Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

LCG Chicago Monthly Meeting 9:00 am CDT
2025-09-13 09:00 - 12:00 (America/New_York)
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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:
Br. Thomas Richards
Br. Gregory Escardo
Br. Maximilian Pickerill
9:10 Lectio. Our lectio piece will be led by Robert Johnson.
9:50 Reading. Our reading this month is Contemplation by Nemeck and Coombs.
10:45 Housekeeping. Volunteer to lead lectio next month? Selection our next reading . Chicago Report on LCG Advisory Council activity. Planning transport for LCG Fall Retreat (10/12/25). Follow-up on events at the international lay Cistercian meeting.
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: October 11, 2025???

Skema
2025-09-14
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
24th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
September 14 – 20, 2025

Sun
14
Mon
15
Tue
16
Wed
17
Thu
18
Fri
19
Sat
20

Office
Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Our Lady of Sorrows
SS Cornelius & Cyprian
St Martin of Finojosa
Weekday
Weekday
St Andrew Kim & Companions

Vigils
Isa 52:13-53:12
2 Macc 7:20-41
Song 1:1-17
Song 2:1-17
Song 3:1-11
Song 4:1-5:1
Song 5:2-6:3

Lauds
Isa 45:21-25
Baruch 4:9b-20
Nahum 2:2-8
Nahum 2:9-14
Nahum 3:1-7
Nahum 3:8-13
Nahum 3:14-19

Mass
638
639
444
445
446
447
448

1st
Num 21:4b-9
Heb 5:7-9
1 Tim 3:1-13
1 Tim 3:14-16
1 Tim 4:12-16
1 Tim 6:2c-12
1 Tim 6:13-16

2nd
Phil 2:6-11

Gospel
John 3:13-17
John 19:25-27
Luke 7:11-17
Luke 7:31-35
Luke 7:36-50
Luke 8:1-3
Luke 8:4-15

Vespers
Gal 6:14-18
1 Pet 4:12-16
2 Thess 3:1-10
2 Thess 3:11-18
1 Tim 1:1-11
1 Tim 1:12-20
1 Tim 2:1-8

Vigils Reading - Exaltation of the Holy Cross
2025-09-14
THE VICTORY
OF THE CROSS
By St Chromatius of Aquileia
◊◊◊
The Cross of Christ is our victory, because it has obtained victory for us.
Who among us are so fortunate as to deserve to bear in themselves the cross of
Christ? They bear the cross of Christ in themselves who die to the world and are
nailed with Christ to the Cross. Listen to what the Apostle says: “With Christ I
am crucified; I live, yet it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
Those therefore who are free from the vices of the flesh and worldly desires are,
as the Apostle says, crucified with Christ. Those on the other hand who are given
over to vices of the flesh and worldly desires cannot say: “I am crucified with
Christ”, for they do not live the way that Christ did, but according to the fashion
of the world and the will of the devil.
The cross of Christ is the salvation of the world and the triumphal sign of
heaven’s victory. In times past, when great kings had won a brilliant victory over
vanquished nations, they used to set up a trophy of their victory in the form of a
cross and hang spoils taken from the enemy upon it as a permanent reminder.
The victory won by Christ’s cross is far different. The victory of those kings
meant the extermination of peoples, the destruction of cities, the sacking of
provinces. The victory of the cross means nations ransomed, cities saved,
provinces liberated, the entire world made safe. Nothing is destroyed but the
power of the devil, no one taken captive but the demons, for the cross of Christ
redeemed the world and took the demons prisoner. It is spoils taken from the
demons that are hung on the triumphal cross of Christ. Today the demons hang
on the cross of Christ which has become their torment and torture; they are held
captive by faith in the cross, by the sign of the passion.
Christ suffered evil and repaid it with good; he suffered death and gave
life. Not without reason was he crucified on the spot where Adam’s body is said
to have been buried; Christ was crucified where Adam was buried in order that
life might thus rise out of death. Death came through Adam, life through Christ,
who deigned to be crucified and to die precisely in order to destroy through the
tree of the cross the sin that had been caused by a tree, and by the mystery of his
death to put an end to the punishment of death.

Vigils Reading - Our Lady of Sorrows
2025-09-15
TEARS OF LOVE
From the Sequence “Stabat Mater” attributed to Jacopo da Todi
◊◊◊
The sorrowful mother was standing in tears beside the cross on which her
Son was hanging. Her soul was full of grief and anguish and sorrow, for the
sword of prophecy pierced it.
How sad now and how unhappy at the fate of her only Son was that
mother, once called blessed; how the faithful mother grieved and lamented as
she saw her glorious Son so shamefully treated.
Who is there who would not weep, were he to see Christ’s mother in such
great suffering? Or who could help feeling sympathy with the mother, were he to
think of her sorrowing with her Son?
Yet she actually saw Jesus in agony and broken by the scourging – and
this because of the sins of her own people. She saw her dear Son all the time he
was dying and abandoned until he yielded up his soul.
Come then, mother, from whom all love springs, make me understand the
meaning of your sorrow that I may mourn with you. Make my heart burn with
love of Christ, my God, that he may look on me with favor.
Holy mother, do this for me. Pierce my heart once and forever with the
wounds of your crucified Son. Let me share with you the pain of your Son’s
wounds, for he thought it right to bear such sufferings for me.
Grant that my tears of love may mingle with yours and that, as long as I
live, I may feel the pains of my crucified Lord. To stand with you beside the cross
and be your companion in grief is my own wish.
Virgin without equal among virgins, do not now turn down my request;
grant that I may mourn with you. Grant that I carry about the dying state of
Christ; grant that I be a sharer of his passion; grant that I relive his wounds.
Grant that I be wounded with his wounds; grant that I drink to my soul’s content
of the chalice of his cross and blood. Be a defense to me, virgin Mary, on the
judgment day, and I will not burn and be consumed in the fires of hell.
When it is time, Lord Christ, for me to leave this world, give me through
your mother’s prayers the palm of victory. When my body is dead, grant that my
soul be given the glory of paradise.

