Thursday After Ash Wednesday
2024-02-15
NOW IS THE TIME
From a sermon by St Leo the Great 5
◊◊◊
“Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold now is the day of salvation”.
For though there is no season that is not filled with the divine gifts, and though
at each moment we have, through His grace, access to the Divine Mercy, yet
now is the time in which the souls of all mortals should be stirred with greater
fervor towards spiritual perfection, and inspired with greater confidence; now
when the return of that day when we were redeemed invites us once more to the
fulfillment of all our sacred duties, so that purified in body and soul we may
celebrate the supreme Mystery of the Passion of Our Lord. Indeed such
unending reverence and unceasing devotion is due to these sacred mysteries,
that we should ever be in the Presence of God as we now are obliged to be for
the worthy celebration of the Paschal Feast.
But since there are few that have this strength of soul, and since because
of the weakness of our flesh, the more severe observance is relaxed, and since
the manifold duties of the present life take up so much of our care, it will happen
that even the most devout of heart are stained with the dust of earth.
Accordingly, with great solicitude has this divine means been given us, so that
these forty days of reflection may assist us to restore the purity of our souls, and
so that during them we may by good works make satisfaction for our past sins,
and by devout mortification purge ourselves of them.
As we are therefore beginning this sacred season, dedicated to the
purification of the soul, let us be careful to fulfill the Apostolic command that
“we cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit”, so that
restraining the conflict that exists between the one and the other substance, the
soul, which in the Providence of God is meant to be the ruler of the body, may
regain the dignity of its rightful authority, so that, giving offence to no one, we
may not incur the punishment of evildoers. For the sum total of our fasting does
not consist in merely abstaining from food. In vain do we deny our body food if
we do not withhold our heart from iniquity, and restrain our lips that they speak
no evil.
We must then so moderate our rightful use of food that our other desires
may be subject to the same rule. For this is also a time for gentleness and
patience, a time of peace and serenity, in which having put away all stains of evil
doing we strive after steadfastness in what is good. Now is the time when
generous Christian souls forgive offences, pay no heed to insults, and wipe out
the memory of past injuries. Now let the Christian soul exercise itself in the
armor of justice, on the right hand and on the left, so that amid honor and
dishonor, evil report and good, the praise of men will not make proud the virtue
that is well rooted, the conscience that has peace, nor dishonor cast it down.
The moderation of those who worship God is blameless.
5 The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, vol. 2, Henry Regnery Co, Chicago, 1958, pg. 29.

Friday After Ash Wednesday
2024-02-16
THIS FAST OF FORTY DAYS
From a sermon by St Maximus the Confessor 6
◊◊◊
We must accept with all reverence…the sacred days of Lent, and not recoil
because of the length of the season; for the longer the days of our fasting, the
greater the grounds of our forgiveness; the longer the time of our self-denial,
the greater the price paid for our soul’s salvation; the severer the treatment of
our wounds, the more sure the healing of our offences. For God who is the
Physician of our souls has instituted an appropriate time; sufficient for the just
to make reparation and for sinners to ask for mercy; the one praying for peace,
the other imploring pardon.
For the days of Lent are suited to our purposes; not short, so that we may
plead in prayer; not long, for our need to gain merit. For in this fast of forty days
any offence may be wiped out, and the severity of any judge softened. The time
may be long and tedious for the one neither pleads for his sins, nor hopes for
forgiveness. For he who despairs will neither confess his sins, nor hope in the
mercy of the Judge.
Holy and salutary therefore is the time of Lent, in which the Judge is
moved to mercy, the sinner to repentance, and the just to peace. For in these
days the Divinity is inclined to be more merciful, the sinner to repent, and grace
to be obtained. All things are now prepared: the heavens to pardon, the sinner
to confess, the tongue to plead.
Mystical and salutary is this number forty. For when in the beginning the
iniquity of mortals covered the earth, God, dissolving the clouds of heaven for
the space of this number of days, covered the whole earth with a flood. You see
then already that in this time the Mystery is put before us in Figure. For as it
then rained for forty days, to cleanse the world, so now it also happens. Yet the
deluge of those days must be called a mercy; in that through it iniquity was
crushed, and justice upheld. For it took place out of mercy, to deliver the just,
and that the wicked might no longer sin. We see clearly it was through mercy it
came, as a sort of baptism, in which the face of the earth was renewed; that is,
so that mortals who wallowed in the dreadful sin of those abandoned might
come to grace in the dwelling of Noah, and so that he who was then an abode of
iniquity, might become a dwelling of holiness.
Holy and dedicated is this time of forty days, which immediately from the
beginning began to divide the just from the unjust; and by a kind of judgment
separate the good from the bad. And this takes place even in our time of forty
days. For in these forty days the good are divided from the bad, that is, the
chaste from the unchaste, the temperate from the intemperate, the Christian
from the heathen. The wicked, as I say, are separated from the good, that is, the
sinner from the just, the devil from the saint, the heretic from the faithful. For
those others are lost, as in the Flood, in the disaster of this world, while the
Church alone, with all its virtues, is like the Ark sustained above the deep.
6 The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, vol. 2, Henry Regnery Co. Chicago, 1958, pg 92.

Saturday After Ash Wednesday
2024-02-17
LIFE RISES THROUGH DEATH
From “The Eternal Year” by Fr Karl Rahner 7
◊◊◊
There is a distance of God that permeates the pious and the impious, that
perplexes the mind and unspeakably terrifies the heart. The pious do not like to
admit it, because they suppose that such a thing should not happen to them
(although the Lord himself cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?”); and the others, the impious, draw false consequences from the admitted
facts.
If this God-distance of choked-up hearts is the ultimate bitterness of the
fasting season of our life, then it is fitting to ask how we are to deal with it,
and…how we can today celebrate the fasting season of the Church. For when
the bitter God-distance becomes a divine service, the fasting season of the world
changes into the fasting season of the Church.
The first thing we have to do is this: stand up and face this God-distance
of a choked-up heart. We have to resist the desire to run away from it either in
pious or in worldly business. We have to endure it without the narcotic of the
world, without the narcotic of sin or of obstinate despair. What God is really far
away from you in this emptiness of heart? Not the true and living God; for he is
precisely the intangible God, the nameless God; and that is why he can really be
the God of your measureless heart. Distant from you is only a God who does not
exist: a tangible God, a God of our small thoughts and our cheap, timid feelings,
a God of earthly security, a God whose concern is that the children don’t cry and
that philanthropy doesn’t fall into disillusion, a very venerable – idol! That is
what has become distant…
Do not be frightened over the loneliness and abandonment of your
interior dungeon, which seems to be so dead – like a grave. For if you stand firm
– this is already a wonder of grace – then you will suddenly perceive that your
grave-dungeon only blocks the futile finiteness; you will become aware that
your deadly void is only the breadth of God’s intimacy, that the silence is filled
up by a word without words, by the one who is above all name and is all in all.
That silence is God’s silence. It tells you that God is there.
That is the second thing you should do in your despair: notice that God is
there. Know with faith that he is with you. Perceive that for a long time now he
has been waiting for you in the deepest dungeon of your blocked-up heart, and
that for a long time he has been quietly listening to you, even though you, after
all the busy noise that we call our life, do not even let him get a word in edgewise,
and his words to the person-you-were-until-now seem only deadly silence. You
shall see that you by no means make a mistake if you give up your anxiety over
yourself and your life, that you by no means make a mistake if you relax your
hold on self, that you are by no means crushed with despair if once and for all
you despair of yourself, of your wisdom and strength, and of the false image of
God that is snatched away from you…
If we do this, then peace comes all by itself. Peace is the most genuine
activity: the silence that is filled with God’s word, the trust that is no longer
afraid, the sureness that no longer needs to be assured, and the strength that is
powerful in weakness – it is, then, the life that rises through death…
7 The Eternal Year, K. Rahner, Helicon: Baltimore MD 1964. pp 68ff.

