Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Easter Weekday
2024-05-18
THE ASCENSION AND CHRISTIAN PRAYER
By Thomas Merton 7
◊◊◊
At the Ascension, in the sight of the disciples, “the nature of humankind
soared above the dignity of all the creatures of heaven” and “there was to be
no limit to the advancement of Christ’s humanity until, seated together with
the eternal Father, it might share enthroned the glory of Him whose nature it
shared in the son.” And of course, the Fathers never ceased to remind their
hearers that this same humanity of Christ which was enthroned with the Father
in the divine glory, was to return and judge the world. “He set a limit to His
bodily presence, and would remain at the right hand of the Father until He
should return in the same flesh in which He had ascended.” Monastic prayer is
eschatological and is centered on the expectation of the Parousia, the advent of
the “immortal and invisible King of ages” who is both “God alone” and the
Christ, our Redeemer and Liberator…
St Leo says that with Christ’s ascension into heaven we have recovered
possession of paradise, and not only that, “we have even penetrated, in Christ,
into the height of heaven,” we have been enthroned with Him because we are
“one Body” with Him. This is the reason why we should rejoice at His going to
the Father… He is not separated from us unless we choose to remain bound to
the earth by our passions. In contemplation we experience, at least obscurely,
something of this mystery of our union with Him now in heaven.
This has important implications for the life of prayer. The life of the monk,
being that of a Christian, is a way of living in heaven. While living bodily in exile
and in his earthly pilgrimage, the monk is already spiritually in paradise and in
heaven where he has ascended with Christ. That is to say, although he is not
physically present in heaven, he is free to come and go there as he pleases, in
spirit, in prayer, in faith, in thanksgiving, praise and love, because he already
“is” there mystically in Christ. “Let us therefore, exult with a worthy and
spiritual joy, happy before God in thanksgiving, and let us lift up the free eyes
of our heart to that height where Christ is.”…
Christ has made us His friends by making known to us “the joys of interior
charity and the festival of the heavenly country which He daily makes present
in our minds by the desire of love.” And St Gregory explains that this loving
knowledge of heavenly things is very real indeed, no mere fancy: “for when,
hearing of heavenly things, we love them, we already know the things we love,
for our love itself is a way of knowing.” It is by the charity of Christ in our
hearts that we “are in heaven” and know the things of heaven.
7
“The Humanity of Christ in Monastic Prayer”, Monastic Studies 2, 1964, 11-13.

Cleveland LCG Meeting
2024-05-18 14:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York)
May 18, 2024 at 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
St. Martin of Tours in Valley City

Skema
2024-05-19
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
7th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
May 19 – 25, 2024

Sun
19
Mon
20
Tue
21
Wed
22
Thu
23
Fri
24
Sat
25

Office
Pentecost Sunday
Mary Mother of the Church
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday
Office for Vocations
Easter Weekday
St Bede the Venerable

Vigils
* Special Vigil
Josh 11:1-23
Josh 22:1-20
Josh 22:21-34
Josh 23:1-16
Josh 24:1-15
Josh 24:16-33

Lauds
Joel 3:1-5
Joel 1:1-8
Joel 1:9-12
Joel 1:13-20
Joel 2:1-6
Joel 2:7-11
Joel 2:12-17

Mass
63
BVM Lect pg 118-138
342
343
344
345
346

1st
Acts 2:1-11
Gen:3:9-15, 20
Jas 4:1-10
Jas 4:13-17
Jas 5:1-6
Jas 5:9-12
Jas 5:13-20

2nd
Gal 5:16-25
Psalm 87[86]: 1-2, 3+5, 6-7

Gospel
John 15:26-27; 16:12-15
John 19:25-34
Mark 9:30-37
Mark 9:38-40
Mark 9:41-50
Mark 10:1-12
Mark 10:13-16

Vespers
Rom 8:22-27
Gal 3:23-29
Gal 4:1-11
Gal 4:12-20
Gal 4:21-31
Gal 5:1-6
Rom 11:33-36

*1) Gen 11:1-9 2) Exod 19:3-8a, 16-20 3) Ezek 36:16-28 4) Acts 2:1-11 5) Rom 8:5-27

Vigils Reading - Pentecost Sunday
2024-05-19 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York)
THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD
HAS FILLED THE WHOLE EARTH
A commentary by St Aelred of Rievaulx1
◊◊◊
Today’s holy solemnity puts new heart into us. For not only do we revere
its dignity, we also experience it as delightful. On this feast it is Love that we
specially honor, and among human beings there is no word pleasanter to the
ear, no thought more tenderly dwelt on, than love. The Love we celebrate is
nothing other than the goodness, kindness and charity of God, for God himself
is goodness, kindness and charity. His goodness is identical with his Spirit, with
God himself.
In his work of disposing of all things the Spirit of the Lord has filled the
whole world from the beginning, reaching from end to end of the earth in
strength and delicately disposing everything; but as sanctifier the Spirit of the
Lord has filled the whole world since Pentecost, for on this day the gracious
Spirit himself is sent by the Father and the Son on a new mission, in a new
mode, by a new manifestation of his mighty power, for the sanctification of
every creature. Before this day, the Spirit had not been given, for Jesus was not
yet glorified, but today he came forth from his heavenly throne to give himself
in all his abundant riches to the human race, so that the divine outpouring
might pervade the whole wide world and be manifested in a variety of spiritual
endowments.
It is surely right that this overflowing delight should come down to us
from heaven, since it was heaven that a few days earlier received from our fertile
earth a fruit of wonderful sweetness. When has our land ever yielded a fruit
more pleasant, sweeter, holier, or more delectable? Indeed, faithfulness has
sprung from the earth. A few days ago we sent Christ on ahead to the heavenly
kingdom, so that in all fairness we might have in return whatever heaven held
that should be sweet to our desire. The full sweetness of earth is Christ’s
humanity. The full sweetness of heaven Christ’s Spirit. Thus a more profitable
bargain was struck: Christ’s human nature ascended from us to heaven, and on
us today Christ’s Spirit has come down.
Now indeed, the Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole earth, and all
creation recognizes his voice. Everywhere the Spirit is at work, everywhere he
speaks. To be sure, the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples before our Lord’s
ascension when he said, Receive the Holy Spirit; if you forgive anyone’s sins,
they are forgiven; if you declare them unforgiven, unforgiven they remain;
but before the day of Pentecost the Spirit’s voice was still in a sense unheard.
His power had not yet leaped forth, nor had the disciples truly come to know
him, for they were not yet confirmed by his might; they were still in the grip of
fear, cowering behind closed doors.
From this day onward, however, the voice of the Lord has resounded over
the waters; the God of majesty has thundered and the Lord makes his voice
echo over the flood. From now on the voice of the Lord speaks with strength,
the voice of the Lord in majesty, the voice of the Lord fells the cedars, the voice
of the Lord strikes the desert, stirring the wilderness of Kadesh, the voice of the
Lord strips the forest bare, and all will cry out, ‘Glory’!

