Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mass
89
359
580
361
362
363
364

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

2nd
2 Cor 4:13-5:1

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

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

Vigils Reading - 10th Sunday
2024-06-09
THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE
By an unknown Greek author of the 5th century1
The signs of the Lord’s resurrection are obvious: deception has ceased, envy has been banished, strife is despised. Peace is held in honor, and war has been done away with. No longer do we bewail the Adam who was fashioned first; instead we glorify the second Adam. No longer do we reproach Eve for transgressing God’s command: instead we bless Mary for being the Mother of God. No longer do we avert our eyes from the wood of the tree: instead we carry the Lord’s cross. We no longer fear the serpent: instead we revere the Holy Spirit. We no longer descend into the earth: instead we reascend into heaven. We are no longer exiles from paradise: instead we live in Abraham’s bosom. We no longer hear, “I have made your day like night”: instead, inspired by the Holy Spirit, we sing: This is the day which the Lord has made: let us keep it with gladness and rejoicing.
Why should we do so? Because the sun is no longer darkened: instead everything is bathed in light. Because the veil of the temple is no longer rent: instead the Church is recognized. Because we no longer hold palm branches: instead we carry the newly enlightened.
This is the day which the Lord has made: let us keep it with gladness and rejoicing. This is the day, this and no other, for there is only one queen, and not a throng of princesses. This is the day in the truest sense: the day of triumph, the day custom consecrates to the resurrection, the day on which we adorn ourselves with grace, the day on which we partake of the spiritual Lamb. This is the day on which milk is given to those born again, and on which God’s plan for the poor is realized. Let us keep it with gladness and rejoicing, not by running off to the taverns, but by hastening to the martyrs’ shrines; not by esteeming drunkenness, but by loving temperance; not by dancing in the marketplace, but by singing psalms at home. This day is a day of resurrection, not of revelry. No one can ascend to heaven dancing; no one in a state of drunkenness can attend upon a king. Let none of us, therefore, dishonor this day.
This is the day on which Adam was set free, and Eve delivered from her affliction. It is the day on which cruel death shuddered, the strength of hard stones was shattered and destroyed, the bars of tombs were broken and set aside. It is the day on which the bodies of people long dead were restored to their former life, and the laws of the underworld, hitherto ever powerful and immutable, were repealed. It is the day on which the heavens were opened at the rising of Christ the Lord, and on which, for the good of the human race, the flourishing and fruitful tree of the resurrection set forth branches all over the world, as if the world were a garden. It is the day on which the lilies of the newly enlightened sprang up, the streams that sustained sinners ran dry, the strength of the devil is drained away, and demonic armies are scattered.
This, then is the day which the Lord has made: let us keep it with gladness and rejoicing by the grace of Christ. By his resurrection he has illuminated the whole world, which was in darkness and in the shadow of death. May glory and adoration be given to him together with the Father and the Holy Spirit for endless ages.
1 Journey with the Father – Year B – New City Press – 1999 – pg 88-89.

Vigils Reading
2024-06-10
LET YOURSELF BECOME AN ALTAR STONE
From a homily by Origen2
All of us who believe in Christ Jesus are called ‘living stones’ in the words of scripture: ‘Like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ’.
You know that in the case of earthly stones the builder takes care to lay first the strongest and most massive stones as the foundation, so that the whole weight of the building can rest upon them. The next stones, of not quite such good quality, are laid upon the foundation stones; and so on according to the strength of the stone: the weakest are laid at the top, near the roof. It must be understood that this applies equally to living stones, some of which are foundations of our spiritual building. Who are these stones that are laid in the foundation? ‘The apostles and prophets’. This is Paul’s teaching: ‘Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone.
To prepare yourselves more zealously…to construct this building, to be one of the stones near the foundation, you must realize that Christ himself is the foundation of the building which we are describing. Paul the Apostle declares this to be so: ‘No other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ’. Happy are they who have built holy, religious buildings on so noble a foundation.
Now in this building which is the Church there must be an altar. Moreover I believe that there are among you those who as ‘living stones’ are able to become an altar–those of you who have resolved to dedicate yourselves to prayer, to offer God supplications day and night, and to immolate your sacrifices–and that, it is with you that Jesus builds his altar.
Think of the worth to be discerned in altar stones. ‘Joshua built an altar, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, of unhewn stones, upon which no one has lifted an iron tool’. What do you think these unhewn stones represent? It is for each one’s conscience to tell whether he or she is whole and perfect, whether one has integrity, whether one is without impurity or spot… To my mind, those whole and spotless stones must be the holy apostles who together form but one stone because of their unity of heart and soul. Indeed it is said that they ‘all with one accord devoted themselves to prayer’, and that they said: ‘Lord, who knowest the hearts of all’. For those who can pray with one accord, with one voice and one spirit, are indeed worthy to have been built together into a single altar on which Jesus offers sacrifices to his father. But we for our part, we too must ensure that we all agree and are united in the same mind and same judgment; that we ‘do nothing from selfishness or conceit’ but live ‘having the same love, and of one mind’. So let us too try to become altar stones.
2 Homilies IX, 1-2: PG 12, 871-872.

Vigils Reading - St Barnabas
2024-06-11
ST BARNABAS
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints3
Although St Barnabas was not one of the twelve chosen by our Lord, yet he is styled an apostle by the early fathers and by St Luke himself on account of the special commission he received from the Holy Spirit and the great part he took in apostolic work. He was a Jew of the tribe of Levi, but was born in Cyprus. His name was originally Joseph, but the apostles changed it to Barnabas – which St Luke interprets as meaning “man of encouragement”.
The first mention we find of him in the Holy Scriptures is in the fourth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, where it is stated that the first converts at Jerusalem lived in common and that as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and laid the proceeds at the feet of the apostles for distribution. St. Barnabas’s sale of his estate is singled out for mention on this occasion. When Paul came to Jerusalem three years after his conversion the faithful were suspicious of the genuineness of this conversion, and avoided him. It was Barnabas who then “took him by the hand “and vouched for him among the other apostles.
Some time later, certain disciples having preached the Gospel with success at Antioch, it was thought desirable that someone be sent by the Church in Jerusalem to guide and confirm the neophytes. The man selected was Barnabas – “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith”, as we read in the Acts. Upon his arrival he rejoiced exceedingly at the progress the gospel had made and by his preaching added greatly to the number of converts. Finding himself in need of an able assistant he went to Tarsus to enlist the cooperation of St. Paul, who accompanied him back and spent a whole year at Antioch. Their labors were crowned with success, and it was in that city and at this period that the name “Christians” was first given to the followers of the Lord.
The Holy Spirit said to the apostles “Separate me Paul and Barnabas for the work for which I have taken them.” Accordingly, after all had prayed and fasted, Paul and Barnabas received their commission by the laying on of hands and set forth on their first missionary journey. A miraculous cure wrought by St Paul upon a cripple at Lystra led the pagan inhabitants to conclude that the gods were come among them. They hailed Paul as Hermes or Mercury because he was the chief speaker, and Barnabas as Zeus or Jupiter. But with the proverbial fickleness of the mob, they soon rushed to the other extreme and stoned Paul.
At the Council of Jerusalem Paul and Barnabas gave a full account of their labors among the Gentiles and received approbation of their mission. Later a contention arose between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark and they separated, Paul proceeding on his projected tour with Silas, while Barnabas sailed to Cyprus with John Mark. Here the Acts leave him without further mention. He is said to have been stoned to death at Salamis.
3 Butler’s Lives of the Saints – revised edition – Harper – San Francisco – 1984 – pg 176.

