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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260613T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260613T120000
DTSTAMP:20260524T155825Z
CREATED:20260524T155825Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260524T155825Z
UID:14967-1781341200-1781352000@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:LCG Chicago June Meeting 9:00 AM CDT
DESCRIPTION:Join Zoom Meeting \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/86028356465 \nMeeting ID: 860 2835 6465 \nOne tap mobile \n+13126266799\,\,86028356465# US (Chicago) \n+13092053325\,\,86028356465# USC
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/lcg-chicago-june-meeting-900-am-cdt/
CATEGORIES:LCG Local Community Meetings,LCG open events
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260614
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260615
DTSTAMP:20260614T103933Z
CREATED:20260614T103933Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260614T103933Z
UID:15066-1781395200-1781481599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - 11th Sunday ORD
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM \n◊◊◊ \nAll farm work is undertaken with a view to the harvest that will come at \nthe end. How then could Jesus apply the word “harvest” to work that was only \nbeginning? Idolatry held sway all over the world. Everywhere there was \nfornication\, adultery\, licentiousness; everywhere greed\, robbery\, bloodshed. \nWhen the world was filled with so many evils\, when the good seed had not yet be \nen sown\, when the land had not been cleared\, and there were briers\, thistles and \nweeds everywhere\, when no ploughing had been done\, no furrow cut\, how could \nJesus speak of a harvest and say it was plentiful? Why did he speak thus of the \ngospel? \nWhy indeed\, if not that with things in such a state\, he was about to send \nout his apostles all over the world. Most likely they were bewildered and \nanxious; they probably asked themselves: How can we even open our mouths\, \nlet alone stand up and preach in front of huge crowds of people? How can \neleven of us put the whole world to rights? Can we speak to the wise when we are \nignorant\, to soldiers when we are unarmed\, to rulers when we are subjects\, to \npeople of many different languages\, people of foreign nations and alien speech\, \nwhen we have only one language? Who will tolerate us if no one can understand \nwhat we say? \nIt was to save them from the anxiety of such reasoning that the Lord called \nthe gospel a harvest. It was almost as if he said: Everything is ready\, all is \nprepared. I am sending you to harvest the ripe grain. You will be able to sow \nand reap on the same day. You must be like the farmer who rejoices when he \ngoes out to gather in his crops. He looks happy and is glad of heart. His hard \nwork and many difficulties forgotten\, he hurries out eagerly to reap their \nreward\, hastening to collect his annual returns. Nothing stands in the way\, \nthere is no obstacle anywhere\, nor any uncertainty regarding the future. There \nwill be no heavy rain\, no hail or drought\, no devastating legions of locusts. And \nsince the farmer at harvest time fears no such disasters\, the reapers set to work \ndancing and leaping for joy. \nYou must be like them when you go out into the world — indeed your joy \nmust be very much greater. You also are to gather in a harvest – a harvest easily \nreaped\, a harvest already there waiting for you. You have only to speak\, not to \nlabor. Lend me your tongue\, and you will see the ripe grain gathered into the \nroyal granary. And with this he sent them out\, saying: Remember that I am \nwith you always\, until the end of the world.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-11th-sunday-ord/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260614
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260615
DTSTAMP:20260614T103710Z
CREATED:20260614T103710Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260614T103710Z
UID:15064-1781395200-1781481599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n11th Week in Ordinary Time\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (A)\, Weekdays (II)\nJune 14 – 20\, 2026\n\n\n\nSun\n14\nMon\n15\nTue\n16\nWed\n17\nThu\n18\nFri\n19\nSat\n20\n\n\nOffice\n11th Sunday\nWeekday\nSt Lutgard\nBl Joseph Mary Cassant\nOffice for the Dead\nWeekday\nMemorial of the BVM\n\n\nVigils\nTob 5:1-8\nTob 5:9-6:1\nTob 6:2-18\nTob 7:1-17\nTob 8:1-21\nTob 9:1-6\nTob 10:1-13\n\n\nLauds\nEccles 6:7-12\nEccles 7:1-9\nEccles 7:10-14\nEccles 7:15-22\nEccles 7:23-29\nEccles 8:1-9\nEccles 8:10-13\n\n\nMass\n91\n365\n366\n367\n368\n369\n370\n\n\n1st\nExod 19:2-6a\n1 Kgs 21:1-16\n1 Kgs 21:17-29\n2 Kgs 2:1\, 6-14\nSir 48:1-14\n2 Kgs 11:1-4\, 9-18\, 20\n2 Chr 24:17-25\n\n\n2nd\nRom 5:6-11\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nMatt 9:36-10:8\nMatt 5:38-42\nMatt 5:43-48\nMatt 6:1-6\, 16-18\nMatt 6:7-15\nMatt 6:19-23\nMatt 6:24-34\n\n\nVespers\nGal 5:16-26\nGal 6:1-10\nGal 6:11-18\nEphesians 1:1-10\nEph 1:11-14\nEph 1:15-23\nEph 2:1-10
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-156/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260615
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260616
DTSTAMP:20260614T104035Z
CREATED:20260614T104035Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260614T104035Z
UID:15069-1781481600-1781567999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nBLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY \n◊◊◊ \nChrist is the way by which we journey to the heights\, the eternity at the \njourney’s end; he is the spotless way\, the blessed dwelling place. \nHowever\, I think that even before you reach that blessed dwelling\, if you \nhave prepared for the Lord a spotless way he will quite often deign to tread the \nway with you\, making smooth the path before you\, so that your heart may be \nenlarged and you may run in the way of his commandments. The beginning\, you \nmay say\, is strait and narrow. For wisdom walks in the way of justice\, as she \nherself says. And he that possesses justice shall lay hold of her and she will meet \nhim as a mother welcomes the son who cherishes her. She goes about seeking \nsuch as are worthy of her and she shows herself to them cheerfully in her ways \nand meets them with all prudence. \nIf you complain she seldom if ever meets you\, consider whether you have \nperhaps soiled your way. For it is written: “The foolishness of a man soils his \nway; he finds fault with God in his heart.” Yet God stands at the gate and knocks\, \nin order that if a man opens to him he may share with him the delights of the \nheavenly banquet. The spouse says: “A knock on the door\, and then my true \nlove’s voice: Let me in\, my sister\, my spouse. Open your heart to me and I will \nnourish it; open your mouth and I will fill it.” “I have opened my mouth\,” says \nDavid\, “and have drawn my breath.” \nNow the breath of our mouth is Christ the Lord. He is to be not merely \ninvited but drawn into the guest chamber of our heart by the violence of our \nprayers and the vehemence of our fervor. The gospel tells us of the two disciples \nto give us an example of this. Indeed if sometimes he makes as though he would \ngo farther\, he does so for no other reason than that he may prove the zeal of your \nlove\, just as the two angels whom Lot adored and begged to enter. They \ndissembled saying: “No\, we will remain in the street.” But what does Scripture \ntell us? “He pressed them very much to turn in unto him.” Loving violence\, by \nwhich the heavenly kingdom is borne away; matchless importunity that wins as \nguest Christ or angels.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-435/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260616
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260617
DTSTAMP:20260614T104212Z
CREATED:20260614T104212Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260614T104212Z
UID:15071-1781568000-1781654399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Lutgard
