Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Vigils Reading - St Cajetan
2024-08-07
ST CAJETAN
From the writing of Alban Butler1
◊◊◊
St Cajetan was son of Caspar, Count of Thiene, of the nobility of Vicenza,
where he was born in 1480. Two years later his father was killed, fighting for
the Venetians against King Ferdinand of Naples. Cajetan went for four years to
Padua University, where he distinguished himself in theology, and took the
degree of doctor in civil and canon law in 1504. He then returned to his native
town, of which he was made senator. In pursuance of his resolve to serve God
as a priest he received the tonsure. In 1506 he went to Rome. Soon after his
arrival Pope Julius II conferred on him the office of protonotary… On the death
of Julius Cajetan refused his successor’s request to continue in that office, and
devoted three years to preparing himself for the priesthood. He was ordained
in 1516, being thirty-three years old, and returned to Vicenza in 1518.
Cajetan had re-founded a confraternity in Rome called “The Oratory of
the Divine Love”, which was an association of zealous and devout clerics who
devoted themselves to labor with all their power to promote God’s honor and
the welfare of souls… but consisted only of men in the lowest station of life. This
circumstance gave great offence to his friends, who thought it a reflection on
the honor of his family. He persisted, however, and sought out the sick and the
poor throughout the whole town, served them and cared for those who suffered
from the most loathsome diseases in the hospital of the incurables. He founded
a similar oratory at Verona and then went in 1520 to Venice where he took up
his lodgings in the new hospital of that city… He introduced exposition of the
Blessed Sacrament in that city, as well as continuing the promotion of frequent
communion.
The state of Christendom at this time shocked and distressed Cajetan, and
in 1523 he went back to Rome to confer with his friends of the Oratory of Divine
Love. They agreed that little could be done other than by reviving in the clergy
the spirit and zeal of those holy pastors who first planted the faith, and a plan
was formed for instituting an order of regular clergy upon the model of the lives
of the Apostles. The first associates of Cajetan were John Peter Caraffa, who
later became pope under the name of Paul IV. The institute was approved by
Clement VII, and Caraffa was chosen as the first provost general. From the
name of his episcopal see of Theatensis these clerks regular came to be
distinguished from others as Theatines.
The success of the new congregation was not immediate, and in 1527,
when it still numbered only a dozen members, the army of Emperor Charles V
sacked Rome. The Theatines house was demolished and the members had to
escape to Venice. Cajetan was sent to Verona, where both the clergy and the
laity were opposing the reformation of discipline, which their bishop was
endeavoring to introduce among them. A general improvement was the fruit of
his example, preaching and labors.
Worn out with trying to appease civil strife in Naples, and disappointed
at the suspension of the Council of Trent, from which he hoped so much for the
Church’s good, Cajetan had to take to his bed in the summer of 1547. The end
came on Sunday, August 7. Many miracles wrought by his intercession were
approved at Rome after rigorous scrutiny, and he was canonized in 1671.

Vigils Reading - St Dominic
2024-08-08
THE PRAYER OF ST DOMINIC1
◊◊◊
The holy father Dominic also had another beautiful way of praying, full of
devotion and grace. After the canonical Hours and the grace which is said in
common after meals, the father would go off quickly on his own to a cell or
somewhere, sober and alert and anointed with a spirit of devotion which he had
drawn from the divine words which had been sung in choir or during the meal;
there he would sit down to read or pray, recollecting himself in himself and
fixing himself in the presence of God. Sitting there quietly he would open some
book before him, arming himself first with the sign of the cross, and then he
would read. And he would be moved in his mind as delightfully as if he heard
the Lord speaking to him.
As the Psalm says, “I will hear what the Lord God is saying in me.” It was
as if he were arguing with a friend; at one moment he would appear to be feeling
impatient, nodding his head energetically, then he would seem to be listening
quietly, then you would see him disputing and struggling, and laughing and
weeping all at once, fixing his gaze, submitting, then again speaking quietly and
beating his breast. If anyone was inquisitive enough to want to spy on him
secretly, he would find that the holy father Dominic was like Moses, who went
into the innermost desert and saw the burning bush and the Lord speaking and
calling to him to humble himself. The man of God had a prophetic way of
passing quickly from reading to prayer and from meditation to contemplation.
When he was reading like this on his own, he used to venerate the book
and bow to it and sometimes kiss it, particularly if it was a book of the gospels
or if he was reading the words which Christ had spoken with his own lips. And
sometimes he used to hide his face and turn it aside, or he would bury his face
in his hands and hide it a little in his scapular. And then he would also become11
anxious and full of yearning, and he would also rise a little, respectfully, and
bow as if he were thanking some very special person for favours he has
bestowed. Then, quite refreshed and at peace in himself, he would continue
reading his book.

Vigils Reading - St Teresa Benedict
2024-08-09
THE EUCHARIST
AS A MEANS OF SALVATION
From an essay by St Edith Stein1
◊◊◊
Christ’s suffering and death are continued in His mystical Body and in
each of His members. Everyone must suffer and die. But if that person is a
living member of the Body of Christ, their suffering and death will receive
redemptive power from the divinity of the Head. This is the objective reason
why all the saints have desired to suffer. This is not a pathological pleasure in
suffering. It is true, to natural reason it appears as a perversion. But in the light
of the mystery of salvation it shows itself to be highly reasonable. And thus, the
one who is united to Christ will remain unmoved even in the dark night of
feeling estranged from, and abandoned by God. Perhaps divine providence is
using his agony to deliver another, who is truly a prisoner cut off from God.
Therefore, we will say: “Thy will be done” even, and particularly so, in the
darkest night… For God has come to redeem us, to unite us to Himself and to
each other, to conform our will to His. He knows our nature. He reckons with
it, and has therefore given us every help necessary to reach our goal…
The Savior, knowing that we are and remainA men who have daily to
struggle with our weaknesses, aids our humanity in a manner truly divine. Just
as our earthly body needs its daily bread, so the divine life in us must be
constantly fed. “This is the living bread that came down from heaven”. If we
make it truly our daily bread, the mystery of Christmas, the Incarnation of the
Word, will daily be re-enacted in us. And this, it seems, is the surest way to
remain in constant union with God, and to grow every day more securely and
more deeply into the mystical Body of Christ…13
Is it really demanding too much to make room in our life for the
Eucharistic Savior, so that He may transform our life into His own? We have
time for so many useless things: we read senseless rubbish in books, periodicals
and newspapers… All these are distractions by which one wastes time and
strength…
Thus, being a child of God means to become small and at the same time
to become great. Living eucharistically means quite naturally to leave the
narrowness of one’s own life and to grow into the breadth of the Christ life…
Who could assist at the Holy Sacrifice with a receptive mind and heart and not
be filled with the sacrificial spirit, burning with the desire that his own small
personal life should be merged into the great work of the Savior?