Vigils Reading - SS Cornelius & Cyprian
2025-09-16
A LETTER FROM ST CYPRIAN
TO ST CORNELIUS
◊◊◊
My very dear brother, we have heard of the glorious witness given by your
courageous faith. On learning of the honor you had won by your witness, we
were filled with such joy that we felt ourselves sharers and companions in your
praiseworthy achievements. After all, we have the same Church, the same mind.
The same unbroken harmony. Why then should a priest not take pride in the
praise given to a fellow priest as though it were given to him? What brotherhood
fails to rejoice in the happiness of its brothers wherever they are?
Words cannot express how great was the exaltation and delight here when
we heard of your good fortune and brave deeds: how you stood out as a leader of
your brothers in their declaration of faith, while the leader’s confession was
enhanced as they declared their faith. You led the way to glory, but you gained
many companions in that glory; being foremost in your readiness to bear
witness on behalf of all, you prevailed on your people to become a single
witness. We cannot decide which we ought to praise, your own ready and
unshaken faith or the love of your brothers who would not leave you. While the
courage of the bishop who thus led the way has been demonstrated, at the same
time the unity of the brotherhood who followed has been manifested. Since you
have one heart and one voice, it is the Roman Church as a whole that has thus
borne witness.
Dearest brother, bright and shining is the faith which the blessed Apostle
praised in your community. He foresaw in the spirit the praise your courage
deserves and the strength that could not be broke; he was heralding the future
when he testified to your achievements; his praise of the fathers was a challenge7
to the sons. Your unity, your strength have become shining examples of these
virtues to the rest of the brethren.
Divine providence has now prepared us. God’s merciful design has
warned us that the day of our own struggle, our own contest, is at hand. By that
shared love which binds us closely together, we are doing all we can to exhort
our congregation, to give ourselves unceasingly to fastings, vigils and prayers in
common. These are the heavenly weapons which give us strength to stand firm
and endure; they are the spiritual defenses, the God-given armaments that
protect us.
Let us then remember one another, united in mind and heart. Let us pray
without ceasing, you for us, we for you; by the love we share we shall thus relieve
the strain of these great trials.

Vigils Reading - St Martin of Finojosa
2025-09-17
SAINT MARTIN OF FINOJOSA
By Thomas Merton
◊◊◊
Saint Martin Sacerdos of Finojosa, Abbot of Huerta, Bishop of Siguenza,
Spain, was born in the year 1139 and grew up under the care of a most loving and
pious Christian mother with his brother, a courtier and knight, and his two
sisters Theresa and Eve. Instead of following the usual aspirations to
knighthood, Martin was fonder of books and meditation and solitude, and this
bent of his was definitely turned into a vocation to the cloister when his father
died. The shock of this loss fixed his mind on eternity, and despising all that the
world had to offer, he made known his intentions to his mother and brother. He
was then twenty years old.
At first he met with nothing but opposition. However, when they saw that
he was firm in his purpose, his family did not have the impiety to resist him
further, and his mother made a most generous and willing sacrifice of him,
taking him to the Abbey of Cantavos and there leaving him with all the
ceremonies prescribed by Saint Benedict for presenting the children of the rich
to the monastery. Martin, meanwhile, took the Mother of God in exchange for
his earthly mother and adopted as his motto for the novitiate: “What you begin,
begin perfectly”…
Although he was only twenty-six, Sacerdos was elected by the monks to
succeed the abbot… <His history as abbot> comes to us through official
documents which tell us less of his virtues than of the fame of them and the
effects of that fame. We read everywhere of the veneration in which he was held
by the royalty and nobility of all Spain…
It was with the greatest distaste that Saint Sacerdos learned, in 1186, that
he had been elected bishop of Siguenza. He only accepted this position under
orders from Rome… In 1194, however, Saint Sacerdos persuaded the Pope to
accept his resignation and was able to return to the peace and tranquility of
Huerta, where he could fill his soul with the infinite sweetness of the presence of
God and hide himself in the secret of His face, of whom the psalmist said: “Thou
dost protect them in Thy tabernacle against the contradiction of tongues.”
And that Face, of which we read in the same Psalm…is nothing else but
the divine Essence, in which we lose ourselves in the luminous darkness of faith,
which covers us and makes us invisible to our enemies – and sometimes to
ourselves. And so, in these years, Saint Sacerdos was often rapt out of himself in
the ecstasy of divine contemplation.
Death finally overtook him in 1210 when he was on a visitation of his
monastery of Óvila. He felt the end approaching and set out for Huerta but did
not complete his journey, for he died on the way. His venerated body was
received with great circumstance by his grieving children and buried in the great
church of the abbey.
In 1558 his body was found completely uncorrupted, along with the
clothing and crozier with which he had been buried. He was formally beatified
with the title of saint and inscribed in the Roman Martyrology in 1584.

Vigils Reading
2025-09-18
THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTER
OF MONASTIC PROFESSION
From “Mirror of Charity” by St Aelred of Rievaulx
◊◊◊
Although it may not seem completely pertinent to our subject, I think it
advisable for us who are called monks to take into account and examine more
closely the force of our rule. Since many things are said there about things
spiritual and physical, let us investigate by careful questioning which of these
the force of the rule and the norm of our profession consist of most particularly.
I read a letter on this subject by a certain person who replied as follows to
someone who had questioned him on this:
“I do not hesitate to say that the rule of the monastic state, yes the virtue of
the monastic order, indeed, the essential character of monastic profession itself,
consists in those practices which make the monk when all others cease to exist,
and without which the others, I will not say do not make a monk, but do not even
give an idea of what a monk is.
“But what are these? The things we have solemnly promised and whose
stability and observance we have sworn to God and his saints [to keep]. And
what are they?
“Stability in the monastery”…”conversion of our life, and obedience
according to the Rule of Saint Benedict.” And further on, [he adds]: “I want to go
back to Saint Benedict’s book for monks and I will point out in it how the things
which we have already stated constitute the essential character of our rule and,
even more, of our monastic profession, so my mind may comprehend them as
necessary; I will strive with complete devotion to fulfill my promises and those
things which I have vowed—to the extent that the Lord will grant this to me. But
as for the other things, I will try to accomplish them, not as part of the body of
our rule, but as practices which support and sustain it.”
We would perhaps be in doubt as to what those other things are, had he
not himself introduced them afterwards: not to go out of the cloister, to practice
manual work, the quantity of food and drink, the number of dishes and their
variety, the bedding, the use of trousers only by those sent on a journey.
“What then”, he says? “If these are of the essential character of monastic
profession, dispensing someone from them or changing any of them on
occasion would not be allowed, would it? Otherwise, no essential character
exists, and I am discovered not to be a monk once I have destroyed in myself
what is essential to being a monk.”
At the end of his tractate, he says: “So then, beloved brother…since it is
permitted to give dispensation in these matters, just as blessed Benedict himself
also dispensed monks of delicate health to eat meat, and those sent on a
journey, at least, to wear trousers, so also, I say, that because these matters
admit of dispensation and change, they are not part of the essential character of
profession.”…
What he has called the body of the Rule and the essential character of
monastic profession is clear: stability, conversion of life, and obedience
according to the Rule of Saint Benedict.

