Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Vigils Reading
2024-12-05
OUR NEED OF
THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST
From an oration by St Gregory of Nazianzus
◊◊◊
The very Son of God, older than the ages, the invisible, the
incomprehensible, the incorporeal, the beginning of beginning, the light of
light, the fountain of life and immortality, the image of the archetype, the
immovable seal, the perfect likeness, the definition and word of the Father: he it
is who comes to his own image and takes our nature for the good of our nature,
and unites himself to an intelligent soul for the good of my soul, to purify like by
like. He takes to himself all that is human, except for sin. He comes forth as God,
in the human nature he has taken, one being, made of two contrary elements,
flesh and spirit. Spirit gave divinity, flesh received it.
He who makes rich is made poor; he takes on the poverty of my flesh, that
I may gain the riches of his divinity. He who is full is made empty; he is emptied
for a brief space of his glory, that I may share in his fullness.
What is this mystery that surrounds me? I received the likeness of God
when I was created, but I failed to keep it. He takes on my flesh, to bring
salvation to the image, immortality to the flesh. He enters into a second union
with us, a union far more wonderful than the first.
Holiness had to be brought to us by the humanity assumed by one who
was God, so that God might lead us back to himself through the mediation of his
Son. The Son arranged this for the honor of the Father, to whom the Son is
clearly obedient in all things.
The Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep, came in search
of the straying sheep to the mountains and hills on which you used to offer
sacrifice. When he found it, he took it on the shoulders that bore the wood of the
cross, and led it back to the life of heaven.
We need God to take our flesh and die, that we might live. We have died
with him, that we may be purified. We have risen again with him, because we
have died with him. We have been glorified with him, because we have risen
again with him.

Vigils Reading
2024-12-06
THE SUMMIT OF WAITING
By André Rétif
◊◊◊
John’s stay in the desert was simply a burning expectation of the Savior.
All the aspirations of the prophets and the just in Israel and the extremely
fervent desire of the remnant of the holy people found in him their concentrated
and almost explosive expression. Christ was certainly present to John in his
solitude. And so, when he saw Him with his eyes, his body did not quake. His
faith was so lively and enlightened that he thought his eyes of flesh had seen
Him previously.
“A happy life,” says St. John Chrysostom, “is to leave humans, seek the
company of angels, flee the cities and find Christ in solitude.” Can better words
be found to express at once both the focal point of his expectation and its
realization? To find Christ in renouncing and abandoning all. This chaste man
of faith had been the first to light his lamp and was like a person waiting. He was
going to be the first to hear the shout in the night: “Behold, the Bridegroom
comes!” This friend of the Bridegroom who gives his heart free rein, is the first
to leap with celestial joy when his Beloved approaches. He was, it has been said,
starving, but only for the One who was to come. Hence, he continues to be the
model of every Christian and every missionary, whom each dawn and each
sunset should find awaiting the return of the Son of Man anxiously, but without
agitation, joining in that expectation of the last things, which we know throbbed
in the hearts of the early Christians.
To John the outline of the Messiah, which became clearer as he prayed
and meditated on the sacred passages, was exceptionally real, tangible and
electrifying, and the whole world, contained in the Baptist’s soul, was sighing for
His presence far more ardently than the stag after living water.
We must not think that, because John the Baptist fled from the world, he
was insensible to the ardent longings of his times. Just as a landscape has to be
viewed from high above in order that one may appreciate its vast expanse, John
had to leave the world to understand it and discover its immense distress; for,
when viewed in God, things become extraordinarily clear and well defined.
John, preceding his captain, the Messiah, was the first to test his strength with
the devil and sense that the fate of a great number of souls depended on the
outcome of the conflict. John was the first to take upon himself responsibility
for the crowds whom he reached through the light of God without knowing
them, and to pronounce the cry of pity for the sheep without a shepherd. Was he
not already the shepherd of that immense flock that was to be led back to the
fold of God? Was he not an invisible and unknown shepherd who would be
imprisoned and decapitated in going to find his sheep?
John the Baptist is like all true contemplatives, monks and saints in being
eminently of his own times, which, however, he surpasses no matter what angle
we view him from. Together with Mary, whose expectation preceded his own
and was superior to it, he is the summit of the waiting for the Messiah, and he
resembles those peaks on which the sun is already shedding its faint red rays
when everywhere else night still reigns. If we are really to be men of our own
times, do we not have to free ourselves from them in order to discover through
God the whole of their inner meaning?

