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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251020
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251021
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251019T003112Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251019T003112Z
UID:14147-1760918400-1761004799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE PRECEPTS OF THE RULE \nFrom “The Mirror of Charity” by St Aelred of Rievaulx \n◊◊◊ \nSpeaking about things having to do with charity\, humility\, patience\, and \nother virtues…what Christian is not obligated to these precepts? Does Benedict \nrecommend one kind of charity in his Rule and Augustine another in his? Does \nnot each recommend that charity which Christ recommends in the law and the \nGospel? \nWe can ask the same thing about the other virtues. Who in his right mind\, \nin exhorting others to virtue will say that these precepts are his and not rather \nthose of Christ? What difference will there be then among the precepts of the \ndifferent Rules? Surely\, how to eat\, dress\, work\, read\, keep vigil\, sing psalms\, \ncorrect and be corrected\, and other things like this\, because they are found to be \ndifferent in the different rules. Consequently\, things said to be especially \ncharacteristic of Basil or Augustine or Benedict are not imposed on all \nChristians by gospel authority\, but are simply proposed to them. To those who \nprofess these rules\, however\, they are no longer simply proposed\, but they are \nalso imposed on them. \nIf these are not the things\, what are? Obviously\, everything they put into \ntheir rules about charity\, humility\, and the other virtues\, they recommend not \nas their own precepts\, but as the Lord’s. They invite not only monks but all \nChristians to follow them\, not as being their own (for who would believe them?)\, \nbut as being Christ’s. If obedience according to the Rule of Saint Benedict means \nobeying the precepts of his Rule\, and if the precepts of his Rule consist of the \nthings we have enumerated\, how can anyone who does not keep them keep the \nessential character of the monastic profession\, since that obedience we profess \nis the essential character of monastic profession? \nHe will perhaps say what certainly ought to be said: that we also profess \nthe first two according to the Rule\, and he will affirm that it is not in stability of \nplace or obedience that diversity among the rules lies—since these same things \nare binding on monks\, clerics\, canons\, and bishops—but solely in conversion of \nlife. Is not one and the same obligation to stability incumbent upon all? Would \nanyone be so presumptuous as to transfer from one place to another without the \nconsent of his superior? \nFurthermore\, if we do profess conversion of life\, not according to the Rule \nbut simply in an indeterminate way\, those who are called penitents in the \nChurch do the same\, as do those who flee the shipwreck of fornication for the \nport of marriage. Who among them does not promise conversion of life? Hence \nfor some diversity to be found among the diverse types of conversion of life \nwhich are professed according to the diverse rules\, there is nothing to which we \nmay have recourse except those traits which constitute the diversity…
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-361/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251021
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251022
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251019T003216Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251019T003216Z
UID:14149-1761004800-1761091199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:CHRISTIAN UNITY \nFrom the Encyclical “Ut Unum Sint” by Pope St John Paul II \n◊◊◊ \nThe Second Vatican Council exhorts “all Christ’s faithful to remember \nthat the more they strive to live according to the Gospel\, the more they are \nfostering and even practicing Christian unity. For they can achieve depth and \nease in strengthening mutual brotherhood to the degree that they enjoy \nprofound communion with the Father\, the Word and the Holy Spirit. “This \nchange of heart and holiness of life\, along with public and private prayer for the \nunity of Christians should be regarded as the soul of the whole ecumenical \nmovement\, and can rightly be called ‘spiritual ecumenism’.” \nWe proceed along the road leading to the conversion of hearts guided by \nlove which is directed to God and\, at the same time\, to all our brothers and \nsisters\, including those not in full communion with us. Love gives rise to the \ndesire for unity\, even in those who have never been aware of the need for it. Love \nbuilds communion between individuals and between Communities. If we love \none another\, we strive to deepen our communion and make it perfect. Love is \ngiven to God as the perfect source of communion – the unity of Father\, Son and \nHoly Spirit – that we may draw from that source the strength to build \ncommunion between individuals and Communities or to reestablish it between \nChristians still divided. Love is the great undercurrent which gives life and adds \nvigor to the movement toward unity. \nThis love finds its most complete expression in common prayer. When \nbrothers and sisters who are not in perfect communion with one another come \ntogether to pray\, the Second Vatican Council defines their prayer as the soul of \nthe whole ecumenical movement. This prayer is “a very effective means of \npetitioning for the grace of unity”\, “a genuine expression of ties which even now \nbind Catholics to their separated brethren. Even when prayer is not specifically \noffered for Christian unity\, but for other intentions such as peace\, it actually \nbecomes an expression and confirmation of unity. The common prayer of \nChristians is an invitation to Christ himself to visit the community of those who \ncall upon him: “Where two or three are gathered in my name\, there am I in the \nmidst of them.” \nAlong the ecumenical path to unity\, pride of place certainly belongs to \ncommon prayer; the prayerful union of those who gather together around Christ \nhimself. If Christians\, despite their divisions\, can grow ever more united in \ncommon prayer around Christ\, they will grow in the awareness of how little \ndivides them in comparison to what unites them. Fellowship in prayer leads \npeople to look at the Church and Christianity in a new way. It must not be \nforgotten in fact that the Lord prayed to the Father that his disciples might be \none\, so that their unity might bear witness to his mission and that the world \nwould believe that the Father had sent him. “Ecumenical prayer” is at the \nservice of the Christian mission and its credibility. It must be especially present \nin the life of the Church and in every activity aimed at fostering Christian unity.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-362/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251022
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251023
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251019T003325Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251019T003325Z
UID:14151-1761091200-1761177599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St John Paul II
DESCRIPTION:THE ONE SAVIOR OF ALL \nFrom the Encyclical “Redemptoris Missio” by Pope St John Paul II \n◊◊◊ \nThe redemption event brings salvation to all\, “for each one is included in \nthe mystery of the redemption and with each one Christ has united himself \nforever through this mystery.” It is only in faith that the Church’s mission can be \nunderstood and only in faith that it finds its basis. \nIf we go back to the beginnings of the Church\, we find a clear affirmation \nthat Christ is the one Savior of all\, the only one able to reveal God and lead to \nGod. In reply to the Jewish religious authorities who question the apostles \nabout the healing of the lame man\, Peter says: “There is no other name under \nheaven given men by which we must be saved”. This statement\, which was made \nto the Sanhedrin\, has a universal value\, since for all people – Jews and Gentiles \nalike – salvation can only come from Jesus Christ. \nThe universality of this salvation in Christ is asserted throughout the New \nTestament. St Paul acknowledges the risen Christ as the Lord. He writes: \n“Although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth – as indeed there \nare many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’ – yet for us there is only one God\, the Father\, \nfrom whom are all things and for whom we exist\, and one Lord\, Jesus Christ\, \nthrough whom are all things and through whom we exist”. One God and one \nLord are asserted by way of contrast to the multitude of “gods” and “lords” \ncommonly accepted. Paul reacts against the polytheism of the religious \nenvironment of his time and emphasizes what is characteristic of the Christian \nfaith: belief in one God and one Lord sent by God. \nIn the Gospel of St John\, this salvific universality of Christ embraces all \nthe aspects of his mission of grace\, truth and revelation: the Word is “the true \nlight that enlightens every person”. And again: “no one has ever seen God; the \nonly Son\, who is in the bosom of the Father\, he has made him known”. God’s \nrevelation becomes definitive and complete through his only-begotten Son: “In \nmany and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in \nthese last days he has spoken to us by a Son\, whom he appointed heir of all \nthings\, through whom he created the world”. \nIn this definitive Word of his revelation\, God has made himself known in \nthe fullest possible way. He revealed to mankind who he is. This definitive self- \nrevelation of God is the fundamental reason why the Church is missionary by \nher very nature. She cannot do otherwise than proclaim the Gospel\, that is\, the \nfullness of the truth which God has enabled us to know about himself… \nNo one\, therefore\, can enter into communion with God except through \nChrist\, by the working of the Holy Spirit. Christ’s one\, universal mediation\, far \nfrom being an obstacle on the journey toward God\, is the way established by \nGod himself… It is precisely this uniqueness of Christ which gives him an \nabsolute and universal significance\, whereby\, while belonging to history\, he \nremains history’s center and goal: “…the Alpha and the Omega\, the first and the \nlast\, the beginning and the end.”
