Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Vigils Reading
2025-05-22
LOVE ONE ANOTHER
From a homily by St Gregory the Great
◊◊◊
Since all of our Lord’s sacred utterances contain commandments, why
does he say about love as if it were a special commandment: This is my
commandment, that you love one another? It is because every commandment
is about love, and they all add up to one commandment because whatever is
commanded is founded on love alone. As a tree’s many branches come from one
root, so do many virtues come forth from love alone. The branch which is our
good works has no sap unless it remains attached to the root of love. Our Lord’s
commandments are then both many and one: many through the variety of the
works, one in their root which is love. He himself instructs us to love our friends
in him, and our enemies for his sake. That person truly possesses love who loves
his friend in God and his enemy for God’s sake.
There are some people who love their neighbors, drawn by blood
relationship or by natural affection, and Scripture does not oppose this kind of
love. But what we give freely and naturally is one thing, and the obedience we
owe to the Lord’s commandments out of love is another. Those I’ve mentioned
indisputably love their neighbors, yet they don’t attain love’s sublime rewards
since their love does not come from spiritual but from natural motives.
Therefore when the Lord said: This is my commandment, that you love one
another, he added immediately: Just as I have loved you, meaning, ‘You must
love for the same reason that I have loved you.’
Dearly beloved, we must consider this carefully. When our ancient enemy
draws our hearts to delight in temporal things, he is stirring up a weaker
neighbor against us. This neighbor may be plotting to take away the very things
we love. In doing this our ancient enemy is not concerned to do away with our
earthly possessions; he wants to destroy our lives. Suddenly we are set on fire
with hatred, and while we desire to be outwardly unconquerable, inwardly we
are gravely wounded. When we defend our small outer possession, we lose our
great inner one, since when we love something temporal we lose our true love.
Everyone who takes away our possessions is an enemy. But if we begin to hate
our enemy, our loss is of something internal. When then we suffer something
external from a neighbor, we must be on our guard against a hidden ravager
within. This one is never better overcome then when we love the one who
ravages us from without. The unique, the highest proof of love is this, to love the
person who is against us. This is why Truth himself bore the suffering of the
cross and yet bestowed his love on his persecutors, saying: Father, forgive them
for they know not what they do.
Why should we wonder that his living disciples loved their enemies, when
their dying master loved his. He expressed the depth of his love when he said:
No one has greater love than this, than that he lay down his life for his friends.
The Lord had come to die even for his enemies, and yet he said he would lay
down his life for his friends to show us that when we are able to win over our
enemies by loving them even our persecutors are our friends.
But no one is persecuting us to the point of death. How then can we prove
that we love our friends?… John the Baptist says: Let him who has two tunics
give to him who has none. Will a person, then, who will not give up his tunic for
the sake of God during quiet times give up his life during a persecution?
Cultivate the virtue of love in tranquil times by showing mercy, then, so that it
will be unconquerable in times of disorder. Learn first to give up your
possession for almighty God, and then yourself.

Vigils Reading
2025-05-23
MY ALL IN ALL
From a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny
◊◊◊
Now, my brethren, what witness to Christ’s love does the joy of your
hearts give you? I venture to judge, and rightly as you will see, that if you have
ever loved Jesus alive or dead or risen from the dead, your heart rejoices within
you. As the tidings of his resurrection resound and re-echo again and again
through the Church you will say to yourselves: “They have told me that Jesus
my God is still alive. On hearing it my spirit, which was asleep through
weariness, languishing through tepidity, disheartened through timidity, has
revived.” For the joyful voice of this happy message raises even from death
those buried deep in sin. Otherwise, if Christ, coming up from hell, left them
there in the depths, there would certainly be no hope for them; their fate would
be buried in forgetfulness. By this token you may clearly know that your soul
lives again fully in Christ if it echoes this sentiment: “It is enough for me that
Jesus is still alive.”
How faithful and worthy of a friend of Jesus is that voice, how pure that
act of love which says: “It is enough for me that Jesus is still alive. If he lives, I
live, for my spirit acts through his. Yes, he is my life, my all in all. For what
can I lack if Jesus is still alive? Rather everything else may be taken from me,
nothing else matters to me so long as he lives. If he wishes then, let him take no
account of me. It is enough for me that he still lives even if he only lives for
himself.” When the love of Christ so absorbs all our affections that, unmindful
and forgetful of ourselves, we have no feeling for anything but Jesus Christ and
what pertains to him, then, I say, love has been made perfect in us. To one who
so loves, poverty is no burden, no hurt is felt, insults are to be laughed at,
misfortune disdained, and death considered as gain. In fact one does not think
in terms of death knowing that death is a passage to life. And one can
confidently assert: “I will go and see him before I die.”
Although, my brethren, we have not been endowed with such a great
purity of conscience, let us, nevertheless, go to see Jesus journeying to the
mountain of heavenly Galilee, where he awaits us. On the way our love will
increase, and on our arrival, at least, it will be perfected. On the way, the road, at
first hard and difficult, will grow easier, and the strength of the weak will
increase. The flesh of Christ is our food for the journey, his Spirit our means of
conveyance. He himself is the food, he himself is the chariot and charioteer of
Israel. When you arrive, all the goods, not of Egypt but of heaven, will be yours.
There, in the best place in the kingdom, at the bidding of Christ you will take
your rest. “Come to me all you that labor and are burdened with hunger, and I
will refresh you. Come, you blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom
prepared for you.” May he who calls you lead you to where he lives and reigns
with the Father and the Holy Spirit, through endless ages.

Vigils Reading
2025-05-24
WE ARE ALL WITNESSES
By Fr Paul Evdokimov
◊◊◊
There are no half measures, no intermediary formulas. We are in the
presence of the fundamental evidence of Jesus risen from the dead. A God who
does not present his charter as lover of <humanity>, a God who is not love
crucified in order to radiate “life, death of death“, as St Augustine says, is not
really God. In following St Paul’s thought to its conclusion, we could say that all
religion exists only by the resurrection and mystically leans on this event. If
Christ is risen, this is of interest for all… If the Christian testimony to the risen
Lord is suppressed, no religion will survive on the level of the modern world, for
outside the Gospel every religious message stops halfway.
The Gospel’s transcendent end is God become a risen <human being>.
This fact does not concern just a few witnesses only; the risen Christ in
becoming the contemporary of all <humanity> means that every <one> is
contemporary with the eternal Christ. This makes all the events of history
essentially Christological. Christ is risen as head of the human body, and now all
religions and all <individuals> can and ought to seek their life in him. This
testimony alone determines the ecumenical mission of the Church in the midst
of all religions and in the great meeting between East and West. History places
the Christian faith in the risen Christ as the crossing point of all ideologies that
now reformulate the only important question – that asked by Pilate – “What is
truth?” It obliges faith to say its yes, going if need be as far as the confession of
martyrdom, that unique answer that resounds universally. Christ is in agony,
and eternity is impatient to hear this answer.
The apostolic kerygma announces the event of Easter, the intervention of
God raising up Jesus; this alone gives a definitive meaning to the existence of
<humankind> in history. The resurrection of Jesus is God’s “Amen” to his
promise, an “Amen” full of the Holy Spirit who manifests it. “Amen” comes from
the Hebrew heemin and it means an unshakable base of operations. Those who
proclaim it—the apostles and martyrs—claim the right to proclaim the event
before the magistrates of the earthly city.
Likewise the Apologies of Justin, Athenagoras, and Aristides present to
emperors the same decisive message and warn them of the imminent judgment.
Their kerygma is of interest to all <humanity>. It is preached in the presence of
angels and concerns all of creation: the kingdom of God has already arrived; we
are contemporaries of the one who sits at the right hand of the Father. Here is
the lamb immolated and risen and here is his kingdom. He is here and it is the
fullness of time.
All religions are ways by which <we> seek God. They are numerous.
However, the Christian revelation is unique for it is God who finds <humanity>.
The preaching of St Paul is of capital importance for the theology of religion. In
deciphering the monument to the unknown God and in giving it the name Jesus
Christ, the apostle integrated with Christ the religious aspiration of all times
and gave it value in Christ.