Vigils Reading - St Ambrose
2024-12-07
REMAIN WITHIN
From a letter by St Ambrose
◊◊◊
If someone has taken up residence in the heavenly city, let him not leave
its life and customs, since he is an inhabitant. Let him not again depart, or
retrace the steps, I do not say, of the body, but of the heart. Let him not come
back from there. Behind him is wantonness; behind is impurity. Your feet
should not turn back, neither should your actions turn back. Your hands should
not hang idle, nor should the knees of your devotion and faith become weak. Let
no weakness cause your will to backslide, nor evil deeds recur. You have made
your entrance, now remain. You have reached this place, stand firm. ‘Being safe,
save thy life.’
In your ascent, take the straight path; it is not safe to turn back. Here is
the road; there is downfall. Here is the path upward; there, a precipice… The
Lord who is powerful will protect you if you are grounded and hedged round
with the ramparts of the Prophets and the bulwarks of the Apostles. For this
reason, the Lord says to you: ‘Enter and tread the grape, for the vintage time is
here.’ Let us be found within, not out of doors. In the Gospel, too, the Son of God
says: ‘Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take his vessels.’ Surely, He
does not mean our present dwelling but that one of which ‘He has spread the sky
like a roof.’
Remain within, therefore, within Jerusalem, within your soul which is
peaceful, meek, and tranquil. Do not leave it or go down to take your vessels
with honors or riches or pride. Remain within, so that strangers may not pass
through you, so that neither sins nor vain works nor useless thoughts may pass
through your soul. This will not happen if you wage a holy war against the snare
of the passions on behalf of devotion and faith and in the pursuit of truth, if you
will put on the armor of God in your fight against spiritual diseases and the
cunning of the Evil One who tempts our senses with cunning and fraud. Yet, he
is easily crushed by the gentle warrior who does not sow discord, but, as befits
the servant of God, attaches faith with moderation and refutes those who are his
adversaries. Of this man Scriptures says: ‘Let the warrior who is gentle arise,’
and the weak man says: ‘I can do all things in him who strengthens me.’

Skema
2024-12-08
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
2nd Week of Advent

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
December 8 – 14, 2024

Sun
8
Mon
9
Tue
10
Wed
11
Thu
12
Fri
13
Sat
14

Office
2nd Sunday of Advent
Immaculate Conception
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Our Lady of Guadalupe
St Lucy
St John of the Cross

Vigils
Isa 22:8b-23
Rom 5:12-21
Isa 24:19-25:5
Isa 25:6-26:6
Prov 8:32-9:11
Isa 27:1-13
Isa 29:1-8

Lauds
Isa 4:2-6
Isa 43:1-7
Isa 9:1-6
Isa 11:1-9
Sir 4:11-18
Zeph 3:14-20
Isa 11:10-16

Mass
6
689
182
183
690A
185
186

1st
Bar 5:1-9
Gen 3:9-15, 20
Isa 40:1-11
Isa 40:25-31
Rev 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab
Isa 48:17-19
Sir 48:1-4, 9-11

2nd
Phil 1:4-6, 8-11
Eph 1:3-6, 11-12

Gospel
Luke 3:1-6
Luke 1:26-38
Matt 18:12-14
Matt 11:28-30
Luke 1:39-47
Matt 11:16-19
Matt 17:9a, 10-13

Vespers
Rom 5:1-11
Gal 4:21-5:1
Rom 8:18-27
Rom 6:16-23
Gal 3:23-29
Rom 8:1-6
Rom 8:9-17

Vigils Reading - 2nd Sunday of Advent
2024-12-08
PREPARE A WAY FOR THE LORD
From a commentary by Origen of Alexandria
◊◊◊
The word of God was addressed to John, son of Zechariah, in the desert,
and he went through all the Jordan valley. Where else could he go but through
the Jordan valley, where there would be water at hand to baptize those wishing
to amend their lives?
Now the word Jordan means descent or coming down. Coming down and
rushing in full flood is the river of God, the Lord our Savior, in whom we were
baptized. This is the real, life-giving water, and the sins of those baptized in it
are forgiven.
So come, catechumens, and amend your lives so that you may have your
sins forgiven in baptism. In baptism the sins of those who cease to sin are
forgiven, but if anyone comes to be baptized while continuing to sin, that
person’s sins are not forgiven. This is why I urge you not to present yourselves
for baptism without thinking very carefully, but to give some evidence that you
really mean to change your way of living. Spend some time living a good life.
Cleanse yourselves from all impurity and avoid every sin. Then when you
yourselves have begun to despise your sins, they will be forgiven you. You will be
forgiven your sins if you renounce them.
The teaching of the Old Testament is the same. We read in the prophet
Isaiah: A voice cries out in the desert: Prepare a way for the Lord. Build him a
straight highway.What way shall we prepare for the Lord? A way by land?
Could the Word of God travel such a road? Is it not rather a way within ourselves
that we have to prepare for the Lord? Is it not a straight and level highway in our
hearts that we are to make ready? Surely this is the way by which the Word of
God enters, a way that exists in the spaciousness of the human body. The human
heart is vast, broad, and capacious, if only it is pure… You ought to judge it not
by its physical size but by its power to embrace such a vast amount of knowledge
of the truth.
But so that I may convince you that the human heart is large by a simple
example from daily life, let us consider this. Whatever city we may have passed
through, we have in our minds. We remember its streets, walls, and buildings,
what they were like and where they were situated. We have a mental picture of
the roads we have traveled. In moments of quiet reflection our minds embrace
the sea that we have crossed. So, as I said, the heart that can contain all this is
not small!
Therefore, if what contains so much is not small, let a way be prepared in
it for the Lord, a straight highway along which the Word and Wisdom of God
may advance. Prepare a way for the Lord by living a good life and guard that way
by good works. Let the Word of God move in you unhindered and give you a
knowledge of his coming and of his mysteries.