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-john-paul-ii-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251023
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251024
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251019T003440Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251019T003440Z
UID:14153-1761177600-1761263999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
DESCRIPTION:THE CALL OF THE APOSTLES \nBy Fr Romano Guardini \n◊◊◊ \nWhat are “Apostles” really? Frankly; the impression we get from the New \nTestament hardly permits us to claim that these men were great or ingenious in \nthe worldly sense. It is difficult even to count them “great religious \npersonalities\,” if by this we mean bearers of inherent spiritual talents. John and \nPaul were probably exceptions\, but we only risk misunderstanding them both \nby overstating this. On the whole\, we do “Apostles” no service by considering \nthem great religious personalities. This attitude is usually the beginning of \nunbelief. Personal importance\, spiritual creativeness\, dynamic faith are not \ndecisive in their lives. What counts is that Jesus Christ has called them\, pressed \nhis seal upon them\, and sent them forth. \n“You have not chosen me\, but I have chosen you\, and have appointed you \nthat you should go and bear fruit”. Apostles then are those who are sent. It is \nnot they who speak\, but Christ in them. \nIn his first Corinthian [letter] Paul distinguishes nicely between the \ninstructions of “the Lord” and what he\, Paul\, has to say. The Lord’s words are \ncommands; his own\, suggestions. Each apostle is filled with Christ\, saturated \nwith thought of Christ; the Lord\, whom they represent\, is the substance of their \nlife. What they teach is not what they have learned from personal “experience” \nor “revelation\,” it is God’s word\, uttered upon God’s command: “Go\, therefore\, \nand make disciples of all nations teaching them to observe all that I have \ncommanded you”. To this end alone have the apostles been called\, and their \nvery limitations seem an added protection to the truth they bear. \nWhen Jesus says: “I praise you\, Father\, Lord of heaven and earth\, that \nyou have hidden these things from the wise and prudent\, and have revealed \nthem to little ones”\, it is an outburst of jubilation over the unutterable mystery \nof God’s love and creative glory. Spiritually\, the apostles are seldom more than \n“little ones;” [and it is] precisely this [that] guarantees the purity of their role as \nmessenger. \nTo be nothing in oneself\, everything in Christ; to be obliged to contain \nsuch tremendous contents in so small a vessel; to be a constant herald with no \nlife of one’s own; to forego once and forever the happy unity of blood and heart \nand spirit in all one does and is—something of the trials of such an existence \ndawns on us when we read the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians\, of that \nPaul who experienced so deeply the simultaneous greatness and \nquestionableness of apostledom: “For I think God has set forth us the apostles \nlast of all\, as men doomed to death\, seeing that we have been made a spectacle \nto the world\, and to angels\, and to men.”
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-office-for-vocations-24/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251024
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251025
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251019T003545Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251019T003545Z
UID:14155-1761264000-1761350399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE TRUE NATURE \nOF THE CHURCH \nFrom “Life and Holiness” by Thomas Merton \n◊◊◊ \nWe must not regard the Church purely as an institution or an \norganization. She is certainly visible and clearly recognizable in her teachings\, \nher government\, and her worship. These are the external lineaments through \nwhich we may see the interior radiance of her soul. This soul is not merely \nhuman\, it is divine. It is the Holy Spirit itself. The Church\, like Christ\, lives and \nacts in a manner at once human and divine. Certainly there is imperfection in \nthe human members of Christ\, but their imperfection is inseparably united to \nhis perfection\, sustained by his power\, and purified by his holiness\, as long as \nthey remain in living union with him by faith and love. \nThrough these members of his the Almighty Redeemer infallibly \nsanctifies\, guides\, and instructs us\, and he uses us also to express his love for \nthem. Hence the true nature of the Church is that of a body in which all the \nmembers “bear one another’s burdens” and act as instruments of divine \nprovidence in regard to one another. Those are most sanctified who enter most \nfully into the life-giving Communion of Saints who dwell in Christ. Their joy is to \ntaste the pure streams of that river of life whose waters gladden the whole City of \nGod. \nOur perfection is therefore not just an individual affair\, it is also a \nquestion of growth in Christ\, deepening of our contact with him in and through \nthe Church… This means\, of course\, a closer union with our brethren in Christ\, a \ncloser and more fruitful integration with them in the living\, growing spiritual \norganism of the Mystical Body. \nThis does not mean that spiritual perfection is a matter of social \nconformism. The mere fact of becoming a well working cog in an efficient \nreligious machine will never make anyone into a saint if he does not seek God \ninteriorly in the sanctuary of his own soul. \nFor example\, the common life of religious\, regulated by traditional \nobservances and blessed by the authority of the Church\, is obviously a most \nprecious means of sanctification. It is\, for the religious\, one of the essentials of \nhis state. But it is still only a framework. As such\, it has its purpose. It must be \nused. But the scaffolding must not be mistaken for the actual building. The real \nbuilding of the Church is a union of hearts in love\, sacrifice\, and self- \ntranscendence. The strength of this building depends on the extent to which the \nHoly Spirit gains possession of each person’s heart\, not on the extent to which \nour exterior conduct is organized and disciplined by an expedient system. \nHuman social life inevitably requires a certain order\, and those who love \ntheir brother and sister in Christ will generously sacrifice themselves to \npreserve this order. But…the most important\, the most real\, and lasting work of \nthe Christian is accomplished in the depths of his own soul. It cannot be seen by \nanyone\, even by himself. It is…the interior\, anguished\, almost desperately \nsolitary act by which we affirm our total subjection to God…
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-363/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251025
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251026
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251019T003700Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251019T003700Z
UID:14157-1761350400-1761436799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Memorial of BVM
DESCRIPTION:THE HUMILITY OF \nGOD’S HANDMAIDEN \nBy St Bernard of Clairvaux \n◊◊◊ \nYou can be saved without virginity; without humility you cannot be. \nHumility which deplores the loss of virginity can still find favor. Yet I dare say \nthat without humility not even Mary’s virginity would have been acceptable. \nThe Lord says\, “Upon whom shall my Spirit rest\, if not upon him that is humble \nand contrite in spirit?” On the humble\, he says\, not on the virgin. Had Mary not \nbeen humble\, then the Holy Spirit would not have rested upon her. Had he not \nrested upon her\, she would not have become pregnant. How indeed could she \nhave conceived by him without him? \nIt seems evident then that she conceived by the Holy Spirit because\, as she \nherself said\, God “regarded the humility of his handmaiden” rather than her \nvirginity. And even if it was because of her virginity that she found favor\, she \nconceived nevertheless on account of her humility. Thus there is no doubt that \nher virginity was found pleasing because her humility made it so. \nWhat have you to say to that\, haughty virgin? Mary\, making no account of \nher virginity\, was happy in her humility. Yet you\, heedless of humility\, preen \nyourself on your virginity? “God has regarded the humility of his handmaiden\,” \nshe says. Who is she? A holy virgin\, if ever there was one! A sober virgin\, a \ndevout virgin. Would you be more chaste than she? More devout? Do you fancy \nthat your modesty is so much more pleasing than Mary’s chastity that you on \nyour own can do without the humility she needed to find favor with God? If so\, \nto the extent that you are more worthy of respect because you have received a \nsingular gift of chastity\, you do yourself more harm\, because you tarnish its \nbeauty by the adulteration of pride. \nIt is better for you not to be a virgin than to be puffed up over your \nvirginity. Not everyone is a virgin\, but there are still fewer who join humility to \nvirginity. So if you can do no more than admire Mary’s virginity\, try to imitate \nher humility and for you this will be enough. But if you are both a virgin and \nhumble\, then whoever you are\, you are great.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-memorial-of-bvm-19/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251026
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251027
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251026T114610Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251026T114610Z
UID:14173-1761436800-1761523199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema 30th Week in Ordinary Time
DESCRIPTION:  \n\n\n\nBiblical Readings for Office and Mass\n30th Week in Ordinary Time\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (C)\, Weekdays (I)\nOct. 26 – Nov. 1\, 2025\n\n\n\nSun\n26\nMon\n27\nTue\n28\nWed\n29\nThu\n30\nFri\n31\nSat\n1\n\n\nOffice\n30th Sunday\nWeekday\nSS Simon & Jude\nWeekday\nWeekday\nWeekday\nAll Saints\n\n\nVigils\nDaniel 1:1-21\nDaniel 2:1-25\n1 Cor 4:1-16\nDaniel 2:26-49\nDaniel 3:1-23\nDaniel 3:24-45\nRev 5:1-14\n\n\nLauds\nZech 8:12-17\nZech 8:18-23\nJerm 3:11-18\nZech 9: 1-7\nZech 9:8-10\nZech 9:11-17\nSir 44:1-15\n\n\nMass\n150\n479\n666\n481\n482\n483\n667\n\n\n1st\nSir 35:12-14\, 16-18\nRom 8:12-17\nEph 2:19-22\nRom 8:26-30\nRom 8:31b-39\nRom 9:1-5\nRev 7:2-4\, 9-14\n\n\n2nd\n2 Tim 4:6-8\, 16-18\n\n\n\n\n\n1 Jn 3:1-3\n\n\nGospel\nLuke 18:9-14\nLuke 13:10-17\nLuke 6:12-16\nLuke 13:22-30\nLuke 13:31-35\nLuke 14:1-6\nMatt 5:1-12a\n\n\nVespers\nJas 3:5b-12\nJas 3:13-18\nJude 17-21\nJas 4:1-4\nJas 4:5-12\nHeb 11:32-12:2\nRev 19:5-9
