Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Vigils Reading - Opening of General Chapter
2022-09-02
A Commentary on the Book of Maccabees by St. Augustine 1
When the astonishing martyrdom of the Maccabees is related, not merely do we hear the tale told, but we see it enacted, as it were, before us. It all happened before the incarnation, before the passion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In that ancient nation, where the prophets lived their lives, there had been those who foretold what was now happening. Let no one think that before there was a Christian people there were no people dedicated to God either. For indeed, if one may speak as the truth dictates, rather than as ordinary language dictates, the people we are thinking about were even then a Christian people. For not even Christ himself began to have a people of his own until after his passion: but yet these people of his were descended from Abraham. Abraham lobged to see my day; he saw it and rejoiced. This then is to be commended to your charity: that in your admiration for those martyrs you might think that they were not Christians; but Christians indeed they were, though the word “Christians”, current only later, must here be understood as preceding what was to happen later.
A Jew might object and say: How do you reckon these people of ours to be martyrs of yours? What an outrage for you to celebrate their memory! Take what they actually said and just see whether they confessed Christ! Well, what can we say to that? No, indeed, they did not confess Christ openly, or explicitly: for the mystery of Christ was still under a veil. The Old Testament is a veiled version of the New and the New Testament is the unveiled Old Testament. From it, Christ began to be preached most openly of all only after the resurrection. The prophetic sayings contained in it then began to be most manifestly fulfilled.
The Christian martyrs overtly confessed him whom the Maccabees have confessed covertly. Some martyrs died for the Christ revealed and unveiled in the gospels; but the Maccabees died for the name of Christ still veiled in the old law. Christ has both kinds in his service, like some great general making a conquest with his army of subjects, some far ahead and some following on behind. And that you may clearly understand how it is that those who die for the law of Moses die for Christ, here are Christ’s own words: If you had believed Moses you would believe me also. The Maccabees, then, are martyrs for Christ. We venerate their memory, we keep hold of it; their sufferings have been imitated by thousands of holy martyrs throughout the world. So let no one hesitate, dear brethren, to imitate the Maccabees, thinking that he would not thereby be imitating Christians. Let the will to imitate them be fervent and strong in our hearts. Let husbands learn to die for the truth. Let wives learn from that mother’s heroic patience, from that virtue beyond telling; for she knew well how she could have saved her sons. She knew how to keep them but feared not to lose them.
1A Word in Season – vol. VIII – Augustinian Press – 1999 – pg 232

Vigils Reading
2022-09-01
A Commentary on the Second Book of Maccabees by Damasus Winzen 1
In the books of Maccabees the opposition between Judaism and Hellenism reaches its climax, but these books also point to the eventual absorption of both Judaism and Hellenism into the unity of the far higher Christian revelation. Hellenism cultivated the idea of harmony between beauty and goodness through equal devekopment of mind and body but it scoffed at the idea of the resurrection of the flesh, and thus rejected what would have been its own last fulfillment. The ideals of Judaism, on the other hand, transcended this visible world to such a degree that the human body did not seem to matter much. The books of Maccabees put before us the ideal of the martyr. He reaches the unity of mind and body by completely surrendering both as a sacrifice ro God for the redemption of the people. In martyrdom the spirit of God’s selfless love takes absolute possession of the body, and therefore leads to the resurrection of the flesh. The story of the Maccabeab brothers points to the “faithful martyr”, Jesus Christ, who judged Hellenism when he said: “Whoever loves his life (i.e. the whole person, mind and body) will lose it; whoever hates his life in this world, will keep it for eternal life”. Through his passion and glorification the Word of God made flesh fulfilled the ultimate aims both of Judaism and of Hellenism. The latter had rejected the idea of the resurrection of the flesh because it did not know the omnipotence of the Creator. Judaism did not understand how God could become man and die for sinners, because it had not grasped the fullness of his love. Christianity accepted both in the risen Christ who lives in every member of his mystical body.
The Maccabees lived and died for the temple and for the law. Ultimately their struggle ended in failure, because the Jews showed themselves unable to reconcile the two. The bitter antagonism between the men of the temple, the Saducees and the high priests, and the men of the law, the scribes and Pharisees, contributed much to the final destruction of the temple by the Romans in A.D. 70. In the mantime temple and law, body and mind, had found their true unity in the word of God made man. With the coming of the reality the shadows vanished. Judaism was fulfilled in Christ. In the martyrs of the books of Maccabees it touched the very heart of Christianity, the resurrection. By the fact that the Church numbers these heroes of Judaism among her saints, celebrating their anniversary on the first of August, she shows that she is the heir of Judaism. Christ brought that peacebetween Judaism and Hellenism which the heroism of the Maccabees was not able to achieve.
1Pathways in Scripture – Damasus Winzen – Word of Life – Ann Arbor, MI – 1976 – pg 157

Vigils Reading
2022-08-31
A Commentary on the Second Book of Maccabees by Damasus Winzen 1
The second book of Maccabeesd, which presents itself as an abridgement of five volumes which a certain Jason of Cyrene wrote, covers nearly the same period as 1 Maccabees. As introduction the author gives two letters from the Jews in Jerusalem to the Jews in Egypt, recommending the celebration of the dedication of the temple. The main part of the book is divided into two sections, each of which ends in the institution of the anniversary feast: the dedication of the temple and Nicanor’s day in memory of Judas’ greatest victory. Each of the two sections is again divided into two, each treating one of the kings of Syria who persecuted the Jews.
The author of 2 Maccabees evidently stresses the practical and devotional aspects of the valiant struggle of Judas Maccabeus. Of greatest importance to him is the story of the fire, which was given from heaven to the second temple under Nehemiah to show that it equals the tabernacle as well as the temple of Solomon, both of which were dedicated through heavenly fire. The fire descending from heaven is symbolic of “the manifestations that came from heaven to them that behaved manfully on behalf of the Jews, so that, being but a few, they made themselves masters of the whole country, and recovered again the most renowned temple, and delivered the city and restored the laws that were abolished, the Lord with all clemency showing mercy to them”. This fire from heaven triumphed over bodily pains in Eleazar, “one of the leading scribes, and advanced in years,” who groaning under the stripes of the executioners prayed to God: “O Lord, you know I endure dreadful pains in my body, but in my heart I am glad to suffer this because I fear you”. The fire burned in the hearts of the seven brothers who with their mother suffered martyrdom for the law. It gave courage to Judas and his followers in face of overwhelming odds. “They trust in their arms and daring, but we trust in the almighty God, for he is able with a mere nod to strike down not only our enemies but the whole world”.
With these words Judas characterized the spirit in which he conquered. In this spirit he prepared his soldiers for battle through prayer, fasting and reading of God’s word. In this spirit they sang hymns of thanksgiving after victory was won and shared the spoils with orphans and widows. “The help of God” and “the victory of God” were their watchwords. So “fighting with their hands, but praying to God with their hearts” they overcame the rage of the kings, their armor and their elephants, under the leadership of Judas, “who was altogether ready, in body and mind, to die for his countrymen”.

Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
2022-08-30
From Tractate 15 on the Cenobitic or Common Life, by Baldwin of Ford (CF 41:156-157)

It is by no slight or mean or ordinary authority that the institution of the common life is supported and sustained. The primitive Church was built on the common life, and the infancy of the newborn Church began with the common life. It is from the Apostles themselves that the common life has received its form and expression, its title of honor, the privilege of its high position, the testimony of its authority, the protection which defends it, and the foundation of its hope.

