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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250409
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250410
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250406T124026Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250406T124026Z
UID:13306-1744156800-1744243199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:YOUR VERDICT ON OTHERS\, \nWILL BE THE VERDICT \nPASSED ON YOU \nFrom a homily by St Asterius of Amasea \n◊◊◊ \nIf you desire to resemble God\, for you have been created in God’s own \nimage\, imitate your model. You\, Christians\, whose very name calls to mind love\, \nimitate Christ’s love. Consider and wonder at the wealth of Christ’s love for us. \nWhen he was about to show himself to us in our own nature\, he sent John to \npreach repentance by word and example. Before John he sent all the prophets. \nThey too were to teach people to amend their lives. Then he came himself and \nwith his own voice cried out: Come to me\, all you who labour and are \noverburdened\, and I will give you rest. And how did he receive those who \nlistened to his call and followed him? He readily forgave them their sins\, \ninstantly relieving them of all their cause for grief. The Word has sanctified \nthem and the Spirit has confirmed them. Their old self was buried in the waters \nof baptism and a new self born; their youth was renewed by grace. And the \nresult? Enemies of God became his friends\, strangers to him became his \nchildren\, idolaters became worshipers of the true God. \nYou\, therefore\, who are harsh and unable to show gentleness\, learn \ngoodness from your Creator. Do not act as bitter judges and severe arbiters \ntoward those who are your companions in service\, as you wait for the coming of \nOne who will reveal the secret recesses of the heart and\, as the Almighty Lord\, \nwill assign to each person their proper place in the life beyond. \nDo not pass severe judgments that you may avoid being judged with the \nsame severity\, being pierced yourselves by the words of your own mouth as by \nsharp-pointed teeth. For it is against this kind of fault that the words of the \ngospel seem indeed to warn us where it is said: If you want to avoid judgment\, \nstop passing judgment\, your verdict on others will be the verdict passed on \nyou. \nChrist does not thereby mean that he wants to banish discernment and \nwisdom. What he condemns is a condemnation that is too severe. So\, lighten as \nmuch as possible the weight of your measurement of others\, if you want your \nown actions not to be considered excessively heavy when our lives are weighed \nat the divine judgment… Do not refuse to act mercifully that you yourselves may \nnot be sent away unpardoned at the time when you will need forgiveness.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-295/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250410
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250411
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250406T124120Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250406T124120Z
UID:13308-1744243200-1744329599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE GREATEST \nOF ALL VIRTUES \nFrom a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny \n◊◊◊ \nKeep…O happy sinner\, keep carefully and watchfully this spirit of yours\, \nthis most fitting affection of humility and devotion by which you may always so \nthink of yourself in humility and of the Lord in goodness. There is nothing \ngreater than it among the gifts of the Holy Spirit\, nothing more precious in the \ntreasures of God\, nothing more holy among all the charisms\, nothing more \nhealth-giving in all the sacraments… This humility not only justifies sinners but \nalso perfects the just and brings their justice to fullness if they confess \nthemselves humble servants even when they have done all they were bidden. \nLet your sin be present to you always and\, according to the Wise Man’s \nadvice\, do not be without fear even for sin that has been forgiven. God’s \njudgments are uncertain and hidden; they are not rashly to be presumed upon\, \nfor we hold nothing more certain in that regard than that in God’s sight no man \nor woman alive shall be justified\, except insofar as they justify themselves to be \nsinners… \nMercy has welcomed you kindly\, received you with loving-kindness. Fear \nthe judgment\, lest the grace given you in your humility be taken away from you \nin your pride. You have chosen to be of little account… Remain in that frame of \nmind\, so that even if you are promoted you may be advanced to greater things \nstill. Always take the last place\, or at least desire it… Never let humility become \ndispleasing to you; through it you began to please and without it you will begin \nto displease however great the virtues by which you are distinguished… \nHumility is the greatest of all virtues\, although it does not know itself to \nbe a virtue. It is the root and seedbed\, the tinder and incentive\, it is the \nsummit and peak\, the custody and discipline of almost all the virtues. From it \nthey begin\, through it they make progress\, in it they are perfected\, by it they \nare preserved. It is humility that makes all the virtues what they are\, and if \nany one of them be lacking or less perfect it is humility that compensates for \nthe loss since it profits by the other’s absence.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-296/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250411
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250412
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250406T124223Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250406T124223Z
UID:13310-1744329600-1744415999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A LIFE WITH CHRIST \nby Fr Louis Bouyer \n◊◊◊ \nOur death with Christ and this resurrection with Him\, giving us the life \nhidden with Christ in God\, who will appear when Christ Himself will appear\, is \nthe whole mystery that St Paul tells us God had reserved for these later times. \nWriters have often stressed the extraordinary frequency of grammatical \ncompounds containing the word “with” in the writings of St Paul\, and have \nrightly observed that it is a characteristic feature of his whole conception of the \nChristian life. Indeed\, for him\, the Christian life\, the life of the Church or that of \neach Christian\, is a life with Christ. It is important to grasp all that that implies. \nJesus of Nazareth\, who died and rose under Pontius Pilate and is now \nseated at the right hand of the Father until the day He will come to judge the \nliving and the dead\, has never been for St Paul\, nor for any Catholic theologian\, \na hero whose epic must leave the impression that His achievements are too \nwonderful ever to be duplicated in ourselves. Surely no poet has dreamed of a \nhero more sublime than the One of whom the Apostle wrote: Despoiling the \nprincipalities and the powers\, he made a public spectacle of them\, leading \nthem away in triumph. But it is for us that He triumphed thus\, and we must \nknow that by Him and with Him\, dead as we were\, God has raised us up with \nhim and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus. \nYes\, Christ accomplished all that in us\, for\, if the sense of our own \nweakness is what faith\, in cutting at the very root of our pride\, first thrusts upon \nus\, it does so only to make clear to us that strength is made perfect in weakness \nand that we can do all things in Him who strengthens us – that is\, Jesus Christ. \nThat the Church celebrates Easter\, that today she suffers and weeps with \nher Head\, then rises and exults with Him\, is the sign that the relation between \nChrist and the Church\, between Christ and us\, is quite different from that \nexisting between any historic personages of different epochs\, even between a \nmaster and his disciples. For the authors of the New Testament\, even for the \nevangelists whose immediate end is to recount the earthly life of Jesus of \nNazareth\, this Christ can never be considered simply as a man whose life and \ndeath might inspire sentiments analogous to those awakened by\, say\, the life \nand death of a Socrates\, even though those sentiments were incomparably \ndeepened and purified. He is truly the Son of God made flesh for our sake.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-297/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250412
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250413
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250406T124356Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250406T124356Z
UID:13312-1744416000-1744502399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:OUR STRUGGLE \nIN SEARCH OF TRUTH \nBy Thomas Merton7 \n◊◊◊ \nLife is\, or should be\, nothing but a struggle to seek truth: yet what we seek \nis really the truth that we already possess. Truth is mine in the reality of life as it \nis given to me to live: yet to take life thoughtlessly\, passively as it comes\, is to \nrenounce the struggle and purification which are necessary. One cannot simply \nopen his eyes and see. The work of understanding involves not only dialectic\, \nbut a long labor of acceptance\, obedience\, liberty\, and love. The temptation of \nmonastic life is to evade this austere responsibility by falling back into passive \nindifference\, thinly veiled resentment disguised as obedience and \nabandonment. Since in fact one need not positively accept what happens\, one \ncan be merely resigned and negative. \nOthers make all the important decisions: but the most important decision \nalways falls to me\, and if I am in the habit of never deciding\, I will evade it. The \nroot decision to accept my own life and to obey its demands may challenge my \nunderstanding of those demands\, my honesty in their regard. The worst \ntemptation\, and that to which many monks succumb early in their lives\, and by \nwhich they remain defeated\, is simply to give up asking and seeking. To leave \neverything to the superiors in this life and to God in the next – a hope which may \nin fact be nothing but a veiled despair\, a refusal to live. And it is not Christian to \ndespair of the present\, merely putting off hope into the future. There is also a \nvery essential hope that belongs in the present\, and is based on the nearness of \nthe hidden God\, and of His Spirit\, in the present. What future can make sense \nwithout this present hope? \nEvil and falsity are unavoidable: but one does not bow down to them \npassively and without response. Resignation is not enough. God demands of us \na creative consent\, in our deepest and most hidden self\, the self we do not \nexperience\, though it is always there. This creative consent is the obedience of \nmy whole being to the will of God\, here and now. The inner “word” of consent is \nthe coincidence\, in the Spirit\, the identity of my own obedience and will with the \nobedience and will of Christ. Such is the depth of our Sonship and of the life of \ngrace. \nGradually\, by accepting our place in the world and our tasks as they are\, \nwe come to be liberated from the limitations of the world and of a restricted\, \nhalfhearted milieu: yet one is content with one’s moment of history and one’s \nobscure task in it. One must be detached from systems and collective plans\, \nwithout rancor toward them\, but with insight and compassion. To be truly \nCatholic is not merely to be correct according to an abstractly universal \nstandard of truth\, but also and above all to be able to enter into the problems \nand the joys of all\, to understand all\, to be all things to all persons. This \ncannot be done if we do not first completely and honestly accept ourselves\, \nour own problems\, our own defeats\, with the creative consent and \nresponsibility that unite us to God’s will and thus to the dynamism of history \nin its very source. \n  \n7 Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander\, by Thomas Merton\, Doubleday & Co. 1966\, pp.166-167.15