1 Journey with the Father – Year B – New City Press – 1999 – pg 64.3

Vigils Reading - Mary Mother of the Church
2024-05-20
MARY’S EDUCATION AS MOTHER OF THE CHURCH
From the writing of Hans Urs von Balthasar2
◊◊◊
At first it was the Mother who introduced the Son into the Old Covenant
and thereby trained him for his messianic office. However, it was not she but
his own knowledge of the Father’s mission in the Holy Spirit that showed him
who he was and what he had to do. The relationship is thus reversed: from now
on it is the Son who educates the Mother for the greatness of his task, cultivating
in her the maturity she needs to stand under the Cross and, finally, to receive,
at prayer within the Church, the universal gift of the Holy Spirit.
From the very outset, this education reflects Simeon’s prophecy that a
sword would pierce the Mother’s soul. It is a pitiless process. All the episodes
handed down for us are more or less brusque rejections. It is not as though
Jesus had been disobedient for thirty years; we have an explicit affirmation to
the contrary. However, the merely physical relationship to which faith was so
intimately tied in the Old Testament is sovereignly, ruthlessly forced open.
Henceforth faith in Jesus, the incarnate Word of God, is the only thing that
counts…
The scene in which Jesus, teaching those gathered around him in a certain
house, refuses to receive the visit of his Mother, who is standing outside, seems
almost unbearable to us. “Here are my mother and my brethren! Whoever does
the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother”. Jesus means her more
than anyone, though he does not mention her by name. Yet who understands
his meaning? Did Mary herself understand it? We have to accompany Mary in
spirit as she makes her way home and try to imagine her state of mind. The
2 Hans Urs Von Balthasar and Pope Benedict XVI. Mary: The Church at the Source. Trans. Adrian
Walker. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005. 107-110.5
sword gnaws at her soul; she feels as if bereft of her inmost self, as if the point
of her life has been drained away. Her faith, which at the beginning received so
many sensible confirmations, is plunged into a dark night. It is as if the Son,
who sends her no news about what he is doing, has run away from her, yet she
cannot simply let him go away: she has to accompany him, full of dread, in her
night of faith…
The purpose of this constant training in the naked faith Mary will need
under the Cross is often insufficiently understood; people are astonished and
embarrassed by the way in which Jesus treats his Mother, whom he addresses
both in Cana and at the Cross only as “woman”. He himself is the first one to
wield the sword that must pierce her. But how else would she have become
ready to stand by the Cross, where not only her Son’s earthly failure, but also
his abandonment by the God who sends him is revealed. She must finally say
Yes to this, too, because she consented a priori to her child’s whole destiny. And
as if to fill her bitter chalice to the brim, the dying Son expressly abandons his
Mother, withdrawing from her and foisting on her another son: “Woman,
behold, your son”. This gesture is usually understood primarily as evidencing
Jesus’ concern about where his Mother will live after he is gone… This must not,
however, lead us to overlook a second motif: just as the Son is abandoned by
the Father, so, too, he abandons his Mother, so that the two of them may be
united in a common abandonment. Only thus does she become inwardly ready
to take on ecclesial motherhood toward all of Jesus’ new brothers and sisters.

Vigils Reading
2024-05-21
BEARING WITNESS TO THE TRUTH
From the Document on Religious Freedom of the Second Vatican Council3
◊◊◊
When Christ completed on the cross the work of redemption whereby he
achieved salvation and true freedom for all, he brought his revelation to
completion. For he bore witness to the truth, but he refused to impose the truth
by force on those who spoke against it. Not by force of blows does his rule assert
its claims. It is established by witnessing to the truth and by hearing the truth,
and it extends its dominion by the love whereby Christ, lifted up on the cross,
draws everyone to himself.
Taught by the word and example of Christ, the apostles followed the same
way. From the very origins of the church the disciples of Christ strove to convert
others to faith in Christ as Lord; not, however, by the use of coercion or of
devices unworthy of the gospel, but by the power, above all, of the word of God.
Steadfastly they proclaimed to all the plan of God our Savior, “who wills that
all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” At the same time,
however, they showed respect for those of weaker stuff, even though they were
in error, and thus they made it plain that “each one of us is to render an account
to God,” and for that reason is bound to obey one’s conscience.
Like Christ himself, the apostles were unceasingly bent upon bearing
witness to the truth of God, and they showed the fullest measure of boldness in
“speaking the word with confidence” before the people and their rulers. With a
firm faith they held that the gospel is indeed the power of God unto salvation
for all who believe. Therefore they rejected all “carnal weapons”: they followed
the example of the gentleness and respectfulness of Christ and they preached
3 see Christian Readings, vol. IV, p.227.7
the word of God in the full confidence that there was resident in this world itself
a divine power able to destroy all the forces arrayed against God and bring all
people to faith in Christ and to his service. As the Master, so too the apostles
recognized legitimate civil authority. “For there is no power except from God,”
the Apostle teaches, and thereafter commands: “Let everyone be subject to
higher authorities…He who resists authority resists God’s ordinance.”
At the same time, however, they did not hesitate to speak out against
governing powers which set themselves in opposition to the holy will of God: “It
is necessary to obey God rather than men.” This is the way along which the
martyrs and other faithful have walked through all ages and over all the earth.

Vigils Reading
2024-05-22
THE AIM OF OUR CHRISTIAN LIFE
A conversation between St Seraphim of Sarov and his spiritual son4
◊◊◊
“The Lord has revealed to me,” began the great elder, “that in your
childhood you longed to know the aim of our Christian life… But no one has
given you a precise answer… Prayer, fasting, watching, and all other Christian
acts, however good they may be, do not alone constitute the aim of our Christian
life, although they serve as the indispensable means of reaching this aim. The
true aim of our Christian life, is to acquire the Holy Spirit of God…”
“How do you mean acquire?” I asked Father Seraphim…
“To acquire is the same as to gain,” he answered. “You understand what
acquiring money means. Acquiring God’s Spirit, it’s all the same… Acquire, my
son, the grace of the Holy Spirit by all the other virtues in Christ; trade in those
that are most profitable to you… Thus, if prayer and watching give you more of
God’s grace, pray and watch; if fasting gives much of God’s Spirit, fast; if
almsgiving gives more, give alms. In such manner decide about every virtue in
Christ…
When our Lord Jesus Christ had accomplished the whole work of
salvation, after His resurrection, He breathed on the Apostles to restore the
breath of life which had been lost by Adam, and gave them that same grace of
the Holy Spirit of God which had been Adam’s. On the day of Pentecost He
triumphantly sent down on them the Holy Spirit in the rushing of a mighty wind
like tongues of fire, which sat upon each one of them and entered in and filled
them with the strength of Divine flame-like grace; whose breath is laden with
4 The Spiritual Instructions of Saint Seraphim of Sarov. Ed. Franklin Jones. Los Angeles: The Dawn
Horse Press, 1973. 41-44, 46-48, 50.9
dew, and it creates joy in the souls partaking of its power and influence. And,
when this same fire-inspired grace of the Holy Spirit is given to all the faithful
in Christ in the sacrament of Holy Baptism, they seal it in the chief places
appointed by the Holy Church on our flesh, as the eternal vessel of this grace…
If we were never to sin after our baptism, we should remain forever holy,
spotless, exempt from all foulness of flesh and spirit, like the saints of God. But
the trouble is that, though we increase in stature, we do not increase in the grace
and mind of God, as our Lord Jesus Christ increased; but on the contrary,
growing dissipated bit by bit, we are deprived of the grace of God’s Holy Spirit
and become sinners of many degrees and many sins.
But, when a man, stirred by the Divine Wisdom which seeks our salvation,
is resolved for her sake to rise early before God and keep watch for the
attainment of his eternal salvation, then must he in obedience to her voice
hasten to repent truly of all his sins and to perfect the virtues that are their
contrary, and thus by virtuous acts done for Christ’s sake to acquire the Holy
Spirit, which works in us and sets up in us the kingdom of God.
Notwithstanding man’s repeated falls, notwithstanding the darkness around
the soul, the grace of the Holy Spirit… shines still in the heart with the Divine
immemorial light of the precious merits of Christ. When the sinner turns to the
way of repentance, this Christ-Light smooths out all trace of past sin and clothes
the former sinner once more in a robe of incorruption woven from the grace of
the Holy Spirit…

Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
2024-05-23
RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT
From a commentary by St Augustine5
◊◊◊
The happy day has dawned for us on which Holy Church makes her first
radiant appearance to the eyes of faith and sets the hearts of believers on fire. It
is the day on which we celebrate the sending of the Holy Spirit by our Lord Jesus
Christ, after he had risen from the dead and ascended into glory. In the gospel it is
written: If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me,
rivers of living water shall flow from his heart. The Evangelist explains these words
by adding: Jesus said this about the Spirit which those who believed in him were to
receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Now the glorification of Jesus took place when he rose from the dead and ascended
into heaven, but all was not yet accomplished. The Holy Spirit still had to be given;
the one who made the promise had to send him. This is precisely what occurred
at Pentecost.
After being in the company of his disciples for the forty days following his
resurrection, the Lord ascended into heaven, and on the fiftieth day – the day we
are now celebrating – he sent the Holy Spirit. The account is given in Scripture:
Suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and there
appeared to them tongues like fire which separated and came to rest on each one of
them. And they began to speak in other tongues, as the Holy Spirit gave them power
of utterance. That wind cleansed the disciples’ hearts, blowing away fleshly
thoughts like so much chaff. The fire burnt up their unregenerate desires as if they
were straw. The tongues in which they spoke as the Holy Spirit filled them were a
5 Journey with the Fathers: Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels – Year A. Ed. Edith Barnecut, OSB.
New York: New City Press, 1992. 72-73.11
foreshadowing of the Church’s preaching of the Gospel in the tongues of all
nations.
After the flood, in pride and defiance of the Lord, an impious generation
erected a high tower and so brought about the division of the human race into
many language groups, each with its own peculiar speech which was unintelligible
to the rest of the world. At Pentecost, by contrast, the humble piety of believers
brought all these diverse languages into the unity of the Church. What discord had
scattered, love was to gather together. Like the limbs of a single body, the
separated members of the human race would be restored to unity by being joined
to Christ, their common head, and welded into the oneness of a holy body by the
fire of love. Anyone therefore who rejects the gift of peace and withdraws from
the fellowship of this unity cuts himself off from the gift of the Holy Spirit.
So then, my fellow members of Christ’s body, you are the fruits of unity and
the children of peace. Keep this day with joy, celebrate it in freedom of spirit, for
in you is fulfilled what was foreshadowed in those days when the Holy Spirit came.
At that time whoever received the Holy Spirit spoke in many languages, individual
though he was. Now in the same way unity itself speaks through all nations in
every tongue. If you yourselves are established in that unity you have the Holy
Spirit among you, and nothing can separate you from the Church of Christ which
speaks in the language of every nation of the world.

Vigils Reading
2024-05-24
BUILT ON THE COMMON LIFE
By Baldwin of Ford6
◊◊◊
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
6 From Tractate 15 on the Cenobitic or Common Life, by Baldwin of Ford (CF 41:156-157).13
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 - St Bede the Venerable
2024-05-25
YOU TOO WILL BEAR WITNESS
A homily from St Bede the Venerable7
◊◊◊
We find from many places in the holy gospel that before the coming of the
Holy Spirit, the disciples were less capable of understanding the hidden
mysteries of the divine sublimity and were less brave in tolerating the
adversities brought on by human depravity. When the Spirit came upon them
with an increase of divine insight, there was given them the constancy [needed]
to overcome human persecution as well. Hence it is said to them now, in the
Lord’s promise, ‘When the Paraclete comes, whom I shall send you from the
Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness
about me; and you too will bear witness’…
The Spirit, upon his coming, bore witness concerning the Lord. Breathing
into the hearts of the disciples, he revealed to them by his bright light everything
about which mortals were to have knowledge concerning [the Lord], namely,
that he was equal and of the same substance with the Father before the ages;
that he became of the same substance as we at the end of the ages; that he was
born of a virgin and lived in the world without sin; that he went forth from the
world when he wished and by the kind of death that he wished; that by rising
from the dead he truly destroyed death and raised up the true flesh in which he
had suffered, and at his ascension took it up into heaven, and established it at
the right hand of his Father’s glory; that all the writings of the prophets bear
witness to him; that the confession of his name was to be extended even to the
end of the earth, and that the rest of the mysteries of his faith were unlocked for
his disciples by the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Nor was whatever they
7 Bede the Venerable. Homilies on the Gospels: Book Two – Lent to the Dedication of
the Church. Trans. Lawrence T. Martin and David Hurst, OSB. Kalamazoo, MI:
Cistercian Publications, 1991. 149-151.15
correctly discerned conceded to them alone by the gift of the Spirit, but also to
all who believe in the Lord through their word.
‘He’, Jesus says, ‘will bear witness concerning me, and you will bear
witness’. Once they had put aside their initial fear, they ministered outwardly
by telling others what they had received inwardly by the Spirit’s teaching. The
Spirit himself both illumined their hearts by knowledge of the truth, and by the
preeminence of his power roused them to teach what they knew. Hence in
Isaiah the Spirit is rightly called ‘of strength and knowledge’. He is indeed the
Spirit of knowledge, since it is by his help that we rightly acknowledge what we
must do and even think; he is also the Spirit of strength, since it is by his help
that we receive [the strength] to carry out what we know well that we should do,
lest we be driven away by some adversity from the good deeds we have begun…
He who warned them ahead of time that the hour of persecution would
come is the one who, a little later, pledged his help to his faithful in the
persecution, saying, ‘You will have distress in the world; but have confidence;
I have overcome the world’. He elsewhere promised the crown of life to those
who are sincerely engaged in strife, saying, ‘Blessed are those who suffer
persecution for the sake of justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’.

