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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250504
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250505
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250503T232424Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250503T232424Z
UID:13385-1746316800-1746403199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - 3rd Sunday of Easter
DESCRIPTION:LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER \nFrom a commentary by St Augustine \n◊◊◊ \nThe Lord appeared once again to his disciples after his resurrection\, and \nquestioning Peter\, who from fear had thrice denied him\, extracted from him a \nthreefold declaration of love. Christ had been raised to life in the flesh\, and Peter \nto life in the spirit\, for when Christ died as a result of the torments he endured\, \nPeter was also dead as a result of denying his master. Christ the Lord was raised \nfrom the dead; Christ the Lord raised up Peter through Peter’s love for him. And \nhaving obtained from him the assurance of that love\, he entrusted his sheep to \nPeter’s care. \nWe may wonder what advantage there could be for Christ in Peter’s love \nfor him. If Christ loves you\, you profit\, not Christ; and if you love him\, again the \nadvantage is yours\, not his. But wishing to show us how we should demonstrate \nour love for him\, Christ the Lord made it plain that it is by our concern for his \nsheep. Do you love me?\, he asked. I do love you. Then feed my sheep. Once\, \ntwice\, and a third time the same dialogue was repeated. To the Lord’s one and \nonly question\, Peter had no other answer than I do love you. And each time the \nLord gave Peter the same command: Feed my sheep. Let us love one another \nthen\, and by doing so we shall be loving Christ. \nChrist\, the eternal God\, was born in time as man. A true member of the \nhuman race\, he appeared as one of us; but as God in human form he performed \nmany wonderful signs. As a human being\, he suffered much from other human \nbeings; but as God in human form he rose from the dead. For forty days he lived \non earth as one of us; then\, before the eyes of his disciples\, he ascended to \nheaven\, where\, as God in human form\, he is now seated at the right hand of the \nFather. We believe all these things\, though we have never seen them; we are \ncommanded to love Christ the Lord\, whom we have never seen. And we all cry \nout and say that we love Christ. \nBut listen to John’s words: If you do not love the brother or sister that \nyou can see\, how can you love the God you cannot see? It is by loving the sheep \nthat you show your love for the shepherd\, for the sheep are the members of the \nshepherd. Indeed\, it was to make the sheep members of his own body that the \nLord became one of them himself\, that he allowed himself to be led like a lamb \nto the slaughter\, and that he allowed the baptist to point him out and say: \nBehold the Lamb of God\, who takes away the sins of the world. Surely a \ncrushing burden for a lamb! But that lamb possessed tremendous strength. Do \nyou wish to know how much strength was in this lamb? Because the lamb was \ncrucified\, the lion was overcome. If he could vanquish the devil by his own \ndeath\, think with what power he is able to rule the world! May nothing\, then\, \never be dearer to us than Christ the Lord; let us love him with all our hearts.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-3rd-sunday-of-easter/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250505
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250506
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250503T232527Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250503T232527Z
UID:13387-1746403200-1746489599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE LIFE THAT CONQUERS \nFrom “The Eternal Year” by Fr Karl Rahner \n◊◊◊ \nBecause [Jesus] did not begin to heal\, to save\, and to transfigure the world \nby transfiguring the symptoms on the surface\, but began rather at the \ninnermost root\, we suppose that nothing has happened to the essence beneath \nthis superficial area. Because the waters of grief and guilt still flow on the \nsurface where we stand\, we fancy that their source in the depths is not yet dried \nup. Because evil still carves new marks in the face of the earth\, we conclude that \nin the deepest heart of reality love is dead. But these are only appearances\, \nwhich we take for the reality of life. \nChrist is risen because in death he conquered\, and redeemed forever\, the \ninnermost center of all earthly existence. And\, having risen\, he has kept this \ninnermost center in his control\, and he continues to preserve it. If we \nacknowledge that he has gone away to God’s heaven\, this is only another way of \nsaying that he withdraws from us for a while the tangibility of his transfigured \nhumanity. But this is only another way of saying that there is no longer any \nabyss between God and the world. \nChrist is already in the midst of the poor things of this earth… He is in the \nineffable yearning of all creatures who\, without knowing it\, yearn for a share in \nthe transfiguration of his body. He is in the history of the earth\, whose blind \ncourse\, with all its victories and all its crashing defeats\, steers with uncanny \nprecision towards the day when his splendor\, transforming everything\, will \nerupt out of the earth’s own depths. He is in all the tears as hidden joy\, and in \nevery death as the life that conquers by seeming to die. He is the heart of this \nearthly world and the mysterious seal of its eternal validity.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-304/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250506
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250507
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250503T232715Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250503T232715Z
UID:13389-1746489600-1746575999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE REDEMPTION \nOF OUR BODIES \nFrom a sermon by Fr Ronald Knox \n◊◊◊ \nI am content to think of my present body as merely the inadequate symbol \nof that body which will be mine in eternity. A symbol\, yes; but we must remind \nourselves again\, it isn’t merely a kind of book token\, entitling me to the \npossession of a body in eternity; it is rather a kind of cloak-room ticket\, entitling \nme to the possession of my body in eternity. Our Lord’s Resurrection meant an \nempty tomb; our Lord’s Ascension meant\, presumably\, the disappearance from \nearth of a certain quantum of matter which had previously been part of earth. If \nit is going to be possible to establish identity between that body of yours which \nwill lie in the cemetery\, and that body of yours which will\, we hope\, attain the \nenjoyment of heaven\, aren’t we going to land ourselves in rather difficult \nphysical speculations to account for it? \nWhat is certain is that the thing\, whatever it is\, which expresses itself here \nand now in terms of a mass of matter about six feet high\, will persist\, although it \nmay be expressed in quite different terms\, in that order of creation\, whatever it \nbe\, which will succeed when the material creation itself has passed away. \nThe practical importance of that truth for us is\, I take it\, that as Christians \nwe are bound to think of our bodies as part of ourselves\, as included not only in \nthe scheme of our creation but in the scheme of our redemption\, as having…a \nsupernatural importance\, and as demanding reverence in our treatment of \nthem. We look forward\, as St Paul says\, to the redemption of our bodies; they \nare not encumbrances which we drag about with us\, they are first-fruits of \neternity\, entrusted to our keeping… \nIf you lean towards Eastern spiritualism\, you will find yourself talking\, \nlike the man in that poem of Lyall’s\, about your body as if it were something that \ndidn’t matter; it “is a garment no more fitting\, is a tent that I am quitting\, is a \nsnare\, from which at last\, like a hawk\, my soul hath passed“. If you lean \ntowards Western materialism\, you will find yourself talking about your body as \nif it were the only thing that mattered\, like that poem of Housman’s\, “The \nImmortal Part“\, which ends up: “And leave with endless night alone the \nsteadfast and enduring bone“. If you avoid both those excesses\, you will find \nyourself talking like Thomas a’ Kempis: \nAh\, frail body\, earth forsaking\, \nIn what glory wilt thou rise\, \nPassing fair in thy remaking\, \nStrong and whole and swift and wise\, \nFree\, and joy in freedom taking\, \nFramed for life that never dies! \nUp\, and stir thee\, onward spur thee; \nWhat\, though toil be hard to bear\, \nIf God’s grace shall count thee worthy \nThose unguessed rewards to share? \nBrief the pains that shall prefer thee \nTo eternal glory there.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-305/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250507
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250508
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250503T232821Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250503T232821Z
UID:13391-1746576000-1746662399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:CHRIST IS THE DOOR \nFrom “Symbols of Christ” by Dom Damasus Winzen \n◊◊◊ \nTo pass through a door is an initiation and a consecration\, because it \nmeans to leave behind the past and to enter a new life. To the Romans of old\, the \nvictorious army\, by marching through the arch of triumph\, was cleansed of past \noffenses and consecrated to a new era of peace. For the people of the Old \nTestament\, the temple gate of Jerusalem took the place of the arch of triumph. \nNo armies marched through it\, but the festive throngs of the pilgrims \napproached it in solemn procession on the Feast of the Tabernacles. Their \nsummons rang out to the warders: “This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous \nshall enter into it!” \nThe real door to the Messianic era\, however\, is not made of stone. It is the \nliving heart of the Saviour. The very shape of the door indicates salvation \nthrough Christ\, because its two side-posts\, holding up the lintel\, form a gallows- \nshaped cross. Every wall effects a separation between those within\, whom it \nprotects\, and those without\, whom it excludes. Walls\, therefore\, are needed \nonly in a world where enmity exists between those who share in the blessedness \nof a common life and those who are strangers and exiles. The door\, however\, \npierces the wall\, and unites the two groups – in the power of the cross. \nAfter the earth had been cursed\, and enmity placed between the serpent \nand the woman\, Paradise was walled off from the rest of the world. But the gate \nremained\, guarded by the cherub with the flaming sword – waiting for the time \nof man’s re-entrance. God also hid his Holy Presence behind the walls of the \ntemple\, but a door remained\, through which\, once a year\, the high priest was \nallowed to enter the Holy of Holies. \nWhen Christ extended his hands on the Cross he became the Door \nthrough which the wall of separation between God and ourselves was opened. \nThe cherub at the gate of Paradise put away his sword when God’s Eternal Love\, \nhanging on the Cross\, said to the good thief: “This day you shall be with me in \nParadise!” When Christ gave up the spirit\, the curtain of the Holy of Holies was \nrent\, to indicate that we can “enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus.” \nChrist is the Door through which we have access to the Father\, because he is the \nsacrificial victim which reconciles us in one body to God\, so that we are citizens \nwith the saints and members of God’s household. \nThis Door was foreshadowed in the door of Noah’s ark\, which\, \nsignificantly enough\, “was set in the side thereof”; the Door was opened when \nthe lance of the soldier pierced the side of Jesus. We enter through this Door by \nbeing baptized into the Death and Resurrection of Christ\, through which we are \ncleansed from past offenses and consecrated as children of the Heavenly Father.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-306/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250508