Skema
2025-05-25
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
6th Week of Easter

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
May 25 – 31, 2025

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

Office
6th Sunday of Easter
Easter Weekday
St Augustine of Canterbury
Easter Weekday
St Paul VI
Easter Weekday
Visitation of the BVM

Vigils
1 Jn 1:1-10
1 Jn 2:1-11
1 Jn 2:12-17
1 Jn 2:18-29
1 Jn 3:1-10
1 Jn 3:11-17
Gal 3:15-29

Lauds
1 Tim 4:11-16
1 Tim 6:11-16
2 Tim 1:1-8
2 Tim 1:9-14
2 Tim 2:1-7
2 Tim 2:8-13
Zech 2:10-17

Mass
57
291
292
293
294
295
572

1st
Acts 15:1-2, 22-29
Acts 16:11-15
Acts 16:22-34
Acts 17:15, 22-18:1
Acts 18:1-8
Acts 18:9-18
Zeph 3:14-18a

2nd
Rev 21:10-14, 22-23

Gospel
John 14:23-29
John 15:26-16:4a
John 16:5-11
John 16:12-15
John 16:16-20
John 16:20-23
Luke 1:39-56

Vespers
Acts 19:23-30
Acts 20:7-12
Acts 21:7-14
Acts 21:27-34
Acts 22:23-30
Acts 23:12-16
Col 3:1-11

Vigils Reading - 6th Sunday of Easter
2025-05-25
CHRIST LIVES IN OUR HEARTS
THROUGH FAITH
From a commentary by St Bernard of Clairvaux
◊◊◊
My Father and I will come to him – that is to say, to the holy of heart –
says the Son of God, and we will make our home with him. It seems to me that
when the psalmist said to God: you make your dwelling in the holy place, you
who are Israel’s praise, he had no other heaven in mind than the hearts of the
saints. The apostle expresses it quite clearly: Christ lives in our hearts through
faith, he tells us.
Surely it is no wonder that the Lord Jesus gladly makes his home in such a
heaven because, unlike the other heavens, he did not bring it into existence by a
mere word of command. He descended into the arena to win it; he laid down his
life to redeem it. And so after the battle was won he solemnly declared: this is
my resting place for ever and ever; here I have chosen to dwell. Blessed indeed
is the soul to whom the Lord says, Come, my chosen one, I will set up my throne
in you.
Why, then, are you sorrowful, my soul, and why are you troubled with
me? Are you trying to find a place for the Lord within yourself? Who among us
can provide a fitting place for the Lord of glory, a place worthy of his majesty! O
that I might be counted worthy to worship at his footstool, that I might at least
cling to the feet of some saintly soul whom the Lord has chosen to be his
dwelling place! However, the Lord has only to anoint my soul with the oil of his
mercy for me in my turn to be able to say: I have run the way of your
commandments because you have enlarged my heart. Then perhaps, even if I
cannot usher him into a large and richly furnished room in my heart where he
may refresh himself with his disciples, I shall at least be able to offer him a place
to lay his head.
It is necessary for a soul to grow and be enlarged until it is capable of
containing God within itself. But the dimensions of a soul are in proportion to
its love, as the apostle confirms when he urges the Corinthians to widen your
hearts in love. Although the soul, being spiritual, cannot be measured
physically, grace confers on it what nature does not bestow. It expands
spiritually as it makes progress toward human perfection, which is measured by
nothing less than the full stature of Christ, and so it grows into a temple sacred
to the Lord.
Love, then, is the measure of the soul. Souls are large that love much,
small that love little; while as to the soul that has no love at all, such a soul is
itself nothing. Without love, says St Paul, I am nothing.

Vigils Reading
2025-05-26
A COMMUNITY OF THE SPIRIT
By Fr Bede Griffiths
◊◊◊
The Church is the communion of those who are united by the love of the
Spirit in the knowledge of the Word of God, the Eternal Truth, and through him
return to the Father, the Source, the Origin and the Ground of all creation. But
the Church has also a beginning in time as a historical institution. When the
Holy Spirit descended on the disciples at Pentecost, the power of the Spirit
which had transformed the body and soul of Christ at the Resurrection was
communicated to his disciples. A new consciousness dawned, a consciousness
beyond the ordinary rational consciousness, which set the disciples free from
the limitations of our present mode of existence and consciousness and opened
to them the new world of the Resurrection.
The Church is the community of those who experienced this new birth ‘in
the Spirit’ and whose lives were transformed by the experience. The effect of this
was seen in the fact that they were ‘all of one heart and mind‘, and that they sold
all that they possessed and ‘had everything in common’. The new life in the
Spirit thus penetrated the economic and social order and brought a power to
transform human society, but it remained essentially beyond our present
human limitations. The Church was from the beginning a ‘charismatic‘
community, a community of the Spirit.
Yet it had also an elementary organization. Jesus left behind him twelve
‘apostles‘, whom he clearly intended to be the nucleus of the new Israel, a new
‘People of God’. There was also a ceremony of initiation into the new life and a
meal in common, in which the new life with Christ was shared. This was
apparently all that he left by way of organization. In the course of time other
ceremonies were added and ‘elders‘ and ‘overseers‘ were appointed in the
different Churches, but these seem to have been appointed as the need arose.
There was a reason for this. Jesus left his disciples with the expectation that he
would return again in their own lifetime and bring about the final ‘restoration
of all things‘. This is the perspective of the New Testament.
Jesus was not concerned with the ‘history‘ of the Church as an institution,
but with its transcendent Reality. Jesus himself enjoyed the new life of the
Resurrection, and his disciples were called to share this new life with him. The
historical development of the Church is secondary to this great reality of the
experience of the Spirit in the new life of the Resurrection. In this perspective
the time of the second coming is of little importance. As the second letter of
Peter was to say, when the time of his coming was questioned: ‘A thousand
years in his sight are but a day.’
It would seem that the Christian Churches have to recover this
perspective, which is that of the New Testament, if they are to recover their
meaning in the world today. The Church has its place in human history, but for
the Church, as for Christ himself, history is subordinate to the transcendent
reality of life in the Spirit.