Skema
2024-05-26
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
8th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
May 26 – June 1, 2024

Sun
26
Mon
27
Tue
28
Wed
29
Thu
30
Fri
31
Sat
1

Office
Most Holy Trinity
St Augustine of Canterbury
Weekday
St Paul VI
Office for the Dead
Visitation of the BVM
St Justin Martyr

Vigils
1 Cor 2:1-16
Judg 1:1-21
Judg 1:22-36
Judg 2:1-23
Judg 3:1-11
Song 2:8-14; 8:6-7
Judg 3:12-31

Lauds
Sir 42:15-25
Joel 2:18-19, 23-27
Joel 3:1-5
Joel 4:1-3, 11-16
Joel 4:17-21
Zech 2:10-17
Amos 1:1-5

Mass
165
347
348
349
350
351
352

1st
Deut 4:32-34, 39-40
1 Pet 1:3-9
1 Pet 1:10-16
1 Pet 1:18-25
1 Pet 2:2-5, 9-12
1 Pet 4:7-13
Jude 17, 20b-25

2nd
Rom 8:14-17

Gospel
Matt 28:16-20
Mark 10:17-27
Mark 10:28-31
Mark 10:32-45
Mark 10:46-52
Mark 11:11-26
Mark 11:27-33

Vespers
1 Jn 5:1-8
Gal 5:7-15
Gal 5:16-26
Gal 6:1-10
Gal 6:11-18
Gal 4:1-7
Acts 2:42-47

Vigils Reading - Holy Trinity Sunday
2024-05-26
WE ACKNOWLEDGE THE TRINITY
A commentary by St Athanasius1
◊◊◊
It will not be out of place to consider the ancient tradition, teaching and
faith of the Catholic Church, which was revealed by the Lord, proclaimed by the
apostles, and guarded by the fathers. For upon this faith the Church is built, and
if anyone were to lapse from it, that person would no longer be a Christian either
in fact or in name.
We acknowledge the Trinity, holy and perfect, to consist of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. In this Trinity there is no intrusion of any alien
element or of anything from outside, nor is the Trinity a blend of creative and
created being. It is a wholly creative and energizing reality, self-consistent and
undivided in its active power, for the father makes all things through the Word
and in the Holy Spirit, and in this way the unity of the Holy Trinity is preserved.
Accordingly in the Church, one God is preached, one God who is above all
things and through all things and in all things. God is above all things as
Father, for he is the principle and source; he is through all things through the
Word; and he is in all things in the Holy Spirit.
Writing to the Corinthians about spiritual matters, Paul traces all reality
back to the one God, the Father, saying: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the
same Spirit; and varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are
varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in everyone.
Even the gifts that the Spirit dispenses to individuals are given by the
Father through the Word. For all that belongs to the Father belongs also to the
Son, and so the graces given by the Son in the Spirit are true gifts of the Father.
Similarly, when the Spirit dwells in us, the Word who bestows the Spirit is in us
too, and the Father is present in the Word. This is the meaning of the text: My
Father and I will come to him and make our home with him. For where the
light is, there also is the radiance; and where the radiance is, there too are its
power and resplendent grace.
This is also Paul’s teaching in his Second Letter to the Corinthians: The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit be with you all. For grace and the gift of the Trinity are given by the
Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Just as grace is given from the Father
through the Son, so there could be no communication of the gift to us except in
the Holy Spirit. But when we share in the Spirit, we possess the love of the
Father, the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the Spirit himself.

1 A Word in Season – vol. III – Exordium Books – 1983 – pg 224.3

Vigils Reading - St Augustine of Canterbury
2024-05-27
ST. AUGUSTINE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
From the writing of Alban Butler2
◊◊◊
When Pope St. Gregory the Great decided that the time had come for the
evangelization of Anglo-Saxon England, he chose as missionaries some thirty or more
monks from his monastery of St. Andrew… As their leader he gave them their own
prior, Augustine. The party set out from Rome in the year 596; but no sooner had
they arrived in Provence than they were assailed with warnings about the ferocity of
the Anglo-Saxons and the dangers of the Channel. Greatly discouraged, they
persuaded Augustine to return to Rome and obtain leave to abandon the enterprise.
St. Gregory, however, had received definite assurance that the English were well
disposed towards the Christian faith; he therefore sent Augustine back to his brethren
with words of encouragement which gave them heart to proceed on their way.
They landed in the Isle of Thanet in the territory of Ethelbert, king of Kent, who
was baptized at Pentecost 597. Almost immediately afterwards St. Augustine paid a
visit to France, where he was consecrated bishop of the English by St. Virgilius,
metropolitan of Arles. At Christmas of that same year, many of Ethelbert’s subjects
were baptized… Augustine sent two of his monks, Laurence and Peter, to Rome to
give a full report of his mission, to ask for more helpers and obtain advice on various
points. They came back bringing the pallium for Augustine and accompanied by a
fresh band of missionaries, amongst whom were St. Mellitus, St. Justus and St.
Paulinus.
Gregory outlined for Augustine the course he should take to develop a
hierarchy for the whole country, and both to him and to Mellitus gave very practical
instructions on other points. Pagan temples were not to be destroyed, but were to be
purified and consecrated for Christian worship. Local customs were as far as possible
to be retained, days of dedication and feasts of martyrs being substituted for heathen
festivals.
In Canterbury itself St. Augustine rebuilt an ancient church which, with an old
wooden house, formed the nucleus for his metropolitan basilica and for the later
monastery of Christ Church. These buildings stood on the site of the present cathedral
begun by Lanfranc in 1070. Outside the walls of Canterbury he made a monastic
foundation, which he dedicated in honour of St. Peter and St. Paul. After his death this
abbey became known as St. Augustine’s, and was the burial place of the early
archbishops.
Cut off from much communication with the outside world, the British church
clung to certain usages at variance with those of the Roman tradition. St. Augustine
invited the leading ecclesiastics to meet him at some place just on the confines of
Wessex, still known in Bede’s day as Augustine’s Oak. There he urged them to comply
with the practices of the rest of Western Christendom, and more especially to co-
operate with him in evangelizing the Anglo-Saxons. Fidelity to their local traditions,
however, made them unwilling. A second conference proved a said failure. Because
St. Augustine failed to rise when they arrived, the British bishops decided that he was
lacking in humility and would neither listen to him nor acknowledge him as their
metropolitan.
The saint’s last years were spent in spreading and consolidating the faith
throughout Ethelbert’s realm, and episcopal sees were established at London and
Rochester. About seven years after his arrival in England, St. Augustine passed to his
reward, on May 26, 605.
2Butler’s Lives of Saints. Harper, 1991, pp. 158-159.5

LCG Caritas Meeting
2024-05-27 18:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87376092232?pwd=[REDACTED]