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-298/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20250412T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20250412T120000
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250406T212445Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250406T212445Z
UID:13315-1744448400-1744459200@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:LCG Chicago April 12\, 2025\, Meeting 9:00 am CDT
DESCRIPTION:All in LCG are invited to join our Chicago Zoom meeting.  9:00 am CDT on April 12\, 2025. \nJoin Zoom Meeting \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/86028356465 \nMeeting ID: 860 2835 6465 \nOne tap mobile \n+13126266799\,\,86028356465# US (Chicago) \n+13092053325\,\,86028356465# US \n  \n9:00 Gather for Opening prayer. \nWe 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: \nBr. Luke Armour \nFr. Andrew McAughan \n 9:10 Lectio. Our lectio piece will be led by Robert Johnson. \n 9:50 Reading.  Our reading this month is the first 50 pages (through Part III) of The Impact of God by Fr. Iain Matthew.Does St. John of the Cross sharpen your Lenten journey? \n10:45 Housekeeping.   Volunteer to lead lectio next month?  Chicago Report on LCG Advisory Council activity.  Plans for international meeting in 2025 and Anglophone lead-ins thereto. \n11:00 Update.   Share how the Holy Spirt has entered our lives as lay Cistercians since our last meeting. \n11:45 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.) \nOur next meeting: May 10\, 2025. \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/lcg-chicago-april-12-2025-meeting-900-am-cdt/
CATEGORIES:LCG Local Community Meetings,LCG open events
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250413
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250414
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250413T124437Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250413T124437Z
UID:13320-1744502400-1744588799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\nHoly Week\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (C)\, Weekdays (I)\nApril 13 – 19\, 2025\n\n\n\nSun\n13\nMon\n14\nTue\n15\nWed\n16\nThu\n17\nFri\n18\nSat\n19\n\n\nOffice\nPalm Sunday\nMonday of Holy Week\nTuesday of Holy Week\nWednesday of Holy Week\nHoly Thursday\nGood Friday\nHoly Saturday\n\n\nVigils\nZech 9:9-17\nLam 1:1-16\nLam 2:1-10\nLam 2:18-22\nLam 3:19-54\nLam 4:1-6\nLam 5:1-22\n\n\nLauds\nZeph 3:14-20\nLam 1:17-22\nLam 2:11-17\nLam 3:1-18\nLam 3:55-66\nWis 2:10-22\nIsa 63:1-6\n\n\nMass\n38\n257\n258\n259\n39\n40\n\n\n\n1st\nIsa 50:4-7\nIsa 42:1-7\nIsa 49:1-6\nIsa 50:4-9a\nExod 12:1-8\, 11-14\nIsa 52:13-53:12\n\n\n\n2nd\nPhil 2:6-11\n\n\n\n1 Cor 11:23-26\nHeb 4:14-16; 5:7-9\n\n\n\nGospel\nLuke 22:14-23:56\nJohn 12:1-11\nJohn 13:21-33\, 36-38\nMatt 26:14-25\nJohn 13:1-15\nJohn 18:1-19:42\n\n\n\nVespers\nGal 3:7-14\nRom 5:6-11\n1 Cor 1:18-25\n1 Pet 2:20-25\n\n\n1 Pet 4:1-8
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-111/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250413
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250414
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250413T124605Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250413T124605Z
UID:13322-1744502400-1744588799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Palm Sunday
DESCRIPTION:THE WAY OF CHRIST \nIS STRAIGHT \nFrom a commentary by St Cyril of Alexandria \n◊◊◊ \n“Behold a righteous king will reign\, and princes will rule with justice.” \nThe only-begotten Word of God\, together with God the Father\, has always been \nking of the universe\, and to him all creatures\, visible and invisible\, are subject. \nPeople on earth\, having been caught in the snares of sin\, were persuaded by the \ndevil to reject his sovereignty and despise his royal power\, but the judge and \ndispenser of all justice brought them back under his own dominion. \nAll his ways are straight\, says Scripture\, and by the ways of Christ we \nmean the divine precepts laid down by the gospel. By observing them we make \nprogress in every virtue\, do honor to ourselves by the moral beauty of our lives\, \nand attain the heavenly reward to which we have been called. These are straight\, \nnot winding ways; they are direct and easily followed. As it is written: “The way \nof the upright is straight; the road of the just is made smooth.” Its many decrees \nmake the law a rugged way and its difficulty intolerable\, but the way of the \ngospel commands is smooth\, without any roughness or steep ascents. \nThe ways of Christ are straight\, then\, and as for the holy city. Which is the \nChurch\, he himself was its builder and he makes it his own dwelling. In other \nwords\, he makes the saints his dwelling\, sharing as we do in the Holy Spirit\, we \nhave Christ within us and have become temples of the living God. Christ is both \nthe founder of the Church and its foundation\, and upon this foundation we\, like \nprecious stones\, are built into a holy temple to become\, through the Spirit\, a \ndwelling place for God… \nWhen he founded the Church\, Christ delivered his people from bondage. \nHe saved us from the power of Satan and of sin\, freed us and subjected us to his \nown rule\, but not by paying a ransom or by bribes. As one of the disciples wrote: \n“we have been freed from the futile ways handed down to us by our ancestors\, \nnot by anything perishable like silver and gold\, but by the precious blood of \nChrist\, like that of a lamb without mark or blemish.” He gave his own blood for \nus\, so that we no longer belong to ourselves\, but to him who bought us and saved \nus. Those therefore who turn aside from the noble rule of the true faith are justly \naccused by all the saints of denying the Lord who redeemed them.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-palm-sunday-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250414
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250415
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250413T124712Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250413T124712Z
UID:13324-1744588800-1744675199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:WHEN ALL WAS TO BE \nPUT TO THE TEST \nBy Henri Daniel-Rops \n◊◊◊ \nThe day which followed the astonishing Sunday of the triumphal entry \nwas not so striking\, but was nonetheless full of significance. Jesus entered \nJerusalem every day\, went up to the Temple\, and spoke to audiences which \nlistened to him with enthusiasm\, while the chief priests and scribes sought \nmeans to destroying him. To Jesus\, the slightest incident was an occasion for a \nlesson\, which often took the form of a warning. \nSo it was all through the Monday. What precisely was the meaning of the \ncurious episode\, uncharacteristic of Christ’s normally merciful manner\, in \nwhich he condemned a fig tree on which he found no figs to wither? And who is \nthe bad son who pretends to be submissive to his father’s will\, but in reality \ndisobeys him? Or the rebellious wine dressers who kill their master’s servants \nin order to seize the harvest? What is the name of the stone rejected by the \nbuilders which will be the cornerstone of the new building? And do we not know \nthese guests invited to the royal feast who refuse to attend? One is almost afraid \nto understand at whom these gestures\, these parables are aimed. At this \nmoment\, Israel’s refusal seems to haunt Jesus’ mind and to fill it with anguish. \nWe are hardly surprised to find that the leaders of the community sent \nemissaries to ask Jesus with what right he was behaving as he was. He avoided \nthe question by himself asking them an embarrassing one concerning what kind \nof a man was John\, and they could not give him any answer. But we can hardly \nbe surprised that their anger grew\, and that they were on the point of laying \nhands on him. Jesus cast a real challenge at his adversaries at this moment \nwhen he knew that all was to be put to the test.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-299/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250415
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250416
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250413T124811Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250413T124811Z