Skema, 1st Week of Lent
2024-02-18
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
1st Week of Lent

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
February 18 – 24, 2024

Sun
18
Mon
19
Tue
20
Wed
21
Thu
22
Fri
23
Sat
24

Office
1st Sunday of Lent
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Chair of St Peter
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday

Vigils
Deut 3:18-4:8
Deut 4:9-24
Deut 4:25-40
Deut 4:44-5:21
Acts 11:1-18
Deut 6:4-25
Deut 7:1-11

Lauds
Exod 2:23-3:6
Exod 3:7-10
Exod 3:11-15
Exod 3:16-22
Num 27:15-23
Exod 5:1-5
Exod 6:2-9

Mass
23
224
225
226
535
228
229

1st
Gen 9:8-15
Lev 19:1-2, 11-18
Isa 55:10-11
Jonah 3:1-10
1 Pet 5:1-4
Ezek 18:21-28
Deut 26:16-19

2nd
1 Pet 3:18-22

Gospel
Mark 1:12-15
Matt 25:31-46
Matt 6:7-15
Luke 11:29-32
Matt 16:13-19
Matt 5:20-26
Matt 5:43-48

Vespers
Heb 2:10-18
Heb 3:1-6
Heb 3:7-13
Heb 3:14-19
Acts 4:8-13
Heb 4:12-16
Heb 5:1-10

1 st Sunday of Lent
2024-02-18
PREPARE YOUR SOUL FOR AN ORDEAL
From a commentary by John Justus Landsberg 1
◊◊◊
Everything the Lord Jesus decided to do, everything he chose to endure,
was ordained by him for our instruction, our correction, and our advantage, and
since he knew that the teaching and consolation we should derive from it all was
far from negligible, he was loath to let slip any opportunity that might profit us.
And so when he was led out into the wilderness there is no doubt that his guide
was the Holy Spirit whose intention was to take him to a place where he would
be exposed to temptation, a place where the devil would have the audacity to
accost him and put him to the test. The circumstances were so greatly in the
devil’s favor that he was prompted to capitalize on them; here was Jesus alone
at prayer, physically worn out by fasting and abstinence. A chance indeed to
find out whether this man really was the Christ, whether or not he was the Son
of God.
From this episode therefore our first lesson is that human life on earth
is a life of warfare, and the first thing Christians must expect is to be tempted
by the devil. As Scripture tells us, we have to be prepared for temptation, for it
is written: When you enter God’s service, prepare your soul for an ordeal. For
this reason, the Lord desires that newly baptized and recent converts too find
comfort in his own example. Reading in the gospel that Christ too was tempted
by the devil immediately after he was baptized, they will not grow fainthearted
and fearful if they experience keener temptations from the devil after their
conversion or baptism than before – even if persecution should be their lot.
The second lesson Christ desires to impress upon us by his own example
is that we should not lightly expose ourselves to temptation, for we read that it
was the Holy Spirit who led Jesus into the wilderness. Mindful of our frailty
rather, we must be on the watch, praying not to be put to the test, and keeping
ourselves clear of every occasion of temptation.
1
Journey with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – 1999 – pg 82-83.

Lenten Weekday
2024-02-19
THE LIGHT OF LENT
By Thomas Merton 2
◊◊◊
There is confidence everywhere in Lent, yet that does not mean unmixed
and untroubled security. The confidence of the Christian is always a confidence
in spite of darkness and risk, in the presence of peril, with every evidence of
possible disaster. “Let us amend for the better in those things in which we have
sinned through ignorance: lest suddenly overtaken by the day of death we seek
space for repentance and are not able to find it.” The last words are sobering
indeed. And note, it is the sins we have not been fully aware of that we must
amend. Once again, Lent is not just a time for squaring conscious accounts: but
for realizing what we had perhaps not seen before. The light of Lent is given us
to help us with this realization…
Nevertheless the liturgy of Lent is not focused on the sinfulness of the
penitent but on the mercy of God. The question of sinfulness is raised precisely
because this is a time of mercy, and the just do not need a Savior. Nowhere will
we find more tender expressions of the divine mercy than at this season. His
mercy is kind… How good are these words of Wisdom in a time when on all
sides the Lord is thought by mortals to be a God who hates. Those who deny
Him say they do so because evil in the world could be the work only of a God
that hated the world.
But even those who profess to love Him regard Him too often as a furious
Father, who seeks only to punish and revenge Himself for the evil that is done
“against Him” – One who cannot abide the slightest contradiction but will
immediately mark it down for retribution, and will not let a farthing of the debt
go unpaid.
This is not the God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who Himself
“hides” our sins and gets them out of sight, like a mother making quick and
efficient repairs on the soiled face of a child just before entering a house where
he ought to appear clean. The words of the Lenten liturgies know Him only as
the “God who desires not the death of the sinner”, “who is moved by
humiliation and appeased by satisfaction”. He is everywhere shown to us as
“plenteous in mercy”.
And from the infinite treasure of His mercies He draws forth the gift of
compunction. This is a sorrow without servile fear, which is all the more deep
and tender as it receives pardon from the tranquil, calm love of the merciful
Lord… The God of Lent is like a calm sea of mercy. In Him there is no anger.
This “hiding” of God’s severity is not a subterfuge. It is a revelation of His true
nature. He is not severe, and it is not theologically accurate to say that He
becomes angry, that He is moved to hurt and to punish.
He is love. Love becomes severe only to those who make Him severe for
themselves. Love is hard only to those who refuse Him. It is not, and cannot be
Love’s will to be refused. Therefore it is not and cannot be Love’s will to be
severe and punish. But it is the very nature of Love that His absence is sorrow
and death and punishment. His severity flows not from His own nature but
from the fact of our refusal. Those who refuse Him are severe to themselves,
and immolate themselves to the blood-thirsty god of their own self-love. It is
from this idol that Love would deliver us. To such bitter servitude, Love would
never condemn us.
2 Seasons of Celebration – Farrar, Straus & Giroux – NY – 1965 – pg. 118.

Lenten Weekday
2024-02-20
REND YOUR HEARTS,
BUT KEEP YOUR GARMENTS WHOLE
From a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux
3
◊◊◊
If you grieve for your sin or your neighbor’s, you do well, and this sadness
leads to salvation. If you rejoice at the gifts of grace, this is a holy joy and a true
joy in the Holy spirit. You must rejoice in the love of Christ with your brothers,
in their successes and grieve with them in adversity, as it is written: Rejoice with
those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
This does not mean that we should value lightly the physical turning. As
we know, it is no small support for the spiritual. That is why when the Lord had
said “with all your heart” here, he immediately added “with fasting”, for that is
of the body. Yet I would have you warned, my brothers, that that means not only
abstaining from food, but from all fleshly lusts and all bodily pleasures; indeed
you must fast from vices far more than from food. But there is a bread from
which I do not wish you to fast lest you faint on the way; if you do not know
what it is, I am speaking of the bread of tears. The text goes on, with fasting,
with weeping, and with mourning. It demands mourning of us by way of
repentance for our former way of life; it demands weeping with desire for future
beatitude. You do not have sufficient cravings for the joys to come if you do not
beg for them every day with tears; if your soul does not refuse comfort until they
come, then you know too little of them.
Let the Spirit rend your heart with his sword, which is the Word of God;
let him rend it and speedily shatter it into many fragments. There is no way to
turn to the Lord with all your heart except your heart be rent. Listen to one
whom God found to be after his own heart. My heart is ready, O God, my heart
is ready, he says – ready for both adversity and prosperity, ready for what is
low and what is lofty; ready for whatever you command. Who is faithful as David
in his going out and coming in? He used to say of sinners, Their heart is curdled
like milk, but I have meditated on your law. This is the reason for hardness of
heart and obstinacy of mind, that someone does not meditate on the law of the
Lord but on his own will.
Let us rend our hearts, dearly beloved, but keep our garments whole. Our
garments are our virtues; love is a good garment, obedience is a good garment.
Happy is the one who cares for these garments that he may not walk naked.
Happy are those whose sins are covered; love covers a multitude of sins. Let
us rend our hearts, as was said before, that we may keep our garments whole,
as was our Savior’s tunic. The rending of the heart not only keeps the garment
whole, but also makes it long and of many colors, like the coat the holy patriarch
Joseph gave the son whom he loved more than the others. From this comes
perseverance in virtue, from this the many-colored unity of a beautiful way of
life.
We may also take this rending of the heart in another way; if the heart is
wicked it may be rent by confession; if hard, by compassion. Is not an ulcer rent
so that the diseased matter may flow out? Is not the heart rent to overflow in
compassion? Both rendings are expedient, that the poison of sin may not be
hidden in the heart, and we may not shut off our compassion from our
neighbor’s need, that we may receive mercy from Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is
over all, blessed forever.
3 Bernard of Clairvaux – Sermons for Lent – Cistercian Fathers Series – #52 – Collegeville, MN –
pg. 34.