Vigils Reading
2024-05-28
TRINITARIAN FAITH
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church3
◊◊◊
From the beginning, the revealed truth of the Holy Trinity has been at the
very root of the Church’s living faith, principally by means of Baptism. It finds its
expression in the rule of baptismal faith, formulated in the preaching, catechesis,
and prayer of the Church. Such formulations are already found in the apostolic
writings, such as this salutation taken up in the Eucharistic liturgy: “The grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be
with you all.”
During the first centuries the Church sought to clarify its Trinitarian faith,
both to deepen its own understanding of the faith and to defend it against errors
that were deforming it. This clarification was the work of the early councils, aided
by the theological work of the Church Fathers and sustained by the Christian
people’s sense of the faith.
The Church uses the term “substance” (rendered also at times by “essence”
or “nature”) to designate the divine being in its unity, the term “person” or
“hypostasis” to designate the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the real distinction
among them, and the term “relation” to designate the fact that their distinction
lies in the relationship of each to the others.
We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the
“consubstantial Trinity“. The divine persons do not share the one divinity among
themselves but each of them is God whole and entire: “The Father is that which
the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which
3 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994, Liberia Editrice Vaticana, USCC, pgs. 66-67.7
the Holy Spirit is… by nature one God“. In the words of the Fourth Lateran
Council: “Each of the persons is that supreme reality ”
…
“Father“,”Son“,”Holy Spirit” are not simply names designating modalities
of the divine being, for they are really distinct from one another: “He is not the
Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit
he who is the Father or the Son.” They are distinct from one another in their
relations of origin: “It is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and
the Holy Spirit who proceeds.” The divine Unity is Trinity.
Because it does not divide the divine unity, the real distinction of the
persons from one another resides solely in the relationships which relate them to
one another: “In the relational names of the persons the Father is related to the
Son, the Son to the Father, and the Holy Spirit to both. While they are called three
persons in view of their relations, we believe in one nature or substance.” Indeed
“everything (in them) is one where there is no opposition of relationship.”
…Inseparable in what they are, the divine persons are also inseparable in what
they do. But within the single divine operation each shows forth what is proper
to him in the Trinity, especially in the divine missions of the Son’s Incarnation
and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Vigils Reading - St Paul VI
2024-05-29
ONE MUST KNOW HUMANITY
IN ORDER TO KNOW GOD
From a homily by St Pope Paul VI4
◊◊◊
God is! God truly exists. He lives, a personal, provident God, possessed of
an infinite goodness. And indeed, he is good, not only in himself, but most
especially also toward us. He is our creator, our truth, our happiness. Therefore,
when one strives, as a human being, to fix one’s mind and heart on God with
the self-emptying that leads to contemplation, one engages in an activity of the
soul that can be considered the noblest and most perfect of all; it is an activity,
we would say, that countless fields of human endeavor in our day could and
should pursue to the highest level…
Human beings continually lament their lot. In the past and even now they
judge others inferior to themselves, and therefore, can be continuously
overbearing and secretive, greedy, and aggressive. Unhappy with themselves,
they either laugh or weep… They are a worthy object of religious reflection on
account of the innocence of their infancy, the mystery of their need, and the
tender love that their sorrows incite; initially they think only of themselves, and
only later care for society at large. They praise times past and at the same time
long for what is to come, dreaming that it will be happier than what went before;
on the one hand they can be guilty of terrible crimes and on the other show signs
of a holy life. And so it goes on…

The religion that is the worship of God who desired to become man, and
a religion which is the worship of ‘man’ who wishes to become like God, are
continually in conflict with each other…
Since this is how things are, it is true to say that the Catholic religion and
human life are united in a friendly alliance, and that each works together with
the other for the common human good. The Catholic religion is on the side of
the human race, and it is, in a certain way, the life of the human race. Indeed, it
should be called ‘the life’ because of the sublime doctrine, perfect from every
point of view, which it gives us about humanity; it hands on this doctrine
reliably because it has its knowledge from God. For in order for us deeply to
know humanity, true humanity, integral humanity, it is necessary that we first
know God himself…
Let us remember that the face of Christ, the Son of Man, is to be seen in
every human face, especially one marked with tears and sorrows; and when we
recognize the face of the heavenly Father in the face of Christ,—as he says,
“Whoever sees me, sees the Father,”—then our way of appraising human
concerns is transformed into Christianity, which is completely centered on God.
Therefore, we can only describe things in this way: namely, that in order that
God be known it is necessary to know the human person. Let us then strive to
attain a love for the human person, not as a means to an end, but rather as a
primary end point, by way of which we come to our final end which transcends
all human realities.
4 From the Homilies of Saint Paul VI, Pope (At the last public session of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, December 7,
1965: AAS 58 [1966], 53, 55-56, 58-59)9

Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
2024-05-30
THE POWER OF THE RISEN CHRIST
From “The Mystery of Time” by Fr Jean Mouroux5
◊◊◊
Christ died to deliver us from the condemnation to eternal death and from
the fear which enslaves the sinner. He has conquered death, the child of sin,
because he has conquered sin itself. He has undergone death to destroy it. He
has overcome this radical contradiction by elevating us to a participation in his
risen life, in “life eternal.” Death has not yet been completely eradicated, but it
has been completely transformed. Christ has delivered us all to the Cross
because He, the Head of mankind, the Center of the redeemed universe, the
Savior, “bore us all in Himself” during his sacrifice. Thus “if one died for all,
then all were dead”, and all are saved from the satanical power of death. It is
love, not damnation, which envelops us and restores us to God. It envelops us
as individuals: “He loved me, and delivered himself for me”; as members of the
race: he “loved us, and has delivered himself for us”; and as members of the
Church: he “loved the Church, and delivered himself up for it”.
It’s infinite blessing affects our personal life at baptism, where with Christ
we “are dead to sin, but alive to God”. The power of the Risen Christ dwells in
us that “we may walk in the newness of life,” that each day we may cast sin
farther away and crown our lives with the divine agape. The life of Christians in
time is a paradoxical one. They are dead to sin, yet must die to it each day; they
live in God, and must live for him each day; they are the battleground of an
eschatological struggle in which Christ the Conqueror faces the vanquished
devil, that he may triumph once again in the freedom of a regenerated heart. By
immersing himself ever more deeply into baptism and Christ, the Christian
grows with Christ and brings about his victory even in death.
Insofar as he lives in Christ, the Christian is totally enveloped by Christ
both before and after death. Before death, Christ is the life-giving, saving Lord.
After death, he calls, judges, purifies, and transfigures the life he has given. Here
below, he communicates the seed of immortality, especially in the Eucharist.
Up above, He will be the source of glory which will transform our soul and our
body. The Eternal One is present before and after death. So at our death Christ
is present as the Savior who protects Christians from the last assault of the evil
one, revives their flagging spirits, and leads them from the time of testing to
their eternal reward.
Christ is the Mediator through whom and in whom every Christian
experiences death. Externally, death still seems to be a terrible process of
annihilation. But internally it is the mysterious maturation of the new creature
in Jesus Christ. “This is the will of my Father who sent me: that every one who
sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise them on
the last day”….

5 New York-Tournai-Paris-Rome, 1964, pp. 307-308.11

Vigils Reading - Visitation of BVM
2024-05-31
THE FULLNESS OF GRACE
From the encyclical Redemptoris Mater by St John Paul II6
◊◊◊
Immediately after the narration of the Annunciation, the Evangelist Luke
guides us in the footsteps of the Virgin of Nazareth towards “a city of Judah”.
Mary arrived there “in haste”, to visit Elizabeth her kinswoman. The reason for
her visit is also to be found in the fact that at the Annunciation Gabriel had made
special mention of Elizabeth, who in her old age had conceived a son by her
husband Zechariah, through the power of God… The divine messenger had
spoken of what had been accomplished in Elizabeth in order to answer Mary’s
question: “How shall this be, since I have no husband?”. It is to come to pass
precisely through the “Power of the Most High”, just as it happened in the case
of Elizabeth, and even more so.
Moved by charity, therefore, Mary goes to the house of her kinswoman.
When Mary enters, Elizabeth replies to her greeting and feels the child leap in
her womb, and being “filled with the Holy Spirit” she greets Mary with a loud
cry: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”
….
While every word of Elizabeth’s greeting is filled with meaning, her final words,
would seem to have fundamental importance: “And blessed is she who believed
that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord”
.
These words can be linked with the title “full of grace” of the angel’s greeting.
Both of these texts reveal an essential Mariological content, namely the truth
about Mary who has become really present in the mystery of Christ precisely
because she “had believed”. The fullness of grace announced by the angel
means the gift of God himself. Mary’s faith, proclaimed by Elizabeth at the
Visitation, indicates how the Virgin of Nazareth responded to this gift…