DESCRIPTION:A reading from Thomas Merton on \nTHE MYSTICISM OF ST LUTGARDE3 \n◊◊◊ \nIn the month of June\, when the sun burns high in the bright firmament \nand when Cistercian monks\, like all other farmers\, hitch up their teams and go \nout to gather in the wheat\, St Lutgarde’s Day comes around in the Liturgical \ncycle. It is not a universal feast\, celebrated by the whole Church. It belongs only \nto two Belgian dioceses and to the saint’s own Order – the Cistercians. Yet she is \na saint whose spirit is as ardent and colorful as the June weather and as bright as \nthe tiger lilies that enliven the fields and roadsides of America in the month in \nwhich we celebrate her memory. And it is especially fitting that her feast should \noccur in the month of the Sacred Heart. St Lutgarde was one of the great \nprecursors of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. \nThe charm of St Lutgarde is heightened by a certain earthy simplicity \nwhich has been preserved for us unspoiled in the pages of her medieval \nbiography. She was a great penitent\, but she was anything but a fragile wraith of \na person. Lutgarde\, for all her ardent and ethereal mysticism\, remained always \na living human being of flesh and bone. When she was a young girl in the world \nshe seems to have been remarkably attractive\, and we can imagine her as \nsomething more than merely pretty. She must have had one of those \nmarvelously proportioned Flemish faces\, full of a mature and serious beauty\, \nwhich we find in the paintings of the great Flemish masters of a later day then \nhers. \nIn any case\, her entrance into the mystical life was not without an element \nof excitement and romance. She was faced with no mere abstract choice \nbetween heavenly and earthly love: it was not the mere solution of a conflict of \nideals which brought her eventually to the cloister. She was carried into the \narms of Christ by circumstances that shook her to the depths of her sensitive \nbeing. \nThe life of St Lutgarde introduces us to a mysticism that is definitely \nextraordinary. This is not the mysticism which theologians claim to be a \n“normal” development of the Christian life of grace and the infused virtues and \nthe Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Here we are in the presence of visions\, ecstasies\, \nstigmata\, prophecies\, miracles. St Lutgarde was a “mystic” in the popular sense \nof that term\, and her life was certainly colorful and extraordinary enough to \nmake her popular with Catholics of our own time\, too. Of course\, medieval \nsaints’ lives abound in strange phenomena\, and we are inclined to be a little \nsuspicious of the facile enthusiasm with which so many pious writers of those \ndays set down the deeds of their heroes as “miracles.” But the biographer of St \nLutgarde\, though occasionally suffering from the naivete common in his age\, is \nas reliable as anyone in the thirteenth century. \nIt cannot be too much stressed that in St Lutgarde\, as in all the early \nCistercians\, the love that embraces penance and hardship for the sake of Christ \nis never merely negative\, never descends to mere rigid formalism\, never \nconcentrates on mere exterior observance of fasts and other penitential rigors. \nThe fire of love that consumed the heart of St Lutgarde was something vital and \npositive and its flames burned not only to destroy but to rejuvenate and \ntransform. \n3 What Are These Wounds\, Milwaukee\, 1950\, pp vii-ix.7 \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-lutgard/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260617
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260618
DTSTAMP:20260614T104400Z
CREATED:20260614T104400Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260614T104400Z
UID:15073-1781654400-1781740799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Bl Joseph Mary Cassant
DESCRIPTION:A reading from Dom Bernardo Bonowitz on \nBLESSED MARIE JOSEPH CASSANT4 \n◊◊◊ \nJoseph Cassant was born on March 6\, 1878 in the southern French town \nof Casseneuil\, the younger son of Pierre and Marie Cassant… Whereas Joseph’s \nelder brother\, Emile\, was clearly marked out to continue his father’s agricultural \nwork\, Joseph’s single ambition was to be a priest. \nJoseph’s devotion to the Eucharist drew the attention of the pastor\, who \ntook him in and began to direct his studies toward seminary. However it soon \nbecame apparent that Joseph’s talent did not lay in academic studies. The \npastor then directed his interests toward the Trappist life\, thinking that \nacademics would not be of such importance there. The pastor took Joseph into \nthe rectory and established a Trappist way of life there for the two of them. \nPriest and teenager arose every night at two a.m. They celebrated the whole \nTrappist horarium including the whole Divine Office\, manual labor\, a rigorous \nsilence and kept to a vegetarian diet. \nJoseph entered the Trappist Abbey of Sainte Marie du Desert\, near \nToulouse at the age of sixteen. The novice was captivated by the Novice Master\, \nFr. Andre Malet. He was well equipped to help the novice overcome his natural \ntendencies to scrupulosity and discouragement. Instead of putting the emphasis \non Trappist asceticism and penance…he led Joseph to an emphasis on love\, thus \nbringing him to a spirit of peace rather than turbulence. He fought to give \nhimself in complete confidence in Jesus\, rather than succumbing to paralyzing \nanxiety… With the help of his director\, Fr Andre\, he sought to live as much as \npossible within the Sacred Heart of Jesus\, seeking to make Christ’s inner \nattitudes his own. \nHis greatest challenge was the studies\, as his pastor had originally \nexpected. It was during his time of studies that Joseph first showed ill health. \nHe suffered from migraine headaches and other difficulties… As he prepared for \nthe priesthood\, he started to show the classic symptoms of tuberculosis. But his \nfirm conviction was that God’s will was that he not complain. He was ordained a \npriest on October 12\, 1902. By this time\, everyone was aware that Joseph’s \nordination was a participation in the death of Jesus… But suffering was an art \nthat Cassant knew well because of his love of Jesus… In the early morning of \nJune 17\, 1903\, as Fr Andre was celebrating Mass for his friend’s intentions\, \nJoseph went to the Lord. \nWe might ask: what does Joseph Cassant have to offer us today? First of \nall\, he instructs us. A man of little intellectual capacity and a very ordinary \nexperience of prayer\, Cassant is nonetheless a theologian of the monastic life. \nHe saw\, and makes us see\, that the personal relation with Jesus is the heart of \nChristian monasticism. He understood that the central monastic practices – \nobedience\, silence and humility – are Christological realities\, expressions of \nChrist’s Sonship and means of our conformity to Christ… Trappist vocation is a \nlifelong process of healing. Joseph Cassant is a monk who was healed\, and Fr \nMalet by betting on and developing the essentially healthy aspect of Joseph was \nthe instrument of the cure. Finally\, Cassant challenges us. The tools that he \nbrought to the monastery were few but indispensable: a good and upright will\, \nwith a consistent practice of fidelity and generosity\, an interior and exterior \nobedience to the formation offered by his superiors. He staked his spiritual \ndestiny on the sanctifying power of the conversatio and was sanctified by it. \n  \n4 Cist. Studies Quarterly = vol. 39.1 2004 – pg 67.9 \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-bl-joseph-mary-cassant/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260618
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260619
DTSTAMP:20260614T104505Z
CREATED:20260614T104505Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260614T104505Z
UID:15075-1781740800-1781827199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