Lenten Weekday
2024-02-21
CAST YOUR CARE UPON THE LORD
From a sermon by St Leo the Great 4
◊◊◊
Apostolic teaching, Beloved, exhorts us that we put off the old man with
his deeds, and renew ourselves from day to day by a holy manner of life. For if
we are the temple of God, and if the Holy Spirit is a Dweller in our souls, as the
Apostle says: You are the temple of the living God; we must strive with all our
vigilance that the dwelling of our heart be not unworthy of so great a Guest. And
just as in houses made with hands, we see to it with praiseworthy diligence that
whatever may be damaged, either through the rain coming in, or by the wind in
storms, or by age itself, is promptly and carefully repaired, so must we with
unceasing concern take care that nothing disordered be found in our souls, that
nothing unclean be found there. For though this dwelling of ours does not
endure without the support of its Maker, nor would the structure be safe
without the watchful care of the Builder, nevertheless, since we are rational
stones, and living material, the Hand of our Maker has so fashioned us, that
even he who is being repaired may cooperate with his Maker.
Let human obedience then not withdraw itself from the grace of God, nor
turn away from that Good without which it cannot be good. And should it find
in the fulfillment of His commands something that is difficult to accomplish or
beyond its powers, let it not remain apart, but rather turn to Him who
commands us, and Who has laid on us this precept that He may both help us
and awaken in us the desire of Him, as the Prophet tells us: Cast your care upon
the Lord, and He will sustain you. Or perhaps there is someone who prides
himself beyond due measure, and who imagines himself to be so untouched, so
unblemished, that he has now no need to renew himself such a belief is wholly
deceiving, and he will grow old in folly. All things are filled with dangers, filled
with snares. Desires inflame us, allurements lie in wait for us, the love of gain
beguiles us, losses frighten us.
But in holding fast to virtue, so faltering is our control, so uncertain our
discernment, that though a person may observe with the utmost fidelity the
lines between what is good and what is bad, it is difficult for the person of
upright conscience to escape the wounding tongue of the slanderer, or for one
who loves justice to avoid the reproaches of the wicked.
When, dearly beloved, should we more fittingly have recourse to the
divine remedies than when, by the very law of time, we are once again reminded
of the mysteries of our redemption? And that we may the more worthily
commemorate them, let us earnestly prepare ourselves by these days of Lent.
For as the apostle says: Whoever thinks that he stands, let him take heed lest
he fall, no one is sustained by such strength of mind that he can be certain of
his own constancy in virtue.
4 The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers – vol. 2 – Henry Regnery Co – Chicago – 1958 – pg 125.

Chair of St. Peter
2024-02-22
THE CHAIR OF ST PETER
By St John Henry Newman 5
◊◊◊
The very first act of the Apostles after Christ was gone out of their sight, was the
ordination of Matthias in the place of the traitor Judas. That ordination is related very
minutely. Every particular of it is full of instruction; but at present I wish to draw attention
to one circumstance more especially: namely, the time when it occurred. It was contrived
(if one may say so) exactly to fall within the very short interval which elapsed between the
departure of our Lord, and the arrival of the Comforter in His place: on that ‘little while,’
during which the Church was comparatively left alone in the world. Then it was that St
Peter rose and declared with authority, that the time was come for supplying the vacancy
which Judas had made. ‘One,’ said he, ‘must be ordained;’ and without delay they proceeded
to the ordination. Of course, St Peter must have had from our Lord express authority for
this step. Otherwise it would seem most natural to defer a transaction so important until the
unerring Guide, the Holy Spirit, should have come among them, as they knew he would in
a few days.
On the other hand, since the Apostles were eminently Apostles of our Incarnate
Lord, since their very being, as Apostles, depended entirely on their personal mission from
him…one should naturally have expected that he himself before his departure would have
supplied the vacancy by personal designation. But we see it was not his pleasure to do so.
As the Apostles afterwards brought on the ordination sooner, so he had deferred it longer
than might have been expected. Both ways it should seem as if there were a purpose of
bringing the event within those ten days, during which, as I said, the church was left to
herself; left to exercise her faith and hope, much as Christians are left now, without any
miraculous aid or extraordinary illumination from above. Then, at that moment of the New
Testament history in which the circumstances of believers corresponded most nearly to
what they have been since miracles and inspiration ceased, — just at that time it pleased our
Lord that afresh Apostle should be consecrated, with authority and commission as ample
as the former enjoyed. In a word, it was his will that the eleven Disciples alone, not himself
personally, should name the successor of Judas; and that they chose the right person, he
gave testimony very soon after, by sending his Holy Spirit on St Matthias, as richly as on
St John, St James, or St Peter.
5 Tracts For the Times, Vol.ii No.52.

Lenten Weekday
2024-02-23
BEHOLD, NOW IS THE ACCEPTABLE TIME
From a sermon of St Aelred of Rievaulx 6
◊◊◊
These forty days are called an acceptable time and named a day of salvation, because during these days the Lord cleanses and sanctifies his church through fasting. That is why the Lenten fast was established by the holy fathers, so that whatever is lacking in us during the year may be purified and made clean for the remaining times, generally by fasting in this holy observance…
Moses fasted for forty days and nights so that he would merit to receive the law. And through fasting he merited to have an audience before God and to see God face to face. So let anyone who desires to approach the Lord love fasting… Although we do not presume to investigate secret and profound mysteries of divinity, let us nonetheless gain acquaintance with God as much as we can. To do so we must still prepare and train ourselves; that way we might contemplate God here as through a mirror and obscurely, and in the future we might see him face to face…
That forgiveness of sins is given generously through fasting, we see manifestly among the Ninevite penitents who took refuge in repentance and reconciled themselves to God through fasting… when the Lord had threatened them, through the prophet, with death and overthrow of the city. In fact, the wise king also learned to avoid the danger; having laid aside royal finery and sitting in ashes, he exhausted his flesh with fasting, ordering not only human beings but even beasts to fast and to cry out to God through fasting with courage. Thus they evaded the overturn of the Ninevite city and peril of death…
Even Christ, King and Lord of prophets, who founded and sanctified fasting, before he was tempted by the devil fasted forty days and nights, to teach that the adversary is to be overcome through fasting. The Lord let an example for us, so if we want a full victory over the devil, the world and the flesh, then let us take refuge in the weapons of fasting, by which the devil is slaughtered, the world is conquered, and every attachment of the flesh is expelled…
Finally we must offer to God repentance in all of our sacrifices, always repenting that we either overlooked the good or continued in evil… Because therefore the measure of repentance must be weighted according to the measure of sin, it is necessary to produce fruit repentance. If your suffering in correction is less than was your enjoyment in the fault, then the fruit of your repentance is not worthy…
Still, so that a sinning conscience might be consoled, the method and measure of exterior repentance have been set; as the conscience is satisfied and perfected you begin to have confidence, and with a certain holy anticipation in the hope of divine mercy, you have confidence pardon and forgiveness of sins, so the more truly then — the more sincerely you fulfill the imposed repentance… To the extent that we attain full and perfect pardon we may also merit eternal glory.
6 Aelred of Rievaulx. The Liturgical Sermons: The Reading-Cluny Collection, 1 of 2 – Sermons 85-133. Trans. Daniel Griggs. Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2021. 108-115.

Lenten Weekday
2024-02-24
GOD’S LOVE POURED OUT
From a commentary by Origen 7
◊◊◊
St. Paul has told us that the love of God has been poured into our hearts
by the Holy Spirit. Now in his desire to demonstrate the power of that love more
fully, he gives us the convincing proof that it was not for good people but for
sinners that Christ died. It is indeed true that we were sinners before we turned
to God and that our Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life for us before we believed
in him. This he surely could not have done without an immense love for us,
either the love that he himself showed by dying for sinners or the love God the
Father showed by giving his only Son for our redemption.
Few people would give their lives even for a just person, and all of us face
death with reluctance, even in a just cause. How great a Savior we have, then,
and how deeply we ought to ponder his love for us! It is a clear proof of his
divine goodness that when the time appointed came, he did not hesitate to
suffer and die for the wicked and unjust. In the gospel it is said that no one is
good but God the Father; and so unless our Savior had been his Son, sharing in
the Father’s very substance, he could not have shown such great goodness
toward us. By this proof, therefore, we can recognize in him that good man for
whom someone might have the courage to die.
Once people have understood the extent of Christ’s goodness toward
them and his love has been poured into their hearts, they will long not only to
die for this good man Christ, but to die voluntarily. In fact we often see this
happen, when Christians whose hearts are overflowing with love for Christ
present themselves before their persecutors of their own free will and with the
utmost courage, confessing the name of Christ in the presence of angels and
men for the whole world to hear. Not only do they have the courage to suffer
injustice for the name of this good man, but for his sake they are even ready to
give their lives. Few would do this even for a just person, since our love of this
mortal life is so great that even in a just cause hardly anyone can bear to die.
Only for God’s sake will people have the courage to submit to death of their own
free will. For any other reason they can scarcely endure it, even in the cause of
justice and in obedience to the law of nature.
God has proven his love for us; it was while we were still sinners that
Christ died for us. Since we are justified by the shedding of his blood, how can
we doubt that he will save us from the wrath to come?
The Apostle has told us that at the appointed time Christ died for the
wicked. Now he is showing us how this reveals God’s immeasurable love for the
human race. If the love of God for ungodly sinners was so great that he could
give his only Son for their salvation, he says, how much more abundantly will
his love be poured out upon those who have turned to him in repentance and
whom he has redeemed by his Son’s own blood.
7 Origen, Lib.4,10-11; PG 14, 997-999.