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-30th-week-in-ordinary-time/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251026
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251027
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251026T115237Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251026T115237Z
UID:14176-1761436800-1761523199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
DESCRIPTION:THE TAX COLLECTOR\nAND THE PHARISEE\nFrom a commentary by St Gregory Palamas1\n◊◊◊\nThe spiritual champion of evil is full of resources for its furtherance. It has often happened that as soon as the foundations of virtue have been laid in a soul\, he has begun to undermine them with despair and lack of faith. Often too\, when the walls of the house of virtue were being built\, he has assaulted them by means of inertia and indolence. Even when the house has been roofed over with good works\, he has used arrogance and presumption to destroy it. \nNevertheless\, stand firm and do not be afraid\, for anyone zealous in doing good is even more resourceful. In resisting evil\, virtue has the greater power\, since it receives heavenly assistance from him who can do all things. And who confirms all virtue’s lovers in goodness. Consequently\, virtue not only remains unmoved by the manifold wicked wiles of the adversary\, but even has the power to raise up and restore those sunk in the depths of evil\, and easily to lead them back to God through repentance and humility… \nThe tax collector\, in spite of his profession and of having lived in the depths of sin\, joins the ranks of those living upright lives through a single prayer\, and that a short one\, he is relieved of his burden of sin\, he is lifted up\, he rises above all evil\, and is admitted to the company of the righteous\, justified by the impartial judge himself. The Pharisee\, on the other hand\, is condemned by his prayer in spite of being a Pharisee\, and in his own eyes a person of importance. Because his “righteousness” is false and his indolence extreme\, every syllable he utters provokes God’s anger. \nBut why does humility raise us to the heights of holiness\, and self-conceit plunges us into the abyss of sin? It is because when we have a high regard of ourselves\, and that in the presence of God\, He quite reasonably abandons us\, since we think we have no need of His assistance. But when we regard ourselves as nothing and therefore look to heaven for mercy\, it is not unreasonable that we should obtain God’s compassion\, help and grace. For\, as Scripture says: “The Lord resists the proud\, but gives grace to the humble.” \n“This man went away justified\, and not the other”\, says the Lord; “because all who exalt themselves will be humbled\, but those who humble themselves will be exalted”. For since the devil is pride itself\, and arrogance his own particular vice\, this sin conquers and drags down with itself every human virtue tinged with it. Similarly\, humility before God is the virtue of the good angels\, and it conquers every human vice to which a sinner has fallen prey. \nHumility is the chariot in which the ascent to God is made upon the clouds that are to carry up to Him those destined to be with God for endless ages\, according to the apostle’s prophecy: “We shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air\, and so shall we always be with the Lord.” For humility is like a cloud. Produced by repentance\, it draws streams of tears from the eyes\, makes unworthy people worthy\, and raises up and presents to God those freely justified by reason of their right dispositions \n1 Journey with the Fathers – New City Press – 1984 – pg 128.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/30th-sunday-in-ordinary-time/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251027
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251028
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251026T115842Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251026T162323Z
UID:14180-1761523200-1761609599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Weekday
DESCRIPTION:THE ENJOYMENT OF GOD\nFrom “The Golden Epistle” by William of St Thierry 2\n◊◊◊\nTo “seek the face of God” is to seek knowledge of him face to face\, as Jacob saw him. It is of this knowledge the Apostle says: “Then I shall know as I am known; now we see in a confused reflection in a mirror\, but then we shall see face to face\, we shall see him as he is.” Always to seek God in this life by keeping the hands unstained and the heart clean is that piety which\, as Job says\, “is the worship of God.” The man who lacks it “has received his soul in vain\,” that is to say\, lives to no purpose or does not live at all\, since he does not live the life to live which he received his soul. \nThis piety is the continual remembrance of God\, an unceasing effort of the mind to know him\, an unwearied concern of the affections o love him\, so that\, I will not say every day\, but every hour finds the servant of God occupied in the labor of ascesis and the effort to make progress\, or in the sweetness of experience and the joy of fruition. This is the piety concerning which the Apostle exhorts his beloved disciple in the words: “Train yourself to grow up in piety; for training the body avails but little\, while piety is all-availing\, since it promises well both for this life and for the next.\nThe habit you wear promises not only the outward form of piety but its substance\, in all things and before all things\, and that is what your vocation demands. For\, as the apostle says again\, there are some who exhibit the outward form of religion although they are strangers to its meaning. \nIf anyone among you does not possess this in his heart\, display it in his life\, practice it in his cell\, he is to be called not a solitary but a man who is alone\, and his cell is not a cell for him but a prison in which he is walled. For truly to be alone is not to have God with one. Truly to be walled in is not to be at liberty in God. Solitude and being walled in are words that denote wretchedness\, whereas the cell should never involve being walled in by necessity but rather be the dwelling-place of peace\, an inner chamber with closed door\, a place not of concealment but of retreat. \nThe man who has God with him is never less alone than when he is alone. It is then he has undisturbed fruition of his joy. It is then he is his own master and is free to enjoy God in himself and himself in God. It is then that in the light of truth and the serenity of a clean heart a pure soul stands revealed to itself without effort\, and the memory enlivened by God freely pours itself out in itself. Then either the mind is enlightened and the will enjoys its good or human frailty freely weeps over its shortcomings. \nAccordingly as your vocation demands\, dwelling in heaven rather than in cells\, you have shut out the world\, whole and entire\, from yourselves and shut up yourselves\, whole and entire\, with God. For the cell (cella) and heaven (coelum) are akin to one another: the resemblance between the words is borne out by the devotion they both involve. For both appear to be derived from celare\, to hide\, and the same thing is hidden in cells as in heaven\, the same occupation characterizes both the one and the other. What is this? Leisure devoted to God\, the enjoyment of God. \n2\nThe Golden Epistle – William of St Thierry – Cistercian Fathers Series #12 – Cistercian Publications – Kalamazoo\, MI – 1971 – pg.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-weekday-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251027
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251028
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251026T154929Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251026T154929Z
UID:14183-1761523200-1761609599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Weekday Vigils
DESCRIPTION:THE ENJOYMENT OF GOD \nFrom “The Golden Epistle” by William of St Thierry 2\n◊◊◊\nTo “seek the face of God” is to seek knowledge of him face to face\, as Jacob saw him. It is of this knowledge the Apostle says: “Then I shall know as I am known; now we see in a confused reflection in a mirror\, but then we shall see face to face\, we shall see him as he is.” Always to seek God in this life by keeping the hands unstained and the heart clean is that piety which\, as Job says\, “is the worship of God.” The man who lacks it “has received his soul in vain\,” that is to say\, lives to no purpose or does not live at all\, since he does not live the life to live which he received his soul. \nThis piety is the continual remembrance of God\, an unceasing effort of the mind to know him\, an unwearied concern of the affections to love him\, so that\, I will not say every day\, but every hour finds the servant of God occupied in the labor of ascesis and the effort to make progress\, or in the sweetness of experience and the joy of fruition. This is the piety concerning which the Apostle exhorts his beloved disciple in the words: “Train yourself to grow up in piety; for training the body avails but little\, while piety is all-availing\, since it promises well both for this life and for the next. \nThe habit you wear promises not only the outward form of piety but its substance\, in all things and before all things\, and that is what your vocation demands. For\, as the apostle says again\, there are some who exhibit the outward form of religion although they are strangers to its meaning. \nIf anyone among you does not possess this in his heart\, display it in his life\, practice it in his cell\, he is to be called not a solitary but a man who is alone\, and his cell is not a cell for him but a prison in which he is walled. For truly to be alone is not to have God with one. Truly to be walled in is not to be at liberty in God. Solitude and being walled in are words that denote wretchedness\, whereas the cell should never involve being walled in by necessity but rather be the dwelling-place of peace\, an inner chamber with closed door\, a place not of concealment but of retreat. \nThe man who has God with him is never less alone than when he is alone. It is then he has undisturbed fruition of his joy. It is then he is his own master and is free to enjoy God in himself and himself in God. It is then that in the light of truth and the serenity of a clean heart a pure soul stands revealed to itself without effort\, and the memory enlivened by God freely pours itself out in itself. Then either the mind is enlightened and the will enjoys its good or human frailty freely weeps over its shortcomings. \nAccordingly as your vocation demands\, dwelling in heaven rather than in cells\, you have shut out the world\, whole and entire\, from yourselves and shut up yourselves\, whole and entire\, with God. For the cell (cella) and heaven (coelum) are akin to one another: the resemblance between the words is borne out by the devotion they both involve. For both appear to be derived from celare\, to hide\, and the same thing is hidden in cells as in heaven\, the same occupation characterizes both the one and the other. What is this? Leisure devoted to God\, the enjoyment of God. \n2\nThe Golden Epistle – William of St Thierry – Cistercian Fathers Series #12 – Cistercian Publications – Kalamazoo\, MI – 1971 – pg.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/weekday-vigils/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251029