UID:13326-1744675200-1744761599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:TODAY YOU WILL BE \nWITH ME IN PARADISE \nBy St John Chrysostom \n◊◊◊ \nToday the cross has opened Paradise which had been closed to us for \nthousands of years. For today God has brought a robber there. Thus he effects \ntwo marvels: he opens Paradise\, and he brings in a thief. Today God has given \nus our ancient fatherland\, today he has brought us to the paternal city\, today he \nhas opened his house to the whole of humanity. ‘Today\,’ he said\, ‘you will be \nwith me in Paradise’. \nWhat did you say\, Lord? You are crucified\, nailed there\, and you \npromise Paradise? \nYes\, so that you may learn how great is my power on the cross. \nIt is indeed a cruel sight. And to deflect your attention from this aspect of \nthe cross and make you realize the power of the Crucified\, Jesus works this \nmiracle from the cross\, the miracle which more than any other bears witness to \nhis power. For it was not when raising the dead\, commanding the wind and the \nwaves\, expelling demons\, but when crucified\, fixed with nails\, covered with \ninsults\, spittle\, mockery and abuse\, that he had power to change the evil state of \nthe thief; and in this you can see two aspects of his power. \nHe shook the whole of creation\, he split the rocks\, and he drew the soul of \nthe thief\, which was harder than rock; for the thief believed in him and Jesus \nsaid in return\, ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise.” Doubtless the \ncherubim guarded paradise\, but he was master of the cherubim. A flaming \nsword twirled at the entrance\, but he had all power over fire and sword\, over life \nand death. \nTruly\, no king ever allowed a thief or any other subject to sit with him \nwhile he made an entrance into a town. But Christ has done this: when he \nentered into his fatherland he brought a thief with him. In doing this he did not \nslight Paradise\, did not dishonor it by the thief’s presence there; on the contrary\, \nhe honored Paradise\, because it is glorious for Paradise to have a master who \ncan make a thief worthy of the joys to be found there. Likewise when he brings \npublicans and prostitutes into the kingdom of heaven he is not insulting the \nkingdom but honoring it\, for he shows that the master of the kingdom of heaven \nis strong enough to make prostitutes and publicans worthy enough to receive \nsuch an honor and such a gift.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-300/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250416
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250417
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250413T124909Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250413T124909Z
UID:13328-1744761600-1744847999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE CROSS OF CHRIST \nFrom a sermon by St Aelred of Rievaulx \n◊◊◊ \nOur Lord Jesus Christ worked for our salvation not in one way only but in \nmany. Because his mercy provided for our redemption\, he accomplished it in \nsuch a way that he might be an example for us. Behold\, my brothers\, how at this \ntime you call to mind our redemption; therefore pay diligent attention not only \nto the redemption itself but also to both the manner by which redemption was \naccomplished and the place in which it was done. The manner of the \nredemption is the passion of Christ; the place outside the city. You must know \nthen that from this redemption and the manner of accomplishing it\, we receive \nboth a way of living and the right location that we must choose in order to live in \nthis way. \nLet us accept now the way of living that comes from this cross of Jesus. Do \nI say a way of living or of dying? Certainly both of living and of dying: of of dying \nto the world\, of living for God; of dying to vices\, and of living in virtues; of dying \nto the flesh\, of living however in the Spirit. Therefore in the cross of Christ there \nis death and in the cross of Christ there is life. There the death of death and the \nlife of life. There the death of sins and the life of virtues. There the death of the \nflesh and the life of the Spirit. Why\, however did God choose this kind of death? \nBecause of both the divine mystery itself and the example to be given. Then\, too\, \nbecause our illness was such that the remedy should fit in this way. \nIt was certainly fitting that we who had fallen through the wood would rise \nup through the wood. Fitting that he who conquered through the wood would \nhimself be conquered through it. Fitting that we who chose the fruit of death \nfrom the wood would be given the fruit of life from the wood. And because we \nfell from the stability of this most beautiful earth into the great and spacious sea\, \nit is fitting that wood be prepared for us by which we would cross over that sea. \nFor no one can cross the sea without wood\, nor this world without the cross… \nTherefore do you see how Christ chose this kind of death as full of some \ndivine meaning…? The Apostle explains it openly\, saying\, He humbled himself\, \nbeing made obedient even to death\, death on the cross. He then proclaims the \nmeaning: Because of this\, God exalted him and gave him the name which is \nabove every name\, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow\, in heaven\, \non earth\, and in the depths. Because he was about to take possession of heaven \nand earth through the cross\, he was placed on the cross as if he embraced \nheaven and earth. Since in truth his death has already taken place not on the \nearth nut above the earth\, what can it mean except that\, raised up as we are \nfrom the earth through his blessed passion\, we taste what is above\, not those \nthings on earth. The fact that he died with arms outstretched is a sign of his \ngreat loving kindness. Just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wing and \ndefends them from a persistent raptor\, so he\, clasping us with maternal \naffection under the wings of his grace\, makes us completely secure against the \nattack of heinous spirits.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-301/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250413T125020Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250413T125020Z
UID:13330-1744848000-1744934399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Holy Thursday
DESCRIPTION:THE BRIDGE BETWEEN \nTHE COVENANT \nAND THE EUCHARIST \nBy St Edith Stein \n◊◊◊ \nWe know from the Gospel narratives that Christ prayed as a Jew who \nbelieved in and was faithful to the Law. When he was a child with his parents\, \nand later with his disciples\, he used to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem at the \nappointed times to take part in the festivals that were celebrated in the temple. \nHe sang joyfully with the pilgrims\, “I was glad when they said unto me: We \nwill go into the house of the Lord”. He recited the ancient prayers of blessing\, \nwhich are still said today\, for bread\, wine\, and the fruits of the earth\, as the \naccounts of the Last Supper bear witness\, This was wholly consecrated to the \nfulfillment of one of the holiest religious obligations – the solemn Passover meal \nwhich commemorated the deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Perhaps it is here \nthat we are given the deepest insight into the prayer of Christ\, as it were the key \nwhich gives access to the prayer of the Church. \nNow as they were eating\, Jesus took bread\, and blessed\, and broke \nit\, and gave it to the disciples\, and said\, “Take\, eat; this is my body.” \nAnd he took a cup\, when he had given thanks he gave it to them\, \nsaying\, “Drink of it\, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant\, \nwhich is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin” \n. \nThe blessing and giving of the bread and wine have become part of the rite \nof the Passover meal. But at the Last Supper this blessing and giving takes on a \nwholly new meaning. For this is the birth of the Church. Doubtless it was only \nat Pentecost that the Church was born a spiritual and visible community. But \nhere\, at the Supper\, took place that grafting of the shoot in the vine branch \nwhich made the outpouring of the Spirit possible. \nThe ancient prayers of blessing became creative words of life on Christ’s \nlips. The fruits of the earth became his flesh and blood\, filled with his life. The \nvisible creation into which he was inserted by his incarnation is now bound to \nhim in a new and mysterious way. The foods that are indispensable for the \ngrowth of the human organism are transformed in their nature\, and those \npartaking of them with faith are themselves transformed too; incorporated into \nChrist in a living union\, they are filled with his divine life. The quickening power \nof the Word is fused with the sacrifice. The Word becomes flesh to give us that \nLife which is his own. He offered himself\, and has thus offered the creation \nwhich he ransomed by this offering\, as a sacrifice of praise to the Creator. \nThe Passover of the ancient covenant has become the Passover of the \nnew covenant\, at the Lord’s Last Supper\, at the Sacrifice of the Cross\, and\, \nbetween the Resurrection and the Ascension\, at the joyful agape where the \ndisciples recognized their Lord in the breaking of the bread; and\, in the \nSacrifice of the Mass\, at Holy Communion.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-holy-thursday-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250418
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250419
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250413T125125Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250413T125125Z
UID:13332-1744934400-1745020799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading- Good Friday
DESCRIPTION:SOVEREIGNTY IS LAID \nON HIS SHOULDERS \nFrom a sermon by St Leo the Great \n◊◊◊ \nWhen our Lord was handed over to the will of his cruel foes\, they ordered \nhim\, in mockery of his royal dignity\, to carry the instrument of his own torture. \nThis was done to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah: “A child is born for us\, a son is \ngiven to us; sovereignty is laid upon his shoulders.” To the wicked\, the sight of \nthe Lord carrying his own cross was indeed an object of derision; but to the \nfaithful a great mystery was revealed\, for the cross was destined to become the \nscepter of his power. Here was the majestic spectacle of a glorious conqueror \nmightily overthrowing the hostile forces of the devil and nobly bearing the \ntrophy of his victory. On the shoulders of his invincible patience he carried the \nsign of salvation for all the kingdoms of the earth to worship\, as if on that day he \nwould strengthen all his future disciples by the symbol of his work\, and say to \nthem: “Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of \nme.” \nO the marvelous power of the cross\, the glory in the passion! No tongue \ncan fully describe it. Here we see the judgment seat of the Lord\, here sentence \nis passed upon the world\, and here the sovereignty of the Crucified is revealed. \nYou drew all things to yourself\, Lord\, when you stretched out your hands all \nthe day long to a people that denied and opposed you\, until at last the whole \nworld was brought to proclaim your majesty. You drew all things to yourself\, \nLord…when the lights of heaven were darkened and the day was turned into \nnight; when the land was shaken by unwonted earthquakes\, and all creation \nrefused to serve those wicked people. Yes\, Lord\, you drew all things to \nyourself; the veil of the temple was torn in two and the Holy of Holies taken \naway from those unworthy high priests. Figures gave way to reality\, \nprophecy to manifestation\, law to gospel. You drew all things to yourself in \norder that the worship of the whole human race could be celebrated \neverywhere in a sacramental form which would openly fulfill what had been \nenacted by means of veiled symbols in that single Jewish temple. A nobler \norder of levites has now arisen\, we have elders of a greater dignity and priests \nof a holier anointing\, because your cross is the fountainhead of every blessing \nand the source of every grace. Through your cross the faithful are given \nstrength instead of weakness\, glory instead of shame\, life instead of death.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-good-friday-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250419