Vigils Reading - St Alice
2024-06-12
ST ALICE
DEAREST DAUGHTER OF THE LORD
By Arnold of Villiers4
Alice was a nun of La Cambre in Brussels. She left her home when she was seven years old. From the beginning she endeavored to embrace a genuine love for God, such as would equip and train her to take a wise stand against any onslaught of the devil. Compared with this love, every transitory thing cheapened for her. For the sake of this love she spurned all things visible, except as required for bodily needs, and she patiently endured any adversity. As Alice grew, her virtues increased with her years and her skill in applying those virtues advanced even beyond her years. God in turn wanted her to become his vessel of election. He wished her to be thoroughly purged of all temporal din, all defilement from this secular world. God longed that his Bride be free, be at leisure for him alone. To this end He struck her a heavy blow, struck her down with an incurable disease of leprosy.
The contagious nature of her disease demanded sequestration from the community. Due to this her heart was severely crushed and bruised. Yet she remembered God and was consoled. And the loving Lord gazed with eyes of mercy upon this handmaid’s humility and deigned to warm her heart with His Love, to the extent that Alice preferred to linger in this situation of hers, with God as her only visitor. She learned from many experiences that the surest thing for her to do in every trouble and anguish was to take refuge in God’s own haven. She ever applied this against all weariness and all emptiness.
Alice lodged in one hut for the first four years, but after that another hut was built in view of her unique infirmity. When this had been completed and she had moved in, the Lord appeared to her, right inside and on the very first day. With open arms He embraced her, saying: “Welcome, dearest daughter! Long have I desired to welcome you into this tabernacle of my covenant. For your whole remaining sojourn in this body, I will abide with you and be, as it were, your cellarer, ministering to you in every need.”
Once on the feast of St Ursula and her companions, at the time of Matins, Alice stepped across the threshold of her hut to face towards the church and hearken awhile to the voices of the nuns praising God. she became disturbed in mind that she could not keep company with the others at the psalmody in choir. But she turned to the Lord, saying, “This I ask of you, holy Father, I cannot now join the others in praising these holy Virgins as I would like, since the special gift you have given me does not allow me to be in community for now. But this at least I ask: after this life’s misery if over, do not allow me to be separated from their companionship!” And the Lord answered her: “Sweetest daughter, it shall not be merely as you desire; in my Kingdom I shall set you in a place loftier yet!”
Wholly deprived of the use of her body and of any of its members, she was committed to her bed. She breathed her last breath on the 11th day of June, at sunrise, in the year of the Lord 1250.
4 Alice the Leper: Life of St Alice of Schaerbeck by Arnold II of Villers – Translated by Martinus Cawley, ocso – Guadalupe Translations – 2000.

Vigils Reading - St Anthony of Padua
2024-06-13
ST ANTHONY OF PADUA
From the Little Flowers of St Francis of Assisi5
At one time that wonderful vessel of the Holy Spirit, St Anthony of Padua, one of the chosen followers and companions of St Francis, whom St Francis used to call his vicar, was preaching before the Pope and Cardinals in a consistory where there were people from different countries–Greeks and Latins, French and Germans, Slavs and English–and others of many different languages and idioms. And being inflamed by the Holy Spirit and inspired with apostolic eloquence, he preached and explained the word of God so effectively, devoutly, subtly, clearly, and understandably that all who were assembled at that consistory, although they spoke different languages, clearly and distinctly heard and understood every one of his words as if he had spoken in each of their languages. Therefore they were all astounded and filled with devotion, for it seemed to them that the former miracle of the Apostles at the time of Pentecost had been renewed, when by the power of the Holy Spirit they spoke in different languages.
And in amazement they said to one another: “Is he not a Spaniard? How then are we all hearing him in the language of the country where we were born–we Greeks and Latins, French and Germans, Slavs and English, Lombards and foreigners?” The Pope also was astonished at St Anthony’s profound knowledge of Holy Scripture and said: “He is truly the Ark of the Covenant and the Treasury of Holy Scripture!”
Such then are the soldiers whom our leader St Francis had–companions who could nourish with the marrow of the Holy Spirit and arm with heavenly weapons against the snares of the enemy not only the flock of Christ but also the Vicar of Christ with his venerable College of Cardinals. To the glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever and ever.
5 Trans., Raphael Brown “Omnibus of Sources”, Chicago, 1973, pp. 1390-91.

Vigils Reading - Bl Gerard
2024-06-14
LAMENT FOR THE DEATH OF GERARD
By St Bernard of Clairvaux6
How much better for me, O Gerard, if I had lost my life rather than your company, since through your tireless inspiration, your unfailing help and under your provident scrutiny I persevered with my studies of things divine. Why, I ask, have we loved, why have we lost each other? O cruel circumstance! But pity pertains to my lot only, not to his.
And the reason, dear brother, is that though you have lost your loved ones, you have found others more lovable still. As for me, already so miserable, what consolation remains to me, and you, my only comfort, gone? Our bodily companionship was equally enjoyable to both, because our dispositions were so alike; but only I am wounded by the parting. All that was pleasant we rejoiced to share; now sadness and mourning are mine alone: anger has swept over me, rage is fastened on me. Both of us were so happy in each other’s company, sharing the same experiences, talking together about them; now my share of these delights has ceased and you have passed on, you have traded them for an immense reward.
What harvest of joys, what a profusion of blessings is yours. In place of my insignificant person you have the abiding presence of Christ, and mingling with the angelic choirs you feel our absence no loss. You have no cause to complain that we have been cut off from you, favored as you are by the constant presence of the Lord of Majesty and of his heavenly friends. But what do I have in your stead? How I long to know what you now think about me, once so uniquely yours, as I sink beneath the weight of cares and afflictions, deprived of the support you lent to my feebleness! Perhaps you still give thought to our miseries, now that you have plunged into the abyss of light, become engulfed in that sea of endless happiness. It is possible that though you once knew us according to the flesh, you now no longer know us and because you have entered into the power of the Lord you will be mindful of his righteousness alone, forgetful of ours.
Furthermore, “he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him,” his whole being somehow changed into a movement of divine love. He no longer has the power to experience or relish anything but God, and what God himself experiences and relishes, because he is filled with God. But God is love, and the deeper one’s union with God, the more full one is of love. And though God cannot endure pain, he is not without compassion for those who do; it is his nature to show mercy and pardon. Therefore you too must of necessity be merciful, clasped as you are to him who is Mercy; and though you no longer feel the need of mercy, though you no longer suffer, you cans still be compassionate. Your love has not diminished but only changed; when you were clothed with God you did not divest yourself of concern for us, for God is certainly concerned about us. All that smacks of weakness you have cast away, but not what pertains to love. And since love never comes to an end, you will not forget me for ever.
It seems to me that I can almost hear my brother saying: “Can a woman forget the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet I will not forget you.” This is how it must be.
6 On The Song Of Songs II Sermon 26.III. Trans. Kilian Walsh. Cistercian Publications 1976. 62-64.