Vigils Reading
2025-09-19
THE SEEDS OF GODLINESS
From a treatise by St John Chrysostom
◊◊◊
[Christ’s] predictions were of two kinds. Some are to be fulfilled in the
present life; others will come true after the consummation of the world. But the
first kind confirmed the second and gave abundant proof that the prophecies
about the world to come are also true. Let me give you an example and, by that
example, I shall try to clear up any obscurity in what I mean. When only twelve
disciples followed him, neither the reality nor even the name of a Church
occurred to anyone. The synagogue was still flourishing. Why, then, did he
speak of the Church and predict it at a time when practically the whole world
was in the grip of godlessness? “Upon this rock I shall build my Church, and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”.
Put this prediction of Christ to whatever test you wish and you will see
that its truth shines brightly forth. For it is a marvel not only that he built the
Church throughout the world but that he kept it unconquered even though it
was harassed by so many assaults. The words: “The gates of hell shall not
prevail against it,” mean the dangers which beget death, the dangers which lead
us down to hell.
Do you not see that this prediction came true? Do you not see the strength
of its fulfillment? Do you not see the words shining forth as proved in the light
of the facts? Do you not see his invincible power which does all things with
ease? Because the words are few — “I will build my Church” — do not simply
pass over them. Ponder them in your mind. Think how great a thing it is to fill
every land under the sun with so many Churches in so short a time. Think what
it means to have converted so many nations, to have won over so many peoples,
to have destroyed ancestral customs, to have torn out deep-rooted habits, to
have driven out, like dust before the wind, the tyrannous rule of pleasure and
the power and strength of evil. People have destroyed their old altars, temples,
idols, and rites. They have destroyed their accursed festivals and made the
unclean savor of victims disappear like smoke.
That word which Christ spoke in his own day has been planted in the souls
of all men and is found on the lips of all. It is just as if land that was filled with
thorns has been cleansed and become a cleared field. And this field has received
the seeds of godliness.

Vigils Reading - St Andrew Kim & Companions
2025-09-20
THE KOREAN MARTYRS
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints
◊◊◊
Christianity came late to Korea, for it was the policy of that country’s
rulers to keep it isolated from foreign influence. Not until the late eighteenth
century, more than two hundred years after Francis Xavier had reached Japan,
did the Church begin very slowly to take root. The earliest missionaries were lay
people who had been converted outside their country. Pietro Yi was baptized at
Pechino in 1784: he was the first Korean to be received into the church, but he
was also the first to apostatize, when persecution broke out in 1791.
Through the last years of the eighteenth century persecution was sporadic
and localized, but in 1801 it was extended to the whole of the country. One
Chinese priest, who had succeeded in entering Korea, offered himself for
martyrdom in the hope that his death would bring the sufferings of his fellow
Christians to an end. He was beheaded on May 31st 1801, and the persecution
went on.
Yet these early martyrs were not among those canonized by Pope John
Paul II in the cathedral of Seoul, where the relics of so many of them lie, on May
6th 1984. Of the many thousand – perhaps more than 8,000 not counting those
who died of cold or starvation as they fled the tortures of the persecutors – 103
were chosen by name as representatives of the rest. They were selected from
those who died in the persecutions which began in 1839 lasted until 1846, and
those which lasted from 1861 to the beginning of 1866.
By the time of the renewed persecution – brought about both in 1839 and
1861 by the return to power of the conservative faction of the Korean ruling class
– there was a small number of missionaries in the country, two French priests
and a bishop, all three died by beheading on September 21st 1839. On September
16th 1846 there died Andrew Kim, the first and at that time only, Korean-born-
priest. Two more bishops, and a number of other French missionaries died in
the later persecution.
These were the clergy, but by far the greatest number of those named as
saints by the pope near the spot where so many of them had died by beheading
or strangulation, were ordinary lay people. Some of them were of high rank, but
most were ordinary men and women, often linked by family ties as well as by the
bonds of faith, mothers and their children, wives and their husbands. For
several their crime was that they had worked as catechist in spreading the faith
which, until 1881, was referred to in official documents as “the perverse
doctrine”.
The persecution, which lasted until 1866, was the last: religious liberty
was conceded in 1886, and today the Church flourishes. Though the 103 whose
sanctity was formally recognized were canonized together, they had been
beatified in two groups: those of the earlier persecution by Pius XI in July 1925,
those of the later one by Paul VI in October 1968

Skema
2025-09-21
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
25th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
September 21 – 27, 2025

Sun
21
Mon
22
Tue
23
Wed
24
Thu
25
Fri
26
Sat
27

Office
25th Sunday
Weekday
St Pius of Peitrelcina
Office for Vocations
Weekday
Weekday
St Vincent de Paul

Vigils
Song 6:4-7:6
Song 7:7-8:4
Song 8:5-14
Sir 31:1-17
Sir 31:18-31
Sir 32:1-13
Sir 32:14-24

Lauds
Zephaniah 1:1-6
Zeph 1:7-13
Zeph 1:14-18
Zeph 2:1-7
Zeph 2:8-15
Zeph 3:1-7
Zeph 3:8-13

Mass
135
449
450
451
452
453
454

1st
Amos 8:4-7
Ezra 1:1-6
Ezra 6:7-8, 12b, 14-20
Ezra 9:5-9
Hag 1:1-8
Hag 2:1-9
Zech 2:5-9, 14-15a

2nd
1 Tim 2:1-8

Gospel
Luke 16:1-13
Luke 8:16-18
Luke 8:19-21
Luke 9:1-6
Luke 9:7-9
Luke 9:18-22
Luke 9:43b-45

Vespers
1 Tim 3:1-7
1 Tim 3:8-13
1 Tim 3:14-4:5
1 Tim 4:6-10
1 Tim 4:11-16
1 Tim 5:1-8
1 Tim 5:17-25

Vigils Reading - 25th Sunday
2025-09-21
OUR HOMELAND IN HEAVEN
From a commentary by Gaudentius of Brescia
◊◊◊
The Lord Jesus, true teacher of the precepts that lead to salvation, wished
to urge the apostles in his own time and all believers today the Christian duty of
almsgiving. He therefore related the parable of the steward to make us realize
that nothing in this world really belongs to us. We have been entrusted with the
administration of our Lord’s property to use what we need with thanksgiving,
and to distribute the rest among our fellow servants according to the need of
each one. We must not squander the wealth entrusted to us, nor use it on
superfluities, for when the Lord comes we shall be required to account for our
expenditure.
Finally, at the end of the parable, the Lord adds: Use worldly wealth to
make friends with the poor, so that when it fails you, when you have spent all
you possess on the needs of the poor and have nothing left, they may welcome
you into eternal dwellings.
In other words, these same poor people will befriend you by assuring your
salvation, for Christ, the giver of eternal rewards, will declare that he himself
received the acts of kindness done to them. Not in their own name, then, will
these poor folk welcome us, but in the name of him who is refreshed in their
persons by the fruit of our faith and obedience. Those who exercised this
ministry of love will be received into the eternal dwellings of the kingdom of
heaven, for the King will say: Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the
kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world; for I was hungry
and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink.
But if you have been untrustworthy in the administration of worldly
wealth, who is going to trust you with true riches? For if someone cannot be
relied on to administer worldly possessions that provide the means for all sorts
of wrong doing, would anyone dream of trusting that person with the true
heavenly riches rightly and deservedly enjoyed by those who have been faithful
in giving to the poor?
The Lord’s query above is immediately followed by another: If you cannot
be trusted with another’s property, who will give you your own? Nothing in
this world really belongs to us. We who hope for a future reward are told to live
in this world as strangers and pilgrims, so as to be able to say to the Lord without
fear of contradiction: I am a stranger and a pilgrim like all my ancestors.
What believers can regard as their own is that eternal and heavenly
possession where our heart is and our treasure, and where intense longing
makes us dwell already through faith, for as Saint Paul teaches, Our homeland
is in heaven.

