast your care upon
the Lord, and He will sustain you. Or perhaps there is someone who prides
himself beyond due measure, and who imagines himself to be so untouched, so
unblemished, that he has now no need to renew himself such a belief is wholly
deceiving, and he will grow old in folly. All things are filled with dangers, filled
with snares. Desires inflame us, allurements lie in wait for us, the love of gain
beguiles us, losses frighten us.
But in holding fast to virtue, so faltering is our control, so uncertain our
discernment, that though a person may observe with the utmost fidelity the
lines between what is good and what is bad, it is difficult for the person of
upright conscience to escape the wounding tongue of the slanderer, or for one
who loves justice to avoid the reproaches of the wicked.
When, dearly beloved, should we more fittingly have recourse to the
divine remedies than when, by the very law of time, we are once again reminded
of the mysteries of our redemption? And that we may the more worthily
commemorate them, let us earnestly prepare ourselves by these days of Lent.
For as the apostle says: Whoever thinks that he stands, let him take heed lest
he fall, no one is sustained by such strength of mind that he can be certain of
his own constancy in virtue.
4 The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers – vol. 2 – Henry Regnery Co – Chicago – 1958 – pg 125.

Chair of St. Peter
2024-02-22
THE CHAIR OF ST PETER
By St John Henry Newman 5
◊◊◊
The very first act of the Apostles after Christ was gone out of their sight, was the
ordination of Matthias in the place of the traitor Judas. That ordination is related very
minutely. Every particular of it is full of instruction; but at present I wish to draw attention
to one circumstance more especially: namely, the time when it occurred. It was contrived
(if one may say so) exactly to fall within the very short interval which elapsed between the
departure of our Lord, and the arrival of the Comforter in His place: on that ‘little while,’
during which the Church was comparatively left alone in the world. Then it was that St
Peter rose and declared with authority, that the time was come for supplying the vacancy
which Judas had made. ‘One,’ said he, ‘must be ordained;’ and without delay they proceeded
to the ordination. Of course, St Peter must have had from our Lord express authority for
this step. Otherwise it would seem most natural to defer a transaction so important until the
unerring Guide, the Holy Spirit, should have come among them, as they knew he would in
a few days.
On the other hand, since the Apostles were eminently Apostles of our Incarnate
Lord, since their very being, as Apostles, depended entirely on their personal mission from
him…one should naturally have expected that he himself before his departure would have
supplied the vacancy by personal designation. But we see it was not his pleasure to do so.
As the Apostles afterwards brought on the ordination sooner, so he had deferred it longer
than might have been expected. Both ways it should seem as if there were a purpose of
bringing the event within those ten days, during which, as I said, the church was left to
herself; left to exercise her faith and hope, much as Christians are left now, without any
miraculous aid or extraordinary illumination from above. Then, at that moment of the New
Testament history in which the circumstances of believers corresponded most nearly to
what they have been since miracles and inspiration ceased, — just at that time it pleased our
Lord that afresh Apostle should be consecrated, with authority and commission as ample
as the former enjoyed. In a word, it was his will that the eleven Disciples alone, not himself
personally, should name the successor of Judas; and that they chose the right person, he
gave testimony very soon after, by sending his Holy Spirit on St Matthias, as richly as on
St John, St James, or St Peter.
5 Tracts For the Times, Vol.ii No.52.

