Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Skema
2024-05-26
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
8th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
May 26 – June 1, 2024

Sun
26
Mon
27
Tue
28
Wed
29
Thu
30
Fri
31
Sat
1

Office
Most Holy Trinity
St Augustine of Canterbury
Weekday
St Paul VI
Office for the Dead
Visitation of the BVM
St Justin Martyr

Vigils
1 Cor 2:1-16
Judg 1:1-21
Judg 1:22-36
Judg 2:1-23
Judg 3:1-11
Song 2:8-14; 8:6-7
Judg 3:12-31

Lauds
Sir 42:15-25
Joel 2:18-19, 23-27
Joel 3:1-5
Joel 4:1-3, 11-16
Joel 4:17-21
Zech 2:10-17
Amos 1:1-5

Mass
165
347
348
349
350
351
352

1st
Deut 4:32-34, 39-40
1 Pet 1:3-9
1 Pet 1:10-16
1 Pet 1:18-25
1 Pet 2:2-5, 9-12
1 Pet 4:7-13
Jude 17, 20b-25

2nd
Rom 8:14-17

Gospel
Matt 28:16-20
Mark 10:17-27
Mark 10:28-31
Mark 10:32-45
Mark 10:46-52
Mark 11:11-26
Mark 11:27-33

Vespers
1 Jn 5:1-8
Gal 5:7-15
Gal 5:16-26
Gal 6:1-10
Gal 6:11-18
Gal 4:1-7
Acts 2:42-47

Vigils Reading - Holy Trinity Sunday
2024-05-26
WE ACKNOWLEDGE THE TRINITY
A commentary by St Athanasius1
◊◊◊
It will not be out of place to consider the ancient tradition, teaching and
faith of the Catholic Church, which was revealed by the Lord, proclaimed by the
apostles, and guarded by the fathers. For upon this faith the Church is built, and
if anyone were to lapse from it, that person would no longer be a Christian either
in fact or in name.
We acknowledge the Trinity, holy and perfect, to consist of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. In this Trinity there is no intrusion of any alien
element or of anything from outside, nor is the Trinity a blend of creative and
created being. It is a wholly creative and energizing reality, self-consistent and
undivided in its active power, for the father makes all things through the Word
and in the Holy Spirit, and in this way the unity of the Holy Trinity is preserved.
Accordingly in the Church, one God is preached, one God who is above all
things and through all things and in all things. God is above all things as
Father, for he is the principle and source; he is through all things through the
Word; and he is in all things in the Holy Spirit.
Writing to the Corinthians about spiritual matters, Paul traces all reality
back to the one God, the Father, saying: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the
same Spirit; and varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are
varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in everyone.
Even the gifts that the Spirit dispenses to individuals are given by the
Father through the Word. For all that belongs to the Father belongs also to the
Son, and so the graces given by the Son in the Spirit are true gifts of the Father.
Similarly, when the Spirit dwells in us, the Word who bestows the Spirit is in us
too, and the Father is present in the Word. This is the meaning of the text: My
Father and I will come to him and make our home with him. For where the
light is, there also is the radiance; and where the radiance is, there too are its
power and resplendent grace.
This is also Paul’s teaching in his Second Letter to the Corinthians: The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit be with you all. For grace and the gift of the Trinity are given by the
Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Just as grace is given from the Father
through the Son, so there could be no communication of the gift to us except in
the Holy Spirit. But when we share in the Spirit, we possess the love of the
Father, the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the Spirit himself.

1 A Word in Season – vol. III – Exordium Books – 1983 – pg 224.3

Vigils Reading - St Augustine of Canterbury
2024-05-27
ST. AUGUSTINE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
From the writing of Alban Butler2
◊◊◊
When Pope St. Gregory the Great decided that the time had come for the
evangelization of Anglo-Saxon England, he chose as missionaries some thirty or more
monks from his monastery of St. Andrew… As their leader he gave them their own
prior, Augustine. The party set out from Rome in the year 596; but no sooner had
they arrived in Provence than they were assailed with warnings about the ferocity of
the Anglo-Saxons and the dangers of the Channel. Greatly discouraged, they
persuaded Augustine to return to Rome and obtain leave to abandon the enterprise.
St. Gregory, however, had received definite assurance that the English were well
disposed towards the Christian faith; he therefore sent Augustine back to his brethren
with words of encouragement which gave them heart to proceed on their way.
They landed in the Isle of Thanet in the territory of Ethelbert, king of Kent, who
was baptized at Pentecost 597. Almost immediately afterwards St. Augustine paid a
visit to France, where he was consecrated bishop of the English by St. Virgilius,
metropolitan of Arles. At Christmas of that same year, many of Ethelbert’s subjects
were baptized… Augustine sent two of his monks, Laurence and Peter, to Rome to
give a full report of his mission, to ask for more helpers and obtain advice on various
points. They came back bringing the pallium for Augustine and accompanied by a
fresh band of missionaries, amongst whom were St. Mellitus, St. Justus and St.
Paulinus.
Gregory outlined for Augustine the course he should take to develop a
hierarchy for the whole country, and both to him and to Mellitus gave very practical
instructions on other points. Pagan temples were not to be destroyed, but were to be
purified and consecrated for Christian worship. Local customs were as far as possible
to be retained, days of dedication and feasts of martyrs being substituted for heathen
festivals.
In Canterbury itself St. Augustine rebuilt an ancient church which, with an old
wooden house, formed the nucleus for his metropolitan basilica and for the later
monastery of Christ Church. These buildings stood on the site of the present cathedral
begun by Lanfranc in 1070. Outside the walls of Canterbury he made a monastic
foundation, which he dedicated in honour of St. Peter and St. Paul. After his death this
abbey became known as St. Augustine’s, and was the burial place of the early
archbishops.
Cut off from much communication with the outside world, the British church
clung to certain usages at variance with those of the Roman tradition. St. Augustine
invited the leading ecclesiastics to meet him at some place just on the confines of
Wessex, still known in Bede’s day as Augustine’s Oak. There he urged them to comply
with the practices of the rest of Western Christendom, and more especially to co-
operate with him in evangelizing the Anglo-Saxons. Fidelity to their local traditions,
however, made them unwilling. A second conference proved a said failure. Because
St. Augustine failed to rise when they arrived, the British bishops decided that he was
lacking in humility and would neither listen to him nor acknowledge him as their
metropolitan.
The saint’s last years were spent in spreading and consolidating the faith
throughout Ethelbert’s realm, and episcopal sees were established at London and
Rochester. About seven years after his arrival in England, St. Augustine passed to his
reward, on May 26, 605.
2Butler’s Lives of Saints. Harper, 1991, pp. 158-159.5

LCG Caritas Meeting
2024-05-27 18:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87376092232?pwd=[REDACTED]

