Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Vigils Reading - Holy Thursday
2025-04-17
THE BRIDGE BETWEEN
THE COVENANT
AND THE EUCHARIST
By St Edith Stein
◊◊◊
We know from the Gospel narratives that Christ prayed as a Jew who
believed in and was faithful to the Law. When he was a child with his parents,
and later with his disciples, he used to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem at the
appointed times to take part in the festivals that were celebrated in the temple.
He sang joyfully with the pilgrims, “I was glad when they said unto me: We
will go into the house of the Lord”. He recited the ancient prayers of blessing,
which are still said today, for bread, wine, and the fruits of the earth, as the
accounts of the Last Supper bear witness, This was wholly consecrated to the
fulfillment of one of the holiest religious obligations – the solemn Passover meal
which commemorated the deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Perhaps it is here
that we are given the deepest insight into the prayer of Christ, as it were the key
which gives access to the prayer of the Church.
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke
it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”
And he took a cup, when he had given thanks he gave it to them,
saying, “Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant,
which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin”
.
The blessing and giving of the bread and wine have become part of the rite
of the Passover meal. But at the Last Supper this blessing and giving takes on a
wholly new meaning. For this is the birth of the Church. Doubtless it was only
at Pentecost that the Church was born a spiritual and visible community. But
here, at the Supper, took place that grafting of the shoot in the vine branch
which made the outpouring of the Spirit possible.
The ancient prayers of blessing became creative words of life on Christ’s
lips. The fruits of the earth became his flesh and blood, filled with his life. The
visible creation into which he was inserted by his incarnation is now bound to
him in a new and mysterious way. The foods that are indispensable for the
growth of the human organism are transformed in their nature, and those
partaking of them with faith are themselves transformed too; incorporated into
Christ in a living union, they are filled with his divine life. The quickening power
of the Word is fused with the sacrifice. The Word becomes flesh to give us that
Life which is his own. He offered himself, and has thus offered the creation
which he ransomed by this offering, as a sacrifice of praise to the Creator.
The Passover of the ancient covenant has become the Passover of the
new covenant, at the Lord’s Last Supper, at the Sacrifice of the Cross, and,
between the Resurrection and the Ascension, at the joyful agape where the
disciples recognized their Lord in the breaking of the bread; and, in the
Sacrifice of the Mass, at Holy Communion.

Vigils Reading- Good Friday
2025-04-18
SOVEREIGNTY IS LAID
ON HIS SHOULDERS
From a sermon by St Leo the Great
◊◊◊
When our Lord was handed over to the will of his cruel foes, they ordered
him, in mockery of his royal dignity, to carry the instrument of his own torture.
This was done to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah: “A child is born for us, a son is
given to us; sovereignty is laid upon his shoulders.” To the wicked, the sight of
the Lord carrying his own cross was indeed an object of derision; but to the
faithful a great mystery was revealed, for the cross was destined to become the
scepter of his power. Here was the majestic spectacle of a glorious conqueror
mightily overthrowing the hostile forces of the devil and nobly bearing the
trophy of his victory. On the shoulders of his invincible patience he carried the
sign of salvation for all the kingdoms of the earth to worship, as if on that day he
would strengthen all his future disciples by the symbol of his work, and say to
them: “Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of
me.”
O the marvelous power of the cross, the glory in the passion! No tongue
can fully describe it. Here we see the judgment seat of the Lord, here sentence
is passed upon the world, and here the sovereignty of the Crucified is revealed.
You drew all things to yourself, Lord, when you stretched out your hands all
the day long to a people that denied and opposed you, until at last the whole
world was brought to proclaim your majesty. You drew all things to yourself,
Lord…when the lights of heaven were darkened and the day was turned into
night; when the land was shaken by unwonted earthquakes, and all creation
refused to serve those wicked people. Yes, Lord, you drew all things to
yourself; the veil of the temple was torn in two and the Holy of Holies taken
away from those unworthy high priests. Figures gave way to reality,
prophecy to manifestation, law to gospel. You drew all things to yourself in
order that the worship of the whole human race could be celebrated
everywhere in a sacramental form which would openly fulfill what had been
enacted by means of veiled symbols in that single Jewish temple. A nobler
order of levites has now arisen, we have elders of a greater dignity and priests
of a holier anointing, because your cross is the fountainhead of every blessing
and the source of every grace. Through your cross the faithful are given
strength instead of weakness, glory instead of shame, life instead of death.

Vigils Reading - Holy Saturday
2025-04-19
THE DEATH OF CHRIST
HAS TRANSFORMED DEATH
By St Cyril of Alexandria
◊◊◊
They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices,
according to the Jewish burial custom. At the place where he had been crucified
there was a garden, and in this garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been
buried.
Christ was numbered among the dead. For our sake he was put to death
in the body, even though of himself and through his Father we believe him to be,
and indeed he is, life it self. In order to do all that was required by God, all that
was involved in his having become man, he freely submitted the temple of his
body not only to death, but to everything that accompanies it, to the laying out of
his body and its burial in a tomb.
The Evangelist says that his tomb was in a garden and that it was new.
This teaches us in a symbolic way that it is through Christ’s death that we gain
entry into paradise; he entered as the forerunner on our behalf. The newness of
the tomb suggests the new and untrodden path from death to life and the
renewal by which Christ frees us from corruption. By Christ’s death, our death
has been transformed into something quite new, more like a kind of sleep. We
are alive now to God, as Scripture says, and destined to live for ever. This is why
Saint Paul frequently refers to those who have died in Christ as those who have
fallen asleep.
In the past the power of death had always prevailed against our nature.
From the time of Adam to the time of Moses, death ruled over all, even over
those who did not sin, as Adam did, by disobeying God’s command. We bore the
image of the earthly man, Adam, and underwent the death inflicted by the
divine curse, but when the second Adam who is divine and from heaven
appeared among us, he fought for the lives of us all, purchased them by his own
death in the flesh and then, having destroyed the power of corruption, he rose
again. In this way he transformed us into his own image, so that the death we
now undergo is of a new kind; it does not lead to eternal destruction, but is
rather a sleep, full of good hope. In fact, it resembles the death of Christ, who
opened up for us this new pathway to life.

Skema
2025-04-20
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
Easter Octave

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
April 20 – 26, 2025

Sun
20
Mon
21
Tue
22
Wed
23
Thu
24
Fri
25
Sat
26

Office
EASTER SUNDAY
Easter Monday
Easter Tuesday
Easter Wednesday
Easter Thursday
Easter Friday
Easter Saturday

Vigils
* Easter Vigil
1 Pt 1:1-21
1 Pt 1:22-2:10
1 Pt 2:11-25
1 Pt 3:1-17
1 Pt 3:18-4:11
1 Pt 4:12-5:14

Lauds
Acts 13:28-33
1 Cor 15:1-11
1 Cor 15:12-19
1 Cor 15:20-28
1 Cor 15:35-41
1 Cor 15:42-49
1 Cor 15:50-58

Mass
42
261
262
263
264
265
266

1st
Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Acts 2:14, 22-33
Acts 2:36-41
Acts 3:1-10
Acts 3:11-26
Acts 4:1-12
Acts 4:13-21

2nd
Col 3:1-4

Gospel
John 20:1-9
Matt 28:8-15
John 20:11-18
Luke 24:13-35
Luke 24:35-48
John 21:1-14
Mark 16:9-15

Vespers
Rev 1:12-18
Acts 1:1-5
Acts 1:12-14
Acts 1:15-26
Acts 2:42-47
Acts 4:32-37
Acts 5:1-11