Vigils Reading - Memorial of the BVM
2024-06-15
IN PRAISE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
From a sermon by Amadeus of Lausanne7
Since we have, at the bidding of God, embarked upon the praises of the Blessed Virgin, it remains for us to complete her praise from the bottom of our heart and with dutiful voice. Let us gaze upon her glory and, entering the depth of so great a light, let us with swelling heart and unspeakable joy hasten through the vivid brightness of the paths, saying with Solomon, ‘Her paths are lovely and all her ways are peaceful’. What if, as the same prophet says, ‘the path of the just, as a shining light, goes forth and grows into the perfect day’? Who will be able to express the light and brightness of her paths? Yet we shall try to explain in part the progress and additions of her paths so that she may be perceived as glorious in her steps and be proclaimed in each of them.
For she possessed progress clearly marked and distinct growth, so that she advanced according to the fairest order of Charity and, going forward from virtue to virtue, she saw the God of gods in Sion, being changed from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Firstly, therefore, she was deemed worthy to be adorned with the beauty of all the virtues. Secondly she was united to the Holy Spirit in a bond of wedlock. Thirdly, she was found the Mother of the Savior. Fourthly, a sword pierced her soul and by the flesh taken of her flesh the ruin of the lost world is restored. Fifthly, she rejoices in her Son arising and ascending above the heaven of heavens to the right hand of the Father. Sixthly, she is caught up from this world and as the Lord hastens to meet her she is placed above the denizens of heaven. Seventh, she will be completed when the fulness of the Gentiles shall have entered and all Israel shall be saved. For beyond what it is right to be said or believed, she rejoices in the general salvation of the elect, knowing that it was for them that the Son of God took flesh from her. Therefore she will then be fulfilled, God providing a better thing, lest without us she should not be made perfect.
7 Amadeus of Lausanne (CF 18: 69-70).

Skema
2024-06-16
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
11th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
June 16 – 22, 2024

Sun
16
Mon
17
Tue
18
Wed
19
Thu
20
Fri
21
Sat
22

Office
11th Sunday
Bl M-Joseph Cassant
Office for Vocations
Weekday
Weekday
St Aloysius Gonzaga
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Judg 11:1-11
Judg 11:12-28
Judg 11:29-40
Judg 13:1-25
Judg 14:1-20
Judg 15:1-20
Judg 16:1-22

Lauds
Amos 5:7, 10-15
Amos 5:16-20
Amos 5:21-27
Amos 6:1-7
Amos 6:8-14
Amos 7:1-6
Amos 7:7-9

Mass
92
365
366
367
368
369
370

1st
Ezek 17:22-24
1 Kgs 21:1-16
1 Kgs 21:17-29
2 Kgs 2:1, 6-14
Sir 48:1-14
2 Kgs 11:1-4, 9-18, 20
2 Chr 24:17-25

2nd
2 Cor 5:6-10

Gospel
Mark 4:26-34
Matt 5:38-42
Matt 5:43-48
Matt 6:1-6, 16-18
Matt 6:7-15
Matt 6:19-23
Matt 6:24-34

Vespers
Phil 4:10-14
Phil 4:15-23
1 Thess 1:1-10
1 Thess 2:1-8
1 Thess 2:9-12
1 Thess 2:13-16
1 Thess 2:17-3:5

Vigils Reading - 11th Sunday
2024-06-16
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
AND THE MUSTARD SEED
From a commentary by St Peter Chrysologus1
◊◊◊
Brothers and sisters, you have heard today how the kingdom of heaven,
for all its vastness, can be compared to a mustard seed… A mustard seed! Is that
the sum of believer’s hopes? Is that what the faithful are longing for – a mustard
seed, the blessed reward of virgins for their long years of self-restraint, the
glorious prize won by martyrs at the cost of their blood? Is this the mystery no
eye has seen, no ear heard, no human heart imagined; the mystery past telling
that the Apostle assures us God has prepared for all who love him?
Let us not be too easily disappointed at our Lord’s words. If we remember
that God’s weakness is stronger than human strength, and God’s foolishness
wiser than human wisdom, we shall find that this smallest seed of God’s
creation is greater than the whole wide world. It is up to us to sow this mustard
seed in our minds and let it grow within us into a great tree of understanding
reaching up to heaven and elevating all our faculties; then it will spread out
branches of knowledge…
Christ is the kingdom of heaven. Sown like a mustard seed in the garden
of the virgin’s womb, he grew up into the tree of the cross whose branches
stretch across the world. Crushed in the mortar of the passion, its fruit has
produced seasoning enough for the flavoring and preservation of every living
creature with which it comes in contact. As long as a mustard seed remains
intact, its properties lie dormant; but when it is crushed they are exceedingly
evident. So it was with Christ; he chose to have his body crushed, because he
would not have his power concealed.
We too must crush this mustard seed in order to feel the force of this
parable. Christ is king, because he is the source of all authority. Christ is the
kingdom, because all glory of his kingdom is within him. Christ is a man,
because all humanity is restored in him. Christ is a mustard seed, because the
infinitude of divine goodness is accommodated to the littleness of flesh and
blood.
Do we need further examples? Christ became all things in order to restore
all of us in himself. The man Christ received the mustard seed which represents
the kingdom of God; as man he received it, though as God he had always
possessed it. He sowed it in his garden, that is in his bride, the Church. The
Church is a garden extending over the whole world, tilled by the plough of the
gospel, fenced in by stakes of doctrine and discipline, cleared of every harmful
weed by the labor of the apostles, fragrant and lovely with perennial flowers:
virgins’ lilies and martyrs’ roses set among the pleasant verdure of all who bear
witness to Christ and the tender plants of all who have faith in him.
Such then is the mustard seed which Christ sowed in his garden. When
he promised a kingdom to the patriarchs the seed took root in them; with the
prophets it sprang up, with the apostles it grew tall, in the Church it became a
great tree outing forth innumerable branches laden with gifts. And now you too
must take the wings of the psalmist’s dove, gleaming gold in the rays of divine
sunlight, and fly to rest forever among these sturdy, fruitful branches. No snares
are set to trap you there; fly off, then, with confidence and dwell securely in its
shelter.

1 Journey with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – 1999 – pg90.3

Vigils Reading - Bl. Marie Joseph Cassant
2024-06-17
BLESSED MARIE JOSEPH CASSANT2
◊◊◊
Joseph Cassant was born on March 6, 1878 in the southern French town
of Casseneuil, the younger son of Pierre and Marie Cassant… Whereas Joseph’s
elder brother, Emile, was clearly marked out to continue his father’s agricultural
work, Joseph’s…single ambition was to be a priest.
Joseph’s devotion to the Eucharist drew the attention of the pastor, who
took him in and began to direct his studies toward seminary. However it soon
became apparent that Joseph’s talent did not lay in academic studies. The
pastor then directed his interests toward the Trappist life, thinking that
academics would not be of such importance there. The pastor took Joseph into
the rectory and established a Trappist way of life there for the two of them.
Priest and teenager arose every night at two a.m. They celebrated the whole
Trappist horarium including the whole Divine Office, manual labor, a rigorous
silence and kept to a vegetarian diet.
Joseph entered the Trappist Abbey of Sainte Marie du Desert, near
Toulouse at the age of sixteen. The novice was captivated by the Novice Master,
Fr. Andre Malet. He was well equipped to help the novice overcome his natural
tendencies to scrupulosity and discouragement. Instead of putting the emphasis
on Trappist asceticism and penance… he led Joseph to an emphasis on love…
thus bringing him to a spirit of peace rather than turbulence. He fought to give
himself in complete confidence in Jesus, rather than succumbing to paralyzing
anxiety… With the help of his director, Fr Andre, he sought to live as much as
possible within the Sacred Heart of Jesus, seeking to make Christ’s inner
attitudes his own.
His greatest challenge was the studies, as his pastor had originally
expected. It was during his time of studies that Joseph first showed ill health.
He suffered from migraine headaches and other difficulties… As he prepared
for the priesthood, he started to show the classic symptoms of tuberculosis. But
his firm conviction was that God’s will was that he not complain. He was
ordained a priest on October 12, 1902. By this time, everyone was aware that
Joseph’s ordination was a participation in the death of Jesus… But suffering was
an art that Cassant knew well because of his love of Jesus… In the early morning
of June 17, 1903, as Fr. Andre was celebrating Mass for his friend’s intentions,
Joseph went to the Lord.
We might ask: what does Joseph Cassant have to offer us today? First of
all, he instructs us. A man of little intellectual capacity and a very ordinary
experience of prayer, Cassant is nonetheless a theologian of the monastic life.
He saw, and makes us see, that the personal relation with Jesus is the heart of
Christian monasticism. He understood that the central monastic practices –
obedience, silence and humility – are Christological realities, expressions of
Christ’s Sonship and means of our conformity to Christ… Trappist vocation is a
lifelong process of healing. Joseph Cassant is a monk who was healed, and Fr
Malet by betting on and developing the essentially healthy aspect of Joseph was
the instrument of the cure. Finally, Cassant challenges us. The tools that he
brought to the monastery were few but indispensable: a good and upright will,
with a consistent practice of fidelity and generosity, an interior and exterior
obedience to the formation offered by his superiors. He staked his spiritual
destiny on the sanctifying power of the conversatio and was sanctified by it.