Vigils Reading
2024-05-28
TRINITARIAN FAITH
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church3
◊◊◊
From the beginning, the revealed truth of the Holy Trinity has been at the
very root of the Church’s living faith, principally by means of Baptism. It finds its
expression in the rule of baptismal faith, formulated in the preaching, catechesis,
and prayer of the Church. Such formulations are already found in the apostolic
writings, such as this salutation taken up in the Eucharistic liturgy: “The grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be
with you all.”
During the first centuries the Church sought to clarify its Trinitarian faith,
both to deepen its own understanding of the faith and to defend it against errors
that were deforming it. This clarification was the work of the early councils, aided
by the theological work of the Church Fathers and sustained by the Christian
people’s sense of the faith.
The Church uses the term “substance” (rendered also at times by “essence”
or “nature”) to designate the divine being in its unity, the term “person” or
“hypostasis” to designate the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the real distinction
among them, and the term “relation” to designate the fact that their distinction
lies in the relationship of each to the others.
We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the
“consubstantial Trinity“. The divine persons do not share the one divinity among
themselves but each of them is God whole and entire: “The Father is that which
the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which
3 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994, Liberia Editrice Vaticana, USCC, pgs. 66-67.7
the Holy Spirit is… by nature one God“. In the words of the Fourth Lateran
Council: “Each of the persons is that supreme reality ”
…
“Father“,”Son“,”Holy Spirit” are not simply names designating modalities
of the divine being, for they are really distinct from one another: “He is not the
Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit
he who is the Father or the Son.” They are distinct from one another in their
relations of origin: “It is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and
the Holy Spirit who proceeds.” The divine Unity is Trinity.
Because it does not divide the divine unity, the real distinction of the
persons from one another resides solely in the relationships which relate them to
one another: “In the relational names of the persons the Father is related to the
Son, the Son to the Father, and the Holy Spirit to both. While they are called three
persons in view of their relations, we believe in one nature or substance.” Indeed
“everything (in them) is one where there is no opposition of relationship.”
…Inseparable in what they are, the divine persons are also inseparable in what
they do. But within the single divine operation each shows forth what is proper
to him in the Trinity, especially in the divine missions of the Son’s Incarnation
and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Vigils Reading - St Paul VI
2024-05-29
ONE MUST KNOW HUMANITY
IN ORDER TO KNOW GOD
From a homily by St Pope Paul VI4
◊◊◊
God is! God truly exists. He lives, a personal, provident God, possessed of
an infinite goodness. And indeed, he is good, not only in himself, but most
especially also toward us. He is our creator, our truth, our happiness. Therefore,
when one strives, as a human being, to fix one’s mind and heart on God with
the self-emptying that leads to contemplation, one engages in an activity of the
soul that can be considered the noblest and most perfect of all; it is an activity,
we would say, that countless fields of human endeavor in our day could and
should pursue to the highest level…
Human beings continually lament their lot. In the past and even now they
judge others inferior to themselves, and therefore, can be continuously
overbearing and secretive, greedy, and aggressive. Unhappy with themselves,
they either laugh or weep… They are a worthy object of religious reflection on
account of the innocence of their infancy, the mystery of their need, and the
tender love that their sorrows incite; initially they think only of themselves, and
only later care for society at large. They praise times past and at the same time
long for what is to come, dreaming that it will be happier than what went before;
on the one hand they can be guilty of terrible crimes and on the other show signs
of a holy life. And so it goes on…

The religion that is the worship of God who desired to become man, and
a religion which is the worship of ‘man’ who wishes to become like God, are
continually in conflict with each other…
Since this is how things are, it is true to say that the Catholic religion and
human life are united in a friendly alliance, and that each works together with
the other for the common human good. The Catholic religion is on the side of
the human race, and it is, in a certain way, the life of the human race. Indeed, it
should be called ‘the life’ because of the sublime doctrine, perfect from every
point of view, which it gives us about humanity; it hands on this doctrine
reliably because it has its knowledge from God. For in order for us deeply to
know humanity, true humanity, integral humanity, it is necessary that we first
know God himself…
Let us remember that the face of Christ, the Son of Man, is to be seen in
every human face, especially one marked with tears and sorrows; and when we
recognize the face of the heavenly Father in the face of Christ,—as he says,
“Whoever sees me, sees the Father,”—then our way of appraising human
concerns is transformed into Christianity, which is completely centered on God.
Therefore, we can only describe things in this way: namely, that in order that
God be known it is necessary to know the human person. Let us then strive to
attain a love for the human person, not as a means to an end, but rather as a
primary end point, by way of which we come to our final end which transcends
all human realities.
4 From the Homilies of Saint Paul VI, Pope (At the last public session of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, December 7,
1965: AAS 58 [1966], 53, 55-56, 58-59)9

Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
2024-05-30
THE POWER OF THE RISEN CHRIST
From “The Mystery of Time” by Fr Jean Mouroux5
◊◊◊
Christ died to deliver us from the condemnation to eternal death and from
the fear which enslaves the sinner. He has conquered death, the child of sin,
because he has conquered sin itself. He has undergone death to destroy it. He
has overcome this radical contradiction by elevating us to a participation in his
risen life, in “life eternal.” Death has not yet been completely eradicated, but it
has been completely transformed. Christ has delivered us all to the Cross
because He, the Head of mankind, the Center of the redeemed universe, the
Savior, “bore us all in Himself” during his sacrifice. Thus “if one died for all,
then all were dead”, and all are saved from the satanical power of death. It is
love, not damnation, which envelops us and restores us to God. It envelops us
as individuals: “He loved me, and delivered himself for me”; as members of the
race: he “loved us, and has delivered himself for us”; and as members of the
Church: he “loved the Church, and delivered himself up for it”.
It’s infinite blessing affects our personal life at baptism, where with Christ
we “are dead to sin, but alive to God”. The power of the Risen Christ dwells in
us that “we may walk in the newness of life,” that each day we may cast sin
farther away and crown our lives with the divine agape. The life of Christians in
time is a paradoxical one. They are dead to sin, yet must die to it each day; they
live in God, and must live for him each day; they are the battleground of an
eschatological struggle in which Christ the Conqueror faces the vanquished
devil, that he may triumph once again in the freedom of a regenerated heart. By
immersing himself ever more deeply into baptism and Christ, the Christian
grows with Christ and brings about his victory even in death.
Insofar as he lives in Christ, the Christian is totally enveloped by Christ
both before and after death. Before death, Christ is the life-giving, saving Lord.
After death, he calls, judges, purifies, and transfigures the life he has given. Here
below, he communicates the seed of immortality, especially in the Eucharist.
Up above, He will be the source of glory which will transform our soul and our
body. The Eternal One is present before and after death. So at our death Christ
is present as the Savior who protects Christians from the last assault of the evil
one, revives their flagging spirits, and leads them from the time of testing to
their eternal reward.
Christ is the Mediator through whom and in whom every Christian
experiences death. Externally, death still seems to be a terrible process of
annihilation. But internally it is the mysterious maturation of the new creature
in Jesus Christ. “This is the will of my Father who sent me: that every one who
sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise them on
the last day”….

5 New York-Tournai-Paris-Rome, 1964, pp. 307-308.11

Vigils Reading - Visitation of BVM
2024-05-31
THE FULLNESS OF GRACE
From the encyclical Redemptoris Mater by St John Paul II6
◊◊◊
Immediately after the narration of the Annunciation, the Evangelist Luke
guides us in the footsteps of the Virgin of Nazareth towards “a city of Judah”.
Mary arrived there “in haste”, to visit Elizabeth her kinswoman. The reason for
her visit is also to be found in the fact that at the Annunciation Gabriel had made
special mention of Elizabeth, who in her old age had conceived a son by her
husband Zechariah, through the power of God… The divine messenger had
spoken of what had been accomplished in Elizabeth in order to answer Mary’s
question: “How shall this be, since I have no husband?”. It is to come to pass
precisely through the “Power of the Most High”, just as it happened in the case
of Elizabeth, and even more so.
Moved by charity, therefore, Mary goes to the house of her kinswoman.
When Mary enters, Elizabeth replies to her greeting and feels the child leap in
her womb, and being “filled with the Holy Spirit” she greets Mary with a loud
cry: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”
….
While every word of Elizabeth’s greeting is filled with meaning, her final words,
would seem to have fundamental importance: “And blessed is she who believed
that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord”
.
These words can be linked with the title “full of grace” of the angel’s greeting.
Both of these texts reveal an essential Mariological content, namely the truth
about Mary who has become really present in the mystery of Christ precisely
because she “had believed”. The fullness of grace announced by the angel
means the gift of God himself. Mary’s faith, proclaimed by Elizabeth at the
Visitation, indicates how the Virgin of Nazareth responded to this gift…