Vigils Reading - St Lawrence
2024-08-10
ST LAWRENCE
By St Augustine1
◊◊◊
The Roman Church commends to us today the anniversary of the triumph
of St. Lawrence. For on this day he trod the furious pagan world underfoot and
flung aside its allurements, and so gained victory over Satan’s attack on his
faith. As you have often heard, Lawrence was a deacon of the Church at Rome.
There he ministered the sacred blood of Christ; there for the sake of Christ’s
name he poured out his own blood. St John the Apostle was evidently teaching
us about the mystery of the Lord’s supper when he wrote: Just as Christ laid
down his life for us, so we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. My
brethren, Lawrence understood this and, understanding, he acted on it. Just as
he had partaken of a gift of self at the table of the Lord, so he prepared to offer
such a gift. In his life he loved Christ; in his death he followed in his footsteps.
Brethren, we too must imitate Christ if we truly love him. We shall not be
able to render better return on that love than by modeling our lives on his.
Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow in his steps.
In saying this, the Apostle Peter seems to have understood that Christ suffered
only for those who follow in his steps, in the sense that Christ’s passion is of no
avail to those who do not. The holy martyrs followed Christ even to the shedding
of their life’s blood, even to reproducing the very likeness of his passion. They
followed him, but not they alone. It is not true that the bridge was broken after
the martyrs crossed; nor is it true that after they had drunk from it, the fountain
of eternal life dried up.
I tell you again and again, my brethren, that in the Lord’s garden are to
be found not only the roses of his martyrs. In it there are also the lilies of the
virgins, the ivy of wedded couples, and the violets of widows. On no account15
may any class of people despair, thinking that Christ has not called them. Christ
suffered for all. What the Scriptures say of him is true: He desires all to be saved
and to come to knowledge of the truth.
Let us understand, then, how a Christian must follow Christ even though
he does not shed his blood for him, and his faith is not called upon to undergo
the great test of the martyr’s sufferings. The apostle Paul says of Christ our Lord:
Though he was in the form of God he did not consider equality with God a prize
to be clung to. How unrivaled his majesty! But he emptied himself, taking on
the form of a slave, made in human likeness, and presenting himself in human
form. How deep his humility!
Christ humbled himself. Christian, that is what you must make your own.
Christ became obedient. How is it that you are proud? When this humbling
experience was completed and death itself lay conquered, Christ ascended into
heaven. Let us follow him there, for we hear Paul saying: If you have been raised
with Christ, you must lift your thoughts on high, where Christ now sits at the
right hand of God.

LCG Chicago Monthly Meeting 9:00 am CDT
2024-08-10 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago)
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Skema
2024-08-11
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
19th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
August 11 – 17, 2024

Sun
11
Mon
12
Tue
13
Wed
14
Thu
15
Fri
16
Sat
17

Office
19th Sunday
Office for Vocations
Weekday
St Maximilian Kolbe
Assumption of the BVM
Weekday
Weekday

Vigils
1 Sam 24:1-25:1
1 Sam 25:2-22
1 Sam 25:23-43
1 Sam 26:1-25
Sir 24:1-16
1 Sam 27:1-12
1 Sam 28:1-25

Lauds
Zeph 1:7-13
Zeph 1:14-18
Zeph 2:1-7
Zeph 2:8-15
Josh 4:4-10
Zeph 3:1-7
Zeph 3:8-13

Mass
116
413
414
415
622
417
418

1st
1 Kgs 19:4-8
Ezek 1:2-5, 24-28c
Ezek 2:8-3:4
Ezek 9:1-7; 10:18-22
Rev 11:19a; 12:1-6a; 10ab
Ezek 16:1-15, 60, 63
Ezek 18:1-10, 13b, 30-32

2nd
Eph 4:30-5:2

1 Cor 15:20-27

Gospel
John 6:41-51
Matt 17:22-27
Matt 18:1-5, 10, 12-14
Matt 18:15-20
Luke 1:39-56
Matt 19:3-12
Matt 19:13-15

Vespers
Jas 1:12-18
Jas 1:19-27
Jas 2:1-13
Eph 2:1-10
Rom 8:28-39
Jas 2:14-17
Jas 2:18-26

Vigils Reading - 19th Sunday
2024-08-11
HIS MOST DIVINE LIFE
From a commentary by Denis the Areopagite1
◊◊◊
In his goodness and love for humankind, Jesus, the most divine Word,
one, simple, and hidden, assumed our nature, appearing though unchanged in
his own nature as a being both composite and visible. Graciously he received us
into unifying communion with himself, joining our lowliness to his sublime
divinity, under the sole condition that we in our turn should adhere to him as
members of his body by living a pure and godly life like his, and not giving reign
to ruinous, death-dealing passions, which would make us incapable of union
with those completely healthy and divine members.
If we aspire to communion with Jesus, we must fix our eyes upon the most
holy life he lives in the flesh and follow the example of his divine innocence so
as to become pure and godlike. Then, in a manner befitting us, he will give us a
resemblance to himself.
The bishop manifests these truths in the sacred rites he performs when
he publicly unveils the hidden gifts, divides them into many parts, and by the
perfect union of the sacrament he distributes with those who receive it, admits
the recipients to communion with it. For by thus presenting Jesus Christ to our
eyes he shows us the very life of our spirit and understanding in a way
perceptible to our senses, as it were pictorially. He shows us how Christ came
forth from his divine concealment to assume for love of humanity our human
form, becoming completely human without loss of his own identity, how while
remaining unchanged he descended from his natural unity to the level of our
divisibility, and how through the beneficent deeds inspired by his love for us,
He calls the human race to communion with himself and to share in his
blessings. He asks only that we unite ourselves to his most divine life by3
imitating it to the best of our ability, so as to enter into a real communion with
God and his divine mysteries.

Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
2024-08-12
THE DIVINE CALL
From the writing of Hans Urs von Balthasar1
◊◊◊
Christian revelation is primarily a revelation of hearing, not of seeing.
Although the image of seeing is not excluded – for “we see now through a
mirror in an obscure manner”; wisdom, when it appears, is the “mirror … and
image” of the divine goodness; and Christ is “the image of the invisible God”
so that, in seeing him, we also see the Father – nevertheless the comparison
with hearing is the dominant one in revelation: the Second Person is heard
primarily as “Word” and faith in him comes by hearing. The hearing of the Word
is by no means a temporary substitute for the seeing that is wanting to us here
below. On the contrary, it is the lasting proof that God never is and never will
be a mere “object” of knowledge to us, but is rather the infinitely sovereign
majesty of a Trinity of Persons that makes itself known in whatever way and to
whomever it wills.
That God speaks to us in his personal word is a greater grace than that we
are allowed to see him: That we are deemed worthy of his word is the grace of
graces that makes us partners in a divine, even Trinitarian, conversation. That
the word of God is spoken to us is the highest revelation and honor the personal
God can bestow upon us, for it presumes that God considers us capable of
understanding his word through the gift of his grace and of possessing the Spirit
who “searches all things, even the deep things of God, that we may know all
things that have been given us by God”. So tremendous is this grace that the
creature thus addressed by God must forget its own wishes and desires, even its
longing for “eternal happiness” and for the “vision of God” so that, trembling
in the depths of its being, it may fall to the ground and hear his voice only to
ask: “What shall I do, Lord?”5
But one who has been thrown to the ground by the impact of this
compelling voice is also “set upon his feet” by it. When God speaks, He wants a
partner. He wants one who is erect, who, hearing his voice, is yet able to stand
upon his feet and answer: “…I fell upon my face, and I heard the voice of the
one that spoke. And he said to me: Son of man, stand upon your feet, and I will
speak to you. And the Spirit entered into me after he spoke to me, and he set
me upon my feet; and I heard him speaking to me…”.
When God speaks personally, he wants to be understood personally;
when he utters his personal word into the world, he wants that word to be
returned to him, not as a dead echo, but as a personal response from his
creature in an exchange that is genuinely a dialogue even though it can be
conducted only in the unity of the divine Word that mediates between the
Father and us. But just as that divine Word proceeds from the Father, yet is not
the Father, but only declares the Father, so the creature can give back to the
Father this word it has received by uttering itself in it – or better, by letting itself
be uttered by it.