Vigils Reading
2025-09-22
THE THANKS THAT SPRINGS
FROM A PURE HEART
From a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux
◊◊◊
“In all things give thanks to God.” If you can credit yourself with wisdom
or with virtue, realize that the credit is due rather to Christ, who is the Power
and the Wisdom of God.
“Who is so mad,” you say, “as to presume otherwise?” Actually nobody.
Even the Pharisee gives thanks, although his justice merits no praise from God.
And if, as the Gospel points out, his act of thanksgiving does not increase his
grace, why is this so? Because the pieties that our mouths proclaim will not
justify the pride of our heart in the sight of him who is repelled by the arrogant.
“God is not mocked, O Pharisee. What do you have that was not given to you?”
“Nothing,” he says, “and therefore I offer thanks to the giver.” But if there is
really nothing, then you had no antecedent merit to warrant your reception of
the things of which you boast. And if you admit this, then in the first place it is
futile to give yourself airs at the expense of the publican who does not possess as
much as you because he has not received as much.
Secondly, make sure you realize that God’s gifts are entirely his own; if
you attribute to yourself some of the glory and honor that are his, you may
deservedly be convicted of fraud, of attempting to defraud God. If you brazenly
boast of gifts as though they were your own, I should prefer to believe you are
deceived, not that you wish to defraud. It is an error I should hope to correct.
But when you make thanksgiving, you manifest that you regard nothing as your
own, you wisely acknowledge that your merits are really God’s gifts.
When you despise others, however, you betray the inner reality of your
condition, you are speaking from a double heart, with one lending your tongue
to a lie, with the other usurping the honor due to truth. Never would you judge
the publican more despicable than yourself if you did not consider that you are
more honorable than he. But how will you reply to the principle laid down by the
Apostle: ‘Honor and glory to the only God?’…
Do you not perceive that the Pharisee, in offering thanks, honors God with
his lips but in his heart pays tribute to himself? And so, through force of habit
more than by intention or inclination, you will hear people of all sorts
pronouncing words of thanks, for even the wickedest persons will offer a
perfunctory thanks to God…for any kind of crime, because things fell out well
and prosperous, at least according to their estimation, when their perverse will
was fulfilled. For instance, when the thief has bagged the loot for which he has
planned, he celebrates in the privacy of his hide-out and says: “Thank God!”…
It is clear then that God will listen only to the thanks that spring from a
pure and genuine simplicity of heart. I say “pure heart,” because when those
who boast of their evil conduct presume to thank God for it, they bring him
down to the level of their own profligacy and make him share in their wicked
pleasures. God says to people of this kind: “Do you really think I am like you?”

Vigils Reading - St Pius of Peitrelcina
2025-09-23
A LETTER FROM PADRE PIO
TO HIS SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR
◊◊◊
I reply to your last letter after a slight delay, not because I felt less need to
speak to my father, but solely on account of the exceptional state of my health…
Your own letter…brought some slight relief to my poor soul, sufficient to make it
possible to bear – I do not say lightheartedly, but at least steadfastly – the cross
to which the Lord in his mercy has been pleased to subject me. For this may the
goodness of the heavenly Father ever be blessed…
I told you…that your letter, thank heaven, brought me a little relief. But I
submit to you also the very great terror I experienced when I learned that you
suspect those threats which I mentioned in my last. As you know, Father, I
would not wish to be a victim of the devil in anything whatsoever and although I
am more certain of the reality of those locutions than I am of my own existence,
I am still struggling against myself and protest that I want to believe nothing of
all this, for the sole reason that you, my director, have cast a doubt upon it. Am I
right or wrong in this?
You must know…that Jesus has not shown offense by any means at my
failure to attach importance to what he said and to give my accidental assent to
it. I say accidental to distinguish it from that deep and substantial conviction
which still endures after all the efforts of my soul not to believe it. I am not free
to divest myself of this conviction. What am I to do, Father? Am I unwittingly a
victim of the enemy? Enlighten me, for pity’s sake, on this point, which I too
would prefer to remain obscure.
How difficult…is the way of Christian perfection for a soul as ill-disposed
as mine! My wickedness makes me fearful at every step I take: may the good
God sustain me and prevent me from betraying him! I attach no importance at
all to this extraordinary state of mine. For this reason I never stop asking Jesus
to lead me by the ordinary path followed by everyone else, for I am well aware
that the way by which divine mercy is leading me is not suitable for my soul,
accustomed as it is to very material food. What I say to the Lord is that I am
seeking the amendment of my life, my spiritual resurrection, true and
substantial love, the sincere conversion of my whole self to him.
Speak to me at length, my dear Father, about all this and if you find me at
fault, do not keep silent. Raise your voice, punish me again: I want to love Jesus
as I should. I desire this love; I know I love him, but – dear God! – how inferior
my love is to my desire to love! Ought it not be the opposite, that my love should
surpass the desire for it? Speak to me about this, knowing as you do that it is one
of the many thorns which contribute to my spiritual martyrdom… I kiss your
hand and ask you not to refuse me your fatherly blessing.

Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
2025-09-24
LEADING HIS SHEEP TO PASTURE
From a homily by St Augustine
◊◊◊
Concern with my charge as a bishop has unceasingly preoccupied me
since I have had placed upon my shoulders this burden of which I have
rigorously to give account. But what is there to fear in this gift of being a bishop?
It is that I may be carried away by the perilous honor that it comprises for us,
rather than by the fruitful salvation which it brings to you. Come to my aid, then,
with your prayers, so that he who did not disdain to confer my burden upon me
may deign to bear it with me.
Now, when you offer this prayer, it is for yourselves that you are praying.
For, this burden of mine of which I speak, what else is it, if it is not you? Pray
that I may be strong, as I, for my part, pray that you may not be heavy. Our Lord
Jesus Christ would never, indeed, have called his burden light if he were not
carrying it with the bearer. And you, also must uphold me, so that, in accordance
with the command of the Apostle, we may bear one another’s burdens, and so
fulfill the law of Christ. If he does not bear it with us, we succumb; if he does not
bear us, we fall.
If what I am on your behalf terrifies me, what I am with you reassures me.
For you, indeed, I am the bishop; with you I am a Christian. Bishop, that is the
title of a charge which one assumes; Christian, that is the name of the grace
which one receives. A perilous title; a saving name.
In any event, we are tossed about in the whirlwind of this activity as
though in an immense sea. But, remembering with what blood we have been
redeemed, and rendered tranquil by this thought, we come as though into a sure
haven; toiling at a charge which is personal to us, we find rest in the blessedness
that is common to all. If it is more pleasing to me to be redeemed with you than
to be your head, I shall be more fully your servant, as the Lord ordains. And so,
may I never be in debt for the price, thanks to which I have succeeded in
becoming your fellow-servant.
I must indeed love my Redeemer, and I know what he says to Peter:
“Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep.” He says it once, twice, three times. He
questions Peter on love, he prescribes the work to be done, for the greater the
love, the less the toil. “What shall I render the Lord for all his bounty to me?”
Should I dare to say that I will repay him by leading his sheep to pasture? I do so,
to be sure, but not I; it is the “grace of God towards me.” Where, then shall I find
what is my due, if from every direction he forestalls me? One could in fact ask
no payment of one whom one loves freely, if the payment were not the very
person whom one loves.