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250509
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250503T233026Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250503T233026Z
UID:13393-1746662400-1746748799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Br Christian de Cherge
DESCRIPTION:CHRISTIAN DE CHERGÉ \nMARTYR\, MONK\, AND MYSTIC \nBy Dom Bernardo Olivera \n◊◊◊ \nIn its early stages\, monastic life was interpreted in various ways. Not a few \nunderstood monasticism as an authentic martyrdom. The martyr\, the monk and \nthe mystic are people who have oriented their lives toward mystery and entered \ndeeply therein. They long for one thing only: to enter into communion with their \nLord in death in order to be joined with him in the Resurrection. \nChristian de Chergé was born on January 18\, 1937 at Colmar into a \ndistinguished family of eight children. His father was a military man\, as would \nbe his older brother later on. During his childhood he spent three years in \nAlgeria during the Second World War. From the time of his childhood he always \nremained impressed by the Muslim’s way of approaching God. \nOn October 6\, 1956\, at the age of nineteen he entered the seminary of the \nCarmelites in Paris. His studies were interrupted in 1959 when he had to report \nfor military service. Set on becoming an officer\, he took the required courses \nand in July of the following year he was made second lieutenant. That same \nmonth\, at the time of the war of independence\, he arrived in Algeria at the age of \ntwenty-three. \nAn event occurred during this time that left its mark on him for the rest of \nhis life. He had made friends with an Algerian who worked as a warden under \nthe French authorities\, a position that made him susceptible to the violence of \nthe National Liberation Army. Mohamed tried to be faithful at one and the same \ntime to his Christian friend\, to his Islamic faith\, and to his own people. It so \nhappened one day that they were involved in a scuffle in the street. Mohamed10 \nprotected his friend and tried to pacify his aggressors. The following day\, he was \nfound dead. This painful episode was never to be forgotten. Christian came back \nto it in later years\, writing: “I know at least one beloved brother\, a convinced \nMuslim\, who gave his life for love of another\, in a concrete way\, by spilling his \nown blood. Indeed\, since then\, in my hope for communion of all the elect in \nChrist\, I can fix my eyes on this friend who lived\, even in his death\, the one \ncommandment.” \nFor Christian de Chergé all of this was a foundational experience and the \nseed of a vocation. In the blood of his friend\, assassinated for not having wanted \nto bargain with hatred\, Christian said in 1982: “I knew my calling to follow \nChrist would end up living itself out sooner or later in the same country where \nI had been given the pledge of the greater love\, ‘shed for you and for many’”. \nOn March 21\, 1964\, he was ordained a priest and shortly thereafter was sent to \nAlgeria and to the monastic life. On September 14\, 1976\, he made his perpetual \nvows. In it he expressed his desire to “live in Prayer in the service of the Church \nof Algeria\, listening to the Muslim soul\, God willing\, until the final gift of my \ndeath.” \nChristian was elected Titular Prior of Atlas monastery in 1984. He was \nalready deeply involved in the interreligious dialogue. On May 21\, 1996\, united \nwith his six brothers of the community\, he sealed with his blood the witness of \nhis life.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-br-christian-de-cherge/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250508
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250509
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250503T233212Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250503T233212Z
UID:13395-1746662400-1746748799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:CHRISTIAN DE CHERGÉ \nMARTYR\, MONK\, AND MYSTIC \nBy Dom Bernardo Olivera \n◊◊◊ \nIn its early stages\, monastic life was interpreted in various ways. Not a few \nunderstood monasticism as an authentic martyrdom. The martyr\, the monk and \nthe mystic are people who have oriented their lives toward mystery and entered \ndeeply therein. They long for one thing only: to enter into communion with their \nLord in death in order to be joined with him in the Resurrection. \nChristian de Chergé was born on January 18\, 1937 at Colmar into a \ndistinguished family of eight children. His father was a military man\, as would \nbe his older brother later on. During his childhood he spent three years in \nAlgeria during the Second World War. From the time of his childhood he always \nremained impressed by the Muslim’s way of approaching God. \nOn October 6\, 1956\, at the age of nineteen he entered the seminary of the \nCarmelites in Paris. His studies were interrupted in 1959 when he had to report \nfor military service. Set on becoming an officer\, he took the required courses \nand in July of the following year he was made second lieutenant. That same \nmonth\, at the time of the war of independence\, he arrived in Algeria at the age of \ntwenty-three. \nAn event occurred during this time that left its mark on him for the rest of \nhis life. He had made friends with an Algerian who worked as a warden under \nthe French authorities\, a position that made him susceptible to the violence of \nthe National Liberation Army. Mohamed tried to be faithful at one and the same \ntime to his Christian friend\, to his Islamic faith\, and to his own people. It so \nhappened one day that they were involved in a scuffle in the street. Mohamed10 \nprotected his friend and tried to pacify his aggressors. The following day\, he was \nfound dead. This painful episode was never to be forgotten. Christian came back \nto it in later years\, writing: “I know at least one beloved brother\, a convinced \nMuslim\, who gave his life for love of another\, in a concrete way\, by spilling his \nown blood. Indeed\, since then\, in my hope for communion of all the elect in \nChrist\, I can fix my eyes on this friend who lived\, even in his death\, the one \ncommandment.” \nFor Christian de Chergé all of this was a foundational experience and the \nseed of a vocation. In the blood of his friend\, assassinated for not having wanted \nto bargain with hatred\, Christian said in 1982: “I knew my calling to follow \nChrist would end up living itself out sooner or later in the same country where \nI had been given the pledge of the greater love\, ‘shed for you and for many’”. \nOn March 21\, 1964\, he was ordained a priest and shortly thereafter was sent to \nAlgeria and to the monastic life. On September 14\, 1976\, he made his perpetual \nvows. In it he expressed his desire to “live in Prayer in the service of the Church \nof Algeria\, listening to the Muslim soul\, God willing\, until the final gift of my \ndeath.” \nChristian was elected Titular Prior of Atlas monastery in 1984. He was \nalready deeply involved in the interreligious dialogue. On May 21\, 1996\, united \nwith his six brothers of the community\, he sealed with his blood the witness of \nhis life.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-307/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250509
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250510
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250503T233325Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250503T233325Z
UID:13397-1746748800-1746835199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE SECRET OF THE LORD \nFrom a sermon by St John Henry Newman \n◊◊◊ \nOur Lord expressly promises all Christians a certain gracious \nmanifestation of himself\, which it is natural\, at first sight\, to suppose a sensible \none: and many persons understand it to be such\, as if it were not more blessed to \nbelieve than to see. Our Lord says; “He that has my commandments and keeps \nthem\, he it is that loves me; and he that loves me\, shall be loved of my Father\, \nand I will love him and will manifest myself to him.” When Jude asked him\, \n“Lord\, how is it that you will manifest yourself unto us\, and not unto the \nworld?” Our Lord answered\, “If one loves me\, he will keep my words; and my \nFather will love him\, and we will come unto him\, and make our abode with \nhim.” In accordance with this promise\, St Paul says\, “The Spirit itself bears \nwitness with our spirit\, that we are the children of God”; and St John\, “He that \nbelieves in the Son of God has the witness in himself.” \nNow\, that this great gift\, whatever it be\, is of a nature to impart \nillumination\, sanctity\, and peace\, to the soul to which it comes\, far from \ndisputing\, I would earnestly maintain. And\, in this indirect way\, doubtless\, it is \nin a certain sense apprehended and perceived; perceived in its effects\, with a \nconsciousness that those effects cannot come of themselves\, but imply a gift \nfrom which they come\, and a presence of which they are\, as it were\, the shadow\, \na voice of which they are the echo. \nBut there are persons who desire the inward manifestation of Christ to be \nmuch more sensible than this. They will not be contented without some sensible \nsign and direct evidence that God loves them; some assurance\, in which faith \nhas no part\, that God has chosen them; and which may answer to their \nanticipations of what Scripture calls “the secret of the Lord\,” and “the hidden \nmanna” which Christ invites us to partake. Some\, for instance\, hold that their \nconscience would have no peace\, unless they recollected the time when they \nwere converted from darkness to light\, from a state of wrath to the kingdom of \nGod. \nOthers consider that\, in order to possess the seal of election\, they must be \nable to discern in themselves certain feelings or frames of mind\, a renunciation \nof their own merit\, and an apprehension of gospel salvation; as if it were not \nenough to renounce ourselves and follow Christ\, without the lively \nconsciousness that we are doing so; and that in this lies “the secret of the Lord.” \nOthers go further; and think that without a distinct inward assurance of his \nsalvation\, one is not in a saving state. \nThis is what men and women often conceive; not considering that \nwhatever be the manifestation promised to Christians by our Lord\, it is not \nlikely to be more sensible and more intelligible than the great sign of his own \nResurrection. Yet even that\, like the miracle wrought upon Jonah\, was in secret\, \nand they who believed without seeing it were more blessed than those who saw.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-308/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250510