It was the Apostles who were established by God as princes over all the earth; princes of the people, gathered together with the God of Abraham; strong gods of the earth who are exceedingly exalted; friends of God, who are greatly honored and whose principality is greatly strengthened; nobles of heaven, judges of the earth, to whom was made the promise that they should sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel; members of the [celestial] senate, who receive swords in their hands to execute vengeance upon the nations and chastisements upon the people, to bind their kings with fetters and their nobles with manacles of iron, to execute upon them the prescribed judgement.

Such men as these, so powerful and so noble, were clothed in virtue from above, and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit they undertook to observe the common life. They confirmed it by their example, sanctioned it by their conduct, and handed it down to us so that we might also keep it. Thus, through the common life, we who are set upon the earth can begin to be fashioned in the likeness of the angels of God, for in the eternal life to come, we shall be united with them as their like and their equal. The common life was instituted by celestial models; it was brought down from heaven and adopted by us from the heavenly way of life of the holy angels.

If the fact that the common life came down from the angels of God to the Apostles and from the Apostles to us is still not sufficient to recommend it to you, then there is a further factor which we can add, something beyond all praise: the common life flowed out from the Fount of Life itself. I am speaking now of that fount of which it is written, With you is the fount of life, and in your light we shall see light. The common life, then, is a sort of radiance from the eternal light, a sort of emanation from the eternal life, a sort of effluence from the everlasting fountain, from which flow living waters, springing up into eternal life.

Vigils Reading - Martyrdom of St John Baptist
2022-08-29
John the Baptist – the Precursor of Christ in birth and death –
From a Homily by St Bede the Venerable [1]

As a forerunner of our Lord’s birth, preaching and death, John showed in his struggle a goodness worthy of the sight of heaven. In the words of Scripture: “Though in the sight of men he suffered torments, his hope is full of immortality.” We justly commemorate the day of his birth with a joyful celebration , a day which he himself made festive for us through his suffering and which he adorned with the crimson splendor of his own blood. We do rightly revere his memory with joyful hearts, for he stamped with the seal of martyrdom the testimony which he delivered on behalf of our Lord.

There is no doubt that blessed John suffered imprisonment and chains as a witness to our Redeemer, whose forerunner he was, and gave his life for him. His persecutor had demanded not that he deny Christ, but only that he should keep silent about the truth. Nevertheless, he died for Christ. Does Christ not say: “I am the truth?” Therefore, because John shed his blood for the truth, he surely died for Christ. Through his birth, preaching and baptizing, he bore witness to the coming birth, preaching and baptism of Christ, and by his own suffering he showed that Christ also would suffer.

Such was the quality and strength of the man who accepted the end of this present life by shedding his blood after the long imprisonment. He preached the freedom of heavenly peace, yet was thrown into irons by ungodly men; he was locked away in the darkness of prison, though he came bearing witness to the Light of life and deserved to be called a bright and shining lamp by that Light itself, which is Christ. John was baptized in his own blood, though he had been privileged to baptize the Redeemer of the world, to hear the voice of the Father above him, and to see the grace of the Holy spirit descending upon him. But to endure temporal agonies for the sake of the truth was not a heavy burden for such men as John; rather it was easily borne and even desirable, for he knew eternal joy would be his reward.

Since death was ever near at hand through the inescapable necessity of nature, such men considered it a blessing to embrace it and thus gain the reward of eternal life by acknowledging Christ’s name. Hence the apostle Paul rightly says: “You have been granted the privilege not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for his sake.” He tells us why it is Christ’s gift that his chosen ones should suffer for him: “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.”

[1] The Liturgy of the Hours – vol. IV – Catholic Book Publishing Co – New York – 1975 – p 1359.

Vigils Reading
2022-08-28
Commentary on the Gospel of Luke by Bruno of Segni 1
Invited to a wedding feast, the Lord looked around and noticed how all were choosing the first and most honorable places, each person wanting to take precedence over the others and to be raised above them. He told them this parable, which even taken literally is most useful and appropriate for all who like to be honored, and fear being put to shame. To those of lower station it accords courtesy, and to those of higher condition respect. However, since it is called a parable, it must have some other interpretation besides the literal one. Let us see then what this wedding feast is, and who are the people invited to it.
This wedding feast takes place in the Church every day. Every day the Lord makes a wedding feast, for every day he unites faithful souls to himself, some coming to be baptized, others leaving this world for the kingdom of heaven. We are all invited to this wedding feast – all of us who have received faith in Christ and the seal of baptism. This table set before us is that of which it is said: You have prepared a table before me in the sight of those who trouble me. Here is the showbread, here the fatted calf, here the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Here is the living bread come down from heaven, here placed before us is the chalice of the New Covenant, here are the gospels and the letters of the apostles, here the books of Moses and the prophets. It is as though a dish containing every delight was brought and set before us. What more can we desire? What reason is there for choosing the first seats? There is plenty for all no matter where we sit. There is nothing we shall lack.
But whoever you may be who still desire the first place here – go and sit in the last place. Do not be lifted up by pride, inflated by knowledge, elated by nobility, but the greater you are the more you must humble yourself in every way, and you will find grace with God. In his own time he will say to you: Friend, go up higher, and then you will be honored by all who sit at table with you. Moses sat in the last place whenever he had the choice. When the Lord wishing to send him to the Israelites, invited him to take a higher place, his answer was: I beg you, Lord, send someone else. I am not a good speaker. It was the same as saying: “I am not qorthy of so great an office.” Saul, too, was of small account in his own eyes when the Lord made him king. And Jeremiah, similarly, was afraid of rising to the first place: Ah, Lord, God, he said, look, I cannot speak – I am only a child.
In the church, then, the first seat, or the highest place, is to be sought not by ambition but by humility; not by money but by holiness.

Skema
2022-08-28
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
22nd Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (II)
August 28 – September 3, 2022

Sun
28
Mon
29
Tue
30
Wed
31
Thu
1
Fri
2
Sat
3

Office
22ndSunday
Passion of St John the Baptist
Office for Vocations
Weekday
Weekday
Weekday Opening of the G.C.
St Gregory the Great

Vigils
2 Macc 4:1-17
Jerm 37:12-38:6
2 Macc 4:18-29
2 Macc 4:30-50
2 Macc 5:1-14
2 Macc 5:15-27
2 Macc 6:1-17

Lauds
Amos 2:6-16
Wis 3:1-9
Amos 3:1-8
Amos 3:9-12
Amos 3:13-15
Amos 4:1-5
Amos 4:6-10

Mass
126
634
432
433
434
*635, 639
436

1st
Sir 3:17-18, 20, 28-29
Jerm 1:17-19
1 Cor 2:10b-16
1 Cor 3:1-9
1 Cor 3:18-23
Phil 2:1-4
1 Cor 4:6b-15

2nd
Heb 12:18-19, 22-24a

Gospel
Luke 14:1, 7-14
Mark 6:17-29
Luke 4:31-37
Luke 4:38-44
Luke 5:1-11
Jn 14:23-29
Luke 6:1-5

Vespers
1 Thess 2:17-3:5
Acts 13:16-26
1 Thess 3:6-13
1 Thess 4:1-12
1 Thess 4:13-18
1 Thess 5:1-11
1 Thess 5:12-28

Vigils Reading - St Monica
2022-08-27
ON THE PRAYER OF HIS MOTHER MONICA FOR HIS CONVERSION, from the Confessions of St Augustine[1]