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250420
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250413T125232Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250413T125232Z
UID:13334-1745020800-1745107199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Holy Saturday
DESCRIPTION:THE DEATH OF CHRIST \nHAS TRANSFORMED DEATH \nBy St Cyril of Alexandria \n◊◊◊ \nThey took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices\, \naccording to the Jewish burial custom. At the place where he had been crucified \nthere was a garden\, and in this garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been \nburied. \nChrist was numbered among the dead. For our sake he was put to death \nin the body\, even though of himself and through his Father we believe him to be\, \nand indeed he is\, life it self. In order to do all that was required by God\, all that \nwas involved in his having become man\, he freely submitted the temple of his \nbody not only to death\, but to everything that accompanies it\, to the laying out of \nhis body and its burial in a tomb. \nThe Evangelist says that his tomb was in a garden and that it was new. \nThis teaches us in a symbolic way that it is through Christ’s death that we gain \nentry into paradise; he entered as the forerunner on our behalf. The newness of \nthe tomb suggests the new and untrodden path from death to life and the \nrenewal by which Christ frees us from corruption. By Christ’s death\, our death \nhas been transformed into something quite new\, more like a kind of sleep. We \nare alive now to God\, as Scripture says\, and destined to live for ever. This is why \nSaint Paul frequently refers to those who have died in Christ as those who have \nfallen asleep. \nIn the past the power of death had always prevailed against our nature. \nFrom the time of Adam to the time of Moses\, death ruled over all\, even over \nthose who did not sin\, as Adam did\, by disobeying God’s command. We bore the \nimage of the earthly man\, Adam\, and underwent the death inflicted by the \ndivine curse\, but when the second Adam who is divine and from heaven \nappeared among us\, he fought for the lives of us all\, purchased them by his own \ndeath in the flesh and then\, having destroyed the power of corruption\, he rose \nagain. In this way he transformed us into his own image\, so that the death we \nnow undergo is of a new kind; it does not lead to eternal destruction\, but is \nrather a sleep\, full of good hope. In fact\, it resembles the death of Christ\, who \nopened up for us this new pathway to life.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-holy-saturday-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250420
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DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250420T013400Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250420T013400Z
UID:13339-1745107200-1745193599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\nEaster Octave\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (C)\, Weekdays (I)\nApril 20 – 26\, 2025\n\n\n\nSun\n20\nMon\n21\nTue\n22\nWed\n23\nThu\n24\nFri\n25\nSat\n26\n\n\nOffice\nEASTER SUNDAY\nEaster Monday\nEaster Tuesday\nEaster Wednesday\nEaster Thursday\nEaster Friday\nEaster Saturday\n\n\nVigils\n* Easter Vigil\n1 Pt 1:1-21\n1 Pt 1:22-2:10\n1 Pt 2:11-25\n1 Pt 3:1-17\n1 Pt 3:18-4:11\n1 Pt 4:12-5:14\n\n\nLauds\nActs 13:28-33\n1 Cor 15:1-11\n1 Cor 15:12-19\n1 Cor 15:20-28\n1 Cor 15:35-41\n1 Cor 15:42-49\n1 Cor 15:50-58\n\n\nMass\n42\n261\n262\n263\n264\n265\n266\n\n\n1st\nActs 10:34a\, 37-43\nActs 2:14\, 22-33\nActs 2:36-41\nActs 3:1-10\nActs 3:11-26\nActs 4:1-12\nActs 4:13-21\n\n\n2nd\nCol 3:1-4\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nJohn 20:1-9\nMatt 28:8-15\nJohn 20:11-18\nLuke 24:13-35\nLuke 24:35-48\nJohn 21:1-14\nMark 16:9-15\n\n\nVespers\nRev 1:12-18\nActs 1:1-5\nActs 1:12-14\nActs 1:15-26\nActs 2:42-47\nActs 4:32-37\nActs 5:1-11\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEaster 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 \n6th) 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
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-112/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250420
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250421
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250420T013531Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250420T013531Z
UID:13341-1745107200-1745193599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Easter Sunday
DESCRIPTION:CHRIST’S RESURRECTION \nIS OUR RESURRECTION \nBy Symeon the New Theologian \n◊◊◊ \nAlready Easter\, that joyful day\, that day of all gladness and delight\, the \nday of Christ’s resurrection\, has arrived in the circle of the year. But rather\, it \nhappens daily and eternally in those who know its mystery\, and so has filled our \nhearts with unspeakable joy and gladness. Let us look and carefully examine \nwhat is the mystery of that resurrection of Christ our God which takes place \nmystically in us at all times\, if we are willing… \nChrist our God was hanged on the cross and nailed on it the sin of the \nworld. He tasted death and went down to the uttermost depths of hell… He \nreturned from hell into His own spotless body\, from which He had in no way \nbeen separated as He descended…and He arose from the dead. After that He \nascended into heaven with great glory and power. So\, likewise\, as we have now \ncome out of the world and entered into the tomb of repentance and humiliation \nby being assimilated to the sufferings of the Lord\, He Himself comes down from \nheaven and enters into our body as into a tomb. He unites Himself to our souls \nand raises them up\, though they were undoubtedly dead\, and then grants to him \nwho has thus been raised with Christ that he may see the glory of His mystical \nresurrection. \nChrist’s resurrection is thus our resurrection\, ours who lie here below. He \nwho has never fallen into sin\, as it is written\, nor lost anything whatever of His \nown glory\, how will He ever be raised up or be glorified\, since He is always \nglorified above all and remains the same\, “far above all rule and authority”…? \nThrough His resurrection in us it comes into being in us\, is shown to us\, and is \nseen by us. Once He has appropriated what is ours\, that which He works in us \nHe attributes to Himself… \nThe body is dead and cannot live or be called alive unless it receives the \nliving soul in itself and is joined to it\, though not mingled with it. Likewise the \nsoul cannot live unless it is ineffably and without confusion united to God\, who \nis truly the life eternal… \nA blind man who hits his foot against a stone feels it\, but a dead man does \nnot… In spiritual things\, unless the mind comes to the contemplation of the \nthings that are above thought\, it does not perceive the mystical activity. Those \nwho have not arrived at contemplation in spiritual matters and claim that they \nperceive the things that are above intellect\, word\, and thought are like those \nwhose eyes are blinded and who have a sensation of good or bad things that they \nexperience\, but do not know what is in their hands or at their feet\, even if they \nare for them a matter of life or death. Since they are deprived of the faculty and \nperception of vision they in no way perceive the bad or the good things that \ncome upon them. Thus they will often lift up their staff to ward off an enemy \nand possibly strike a friend instead\, while their enemy stands before their eyes \nand laughs at them. \nMost people believe in the resurrection of Christ\, but very few have a clear \nvision of it. Those who have no vision thereof cannot even adore Christ Jesus as \nthe Holy One and as Lord.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-easter-sunday/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250421
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250422
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250420T013648Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250420T013648Z
UID:13343-1745193600-1745279999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Easter Monday
DESCRIPTION:THE RESURRECTION \nAND THE LIFE \nFrom a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny \n◊◊◊ \nLet us go to see Jesus journeying to the mountain of the heavenly Galilee\, \nwhere he awaits us. On the way our love will increase\, and on our arrival at least\, \nit will be perfected. On the way\, the road\, at first hard and difficult\, will grow \neasier and the strength of the weak will increase. The flesh of Christ is our food \nfor the journey\, his Spirit our means of conveyance. He Himself is the food; he \nhimself is the chariot and charioteer of Israel. When you arrive\, all the goods\, \nnot of Egypt but of heaven\, will be yours. There\, in the best place in the \nkingdom\, at the bidding of your Joseph you will take your rest. He who first sent \nangels\, women and apostles as witnesses and messengers of his resurrection\, \nnow cries from heaven: “Behold\, I whom you have mourned as dead these three \ndays did indeed die for you\, but see\, I live. And all power in heaven and earth is \ngiven unto me.”… \n“I am the resurrection and the life”\, Jesus said. He indeed is the first \nresurrection; he is also the second resurrection. For rising from the dead as the \nfirst fruits of those who sleep Christ both brings about for us the first \nresurrection by the mystery of his own resurrection and by the example of that \nsame resurrection will bring about for us the second. The first is that of souls\, \nwhen he raises them together with himself to newness of life; the second will be \nthat of bodies\, when he forms this humbled body of ours anew\, molding it into \nthe image of his glorified body. Christ does well then to proclaim himself the \nresurrection and the life since it is through him and into him that we rise in \norder to live according to him and with him; now according to him in holiness \nand justice\, afterwards with him in happiness and glory. \nNow the first resurrection of our Head\, the Lord Jesus Christ\, is the cause \nand the proof of the second resurrection which will be that of his whole body. So \nalso for each of us the first resurrection of the soul\, by which it comes to life \nagain from the death of sin\, is the proof and the cause of its second resurrection\, \nby which the body will be freed not only from the corruption of death but also \nfrom every tendency to corruption and death. That the one is proof of the other \nSt Paul shows clearly in the words: “If the Spirit of Christ who raised Jesus from \nthe dead dwells in you\, he will also give life to your perishable bodies on \naccount of his Spirit who dwells in you”.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-easter-monday/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250422