2 Cist. Studies Quarterly = vol. 39.1 2004 – pg 67.5

Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
2024-06-18
THE JOY OF THE ONE WHO LIVES FOR GOD ALONE
From the letters of Saint Rafael Arnaiz3
◊◊◊
God alone. How difficult it is to understand and live these words, but once
you do, even if just for a moment… there is nothing in the world that can trouble
your soul… A great peace fills the hearts of those who live for God alone, and only
those who desire God alone find peace…
He gives what the world and its creatures cannot. Our misery, forgetfulness,
and ingratitude are covered with His infinite Mercy. The consolation that people
so often deny us when we are in pain can be found in His cross, alone with Him on
Calvary. The only Truth can be found in His Gospel, the words of eternal life. And
as if that weren’t enough, everything else can be found in His Mother Mary…
Blessed are those who mourn, Jesus said on earth, by the water’s edge, and
a crowd made up of the sick, the lame, the poor, and sinners followed Him. . . I
believe that after turning toward Jesus, their faces, once tear stained from all their
weeping, were transformed with joyful laughter, blessing their afflictions and
miseries, which united them to Jesus. And Jesus looked at them with the
tenderness that won over the world, and let Himself be loved by the poor, the
afflicted, the sick, and sinners. And Jesus healed them, and Jesus consoled them,
and Jesus forgave them…
What a great joy it is to realize you are beloved of God! To be counted among
His friends, to follow Him step by step in Jerusalem with your eyes fixed on His
divine countenance, blessing our own misery for having inspired Jesus to attract
our gaze, so that He might reach our hearts, heal us, forgive us… and love us
enough to die for us on a cross… That is true joy, the joy of the one who lives for
God alone, who trusts in God alone, who hopes in God alone. And it is not a raucous
joy; it is the serene joy of a soul who might still live on this earth, but expects
nothing from this world. It is the joy of one who lives for Christ and dreams of
Mary…
If the path proves difficult, or arduous, or long, it won’t matter, Jesus goes
before us… We’ll press on, day or night, drunk with joy, utterly mad with it, not
listening to the world… “God alone…” our heart will bellow… And that is how we
shall keep our silence as we walk around in this world… Oh, we can indeed weep
and suffer, but not because of our own crosses and sorrows, which are very small
indeed, but rather… over how ungrateful we are toward Jesus, and how often we
forget Mary… Mary. It wasn’t enough for God to give us His Son on a cross; He
gave us Mary, too. How is it possible, brother, that we aren’t better than this?…
Neither the body, our soul’s prison, nor the world with all its creatures can
damage the soul that hopes in God, no matter how harshly they chafe against it.
We can conquer and disregard the body, and instead of fearing contact with
creatures, love them, even searching them out in order to teach them the science
that Christ taught us… love…
Let nothing trouble you, for He gives so much to the souls of His friends,
only to have us shrug off the treasure that is Christ’s gentle yoke at every vain
disturbance that life provides… God alone. Let us not grow tired of repeating it. If
we were to take the intensity of the effort we put into earthly matters and put it
into love for God instead… things would be different… With silence, prayer, and a
whole lot of inner madness, we can wait well for what is to come… and it will all
come.

3 Saint Rafael Arnaiz. The Collected Works. Trans. Catherine Addington. Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications,

Vigils Reading
2024-06-19
THE LIFE OF ST ROMUALD
By St Peter Damian4
◊◊◊
Romuald lived near the city of Parenzo for three years. In the first year he
built a monastery and appointed an abbot with monks. For the next two years
he remained there in seclusion. In that setting, divine holiness transported him
to such a summit of perfection that, breathed upon by the Holy Spirit, he
foresaw many future events and comprehended with the rays of his intelligence
hidden mysteries of the Old and New Testaments.
Frequently he was seized by so great a contemplation of divinity that he
would be reduced to tears with the boiling, indescribable heat of divine love. In
this condition he would cry out: Beloved Jesus, beloved, sweet honey,
indescribable longing, delight of the saints, sweetness of the angels, and other
things of this kind. We are unable to express the ecstasy of these utterances,
dictated by the Holy Spirit.
Wherever the holy man might arrange to live, he would follow the same
pattern. First he would build an oratory with an altar in a cell; then he would
shut himself in and forbid access.
Finally, after he had lived in many places, perceiving that his end was
near, he returned to the monastery he had built in the valley of Castro. While he
awaited with certainty his approaching death, he ordered a cell to be
constructed there with an oratory in which he might isolate himself and
preserve silence until death.
Accordingly his hermitage was built, since he had made up his mind that
he would die there. His body began to grow more and more oppressed by
afflictions and was already failing, not so much from weakness as from the
exhaustion of great age. One day he began to feel the loss of his physical strength
under all the harassment of increasingly violent afflictions. As the sun was
beginning to set, he instructed two monks who were standing by to go out and
close the door of the cell behind them; they were to come back to him at
daybreak to celebrate Matins. They were so concerned about his end that they
went out reluctantly and did not rest immediately. On the contrary, since they
were worried that their master might die, they lay hidden near the cell and
watched this precious treasure. For some time they continued to listen
attentively until they heard neither movement nor sound. Rightly guessing what
had happened, they pushed open the door, rushed in quickly, lit a candle and
found the holy man lying on his back, his blessed soul snatched up into heaven.
As he lay there, he seemed like a neglected heavenly pearl that was soon to be
given a place of honor in the treasure of the King of kings.
4 The Liturgy of the Hours – vol III – Catholic Book Publishing Co – New York – 1975 – pg 1472.9