DESCRIPTION:A reading from “The Rule of Life for a Recluse” by \nST AELRED OF RIEVAULX \n◊◊◊ \nIf the gifts [God] bestows on his own in the present [time are so great]\, \nwhat must be those he is keeping for them in the future? \nThe beginning of the future and the end of the present is death. Is there \nanyone who has not a natural repulsion for death\, who does not feel a dread of \nit? “Wild beasts guard themselves from death\, preserve life by flight\, hiding- \nplaces and a thousand other devices.” Now then examine yourself carefully. \nWhat answer does your conscience give you\, what is it your faith counts on\, your \nhope promises you\, your affections expect? \nIf your life is a burden to you\, if you are weary of the world\, if the flesh \nbrings you only pain\, then indeed death is something you long for\, to free you \nfrom the burden of this life\, to put an end to your weariness\, to take away bodily \npain. This by itself I consider to surpass all the delights of this world\, all its \nhonors and riches: to have such serenity of conscience\, such firm faith and such \ncertain hope that you do not fear death. Some experience of this will come \nespecially to the man who on occasion\, sighing under the burden of his \nservitude\, has been enabled to breathe the fresh air of a conscience set at liberty. \nThese are the wholesome first fruits of your beatitude to come\, so that at the \nmoment of death the natural horror you feel for it may be overcome by faith\, \nsoftened by hope\, driven away by an assured conscience. \nConsider too how death is the beginning of eternal happiness\, the goal of \nall your labors\, the destroyer of vice. For so it is written: “Blessed are the dead \nwho die in the Lord. Let them rest from their labors\, says the Spirit.” Therefore \nthe Prophet distinguishes between the death of the reprobate and that of the \nelect in the words: “All the kings have fallen asleep in glory\, each in his own \nhouse\, while you have been cast out of your tomb like a useless root\, twisted and \ndecayed.” \nThey indeed sleep in glory whose death is commended by a good \nconscience\, for in the eyes of the Lord the death of his saints is precious.” Truly \nhe sleeps in glory whose falling asleep is attended by angels\, whom saints come \nto meet\, bringing help and solace to their fellow-citizen and withstanding his \nenemies\, driving off those who stand in the way\, repelling those who bring \ncharges against him\, and so accompanying his holy soul right up to Abraham’s \nbosom and depositing it in a place of peace and rest.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-office-for-the-dead-26/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260619
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260620
DTSTAMP:20260614T104633Z
CREATED:20260614T104633Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260614T104633Z
UID:15077-1781827200-1781913599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A reading from “On Contemplating God” by \nWILLIAM OF ST THIERRY6 \n◊◊◊ \nThus far I have perceived and seen\, faintly enough indeed; and yet that \nslight experience has sufficed to kindle my longing afresh\, so that I can scarcely \nnow contain myself for hoping that one day you will remove your covering hand \nand pour out your illuminating grace\, so that at last\, dead to myself and alive to \nyou\, according to the answer of your truth with unveiled face I shall begin to see \nyour face\, and by that seeing shall be united to you. O face\, face\, happy face that \nmerits thus to be united to yourself through seeing you!.. Here with truth and \nfittingly it sings: “My heart has said to you\,’My face has sought you; your face\, \nLord\, will I seek.’” \nSo\, as I said: by a gift of your grace looking at all the nooks and limits of \nmy conscience\, I desire only and exclusively to see you\, so that all the ends of my \nearth may see the salvation of their God; and that\, when I have seen him\, I may \nlove him whom to love is to live indeed… \nBut he who longs for you…is at once confronted with the qualities that \nmake you lovable; for from heaven and earth alike and by means of all your \ncreatures these present themselves to me and urge me to attend to them. And \nthe more clearly and truly these things declare you and affirm that you are \nworthy to be loved\, the more ardently desirable do they make you appear to me. \nBut alas! This experience is not one to be enjoyed with unmitigated \npleasure and delight; rather it is one of yearnings\, strivings\, and frustration\, \nthough not a torment without some sweetness. For just as the offerings I make \nto you do not suffice to please you perfectly unless I offer you myself along with \nthem\, so the contemplation of your manifold perfections\, though it does give us \na measure of refreshment\, does not satisfy us unless we have yourself along with \nit. Into this contemplation my soul puts all its energies; in the course of it I push \nmy spirit around like a rasping broom. And using these qualities of yours that \nmake you lovable like hands and feet on which to lift my weight\, with all my \npowers I reach up to you\, to you who are Love supreme and sovereign Good. But \nthe more I reach up\, the more relentlessly am I thrust back\, and down into \nmyself\, below myself… \nSo when my inward eyes grow blurred like this\, and become dim and \nblind\, I pray you with all speed to open them\, not as Adam’s fleshly eyes were \nopened\, to the beholding of his shame\, but that I\, Lord\, may so see your glory \nthat\, forgetting all about my poverty and littleness\, my whole self may stand \nerect and run into your love’s embrace\, seeing him whom I have loved and \nloving him whom I have yet to see. In this way\, dying to myself\, I shall begin to \nlive in you. \n  \n6 On Contemplating God – William of St Thierry.13
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-436/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260620
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260621
DTSTAMP:20260614T104749Z
CREATED:20260614T104749Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260614T104749Z
UID:15079-1781913600-1781999999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Memorial of the BVM
DESCRIPTION:A reading from “The Seat of Wisdom” by \nFR LOUIS BOUYER \n◊◊◊ \nVirginity consecrated to God in Christ has its justification in that it is a \nmeans for engendering offspring without number; and therein lies the real \nnature of its sacrifice. This is the supreme truth revealed to us by Mary’s virginal \nmotherhood\, and\, at the same time\, its supreme justification. By her \nrenunciation in a spirit of perfect faith\, of the very possibility of generation on \nthe earthly plane\, that of the first creation\, she lent herself to be used to generate \nthe human body of the Son of God. And\, since he is\, in himself\, not only the \norigin but the whole of the new creation\, she also brought this to birth in bearing \nhim. \nThe sacrifice inherent in her chosen virginity was fulfilled in that the \n“Holy One” born of her was the Son of God\, since this made him\, the fruit of her \nown life\, the absolute Stranger to her. though belonging wholly to her as to no \none else\, Christ could not but be the one who was apart from her from the very \nmoment of his birth\, more so than any other child from its parents. At the same \ntime\, her virginity was justified in that it made a birth of the kind possible. And \nall the hopes of renewal that this birth held out to mankind\, in the state it then \nwas in\, justified the seeming refusal of human love by the one most worthy of \nloving and being loved that had been seen on earth since Eve. \nThe counterpart of this is that it is by their participation in Mary’s destiny \nthat\, henceforth\, those vowed to virginity will see and fulfill the purpose of their \nown sacrifice. They renounce all possibility of prolonging and continuing the \npresent order of creation in order to dedicate themselves wholly to engendering \nthe new order which is to redeem the old. Such entire devotion to bringing about \nthe new birth of a humanity regenerated in Christ makes of their virginity\, not a \nnegation of love\, but an act of love of the most exalted kind.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-memorial-of-the-bvm-10/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260621
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260622
DTSTAMP:20260620T213156Z
CREATED:20260620T213156Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260620T213156Z
UID:15091-1782000000-1782086399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n12th Week in Ordinary Time\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (A)\, Weekdays (II)\nJune 21 – 27\, 2026\n\n\n\nSun\n21\nMon\n22\nTue\n23\nWed\n24\nThu\n25\nFri\n26\nSat\n27\n\n\nOffice\n12th Sunday\nWeekday\nWeekday\nNativity of St John the Baptist\nOffice for Vocations\nWeekday\nMemorial of the BVM\n\n\nVigils\nTob 11:1-18\nTob 12:1-22\nTob 13:1-18\nJerm 1:4-19\nTob 14:1-7\nTob 14:8-15\nJudith 1:1-16\n\n\nLauds\nEccles 8:14-17\nEccles 9:1-10\nEccles 9:11-18\nMalachi 3:19-24\nEccles 10:1-10\nEccles 10:11-20\nEccles 11:1-10\n\n\nMass\n94\n371\n372\n587\n374\n375\n376\n\n\n1st\nJer 20:10-13\n2 Kgs 17:5-8\, 13-15a\, 18\n2 Kgs 19:9b-11\, 14-21\, 31-35a\, 36\nIsa 49:1-6\n2 Kgs 24:8-17\n2 Kgs 25:1-12\nLam 2:2\, 10-14\, 18-19\n\n\n2nd\nRom 5:12-15\n\n\nActs 13:22-26\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nMatt 10:26-33\nMatt 7:1-5\nMatt 7:6\, 12-14\nLuke 1:57-66\, 80\nMatt 7:21-29\nMatt 8:1-4\nMatt 8:5-17\n\n\nVespers\nEph 2:11-22\nEph 3:1-7\nActs 13:15-26\n1 Jn 4:1-6\nEph 3:8-13\nEph 3:14-21\nEph 4:1-6
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-157/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260621
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260622
DTSTAMP:20260620T213309Z
CREATED:20260620T213309Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260620T213309Z