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250423
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250420T013800Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250420T013800Z
UID:13345-1745280000-1745366399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Easter Tuesday
DESCRIPTION:THE REALITY OF \nTHE RESURRECTION \nBy Bruce Vawter \n◊◊◊ \nIn biblical faith the resurrection is something; something did occur to \naccount for the appearances of Jesus after his death. It is not to retreat into \nobscurity or equivocation to confess that we have no better way of defining that \nsomething than to call it resurrection. We cannot define what is indefinable in \nterms of human experience; we can only describe it in some fashion by the use of \nthe pictures we call analogies. The picture we use following the New Testament \nprecedent to describe both what God effected in Christ and\, with it as the \nproleptic example\, what its faith promises to all who share in God’s kingdom\, is \nmythical to the extent that\, taken in all literalness\, it might equally well serve to \ndescribe the resuscitation of a corpse\, which the New Testament does not intend \nto do… \nPaul…for all his insistence on the resurrection as a reality\, did not think of \nit as a resurrection of dead flesh: “Perhaps someone will say\, ‘How are the dead \nto be raised up? What kind of body will they have?’ A nonsensical question! \nThe seed you sow does not germinate unless it dies. When you sow\, you do not \nsow the full-blown plant but a kernel of wheat or some other grain. God gives \nbody to it as he pleases – to each seed its own fruition… So is it with the \nresurrection of the dead.” \nPaul admittedly tells us more about what\, in his view\, the resurrection is \nnot than what it is\, but at the same time he tells us enough to dissuade us from \ndismissing lightly the testimony of his senses\, which he joined to the witness of \nhis tradition. Here was a man quite conscious of the validity of what are \nsometimes thought to be modern and scientific objections to the idea of \nresurrection; a man convinced that something had occurred that he could only \ncall resurrection while regretting the inadequacy of the concept. Paul was as \nprepared as anyone today for demythologizing\, but he was not prepared to \ndisallow any fact out of his inability to explain it. Rather than deny the fact\, he \npreferred to retain the myth with all its attendant ambiguities.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-easter-tuesday/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250423
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250424
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250420T013916Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250420T013916Z
UID:13347-1745366400-1745452799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Easter Wednesday
DESCRIPTION:THE TREMENDOUS DESTINY \nOF LOVE \nBy Caryl Houselander \n◊◊◊ \nQuite different from His appearance to Magdalene or the apostles is \nChrist’s approach to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. These are scholars\, \nthey must come to the point of communion with him through the travail of the \nmind. Step by step he takes them back through the scriptures\, leading them to \nknow him by thinking their own thoughts\, by linking up the academic \nknowledge they have acquired in the past with the events of the day\, and \nthrashing out the problem that is so baffling to intellectuals in all ages\, the \nproblem of suffering. \nThrough a totally different approach to the same problem he convinces \nThomas…the poor man who has no philosophy to be armor against the wounds \nof the world\, no thoughts to help him through the loneliness of his own \nanguish… It was when Thomas actually put his own hands into these wounds \nand felt\, as it were\, his own sins and sorrows redeemed in the glorious Body of \nChrist\, that the cry came out of his heart: “You are my Lord and my God!”. \nLast there is Peter. Who but Christ would have known that the one thing \nthat could lift up that broken heart was not a formal act of contrition\, but a \nspontaneous\, almost an exasperated cry of love? —Who but he would have \nthought of provoking the same impulsive temperament\, which had made a \ncoward of Peter with such cruel results\, to give it the courage to break out into \nthose acts of love? And\, as it was with the others\, Peter is given something to do \nfor Christ\, something that is exactly suited to his inmost need\, as it has been in \nthe case of each of the others. He is to become the shepherd. Christ shows him \nthat he knows what the sorrow for his sin has done to him\, how it has taken away \nhis cowardice\, so that he can give him even this charge\, the charge of the \nshepherd who is to protect the frailest of his flock\, his lambs…to feed them\, and \nif need be to give his life for them. Could he give greater proof of his trust in the \nreality of Peter’s love\, in the truth of Peter’s word: “Lord\, you know all things; \nyou can tell that I love You”. \nWhy we\, who are members of Christ’s body on earth\, his Church\, are so\, is \na great mystery. But the fact remains that God has chosen us for the tremendous \ndestiny of love\, and if the wonder and the joy of it is ours\, so too is the \nresponsibility of it. That responsibility is to prove to those who are still unaware \nof it that Christ has risen from the dead and that he is in the world now. We \ncannot do this without a very close imitation of Christ’s way with other people. \nChrist “knew what was in them”: that is the secret of his method; he knew and \nloved every one\, objectively and individually\, as a separate person\, a unique \nperson; he respected their otherness\, their independence\, even their slowness\, \ntheir limitations\, which were all part of the experience which was to bring them \nto the realization of his love. Christ wishes to approach people through us today \nin just the same way\, through just the same means\, as he did in his Risen Life.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-easter-wednesday/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250424
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250425
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250420T014034Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250420T014034Z
UID:13349-1745452800-1745539199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Easter Thursday
DESCRIPTION:THE SECRET \nOF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE \nBy Fr Barnabas Ahern \n◊◊◊ \nSo often when St. Paul writes of the death of Christ\, two expressions keep \nrecurring: “He loved me\,” and “He gave Himself for me.” He loved me\, and \ntherefore He went down to death in order that love\, because it was love\, could \nbecome dynamically active when He would rise from the dead as the glorious \nmessianic Son of God. In this He has proven His love for us\, because when as \nyet we were sinners and unworthy of His love\, He laid down His life for us. He \ndied so that He could become the risen Savior and pour out upon the Church the \nfullness of the Spirit. It is the light of this mystery of our Lord’s death and \nresurrection\, of His suffering and of His life\, of the love which led Him to die and \nto suffer\, and the love which leads Him to give everything to us today as the risen \nSavior; it is in this that we ourselves begin to understand the mystery of our own \nChristian life. \nOur baptism incorporates us into Christ in such a way that we become \n“other Christs.” The Spirit who guided our Lord\, the Spirit who illumined Him\, \nthe Spirit who charged His soul with love\, is the same Spirit who reproduces \nthat same love in our own life through the mystery of our Christian \nincorporation. This is why for Paul the whole meaning of the Christian life is \nlove. For Paul… all law has been abrogated—not merely the ceremonial\, ritual \nlaw of Judaism\, but all law. Now the Christian knows only one principle of \naction\, and that principle of action is totally from within—the love\, the agape\, \nwhich the Spirit is infusing… \n“If we live by the spirit\, then we must walk by the spirit”… The liturgy \nspeaks of the weight of our poor humanness that is always twisting us\, as it were\, \nto selfishness and away from God. Now\, our Lord knew the same weight\, that \nsame pull of humanness. He was “tempted” to give people what they wanted\, to \nmeet their need for excitement and pleasure. This easy way of meeting needs \nwas opposed by the hard way which the Father required. And Jesus kept \nclinging to the Father\, which meant a constant cross in His life: the vertical pull \nto the will of the Father\, the horizontal pull to the desires of His people. \nWe are in a similar situation. We know the will of God\, the vertical pull in \nlife\, and at the same time we feel the horizontal pull of our mortality\, our “flesh\,” \nthe needs of our human nature. The agape is always trying to lift us up in \nfidelity\, but it is always being dragged down by the pull of our poor humanness. \nIn such lives the Cross is inevitable. The agape is not only responsible for \nintroducing the Cross\, it also gives it meaning \nThis is the secret of our Lord’s life\, as Paul saw it; and it is the secret of the \nChristian life as we must live it. Mortification and self-denial\, all those negative \nfactors of life are without meaning if they are not prompted by agape. Our Lord \ncould become all things to all men\, He could forget Himself completely because \nthere was this driving urge to love. And those who have followed Him have been \ngiven this same spirit.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-easter-thursday/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250420T014200Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250420T014200Z