Vigils Reading
2024-06-20
THE CHRISTIAN SAINT
From “The Faith and Modern Man” by Fr Romano Guardini5
◊◊◊
We associate the word saints with the idea of exceptional persons. In the
New Testament, however, it signifies Christians generally. Being a Christian at
all was extraordinary. For the Christians stood out sharply from the
environment; either one lived in the Old Testament world, or in the Hellenistic-
pagan world, and by both they were regarded as something strange if not
hostile. The experience of conversion lifted them out of the environment. A
sense of the reality of God not learned from natural religious experience or from
the teaching of the Old Testament had shaken and, at the same time, blessed
them. In the existence of Christ, God’s countenance had been unveiled. The life
of Christ had made them aware of how God is toward us. These experiences had
changed their whole lives. They had acquired new ideas of God, new standards
of judging the world.
The “renewal of mind” of which the Gospel speaks and which they had
begun to fulfill, now consisted not only in a conversion to a good and pious life,
but in a change of direction in their whole way of thinking. Thus for them “all
things had become new” — and with all these “new things” they found
themselves still in an old world, a world which regarded them with distrust and
hostility. All this is, in itself, extraordinary — indeed the very essence of the
extraordinary, and the “saint” was one who led this existence.
But the spread of Christianity and its increase in members tended to
obscure its unique nature. Time went on, the Gospel grew familiar, and the
sense of newness wore off. Christianity became the state religion and, as such,
the official order of society. Thus the fact that being a Christian at all was in
itself extraordinary faded out of people’s consciousness, and Christianity grew
to be regarded as normal and usual.
By contrast, a new form of the unusual arose. Now it belonged to the idea
of a special calling, a divine favor and testing, with a wearisome, dangerous way
of life granted only to the few. Such tendencies had appeared in Christian
antiquity as in the reverence for those who had given their lives for the Master
—the martyrs — or for those who had retired into solitude to live a life of
extraordinary austerity — the hermits and ascetics. But this concept of
saintliness developed particularly in the Middle Ages, great human and
religious forces expressing themselves in extraordinary intensification of
Christian daring and achievement. Then arose also the ideas of missionaries of
the Faith… masters of sacred science, mystical writers. In modern times
something else came in — the Renaissance feeling for the exceptional in human
life which affected the concept of the saint. With the ideas of Christian election
and testing now blended that of the great man, the pioneer, the man of genius
and the hero.
But the original concept of the saint was of a purely religious, of a purely
spiritual character. The concept of perfection, to be sure, includes religious
perfection — all that is signified by redemption, grace, providence, God’s inward
working. Nevertheless…if anyone had asked Paul what constituted the holiness
of the saint, he would probably have replied that it came into the world at
Pentecost. The Holy Ghost is holy, and so also is the man whom the Spirit seizes.
The God Who reveals Himself in Christ is holy, and so also is the man whom the
Spirit brings into the kingdom of God. The saints, then, were those in whom the
mystery of God held sway, in whom His providence was working to bring about
God’s kingdom, that is to say, those who have believed and have been baptized.

5 The Faith and Modern Man, New York 1952, 128-133.11

Vigils Reading - St Aloysius Gonzaga
2024-06-21
FROM A LETTER TO HIS MOTHER
by St Aloysius Gonzaga6
◊◊◊
Your letter found me lingering still in this region of the dead, but now I
must rouse myself to make my way to heaven at last and to praise God for ever
in the land of the living; indeed I had hoped that before this time my journey
there would have been over. If charity, as St. Paul says, means to weep with
those who weep and rejoice with those who are glad, then, dearest mother, you
shall rejoice exceedingly that God in His grace and His love for you is showing
me the path to true happiness, and assuring me that I shall never lose Him.
The divine goodness…is a fathomless and shoreless ocean, and I confess
that when I plunge my mind into thought of this it is carried away by the
immensity and feels quite lost and bewildered there. In return for my short and
feeble labors, God is calling me to eternal rest; His voice from heaven invites me
to the infinite bliss I have sought so languidly, and promises me this reward for
the tears I have so seldom shed.
Take care above all things…not to insult God’s boundless loving kindness;
you should certainly do this if you mourned as dead one living face to face with
God, one whose prayers can bring you in your troubles more powerful aid than
they ever could on earth. And our parting will not be for long; we shall see each
other again in heaven; we shall be united with our Savior; there we shall praise
him with heart and soul, sing his mercies forever, and enjoy eternal happiness.
When He takes away what He has once lent us, His purpose is to store our
treasure elsewhere more safely and bestow on us those very blessings that we
ourselves would most choose to have.
I write all this with the one desire that you and all <the> family may
consider my departure a joy and favor and that you especially may speed with a
mother’s blessing my passage across the waters till I reach the shore to which
all blessings belong. I write the more willingly because I have no clearer way of
expressing the love and respect I owe you as your son.

6 The Liturgy of the Hours – vol. III – Catholic Book Publishing Co – New York – 1975 – pg 1475.13

Vigils Reading - Memorial of BVM
2024-06-22
THE NATURE OF MARY’S MATERNITY
From “The Divine Motherhood” by Anscar Vonier7
◊◊◊
Let us always bear in mind the great truth that the Blessed Virgin’s
maternity was a most natural maternity in the sense that she fully responded to
it, was not overwhelmed by it, that there was no separation between her and her
offspring; Christ came from her as her own dear child, the fruit of her own
blessed womb. I am right, therefore, in asserting that Mary’s maternal function
in the conception of Christ was raised to an incredibly high plane of vitality so
as to make her maternity not only an instrumental, but a natural maternity. If
Mary’s mission had been merely to minister the human element to the Word
when he became flesh, her maternity would have been just instrumental; it
would have existed only to serve a higher purpose. But Mary’s role is more than
that; she is permanently the Mother of God; her maternity is not a transient
ministration, but an abiding dignity that makes her share with God the Father,
in literal truth, the parenthood of Jesus Christ.
A threefold hypothesis may make this point clearer still. We can think of
a woman being made a mother by the direct productive act of God; in that case
the offspring of that mother would not be divine, but human. Then there can be
the conception in a woman’s womb of a divine person, as happened in the
incarnation, but the woman being merely instrumental to the production of the
body; in such a case it would be divine maternity in the most restricted
physiological sense. Thirdly, there is the glorious possibility of perfect divine
maternity with all the graces and privileges, with all the rights and splendors, of
one who shares to the full, with God the Father, the parenthood of the God
Incarnate.
Such is Mary’s maternity; such is the meaning of Elizabeth’s salutation,
or rather the salutation of the Holy Spirit through the mouth of Elizabeth, when
full of the divine Spirit she cried with a loud voice: Blessed are you among
women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And whence is this to me, that
the Mother of my Lord should come to me? Elizabeth was the first creature to
call Mary “the Mother of God”; she gave us the grandest title of our Lady:
“Mother of God.” The archangel, indeed, had said as much, but only by
implication; Elizabeth, the happiest of human mothers, has the privilege of
having spoken for the first time the words “Mother of God.”
When, moreover, in the same breath she calls blessed the Mother and the
fruit of her womb, bestowing the same encomium on the two lives which were
not yet disjoined, she gives us an additional reason for saying that Mary’s
maternity had been raised to the divine plane of dignity and perfection, where
one and the same blessedness holds mother and offspring wrapped in a
matchless sanctity.