Indeed, at the Annunciation Mary entrusted herself to God completely,
with the “full submission of intellect and will”, manifesting “the obedience of
faith” to him who spoke to her through his messenger. She responded,
therefore, with all her human and feminine “I”…. By accepting this
announcement, Mary was to become the “Mother of the Lord,” and the divine
mystery of the Incarnation was to be accomplished in her… Mary uttered this
fiat in faith. In faith she entrusted herself to God without reserve and devoted
herself totally as the handmaid of the Lord to the person and work of her son.
And this Son – as the Fathers of the Church teach – she conceived in her
mind before she conceived him in her womb: precisely in faith! Rightly
therefore does Elizabeth praise Mary: “And blessed is she who believed that
there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” These
words have already been fulfilled: Mary of Nazareth presents herself at the
threshold of Elizabeth and Zechariah’s house as the Mother of the Son of God.
This is Elizabeth’s joyful discovery: “The mother of my Lord comes to me”.

6 Published by the United States Catholic Conference, Washington, DC; ’12ff.13

Vigils Reading - St Justin Martyr
2024-06-01
ST JUSTIN MARTYR
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints
◊◊◊
Justin was a Greek from Samaria who became Christian about the year
115. He is the first notable Christian philosopher. He was born at Nablus in
Samaria. He was not a Jew, either by birth or by religion. He was a Greek and
was given a classical Greek education. He studied rhetoric, poetry and history,
and then turned to philosophy, searching, as he himself said, for the “vision of
God”. He traveled widely, joining philosophy schools in Ephesus and
Alexandria, and he was attracted to the schools of the Stoics, the Peripatetic’s
and the Pythagoreans. In Platonism, he found some of the answers to the
questions he was asking, and he was trained in dialectic.
One day while walking by the seashore, probably at Ephesus, he met a
respectable old man who told him about the Hebrew prophets and Christianity.
Justin wrote: “My spirit was immediately set on fire, and an affection for the
prophets and for those who are friends of Christ took hold of me. I discovered
that his was the only sure and useful philosophy.”
In Christianity he found the answer to his search. He taught at Ephesus.
He debated publicly with the Jews and the Gnostics and with those who
worshipped the Roman gods. In about the year 150 he went to Rome where he
taught the Christian apologetics, founded a school of philosophy and wrote his
major works. Justin wrote an intellectual defense of Christian beliefs against
outside attacks.
He is said to have lived a very ascetic and austere life. His pleasure was in
public debates. Justin’s fearless defense of Christianity and his thorough
demolition of his opponents must have made him many enemies.15
His martyrdom took place in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, and an
authentic record of the proceedings survives. He stated his beliefs, refused to
sacrifice to the Roman gods, and accepted suffering and death as the means to
salvation. He was beheaded with six other Christians about the year 165.

Skema
2024-06-02
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
9th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
June 2 – 8, 2024

Sun
2
Mon
3
Tue
4
Wed
5
Thu
6
Fri
7
Sat
8

Office
Corpus Christi
St Charles Lwanga & Companions
Weekday
St Boniface
St Norbert
Sacred Heart of Jesus
Immaculate Heart of Mary

Vigils
Nehemiah 9:9-21
Judg 4:1-24
Judg 5:1-31
Judg 6:1-18
Judg 6:19-40
Jerm 30:18-31:5, 18-20
Judg 7:1-22

Lauds
Wis 16:20-28
Amos 1:6-10
Amos 1:11-15
Amos 2:1-5
Amos 2:6-16
Ezek 36:22-28
Amos 3:1-8

Mass
168
353
354
355
356
171
358, 573

1st
Exod 24:3-8
2 Pet 1:2-7
2 Pet 3:12-15a, 17-18
2 Tim 1:1-3, 6-12
2 Tim 2:8-15
Hos 11:1, 3-4, 8c-9
2 Tim 4:1-8

2nd
Heb 9:11-15

Eph 3:8-12, 14-19

Gospel
Mark 14:12-16, 22-26
Mark 12:1-12
Mark 12:13-17
Mark 12:18-27
Mark 12:28-34
John 19:31-37
Luke 2:41-51

Vespers
Heb 9:18-22
Phil 1:1-11
Phil 1:12-18a
Phil 1:18b-26
Rom 5:6-11
Rom 8:28-39
Phil 1:27-30

Vigils Reading - Corpus Christi
2024-06-02
THE BODY OF CHRIST
From a commentary by St Augustine1
◊◊◊
You see on God’s altar bread and a cup. That is what the evidence of your
eyes tells you, but your faith requires you to believe that the bread is the body
of Christ, the cup the blood of Christ. In these few words we can say perhaps all
that faith demands.
Faith, however, seeks understanding; so you may now say to me: “You
have told us what we have to believe, but explain it so that we can understand
it, because it is quite possible for someone to think along these lines: We know
from whom our Lord Jesus Christ took his flesh – it was from the Virgin Mary.
As a baby, he was suckled, he was fed, he developed, he came to young man’s
estate. He was slain on the cross, he was taken down from it, he was buried, he
rose again on the third day. On the day of his own choosing, he ascended to
heaven, taking his body with him; and it is from heaven that he will come to
judge the living and the dead. But now that he is there, seated at the right hand
of the Father, how can bread be his body? And the cup, or rather what is in the
cup, how can that be his blood?”
These things, my friends, are called sacraments, because our eyes see in
them one thing, our understanding another. Our eyes see the material form;
our understanding, its spiritual effect. If, then, you want to know what the body
of Christ is, you must listen to what the Apostle tells the faithful: Now you are
the body of Christ, and individually you are members of it.

If that is so, it is the sacrament of yourselves that is placed on the Lord’s
altar, and it is the sacrament of yourselves that you receive. You reply “Amen”
to what you are, and thereby agree that such you are. You hear the words “The
body of Christ” and you reply “Amen.” Be, then, a member of Christ’s body, so
that your “Amen” may accord with the truth.
Yes, but why all this in bread? Here let us not advance any ideas of our
own, but listen to what the Apostle says over and over again when speaking of
this sacrament: Because there is one loaf, we, though we are many, form one
body. Let your mind assimilate that and be glad, for there you will find unity,
truth, piety, and love. He says, one loaf. And who is this one loaf? We, though
we are many, form one body. Now bear in mind that bread is not made of a
single grain, but of many. Be, then, what you see, and receive what you are.
So much for what the Apostle says about the bread. As for the cup, what
we have to believe is quite clear, although the Apostle does not mention it
expressly. Just as the unity of the faithful, which holy Scripture describes in the
words: They were of one mind and heart in God, should be like the kneading
together of many grains into one visible loaf, so with the wine. Think how wine
is made. Many grapes hang in a cluster, but their juice flows together into an
indivisible liquid.
It was thus that Christ our Lord signified us, and his will that we should belong
to him, when he hallowed the sacrament of our peace and unity on his altar.
Anyone, however, who receives this sacrament of unity and does not keep the
bond of peace, does not receive it to his profit, but as a testimony against
himself.