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251026T155810Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251026T155810Z
UID:14186-1761609600-1761695999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:SS. Simon & Jude
DESCRIPTION:THE ZEAL OF THE APOSTLES \nFrom a sermon by St John Henry Newman 3\n◊◊◊\nThe Apostles commemorated on this Festival <of St Simon and St Jude> direct our attention to the subject of Zeal. St Simon is called…the Zealous; a title given him (as is supposed) from his belonging before his conversion to the Jewish sect of Zealots\, which professed extraordinary Zeal for the Law… The <designation> marks him as distinguished for this particular Christian grace. St Jude’s Epistle\, which forms part of the service of the day\, is almost wholly upon the duty of manifesting Zeal for Gospel Truth\, and opens with a direct exhortation to “contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints.” \nIt will be a more simple account of Zeal\, to call it the earnest desire for God’s honor\, leading to strenuous and bold deeds in His behalf; and that in spite of all obstacles. Now Zeal is one of the elementary religious qualifications; that is\, one of those which are essential in the very notion of a religious man. A man cannot be said to be in earnest in religion\, till he magnifies his God and Savior; till he so far consecrates and exalts the thought of Him in his heart\, as an object of praise\, and adoration\, and rejoicing\, as to be pained and grieved at dishonor shown to Him\, and eager to avenge Him. In a word\, a religious temper is one of loyalty towards God; and we all know what is meant by being loyal from the experience of civil matters. \nTo be loyal is not merely to obey; but to obey with promptitude\, energetic dutifulness\, disinterested devotion\, disregard of consequences. And such is Zeal\, except that it is ever attended with that reverential feeling which is due from a creature and a sinner towards his Maker\, and towards Him alone. It is the main principle in all religious service to love God above all things; now\, Zeal is to love Him above all other people\, above our dearest and most intimate friends. This was the special praise of the Levites\, which gained for them the reward of the Priesthood\, that is\, their executing judgment on the people in the sin of the golden calf. Zeal is the very consecration of God’s Ministers to their office. \nAccordingly our Blessed Savior\, the One Great High Priest… of all Priests who went before Him and the Lord and Strength of all who come after\, began His manifestation of Himself by two acts of Zeal. When twelve years old he deigned to put before us in representation the sacredness of this duty\, when He remained in the Temple “while His father and mother sought Him sorrowing\,” and on their finding Him\, returned answer\, “Do you not know that I must be about My Father’s business? \nAnd again\, at the opening of His public Ministry\, He went into the Temple\, and “made a scourge of small cords\, and drove out the sheep and oxen\, and overthrew the changers’ tables” that profaned it: thus fulfilling the prophecy contained in the text\, “Zeal for your house has eaten me up.” Being thus consumed by Zeal Himself\, no wonder He should choose His followers from among the Zealous. \n3\n“Christian Zeal\,” in Parochial and Plain Sermons\, San Francisco: Ignatius Press\, 1987\, pp. 464 ff.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/ss-simon-jude/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251029
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251030
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251026T160225Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251026T160225Z
UID:14190-1761696000-1761782399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Weekday
DESCRIPTION:THE SPIRIT OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH\nBy Dom Damasus Winzen 4\n◊◊◊\nThe fact that the Church is rather a gift of the Spirit than the fruit of human endeavor…makes the Acts of the Apostles of vital importance to the Christians of all ages. We people of the “century of progress” do not look into the past to find there the pattern for the future. Accustomed as we are to think in terms of progress\, any beginnings bear to us the mark of imperfection. The life of the Church\, however\, is not ruled by the laws of human progress. Not being built up from the ground\, but descending from above\, the growth of the Church is like that of a seed\, the gradual unfolding of a fundamental structure which is wholly present already in the initial stage. \nThe risen Christ is the “seed” out of which the Church grows as an overflow of his abundance. From Christ the Church receives the divine life in the vessel of the sacraments\, to be administered\, not to be produced. From Christ she receives the full light of revelation as an unalterable deposit\, to be handed down\, not to be invented. The risen Christ sends to his Church the fullness of the Holy Spirit so that St Peter can truly state\, on the very day when the Church is born\, that this outpouring of the Spirit is the fulfillment of an event which\, as Joel had announced\, would come about “in the last days”. \nThe apostolic Church is the Church of “the first love”. The apostles who govern her are endowed with a fullness of grace never to be given to any of their successors. The Church is built\, once and forever\, upon “the foundation of the apostles”. For this reason the history of the Church is to a large extent the history of “reformations”. Again and again the Church has returned to the apostolic pattern. \nTo restore the spirit of the apostolic Church in its original purity and zeal was the avowed purpose of all the great saints and reformers. The Rule of St Benedict is nothing but an attempt to reestablish the ideal apostolic Church within the confines of a monastery. St Francis\, St Dominic\, St Ignatius and the great number of their followers received the inspiration for their Orders from the Acts of the Apostles. The apostolic Church remains a model for our times too; not that we want to turn back the wheel of history and copy the external forms of a past age\, which is impossible\, but because we realize that the waters of the Holy Spirit are nowhere as pure as at their source. \n4\nDamasus Winzen\, Pathways in Scripture\, Ann Arbor\, MI: Word of Life\, 1976\, pp. 280-81. \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/weekday-22/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251030
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251031
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251026T160656Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251026T160656Z
UID:14194-1761782400-1761868799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Weekday
DESCRIPTION:A JOYFUL AND GENUINE\nHUMILITY\nFrom a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux  5\n◊◊◊\nDo you see that humility makes us righteous? I say humility and not humiliation. How many are humiliated who are not humble! There are some who meet humiliation with rancor\, some with patience\, some again with cheerfulness. The first kind are culpable\, the second are innocent\, the last just. Innocence is indeed a part of justice\, but only the humble possess it perfectly. He who can say: “It was good for me that you humiliated me\,” is truly humble. \nThe person who endures it unwillingly cannot say this; still less the one who murmurs. To neither of these do I promise grace on the grounds of being humiliated\, although the two are vastly different from each other\, since the one possesses his own soul in his patience\, while the other perishes in his murmuring. For even if only one of them does merit anger\, neither of them merits grace\, because it is not to the humiliated but to the humble that God gives grace. But he is humble who turns humiliation into humility\, and he is the one who says to God: “It was good for me that you humiliated me.” \nWhat is merely endured with patience is good for nobody\, it is an obvious embarrassment. On the other hand we know that “God loves a cheerful giver.” Hence even when we fast we are told to anoint our head with oil and wash our face\, that our good work might be seasoned with spiritual joy and our holocaust made fat. For it is the possession of a joyful and genuine humility that alone enables us to receive grace. But the humility that is due to necessity or constraint\, that we find in the patient person who keeps his self-possession\, cannot win God’s favor because of the accompanying sadness\, although it will preserve his life because of patience. Since he does not accept humiliation spontaneously or willingly\, one cannot apply to such a person the scriptural commendation that the humble man may glory in his exaltation. \nIf you wish for an example of a humble person glorying with all due propriety\, and truly worthy of glory\, take Paul when he says that gladly will he glory in his weaknesses that the power of Christ may dwell within him. He does not say that he will bear his weaknesses patiently\, but he will even glory in them\, and that willingly\, thus proving that to him it is good that he is humiliated\, and that it is not sufficient that one keep his self-possession by patience when he is humbled; to receive grace one must embrace humiliation willingly. \nYou may take as a general rule that everyone who humbles himself will be exalted. It is significant that not every kind of humility is to be exalted\, but that which the will embraces; it must be free of compulsion or sadness. Nor on the contrary must everyone who is exalted be humiliated\, but only he who exalts himself\, who pursues a course of vain display. Therefore it is not the one who is humiliated who will be exalted\, but he who voluntarily humiliates himself; it is merited by this attitude of will. Even suppose that the occasion of humiliation is supplied by another\, by means of insults\, damages or sufferings\, the victim who determines to accept all these for God’s sake with a quiet\, joyful conscience\, cannot properly be said to be humiliated by anyone but himself. \n5\n(CF 7:162-163).