Easter Vigil Readings* 1st) Gen 1:1-2:2 2nd) Gen 22:1-18 3rd) Exod 14:15-15:1 4th) Isa 54:5-14 5th) Isa 55:1-11
6th) Bar 3:9-15,32-4:4 7th) Ezek 36:16-17a,18-28 Epistle) Rom 6:3-11 Gospel) Matt 28:1-10; Mk 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-12

Vigils Reading - Easter Sunday
2025-04-20
CHRIST’S RESURRECTION
IS OUR RESURRECTION
By Symeon the New Theologian
◊◊◊
Already Easter, that joyful day, that day of all gladness and delight, the
day of Christ’s resurrection, has arrived in the circle of the year. But rather, it
happens daily and eternally in those who know its mystery, and so has filled our
hearts with unspeakable joy and gladness. Let us look and carefully examine
what is the mystery of that resurrection of Christ our God which takes place
mystically in us at all times, if we are willing…
Christ our God was hanged on the cross and nailed on it the sin of the
world. He tasted death and went down to the uttermost depths of hell… He
returned from hell into His own spotless body, from which He had in no way
been separated as He descended…and He arose from the dead. After that He
ascended into heaven with great glory and power. So, likewise, as we have now
come out of the world and entered into the tomb of repentance and humiliation
by being assimilated to the sufferings of the Lord, He Himself comes down from
heaven and enters into our body as into a tomb. He unites Himself to our souls
and raises them up, though they were undoubtedly dead, and then grants to him
who has thus been raised with Christ that he may see the glory of His mystical
resurrection.
Christ’s resurrection is thus our resurrection, ours who lie here below. He
who has never fallen into sin, as it is written, nor lost anything whatever of His
own glory, how will He ever be raised up or be glorified, since He is always
glorified above all and remains the same, “far above all rule and authority”…?
Through His resurrection in us it comes into being in us, is shown to us, and is
seen by us. Once He has appropriated what is ours, that which He works in us
He attributes to Himself…
The body is dead and cannot live or be called alive unless it receives the
living soul in itself and is joined to it, though not mingled with it. Likewise the
soul cannot live unless it is ineffably and without confusion united to God, who
is truly the life eternal…
A blind man who hits his foot against a stone feels it, but a dead man does
not… In spiritual things, unless the mind comes to the contemplation of the
things that are above thought, it does not perceive the mystical activity. Those
who have not arrived at contemplation in spiritual matters and claim that they
perceive the things that are above intellect, word, and thought are like those
whose eyes are blinded and who have a sensation of good or bad things that they
experience, but do not know what is in their hands or at their feet, even if they
are for them a matter of life or death. Since they are deprived of the faculty and
perception of vision they in no way perceive the bad or the good things that
come upon them. Thus they will often lift up their staff to ward off an enemy
and possibly strike a friend instead, while their enemy stands before their eyes
and laughs at them.
Most people believe in the resurrection of Christ, but very few have a clear
vision of it. Those who have no vision thereof cannot even adore Christ Jesus as
the Holy One and as Lord.

Vigils Reading - Easter Monday
2025-04-21
THE RESURRECTION
AND THE LIFE
From a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny
◊◊◊
Let us go to see Jesus journeying to the mountain of the heavenly Galilee,
where he awaits us. On the way our love will increase, and on our arrival at least,
it will be perfected. On the way, the road, at first hard and difficult, will grow
easier and the strength of the weak will increase. The flesh of Christ is our food
for the journey, his Spirit our means of conveyance. He Himself is the food; he
himself is the chariot and charioteer of Israel. When you arrive, all the goods,
not of Egypt but of heaven, will be yours. There, in the best place in the
kingdom, at the bidding of your Joseph you will take your rest. He who first sent
angels, women and apostles as witnesses and messengers of his resurrection,
now cries from heaven: “Behold, I whom you have mourned as dead these three
days did indeed die for you, but see, I live. And all power in heaven and earth is
given unto me.”…
“I am the resurrection and the life”, Jesus said. He indeed is the first
resurrection; he is also the second resurrection. For rising from the dead as the
first fruits of those who sleep Christ both brings about for us the first
resurrection by the mystery of his own resurrection and by the example of that
same resurrection will bring about for us the second. The first is that of souls,
when he raises them together with himself to newness of life; the second will be
that of bodies, when he forms this humbled body of ours anew, molding it into
the image of his glorified body. Christ does well then to proclaim himself the
resurrection and the life since it is through him and into him that we rise in
order to live according to him and with him; now according to him in holiness
and justice, afterwards with him in happiness and glory.
Now the first resurrection of our Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the cause
and the proof of the second resurrection which will be that of his whole body. So
also for each of us the first resurrection of the soul, by which it comes to life
again from the death of sin, is the proof and the cause of its second resurrection,
by which the body will be freed not only from the corruption of death but also
from every tendency to corruption and death. That the one is proof of the other
St Paul shows clearly in the words: “If the Spirit of Christ who raised Jesus from
the dead dwells in you, he will also give life to your perishable bodies on
account of his Spirit who dwells in you”.

Vigils Reading - Easter Tuesday
2025-04-22
THE REALITY OF
THE RESURRECTION
By Bruce Vawter
◊◊◊
In biblical faith the resurrection is something; something did occur to
account for the appearances of Jesus after his death. It is not to retreat into
obscurity or equivocation to confess that we have no better way of defining that
something than to call it resurrection. We cannot define what is indefinable in
terms of human experience; we can only describe it in some fashion by the use of
the pictures we call analogies. The picture we use following the New Testament
precedent to describe both what God effected in Christ and, with it as the
proleptic example, what its faith promises to all who share in God’s kingdom, is
mythical to the extent that, taken in all literalness, it might equally well serve to
describe the resuscitation of a corpse, which the New Testament does not intend
to do…
Paul…for all his insistence on the resurrection as a reality, did not think of
it as a resurrection of dead flesh: “Perhaps someone will say, ‘How are the dead
to be raised up? What kind of body will they have?’ A nonsensical question!
The seed you sow does not germinate unless it dies. When you sow, you do not
sow the full-blown plant but a kernel of wheat or some other grain. God gives
body to it as he pleases – to each seed its own fruition… So is it with the
resurrection of the dead.”
Paul admittedly tells us more about what, in his view, the resurrection is
not than what it is, but at the same time he tells us enough to dissuade us from
dismissing lightly the testimony of his senses, which he joined to the witness of
his tradition. Here was a man quite conscious of the validity of what are
sometimes thought to be modern and scientific objections to the idea of
resurrection; a man convinced that something had occurred that he could only
call resurrection while regretting the inadequacy of the concept. Paul was as
prepared as anyone today for demythologizing, but he was not prepared to
disallow any fact out of his inability to explain it. Rather than deny the fact, he
preferred to retain the myth with all its attendant ambiguities.