Skema
2024-02-25
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
2nd Week of Lent

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
February 25 – March 2, 2024

Sun
25
Mon
26
Tue
27
Wed
28
Thu
29
Fri
1
Sat
2

Office
2nd Sunday of Lent
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday

Vigils
Deut 7:12-26
Deut 8:1-20
Deut 9:1-24
Deut 9:25-10:11
Deut 10:12-22
Deut 11:1-17
Deut 11:18-32

Lauds
Exod 7:1-7
Exod 7:8-13
Exod 7:19-22
Exod 8:1-3, 8-11
Exod 8:12-15
Exod 9:1-7
Exod 9:8-12

Mass
26
230
231
232
233
234
235

1st
Gen 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18
Dan 9:4b-10
Isa 1:10, 16-20
Jer 18:18-20
Jer 17:5-10
Gen 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a
Mic 7:14-15, 18-20

2nd
Rom 8:31b-34

Gospel
Mark 9:2-10
Luke 6:36-38
Matt 23:1-12
Matt 20:17-28
Luke 16:19-31
Matt 21:33-43, 45-46
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Vespers
Heb 6:1-8
Heb 6:13-20
Heb 7:17-28
Heb 8:1-6
Heb 8:7-13
Heb 9:1-10
Heb 9:11-14

Vigils Reading - 2nd Sunday of Lent
2024-02-25
DIVINE GLORY
From a commentary by St Ephrem1
◊◊◊
Jesus took the three apostles up to the mountain for three reasons: first,
to show them the glory of his divinity, then to declare himself Israel’s redeemer
as he had already foretold by the prophets; and thirdly to prevent the apostles’
being scandalized at seeing him soon afterwards enduring those human
sufferings which he had freely accepted for our sake. The apostles knew that
Jesus was a man; they did not know that he was God. To their knowledge he
was the son of Mary, a man who shared their daily life in this world. On the
mountain he revealed to them that he was the Son of God, that he was in fact
God himself. Peter, James, and John were familiar with the sight of their
master eating and drinking, working and taking rest, growing tired and falling
asleep, experiencing fear and breaking out in sweat. All these things were
natural to his humanity not to his divinity. He therefore took them up onto the
mountain so that they could hear his Father’s voice calling his Son, and he could
show them that he was truly the Son of God and was himself divine.
He took them up unto the mountain in order to show them his kingship
before they witnessed his passion, to let them see his mighty power before they
watched his death, to reveal his glory to them before they beheld his
humiliation. Then when the Jews took him captive and condemned him to the
cross, the apostles would understand that it was not for any lack of power on his
part that Jesus allowed himself to be crucified by his enemies, but because he
had freely chosen to suffer in that way for the world’s salvation. He took them
up onto the mountain before his resurrection and showed them the glory of his
divinity, so that when he rose from the dead in that same divine glory they
would realize that this was not something given him as a reward for his labor,
as if he were previously without it. That glory has been his with the Father from
all eternity, as is clear from his words on approaching his freely chosen passion,
“Father, glorify me now with the glory I had with you before the world was
made”.

1 Journey with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – NY -1993.3

Vigils Reading
2024-02-26
PRAYER AND FASTING
By St Bernard of Clairvaux2
◊◊◊
Notice in this Lenten observance how prayer and fasting assist each other
like two allies, as it is written: “When a neighbor helps a neighbor, both shall be
comforted”. Prayer obtains the strength for fasting and fasting merits the grace
to pray. Fasting renders prayer more powerful, and prayer responds by
sanctifying the fast and presenting it to the Lord. What would our fast profit us
if – God forbid – it were allowed to remain on the earth? Let it therefore be lifted
up on the wing of prayer. But since this one wing may not be sufficient, it is
necessary to add a second. “The prayer of the just one pierces the heavens”, says
Ecclesiasticus. Consequently, in order that our fast may be easily lifted up to
heaven, let it be provided with the two wings of prayer and justice.
Now what is justice but the virtue which inclines us to render everyone
their due? Therefore it is not enough to have regard only to God. You are a
debtor also to your human superiors, and a debtor to your equals. It is certainly
not the will of God that you should despise those whom He is far from despising.
You may have said to yourself, “It is enough for me if I have the approval of God
alone for my conduct. Why should I be concerned about the judgment of
others?” But be assured of this: that the Lord is pleased with no action of yours
which either gives scandal to His children or which is done contrary to the will
of the one whom you are obliged to obey as God’s representative.
Joel says: “Sanctify the fast; call a solemn assembly”. What is it to “call a
solemn assembly” but to preserve unity, to foster peace, to “love the family of
believers”? The proud Pharisee fasted; he also returned thanks to God. But he
did not call the assembly, since he rather isolated himself by saying, “I am not
as others”. And therefore his fast, borne up on only one wing, was unable to
ascend to heaven. See to it carefully that your fast shall have two wings, “peace,
namely, and holiness, without which no one shall see God”. “Sanctify the fast,”
that is to say, let a pure intention and devout prayer offer it to the Divine
Majesty; and “call a solemn assembly,” that is to say, your fast should not be
singular or detrimental to unity.
Since I have spoken about justice and fasting, it is right that I should say
something concerning prayer. Now just as this holy exercise is more efficacious
when discharged as it ought to be, so the adversary strives to hinder it.
Sometimes he obstructs prayer by inspiring “smallness of spirit” and
immoderate fear. This happens when a person is so taken up with consideration
of their own unworthiness that they lose sight altogether of the goodness of God.
The psalmist says: “Abyss calls on abyss”: the abyss of light on the abyss of
darkness, the abyss of mercy on the abyss of misery. For the human heart is
deep and unfathomable. But although my iniquity is great, much greater, O
Lord, is Your goodness. And consequently, whenever my soul disquiets me, I
shall be “mindful of the multitude of Your mercies” and so shall be comforted.

2 St. Bernard’s Sermons for the Seasons & Principal Feastivals of the Year. vol. II. Bernard of Clairvaux. The Carroll
Press. Westminster, MD. 1950. p. 91.5

Vigils Reading
2024-02-27
TRUE REPENTANCE
From a sermon by St Ambrose3
◊◊◊
Behold now is the appointed time, in which you must confess your sins to
God, and to the priest; and by prayer and by fasting, by tears and by almsgiving,
wipe them away. Why should sinners be ashamed to make known their sins,
since they are already known and manifest to God, and to the angels, and even
to the blessed in heaven? Confession delivers the soul from death. Confession
opens the door to heaven. Confession brings us hope of salvation. Because of
this the Scripture says through Isaiah: “First tell your iniquities, that you may
be justified.” Here we are shown that they will not be saved who, during their
life, do not confess their sins. Neither will that confession deliver you which is
made without true repentance. For true repentance is grief of heart and sorrow
of soul because of the evils one has committed. True repentance causes us to
grieve over them with the firm intention of never committing them again.
And even though every day we live may rightly be a day of repentance, yet
is it in these days more appropriate to confess our sins, to fast, and to give alms
to the poor, since in these days you may wash clean the sins of the whole year.
Therefore I counsel all of you, and I exhort each one of you to repair whatever
you know within your soul is blameworthy. Whoever among you discerns
within yourself what is unworthy in a Christian, make amends.
What does it mean to give tithes faithfully, but that no one should offer
to God [anything that] is defective or stunted. For of all things which the Lord
bestows on us, a tenth part we reserve to God. So it is not lawful to keep what
is reserved to God. And if you do not give God’s tenth part, God will take nine
parts from you.
Again, if you know in your own heart that you have taken something
unjustly from another, make amends by restoring what you have unjustly taken.
For if you do not render the tenth to God, which is reserved for Him, and
[return] to another what you took from him unjustly, you are a person who no
longer fears God and does not know the meaning of true repentance, or of true
confession of sins.
And you ought to do this, since each person should give to the needy
according to his means; that is, that you who have much should give much and
if you have little ought to give little; as the holy Tobias taught his son: “Give
alms out of your substance, and do not turn away your face from the poor,
that the face of the Lord may not be turned away from you”.