Vigils Reading - St Augustine of Canterbury
2025-05-27
ST AUGUSTINE
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints
◊◊◊
When Pope St Gregory the Great decided that the time had come for the
evangelization of Anglo-Saxon England, he chose as missionaries some thirty or
more monks from his monastery of St Andrew… As their leader he gave them
their own prior, Augustine. The party set out from Rome in the year 596; but no
sooner had they arrived in Provence than they were assailed with warnings
about the ferocity of the Anglo-Saxons and the dangers of the Channel. Greatly
discouraged, they persuaded Augustine to return to Rome and obtain leave to
abandon the enterprise. St Gregory, however, had received definite assurance
that the English were well disposed towards the Christian faith; he therefore
sent Augustine back to his brethren with words of encouragement which gave
them heart to proceed on their way.
They landed in the Isle of Thanet in the territory of Ethelbert, king of
Kent, who was baptized at Pentecost 597. Almost immediately afterwards St
Augustine paid a visit to France, where he was consecrated bishop of the English
by St Virgilius, metropolitan of Arles. At Christmas of that same year, many of
Ethelbert’s subjects were baptized… Augustine sent two of his monks, Laurence
and Peter, to Rome to give a full report of his mission, to ask for more helpers
and obtain advice on various points. They came back bringing the pallium for
Augustine and accompanied by a fresh band of missionaries, amongst whom
were St Mellitus, St Justus and St Paulinus.
Gregory outlined for Augustine the course he should take to develop a
hierarchy for the whole country, and both to him and to Mellitus gave very
practical instructions on other points. Pagan temples were not to be destroyed,
but were to be purified and consecrated for Christian worship. Local customs
were as far as possible to be retained, days of dedication and feasts of martyrs
being substituted for heathen festivals. In Canterbury itself St Augustine rebuilt
an ancient church which, with an old wooden house, formed the nucleus for his
metropolitan basilica and for the later monastery of Christ Church. These
buildings stood on the site of the present cathedral begun by Lanfranc in 1070.
Outside the walls of Canterbury he made a monastic foundation, which he
dedicated in honour of St Peter and St Paul. After his death this abbey became
known as St Augustine’s, and was the burial place of the early archbishops.
Cut off from much communication with the outside world, the British
church clung to certain usages at variance with those of the Roman tradition.
St. Augustine invited the leading ecclesiastics to meet him at some place just on
the confines of Wessex, still known in Bede’s day as Augustine’s Oak. There he
urged them to comply with the practices of the rest of Western Christendom,
and more especially to co-operate with him in evangelizing the Anglo-Saxons.
Fidelity to their local traditions, however, made them unwilling. A second
conference proved a failure. Because St Augustine failed to rise when they
arrived, the British bishops decided that he was lacking in humility and would
neither listen to him nor acknowledge him as their metropolitan.
The saint’s last years were spent in spreading and consolidating the faith
throughout Ethelbert’s realm, and episcopal sees were established at London
and Rochester. About seven years after his arrival in England, St Augustine
passed to his reward, on May 26, 605.

Vigils Reading
2025-05-28
NO ONE CAN SERVE
TWO MASTERS
From a sermon by St Leo the Great
◊◊◊
During Lent our aim was to experience some share in the sufferings of the
cross and to enter into the mystery of the Lord’s passion by taking up our cross
and following him along the way of his humiliation and endurance. Now, during
Eastertide, the accent is on sharing his resurrection. Not for any merit of our
own, but through the blood of Christ and the free gift of God’s grace, we have
been healed and set free. What the Lord asks of us now is not to try to earn this
freedom, but to hold fast to what he has already given us and to guard it from the
devil’s envy.
In the Lord Jesus we have passed over from death to life, but while we are
still on earth his Passover must be continually renewed in us. We have to be
dead to Satan and alive to God; we have to abandon sin in order to rise to
holiness. Jesus himself said: “No one can serve two masters”. Our business is to
make sure that the master we serve is the Lord who has raised up the fallen to
glory, not the one who brought the upright to ruin….
It was his will to die for us, but death could not keep him. The body that
was laid in the tomb and the soul that descended to the world of the departed
were the body and soul of the Son of God. Through his own will they were
separated when he bowed his head on the cross and gave up his spirit; through
his divine power they were reunited on the third day. The gospels tell us of the
rolling away of the stone, the empty tomb, the linen cloths, the angel witnesses,
and the Lord’s appearances to the women and to the apostles. All this evidence
formed the basis for the preaching of the faith throughout the whole world.
Not only did Jesus speak with his disciples, but he ate with them, allowing
them to touch him and to probe his wounds. He entered the upper room when
the doors were shut and greeted them with the words “Peace be with you”—
peace to quiet their troubled hearts and to assure them of the unfailing
constancy of his love and forgiveness. To bring God’s love and forgiveness to the
world had been his mission from the Father; now he passed on that mission to
his apostles. “As the Father sent me,” he told them, “so I send you. Receive the
Holy spirit. If you forgive men’s sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive
them, they are not forgiven”.
Patiently he went through the scriptures with them to show them
everything that had been written about him in the Old Testament, how it had
been ordained from the beginning that the Messiah should suffer and so enter
into his glory. After this he showed them the wound in his side and the marks of
the nails. By his own choice he had retained these scars in his body in order to
heal the wounds of their unbelieving minds. Now they knew with absolute
certainty that the risen body, radiantly alive in their midst, was the same body
that had been born in Bethlehem and had suffered on the cross. From now on it
would be seated with God the Father on his heavenly throne.