Indeed, at the Annunciation Mary entrusted herself to God completely,
with the “full submission of intellect and will”, manifesting “the obedience of
faith” to him who spoke to her through his messenger. She responded,
therefore, with all her human and feminine “I”…. By accepting this
announcement, Mary was to become the “Mother of the Lord,” and the divine
mystery of the Incarnation was to be accomplished in her… Mary uttered this
fiat in faith. In faith she entrusted herself to God without reserve and devoted
herself totally as the handmaid of the Lord to the person and work of her son.
And this Son – as the Fathers of the Church teach – she conceived in her
mind before she conceived him in her womb: precisely in faith! Rightly
therefore does Elizabeth praise Mary: “And blessed is she who believed that
there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” These
words have already been fulfilled: Mary of Nazareth presents herself at the
threshold of Elizabeth and Zechariah’s house as the Mother of the Son of God.
This is Elizabeth’s joyful discovery: “The mother of my Lord comes to me”.

6 Published by the United States Catholic Conference, Washington, DC; ’12ff.13

Vigils Reading - St Justin Martyr
2024-06-01
ST JUSTIN MARTYR
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints
◊◊◊
Justin was a Greek from Samaria who became Christian about the year
115. He is the first notable Christian philosopher. He was born at Nablus in
Samaria. He was not a Jew, either by birth or by religion. He was a Greek and
was given a classical Greek education. He studied rhetoric, poetry and history,
and then turned to philosophy, searching, as he himself said, for the “vision of
God”. He traveled widely, joining philosophy schools in Ephesus and
Alexandria, and he was attracted to the schools of the Stoics, the Peripatetic’s
and the Pythagoreans. In Platonism, he found some of the answers to the
questions he was asking, and he was trained in dialectic.
One day while walking by the seashore, probably at Ephesus, he met a
respectable old man who told him about the Hebrew prophets and Christianity.
Justin wrote: “My spirit was immediately set on fire, and an affection for the
prophets and for those who are friends of Christ took hold of me. I discovered
that his was the only sure and useful philosophy.”
In Christianity he found the answer to his search. He taught at Ephesus.
He debated publicly with the Jews and the Gnostics and with those who
worshipped the Roman gods. In about the year 150 he went to Rome where he
taught the Christian apologetics, founded a school of philosophy and wrote his
major works. Justin wrote an intellectual defense of Christian beliefs against
outside attacks.
He is said to have lived a very ascetic and austere life. His pleasure was in
public debates. Justin’s fearless defense of Christianity and his thorough
demolition of his opponents must have made him many enemies.15
His martyrdom took place in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, and an
authentic record of the proceedings survives. He stated his beliefs, refused to
sacrifice to the Roman gods, and accepted suffering and death as the means to
salvation. He was beheaded with six other Christians about the year 165.

Skema
2024-06-02
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
9th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
June 2 – 8, 2024

Sun
2
Mon
3
Tue
4
Wed
5
Thu
6
Fri
7
Sat
8

Office
Corpus Christi
St Charles Lwanga & Companions
Weekday
St Boniface
St Norbert
Sacred Heart of Jesus
Immaculate Heart of Mary

Vigils
Nehemiah 9:9-21
Judg 4:1-24
Judg 5:1-31
Judg 6:1-18
Judg 6:19-40
Jerm 30:18-31:5, 18-20
Judg 7:1-22

Lauds
Wis 16:20-28
Amos 1:6-10
Amos 1:11-15
Amos 2:1-5
Amos 2:6-16
Ezek 36:22-28
Amos 3:1-8

Mass
168
353
354
355
356
171
358, 573

1st
Exod 24:3-8
2 Pet 1:2-7
2 Pet 3:12-15a, 17-18
2 Tim 1:1-3, 6-12
2 Tim 2:8-15
Hos 11:1, 3-4, 8c-9
2 Tim 4:1-8

2nd
Heb 9:11-15

Eph 3:8-12, 14-19

Gospel
Mark 14:12-16, 22-26
Mark 12:1-12
Mark 12:13-17
Mark 12:18-27
Mark 12:28-34
John 19:31-37
Luke 2:41-51

Vespers
Heb 9:18-22
Phil 1:1-11
Phil 1:12-18a
Phil 1:18b-26
Rom 5:6-11
Rom 8:28-39
Phil 1:27-30

Vigils Reading - Corpus Christi
2024-06-02
THE BODY OF CHRIST
From a commentary by St Augustine1
◊◊◊
You see on God’s altar bread and a cup. That is what the evidence of your
eyes tells you, but your faith requires you to believe that the bread is the body
of Christ, the cup the blood of Christ. In these few words we can say perhaps all
that faith demands.
Faith, however, seeks understanding; so you may now say to me: “You
have told us what we have to believe, but explain it so that we can understand
it, because it is quite possible for someone to think along these lines: We know
from whom our Lord Jesus Christ took his flesh – it was from the Virgin Mary.
As a baby, he was suckled, he was fed, he developed, he came to young man’s
estate. He was slain on the cross, he was taken down from it, he was buried, he
rose again on the third day. On the day of his own choosing, he ascended to
heaven, taking his body with him; and it is from heaven that he will come to
judge the living and the dead. But now that he is there, seated at the right hand
of the Father, how can bread be his body? And the cup, or rather what is in the
cup, how can that be his blood?”
These things, my friends, are called sacraments, because our eyes see in
them one thing, our understanding another. Our eyes see the material form;
our understanding, its spiritual effect. If, then, you want to know what the body
of Christ is, you must listen to what the Apostle tells the faithful: Now you are
the body of Christ, and individually you are members of it.

If that is so, it is the sacrament of yourselves that is placed on the Lord’s
altar, and it is the sacrament of yourselves that you receive. You reply “Amen”
to what you are, and thereby agree that such you are. You hear the words “The
body of Christ” and you reply “Amen.” Be, then, a member of Christ’s body, so
that your “Amen” may accord with the truth.
Yes, but why all this in bread? Here let us not advance any ideas of our
own, but listen to what the Apostle says over and over again when speaking of
this sacrament: Because there is one loaf, we, though we are many, form one
body. Let your mind assimilate that and be glad, for there you will find unity,
truth, piety, and love. He says, one loaf. And who is this one loaf? We, though
we are many, form one body. Now bear in mind that bread is not made of a
single grain, but of many. Be, then, what you see, and receive what you are.
So much for what the Apostle says about the bread. As for the cup, what
we have to believe is quite clear, although the Apostle does not mention it
expressly. Just as the unity of the faithful, which holy Scripture describes in the
words: They were of one mind and heart in God, should be like the kneading
together of many grains into one visible loaf, so with the wine. Think how wine
is made. Many grapes hang in a cluster, but their juice flows together into an
indivisible liquid.
It was thus that Christ our Lord signified us, and his will that we should belong
to him, when he hallowed the sacrament of our peace and unity on his altar.
Anyone, however, who receives this sacrament of unity and does not keep the
bond of peace, does not receive it to his profit, but as a testimony against
himself.