Vigils Reading
2025-09-25
CHRIST RECONCILED
JEW AND GENTILE
From the Second Vatican Council’s declaration “Nostra Aetate”
◊◊◊
For the Church of Christ acknowledges that, according to the mystery of
God’s saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election are already
found among the patriarchs, Moses, and the prophets. She professes that all
who believe in Christ, Abraham’s sons according to faith are included in the
same patriarch’s call, and likewise that the salvation of the Church was
mystically foreshadowed by the chosen people’s exodus from the land of
bondage.
The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of
the Old Testament through the people with whom in God’s inexpressible mercy
deigned to establish the Ancient Covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws
sustenance from the root of that good olive tree onto which have been grafted
the wild olive branches of the Gentiles. Indeed, the Church believes that by His
cross Christ, our Peace, reconciled Jew and Gentile, making them both one in
Himself.
Also, the Church ever keeps in mind the words of the Apostle about his
kinsmen, “who have the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenant and
the legislation and the worship and the promises; who have the fathers, and
from whom is Christ according to the flesh”, the son of the Virgin Mary. The
Church recalls too that from the Jewish people sprang the apostles, her
foundation stones and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who
proclaimed Christ to the world.
As holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her
visitation, nor did the Jews in large number accept the gospel; indeed, not a few
opposed the spreading of it. Nevertheless, according to the Apostle, the Jews
still remain most dear to God because of their fathers, for He does not repent of
the gifts He makes nor of the calls He issues. In company with the prophets and
the same Apostle, the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all
peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and “serve him with one accord”.
Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so
great, this sacred Synod wishes to foster and recommend that mutual
understanding and respect which is the fruit above all of biblical and theological
studies, and of brotherly dialogues.
True, authorities of the Jews and those who followed their lead pressed
for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be blamed
upon all the Jews then living, without distinction, nor upon the Jews of today.
Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented
as repudiated or cursed by God, as if such views followed from the Holy
Scriptures. All should take pains, then, lest in catechetical instruction and in the
preaching of God’s Word they teach anything out of harmony with the truth of
the gospel and the spirit of Christ.

Vigils Reading
2025-09-26
THE FRAGRANCE OF
GOD’S HEALING PRESENCE
From a meditation by William of Saint-Thierry
◊◊◊
Lord, you are pitying and merciful, patient and kind beyond all measure.
You are gracious to all, and your compassions rest on all your works. You
yourself exhort us, Lord, to pray and to watch in prayer; so does your Holy
Spirit. You exhort us and teach us to do so, out of your tenderness and pity and
your will to show us mercy. And you make out our case beforehand for us,
establishing for us judgment and justice, so that, if we pray as we should, you
may have just cause for showing mercy. And you have fixed for us even our form
of prayer, so that you, who are for us both judge and advocate, may in no respect
fail us in our cause. And you have told us to ask boldly in your name, and to
believe that we shall receive whatever we have asked, and that those things for
which we pray will come to pass.
It is your goodness, Lord, that leads you to do this; we, on the other hand,
are bound by grim necessity. And yet, in spite of all your exhortation, we are
slow to pray; in spite of your bidding we neglect to do it, and we do not believe
your promises. Nevertheless, you in your mercy and your great compassion
rouse the slothful and the negligent; your patience overlooks our lack of trust.
And further, since we neither know how to pray aright, nor have the power to do
so, you send your Holy Spirit, that he may help our weakness and intercede for
us with groanings that cannot be uttered.
We pray, therefore, because you tell us to do so; we ask with confidence,
because we have your promise; and forthwith you run to meet us and answer
our prayer, finding in us a ground for your forgiveness, because you have
yourself made us forgivable.
Loving as you are, O Lord, now you multiply your loving-kindness on us
all, and we begin to see your mercies that are over all your works. For when, O
God, instead of fleeing from us, you begin to draw near and to rejoice our spirits
with your consolation, the soul’s dead senses catch the fragrance of your healing
presence and perceive its touch, and forthwith come to life; faith leaps up and
confidence is cheered; the heart is kindled, and tears run down to fan the new-lit
fire, not to quench it.
When your Spirit helps our weakness thus, your sweetness moves us to
weep copious floods of sweet and fruitful tears; and when your loving-comfort
wipes the tears away, they flow the more profusely and become our meat by day
and night, a strong and pleasant food. For it is a happy thing for us who are your
people and the sheep of your pasture, O Lord our God, to weep before you who
are our Creator.

Vigils Reading - St Vincent de Paul
2025-09-27
ST VINCENT DE PAUL
From the writing of John P McGowan
◊◊◊
St Vincent de Paul has been proclaimed the “Universal Patron of Charity.”
If the changes which he effected in the domain of charity were so radical as to
merit him this title, then we are forced to conclude that the ideas that moved
him were equally as radical. [In this,] he has contributed much to what has been
called the devotional revolution of the Counter-Reformation—the renewed
veneration for the Incarnate Word…
When the Saint arrived in Paris in 1608, after his varied and adventurous
career, he was twenty-eight. Almost immediately, he placed himself under the
direction of Father, later Cardinal, de Bérulle, an eminent ecclesiastic to whom
all the priests of Paris who aspired to a higher degree of perfection instinctively
turned for guidance… De Bérulle maintained that God is the center about which
all religious life should turn.
Spiritual thought had for too long a time preferred to adopt the…
“reformation of self”— the planting of virtues and the uprooting of vices —as the
end of perfection. This made for preoccupation with self and led to an
exaggerated individualism. De Bérulle restored the virtue of religion to its pre-
eminent place by laying down as the cornerstone of his doctrine the principle
that the greatness and majesty of God must be recognized before everything
else, even one’s salvation…
The second principle of this doctrine is that God can only be fittingly
worshiped in the Incarnate Word. The center and bond of all is Christ, God like
the Father, and Man like ourselves, Who united heaven and earth in Himself,
and Who is Himself our Religion. Christ is the great Adorer, the great Sacrificer,
the great High Priest. [What St Vincent did for this doctrine] was reaffirm the
social implications of perfection by insisting that God must be loved in Christ
and that Christ must be loved in all people, and all people [must be loved] in
Him…
To “put on the Spirit of Christ” is in the eyes of St Vincent the primary,
sovereign and all-embracing means of realizing this end. It serves as a guiding
principle by which one can acquire the “Mind of Christ.” St Vincent sees the one
who has put on the “Spirit of Christ” as a christ who will do the work of Christ…
He never tires of teaching that Christ is the Master Whose lessons must be
learned by all who would follow Him…
[St Vincent himself says:] “Our vocation is…to go, not into one parish, or
into one province only, but through the entire earth. For what purpose? To
influence the hearts of all, to do what the Son of God has done; He, Who came to
cast fire on this earth and to overspread it with the flame of His love; what have
we to desire unless His love should burn and consume all?… It is not enough
that I love God, if my neighbor does not also love Him… I ought to love my
neighbor [in order to] cause them to love their most lovable Creator, that by a
return of love they may be inflamed with love of God, who has so loved them as
to deliver His own Son to death for their salvation. This is my obligation.”