You, O God, sent down your help from above (ps 143:7) and rescued my soul from the depths of this darkness because my mother, your faithful servant, wept to you for me, shedding more tears for my spiritual death than other mothers shed for the bodily death of a son. For in her faith and in the spirit which she had from you she looked on me as dead. You heard her and did not despise the tears which streamed down and watered the earth in every place where she bowed her head in prayer. You heard her, for how else can I explain the dream with which you consoled her, so that she agreed to live with me and eat at the same table in our home? Lately she had refused to do this, because she loathed and shunned the blasphemy of my false beliefs.
She dreamed that she was standing on a wooden rule, and coming towards her in a halo of splendor she saw a young man who smiled at her in joy, although she herself was sad and quite consumed with grief. He asked her the reason for her sorrow and her daily tears, not because he did not know, but because he had something to tell her, for this is what happens in visions. When she replied that her tears were for the soul I had lost, he told her to take heart for, if she looked carefully, she would see that where she was, there also was I. And when she looked, she saw me standing beside her on the same rule.
Where could this dream have come from, unless it was that you listened to the prayer of her heart? For your goodness is almighty; you take good care of each of us as if you had no others in your care, and you look after all as you look after each. And surely it was for the same reason that, when she told me of the dream and I tried to interpret it as a message that she need not despair of being one day such as I was then, she said at once and without hesitation ‘No! He did not say “Where he is, you are”, but “Where you are, he is”.’ – over –

I have often said before and, to the best of my memory, I now declare to you, Lord, that I was much moved by the answer, which you gave me through my mother. She was not disturbed by my interpretation of her dream, plausible though it was, but quickly saw the true meaning, which I had not seen until she spoke. I was more deeply moved by this than by the dream itself, in which the joy for which this devout woman had still so long to wait was foretold so long before to comfort her in the time of her distress. For nearly nine years were yet to dome during which I wallowed deep in the mire and the darkness of delusion. Often I tried to lift myself, only to plunge the deeper. Yet all the time this chaste, devout, and prudent woman, a widow such as is close to your heart, never ceased to pray at all hours and to offer you the tears she shed for me. The dream had given new spirit to her hope, but she gave no rest to her sighs and her tears. Her prayers reached your presence (ps 87:3) and yet you still left me to twist and turn in the dark.
[1]THE CONFESSIONS, by St Augustine trans. by R. S. Pine-Coffin (Penguin Books 1961) pp. 68-69.

Vigils Reading
2022-08-26
From a Homily of Isaac the Syrian 1
Let us shun the body with all our strength, surrender our souls to God, and in the Lord’s name enter into the arena of temptations. May he that preserved Joseph in the land of Egypt and showed him forth as an icon and exemplar of chastity, who kept Daniel unharmed in the lion’s den and the three youths in the firey furnace, and who delivered Jeremiah from the pit of mire and bestowed mercy upon him in the camp of the Chaldeans, and who brought Peter out of prison while the doors were shut and saved Peter from the synagogue of the Jews and, to speak simply, he that always continues with his servants in every place and country, who manifests his power and victory in them, who preserves them with manifest wonders and who reveals his salvation to them in all their afflictions, may he give us strength also, and rescue us from amid the waves that encompass us.
Let us, therefore, acquire zeal in our souls against the devil and his commissaries even such as the Maccabees had, and the holy prophets, apostles, martyrs, the righteous and the just. For these men proved allies of the divine laws and the commandments of the Spirit in fearful places and amid grievous tribulations. Mightily did they put the world and the flesh behind their backs and persevere in their righteousness; and they were not overcome by the perils that encircled both their soul and body, but courageously they took the victory, and their names are written in the book of life until the coming of Christ. By God’s decree their teaching has been preserved for our instruction and strengthening, as the blessed apostle testifies, that we might become wise and learn the ways of God, and keep their histories and lives in view as living and breathing icons, and take our example from them, and run their course, and make ourselves like unto them. The words of God are as sweet to the soul possessed of great understanding, as food that delights the body; and the histories of the righteous are as desirable to the ears of the meek, as continual watering to a newly planted tree.
1A Word in Season – vol. VIII – Augustinian Press – 1999 – pg 245

Vigils Reading
2022-08-25
A Reading on the Book of Maccabees from a book by Dom Damasus Winzen 1
During the exile, a great winnowing took place: out of it emerged a remnant of those who were determined to remain faithful. They were certain of the unique character of their religion and their chosenness, and this very certainty gave them an absolute determination to survive and an abiding hope in the future. When the dawn of a new day seemed to arise with the downfall of Babylon, and Cyrus, king of Persia, ended the Babylonian exile in 537 B.C., through a decree which allowed the Jews to return into their homeland, forty thousand were ready. Under the leadership of Zerubbabel, a prince of the house of David, as governor, and Jeshua, son of Josadak, as high priest, they set out to rebuild the temple and the city. After long years of rivalries, intrigues and open hostilities on the part of the neighboring tribes the second temple was finished and dedicated in the year 516 B.C. When the attacks from the outside did not cease, Nehemiah, a high official of Jewish blood at the Persian court, was sent to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Despite determined opposition on the part of Israel’s enemies this task was carried out successfully. Now the most important step in this whole work of reconstruction was taken by Ezra, the scribe. He was a man of the book. He represented all that Israel had learned in the school of the exile.
Now all the essential factors that were going to determine this period of Jewish history were set up: the temple with its ritual and its leading official, the high priest; the walls of Jerusalem under the guardianship of the governor; the law, entrusted to the scribes. Divine Providence, which was now leading the chosen people into the last phase of preparation for the coming of the Messiah Jesus, arranged the course of events in such a way that all the hopes put on these things by the Jewish people came to nought. The temple with its treasures and the high priests with their enormous revenues became objects for foreign powers to plunder or buy. The walls of Jerusalem, the symbol of political power, conquered after bloody battles by Judas Maccabeus, were held thereafter by Jewish kings until “the scepter was taken was taken away from Judah” by Herod, the Idumaean. The “fence” which the Pharisees built around the religion finally eclipsed the law of Moses, so that when the Messiah came he could say to the scribes: “You make void the commandments of God that you may keep your own traditions”. (Mk 7:9). The entire period of reconstruction which followed the Babylonian exile was designed to make it clear that this temple, and this Jerusalem, and these doctors of the law were not the fulfillment of the glorious promise which God had made through Isaiah and Jeremiah about the new covenant he was going to make with his people.
This was also the tragedy of the Maccabees. With all their valor and all their heroism, their restoration of the temple and of the Jewish state was never wholly successful. In the eyes of orthodox Jews they remained usurpers, and for that reason the two books which tell of their great deeds were never received into the Jewish canon of holy Scripture. For us Christians, however, they are of greatest importance, because they give us a picture of the conflict between Judaism and Hellenism which developed in the 3rdand 2nd century B.C. As a consequence of the invasion by Greek civilization that took place in the wake of Alexander’s conquest of the Persian empire. The process of Hellenization might have gone much further had not Antiochus Epiphanes of Syria attempted to substitute pagan worship for Jewish. This brought about the Maccabean revolt recounted in the books of Maccabees.
1Pathways in Scripture – Damasus Winzen – Word of Life – Ann Arbor, MI – 1976 – pg 152

Vigils Reading - St Bartholomew
2022-08-24
Feast of St Bartholomew -taken from Butler’s Lives of Saints

Bartholomew was one of the twelve apostles. Only the synoptic gospel, however, refer to him by the name Bartholomew. The Gospel of John seems to refer to him as Nathanael. Nothing much more is actually known of him. The gospels continually put together Philip and Bartholomew, just as John says that Philip and Nathanael came together to Christ. Of him Christ said: “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guilt/”
Popular traditions and legends say that Bartholomew preached the gospel in India, then went to greater Armenia. After converting a number of people there he was flayed alive by the barbarians, whereupon King Astyages ordered him to be beheaded.
Bartholomew is said to have preached in Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt and elsewhere. Eusebius in the early fourth cemtury gives the earliest reference to India. When later missionaries came to India, the native people showed them a copy of the Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew which they said Bartholomew had given to them.
The travels attributed to the relics of St Bartholomew seem even broader than his travels when alive. His legendary loss of skin made him the patron of tanners.
[1] Nut;ler’s Lives of Saints – The Liturgical Press = Collegeville, M1998n- pg 232.