1 Journey with the Fathers: Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels – Year A. Ed. Edith Barnecut, OSB.
New York: New City Press, 1992. 76-77.3

Vigils Reading - St Charles Lwanga & Companions
2024-06-03
THE MARTYRS OF UGANDA
From a homily by St Pope Paul VI2
◊◊◊
The African martyrs add another page to the martyrology – the Church’s
roll of honor – an occasion both of mourning and of joy. This is a page worthy
in every way of being added to the annals of that Africa of earlier times, which
we, living in this era and being people of little faith, never expected to be
repeated.
In earlier times there occurred those famous deeds, so moving to the
spirit, of the martyrs of Scilli, of Carthage, and of that “white robed army” of
Utica commemorated by Saint Augustine and Prudentius; of the martyrs of
Egypt so highly praised by Saint John Chrysostom, and of the martyrs of the
Vandal persecution. Who would have thought that in our days we should have
witnessed events as heroic and glorious?
Who would have predicted to the famous African confessors and martyrs
such as Cyprian, Felicity, Perpetua and – the greatest of all – Augustine, that
we would one day add names so dear to us as Charles Lwanga and Matthias
Mulumba Kalemba and their twenty companions? Nor must we forget those
members of the Anglican Church who also died in the name of Christ.
These African martyrs herald the dawn of a new age. If only the human
mind might be directed not toward persecutions and religious conflicts but
toward a rebirth of Christianity and civilization! Africa has been washed by the
blood of these latest martyrs, the first of this new age (and God willing, let them
be the last, although such a holocaust is precious indeed). Africa is reborn free
and independent.

2 The Liturgy of the Hours – vol II – Catholic Book Publishing Co. – New York – 1976 – p 1860.5

Vigils Reading
2024-06-04
THE GREATEST OF ALL HIS MIRACLES
By St Thomas Aquinas3
◊◊◊
Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that we should share in
his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he might
make us divine. Moreover, when he took our flesh he dedicated the whole of its
substance to our salvation. He offered his body to God the Father on the altar
of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation. He shed his blood for our
ransom and purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state
of bondage and cleansed from all sin. But to ensure that the memory of so great
a gift would abide with us forever, he left his body as food and his blood as drink
for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.
O precious and wonderful banquet that brings us salvation and contains
all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old law it
was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered, but here Christ himself, the
true God, is set before us as our food. What could be more wonderful than this?
No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away,
virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every
spiritual gift. It is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what
was instituted for the salvation of all may be of benefit to all. Yet in the end no
one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament, in which spiritual delight
is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that
surpassing love for us which Christ revealed in his passion.
It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of
the faithful that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper. As he
was on the point of leaving the world to go to the Father, after celebrating the
Passover with his disciples, he left it as a perpetual memorial of his passion. It
was the fulfillment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles, while
for those who were to experience the sorrow of his departure, it was destined to
be a unique and abiding consolation.

3 Opusculujm 57 – Feast of Corpus Christi. A Word in Season – vol. III – Exordium Books –
Riverdale, MD – pg 2287

Vigils Reading - St Boniface
2024-06-05
ST BONIFACE
The Apostle of Germany4
◊◊◊
In art and religion, in scholarship and literature, the Anglo-Saxons of the
eighth century were the leaders of their age. At the time when continental
civilization was at its lowest ebb, the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons marked
the turn of the tide. The Saxon pilgrims flocked to Rome as the center of the
Christian world and the Papacy found its most devoted allies and servants in
the Anglo-Saxon monks and missionaries. The foundations of the new age were
laid by the greatest of them all, St Boniface of Crediton, “the apostle of
Germany”, a man who had a deeper influence on the history of Europe than any
Englishman who has ever lived.
Unlike his Celtic predecessors, he was not an individual missionary, but
a statesman and organizer, who was, above all, servant of the Roman order. To
him is due the foundation of the medieval German Church and the final
conversion of Hesse and Thuringia, the heart of the German land. With the help
of his Anglo-Saxon monks and nuns he destroyed the last strongholds of
Germanic heathenism and planted abbeys and bishoprics on the site of the old
Folkburgs and heathen sanctuaries, such as Buraburg, Amoneburg, and Fulda.
On his return from Rome in 739 he used his authority as Papal Vicar in Germany
to reorganize the Bavarian Church and to establish the new dioceses which had
so great an importance in German history.
For Germany beyond the Rhine was still a land without cities, and the
foundation of the new bishoprics meant the creation of new centers of cultural
life. It was through the work of St Boniface that Germany first became a living
member of the European society. But in addition to this, Boniface was the
reformer of the whole Frankish church. The decadent Merovingian dynasty
had already given up the substance of its power to the mayors of the palace, but
in spite of their military prowess, which saved France from conquest by the
Arabs in 735, they had done nothing for culture and had only furthered the
degradation of the Frankish Church. Charles Martel had used the abbeys and
bishoprics to reward his lay partisans, and had carried out a wholesale
secularization of Church property. As Boniface wrote to the Pope, “Religion is
trodden under foot. Benefices are given to greedy laymen or unchaste and
publican clerics. All their crimes do not prevent their attaining the priesthood;
at last rising in rank as they increase in sin they become bishops, and those of
them who can boast that they are not adulterers or fornicators, are drunkards,
given up to the chase, and soldiers who do not shrink from shedding Christian
blood.”
Nevertheless, the successors of Charles Martel, Pepin and Carloman,
were favorable to Boniface’s reforms. Armed with his special powers as Legate
of the Holy See and personal representative of the Pope, he undertook the
desecularization of the Frankish Church.

4 Dawson, Christopher. “The Making of Europe”, New York, 1956, pp 185-186.9

Vigils Reading - St Norbert
2024-06-06
ST NORBERT
The Patron of Peace5
◊◊◊
Norbert is deservedly numbered by historians among those who made an
effective contribution to the reform movement under Pope Gregory VII. He
established a clergy dedicated to the ideals of the Gospel and the apostolic
Church. They were chaste and poor. They wore “the clothing and the symbols
of the new man; that is to say, they wore the religious habit and exhibited the
dignity proper to the priesthood.” Norbert asked them to “live according to the
norms of the Scriptures with Christ as their model.” They were “to be clean in
all matters pertaining to the altar and divine worship, to correct their faults and
failings in their chapter meeting, and to care for and give shelter to the poor.”
The priests lived in community, where they continued the work of the
apostles. Inspired by the practice of the early Church, Norbert exhorted the
faithful to join the monastic life in some capacity. So many men and women
responded to the invitation that many asserted that no man since the apostles
themselves had inspired so many to embrace the monastic life.
When Norbert was appointed an archbishop, he urged his brothers to
carry the faith to the lands of the Wends. In his own diocese he tried
unsuccessfully to convince the clergy of the need for reform and was confronted
with noisy protests both in the street and in the church.
One of the principal goals of Norbert’s life was to foster harmony between
the Apostolic See and the German empire. At the same time he wanted to
maintain Rome’s freedom in the matter of ecclesiastical appointments.

Apparently his efforts were so successful that Pope Innocent II thanked him
profusely in a letter in which he called him a “devoted son”, and Lothair made
him chancellor of the realm.
Norbert did all these things with a steadfast faith: “Faith was the
outstanding virtue of Norbert’s life, as charity had been the hallmark of Bernard
of Clairvaux.” Affable and charming, amiable to one and all, “he was at ease in
the company of the humble and the great alike”. Finally, he was a most eloquent
preacher; after long meditation “he would preach the word of God, and with his
fiery eloquence purged vices, refined virtues and filled souls of good will with
the warmth of wisdom”. He spent many hours in contemplation of the divine
mysteries and fearlessly spread the spiritual insights which were the fruit of his
meditation.