3 From The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, Henry Regnery Co., 1958, pp. 13-15.7

Vigils Reading
2024-02-28
LOVE THE LORD WITH YOUR WHOLE HEART
From a meditation by Dom Alban Boultwood4
◊◊◊
In Chapter 49 of the Holy Rule, “On the Observance of Lent,” St. Benedict
begins by saying that the spiritual man ought really to be living at all times in
the spirit of Lent, that is, in wholehearted conversion to God. Our frailty causes
us to fail often in this, but if we do not try to live in this spirit during the holy
season of Lent, when shall we ever do so?
St Benedict sees the spirit of Lent not as one of unhappiness, but rather
as a spirit of free and joyful oblation: “so that everyone of his own will may offer
to God, with joy and the holy spirit, something beyond the measure appointed
to him”. The Church herself has been preparing us for this, first by drawing us
and inspiring us by the sublime glimpse of divine love unveiled at Christmas,
and then by summoning us to hear the Savior’s call as he manifests his divine
mission and power after the Epiphany. And now we are called to follow him, in
the work of his oblation and redemptive sacrifice which he now so lovingly takes
up. Our Lord calls us to unite ourselves with him in his oblation to his Father’s
will, for this is his mission.
Our response to this divine invitation has led us to the “oblation” by which
as [monks] we offer ourselves wholly to God, and it seems specially fitting for
us during Lent, to renew, solemnly, sincerely, reflectively, our formal [offering]
of ourselves to God through the Rule of St. Benedict. It is true that our [offering]
is really made once and for all but the point lies in the renewal of the spirit of
our [offering]. It is not enough to set up a religious program in our life, Even in
the monastery itself, where the vows and the whole rule of life establish a
wonderful religious machinery to guide and speed us towards God, yet these
things still remain in themselves just the machinery of our life; and we soon
find, here too, precisely that tendency for things to become mechanical in the
bad sense. And so we are always having to renew our spirit, deepening,
clarifying, purifying, reaffirming, our interior [offering], as the years bring us
the daily opportunities of fulfillment.
We must go forward in faith and in hope and in love, one step at a time,
trying to be ready to recognize God’s will as it comes to us day by day, and trying
to give ourselves to it with all our heart. As occasion arises, the “instruments of
good works” [which St. Benedict mentions] will be offered to us; so many
spiritual tools, yet all but a part of the first great one to love the Lord with your
whole heart.

4 Alive to God [Benedictine Studies VII], Baltimore-Dublin, 1964, pp. 72-75.9

Vigils Reading
2024-02-29
BE CONVERTED TO GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART
From a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux5
◊◊◊
“Be converted to Me with all your heart,” says the Lord Almighty, “in
fasting, and in weeping and in mourning. And rend your hearts and not your
garments, and turn to the Lord your God.” What does it mean, dearest brethren,
that the Lord here commands us to turn to Him? For He is everywhere, He fills
all things and at the same time contains all things… This, my brethren, is a
secret of divine wisdom, a secret which is communicated only to the friends of
God. It is a “mystery of the kingdom of God” which is revealed privately to the
disciples. “Unless you be converted,” said the Lord, “and become like little
children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven”. Now I see clearly where
He wants us to turn. We must turn to that little Child in order to learn from
Him, because He is “meek and humble of heart”.
But let us now see how we should turn to this little One, to this Master of
meekness and humility. “Be converted to Me,” He says, “with all your heart.”
My brethren, had His words been simply “Be converted to Me”, without any
addition, we might have replied: “That we have already done; give us now
another precept.” As a matter of fact, however, He admonishes us here of a
purely spiritual conversion which cannot be accomplished in a single day; and
would to God we were able to complete it in the whole course of the life we live
in the body! An external turning to God, unaccompanied by a conversion of the
heart and spirit is worth nothing. It is only a formal, not a true conversion,
“having the appearance indeed of godliness but lacking the power of it”.
Unhappy the monk who, devoting all his attention to outward
observances, remains ignorant of his interior, for “thinking himself to be
something, whereas he is nothing, he deceives himself”. For as he looks only to
the outward appearance, when that is found to be in order he judges everything
secure, unaware of that secret worm that is consuming his being. The tonsure
still remains, the religious habit is not yet put off, the regular fasts are observed
as before, the divine praises are chanted at the appointed hours. Nevertheless
the Lord says of such a one, “His heart is far from Me”…
Therefore, let your love be converted to God, so that henceforth you shall
love nothing besides Him, or at least nothing except for His sake. Let your fear,
too, be converted to the Lord, because every fear is perverse other than fear of
Him or on account of Him. To Him let your joy also as well as your sadness be
converted. This will happen when you no longer grieve or rejoice over anything
except according to God…
Let us therefore rend our hearts, in order that thus we may be able to keep
our garments whole. Our garments are our virtues. One can understand this
rending of heart in two senses: compunction rends the evil heart, while
compassion rends the strong heart. Both rendings are undoubtedly profitable;
for the poison of sin must not remain concealed in the heart and the depths of
compassion should not be closed to a needy neighbor, so that we ourselves may
obtain mercy from our Lord Jesus Christ.

5 St. Bernard’s Sermons for the Seasons & Principal Festivals. Bernard of Clairvaux. vol. II. The Carroll Press.
Westminster, MD. 1950. p. 76.11

Vigils Reading
2024-03-01
FORGIVE US, AS WE FORGIVE
From a sermon by Caesarius of Arles6
◊◊◊
If any one of us is in conflict with another, let us end the quarrel lest we
ourselves end badly. Do not consider this unimportant, my beloved. Let us call
to mind that our life here is mortal and frail, that it is endangered by many and
great temptations, and this makes us pray that we may not be overcome. And
so, we realize that even the just are not without some sins. But there is one
remedy which enables us to keep alive. For God, our Master, told us to say in
our prayers: “Forgive us the wrong we have done as we forgive those who wrong
us.” We have made a contract with God and taken a resolution that the wrong
must be forgiven. This makes us ask with complete confidence to be forgiven
provided we too forgive.
If, on the contrary, we do not forgive, how can we in good conscience hope
that our sins will be forgiven? Let us not deceive ourselves: God deceived no
one. It is human to be angry, but I wish it were impossible. It is human to
become angry but let us not water the small plant born of anger with various
suspicions. Let us not permit it to develop into a tree of hatred. It happens also
frequently that a father is angry with his son, but he does not hate the son. He
is angry because he wishes to correct the son. If this is his purpose, his anger is
animated by love.
We read in Scripture: “Why look at the speck in your brother’s eye when
you miss the plank in your own?” You find fault with another person for being
angry, and you keep hatred in yourself. Anger in comparison with hatred is only
a speck, but if the speck is fostered, it becomes a plank. If, on the contrary, you
pluck out the speck and cast it away, it will amount to nothing.
Our Master says in another place: “Anyone who hates his brother is a
murderer.” Those who hate their brother, walk around, go out, come in, march
on, are not burdened by any chains and are not shut up in any prison, but they
are bound by their guilt. Do not think of them as not being imprisoned. Their
heart is in prison. When you hear: “He who hates his brother is in darkness all
the while,” lest you might despise that darkness, the evangelist adds: “Anyone
who hates his brother is a murderer.”
You hate your brothers and sisters and walk safely around and refuse to
be reconciled with them, and God has given you time and opportunity. Yet you
are a murderer and are still alive. If you felt God’s wrath you would be suddenly
snatched away with your hatred toward others. God spares you; spare others
likewise; make up and seek reconciliation with them. But suppose you want
reconciliation and another does not want it. That is enough for you; you have
something to grieve for, you have freed yourself. If you want agreement and the
other refuses, say confidently: “Forgive us the wrong we have done as we forgive
those who wrong us.”