Vigils Reading - Easter Wednesday
2025-04-23
THE TREMENDOUS DESTINY
OF LOVE
By Caryl Houselander
◊◊◊
Quite different from His appearance to Magdalene or the apostles is
Christ’s approach to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. These are scholars,
they must come to the point of communion with him through the travail of the
mind. Step by step he takes them back through the scriptures, leading them to
know him by thinking their own thoughts, by linking up the academic
knowledge they have acquired in the past with the events of the day, and
thrashing out the problem that is so baffling to intellectuals in all ages, the
problem of suffering.
Through a totally different approach to the same problem he convinces
Thomas…the poor man who has no philosophy to be armor against the wounds
of the world, no thoughts to help him through the loneliness of his own
anguish… It was when Thomas actually put his own hands into these wounds
and felt, as it were, his own sins and sorrows redeemed in the glorious Body of
Christ, that the cry came out of his heart: “You are my Lord and my God!”.
Last there is Peter. Who but Christ would have known that the one thing
that could lift up that broken heart was not a formal act of contrition, but a
spontaneous, almost an exasperated cry of love? —Who but he would have
thought of provoking the same impulsive temperament, which had made a
coward of Peter with such cruel results, to give it the courage to break out into
those acts of love? And, as it was with the others, Peter is given something to do
for Christ, something that is exactly suited to his inmost need, as it has been in
the case of each of the others. He is to become the shepherd. Christ shows him
that he knows what the sorrow for his sin has done to him, how it has taken away
his cowardice, so that he can give him even this charge, the charge of the
shepherd who is to protect the frailest of his flock, his lambs…to feed them, and
if need be to give his life for them. Could he give greater proof of his trust in the
reality of Peter’s love, in the truth of Peter’s word: “Lord, you know all things;
you can tell that I love You”.
Why we, who are members of Christ’s body on earth, his Church, are so, is
a great mystery. But the fact remains that God has chosen us for the tremendous
destiny of love, and if the wonder and the joy of it is ours, so too is the
responsibility of it. That responsibility is to prove to those who are still unaware
of it that Christ has risen from the dead and that he is in the world now. We
cannot do this without a very close imitation of Christ’s way with other people.
Christ “knew what was in them”: that is the secret of his method; he knew and
loved every one, objectively and individually, as a separate person, a unique
person; he respected their otherness, their independence, even their slowness,
their limitations, which were all part of the experience which was to bring them
to the realization of his love. Christ wishes to approach people through us today
in just the same way, through just the same means, as he did in his Risen Life.

Vigils Reading - Easter Thursday
2025-04-24
THE SECRET
OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
By Fr Barnabas Ahern
◊◊◊
So often when St. Paul writes of the death of Christ, two expressions keep
recurring: “He loved me,” and “He gave Himself for me.” He loved me, and
therefore He went down to death in order that love, because it was love, could
become dynamically active when He would rise from the dead as the glorious
messianic Son of God. In this He has proven His love for us, because when as
yet we were sinners and unworthy of His love, He laid down His life for us. He
died so that He could become the risen Savior and pour out upon the Church the
fullness of the Spirit. It is the light of this mystery of our Lord’s death and
resurrection, of His suffering and of His life, of the love which led Him to die and
to suffer, and the love which leads Him to give everything to us today as the risen
Savior; it is in this that we ourselves begin to understand the mystery of our own
Christian life.
Our baptism incorporates us into Christ in such a way that we become
“other Christs.” The Spirit who guided our Lord, the Spirit who illumined Him,
the Spirit who charged His soul with love, is the same Spirit who reproduces
that same love in our own life through the mystery of our Christian
incorporation. This is why for Paul the whole meaning of the Christian life is
love. For Paul… all law has been abrogated—not merely the ceremonial, ritual
law of Judaism, but all law. Now the Christian knows only one principle of
action, and that principle of action is totally from within—the love, the agape,
which the Spirit is infusing…
“If we live by the spirit, then we must walk by the spirit”… The liturgy
speaks of the weight of our poor humanness that is always twisting us, as it were,
to selfishness and away from God. Now, our Lord knew the same weight, that
same pull of humanness. He was “tempted” to give people what they wanted, to
meet their need for excitement and pleasure. This easy way of meeting needs
was opposed by the hard way which the Father required. And Jesus kept
clinging to the Father, which meant a constant cross in His life: the vertical pull
to the will of the Father, the horizontal pull to the desires of His people.
We are in a similar situation. We know the will of God, the vertical pull in
life, and at the same time we feel the horizontal pull of our mortality, our “flesh,”
the needs of our human nature. The agape is always trying to lift us up in
fidelity, but it is always being dragged down by the pull of our poor humanness.
In such lives the Cross is inevitable. The agape is not only responsible for
introducing the Cross, it also gives it meaning
This is the secret of our Lord’s life, as Paul saw it; and it is the secret of the
Christian life as we must live it. Mortification and self-denial, all those negative
factors of life are without meaning if they are not prompted by agape. Our Lord
could become all things to all men, He could forget Himself completely because
there was this driving urge to love. And those who have followed Him have been
given this same spirit.

Vigils Reading - Easter Friday
2025-04-25
WITNESSES OF
THE RESURRECTION
From a sermon by St John Henry Newman
◊◊◊
It might have been expected that, on our Savior’s rising again from the
dead, He would have shown Himself to very great numbers of people, and
especially to those who crucified Him; whereas we know from history that, far
from this being the case, He showed Himself only to chosen witnesses, chiefly
His immediate followers… This seems at first sight strange. We are apt to fancy
the resurrection of Christ as some striking visible display of His glory, such as
God showed from time to time to the Israelites in Moses’ day; and considering it
in the light of a public triumph, we are led to imagine the confusion and terror
which would have overwhelmed His murderers had He presented Himself alive
before them. Now, to reason in this way is to conceive Christ’s kingdom of this
world, which it is not; and to suppose that then Christ came to judge the world,
whereas that judgment will not be till the last day, when in very deed those
wicked men shall “look on Him whom they have pierced“.
After His resurrection, Jesus said to His disciples, “Go, convert all
nations“. This was His special charge. If, then, there are grounds for thinking
that, by showing Himself to a few rather than to many, He was more surely
advancing this great object, the propagation of the Gospel, this is sufficient
reason for our Lord’s having so ordained. Now consider what would have been
the probable effect of a public exhibition of His resurrection. Let us suppose that
our Savior had shown Himself as openly as before He suffered: preaching in the
Temple and in the streets of the city; traversing the land with His Apostles, and
with multitudes following to see the miracles which He did. What would have
been the effect of this? Of course, what it had already been. His former miracles
had not effectively moved the body of the people; and, doubtless, this miracle
too would have left them as it found them, or worse than before. They might
have been more startled at the time; but why should this amazement last?
When the man taken with a palsy was suddenly restored at His word, the
multitude were all amazed and glorified God, and were filled with fear saying, “
We have seen strange things this day.” What could they have said and felt more
than this, when “one rose from the dead“? In truth, this is the way of most
people in all ages, to be influenced by sudden fears, sudden contrition, sudden
earnestness, sudden resolves, which disappear just as suddenly. Nothing is
accomplished effectively through untrained human nature; and such is always
the condition of the multitude. Unstable as water, it cannot excel. One day it
cried Hosanna; the next, Crucify Him.
And, had our Lord appeared to them after they had crucified Him, of
course they would have shouted Hosanna once more; yet when He had
ascended out of sight, then again they would have persecuted His followers…
Surely so it would have been; the chief priests would not have been moved at all;
and the populace, even though they had been moved at the time, would not have
been moved in a lasting way, nor in a practical way, so as to proclaim to the
world what they had heard and seen, as to preach the gospel. The very reason
why Christ showed Himself at all was in order to raise up witnesses to His
resurrection, ministers of His word, founders of His Church; and how in the
nature of things could a populace ever become such?