5 Dawson, Christopher. “The Making of Europe”, New York, 1956, pp 185-186.11

Vigils Reading - Sacred Heart of Jesus
2024-06-07
A BAPTISM OF BLOOD AND WATER
From a commentary by St Catherine of Siena6
◊◊◊
“Why, gentle spotless lamb, since you were dead when your side was
opened, did you want your heart to be pierced and parted?” He answered,
“there were plenty of reasons, but I shall tell you one of the chief. My longing
for humanity was infinite, but the actual deed of bearing pain and torment was
finite and could never show all the love I had. This is why I wanted you to see
my inmost heart, so that you would see that I loved you more than finite
suffering could show.”
“By shedding both blood and water I showed you the holy baptism of
water that you receive through the power of my blood. But I was also showing
you the baptism of blood, and this in two ways. The first touches those who are
baptized in their own blood poured out for me. Though they could not have the
other baptism, their own blood has power because of mine. Others are baptized
in fire when they lovingly desire baptism but cannot have it. Nor is there any
baptism of fire without blood, for blood has been fused with the fire of divine
charity, because it was shed for love.
“There is a second way the soul receives this baptism of blood, figuratively
speaking. This my divine charity provided because I know how people sin
because of weakness. Not that weakness or anything else can force them to sin
if they do not want to, but being weak they do fall into deadly sin and lose the
grace they had drawn from the power of the blood in holy baptism. So my divine
charity had to leave them an ongoing baptism of blood accessible by heartfelt
contrition and a holy confession as soon as they can confess to my ministers
who hold the key to the blood. This blood the priest pours over the soul in
absolution.
So you see, this baptism is ongoing, and the soul ought to be baptized in
it right up to the end, in the way I have told you. In this baptism you experience
that though my act of suffering on the cross was finite, the fruit of that suffering
which you have received through me is infinite. This is because of the infinite
divine nature joined with finite human nature. It was this human nature in
which I was clothed that suffered in me, the Word. But because the two natures
are fused with each other, the eternal Divinity took to itself the suffering I bore
with such burning love.
For this reason what I did can be called infinite. Not that either the actual
bodily suffering or the pain of my longing to accomplish your redemption was
infinite, for all of that ended on the cross when my soul left my body. But the
fruit was infinite that came from my suffering and from my desire for your
salvation, and therefore you receive it without limit. Had it not been infinite,
the whole of humankind, past, present and to come, would not have been
restored. Nor could those who sin get up again if this baptism of blood (that is,
the fruit of the blood) had not been given to you without limit.
I showed you this in the opening up of my side. There you find my heart’s
secret and it shows you, more than any finite suffering could, how I love you.”

6 Journey with the Fathers: Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels – Year B. New
York: New City Press, 1999. 70-71.13

LCG June Retreat
2024-06-07 18:30 - 2024-06-09 13:00 (America/New_York)
LCG June Retreat
Dates: June 7-9, 2024
Place Abbey of Gethsemani
Host Community is the Kentucky LCG Community
Theme is “Cistercian Hospitality”
Reservation for this retreat open May 6, 2024 and Close on May 17, 2024.

Vigils Reading - Immaculate Heart of Mary
2024-06-08
THE TEMPLE OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
By St Elizabeth of the Trinity7
◊◊◊
“The Virgin kept all these things in her heart”: her whole history can be
summed up in these few words! It was within her heart that she lived, and at
such a depth that no human eye can follow her. When I read in the gospel “that
Mary went in haste to the hill country of Judea” to perform her loving service
for her cousin Elizabeth, I imagine her passing by so beautiful, so calm and so
majestic, so absorbed in recollection of the Word of God within her. Like him
her prayer was always this: “Ecce, here I am!” Who? “The servant of the Lord,”
the lowliest of his creatures: she, his Mother! Her humility was so real for she
was always forgetful, unaware, freed from self. And she could sing: “The
Almighty has done great things for me, henceforth all peoples will call me
blessed.”
This Queen of virgins is also Queen of martyrs; but again it was in her
heart that the sword pierced, for with her everything took place within! Oh! How
beautiful she is to contemplate during her long martyrdom, so serene,
enveloped in a kind of majesty that radiates both strength and gentleness. She
learned from the Word himself how those must suffer whom the Father has
chosen as victims, those whom he has decided to associate with himself in the
great work of redemption, those whom he “has foreknown and predestined to
be conformed to his Christ,” crucified by love.
She is there at the foot of the Cross, standing, full of strength and courage, and
here my Master says to me: [“Behold your Mother.”] He gives her to me for my
Mother. And now that he has returned to the Father and has substituted me for
himself on the Cross so that “I may suffer in my body what is lacking in his
passion for the sake of his body, which is the Church,” the Blessed Virgin is
again there to teach me to suffer as he did, to tell me, to make me hear those
last songs of his soul which no one else but she, his Mother, could overhear.

7 Complete Works, vol. 1, translated by Sr. Aletheia Kane, OCD, Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1984, pp. 160-161.15

LCG Chicago Monthly Meeting Zoom 9:00 am CDT
2024-06-08 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago)

Skema
2024-06-09
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
10th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
June 9 – 15, 2024

Sun
9
Mon
10
Tue
11
Wed
12
Thu
13
Fri
14
Sat
15

Office
10th Sunday
Weekday
St Barnabas
St Alice
St Anthony of Padua
Bl Gerard
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Judg 7:23-8:21
Judg 8:22-35
1 Cor 9:1-18
Judg 9:1-21
Judg 9:22-41
Judg 9:42-57
Judg 10:6-18

Lauds
Amos 3:9-12
Amos 3:13-15
Acts 4:32-37
Amos 4:1-5
Amos 4:6-10
Amos 4:11-13
Amos 5:1-6, 8-9

Mass
89
359
580
361
362
363
364

1st
Gen 3:9-15
1 Kgs 17:1-6
Acts 11:21b-26; 13:1-3
1 Kgs 18:20-39
1 Kgs 18:41-46
1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-16
1 Kgs 19:19-21

2nd
2 Cor 4:13-5:1

Gospel
Mark 3:20-35
Matt 5:1-12
Matt 10:7-13
Matt 5:17-19
Matt 5:20-26
Matt 5:27-32
Matt 5:33-37

Vespers
Phil 2:1-11
Phil 2:12-18
Acts 9:23-31
Phil 3:2-11
Phil 3:12-16
Phil 3:17-21
Phil 4:1-9