UID:15093-1782000000-1782086399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - 12th Sunday
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nST AUGUSTINE \n◊◊◊ \nThanks be to that grain of wheat who freely chose to die and so be \nmultiplied! Thanks be to God’s only Son\, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ\, for \nwhom the enduring of our human death was not a thing to be scorned if it would \nmake us worthy of his life! Mark how alone he was before his passing: his is the \nvoice of the psalmist who said\, I am all alone until I depart from this place – a \nsolitary grain that nevertheless contained an immense fruitfulness\, a capacity to \nbe multiplied beyond measure. \nHow many other grains of wheat imitating the Lord’s passion do we find \nto gladden our hearts when we celebrate the anniversaries of the martyrs! Many \nmembers has that one grain\, all united by bonds of peace and charity under \ntheir one head\, our Savior himself\, and\, as you know from having heard it so \noften\, all of them form one single body. Their many voices can often be heard \npraying in the psalms through the voice of a single speaker calling on God as if \nall were calling together\, because all are one in him. \nLet us listen to their cry. In it we can hear the words of the martyrs who \nfound themselves hard pressed\, beset by danger from violent storms of hatred \nin this world\, a danger not so much to their bodies which\, after all\, they would \nhave to part with sometime\, but rather to their faith. If they were to give way\, if \nthey should succumb either to the harsh tortures of their persecutors or to love \nof this present life\, they would forfeit the reward promised them by the God who \nhad taken away all ground for fear. \nNot only had he said: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but are \nunable to kill the soul; he had also left them his own example. The precept he \nhad enjoined on them he personally carried out\, without attempting to evade \nthe hands of those who scourged him\, the blows of those who struck him\, or the \nspittle of those who spat on him. Neither the crown of thorns pressed into his h \nead nor the cross to which the soldiers nailed him encountered any resistance \nfrom him. None of these torments did he try to avoid. Though he himself was \nunder no obligation to suffer them\, he endured them for those who were\, \nmaking his own person a remedy for the sick. And so the martyrs suffered\, but \nthey would certainly have failed the test without the presence of him who said: \nKnow that I am with you always\, until the end of time.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-12th-sunday-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260622
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260623
DTSTAMP:20260620T213423Z
CREATED:20260620T213423Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260620T213423Z
UID:15095-1782086400-1782172799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nFR KARL RAHNER \n◊◊◊ \nThe doctrine of the Church of sinners is found explicitly or implicitly in \nother documents of the Second Vatican Council. In the Decree on Ecumenism it \nis admitted that for the separated brethren and for the world the face of the \nChurch is “less” resplendent because of the lack of Christian zeal and so the \ngrowth of God’s kingdom is retarded. The Church must everyday be ‘purified \nand renewed’ until she can present herself to Christ as the end ‘glorious and \nwithout spot or wrinkle’. \nTherefore there is no hesitation in addressing the church herself as the \nsubject of purification and renewal\, even if that from which she must be purified \nis indicated in somewhat too careful and mild a way (as a want of that ‘fervor’ \nwhich gives rise to the duty of striving after ‘perfectio christiana‘). But…an \nindication is also given that the want of ‘zeal’ and the necessity to strive after \n‘perfection’ have as their reason the sin within the Church. This becomes all the \nclearer when it is emphasized in this decree that this reformation must begin \nwith the ‘inner conversion’ to a ‘new mentality’. \nIt is true that a certain timidity becomes evident when the decree \nexplicitly speaks of the sins against unity and of the prayers for forgiveness\, \nwhere the subject of the sin and of the prayer for forgiveness is ‘we’ (no longer \nthe Church!). Similarly… the decree only speaks of the fact that the separations \nfrom the Catholic Church took place ‘not without the fault of men on either side’. \nHence there is fault also on the Catholic side\, but it is expressly laid at the door \nonly of her ‘men’\, which does not of course exclude a fault on the part of the \nChurch herself\, particularly since the persons immediately concerned in this \nfault are the officials of the Church who act juridically in the name of the \nChurch\, so that their fault affects the Church as such in a very palpable way. \nThe Church is indefectibly holy and therefore is repeatedly called with the \nCreed simply ‘Holy Church’. It is stated that the Church on earth has a true \nholiness though imperfect. One could be led from this into thinking simply that \nthe same is true of her holiness as is true of the holiness of the justified \nindividual: he is truly holy through the grace of justification but his holiness is \nstill in danger and has still to find its fulfillment and perfection. This holiness \nmust still be “actualized”. One could add that the decree furthermore explicitly \npresupposes that there are in the Church as a matter of fact such justified \npersons\, even persons in a state of great perfection.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-437/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260623
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260624
DTSTAMP:20260620T213540Z
CREATED:20260620T213540Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260620T213540Z
UID:15097-1782172800-1782259199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A reading from “The Mirror of Charity” by \nST AELRED OF RIEVAULX \n◊◊◊ \nNow let us examine quite carefully the measure to be observed in natural \nattachments. Just as it is clearly impossible not to allow this attachment\, so not \nto follow it is the summit of virtue. No one has ever hated himself\, and yet\, \n“anyone who comes to me”\, said the Savior\, “and does not hate his own life \ncannot be my disciple”. Likewise\, “anyone who comes to me and does not hate \nhis father and mother cannot be my disciple”. \nThe apostle\, on the other hand\, says: anyone who does not provide for his \nrelatives\, especially if they live with him\, has disowned the faith and is worse \nthan an unbeliever. What then? Should master and disciple\, servant and Lord\, \nvery Truth and Truth’s friend\, be thought to have had contrary points of view? \nFar from it! \nBetween these two loves about which we have spoken above\, a distinction \nmust be made: the one is according to attachment; the other according to \nreason. It is natural for a person to have an attachment for himself and his own \nrelatives\, but one ought not form his love according to attachment. It ought \nrather to be according to reason. This attachment was meant when the apostle \nsaid\, “no one has ever hated his own flesh”. Yet love according to attachment is \nforbidden on the authority of the Savior himself\, who said\, “anyone who comes \nto me and does not hate his father and mother\, yes\, and even his own life\, cannot \nhe my disciple”. Love according to reason was indicated when the apostle said\, \n“anyone who does not provide for his relatives\, especially if they live with him\, \nhas disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever”. \nLove according to attachment was denounced when Paul\, foretelling ills \nto come\, said among other things: There will be persons who will love \nthemselves. The following words teach us that here he understood this as love \naccording to attachment: For there will be persons who love themselves\, who \nwill be avaricious\, proud\, who will love pleasure rather than God. Attachment \nalways suggests things that are pleasant and soft. It willingly embraces what is \ndelightful and tender\, what is pleasurable and delicate. But anything arduous \nand harsh\, anything that goes against self-will\, it flees in utter dread and avoids. \nHence\, following this attachment through is perverse love; it strips a \nperson of his humanness and vests him in animal form\, destroying in a way and \nhiding every trace of reason\, of integrity\, and ultimately\, of usefulness. This love \nis characteristic of beasts\, and excusable in children\, because reason has not \nbeen bestowed on the former and is dormant in the latter.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-438/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260624