Vigils Reading - St Paul VI
2025-05-29
ST PAUL VI
◊◊◊
He was born with the name of Giovanni Baptista Montini in September
26, 1897. His father, Giorgio was a lawyer, politician and member of the Italian
Chamber of Deputies. The young Montini was plagued with numerous physical
ailments. He was ordained at the age of 22 on May 29, 1920. He was then sent to
Rome where he attended the Academy which was geared to the training of
diplomats. He began his service of thirty years in the Vatican Secretariat of
State. During those years he was also active as a chaplain to the Catholic
Students at the University of Rome.
He was named Undersecretary of State in 1924. He served in that office
for thirty years. He was named Archbishop of Milan in 1954. He rebuilt
churches that had been destroyed during the war and made every effort to win
back the working class from Communist influences. Devoted to the
disadvantaged, he was a frequent visitor to hospitals, orphanages, homes of the
aged and prisons.
After Pope John XXIII was elected and announced the Second Vatican
Council, he appointed Montini to the Central Preparatory Commission. He took
a very active part in the First Session of the Council in 1962. Pope John died in
1963 and Montini was elected as his successor. It was felt that he would
continue the process of the Council. He chose the name of Paul VI and was
determined that, like Paul the Apostle, his pontificate would spread the Gospel
to the entire world. In his first message as Pope he set forth his agenda: to
continue Vatican II, to revise Canon Law, to work for peace and justice at all
levels, and to seek Christian Unity.
Paul was well equipped to deal with the Council because of his long
experience in the Secretariat of state. He knew the Curia thoroughly. Their
actions may not have always pleased him, but they rarely surprised him. He was
actively involved in the three sessions of the Council over which he presided. He
suggested amendments to several of the documents: ecumenism, missionary
activity, revelation, Eastern Catholic Churches and religious liberty.
One issue that he held back from the Council was that of Birth Control. He
set up a Commission of Lay people to consider the issue. However eventually he
came to his own conclusion and issued the encyclical Humanae Vitae which
forbade the use of artificial contraceptives. The encyclical created a crisis in the
Church. Paul himself came to refer to the document as “a painful document in
our episcopacy”. The last ten years of his pontificate were difficult for Paul VI.
He was more withdrawn and troubled by the negative reaction to Humanae
Vitae, the polarity between conservatives and liberals, the massive departure
from priestly and religious life, and the lack of vocations. The Pope told Jean
Guiton that Archbishop Lefebvre, who defiantly opposed the liturgical reform
was “the greatest cross of my pontificate”.
Debilitating arthritis and acute cystitis weakened him in the summer of
1978. On August 6, 1978 he died of a heart attack at Castel Gandolfo. He was
beatified by Pope Benedict XVI and canonized by Pope Francis.

Vigils Reading
2025-05-30
DEAD, BURIED,
AND RISEN WITH CHRIST
By Hans Urs von Balthasar
◊◊◊
Heaven, then, in which we can already participate, informs our life on
earth and gives it its meaning; and, in like manner, the resurrection determines
our relation to the cross, setting up a second and final “soteriological” tension.
We are Christians, because the Lord has risen; if he had not, our faith would be
vain. Christ suffered for the sake of glorification and took on himself the cross,
the confession of the cross, that he might obtain absolution from the Father. We
are not at first entitled to go with Christ on the way he walked; otherwise there
would be no qualitative difference between him and us; he would only be first
among equals, and we could be literally called co-redeemers. But “God
commends his charity towards us because when as yet we were sinners
according to the time Christ died for us…
When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his
Son”. If we walk with the Son, it is because we are carried along by the grace of
the redemption accomplished by him. The sentence that decided our destiny in
principle was pronounced on Christ as representing all sinners. In him we were
crucified and condemned to death; in him justified and accepted as children of
God. In him, without any action on our part, God’s wrath against us has
changed into solicitous love. so then we have to bring to full reality in our
temporal life on earth what is already true in Christ and through him in heaven
with the Father.
In the New Testament what we have to do follows from what we are. We
are justified, and must act accordingly. We are dead, buried and risen with
Hans Uns von Balthasar, Sheed and Ward 1961, pp. 233-234.13
Christ, and have to live our lives in view of this. We are no longer to live to sin;
we are henceforth to look on the “old self”, who is dead as dead in fact, daily
oppose his resistance to the sentence of death, make him die daily. One might
say that in order to exalt the resurrection St. Paul upsets the equilibrium
between the old and the new eon, the old and the new Adam, cross and
resurrection, fear and hope. From now on the first member of each pair of
antitheses is comprised within the second; the cross, in the Christian life, is
borne in the strength of the resurrection already accomplished. “In all things we
suffer tribulations but are not distressed. We are straitened, but not destitute.
We suffer persecution, but are not forsaken. We are cast down, but we perish
not. Always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that the life
also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies….For which cause we faint
not; but though our outer nature is corrupted, yet the inner nature is renewed
day by day.”

Vigils Reading - Visitation of the BVM
2025-05-31
THE FULLNESS OF GRACE
From the encyclical Redemptoris Mater by St John Paul II
◊◊◊
Immediately after the narration of the Annunciation, the Evangelist Luke
guides us in the footsteps of the Virgin of Nazareth towards “a city of Judah”
.
Mary arrived there “in haste”, to visit Elizabeth her kinswoman. The reason for
her visit is also to be found in the fact that at the Annunciation Gabriel had made
special mention of Elizabeth, who in her old age had conceived a son by her
husband Zechariah, through the power of God… The divine messenger had
spoken of what had been accomplished in Elizabeth in order to answer Mary’s
question: “How shall this be, since I have no husband?”. It is to come to pass
precisely through the “Power of the Most High”, just as it happened in the case
of Elizabeth, and even more so.
Moved by charity, therefore, Mary goes to the house of her kinswoman.
When Mary enters, Elizabeth replies to her greeting and feels the child leap in
her womb, and being “filled with the Holy Spirit” she greets Mary with a loud
cry: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”
….
While every word of Elizabeth’s greeting is filled with meaning, her final words,
would seem to have fundamental importance: “And blessed is she who believed
that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord”
.
These words can be linked with the title “full of grace” of the angel’s greeting.
Both of these texts reveal an essential Mariological content, namely the truth
about Mary who has become really present in the mystery of Christ precisely
because she “had believed”. The fullness of grace announced by the angel
means the gift of God himself. Mary’s faith, proclaimed by Elizabeth at the
Visitation, indicates how the Virgin of Nazareth responded to this gift…
Indeed, at the Annunciation Mary entrusted herself to God completely,
with the “full submission of intellect and will”, manifesting “the obedience of
faith” to him who spoke to her through his messenger. She responded,
therefore, with all her human and feminine “I”…. By accepting this
announcement, Mary was to become the “Mother of the Lord,” and the divine
mystery of the Incarnation was to be accomplished in her… Mary uttered this
fiat in faith. In faith she entrusted herself to God without reserve and devoted
herself totally as the handmaid of the Lord to the person and work of her son.
And this Son – as the Fathers of the Church teach – she conceived in her mind before she
conceived him in her womb: precisely in faith! Rightly therefore does Elizabeth praise Mary: “And
blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the
Lord.” These words have already been fulfilled: Mary of Nazareth presents herself at the threshold
of Elizabeth and Zechariah’s house as the Mother of the Son of God. This is Elizabeth’s joyful
discovery: “The mother of my Lord comes to me”!