Vigils Reading - Immaculate Conception
2024-12-09
IMMACULATE MARY
By Fr Hugo Rahner
◊◊◊
From the first instant of Mary’s human existence until her assumption
into heaven, every detail of her life that Revelation has provided is a ‘type of
what is to come.’ The Church is symbolized in Mary.
That is true of the first and underlying mystery of her life, which we know
from the sources of Revelation and from the solemn declaration of the Church,
namely that Mary in the first instant of her conception, in virtue of the
redemptive death to come of her divine son, was preserved free from all stain of
original sin. She possessed from the beginning also, precisely as a member of
the human race redeemed by Christ, that gift of sanctifying grace which was
destined originally for the whole human race from Adam and Eve, and restored
to every believer by the death of Christ, the son of Mary. Thus it is that Mary
Immaculate is already an essential symbol of the restoration to grace, a work
which began on the Cross and will have its entire fulfillment at the end of time
by presenting to the eternal father the family of our first parents, redeemed into
the one glorified Body of Christ: a symbol therefore of the Church. This is how
the early fathers saw in Mary Immaculate the Ecclesia Immaculata, and in this
figure of the Church Immaculate the glorious conclusion of the work of
redemption, which will be revealed on that day when God who is able to
preserve you without sin will present you spotless before the presence of his
glory with exceeding joy, in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God’s first word of salvation, spoken outside the locked gates of Paradise,
already indicates a woman, a single woman, who could never be overcome by
Satan: I will put enmities between you and the woman, and your seed and her
seed. This woman was first of all Eve, to whom the astounding promise was
made that the Redeemer should come from her race. But the full meaning of the
prophecy is only realized, when we see foreshadowed in Eve the other Mother of
all the living, who herself should actually give birth to the Savior. But already
then, said Augustine, Mary was included in Eve; yet is was only when Mary
came, that we knew who Eve was. The woman who crushed the serpent’s head
was the mother of God Incarnate. From the beginning of catholic theology the
text has been thus interpreted. Christ, the son of the woman of the promise,
would conquer Satan, and therefore God put enmities between the serpent and
the woman, until the promised seed came to crush its head, the seed of Mary.

Vigils Reading
2024-12-10
COME, LORD JESUS
By Fr Johannes Pinsk
◊◊◊
Advent means coming, the coming of the Lord. If we want to celebrate
Advent with the Church, we must first seek to understand what this means:
“God is coming.” the word “coming” may be regarded as one of the primordial
words in the language of religion, for if religion is the loving and unifying
encounter with God, it can only be realized when God comes. Unfortunately the
same thing happens with God’s coming to us as with his loving us — in both
cases we want to take the second step before the first one. We think that we must
love God first so that he will love us first; and yet, in his first letter Saint John
states expressly, Here is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us. Yes,
we must love God because he first loved us. We cannot come to God unless he
first comes to us.
This coming of God is not merely an interior, spiritual affair; it happens
rather in palpable, concrete forms. So the coming of God has the same meaning
as the revelation of God. Those, therefore, who carefully read and contemplate
the words of holy scripture, which are a sign of his continued and continuous
coming, will not find it difficult to understand that the actual content of
scripture is the proclamation of the coming of God. His coming is the key to the
history of the Old Testament and the basic theme of its people, but this is only a
prelude to that coming of God in which the Word was made flesh.
All these are ideas with which we are very familiar, so familiar in fact that
we tend to think that everything has already been fulfilled. God has come in
Jesus Christ; through him he is with us in his grace by faith and the sacraments.
Gospels: Year A; introduced and edited by John E. Rotelle, Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1995, pp. 16-17.7
Each individual Christian personally, and the Church of Christ as a community,
is a sign of the fact that God has come and is with us forever. Lo, I am with you
always, even to the end of the world. These are the words of our Lord at the end
of Saint Matthew’s gospel.
We Christians today are so conscious of the joy of our belief in the
presence of the Lord, above all in the Eucharist, that we almost forget that Christ
himself continued to speak of his coming right up to the end of his earthly life,
even though he was already present, He spoke of a further coming, beyond the
Church and the sacraments.
Although the One who is to come has already appeared, the New
Testament, like the Old, is full of the promise and expectation of a new coming
of Christ. The gospels speak of it, so do the apostolic letters, and most of all the
Revelation of Saint John. This final book of the Bible teaches us: The Spirit and
the Bride say, “Come.” Let him who hears say: “Come.” He who testifies to
these things says: Yes, indeed, I am coming soon, and the congregation of the
faithful cries out once more: Come, Lord Jesus!