Vigils Reading - Easter Saturday
2025-04-26
THE LEAVENING OF
MORTALITY AND INIQUITY
From a sermon by St Aelred of Rievaulx
◊◊◊
He who is the creator, made himself a creature. He who was Lord, made
himself a servant. He who was rich, made himself poor. He who was great, made
himself little. And the Word was made flesh. He was bread and he fed the
angels. But he did not feed us. We were, however, so weak that in no way could
we taste that bread in all its purity. We had within us a corrosive leaven that
robbed us of our pristine strength. We had become so unlike that pure and
untainted bread that we could not taste it at all. This leavening which we had
within us was twofold. We had within us the leavening of mortality and we had
within us the leavening of iniquity…
We are mortals and sinners; he is immortal and just. How were we to
come together? He saw this, he who is caring and merciful. Because we could
not ascend to him, he came down to us. He took upon himself one part of our
leavening and so adapted himself to our weakness. He did not take to himself
the whole leaven that was in us, but a certain part of it. If he had taken on the
whole of it he would be as we are and he would not be able to help us. If he had
taken none of it he would be so distant from us that we would not be able in any
way to approach him. And so we would remain forever in our wretchedness…
The leavening of our mortality therefore he accepted, and abode in the purity of
his justice, so that he would be the sort of being who could come down to us and
yet remain the sort of being to whom we ought to ascend…
To this leavening of mortality belongs hunger, thirst, sorrow, misery. All
of this our Lord took on himself. He chose to take on this leavening, but he was
not obliged to remain in ferment. First he showed this leavening in himself
through a wondrous compassion and then he purged himself of this leaven
through a wondrous charity…
We ought to know that our iniquity is the cause of our mortality. And
therefore when we are fully purged of iniquity we will doubtless also be purged
of mortality… Our iniquity is twofold. It comes from the nature in which we
were born and from the evil which we later brought to it. From both of these the
Lord purges us. He offered for us a sacrifice – his own blood – and through this
sacrifice we are purged. And therefore what we suffer now from the corruption
of our nature is no longer iniquity but infirmity.
From the corruption of our nature come the impulses of concupiscence
which we suffer unwillingly. From this come the impulses of lust, anger, pride,
ambition. But if we do not consent to them, God does not impute them to us,
because the pure sacrifice was offered to offset the corruption of our nature… By
the workings of his compassion in us in baptism we are purged of all sins, both
those which came from nature and those which we added voluntarily.

Skema
2025-04-27
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
2nd Week of Easter

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
April 27 – May 3, 2025

Sun
27
Mon
28
Tue
29
Wed
30
Thu
1
Fri
2
Sat
3

Office
2nd Sunday of Easter
Easter Weekday
St Catherine of Siena
Easter Weekday
St Joseph the Worker
St Athanasius
SS Philip & James

Vigils
Col 3:1-17
Rev 1:1-20
Rev 2:1-11
Rev 2:12-29
Rev 3:1-22
Rev 4:1-11
1 Cor 12:1-13

Lauds
Eph 1:1-10
Eph 1:11-14
Eph 1:15-23
Eph 2:1-10
Eph 2:11-18
Eph 2:19-22
2 Thess 2:13-3:5

Mass
45
267
268
269
270, 559
271
561

1st
Acts 5:12-16
Acts 4:23-31
Acts 4:32-37
Acts 5:17-26
Acts 5:27-33
Acts 5:34-42
1 Cor 15:1-8

2nd
Rev 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19

Gospel
John 20:19-31
John 3:1-8
John 3:7b-15
John 3:16-21
Matt 13:54-58
John 6:1-15
John 14:6-14

Vespers
Acts 5:12-16
Acts 5:27-32
Acts 6:8-15
Acts 7:51-60
Acts 8:1b-8
Acts 8:9-13
Acts 8:14-25

Vigils Reading - 2nd Sunday of Easter
2025-04-27
BLESSED ARE THOSE
WHO HAVE NOT SEEN
From a commentary by St Augustine
◊◊◊
My dear people, you, like myself, are well aware that our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ is the one physician capable of bringing us eternal healing and
salvation. We know, too, that it was in order to accomplish this that he took
upon himself the weakness of our human nature, otherwise that weakness
would have remained with us forever. He equipped himself with a human body
liable to death, so that in and through that body he might conquer death itself.
And though, as the apostle tells us, it was his human weakness that made it
possible for him to be crucified, it was his divine power that enabled him to
return to life.
That same apostle says: He will never die again, neither will death have
any further hold upon him. All this you already know and believe, and also the
consequences flowing from it; we can be sure that the miracles he wrought while
he lived among us were meant to encourage us to accept the gifts from him that
should never pass away nor have an end. Thus he gave back sight to blind eyes
that would shortly be closed again in death; he raised Lazarus from the dead
only for him to die again. His bodily cures, indeed, were never meant to last for
ever, even though at the end of time he is to give the body itself life everlasting.
But because “seeing is believing,” he used these visible wonders to build up
people’s faith in even greater marvels that could not be seen.
Let no one then be found to say that since Christ Jesus our Lord no longer
works such miracles among us, the Church was better off in its early days. On
the contrary, in one recorded testament, the same Lord set those who have
never seen and yet believe before those who believe only because they see.
Indeed, so great was the disciples’ weakness at that time, that when they saw the
Lord they found it necessary to touch him before they could believe he had really
risen from the dead. They were unable to believe the testimony of their own
eyes, until they had handled his body and explored his recent wounds with their
fingers. Only after this was done could that most hesitant of all his disciples
exclaim: My Lord and my God! Thus it was by his wounds that Christ, who had
so often healed the manifold wounds of others, came to be recognized himself.
Now we may ask: could not the Lord have risen with a body from which all
the marks of wounds had been erased? No doubt he could have; but he knew his
disciples bore within their hearts a wound so deep that the only way to cure it
was to retain the scars of his own wounds in his body. And when that confession:
My Lord and my God! Was uttered, what was his answer to it? You believe, he
said, because you have seen me; blessed are those who have not seen and yet
believe.
And who, my brothers and sisters, are those if not ourselves and those
who are to follow after us? When, later on, the Lord had departed from human
sight and faith had time to strike roots into people’s hearts, those who believed
in him made their act of faith without seeing him in whom they made it. The
faith of such believers is highly meritorious, for it springs from a devoted heart
rather than an exploring hand.

Vigils Reading
2025-04-28
THE FIRST AND THE SECOND
RESURRECTION
By Blessed Guerric of Igny
◊◊◊
“Blessed and holy is he who has a share in the first resurrection”. “I am the
resurrection and the life”, Jesus said. He indeed is the first resurrection; he is
also the second resurrection. For rising from the dead as the first fruits of those
who sleep, Christ both brings about for us the first resurrection by the mystery
of his own resurrection and by the example of that same resurrection will bring
about for us the second. The first is that of souls, when he raises them together
with himself to newness of life; the second will be that of bodies, when he forms
this humbled body of ours anew, molding it into the image of his glorified body.
Christ does well then to proclaim himself the resurrection and the life
since it is through him and into him that we rise in order to live according to him
and with him; now according to him in holiness and justice, afterwards with him
in happiness and glory. Now the first resurrection of our Head, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is the cause and the proof of the second resurrection, which will be that
of his whole body. So also for each of us the first resurrection of the soul, by
which it comes to life again from the death of sin, is the proof and the cause of its
second resurrection, by which the body will be freed not only from corruption of
death but also from every tendency to corruption and death. That the one is the
proof and cause of the other St Paul shows clearly in the words: “If the Spirit of
Christ who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he will give life also to your
perishable bodies on account of his Spirit who dwells in you”.
It is well said then: “Blessed and holy is he who has a share in the first
resurrection”. Holy, that is, on account of the first, which he has already
obtained through the renewal of his soul; blessed on account of the second,
which he happily awaits when his body is restored. The reason for his
blessedness is indicated by the same passage of Scripture, which goes on: “Over
these (who have a share, that is, in the first resurrection), the second death has
no power, even if the first death has seemed to exercise its dominion over them
for a passing hour. For death has reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those
who did not sin according to the likeness of Adam’s transgression. But as with
Christ so with the Christian; rising from the dead, he dies no more; death has no
more dominion over him.
So over those blessed neither has the second death any power nor will the
first keep the power, which it had for a time. For the one death of Christ
triumphed over both of ours, setting free from the one those who were already
its captives, from the other, those who would be its captives. It prevented us
from falling into the one, from remaining in the other. How true, how devout
and at the same time how magnificent is that threat he uttered as he died: “I will
be your death, O death”. How fittingly and wonderfully he triumphed who
tasted death on behalf of all and so swallowed up his own death and all the dying
of all humanity. Free from fear he may mock at it, whomever that blessed man is
who has a share in the first resurrection: “Where is your victory, death? Where
is your sting, death?”

