Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

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

Vigils Reading - 22nd Sunday
2024-09-01
THE ESSENCE OF THE LAW
From a commentary by St Irenaeus1
◊◊◊
The Pharisees claimed that the traditions of their elders safeguarded the
Law, but in fact it contravened the Law that Moses had given. By saying: Your
merchants mix water with wine Isaiah shows that the elders mixed their watery
tradition with God’s strict commandment. In other words, they enjoined an
adulterated law which went against the Law, as the Lord also made clear when
he asked them: Why do you transgress God’s commandment for the sake of your
tradition?
By their transgression they not only falsified God’s Law, called to this day
the Pharisaic law. In this their rabbis suppress some of the commandments, add
new ones, and give others their own interpretation, thus making the law serve
their own purposes.
Their desire to justify these traditions kept them from submitting to God’s
Law that taught them about the coming of Christ. Instead, they even found fault
with the Lord for healing on the Sabbath, which was not forbidden by the Law,
for in a sense the Law itself healed by causing circumcision to be performed on
the Sabbath. On the other hand, they found no fault with themselves for
breaking God’s commandment by their tradition and the Pharisaic law just
mentioned, or by lacking the essence of the Law, which is love for God.
That this is the first and greatest commandment, the second being love of
our neighbor, the Lord taught by saying that the whole of the Law and the
prophets depend on these two commandments. He himself taught no greater
commandment than this, but he renewed this same commandment by bidding
his disciples love God with their whole heart, and their neighbor as themselves.3
Paul also says that love is the fulfillment of the Law. When all other
charisms fail, faith, hope and love remain, but the greatest of all is love.
Knowledge is of no avail without the love of God, nor is understanding of
mysteries, faith or prophecy. Without love all are vain and pointless. Love on
the other hand perfects a person, and one who loves God is perfect both in this
world and in the next, for we shall never stop loving God – the longer we gaze
upon Him the more our love for Him will grow.

Vigils Reading
2024-09-02
GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT
By Karl Rahner1
◊◊◊
Are there not people today who, if they are true to their character as willed
by God, are a people of small means, of hard work, of only a few words, of loyalty
of heart and simple sincerity? Certainly, every Christian and every Christian
nation is charged with the entire fullness of Christian perfection as a duty that
is never completed. But every nation and every person has, so to speak, his own
door, his own approach, through which he alone can come nearer to the fullness
of Christianity. Not all of us will find access to the boundless vistas of God’s
world through the great gate of surging rapture and burning ardor. Some must
go through the small gate of quiet loyalty and the ordinary, exact performance
of duty. And it is this fact, I am inclined to think, that can help us to discover a
rapport between earth and heaven, between Christians today and their heavenly
intercessor…
[Joseph] received into his family the One who came to redeem his nation
from their sin, One to whom he himself gave the name of Jesus, a name which
means “Yahweh is Salvation.” Silent and loyal, he served the eternal Word of
the Father, the Word who had become a child of this world. And they called
their Redeemer the son of a carpenter. When the eternal Word was audible in
the world in the message of the gospels, Joseph, having quietly done his duty,
went away without any notice on the part of this world.
But the life of this insignificant man did have significance; it had one
meaning that, in the long run, counts in each one’s life: God and his incarnate
grace. To him it could be said: “Good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of
your Lord.” Who can doubt that this man is a good patron for us? This man of
humble, everyday routine, this man of silent performance of duty, of honest5
righteousness and of manly piety, this man who was charged with protecting
the grace of God in its embodied life.
Christians of today might find their way back to what is best in them if the
individuality of this man, their patron, were again producing more stature in
them. Granted, a nation must have greatness of spirit and pioneers who will
lead her towards new goals. Just as much, if not more so, however, a nation
needs men and women of life-long performance of duty, of clear-headed loyalty,
of discipline of heart and body.
A nation needs those who know that true greatness is achieved only in
selfless service to the greater and holy duty that is imposed upon each life; those
of genuine reverence, conquerors of themselves, who hear the word of God and
carry out the inflexible decrees of conscience. It needs those who through their
lives bear the childlike, defenseless grace of God past all those who, like Herod,
attempt to kill this grace. A nation needs those who do not lose confidence in
God’s grace, even when they have to seek it as lost, as Joseph once sought the
divine child. Such as these are urgently needed in every situation and in every
class. We have a good patron, who is suitable for everyone. For he is a patron of
the poor, a patron of working men and women, a patron of exiles, a model for
worshipers, an exemplar of the pure discipline of the heart, a prototype of
fathers who protect in their children the Son of the Father.