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260625
DTSTAMP:20260620T213846Z
CREATED:20260620T213809Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260620T213846Z
UID:15099-1782259200-1782345599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Nativity of St John the Baptist
DESCRIPTION:A reading by Johannes Tauler on \nTHE NATIVITY OF \nJOHN THE BAPTIST \n◊◊◊ \nWhen the Baptist said: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness\, make \nstraight the way of the Lord\,” he refers to the path of the virtues. This path is very \nstraight. And again he says that he is to prepare the Lord’s paths. Footpaths reach \nthe goal faster than public roads. The shortcut across the fields is indeed rougher \nand may lead one astray; and yet it is more direct than the open road. \nBeloved! Whoever would discover the paths leading to the ground\, he \nwould take the shortest and most direct way\, keeping all his energies to himself so \nas to be very attentive. For these paths are rugged\, dark\, and alien to our nature\, \nand only those who are sufficiently skilled can take them. If they are aware of this\, \nthey will not be put off by hurdles and hindrances or any other human anguish. \nQuite the opposite: Everything will point to the ground\, beckon\, and draw them \nthere. \nIn the same manner we should straighten the paths within ourselves\, the \npaths which lead our spirit to God\, and God to us. These relations also require \nskill\, and their difficulties are of a hidden nature. At this point many give up and \nbegin to run after exterior devotions and activities. They are like people starting \nfor Rome and taking the road to Holland. The more they advance\, the farther they \nget away from their destination. And when they return\, they are old and spent and \nno longer up to the tempestuous work of love. \nBeloved\, when we find ourselves in the tempests of love\, we should not \ndwell on our sins and failings. Our only concern should be that love’s work be \naccomplished. We can be overcome by this tempest even when our hearts appear \ncold\, disinterested and hard. Now more than ever we must adhere to love\, \nclinging to it in perfect faith\, freed and stripped of everything that is not love. \nConstantly long for it\, put your whole trust in it\, cleave to it\, and your experience \nwill be as powerful and overwhelming as is possible in this life. If your faith in love \nis imperfect\, your desire will fade away. Love will be extinguished\, and nothing \nwill come of it all. \nThis may seem very hard to you. The devil will allow you all the marks of a \nspiritual life\, but he will do everything in his power to deprive you of love’s true \nwitness. He will leave you with all kinds of treacherous love which many will \nmistake for the real thing. If they looked deeply into their ground\, they would see \nwhether their love was true or false. The one thing necessary is to give access to \nthe ground in order to be able to enter its depth. There you would find that grace \nwhich would incessantly raise you up. \nBut we often resist that voice until we make ourselves unworthy to ever \nreceive it again. This is due to complacency. If only we would respond to the \nglance of grace\, it would lead us to find such union with God that we would \nexperience in time the joy that will be ours in eternity\, as some have done before \nus. May God grant that we may all experience this…
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-nativity-of-st-john-the-baptist-4/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260625
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260626
DTSTAMP:20260620T214020Z
CREATED:20260620T214020Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260620T214020Z
UID:15101-1782345600-1782431999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nFRANCOIS MAURIAC \n◊◊◊ \nIt sometimes happens that I feel all the nearer to a believer\, to someone \ndevout\, the further away the person is from my own Church. This is a paradox \nonly in appearance. Faced with a Muslim or a Jew\, if they are devout\, I know in \nadvance\, even before they have spoken a word\, what it is that separates me from \nthem. The abyss that lies between us is\, in a way\, familiar to me. It could \ncontain nothing to surprise me. But what is unfamiliar to me\, and what I love to \ndiscover\, is this word of adoration which I suddenly recognize\, this prayer which \ncould have sprung from my own heart\, this love of the Father who is in heaven\, \nand sometimes\, even among certain Jews\, this attraction to Christ. \nI remember\, one day\, finding myself at table beside a young Jewish \nwoman\, and we spoke of these problems; she told me that she could not believe \nin the divinity of Christ; and suddenly her voice changed and she said in a \nmoving tone\, ‘But I love him’. \nOn the all too rare occasions when I am privileged to meet a true Israelite \nor a Muslim who is a mystic\, I think of all the many rooms that are in the \nFather’s House. And what I feel as regards a son of Israel\, or a son of the \nProphet\, I feel still more\, needless to say\, with Christians who belong to \ndifferent confessions but who live in Christ\, with those of my separated brethren \nwho have a living faith. \nI feel it again\, with certain souls who belong to no definite confession and \nwho live\, as Simone Weil lived\, on the borders of the Church; and the light \nwhich comes across to them and which those souls refract\, perhaps because it \ndoes not find expression in traditional forms\, is all the more enlightening to me. \nGrace here appears in its natural state\, outside all the means which are its usual \nchannel to us. It is rather like discovering that strangers know and love a secret \nplace in the forest which was the objective of our solitary walks. We wonder how \nthey came there by paths unknown to us.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-office-for-vocations-28/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260626
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260627
DTSTAMP:20260620T214145Z
CREATED:20260620T214145Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260620T214145Z
UID:15103-1782432000-1782518399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nBALDWIN OF FORD \n◊◊◊ \nA person who is tempted by the flesh\, and who yields to this temptation\, \nhowever\, is someone who feels his passions and gives them his full consent. The \nmore carnal he is\, the more provision he makes for the flesh in gratifying its \ndesires. He does not give his consent to the spirit against the flesh but allies \nhimself with the flesh\, whose desires are opposed to the spirit. \nSuch a person loves wine and good things\, ease and security and plenty. \n[He loves] to be clothed in purple and fine linen and to feast sumptuously every \nday. Nor does he refuse his eyes whatever they desire. He allays all his desires \nimpulsively and willingly\, and whatever does not serve the delights of flesh he \nregards as vain. He reckons that the best thing for him is to enjoy good things in \nhis lifetime\, and he gains nothing more than this by all the toil at which he toils \nunder the sun. The end that carnal man will come to is shown in the gospel \nparable of the rich man and the poor man\, where it says\, “The rich man died and \nwas buried in hell.” And of Babylon it is written\, “As she exalted herself and lived \nin her delights\, so give her a like measure of torment and sorrow!” \nIt is better for us\, then\, to deliver such a man to death for the destruction \nof the flesh than to be drawn with him into the pit of destruction. Our flesh\, \ntherefore\, should be mortified and crucified\, so that the body of sin may be \ndestroyed. Such is in accord with the voice of the prophet speaking to the Lord: \n‘Pierce my flesh with your fear’. \nBecause it is said to carnal man\, ‘You have hated discipline\, If we can find \nno better cross on which to crucify carnal man than the austerity of regular \ndiscipline\, for the discipline which he hates is a torment to him. Regular \ndiscipline is a cross\, and the two pieces of wood from which it is built symbolize \nthe laws of abstinence and continence. Abstinence tempers gluttony\, and the \nlaw of continence restrains excess in all the senses of mind and body: and it is \nprecisely these things which are characteristic of the carnal man.’