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/weekday-23/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251031
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251101
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251026T161042Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251026T161042Z
UID:14196-1761868800-1761955199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Weekday
DESCRIPTION:THE PATIENCE OF GOD\nFrom a treatise by St Cyprian 6\n◊◊◊\nDearly Beloved in the Lord\, when we speak of patience and when we preach on its benefits and advantages\, what better way to begin than to point out the fact that now\, just for you to listen to me\, patience is necessary. For you could not hear and learn without patience. Only then is the word of God and the way of salvation effectively learned\, if one listens with patience to what is being said. For nothing is more to be preferred to it in all the ways of heavenly discipline\, when it comes to seeking the God-given rewards of our hope and faith. Patience is the virtue we should maintain in a special way and with extreme care\, whether we find it beneficial to our life or to the attainment of glory. Either way\, it befits us who strive to follow the Lord’s precepts with fear and devotion. \nHow wonderful and how great is the patience of God! He endures most patiently the profane temples\, the earthly images and idolatrous rites that our ancestors set up in insult to His majesty and honor. He makes the day to rise and the sun to shine equally over the good and the evil. When He waters the earth with showers no one is excluded from His benefits\, but He bestows His rains without distinction on the just and the unjust alike. His Patience has an unbroken equality toward the guilty and the innocent\, the religious and the impious\, the grateful and the ungrateful. On one and all alike\, the seasons obey and the elements serve\, the winds blow\, fountains flow\, harvests increase in abundance\, the fruits of the vines ripen\, trees are heavy with fruit\, the groves become green\, and the meadows burst into flower. \nAnd although God is provoked by frequent\, yes even continual\, offenses\, He tempers His anger and patiently waits for the day of retribution which He once foreordained. And although vengeance is in His power\, He prefers to be longsuffering in His patience\, that is\, waiting steadfastly and delaying in His mercy so that\, if it is at all possible\, the long career of malice at some time may change\, and we\, however deeply we are infected with the contagion of error and crime\, may be converted to God even at a late hour\, as He Himself warns and says: I have no pleasure in the death of anyone. And again: Return to the Lord\, your God\, for he is gracious and merciful\, patient\, and abounding in steadfast love\, and repents of evil. \n6\nDe Bono Patientiae\, CCL IIIa\, cc 1\,4; pp. 118-119.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/weekday-24/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251101
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251102
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251026T161928Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251026T161928Z
UID:14198-1761955200-1762041599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:All Saints
DESCRIPTION:UNDER GOD’S\nMIGHTY HAND \nFrom a sermon by St Aelred of Rievaulx 7\n◊◊◊\nMy brothers\, if we are not qualified to speak of one of God’s saints and proclaim her glory\, how qualified are we to give a sermon of all of the saints? It is all the more necessary that we bear ourselves in a way enabling us to come to share their glory. What then must we do? How can we attain these heights? Accordingly…let us listen to some wholesome advice. For whom should we be more ready to believe than someone who has already attained that glory? He certainly knows the way by which he went up. Let us listen then to one of the great friends of Jesus telling us: Humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand that he may raise you up. \nYou know how today throughout the entire world everyone is praising God’s saints – the angels and archangels\, the apostles\, the martyrs\, confessors\, virgins… Ponder\, if you can\, how exalted in heaven are those who can be exalted and honored in this way on earth. Surely…if we could behold all the glory of the world and all the praise of the world and all the joy of the world at the same time\, in comparison with their joy it is nothing but absolute misery… \nAs for us…who do not see these things\, let us ponder and delight in the true loveliness in which the saints live free of corruption; in those spiritual ornaments that the saints possess in righteousness and holiness: in the hymns and praises with which they praise God without weariness; and in that light which they see in the face of God. And let us keep our feasts in such a way that our mind is not turned back to those earthly and perishable delights but rather is roused to those that are spiritual and eternal. And so let us reflect on their glory and exaltation. \nTo enable us to reach this exaltation\, let us listen to the advice of the Apostle: Humble yourselves beneath the mighty hand of God. The Apostle was very aware of the reason why we are cast down\, why we have lost that exaltation in which we were created\, why we were driven out into this unhappiness. What is this reason…if not pride? Therefore\, to counteract this pride he taught humility. Humble yourselves\, he says. But because he knew that not all those who humble themselves humble themselves wisely\, he therefore added: under the mighty hand of God... \nTherefore…let us humble ourselves beneath God’s mighty hand that he may lift us up at the time of his visitation. May he lift us up through good deeds and through holy desires\, so that when he comes at that great visitation when he will demand from everyone an account of what they have done in this life\, he may lift us up totally and we may hear that endearing voice saying: Come\, you blessed of my Father. Receive the kingdom that has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world. \n7\nAelred of Rievaulx – The Liturgical Sermons – Cistercian Fathers Series – #58 – Cistercian Publications – Kalamazoo – 2001 – pg 346.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/all-saints/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251102
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251103
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251101T205153Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251101T205153Z
UID:14203-1762041600-1762127999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema: 31st Week in Ordinary Time
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n31st Week in Ordinary Time\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (C)\, Weekdays (I)\nNovember 2 – 8\, 2025\n\n\n\nSun\n2\nMon\n3\nTue\n4\nWed\n5\nThu\n6\nFri\n7\nSat\n8\n\n\nOffice\nAll Souls\nWeekday\nSt Charles Borromeo\nWeekday\nWeekday\nWeekday\nMemorial of the BVM\n\n\nVigils\nEzek 37:1-14\nDaniel 3:46-70\nDaniel 3:71-90\nDaniel 3:91-100\nDaniel 4:1-15\nDaniel 4:16-34\nDaniel 5:1-12\n\n\nLauds\nJob 14:1-12\nZech 10:1-5\nZech 10:6-12\nZech 11:1-6\nZech 11:7-14\nZech 11:15-17\nZech 12:1-6\n\n\nMass\n668\n485\n486\n487\n488\n489\n490\n\n\n1st\nWis 3:1-9\nRom 11:29-36\nRom 12:5-16ab\nRom 13:8-10\nRom 14:7-12\nRom 15:14-21\nRom 16:3-9\, 16\, 22-27\n\n\n2nd\n2 Cor 5:1\, 6-10\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nJohn 11:17-27\nLuke 14:12-14\nLuke 14:15-24\nLuke 14:25-33\nLuke 15:1-10\nLuke 16:1-8\nLuke 16:9-15\n\n\nVespers\n1 Thess 4:13-18\nJas 4:13-17\nJas 5:1-6\nJas 5:7-12\nJas 5:13-20\n2 Pet 1:1-9\n1 Pet 2:1-10
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-31st-week-in-ordinary-time/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251103
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251101T210119Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251101T210119Z
UID:14206-1762041600-1762127999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:31st Sunday
DESCRIPTION:THE LOVE BETWEEN\nGOD AND THE SOUL\nFrom “Purgation and Purgatory” by St Catherine of Genoa 1\n◊◊◊\nThe souls in purgatory cannot think\, “I am here\, and justly so because of my sins\,” or “I wish I had never committed such sins for now I would be in paradise\,” or “That person there is leaving before me\,” or “I will leave before that one.” They cannot remember the good or evil in their past nor that of others. \nSuch is their joy in God’s will\, in his pleasure\, that they have no concern for themselves but dwell only in their joy in God’s ordinance. They see only the goodness of God\, his mercy toward all. Should they be aware of other good or evil\, theirs would not be perfect charity. Only once do they understand the reason for their purgatory: the moment in which they leave this life. After this moment\, that knowledge disappears. Immersed in charity\, incapable of deviating from it\, they can only will or desire pure love. There is no joy save that in paradise to be compared with the joy of the souls in purgatory. \nAs the rust of sin is consumed the soul is more and more open to God’s love. Just as a covered object left out in the sun cannot be penetrated by the sun’s rays\, in the same way\, once the covering of the soul is removed\, the soul opens itself fully to the rays of the sun. Having become one with God’s will\, these souls\, to the extent that he grants it to them\, see into God… \nAll that I have said is nothing compared to what I feel within\, the witnessed correspondence of love between God and the soul; for when God sees the soul pure as it was in its origins\, he tugs at it with a glance\, draws it and binds it to himself with a fiery love. God so transforms the soul into himself that it knows nothing other than God. He will not cease until he has brought the soul to its perfection. \nThat is why the soul seeks to cast off any and all impediments\, so that it can be lifted up to God; and such impediments are the cause of the suffering of the souls in purgatory. Not that the souls dwell on their suffering; they dwell rather on the resistance they feel within themselves against the will of God\, against his intense and pure love bent on nothing but drawing them up to him. And I see rays of lightning darting from that divine love to the creature\, so intense and fiery… The soul becomes like gold that becomes purer as it is fired\, all dross being cast out… \nThese flaws are burned away in the last stage of love. God shows the soul its weakness\, so that the soul may see the workings of God. If we are to become perfect\, the change must be brought about in us and without us; that is\, the change is to be the work not of human beings but of God… The overwhelming love of God gives the soul a joy beyond words. In purgatory great joy and great suffering do not exclude one another. \n1\nA Word in Season – vol. IV – Sanctoral – Augustinian Press – 1991 – pg 215.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/31st-sunday/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251103
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251104
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251101T210625Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251101T210625Z
UID:14210-1762128000-1762214399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Weekday