Vigils Reading - St Rose of Lima
2022-08-23
From the writings of St. Rose of Lima [1]

Our Lord and Savior lifted up his voice and said with incomparable majesty: Let all know that grace comes after tribulation. Let them know that without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. Let them know that the gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase. Let them take care not to stray or be deceived. This is the only true stairway to paradise, and without the cross they can find no road to climb to heaven.
When I heard these words, a strong force came upon me and seemed to place me in the middle of a street, so that I might say in a loud voice to people of every age, sex and status: Hear, O people; hear, O nations. I am warning you about the commandment of Christ by using words that came from his own lips: We cannot obtain grace unless we suffer afflictions. We must heap trouble upon trouble to attain a deep participation in the divine nature, the glory of the children of God and perfect happiness of soul.
That same force strongly urged me to proclaim the beauty of divine grace. It pressed me so that my breath came slow and forced me to sweat and pant. I felt as if my soul could no longer be kept in the prison of the body, but that it had burst its chains and was free and alone and was going very swiftly through the whole world saying: AIf only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! Without doubt they would devote all their care and concern to winning for themselves pains and afflictions. All people throughout the world would seek trouble, infirmities and torments, instead of good fortune, in order to attain the unfathomable treasure of grace. This is the reward and the final gain of patience. No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to souls.
[1] The Liturgy of the Hours, vol. iv, pg. 1342, Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York, 1975

Vigils Reading - Queenship of Mary
2022-08-22
WHAT DO WE MEAN WHEN WE SPEAK OF THE QUEENSHIP OF MARY?
from the writings of Thomas Merton[1]

Mary alone, of all the saints, is, in everything, incomparable. She has the sanctity of them all and yet resembles none of them. And still we can talk of being like her. This likeness to her is not only something to desire –it is one human quality most worthy of our desire: but the reason for that is that she, of all creatures, most perfectly recovered the likeness to God that God willed to find, in varying degrees, in us all.
It is necessary, no doubt, to talk about her privileges as if they were something that could be made comprehensible in human language and could be measured by some human standard. It is most fitting to talk about her as a Queen and to act as if you knew what it meant to say she has a throne above all the angels. But this should not make anyone forget that her highest privilege is her poverty and her greatest glory is that she is most hidden, and the source of all her power is that she is as nothing in the presence of Christ, of God.
This is often forgotten by Catholics themselves, and therefore it is not surprising that those who are not Catholic often have a completely wrong conception of Catholic devotion to the Mother of God. They imagine, and sometimes we can understand their reasons for doing so, that Catholics treat the Blessed Virgin as an almost divine being in her own right, as if she had some glory, some power, some majesty of her own that placed her on a level with Christ himself. They regard the Assumption of Mary into heaven as a kind of apotheosis and her Queenship as a strict divinization. Hence her place in the Redemption would seem to be equal to that of her Son. But this is all completely contrary to the true mind of the Catholic Church. It forgets that Mary’s chief glory is her nothingness, in the fact of being the “Handmaid of the Lord,” as one who in becoming the Mother of God acted simply in loving submission to his command, in the pure obedience of faith. She is blessed not because of some mythical pseudo-divine prerogative, but in all her human and womanly limitations as one who has believed. It is the faith and the fidelity of this humble handmaid, “full of grace” that enables her to be the perfect instrument of God, and nothing else but his instrument. The work that was done in her was purely the work of God. “He that is mighty has done great things in me.” The glory of Mary is purely and simply the glory of God in her, and she, like anyone else, can say that she has nothing that she has not received from him through Christ.
As a matter of fact, this is precisely her greatest glory: that having nothing of her own, retaining nothing of a “self” that could glory in anything for her own sake, she placed no obstacle to the mercy of God and in no way resisted his love and his will. Hence she received more from him than any other saint. He was able to accomplish his will perfectly in her, and his liberty was in no way hindered or turned from its purpose by the presence of an egotistical self in Mary. She was and is in the highest sense a person precisely because, being “immaculate,” she was free from every taint of selfishness that might obscure God’s light in her being. She was then a freedom that obeyed him perfectly and in this obedience found the fulfillment of perfect love.
[1]New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton (New Directions NY 1961) pp. 169-171.

Compline 7:30 pm est
2022-08-21 19:30 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
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Vigils Reading
2022-08-21
Commentary on Gospel of Luke by Anselm of Canterbury 1
God cries out that the kingdom of heaven is for sale. The glorious bliss of this kingdom surpasses the power of mortal eye to see, mortal ear to hear, mortal heart to conceive. If anyone asks the price that must be paid, the answer is: The One who wishes to bestow a kingdom in heaven has no need of earthly payment. No one can give God anything he does not possess, because everything belongs to him. Yet he does not give such a precious gift gratis, for he will not give it to anyone who lacks love. After all, people do not give away what they hold dear to those without appreciation. So since God has no need of your possessions but must not bestow such a precious gift on anyone who disdains to value it, love is the one thing he asks for; without this he cannot give it. Give love, then, and receive the kingdom: love and it is yours.

To reign in heaven simply means exercising a single power with God and all the holy angels and saints through being so united with them in love as to want only what they want. Love God more than yourself, then, and already you will begin to have what you desire to possess fully in heaven. Be at one with God and with other men and women – so long as they are not at variance with God – and already you will begin to reign with God and all the saints. The desires of God and all the saints will be the same as yours in heaven, if your desires now are the same as those of God and other people. So if you want to be a king in heaven, love God and other people as you should and then you will deserve to become what you desire.

But you cannot have this perfect love unless you empty your heart of every other love. That is why those who fill their hearts with love of God and neighbor desire nothing but the will of God or that of some fellow human being – provided this is not contrary to God. That is why they devote themselves to prayer, spiritual conversations, and reflection, for it is a joy to them to long for God and to speak, hear and think about him whom they dearly love. That is why they rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, show compassion to those in distress, and give to the needy, since they love others as themselves. Hence too their contempt for riches, power, pleasure, honor, and praise. Those who love these things frequently offend against God and their neighbor – for the whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments. So those who wish to possess the fullness of that love which is the price of the kingdom of heaven should love contempt, poverty, toil and subjection, as do the saints.