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-439/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260627
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260628
DTSTAMP:20260620T214322Z
CREATED:20260620T214322Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260620T214322Z
UID:15105-1782518400-1782604799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Memorial of the BVM
DESCRIPTION:A reading from “The Divine Motherhood” by \nANSCAR VONIER \n◊◊◊ \nLet us always bear in mind the great truth that the Blessed Virgin’s \nmaternity was a most natural maternity in the sense that she fully responded to \nit\, was not overwhelmed by it\, that there was no separation between her and her \noffspring; Christ came from her as her own dear child\, the fruit of her own \nblessed womb. I am right\, therefore\, in asserting that Mary’s maternal function \nin the conception of Christ was raised to an incredibly high plane of vitality so as \nto make her maternity not only an instrumental\, but a natural maternity. \nIf Mary’s mission had been merely to minister the human element to the \nWord when he became flesh\, her maternity would have been just instrumental; \nit would have existed only to serve a higher purpose. But Mary’s role is more \nthan that; she is permanently the Mother of God; her maternity is not a \ntransient ministration\, but an abiding dignity that makes her share with God the \nFather\, in literal truth\, the parenthood of Jesus Christ. \nA threefold hypothesis may make this point clearer still. We can think of a \nwoman being made a mother by the direct productive act of God; in that case the \noffspring of that mother would not be divine\, but human. Then there can be the \nconception in a woman’s womb of a divine person\, as happened in the \nincarnation\, but the woman being merely instrumental to the production of the \nbody; in such a case it would be divine maternity in the most restricted \nphysiological sense. Thirdly\, there is the glorious possibility of perfect divine \nmaternity with all the graces and privileges\, with all the rights and splendors\, of \none who shares to the full\, with God the Father\, the parenthood of the God \nIncarnate. Such is Mary’s maternity; such is the meaning of Elizabeth’s \nsalutation\, or rather the salutation of the Holy Spirit through the mouth of \nElizabeth\, when full of the divine Spirit she cried with a loud voice: Blessed are \nyou among women\, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And whence is this to \nme\, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? \nElizabeth was the first creature to call Mary “the Mother of God”; she gave \nus the grandest title of our Lady: “Mother of God.” The archangel\, indeed\, had \nsaid as much\, but only by implication; Elizabeth\, the happiest of human \nmothers\, has the privilege of having spoken for the first time the words “Mother \nof God.” When\, moreover\, in the same breath she calls blessed the Mother and \nthe fruit of her womb\, bestowing the same encomium on the two lives which \nwere not yet disjoined\, she gives us an additional reason for saying that Mary’s \nmaternity had been raised to the divine plane of dignity and perfection\, where \none and the same blessedness holds mother and offspring wrapped in a \nmatchless sanctity.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-memorial-of-the-bvm-11/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260628
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260629
DTSTAMP:20260628T115323Z
CREATED:20260628T114226Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260628T115323Z
UID:15115-1782604800-1782691199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n13th Week in Ordinary Time\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (A)\, Weekdays (II)\nJune 28 – July 4\, 2026\n\n\n\nSun\n28\nMon\n29\nTue\n30\nWed\n1\nThu\n2\nFri\n3\nSat\n4\n\n\nOffice\n13th Sunday\nSS Peter & Paul\nWeekday\nWeekday\nWeekday\nSt Thomas\nMemorial of the BVM\n\n\nVigils\nJud 2:1-13\nGal 1:11-2:10\nJud 2:14-28\nJud 3:1-10\nJud 4:1-15\nJob 23:1-12\nJud 5:1-24\n\n\nLauds\nEccles 12:1-8\nIsa 49:1-6\nEccles 12:9-14\nHosea 1:1-9\nHos 2:1-6\nIsa 43:8-13\nHos 2:7-12\n\n\nMass\n97\n591\n378\n379\n380\n593\n382\n\n\n1st\n2 Kgs 4:8-11\, 14-16a\nActs 12:1-11\nAmos 3:1-8; 4:11-12\nAmos 5:14-15\, 21-24\nAmos 7:10-17\nEph 2:19-22\nAmos 9:11-15\n\n\n2nd\nRom 6:3-4\, 8-11\n2 Tim 4:6-8\, 17-18\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nMatt 10:37-42\nMatt 16:13-19\nMatt 8:23-27\nMatt 8:28-34\nMatt 9:1-8\nJohn 20:24-29\nMatt 9:14-17\n\n\nVespers\nActs 3:1-10\n1 Peter 4:12-19\nEph 4:7-16\nEph 4:17-24\nEph 4:25-32\n1 Pet 1:3-9\nEph 5:1-5
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/15115/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260628
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260629
DTSTAMP:20260628T115740Z
CREATED:20260628T114338Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260628T115740Z
UID:15117-1782604800-1782691199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - 13th Sunday
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nST HILARY OF POITIERS \n◊◊◊ \nChrist commanded the apostles to leave everything in the world \nthat they held most dear\, adding: Whoever does not take up his cross and \nfollow me is not worthy of me. For those who belong to Christ have crucified \ntheir lower nature with its sinful passions and desires. No one is worthy of him \nwho refuses to take up his cross\, that is to say\, to share the Lord’s passion\, death\, \nburial\, and resurrection\, and to follow him by living out the mystery of faith in \nthe newly received grace of the Spirit. \nWhoever finds his life will lose it\, and whoever loses his life for my sake \nwill find it. This means that thanks to the power of the word and the \nrenunciation of past sins\, temporal gains are death to the soul\, and temporal \nlosses are salvation. Apostles must therefore take death into their new life and nail \ntheir sins to the Lord’s cross. They must confront their persecutors with \ncontempt for things present\, holding fast to their freedom by a glorious \nconfession of faith\, and shunning any gain that would harm their souls. They \nshould know that no power over their souls has been given to anyone\, and that \nby suffering loss in this short life they will achieve immortality. \nWhoever receives you receives me\, and whoever receives me receives the \none who sent me. Christ gives us all a love for his teaching and a disposition to \ntreat our teachers with courtesy. Earlier he had shown the danger facing those \nwho refused to receive the apostles by requiring these to shake the dust off their \nfeet as a testimony against them; now he commends those who do receive the \napostles\, assuring them of a greater recompense than they might have expected \nfor their hospitality\, and he teaches that since he still acts as mediator\, when we \nreceive him God enters us through him because he comes from God. \nThus whoever receives the apostles receives Christ\, and whoever receives \nChrist receives God the Father\, since what is received in the apostles is nothing \nelse than what is received in Christ; nor is there anything in Christ but what is in \nGod. Through this disposition of graces to receive the apostles is to receive God\, \nbecause Christ is in them and God is in Christ.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/15117/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260629
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260630
DTSTAMP:20260628T114549Z
CREATED:20260628T114549Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260628T114549Z
UID:15120-1782691200-1782777599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - SS Peter & Paul
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nST AELRED OF RIEVAULX \n◊◊◊ \nThough the earth and all who dwell in it may rock\, it is I who uphold its pillars. \nThe pillars of the earth\, my brothers\, are the holy apostles\, especially \nthese two whose feast we celebrate today. They are the pillars who support holy \nChurch through their doctrine\, their prayers\, and through the example of their \npatience. These are the pillars our Lord upholds. Previously\, they were very \nweak and unable to support themselves or others. Yet this was a great \ndispensation of the Lord. For if they had always been strong\, someone could \nthink that they had always had this strength from themselves. For that reason \nour Lord wished to show first what they were of themselves\, and then \nafterwards to uphold them\, so that all might know that all their strength was \nfrom God… \nFor these pillars were very weak: obviously saint Peter was weak\, for \nexample\, when the voice of one maidservant cast him down. Afterward\, the \nLord upheld that pillar: first\, when He asked him three times\, Peter\, do you love \nMe? and three times Peter answered\, I do love you. For as Peter diminished that \nlove of our Lord in himself when he denied Him three times\, and therefore this \npillar failed and was broken; so through Peter’s confessing his love three times\, \nthis pillar was upheld. \nThat other pillar\, Paul\, was undoubtedly weak\, too… When he was \nprostrate and blind and led into the city; when Ananias came to him and \ninstructed him\, then he was weak. But hear how strong he was afterwards: I am \ncertain\, he says\, that neither death\, nor life\, nor angels\, nor any other creature \ncan separate me from the Love of God. \nAnd note that when Peter answered\, I do love you\, the Lord immediately \nsaid to him Feed My sheep; as if to say: Show me the love you have for Me in this \nway: by feeding My sheep. Therefore\, my brothers\, he who does not wish to feed \nChrist’s sheep\, falsely says that he loves God… \nIn each soul our Lord also has some sheep\, that is\, some virtues which he \nwho loves Christ must feed. These sheep are: charity\, humility\, spiritual joy\, \nand the like. We feed these sheep when we do works that make these virtues \ngrow in us. And each one of us must also feed these sheep\, these virtues\, in the \nothers. We do this if we so conduct ourselves before our brothers that their \ncharity\, their joy\, their humility and patience grow by our example. For how do I \nfeed humility in my brother\, if I am proud before him\, if I speak proudly\, answer \nhim proudly\, walk proudly? How do I feed obedience in my brother\, if he sees \nme contrary and disobedient? How do I feed his patience if I grumble\, am \nirascible\, or speak or make signs harshly before him? \nTherefore if you love Christ\, my brothers\, feed Christ’s sheep\, and you will \nbelong to these pillars which are upheld by Christ’s love. And let us place before \nour eyes the life and death of these saints and their reward; let us think that if we \nimitate their sufferings as we can\, without doubt we will be joined to their lot.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-ss-peter-paul-4/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260630
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DTSTAMP:20260628T114654Z
CREATED:20260628T114654Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260628T114654Z
UID:15122-1782777600-1782863999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nHANS URS VON BALTHASAR \n◊◊◊ \nThe Apostles are the founders of the Church\, officially chosen and called \nby the Lord\, whose first function will be to be eyewitnesses. They are drawn into \nliving community with the Messiah\, a relationship in which they will enjoy with \nthis man\, who is ‘God among us’\, a commerce that is fully human\, that engages \nboth their senses and their spirit. They are ‘those with him’\, ‘those who \naccompany him’\, and ‘those around him’. This is what they are\, and they will \ngrow more and more into this way of life in the course of Jesus’ life. They \nconstitute the original cell of God’s community with us\, which had been \npromised and is now being realized. \nAll those coming after them who wish to have community with God must \nbecome a part of this original cell. There are many others who come to the Lord\, \nonly to go away again\, many others who stay with him a while only then to leave \nhim\, or simply others who have a loose connection with him without any \nparticular calling. By contrast\, the Apostles enjoy a community with Jesus \nwhich has precise contours\, a community which he has consciously established \nand maintained\, which is founded on the definitive life-long renunciation of all \nelse: it is something wholly formed\, distinctive in shape. And yet it is not \nsomething magical imposed from above\, since the son of perdition will indeed \nfall away; rather\, it is the realization of the covenant-partnership between God \nand ourselves. \nEyewitness\, in turn\, is an association with the Lord in his public life\, in his \nPassion\, and in his death which is the communal\, human\, and realistic \nexperience of God which continues and fulfills the Old Testament’s promise of \nan earthly God-with-us. But this phase comes to an end with Jesus’ death; the \nApostles’ senses\, accustomed to his existence\, now fall into the void; there is no \nlonger anything there to see\, to hear\, to touch; the Apostles’ whole human \nexperience breaks off with the three-days-in-death\, then to resume anew\, \nwithout any traceable continuity\, with Christ’s Resurrection\, at a place whose \ndistance from the point of disruption can be known and measured only by God; \nand now\, during the forty days\, the association with the Lord will be \nexperienced with wholly new senses. \nThe eyewitness of the Apostles draws all its force from this last phase\, to \nbe sure; otherwise they could hardly bear witness to anything more than an \nextraordinary man who was prophetically gifted and who performed miracles. \nBut it draws its force not\, indeed\, solely from the witness of the Resurrection\, \nbut from the fact that the man who appeared to them was the same whom they \nhad known previously from long association and whom they had seen suffer and \ndie. Seeing him\, hearing him\, touching him\, observing how he eats\, the proof of \nthe wounds; all of this receives its full significance only in that light.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-440/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260701
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260702
DTSTAMP:20260628T114814Z
CREATED:20260628T114814Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260628T114814Z
UID:15124-1782864000-1782950399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM \n◊◊◊ \nSuppose a pagan should say: “Where is your proof that Christ is God?” I \nmust first lay this proof as a foundation since everything follows from it. But I \nshall not draw my demonstration from heaven or any such divine source. For if \nI say that God created heaven\, earth and sea\, no pagan will stand for this as \nproof nor will he believe me; if I say that Christ raised the dead\, cured the blind\, \nand drove out demons\, no pagan will accept that either; if I say that he promised \na kingdom and ineffable blessings\, if I talk about the resurrection\, the pagan will \nnot only reject my arguments but he will laugh at them as well. \nHow shall I persuade him\, especially if he is ignorant and ill-informed? \nWhat source of proof can I use other than one on which we both together agree\, \none which is undeniable and admits no doubt? If I base my argument on the fact \nthat he created heaven and the other things of which I spoke\, the pagan would \nnot find it easy to believe me. What is there which even the pagan admits that \nChrist has done and which not even he would deny? \nThe pagan must admit that from Christ came the family of Christians. He \nmust admit that Christ founded the Churches everywhere throughout the world. \nFrom these facts I shall furnish proof of Christ’s power; I shall show that Christ \nis God; I shall maintain that it is not the mark of a mere man to bring under his \nsway so much land and sea in so short a time; I shall make clear that it is not the \nmark of a mere human to call men to such lofty deeds\, especially men who were \npreoccupied with such strange customs or\, rather men who were caught in the \ntrap of such an evil way of life. \nAnd still Christ had the power to set the human race free from all these \nevils – not only the Romans\, but the Persians\, and simply every race of \nbarbarians. And he succeeded in doing this with no force of arms\, nor \nexpenditure of money\, nor by starting wars of conquest\, nor by inflaming men \nto battle. He had only eleven men to start with\, men who were undistinguished\, \nwithout learning\, ill-informed\, destitute\, poorly clad\, without weapons\, or \nsandals\, men who had but a single tunic to wear. \nWhy do I say that he succeeded in doing this? He was able to persuade so \nmany nations of men to pursue the true doctrine\, not only in what concerns the \npresent life but also the life hereafter. He succeeded in winning over these men \nto drag down their ancestral laws\, to tear out their ancient customs\, long and \ndeeply rooted as they were\, and to plant in their place other ways\, which led \nthem from the easygoing life to his own program of austerity. And he succeeded \nin doing this when the whole world was waging war against him\, when they \njeered at him and forced him to endure the most shameful death of the cross. \nThe pagans will not deny that the Jews crucified him and subjected him to \ncountless tortures; they will not deny that he still preaches his message every \nday. And this message flourishes not only here but also among the Persians\, \nwho even today are still waging war against him. For among the Persians\, at this \nvery hour\, there are multitudes of martyrs. Men who were more savage than \nwolves hear his message\, become more gentle than sheep\, and accept the true \ndoctrine on immortality\, the resurrection\, and the ineffable blessings of the \nmysteries.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-441/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260702
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260703
DTSTAMP:20260628T115000Z
CREATED:20260628T115000Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260628T115000Z