6 Fraternal Harmony (Morin Sermon 185) 1-2: PLS IV, 446-447. (CR VI p 215)13

Vigils Reading
2024-03-02
THE SEASON OF PURIFICATION
By Pope St Leo the Great7
◊◊◊
This sacred season is dedicated to the purification of the soul, let us
therefore be careful to fulfill the Apostolic command that we cleanse ourselves
from all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit, so that restraining the conflict
that exists between the one and the other substance, the soul, which in the
Providence of God is meant to be the ruler of the body, may regain the dignity
of its rightful authority, so that, giving offence to no one, we may not incur the
contumely of evil mongers. With just contempt shall we be tormented by those
who have no faith, and from our wickedness evil tongues will draw weapons to
wound religion, if the way of life of those who fast be not in accord with what is
needed in true self-denial. For the sum total of our fasting does not consist in
merely abstaining from food. In vain do we deny our body food if we do not
withhold our heart from iniquity, and restrain our lips that they speak no evil.
We must then so moderate our rightful use of food that our other desires
may be subject to the same rule. For this is also a time for gentleness and
patience, a time of peace and serenity, in which having put away all stains of evil
doing we strive after steadfastness in what is good. Now is the time when
generous Christian souls forgive offences, pay no heed to insults, and wipe out
the memory of past injuries. Now let the Christian soul exercise itself in the
amour of justice, on the right hand and on the left, so that amid honor and
dishonor, evil report and good, the praise of all will not make proud the virtue
that is well rooted, the conscience that has peace, nor dishonor cast it down.
The moderation of those who worship God is not melancholy, but blameless.
Therefore, you Dearly Beloved, the holy offspring of the Catholic Mother,
Whom the Spirit of God has taught in the School of Truth, use your freedom of
action with right reason, knowing that it is good to abstain, even from what is
lawful; and when you must practice self-denial, so abstain from food as merely
putting aside its use, not as condemning its nature. And so you will not allow
yourselves in any way to be infected by the error of those who are completely
defiled by their own observance of it; serving the creature rather than the
Creator; and dedicating their own stupid observance to the lights of heaven.

7 Sermons of the Great Fathers. “Lent the Season of Purification” by Pope Leo the Great. Henry Regenery Co., 1958,
pp. 29-31.15

Skema
2024-03-03
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
3rd Week of Lent

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
March 3 – 9, 2024

Sun
3
Mon
4
Tue
5
Wed
6
Thu
7
Fri
8
Sat
9

Office
3rd Sunday of Lent
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday

Vigils
Deut 12:1-14
Deut 12:29-13:19
Deut 14:22-15:11
Deut 16:1-17
Deut 16:18-17:13
Deut 18:1-22
Deut 19:1-21

Lauds
Exod 10:7-11
Exod 10:21-29
Exod 11:4-10
Exod 12:21-28
Exod 12:29-36
Exod 13:11-16
Exod 13:17-22

Mass
29
236
238
239
240
241
242

1st
Exod 20:1-17
Exod 17:1-7
Dan 3:25, 34-43
Deut 4:1, 5-9
Jer 7:23-28
Hos 14:2-10
Hos 6:1-6

2nd
1 Cor 1:22-25

Gospel
John 2:13-25
John 4:5-42
Matt 18:21-35
Matt 5:17-19
Luke 11:14-23
Mark 12:28b-34
Luke 18:9-14

Vespers
Heb 9:15-22
Heb 9:23-28
Heb 10:1-10
Heb 10:11-18
Heb 10:19-25
Heb 10:26-31
Heb 10:32-39

Vigils Reading - 3rd Sun Lent
2024-03-03
THE TEMPLE OF GOD,
THIS BODY OF CHRIST
From a commentary by St Augustine1
◊◊◊
God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple all you who believe in Christ
and whose belief makes you love him. Real belief in Christ means love of Christ:
it is not the belief of the demons who believed without loving and therefore
despite their belief said: “What do you want with us, Son of God?” No, let our
belief be full of love for him…so that instead of saying: What do you want with
us, we may rather say: We belong to you, you have redeemed us. All who believe
in this way are like the living stones which go to build God’s temple, and like the
rot-proof timber used in the framework of the ark which the floodwaters could
not submerge. It is in this temple, that is, in ourselves, that prayer is addressed
to God and heard by Him.
But to pray in God’s temple we must pray in the peace of the Church, in
the unity of the body of Christ, which is made up of many believers throughout
the world. When we pray in this temple our prayers are heard, because whoever
prays in the peace of the Church prays in spirit and in truth.
Our Lord’s driving out of the temple people who were seeking their own
ends, who came to the temple to buy and sell, is symbolic. For if that temple was
a symbol it obviously follows that the body of Christ, the true temple of which
the other was an image, has within it some who are buyers and sellers, or in
other words, people who are seeking their own interests and not those of Jesus
Christ.
But the temple was not destroyed by the people who wanted to turn the
house of God into a den of thieves, and neither will those who live evil lives in
the Catholic Church and do all they can to convert God’s house into a robber’s
den succeed in destroying the temple. The time will come when they will be
driven out by a whip made of their own sins.
The temple of God, this body of Christ, this assembly of believers, has but
one voice, and sings the psalms as though it were but one person. If we wish, it
is our voice; if we wish, we may listen to the singer with our ears and ourselves
sing in our hearts. But if we choose not to do so, it will mean that we are like
buyers and sellers, preoccupied with our own interests.

1 Journey with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – NY – 1994 – pg 14.3

Vigils Reading
2024-03-04
YOUR VERDICT ON OTHERS,
WILL BE THE VERDICT PASSED ON YOU
From a homily of St Asterius of Amasea2
◊◊◊
If you desire to resemble God, for you have been created in God’s own
image, imitate your model. You, Christians, whose very name calls to mind love,
imitate Christ’s love. Consider and wonder at the wealth of Christ’s love for us.
When he was about to show himself to us in our own nature, he sent John to
preach repentance by word and example. Before John he sent all the prophets.
They too were to teach people to amend their lives. Then he came himself and
with his own voice cried out: Come to me, all you who labour and are
overburdened, and I will give you rest. And how did he receive those who
listened to his call and followed him? He readily forgave them their sins,
instantly relieving them of all their cause for grief. The Word has sanctified
them and the Spirit has confirmed them. Their old self was buried in the waters
of baptism and a new self born; their youth was renewed by grace. And the
result? Enemies of God became his friends, strangers to him became his
children, idolaters became worshipers of the true God.
You, therefore, who are harsh and unable to show gentleness, learn
goodness from your Creator. Do not act as bitter judges and severe arbiters
toward those who are your companions in service, as you wait for the coming of
One who will reveal the secret recesses of the heart and, as the Almighty Lord,
will assign to each person their proper place in the life beyond.
Do not pass severe judgements that you may avoid being judged with the
same severity, being pierced yourselves by the words of your own mouth as by
sharp-pointed teeth. For it is against this kind of fault that the words of the
gospel seem indeed to warn us where it is said: If you want to avoid judgement,
stop passing judgement, your verdict on others will be the verdict passed on
you.
Christ does not thereby mean that he wants to banish discernment and
wisdom. What he condemns is a condemnation that is too severe. So, lighten as
much as possible the weight of your measurement of others, if you want your
own actions not to be considered excessively heavy when our lives are weighed
at the divine judgement… Do not refuse to act mercifully that you yourselves
may not be sent away unpardoned at the time when you will need forgiveness.

2 Homily 13: PG 40, 355-359C-D. [CR VI 221] [cf. also WS II 176].5

Vigils Reading
2024-03-05
EVERYWHERE MERCY PRECEDES
From a sermon of Blessed Guerric of Igny3
◊◊◊
O happy the humility of those who repent; O blessed the hope of those
who confess. How mighty you are with the Almighty; how easily you conquer
the unconquerable; how quickly you turn the dreadful judge into a devoted
father. We have heard to our great edification of the prodigal son’s sorrowful
journey, tearful repentance and glorious reception. He was so gravely guilty and
had not yet confessed but only planned to; had not yet made satisfaction but
only bent his mind to it. Yet by merely intending to humble himself he
immediately obtained a pardon, which others seek for so long a time with such
great desire, beg for with such tears, strive for with such diligence. The thief on
the cross was absolved by a simple confession, the prodigal by only the will to
confess…
Scripture says, “I will confess my transgression to the Lord; and you did
forgive the guilt of my sin.” Everywhere mercy precedes. It had preceded the
will to confess by inspiring it; it preceded also the words of confession by
forgiving what was to be confessed. “When he was still far off,” we read, “his
father saw him and was moved with compassion, and running to meet him fell
upon his neck and kissed him.” These words seem to suggest that the father was
even more anxious to pardon his son than the son was to be pardoned. He
hastened to absolve the guilty one from what was tormenting his conscience, as
if the merciful father suffered more in his compassion for his miserable son than
the son did in his own miseries. We do not mean to attribute human feelings to
the unchangeable nature of God; we intend rather that our affection should be
softened and moved to love that supreme goodness by learning from
comparison with human feelings that he loves us more than we love him…
See how where sin abounded grace abounds still more. The guilty one
could scarcely hope for pardon; the judge, or rather not now the judge but the
advocate, heaps us grace. “Quick,” he says, “bring forth the best robe and clothe
him in it, put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet; fetch the fatted calf and
kill it, let us eat and make merry, for this son of mine who had died has come
back to life.
”
… What a wealth of graciousness and sweetness, what an
abundance of most blessed joy, what torrents of most holy delight do they not
contain?…
If such is the grace accorded to the repentant what will be the glory of
those who reign? If such are the consolations of the wretched, what will be the
joys of the blessed? And since he gives us so much in advance while we are still
on the way, what treasures is he not keeping stored up for us when we arrive in
our fatherland? Indeed, what has not entered into the heart of man: that we
should be like him and that God should be all in all.