Skema
2025-09-28
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
26th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
Sept. 28 – Oct. 4, 2025

Sun
28
Mon
29
Tue
30
Wed
1
Thu
2
Fri
3
Sat
4

Office
26th Sunday
St Michael & All Angels
St Jerome
St Theresa of the Child Jesus
Weekday
Louisville Cathedral
St Francis

Vigils
Sir 33:1-18
Dan 10:4-11:1
Sir 33:19-33
Sir 34:1-20
Sir 34:21-31
2 Chron 7:1-16
Sir 35:1-14

Lauds
Zeph 3:14-20
Gen 28:10-17
Haggai 1:1-8
Hag 1:9-11
Hag 1:12-15
Ezek 43:1-7a
Hag 2:1-9

Mass
138
647
456
457
458
701.1, 706.2
460

1st
Amos 6:1a, 4-7
Rev 12:7-12a
Zech 8:20-23
Neh 2:1-8
Neh 8:1-4a, 5-6, 7b-12
1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30
Bar 4:5-12, 27-29

2nd
1 Tim 6:11-16

Gospel
Luke 16:19-31
John 1:47-51
Luke 9:51-56
Luke 9:57-62
Luke 10:1-12
Luke 19:1-10
Luke 10:17-24

Vespers
1 Tim 6:3-10
Heb 1:5-14
1 Tim 6:11-16
1 Tim 6:17-21
2 Tim 1:1-8
Rev 21:1-5
2 Tim 1:9-14

Vigils Reading - 26th Sunday
2025-09-28
THE HOSPITALITY OF ABRAHAM
From a commentary by St John Chrysostom
◊◊◊
It is worthwhile inquiring why the rich man saw Lazarus in Abraham’s
arms, and not in the company of some other righteous person. The reason is
that Abraham was hospitable, and so the sight of Lazarus with Abraham was
meant to reproach the rich man for his own in hospitality. Abraham used to
pursue even passers-by and drag them into his home, whereas the rich man
disregarded someone lying in his own doorway. Although he had within his
grasp so great a treasure, such an opportunity to win salvation, he ignored the
poor man day after day. He could have helped him but he failed to do so.
The patriarch was not like that but just the opposite. He would sit in his
doorway and catch all who passed by. And just as a fisherman casting a net into
the sea hauls up fish, yes, but also quite often gold and pearls, so Abraham while
catching people in his net finished by catching angels, though strangely enough
without knowing it.
Even Paul marvels at this and gives the advice: Remember to welcome
strangers into your homes, for some by doing so have entertained angels
without knowing it. And he did well to say without knowing it, for if Abraham
had welcomed his guests with such kindness because he knew who they were he
would have done nothing remarkable. He is praiseworthy only because, without
knowing who the passers-by were and taking them to be simply human
wayfarers, he yet invited them in with such good will.
And this is true of you also. If you show much eagerness in welcoming
some famous and distinguished person you do nothing remarkable; often the
high rank of a guest compels even a reluctant host to show every sign of
courtesy. But we do something truly great and admirable when we give a most
courteous welcome to all, even the outcasts of society or people of humble
condition. Hence Christ himself praised those who so acted, declaring:
Whatever you did for one of these very poor people you did to me. He also said:
It is not your Father’s will that one of these little ones should perish. Indeed
throughout the gospel Christ speaks a great deal about the little people and
those of the humblest condition.
And so Abraham also, knowing this, did not ask who travelers were or
where they come from, as we do today, but simply welcomed them all. Anyone
wishing to show kindness should not inquire into other people’s lives, but has
only to alleviate their poverty and supply their needs, as Christ commanded
when he said: Imitate your Father in heaven, who makes his sun to rise on good
and bad alike, and sends rain on the just and unjust.

Vigils Reading - St Michael & All Angels
2025-09-29
THE MESSENGERS OF GOD
From the writing of St Gregory the Great
◊◊◊
You should be aware that the word “angel” denotes a function rather than
a nature. Those holy spirits of heaven have indeed always been spirits. They can
only be called angels when they deliver some message. Moreover those who
deliver messages of lesser importance are called angels; and those who proclaim
messages of supreme importance are called archangels.
And so it was that not merely an angel but the archangel Gabriel was sent
to the Virgin Mary. It was only fitting that the highest angel should come to
announce the greatest of messages.
Some angels are given proper names to denote the service they are
empowered to perform. In that holy city where perfect knowledge flows from
the vision of Almighty God, those who have no names may easily be known. But
personal names are assigned to some, not because they would not be known
without them, but rather to denote their ministry when they come among us.
Thus Michael means “Who is like God?”; Gabriel is “The Strength of God”; and
Raphael is “God’s Remedy”.
Whenever some act of wondrous power must be performed, Michael is
sent, so that his action and his name may make it clear that no one can do what
God does by his superior power. So also our ancient foe desired in his pride to be
like God, saying: I will ascend into heaven; I will exalt my throne above the
stars of heaven; I will be like the Most High. He will be allowed to remain in
power until the end of the world when he will be destroyed in the final
punishment. Then he will fight with the archangel Michael, as we are told by
John: A battle was fought with Michael the archangel.
So too Gabriel, who is called God’s strength, was sent to Mary. He came to
announce the One who appeared as a humble man to quell the cosmic powers.
Thus God’s strength announced the coming of the Lord of the heavenly powers,
mighty in battle.
Raphael means…God’s remedy, for when he touched Tobit’s eyes in order
to cure him, he banished the darkness of his blindness. Thus since he is to heal,
he is rightly called God’s remedy.