1 Journey with the Fathers: Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels – Year A. Ed. Edith Barnecut, OSB.
New York: New City Press, 1992. 76-77.3

Vigils Reading - St Charles Lwanga & Companions
2024-06-03
THE MARTYRS OF UGANDA
From a homily by St Pope Paul VI2
◊◊◊
The African martyrs add another page to the martyrology – the Church’s
roll of honor – an occasion both of mourning and of joy. This is a page worthy
in every way of being added to the annals of that Africa of earlier times, which
we, living in this era and being people of little faith, never expected to be
repeated.
In earlier times there occurred those famous deeds, so moving to the
spirit, of the martyrs of Scilli, of Carthage, and of that “white robed army” of
Utica commemorated by Saint Augustine and Prudentius; of the martyrs of
Egypt so highly praised by Saint John Chrysostom, and of the martyrs of the
Vandal persecution. Who would have thought that in our days we should have
witnessed events as heroic and glorious?
Who would have predicted to the famous African confessors and martyrs
such as Cyprian, Felicity, Perpetua and – the greatest of all – Augustine, that
we would one day add names so dear to us as Charles Lwanga and Matthias
Mulumba Kalemba and their twenty companions? Nor must we forget those
members of the Anglican Church who also died in the name of Christ.
These African martyrs herald the dawn of a new age. If only the human
mind might be directed not toward persecutions and religious conflicts but
toward a rebirth of Christianity and civilization! Africa has been washed by the
blood of these latest martyrs, the first of this new age (and God willing, let them
be the last, although such a holocaust is precious indeed). Africa is reborn free
and independent.

2 The Liturgy of the Hours – vol II – Catholic Book Publishing Co. – New York – 1976 – p 1860.5

Vigils Reading
2024-06-04
THE GREATEST OF ALL HIS MIRACLES
By St Thomas Aquinas3
◊◊◊
Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that we should share in
his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he might
make us divine. Moreover, when he took our flesh he dedicated the whole of its
substance to our salvation. He offered his body to God the Father on the altar
of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation. He shed his blood for our
ransom and purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state
of bondage and cleansed from all sin. But to ensure that the memory of so great
a gift would abide with us forever, he left his body as food and his blood as drink
for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.
O precious and wonderful banquet that brings us salvation and contains
all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old law it
was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered, but here Christ himself, the
true God, is set before us as our food. What could be more wonderful than this?
No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away,
virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every
spiritual gift. It is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what
was instituted for the salvation of all may be of benefit to all. Yet in the end no
one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament, in which spiritual delight
is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that
surpassing love for us which Christ revealed in his passion.
It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of
the faithful that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper. As he
was on the point of leaving the world to go to the Father, after celebrating the
Passover with his disciples, he left it as a perpetual memorial of his passion. It
was the fulfillment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles, while
for those who were to experience the sorrow of his departure, it was destined to
be a unique and abiding consolation.

3 Opusculujm 57 – Feast of Corpus Christi. A Word in Season – vol. III – Exordium Books –
Riverdale, MD – pg 2287

Vigils Reading - St Boniface
2024-06-05
ST BONIFACE
The Apostle of Germany4
◊◊◊
In art and religion, in scholarship and literature, the Anglo-Saxons of the
eighth century were the leaders of their age. At the time when continental
civilization was at its lowest ebb, the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons marked
the turn of the tide. The Saxon pilgrims flocked to Rome as the center of the
Christian world and the Papacy found its most devoted allies and servants in
the Anglo-Saxon monks and missionaries. The foundations of the new age were
laid by the greatest of them all, St Boniface of Crediton, “the apostle of
Germany”, a man who had a deeper influence on the history of Europe than any
Englishman who has ever lived.
Unlike his Celtic predecessors, he was not an individual missionary, but
a statesman and organizer, who was, above all, servant of the Roman order. To
him is due the foundation of the medieval German Church and the final
conversion of Hesse and Thuringia, the heart of the German land. With the help
of his Anglo-Saxon monks and nuns he destroyed the last strongholds of
Germanic heathenism and planted abbeys and bishoprics on the site of the old
Folkburgs and heathen sanctuaries, such as Buraburg, Amoneburg, and Fulda.
On his return from Rome in 739 he used his authority as Papal Vicar in Germany
to reorganize the Bavarian Church and to establish the new dioceses which had
so great an importance in German history.
For Germany beyond the Rhine was still a land without cities, and the
foundation of the new bishoprics meant the creation of new centers of cultural
life. It was through the work of St Boniface that Germany first became a living
member of the European society. But in addition to this, Boniface was the
reformer of the whole Frankish church. The decadent Merovingian dynasty
had already given up the substance of its power to the mayors of the palace, but
in spite of their military prowess, which saved France from conquest by the
Arabs in 735, they had done nothing for culture and had only furthered the
degradation of the Frankish Church. Charles Martel had used the abbeys and
bishoprics to reward his lay partisans, and had carried out a wholesale
secularization of Church property. As Boniface wrote to the Pope, “Religion is
trodden under foot. Benefices are given to greedy laymen or unchaste and
publican clerics. All their crimes do not prevent their attaining the priesthood;
at last rising in rank as they increase in sin they become bishops, and those of
them who can boast that they are not adulterers or fornicators, are drunkards,
given up to the chase, and soldiers who do not shrink from shedding Christian
blood.”
Nevertheless, the successors of Charles Martel, Pepin and Carloman,
were favorable to Boniface’s reforms. Armed with his special powers as Legate
of the Holy See and personal representative of the Pope, he undertook the
desecularization of the Frankish Church.

4 Dawson, Christopher. “The Making of Europe”, New York, 1956, pp 185-186.9

Vigils Reading - St Norbert
2024-06-06
ST NORBERT
The Patron of Peace5
◊◊◊
Norbert is deservedly numbered by historians among those who made an
effective contribution to the reform movement under Pope Gregory VII. He
established a clergy dedicated to the ideals of the Gospel and the apostolic
Church. They were chaste and poor. They wore “the clothing and the symbols
of the new man; that is to say, they wore the religious habit and exhibited the
dignity proper to the priesthood.” Norbert asked them to “live according to the
norms of the Scriptures with Christ as their model.” They were “to be clean in
all matters pertaining to the altar and divine worship, to correct their faults and
failings in their chapter meeting, and to care for and give shelter to the poor.”
The priests lived in community, where they continued the work of the
apostles. Inspired by the practice of the early Church, Norbert exhorted the
faithful to join the monastic life in some capacity. So many men and women
responded to the invitation that many asserted that no man since the apostles
themselves had inspired so many to embrace the monastic life.
When Norbert was appointed an archbishop, he urged his brothers to
carry the faith to the lands of the Wends. In his own diocese he tried
unsuccessfully to convince the clergy of the need for reform and was confronted
with noisy protests both in the street and in the church.
One of the principal goals of Norbert’s life was to foster harmony between
the Apostolic See and the German empire. At the same time he wanted to
maintain Rome’s freedom in the matter of ecclesiastical appointments.