Vigils Reading - St Catherine of Siena
2025-04-29
THE WAY OF
PRAYER TO GOD
From “The Dialogues” by St Catherine of Siena
◊◊◊
A soul rises up, restless with tremendous desire for God’s honor and the
salvation of souls. she has for some time exercised herself in virtue and has
become accustomed to dwelling in the cell of self-knowledge in order to know
better God’s goodness toward her, since upon knowledge follows love. And
loving, she seeks to pursue truth and clothe herself in it.
But there is no way she can so savor and be enlightened by this truth as in
continual humble prayer, grounded in the knowledge of herself and of God. For
by such prayer the soul is united with God, following in the footsteps of Christ
crucified, and through desire and affection and the union of love he makes of her
another himself. So Christ seems to have meant when he said, “If you will love
me and keep my word, I will show myself to you, and you will be one thing
with me and I with you.”. And we find similar words in other places from which
we can see it is the truth that by love’s affection the soul becomes another
himself.
To make this clearer still, I remember having heard from a certain servant
of God that, when she was at prayer, lifted high in spirit, God would not hide
from her mind’s eye his love for his servants. No, he would reveal it, saying
among other things, “Open your mind’s eye and look within me, and you will see
the dignity and beauty of my reasoning creature. But beyond the beauty I have
given the soul by creating her in my image and likeness, look at those who are
clothed in the wedding garment of charity, adorned with many true virtues: they
are united with me through love. So I say, if you should ask me who they are, I
would answer,” said the gentle loving Word, “that they are another me, for they
have lost and drowned their own will and have clothed themselves and united
themselves and conformed themselves with mine.” It is true, then, that the soul
is united to God through love’s affection.

Vigils Reading
2025-04-30
MAKE NO PROVISION
FOR THE FLESH
From a sermon by Pope St Leo the Great
◊◊◊
Though we once knew Christ according to the flesh, we now do so no
longer. The resurrection of the Lord did not mean the end of his flesh, but its
transformation, and his bodily substance was not consumed by its increase in
power. The quality changed, but the nature did not pass away. What could die
became immortal, what could be harmed became incorruptible. And so he says
correctly that he no longer knows the body of Christ in its former state, because
there remains nothing in it subject to suffering or to weakness. It remains
essentially human, but surpasses itself through the glory of the resurrection.
It is not surprising that Paul says this of the body of Christ, when he says
about Christians who live according to the Spirit, From now on, we know no
one according to the flesh. From now on, he says, resurrection in Christ has
begun in us; from Christ who died for all comes the shape of all our hope. We do
not hold back through diffidence, nor are we held in suspense through
uncertainty: we have received the beginnings of what we are promised, and see
already with the eyes of faith the things that will be ours. Rejoicing in the lifting
up of our nature, we possess already all that we believe.
Therefore, let us not be taken up by the appearances of things that pass,
nor let things which are merely of this earth turn our thoughts from the things of
heaven. Let us take as passing those things which have even now scarcely any
reality; and with our minds intent on those that endure, let us fix our desire
there, where what is offered is eternal. For though we are saved only in hope,
and carry with us still our corruptible and mortal body, yet we rightly claim to be
no longer in the flesh if carnal passions do not rule us: rightly do we disclaim
allegiance to something which no longer holds us in its power. And so when the
Apostle says: “Make no provision for the flesh, to follow its desires, we
understand that he has not forbidden those things consistent with our bodily
health, or those demanded by human weakness. But in that we are not to cater
to all our desires, or fulfill all that the flesh covets, we recognize that he has
warned us to observe a certain measure of temperance, that the flesh, which is
created subject to the soul, is not given too much, nor is denied what is
necessary.

Vigils Reading - St Joseph the Worker
2025-05-01
ST JOSEPH
THE WORKER
A reflection by Pope Francis
◊◊◊
St Joseph concretely expressed his fatherhood by making an offering of
himself in love, placed at the service of the Messiah who was growing to
maturity in his home. And because of his role at the crossroads between the Old
and New Testament, St Joseph has always been venerated as a father of the
Christian people. In him, Jesus saw the tender love of God, the one that helps us
accept our weakness, because it is through and despite our fears, our frailties,
and our weakness that most divine designs are realized. Only tender love will
save us from the snares of the accuser, and it is by encountering God’s mercy in
the Sacrament of Reconciliation that we experience His truth and tenderness,
because we know that God’s truth does not condemn us, but instead welcomes,
embraces, sustains and forgives us.
Joseph is also a father in obedience to God with his “fiat”. He protects
Mary and Jesus and teaches his son to do the Will of the Father… At the same
time, Joseph is an accepting father because he accepted Mary unconditionally –
an important gesture even today in our world where psychological, verbal and
physical violence towards women is so evident. But the Bridegroom of Mary is
also the one who, trusting in the Lord, accepts in his life even the events that he
does not understand, setting aside his own ideas and reconciling himself with
his own history.
Joseph’s spiritual path is not one that explains but accepts – which does
not mean that he is “resigned”. Instead he is courageously and firmly proactive.
Because with the Holy Spirit’s Gift of fortitude, and full of hope, he is able to
accept life as it is, with all its contradictions, frustrations and disappointments.
In practice, through St Joseph, it is as if God were to repeat to us: “Do not be
afraid” because faith gives meaning to every event, however happy or sad, and
makes us aware that God can make flowers spring up from stony ground.
Joseph did not look for shortcuts but confronted reality with open eyes and
accepted personal responsibility for it. For this reason, he encourages us to
accept and welcome others as they are, without exception and to show special
concern for the weak… Consequently every poor, needy, suffering or dying
person, every stranger, every prisoner, every infirm person is “the child” whom
Joseph continues to protect. From St Joseph, we must learn to love the Church
and the poor.
As a carpenter who earned an honest living to provide for his family, St
Joseph also teaches us the value, the dignity and the joy of what it means to eat
bread that is the fruit of one’s own labor. This aspect of Joseph’s character
provides the opportunity to appeal in favor of work… There is a renewed need to
appreciate the importance of dignified work, of which St Joseph is an exemplary
patron. Work is a means of participating in the work of salvation, an
opportunity to hasten the coming of the Kingdom, to develop our talents and
abilities, and to put them at the service of society and fraternal communion.
Those who work are cooperating with God Himself, and in some way become
creators of the world around us.