Skema
2025-06-01
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
7th Week of Easter

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
June 1 – 7, 2025

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

Office
Ascension of the Lord
Easter Weekday
St Charles Lwanga & Comp
Easter Weekday
St Boniface
Easter Weekday
Easter Weekday

Vigils
2 Kings 2:1-15
1 Jn 4:1-10
1 Jn 4:11-21
1 Jn 5:1-12
1 Jn 5:13-21
2 Jn 1-13
3 Jn 1-15

Lauds
Dan 7:9-14
2 Tim 3:10-17
2 Tim 4:1-5
2 Tim 4:6-8
Titus 1:1-9
Titus 2:11-15
Titus 3:1-8

Mass
58
297
298
299
300
301
302

1st
Acts 1:1-11
Acts 19:1-8
Acts 20:17-27
Acts 20:28-38
Acts 22:30; 23:6-11
Acts 25:13b-21
Acts 28:16-20, 30-31

2nd
Heb 9:24-28; 10:19-23

Gospel
Luke 24:46-53
John 16:29-33
John 17:1-11a
John 17:11b-19
John 17:20-26
John 21:15-19
John 21:20-25

Vespers
Eph 4:1-13
Acts 24:10-16
Acts 25:7-12
Acts 26:24-31
Acts 28:16-23
Acts 28:24-31
Rom 8:9:17

Vigils Reading - Ascension of the Lord
2025-06-01
THE MYSTERIES OF GLORY
By Fr Jean Danielou
◊◊◊
The Apostles’ Creed contains a noteworthy passage in which,
grammatically speaking, we move from the past to the future: “He ascended
into the heavens, to be seated at the right hand of God. He will come again to
judge the living and the dead.” Thus the mysteries of Christ are not completed
with the ascension. There is still another mystery to come, that of the Parousia.
Between these two there is a mystery which is, in the present, that of the session
at the right hand. So there is a mystery of Christ with which we are
contemporary, that corresponds to that moment of sacred history which
belongs to us, which constitutes the present activity of the Word.
Here we find, in the mysteries of glory, the order which we ascertained in
the mysteries of darkness. Through the ascension, the humanity of Christ was
exalted above every creature and was introduced by the Word into the
inaccessible sanctuary of the Trinity. But the humanity of Christ tends to attract
everything else to it. “If only I am lifted up from the earth, I will attract all
peoples to myself.” Christ has only entered the heavenly sanctuary as a
forerunner. The presence of his humanity in the sphere of the Trinity is the
guarantee of the possibility that is henceforth ours to attain. The impassible gulf
is henceforth overcome, the impossible has become possible. In a suitable
image, the epistle to the Hebrews shows the humanity of Christ as cast like an
anchor, not into the depths of the sea, but into the far places of heaven, laying
the foundation of our hope that we shall in our turn attain to the anchorage
beyond the veil.
Thus there is, henceforth, in the heart of each person an ascensional
power which lifts it up and draws it towards the Father, that “gravity” of love of
which Augustine spoke, and which counteracts the “gravity” of the flesh. This is
the meaning of the era of the Church, in which Christ, having entered into the
glory of the Father, seeks to lift up humanity as a whole. By this means the
movement is completed which began at the Incarnation, when the Word of God
came to seek for mankind, but in order to lead it back to the Father. “This is why
we are told, he has mounted up on high; he has captured his spoil; he has
brought gifts. And he who so went down is no other than he who has gone up,
high above all the heavens to fill creation with his presence.” And truly this
humanity is a mighty weight to raise. Its gravity resists grace. That is the whole
drama of the present period in sacred history. But the power of the Word is
greater than our resistance.

Vigils Reading
2025-06-02
THE WORLD’S RESURRECTION
AND ASCENSION
By Hans Urs von Balthasar
◊◊◊
The masters of the contemplation of the ascending Word are the Greeks…
The idea of the “gardener” and the “do not hold me,” as not holding on to the
Word on earth, but letting him ascend, is charmingly and passionately worked
out by them in variations. Augustine joins [to this] the idea of the completion of
the Ascension in one’s heart, as a longing for the home where Christ lives:
As if the Lord, he says, were saying to the apostles: “You do not
want to let me go, just as everyone likes to hold his friend back and
says to him, as it were, stay with us just a little longer, our soul
delights in the sight of you – but it is better that you no longer see
this flesh and are mindful instead of the divine. I am removing
myself from you outwardly, but I am filling you with myself from
within.“
Does Christ, then, enter the heart according to the flesh, with the flesh? In
his divinity he possesses the heart. In his flesh he speaks to the heart by the
sight of him, and he exhorts us, but inside us he takes up his dwelling place, so
that we are converted and vivified inwardly by him and fashioned out of him,
the uncreated model of all creation…
[Thus we can say that] the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ is so united
to his divinity that, while still preserving the essence of the two natures, they
form a single unity. As his divinity transcends all reason, so does his humanity,
which has been raised above all visible and spiritual creatures, above all places
and times, above all description and definition… It has been raised, as it were
above “Being,” [and is now] ungraspable and indiscoverable by all creatures…
This transcendent position makes the Word the basis of all the world’s
resurrection and ascension. His ascension, he says, takes place beyond all the
motions of this transient world and all the influence of the heavenly spheres, for
although he is omnipresent in his divinity, his place is properly that where there
is no change, no suffering, no grief, as there is in the world of time.
We say that this place of eternal joy and eternal peace exists above the
skies, although it cannot be perceived, described, or defined in terms of place.
This place is the center and the inclusive periphery of all spiritual beings, and it
is above everything, because the spiritual power of reason penetrates
everything. Thus, Christ has ascended above every place and every time, since
he is truth itself and does not sit, as it were, at the edge of the cosmos, but in the
center – as he is the center of all spiritual, reasonable beings – as their life.

Vigils Reading - St Charles Lwanga & Companions
2025-06-03
THE MARTYRS OF UGANDA
From a homily by Pope St Paul VI
◊◊◊
The African martyrs add another page to the martyrology – the Church’s
roll of honor – an occasion both of mourning and of joy. This is a page worthy in
every way of being added to the annals of that Africa of earlier times, which we,
living in this era and being people of little faith, never expected to be repeated.
In earlier times there occurred those famous deeds, so moving to the
spirit, of the martyrs of Scilli, of Carthage, and of that “white robed army” of
Utica commemorated by Saint Augustine and Prudentius; of the martyrs of
Egypt so highly praised by Saint John Chrysostom, and of the martyrs of the
Vandal persecution. Who would have thought that in our days we should have
witnessed events as heroic and glorious?
Who would have predicted to the famous African confessors and martyrs
such as Cyprian, Felicity, Perpetua and – the greatest of all – Augustine, that we
would one day add names so dear to us as Charles Lwanga and Matthias
Mulumba Kalemba and their twenty companions? Nor must we forget those
members of the Anglican Church who also died in the name of Christ. These
African martyrs herald the dawn of a new age. If only the human mind might be
directed not toward persecutions and religious conflicts but toward a rebirth of
Christianity and civilization! Africa has been washed by the blood of these latest
martyrs, the first of this new age (and God willing, let them be the last, although
such a holocaust is precious indeed). Africa is reborn free and independent.