Vigils Reading - St Jerome
2025-09-30
A LETTER FROM ST JEROME
TO ST EUSTOCHIUM
◊◊◊
When the inner man has begun to waver a little between vices and virtues,
say: Why art thou sad, O my soul? And why dost thou trouble me? Hope in
God, for I will give praise to Him: the salvation of my countenance, and my
God. I would not have you permit such a thought to arise. Let nothing that is of
Babylon, nothing of confusion, grow up within you. While the enemy is small,
destroy him. Let wickedness be nipped in the bud.
How often, when I was established in the desert and in that vast solitude
which is scorched by the sun’s heat and affords a savage habitation for monks,
did I think myself amid the delights of Rome! I would sit alone because I was
filled with bitterness. My limbs were roughly clad in sackcloth – an unlovely
sight. My neglected skin had taken on the appearance of an Ethiopian’s body.
Daily I wept, daily I groaned, and whenever insistent slumber overcame
my resistance, I bruised my awkward bones upon the bare earth. Of food and
drink I say nothing, since even the sick drink only cold water, and to get any
cooked food is a luxury. There was I, therefore, who from fear of hell had
condemned myself to such a prison, with only scorpions and wild beasts as
companions. Yet I was often surrounded by dancing girls. My face was pale
from fasting, and my mind was hot with desire in a body cold as ice. Though my
flesh, before its tenant, was already as good as dead, the fires of passions kept
boiling within me.
And so, destitute of all help, I used to lie at Jesus’ feet. I bathed them with
my tears, I wiped them with my hair. When my flesh rebelled, I subdued it by
weeks of fasting. I do not blush at my hapless state; nay rather, I lament that I
am not now what I was then. I remember that I often joined day to night with
my lamentation and did not cease beating my breast until peace of mind
returned with the Lord’s rebuke. I was afraid even of my little cell – as though it
were conscious of my thoughts. Angry at myself and tense, I used to go out
alone into the desert. Whenever I saw some deep valley, some rugged
mountain, some precipitous crags, it was this I made my place of prayer, my
place of punishment for the wretched flesh. And – as my Lord Himself is
witness – after many tears, after fixing my eyes on the heaven, I sometimes
seemed to myself to be surrounded by companies of angels and rejoiced, singing
happily: We run after thee to the odor of thy ointments.

Vigils Reading - St Theresa of the Child Jesus
2025-10-01
THE CHILD DESTINED
TO BE A SAINT
From “The Hidden Face: A Life of Thérèse of Lisieux” by Ida Goerres
◊◊◊
To what extent little Thérèse had, in the depths of her self, really
renounced her beloved sister…is revealed clearly enough by her own description
of the agonies suffered in the visiting room at the Carmel… Thérèse resigned
herself to her sister’s abandonment…but in the dark, speechless abysses of the
blood all the forces of nature rebelled, immoderately and irreconcilably, against
this deprivation…
The demonic influence…should be perceived in the uncanny struggle that
must have gone on in the unconscious depths of her soul… A crisis which
produces a state of confusion and agitation in body and soul, which attacks
simultaneously a person’s alertness, confidence, presence of mind and powers
of resistance, can at the same time…also mean a grave temptation, a diabolical
invitation to discouragement in the face of life. It can lead to stifling inhibitions,
to erroneous interpretations of the self, to lifelong hypochondria about one’s
“weak” sides — all attitudes which may later on hinder radical, heroic
commitment… She was terrified by the incomprehensible forces that
overwhelmed her.
Nevertheless, we believe that a decision must have taken place deep
within her when, in the midst of her direst distress, the saving grace of the vision
of Mary shone upon her. We believe that at this point Thérèse was confronted
with a temptation, for all that it was hidden in the unplumbed depths of her
soul. For here she was confronted with alternatives, and the second of these was
the perilous one. She could accept the offered comfort, the new support and
protection. That is, she could abandon her wild despair over what she had lost,
could really carry out the unendurable renunciation within the core of her ego,
could release the hand of Pauline and reach across the irrevocable gulf for the
hand of the Blessed Virgin. Or…she could cling to her despair, could hold tight
to her neurosis, could maintain her protest…
Such decisions take place not by deliberate processes of thought, but far
below such strata of thoughts and words, by a lightning-like opening or closing
at the core of our being.
Precisely here we see the child destined to be a saint: not that the miracle
happened to her, but that she obeyed it. She did ‘the right thing’…in simple
obedience… She was beyond all human aid and almost insane with fear because
her state of abandonment was so incomprehensible to her. And yet, through all
this, her submissive heart clung, uncomprehendingly and tormentedly, but
prayerfully and trustfully, to God.
In this case, too, she learned the lesson that was later to be enunciated
again and again in her spiritual message to the world: that grace can do
anything, that grace offered, vouchsafed out of pure mercy, not to be won by any
degree of struggle; that acceptance of and dependence upon this grace is man’s
crucial ‘act’ which will save him gloriously when all toil and effort, all exercise of
will in renunciation, cannot help him to overcome his innate nature. To be sure,
she did not yet unconsciously know this, would not know it for a long time to
come. But she had experienced it; this lesson had entered her very being and
could no longer be expunged.

Vigils Reading
2025-10-02
BEING PLACED INSIDE
GOD’S GRANDEUR
By St Teresa of Avila
◊◊◊
You must have already heard about God’s marvels manifested in the way
silk originates. The silkworms come from seeds about the size of little grains of
pepper… When the warm weather comes and the leaves begin to appear on the
mulberry tree, the seeds start to live, for they are dead until then. The worms
nourish themselves on the mulberry leaves until, having grown to full size, they
settle on some twigs. There with their little mouths they themselves go about
spinning the silk and making some very thick little cocoons in which they
enclose themselves. The silkworm, which is fat and ugly, then dies, and a little
white butterfly, which is very pretty, comes forth from the cocoon.
Now if this were not seen but recounted to us as having happened in other
times, who would believe it? Or what reasoning could make us conclude that a
thing as nonrational as a worm or bee could be so diligent in working for our
benefit and with so much industriousness? And the poor little worm loses its life
in the challenge. Well, once this silkworm is grown, it begins to spin the silk and
build the house wherein it will die. I would like to point out here that this house
is Christ.
Therefore, courage! Let’s be quick to do this work and weave this little
cocoon by taking away our self-love and self-will, our attachment to any earthly
thing, and by performing deeds of penance, prayer, mortification, obedience,
and of all the other things you know. Would to heaven that we would do what we
know we must; and we are instructed about what we must do. Let it die; let this
silkworm die, as it does in completing what it was created to do! And you will see
how we see God, as well as ourselves placed inside God’s grandeur, as is this
little silkworm within its cocoon.
Oh, now, to see the restlessness of this little butterfly, even though it has
never been quieter and calmer in its life, is something to praise God for! And the
difficulty is that it doesn’t know where to alight and rest. Since it has
experienced such wonderful rest, all that is sees on earth displaces it, especially
if God gives it this wine often. Almost each time it gains new treasures. It no
longer has any esteem for the works it did while a worm, which was to weave the
cocoon little by little; it now has wings. How can it be happy walking step by step
when it can fly?