Vigils Reading
2024-08-13
THE CENOBITIC LIFE
From the writing of Baldwin of Ford.1
◊◊◊
The common life of the angels is a sort of copy of that common life which
is in God, of God, and is God. It is united in perfect peace by the Holy Spirit,
who is its love, its bond, and its communion. ‘By the word of the Lord the
heavens were established, and all their virtue by the spirit of his mouth.’ The
heavens are the angels in whom God dwells as their common life and common
blessedness, and in his love they live in concord and happiness. Each of them
loves all the others, and all of them love each; they all want the same things and
all are averse to the same things; what pleases one is displeasing to none, and
what one wants, they all want. There is one purpose and one will for all; all feel
the same thing, and all sense the same thing.
There is no one here puffed up with pride, no one consumed with envy,
no outbursts of anger, no quarrels or discord, no murmurs of impatience, and
no one is defamed by treacherous tongues. Here all is at peace, all is calm, all is
tranquil. There is nothing disordered, nothing undisciplined, nothing contrary
to order or obedience, nothing secretly put away with the intention of keeping
it for oneself. Everything is open and aboveboard, everything is plain, and
things which are proper to each individual are common to all through the
sharing of love and the love of sharing. They are all [assembled] in one temple
and raise their shouts of joy to God in common; all at the same time read and
meditate and contemplate in the book of life; and they all refresh themselves
communally at one and the same table. They take their rest together in the place
of eternal repose, and there is no one who does anything on his own which can
disturb or damage their common peace, obedience, or order.
Such is the fellowship— the happiest and most joyous [of fellowships] —
of the citizens of the realms above who live the common life, and we who are
still upon earth should follow their way of life by [living] the common life after
their example. Thus, we might deserve to be joined with them in intimate
companionship, a companionship which will be the more intimate the more it
is granted us from above to imitate their life, through the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the charity of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Vigils Reading - St Maximilian
2024-08-14
A TESTIMONY FROM
THE BEATIFICATION PROCESS
OF ST MAXIMILIAN KOLBE1
◊◊◊
Fr Kolbe and I worked together in May or June 1941. We were bringing
sand up from the Sola River. This was some of Auschwitz’s heaviest work, so
our squad had a very hard time indeed. The work itself was very painful; we
were lightly and very insufficiently dressed, and yet we had to wade into the cold
water to dig the sand. In addition, the guards beat us cruelly or sometimes
killed prisoners outright. From the first time I saw Father Maximilian I was
struck by his dignity and calm, so different from others. In spite of the terrible
conditions and bad treatment, he never complained nor did he curse. Instead,
he tried to comfort the other prisoners and lift our spirits. During the three
weeks we worked together, I sometimes saw the kapo beat Father Kolbe with a
big stick. Each time, Father Kolbe took it without a murmur.
The news of his death was an enormous shock to the whole camp. We
became aware someone among us in this spiritual dark night of the soul was
raising the standard of love on high. Someone unknown, like everyone else,
tortured and bereft of name and social standing, went to a horrible death for the
sake of someone not even related to him. Therefore it is not true, we cried, that
humanity is cast down and trampled in the mud, overcome by oppressors, and
overwhelmed by hopelessness. Thousands of prisoners were convinced the true
world continued to exist and that our torturers would not be able to destroy it.
More than one individual began to look within himself for this real world, found
it, and shared it with his camp companion, strengthening both in this encounter
with evil. To say that Father Kolbe died for one of us or for that person’s family
is too great a simplification.
His death was the salvation of thousands. And on this, I would say, rests
the greatness of that death. That’s how we felt about it. And as long as we live,
we who were at Auschwitz will bow our heads in memory of it as at that time we
bowed our head before the bunker of death by starvation. That was a shock full
of optimism, regenerating and giving strength; we were stunned by his act,
which became for us a mighty explosion of light in the dark camp night.

Vigils Reading - Assumption of the BVM
2024-08-15
TODAY SHE HAS FOUND HIM
From a sermon by St Aelred of Rievaulx1
◊◊◊
Among all those who are Christ’s, she who tastes his goodness more
intimately and more delicately is of greater excellence, more blessed, and more
attractive. She is to him not only a creature, a handmaid, a friend, and a
daughter, but also a mother. So, then it is only right that we welcome her feast
with greater delight and gladness. But today even more we should rejoice with
her because today her joy was completely fulfilled. Great was her joy when the
angel greeted her. Great was her joy when she felt the coming of the Holy Spirit,
when that marvelous fusion of the Son of God with her flesh took place in her
womb, so that he, one and the same, was the Son of God and her Son. Great was
her joy when she held such a Son in her arms, when she listened to his words,
when she saw his miracles. And because her sorrow was so great at the Passion,
she took wondrous joy again in his resurrection and greater still at his
ascension. But all these joys were surpassed by the joy which she receives today.
Up to this day…Mary, the blessed Mother of God, knew her dearest Son
in the flesh. Although she fastened all her desires and all her love there, where
he was, after her dearest Son and Lord ascended into heaven, so long as she
remained in this corruptible flesh, what she had seen of him in the flesh could
not fade from her memory. For his deeds and words were always coming to her
mind and above all there lingered in her heart the features of his exquisite face.
Today, however, she passed from this world and went up to the heavenly
kingdom. There she began to contemplate his brightness, power, and divinity,
and her joy and her longing were fulfilled. So with good reason could she say: “I
have found him whom my soul loves”. She holds him and she does not let him
go… Today she has found him whom her soul loves, she has found him in spirit,11
she loves him in spirit, she holds him in spirit and therefore she will never again
lose him…
She loved him more than anyone else did, so she yearned for him more
than anyone else did, and therefore sought him more persistently. But him
whom until now her flesh loved, now her soul loves. And now she says: “I will
rise and go the rounds of the city”. Today the Blessed Virgin went up into heaven
and went round the whole of that heavenly city in the full natural vigor of her
mind. Today she entered that heavenly court. She saw the white robes of the
virgins, the ruddy crowns of the martyrs, the thrones of the apostles, and in the
midst of them she found her Son reigning. Ascending higher than the very
highest of the saints, she has arrived at such knowledge of the divinity that she
then glories in having found him for the first time… She holds him in the
embraces of an utterly perfect love and she can never lose him because she can
never love him any less.
Let us lift up our hearts therefore, brothers, to Our Lady, our Advocate.
Let us reflect on how much hope we have in her. Just as she surpasses every
creature in excellence, so also she is more merciful and kinder than any
creature. Let us then confidently entreat her who can by her excellence assist us
and by her mercy chooses to do so, that she may implore her Son for us so that
as he deigned to be born of her for us, he may through her deign to have mercy
on us.

Vigils Reading
2024-08-16
IN PRAISE OF
THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY1
From a sermon by Amadeus of Lausanne1
◊◊◊
Since we have, at the bidding of God, embarked upon the praises of the
Blessed Virgin, it remains for us to complete her praise from the bottom of our
heart and with dutiful voice. Let us gaze upon her glory and, entering the depth
of so great a light, let us with swelling heart and unspeakable joy hasten through
the vivid brightness of the paths, saying with Solomon, ‘Her paths are lovely and
all her ways are peaceful’. What if, as the same prophet says, ‘the path of the
just, as a shining light, goes forth and grows into the perfect day’? Who will be
able to express the light and brightness of her paths? Yet we shall try to explain
in part the progress and additions of her paths so that she may be perceived as
glorious in her steps and be proclaimed in each of them.
For she possessed progress clearly marked and distinct growth, so that
she advanced according to the fairest order of Charity and, going forward from
virtue to virtue, she saw the God of gods in Sion, being changed from glory to
glory as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Firstly, therefore, she was deemed worthy to be adorned with the beauty
of all the virtues. Secondly, she was united to the Holy Spirit in a bond of
wedlock. Thirdly, she was found the Mother of the Savior. Fourthly, a sword
pierced her soul and by the flesh taken of her flesh the ruin of the lost world is
restored. Fifthly, she rejoices in her Son arising and ascending above the heaven
of heavens to the right hand of the Father. Sixthly, she is caught up from this
world and as the Lord hastens to meet her she is places above the denizens of
heaven. Seventh, she will be completed when the fullness of the Gentiles shall
have entered and all Israel shall be saved. For beyond what it is right to be said13
or believed, she rejoices in the general salvation of the elect, knowing that it was
for them that the Son of God took flesh from her. Therefore, she will then be
fulfilled, God providing a better thing, lest without us she should not be made
perfect.