Vigils Reading - St Gregory the Great
2024-09-03
THE UNENCOMPASSED LIGHT
By St Gregory the Great1
◊◊◊
There is in contemplation a great effort of the mind, when it raises itself
up to heavenly things, when it fixes its attention on spiritual things, when it tries
to pass over all that is outwardly seen, when it narrows itself that it may be
enlarged. And sometimes indeed it prevails and soars above the resisting
darkness of its blindness, so that it attains to somewhat of the unencompassed
Light by stealth and scantily; but for all that, to itself straightaway beaten back
it returns, and out of that light into which panting it had passed, into the
darkness of its blindness sighing it returns.
In the wrestling of Jacob with the Angel, the Angel symbolizes the Lord,
and Jacob, who contends with the Angel, represents the soul of each perfect
one, who exercises contemplation. Such a soul, when it strives to contemplate
God, as if placed in a wrestle, now comes uppermost, because by understanding
and feeling it tastes somewhat of the unencompassed Light; and now falls
underneath, because in the very tasting it faints away. Therefore, so to say, the
Angel is worsted when by the innermost intellect God is apprehended.
Almighty God, when He is now known through desire and intellect, dries
up in us every fleshly pleasure; and whereas before we seemed to be both
seeking God and cleaving to the world, after the perception of the sweetness of
God, the love of the world grows feeble in us, and the love of God alone waxes
strong; and while there increases in us the strength of inmost love, without
doubt the strength of the flesh is weakened.
The sweetness of contemplation is worthy of love exceedingly, for it
carries away the soul above itself, it opens out things heavenly, and shows that7
things earthly are to be despised; it reveals things spiritual to the eyes of the
mind, and hides things bodily.
But we must know that so long as we live in this mortal flesh no one so
advances in power of contemplation as to fix the mind’s eyes as yet on the
unencompassed ray itself of Light. For the Almighty God is not yet seen in this
brightness, but the soul beholds something beneath it, by which refreshed it
may progress, and hereafter attain to the glory of the sight of Him. When the
mind has made progress in contemplation it does not yet contemplate that
which God, but that which is under Him. But in that contemplation already the
taste of interior quiet is experienced.

Vigils Reading
2024-09-04
PREPARING OURSELVES
TO MEET THE LORD
By Blessed Guerric of Igny1
◊◊◊
“BE PREPARED now Israel to meet the Lord, for he is coming”. And you
too my dear brethren be prepared as well; for the Son of Man will come when
you least expect him. He is coming, nothing is more certain than that; but when
he will arrive—nothing is less certain. Right up to the last moment we will not
know the actual time the Father in his almighty power has appointed. Even the
angels who stand before him have not been given the privilege of knowing that
day or hour. Our last day most certainly must come to us; but it is very uncertain
when it will come, where we will be or whence it will come. All we can say is that
it is knocking at the door for the old, and lies in wait for the young.
O that they would keep careful guard over themselves who see death so
ready to enter, nay rather who see it already entering. For has it not already
entered, at least to some extent, a body grown senile and decrepit Yet in many
who are already half-dead one can see worldly desires still alive. The limbs are
growing cold and the fire of avarice still burns within; life is coming to its end
and ambition still strains ahead. Because our youth or health perhaps appear to
promise some more years ahead of us death is not often before our eyes, but this
is just the very reason why, if we are wise, it should be in our thoughts, lest that
day come like a thief in the night and find us unprepared and unready. It is lying
in wait for us and we should fear it all the more for its being hidden, for we can
neither see it nor get warning of it.
There is therefore only one thing that makes us safe: never to think that
we are safe. For fear makes a careful man always prepared until at length fear
can give way to security and not security to fear. The wise man says: “I shall9
keep myself from my iniquity, seeing that I am powerless in respect to my
death.” He knows that the just man, if he is surprised by death, will be at rest?
In fact that man triumphs over death who was not overcome by iniquity during
his life.