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250511
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250503T233452Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250503T233452Z
UID:13399-1746835200-1746921599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:NOT AS THE WORLD GIVES PEACE \nFrom a homily by St Oscar Romero \n◊◊◊ \nJustice is not enough; love also is necessary… We have said that the power \nof the Christian is love\, and we repeat it: the power of the church is love. \nLove enables us to feel that we are sisters and brothers to one and all… As \nlong as we do not reach that strength of love\, we cannot be true peacemakers. \nThose whose hearts are filled with resentment\, violence\, and hatred cannot be \nforgers of peace. We have to know how to love like Jesus\, who loved even those \nwho crucified him: “Father\, forgive them\, they know not what they do… If they \nknew you\, they would love you… Give them love also\, Lord.” How much good \nthe powerful would do if they truly loved and were not selfish and envious! How \nbeautiful the world would be… if we all were to expand this power of love! \nHere the Second Vatican Council was careful to define two kinds of peace\, \nand we should pay close attention to this. One kind of peace is that which Christ \nreserved for his closest friends\, those who understood the redemption and the \nneed to root out sin from themselves. As long as there is sin in the heart\, there \ncan be no truly divine peace\, such as the peace Christ achieved when he \nreconciled us with the Father by dying on the cross and bearing the sins of all of \nus in his body. For us Christians and Catholics\, this is the culmination of peace: \npeace in the grace of God\, the peace of those who have left sin and controlled \ntheir passions\, the peace of holy souls. This is the peace that Christ spoke of: “I \nleave you peace; my peace I give to you\, not as the world gives peace.” \nRomero Vol. 1 (of 6). Trans. Joseph Owens\, SJ. Miami: Convivium Press\, 2015. 181-184.14 \nHere we distinguish another kind of peace\, the peace that the church \nshares with the world\, the peace that non-Christians can also possess\, the peace \nof people of good will that we sing about in the Gloria of the Mass… Here is \nmeant this other peace\, the peace that proceeds from natural love. It is the \npeace of those who\, even though they do not know God\, are able to discover the \nintense power of being in solidarity with those who suffer. It is the peace that \nenables people to bring a little comfort to the grief-stricken and to denounce \ninjustices… This is the peace that all people can possess… \nThe problem of peace is immense\, and it needs many peacemakers: \npriests\, men and women religious\, laity… the call goes out to all… Let each one \nof us\, according to our means\, nurture this vocation to become instruments of \npeace… Those whose hearts feel the need for God\, those who find the joy of life \nin the cross and sacrifice\, those who have learned the true secret of peace in the \ncrucified One. This secret consists of loving God to the extreme of letting \noneself be killed for him and of loving one’s neighbors to the point of being \ncrucified for them. This is the love of the modern redeemers\, the love of Christ\, \nthis love that endures forever. Let us promise this to the Lord while we proceed \nto proclaim our faith in him.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-309/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20250510T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20250510T120000
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250506T004617Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250506T004617Z
UID:13409-1746867600-1746878400@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:LCG Chicago May Meeting Zoom 5/10/25 9 am CDT
DESCRIPTION:All are invited: \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: \nFr. Joachim Johnson \nBr. Christopher Lucas \nBr. Roger Kaler \n 9:10 Lectio. Our lectio piece will be led by Tom Kosnik. \n 9:50 Reading.  Our reading this month is completion (from page 50 to end) of The Impact of God by Fr. Iain Matthew. Does the author help/sense the concept of “night” by St. John of the Cross? \n10:45 Housekeeping.   Volunteer to lead lectio next month?  Selection of our next book.  Chicago Report on LCG Advisory Council activity.  Plans for 2025 international meeting in Avila. \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: June 14\, 2025.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/lcg-chicago-may-meeting-zoom-5-10-25-9-am-cdt/
CATEGORIES:LCG Local Community Meetings,LCG open events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250511
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250512
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250511T024153Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250511T024153Z
UID:13413-1746921600-1747007999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema\, 4th Easter
DESCRIPTION:  \n\n\n\nBiblical Readings for Office and Mass\n4th Week of Easter\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (C)\, Weekdays (I)\nMay 11 – 17\, 2025\n\n\n\nSun\n11\nMon\n12\nTue\n13\nWed\n14\nThu\n15\nFri\n16\nSat\n17\n\n\nOffice\n4th Sunday of Easter\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\nSt Mathias\nSt Pachomius\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\n\n\nVigils\nRev 12:1-18\nRev 13:1-18\nRev 14:1-13\nPhil 3:13-4:1\nRev 15:5-16:21\nRev 17:1-18\nRev 18:1-20\n\n\nLauds\nEph 5:15-20\nEph 6:10-17\nCol 1:1-8\n1 Jn 2:18-25\nCol 1:15-23\nCol 1:24-29\nCol 2:1-8\n\n\nMass\n51\n279\n280\n564\n282\n283\n284\n\n\n1st\nActs 13:14\, 43-52\nActs 11:1-18\nActs 11:19-26\nActs 1:15-17\, 20-26\nActs 13:13-25\nActs 13:26-33\nActs 13:44-52\n\n\n2nd\nRev 7:9\, 14b-17\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nJohn 10:27-30\nJn 10:1-10\nJohn 10:22-30\nJohn 15:9-17\nJohn 13:16-20\nJohn 14:1-6\nJohn 14:7-14\n\n\nVespers\nActs 10:34-43\nActs 10:44-49\nActs 12:1-5\n1 Cor 4:1-7\nActs 13:6-12\nActs 14:1-7\nActs 16:16-24\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-4th-easter/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250511
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250512
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250511T024921Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250511T024921Z
UID:13416-1746921600-1747007999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:4th Sunday of Easter
DESCRIPTION:PERMANENT MYSTICAL KINSHIP\nFrom a commentary by St Cyril of Alexandria 1\n◊◊◊\nThe mark of Christ’s sheep is their willingness to hear and obey\, just as the sign of those who are not his is their disobedience. We take the word “hear” to imply obedience to what has been said. People who hear God are known by him. No one is entirely unknown by God\, but to be known in this way is to become his kin. Thus\, when Christ says\, “I know mine. I will receive them\, and give them permanent mystical kinship with myself.” \nIt might be said that inasmuch as he has become man\, he has made all human beings his kin\, since all are members of the same race; we are all united to Christ in a mystical relationship because of his incarnation. Yet those who do not preserve the likeness of his holiness are alienated from him. “My sheep follow me”\, says Christ. By a certain God given grace\, believers follow in the footsteps of Christ. No longer subject to the shadows of the law\, they obey the commands of Christ\, and guided by his words rise through grace to their own dignity\, for they are called children of God. When Christ ascends into heaven\, they also follow him. \nChrist promises his followers as a recompense and reward eternal life\, exemption from death and corruption\, and from the torments the judge inflicts upon transgressors. By giving life Christ shows that by nature he is life. He does not receive it from another\, but supplies it from his own resources. And by eternal life we understand not only length of days which all\, both good and bad\, shall possess after the resurrection\, but also the passing of those days in peace and joy. \nWe may also see in the word “life” a reference to the Eucharist. By means of which Christ implants in believers his own life through their sharing in his flesh\, according to the text: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life”. \n1\nJourney with the Fathers = Year C – New City Press – 1984 – pg 54.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/4th-sunday-of-easter/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250512
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250513
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250511T025501Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250511T025501Z
UID:13418-1747008000-1747094399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils: Easter Weekday
DESCRIPTION:GOD HAS CONQUERED DEATH\nFrom “The Eternal Year” by Fr Karl Rahner 2\n◊◊◊\nTo do justice to the mystery of Easter joy with the stale words of human speech is rather difficult. This is so not only because every mystery of the Gospel penetrates only with difficulty into the narrow confines of human life – thereby making it even harder for our words to grasp and contain and express these mysteries – but because the Easter message is the most human tidings of Christianity. That is why we find it the most difficult message to understand. For what is most true\, most obvious\, and most easy\, is the most difficult to be\, to do\, and to believe. That is to say\, we modern people base our life on the unexpressed\, and therefore all the more self-evident\, prejudice that anything “religious” is merely an affair of the most interior heart and of the loftiest spirit – something that we must bring about by ourselves\, something\, therefore\, that involves the difficulties and unreality of the heart’s thoughts and moods. \nBut Easter tells us that God has done something. God himself. And his action has not merely gently touched the heart of one here and there\, so that they tremble slightly from an ineffable and nameless someone. God has raised his Son from the dead. God has quickened the flesh. God has conquered death. He has done this – he has conquered – not merely in the realm of inwardness\, in the realm of thought\, but in the realm where we\, the glory of the human mind notwithstanding\, are most really ourselves: in the actuality of this world\, far from all “mere” thoughts and “mere” sentiments. He has conquered in the realm where we experience practically what we are in essence: children of the earth\, who die. \n2\nThe Eternal Year\, Karl Rahner\, Baltimore: Helicon Press 1964. pp.87f