Vigils Reading - St Athanasius
2025-05-02
HE HIGHLY
EXALTED HIM
By St Athanasius
◊◊◊
Since…the Word, being the Image of the Father and immortal, took the
form of a servant, and as man underwent for us death in His flesh, that thereby
He might offer Himself for us through death to the Father; therefore also, as
man, He is said because of us and for us to be highly exalted, that as by His death
we all died in Christ, so again in the Christ Himself we might be highly exalted,
being raised from the dead, and ascending into heaven, “where the forerunner
is for us entered, not into the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us.”
But if now for us the Christ is entered into heaven itself, though He was
even before and always Lord of the heavens, for us therefore is that present
exaltation also written. And as He Himself, who sanctifies all, says also that He
sanctifies Himself to the Father for our sakes, not that the Word may become
holy, but that He Himself may in Himself sanctify all of us, in like manner we
must take the present phrase, “He highly exalted Him“, not that He Himself
should be exalted, for He is the highest, but that He may become righteousness
for us; and we may be exalted in Him, and that we may enter the gates of heaven,
which He has also opened for us, the forerunners saying, “Lift up your heads, O
gates, and be lift up everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in.“
For here also not on Him were shut the gates, who is Lord and Maker of all, but
because of us is this too written, to whom the door of paradise was shut. And
therefore in a human relation, because of the flesh which He bore, it is said of
Him, “Lift up, O gates” “and the King of Glory shall come in”, as if humanity
were entering; but in a divine relation on the other hand it is said of Him, since
the “Word was God“, that He is the “Lord” and the “King of Glory”. For as
Christ died and was exalted as man, so, as man, is He said to take what, as God
He ever had, that even this so high a grant of grace might reach to us.

Vigils Reading - SS Philip & James
2025-05-03
THE APOSTOLIC WITNESS
By Jean Frisque
◊◊◊
They were still talking about all this when he himself stood among them
and said to them, “Peace be with you!”
The preeminent witnesses to the resurrection of Christ were the apostles.
From the time of Jesus’ baptism to his death, they accompanied him in his
public ministry. His death on the cross at the first threw them into a panic, but
soon afterwards it clarified everything for them, once it had been placed in its
Scriptural context, through the aid of the resurrected Christ himself.
But was the testimony of the apostles limited to this single well-founded
assertion: He whom you crucified has risen from the dead through the power of
God? In reality, there was much more: the apostles did not only offer an
eyewitness account of an event but the testimony of their faith. Only their faith
enabled them to discover why the death on the cross was the key-event of
salvation-history and in what way it led to the life of the resurrection. And theirs
was not simply any faith, but faith in the paschal experience itself, the faith
which had perceived that in Jesus Christ all people were called to share in the
divine filiation and to contribute on their own behalf to the construction of the
Kingdom.
Nor was this all. The witness which the apostles rendered to the
resurrection of Christ was above all an authorized witness. The apostles had
received from the resurrected Christ himself their power to testify validly to
him. They had received the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the resurrected Christ. Thus
the very life of the resurrected Christ was given to the apostolic group, and the
Church which they would construct in his name would be animated by this same
life. The Church was to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, and the life which
circulated in her would testify until the end of time to the resurrection of her
Head!
Thus we can see why the apostolic witness rendered to the resurrected
Christ was inseparable from the life which animated the first Christian
community. This witness was necessarily communal. The preaching in which
this witness took shape was absolutely inseparable from the grace of
communion given to the primitive community and its efforts to be entirely
faithful to the law of universal charity.
Today’s Christians are not wrong, therefore, when they insist upon the
importance of the testimony of their life. But the life to which they must witness
in order to testify to the resurrected Christ is the life of Christ himself. This life is
displayed here on earth by the way of total obedience unto death for the love of
all people, for such an obedience leads us constantly from death to life. Such a
sign can only be displayed by the Church herself.

Skema
2025-05-04
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
3rd Week of Easter

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
May 4 – 10, 2025

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

Office
3rd Sunday of Easter
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday
Bl Christian de Cherge
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday

Vigils
Rev 6:1-17
Rev 7:1-17
Rev 8:1-13
Rev 9:1-12
Rev 9:13-21
Rev 10:1-11
Rev 11:1-19

Lauds
Eph 3:7-13
Eph 3:14-21
Eph 4:1-6
Eph 4:17-24
Eph 4:25-32
Eph 5:1-5
Eph 5:6-14

Mass
48
273
274
275
276
277
278

1st
Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41
Acts 6:8-15
Acts 7:51-8:1a
Acts 8:1b-8
Acts 8:26-40
Acts 9:1-20
Acts 9:31-42

2nd
Rev 5:11-14

Gospel
John 21:1-19
John 6:22-29
John 6:30-35
John 6:35-40
John 6:44-51
John 6:52-59
John 6:60-69

Vespers
Acts 9:1-9
Acts 9:10-19a
Acts 9:19b-22
Acts 9:23-31
Acts 10:1-8
Acts 10:9-16
Acts 10:17-28

Vigils Reading - 3rd Sunday of Easter
2025-05-04
LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER
From a commentary by St Augustine
◊◊◊
The Lord appeared once again to his disciples after his resurrection, and
questioning Peter, who from fear had thrice denied him, extracted from him a
threefold declaration of love. Christ had been raised to life in the flesh, and Peter
to life in the spirit, for when Christ died as a result of the torments he endured,
Peter was also dead as a result of denying his master. Christ the Lord was raised
from the dead; Christ the Lord raised up Peter through Peter’s love for him. And
having obtained from him the assurance of that love, he entrusted his sheep to
Peter’s care.
We may wonder what advantage there could be for Christ in Peter’s love
for him. If Christ loves you, you profit, not Christ; and if you love him, again the
advantage is yours, not his. But wishing to show us how we should demonstrate
our love for him, Christ the Lord made it plain that it is by our concern for his
sheep. Do you love me?, he asked. I do love you. Then feed my sheep. Once,
twice, and a third time the same dialogue was repeated. To the Lord’s one and
only question, Peter had no other answer than I do love you. And each time the
Lord gave Peter the same command: Feed my sheep. Let us love one another
then, and by doing so we shall be loving Christ.
Christ, the eternal God, was born in time as man. A true member of the
human race, he appeared as one of us; but as God in human form he performed
many wonderful signs. As a human being, he suffered much from other human
beings; but as God in human form he rose from the dead. For forty days he lived
on earth as one of us; then, before the eyes of his disciples, he ascended to
heaven, where, as God in human form, he is now seated at the right hand of the
Father. We believe all these things, though we have never seen them; we are
commanded to love Christ the Lord, whom we have never seen. And we all cry
out and say that we love Christ.
But listen to John’s words: If you do not love the brother or sister that
you can see, how can you love the God you cannot see? It is by loving the sheep
that you show your love for the shepherd, for the sheep are the members of the
shepherd. Indeed, it was to make the sheep members of his own body that the
Lord became one of them himself, that he allowed himself to be led like a lamb
to the slaughter, and that he allowed the baptist to point him out and say:
Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Surely a
crushing burden for a lamb! But that lamb possessed tremendous strength. Do
you wish to know how much strength was in this lamb? Because the lamb was
crucified, the lion was overcome. If he could vanquish the devil by his own
death, think with what power he is able to rule the world! May nothing, then,
ever be dearer to us than Christ the Lord; let us love him with all our hearts.

Vigils Reading
2025-05-05
THE LIFE THAT CONQUERS
From “The Eternal Year” by Fr Karl Rahner
◊◊◊
Because [Jesus] did not begin to heal, to save, and to transfigure the world
by transfiguring the symptoms on the surface, but began rather at the
innermost root, we suppose that nothing has happened to the essence beneath
this superficial area. Because the waters of grief and guilt still flow on the
surface where we stand, we fancy that their source in the depths is not yet dried
up. Because evil still carves new marks in the face of the earth, we conclude that
in the deepest heart of reality love is dead. But these are only appearances,
which we take for the reality of life.
Christ is risen because in death he conquered, and redeemed forever, the
innermost center of all earthly existence. And, having risen, he has kept this
innermost center in his control, and he continues to preserve it. If we
acknowledge that he has gone away to God’s heaven, this is only another way of
saying that he withdraws from us for a while the tangibility of his transfigured
humanity. But this is only another way of saying that there is no longer any
abyss between God and the world.
Christ is already in the midst of the poor things of this earth… He is in the
ineffable yearning of all creatures who, without knowing it, yearn for a share in
the transfiguration of his body. He is in the history of the earth, whose blind
course, with all its victories and all its crashing defeats, steers with uncanny
precision towards the day when his splendor, transforming everything, will
erupt out of the earth’s own depths. He is in all the tears as hidden joy, and in
every death as the life that conquers by seeming to die. He is the heart of this
earthly world and the mysterious seal of its eternal validity.