UID:13351-1745539200-1745625599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Easter Friday
DESCRIPTION:WITNESSES OF \nTHE RESURRECTION \nFrom a sermon by St John Henry Newman \n◊◊◊ \nIt might have been expected that\, on our Savior’s rising again from the \ndead\, He would have shown Himself to very great numbers of people\, and \nespecially to those who crucified Him; whereas we know from history that\, far \nfrom this being the case\, He showed Himself only to chosen witnesses\, chiefly \nHis immediate followers… This seems at first sight strange. We are apt to fancy \nthe resurrection of Christ as some striking visible display of His glory\, such as \nGod showed from time to time to the Israelites in Moses’ day; and considering it \nin the light of a public triumph\, we are led to imagine the confusion and terror \nwhich would have overwhelmed His murderers had He presented Himself alive \nbefore them. Now\, to reason in this way is to conceive Christ’s kingdom of this \nworld\, which it is not; and to suppose that then Christ came to judge the world\, \nwhereas that judgment will not be till the last day\, when in very deed those \nwicked men shall “look on Him whom they have pierced“. \nAfter His resurrection\, Jesus said to His disciples\, “Go\, convert all \nnations“. This was His special charge. If\, then\, there are grounds for thinking \nthat\, by showing Himself to a few rather than to many\, He was more surely \nadvancing this great object\, the propagation of the Gospel\, this is sufficient \nreason for our Lord’s having so ordained. Now consider what would have been \nthe probable effect of a public exhibition of His resurrection. Let us suppose that \nour Savior had shown Himself as openly as before He suffered: preaching in the \nTemple and in the streets of the city; traversing the land with His Apostles\, and \nwith multitudes following to see the miracles which He did. What would have \nbeen the effect of this? Of course\, what it had already been. His former miracles \nhad not effectively moved the body of the people; and\, doubtless\, this miracle \ntoo would have left them as it found them\, or worse than before. They might \nhave been more startled at the time; but why should this amazement last? \nWhen the man taken with a palsy was suddenly restored at His word\, the \nmultitude were all amazed and glorified God\, and were filled with fear saying\, “ \nWe have seen strange things this day.” What could they have said and felt more \nthan this\, when “one rose from the dead“? In truth\, this is the way of most \npeople in all ages\, to be influenced by sudden fears\, sudden contrition\, sudden \nearnestness\, sudden resolves\, which disappear just as suddenly. Nothing is \naccomplished effectively through untrained human nature; and such is always \nthe condition of the multitude. Unstable as water\, it cannot excel. One day it \ncried Hosanna; the next\, Crucify Him. \nAnd\, had our Lord appeared to them after they had crucified Him\, of \ncourse they would have shouted Hosanna once more; yet when He had \nascended out of sight\, then again they would have persecuted His followers… \nSurely so it would have been; the chief priests would not have been moved at all; \nand the populace\, even though they had been moved at the time\, would not have \nbeen moved in a lasting way\, nor in a practical way\, so as to proclaim to the \nworld what they had heard and seen\, as to preach the gospel. The very reason \nwhy Christ showed Himself at all was in order to raise up witnesses to His \nresurrection\, ministers of His word\, founders of His Church; and how in the \nnature of things could a populace ever become such?
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-easter-friday/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250420T014307Z
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UID:13353-1745625600-1745711999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Easter Saturday
DESCRIPTION:THE LEAVENING OF \nMORTALITY AND INIQUITY \nFrom a sermon by St Aelred of Rievaulx \n◊◊◊ \nHe who is the creator\, made himself a creature. He who was Lord\, made \nhimself a servant. He who was rich\, made himself poor. He who was great\, made \nhimself little. And the Word was made flesh. He was bread and he fed the \nangels. But he did not feed us. We were\, however\, so weak that in no way could \nwe taste that bread in all its purity. We had within us a corrosive leaven that \nrobbed us of our pristine strength. We had become so unlike that pure and \nuntainted bread that we could not taste it at all. This leavening which we had \nwithin us was twofold. We had within us the leavening of mortality and we had \nwithin us the leavening of iniquity… \nWe are mortals and sinners; he is immortal and just. How were we to \ncome together? He saw this\, he who is caring and merciful. Because we could \nnot ascend to him\, he came down to us. He took upon himself one part of our \nleavening and so adapted himself to our weakness. He did not take to himself \nthe whole leaven that was in us\, but a certain part of it. If he had taken on the \nwhole of it he would be as we are and he would not be able to help us. If he had \ntaken none of it he would be so distant from us that we would not be able in any \nway to approach him. And so we would remain forever in our wretchedness… \nThe leavening of our mortality therefore he accepted\, and abode in the purity of \nhis justice\, so that he would be the sort of being who could come down to us and \nyet remain the sort of being to whom we ought to ascend… \nTo this leavening of mortality belongs hunger\, thirst\, sorrow\, misery. All \nof this our Lord took on himself. He chose to take on this leavening\, but he was \nnot obliged to remain in ferment. First he showed this leavening in himself \nthrough a wondrous compassion and then he purged himself of this leaven \nthrough a wondrous charity… \nWe ought to know that our iniquity is the cause of our mortality. And \ntherefore when we are fully purged of iniquity we will doubtless also be purged \nof mortality… Our iniquity is twofold. It comes from the nature in which we \nwere born and from the evil which we later brought to it. From both of these the \nLord purges us. He offered for us a sacrifice – his own blood – and through this \nsacrifice we are purged. And therefore what we suffer now from the corruption \nof our nature is no longer iniquity but infirmity. \nFrom the corruption of our nature come the impulses of concupiscence \nwhich we suffer unwillingly. From this come the impulses of lust\, anger\, pride\, \nambition. But if we do not consent to them\, God does not impute them to us\, \nbecause the pure sacrifice was offered to offset the corruption of our nature… By \nthe workings of his compassion in us in baptism we are purged of all sins\, both \nthose which came from nature and those which we added voluntarily.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-easter-saturday/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250427T123314Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250427T123314Z
UID:13361-1745712000-1745798399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n2nd Week of Easter\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (C)\, Weekdays (I)\nApril 27 – May 3\, 2025\n\n\n\nSun\n27\nMon\n28\nTue\n29\nWed\n30\nThu\n1\nFri\n2\nSat\n3\n\n\nOffice\n2nd Sunday of Easter\nEaster Weekday\nSt Catherine of Siena\nEaster Weekday\nSt Joseph the Worker\nSt Athanasius\nSS Philip & James\n\n\nVigils\nCol 3:1-17\nRev 1:1-20\nRev 2:1-11\nRev 2:12-29\nRev 3:1-22\nRev 4:1-11\n1 Cor 12:1-13\n\n\nLauds\nEph 1:1-10\nEph 1:11-14\nEph 1:15-23\nEph 2:1-10\nEph 2:11-18\nEph 2:19-22\n2 Thess 2:13-3:5\n\n\nMass\n45\n267\n268\n269\n270\, 559\n271\n561\n\n\n1st\nActs 5:12-16\nActs 4:23-31\nActs 4:32-37\nActs 5:17-26\nActs 5:27-33\nActs 5:34-42\n1 Cor 15:1-8\n\n\n2nd\nRev 1:9-11a\, 12-13\, 17-19\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nJohn 20:19-31\nJohn 3:1-8\nJohn 3:7b-15\nJohn 3:16-21\nMatt 13:54-58\nJohn 6:1-15\nJohn 14:6-14\n\n\nVespers\nActs 5:12-16\nActs 5:27-32\nActs 6:8-15\nActs 7:51-60\nActs 8:1b-8\nActs 8:9-13\nActs 8:14-25
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-113/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250427
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250428
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250427T123438Z
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UID:13363-1745712000-1745798399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - 2nd Sunday of Easter
DESCRIPTION:BLESSED ARE THOSE \nWHO HAVE NOT SEEN \nFrom a commentary by St Augustine \n◊◊◊ \nMy dear people\, you\, like myself\, are well aware that our Lord and Savior \nJesus Christ is the one physician capable of bringing us eternal healing and \nsalvation. We know\, too\, that it was in order to accomplish this that he took \nupon himself the weakness of our human nature\, otherwise that weakness \nwould have remained with us forever. He equipped himself with a human body \nliable to death\, so that in and through that body he might conquer death itself. \nAnd though\, as the apostle tells us\, it was his human weakness that made it \npossible for him to be crucified\, it was his divine power that enabled him to \nreturn to life. \nThat same apostle says: He will never die again\, neither will death have \nany further hold upon him. All this you already know and believe\, and also the \nconsequences flowing from it; we can be sure that the miracles he wrought while \nhe lived among us were meant to encourage us to accept the gifts from him that \nshould never pass away nor have an end. Thus he gave back sight to blind eyes \nthat would shortly be closed again in death; he raised Lazarus from the dead \nonly for him to die again. His bodily cures\, indeed\, were never meant to last for \never\, even though at the end of time he is to give the body itself life everlasting. \nBut because “seeing is believing\,” he used these visible wonders to build up \npeople’s faith in even greater marvels that could not be seen. \nLet no one then be found to say that since Christ Jesus our Lord no longer \nworks such miracles among us\, the Church was better off in its early days. On \nthe contrary\, in one recorded testament\, the same Lord set those who have \nnever seen and yet believe before those who believe only because they see. \nIndeed\, so great was the disciples’ weakness at that time\, that when they saw the \nLord they found it necessary to touch him before they could believe he had really \nrisen from the dead. They were unable to believe the testimony of their own \neyes\, until they had handled his body and explored his recent wounds with their \nfingers. Only after this was done could that most hesitant of all his disciples \nexclaim: My Lord and my God! Thus it was by his wounds that Christ\, who had \nso often healed the manifold wounds of others\, came to be recognized himself. \nNow we may ask: could not the Lord have risen with a body from which all \nthe marks of wounds had been erased? No doubt he could have; but he knew his \ndisciples bore within their hearts a wound so deep that the only way to cure it \nwas to retain the scars of his own wounds in his body. And when that confession: \nMy Lord and my God! Was uttered\, what was his answer to it? You believe\, he \nsaid\, because you have seen me; blessed are those who have not seen and yet \nbelieve. \nAnd who\, my brothers and sisters\, are those if not ourselves and those \nwho are to follow after us? When\, later on\, the Lord had departed from human \nsight and faith had time to strike roots into people’s hearts\, those who believed \nin him made their act of faith without seeing him in whom they made it. The \nfaith of such believers is highly meritorious\, for it springs from a devoted heart \nrather than an exploring hand.