Vigils Reading - St Teresa of Calcutta
2024-09-05
GENEROSITY
From the book “In My Own Words” by St Mother Teresa1
◊◊◊
Without a spirit of sacrifice, without a life of prayer, without an intimate
attitude of penance, we would not be capable of carrying our work. We feed
ourselves, not to please our senses, but to show our Lord that we want to work
for him and with him, to live a life of sacrifice and reparation…
One night, a man came to our house to tell me that a Hindu family, a
family of eight children, had not eaten anything for days. They had nothing to
eat. I took enough rice for a meal and went to their house. I could see the hungry
faces, the children with their bulging eyes. The sight could not have been more
dramatic! The mother took the rice from my hands, divided it in half and went
out. When she came back a little later, I asked her: “Where did you go? What
did you do?” She answered, “They also are hungry.” “They” were the people next
door, a Muslim family with the same number of children to feed and who did
not have any food either. That mother was aware of the situation. She had the
courage and the love to share her meager portion of rice with others. In spite of
her circumstances, I think she felt very happy to share with her neighbors the
little I had taken her. In order not to take away her happiness, I did not take her
anymore rice that night. I took her some more the following day.
“What is a Christian?” someone asked a Hindu man. He responded, “The
Christian is someone who gives.” I ask you one thing: do not tire of giving, but
do not give your leftovers. Give until it hurts, until you feel the pain. Open your
hearts to the love God instills in them. God loves you tenderly. What he gives
you is not to be kept under lock and key, but to be shared. The more you save,
the less you will be able to give. The less you have, the more you will know how11
to share. Let us ask God, when it comes time to ask him for something, to help
us to be generous.
It was late in the day (around ten at night) when the doorbell rang. I
opened the door and found a man shivering from the cold. “Mother Teresa, I
heard that you just received an important prize. When I heard this I decided to
offer you something too. Here you have it: this is what I collected today.” It was
little, but in his case it was everything. I was moved more than by the Nobel
prize.
One day a young couple came to our house and asked for me. They gave
me a large amount of money. I asked them, “Where did you get so much
money?” They answered, “We got married two days ago. Before we got married
we had decided not to celebrate the wedding, not to buy wedding clothes, not to
have a reception or a honeymoon. We wanted to give you the money I saved.” I
know what such a decision meant, especially for a Hindu family. That is why I
asked them, “But how did you think of such a thing?” “We love each other so
much,” they answered, “that we wanted to share the joy of our love with those
you serve.”
To share: what a beautiful thing! We should learn how to give. If we worry
too much about ourselves, we won’t have time for others.

Vigils Reading
2024-09-06
THE ENCOURAGMENT
OF THE SAINTS
By Bishop John Vaughan1
◊◊◊
We may study learned treatises of ascetical theology; we may know the
theory of sanctity…but such knowledge will never affect us as does the
contemplation of it when reduced to practice, and exhibited in the actual life of
some great servant of God. To lay down the broad principles of holiness is one
thing, but to see these principles carried out and acted upon in real life is
something far more inspiring.
To know what is just, and right, and loyal, and generous is no doubt
important, but such knowledge does not stir us like the concrete example of
some fervent soul whom we can actually watch, step by step, battling with evil
in many a hand-to-hand encounter, and struggling and striving to keep a
foothold on the narrow path of virtue amid the fiercest winds and storms of
temptation.
The very difficulties appeal to us; the falls and the occasional weaknesses
reveal character as well as the difficulties of the way; the courage and
determination to surmount them at any cost, the stern refusal to allow obstacles
or even the most serious disasters to discourage or check the advance of the
onward course infuse fresh courage and hope even into ourselves.
And what adds immensely to our zest is the fact that, in contemplating
the saints, we are contemplating men and women like ourselves. Their nature
is the same as ours, and their innate strength no greater than our own. If they
wrestled successfully with evil, if they beat down every rebellious passion and
passed in safety through fire and water, it was not because they were formed13
from a different clay, but because they had learned the value of prayer and had
trusted in God and not in themselves. For the rest, they were human as we are.