Apparently his efforts were so successful that Pope Innocent II thanked him
profusely in a letter in which he called him a “devoted son”, and Lothair made
him chancellor of the realm.
Norbert did all these things with a steadfast faith: “Faith was the
outstanding virtue of Norbert’s life, as charity had been the hallmark of Bernard
of Clairvaux.” Affable and charming, amiable to one and all, “he was at ease in
the company of the humble and the great alike”. Finally, he was a most eloquent
preacher; after long meditation “he would preach the word of God, and with his
fiery eloquence purged vices, refined virtues and filled souls of good will with
the warmth of wisdom”. He spent many hours in contemplation of the divine
mysteries and fearlessly spread the spiritual insights which were the fruit of his
meditation.

5 Dawson, Christopher. “The Making of Europe”, New York, 1956, pp 185-186.11

Vigils Reading - Sacred Heart of Jesus
2024-06-07
A BAPTISM OF BLOOD AND WATER
From a commentary by St Catherine of Siena6
◊◊◊
“Why, gentle spotless lamb, since you were dead when your side was
opened, did you want your heart to be pierced and parted?” He answered,
“there were plenty of reasons, but I shall tell you one of the chief. My longing
for humanity was infinite, but the actual deed of bearing pain and torment was
finite and could never show all the love I had. This is why I wanted you to see
my inmost heart, so that you would see that I loved you more than finite
suffering could show.”
“By shedding both blood and water I showed you the holy baptism of
water that you receive through the power of my blood. But I was also showing
you the baptism of blood, and this in two ways. The first touches those who are
baptized in their own blood poured out for me. Though they could not have the
other baptism, their own blood has power because of mine. Others are baptized
in fire when they lovingly desire baptism but cannot have it. Nor is there any
baptism of fire without blood, for blood has been fused with the fire of divine
charity, because it was shed for love.
“There is a second way the soul receives this baptism of blood, figuratively
speaking. This my divine charity provided because I know how people sin
because of weakness. Not that weakness or anything else can force them to sin
if they do not want to, but being weak they do fall into deadly sin and lose the
grace they had drawn from the power of the blood in holy baptism. So my divine
charity had to leave them an ongoing baptism of blood accessible by heartfelt
contrition and a holy confession as soon as they can confess to my ministers
who hold the key to the blood. This blood the priest pours over the soul in
absolution.
So you see, this baptism is ongoing, and the soul ought to be baptized in
it right up to the end, in the way I have told you. In this baptism you experience
that though my act of suffering on the cross was finite, the fruit of that suffering
which you have received through me is infinite. This is because of the infinite
divine nature joined with finite human nature. It was this human nature in
which I was clothed that suffered in me, the Word. But because the two natures
are fused with each other, the eternal Divinity took to itself the suffering I bore
with such burning love.
For this reason what I did can be called infinite. Not that either the actual
bodily suffering or the pain of my longing to accomplish your redemption was
infinite, for all of that ended on the cross when my soul left my body. But the
fruit was infinite that came from my suffering and from my desire for your
salvation, and therefore you receive it without limit. Had it not been infinite,
the whole of humankind, past, present and to come, would not have been
restored. Nor could those who sin get up again if this baptism of blood (that is,
the fruit of the blood) had not been given to you without limit.
I showed you this in the opening up of my side. There you find my heart’s
secret and it shows you, more than any finite suffering could, how I love you.”

6 Journey with the Fathers: Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels – Year B. New
York: New City Press, 1999. 70-71.13

LCG June Retreat
2024-06-07 18:30 - 2024-06-09 13:00 (America/New_York)
LCG June Retreat
Dates: June 7-9, 2024
Place Abbey of Gethsemani
Host Community is the Kentucky LCG Community
Theme is “Cistercian Hospitality”
Reservation for this retreat open May 6, 2024 and Close on May 17, 2024.

Vigils Reading - Immaculate Heart of Mary
2024-06-08
THE TEMPLE OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
By St Elizabeth of the Trinity7
◊◊◊
“The Virgin kept all these things in her heart”: her whole history can be
summed up in these few words! It was within her heart that she lived, and at
such a depth that no human eye can follow her. When I read in the gospel “that
Mary went in haste to the hill country of Judea” to perform her loving service
for her cousin Elizabeth, I imagine her passing by so beautiful, so calm and so
majestic, so absorbed in recollection of the Word of God within her. Like him
her prayer was always this: “Ecce, here I am!” Who? “The servant of the Lord,”
the lowliest of his creatures: she, his Mother! Her humility was so real for she
was always forgetful, unaware, freed from self. And she could sing: “The
Almighty has done great things for me, henceforth all peoples will call me
blessed.”
This Queen of virgins is also Queen of martyrs; but again it was in her
heart that the sword pierced, for with her everything took place within! Oh! How
beautiful she is to contemplate during her long martyrdom, so serene,
enveloped in a kind of majesty that radiates both strength and gentleness. She
learned from the Word himself how those must suffer whom the Father has
chosen as victims, those whom he has decided to associate with himself in the
great work of redemption, those whom he “has foreknown and predestined to
be conformed to his Christ,” crucified by love.
She is there at the foot of the Cross, standing, full of strength and courage, and
here my Master says to me: [“Behold your Mother.”] He gives her to me for my
Mother. And now that he has returned to the Father and has substituted me for
himself on the Cross so that “I may suffer in my body what is lacking in his
passion for the sake of his body, which is the Church,” the Blessed Virgin is
again there to teach me to suffer as he did, to tell me, to make me hear those
last songs of his soul which no one else but she, his Mother, could overhear.

7 Complete Works, vol. 1, translated by Sr. Aletheia Kane, OCD, Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1984, pp. 160-161.15

LCG Chicago Monthly Meeting Zoom 9:00 am CDT
2024-06-08 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago)

Skema
2024-06-09
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
10th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
June 9 – 15, 2024

Sun
9
Mon
10
Tue
11
Wed
12
Thu
13
Fri
14
Sat
15

Office
10th Sunday
Weekday
St Barnabas
St Alice
St Anthony of Padua
Bl Gerard
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Judg 7:23-8:21
Judg 8:22-35
1 Cor 9:1-18
Judg 9:1-21
Judg 9:22-41
Judg 9:42-57
Judg 10:6-18

Lauds
Amos 3:9-12
Amos 3:13-15
Acts 4:32-37
Amos 4:1-5
Amos 4:6-10
Amos 4:11-13
Amos 5:1-6, 8-9

Mass
89
359
580
361
362
363
364

1st
Gen 3:9-15
1 Kgs 17:1-6
Acts 11:21b-26; 13:1-3
1 Kgs 18:20-39
1 Kgs 18:41-46
1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-16
1 Kgs 19:19-21

2nd
2 Cor 4:13-5:1

Gospel
Mark 3:20-35
Matt 5:1-12
Matt 10:7-13
Matt 5:17-19
Matt 5:20-26
Matt 5:27-32
Matt 5:33-37

Vespers
Phil 2:1-11
Phil 2:12-18
Acts 9:23-31
Phil 3:2-11
Phil 3:12-16
Phil 3:17-21
Phil 4:1-9