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-easter-weekday/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250513
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250514
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250511T030008Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250511T030008Z
UID:13420-1747094400-1747180799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils: Easter Weekday
DESCRIPTION:THE CRUCIAL CHALLENGE\nOF OUR CHRISTIAN FAITH\nBy Thomas Merton 3\n◊◊◊\nThe season of Lent summoned us to change our hearts\, to effect in ourselves the Christian metanoia…awakening in us perhaps some sense of that existential “dread” of the creature whose freedom suspends him over an abyss which may be an infinite meaninglessness\, and unbounded despair… \nBut now the power of Easter has burst upon us with the resurrection of Christ. Now we find in ourselves a strength which is not our own\, and which is freely given to us whenever we need it\, raising us above the Law\, giving us a new law which is hidden in Christ: the law of his merciful love for us. Now we no longer strive to be good because we have to\, because it is a duty\, but because our joy is to please him who has given all his love to us! Now our life is full of meaning. \nEaster is the hour of our own deliverance – from what? Precisely from Lent and from its hard Law which accuses and judges our infirmity. We are no longer under the Law. We are delivered from the harsh judgment! Here is all the greatness and all the unimaginable splendor of the Easter mystery. Here is the “grace” of Easter which we fail to lay hands on because we are afraid to understand its full meaning. To understand Easter and live it\, we must renounce our dread of newness and of freedom! \nDeath exercises a twofold power in our lives: it holds us by sin\, and it holds us by the Law. To die to death and live a new life in Christ we must die not only to sin but also to the Law.\nEvery Christian knows that he must die to sin. But the great truth that St Paul exhausted himself to preach in season and out is a truth that we Christians have barely grasped\, a truth that has got away from us\, that constantly eludes us and has continued to do so for twenty centuries. We cannot get it into our heads what it means to be no longer slaves of the Law. And the reason is that we do not have the courage to face this truth which contains in itself the crucial challenge of our Christian faith\, the great reality that makes Christianity different from every other religion. \n3\nNew York: Farrar\, Straus & Giroux\, 1965\, pp. 145-146.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-easter-weekday-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250514
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250515
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250511T030552Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250511T030552Z
UID:13422-1747180800-1747267199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils: St. Matthias
DESCRIPTION:OUR VERY GLORY\nIS OUR WARNING \nBy St John Henry Newman 4\n◊◊◊\n<The feast of St Matthias> is the only day which is to be celebrated with mingled feelings of joy and pain. It records the fall as well as the election of an Apostle. St Matthias was chosen in place of the traitor Judas. In the history of the latter we have the warning recorded in very deed\, which our Lord in the text gives us in word\, “Hold that fast which thou hast\, that no man take thy crown.” And doubtless many were the warnings such as this\, addressed by our Lord to the wretched man who in the end betrayed him. \nThe reflection which rises in the mind on a consideration of the election of St Matthias\, is this: how easily God may affect His purposes without us\, and put others in our place\, if we are disobedient to Him. It often happens that those who have long been in His favor grow secure and presuming. They think their salvation certain\, and their service necessary to Him who has graciously accepted it. Now\, this feeling of self-importance is repressed all through the Scriptures\, and especially by the events we commemorate today. \nWhat solemn overpowering thoughts must have crowded on St Matthias\, when he received the greetings of the eleven Apostles\, and took his seat among them as their brother! His very election was a witness against himself if he did not fulfill it. And such surely will ours be in our degree. We take the place of others who have gone before\, as Matthias did; we are “baptized for the dead\,” filling up the ranks of soldiers\, some of whom\, indeed\, have fought a good fight\, but many of whom in every age have made void their calling. Many are called\, few are chosen. The monuments of sin and unbelief are set up around us. The casting away of the Jews was the reconciling of the Gentiles. The fall of one nation is the conversion of another. The Church loses old branches and gains new. God works according to His own inscrutable pleasure… \nThus the Christian of every age is but the successor of the lost and of the dead. How long we of this country shall be put in trust with Gospel\, we know not; but while we have the privilege\, assuredly we do but stand in the place of Christians who have either utterly fallen away\, or are so corrupted as scarcely to let their light shine before others. We are at present witnesses of the Truth; and our very glory is our warning. By the superstitions\, the profanities\, the indifference\, the unbelief of the world called “Christian”\, we are called upon to be lowly-minded while we preach aloud\, and to tremble while we rejoice. Let us then\, as a Church and as individuals\, one and all\, look to Him who alone can keep us from falling. Let us with single heart look up to Christ our Saviour\, and put ourselves into His hands\, from whom all our strength and wisdom is derived. \n4\nParochial and Plain Sermons\, San Francisco: Ignatius\, 1987\, pp. 300-301\, 304-305.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-st-matthias/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250515
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250516
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250511T031534Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250511T031534Z
UID:13424-1747267200-1747353599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils: St. Pachomius
DESCRIPTION:OUR RIGHTEOUS\nFATHER PACHOMIUS\nFrom “The Life of Pachomius” 5\n◊◊◊\nTheodore began to tell the brothers of the life of our father Pachomius from his childhood on and of all the labors he underwent from the beginning when he established the holy Koinonia. He told them of the temptations of demons and how he snatched away from them the souls which the Lord gave him and of the revelations which the Lord disclosed to him. And he told them everything he had heard from that saint’s mouth as well as those things he had seen with his own eyes. \nHe spoke to them as follows:\n‘Listen to me\, my brothers\, and understand well the things I am telling you. For the man whom we are exalting is truly the father of us all after God. God established a covenant with him to save a great many souls by means of him. And us also the Lord has saved through his holy prayers… Our righteous father Pachomius – is also one of the holy people of God and one who did his will always and everywhere. I am fearful that we may forget his labors and actually be unmindful of who it was who made this multitude one spirit and one body. It was accomplished by means of him and of our other holy fathers who aided him in the establishment of this holy institution. We believe that the blessing of our father will remain with us and with those who come after us before God forever. Now then\, let us not be negligent and forget his laws and his commandments\, which he gave us while he was still with us in the body.’ \n‘Pachomius pursued in its entirety the way of life of the prophets and the way of service in which\, according to the Gospel\, our Lord walked. He was without blame before all\, as you yourselves bear witness. You are also not unaware how he used to teach us frequently with tears\, as Paul said in the book of the Acts of those whom he was teaching. You know how he used to gather us together daily and speak to us about the holy commandments so that we might observe each of the commandments in the holy Scriptures of Christ\, and how he used first to put them into practice before giving them to us. \nIt is through our contact with such a righteous man that we have learned the will of God even in such details as the manner of stretching our hands upward to the Lord and how one should pray to God. It is he who taught it to us. Is it not right for us to bless him next after the Lord who created us? Indeed\, did God not say to Abraham\, who had done his will\, I will bless him who blesses you and I will curse him who curses you? Now then\, my brothers\, let us all say\, “Blessed be God and our righteous father Pachomius who through the labors of his prayers has become for us a guide to eternal life”‘. \n5\nPachomian Koinonia\, Vol One\, Trans.\, Armand Veilleux\, Kalamazoo\, 1980; pp 237-8.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-st-pachomius/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250516
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250517
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250511T032149Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250511T032149Z
UID:13426-1747353600-1747439999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigisl: Easter Weekday