Lenten Weekday
2024-02-23
BEHOLD, NOW IS THE ACCEPTABLE TIME
From a sermon of St Aelred of Rievaulx 6
◊◊◊
These forty days are called an acceptable time and named a day of salvation, because during these days the Lord cleanses and sanctifies his church through fasting. That is why the Lenten fast was established by the holy fathers, so that whatever is lacking in us during the year may be purified and made clean for the remaining times, generally by fasting in this holy observance…
Moses fasted for forty days and nights so that he would merit to receive the law. And through fasting he merited to have an audience before God and to see God face to face. So let anyone who desires to approach the Lord love fasting… Although we do not presume to investigate secret and profound mysteries of divinity, let us nonetheless gain acquaintance with God as much as we can. To do so we must still prepare and train ourselves; that way we might contemplate God here as through a mirror and obscurely, and in the future we might see him face to face…
That forgiveness of sins is given generously through fasting, we see manifestly among the Ninevite penitents who took refuge in repentance and reconciled themselves to God through fasting… when the Lord had threatened them, through the prophet, with death and overthrow of the city. In fact, the wise king also learned to avoid the danger; having laid aside royal finery and sitting in ashes, he exhausted his flesh with fasting, ordering not only human beings but even beasts to fast and to cry out to God through fasting with courage. Thus they evaded the overturn of the Ninevite city and peril of death…
Even Christ, King and Lord of prophets, who founded and sanctified fasting, before he was tempted by the devil fasted forty days and nights, to teach that the adversary is to be overcome through fasting. The Lord let an example for us, so if we want a full victory over the devil, the world and the flesh, then let us take refuge in the weapons of fasting, by which the devil is slaughtered, the world is conquered, and every attachment of the flesh is expelled…
Finally we must offer to God repentance in all of our sacrifices, always repenting that we either overlooked the good or continued in evil… Because therefore the measure of repentance must be weighted according to the measure of sin, it is necessary to produce fruit repentance. If your suffering in correction is less than was your enjoyment in the fault, then the fruit of your repentance is not worthy…
Still, so that a sinning conscience might be consoled, the method and measure of exterior repentance have been set; as the conscience is satisfied and perfected you begin to have confidence, and with a certain holy anticipation in the hope of divine mercy, you have confidence pardon and forgiveness of sins, so the more truly then — the more sincerely you fulfill the imposed repentance… To the extent that we attain full and perfect pardon we may also merit eternal glory.
6 Aelred of Rievaulx. The Liturgical Sermons: The Reading-Cluny Collection, 1 of 2 – Sermons 85-133. Trans. Daniel Griggs. Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2021. 108-115.

Lenten Weekday
2024-02-24
GOD’S LOVE POURED OUT
From a commentary by Origen 7
◊◊◊
St. Paul has told us that the love of God has been poured into our hearts
by the Holy Spirit. Now in his desire to demonstrate the power of that love more
fully, he gives us the convincing proof that it was not for good people but for
sinners that Christ died. It is indeed true that we were sinners before we turned
to God and that our Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life for us before we believed
in him. This he surely could not have done without an immense love for us,
either the love that he himself showed by dying for sinners or the love God the
Father showed by giving his only Son for our redemption.
Few people would give their lives even for a just person, and all of us face
death with reluctance, even in a just cause. How great a Savior we have, then,
and how deeply we ought to ponder his love for us! It is a clear proof of his
divine goodness that when the time appointed came, he did not hesitate to
suffer and die for the wicked and unjust. In the gospel it is said that no one is
good but God the Father; and so unless our Savior had been his Son, sharing in
the Father’s very substance, he could not have shown such great goodness
toward us. By this proof, therefore, we can recognize in him that good man for
whom someone might have the courage to die.
Once people have understood the extent of Christ’s goodness toward
them and his love has been poured into their hearts, they will long not only to
die for this good man Christ, but to die voluntarily. In fact we often see this
happen, when Christians whose hearts are overflowing with love for Christ
present themselves before their persecutors of their own free will and with the
utmost courage, confessing the name of Christ in the presence of angels and
men for the whole world to hear. Not only do they have the courage to suffer
injustice for the name of this good man, but for his sake they are even ready to
give their lives. Few would do this even for a just person, since our love of this
mortal life is so great that even in a just cause hardly anyone can bear to die.
Only for God’s sake will people have the courage to submit to death of their own
free will. For any other reason they can scarcely endure it, even in the cause of
justice and in obedience to the law of nature.
God has proven his love for us; it was while we were still sinners that
Christ died for us. Since we are justified by the shedding of his blood, how can
we doubt that he will save us from the wrath to come?
The Apostle has told us that at the appointed time Christ died for the
wicked. Now he is showing us how this reveals God’s immeasurable love for the
human race. If the love of God for ungodly sinners was so great that he could
give his only Son for their salvation, he says, how much more abundantly will
his love be poured out upon those who have turned to him in repentance and
whom he has redeemed by his Son’s own blood.
7 Origen, Lib.4,10-11; PG 14, 997-999.