DESCRIPTION:THE SPOUSE OF THE VIRGIN \nBy St Ambrose 2\n◊◊◊\nWhat is virginal chastity but purity free from stain? And whom can we judge to be its author but the immaculate Son of God\, whose flesh saw no corruption\, whose Godhead experienced no infection? Consider\, then\, how great are the merits of virginity. Christ was before the Virgin\, Christ was of the Virgin. Begotten indeed of the Father before the ages\, but born of the Virgin for the ages. The former was of His nature\, the latter is for our benefit. The former always was\, the latter He willed. \nConsider\, too\, another merit of virginity. Christ is the spouse of the Virgin\, and if one may so say “spouse” of virginal chastity\, for virginity is of Christ\, not Christ of virginity. He is\, then\, the Virgin who was espoused\, the Virgin who bore us\, who fed us with her milk\, of whom we read: “What great things has the virgin of Jerusalem done! The breasts shall not fail from the rock\, nor snow from Lebanon\, nor the water which is borne by the strong wind.” \nWho is this virgin that is watered with the streams of the Trinity\, from whose rock waters flow\, whose breasts fail not\, and whose honey is poured forth? Now\, according to the Apostle\, the rock is Christ. Therefore\, from Christ the breasts fail not\, nor brightness from God\, nor the river from the Spirit. This is the Trinity which waters their Church\, the Father\, Christ\, and the Spirit. \nBut let us now come down from the mother to the daughters. “Concerning virgins\,” says the Apostle\, “I have no commandment of the Lord.” If the teacher of the Gentiles had none\, who could have one? And in truth he had no commandment\, but he had an example. For virginity cannot be commanded\, but must be wished for\, for things which are above us are matters for prayer rather than under mastery. “But I would have you\,” he says\, “be without care. For he who is without a wife is careful for the things which are the Lord’s\, how he may please God… And the virgin takes thought for the things of the Lord\, that she may be holy in body and in spirit. For she that is married takes thought for the things of the world\, how she may please her husband.” \nI am not indeed discouraging marriage\, but am enlarging upon the benefits of virginity. \n2\nThe Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Vol.X\, Cp.V\, p.366-7.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-weekday-4/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251101T211248Z
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UID:14213-1762214400-1762300799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils: St. Charles Borromeo
DESCRIPTION:THE LEGACY OF\nST CHARLES BORROMEO\nFrom a homily by Fr Ronald Knox 3\n◊◊◊\nWhen our Lord’s apostles came to look back upon that terrible night in the Lake of Galilee\, when they strained every nerve against the tempest while their Master lay sleeping in the boat\, they found in it an allegory of their own situation\, as they launched out the frail bark of his Church upon waves so troubled\, with prospects so uncertain. \nAnd in every age the Church has looked back to that picture and taken comfort from it in times of adversity. [With great confidence]\, the Church of God\, which is Peter’s boat\, has breasted the waves all through her troubled history. It is not upon the captain’s judgment or the pilot’s experience\, not human wisdom or human prudence\, that she depends for her safe voyage: she rests secure in the presence of her inviolable passenger. \nYet we should do ill if we grudged recognition and gratitude to those servants of his who at various times have steered our course for us through difficult waters\, and especially to the saints of the Counter-Reformation — that remarkable group of saints whom God raised up at the time of Europe’s apostasy\, by whose influence\, humanly speaking\, the faith survived that terrible ordeal. And not the least\, nor the least prominent\, of these is [St Charles Borromeo]\, who ruled the Church of Milan in the latter part of the sixteenth century… \nWhatever be the rights and wrongs of all the controversies we hear about the medieval Church\, this at least is clear\, that in the days of the Council of Trent its organization needed reform. And reform needs more than mere legislation to decree it; it needs administration to execute it. That is St Charles’s characteristic legacy to the Church: it was the influence of his example\, in great measure\, that molded her organization on the new model which Trent had decreed. The bishop has got to be the center of everything in his diocese\, and the clergy of the diocese are to be his clergy — a family of which he is to be the father\, a guild of which he is to be the master. \nSee how fond St Charles was of synods: the whole of his comparatively short episcopate is a long record of the synods he gathered amongst his clergy. See how enthusiastic he is for the seminary idea; the bishop\, henceforth\, is not merely to ordain people\, he is to know whom he is ordaining. And above all what was characteristic of St Charles was the institute which he left behind him — a body of secular priests\, putting themselves at the disposal of the bishop as absolutely as the religious puts himself at the disposal of his superior. \nYes\, there is much about St Charles’s life which is more exciting\, and much which is more attractive\, than all this; his boundless generosity to the poor\, the relentless mortification that regulated his busy\, competent life. But what makes him stand out among the saints more than either is his intense devotion even to the most uninspiring details of diocesan routine. \n3\nfrom Occasional Sermons of Ronald Knox\, ed. by Philip Caraman\, S.J.\, New York: Sheed and Ward\, 1960\, pp. 79-82.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-st-charles-borromeo/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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CREATED:20251101T211615Z
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UID:14215-1762300800-1762387199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils: Weekday
DESCRIPTION:THE SAINT AND THE CHRISTIAN\nFrom “The Faith and Modern Man” by Fr Romano Guardini 4\n◊◊◊\nWe associate the word saints with the idea of exceptional persons. In the New Testament\, however\, it signifies Christians generally. Being a Christian at all was extraordinary. For the Christians stood out sharply from the environment; either one lived in the Old Testament world\, or in the Hellenistic-pagan world\, and by both they were regarded as something strange if not hostile. The experience of conversion lifted them out of the environment. A sense of the reality of God not learned from natural religious experience or from the teaching of the Old Testament had shaken and\, at the same time\, blessed them. \nIn the existence of Christ\, God’s countenance had been unveiled. The life of Christ had made them aware of how God is minded toward us. These experiences had changed their whole lives. They had acquired new ideas of God\, new standards of judging the world. The “renewal of mind” of which the Gospel speaks and which they had begun to fulfill\, now consisted not only in a conversion to a good and pious life\, but in a change of direction in their whole way of thinking. Thus for them\, actually\, “all things had become new” – and with all these “new things” they found themselves still in an old world\, a world which regarded them with distrust and hostility. All this is\, in itself\, extraordinary – indeed the very essence of the extraordinary\, and the “saint” was one who led this existence. \nBut the spread of Christianity and its increase in members tended to obscure its unique nature. Time went on\, the Gospel grew familiar\, and the sense of newness wore off. Christianity became the state religion and\, as such\, the official order of society. Thus the fact that being a Christian at all was in itself extraordinary faded out of people’s consciousness\, and Christianity grew to be regarded as normal and usual. \n4\nThe Faith and Modern Man\, New York 1952\, 128-133.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-weekday-5/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251101T212127Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251101T212127Z
UID:14217-1762387200-1762473599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils: Weekday
DESCRIPTION:CHRIST THE CORNERSTONE\nBy Dom Damasus Winzen 5\n◊◊◊\nStone is firm and lasting. Builders test their stones\, selecting the most solid for foundations on which to rear the whole building\, for cornerstones to hold the wall together\, or for headstones which will lock into a single mass the entire structure. Stone likewise offers firm resistance to the thrust of an enemy; it will crush him upon whom it falls; it will bruise those who fall against it.\nGod is the “Stone of Israel”\, because he is a God of truth and his mercies endure forever. His faithfulness towards his people is the firm and precious cornerstone which is laid in Zion. In Christ Jesus\, God’s loyalty becomes manifest. He is the stone that the leaders of Israel rejected when they crucified him… He became the cornerstone when he rose from the dead. When we try to penetrate into the meaning of the symbolism of the cornerstone\, we discover that various ideas are fused in this picture. The idea of the foundation stone is clearly expressed in Isaiah: Thus says the Lord God: behold I laid in Zion for a foundation a stone\, a tried stone\, a precious cornerstone\, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste. \nChrist is the foundation stone\, for another foundation no one can lay but that which is laid\, which is Christ Jesus. He alone has wrought our redemption by dying for us and rising for us. We depend entirely on his work and on his strength. The Hebrew word used in Psalm 117\, rosch pinnah — still surviving in our word “pinnacle” — has been translated in various ways as “head of the corner\,” “cornerstone\,” or “head stone.” The idea of the cornerstone implies that Christ is a part of the foundation\, but its most important\, visible part\, the part which binds the walls. This is true of Christ\, because in him the two walls of God and mankind\, of the Jews and the Gentiles\, and the Old and the New Testament meet… \nIn recent years\, more and more scholars agree that rosch pinnah is rather the head stone\, or capstone\, which holds a vault or arch together. The Risen Savior is indeed the headstone of the spiritual Temple in which the whole building culminates\, which holds it together and defines its design. This three-fold meaning of Christ as the cornerstone is well expressed by Cynewulf in his poem “Christ.”… \nThou art the wall stone\nthat the workers once threw out from the work\,\nwell it becomes thee that thou be head\nof a mighty hall and weld together\nits wide walls in fast union\,\nFlint unbreakable\, that throughout earth’s dwelling\nall that have eyes may wonder ever more\,\nO Lord of glory. \n5\nSymbols of Christ\, New York\, 1955\, pp. 56-58.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-weekday-6/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251101T212538Z
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UID:14219-1762473600-1762559999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils: Weekday