Vigils Reading - Memorial of BVM
2024-09-07
MARY IS IN SILENCE
By Pierre de Bérulle1
◊◊◊
It falls to the Virgin to keep silence. It is her condition, her road, her life.
Her life is a life of silence, which adores the eternal Word. Seeing before her
eyes, at her breast, in her arms, this same Word, the substantial Word of the
Father, to be dumb and reduced to silence by the condition of his childhood, she
enters again into a new silence and is transformed by it after the example of the
incarnate Word who is her Son, her God and her sole love. And in that way her
life goes on, from silence to silence, from a silence of adoration to a silence of
transformation.
Mary is in silence, enraptured by the silence of her Son Jesus. One of the
sacred and divine effects of the silence of Jesus is to put the most holy Mother
of Jesus into a life of silence: a silence that is humble, profound, and that adores
the incarnate Wisdom with more holiness and eloquence than the words of
either angels or humans. This silence on the part of the Virgin is not a silence of
one who hesitates in speech or of one who is helpless: it is a silence more
eloquent, in its praise of Jesus, than eloquence itself. And so it is marvelous to
see that, in this condition of the silence and the childhood of Jesus, everyone
speaks and Mary says nothing at all: the silence of Jesus has more power to hold
her in sacred silence than the words of either angels or saints have the power to
bring her in and make her speak of things so worthy of praise, things that
heaven and earth are at one in celebrating and adoring.
The angels speak of these things among themselves and to the shepherds,
and Mary is in silence. The shepherds hurry away and speak, and Mary is in
silence. The kings arrive and speak, and make the whole city, the whole state,
all the sacred synod of Judea, speak: and Mary has withdrawn and is in silence.15
The whole state is moved, and everyone is astonished and speaks of the new
king sought by the kings, and Mary is in her repose and holy silence. Simeon
speaks in the temple, and Anna the prophetess, and all those who await the
salvation of Israel: and Mary offers, gives, receives and brings back her Son in
silence; so powerful and secretly impressive is the silence of Jesus on the spirit
and heart of the Virgin, keeping her powerfully and divinely occupied and
enraptured in silence. For, again, during the time of his childhood, we have
nothing but these words which have been brought to us about the conduct of
the Virgin and about her holiness in regard to her Son and to the things which
are reported of him and accomplished in him: “But Mary kept all these things,
pondering them in her heart”. There we see the condition and occupation of the
Virgin, there are her daily duties and her life in regard to Jesus during his holy
childhood

Skema
2024-09-08
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
23rd Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
September 8 – 14, 2024

Sun
8
Mon
9
Tue
10
Wed
11
Thu
12
Fri
13
Sat
14

Office
23rd Sunday
St Peter Claver
Weekday
Office for Vocations
St Peter II Tarentaise
St John Chrysostom
Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Vigils
Ezra 6:1-12
Ezra 6:13-22
Ezra 7:11-28
Ezra 8:21-36
Ezra 9:1-15
Ezra 10:1-17
Isa 52:13-53:12

Lauds
Malachi 1:1-5
Mal 1:6-10
Mal 1:11-14
Mal 2:1-9
Mal 2:10-16
Mal 2:17-3:4
Isa 45:21-25

Mass
128
437
438
439
440
441
638

1st
Isa 35:4-7a
1 Cor 5:1-8
1 Cor 6:1-11
1 Cor 7:25-31
1 Cor 8:1b-7, 11-13
1 Cor 9:16-19, 22b-27
Num 21:4b-9

2nd
Jas 2:1-5

Phil 2:6-11

Gospel
Mark 7:31-37
Luke 6:6-11
Luke 6:12-19
Luke 6:20-26
Luke 6:27-38
Luke 6:39-42
John 3:13-17

Vespers
1 Pet 3:8-12
1 Pet 3:13-17
1 Pet 3:18-22
1 Pet 4:1-6
1 Pet 4:7-11
1 Pet 4:12-19
Gal 6:14-18