3 Guerric of Igny – Liturgical Sermons – vol. 1 – CF #8 – Cistercian Publications – Spencer, MA – 1970.7

Vigils Reading
2024-03-06
THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW ROAD
From a sermon of St Caesarius of Arles4
◊◊◊
I beseech you, beloved, with God’s help let us celebrate these days,
salutary for bodies and healing for the soul, in so holy and spiritual a manner
that the observance of a holy Lent may lead to progress for us and not judgment.
For if we lead a careless life, involving ourselves in too many occupations,
refusing to observe chastity, not applying ourselves to fasting and vigils and
prayers, neither reading Sacred Scripture ourselves nor willingly listen to others
reading it, the very remedies are changed into wounds for us. As a result of this
we shall have judgment, where we could have had a remedy…
For this reason, dearest brethren, “Have no love for the world, nor the
things the world affords,” because “the world with its seductions is passing
away”. What, then, remains in a man except what each one has stored up in the
treasury of his conscience for the salvation of his soul by reading or prayer or
the performance of good works? For miserable pleasure, still more wretched
lust and dissipation, through a passing sweetness prepare eternal bitterness;
but abstinence, vigils, prayer and fasting lead to the delights of paradise through
the briefest hardships. The Truth does not lie when He says in the Gospel:
“Straight and narrow is the road that leads to eternal life, and how few there are
that find it!” Not for long is there rejoicing on the broad way, and not for long is
there labor on the straight and narrow road. After brief sadness those who travel
the latter receive eternal life, while those who travel the former, after short joy,
suffer endless punishment.
For this reason, dearest brethren, by fasting, reading and prayer in these
forty days we ought to store up for our souls provisions, as it were, for the whole
year. Although through the mercy of God you frequently and devoutly hear the
divine lessons throughout the entire year, still during these days we ought to
rest from the winds and the sea of this world by taking refuge, as it were, in the
haven of Lent, and in the quiet of silence to receive the divine lessons in the
receptacle of our heart. Devoting ourselves to God out of love for eternal life,
during these days let us with all solicitude strive to repair and compose in the
little ship of our soul whatever throughout the year has been broken or
destroyed or damaged or ruined by many storms, that is, by the waves of sins.
And since it is necessary for us to endure the storms and tempests of this world
while we are still in this frail body, as often as the enemy wills to lead us astray
by means of the roughest storms or to deceive us by the most voluptuous
pleasures, with God’s help may <the enemy> always find us prepared against
him.
If…you both willingly heed and strive faithfully to fulfill…the truths which
we are suggesting for the salvation of all by presuming on your obedience, you
will celebrate Easter with joy and happily come to eternal life. May He Himself
deign to grant this, who together with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and
reigns for ever and ever.

4 St Caesarius of Arles, Sermons, vol.3, The Fathers of the Church, vol. 66, Catholic University of America Press,
Washington DC, 1973, pg. 41.9

Vigils Reading
2024-03-07
THE BEATING HEART OF THE UNIVERSE
From a homily by Pope Benedict XVI5
◊◊◊
It is not God’s presence that alienates man, but His absence: without the
true God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, illusory hopes become an invitation
to escape from reality. Speaking with God, dwelling in His presence, letting
oneself be illuminated and purified by His Word introduces us, instead, into the
heart of reality, into the very motor of becoming cosmic; it introduces us, so to
speak, to the beating heart of the universe.
In a harmonious connection with prayer, fasting and almsgiving can also
be considered occasions for learning and practicing Christian hope.
The…ancient writers liked to emphasize that these three dimensions of Gospel
life are inseparable, reciprocally enrich each other and bear more fruit the more
they collaborate with each other. Lent as a whole, thanks to the joint action of
prayer, fasting and almsgiving, forms Christians to be men and women of hope
after the example of the Saints…
“The true measure of humanity is essentially determined in relationship
to suffering and the sufferer. This holds true both for the individual and for
society. Easter, to which Lent is oriented, is the mystery which gives meaning
to human suffering, based on the superabundant compassion of God, brought
about in Jesus Christ. The Lenten journey therefore, since it is wholly steeped
in the Easter light, makes us relive what happened in Christ’s divine and human
heart while he was going up to Jerusalem for the last time to offer himself in
expiation.
Suffering and death fell like darkness as he gradually came nearer to the
Cross, but the flame of love shone brighter. Indeed Christ’s suffering was
penetrated by the light of love. It was the Father’s love that permitted the son to
confidently face his last “baptism”, which he himself defines as the apex of his
mission.
Jesus received that baptism of sorrow and love for us, for all of humanity.
He has suffered for truth and justice, bringing the gospel of suffering to human
history, which is the other aspect of the Gospel of love. God cannot suffer, but
He can and wants to be compassionate. Through Christ’s passion he can bring
his <consolation> to every human suffering, “the consolation of God’s
compassionate love – and so the star of hope rises.”
As for prayer, so for suffering: the history of the Church is very rich in
witnesses who spent themselves for others without reserve, at the cost of harsh
suffering. The greater the hope that enlivens us, the greater is the ability within
us to suffer for the love of truth and good, joyfully offering up the minor and
major daily hardships and inserting them into Christ’s great compassion.

5 L’Osservatore Romano – February 13, 2008 – pg 6.11

Vigils Reading
2024-03-08
HE BORE THE PUNISHMENT
WHICH BRINGS US PEACE
From a sermon by St Cyril of Alexandria6
◊◊◊
In the account of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac, the Bible portrays
the mystery of our Savior in all its aspects. Because I want you to have a clear
understanding of this deep mystery of our religion, I must show you the
connection between the events that typified the truth itself, and explain how
each part of the story should be interpreted.
The holy Abraham took his son and hastened to the place that God had
shown him. The fact that the boy was brought to be sacrificed by his father is
meant to teach us by way of type or sign that the Lord Jesus Christ was not
raised upon the cross by any human power, nor by the wickedness of those who
laid snares for him, but by the will of the Father, whose providential plan
permitted him to suffer death for the whole world. The Savior himself said as
much when he answered Pilate: you would have no power over me if it had not
been given you from above. At another time, speaking to his Father in heaven,
he said: Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. But your will, not mine,
be done.
Abraham laid the wood for the sacrifice on his son’s shoulders. In the
same way, the Jews laid the wood of the cross on the Savior’s shoulders and they
did this with the consent, one might almost say the cooperation of the Father;
for it is not possible to compel the divine power. The prophet Isaiah bears
reliable witness to this when he says: He bore the punishment which brings us
peace, and by his wounds we are healed. We had all strayed like sheep,
everyone had gone his own way and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.
When the patriarch eventually arrived at the appointed place, he put all
his skill into building a good altar. This too we are meant to interpret in a
spiritual way and so to understand that what appears to the human eye as a
cross and a gibbet is in fact in the eyes of the Father of the whole universe a vast
and towering altar raised up for the salvation of the world, and blackened by the
smoke of a pure and most holy sacrifice.
By his words, I bared my back to the scourge, and let myself be struck on
the face, Isaiah foretold the blows that his enemies would shamelessly inflict on
the Savior’s body, and their spitting upon it… Our Lord Jesus Christ,
disregarding the shame, humbled himself in obedience to the Father, even to
the extent of dying for our salvation. He died to give us life through the Holy
Spirit and to raise us up with himself, to open the gates of heaven to us and to
lead us in, thus restoring to the Father the human race whose sin had long ago
made it fly from his presence.
Therefore, beloved, let this great work of our Savior be acclaimed by every
voice, let his praise be on every tongue. Let the sweet sound of that ancient song
be heard again: God has gone up with shouts of jubilation, the Lord has
ascended with a fanfare of trumpets. He completed the work of our salvation
and then ascended, indeed he not only ascended but he also led captivity
captive and gave gifts to mortals.