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-2nd-sunday-of-easter-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250428
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250429
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250427T123550Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250427T123550Z
UID:13365-1745798400-1745884799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE FIRST AND THE SECOND \nRESURRECTION \nBy Blessed Guerric of Igny \n◊◊◊ \n“Blessed and holy is he who has a share in the first resurrection”. “I am the \nresurrection and the life”\, Jesus said. He indeed is the first resurrection; he is \nalso the second resurrection. For rising from the dead as the first fruits of those \nwho sleep\, Christ both brings about for us the first resurrection by the mystery \nof his own resurrection and by the example of that same resurrection will bring \nabout for us the second. The first is that of souls\, when he raises them together \nwith himself to newness of life; the second will be that of bodies\, when he forms \nthis humbled body of ours anew\, molding it into the image of his glorified body. \nChrist does well then to proclaim himself the resurrection and the life \nsince it is through him and into him that we rise in order to live according to him \nand with him; now according to him in holiness and justice\, afterwards with him \nin happiness and glory. Now the first resurrection of our Head\, the Lord Jesus \nChrist\, is the cause and the proof of the second resurrection\, which will be that \nof his whole body. So also for each of us the first resurrection of the soul\, by \nwhich it comes to life again from the death of sin\, is the proof and the cause of its \nsecond resurrection\, by which the body will be freed not only from corruption of \ndeath but also from every tendency to corruption and death. That the one is the \nproof and cause of the other St Paul shows clearly in the words: “If the Spirit of \nChrist who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you\, he will give life also to your \nperishable bodies on account of his Spirit who dwells in you”. \nIt is well said then: “Blessed and holy is he who has a share in the first \nresurrection”. Holy\, that is\, on account of the first\, which he has already \nobtained through the renewal of his soul; blessed on account of the second\, \nwhich he happily awaits when his body is restored. The reason for his \nblessedness is indicated by the same passage of Scripture\, which goes on: “Over \nthese (who have a share\, that is\, in the first resurrection)\, the second death has \nno power\, even if the first death has seemed to exercise its dominion over them \nfor a passing hour. For death has reigned from Adam to Moses\, even over those \nwho did not sin according to the likeness of Adam’s transgression. But as with \nChrist so with the Christian; rising from the dead\, he dies no more; death has no \nmore dominion over him. \nSo over those blessed neither has the second death any power nor will the \nfirst keep the power\, which it had for a time. For the one death of Christ \ntriumphed over both of ours\, setting free from the one those who were already \nits captives\, from the other\, those who would be its captives. It prevented us \nfrom falling into the one\, from remaining in the other. How true\, how devout \nand at the same time how magnificent is that threat he uttered as he died: “I will \nbe your death\, O death”. How fittingly and wonderfully he triumphed who \ntasted death on behalf of all and so swallowed up his own death and all the dying \nof all humanity. Free from fear he may mock at it\, whomever that blessed man is \nwho has a share in the first resurrection: “Where is your victory\, death? Where \nis your sting\, death?”
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-302/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250427T123704Z
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UID:13367-1745884800-1745971199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Catherine of Siena
DESCRIPTION:THE WAY OF \nPRAYER TO GOD \nFrom “The Dialogues” by St Catherine of Siena \n◊◊◊ \nA soul rises up\, restless with tremendous desire for God’s honor and the \nsalvation of souls. she has for some time exercised herself in virtue and has \nbecome accustomed to dwelling in the cell of self-knowledge in order to know \nbetter God’s goodness toward her\, since upon knowledge follows love. And \nloving\, she seeks to pursue truth and clothe herself in it. \nBut there is no way she can so savor and be enlightened by this truth as in \ncontinual humble prayer\, grounded in the knowledge of herself and of God. For \nby such prayer the soul is united with God\, following in the footsteps of Christ \ncrucified\, and through desire and affection and the union of love he makes of her \nanother himself. So Christ seems to have meant when he said\, “If you will love \nme and keep my word\, I will show myself to you\, and you will be one thing \nwith me and I with you.”. And we find similar words in other places from which \nwe can see it is the truth that by love’s affection the soul becomes another \nhimself. \nTo make this clearer still\, I remember having heard from a certain servant \nof God that\, when she was at prayer\, lifted high in spirit\, God would not hide \nfrom her mind’s eye his love for his servants. No\, he would reveal it\, saying \namong other things\, “Open your mind’s eye and look within me\, and you will see \nthe dignity and beauty of my reasoning creature. But beyond the beauty I have \ngiven the soul by creating her in my image and likeness\, look at those who are \nclothed in the wedding garment of charity\, adorned with many true virtues: they \nare united with me through love. So I say\, if you should ask me who they are\, I \nwould answer\,” said the gentle loving Word\, “that they are another me\, for they \nhave lost and drowned their own will and have clothed themselves and united \nthemselves and conformed themselves with mine.” It is true\, then\, that the soul \nis united to God through love’s affection.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-catherine-of-siena-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250427T123819Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250427T123819Z
UID:13369-1745971200-1746057599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:MAKE NO PROVISION \nFOR THE FLESH \nFrom a sermon by Pope St Leo the Great \n◊◊◊ \nThough we once knew Christ according to the flesh\, we now do so no \nlonger. The resurrection of the Lord did not mean the end of his flesh\, but its \ntransformation\, and his bodily substance was not consumed by its increase in \npower. The quality changed\, but the nature did not pass away. What could die \nbecame immortal\, what could be harmed became incorruptible. And so he says \ncorrectly that he no longer knows the body of Christ in its former state\, because \nthere remains nothing in it subject to suffering or to weakness. It remains \nessentially human\, but surpasses itself through the glory of the resurrection. \nIt is not surprising that Paul says this of the body of Christ\, when he says \nabout Christians who live according to the Spirit\, From now on\, we know no \none according to the flesh. From now on\, he says\, resurrection in Christ has \nbegun in us; from Christ who died for all comes the shape of all our hope. We do \nnot hold back through diffidence\, nor are we held in suspense through \nuncertainty: we have received the beginnings of what we are promised\, and see \nalready with the eyes of faith the things that will be ours. Rejoicing in the lifting \nup of our nature\, we possess already all that we believe. \nTherefore\, let us not be taken up by the appearances of things that pass\, \nnor let things which are merely of this earth turn our thoughts from the things of \nheaven. Let us take as passing those things which have even now scarcely any \nreality; and with our minds intent on those that endure\, let us fix our desire \nthere\, where what is offered is eternal. For though we are saved only in hope\, \nand carry with us still our corruptible and mortal body\, yet we rightly claim to be \nno longer in the flesh if carnal passions do not rule us: rightly do we disclaim \nallegiance to something which no longer holds us in its power. And so when the \nApostle says: “Make no provision for the flesh\, to follow its desires\, we \nunderstand that he has not forbidden those things consistent with our bodily \nhealth\, or those demanded by human weakness. But in that we are not to cater \nto all our desires\, or fulfill all that the flesh covets\, we recognize that he has \nwarned us to observe a certain measure of temperance\, that the flesh\, which is \ncreated subject to the soul\, is not given too much\, nor is denied what is \nnecessary.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-303/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250501
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250502
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250427T124007Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250427T124007Z