Vigils Reading - 10th Sunday
2024-06-09
THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE
By an unknown Greek author of the 5th century1
The signs of the Lord’s resurrection are obvious: deception has ceased, envy has been banished, strife is despised. Peace is held in honor, and war has been done away with. No longer do we bewail the Adam who was fashioned first; instead we glorify the second Adam. No longer do we reproach Eve for transgressing God’s command: instead we bless Mary for being the Mother of God. No longer do we avert our eyes from the wood of the tree: instead we carry the Lord’s cross. We no longer fear the serpent: instead we revere the Holy Spirit. We no longer descend into the earth: instead we reascend into heaven. We are no longer exiles from paradise: instead we live in Abraham’s bosom. We no longer hear, “I have made your day like night”: instead, inspired by the Holy Spirit, we sing: This is the day which the Lord has made: let us keep it with gladness and rejoicing.
Why should we do so? Because the sun is no longer darkened: instead everything is bathed in light. Because the veil of the temple is no longer rent: instead the Church is recognized. Because we no longer hold palm branches: instead we carry the newly enlightened.
This is the day which the Lord has made: let us keep it with gladness and rejoicing. This is the day, this and no other, for there is only one queen, and not a throng of princesses. This is the day in the truest sense: the day of triumph, the day custom consecrates to the resurrection, the day on which we adorn ourselves with grace, the day on which we partake of the spiritual Lamb. This is the day on which milk is given to those born again, and on which God’s plan for the poor is realized. Let us keep it with gladness and rejoicing, not by running off to the taverns, but by hastening to the martyrs’ shrines; not by esteeming drunkenness, but by loving temperance; not by dancing in the marketplace, but by singing psalms at home. This day is a day of resurrection, not of revelry. No one can ascend to heaven dancing; no one in a state of drunkenness can attend upon a king. Let none of us, therefore, dishonor this day.
This is the day on which Adam was set free, and Eve delivered from her affliction. It is the day on which cruel death shuddered, the strength of hard stones was shattered and destroyed, the bars of tombs were broken and set aside. It is the day on which the bodies of people long dead were restored to their former life, and the laws of the underworld, hitherto ever powerful and immutable, were repealed. It is the day on which the heavens were opened at the rising of Christ the Lord, and on which, for the good of the human race, the flourishing and fruitful tree of the resurrection set forth branches all over the world, as if the world were a garden. It is the day on which the lilies of the newly enlightened sprang up, the streams that sustained sinners ran dry, the strength of the devil is drained away, and demonic armies are scattered.
This, then is the day which the Lord has made: let us keep it with gladness and rejoicing by the grace of Christ. By his resurrection he has illuminated the whole world, which was in darkness and in the shadow of death. May glory and adoration be given to him together with the Father and the Holy Spirit for endless ages.
1 Journey with the Father – Year B – New City Press – 1999 – pg 88-89.

Vigils Reading
2024-06-10
LET YOURSELF BECOME AN ALTAR STONE
From a homily by Origen2
All of us who believe in Christ Jesus are called ‘living stones’ in the words of scripture: ‘Like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ’.
You know that in the case of earthly stones the builder takes care to lay first the strongest and most massive stones as the foundation, so that the whole weight of the building can rest upon them. The next stones, of not quite such good quality, are laid upon the foundation stones; and so on according to the strength of the stone: the weakest are laid at the top, near the roof. It must be understood that this applies equally to living stones, some of which are foundations of our spiritual building. Who are these stones that are laid in the foundation? ‘The apostles and prophets’. This is Paul’s teaching: ‘Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone.
To prepare yourselves more zealously…to construct this building, to be one of the stones near the foundation, you must realize that Christ himself is the foundation of the building which we are describing. Paul the Apostle declares this to be so: ‘No other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ’. Happy are they who have built holy, religious buildings on so noble a foundation.
Now in this building which is the Church there must be an altar. Moreover I believe that there are among you those who as ‘living stones’ are able to become an altar–those of you who have resolved to dedicate yourselves to prayer, to offer God supplications day and night, and to immolate your sacrifices–and that, it is with you that Jesus builds his altar.
Think of the worth to be discerned in altar stones. ‘Joshua built an altar, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, of unhewn stones, upon which no one has lifted an iron tool’. What do you think these unhewn stones represent? It is for each one’s conscience to tell whether he or she is whole and perfect, whether one has integrity, whether one is without impurity or spot… To my mind, those whole and spotless stones must be the holy apostles who together form but one stone because of their unity of heart and soul. Indeed it is said that they ‘all with one accord devoted themselves to prayer’, and that they said: ‘Lord, who knowest the hearts of all’. For those who can pray with one accord, with one voice and one spirit, are indeed worthy to have been built together into a single altar on which Jesus offers sacrifices to his father. But we for our part, we too must ensure that we all agree and are united in the same mind and same judgment; that we ‘do nothing from selfishness or conceit’ but live ‘having the same love, and of one mind’. So let us too try to become altar stones.
2 Homilies IX, 1-2: PG 12, 871-872.

Vigils Reading - St Barnabas
2024-06-11
ST BARNABAS
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints3
Although St Barnabas was not one of the twelve chosen by our Lord, yet he is styled an apostle by the early fathers and by St Luke himself on account of the special commission he received from the Holy Spirit and the great part he took in apostolic work. He was a Jew of the tribe of Levi, but was born in Cyprus. His name was originally Joseph, but the apostles changed it to Barnabas – which St Luke interprets as meaning “man of encouragement”.
The first mention we find of him in the Holy Scriptures is in the fourth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, where it is stated that the first converts at Jerusalem lived in common and that as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and laid the proceeds at the feet of the apostles for distribution. St. Barnabas’s sale of his estate is singled out for mention on this occasion. When Paul came to Jerusalem three years after his conversion the faithful were suspicious of the genuineness of this conversion, and avoided him. It was Barnabas who then “took him by the hand “and vouched for him among the other apostles.
Some time later, certain disciples having preached the Gospel with success at Antioch, it was thought desirable that someone be sent by the Church in Jerusalem to guide and confirm the neophytes. The man selected was Barnabas – “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith”, as we read in the Acts. Upon his arrival he rejoiced exceedingly at the progress the gospel had made and by his preaching added greatly to the number of converts. Finding himself in need of an able assistant he went to Tarsus to enlist the cooperation of St. Paul, who accompanied him back and spent a whole year at Antioch. Their labors were crowned with success, and it was in that city and at this period that the name “Christians” was first given to the followers of the Lord.
The Holy Spirit said to the apostles “Separate me Paul and Barnabas for the work for which I have taken them.” Accordingly, after all had prayed and fasted, Paul and Barnabas received their commission by the laying on of hands and set forth on their first missionary journey. A miraculous cure wrought by St Paul upon a cripple at Lystra led the pagan inhabitants to conclude that the gods were come among them. They hailed Paul as Hermes or Mercury because he was the chief speaker, and Barnabas as Zeus or Jupiter. But with the proverbial fickleness of the mob, they soon rushed to the other extreme and stoned Paul.
At the Council of Jerusalem Paul and Barnabas gave a full account of their labors among the Gentiles and received approbation of their mission. Later a contention arose between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark and they separated, Paul proceeding on his projected tour with Silas, while Barnabas sailed to Cyprus with John Mark. Here the Acts leave him without further mention. He is said to have been stoned to death at Salamis.
3 Butler’s Lives of the Saints – revised edition – Harper – San Francisco – 1984 – pg 176.