6 A Word in Season – vol. II – Exordium Books – 1982 – pg 147.13

Vigils Reading
2024-03-09
HE CAME TO CALL SINNERS
From a letter by St Maximus the Confessor7
◊◊◊
God’s will is to save us and nothing pleases him more than our coming
back to him with true repentance. The heralds of truth and ministers of divine
grace have told us this from the beginning, repeating it in every age. Indeed
God’s desire for our salvation is the primary and preeminent sign of his infinite
goodness, and it was precisely in order to show that there is nothing closer to
God’s heart that the divine Word of God the Father, with untold condescension,
lived among us in the flesh, and that he did, suffered, and said all that was
necessary to reconcile us to God the Father when we were at enmity with him,
and to restore us to the life of blessedness from which we have been exiled. He
healed our physical infirmities by miracles; he freed us from our sins, many and
grievous as they were, by suffering and dying, taking them upon himself as if he
were answerable for them, sinless though he was. He also taught us in many
different ways that we should wish to imitate him by our own kindness and
genuine love for one another.
Thus he proclaimed that he had come to call sinners to repentance, not
the righteous, and that it was not the healthy who required a doctor, but the
sick. He declared that he had come to look for the sheep that was lost and that
it was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel that he had been sent. Speaking
more obscurely in the parable of the silver coin, he tells us that the purpose of
his coming was to reclaim the royal image, which had been coated with the filth
of sin. You can be sure that there is joy in heaven, he said, over one sinner who
repents.
To the same lesson he revived the man who, having fallen into the hands
of brigands, had been left stripped and half-dead from his wounds; he poured
wine and oil on the wounds, bandaged them, placed the man on his own mule,
and brought him to an inn, where he left sufficient money to have him cared for,
and promised to repay any further expense on his return.
Again, he told of how the father, who is goodness itself, was moved with
pity for his profligate son who returned and made amends by repentance; how
he embraced him, dressed him once more in the fine garments that befitted his
own dignity, and did not reproach him for any of his sins.
Then there was the time when one of the hundred sheep in God’s flock
went astray. When he found it wandering in the mountains and hills he did not
exhaust it by driving it back to the fold, but placed it on his own shoulders, and
so in his compassion restored it safely to the flock.
His teaching was the same when he cried out: “Come to me, all you that
toil and are heavy of heart.” “Accept my yoke,” he said, by which he meant his
commands, or rather the whole way of life that he taught us in the Gospel. He
then speaks of a burden, but that is only because repentance seems difficult. In
fact, however, “my yoke is easy,” he assures us, “and my burden is light.”
Then again he instructs us in divine justice and goodness, telling us to be
like our heavenly Father, holy, perfect and merciful. Forgive, he says, and you
will be forgiven. Treat other people as you would wish them to treat you.

7 A Word in Season – Monastic Lectionary – vol. II – Lent – Exordium Books – 1982 – pg. 14.15

Skema
2024-03-10
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
4th Week of Lent

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
March 10 – 16, 2024

Sun
10
Mon
11
Tue
12
Wed
13
Thu
14
Fri
15
Sat
16

Office
4th Sunday of Lent
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday

Vigils
Deut 21:1-9, 22-23
Deut 24:10-22
Deut 26:1-15
Deut 26:16-27:10
Deut 27:11-26
Deut 28:1-19
Deut 28:58-69

Lauds
Exod 14:10-14
Exod 14:19-22
Exod 14-26-31
Exod 15:19-21
Exod 16:1-3
Exod 16:9-15
Exod 19:1-8

Mass
32
243
245
246
247
248
249

1st
2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23
Mic 7:7-9
Ezek 47:1-9, 12
Isa 49:8-15
Exod 32:7-14
Wis 2:1a, 12-22
Jer 11:18-20

2nd
Eph 2:4-10

Gospel
John 3:14-21
John 9:1-41
John 5:1-3a, 5-16
John 5:17-30
John 5:31-47
John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
John 7:40-53

Vespers
Heb 11:1-7
Heb 11:8-16
Heb 11:17-22
Heb 11:23-31
Heb 11:32-40
Heb 12:1-6
Heb 12:7-13

Vigils Reading - 4th Sunday of Lent
2024-03-10
THE CROSS OF OUR LORD
From a commentary by St John Chrysostom1
◊◊◊
Although we praise our common Lord for all kinds of reasons, we praise
and glorify him above all for the cross. It fills us with awe to see him dying like
one accursed. It is this death for people like ourselves that Paul constantly
regards as the sign of Christ’s love for us. He passes over everything else that
Christ did for our advantage and consolation and dwells incessantly on the
cross. The proof of God’s love for us, he says, is that Christ died for us while we
were still sinners. Then in the following sentence he gives us the highest ground
for hope: If, when we were alienated from God, we were reconciled to him by
the death of his Son, how much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be
saved by his life! It is this above all that made Paul so proud, so happy, so full
of joy and exultation, when he wrote to the Galatians: God forbid that I should
glory in anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. What wonder, indeed,
if Paul rejoices and glories in the cross, when the Lord himself spoke of his
passion as his glory. Father, he prayed, the hour has come: glorify your Son.
The disciple who wrote those also told us that the Holy Spirit had not yet
come to them because Jesus was not yet glorified, calling the cross glory. And
when he wanted to show God’s love, did he do so by referring to signs, wonders,
or miracles of any sort? By no means: he pointed to the cross, saying: God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son, that all who believe in him might
not perish but have eternal life. And Paul writes: Since he did not spare his own
Son, but gave him up for us all, how can he fail to lavish every other gift upon
us? And in his exhortation to humility he uses the same example, saying: You
should have the same dispositions as you find in Christ Jesus. Although his
nature was divine, he did not cling to his equality with God, but emptied
himself to assume the condition of a slave. Bearing the human likeness,
sharing the human lot, he humbled himself and was obedient even to the point
of dying – dying on a cross!
Returning to the subject of love, Paul again urges his hearers to love one
another, even as Christ loved us, and gave himself up for us as a fragrant
offering and sacrifice to God. And Christ himself showed how the cross was his
chief preoccupation, and how much he longed to suffer. In his ignorance, Peter,
first of the Twelve, foundation of the Church, leader of the Apostles, protested:
God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you! Listen to what Christ called
him: Get behind me, Satan. You are an obstacle in my way, proving by the
strength of his reprimand his great eagerness to suffer on the cross.

1 Journey with the Fathers -Year B – New City Press – NY – 1993 – pg 36.3

Vigils Reading
2024-03-11
THINK OF YOURSELF IN HUMILITY
From a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny2
◊◊◊
Now you, blessed sinner, although not blessed because a sinner but
because repentant of sin, what encouragement was yours in your father’s
embrace and his kiss, when he restored his love to you of whom he had almost
despaired, when he made your heart clean again and overwhelmed you with the
joy of your salvation.
“And how,” he says, “shall speech explain what the mind cannot contain?”
Unspeakable are the groans and inexplicable the affections to which the spirit
gives birth as if impregnated by the incomprehensible. The human heart is too
narrow for them and therefore it is torn and pours itself out. The ardor, which
it conceives but cannot contain, it breathes forth and spreads abroad in what
ways it can, by tears, groans, sighs. These things are better known to people who
have tasted them often and abundantly.
Now also, I say, when you have been released after those embraces and
kisses, when you think over what has passed between you and him, when you
consider what your cause was and how it was judged by him, bearing in mind
on the one hand the abundance of your offence, on the other hand the
superabundance of his grace, to what, I ask, does your thought give birth in you?
“Naught but this”, he says, “that an unutterable fire blazes out in my
meditation, on the one hand for sorrow and shame, on the other hand for joy
and love. I would not consider myself a man but a stone if I were so hard-hearted
as not to grieve or be ashamed, or so wicked and ungrateful as not to be wholly
liquefied for joy or love of that father.”
Keep then, O happy sinner, keep carefully and watchfully this spirit of
yours, this most fitting affection of humility and devotion by which you may
always think of yourself in humility and of the Lord in goodness. There is
nothing greater than it among the gifts of the Holy Spirit, nothing more precious
in the treasures of God, nothing more holy among all the charisms, nothing
more health giving in all the sacraments….

2 Guerric of Igny – Liturgical Sermons – vol. 1 – CF #8 _ Cistercian Publications – Spencer, MA – 1970 p 143.5