Vigils Reading - 23rd Sunday
2024-09-08
CHRIST HAS DONE
ALL THINGS WELL
From a commentary by St Lawrence of Brandisi1
◊◊◊
Just as the divine law says that when God created the world, he saw all
that he had made and it was very good, so the gospel, speaking of our
redemption and re-creation, affirms: He has done all things well. A good tree
bears good fruit; no good tree can bear bad fruit. As fire can give out nothing
but heat and is incapable of giving out cold; and as the sun gives out nothing
but light and is incapable of giving out darkness, so God is incapable of doing
anything but good, for He is infinite goodness and light. He is a sun giving out
endless light, a fire producing endless warmth. He has done all things well.
And so today we must wholeheartedly unite with that holy throng in
saying: He has done all things well. He has made the deaf hear and the dumb
speak. Like Balaam’s ass. This crowd certainly spoke under the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit who said through its mouth: He has done all things well; in other
words, he is truly God, because making the deaf hear and the dumb speak are
things that only God can do. There is a transition here from the particular to the
general. This man has worked a miracle that only God could work; therefore, he
is God. Who has done all things well.
He has done all things well. The law says that all God did was good; the
gospel says that he has done all things well. Doing a good deed is not quite the
same as doing it well. Many do good deeds but fail to do them well. The deeds
of hypocrites, for example, are good, but they are done in the wrong spirit, with
a perverse and defective intention. Everything God does, however, is not only
good, but done well. The Lord is just in all his ways and holy in all his deeds.3
With wisdom you have done them all: that is to say, most wisely and well. So,
he has done all things well, they say.
Now if God has done all his good works and done them well for our sake,
knowing that we take pleasure in goodness, why I ask do we not endeavor to
make our works good and to do them well, knowing that such works are pleasing
to God?
If you ask what we should do in order to enjoy the divine blessings forever,
I will tell you in a word. Since the Church is called the bride of Christ and of
God, we must do what a good wife does for her husband. Then God will treat us
as a good husband treats a dearly loved wife. This is what the Lord says through
Hosea: I will betroth you to myself with justice and integrity, with tenderness
and compassion; I will betroth you to myself with faithfulness, and you shall
know that I am the Lord. So even in this present life we shall be happy, this
world will be an earthly paradise for us, with the Hebrews we shall feast on
heavenly manna in the desert of this life, if only we follow Christ’s example by
striving to do everything well, so that he has done all things well may be said of
each one of us.

Vigils Reading - St Peter Claver
2024-09-09
ST PETER CLAVER
THE SLAVE OF THE NEGROES
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints1
◊◊◊
He was born in Catalonia, about 1581… He graduated with distinction
[and entered] the Society of Jesus. He left Spain forever in April 1610, and was
ordained priest at Cartagena, in what is now the republic of Colombia. By the
time of his ordination the slave trade had been established in the Americas for
nearly a hundred years, and the port of Cartagena was one of its principal
centers…
At this time the leader of the work among the Negroes was Father Alfonso
de Sandoval, a great Jesuit missionary who spent forty years in the service of
the slaves, and after working under him Peter Claver declared himself “the slave
of the Negroes forever”. Although by nature shy and without self-confidence he
threw himself into the work with method and organization. He enlisted bands
of assistants, and as soon as a slave-ship entered the port… St. Peter Claver
plunged, with medicines and food, bread, brandy, lemons, tobacco to distribute
among the Negroes, some of whom were too frightened, others too ill, to accept
them. “We must speak to them with our hands, before we try to speak to them
with our lips”, Claver would say. When he came upon any who were dying, he
baptized them, and then sought out all babies born on the voyage that he might
baptize them. He had a band of seven interpreters, one of whom spoke four
Negro dialects, and with their help he taught the slaves and prepared them for
baptism, not only in groups but individually. He made use of pictures, showing
our Lord suffering on the cross; above all he tried to instill in them… some idea
that as redeemed human beings they had dignity and worth, even if as slaves…5
It is estimated that in forty years St. Peter Claver instructed and baptized
over 300,000 slaves… He took the same trouble to teach them how properly to
use the sacrament of penance, and in one year is said to have heard the
confessions of more than five thousand. Many of the stories both of the heroism
and of the miraculous powers of St. Peter Claver concern his nursing of sick and
diseased Negroes, in circumstances often that no one else, black or white, could
face.
In 1650… sickness attacked his emaciated and weakened body, and he
was recalled to the Jesuit residence at Cartagena. But here a virulent epidemic
had begun to show itself, and one of the first to be attacked among the Jesuits
was the debilitated missionary… After receiving the last sacraments, he
recovered, but he was a broken man…
On September 6, 1654 he was taken very ill and became comatose. The
rumor of his approaching end spread round the city, everyone suddenly
remembered the saint again, and numbers came to kiss his hands before it was
too late. His cell was stripped of everything that could be carried off as a relic.
St. Peter Claver never fully recovered consciousness, and died two days later on
the birthday of our Lady. The civil authorities who had looked askance at his
solicitude for mere Negro slaves, and the clergy, who had called his zeal
indiscreet and his energy wasted, now vied with one another to honor his
memory… He was canonized in 1888 and was declared by Pope Leo XIII patron
of all missionary enterprises among Negroes.