Skema
2022-08-21
Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (II)
August 21 – 27, 2022

Sun
21
Mon
22
Tue
23
Wed
24
Thu
25
Fri
26
Sat
27

Office
21st Sunday
Queenship of Mary
St Rose of Lima
St Bartholomew
Weekday
Weekday
St Monica

Vigils
2 Macc 1:1-17
2 Macc 1:18-36
2 Macc 2:1-18
Gen 28:10-22
2 Macc 2:19-32
2 Macc 3:1-23
2 Macc 3:24-40

Lauds
Joel 4:1-3, 11-16
Joel 4:17-21
Amos 1:1-5
Deut 18:15-19
Amos 1:6-10
Amos 1:11-15
Amos 2:1-5

Mass
123
425, 627
426
629
428
429
430

1st
Isa 66:18-21
2 Thess 1:1-5, 11-12
2 Thess 2:1-3a, 14-17
Rev 21:9b-14
1 Cor 1:1-9
1 Cor 1:17-25
1 Cor 1:26-31

2nd
Heb 12:5-7, 11-13

Gospel
Luke 13:22-30
Luke 1:26-38
Matt 23:23-26
Jn 1:45-51
Matt 24:42-51
Matt 25:1-13
Matt 25:14-30

Vespers
Eph 6:10-17
Eph 6:18-24
1 Thess 1:1-10
1 Peter 5:1-11
1 Thess 2:1-8
1 Thess 2:9-12
1 Thess 2:13-16

Vigils Reading - St Bernard
2022-08-20
08.SN2008 08.20.22

St. Bernard as master of mystical and spousal love in Christ: a reading from a letter of Pope St. John Paul II to the Cistercian Abbots General.
…The age in which St Bernard lived saw the beginnings of a new stage of intellectual life in Europe. In fact, while the study of man himself increased, there began an intellectual movement which later on was called humanism and which even in our own times continues with vigor. The Doctor of Clairvaux who knew the aspirations and anxieties of his age, understood thoroughly this new passion for man and did not simply reject it nor condemn it.
On the contrary, he affirmed that man, created according to the image and likeness of God, is an “exalted creature,” and because of this—a capacity to share in the very divine grandeur itself. But at the same time, this capacity also shows him to be miserable, poor, weak and insignificant. Christ saved the whole person in order to bring into eternal life not only his soul but also his body.
Thus, affirming openly the dignity of the human condition, St Bernard exclaimed: “How admirable is the goodness of God seeking man! How great, also, the dignity of man thus found!” And thus, from the consideration of man’s dignity which is revealed by creation and redemption, he showed that there arose, as from a double spring, a true Christian humanism. In fact, in affirming that the image of God remains in us even after sin, and that God became man in order to save man,; St Bernard in theological doctrine contemplates at the same time the dignity and misery of man and in this way he avoids the danger of false “anthropocentrism.” The Christology of St Bernard offers an adequate foundation to the Christian humanism when he teaches with a certain forcefulness that the whole person was taken up in Christ. Actually, while we are living on this earth, in our human condition, we have access to God only through the law of the Incarnation. This “excellent doctor,” when he affirms that he does not yet see Christ in a form equal to the Father because he does not contemplate “God with God,” nevertheless added: “at least as a man, I present Him as man to men.” These words contain an understanding of the true sense of the word “humanism”: the recognition of the limitations as well as the exalted capacity and dignity of man who was created in Paradise, united in friendship with God and was called through the goodness of God to a much more intimate union which surpasses all human concepts and all expectations.
In the spiritual school of St Bernard, the earthly life of Jesus is never found separated from the Eternal Word Incarnate; it is both present with the Father in glory and present among us by grace as the Spouse of the Church and of the soul. [It is he] who calls and leads his bride to the most intimate union with him in the Father. It is with reason then that the Abbot of Clairvaux was called Master of mystical and spousal love in Christ.

Vigils Reading - Bl Guerric
2022-08-19
08SN1903
08.19.22
The Life of Bl Guerric of Igny – from the Introduction to his Sermons
By Fr Hilary Costello, OCSO [1]
Guerric of Igny was born around 1075 at Tournai and was educated in the humanities, dialectic and theology at the cathedral school. Guerric was first attracted to the eremitical life. He went to Clairvaux without any idea of staying there. He only wanted to derive spiritual advantage from a meeting with the Abbot Bernard. Bernard saw the makings of a good monk in Guerric and urged him to stay.
Like so many of the Clairvaux community, Guerric was considerably older than his abbot. By human standards he was more mature and experienced. Guerric remained at Clairvaux for thirteen years. Igny was founded as the fourth foundation of Clairvaux in 1127. In 1138 the first abbot of Igny, Humbert, resigned and returned to Clairvaux. Guerric was chosen as its second abbot. There is a passage in the Vita Hugonis which suggests that Bernard influenced the choice considerably. “It was Bernard who brought Guerric to the monastic life and Bernard favored his election as abbot. He knew of no man living more holy than Guerric and so declared him the one candidate for the office. But this does not indicate that Guerric was imposed on the community. The monks of twelve years standing would have known him at Clairvaux. Guerric himself says that the community chose him: “’I am no physician and in my house there is no bread’. That is what I said from the start: ‘Do not make me your leader.’ It is not right for one to rule who cannot be of service. And how can he be of service who is not a physician and in whose house there is no bread? He has neither the art of healing souls nor learning to feed them with? I told you this, but you would not listen. You made me your superior.” Guerric may indeed have been about sixty years old, but then his long experience both before and after his entrance into Clairvaux must have been thought a valuable asset.
Igny flourished under Guerric. Vocations were plentiful and so were benefactors. Much land and money was given to the monastery during his tenure. It was none of this that was to make the abbot’s name known to posterity, but the spiritual teaching committed to writing in his sermons. He seems to have died on August 19, 1157. More than six hundred years later his remains were taken into a new church.
Along with Bernard, Aelred of Rievaulx and William of St Thierry, Guerric has been called the four evangelists of Citeaux.
[1] Guerric of Igny – Liturgical Sermons – vol. 1 – Cistercain Fathers Series #8 – Cistercian Publications – Spencer, MA – 1970 – pg xi ff

Vigils Reading - Weekday
2022-08-18
OT-GEN96
08.18.22

Jacob Blesses the sons of Joseph – by St John CHrysostom [1]
Joseph realized that his father was ailing, that the hour of his demise was at hand. He took his two sons and went to Jacob. Jacob was anxious to bless these two sons of Joseph. But instead of blessing the elder son first, Jacob changed his hands to give precedence to the younger, putting Ephraim ahead of Manasses. Do you see Jacob’s insight and, at the same time, his humility? His insight unforeseeing with the eyes of faith and so giving precedence to Ephraim ahead of Manasses, and on the other hand his humility in making no mention of his own virtue but instead invoking a blessing on the basis of the satisfaction given by his forbearers and the kindnesses done to him. Don’t think he is saying that it is just by chance or through ignorance that I have done this. I am aware of what I have done, and because I foresee later developments I blessed him as I did. You see. If Manasses had pride of place from nature, still the younger son will be greater.” This is what prophecy is like, after all. Just as the eyes of the body can form an image of nothing beyond visible things, so the eyes of faith do not see visible things but form an image of things that are due to happen generations later.
We recommend to you, dearly beloved, to imitate this good man by bequeathing to your children such legacies as can never sustain damage from anyone. Such a treasure is incorruptible. It is not prey to human conspiracy nor can it be diminished by any other thing. Instead it lasts forever; after all, it is spiritual and not subject to human conspiracies. On the contrary, it will prepare them for everlasting dwellings.
Let us therefore not be anxious t0 amass money and bequeath it to your children. Rather, let us teach them virtue and call down blessings from God on them. Let us therefore teach our children to prefer virtue to everything else and give no importance to material wealth.
[1] The Fathers of the Church – St John Chrysostom – Homilies on Genesis – vol. 3 – Catholic University Press – Washington DC = 1992 = pg 257

Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
2022-08-17
DEAD-43
08.17.2022
Fear and Hope from a book by Michael Schmaus1
To Understand God’s call as one of love does not do away with the awesomeness of death; even the faithful anticipate it with fear. Indeed, the element of fear in the believer is liable to be stronger than in the atheist or nihilist, who has resolved to his own satisfaction the problem of what comes after death and is chiefly disturbed by the knowledge that one must abandon a work which one has begun, leaving something unfinished. The believer, however, sees in death the moment of encounter with God, that moment towards which the person has been journeying, in an anticipation never free of tension, during one’s whole lifetime. As the person awaits the judgment God will pronounce, anxiety can be overcome only in a loving confidence. The death of the faithful Christian is a death in the Lord. It is a death which will not bring condemnation, since no one who lives and has faith in Christ will ever die.
Although God is an impenetrable mystery, the person of faith perceives the meaning of the divine summons in a way that prevents one from falling into despair. When the time had come for him to take leave of his disciples, Christ said: “Trust in God always; trust also in me.” In that hour Christ gave his own assurance that they would have life, and have it abundantly. He never promised them an untroubled existence within time, but only a life of joy in God. Thus anxiety is changed into tremulous expectation: the Lord comes. In the First Letter of John, Jesus’ exhortation to his disciples to have confidence in the Father and in himself is made explicit when he says: “There is no room for fear in love; perfect love banishes fear. For fear brings with it the pains of judgment, and anyone who is afraid has not attained to love in its perfection.” So, in the face of death, there remains to everyone only trust and hope with which to meet the unavoidable fear of death.
1 Dogma 6, Justification & the Last Things. Michael Schmaus, Sheed & Ward, 1977, pp.220-221

Rule of Benedict: Reflection. 7 pm CDT
2022-08-16 19:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago)
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Apr. 16-Aug. 16-Dec. 16-Chapter 61: How Pilgrim Monks Are To Be Received.
But if as a guest he was found exacting or prone to vice, not only should he be denied membership in the community, but he should even be politely requested to leave, lest others be corrupted by his evil life. If, however, he has not proved to be the kind who deserves to be put out, he should not only on his own application be received as a member of the community, but he should even be persuaded to stay, that the others may be instructed by his example, and because in every place it is the same Lord who is served, the same King for whom the battle is fought.
Moreover, if the Abbot perceives that he is worthy, he may put him in a somewhat higher rank. And not only with regard to a monk but also with regard to those in priestly or clerical orders previously mentioned, the Abbot may establish them in a higher rank than would be theirs by date of entrance if he perceives that their life is deserving. Let the Abbot take care, however, never to receive a monk from another known monastery as a member of his community without the consent of his Abbot or a letter of recommendation; for it is written, “Do not to another what you would not want done to yourself” (Tob.4:16).
END OF READING

Vigils Reading - Weekday
2022-08-16
OT-GEN95
08.18.22

A Commentary on the Book of Genesis by St John Chrysostom [1]

Joseph’s father believed what the brothers told him – that Joseph was alive and was ruler in Egypt. He said: “It is wonderful news for me that my son Joseph is alive. I will go and se him before I die. So let us hasten now so that I may savor something of our meeting before I die. Once I have the good fortune to meet him and have the consummation of joy, I shall then bring my life to a close.” Without delay the good man took to the road, showing all haste and anxiety to see the object of his desire and gaze upon him , dead for many years, as he thought, and now made king of Egypt. “
Arriving at the Oath Well, By way of offering prayers of thanksgiving, he offered a sacrifice to the God of his father Isaac. On hearing this, let us learn in whatever we do, whether embarking on some project or beginning a journey, first of all to offer a sacrifice to the Lord in prayer and, by calling on his help to address the matter at hand, thus also imitate those good people’s godliness. Because he took the initiative in showing his own right attitude in thanksgiving, at once he felt the influence of grace from on high. I mean, because he had in view the length of the journey and kept in mind his advanced age, he was afraid that death might come upon him before the meeting and rob him of the sight of his son, so he offered prayers to God to grant him life enough to enable him to enjoy the final satisfaction.
Observe, however, how the good God reassures the good man. The text goes on, remember: “God spoke to Israel in a vision by night, “Jacob, Jacob, I am the God of your fathers. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt. I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down with you, and I will bring you back again. Joseph’s hands will close your eyes in death.” So quite happy and free from all concern, he took to the road.
Consider at this point, I ask you, with what cheerfulness the old man takes the journey, being reassured by God’s promise. Jacob’s company traveling to Egypt numbered sixty-six persons. Joseph and his sons born to him numbered nine; so the total including Joseph numbered seventy=five. Why did Sacred Scripture indicate the number to us precisely? So that we might be in a position to know how God’s prediction took effect that said: “I will make you into a great nation there.” You see, from these seventy-five persons, the people of Israel grew into six hundred thousand. You notice how it was not idly or to no purpose that it taught us the number of those that went down to Egypt but for us to know from how few that great number came and not to lose confidence in God’s promise and the fact that his wishes can never fail, no matter how many people try their utmost.
“On learning of his father’s arrival in Egypt, Joseph harnessed his chariot and went out to meet his father; catching sight of him, he fell on his neck and wept a flood of tears.” You see, immediately there came to his mind what he himself has suffered, what his father had endured on his account. And he thought of the great length of time that had elapsed. and the fact that, contrary to all expectation, he saw his father and his father set eyes on his son. I have attained the object of my desire, he is saying: I am ready for death.

[1] The Fathers of the Church – St John Chrysostom – Homilies on Genesis – vol. 3 – Catholic University Press – Washington DC – 1992 – pg 245

Vigils Reading - Assumption B.V.M.
2022-08-15
08SN1501
08/15/21
Sermon of St Aelred of Rievaulx on the Assumption [1]
Among all those who are Christ’s, she who tastes his goodness more intimately and more delicately is of greater excellence, more blessed, and more attractive. She is to him not only a creature, a handmaid, a friend, and a daughter, but also a mother. So then it is only right that we welcome her feast with greater delight and gladness. But today even more we should rejoice with her because today her joy was completely fulfilled. Great was her joy when the angel greeted her. Great was her joy when she felt the coming of the Holy Spirit, when that marvelous fusion of the Son of God with her flesh took place in her womb, so that he, one and the same, was the Son of God and her Son. Great was her joy when she held such a Son in her arms, when she listened to his words, when she saw his miracles. And because her sorrow was so great at the Passion, she took wondrous joy again in his resurrection and greater still at his ascension. But all these joys were surpassed by the joy which she receives today.
Up to this day, brothers, Mary, the blessed Mother of God, knew her dearest Son in the flesh. Although she fastened all her desires and all her love there, where he was, after her dearest Son and Lord ascended into heaven, so long as she remained in this corruptible flesh, what she had seen of him in the flesh could not fade from her memory. For his deeds and words were always coming to her mind and above all there lingered in her heart the features of his exquisite face. Today, however, she passed from this world and went up to the heavenly kingdom. There she began to contemplate his brightness, power, and divinity, and her joy and her longing were fulfilled. So with good reason could she say: “I have found him whom my soul loves”. She holds him and she does not let him go.
Previously she had found him whom her flesh loved, since the flesh still appreciated flesh, a human being another human nature. She held him but she let him go. She held him – but in the flesh – and therefore through death she lost him to some extent – but in the flesh. Today she found him whom her soul loves because, although she was taken up into heaven with her body, that body had, however, been made spiritual, so that all the love with which she loves her Lord, her Son, is not according to the flesh but according to the spirit. Today she has found him whom her soul loves, she has found him in spirit, she loves him in spirit, she holds him in spirit and therefore she will never again lose him. Today she has found him because today the shadow of night has retreated and the Light of light has risen on her.
First, before the coming of the Lord, she sought him and longed for him. She sought, that he might come to earth as he had promised, that he might redeem the world, that he might set her, together with others, free from their miserable captivity. This is Our Lady, Saint Mary, in whose most sacred breast the flame of love had not died down. She loved him more than anyone else did, so she yearned for him more than anyone else did, and therefore sought him more persistently. But him whom until now her flesh loved, now her soul loves. And now she says: “I will rise and go the rounds of the city”. Today the Blessed Virgin went up into heaven and went round the whole of that heavenly city in the full natural vigor of her mind. Today she entered that heavenly court. She saw the white robes of the virgins, the ruddy crowns of the martyrs, the thrones of the apostles, and in the midst of them she found her Son reigning. Ascending higher that the very highest of the saints, she has arrived at such knowledge of the divinity that she then glories in having found him for the first time.
O blessed soul, who left behind not only the patriarchs and prophets, the apostles, martyrs, confessors, and virgins, but also the angels, thrones and dominations, the cherubim and seraphim and all heaven’s array, and so reached her dearest Son. Then she utterly found him whom now her soul loves utterly. She found him and she held him. She holds him in the embraces of an utterly perfect love and she can never lose him because she can never love him any less.
Let us lift up our hearts therefore, brothers, to Our Lady, our Advocate. Let us reflect on how much hope we have in her. Just as she surpasses every creature in excellence, so also she is more merciful and kinder than any creature. Let us then confidently entreat her who can by her excellence assist us and by her mercy chooses to do so, that she may implore her Son for us so that as he deigned to be born of her for us, he may through her deign to have mercy on us.