Vigils Reading
2025-05-06
THE REDEMPTION
OF OUR BODIES
From a sermon by Fr Ronald Knox
◊◊◊
I am content to think of my present body as merely the inadequate symbol
of that body which will be mine in eternity. A symbol, yes; but we must remind
ourselves again, it isn’t merely a kind of book token, entitling me to the
possession of a body in eternity; it is rather a kind of cloak-room ticket, entitling
me to the possession of my body in eternity. Our Lord’s Resurrection meant an
empty tomb; our Lord’s Ascension meant, presumably, the disappearance from
earth of a certain quantum of matter which had previously been part of earth. If
it is going to be possible to establish identity between that body of yours which
will lie in the cemetery, and that body of yours which will, we hope, attain the
enjoyment of heaven, aren’t we going to land ourselves in rather difficult
physical speculations to account for it?
What is certain is that the thing, whatever it is, which expresses itself here
and now in terms of a mass of matter about six feet high, will persist, although it
may be expressed in quite different terms, in that order of creation, whatever it
be, which will succeed when the material creation itself has passed away.
The practical importance of that truth for us is, I take it, that as Christians
we are bound to think of our bodies as part of ourselves, as included not only in
the scheme of our creation but in the scheme of our redemption, as having…a
supernatural importance, and as demanding reverence in our treatment of
them. We look forward, as St Paul says, to the redemption of our bodies; they
are not encumbrances which we drag about with us, they are first-fruits of
eternity, entrusted to our keeping…
If you lean towards Eastern spiritualism, you will find yourself talking,
like the man in that poem of Lyall’s, about your body as if it were something that
didn’t matter; it “is a garment no more fitting, is a tent that I am quitting, is a
snare, from which at last, like a hawk, my soul hath passed“. If you lean
towards Western materialism, you will find yourself talking about your body as
if it were the only thing that mattered, like that poem of Housman’s, “The
Immortal Part“, which ends up: “And leave with endless night alone the
steadfast and enduring bone“. If you avoid both those excesses, you will find
yourself talking like Thomas a’ Kempis:
Ah, frail body, earth forsaking,
In what glory wilt thou rise,
Passing fair in thy remaking,
Strong and whole and swift and wise,
Free, and joy in freedom taking,
Framed for life that never dies!
Up, and stir thee, onward spur thee;
What, though toil be hard to bear,
If God’s grace shall count thee worthy
Those unguessed rewards to share?
Brief the pains that shall prefer thee
To eternal glory there.

Vigils Reading
2025-05-07
CHRIST IS THE DOOR
From “Symbols of Christ” by Dom Damasus Winzen
◊◊◊
To pass through a door is an initiation and a consecration, because it
means to leave behind the past and to enter a new life. To the Romans of old, the
victorious army, by marching through the arch of triumph, was cleansed of past
offenses and consecrated to a new era of peace. For the people of the Old
Testament, the temple gate of Jerusalem took the place of the arch of triumph.
No armies marched through it, but the festive throngs of the pilgrims
approached it in solemn procession on the Feast of the Tabernacles. Their
summons rang out to the warders: “This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous
shall enter into it!”
The real door to the Messianic era, however, is not made of stone. It is the
living heart of the Saviour. The very shape of the door indicates salvation
through Christ, because its two side-posts, holding up the lintel, form a gallows-
shaped cross. Every wall effects a separation between those within, whom it
protects, and those without, whom it excludes. Walls, therefore, are needed
only in a world where enmity exists between those who share in the blessedness
of a common life and those who are strangers and exiles. The door, however,
pierces the wall, and unites the two groups – in the power of the cross.
After the earth had been cursed, and enmity placed between the serpent
and the woman, Paradise was walled off from the rest of the world. But the gate
remained, guarded by the cherub with the flaming sword – waiting for the time
of man’s re-entrance. God also hid his Holy Presence behind the walls of the
temple, but a door remained, through which, once a year, the high priest was
allowed to enter the Holy of Holies.
When Christ extended his hands on the Cross he became the Door
through which the wall of separation between God and ourselves was opened.
The cherub at the gate of Paradise put away his sword when God’s Eternal Love,
hanging on the Cross, said to the good thief: “This day you shall be with me in
Paradise!” When Christ gave up the spirit, the curtain of the Holy of Holies was
rent, to indicate that we can “enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus.”
Christ is the Door through which we have access to the Father, because he is the
sacrificial victim which reconciles us in one body to God, so that we are citizens
with the saints and members of God’s household.
This Door was foreshadowed in the door of Noah’s ark, which,
significantly enough, “was set in the side thereof”; the Door was opened when
the lance of the soldier pierced the side of Jesus. We enter through this Door by
being baptized into the Death and Resurrection of Christ, through which we are
cleansed from past offenses and consecrated as children of the Heavenly Father.

Vigils Reading - Br Christian de Cherge
2025-05-08
CHRISTIAN DE CHERGÉ
MARTYR, MONK, AND MYSTIC
By Dom Bernardo Olivera
◊◊◊
In its early stages, monastic life was interpreted in various ways. Not a few
understood monasticism as an authentic martyrdom. The martyr, the monk and
the mystic are people who have oriented their lives toward mystery and entered
deeply therein. They long for one thing only: to enter into communion with their
Lord in death in order to be joined with him in the Resurrection.
Christian de Chergé was born on January 18, 1937 at Colmar into a
distinguished family of eight children. His father was a military man, as would
be his older brother later on. During his childhood he spent three years in
Algeria during the Second World War. From the time of his childhood he always
remained impressed by the Muslim’s way of approaching God.
On October 6, 1956, at the age of nineteen he entered the seminary of the
Carmelites in Paris. His studies were interrupted in 1959 when he had to report
for military service. Set on becoming an officer, he took the required courses
and in July of the following year he was made second lieutenant. That same
month, at the time of the war of independence, he arrived in Algeria at the age of
twenty-three.
An event occurred during this time that left its mark on him for the rest of
his life. He had made friends with an Algerian who worked as a warden under
the French authorities, a position that made him susceptible to the violence of
the National Liberation Army. Mohamed tried to be faithful at one and the same
time to his Christian friend, to his Islamic faith, and to his own people. It so
happened one day that they were involved in a scuffle in the street. Mohamed10
protected his friend and tried to pacify his aggressors. The following day, he was
found dead. This painful episode was never to be forgotten. Christian came back
to it in later years, writing: “I know at least one beloved brother, a convinced
Muslim, who gave his life for love of another, in a concrete way, by spilling his
own blood. Indeed, since then, in my hope for communion of all the elect in
Christ, I can fix my eyes on this friend who lived, even in his death, the one
commandment.”
For Christian de Chergé all of this was a foundational experience and the
seed of a vocation. In the blood of his friend, assassinated for not having wanted
to bargain with hatred, Christian said in 1982: “I knew my calling to follow
Christ would end up living itself out sooner or later in the same country where
I had been given the pledge of the greater love, ‘shed for you and for many’”.
On March 21, 1964, he was ordained a priest and shortly thereafter was sent to
Algeria and to the monastic life. On September 14, 1976, he made his perpetual
vows. In it he expressed his desire to “live in Prayer in the service of the Church
of Algeria, listening to the Muslim soul, God willing, until the final gift of my
death.”
Christian was elected Titular Prior of Atlas monastery in 1984. He was
already deeply involved in the interreligious dialogue. On May 21, 1996, united
with his six brothers of the community, he sealed with his blood the witness of
his life.