Vigils Reading
2024-09-10
MARY’S BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD
From a homily by Ogier of Locedio1
◊◊◊
This most holy Virgin Mary was of royal lineage: Joachim was her father,
and Anne her mother. She is that mighty woman presaged by the Lord when,
at the time of Eve’s undoing, he told the serpent, ‘You shall lie in wait for her
heel, and she shall trample your head.’ She is that mighty Virgin who trampled
the head of the dragon by her power… Through her the Lord delivered our first
parents, Adam and Eve, from everlasting death… She is that valiant woman,
endowed with strength and choicest virtue, of whom Solomon spoke: Who shall
find a valiant woman? Hers is a prize far beyond all bounds. Indeed, her prize
was none other than the Son of God the Father, who from far beyond all
bounds… marvelously and ineffably entered the enclosure of the virginal
womb…
How greatly God’s angels rejoiced when thus the restoration of
humankind was secured! The whole world leapt for joy, heaven thundered with
praise, the earth danced for delight, her song of joy soon joined by the skies
above and the seas below… so the whole universe took on its pristine glory as
that most blessed daughter was told: Virgin Mother of God, your birth is news
of joy to all the world! If therefore all the orders of angels rejoice in the birth
of Mary the Mother of God, let all orders of monks rejoice therein as well. If
heaven and earth rejoice, then all Christ’s consecrated virgins also. Let
everyone rejoice… with great joy, for the birth of Mary the sacred Virgin spells
joy for the whole of heaven and earth.
Thus Mary, the morning star that drives away all darkness, came forth
from her mother’s womb beautiful as the moon, sought-out as the sun, dreadful
as a well-armed camp, the glorious light that came forth from the darkness,7
within whose womb Light itself would shine. From Jesse’s root there came the
Virgin who would bear the flower. It is she who says, I am the flower of the
field and the lily of the valleys’. Before that fragrant flower all other flowers lose
the sweetness of their scent… By means of Anna and Joachim God created that
remedy whereby humankind would be freed from everlasting death. Through…
blessed Mary, the Lord gives light to the blind, heals the sick, raises the dead,
frees us from sin, justifies us through grace, and crowns us with his glory.
Let therefore all the just rejoice at the birth of her through whom they
have been justified. Let the blessed rejoice who through her have been made
blessed… Let them approach the blessed child, the sublime Queen on high. Let
them embrace her, let them cradle her in the arms of perfect love. Let them
bear her in their hearts, her praises ever on their tongues, so as to possess her
with their love. For this is no woman to be slighted, this is no ordinary mother:
this is blessed Mary, wholly sweet and lovable…
She is the sweetness of myrrh, the absence of all bitterness. She who was
never to dwell in the bitterness of sin is rightly named Mary. She never sinned
nor ever wished to sin, in thought or word or deed. Wholly beautiful, there was
no blemish in her; only thus could she become the Mother of the Lord…

Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
2024-09-11
THE CALL OF GOD
By Hans Urs von Balthasar1
◊◊◊
Every call of God is a proclamation of the eternal election by which he
“chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
and without blemish in his sight in love”; by which he “predestined us to be
adopted through Jesus Christ as his sons”. It is an act of love, and its goal is the
holiness that is always a form of love. Because it has been formed and shaped
by the laws of love, it can be comprehended only in terms of love.
It follows that God can issue the commandment of love, which is the
essential content of every genuine call, in varying degrees of urgency and clarity.
For many, its sound is dissipated; they regard it as something to be taken for
granted, as something that does not require their special attention. Of course,
God demands love; of course there is such a thing as a first and greatest
commandment; of course every Christian is called to obey it, whether well or
badly, to the best of his ability. And God will help our weakness, and, we hope,
forgive our failings. So far as its content is concerned, the commandment of love
sounds plainly enough, but it strikes no answering chord in the one who hears
it. It compels him to no conclusions that could force him out of the rut he is in.
The call to love God boundlessly is always, at the same time, God’s
offering of his own love to the one thus called. Because this is so, the call bears
in itself the possibility not only of understanding, but also of responding to the
love to which it calls. Indeed every special form of the divine call contains also
the special grace of the response. All forms of God’s special call are forms of love
and, for that reason, different from the mere command that a master might
issue to his servant… The manner and the very sound of God’s voice can be9
different depending on…the personal love of God that is reflected in the
invitation to personal discipleship.