[1] Aelred of Rievaulx – The Liturgical Sermons – Cistercian Fathers Series #58 – Cistercian Publications – Kalamazoo – 2001

Vigils Reading - 20TH Sunday Ordinary Time
2022-08-14
NT-LK20
08.14.22
A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke by Denis the Carthusian 1
I have come to cast fire on the earth. In other words, I have come down from the highest heaven and appeared to men and women through the mystery of the incarnation in order to light the fire of divine love in human hearts. And how I wish it were already ablaze! How I wish it were already kindled, fanned into flame by the Holy Spirit, and leaping forth in good works.
Christ foretells that he will suffer death on a cross before the human race is inflamed by the fire of this love; for it was by his most holy passion that he won so great a gift for humankind, and it is chiefly the recollection of his passion that kindles the flame of love in Christian hearts.
There is a baptism which I must undergo. By divine decree there remains for me the duty of receiving a baptism of blood, that is, of being bathed, soaked upon the cross not in water but in my own blood poured out to redeem the whole world. And what constraint I am under until that has been achieved – until my passion is love and I say: It is accomplished. For Christ was impelled incessantly by the love within him.
The way to attain the perfection of divine love is then stated. Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? In other words: Do not imagine that I have come to offer people a sensual, worldly, and unruly peace that will enable them to be united in their vices and achieve earthly prosperity. No, I tell you, I have not come to offer that kind of peace, but rather division – a good, healthy kind of division, physical as well as spiritual. Love for God and desire for inner peace will set those who believe in me at odds with wicked people and make them part company with those who would turn them from their course of spiritual progress and from the purity of divine love, or who attempt to hinder them.
Good, interior, spiritual peace consists in the repose of the mind in God, and in a right ordered harmony. To bestow this peace was the chief reason for Christ’s coming. This inner peace flows from love. It is an unassailable joy of the mind in God, and it is called peace of heart. It is the beginning and a kind of foretaste of the peace of the saints in heaven – the peace of eternity.
1Journey with the Fathers – Year C – New City Press – New York – 2000 – pg 108

SKEMA - Week 20 Ordinary Time
2022-08-14
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
20th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (II)
August 14 – 20, 2022

Sun
14
Mon
15
Tue
16
Wed
17
Thu
18
Fri
19
Sat
20

Office
20th Sunday
Assumption of the BVM
Weekday
Office for the Dead
Weekday
Bl Guerric
St Bernard

Vigils
Gen 47:1-26
Sir 24:1-16
Gen 47:27-48:22
Gen 49:1-27
Gen 49:28-50:14
Gen 50:15-26
Sir 50:5-20

Lauds
Joel 2:1-6
Josh 4:4-10
Joel 2:7-11
Joel 2:12-17
Joel 2:18-19, 23-27
Joel 3:1-5
Wis 8:2-13

Mass
120
622
420
421
422
423
641, 660, 574

1st
Jer 38:4-6, 8-10
Rev 11:19a; 12:1-6a; 10ab
Ezek 28:1-10
Ezek 34:1-11
Ezek 36:23-28
Ezek 37:1-14
Wis 7:7-10, 15-16

2nd
Heb 12:1-4
1 Cor 15:20-27

Phil 3:17-4:1

Gospel
Luke 12:49-53
Luke 1:39-56
Matt 19:23-30
Matt 20:1-16
Matt 22:1-14
Matt 22:34-40
Matt 5:13-19

Vespers
Rom 8:28-39
1 Cor 15:50-58
Eph 5:6-14
Eph 5:15-20
Eph 6:1-9
1 Jn 3:19-24
1 Jn 4:7-16

Chicago LCG. August Meeting 9 am CDT
2022-08-13 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago)
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AGENDA
9:00 Gather for Opening prayer and lighting of the candles illuminating the Theotokos icon of Blessed Mother Mary and the baby Jesus.
We also pray for all our lay Cistercian sisters and brothers in the US and around the world. Specially we pray for our Gethsemani monks. Finally, we pray this month specially for these Gethsemani monks:
Br. Thomas Richards
Br. Gregory Escardo
Br. Maximilian Pickerill
9:10 Lectio. Our lectio piece will be led by Anthony .
9:50 Reading. Our discussion this month will continue Michael Casey’s Coenobium. Discussion lead assignments for chapters four, five, and six are:

Leon Peck
Mary Ann Dier-Zimmermann, and
Tina Parayre

10:45 Housekeeping. Volunteer to lead lectio next month? Report on LCG Advisory Council activity. Select leaders for next month. Awareness of existing LCG programs and possible future programs.
11:00 Update. Share how the Holy Spirt has entered our lives as lay Cistercians since our last meeting.
11:45 Closing worship and prayer. We will pray the liturgical hour of None as with our Gethsemani monks (identical Psalms as done today at Gethsemani Abbey.)
We look forward to our continuing LCG Chicago journey at our next meeting: September 10, 2022.