Vigils Reading
2025-06-04
THE LORD’S
TWO DWELLING-PLACES
From a sermon by Ogier of Locedio
◊◊◊
Let us note the Lord’s two dwelling-places: the one along the way, the
other in his heavenly home; the one temporal, when he dwelt with us in the
flesh, the other eternal, where we shall dwell with him glorified in soul and in
body. Of the first he says, ‘I have said these things to you while still with you –
present in the body. But a time is coming when I shall withdraw from you in my
bodily presence and will thereafter speak to you through the spirit. The
Paraclete, the Holy spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach
you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you. He will teach you,’
says the Lord Jesus ‘what I have told you.’
Not that the Son says one thing and the Spirit teaches another, for
whatever Christ says and teaches the Trinity says and teaches. Because God is
triune, each person of the godhead must establish himself in our hearts. We
should hear each distinctly and understand them inseparably. Thus when we
say ‘the Father, Son and Holy Spirit’, we do not say these words simultaneously,
yet those whom we name are simultaneous and could not be otherwise.
When the Lord speaks of the Comforter whom the Father will send, we are
to understand: ‘I am leaving you in my bodily presence but not in the presence
of the Spirit. The body I received on earth I now raise up to heaven, but through
my Spirit I will remain with you until the end of time. The Father sent me so that
I might appear visible in the flesh, but the hour has come for me to pay death’s
due, and, rising from the dead, ascend to the Father, and there be seated at his
right hand. Henceforth the world will no longer see me in the mortal guise of the
flesh. But the Paraclete, the spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will
comfort you in my bodily absence by the abundance of his sweetness. He will be
your teacher, not noising his words abroad but teaching the heart within. He
will prompt you and teach you everything I have told you through him, all that I
will have inspired in you. You will not be able to lament my bodily absence so
long as the spirit remains in your hearts.’

Vigils Reading -St Boniface
2025-06-05
THE DESTRUCTION
OF THE SAXON OAK
By Bishop Willibald of Eichstätt
◊◊◊
Many of the people of Hesse were converted by Boniface to the Catholic
faith and confirmed by the grace of the spirit: and they received the laying on of
hands. But some there were, not yet strong of soul, who refused to accept wholly
the teachings of the true faith. Some men sacrificed secretly, some even openly,
to trees and springs. Some secretly practiced divining, soothsaying, and
incantations, and some openly. But others, who were of sounder mind, cast
aside all heathen profanation and did none of these things; and it was with the
advice and consent of these men that Boniface sought to fell a certain tree of
great size at Geismar, and called, in the ancient speech of the region, the oak of
Thor.
The man of God was surrounded by the servants of God. When he would
cut down the tree, behold a great throng of pagans who were there cursed him
bitterly among themselves because he was the enemy of their gods. And when
he had cut into the trunk a little way, a breeze sent by God stirred overhead, and
suddenly the branching top of the tree was broken off, and the oak in all its huge
bulk fell to the ground. And it was broken into four parts, as if by the divine will,
so that the trunk was divided into four huge sections without any effort of the
brethren who stood by. When the pagans who had cursed did see this, they left
off cursing and, believing, blessed God. Then the most holy priest took counsel
with the brethren: and he built from the wood of the tree an oratory, and
dedicated it to the holy apostle Peter.

Vigils Reading
2025-06-06
THE ASCENSION
AND CHRISTIAN PRAYER
By Thomas Merton
◊◊◊
At the Ascension, in the sight of the disciples, “the nature of humankind
soared above the dignity of all the creatures of heaven” and “there was to be no
limit to the advancement of Christ’s humanity until, seated together with the
eternal Father, it might share enthroned the glory of Him whose nature it
shared in the son.” And of course, the Fathers never ceased to remind their
hearers that this same humanity of Christ which was enthroned with the Father
in the divine glory, was to return and judge the world. “He set a limit to His
bodily presence, and would remain at the right hand of the Father until He
should return in the same flesh in which He had ascended.” Monastic prayer is
eschatological and is centered on the expectation of the Parousia, the advent of
the “immortal and invisible King of ages” who is both “God alone” and the
Christ, our Redeemer and Liberator…
St Leo says that with Christ’s ascension into heaven we have recovered
possession of paradise, and not only that, “we have even penetrated, in Christ,
into the height of heaven,” we have been enthroned with Him because we are
“one Body” with Him. This is the reason why we should rejoice at His going to
the Father… He is not separated from us unless we choose to remain bound to
the earth by our passions. In contemplation we experience, at least obscurely,
something of this mystery of our union with Him now in heaven.
This has important implications for the life of prayer. The life of the monk,
being that of a Christian, is a way of living in heaven. While living bodily in exile
and in his earthly pilgrimage, the monk is already spiritually in paradise and in
heaven where he has ascended with Christ. That is to say, although he is not
physically present in heaven, he is free to come and go there as he pleases, in
spirit, in prayer, in faith, in thanksgiving, praise and love, because he already
“is” there mystically in Christ. “Let us therefore, exult with a worthy and
spiritual joy, happy before God in thanksgiving, and let us lift up the free eyes
of our heart to that height where Christ is.”…
Christ has made us His friends by making known to us “the joys of interior
charity and the festival of the heavenly country which He daily makes present
in our minds by the desire of love.” And St Gregory explains that this loving
knowledge of heavenly things is very real indeed, no mere fancy: “for when,
hearing of heavenly things, we love them, we already know the things we love,
for our love itself is a way of knowing.” It is by the charity of Christ in our hearts
that we “are in heaven” and know the things of heaven.

Vigils Reading
2025-06-07
THIS NEW WORLD
By Pierre Benoît
◊◊◊
When inspired writings speak of Christ seated at the right hand of the
Father, they are obviously only using anthropomorphic images which have no
value except their symbolic reference. Commentators have always recognized
this. Similarly, when scripture shows us Christ exalted above all the heavens, it
simply means to indicate that he dominates our present cosmos, and it would be
useless to try and define Christ’s position in relation to the “final sphere.” The
doctors of scholasticism, still bound to Aristotle’s system, could go too far in this
direction; yet the greatest of them, a Saint Thomas for example, were able to
keep a wise and prudent reserve on this point.
The essential teaching of scripture, which is to be retained by our faith, is
that Christ, through his resurrection and ascension, departed from this present
world, a world corrupted by sin and destined for destruction, and entered the
new world where God reigns as master and where matter is transformed,
penetrated, and dominated by the Spirit. It is a world that is real with a physical
reality, like Christ’s body itself, and which therefore occupies a “place,” but a
world which exists as yet only in promise, or rather in its embryo, the single
risen body of Christ, and which will be definitively constituted and revealed only
at the end of time, when the “new heavens” and the “new earth” are to appear.
While waiting for that day, the glorious body of Christ exists somewhere,
real, much more real than our perishable world, because it alone possesses true
life, but it is useless to ask “where,” just as it is mistaken to imagine it far away.
This new world, where Christ reigns and awaits us, is not far away, it is not
outside our world, it transcends it. It is of another order, is distinguished in
terms of quality rather than of quantity, and we have access to it through faith
and the sacraments, in a contact which is mysterious but more real and more
close than any contact with our present world can be.
When we say and believe with the Church that the glorified Christ has
ascended to heaven and is seated beside his Father, we mean by this that he
has penetrated forever into the new, final, spiritual world, of which he is the
first cell, a world which is inaccessible to our senses and our imagination, but
which is supremely real, much more real than the everyday world about us.
And we believe readily, with the mass of the earliest Christian witnesses, that
he inaugurated this new world on the day of his resurrection, when he was
rapt from the tomb by the Spirit to be exalted next to the Father.