7 pp. 345-346; reprinted in Meditations on the Sunday Gospels: Year A; introduced and edited by John E. Rotelle, Hyde
Park, NY: New City Press, 1995, pp. 28-29.15

Skema
2024-06-23
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
12th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
June 23 – 29, 2024

Sun
23
Mon
24
Tue
25
Wed
26
Thu
27
Fri
28
Sat
29

Office
12th Sunday
Nativity of St John the Baptist
Weekday
Office for the Dead
Weekday
St Ireneaus
SS Peter & Paul

Vigils
Judg 16:23-31
Jerm 1:4-19
Judg 17:1-13
Judg 18:1-11
Judg 18:13-31
Judg 19:1-21
Gal 1:11-2:10

Lauds
Amos 7:10-17
Malachi 3:19-24
Amos 8:1-8
Amos 8:9-14
Amos 9:1-6
Amos 9:7-10
Isa 49:1-6

Mass
95
587
372
373
374
375
591

1st
Job 38:1, 8-11
Isa 49:1-6
2 Kgs 19:9b-11, 14-21, 31-35a, 36
2 Kgs 22:8-13; 23:1-3
2 Kgs 24:8-17
2 Kgs 25:1-12
Acts 12:1-11

2nd
2 Cor 5:14-17
Acts 13:22-26

2 Tim 4:6-8, 17-18

Gospel
Mark 4:35-41
Luke 1:57-66, 80
Matt 7:6, 12-14
Matt 7:15-20
Matt 7:21-29
Matt 8:1-4
Matt 16:13-19

Vespers
1 Jn 4:1-6
Acts 13:15-26
1 Thess 3:6-13
1 Thess 4:1-12
1 Thess 4:13-18
1 Peter 4:12-19
Acts 3:1-10

Vigils Reading - 12th Sunday
2024-06-23
OBEY THE GOD WHO MADE YOU
From a commentary by St Augustine1
◊◊◊
The Lord’s power is by no means dead, nor is it asleep. Do you think the
Almighty was overcome by sleep in the boat against his will? If you do, then
Christ is asleep in your hearts. If he were indeed keeping watch within you, then
your faith too would be vigilant. The Apostle, remember, speaks of Christ
dwelling in your hearts through faith.
This sleep of Christ has a symbolic meaning. The boat’s crew are human
souls sailing across the sea of this world in a wooden vessel. That vessel, of
course, also represents the Church; but as each one of us is a temple of God,
each one’s heart is a sailing boat, nor can it be wrecked so long as we fill our
minds only with what is good.
When you have to listen to abuse, that means that you are being buffeted
by the wind; when your anger is roused, you are being tossed by the waves. So
when the winds blow and the waves mount high, the boat is in danger, your
heart is imperiled, your heart is taking a battering. On hearing yourself insulted,
you long to retaliate; but the joy of revenge brings with it another kind of
misfortune – shipwreck. Why is this? Because Christ is asleep in you. What do
I mean? I mean you have forgotten his presence. Rouse him, then; remember
him, let him keep watch within you, pay heed to him.
Now what is your desire? You wanted to get your own back. You have
forgotten that when Christ was being crucified he said: Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do. Christ, the sleeper in your heart, had no desire
for vengeance in his. Rouse him, then, call him to mind. (To remember him is
to recall his words… his commands.) Then, when he is awake within you, you
will ask yourself, “Whatever kind of wretch am I to be thirsting for revenge?
Who am I to threaten another? Suppose I were to die before I were avenged!
Suppose I were to take leave of my body breathing out threats, inflamed with
rage and thirsting for that vengeance which Christ himself never sought; would
he not refuse to receive me? He who said, Give and it shall be given you; forgive
and you will be forgiven, would indeed decline to acknowledge me. So I will
curb my anger and restore peace to my heart.
Now all is calm again. Christ has rebuked the sea. What I have said about
anger must be your rule of conduct in every temptation. A temptation arises: it
is the wind. It disturbs you: it is the surging of the sea. This is the moment to
awaken Christ and let him remind you of these words: Who can this be? Even
the winds and the sea obey him. Who is this whom the sea obeys? It is he to
whom the sea belongs, for he made it; all things were made through him.
Try, then, to be more like the wind and the sea; obey the God who made
you. The sea obeys Christ’s command, and are you going to turn a deaf ear to it?
The sea obeys him, the wind is still; will you persist with your blustering?
Words, actions, schemes, what are all these but a constant huffing and puffing,
a refusal to be still at Christ’s command?
When your heart is in this troubled state, do not let the waves overwhelm
you. If, since we are only human, the driving wind should stir up in us a tumult
of emotions, let us not despair but awaken Christ, so that we may sail in quiet
waters, and at last reach our heavenly homeland.

1 Journey with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – 1993 – pg 92.3

Vigils Reading - Nativity of St John the Baptist
2024-06-24
THE NATIVITY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
From a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux2
◊◊◊
Let us rejoice, dearly beloved, on the Nativity of blessed John [the
Baptist], on the solemnity of whose birth is celebrated today, and let us rejoice
in that very nativity. Our reason for remembering [John] is certainly rich, and
the source of [our] rejoicing sundry. Listen, brothers, to what is said about
John: “He was a burning and shining lamp,” [Scripture] says. A great testimony,
my brothers: great is the one to whom it is given, but greater is the one who
gives [it]. “He was a burning and shining lamp.” Only to shine is nothing; only
to burn is not enough. To burn and shine is complete… He burned for himself;
he was shining for us. Let us rejoice in his fervor for the purpose of imitation;
let us also rejoice in [his] light—yet not remaining there, but that in his light we
may see light, the true light, which is not [John] himself, but the One to whom
he bears witness.
It is especially said to the apostles and to apostolic men: “Let your light
shine before people.” [This is said to them] as to people who have been kindled,
and mightily kindled, who are not to fear any situation whatever, or the winds’
force. It was said even to John, [while] they but hear it in the ear, John, like an
angel, is instructed in the Spirit. Assuredly, he [was] as close to God as the voice
is near the Word. No other voice, which would sound outwardly as an
intermediary, was needed for him to be taught.
Inspiration, not preaching, taught John, whom the Spirit filled in his
mother’s womb. Truly burning and mightily kindled [was] he whom the
celestial flame so possessed that he perceived Christ’s coming when he could
not yet perceive even himself. That new fire, recently fallen from heaven, surely
penetrated the Virgin’s ear through Gabriel’s mouth, and through the Virgin’s
mouth and his mother [Elizabeth’s] ear [that fire] entered into the little child,
so that from that moment the Holy Spirit filled his chosen vessel, and prepared
a lamp for Christ the Lord. Then he was already a burning lamp, but [he was]
still for a time under a bushel, until he could be placed on a lampstand and shine
for all who were in the Lord’s house. At that time, he was able to illuminate only
his own bushel, and to shine for a while to his mother alone, revealing the great
mystery of holiness to her by the motion of [his] singular joy!
“Why,” [Elizabeth] says, “does the mother of my Lord come to me?” Who
made the Lord’s mother known to you, holy woman? [So Mary asks Elizabeth,]
“How do you know me?” “When the voice of your greeting,” [Elizabeth] says,
“came to my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.”
Already then he illumined the bushel under which he lay hidden, but the
burning lamp under the bushel did not leave hidden the One whom it would
soon afterwards make known to the whole world with unheard of brightness.

2 From Sermons for the Summer Season: Liturgical Sermons from Rogationtide and Pentecost; translated, with an
Introduction, by Beverly Mayne Kienzle; additional translations by James Jarzembowski (CF 53); Kalamazoo, MI:
Cistercian Publications, 1991, pp. 88-96.5

Vigils Reading
2024-06-25
THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS
From a sermon by St John Henry Newman3
◊◊◊
I have not yet mentioned the peculiar benefit to be derived from the
observance of Saints’ days: which obviously lies in their setting before the mind
patterns of excellence for us to follow. In directing us to these, the Church does
but fulfil the design of Scripture. Consider how great a part of the Bible is
historical; and how much of the history is merely the lives of those who were
God’s instruments in their respective ages. Some of them are no patterns for us,
others show marks of the corruption under which human nature universally
lies. Yet the chief of them are specimens of special faith and sanctity, and are
set before us with the evident intention of exciting and guiding us in our
religious course…
First of all, and in his own incommunicable glory, Our Blessed Lord
Himself gives us an example, but His faithful servants lead us on towards Him,
and confirm and diversify His pattern. Now it has been the aim of our Church
in her Saints’ days to maintain the principle, and set a pattern, of this peculiarly
Scriptural teaching.
Christ’s Church is indestructible; and lasting on through all the
vicissitudes of this world, she must rise again and flourish, when the poor
creatures of a day who opposed her, have crumbled into dust. In the meantime
let us not forget our duty; which is, after the example of the Saints, to take up
our cross meekly, and pray for our enemies.
Every year brings wonders. We know not any year, what wonders shall
have happened before the circle of Festivals has run out again, from St.
Andrew’s to All Saints’. Our duty then is, to wait for the Lord’s coming, to
prepare His way before Him, to pray that when he comes, we may be found
watching… Let us not forget, that, as we are called to be Saints, so we are, by
that very calling, called to suffer; and, if we suffer, must not think it strange
concerning the fiery trial that is to try us, nor be puffed up by our privilege of
suffering, nor bring suffering needlessly upon us, nor be eager to make out we
have suffered for Christ, when we have but suffered for our faults, or not at all.
May God give us grace to act upon these rules, as well as to adopt and admire
them; and to say nothing for saying’s sake, but to do much and say little!