Vigils Reading
2025-05-08

Vigils Reading
2025-05-09
THE SECRET OF THE LORD
From a sermon by St John Henry Newman
◊◊◊
Our Lord expressly promises all Christians a certain gracious
manifestation of himself, which it is natural, at first sight, to suppose a sensible
one: and many persons understand it to be such, as if it were not more blessed to
believe than to see. Our Lord says; “He that has my commandments and keeps
them, he it is that loves me; and he that loves me, shall be loved of my Father,
and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.” When Jude asked him,
“Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself unto us, and not unto the
world?” Our Lord answered, “If one loves me, he will keep my words; and my
Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with
him.” In accordance with this promise, St Paul says, “The Spirit itself bears
witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God”; and St John, “He that
believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself.”
Now, that this great gift, whatever it be, is of a nature to impart
illumination, sanctity, and peace, to the soul to which it comes, far from
disputing, I would earnestly maintain. And, in this indirect way, doubtless, it is
in a certain sense apprehended and perceived; perceived in its effects, with a
consciousness that those effects cannot come of themselves, but imply a gift
from which they come, and a presence of which they are, as it were, the shadow,
a voice of which they are the echo.
But there are persons who desire the inward manifestation of Christ to be
much more sensible than this. They will not be contented without some sensible
sign and direct evidence that God loves them; some assurance, in which faith
has no part, that God has chosen them; and which may answer to their
anticipations of what Scripture calls “the secret of the Lord,” and “the hidden
manna” which Christ invites us to partake. Some, for instance, hold that their
conscience would have no peace, unless they recollected the time when they
were converted from darkness to light, from a state of wrath to the kingdom of
God.
Others consider that, in order to possess the seal of election, they must be
able to discern in themselves certain feelings or frames of mind, a renunciation
of their own merit, and an apprehension of gospel salvation; as if it were not
enough to renounce ourselves and follow Christ, without the lively
consciousness that we are doing so; and that in this lies “the secret of the Lord.”
Others go further; and think that without a distinct inward assurance of his
salvation, one is not in a saving state.
This is what men and women often conceive; not considering that
whatever be the manifestation promised to Christians by our Lord, it is not
likely to be more sensible and more intelligible than the great sign of his own
Resurrection. Yet even that, like the miracle wrought upon Jonah, was in secret,
and they who believed without seeing it were more blessed than those who saw.

Vigils Reading
2025-05-10
NOT AS THE WORLD GIVES PEACE
From a homily by St Oscar Romero
◊◊◊
Justice is not enough; love also is necessary… We have said that the power
of the Christian is love, and we repeat it: the power of the church is love.
Love enables us to feel that we are sisters and brothers to one and all… As
long as we do not reach that strength of love, we cannot be true peacemakers.
Those whose hearts are filled with resentment, violence, and hatred cannot be
forgers of peace. We have to know how to love like Jesus, who loved even those
who crucified him: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do… If they
knew you, they would love you… Give them love also, Lord.” How much good
the powerful would do if they truly loved and were not selfish and envious! How
beautiful the world would be… if we all were to expand this power of love!
Here the Second Vatican Council was careful to define two kinds of peace,
and we should pay close attention to this. One kind of peace is that which Christ
reserved for his closest friends, those who understood the redemption and the
need to root out sin from themselves. As long as there is sin in the heart, there
can be no truly divine peace, such as the peace Christ achieved when he
reconciled us with the Father by dying on the cross and bearing the sins of all of
us in his body. For us Christians and Catholics, this is the culmination of peace:
peace in the grace of God, the peace of those who have left sin and controlled
their passions, the peace of holy souls. This is the peace that Christ spoke of: “I
leave you peace; my peace I give to you, not as the world gives peace.”
Romero Vol. 1 (of 6). Trans. Joseph Owens, SJ. Miami: Convivium Press, 2015. 181-184.14
Here we distinguish another kind of peace, the peace that the church
shares with the world, the peace that non-Christians can also possess, the peace
of people of good will that we sing about in the Gloria of the Mass… Here is
meant this other peace, the peace that proceeds from natural love. It is the
peace of those who, even though they do not know God, are able to discover the
intense power of being in solidarity with those who suffer. It is the peace that
enables people to bring a little comfort to the grief-stricken and to denounce
injustices… This is the peace that all people can possess…
The problem of peace is immense, and it needs many peacemakers:
priests, men and women religious, laity… the call goes out to all… Let each one
of us, according to our means, nurture this vocation to become instruments of
peace… Those whose hearts feel the need for God, those who find the joy of life
in the cross and sacrifice, those who have learned the true secret of peace in the
crucified One. This secret consists of loving God to the extreme of letting
oneself be killed for him and of loving one’s neighbors to the point of being
crucified for them. This is the love of the modern redeemers, the love of Christ,
this love that endures forever. Let us promise this to the Lord while we proceed
to proclaim our faith in him.

LCG Chicago May Meeting Zoom 5/10/25 9 am CDT
2025-05-10 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago)
All are invited:
Join Zoom Meeting
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9:00 Gather for Opening prayer.
We also pray for all our lay Cistercian sisters and brothers in the US and around the world. Specially we pray for our Gethsemani monks. Finally, we pray this month specially for:
Fr. Joachim Johnson
Br. Christopher Lucas
Br. Roger Kaler
9:10 Lectio. Our lectio piece will be led by Tom Kosnik.
9:50 Reading. Our reading this month is completion (from page 50 to end) of The Impact of God by Fr. Iain Matthew. Does the author help/sense the concept of “night” by St. John of the Cross?
10:45 Housekeeping. Volunteer to lead lectio next month? Selection of our next book. Chicago Report on LCG Advisory Council activity. Plans for 2025 international meeting in Avila.
11:00 Update. Share how the Holy Spirt has entered our lives as lay Cistercians since our last meeting.
11:45 Closing worship and prayer. We will pray the liturgical hour of None as with our Gethsemani monks (identical Psalms as done today at Gethsemani Abbey.)
Our next meeting: June 14, 2025.

Skema, 4th Easter
2025-05-11
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
4th Week of Easter

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
May 11 – 17, 2025

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

Office
4th Sunday of Easter
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday
St Mathias
St Pachomius
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday

Vigils
Rev 12:1-18
Rev 13:1-18
Rev 14:1-13
Phil 3:13-4:1
Rev 15:5-16:21
Rev 17:1-18
Rev 18:1-20

Lauds
Eph 5:15-20
Eph 6:10-17
Col 1:1-8
1 Jn 2:18-25
Col 1:15-23
Col 1:24-29
Col 2:1-8

Mass
51
279
280
564
282
283
284

1st
Acts 13:14, 43-52
Acts 11:1-18
Acts 11:19-26
Acts 1:15-17, 20-26
Acts 13:13-25
Acts 13:26-33
Acts 13:44-52

2nd
Rev 7:9, 14b-17

Gospel
John 10:27-30
Jn 10:1-10
John 10:22-30
John 15:9-17
John 13:16-20
John 14:1-6
John 14:7-14

Vespers
Acts 10:34-43
Acts 10:44-49
Acts 12:1-5
1 Cor 4:1-7
Acts 13:6-12
Acts 14:1-7
Acts 16:16-24