DESCRIPTION:THE LIGHT THAT IS LIFE\nBy Fr Gerald Vann 6\n◊◊◊\nThe tree of death is also the tree of life; the tomb of death is the womb of life; it is through going down with Christ into his death that we are to be ourselves reborn; the dry bones shall live again because the Lord will send his Spirit into the bones: the rebirth is made possible through water and the Holy Spirit. Life\, in other words\, must come from without\, from God; but at the same time we must be able to receive it: there are conditions to be fulfilled on our side and it is these that are expressed in terms of going down into the darkness\, into the dark waters\, into death. \nFor in death and darkness we can be freed from our pride and learn to be humble of heart: we can imitate the Word who ‘dispossessed himself and took the nature of a slave’ and then ‘lowered his own (human) dignity\, accepted an obedience which brought him to death\, death on a cross.’ And that is why\, St Paul goes on\, that is why ‘God has raised him to such a height\, given him a name which is greater than any other name’: that is why: because of his self-humbling even to death. \nEverywhere the spectacle confronts us of the destruction of what makes life worth living: our garden is laid waste\, the beauty we have made is ravaged\, the home is destroyed\, the hearth a heap of dead ashes; and these things are images of a much deeper tragedy\, the death of the soul. And the dry bones\, it is clear\, will never find life again of themselves\, from within themselves. A dead heart can live again only if the two conditions are fulfilled\, a dying world can live again only if the two conditions are fulfilled: if life is brought them from without\, and if they themselves are able to receive it. But to be able to receive it they must first admit their own death; and human nature finds that very difficult to do. People will sometimes say that God is dead; they will very seldom admit that they themselves are dead; and if they do\, it is all too often\, like Judas\, only with the sterile voice of despair. \nIn the Garden of Eden\, the symbol of the life we might have had\, the life we long for but have lost\, there is a tree of life and a tree of knowledge: but we would not receive life\, we wanted to seize it for ourselves\, dominate over it; we would not receive knowledge of the truth\, we wanted to fashion it for ourselves; and so the life is lost; we are expelled from the garden\, and the soul dies. The soul dies because we wanted in our pride to make ourselves God; we tried to take to ourselves a glory that was not ours. \nBut now there is hope for us again because the Son of God did exactly the opposite: he dispossessed himself of the glory that was his and became a slave; and so in him humanity was healed\, and in him we may each of us be healed\, provided only that we in our turn do the same thing\, reverse in the same way the primal sin\, become humble enough to admit the death that is in us\, the evil that is in us\, and so\, in that act of going down into the darkness where pride is killed\, find again the light that is life. \n6\nThe Water and the Fire\, Gerald Vann O.P. Collins 1953 p.181-2.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigisl-easter-weekday/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250517
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250518
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250511T032657Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250511T032657Z
UID:13428-1747440000-1747526399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils: Easter Weekday
DESCRIPTION:THE FRATERNAL\nCITY OF GOD\nBy Thierry Maertens & Jean Frisque 7\n◊◊◊\nFaith in the paschal mystery makes the world appear as an enormous edifice under construction! All are called\, in Jesus Christ\, to take their part in the building up of the fraternal city of God. This is a gigantic labour which demands the co-operation of all peoples and all cultures. Christ planted once and for all the seed of true salvation-history; this seed was his own life as human\, lived with perfect fidelity unto death on the cross\, a life whose significance is eternal because it was that of the Son. Beginning with this unique seed\, the process of growth must continue until the Body of Christ has attained its perfect stature. This slow growth of the Kingdom here on earth – where the Kingdom takes shape without manifesting itself as such – progressively concerns humanity and the entire creation. \nTo the degree to which he takes part in the mission\, the Christian will necessarily experience those “tribulations” of which St. Paul often speaks. How can they be avoided? The Kingdom is not constructed without a constant passage from death to life\, and this work of love inevitably provokes the fierce resistance of the wisdom of this world. But\, like St. Paul\, the Christian “is overjoyed amid all afflictions”\, because he knows that through them the final city is being built. \nChristian hope is no longer the hope of Judaic person. For Israel\, the Kingdom was not a thing to be built; it would appear fully achieved\, so to speak. The Christian lives a hope in the dynamism of a task to be accomplished: the mission. The accomplishment will not come until the gospel has been preached to all the nations. But what does such a proclamation involve? It is a matter of implanting the mystery of Christ in time and space so that the light of Easter may effectively illumine the spiritual journey of all the peoples and cultures of the earth. This is a very long enterprise\, because no sector of human life remains foreign to it. After twenty centuries\, we are only beginning to measure the very close connection that exists between the mission of the Church and the history of humanity. St. Paul believed that the universal mission was a task he could undertake himself – at least he thought so for a time! Today\, we have not finished discovering its whole amplitude. \n7\nGuide for the Christian Assembly. T. Maertens & J. Frisque. Biblica\, Belgium\, 1965\, pp. 119-120.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-easter-weekday-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250518
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250519
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250519T131656Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250519T131656Z
UID:13433-1747526400-1747612799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n5th Week of Easter\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (C)\, Weekdays (I)\nMay 18 – 24\, 2025\n\n\n\nSun\n18\nMon\n19\nTue\n20\nWed\n21\nThu\n22\nFri\n23\nSat\n24\n\n\nOffice\n5th Sunday of Easter\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\nEaster Weekday\n\n\nVigils\nRev 18:21-19:10\nRev 19:11-21\nRev 20:1-15\nRev 21:1-8\nRev 21:9-27\nRev 22:1-9\nRev 22:10-21\n\n\nLauds\nCol 2:9-15\nCol 3:1-11\nCol 3:12-17\n1 Tim 1:1-7\n1 Tim 1:12-17\n1 Tim 2:1-7\n1 Tim 4:6-10\n\n\nMass\n54\n285\n286\n287\n288\n289\n290\n\n\n1st\nActs 14:21-27\nActs 14:5-18\nActs 14:19-28\nActs 15:1-6\nActs 15:7-21\nActs 15:22-31\nActs 16:1-10\n\n\n2nd\nRev 21:1-5a\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nJohn 13:31-33a\, 34-35\nJohn 14:21-26\nJohn 14:27-31a\nJohn 15:1-8\nJohn 15:9-11\nJohn 15:12-17\nJohn 15:18-21\n\n\nVespers\nActs 16:35-40\nActs 17:1-5a\nActs 17:10-15\nActs 17:16-23\nActs 18:18-23\nActs 19:8-12\nActs 19:13-20
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-115/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250518
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250519
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250519T131850Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250519T131923Z
UID:13435-1747526400-1747612799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - 5th Sunday of Easter
DESCRIPTION:A LOVE THAT \nTRANSCENDS THE LAW \nFrom a commentary by St Cyril of Alexandria \n◊◊◊ \nI give you a new commandment\, said Jesus: Love one another. But how\, \nwe might ask\, could he call this commandment new? Through Moses\, he said to \nthe people of old: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with \nall your mind. And your neighbor as yourself. Notice what follows. He was not \ncontent simply to say\, I give you a new commandment: love one another. He \nshowed the novelty of his command and how far the love he enjoined surpassed \nthe old conception of mutual love by going on immediately to add: Love one \nanother as I have loved you. \nTo understand the full force of these words\, we have to consider how \nChrist loved us. Then it will be easy to see what is new and different in the \ncommandment we are now given. Paul tells us that although his nature was \ndivine\, he did not cling to his equality with God\, but stripped himself of all \nprivilege to assume the condition of a slave. He became as we are\, and \nappearing in human form humbled himself by being obedient even to the \nextent of dying on a cross. And elsewhere Paul writes: Though he was rich\, he \nbecame poor. \nDo you not see what is new in Christ’s love for us? The law commanded \npeople to love their brothers and sisters as they love themselves\, but our Lord \nJesus Christ loved us more than himself. He who was one in nature with God the \nFather and his equal would not have descended to our lowly state\, nor endured \nin his flesh such a bitter death for us\, nor submitted to the blows given him by \nhis enemies\, to the shame\, the derision\, and all the other sufferings that could \nnot possibly have been enumerated\, nor being rich\, would he have become poor\, \nhad he not loved us far more than himself. It was indeed something new for love \nto go as far as that. \nChrist commands us to love as he did\, putting neither reputation\, nor \nwealth nor anything whatever before love of our brothers and sisters. If need be\, \nwe must even be prepared to face death for our neighbor’s salvation as did our \nSavior’s blessed disciples and those who followed in their footsteps. To them\, \nthe salvation of others mattered more than their own lives and they were ready \nto do anything or to suffer anything to save souls that were perishing. I die daily \n\, said Paul. Who suffers weakness without my suffering too? Who is made to \nstumble without my heart blazing with indignation? \nThe Savior urged us to practice this love that transcends the law as the \nfoundation of true devotion to God. He knew that only in this way could we \nbecome pleasing in God’s eyes\, and that it was by seeking the beauty of the love \nimplanted in us by himself that we should attain to the higher blessings.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/13435/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250519
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250520
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250519T132027Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250519T132027Z
UID:13438-1747612800-1747699199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE MANY SECRET \nRESURRECTIONS \nFrom “The Risen Christ” by Caryll Houselander \n◊◊◊ \nChrist seems to have fallen in love with our suffering\, so passionately has \nhe laid hold of it and made it his. He is known to the whole world as the Man of \nSorrows. Yet he came to give us life\, life full of joy. It was not with our suffering \nthat Christ fell in love\, but with us. He identified himself so wholly with our \nsuffering\, because our lives are necessarily made up of it. It is the inescapable \nconsequences of sin. No one can escape it; everyone must somehow either make \nfriends with suffering or be broken by it. No one can come close to another\, let \nalone love him\, without coming closer to his suffering. Christ did far more\, he \nwed himself to our suffering\, he made Death his bride\, and in the \nconsummation of his love\, he gave her his life. Christ has lived each of our lives\, \nhe has faced all our fears\, suffered all our griefs\, overcome all our temptations\, \nlabored in all our labors\, loved in all our loves\, died all our deaths. \nHe took our humanity\, just as it is\, with all its wretchedness and ugliness\, \nand gave it back to us just as his humanity is\, transfigured by the beauty of his \nliving\, filled full of his joy. He came back from the long journey through death\, \nto give us his Risen Life to be our life\, so that no matter what suffering we meet\, \nwe can meet it with the whole power of the love that has overcome the world. “I \nhave said this to you\, so that in me you may find peace. In the world\, you will \nonly find tribulation; but take courage\, I have overcome the world“. \nHe has come back as spring comes back out of the ground\, renewing the \nearth with life\, to be a continual renewing of life in our hearts\, that we may \ncontinually renew one another’s life in his love\, that we may be his Resurrection \nin the world. We are the resurrection\, going on always\, always giving back \nChrist’s life to the world. \nIn every life there are many secret resurrections. In our sin\, we are the \ntombs in which Christ lies dead\, but at the first movement of sorrow for sin he \nrises from the dead in us\, the life of the world is renewed by our sorrow\, the soul \nthat was in darkness radiates the morning light. In the moment that we are \nforgiven\, the world is flooded with forgiveness. No wonder that angels rejoice \nwhen one sinner does penance more than over the ninety-nine who need no \npenance\, for the resurrection in the soul of the sinner is complete. It is not just \nthe poor sinner licking his wounds and limping on\, crippled by the past; it is \nChrist risen\, alive\, whole.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-310/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250519T132126Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250519T132126Z