Vigils Reading
2024-08-17
A SONG OF INNOCENCE AND
EXPERIENCE
By Gerald Vann1
◊◊◊
In the Church’s devotion to Mary great emphasis is laid on the fact that in
her motherhood she yet remained a maiden as well; and we shall miss all the
richness of the mystery if we think of this insistence as being purely or even
primarily concerned with physical conditions. Motherhood produces
fundamental psychological changes in a woman: it means the loss of some
qualities and the acquisition of others, a different mentality, a different outlook.
The mother has known the deep experience of love and joy, of pain and danger
and sorrow: we think of her as the symbol of wisdom because she has known in
her own body the mysteries of good and evil.
The girl on the other hand is the symbol of opposite qualities: of a
freshness and spontaneity and purity of heart which comes precisely from
inexperience, knowing that reality can be ugly, not yet made wise through
lessons of sorrow: her courage, her strength, her wisdom, her joy, are from other
sources. In Mary alone, the Maiden-Mother, these opposite sets of qualities co-
exist; it is this that gives her personality a richness which is unique; and it is
because of this richness that she can teach us so much.
Mary’s life then is a song at once of innocence and of experience; and as
this double richness means a double fear so it means also a double love; and the
love in its turn produces a double wisdom, a double trust, and therefore a double
courage. Mary pondered all these things in her heart: it is her song of
experience, and the source of her…wisdom. She knew how He-that-is-mighty
had done great things in her; she knew the overshadowing power of the Most
High; she knew the gradually unfolding self-revelation of her Son; and knowing15
these things she could sense of the resurrection through the cross, the joy
through the pain, the triumph through failure; and so she could find the courage
to meet the sword.
Behold the handmaid of the Lord: there, on the other hand, is her song of
innocence: whatever may come it will be well because it is his will, because he
is Love: hers are eyes too that can look out untroubled on a future which is
veiled, simply because she has implicit trust in the God she loves, even before
the trust has been justified by experience; and as the mother can say, I can do
all things in him who has strengthened me, so the girl can say, I can do all things
in him who will strengthen me.

Skema
2024-08-18
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
20th Week in Ordinary Time

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

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

Office
20th Sunday
Bl Guerric
St Bernard
St Pus X
Queenship of Mary
St Rose of Lima
St Bartholomew

Vigils
1 Sam 29:1-11
1 Sam 30:1-25
Sir 50:5-20
1 Sam 31:1-13
Nehemiah 1:1-11
Neh 2:1-20
Gen 28:10-22

Lauds
Zeph 3:14-20
Haggai 1:1-8
Wis 8:2-13
Hag 1:9-15
Hag 2:1-9
Hag 2:10-14
Deut 18:15-19

Mass
119
419
641, 660, 574
421
422, 627
423
629

1st
Prov 9:1-6
Ezek 24:15-23
Wis 7:7-10, 15-16
Ezek 34:1-11
Ezek 36:23-28
Ezek 37:1-14
Rev 21:9b-14

2nd
Eph 5:15-20

Phil 3:17-4:1

Gospel
John 6:51-58
Matt 19:16-22
Matt 5:13-19
Matt 20:1-16
Luke 1:26-38
Matt 22:34-40
Jn 1:45-51

Vespers
Jas 3:1-5a
1 Jn 3:19-24
1 Jn 4:7-16
Jas 3:5b-12
Jas 3:13-18
Jas 4:1-4
Jas 4:5-12

Vigils Reading - 20th Sunday ORD
2024-08-18
REAL FOOD
AND REAL DRINK
From a commentary by Theophylact of Ohrid1
◊◊◊
We have heard that unless we eat the flesh of the Son we shall not have
life. We must have unwavering faith, then, when we partake of the sacred
mysteries, and not inquire “How?” Unspiritual people, that is, those led by a
natural way of thinking, are not open to spiritual realities surpassing the natural
order, and so lack understanding of the spiritual nourishment the Lord’s flesh
affords.
Those who do not share this flesh do not share in eternal life because they
reject Jesus the true life. What is consumed is the flesh not merely of a man but
of God, and being one with the Godhead, it has power to deify. This is real
nourishment: its sustaining power does not last only for a time; it does not
decompose like perishable food. But helps us to attain everlasting life.
Likewise, the cup of the Lord’s blood is real drink, for it does not quench our
thirst only for a time, but keeps those who drink it free from thirst forever, as
the Lord said to the Samaritan woman: Whoever drinks the water that I shall
give will never thirst again. Whoever receives the grace of the Holy Spirit by
sharing in the mysteries will never suffer from spiritual hunger and thirst the
way unbelievers do.
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood, live in me and I in them. As
I draw life from the living Father who sent me, so whoever eats me will draw
life from me. From these words we can begin to understand the mystery of
communion. Those who eat and drink the Lord’s flesh and blood lives in the
Lord and the Lord lives in them. A marvelous and inexplicable union occurs by
which God is in us, and we are in God. Does this not fill you with awe as you
listen?
It is not God alone that we eat, for he is intangible and incorporeal; he can
be apprehended neither by our eyes nor by our teeth; nor, on the other hand, is
it simply the flesh of a man, which would avail us nothing. Rather, in a union
defying explanation, God has made flesh one with himself, so that the flesh now
has life-giving power. This not because its nature is changed into the nature of
God. Of course not! A comparison may be made with iron put into fire. It
remains iron but displays the energy of fire. So also, the Lord’s flesh remains
flesh, but it has the life-giving power because it is the flesh of the Word of God.
And so, Christ says, As I draw life from the Father, or in other words, as
I was born of the Father who is life, so those who eat me will draw life from me,
because they will be united to me and, as it were, transformed into me, who am
possessed of life-giving power.

Vigils Reading - Bl Guerric
2024-08-19
THE LIFE OF
BLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY
By Fr Hilary Costello, OCSO1
◊◊◊
Guerric of Igny was born around 1075 at Tournai and was educated in the
humanities, dialectic and theology at the cathedral school. Guerric was first
attracted to the eremitical life. He went to Clairvaux without any idea of staying
there. He only wanted to derive spiritual advantage from a meeting with the
Abbot Bernard. Bernard saw the makings of a good monk in Guerric and urged
him to stay.
Like so many of the Clairvaux community, Guerric was considerably older
than his abbot. By human standards he was more mature and experienced.
Guerric remained at Clairvaux for thirteen years. Igny was founded as the fourth
foundation of Clairvaux in 1127.
In 1138 the first abbot of Igny, Humbert, resigned and returned to
Clairvaux. Guerric was chosen as its second abbot. There is a passage in the Vita
Hugonis which suggests that Bernard influenced the choice considerably. “It
was Bernard who brought Guerric to the monastic life and Bernard favored
his election as abbot. He knew of no man living more holy than Guerric and so
declared him the one candidate for the office.” But this does not indicate that
Guerric was imposed on the community. The monks of twelve years standing
would have known him at Clairvaux. Guerric himself says that the community
chose him: ‘I am no physician and, in my house, there is no bread’. That is what
I said from the start: ‘Do not make me your leader.’ It is not right for one to
rule who cannot be of service. And how can he be of service who is not a
physician and in whose house there is no bread? He has neither the art of
healing souls nor learning to feed them with? I told you this, but you would5
not listen. You made me your superior.” Guerric may indeed have been about
sixty years old, but then his long experience both before and after his entrance
into Clairvaux must have been thought a valuable asset.
Igny flourished under Guerric. Vocations were plentiful and so were
benefactors. Much land and money was given to the monastery during his
tenure. It was none of this that was to make the abbot’s name known to
posterity, but the spiritual teaching committed to writing in his sermons. He
seems to have died on August 19, 1157. More than six hundred years later his
remains were taken into a new church.
Along with Bernard, Aelred of Rievaulx and William of St Thierry, Guerric
has been called the four evangelists of Citeaux.