Vigils Reading
2024-12-11
PATIENCE WITH THE PROVISIONAL
By Fr Karl Rahner
◊◊◊
People of Advent, of waiting for God, of burning longing for the eternal, can
be overcome by the most terrible and dangerous impatience that there is, a
religious radicalism which has the appearance of being glorious and sublime but
in reality is the contrary of the truly advent attitude.
We thirst for God, hope in him, hope that he will soon establish his
kingdom. He wills the unconditional, the radiant truth whose splendour at once
burns every doubt from the mind, the radical goodness which would destroy all
fear that goodness itself is only a form of self-seeking. But only precursors ever
come; only beginnings are made; messengers come but always with God’s truth
still in merely human words which obscure it. Those messengers of God are
human beings with human traits and sometimes inhuman ones. All that ever
happens are God’s saving deeds (called sacraments) in human ceremonies. All
these provisional things simply continue to proclaim that they themselves are not
the reality. The reality is merely hidden there in al those non-real words, human
beings, signs.
Then human beings who even in their purest religious feeling are sinners,
may lose patience. What are you doing in religion, you human beings, words,
signs, if you are after all not the reality, not the unveiled God immediately
present? Then the impatient think that this God may perhaps be found outside
the human beings, the words and the signs of the Church: in nature, in the infinity
of their own heart, in political projects to establish for ever by force here and now,
the Kingdom of God. Or somewhere else. But in the end these impatient people
realize, very often too late, that they have wandered into the wilderness of their
own empty hearts where the devils dwell, not God; into the loveless desert of a
blind and cruel nature which is only benevolent on Sunday afternoons; into the
arid wasteland of the world where the waters of ideals ooze away the farther one
advances; into the desolate wilderness of a politics which brings about not the
Kingdom of God but simply the tyranny of naked forces.
No, we are not spared it. We must have the patience of men and women of
advent. The Church is only the voice of one crying in the wilderness, announcing
that the final radiant Kingdom of God is still coming and that when God wills,
not when it suits us. We cannot try to ignore the voice of precursors simply
because it comes from the mouths of human beings; we cannot disregard the
messenger of the Church because he too is not worthy to loosen the shoelaces of
the Lord whose forerunner he is, or because he cannot call down fire from
heaven like Elijah. For it is still advent. The Church itself is still an advent
Church; for we are still waiting for him who is to come in the unveiled radiance
of unconditional Godhead with the eternal Kingdom. The Church rightly tells to
prepare of this God the true way, the way of faith, of love, of humility, and the
way of patience with its unimpressive provisional messengers of their poor
words and small signs. For then God will certainly come. He only comes to
those who in patience love his forerunners and the provisional.

Vigils Reading - Our Lady of Guadalupe
2024-12-12
THE APPEARANCE OF THE
BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
AT GUADALUPE
From the first written Aztec account of the apparition
◊◊◊
Upon his reaching the top of the hillock, Juan Diego catches sight of a
woman, one who has been taking her stand there. She beckons him to come on,
closer up to herself. Upon reaching her presence, he greatly marvels at her
extreme, her surpassing, her perfect wonderfulness.
Her garments are as the sun, gleaming, glittering. Even the boulder, the
crag, on which she takes her stand sparkles in resplendence, like fine emerald
jade or a bangle when it shines, like the swarming glow of a rainbow in the
gloom. Even the soil, the brambles and prickles and the rest of the varied weeds
that struggle to survive there are shining like emerald, like divine turquoise, to
the tip of every leaf; are glittering like the golden scourings of the gods up every
stalk and twig and thorn.
In her presence he prostrates; he listens to her utterance, her declaration.
These are as of one who sets others at ease, one whose manner is to attract, one
whose attitude is to esteem. She addresses him: “Do listen to me, my littlest one,
Juanito!… “Do know this, do be assured of it in your heart, my littlest one, that I
myself, I am the entirely and ever Virgin Saint Mary, Mother of the True
Divinity, God Himself: Because of Him, life goes on, Creation goes on; His are
all things afar, His are all things near at hand, things above in the heavens,
things here below on the earth. How truly I wish it, how greatly I desire it, that
here they should erect me my temple! Here would I show forth, here would I lift
up to view, here would I make a gift of all my fondness for my dear ones, all my
regard for my needy ones, my willingness to aid them, my readiness to protect
them. For truly I myself, I am your compassionate mother, yours, for you
yourself, for everybody here in the land, for each and all together, for all others
too, for all folk of every kind, who do but cherish me, who do but raise their
voices to me, who do but seek me, who do but raise their trust to me.
For here I shall listen to their groanings, to their saddenings; here shall I
make well and heal up their each and every kind of disappointment, of
exhausting pangs, of bitter aching pain… Therefore, to realize all that my
clemency claims, go to the palace of the Bishop of Mexico, and say that I sent you
to make manifest to him my great desire; namely, that here in the valley a temple
should be built to me. Tell him word for word all that you have seen and heard and
admired. Be assured that I shall be grateful and that I will reward you, for I will
make your life happy and cause you to become worthy of the labor you have taken
and the trouble you perform to do what I enjoin you. Now you have heard all my
bidding, least of my sons. Go and do your utmost.’
“At this point he bowed before her and said, ‘Lady, I go to do your bidding.
As your humble servant, I take my leave of you.’ Then he went on to accomplish
her will, taking the causeway that leads directly to Mexico City.”