3 Parochial & Plain Sermons, Ignatius Press: San Francisco 1987. pp.476-478.7

Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
2024-06-26
DEATH AND OUR LIVES AS CHRISTIANS
By Cardinal Jean Daniélou4
◊◊◊
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE is altogether an act of waiting. Christians know
that they are made for greater things. They feel acutely the misery of their
present condition. They aspire to be relieved of the weight of animal life and its
servitude. “I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ” (Phil 1:23). While the
carnal in us grasps desperately at pleasures and possessions, the Christian lives
already in the order of being, detached, free, making use of time, so long as it is
given, to perform works of charity towards all – an activity invisible to the eyes
of the world. The Christian life is a hidden life. But when the world is folded up
like a tent, the reality that has been hidden until that moment will be clearly
revealed. It is to prepare oneself for this solemn act, which is the entry of every
person into the heavenly Temple, through the veil that still conceals it, that
one’s whole life must be devoted.
That life consists for the Christian in being endowed little by little with
divine manners… We must not be without a country on our arrival in heaven.
Our life is an apprenticeship. It is a matter of learning the rudiments of what we
shall have one day to do. So let us already try in prayer to stammer what will
later be the ‘conversation in heaven’ with God and his angels; so we must try to
make less crude this intellect of ours, which is so immersed in the world of time
and space, and to acclimatize it gradually to heavenly things through the action
of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Thus charity itself is the clumsy beginning of that
complete communion which will embrace all the saints. So doing, we begin to
do what we have always to do. It is our real life which is being mapped out. Let
us begin it.
4 The Presence of God, Baltimore 1959, pp.55-57.

Vigils Reading
2024-06-27
THE UNITY OF SPIRIT AND MATTER
By Karl Rahner5
◊◊◊
The history of the angels and the history of the world are at least
interlaced in many respects. The common goal of both is the eternal kingdom
of God… In the Christian teaching the angels, whether they are to be thought of
as good or bad, certainly exercise functions in this world… The angels can be
understood quite correctly, even according to scripture, as cosmic powers of the
order of nature and of its history. Christian theology has always seen the object
of the personal decision of personal spiritual powers, called angels, to live in
Christ and in his salvific function for the history of humankind and hence of the
material world.
If one looks at these data, it will be quite legitimate to be of the opinion
that, first of all, the doctrine of the angels understood as ‘pure spirits’, no matter
how materially correct, unjustifiably lends too much support to a platonic and
non-Christian removal of the created spirit from this world. Furthermore, it
will have to be said that the angels, in spite of their differences from human
beings, can be conceived in such a way that, in their own way and of their own
most proper and original nature, they are powers of the one and hence also
material world to whose material nature they are genuinely and essentially
related. It may rightly be said, at any rate, that the Christian teaching about the
angels does not basically bar the way to a decided and consequential conception
of the unity of spirit and matter in their common history.
Since ultimately we really know very little that is certain about the angels
and demons, we have the perfect right after what has been said to look at the
unity of spirit and matter as we experience it directly in the history of
humankind and also as interpreted in a way compatible with revelation, and to
look at this unity as paradigmatic in principle for the unity of spirit and matter
in the created sphere as such. The highest grade of all productive becoming is
the human spirit and matter tends towards it as towards its final principle of
nature and form, for a human being is the goal of all generative becoming.
Matter and spirit have a unity in their starting point, in their history and in their
goal. Both of them remain eternally valid before God and form for ever, now
and in the state of perfection, the mutually correlative, non-separable
constitutive elements of the one created reality.

5 Theological Investigations VI, On Angels. Karl Rahner, Seabury Press, 1974, pp. 159-160.10

Vigils Reading - St Irenaeus
2024-06-28
WHERE THE CHURCH IS,
THERE IS THE SPIRIT OF GOD
From the writing of St Irenaeus6
◊◊◊
It is within reach of all who want to see the truth to discern the tradition
of the apostles which has been manifested in the whole world. All we have to do
is to list those who are appointed bishops in the churches by the apostles and
their successors up to our own time who neither taught nor recognized anything
like that which the heretics rave about. For even if the apostles would have
known “secret mysteries” which they used to teach the “perfect” separately and
secretly apart from the others, they would especially have passed these things
down to those to whom they also were entrusting the churches themselves. For
they wanted those whom they left as successors to be quite perfect and beyond
reproach in all things, handing over to them their own place as teachers. To
those who do what is right this would have great usefulness, but to those who
fall away it would be great disaster…
The preaching of the church is consistent everywhere and persists equally
and has behind it the testimony of the prophets and the apostles and all the
disciples through the beginning, middle, and end and through the whole saving
plan of God and that solid system which is in our faith which lends itself to
human salvation. We keep what we have received from the church and what is
always from the Spirit of God like some precious deposit growing in a good vase
which also makes the vase it is in to grow. For this gift of God has been entrusted
to the church, like the breath of creation, so that all the members receiving it
may be made alive. And in it has been deposited the means of communicating
with Christ, that is, the Holy Spirit, the…confirmation of our faith and ladder of
ascent to God. “For in the Church,” [Scripture] says, “God has appointed
apostles, prophets, teachers”, and all the other working of the Spirit. All who do
not gather with the church but defraud themselves of life through evil thought
and worse deed do not participate in the Spirit. For where the church is, there
is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the church and every
gift; and the Spirit is truth. Accordingly, those who do not participate in the
Spirit are not nourished unto life by the mother’s breasts nor do they receive
that brilliant fountain which flows from the Body of Christ. Rather, they dig for
themselves broken cisterns in dirty ditches and they drink putrid water from
the dirt, fleeing the faith of the church, lest they be convicted, rejecting the Spirit
that they may not be instructed.