Skema: 10th Week in Ordinary Time
2025-06-08
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
10th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
June 8 – 14, 2025

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

Office
Pentecost Sunday
Mary, Mother of the Church
Weekday
St Barnabas
St Alice
St Anthony of Padua
Bl Gerard

Vigils
* Special Vigil
Gen 1:1-1:19
Gen 1:20-2:3
1 Cor 9:1-18
Gen 2:4-25
Gen 3:1-24
Gen 4:1-26

Lauds
Ezek 37:11-14
Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
Eccles 1:12-18
Acts 4:32-37
Eccles 2:1-3
Eccles 2:4-12
Eccles 2:13-17

Mass
63
BVM Lect pg 118-138
360
580
362
363
364

1st
Acts 2:1-11
Gen:3:9-15, 20
2 Cor 1:18-22
Acts 11:21b-26; 13:1-3
2 Cor 3:15-4:1, 3-6
2 Cor 4:7-15
2 Cor 5:14-21

2nd
Rom 8:8-17
Psalm 87[86]: 1-2, 3+5, 6-7

Gospel
John 14:15-16, 23b-26
John 19:25-34
Matt 5:13-16
Matt 10:7-13
Matt 5:20-26
Matt 5:27-32
Matt 5:33-37

Vespers
1 Cor 12:4-13
Gal 1:1-10
Gal 1:11-24
Acts 9:23-31
Gal 2:1-10
Gal 2:11-14
1 Cor 2:1-10

Pentecost Sunday
2025-06-08
TO KNOW SPIRITUALLY
THE WORD MADE FLESH
From a homily by St Augustine 1
◊◊◊
A comforter, an advocate, (for both terms render the Greek Paraclete) was necessary for the disciples after Christ’s departure. He had not spoken of the Paraclete from the beginning, because his own presence in the midst of them had consoled them, but now, when he was on the point of leaving them, it was fitting that he should speak of this: the Holy Spirit would come to them, and filling their hearts with ardent love, give them power to preach the word of God boldly; the Spirit would bear witness to Christ within their souls, so that they themselves would also bear witness, without being scandalized when their enemies would forbid them the synagogue, and put them to death. But charity “endures to the last”, and it was to be poured out in their hearts by the Holy Spirit.
“I can say truly that it is better for you I should go away; he who is to befriend you will not come to you unless I do go, but if only I make my way there, I will send him to you.” That is to say: It is to your interest to be deprived of my presence under this form of a servant which I have taken; for though it is true that I live among you, the Word made flesh, I do not want you to love me with a natural affection; nor do I want you to be satisfied with this milk alone and wish you could remain as babes. It is to your interest that I go: otherwise the Paraclete will not come to you; if I do not wean you from this childish food that I have given you so far, you will have no appetite for solid food; if you keep a natural affection for me you cannot receive the Holy Spirit.
But why does he say: “He who is to befriend you will not come unless I go?” Was it not then possible for Christ, being here, to send him? Who would dare to say it? The Son of God had not left the place where that Holy Spirit was: come from the Father, he still dwelt in the Father. And then, how could it have been impossible for him to send the Holy Spirit on earth when he was on earth himself? Do we not know that at his baptism the Holy Spirit descended on him and remained with him? Do we not know in fact that they were inseparable? What the gospel means is that the disciples could not receive the Spirit while they continued to know Jesus Christ only according to the flesh.
And these words are an echo of those of St Paul, who himself had received the Holy Spirit: “Even if we used to think of Christ in a human fashion, we do so no longer”. For we know even the flesh itself of Christ otherwise than in a human fashion, when we know spiritually the Word made flesh. Christ had, then, to deprive his disciples of his human presence and then it would not be only the Holy Spirit, but the Father and the Son who would dwell in their souls.
1
Treatise 94 on Jn’s Gospel. Trans. Lectionary and Martyrology,ed. En Calcat Abbey, Dourgne-Tarn 1956, 245-246.

Mary, Mother of the Church
2025-06-09
THAT WISE AND VALIANT WOMAN
By Fr Hugo Rahner 2
◊◊◊
The valiant woman [in the Book of Proverbs] symbolizes both Mary and the Church on the road from Nazareth to Golgotha. The beginning is at the moment of the incarnation in the heart of Mary, at the supreme instant of her acceptance of the task, when she became the mother of the Word. The precious blood that was to redeem the world was her blood, and in this way her road was already marked out, the road through those everyday years, leading direct to Golgotha.
It is to this mystery of her life, and her life already at Nazareth, where love is strong as death, that the Cistercian mystic, Adam of Perseigne, refers when he sees in the moment of the incarnation the fulfillment of the valiant woman: “A Lady full of bravery: she traveled through her mortal life amidst the evil of the world, yet through the majesty of her spirit she surpassed all creation. For it was to her, the valiant woman, that Gabriel was sent — his very name means ‘God’s valiant one.’ Was she not indeed valiant, this woman – Mary, whose love was stronger than death?”.
For her acceptance of the incarnation was the acceptance of death. Her blood she gave him, only for him to shed it. And this also is fulfilled in the Church: The Church, like Mary, is the woman who brings Christ into the world, only to be sacrificed upon the altar. Incarnation and death are made one in the Church’s sacraments, for in the sacrificial death, Christ’s body is every day reborn. Thus the symbol of the valiant woman is fulfilled also in the Church and her vocation on earth: valiant indeed is this great woman of the world, since as the mystical mother of Christ crucified, daily she meets death again.
This acceptance of death, in which she follows Mary, is verified in her day-to-day history, her persecutions, and her daily cares. In this she is truly valiant. This is what Epiphanius of Salamis once told his people: “You are the children of that wise and valiant woman, of whom Solomon said; ‘…This valiant woman, is she not the Church, your mother? for none is braver than she, who every time a persecution is raised against her is ready to go to death for the name of her beloved.”
2
Pantheon Books, 1961, pp. 82-83.