Vigils Reading - St Alice
2024-06-12
ST ALICE
DEAREST DAUGHTER OF THE LORD
By Arnold of Villiers4
Alice was a nun of La Cambre in Brussels. She left her home when she was seven years old. From the beginning she endeavored to embrace a genuine love for God, such as would equip and train her to take a wise stand against any onslaught of the devil. Compared with this love, every transitory thing cheapened for her. For the sake of this love she spurned all things visible, except as required for bodily needs, and she patiently endured any adversity. As Alice grew, her virtues increased with her years and her skill in applying those virtues advanced even beyond her years. God in turn wanted her to become his vessel of election. He wished her to be thoroughly purged of all temporal din, all defilement from this secular world. God longed that his Bride be free, be at leisure for him alone. To this end He struck her a heavy blow, struck her down with an incurable disease of leprosy.
The contagious nature of her disease demanded sequestration from the community. Due to this her heart was severely crushed and bruised. Yet she remembered God and was consoled. And the loving Lord gazed with eyes of mercy upon this handmaid’s humility and deigned to warm her heart with His Love, to the extent that Alice preferred to linger in this situation of hers, with God as her only visitor. She learned from many experiences that the surest thing for her to do in every trouble and anguish was to take refuge in God’s own haven. She ever applied this against all weariness and all emptiness.
Alice lodged in one hut for the first four years, but after that another hut was built in view of her unique infirmity. When this had been completed and she had moved in, the Lord appeared to her, right inside and on the very first day. With open arms He embraced her, saying: “Welcome, dearest daughter! Long have I desired to welcome you into this tabernacle of my covenant. For your whole remaining sojourn in this body, I will abide with you and be, as it were, your cellarer, ministering to you in every need.”
Once on the feast of St Ursula and her companions, at the time of Matins, Alice stepped across the threshold of her hut to face towards the church and hearken awhile to the voices of the nuns praising God. she became disturbed in mind that she could not keep company with the others at the psalmody in choir. But she turned to the Lord, saying, “This I ask of you, holy Father, I cannot now join the others in praising these holy Virgins as I would like, since the special gift you have given me does not allow me to be in community for now. But this at least I ask: after this life’s misery if over, do not allow me to be separated from their companionship!” And the Lord answered her: “Sweetest daughter, it shall not be merely as you desire; in my Kingdom I shall set you in a place loftier yet!”
Wholly deprived of the use of her body and of any of its members, she was committed to her bed. She breathed her last breath on the 11th day of June, at sunrise, in the year of the Lord 1250.
4 Alice the Leper: Life of St Alice of Schaerbeck by Arnold II of Villers – Translated by Martinus Cawley, ocso – Guadalupe Translations – 2000.

Vigils Reading - St Anthony of Padua
2024-06-13
ST ANTHONY OF PADUA
From the Little Flowers of St Francis of Assisi5
At one time that wonderful vessel of the Holy Spirit, St Anthony of Padua, one of the chosen followers and companions of St Francis, whom St Francis used to call his vicar, was preaching before the Pope and Cardinals in a consistory where there were people from different countries–Greeks and Latins, French and Germans, Slavs and English–and others of many different languages and idioms. And being inflamed by the Holy Spirit and inspired with apostolic eloquence, he preached and explained the word of God so effectively, devoutly, subtly, clearly, and understandably that all who were assembled at that consistory, although they spoke different languages, clearly and distinctly heard and understood every one of his words as if he had spoken in each of their languages. Therefore they were all astounded and filled with devotion, for it seemed to them that the former miracle of the Apostles at the time of Pentecost had been renewed, when by the power of the Holy Spirit they spoke in different languages.
And in amazement they said to one another: “Is he not a Spaniard? How then are we all hearing him in the language of the country where we were born–we Greeks and Latins, French and Germans, Slavs and English, Lombards and foreigners?” The Pope also was astonished at St Anthony’s profound knowledge of Holy Scripture and said: “He is truly the Ark of the Covenant and the Treasury of Holy Scripture!”
Such then are the soldiers whom our leader St Francis had–companions who could nourish with the marrow of the Holy Spirit and arm with heavenly weapons against the snares of the enemy not only the flock of Christ but also the Vicar of Christ with his venerable College of Cardinals. To the glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever and ever.
5 Trans., Raphael Brown “Omnibus of Sources”, Chicago, 1973, pp. 1390-91.

Vigils Reading - Bl Gerard
2024-06-14
LAMENT FOR THE DEATH OF GERARD
By St Bernard of Clairvaux6
How much better for me, O Gerard, if I had lost my life rather than your company, since through your tireless inspiration, your unfailing help and under your provident scrutiny I persevered with my studies of things divine. Why, I ask, have we loved, why have we lost each other? O cruel circumstance! But pity pertains to my lot only, not to his.
And the reason, dear brother, is that though you have lost your loved ones, you have found others more lovable still. As for me, already so miserable, what consolation remains to me, and you, my only comfort, gone? Our bodily companionship was equally enjoyable to both, because our dispositions were so alike; but only I am wounded by the parting. All that was pleasant we rejoiced to share; now sadness and mourning are mine alone: anger has swept over me, rage is fastened on me. Both of us were so happy in each other’s company, sharing the same experiences, talking together about them; now my share of these delights has ceased and you have passed on, you have traded them for an immense reward.
What harvest of joys, what a profusion of blessings is yours. In place of my insignificant person you have the abiding presence of Christ, and mingling with the angelic choirs you feel our absence no loss. You have no cause to complain that we have been cut off from you, favored as you are by the constant presence of the Lord of Majesty and of his heavenly friends. But what do I have in your stead? How I long to know what you now think about me, once so uniquely yours, as I sink beneath the weight of cares and afflictions, deprived of the support you lent to my feebleness! Perhaps you still give thought to our miseries, now that you have plunged into the abyss of light, become engulfed in that sea of endless happiness. It is possible that though you once knew us according to the flesh, you now no longer know us and because you have entered into the power of the Lord you will be mindful of his righteousness alone, forgetful of ours.
Furthermore, “he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him,” his whole being somehow changed into a movement of divine love. He no longer has the power to experience or relish anything but God, and what God himself experiences and relishes, because he is filled with God. But God is love, and the deeper one’s union with God, the more full one is of love. And though God cannot endure pain, he is not without compassion for those who do; it is his nature to show mercy and pardon. Therefore you too must of necessity be merciful, clasped as you are to him who is Mercy; and though you no longer feel the need of mercy, though you no longer suffer, you cans still be compassionate. Your love has not diminished but only changed; when you were clothed with God you did not divest yourself of concern for us, for God is certainly concerned about us. All that smacks of weakness you have cast away, but not what pertains to love. And since love never comes to an end, you will not forget me for ever.
It seems to me that I can almost hear my brother saying: “Can a woman forget the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet I will not forget you.” This is how it must be.
6 On The Song Of Songs II Sermon 26.III. Trans. Kilian Walsh. Cistercian Publications 1976. 62-64.

Vigils Reading - Memorial of the BVM
2024-06-15
IN PRAISE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
From a sermon by Amadeus of Lausanne7
Since we have, at the bidding of God, embarked upon the praises of the Blessed Virgin, it remains for us to complete her praise from the bottom of our heart and with dutiful voice. Let us gaze upon her glory and, entering the depth of so great a light, let us with swelling heart and unspeakable joy hasten through the vivid brightness of the paths, saying with Solomon, ‘Her paths are lovely and all her ways are peaceful’. What if, as the same prophet says, ‘the path of the just, as a shining light, goes forth and grows into the perfect day’? Who will be able to express the light and brightness of her paths? Yet we shall try to explain in part the progress and additions of her paths so that she may be perceived as glorious in her steps and be proclaimed in each of them.
For she possessed progress clearly marked and distinct growth, so that she advanced according to the fairest order of Charity and, going forward from virtue to virtue, she saw the God of gods in Sion, being changed from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Firstly, therefore, she was deemed worthy to be adorned with the beauty of all the virtues. Secondly she was united to the Holy Spirit in a bond of wedlock. Thirdly, she was found the Mother of the Savior. Fourthly, a sword pierced her soul and by the flesh taken of her flesh the ruin of the lost world is restored. Fifthly, she rejoices in her Son arising and ascending above the heaven of heavens to the right hand of the Father. Sixthly, she is caught up from this world and as the Lord hastens to meet her she is placed above the denizens of heaven. Seventh, she will be completed when the fulness of the Gentiles shall have entered and all Israel shall be saved. For beyond what it is right to be said or believed, she rejoices in the general salvation of the elect, knowing that it was for them that the Son of God took flesh from her. Therefore she will then be fulfilled, God providing a better thing, lest without us she should not be made perfect.
7 Amadeus of Lausanne (CF 18: 69-70).