Vigils Reading - St Lucy
2024-12-13
ST LUCY
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints
◊◊◊
St Lucy is said to have been a Sicilian, born in the city of Syracuse of noble
and wealthy parents and brought up a Christian. She wished to devote her life to
God and to give her fortune to the poor, but during the Diocletian persecutions
a man, usually represented as a Roman soldier, tried to rape her, and she
resisted. He denounced her as a Christian, and she was arrested, tortured and
killed.
Though these traditions have no ascertainable historical basis, her
connection with Syracuse and the existence of an early cult connected with her
name are well established. A fourth-century inscription mentioning that a girl
called Euskia died on Lucy’s feast-day survives at Syracuse. Lucy was honoured
at Rome in the sixth century as one of the most illustrious virgin martyrs whose
lives the Church celebrates. Her name is included in the Canons of the Roman
and Ambrosian rites and occurs in the oldest Roman sacramentaries, in Greek
liturgical books, and in the marble calendar of Naples. Churches were dedicated
to her in Rome, Naples, and eventually Venice. In England two ancient
churches were dedicated to her, and she has certainly been known since the
end of the seventh century. St Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne (23 May),
celebrated her in both prose and verse, though he unfortunately relied on
spurious sources.
Possibly on account of her name,which has connotations of light and
purity (Latin lux/Lucia), legends have long gathered around St Lucy. Some of
the legends and many paintings relate to her eyes. One gruesome story is that
she tore her eyes out rather than surrender to her attacker, and she is sometimes
shown offering them to him. Oddly, she is the patron saint of those with eye
trouble, and a gentler interpretation is that this is because the eyes are the
source of our awareness of light. Her feast-day had long been the occasion for
special ceremonies connected with virginity. It occurs near the shortest day of
the year and is especially celebrated in Sweden as a festival of light, with a
procession of young girls dressed in white and crowned with lighted candles.
The song “Santa Lucia” celebrates her memory.

Vigils Reading - St John of the Cross
2024-12-14
LOVE OF THE CROSS
From an essay by St Edith Stein
◊◊◊
We hear repeatedly that St. John of the Cross desired nothing for himself
but to suffer and be despised. We want to know the reason for this love of
suffering. Is it merely the loving remembrance of the path of suffering of our
Lord on earth, a tender impulse to be humanly close to him by a life resembling
his? This does not seem to correspond to the lofty and strict spirituality of the
mystical teacher. And in relation to the Man of Sorrows, it would almost seem
that the victoriously enthroned king, the divine conqueror of sin, death and hell
is forgotten. Did not Christ lead captivity captive? Has he not transported us
into a kingdom of light and called us to be happy children of our heavenly
Father?
The sight of the world in which we live, the need and misery, and the abyss
of human malice, again and again dampens jubilation over the victory of light.
The world is still deluged by mire, and still only a small flock has escaped from it
to the highest mountain peaks. The battle between Christ and the Antichrist is
not yet over. The followers of Christ have their place in this battle, and their
chief weapon is the cross…
The entire sum of human failures from the first Fall up to the Day of
Judgment must be blotted out by a corresponding measure of expiation. The
way of the cross is this expiation. The triple collapse under the burden of the
cross corresponds to the triple fall of humanity: the first sin, the rejection of the
Savior by his chosen people, the falling away of those who bear the name of
Christian…
The Savior is not alone on the way of the cross… The archetype of
followers of the cross for all time is the Mother of God. …Everyone who, in the
course of time, has borne an onerous destiny in remembrance of the suffering
Savior or who has freely taken up works of expiation has by doing so canceled
some of the mighty load of human sin and has helped the Lord carry his
burden.… The disciples, both men and women, who surrounded [the Savior]
during his earthly life, assist him on the second stretch. The lovers of the cross
whom he has awakened and will always continue to awaken anew in the
changeable history of the struggling church, these are his allies at the end of
time. We, too, are called for that purpose…
But because being one with Christ is our sanctity, and progressively
becoming one with him our happiness on earth, the love of the cross in no way
contradicts being a joyful child of God. Helping Christ carry his cross fills one
with a strong and pure joy, and those who may and can do so, the builders of
God’s kingdom, are the most authentic children of God. And so those who have
a predilection for the way of the cross by no means deny that Good Friday is past
and that the work of salvation has been accomplished. Only those who are
saved, only children of grace, can in fact be bearers of Christ’s cross. Only in
union with the divine Head does human suffering take on expiatory power. To
suffer and to be happy although suffering, to have one’s feet on the earth, to walk
on the dirty and rough paths of this earth and yet to be enthroned with Christ at
the Father’s right hand, to laugh and cry with the children of this world and
ceaselessly sing the praises of God with the choirs of angels — this is the life of
the Christian until the morning of eternity breaks forth.

Skema
2024-12-15
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
3rd Week of Advent

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
December 15 – 21, 2024

Sun
15
Mon
16
Tue
17
Wed
18
Thu
19
Fri
20
Sat
21

Office
3rd Sunday of Advent
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday

Vigils
Isa 29:13-24
Isa 30:15-26
Isa 45:1-13
Isa 46:1-13
Isa 47:1-15
Isa 48:1-11
Isa 48:12-22

Lauds
Zech 2:10-17
Isa 12:1-6
Isa 40:1-5
Isa 40:6-11
Isa 40:25-31
Isa 41:1-10
Isa 41:11-16

Mass
9
187
193
194
195
196
197

1st
Zeph 3:14-18a
Num 24:2-7, 15-17a
Gen 49:2, 8-10
Jer 23:5-8
Judg 13:2-7, 24-25a
Isa 7:10-14
Song 2:8-14

2nd
Phil 4:4-7

Gospel
Luke 3:10-18
Matt 21:23-27
Matt 1:1-17
Matt 1:18-24
Luke 1:5-25
Luke 1:26-38
Luke 1:39-45

Vespers
Rom 9:1-8
Rom 10:1-13
1 Thess 5:16-24
Phil 1:3-11
Phil 3:17-21
Phil 4:4-9
1 Cor 1:1-9