DESCRIPTION:THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH\nFrom “The Spirit of Catholicism” by Fr Karl Adam 6\n◊◊◊\nWherever we encounter the God of revelation\, we do not find a characterless God of some feeble pastoral play\, but a God of holiness and justice\, a God who requires vigorous action and moral decision\, the athlete’s struggle for the crown and perseverance in the race until the prize be won. The new order of grace does not displace the old order of moral responsibility before God. And that is true not only of the members of the Church\, but also of the Church as such. \nThe Church too is subject to the great law that the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence. It is true that as the supra-personal unity of redeemed mankind\, a unity based upon the God-man\, the Church has her own essential nature\, her own law and her own life. And the Holy Spirit will abide always with her\, so that she may remain true to her God-given nature. But on the other hand it is equally true that the nature of the Church must be expressed through the faithful\, and not without them. The Body of Christ must maintain and perfect itself in its members and through them. Therefore the Church is not only a gift to the faithful\, but also a task for them. They have to prepare and foster that good earthly kingdom in which the seed of the Kingdom of Heaven may take root and flourish. \nIn other words\, the life of the Church\, the development of her faith and her love\, the progress of doctrine\, morals\, worship and law\, stand in an immediate relation to the faithful and loving personal life of the members of the Body of Christ. God rewards the merit or punishes the demerit of the faithful by the rise and fall of the earthly Church. We may truly say\, therefore\, with St Paul that the Church founded by Christ is at the same time co-built by the faithful. St Augustine says profoundly: “The temple of God is still being built” and “The house (the Church) is now being constructed.” \nGod willed a Church which in her ripening and perfecting should be the fruit of the true grace-inspired life of the faithful\, of their prayer and love\, of their fidelity\, penitence and devotion\, and therefore God did not found her from the beginning as a thing complete and perfect\, but as an incomplete thing\, which leaves room for and calls for a continual activity of construction\, and in whose inward history God’s Holiness and Justice continually triumph. \n6\nThe Spirit of Catholicism\, New York 1948\, 261-262.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-weekday-7/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251108
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251109
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251101T213139Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251101T213139Z
UID:14221-1762560000-1762646399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils: Memorial of the BVM
DESCRIPTION:LET US PRAISE MARY\nFrom a sermon by St Aelred of Rievaulx 7\n◊◊◊\nLet us…behold [Mary]; let us behold her excellence\, her humility\, her charity\, and her purity; let us behold her and praise her not only in voice\, but by our imitation of her. For if we truly wish to praise her\, let us as much as we can imitate her most holy way of life and—what is of greatest use to us—her humility… If our soul still experiences some servitude to sin and suffers some contrariness from its servant\, that is\, from the flesh\, and if we dare not praise\, then let us not be slow to pray and implore her help… \nWe can be sure that as she is more excellent and blessed than any creature\, so she is more favorable and merciful than every creature. Therefore let us confidently beseech her and place our trust in her. For we have many examples of her love. We know that many have been snatched away from the snares of the devil through her love; many\, who were often in despair were reconciled through her favor; many who were in great torments after death were snatched from these very punishments\, because they loved her and zealously commended themselves to her in their lifetime. \nTherefore let her be our common joy\, our common glory\, our common hope\, our common consolation\, our common reconciliation\, and our common refuge. If we are sad\, let us fly to her so that she may gladden us. If we are disheartened\, let us fly to her so that she may make us cheerful. If we are in despair\, let us fly to her so that she may raise us up. If we are troubled\, let us fly to her so that she may console us. If we are suffering persecutions\, let us fly to her so that she may protect us. If we are at odds with her son\, let us fly to her so that she may reconcile us. Let her be our guardian in this life and our protection at death. May she protect us from sin even now\, and later may she present us to her beloved son… \nLet us lift our hearts and the eyes of our heart to her\, our Lady\, our advocate\, our helper. Think of how much confidence we can have in her who\, having been wonderfully illuminated by the sun of justice\, dispels by her own brilliant light the darkness that the first woman\, Eve\, brought into this world. Therefore let us confidently pray to her who is able to help us through her excellence and wishes to do so through her mercy. Let us pray that she may intercede for us as much as she can to her son\, so that just as he deigned to be born from her for us\, through her he may deign to have mercy [on us]. \nTherefore let us honor her as much as we can…and let us love her as much as we can\, calling upon her most tender mercy\, so that she may deign to pray for us to her most sweet son\, that what we are unable to do by our own merits we may obtain by her patronage and the efficacy of the same Jesus Christ\, our Lord\, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. \n7\n(CSQ 32:124-125).
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-memorial-of-the-bvm-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251213T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251213T090000
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20250909T153537Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251129T234449Z
UID:13921-1765616400-1765616400@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:LCG Chicago Monthly Meeting 9:00 am CDT
DESCRIPTION:All LCG folk are welcome: \n  \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
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/lcg-chicago-monthly-meeting-900-am-cdt-4/
CATEGORIES:LCG Local Community Meetings,LCG open events
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DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251110
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251108T235900Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251108T235900Z
UID:14235-1762646400-1762732799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n32nd Week in Ordinary Time\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (C)\, Weekdays (I)\nNovember 9 – 15\, 2025\n\n\n\nSun\n9\nMon\n10\nTue\n11\nWed\n12\nThu\n13\nFri\n14\nSat\n15\n\n\nOffice\nLateran Basilica\nSt Leo the Great\nSt Martin of Tours\nWeekday\nAll Benedictine Saints\nWeekday\nGethsemani Church\n\n\nVigils\nExodus 40:1-34\nDaniel 5:13-6:1\nDaniel 6:2-29\nDaniel 7:1-15\nDan 7:1-3\, 9-22\, 27\nDaniel 7:16-28\nRev 21:9-22:5\n\n\nLauds\nJerm 7:1-7\nZech 12:7-14\nIsa 58:6-12\nZech 13:1-6\nWisdom 5:1-5\, 14-16\nZech 13:7-9\nEzek 37:21-28\n\n\nMass\n671\n491\n492\n493\n573\, 677\n495\n701.2\, 704.2\, 706.4\n\n\n1st\nEzek 47:1-2\, 8-9\, 12\nWis 1:1-7\nWis 2:23-3:9\nWis 6:1-11\nIsa 61:9-11\nWis 13:1-9\n2 Chron 5:6-10\, 13-6:2\n\n\n2nd\n1 Cor 3:9c-11\, 16-17\n\n\n\n\n\nEph 2:19-22\n\n\nGospel\nJohn 2:13-22\nLuke 17:1-6\nLuke 17:7-10\nLuke 17:11-19\nJohn 15:1-8\nLuke 17:26-37\nJohn 4:19-24\n\n\nVespers\nHeb 10:19-25\n2 Pet 1:10-15\nGal 6:1-5\n2 Pet 1:16-19\nRev 7:9-17\n2 Cor 6:14-7:1\nHeb 3:1-6
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-132/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251109T000037Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251109T000037Z
UID:14237-1762646400-1762732799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - 32nd Sunday
DESCRIPTION:DEDICATION OF \nTHE LATERAN BASILICA \n◊◊◊ \nThe blessed Pope Sylvester I instituted the rites which the Roman Church \nobserves in consecrating churches and altars. For although from the ages of the \napostles places had been dedicated to God where assemblies were held every \nSabbath\, yet those places had not been consecrated by a solemn rite before this. \nUp to the time of Sylvester an altar was not erected under title\, which\, anointed \nwith chrism\, symbolizes our Lord Jesus Christ\, who is our Altar\, our Victim\, our \nPriest. \nBut when the Emperor Constantine obtained health and salvation \nthrough the sacrament of Baptism\, then for the first time\, by an edict published \nby him\, the Christians throughout the world were permitted to build churches; \nhe himself encouraged this holy building by his own example\, as well as by this \nedict. For in his own Lateran palace he dedicated a church to the Savior and \nfounded adjacent to it a Basilica\, under the title of St John the Baptist\, on the \nvery spot where he had been baptized by St Sylvester and cleansed from the \nleprosy of unbelief. This basilica the same Pope consecrated on November 9\, \nand the memory of this consecration is celebrated today\, when\, for the first \ntime\, a church was publicly consecrated at Rome\, and there appeared to the \nRoman people an image of the Savior depicted on the wall. \nAlthough later on St Sylvester decreed that from that time forward all \naltars should be built of stone\, yet the altar of the Lateran Basilica was built of \nwood. This is not surprising. For since\, from St Peter down to Sylvester\, because \nof persecutions\, the Pontiffs could not dwell in any fixed abode\, they offered the \nHoly Sacrifice [of the Mass] wherever necessity compelled them\, whether in \ncrypts or in cemeteries\, or in the homes of the faithful\, upon a wooden altar \nwhich was hollow like a chest. \nWhen this altar had been placed in the first church\, the Lateran\, St \nSylvester decreed that from that time on\, no one except the Roman Pontiff \nshould celebrate Mass upon it\, in honor of the Prince of the Apostles and of the \nrest of the Popes who had been accustomed to use it. This same church\, having \nbeen destroyed by fires\, pillaging\, and earthquakes\, and repaired by the \nlaborious effort of the Supreme Pontiffs\, was afterwards rebuilt anew. Pope \nBenedict XIII\, a Dominican\, consecrated it on April 28\, 1726\, by a solemn rite.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-32nd-sunday-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251109T000202Z
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UID:14239-1762732800-1762819199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Leo the Great
DESCRIPTION:THE WORKS OF \nGOD’S SERVANTS \nBy St Leo the Great \n◊◊◊ \nIt is a great and very precious thing\, beloved\, in the Lord’s sight\, when \nChrist’s whole people engage together in the same duties\, and all ranks and \ndegrees of either sex co-operate with the same intent: when one purpose \nanimates all alike of declining from evil and doing good; when God is glorified in \nthe works of God’s servants\, and the Author of all godliness is blessed in \nunstinted giving of thanks. \nThe hungry are nourished\, the naked are clothed\, the sick are visited\, and \npeople seek not their own but “that which is another’s”\, so long as in relieving \nthe misery of others each one makes the most of one’s own means; and it is easy \nto find “a cheerful giver\,” where one’s performances are only limited by the \nextent of one’s power. \nBy this grace of God\, “which works all in all\,” the benefits and the deserts \nof the faithful are both enjoyed in common. For they\, whose income is not like\, \ncan yet think alike\, and when one rejoices over another’s bounty\, his feelings put \nhim on the same level with him whose powers of spending are on a different \nlevel. \nIn such a community there is no disorder nor diversity\, for all the \nmembers of the whole body agree in one strong purpose of godliness\, and one \nwho glories in the wealth of others is not put to shame by personal poverty. For \nthe excellence of each portion is the glory of the whole body\, and when we are all \nled by God’s Spirit\, not only are the things we do ourselves our own but those of \nothers also over the doing of which we rejoice… \nBut because we possess this greatness of heart\, and yet it is truly a pious \nthing for each one not to forsake the care of one’s own\, we\, without prejudice to \nthe more perfect sort\, lay down for you this general rule and exhort you to \nperform God’s bidding according to the measure of your ability. \nFor cheerfulness becomes one who is benevolent\, who should so manage \nliberality that while the poor rejoice over the help supplied\, home needs may not \nsuffer. “And he who ministers seed to the sower shall provide bread to be eaten \nand multiply your seed and increase the fruits of your righteousness.”