Vigils Reading - St Bernard
2024-08-20
THE MELLIFLOUS DOCTOR
By Pope Pius XII1
◊◊◊
“The last of the Fathers, but certainly not unequal to the earlier ones“,
was remarkable for such qualities of nature and mind, which were enriched by
God with heavenly gifts, that amid the varied and sometimes stormy events of
his age, he seemed to dominate by his sanctity, wisdom and most prudent
counsel. It is a source of gratification so to meditate on his merits and to set
them forth in writing that, not only the members of his own Order, but also all
those who find their delights principally in whatever is true, beautiful or holy
may feel themselves spurred on to imitate the brilliant example of his virtues.
His doctrine was drawn almost exclusively from the pages of Sacred
Scripture and from the Holy Fathers, which he had at hand day and night in his
profound meditations; and not from the subtle reasonings of dialecticians and
philosophers, which on more than one occasion he appeared to hold in low
esteem. But it should be remarked that he does not reject that human
philosophy which is genuine philosophy, namely, that which leads to God, to
correct living and to Christian wisdom.
It is clear that in his study and his contemplation under the influence of
love rather than the subtlety of human reasoning, Bernard’s sole aim was to
direct toward the Supreme Truth all the rays of truth which he had assembled
from many different sources; drawing from them light for the mind, the fire of
charity for the soul, and correct norms for the guidance of conduct. This is
indeed true wisdom, which transcends all things human, and brings everything
back to its source, that is, to God, in order to convert all to Him. The Mellifluous
Doctor makes his way with deliberate care through the uncertain and
precarious circuits of reasoning, not trusting in the keenness of his own mind7
nor depending upon the labored and artful syllogisms which many of the
dialecticians of his time frequently abused, but, like an eagle, attempting to fix
his eyes on the sun, he pushes on with swift flight to the summit of truth.
The charity which activated him makes light of obstacles and, so to speak,
gives wings to the mind. For him, learning is not the final goal, but rather a path
leading to God; it is not the cold object of empty speculation, an intellectual
diversion, fascinating the mind with its play of light and glory, but it is moved,
impelled and governed by love. Wherefore, borne up by this wisdom and by
means of meditation, contemplation and love, Bernard ascends the peak of the
mystical life and is united with God Himself, tasting at times almost infinite
happiness even in this mortal life.

Vigils Reading - St Pius X
2024-08-21
A READING ON ST PIUS X
By Leonard von Matt1
◊◊◊
Pius X, the canonized Pope, holds a special place in the hearts of the
faithful. But this devotion of the faithful did not begin only at his canonization,
when the Church publicly proclaimed the holiness of his life: it began from the
moment when he ascended the papal throne. At once there grew up an
understanding between the Shepherd and his flock. The first to understand him
were the simple, humble people, who recognized him for what he was.
The obvious quality which led to his canonization was his outstanding
holiness. With Pius X, sanctity seemed to be the most natural thing in the
world. It quietly enlivened all that he said or did. Yet it would seem that
Giuseppe Sarto’s natural temperament inclined to a certain violence, easily
inflamed, and no one will ever know how much struggle it cost him to achieve
that gentleness and unruffled goodness for which he was so renowned. We can
follow him on the narrow path which he set himself as church-student, curate,
parish-priest, bishop, cardinal and Pope; but the moment of his vocation to the
priesthood and the beginning of his heroic sanctity are secrets known to God
alone.
A certain holiness seems to have been his from the beginning: his striving
after a virtuous life seems never to have been interrupted, his charity never
diminished. But it was when he began what he called the Ascent of Mount
Calvary, when he became Pope, that his great sanctity became evident. It was
his conscientiousness that turned the enormous responsibility of the office into
a crucifixion: he gave himself unstintingly to the service of the Church, and
spent himself without reserve for the love of God and everyone. His sanctity lay
in this total dedication: it was thus an inner and in a great measure a hidden9
sanctity: there were no spectacular penances, no remarkable practices beyond
those of a normal, good Christian. It might almost be said that Pius X became
a saint in spite of himself by sanctifying himself and his nature and by not
resisting God’s grace that drew him on.

Vigils Reading - Queenship of Mary
2024-08-22
WHAT DO WE MEAN WHEN WE SPEAK
OF THE QUEENSHIP OF MARY?
From the writing of Thomas Merton1
◊◊◊
Mary alone, of all the saints, is, in everything, incomparable. She has the
sanctity of them all and yet resembles none of them. And still, we can talk of
being like her. This likeness to her is not only something to desire — it is one
human quality most worthy of our desire: but the reason for that is that she, of
all creatures, most perfectly recovered the likeness to God that God willed to
find, in varying degrees, in us all.
It is necessary, no doubt, to talk about her privileges as if they were
something that could be made comprehensible in human language and could
be measured by some human standard. It is most fitting to talk about her as a
Queen and to act as if you knew what it meant to say she has a throne above all
the angels. But this should not make anyone forget that her highest privilege is
her poverty and her greatest glory is that she is most hidden, and the source of
all her power is that she is as nothing in the presence of Christ, of God.
This is often forgotten by Catholics themselves, and therefore it is not
surprising that those who are not Catholic often have a completely wrong
conception of Catholic devotion to the Mother of God. They imagine, and
sometimes we can understand their reasons for doing so, that Catholics treat
the Blessed Virgin as an almost divine being in her own right, as if she had some
glory, some power, some majesty of her own that placed her on a level with
Christ himself. They regard the Assumption of Mary into heaven as a kind of
apotheosis and her Queenship as a strict divinization.11
Hence her place in the Redemption would seem to be equal to that of her
Son. But this is all completely contrary to the true mind of the Catholic Church.
It forgets that Mary’s chief glory is her nothingness, in the fact of being the
“Handmaid of the Lord,” as one who in becoming the Mother of God acted
simply in loving submission to his command, in the pure obedience of faith. She
is blessed not because of some mythical pseudo-divine prerogative, but in all
her human and womanly limitations as one who has believed. It is the faith and
the fidelity of this humble handmaid, “full of grace” that enables her to be the
perfect instrument of God, and nothing else but his instrument. The work that
was done in her was purely the work of God. “He that is mighty has done great
things in me.” The glory of Mary is purely and simply the glory of God in her,
and she, like anyone else, can say that she has nothing that she has not received
from him through Christ.
As a matter of fact, this is precisely her greatest glory: that having nothing
of her own, retaining nothing of a “self” that could glory in anything for her own
sake, she placed no obstacle to the mercy of God and in no way resisted his love
and his will. Hence, she received more from him than any other saint. He was
able to accomplish his will perfectly in her, and his liberty was in no way
hindered or turned from its purpose by the presence of an egotistical self in
Mary. She was and is in the highest sense a person precisely because, being
“immaculate,” she was free from every taint of selfishness that might obscure
God’s light in her being. She was then a freedom that obeyed him perfectly and,
in this obedience, found the fulfillment of perfect love.