Vigils Reading - 3rd Sunday of Advent
2024-12-15
YOU MUST BUILD UPON ROCK
From a commentary by Origen of Alexandria
◊◊◊
The baptism that Jesus gives is a baptism in the Holy Spirit and in fire.
Baptism is one and the same no matter who receives it, but its effect depends on
the recipient’s disposition. He who is portrayed as baptizing in the Holy Spirit
and in fire holds a winnowing fan in his hand, which he will use to clear the
threshing floor. The wheat he will gather into his barn, but the chaff he will
burn with fire that can never be quenched.
I should like to discover our Lord’s reason for holding a winnowing fan
and to inquire into the nature of the wind that scatters the light chaff here and
there, leaving the heavier grain lying in a heap – for you must have a wind if you
want to separate wheat and chaff.
I suggest that the faithful are like a heap of unsifted grain, and that the
wind represents the temptations which assail them and show up the wheat and
chaff among them. When your soul is overcome by some temptation, it is not the
temptation that changes you into chaff. No, you were chaff already, that is to
say, fickle and faithless; the temptation simply discloses the stuff you were
made of. On the other hand, when you endure temptations bravely it is not the
temptation that made you faithful and patient; temptation merely brings to
light the hidden virtues of patience and fortitude that have been present in you
all along. Do you think that I had any other purpose in speaking to you, said the
Lord to Job, than to reveal your virtue? In another text he declares: I humbled
you and made you feel the pangs of hunger in order to find out what was in
your heart.
In the same way, a storm will not allow a house to stand firm if it is built
on sand. If you wish to build a house, you must build it upon rock. Then any
storms that arise will not demolish your handiwork, whereas the house built
upon sand will totter, proving thereby that it is not well founded.
So while all is yet quiet, before the storm gathers, before the squalls begin
to bluster or the waves to swell, let us concentrate all our efforts on the
foundations of our building and construct our house with the many strong,
interlocking bricks of God’s commandments. Then when cruel persecutions is
unleashed like some fearful tornado against Christians, we shall be able to show
that our house is built upon Christ Jesus our rock.
Far be it from us to deny Christ when the time comes. But if anyone
should do so, let that person realize that it is not at the moment of his public
denial that apostasy took place. Its seeds and roots had been hidden within him
for a long time; persecution only brought into the open and made public what
was already there. Let us pray to the Lord then that we may be firm and solid
buildings that no storm can overthrow, founded on the rock of our Lord Jesus
Christ.

Vigils Reading
2024-12-16
O KING OF ALL NATIONS
From a treatise by St Hilary of Poitiers
◊◊◊
[A verse from the second Psalm says:] Ask of me, and I will give you
the nations to be your inheritance and the ends of the earth to be
your possession. Christ has indeed received the nations as the inheritance he
asked for. When was this? It was when he prayed: Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your Son that he may give glory to you, since you have given him
authority over the whole human race, to give eternal life to all those you have
given him.
This, then, is Christ’s inheritance: the whole human race, to whom he
desires to give eternal life. All nations are to be baptized, instructed, and born
again to new life. No longer will they be subject to the government of angels
referred to in the inspired Song of Moses, nor will they be divided up among the
angels in proportion to their numbers; they will be received into the Lord’s
family and reckoned as servants of God. From the dominion of unjust rulers
they will be taken into God’s eternal kingdom. In the past Israel alone was the
Lord’s portion and Jacob his allotted heritage; but now the whole company of
nations has become a single people, the people of the one and only God. All who
are to rise from the dead form the everlasting inheritance of God’s eternal Son,
the firstborn from the dead.
You will rule them with a rod of iron; you will shatter them
like the potter’s vessel. To many people these words seem to conflict with
the goodness of God. Are the nations which the Son of God asked for and
received as his inheritance to be terrorized by an iron rule and smashed like
vessels of clay? No good person, they say, gives or receives anything for the
purpose of destroying it. Does not the Lord prefer the repentance of sinners to5
their death? How then will he be acting in accordance with the nature he claims
to have if he shatters with an iron rod those whom he has asked for as his
inheritance?
These people misunderstand the divine decrees or else fail to recognize
their justice and propriety. You will rule them means that Christ will lead
them like a shepherd, guiding them with a shepherd’s loving care, for he is the
Good Shepherd and we the sheep for whom he laid down his life.