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-leo-the-great-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251109T000317Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251109T000317Z
UID:14241-1762819200-1762905599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Martin of Tours
DESCRIPTION:ST MARTIN AND THE PAUPER \nBy St Sulpicius Severus \n◊◊◊ \nOne day\, at the gate of the city of Amiens\, Martin met a poor man who was \nnaked. Martin’s clothing was reduced to his armor and his simple military \ncloak. It was the middle of a winter which had been more severe than usual\, \nand\, indeed\, many had perished from the extreme cold. Those who had passed \nthat way had been begged by the pitiable pauper to have compassion on him\, \nbut all had gone by. Martin\, however\, filled with God’s grace\, saw that it was for \nhim\, when others had denied their mercy\, that the suppliant was being reserved. \nYet\, what should he do? \nHe had nothing except the cloak he was wearing; he had already devoted \nthe rest of his clothing to similar purposes. Then\, drawing the sword which he \nwas wearing\, he cut the cloak in two; one part he gave to the pauper; in the other \nhe again dressed himself. Meanwhile\, some of the bystanders began to laugh\, \nfor it was an inelegant figure Martin cut\, dressed in half a garment. Yet\, many\, \nof saner mind\, sighed deeply. When they\, who had more to give\, might have \nclothed the pauper with out making themselves naked\, they had done nothing of \nthe sort. \nWhen night had come and he was deep in sleep\, Martin beheld Christ\, \nclothed in that part of his own cloak with which he had covered the pauper. He \nwas bidden to look attentively upon the Lord and to recognize the garment he \nhad given. And soon\, to the throng of angels standing about\, he heard Jesus \nsaying in a clear voice: Martin\, still a catechumen\, has covered me with this \ncloak. \nThe Lord\, in declaring that it was He who had been clothed in the person \nof the pauper\, was truly mindful of His own words uttered long ago: As long as \nyou did it to one of these my least\, you did it to me. Further\, to strengthen the \nevidence of such a good deed\, he deigned to show Himself in the very garment \nthe pauper had received. \nThe blessed man was not puffed up with human pride because of this \nvision. Rather\, recognizing God’s goodness in his own act\, he was baptized \nwithout delay. He was then eighteen.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-martin-of-tours-4/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251109T000421Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251109T000421Z
UID:14244-1762905600-1762991999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:GLORIFY THE LORD \nFrom the Catechetical Lectures of St Cyril of Jerusalem \n◊◊◊ \n“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”; for in the \nthought of God\, let the thought of Father be included\, so that the glory we \nascribe to the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit may be perfectly free from \ndifference. For the Father has one glory and the Son another\, but their glory is \none and the same; since the Son is the Father’s sole-begotten\, and when the \nFather is glorified the Son shares in enjoyment of His glory… And whenever the \nSon is glorified the Father of so excellent a Son is greatly honored. \nNow the mind thinks with great rapidity\, but the tongue needs \nexpressions and a long outpouring of words before it reaches a conclusion. For \nin one instant\, the eye takes in a vast multitude of stars\, but if anyone should \nwant to discourse on any particular stars…he will need to say a good deal. Again \nin like manner the mind comprehends earth and sea and all the bounds of the \nworld in a flash\, but it takes many words to express what it understands in an \ninstant… \nWhat we say about God is not what should be said (for that is known only \nto Him) but only what human nature takes in\, and only what our infirmity can \nbear. For what we expound is not what God is… We have no sure knowledge \nabout Him… Our chief theological knowledge is confessing that we have none. \nTherefore\, “magnify the Lord with me\, and let us exalt His Name together”… \nNow if the heavens and all they contain cannot worthily sing the praises of \nGod\, how possibly can earth and ashes\, the least and slightest of existing things\, \nraise a worthy hymn to God\, “who holds in His hand the circle of the earth\, and \nconsiders the inhabitants of it as grasshoppers.” If anyone would attempt to \ndiscourse on God\, let them first expound what are the bounds of the earth. The \nearth is your dwelling\, and yet you do not know the extent of your dwellingplace\, \nearth! How then can you have any adequate thoughts of its Creator? \nBut someone will ask: If the divine Being is incomprehensible\, what is the \ngood of the things you have been saying? Come now\, am I not to take a \nreasonable drink because I cannot drink the river dry? Or supposing I were to go \ninto a huge garden where I could not possibly eat all the fruit on the trees\, would \nyou have me leave it still hungry? I praise and glorify our Maker\, seeing that “Let \neverything that breathes praise the Lord” is a divine command. I am now trying \nto glorify the Master\, not to expound His Nature\, for I know quite well that I \nshall fall far short even of glorifying Him as He deserves. Nevertheless I hold it \nto be a religious duty at least to make the attempt. For the Lord Jesus comforts \nme for my insufficiency by saying “No one has seen God at any time.”
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-364/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251113
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251114
DTSTAMP:20260404T021458
CREATED:20251109T000529Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251109T000529Z
UID:14246-1762992000-1763078399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - All Benedictine Saints
DESCRIPTION:THE COMMUNION OF THE SAINTS \nBy Baldwin of Ford \n◊◊◊ \nI believe\, O Lord\, in the Holy Spirit\, the holy catholic Church\, the \ncommunion of saints. Here is my hope\, here is my trust\, here is my confidence\, \nhere is my security -however small it may be- which I have in the confession of \nmy faith\, in the generosity of the Holy Spirit\, in the unity of the catholic Church\, \nin the communion of the saints. If it be granted me from above to love you and to \nlove my neighbour\, then even though my own merits are poor and meager\, I \nhave a hope which is above and beyond all my merits: I am sure that through the \ncommunion of charity the merits of the saints will profit me and that the \ncommunion of the saints can make good my own imperfection and \ninsufficiency. The prophet comforts me when he says\, “I have seen an end of all \nperfection\, but your commandment is exceeding broad.” \nO charity\, so broad and so extensive\, how great is the house of God\, how \nvast is the place of his possession! We need not be distressed in our heart; we \nneed not be confined by the boundaries and limits of our insignificant \nrighteousness. Charity extends our hope to the communion of the saints\, and we \ncan therefore share with them their merits and their rewards. But the sharing of \ntheir rewards is [reserved] for the time to come\, for it is the sharing of the glory \nwhich shall be revealed in us. \nThus there are three sorts of sharing\, [three forms of communion\, three \nways in which we have things in common]: the sharing of nature\, which is \nassociated with the sharing of sin and the sharing of wrath; then the sharing of \ngrace; and thirdly\, the sharing of glory. By the sharing of grace\, the sharing of \nnature begins to be restored and the sharing of sin is removed\, but by the \nsharing of glory\, the sharing of nature will be fully and perfectly restored and the \nsharing of wrath wholly removed. It is then that God shall wipe away all the \ntears from the eyes of the saints. It is then that all the saints will be as one heart \nand one soul\, and they will have all things in common when God will be all in all. \n[Our hope is] that we\, too\, may come in common to this communion and \ncome together as one [and therefore we pray that] the grace of our Lord Jesus \nChrist and the charity of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit may be with \nus all always.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-all-benedictine-saints-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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