UID:13440-1747699200-1747785599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE DAY OF THE LORD \nFrom a sermon by St John Henry Newman \n◊◊◊ \n“A little while\, and you shall not see me: and again\, a little while\, and \nyou shall see me\, because I go to the Father.“… Now observe what the promise \nis… A new era was to commence\, or what is called in Scripture “a day of the \nLord.” We know how much is said in Scripture about the awfulness and \ngraciousness of a day of the Lord\, which seems to be some special time of \nvisitation\, grace\, judgment\, restoration\, righteousness\, and glory. Much is said \nconcerning days of the Lord in the Old Testament… We read of those august \ndays <in the beginning>\, seven in number\, each perfect\, perfect all together\, in \nwhich all things were created\, finished\, blessed\, acknowledged\, approved by \nAlmighty God. \nAnd all things will end with a day greater still\, which will open with the \ncoming of Christ from heaven\, and the judgment; this is especially the Day of \nthe Lord\, and will introduce an eternity of blessedness in God’s presence for all \nbelievers… Observe how solemn\, how high a day it is: this is his account of it\, “I \nwill see you again\, and your heart shall rejoice; your joy no one takes from \nyou… At that Day you shall ask in my Name\, and I do not say to you\, that I will \npray to the Father for you\, for the Father himself loves you\, because you have \nloved me\, and have believed that I came out from God.” \nThe Day\, then\, that dawned upon the Church at the Resurrection\, and \nbeamed forth in full splendour at the Ascension\, that Day which has no setting\, \nwhich will be\, not ended but absorbed in Christ’s glorious appearance from \nheaven to destroy sin and death; that Day in which we now are\, is described…as \na state of special Divine manifestation\, of special introduction into the presence \nof God. By Christ\, says the Apostle\, “we have the access by faith into this grace \nwherein we stand.” He “has raised us up together\, and made us sit together in \nheavenly places in Christ Jesus.“… \nThus we as Christians stand in the courts of God Most High\, and\, in one \nsense see his face; for he who once was on earth\, has now departed from this \nvisible scene of things in a mysterious\, twofold way\, both to his Father and into \nour hearts\, thus making the Creator and his creatures one; according to his own \nwords\, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while\, \nand the world sees me no more; but you see me: because I live\, you shall live \nalso. At that Day you shall know that I am in the Father\, and you in me\, and I \nin you.“
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-311/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250519T132248Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250519T132248Z
UID:13442-1747785600-1747871999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE NEW LIFE IN CHRIST \nBy Thomas Merton4 \n◊◊◊ \nThe “new life“\, the life of the Spirit\, life “in Christ“\, is communicated to \nthe human spirit by the invisible Mission of the Holy Spirit – a direct \nconsequence of the Resurrection of Jesus. Therefore the “new creation“ \ninstituted by the second Adam is in fact a prolongation of his Resurrection. The \nnew world which is called the Kingdom of God\, the world in which God reigns in \nus by his divine Spirit\, the world of the Second Adam is\, in fact\, the Eon of the \nresurrection – the new age that begins to dawn with the rising of Christ from the \ndead\, which reaches out to touch\, with the pure spiritual light of that dawning\, \neach soul newly incorporated into the Risen Christ\, until all the elect are \ngathered together in him… \n“If\,” says St Paul\, “by reason of the one man’s offense death reigned \nthrough the one man\, much more will they who receive the abundance of \ngrace…reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.” That is exactly the Pauline \nconcept of the Kingdom of God – a Kingdom of superabundant spiritual life\, in \nwhich the saints “reign in life through the one Christ.” \nTo reign in life…is to have and enjoy the sublime liberty of the children of \nGod\, the freedom of the Spirit by which Christ has come to make us free. The \nearly Church was entirely penetrated with this doctrine of liberation\, plenitude \nand life. Wherever the authentic Christian spirit has prevailed\, it has always \nbeen marked by this same perfect liberty and vitality in the Spirit. For always \nand everywhere the Spirit of Christ teaches this message to those who are his \nown: “For whoever are led by the Spirit of God\, they are the children of God.“ \nIn this view of Christ’s role as second Adam\, establishing the final victory \nof life over death\, we are still confronted with the ideas of death and life \ntogether. The liberation from sin and death is effected by the death of Christ. \nThe communication of life to our souls is effected by the resurrection of Christ. \n“Jesus…was delivered up for our sins\, and rose again for our justification.” We \nshall see that in order to enter fully into communion with the life brought to us \nby Christ we must in some sense – sacramentally\, ascetically\, mystically – die \nwith Christ and rise with him from the dead. The whole life of the Kingdom of \nGod consists then in the gradual extension of the spiritual effects of the death \nand resurrection of Jesus to one soul after another until Christ lives perfectly in \nall whom he has called to himself. \n4 THE NEW MAN\, Thomas Merton (Farrar\, Straus & Cudahy\, NY 1961) pp. 152-154.9
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-312/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250522
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DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250519T132425Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250519T132425Z
UID:13444-1747872000-1747958399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:LOVE ONE ANOTHER \nFrom a homily by St Gregory the Great \n◊◊◊ \nSince all of our Lord’s sacred utterances contain commandments\, why \ndoes he say about love as if it were a special commandment: This is my \ncommandment\, that you love one another? It is because every commandment \nis about love\, and they all add up to one commandment because whatever is \ncommanded is founded on love alone. As a tree’s many branches come from one \nroot\, so do many virtues come forth from love alone. The branch which is our \ngood works has no sap unless it remains attached to the root of love. Our Lord’s \ncommandments are then both many and one: many through the variety of the \nworks\, one in their root which is love. He himself instructs us to love our friends \nin him\, and our enemies for his sake. That person truly possesses love who loves \nhis friend in God and his enemy for God’s sake. \nThere are some people who love their neighbors\, drawn by blood \nrelationship or by natural affection\, and Scripture does not oppose this kind of \nlove. But what we give freely and naturally is one thing\, and the obedience we \nowe to the Lord’s commandments out of love is another. Those I’ve mentioned \nindisputably love their neighbors\, yet they don’t attain love’s sublime rewards \nsince their love does not come from spiritual but from natural motives. \nTherefore when the Lord said: This is my commandment\, that you love one \nanother\, he added immediately: Just as I have loved you\, meaning\, ‘You must \nlove for the same reason that I have loved you.’ \nDearly beloved\, we must consider this carefully. When our ancient enemy \ndraws our hearts to delight in temporal things\, he is stirring up a weaker \nneighbor against us. This neighbor may be plotting to take away the very things \nwe love. In doing this our ancient enemy is not concerned to do away with our \nearthly possessions; he wants to destroy our lives. Suddenly we are set on fire \nwith hatred\, and while we desire to be outwardly unconquerable\, inwardly we \nare gravely wounded. When we defend our small outer possession\, we lose our \ngreat inner one\, since when we love something temporal we lose our true love. \nEveryone who takes away our possessions is an enemy. But if we begin to hate \nour enemy\, our loss is of something internal. When then we suffer something \nexternal from a neighbor\, we must be on our guard against a hidden ravager \nwithin. This one is never better overcome then when we love the one who \nravages us from without. The unique\, the highest proof of love is this\, to love the \nperson who is against us. This is why Truth himself bore the suffering of the \ncross and yet bestowed his love on his persecutors\, saying: Father\, forgive them \nfor they know not what they do. \nWhy should we wonder that his living disciples loved their enemies\, when \ntheir dying master loved his. He expressed the depth of his love when he said: \nNo one has greater love than this\, than that he lay down his life for his friends. \nThe Lord had come to die even for his enemies\, and yet he said he would lay \ndown his life for his friends to show us that when we are able to win over our \nenemies by loving them even our persecutors are our friends. \nBut no one is persecuting us to the point of death. How then can we prove \nthat we love our friends?… John the Baptist says: Let him who has two tunics \ngive to him who has none. Will a person\, then\, who will not give up his tunic for \nthe sake of God during quiet times give up his life during a persecution? \nCultivate the virtue of love in tranquil times by showing mercy\, then\, so that it \nwill be unconquerable in times of disorder. Learn first to give up your \npossession for almighty God\, and then yourself.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-313/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250523
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250524
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250519T132532Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250519T132532Z