Vigils Reading
2024-12-17
O WISDOM
A letter from an anonymous author to Diognetus
◊◊◊
No one has ever seen God or known him, but God has revealed himself to
us through faith, by which alone it is possible to see him. God, the Lord and
maker of all things, who created the world and set it in order, not only loved us
but was also patient with us. So he has always been, and is, and will be: kind,
good, free from anger, truthful; indeed, he and he alone is good.
He devised a plan, a great and wonderful plan, and shared it only with his
Son. As long as he preserved his secrecy and kept his own wise counsel he
seemed to be neglecting us, to have no concern for us. But when – through his
beloved Son – he revealed and made public what he had prepared from the
beginning, he gave us all at once gifts such as we could never have dreamt of,
even sight and knowledge of himself.
After making all his plans in consultation with his Son, God still allowed
us for a time to go our own way, to be swept along by unruly passion, enslaved by
sensuality. This does not mean that he took pleasure in our sins, but only that he
tolerated them. When we had shown ourselves to be unworthy of life, his
goodness would make us worthy of it. When we had shown our inability to enter
the kingdom of God by our own power, we would be enabled to do so by God’s
power.
How immeasurable is God’s generosity and love! He did not show hatred
for us or reject us or take vengeance. He gave his own Son as the price of our
redemption, the holy One to redeem the wicked, the sinless One to redeem
sinners, the just One to redeem the unjust, the incorruptible One to redeem the
corruptible, the immortal One to redeem mortals. For what else could have7
covered our sins but his sinlessness? In whom could we have been sanctified but
in the Son of God alone?
How wonderful a transformation, how mysterious a design, how
inconceivable a blessing! The wickedness of the many is hidden in the One who
is holy, and the holiness of One sanctifies the many.

Vigils Reading
2024-12-18
O ADONAI
From a sermon by St Gregory of Nazianzus
◊◊◊
The very Son of God, older than the ages, the invisible, the
incomprehensible, the incorporeal the beginning of beginning, the light of light,
the fountain of life and immortality, the image of the archetype, the immovable
seat the perfect likeness, the definition and word of the Father: he it is who
comes to his own image and takes our nature for the good of our nature, and
unites himself to an intelligent soul for the good of my soul to purify like by like.
He takes to himself all that is human except for sin. He was conceived by the
Virgin Mary, who had been first prepared in soul and body by the Spirit; his
coming to birth had to be treated with honor, virginity had to receive new honor.
He comes forth as God, in the human nature he has taken, one being, made of
two contrary elements, flesh and spirit. Spirit gave divinity, flesh received it.
He who makes rich is made poor; he takes on the poverty of my flesh, that
I may gain the riches of his divinity. He who is full is made empty; he is emptied
for a brief space of his glory, that I may share in his fullness. What is this wealth
of goodness? What is this mystery that surrounds me? I received the likeness of
God, but failed to keep it. He takes on my flesh, to bring salvation to the likeness
and immortality to the flesh. He enters a second union with us, a union far more
wonderful than the first.
Holiness had to be brought to us by the humanity assumed by one who is
God, so that God might overcome the tyrant and so deliver us and lead us back
to himself through the mediation of his Son. The Son arranged this for the honor
of the Father, to whom the Son is clearly obedient in all things. The Good
Shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep, came in search of the straying
sheep to the mountains and hills on which we used to offer sacrifice.9
Christ, the light of all lights, follows John, the lamp that goes before him.
The Word of God follows the voice in the wilderness; the bridegroom follows the
bridegroom’s friend, who prepares a worthy people for the Lord by cleansing
them by water in preparation for the Spirit. We need God to take our flesh and
die, that we might live. We have died with him, that we may be purified. We have
risen again with him, because we have died with him. We have been glorified
with him, because we have risen again with him.

Vigils Reading
2024-12-19
O ROOT OF JESSE
From a homily by Fr Geoffrey Preston
◊◊◊
Jesus does not come of a particularly good family. His family is in fact
particularly ungood for much of its past. In the Te Deum we sing to Christ “You
did not scorn the Virgin’s womb.” At first sight that seems rather strange
language to use about the Virgin when she is honored as Mary Immaculate. But
surely it is Mary’s ancestry which is in debate here. The hymn celebrates the
extraordinary condescension of Jesus in being prepared to take not the flesh of
Adam before the Fall but the flesh of all those generations stretching from Adam
through Abraham and David down to Mary.
So we pray to him: “O Root of Jesse.” This means praying to him as Son
of David, as son of all those kings after David, people like Solomon and Asa and
Manasseh and Jeconiah. If he was prepared to come to an Israel and a world
that had produced people like that, then we can fairly expect that he will be
prepared to come to our world and our hearts with all their accumulated weight
of sin. We can be confident that he will come to us as we are, coming through our
past and making it his own. In this way he will reach us where we are and
transform our past so that when we tell the story of our lives we will be able to
include all the mistakes we have made and all the blind alleys we have explored.
Not that we cease to regret. Not that we excuse ourselves for our mistakes.
Not that we become complacent about our evil deeds and thoughts and words. It
is not as though what was once bad has now become good. But if and when the
Messiah comes to us, then we can sing the story of our lives as the story of the
path which he took to come to us, leaping upon the mountains and bounding
over the hills as we hear in the Song of Songs. When he comes we can tell the11
story of our past all over again, as nations retell their history after a change in
their fortunes.
It is a mistake to brood over our past. It is a misunderstanding of what
Messiah means for us to worry about the past. That past is only the raw material
of a story. What matters is how we tell the story using the raw materials. If the
Messiah has come, then the story can be solemnly and gladly sung, to the
accompaniment of all that makes for rejoicing.