Skema
2024-06-16
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
11th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
June 16 – 22, 2024

Sun
16
Mon
17
Tue
18
Wed
19
Thu
20
Fri
21
Sat
22

Office
11th Sunday
Bl M-Joseph Cassant
Office for Vocations
Weekday
Weekday
St Aloysius Gonzaga
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Judg 11:1-11
Judg 11:12-28
Judg 11:29-40
Judg 13:1-25
Judg 14:1-20
Judg 15:1-20
Judg 16:1-22

Lauds
Amos 5:7, 10-15
Amos 5:16-20
Amos 5:21-27
Amos 6:1-7
Amos 6:8-14
Amos 7:1-6
Amos 7:7-9

Mass
92
365
366
367
368
369
370

1st
Ezek 17:22-24
1 Kgs 21:1-16
1 Kgs 21:17-29
2 Kgs 2:1, 6-14
Sir 48:1-14
2 Kgs 11:1-4, 9-18, 20
2 Chr 24:17-25

2nd
2 Cor 5:6-10

Gospel
Mark 4:26-34
Matt 5:38-42
Matt 5:43-48
Matt 6:1-6, 16-18
Matt 6:7-15
Matt 6:19-23
Matt 6:24-34

Vespers
Phil 4:10-14
Phil 4:15-23
1 Thess 1:1-10
1 Thess 2:1-8
1 Thess 2:9-12
1 Thess 2:13-16
1 Thess 2:17-3:5

Vigils Reading - 11th Sunday
2024-06-16
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
AND THE MUSTARD SEED
From a commentary by St Peter Chrysologus1
◊◊◊
Brothers and sisters, you have heard today how the kingdom of heaven,
for all its vastness, can be compared to a mustard seed… A mustard seed! Is that
the sum of believer’s hopes? Is that what the faithful are longing for – a mustard
seed, the blessed reward of virgins for their long years of self-restraint, the
glorious prize won by martyrs at the cost of their blood? Is this the mystery no
eye has seen, no ear heard, no human heart imagined; the mystery past telling
that the Apostle assures us God has prepared for all who love him?
Let us not be too easily disappointed at our Lord’s words. If we remember
that God’s weakness is stronger than human strength, and God’s foolishness
wiser than human wisdom, we shall find that this smallest seed of God’s
creation is greater than the whole wide world. It is up to us to sow this mustard
seed in our minds and let it grow within us into a great tree of understanding
reaching up to heaven and elevating all our faculties; then it will spread out
branches of knowledge…
Christ is the kingdom of heaven. Sown like a mustard seed in the garden
of the virgin’s womb, he grew up into the tree of the cross whose branches
stretch across the world. Crushed in the mortar of the passion, its fruit has
produced seasoning enough for the flavoring and preservation of every living
creature with which it comes in contact. As long as a mustard seed remains
intact, its properties lie dormant; but when it is crushed they are exceedingly
evident. So it was with Christ; he chose to have his body crushed, because he
would not have his power concealed.
We too must crush this mustard seed in order to feel the force of this
parable. Christ is king, because he is the source of all authority. Christ is the
kingdom, because all glory of his kingdom is within him. Christ is a man,
because all humanity is restored in him. Christ is a mustard seed, because the
infinitude of divine goodness is accommodated to the littleness of flesh and
blood.
Do we need further examples? Christ became all things in order to restore
all of us in himself. The man Christ received the mustard seed which represents
the kingdom of God; as man he received it, though as God he had always
possessed it. He sowed it in his garden, that is in his bride, the Church. The
Church is a garden extending over the whole world, tilled by the plough of the
gospel, fenced in by stakes of doctrine and discipline, cleared of every harmful
weed by the labor of the apostles, fragrant and lovely with perennial flowers:
virgins’ lilies and martyrs’ roses set among the pleasant verdure of all who bear
witness to Christ and the tender plants of all who have faith in him.
Such then is the mustard seed which Christ sowed in his garden. When
he promised a kingdom to the patriarchs the seed took root in them; with the
prophets it sprang up, with the apostles it grew tall, in the Church it became a
great tree outing forth innumerable branches laden with gifts. And now you too
must take the wings of the psalmist’s dove, gleaming gold in the rays of divine
sunlight, and fly to rest forever among these sturdy, fruitful branches. No snares
are set to trap you there; fly off, then, with confidence and dwell securely in its
shelter.

1 Journey with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – 1999 – pg90.3

Vigils Reading - Bl. Marie Joseph Cassant
2024-06-17
BLESSED MARIE JOSEPH CASSANT2
◊◊◊
Joseph Cassant was born on March 6, 1878 in the southern French town
of Casseneuil, the younger son of Pierre and Marie Cassant… Whereas Joseph’s
elder brother, Emile, was clearly marked out to continue his father’s agricultural
work, Joseph’s…single ambition was to be a priest.
Joseph’s devotion to the Eucharist drew the attention of the pastor, who
took him in and began to direct his studies toward seminary. However it soon
became apparent that Joseph’s talent did not lay in academic studies. The
pastor then directed his interests toward the Trappist life, thinking that
academics would not be of such importance there. The pastor took Joseph into
the rectory and established a Trappist way of life there for the two of them.
Priest and teenager arose every night at two a.m. They celebrated the whole
Trappist horarium including the whole Divine Office, manual labor, a rigorous
silence and kept to a vegetarian diet.
Joseph entered the Trappist Abbey of Sainte Marie du Desert, near
Toulouse at the age of sixteen. The novice was captivated by the Novice Master,
Fr. Andre Malet. He was well equipped to help the novice overcome his natural
tendencies to scrupulosity and discouragement. Instead of putting the emphasis
on Trappist asceticism and penance… he led Joseph to an emphasis on love…
thus bringing him to a spirit of peace rather than turbulence. He fought to give
himself in complete confidence in Jesus, rather than succumbing to paralyzing
anxiety… With the help of his director, Fr Andre, he sought to live as much as
possible within the Sacred Heart of Jesus, seeking to make Christ’s inner
attitudes his own.
His greatest challenge was the studies, as his pastor had originally
expected. It was during his time of studies that Joseph first showed ill health.
He suffered from migraine headaches and other difficulties… As he prepared
for the priesthood, he started to show the classic symptoms of tuberculosis. But
his firm conviction was that God’s will was that he not complain. He was
ordained a priest on October 12, 1902. By this time, everyone was aware that
Joseph’s ordination was a participation in the death of Jesus… But suffering was
an art that Cassant knew well because of his love of Jesus… In the early morning
of June 17, 1903, as Fr. Andre was celebrating Mass for his friend’s intentions,
Joseph went to the Lord.
We might ask: what does Joseph Cassant have to offer us today? First of
all, he instructs us. A man of little intellectual capacity and a very ordinary
experience of prayer, Cassant is nonetheless a theologian of the monastic life.
He saw, and makes us see, that the personal relation with Jesus is the heart of
Christian monasticism. He understood that the central monastic practices –
obedience, silence and humility – are Christological realities, expressions of
Christ’s Sonship and means of our conformity to Christ… Trappist vocation is a
lifelong process of healing. Joseph Cassant is a monk who was healed, and Fr
Malet by betting on and developing the essentially healthy aspect of Joseph was
the instrument of the cure. Finally, Cassant challenges us. The tools that he
brought to the monastery were few but indispensable: a good and upright will,
with a consistent practice of fidelity and generosity, an interior and exterior
obedience to the formation offered by his superiors. He staked his spiritual
destiny on the sanctifying power of the conversatio and was sanctified by it.

2 Cist. Studies Quarterly = vol. 39.1 2004 – pg 67.5