UID:13446-1747958400-1748044799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:MY ALL IN ALL \nFrom a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny \n◊◊◊ \nNow\, my brethren\, what witness to Christ’s love does the joy of your \nhearts give you? I venture to judge\, and rightly as you will see\, that if you have \never loved Jesus alive or dead or risen from the dead\, your heart rejoices within \nyou. As the tidings of his resurrection resound and re-echo again and again \nthrough the Church you will say to yourselves: “They have told me that Jesus \nmy God is still alive. On hearing it my spirit\, which was asleep through \nweariness\, languishing through tepidity\, disheartened through timidity\, has \nrevived.” For the joyful voice of this happy message raises even from death \nthose buried deep in sin. Otherwise\, if Christ\, coming up from hell\, left them \nthere in the depths\, there would certainly be no hope for them; their fate would \nbe buried in forgetfulness. By this token you may clearly know that your soul \nlives again fully in Christ if it echoes this sentiment: “It is enough for me that \nJesus is still alive.” \nHow faithful and worthy of a friend of Jesus is that voice\, how pure that \nact of love which says: “It is enough for me that Jesus is still alive. If he lives\, I \nlive\, for my spirit acts through his. Yes\, he is my life\, my all in all. For what \ncan I lack if Jesus is still alive? Rather everything else may be taken from me\, \nnothing else matters to me so long as he lives. If he wishes then\, let him take no \naccount of me. It is enough for me that he still lives even if he only lives for \nhimself.” When the love of Christ so absorbs all our affections that\, unmindful \nand forgetful of ourselves\, we have no feeling for anything but Jesus Christ and \nwhat pertains to him\, then\, I say\, love has been made perfect in us. To one who \nso loves\, poverty is no burden\, no hurt is felt\, insults are to be laughed at\, \nmisfortune disdained\, and death considered as gain. In fact one does not think \nin terms of death knowing that death is a passage to life. And one can \nconfidently assert: “I will go and see him before I die.” \nAlthough\, my brethren\, we have not been endowed with such a great \npurity of conscience\, let us\, nevertheless\, go to see Jesus journeying to the \nmountain of heavenly Galilee\, where he awaits us. On the way our love will \nincrease\, and on our arrival\, at least\, it will be perfected. On the way\, the road\, at \nfirst hard and difficult\, will grow easier\, and the strength of the weak will \nincrease. The flesh of Christ is our food for the journey\, his Spirit our means of \nconveyance. He himself is the food\, he himself is the chariot and charioteer of \nIsrael. When you arrive\, all the goods\, not of Egypt but of heaven\, will be yours. \nThere\, in the best place in the kingdom\, at the bidding of Christ you will take \nyour rest. “Come to me all you that labor and are burdened with hunger\, and I \nwill refresh you. Come\, you blessed of my Father\, possess the kingdom \nprepared for you.” May he who calls you lead you to where he lives and reigns \nwith the Father and the Holy Spirit\, through endless ages.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-314/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250524
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250525
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250519T132633Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250519T132633Z
UID:13448-1748044800-1748131199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:WE ARE ALL WITNESSES \nBy Fr Paul Evdokimov \n◊◊◊ \nThere are no half measures\, no intermediary formulas. We are in the \npresence of the fundamental evidence of Jesus risen from the dead. A God who \ndoes not present his charter as lover of <humanity>\, a God who is not love \ncrucified in order to radiate “life\, death of death“\, as St Augustine says\, is not \nreally God. In following St Paul’s thought to its conclusion\, we could say that all \nreligion exists only by the resurrection and mystically leans on this event. If \nChrist is risen\, this is of interest for all… If the Christian testimony to the risen \nLord is suppressed\, no religion will survive on the level of the modern world\, for \noutside the Gospel every religious message stops halfway. \nThe Gospel’s transcendent end is God become a risen <human being>. \nThis fact does not concern just a few witnesses only; the risen Christ in \nbecoming the contemporary of all <humanity> means that every <one> is \ncontemporary with the eternal Christ. This makes all the events of history \nessentially Christological. Christ is risen as head of the human body\, and now all \nreligions and all <individuals> can and ought to seek their life in him. This \ntestimony alone determines the ecumenical mission of the Church in the midst \nof all religions and in the great meeting between East and West. History places \nthe Christian faith in the risen Christ as the crossing point of all ideologies that \nnow reformulate the only important question – that asked by Pilate – “What is \ntruth?” It obliges faith to say its yes\, going if need be as far as the confession of \nmartyrdom\, that unique answer that resounds universally. Christ is in agony\, \nand eternity is impatient to hear this answer. \nThe apostolic kerygma announces the event of Easter\, the intervention of \nGod raising up Jesus; this alone gives a definitive meaning to the existence of \n<humankind> in history. The resurrection of Jesus is God’s “Amen” to his \npromise\, an “Amen” full of the Holy Spirit who manifests it. “Amen” comes from \nthe Hebrew heemin and it means an unshakable base of operations. Those who \nproclaim it—the apostles and martyrs—claim the right to proclaim the event \nbefore the magistrates of the earthly city. \nLikewise the Apologies of Justin\, Athenagoras\, and Aristides present to \nemperors the same decisive message and warn them of the imminent judgment. \nTheir kerygma is of interest to all <humanity>. It is preached in the presence of \nangels and concerns all of creation: the kingdom of God has already arrived; we \nare contemporaries of the one who sits at the right hand of the Father. Here is \nthe lamb immolated and risen and here is his kingdom. He is here and it is the \nfullness of time. \nAll religions are ways by which <we> seek God. They are numerous. \nHowever\, the Christian revelation is unique for it is God who finds <humanity>. \nThe preaching of St Paul is of capital importance for the theology of religion. In \ndeciphering the monument to the unknown God and in giving it the name Jesus \nChrist\, the apostle integrated with Christ the religious aspiration of all times \nand gave it value in Christ.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-315/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250525
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250526
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250525T005942Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250525T005942Z
UID:13450-1748131200-1748217599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n6th Week of Easter\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (C)\, Weekdays (I)\nMay 25 – 31\, 2025\n\n\n\nSun\n25\nMon\n26\nTue\n27\nWed\n28\nThu\n29\nFri\n30\nSat\n31\n\n\nOffice\n6th Sunday of Easter\nEaster Weekday\nSt Augustine of Canterbury\nEaster Weekday\nSt Paul VI\nEaster Weekday\nVisitation of the BVM\n\n\nVigils\n1 Jn 1:1-10\n1 Jn 2:1-11\n1 Jn 2:12-17\n1 Jn 2:18-29\n1 Jn 3:1-10\n1 Jn 3:11-17\nGal 3:15-29\n\n\nLauds\n1 Tim 4:11-16\n1 Tim 6:11-16\n2 Tim 1:1-8\n2 Tim 1:9-14\n2 Tim 2:1-7\n2 Tim 2:8-13\nZech 2:10-17\n\n\nMass\n57\n291\n292\n293\n294\n295\n572\n\n\n1st\nActs 15:1-2\, 22-29\nActs 16:11-15\nActs 16:22-34\nActs 17:15\, 22-18:1\nActs 18:1-8\nActs 18:9-18\nZeph 3:14-18a\n\n\n2nd\nRev 21:10-14\, 22-23\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nJohn 14:23-29\nJohn 15:26-16:4a\nJohn 16:5-11\nJohn 16:12-15\nJohn 16:16-20\nJohn 16:20-23\nLuke 1:39-56\n\n\nVespers\nActs 19:23-30\nActs 20:7-12\nActs 21:7-14\nActs 21:27-34\nActs 22:23-30\nActs 23:12-16\nCol 3:1-11
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-116/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250525
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250526
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250525T010111Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250525T010111Z
UID:13452-1748131200-1748217599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - 6th Sunday of Easter
DESCRIPTION:CHRIST LIVES IN OUR HEARTS \nTHROUGH FAITH \nFrom a commentary by St Bernard of Clairvaux \n◊◊◊ \nMy Father and I will come to him – that is to say\, to the holy of heart – \nsays the Son of God\, and we will make our home with him. It seems to me that \nwhen the psalmist said to God: you make your dwelling in the holy place\, you \nwho are Israel’s praise\, he had no other heaven in mind than the hearts of the \nsaints. The apostle expresses it quite clearly: Christ lives in our hearts through \nfaith\, he tells us. \nSurely it is no wonder that the Lord Jesus gladly makes his home in such a \nheaven because\, unlike the other heavens\, he did not bring it into existence by a \nmere word of command. He descended into the arena to win it; he laid down his \nlife to redeem it. And so after the battle was won he solemnly declared: this is \nmy resting place for ever and ever; here I have chosen to dwell. Blessed indeed \nis the soul to whom the Lord says\, Come\, my chosen one\, I will set up my throne \nin you. \nWhy\, then\, are you sorrowful\, my soul\, and why are you troubled with \nme? Are you trying to find a place for the Lord within yourself? Who among us \ncan provide a fitting place for the Lord of glory\, a place worthy of his majesty! O \nthat I might be counted worthy to worship at his footstool\, that I might at least \ncling to the feet of some saintly soul whom the Lord has chosen to be his \ndwelling place! However\, the Lord has only to anoint my soul with the oil of his \nmercy for me in my turn to be able to say: I have run the way of your \ncommandments because you have enlarged my heart. Then perhaps\, even if I \ncannot usher him into a large and richly furnished room in my heart where he \nmay refresh himself with his disciples\, I shall at least be able to offer him a place \nto lay his head. \nIt is necessary for a soul to grow and be enlarged until it is capable of \ncontaining God within itself. But the dimensions of a soul are in proportion to \nits love\, as the apostle confirms when he urges the Corinthians to widen your \nhearts in love. Although the soul\, being spiritual\, cannot be measured \nphysically\, grace confers on it what nature does not bestow. It expands \nspiritually as it makes progress toward human perfection\, which is measured by \nnothing less than the full stature of Christ\, and so it grows into a temple sacred \nto the Lord. \nLove\, then\, is the measure of the soul. Souls are large that love much\, \nsmall that love little; while as to the soul that has no love at all\, such a soul is \nitself nothing. Without love\, says St Paul\, I am nothing.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-6th-sunday-of-easter-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250526