6 UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHURCH, Edited by Glenn Hinson (Fortress Press, Phila. PA,
1986) pp. 40-42.12

Vigils Reading - SS Peter & Paul
2024-06-29
THE CHURCH BUILD UPON
THE APOSTLES PETER AND PAUL
From a sermon by St Maximus the Confessor7
◊◊◊
Since all the most blessed apostles obtain a like reward of sanctity with
the Lord, I do not know by what consideration Peter and Paul, nevertheless,
appear to excel in a certain virtue of faith; which fact, in truth, we can prove
from the judgment of the Lord Himself. For to Peter, as to a good steward, He
gave the key to the heavenly Kingdom; on Paul, as an apt teacher, He enjoins
the teaching office of the Church, so that those whom the latter instructs unto
salvation, the former receives into their reward, and to the souls of those whose
hearts Paul enlightens by the word of teaching, Peter opens the realm of heaven.
In a way Paul, too, received the key of knowledge from Christ. For that must be
called a key by which the hard hearts of sinners are unbolted to belief, the
secrets of minds are revealed, and whatever is kept enclosed within is brought
forth plainly by a reasonable manifestation. That is a key, I say, which, on the
one hand, opens the conscience to the confession of its sin, and, on the other,
makes fast unto eternity the grace of the saving mystery.
Consequently, both men received keys from their Lord: the latter (Paul)
the key of knowledge, the former (Peter) the key of power; the former bestows
the riches of an immortal life; the latter grants the treasures of knowledge. For
there are treasures of knowledge, as it is written: “In whom are hidden all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Hence, the blessed Peter and Paul stand
out above all the apostles and supersede them by a certain, peculiar prerogative.
But between these two it is uncertain who is to be placed first. I think they are
equal in merits, for they were equal in their suffering…
Accordingly, I believe, the day was decreed for their merit; the place, for
their glory; the persecutor, for their virtue. Yet where did they finally suffer
martyrdom? In the city of Rome which stands as the prince and head of nations,
so that there, where the source of superstition was, the source of sanctity should
repose; and where the rulers of the nations were dwelling, there the princes of
the Church should stay. Of what merit the Blessed Peter and Paul might be, we
can comprehend from this, that while our Lord glorified the region of the Orient
by His own Passion, He deigned to make bright the land of the Occident (lest it
should be of lesser account) in its turn by the blood of the Apostles, and, while
His own Passion served us for salvation, He held forth their martyrdom as an
example.

7 LITURGICAL READINGS, Compiled at St Meinrad’s Abbey (St Meinrad, IN 1943) pp. 400-
401.14

Skema
2024-06-30
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
13th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (B), Weekdays (II)
June 30 – July6, 2024

Sun
30
Mon
1
Tue
2
Wed
3
Thu
4
Fri
5
Sat
6

Office
13th Sunday
Weekday
Weekday
St Thomas
Weekday
Weekday
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Judg 19:20-30
Judg 20:1-19
Judg 20:20-48
Job 23:1-12
Judg 21:1-25
Ruth 1:1-22
Ruth 2:1-23

Lauds
Amos 9:11-15
Obad 1-7
Obad 8-14
Isa 43:8-13
Obad 15-18
Mic 1:1-9
Mic 2:1-5

Mass
98
377
378
593
380
381
382

1st
Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24
Amos 2:6-10, 13-16
Amos 3:1-8; 4:11-12
Eph 2:19-22
Amos 7:10-17
Amos 8:4-6, 9-12
Amos 9:11-15

2nd
2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15

Gospel
Mark 5:21-43
Matt 8:18-22
Matt 8:23-27
John 20:24-29
Matt 9:1-8
Matt 9:9-13
Matt 9:14-17

Vespers
1 Thess 5:1-11
1 Thess 5:12-28
2 Thess 1:1-7, 11-12
1 Pet 1:3-9
2 Thess 2:1-10
2 Thess 2:11-17
2 Thess 3:1-10

Vigils Reading - 13th Sunday
2024-06-30
THE DEAD WILL RISE
From a commentary by St Peter Chrysologus1
◊◊◊
Every gospel reading, beloved, is most helpful for our present life and for
the attainment of the life to come. Today’s reading, however, sums up the whole
of our hope, banishing all grounds for despair.
Let us consider the synagogue official who took Christ to his daughter and
in so doing gave the woman with a hemorrhage an opportunity to approach him.
Here is the beginning of today’s reading: An official came to Jesus and did
homage, saying: Lord, my little daughter has just died, but come and lay your
hands on her and she will live.
Christ could foresee the future and he knew that this woman would
approach him. Through her the Jewish official was to learn that there is no need
to move God to another place, take him on a journey, or attract him by a physical
presence. One must only believe that he is present in the whole of his being
always and everywhere, and that he can do all things effortlessly by a single
command; that far from depriving us of strength, he gives it; that he puts death
to flight by a word of command rather than by physical touch, and gives life by
his mere bidding, without need of any art.
My daughter has just died. Do come. What he means is that the warmth
of life still remains, there are still indications that her soul has not departed, her
spirit is still in this world, the head of the house still has a daughter, the
underworld is still unaware of her death. Come quickly and hold back the
departing soul!
In his ignorance the man assumed that Christ would not be able to raise
his daughter unless he actually laid his hand on her. So when Christ reached the
house and saw the mourners lamenting as though the girl were dead, he
declared that she was not dead but sleeping. In order to move their unbelieving
minds to faith and convince them that one can rise from death more easily than
from sleep. The girl is not dead, he told them, but asleep.
And indeed for God death is nothing but sleep. He can restore life-giving
warmth to limbs grown cold in death sooner than we can impart vigor to bodies
sunk in slumber. Listen to the apostle: In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye,
the dead will rise. He used an image because it is impossible to express the
speed of the resurrection in words. How could he explain its swiftness verbally
when divine power outstrips the very notion of swiftness? How could time enter
the picture when an eternal gift is given outside of time? Time implies duration,
but eternity excludes time.
1 Journey with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – 1993 – pg 94.3

Vigils Reading
2024-07-01
THE DEEPEST NEED OF ALL
From “The Eternal Promise” by Thomas Kelly2
◊◊◊
Is God your passion? Do you long for Him and rejoice in Him and find
life meaningful only to the degree you are in His Presence and He is in your life?
Do you keep close to the Divine Center, the Inner principle counting all else as
loss? For a depth of commitment such as mild men do not know, I speak in
order that you may hear Him speak in you the same message. Out of such lives
will the world be reborn, will the church be reborn… There will you find rest for
your souls, and power, and peace, and joy unspeakable and full of Glory. Hasten
unto God.
I have spoken with deep feeling, for I am convinced this is the deepest
need of all. We…have become earthy. We are more at home with humans than
we are with God. We have men of burning social passion, but not so many that
burn for God, who long for God, who go down deep into the Waters of His life,
who call to us, “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” Social reformers we have
now, men who are great in their contribution to social thinking… But this epoch
of history is weak in great prophets of the inner life, great voices who cry in the
wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord within your hearts.”…
Strip monasticism; strip it of its retreat behind walls from much human
need… and there is left, in Bernard of Clairvaux and Francis of Assisi, a God-
hunger, and completeness of renunciation of all else in the world in comparison
with the life that is hid with Christ in God. Such a passion for God as leads
men…to leave father and mother and all the world…until deep relations with
God have been found… Such men and women, not with social techniques, but
with God-motivations born out of deep immersion in the ocean of the Love of
God… Down at the base of life, for all such people, would be a fellowship in a
common Life which is the Light within every man who is kindled and enflamed
by God.
Do not misunderstand me. There is a practice of the presence of God
which is done on the run, in the busiest of days… Little prayers and
communion; ejaculation of surrender and joy and exaltation… And most of our
lives can be lived this way, as divine conversation of our soul with God, going
on behind the scenes all the time. But then come crucial periods in life when the
quest for God grows hot, when the hot breath of the Hound of Heaven is at our
heels, when the heart cries out, “Give me the Presence or I die.” And these are
the times when we get beneath the conventional mildness of average religiosity,
and find Him more fully, who is dearer than life itself. From these men and
women will come the profound return to religion…the love of God and neighbor,
which is so desperately needed.

2 Kelly, Thomas. The Eternal Promise. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1966. 116-118.5