Vigils Reading
2024-12-20
O KEY OF DAVID
From a sermon by St Odilo of Cluny
◊◊◊
The testimony of the ancient prophets to Christ’s eternal being and his
boundless divine presence is indeed trustworthy and true, and is confirmed by the
resounding call of that inspired heavenly trumpet: Jesus Christ, yesterday and today,
the same for ever. Our Savior himself tells the Jews in the gospel: Before Abraham
ever existed, I am. With God the Father from all eternity, before Abraham existed
(more accurately, before anything existed,) he had his eternal being; and yet he chose
to be born in time from the stock of Abraham — Abraham who was told by God the
Father: In your posterity all the peoples of the earth will be blessed.
The blessed patriarch David was also granted the sublime privilege of a
similar promise. Revealing to him the hidden secrets of his wisdom, God the Father
told him: The fruits of your body I will set upon your throne.
These two received the promise of the Savior’s coming more plainly than any
of our other forebears, and so they deserved to be given the first and most important
place in the records of our Lord’s ancestry according to the evangelist, Matthew, the
opening words of whose gospel are: The genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of
David, the son of Abraham. With these sacred words of the evangelist both the
prophetic oracles and the apostolic preaching are in accord. It is evident that when
the prophet Isaiah said in the person of God the Father: And so, Israel my servant,
Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend in whom I took
possession of you, his message was that the mediator between God and humankind
would be born according to the flesh from the stock of Abraham.13
The man in the Gospel who was freed from the darkness of ignorance and
enlightened by faith addressed God’s Son as Son of David. Not only did he receive
spiritual insight, but he also deserved to have his bodily sight restored. Christ the
Lord desires to be called by this name, knowing that there is no other name by which
the world can be saved. And if we ourselves wish to be saved by him who is the one
and only Savior, each of us must also say to him: Lord, son of David, have mercy on
me.

Vigils Reading
2024-12-21
O RADIANT DAWN
By St Irenaeus
◊◊◊
There is one God who, through the Word and Wisdom, made everything
and brought everything into harmony. It is he who is the Creator and who gave
this world over to the human race. Because of his greatness he is unknown to all
the beings whom he has made; for no one, either in ancient times or today, has
looked upon the great eminence in which he dwells. Yet because of his love he is
known at all times, thanks to him through whom he created all things. He is
none other than the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, who in these latter times
became a human being among humans in order to join the end to the beginning
again, humanity to God. That is why the prophets, when they had received the
gift of prophecy, foretold in their preaching that he would come according to the
flesh and that the uniting and communion of God and humanity would be
realized according to the Father’s good pleasure.
From the very beginning the Word proclaimed that God would be seen by
humans, that he would live and talk with them on earth and that he would take
part in the work which he himself had planned. He proclaimed that he would do
this to save his work, and proclaimed that he would let himself be seized by it,
“to save us from the hands of all who hate us”, from all spirit of transgression.
He also proclaimed that he would act in such a way that “we shall serve him
without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life”, so that,
caught up by the Spirit of God, humanity might attain to the glory of the
Father… The prophets, then, foretold that God would be seen among
humankind, according again to what the Lord said: “Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they shall see God”.
It is true that because of his greatness and inexpressible glory, “no one
shall see God and live”, for the Father is unattainable. But because of his love
and goodness towards humanity and of his power to do all things, he goes so far
as to grant to those who love him the privilege of seeing God — just as the
prophets foretold — “for what is impossible with humans is possible with God”.
By their own power humans will never be able to see God; but God, if he
wills it, will be seen by humans, by those whom he intends to see him, when –
and how – he intends it. For God can do all things: seen of old through the
intervention of the Spirit in the manner of the prophets; then seen again
through the mediation of the Son in accordance with the adoption, he will be
seen again in the Kingdom in accordance with the Fatherhood, the Holy
Spirit preparing humanity in advance for the Son of God, the Son leading
them to the Father, and the Father bestowing on them that incorruptibility
and eternal life which comes to everyone from the fact of their seeing God.
Just as those who see the light are themselves in the light and share in its
splendor, so those who see God are in God and share in his splendor.

Skema
2024-12-22
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
4th Week of Advent

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
December 22 – 28, 2024

Sun
22
Mon
23
Tue
24
Wed
25
Thu
26
Fri
27
Sat
28

Office
4th Sunday of Advent
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Nativity of the Lord
St Stephen
St John
Holy Innocents

Vigils
Isa 49:8-26
Isa 51:1-11
Isa 51:17-52:10
*vigil and midnight mass
Acts 6:1-15
Wis 7:21-8:1
Exod 1:6-22

Lauds
Isa 41:17-20
Isa 43:9-13
Isa 63:15-19
Baruch 3:36-4:4
Wis 4:7-15
Prov 8:22-30
Jer 31:15-20

Mass
12
199
200
16
696
697
698

1st
Mic 5:1-4a
Mal 3:1-4, 23-24
2 Sam 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16
Isa 52:7-10
Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59
1 John 1:1-4
1 John 1:5-2:2

2nd
Heb 10:5-10

Heb 1:1-6

Gospel
Luke 1:39-45
Luke 1:57-66
Luke 1:67-79
John 1:1-18
Matt 10:17-22
John 20:1a, 2-8
Matt 2:13-18

Vespers
1 Cor 4:1-5
Jas 5:7-11
2 Pet 3:8-14
Acts 13:16-26
Gal 2:15-21
Acts 4:13-20
Phil 2:1-11

* Mass during the Night: 1) Isa 9:1-6 2) Titus 2:11-14 Gospel) Luke 2:1-14

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mass
17
203
204
18
205
206
207

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

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

Gal 4:4-7

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

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

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

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