Weekday
2025-06-10
THE DAY THAT
WILL NEVER END
From a sermon by St Ephrem 3
◊◊◊
Lord, shed upon our darkened souls the brilliant light of your wisdom so that we may be enlightened and serve you with renewed purity. Sunrise marks the hour for men to begin their toil, but in our souls, Lord, prepare a dwelling for the day that will never end. Grant that we may come to know the risen life and that nothing may distract us from the delights you offer. Through our unremitting zeal for you, Lord, set upon us the sign of your day that is not measured by the sun.
In your sacrament we daily embrace you and receive you into our bodies; make us worthy to experience the resurrection for which we hope. We have had your treasure hidden within us ever since we received baptismal grace; it grows ever richer at your sacramental table. Teach us to find our joy in your favor! Lord, we have within us your memorial, received at your spiritual table; let us possess it in its full reality when all things shall be made new. We glimpse the beauty that is laid up for you when we gaze upon the spiritual beauty your immortal will now creates within our mortal selves.
Savior, your crucifixion marked the end of your mortal life; teach us to crucify ourselves and make way for our life in the Spirit. May your resurrection, Jesus, bring true greatness to our spiritual self and may your sacraments be the mirror wherein we may know that self… Your divine plan for the world is a mirror for the spiritual world; teach us to walk in that world as spiritual persons.
Lord, do not deprive our souls of the spiritual vision of you nor our bodies of your warmth and sweetness. The mortality lurking in our bodies spreads corruption through us; may the spiritual waters of your love cleanse the effects of mortality from our hearts. Grant, Lord, that we may hasten to our true city and, like Moses on the mountain, possess it now in vision.
3
The Liturgy of the Hours – vol. II – Catholic Book Publishing Co – New York – 1976 – p 1869.

St. Barnabas
2025-06-11
THE LESSON OF ST BARNABAS
From a sermon by St John Henry Newman 4
◊◊◊
On two occasions the conduct [of St Barnabas] is scarcely becoming an Apostle, as instancing somewhat of that infirmity which uninspired persons of his peculiar character frequently exhibit. Both are cases of indulgence towards the faults of others, yet in a different way; the one, an over-easiness in a matter of doctrine, the other, in a matter of conduct.
With all his tenderness for the Gentiles, yet on one occasion he could not resist indulging the prejudices of some Judaizing brethren, who came from Jerusalem to Antioch. Peter first was carried away; before they came, “he did eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he withdrew, and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch, that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.”
The other instance was his indulgent treatment of Mark, his sister’s son, which occasioned the quarrel between him and St Paul. “Barnabas determined to take with them,” on their Apostolic journey, “John, whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work.”
Now it is very plain what description of character, and what kind of lesson, is brought before us in the history of this Holy Apostle. Holy he was, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith; still the characteristics and the infirmities of man remained in him, and thus he is “unto us for an example,” consistently with the reverence we feel towards him as one of the foundations of the Christian
Church. He is an example and warning to us, not only as showing us what we ought to be, but as evidencing how the highest gifts and graces are corrupted in our sinful nature, if we are not diligent to walk step by step, according to the light of God’s commandments.
Be our mind as heavenly as it may be, most loving, most holy, most zealous, most energetic, most peaceful, yet if we look off from Him for a moment, and look towards ourselves, at once these excellent tempers fall into some extreme or mistake. Charity becomes over-easiness, holiness is tainted with spiritual pride, zeal degenerates into fierceness, activity eats up the spirit of prayer, hope is heightened into presumption. We cannot guide ourselves. God’s revealed word is our sovereign rule of conduct; and therefore, among other reasons, is faith so principal a grace, for it is the directing power which receives the commands of Christ, and applies them to the heart.
4
PAROCHIAL & PLAIN SERMONS, John. H. Newman (Ignatius Press, CA 1987) pp. 401-403.

St. Alice
2025-06-12
ALICE THE LEPER
From “The Life of St Alice” by Arnold of Villiers 5
◊◊◊
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.
5
Alice the Leper: Life of St Alice of Schaerbeck by Arnold II of Villers – Translated by Martinus Cawley, ocso – Guadalupe Translations – 2000

St. Anthony of Padua
2025-06-13
ST ANTHONY OF PADUA
From the Little Flowers of St Francis of Assisi 6
◊◊◊
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.
6
Trans., Raphael Brown “Omnibus of Sources”, Chicago, 1973, pp. 1390-91.

Blessed Gerard
2025-06-14
LAMENT FOR THE DEATH OF GERARD
By St Bernard of Clairvaux 7
◊◊◊
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.
7 On The Song Of Songs II Sermon 26.III. Trans. Kilian Walsh. Cistercian Publications 1976. 62-64.

LCG Chicago June meeting 6/14/25 9:00 am CDT
2025-06-14 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago)
All are invited:
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LCG Chicago Monthly Meeting 9:00am CDT
2025-06-14 09:00 - 12:00
All are invited:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86028356465
Meeting ID: 860 2835 6465
One tap mobile
+13126266799,,86028356465# US (Chicago)
+13092053325,,86028356465# US
Agenda
9:00 Gather for Opening prayer.

We also pray for all our lay Cistercian sisters and brothers in the US and around the world. Specially we pray for our Gethsemani monks. Finally, we pray this month specially for:
Fr. Carols Rodriguez
Fr. Elias Dietz
Br. John Zuber

9:10 Lectio. Our lectio piece will be led by Anthony Nuccio.

9:50 Reading. Our reading this month is to share The Spiritual Canticle by St. John of the Cross.

10:45 Housekeeping. Volunteer to lead lectio next month? Chicago Report on LCG Advisory Council activity. Bon voyage for Tom Kosnik and Tina Parayre at the international lay Cistercian meeting in next week in Avila. Our next book will be—bring your suggestions.
11:00 Update. Share how the Holy Spirt has entered our lives as lay Cistercians since our last meeting.

11:45 Closing worship and prayer. We will pray the liturgical hour of None as with our Gethsemani monks (identical Psalms as done today at Gethsemani Abbey.)

Our next meeting: July 12, 2025.

Skema - 11th Week ORD
2025-06-15
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
11th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
June 15 – 21, 2025

Sun
15
Mon
16
Tue
17
Wed
18
Thu
19
Fri
20
Sat
21

Office
Holy Trinity
Office for the Dead
Bl M-Joseph Cassant
Weekday
Weekday
Weekday
St Aloysius Gonzaga

Vigils
Sir 36:1-22
Gen 5:1-32
Gen 6:1-22
Gen 7:1-24
Gen 8:1-22
Gen 9:1-29
Gen 11:1-9, 27-32

Lauds
Sir 42:15-25
Eccles 2:18-23
Eccles 2:24-3:8
Eccles 3:9-15
Eccles 3:16-22
Eccles 4:1-6
Eccles 4:7-12

Mass
166
365
366
367
368
369
370

1st
Prov 8:22-31
2 Cor 6:1-10
2 Cor 8:1-9
2 Cor 9:6-11
2 Cor 11:1-11
2 Cor 11:18, 21-30
2 Cor 12:1-10

2nd
Rom 5:1-5

Gospel
John 16:12-15
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
1 Cor 2:11-16
Gal 2:15-21
Gal 3:1-9
Gal 3:10-14
Gal 3:15-22
Gal 3:23-29
Heb 9:18-22