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250527
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250525T010359Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250525T010359Z
UID:13454-1748217600-1748303999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A COMMUNITY OF THE SPIRIT \nBy Fr Bede Griffiths \n◊◊◊ \nThe Church is the communion of those who are united by the love of the \nSpirit in the knowledge of the Word of God\, the Eternal Truth\, and through him \nreturn to the Father\, the Source\, the Origin and the Ground of all creation. But \nthe Church has also a beginning in time as a historical institution. When the \nHoly Spirit descended on the disciples at Pentecost\, the power of the Spirit \nwhich had transformed the body and soul of Christ at the Resurrection was \ncommunicated to his disciples. A new consciousness dawned\, a consciousness \nbeyond the ordinary rational consciousness\, which set the disciples free from \nthe limitations of our present mode of existence and consciousness and opened \nto them the new world of the Resurrection. \nThe Church is the community of those who experienced this new birth ‘in \nthe Spirit’ and whose lives were transformed by the experience. The effect of this \nwas seen in the fact that they were ‘all of one heart and mind‘\, and that they sold \nall that they possessed and ‘had everything in common’. The new life in the \nSpirit thus penetrated the economic and social order and brought a power to \ntransform human society\, but it remained essentially beyond our present \nhuman limitations. The Church was from the beginning a ‘charismatic‘ \ncommunity\, a community of the Spirit. \nYet it had also an elementary organization. Jesus left behind him twelve \n‘apostles‘\, whom he clearly intended to be the nucleus of the new Israel\, a new \n‘People of God’. There was also a ceremony of initiation into the new life and a \nmeal in common\, in which the new life with Christ was shared. This was \napparently all that he left by way of organization. In the course of time other \nceremonies were added and ‘elders‘ and ‘overseers‘ were appointed in the \ndifferent Churches\, but these seem to have been appointed as the need arose. \nThere was a reason for this. Jesus left his disciples with the expectation that he \nwould return again in their own lifetime and bring about the final ‘restoration \nof all things‘. This is the perspective of the New Testament. \nJesus was not concerned with the ‘history‘ of the Church as an institution\, \nbut with its transcendent Reality. Jesus himself enjoyed the new life of the \nResurrection\, and his disciples were called to share this new life with him. The \nhistorical development of the Church is secondary to this great reality of the \nexperience of the Spirit in the new life of the Resurrection. In this perspective \nthe time of the second coming is of little importance. As the second letter of \nPeter was to say\, when the time of his coming was questioned: ‘A thousand \nyears in his sight are but a day.’ \nIt would seem that the Christian Churches have to recover this \nperspective\, which is that of the New Testament\, if they are to recover their \nmeaning in the world today. The Church has its place in human history\, but for \nthe Church\, as for Christ himself\, history is subordinate to the transcendent \nreality of life in the Spirit.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-316/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250527
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250528
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250525T010500Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250525T010500Z
UID:13456-1748304000-1748390399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Augustine of Canterbury
DESCRIPTION:ST AUGUSTINE \nARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY \nFrom Butler’s Lives of the Saints \n◊◊◊ \nWhen Pope St Gregory the Great decided that the time had come for the \nevangelization of Anglo-Saxon England\, he chose as missionaries some thirty or \nmore monks from his monastery of St Andrew… As their leader he gave them \ntheir own prior\, Augustine. The party set out from Rome in the year 596; but no \nsooner had they arrived in Provence than they were assailed with warnings \nabout the ferocity of the Anglo-Saxons and the dangers of the Channel. Greatly \ndiscouraged\, they persuaded Augustine to return to Rome and obtain leave to \nabandon the enterprise. St Gregory\, however\, had received definite assurance \nthat the English were well disposed towards the Christian faith; he therefore \nsent Augustine back to his brethren with words of encouragement which gave \nthem heart to proceed on their way. \nThey landed in the Isle of Thanet in the territory of Ethelbert\, king of \nKent\, who was baptized at Pentecost 597. Almost immediately afterwards St \nAugustine paid a visit to France\, where he was consecrated bishop of the English \nby St Virgilius\, metropolitan of Arles. At Christmas of that same year\, many of \nEthelbert’s subjects were baptized… Augustine sent two of his monks\, Laurence \nand Peter\, to Rome to give a full report of his mission\, to ask for more helpers \nand obtain advice on various points. They came back bringing the pallium for \nAugustine and accompanied by a fresh band of missionaries\, amongst whom \nwere St Mellitus\, St Justus and St Paulinus. \nGregory outlined for Augustine the course he should take to develop a \nhierarchy for the whole country\, and both to him and to Mellitus gave very \npractical instructions on other points. Pagan temples were not to be destroyed\, \nbut were to be purified and consecrated for Christian worship. Local customs \nwere as far as possible to be retained\, days of dedication and feasts of martyrs \nbeing substituted for heathen festivals. In Canterbury itself St Augustine rebuilt \nan ancient church which\, with an old wooden house\, formed the nucleus for his \nmetropolitan basilica and for the later monastery of Christ Church. These \nbuildings stood on the site of the present cathedral begun by Lanfranc in 1070. \nOutside the walls of Canterbury he made a monastic foundation\, which he \ndedicated in honour of St Peter and St Paul. After his death this abbey became \nknown as St Augustine’s\, and was the burial place of the early archbishops. \nCut off from much communication with the outside world\, the British \nchurch clung to certain usages at variance with those of the Roman tradition. \nSt. Augustine invited the leading ecclesiastics to meet him at some place just on \nthe confines of Wessex\, still known in Bede’s day as Augustine’s Oak. There he \nurged them to comply with the practices of the rest of Western Christendom\, \nand more especially to co-operate with him in evangelizing the Anglo-Saxons. \nFidelity to their local traditions\, however\, made them unwilling. A second \nconference proved a failure. Because St Augustine failed to rise when they \narrived\, the British bishops decided that he was lacking in humility and would \nneither listen to him nor acknowledge him as their metropolitan. \nThe saint’s last years were spent in spreading and consolidating the faith \nthroughout Ethelbert’s realm\, and episcopal sees were established at London \nand Rochester. About seven years after his arrival in England\, St Augustine \npassed to his reward\, on May 26\, 605.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-augustine-of-canterbury-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250528
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250529
DTSTAMP:20260403T193847
CREATED:20250525T010605Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250525T010605Z
UID:13458-1748390400-1748476799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:NO ONE CAN SERVE \nTWO MASTERS \nFrom a sermon by St Leo the Great \n◊◊◊ \nDuring Lent our aim was to experience some share in the sufferings of the \ncross and to enter into the mystery of the Lord’s passion by taking up our cross \nand following him along the way of his humiliation and endurance. Now\, during \nEastertide\, the accent is on sharing his resurrection. Not for any merit of our \nown\, but through the blood of Christ and the free gift of God’s grace\, we have \nbeen healed and set free. What the Lord asks of us now is not to try to earn this \nfreedom\, but to hold fast to what he has already given us and to guard it from the \ndevil’s envy. \nIn the Lord Jesus we have passed over from death to life\, but while we are \nstill on earth his Passover must be continually renewed in us. We have to be \ndead to Satan and alive to God; we have to abandon sin in order to rise to \nholiness. Jesus himself said: “No one can serve two masters”. Our business is to \nmake sure that the master we serve is the Lord who has raised up the fallen to \nglory\, not the one who brought the upright to ruin…. \nIt was his will to die for us\, but death could not keep him. The body that \nwas laid in the tomb and the soul that descended to the world of the departed \nwere the body and soul of the Son of God. Through his own will they were \nseparated when he bowed his head on the cross and gave up his spirit; through \nhis divine power they were reunited on the third day. The gospels tell us of the \nrolling away of the stone\, the empty tomb\, the linen cloths\, the angel witnesses\, \nand the Lord’s appearances to the women and to the apostles. All this evidence \nformed the basis for the preaching of the faith throughout the whole world. \nNot only did Jesus speak with his disciples\, but he ate with them\, allowing \nthem to touch him and to probe his wounds. He entered the upper room when \nthe doors were shut and greeted them with the words “Peace be with you”— \npeace to quiet their troubled hearts and to assure them of the unfailing \nconstancy of his love and forgiveness. To bring God’s love and forgiveness to the \nworld had been his mission from the Father; now he passed on that mission to \nhis apostles. “As the Father sent me\,” he told them\, “so I send you. Receive the \nHoly spirit. If you forgive men’s sins\, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive \nthem\, they are not forgiven”. \nPatiently he went through the scriptures with them to show them \neverything that had been written about him in the Old Testament\, how it had \nbeen ordained from the beginning that the Messiah should suffer and so enter \ninto his glory. After this he showed them the wound in his side and the marks of \nthe nails. By his own choice he had retained these scars in his body in order to \nheal the wounds of their unbelieving minds. Now they knew with absolute \ncertainty that the risen body\, radiantly alive in their midst\, was the same body \nthat had been born in Bethlehem and had suffered on the cross. From now on it \nwould be seated with God the Father on his heavenly throne.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-317/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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