Vigils Reading - St Rose of Lima
2024-08-23
THE BEAUTY OF DIVINE GRACE
From the writing of St Rose of Lima1
◊◊◊
Our Lord and Savior lifted up his voice and said with incomparable
majesty: Let all know that grace comes after tribulation. Let them know that
without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. Let
them know that the gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase. Let them
take care not to stray or be deceived. This is the only true stairway to paradise,
and without the cross they can find no road to climb to heaven.
When I heard these words, a strong force came upon me and seemed to
place me in the middle of a street, so that I might say in a loud voice to people
of every age, sex and status: Hear, O people; hear, O nations. I am warning you
about the commandment of Christ by using words that came from his own lips:
We cannot obtain grace unless we suffer afflictions. We must heap trouble upon
trouble to attain a deep participation in the divine nature, the glory of the
children of God and perfect happiness of soul.
That same force strongly urged me to proclaim the beauty of divine grace.
It pressed me so that my breath came slow and forced me to sweat and pant. I
felt as if my soul could no longer be kept in the prison of the body, but that it
had burst its chains and was free and alone and was going very swiftly through
the whole world saying: If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess
divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides
within itself, how many joys and delights! Without doubt they would devote all
their care and concern to winning for themselves pains and afflictions. All
people throughout the world would seek trouble, infirmities and torments,
instead of good fortune, in order to attain the unfathomable treasure of grace.
This is the reward and the final gain of patience. No one would complain about13
his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know
the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to souls.

Vigils Reading - St Bartholomew
2024-08-24
THE VIRTUE OF INNOCENCE
From a sermon by St John Henry Newman1
◊◊◊
It is not only among the poor and lowly that the blessed character
of guilelessness is found to exist. Secular learning and dignity have
doubtless in their respective ways a powerful tendency to rob the heart of
its brightness and purity; yet even in kings’ courts, and the schools of
philosophy, Bartholomew may be discovered. Nay, like the Apostles, they
have been subjected to the world’s buffets, they have been thwarted in
their day, lived in anxiety, and seemingly lost by their honesty, yet without
being foiled either of its present comfort or its ultimate fruit.
I have in these remarks spoken of guileless persons as members of
society, because I wished to show that, even in that respect in which they
seem deficient, they possess a hidden strength, and unconscious wisdom,
which makes them live above the world, and sooner or later triumph over
it. The weapons of their warfare are not carnal; and they are fitted to be
Apostles, though they seem to be ordinary people. Such is the blessedness
of the innocent, that is, of those who have never given way to evil, or
formed themselves to habits of sin; who in consequence literally do not
know its power of its misery who have thoughts of truth and peace ever
before them, and are able to discern at once the right and wrong in
conduct, as by some delicate instrument which tells truly because it has
never been ill-treated.
Nay, such may be the portion (through God’s mercy) even of those
who have at one time departed from Him, and then repented; in
proportion as they have learned to love God, and have purified
themselves, not only from sin, but from the recollections of it.15
Lastly, more is requisite for the Christian, even than guilelessness
such as Bartholomew’s. When Christ sent forth him and his brethren into
the world, He said, “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of
wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”
Innocence must be joined to prudence, discretion, self-command, gravity,
patience, perseverance in well-doing, as Bartholomew doubtless learned
in due season under his Lord’s teaching; but innocence is the beginning.
Let us then pray God to fulfill in us “all the good pleasure of His
goodness, and the work of faith with power;” that if it should please Him
suddenly to bring us forward to great trials, as He did His Apostles, we
may not be taken by surprise, but be found to have made a private or
domestic life a preparation for the achievements of Confessor and
Martyrs.

Skema
2024-08-25
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
21st Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
August 25 – 31, 2024

Sun
25
Mon
26
Tue
27
Wed
28
Thu
29
Fri
30
Sat
31

Office
21st Sunday
Office for the Dead
St Monica
St Augustine
Martyrdom of St John Baptist
SS Warren & Amadeus
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Neh 3:33-4:17
Neh 5:1-19
Neh 6:1-19
Neh 8:1-4a; 5-6; 8-18
Jerm 37:12-38:6
Neh 9:1-11
Neh 9:12-20

Lauds
Hag 2:15-19
Hag 2:20-23
Zechariah 1:1-6
Zech 1:7-13
Wis 3:1-9
Zech 1:14-17
Zech 2:10-17

Mass
122
425
426
427
634
429
430

1st
Josh 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b
2 Thess 1:1-5, 11-12
2 Thess 2:1-3a, 14-17
2 Thess 3:6-10, 16-18
Jerm 1:17-19
1 Cor 1:17-25
1 Cor 1:26-31

2nd
Eph 5:21-32

Gospel
John 6:60-69
Matt 23:13-22
Matt 23:23-26
Matt 23:27-32
Mark 6:17-29
Matt 25:1-13
Matt 25:14-30

Vespers
Jas 4:13-17
Jas 5:1-6
Jas 5:7-12
Jas 5:13-20
Acts 13:16-26
1 Pet 1:1-7
1 Pet 1:8-12

Vigils Reading - 21st Sunday
2024-08-25
OUR ONE AND ONLY TEACHER
From a commentary by St Cyril of Alexandria1
◊◊◊
To whom shall we go? In other words, “Who else will instruct us the way
you do?” or, “To whom shall we go to find anything better?” You have the words
of eternal life; not hard words, as those other disciples say, but words that will
bring us to the loftiest goal, unceasing, endless life removed from all corruption.
These words surely make quite obvious to us the necessity for sitting at the feet
of Christ, taking him as our one and only teacher, and giving him our constant
and undivided attention. He must be our guide who knows well how to lead us
to eternal life. Thus, shall we ascend to the divine court of heaven, and entering
the church of the firstborn, delight in blessings passing all human
understanding.
That the desire to follow Christ alone and to be with him always is a good
thing leading to our salvation is entirely self-evident, yet we may learn this from
the Old Testament as well. When the Israelites had shaken off Egyptian tyranny
and were hastening toward the promised land, God did not allow them to make
disorderly marches, nor did the lawgiver let each one go where he would, for
without a guide they would undoubtedly lose the way completely. They were
ordered to follow: to set out with the cloud, to come to a halt again with it, and
to rest with it. Keeping with their guide was the Israelites’ salvation then, just
as not leaving Christ is ours now. For he was with those people of old under the
form of the tabernacle, the cloud and the fire.
They were commanded to follow, and not to undertake the journey on
their own initiative. They were to halt with the cloud and to abide with it, that
by this symbol you might understand Christ’s words: Whoever serves me must
follow me, so as to be with me wherever I am. For being always in his company,3
means being steadfast in following him and constant in cleaving to him. But
accompanying the Savior Christ and f0llowing him is by no means to be thought
of something done by the body. It is accomplished rather by deeds springing
from virtue.
Upon such virtue the wisest disciples firmly fixed their minds and refused
to depart with the unbelievers, which they saw would be fatal. With good reason
they cried out: “Where shall we go?” It was as though they said: “We will stay
with you always and hold fast to your commandments. We will receive your
words without finding fault or thinking your teaching hard as the ignorant do,
but thinking rather, How sweet are your words to my throat! Sweeter to my
mouth are they than honey or the honeycomb.”

Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
2024-08-26
DEATH AND THE MONK
From “The Meaning of Monastic Life” by Louis Bouyer1
◊◊◊
It is not purely and simply by dying that we shall live, but by dying such a
death that it kills death itself and it is only the death of Christ that can do that. For
it is not the life of the mortal body which has injured the life of the soul. It is, on
the contrary, the death of the soul which has injured the body and made it mortal.
Life will be won back by the resurrection, not of the soul alone, but of the human
being in its unity, inseparably body and soul. And if the passage through death can
lead to the resurrection, it is only in as much as the soul, which has become alive
again in Christ, has been made capable of burning away the death of the body as
with a red-hot iron and of causing it to evaporate in its own flame.
The monk goes forward to meet death because he believes that this miracle,
the greatest of all, has been accomplished in the death of Christ: because he
believes that Christ was Life, the very Life of God, and that in making physical
death his own, he has robbed the evil one of all his power and all his empire which
are annihilated by this very act. Again, he goes forward to meet death because he
believes that Christ now and for the future lives in him: and finally, because he
believes that what has taken place in Christ will be reproduced in himself, in the
same manner.
The death of the monk, so desired and sought after day after day, is then only
the supreme evidence of his faith, his faith in Christ vanquishing death in himself,
his faith in Christ present in his followers to vanquish it in them. The monk’s
mortification is ultimately nothing more than his witness given to Christ, the
witness of his faith, which makes it clear that it is not only an intellectual thing but
an engagement of the whole being.

Vigils Reading - St Monica
2024-08-27
RECOLLECTIONS OF HIS MOTHER
By St Augustine1
◊◊◊
When I was still a boy, I had heard about eternal life promised to us
through the humility of our Lord God, coming down to our pride, and I was
already signed with the sign of the cross and seasoned with salt from the time I
came from my mother’s womb. She greatly put her trust in you. You say, Lord,
how one day, when I was still a small boy, pressure on the chest suddenly made
me hot with fever and almost at death’s door. You say, my God, because you
were already my guardian, with what fervour of mind and with what faith I than
begged for the baptism of your Christ, my God and Lord, urging it on the
devotion of my mother and of the mother of us all, your Church.
My physical mother was distraught. With a pure heart and faith in you
she even more lovingly travailed in labour for my eternal salvation. She hastily
made arrangements for me to be initiated and washed in the sacraments of
salvation, confessing you, Lord Jesus, for the remission of sins. But suddenly I
recovered. My cleansing was deferred on the assumption that, if I lived, I would
be sure to soil myself; and that after that solemn washing the guilt would be
greater and more dangerous if I then defiled myself with sins.
So, I was already a believer, as were my mother and the entire household
except for my father alone. Though he had not yet come to faith, he did not
obstruct my right to follow my mother’s devotion. so as to prevent me believing
in Christ. She anxiously laboured to convince me that you, my God, were my
father rather than he, and in this endeavour you helped her to gain victory over
her husband. His moral superior, she rendered obedient service to him, for in
this matter she was being obedient to your authority….6
At the end when her husband had reached the end of his life in time, she
succeeded in gaining him for you. After he was a baptized believer, she had no
cause to complain of behaviour which she had tolerated in one not yet a believer.
She was also a servant of your servants: any of them who knew her found much
to praise in her, held her in honour and loved her; for they felt your presence in
her heart, witnessed by the fruits of her holy way of life. She had been the wife
of one husband. She repaid the mutual debt to her parents; she had governed
her house in a spirit of devotion. She had testimony to her good works. she had
brought up her children, enduring travail as often as she saw them wandering
away from you.
Lastly, Lord — by your gift you allow me to speak for your servants, for
before her falling asleep we were bound together in community in you after
receiving the grace of baptism — she exercised care for everybody as if they were
all her own children. She served us as if she was a daughter to all of us.

Vigils Reading - St Augustine
2024-08-28
THE TRINITY OF THE MIND
From a treatise by St Augustine1
◊◊◊
Now this trinity of the mind is the image of God, not because the mind
remembers, understands, and loves itself, but because it also has the power to
remember, understand, and love its Maker. And in doing this it attains wisdom.
If it does not do this, the memory, understanding and love of itself is no more
than an act of folly. Therefore, let the mind remember its God, to whose image
it was made, let it understand and love Him.
In brief, let it worship the uncreated God who created it with the capacity
for himself, and in whom it can be made partaker. Hence it is written: “Behold,
the worship of God is wisdom“. By participating in that supreme Light, wisdom
will belong to the mind not by its own light, and it will reign in bliss only where
the eternal Light is. The wisdom is so called human wisdom as to be also that of
God. If wisdom were only human, it would be vain, for only God’s wisdom is
true wisdom. Yet when we call it God’s wisdom, we do not mean the wisdom by
which God is wise: He is not wise by partaking in himself as the mind is wise by
partaking in God. It is more like speaking of the justice of God not only to mean
that God is just but to mean the justice he gives to us when he “justifies the
ungodly“: to which the Apostle alludes when speaking to those who “being
ignorant of God’s justice, and wanting to establish their own justice, were not
subject to the justice of God”. In this way we might speak of those who, ignorant
of the wisdom of God and wanting to establish their own, were not subject to
the wisdom of God.
There is an uncreated Being who has made all other beings great and
small, certainly more excellent than everything he made, and thus also more
excellent than the rational and intellectual being which we have been8
discussing, namely, the human mind, made to the image of its Creator. And the
Being more excellent than all others is God. Indeed, he is “not far from any one
of us,” as the Apostle says, adding, “for in him we live and move and have our
being“. Were this said in a material sense we could understand it of our material
world: for in it also, in respect to our body, we live and move and are. The text
should be taken, however, in a more excellent and also invisible and intelligible
way, namely, with respect to the mind that has been made to his image.
In fact, what is there that is not in him of whom Holy Scripture says: “For
from him and through him and in him are all things“? If all things are in Him, in
whom except in him in whom they are can the living live or the moving more? Yet
all are not with him in the sense in which he says “I am always with you”. Nor is
he with all things in the sense in which we say, “The Lord be with you.” Our great
misery, therefore, is not to be with him without whom we cannot exist.
Unquestionably, we are never without him in whom we are; but if one does not
remember him, does not understand him or love him, he is not with him.

Vigils Reading - Martyrdom of St John Baptist
2024-08-29
THE DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
By Cardinal Jean Daniélou1
◊◊◊
John’s death appears as the supreme expression of sin. It revealed the sin
of the world. Herodias’ action in obtaining the head of John the Baptist was a
clear manifestation of the human desire to be self-sufficient and to set oneself
up apart from God. It was a victory for the inhabitants of the earth who, as
Revelation says, rejoiced over the death of the prophets, “because they had been
a torment to those who dwell on the earth“. It was an expression of a
triumphant world, a world which had done away with God. No longer could
anything disturb its pretension that it was giving itself its own law. In that
respect John’s death set a pattern: in a decisive moment of history, it summed
up the whole world of sin.
John’s death was also the expression of the supreme condemnation of the
world. His blood “fell upon this generation“, together with all the innocent
blood that has been shed. Thus, did it call for the supreme condemnation. It was
the judgment on the world, bringing down on it the cup of wrath spoken of by
Revelation. It showed forth the mystery of iniquity; it revealed clearly that
mankind is the slave of sin. Just as John the Baptist marked the last stage in the
preparation for the parousia in the long line of the prophets, so his death
marked the last stage in the preparation for the parousia in the order of the
mystery of sin…
But John’s death also marked the end of this history of condemnation for,
after John’s blood, another blood was going to be shed. It would not fall as a
condemnation upon those who shed it, but it would be poured out as
redemption for many. John’s death prefigured the death of Jesus. Jesus wished
to say first of all that his death resembled John’s: ‘”I tell you that Elijah has10
already come, and they did not know him, but did to him whatever they
pleased. So also the Son of man will suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples
understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.’ The rejection and
death of John the Baptist prefigured the rejection and death of Jesus. This latter
death was really the high point of evil. Jesus fulfilled completely the figure of
the servant of Yahweh rejected by the sinful world.
But John only prefigured Jesus, for with Jesus the shedding of blood
takes on a different meaning. Blood was not shed for condemnation but for
redemption. The unresolved conflict between prophets and sinners came to an
end with the prophet who took the sins of the world upon himself. John had
pointed out Jesus as that lamb. He knew that he himself still belonged to the
world of denunciation of sin, not that of liberation from sin. The Spirit had been
given to the prophets; blood had been poured out by sinners. The Spirit had
been poured out as a blessing, but blood had been poured out as a curse. John’s
blood was the last to belong to this order. Henceforth the blood which would
gush forth from the side of Jesus would be spirit and life.