Reading: Memorial B. V. M.
2022-08-13
A Reading about Mary and Waiting for Christ, from a book by Fr Jean Daniélou.[i]
The Blessed Virgin had a most crucial role in the first coming of Christ. In her culminated all the expectation of the Jewish people, insofar as all the preparations, aspirations, inspirations, graces, which had filled the Old Testament, all came together and were summed up in her; it is true to say that at the eve of Christ’s coming she was the epitome and incarnation of the long waiting of twenty centuries. The whole of the Old Testament seems to come together in her with a more ardent longing and a more complete spiritual preparation for Our Lord’s coming. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low. The work of the Old Testament was one of education: the human race, rugged, coarse, as yet unformed, still utterly carnal-minded, must be made able, bit by bit, to take God’s gifts, to receive the Holy Spirit. It was a long, progressive work of training. And the training culminated in the soul of the Blessed Virgin; and if we can say that in some sense her soul is outside time, and that in her eternity is present, then we may also say that she was prepared by the education of the whole of her people: she is the marvelous flower sprung out of Israel, the final point in the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit in the souls of all the prophets and all the holy women of Israel. It is in fact, absolutely true to say that in her every valley was filled, every mountain and hill brought low. That is to say, in her our Lord’s path was smooth before Him.
All this, which was simply the preparation and foreshadowing of Christ in Our Lady’s soul, is a reality still present to us, for the mystery we are now living in the world is the mystery of Christ’s gradual coming into all souls, into all nations. Christ had appeared in the flesh, the culmination of Israel’s hopes; Mary had seen him for whom she had waited, she had held in her arms the child born in Bethlehem, and with Simeon had been able to salute Him as a Light to enlighten the Gentiles. Christ, then, had certainly come. He has come, but He is always He that is to come. He has come, but not yet wholly come; and though the waiting of Israel had been crowned, Israel is nonetheless still waiting. We live always during Advent, we are always waiting for the Messiah to come. He has come, but is not yet fully manifest. He is not fully manifest in each of our souls; He is not fully manifest in the world as a whole: that is to say, that just as Christ was born according to the flesh in Bethlehem of Juda so must He be born according to the spirit in each of our souls.
[i].”Advent”, New York 1951, 102-103, 109-110.

Reading: Weekday
2022-08-12
A Commentary on Genesis
from Quodvult Deus of Carthage [1]
Joseph ordered his brothers’ sacks to be filled with corn and the money they had brought to be returned to each one. This was to show that the grace of Christ, who is our Joseph, does not come from works, for otherwise grace would not be grace. Joseph’s brethren come for the second time with Benjamin as they had promised; and for the second time five thousand Jews come to Christ, followed by Paul, the least – or the last – of the apostles. Joseph saw Benjamin, his brother and his mother’s son, and he wept at the sight. Jesus saw Paul savaging our mother the Church and he took pity on him. The same Paul says that Jesus appeared to him, as it were born after his time. Benjamin’s delivery and birth, on the other hand, hastened his mother’s death, and so he was called the child of grief. Thus Paul, our Benjamin, says: I am not worthy to be called an apostle, for I persecuted the Church of God. Joseph said of his brothers, to the head of the household: Take them into the house, for they are to eat bread with me. So our Joseph says, through the prophets, to his brethren: Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have made ready for you. Joseph gave his brethren gifts; and Christ our Joseph made gifts to men when he sent the Holy Spirit to his disciples. Joseph’s gifts to his younger brother were more lavish than those to the others. This is what Paul, our Benjamin, said of himself in his preaching: I have labored more than all those: but not I, but God’s grace working in me. Again, Joseph ordered his brothers’ sacks to be filled with corn and the money to be given back. Our brethren remonstrate to Joseph at receiving grace upon grace. Joseph orders his own goblet to be placed secretly in Benjamin’s sack, and it troubled his brethren when it was sought and found in Benjamin’s sack. The cup of Christ’s suffering. given in secret, is recognized for what it is by grace, when afflicting Paul’s body. For this is what he meant when he berated the entire synagogue, as if to say he had found the cup in his sack. For I bear in my body the marks of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[1]A Word in Season – vol. VII – Augustinian Press – 1999 – pg. 95

Reading: St. Clare
2022-08-11
A READING FROM THE TESTAMENT OF ST CLARE[1]
I admonish all my sisters, present and to come, and I exhort them in Our Lord Jesus Christ always to strive to follow the way of holy simplicity, of humility and of poverty, and to live worthily and holily just as we have been taught from the beginning of our conversion to Jesus Christ by our blessed father Francis. Thus with these virtues, not acquired through our merits, but through the mercy and grace alone of our benefactor, the Father of Mercies, the sisters may spread the fragrance of a good name for all the others, for those sisters who are far and for those who are near.
And in the love of Christ love one another, and show the love that you have within you outwardly by your works, so that such an example may inspire the sisters to grow always in the love of God and in mutual charity. I also beseech the sister who shall be entrusted with the guidance of the sisters to govern them more by her virtues and the holiness of her life, than by the dignity of her office, so that the sisters, inspired by her example, will obey her not only out of duty, but rather out of love.
In addition, let her show the discretion and solicitude of a good mother for her daughters, and above all provide all of them with the alms given by the Lord, giving to each according to her need. Let her also be so kind and so approachable to all, that they may disclose their needs to her with surety and have recourse to her with confidence, as they may deem necessary for themselves or for their sisters. For their part the sisters subject to her should remember that they have renounced their wills for God’s sake.
Therefore, I will that they obey their mother, with a spontaneous will, as they have promised the Lord, so that this mother, seeing the charity, humility and the unity that reigns among them, may bear the burden of her duties more lightly, and their holy life may change what is painful and bitter into sweetness for her. How strait is the way that leads to life! And how narrow is the gate through which one must enter! Thus there are few who walk along this path and who pass through this gate. And if there are some who walk along the path for a moment, O how rare are those who know how to persevere there! But happy are those to whom it is given to walk thereon and to persevere unto the end!
[1]THE CALL OF ST CLARE, by H. Daniel-Rops, Trans by S. Attanasio (Hawthorn Books, Inc. NY 1963) pp 138-140.

Reading: St. Lawrence
2022-08-10
From a sermon by St Augustine on the feast of St Lawrence 1
The Roman Church commends to us today the anniversary of the triumph of St. Lawrence. For on this day he trod the furious pagan world underfoot and flung aside its allurements, and so gained victory over Satan’s attack on his faith. As you have often heard, Lawrence was a deacon of the Church at Rome. There he ministered the sacred blood of Christ; there for the sake of Christ’s name he poured out his own blood. St John the Apostle was evidently teaching us about the mystery of the Lord’s supper when he wrote: Just as Christ laid down his life for us, so we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. My brethren, Lawrence understood this and, understanding, he acted on it. Just as he had partaken of a gift of self at the table of the Lord, so he prepared to offer such a gift. In his life he loved Christ; in his death he followed in his footsteps.
Brethren, we too must imitate Christ if we truly love him. We shall not be able to render better return on that love than by modeling our lives on his. Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow in his steps. In saying this, the Apostle Peter seems to have understood that Christ suffered only for those who follow in his steps, in the sense that Christ’s passion is of no avail to those who do not. The holy martyrs followed Christ even to the shedding of their life’s blood, even to reproducing the very likeness of his passion. They followed him, but not they alone. It is not true that the bridge was broken after the martyrs crossed; nor is it true that after they had drunk from it, the fountain of eternal life dried up.
I tell you again and again, my brethren, that in the Lord’s garden are to be found not only the roses of his martyrs. In it there are also the lilies of the virgins, the ivy of wedded couples, and the violets of widows. On no account may any class of people despair, thinking that Christ has not called them. Christ suffered for all. What the Scriptures say of him is true: He desires all to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.
Let us understand, then, how a Christian must follow Christ even though he does not shed his blood for him, and his faith is not called upon to undergo the great test of the martyr’s sufferings. The apostle Paul says of Christ our Lord: Though he was in the form of God he did not consider equality with God a prize to be clung to. How unrivaled his majesty! But he emptied himself, taking on the form of a slave, made in human likeness, and presenting himself in human form. How deep his humility!
Christ humbled himself. Christian, that is what you must make your own. Christ became obedient. How is it that you are proud? When this humbling experience was completed and death itself lay conquered, Christ ascended into heaven. Let us follow him there, for we hear Paul saying: If you have been raised with Christ, you must lift your thoughts on high, where Christ now sits at the right hand of God.
1The Liturgy of the Hours – vol. IV – pg 1305 – Catholic Book Publishing Co – New York – 1975