UID:13371-1746057600-1746143999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Joseph the Worker
DESCRIPTION:ST JOSEPH \nTHE WORKER \nA reflection by Pope Francis \n◊◊◊ \nSt Joseph concretely expressed his fatherhood by making an offering of \nhimself in love\, placed at the service of the Messiah who was growing to \nmaturity in his home. And because of his role at the crossroads between the Old \nand New Testament\, St Joseph has always been venerated as a father of the \nChristian people. In him\, Jesus saw the tender love of God\, the one that helps us \naccept our weakness\, because it is through and despite our fears\, our frailties\, \nand our weakness that most divine designs are realized. Only tender love will \nsave us from the snares of the accuser\, and it is by encountering God’s mercy in \nthe Sacrament of Reconciliation that we experience His truth and tenderness\, \nbecause we know that God’s truth does not condemn us\, but instead welcomes\, \nembraces\, sustains and forgives us. \nJoseph is also a father in obedience to God with his “fiat”. He protects \nMary and Jesus and teaches his son to do the Will of the Father… At the same \ntime\, Joseph is an accepting father because he accepted Mary unconditionally – \nan important gesture even today in our world where psychological\, verbal and \nphysical violence towards women is so evident. But the Bridegroom of Mary is \nalso the one who\, trusting in the Lord\, accepts in his life even the events that he \ndoes not understand\, setting aside his own ideas and reconciling himself with \nhis own history. \nJoseph’s spiritual path is not one that explains but accepts – which does \nnot mean that he is “resigned”. Instead he is courageously and firmly proactive. \nBecause with the Holy Spirit’s Gift of fortitude\, and full of hope\, he is able to \naccept life as it is\, with all its contradictions\, frustrations and disappointments. \nIn practice\, through St Joseph\, it is as if God were to repeat to us: “Do not be \nafraid” because faith gives meaning to every event\, however happy or sad\, and \nmakes us aware that God can make flowers spring up from stony ground. \nJoseph did not look for shortcuts but confronted reality with open eyes and \naccepted personal responsibility for it. For this reason\, he encourages us to \naccept and welcome others as they are\, without exception and to show special \nconcern for the weak… Consequently every poor\, needy\, suffering or dying \nperson\, every stranger\, every prisoner\, every infirm person is “the child” whom \nJoseph continues to protect. From St Joseph\, we must learn to love the Church \nand the poor. \nAs a carpenter who earned an honest living to provide for his family\, St \nJoseph also teaches us the value\, the dignity and the joy of what it means to eat \nbread that is the fruit of one’s own labor. This aspect of Joseph’s character \nprovides the opportunity to appeal in favor of work… There is a renewed need to \nappreciate the importance of dignified work\, of which St Joseph is an exemplary \npatron. Work is a means of participating in the work of salvation\, an \nopportunity to hasten the coming of the Kingdom\, to develop our talents and \nabilities\, and to put them at the service of society and fraternal communion. \nThose who work are cooperating with God Himself\, and in some way become \ncreators of the world around us.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-joseph-the-worker-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250502
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250503
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250427T124118Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250427T124118Z
UID:13373-1746144000-1746230399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Athanasius
DESCRIPTION:HE HIGHLY \nEXALTED HIM \nBy St Athanasius \n◊◊◊ \nSince…the Word\, being the Image of the Father and immortal\, took the \nform of a servant\, and as man underwent for us death in His flesh\, that thereby \nHe might offer Himself for us through death to the Father; therefore also\, as \nman\, He is said because of us and for us to be highly exalted\, that as by His death \nwe all died in Christ\, so again in the Christ Himself we might be highly exalted\, \nbeing raised from the dead\, and ascending into heaven\, “where the forerunner \nis for us entered\, not into the figures of the true\, but into heaven itself\, now to \nappear in the presence of God for us.” \nBut if now for us the Christ is entered into heaven itself\, though He was \neven before and always Lord of the heavens\, for us therefore is that present \nexaltation also written. And as He Himself\, who sanctifies all\, says also that He \nsanctifies Himself to the Father for our sakes\, not that the Word may become \nholy\, but that He Himself may in Himself sanctify all of us\, in like manner we \nmust take the present phrase\, “He highly exalted Him“\, not that He Himself \nshould be exalted\, for He is the highest\, but that He may become righteousness \nfor us; and we may be exalted in Him\, and that we may enter the gates of heaven\, \nwhich He has also opened for us\, the forerunners saying\, “Lift up your heads\, O \ngates\, and be lift up everlasting doors\, and the King of Glory shall come in.“ \nFor here also not on Him were shut the gates\, who is Lord and Maker of all\, but \nbecause of us is this too written\, to whom the door of paradise was shut. And \ntherefore in a human relation\, because of the flesh which He bore\, it is said of \nHim\, “Lift up\, O gates” “and the King of Glory shall come in”\, as if humanity \nwere entering; but in a divine relation on the other hand it is said of Him\, since \nthe “Word was God“\, that He is the “Lord” and the “King of Glory”. For as \nChrist died and was exalted as man\, so\, as man\, is He said to take what\, as God \nHe ever had\, that even this so high a grant of grace might reach to us.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-athanasius-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250503
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250504
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250427T124231Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250427T124231Z
UID:13375-1746230400-1746316799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - SS Philip & James
DESCRIPTION:THE APOSTOLIC WITNESS \nBy Jean Frisque \n◊◊◊ \nThey were still talking about all this when he himself stood among them \nand said to them\, “Peace be with you!” \nThe preeminent witnesses to the resurrection of Christ were the apostles. \nFrom the time of Jesus’ baptism to his death\, they accompanied him in his \npublic ministry. His death on the cross at the first threw them into a panic\, but \nsoon afterwards it clarified everything for them\, once it had been placed in its \nScriptural context\, through the aid of the resurrected Christ himself. \nBut was the testimony of the apostles limited to this single well-founded \nassertion: He whom you crucified has risen from the dead through the power of \nGod? In reality\, there was much more: the apostles did not only offer an \neyewitness account of an event but the testimony of their faith. Only their faith \nenabled them to discover why the death on the cross was the key-event of \nsalvation-history and in what way it led to the life of the resurrection. And theirs \nwas not simply any faith\, but faith in the paschal experience itself\, the faith \nwhich had perceived that in Jesus Christ all people were called to share in the \ndivine filiation and to contribute on their own behalf to the construction of the \nKingdom. \nNor was this all. The witness which the apostles rendered to the \nresurrection of Christ was above all an authorized witness. The apostles had \nreceived from the resurrected Christ himself their power to testify validly to \nhim. They had received the Holy Spirit\, the Spirit of the resurrected Christ. Thus \nthe very life of the resurrected Christ was given to the apostolic group\, and the \nChurch which they would construct in his name would be animated by this same \nlife. The Church was to be the temple of the Holy Spirit\, and the life which \ncirculated in her would testify until the end of time to the resurrection of her \nHead! \nThus we can see why the apostolic witness rendered to the resurrected \nChrist was inseparable from the life which animated the first Christian \ncommunity. This witness was necessarily communal. The preaching in which \nthis witness took shape was absolutely inseparable from the grace of \ncommunion given to the primitive community and its efforts to be entirely \nfaithful to the law of universal charity. \nToday’s Christians are not wrong\, therefore\, when they insist upon the \nimportance of the testimony of their life. But the life to which they must witness \nin order to testify to the resurrected Christ is the life of Christ himself. This life is \ndisplayed here on earth by the way of total obedience unto death for the love of \nall people\, for such an obedience leads us constantly from death to life. Such a \nsign can only be displayed by the Church herself.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-ss-philip-james-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250504
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250505
DTSTAMP:20260403T154808
CREATED:20250503T232237Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250503T232237Z
UID:13383-1746316800-1746403199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n3rd Week of Easter\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (C)\, Weekdays (I)\nMay 4 – 10\, 2025\n\n\n\nSun\n4\nMon\n5\nTue\n6\nWed\n7\nThu\n8\nFri\n9\nSat\n10\n\n\nOffice\n3rd Sunday of Easter\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\nBl Christian de Cherge\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\n\n\nVigils\nRev 6:1-17\nRev 7:1-17\nRev 8:1-13\nRev 9:1-12\nRev 9:13-21\nRev 10:1-11\nRev 11:1-19\n\n\nLauds\nEph 3:7-13\nEph 3:14-21\nEph 4:1-6\nEph 4:17-24\nEph 4:25-32\nEph 5:1-5\nEph 5:6-14\n\n\nMass\n48\n273\n274\n275\n276\n277\n278\n\n\n1st\nActs 5:27-32\, 40b-41\nActs 6:8-15\nActs 7:51-8:1a\nActs 8:1b-8\nActs 8:26-40\nActs 9:1-20\nActs 9:31-42\n\n\n2nd\nRev 5:11-14\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nJohn 21:1-19\nJohn 6:22-29\nJohn 6:30-35\nJohn 6:35-40\nJohn 6:44-51\nJohn 6:52-59\nJohn 6:60-69\n\n\nVespers\nActs 9:1-9\nActs 9:10-19a\nActs 9:19b-22\nActs 9:23-31\nActs 10:1-8\nActs 10:9-16\nActs 10:17-28
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-114/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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