Vigils Reading - SS Warren & Amadeus
2024-08-30
ST AMADEUS OF LAUSANNE1
◊◊◊
Amadeus’ religious formation began, in fact, well before the days of his
youth. He was only a few years past the days of his babyhood when his father, Lord
Amadeus d’Hauterives of the ancient and noble house of Clermont, turned apostle
of monastic life and, sometime around 1119, brought to the newly founded
Cistercian abbey of Bonnevaux, near Vienne, not only himself but his ten-year old
boy, Amadeus junior, and seventeen knight-companions as well.
Whatever else the senior Amadeus had given up in coming to the poor,
struggling community of Bonnevaux, he had not given up the idea that his son
should receive a solid education. At Bonnevaux the lad did begin receiving an
education, but hardly of the sort deemed suitable by his concerned father. The
philosophy of education held by the saintly Abbot John was that the anointing of
the Paraclete could teach the lad more in a second than the teachings of an apostate
grammarian like Priscian in a stretch of many years. The force of the argument
was lost on Amadeus senior. In a moment of depression, he apostatized; and one
day, probably in the year 1122, he took his son and rode off with him to the great
abbey of Cluny, with its tradition of enlightened humanism.
The account of Amadeus senior’s brief, unhappy life as a monk of Cluny, his
anguished repentance, and his return to Bonnevaux, belongs to another story. But
if Bonnevaux could not provide Amadeus junior with a suitable education, neither
could Cluny; for almost immediately the lad was sent for further studies to the
court of his kinsman, Conrad of Hohenstaufen, the future Emperor Conrad. The
three years Amadeus spent in Germany could hardly have sufficed to complete the
education of the adolescent, but we nevertheless find him in 1125, shortly after
having fulfilled the minimum age-requirement for acceptance as a Cistercian
novice, knocking at the gate of Clairvaux…12
For fourteen years young Amadeus had the joy of living under the tutelage
of Saint Bernard himself; and it was in this setting of Clairvaux, with all its
contagious enthusiasm, devotio iocunda, and seriousness of purpose, that the
stripling Amadeus grew to full manhood. The attainments of the mature Amadeus
must have impressed even Saint Bernard, who, in 1139, deemed him ready to
become abbot of the Savoyard abbey of Hautecombe. This monastery had been
founded much earlier in the century, but had become affiliated with the Cistercian
Order only in 1135. Amadeus’ abbacy coincided with the change of location of the
original abbey and the construction of the monastic buildings; and it was also
under Amadeus that the consolidation of the Cistercian ideals in the recently
affiliated community took place.
The young abbot’s gifts as administrator and spiritual father were
considerable enough to draw attention to him well outside the immediate sphere
of the Cistercian family. For when the deplorable Guy de Maligny finally resigned
his episcopal dignity in 1144, it was the thirty-four-year-old Abbot Amadeus of
Hautecombe whom the clergy and faithful of Lausanne chose to succeed Bishop
Guy. Accepting the burden of the episcopal office only at the insistence of Pope
Lucius II, Bishop Amadeus remained very much Amadeus the monk. At no time
during the troubled fourteen years of his episcopacy did the faithful of Lausanne
find reason to regret their choice of pastor; and when Amadeus died on 27 August
1159, those who were with him were well aware that they were attending the
deathbed of a saint.

Vigils Reading - Memorial of BVM
2024-08-31
THE SILENCE OF MARY
By Adrienne von Speyr1
◊◊◊
A life of faith is a life of silence. Mary’s existence as Mother is hidden in
a great silence. All around and about her is silence. People knew nothing of her
real life, of the mysteries of her virginity. Not even Joseph understood her. An
angel had to enlighten him about her mystery. The silence that surrounds her
is simply a reflection of her own silence. She did not become a subject of
conversation, because she did not talk about herself. And in that way she
safeguarded her secret. Later, too, when the Son appeared in public, she
remained silent because it was not her task or mission to speak. But in her
silence she participates in the dialogue between Father and Son which is the
very substance of prayer. She remained silent out of respect, and in order not
to drown the word of God with her own words.
Her silence also manifests her activity and her passivity, her strength and
her weakness. Her activity and strength consist in her self-control, her
weakness and passivity in allowing herself to be led. She is simply and solely
the instrument of God. Strength and weakness, doing and suffering, all the
tensions and stresses of life meet and join in her without occasioning the
predominance of any one in particular. The priority is always decreed by the
need of her mission. She did not cultivate, tend or encourage her good qualities
for their goodness’ sake (in the way that people do when they are conscious of
their own gentleness and are disposed to go further in the same direction). She
did not practice her virtues with a definite end in view; on the contrary, she
quite simply allowed God to decide everything, to decree everything in
accordance with her mission — and this is where her silence is so profound–
without losing or giving up any of her complementary qualities. In her, silence
is both complete self-renunciation and complete indifference.14
All this co-exists in her with a perseverance that knows no limits, because
her mission flows on accompanied by a parallel discretion that disturbs nothing.
All her qualities participate to some extent in the glory of her conversation with
the Angel: each decision is taken in the solitude and isolation imposed by the
relation of her soul to God. Discretion, in this instance, is but another name for
humility that asks no questions and never raises the dust. She asked the Angel
of God one simple factual question, and with that she became the answer to all
that God expected. Her life is therefore community in the Lord, solitude in God,
and this communal solitude is called prayer.

Skema
2024-09-01
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
22nd Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
September 1 – 7, 2024

Sun
1
Mon
2
Tue
3
Wed
4
Thu
5
Fri
6
Sat
7

Office
22nd Sunday
Weekday
Labor Day
St Gregory the Great
Weekday
St Teresa of Calcutta
Weekday
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Neh 9:21-28
Neh 9:29-37
Neh 10:1-2; 29-40
Ezra 1:1-10; 2:68-70
Ezra 3:1-13
Ezra 4:1-24
Ezra 5:1-17

Lauds
Zech 3:1-10
Zech 6:9-15
Zech 8:1-8
Zech 8:11-17
Zech 8:18-23
Zech 9:11-17
Zech 10:6-12

Mass
125
431, 559
432
433
434
435
436

1st
Deut 4:1-2, 6-8
1 Thess 4:13-18
1 Cor 2:10b-16
1 Cor 3:1-9
1 Cor 3:18-23
1 Cor 4:1-5
1 Cor 4:6b-15

2nd
Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27

Gospel
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Matt 13:54-58
Luke 4:31-37
Luke 4:38-44
Luke 5:1-11
Luke 5:33-39
Luke 6:1-5

Vespers
1 Pet 1:13-16

1 Pet 1:17-21
1 Pet 1:22-25
1 Pet 2:1-10
1 Pet 2:11-17
1 Pet 2:18-25