UID:15126-1782950400-1783036799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nWILLIAM OF ST THIERRY \n◊◊◊ \nIn order that your solitude may not appall you and that you may dwell the \nmore safely in your cell three guardians have been assigned to you: God\, your \nconscience and your spiritual father. To God you owe devotion and the entire \ngift of yourself; to your conscience the respect which will make you ashamed to \nsin in its presence; to your spiritual father the obedience of charity and recourse \nin everything. \nIn addition\, to make you grateful to me\, I will add a fourth and provide \nyou with a monitor for as long as you are small and have not learned to keep the \npresence of God before your mind. \nIf you will take my advice\, you will choose for yourself a man whose life is \nsuch that it will serve as a model to impress upon your heart\, one whom you will \nso revere that whenever you think of him you will rise up because of the respect \nyou feel for him and put yourself in order. Think of him as if he were present and \nlet the charity you feel for one another act in you to correct all that needs to be \ncorrected\, while your solitude suffers no infringement of its secret. Let him be \npresent to you whenever you wish and let him come sometimes when you would \nhave preferred him to stay away. The thought of his holy severity will make it \nseem as if he were rebuking you; the thought of his kindness and goodness will \nbring you consolation; the purity and sanctity of his life will set you a good \nexample. \nFor you will be driven to correct even all your thoughts\, as if they were \nopen to his gaze and visited by his rebuke\, when you consider that he is \nwatching. So\, as the Apostle bids: “Keep guard on yourself” with the greatest \ncare and\, in order to have your eyes always on yourself\, turn your gaze away \nfrom all else. The eye is a remarkable instrument of the body – if only it could \nsee itself as it sees other things. Now the inner eye is enabled to do this. If then it \nfollows the example of the outward eye and neglects itself\, giving its attention to \nthe affairs of others\, it will not be able to return to itself\, however much it may \nwish to do so. \nGive your attention to yourself; you yourself constitute abundant matter \nfor solicitude for yourself. Shut out also from your outward eyes what you have \ngrown unaccustomed to see\, from your inner eyes what you no longer love\, since \nnothing so easily reasserts its claims as love\, especially in younger and more \ntender souls. \nMake bold also to be wise at times and desire the better gifts. Be yourself a \nparable of edification for yourself. You have one cell outwardly\, another within \nyou. The outward cell is the house in which your soul dwells together with your \nbody; the inner cell is your conscience and in that it is God who should dwell \nwith your spirit\, he who is more interior to you than all else that is within you. \nThe door of the outward enclosure is a sign of the guarded door within you\, so \nthat as the bodily senses are prevented from wandering abroad by the outward \nenclosure\, so the inner senses are kept always within their own domain. \n  \nThe Golden Epistle – William of St Thierry – Cistercian Fathers Series #12 – Kalamazoo\, MI – 1971 – pg 45.11 \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-442/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260703
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260704
DTSTAMP:20260628T115115Z
CREATED:20260628T115115Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260628T115115Z
UID:15128-1783036800-1783123199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Thomas
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nST PETER CHRYSOLOGUS \n◊◊◊ \nWhen Thomas heard from his fellow disciples that they had seen the \nLord\, he answered: Unless I see the wounds made by the nails and put my \nhand into his side\, I will not believe. Why did Thomas thus demand proof before \nbelieving? Why was he so devout toward the suffering Christ\, but so resistant to \nthe risen Christ? Why did a pious hand open again the wounds made by a \nwicked hand? Why did the hand of a follower strive to plunge anew into the side \nopened by the spear of a wicked soldier?… \nWhen the Lord died\, the devil’s power collapsed\, the prison of hell was \nthrown open\, the fetters of the dead were broken\, tombs were destroyed; when \nthe Lord rose again death’s nature was completely changed. The stone before \nthe Lord’s most holy sepulcher was rolled away\, and the linen cloths were \nloosened; at his rising in glory death took to flight and life returned; his body \narose never to die again. Why then\, Thomas\, were you the only one to make such \na shrewd inquiry\, demanding that the Lord’s wounds be shown as the only way \nto convince you? Suppose those wounds had vanished with all the other marks \nof suffering – what danger to your faith would not your curiosity have \nengendered? \nMy brothers and sisters\, piety made this search and devotion these \ndemands to ensure that impiety should not thereafter raise doubts about the \nLord’s resurrection. It was not only the doubts in his own heart that Thomas was \nhealing\, but everyone else’s as well; and as he was to proclaim these things to the \nnations\, this energetic advocate was diligently trying to discover how he could \nsupport the profession of so great a faith. Beyond question his spirit of prophecy \nwas greater than his doubt. For why should he have made such a request unless \nhe had learned from the Lord by prophetic inspiration that these wounds alone \nwere to be retained as proof of the resurrection? \nFurthermore\, the Lord of his own accord had shown the others what this \nman subsequently demanded. The text says: Jesus came and stood in their \nmidst and showed them his hands and his side. For he who had entered through \nclosed doors and was with good reason thought by the disciples to be a ghost \ncould not prove himself to their doubting minds except by the wounds that told \nof his passion. Then he came and said to Thomas: Put your finger here\, and see \nmy hands\, and put out your hand and put it into my side\, and be not faithless \nbut believing. Do this so that when you reopen these wounds which have \nalready poured forth water and blood to cleanse and ransom all humankind\, \nfaith may pour out over the whole world. Thomas answered: My Lord and my \nGod! \nSee how scripture shows not only a human body but also\, through the \nsuffering this body endured\, that Christ is\, as Thomas acclaims him\, God and \nLord. Truly he is God who lives again after being dead\, who rose after suffering a \nmortal wound; for although he endured so much suffering and received such \ngreat wounds\, he lives and reigns as God for countless ages.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-thomas-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260704
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260705
DTSTAMP:20260628T115225Z
CREATED:20260628T115225Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260628T115225Z
UID:15130-1783123200-1783209599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Memorial of the BVM
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nST THEODORE THE STUDITE \n◊◊◊ \nNever has anyone been nearer to God than the blessed and most \nwonderful Virgin Mary. Who could be purer? Who more sinless? She was loved \nso ardently by God\, the Divine\, infinitely pure light\, that he made himself of one \nsubstance with her through the power of the Holy Spirit and was born of her as \nperfect man\, while keeping entire his own unchangeable and unblended nature. \nHow marvelous this is! In his immense love for man\, God was not ashamed to \ntake for his mother her who was his handmaid. What condescension! In his \ninfinite goodness he did not hesitate to become a child of her whom he himself \nhad made. He was truly in love with the most gracious of his creatures\, and he \ntook her who was of greater worth than the heavenly powers. \nThe words of Zechariah the prophet do indeed apply to her: “Sing and \nrejoice\, O daughter of Zion; for lo\, I come and I will dwell in the midst of you\, \nsays the Lord”. And again it is she whom blessed Joel is addressing\, so it seems \nto me\, when he writes: “Fear not\, O land: be glad and rejoiced\, for the Lord has \ndone great things!”. For Mary is a land: that land on which Moses the man of \nGod was told to remove his shoe\, figure of the law\, for grace was going to take \nthe place of law. \nAgain\, she is that land which is established by the Holy Spirit himself\, as \nwe sing: “He laid the foundation of the earth”. She is a land that\, without having \nbeen sown\, has yielded the fruit which nourishes everything that exists. She is a \nland on which the thorn of sin has never grown: on the contrary\, she has given \nthe light of day to him who has torn up sin by the root. In short\, she is a land that \nhas not been cursed\, as the first one has\, with harvests of thorns and thistles\, for \nshe is one on which the Lord’s blessing rests\, a land bearing in her womb a \nblessed fruit\, as the sacred word declares. \nRejoice\, House of God\, land on which God has stepped\, you who have \ncontained in your body him whose divinity overflows all bounds. For he who is \nsimplicity itself has taken man’s complex nature; the Eternal has entered into \ntime and the infinite into limits. Rejoice\, House of God\, resplendent with the \nlight of divinity. Rejoice\, full of grace: your deed and your name are more joy- \ngiving than all joy. For your immortal joy\, Christ\, has come into the world\, the \ncure for the sadness of man. Rejoice\, Paradise happier than the garden of Eden\, \nwhere all virtue has grown and where the tree of Life has flourished.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-memorial-of-the-bvm-12/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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