Vigils Reading - Louisville Cathedral
2025-10-03
ON THE DEDICATION OF A CHURCH
By St Bernard of Clairvaux
◊◊◊
Today we celebrate another glorious feast: it is the feast of the Lord’s
house, of God’s temple, of the city of the eternal King, of Christ’s bride. Let us
ask ourselves what this house of God, this temple, this city, and this bride can
be. With awe and reverence I say: It is we ourselves. I say it is we ourselves, but
in the heart of God; it is we ourselves, but by his grace and not by any merits of
our own. We humans must beware of appropriating what belongs to God, of
taking the glory to ourselves; otherwise, if we exalt ourselves, he will humble us
and bring us down to our proper level.
On the other hand, a humble acknowledgment of our maladies will arouse
his compassion. Indeed, this is enough to make God feed us in our hunger like a
well-to-do father. So, under his protection we shall have bread in abundance
and thus become his house in which life-giving food is never lacking.
Bear in mind also that he describes his house as a house of prayer, and
that holiness befits this house; then the purity of self-restraint will accompany
the tears of repentance, and what is already God’s house will become his temple
as well. Be holy, says the Lord, because I am holy. And the Apostle says: Do you
not realize that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and the Holy
Spirit dwells in you?
But is even holiness enough? According to the Apostle, peace too is
necessary, for he says: Strive to be at peace with everyone, and to achieve the
holiness without which no one can see God. It is peace that makes brothers
dwell together in unity and builds for our king, the true king of peace, a new city
also called Jerusalem, which means “vision of peace.”
But how can so great a king become a bridegroom, and a city a bride? This
is possible to love alone, which is as strong as death, and can do anything. Can it
not easily lift her up, when it has already brought him down?
And so, if the abundance of our food shows us to be the house of a great
Father, if holiness shows us to be God’s temple, if the sharing of a common life
shows us to be the city of the great king, and if love shows us to be the bride of
the immortal bridegroom, then we can surely say without hesitation that today’s
feast is our feast. Nor should you be surprised that such a feast is celebrated here
on earth; it is, after all, being celebrated in heaven too! For if as Truth says, so it
must be true, there is joy in heaven and even among God’s angels over a single
sinner repenting, then the joy there today must be many times greater at so
many sinners repenting. Let us then share the rejoicing of the angels, let us
share the joy of God, and let us keep today’s feast with thanksgiving, for the fact
that it is our own should make us all the more willing to celebrate it.

Vigils Reading - St Francis
2025-10-04
ST FRANCIS AND THE PEASANT
From “The Little Flowers of St Francis”
◊◊◊
The next morning, as his companions knew that…St Francis was too weak
to be able to continue the journey on foot, they went up to a poor local peasant
and asked him, for the love of God to lend his donkey for their Father, Brother
Francis, who could not travel on foot. Hearing Brother Francis mentioned, the
man asked them: “Are you the friars of that Brother Francis of Assisi about
whom people say so much good?”
The friars answered, “Yes,” and that it was really for him that they were
asking for the donkey.
Then with great devotion and care this good man saddled the donkey and
led it to St Francis, and with great reverence helped him get into the saddle.
Then they continued their journey, the peasant walking with them behind
his donkey. And after they had gone awhile, he said to St Francis: “tell me, are
you Brother Francis of Assisi?”
St Francis answered that he was.
“Well then,” said the peasant, “try to be as good as everyone thinks you
are, because many people have great faith in you, so I urge you: never let there
be anything in you different from what they expect of you.”
When St Francis heard these words, he did not mind being admonished
by a peasant, and he did not say to himself, as many proud fellows who wear the
cowl nowadays would say, “Who is this brute who admonishes me?” But he15
immediately got off the donkey and threw himself on his knees before the
farmer and humbly kissed his feet, thanking him for having deigned to
admonish him so charitably.
Then his companions and the peasant very devoutly helped him to his feet
and sat him on the donkey again. And they traveled on.
And when they had climbed about halfway up the mountain, because the
summer heat was very great and the path was long and steep, the peasant began
to suffer intensely from thirst, and he called ahead to St Francis: “I am dying of
thirst. If I don’t have something to drink, I’ll suffocate in a minute!”
So St Francis immediately got off the donkey and began to pray. And he
remained kneeling on the ground, raising his hands toward heaven, until he
knew by revelation that God had granted his prayer. Then he said to the
peasant, “run quickly to that rock, and their you’ll find running water which
Christ in his mercy has just caused to flow from the rock.”
The man ran to the place which St Francis had shown him, and found a
very fine spring that had been made to flow through the hard rock by the power
of St Francis’ prayer. And he drank all he wanted and felt better.

Skema
2025-10-05
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
27th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
October 5 – 11, 2025

Sun
5
Mon
6
Tue
7
Wed
8
Thu
9
Fri
10
Sat
11

Office
27th Sunday
St Bruno
Our Lady of the Rosary
Office for the Dead
Weekday
Weekday
St John XXIII

Vigils
Sir 35:15-26
Sir 36:1-22
Judith 15:8-16:2, 11-16
Sir 36:23-31
Sir 37:1-15
Sir 37:16-31
Sir 38:1-23

Lauds
Hag 2:10-14
Hag 2:15-19
Sir 39:12-22
Hag 2:20-23
Zechariah 1:1-6
Zech 1:7-13
Zech 1:14-17

Mass
141
461
462
463
464
465
466

1st
Habb 1:2-3; 2:2-4
Jonah 1:1-2:2, 11
Jonah 3:1-10
Jonah 4:1-11
Mal 3:13-20b
Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2
Joel 4:12-21

2nd
2 Tim 1:6-8, 13-14

Gospel
Luke 17:5-10
Luke 10:25-37
Luke 10:38-42
Luke 11:1-4
Luke 11:5-13
Luke 11:15-26
Luke 11:27-28

Vespers
2 Tim 2:1-7
2 Tim 2:8-13
Acts 1:12-14
2 Tim 2:14-19
2 Tim 2:20-26
2 Tim 3:1-9
2 Tim 3:10-17

Vigils Reading - 27th Sunday
2025-10-05
WATCH AND PRAY
From a commentary by St Augustine
◊◊◊
Reading the holy gospel nourishes in us the habit of prayer, builds up our
faith, and disposes us to trust in the Lord rather than in ourselves. What more
powerful motive to prayer could be proposed to us than the parable of the unjust
judge? An unprincipled man, without fear of God or regard for other people,
that judge nevertheless ended by granting the widow’s petition. No kindly
sentiment moved him to do so; he was rather worn down by her pestering. Now
if a man can grant a request even when it is odious to him to be asked, how can
we be refused by the one who urges us to ask?
Having persuaded us, therefore, by a comparison of opposites that we
ought always to pray and never lose heart, the Lord goes on to put the
question: Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, do you think he will find
faith on earth? Where there is no faith, there is no prayer. Who would pray for
something he did not believe in? So when the blessed apostle exhorts us to pray
he begins by declaring: Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved;
but to show that faith is the source of prayer and the stream will not flow if its
springs are dried up, he continues: But can people call upon him in whom they
do not believe?
We must believe, then, in order to pray; and we must ask God that the
faith enabling us to pray may not fail. Faith gives rise to prayer, and this prayer
obtains an increase of faith. Faith, I say, gives rise to prayer, and is in turn
strengthened by prayer. It was to guard against their faith failing in times of
temptation that the Lord told his disciples: Watch and pray that you may not
enter into temptation…
What does it mean to enter into temptation? It means to turn one’s back
on faith. Temptation grows stronger in proportion as faith weakens, and
becomes weaker in proportion as faith grows strong. To convince you, beloved,
that he was speaking of the weakening and loss of faith when he told his
disciples to watch and pray that they might not enter into temptation, the Lord
said in this same passage of the gospel: This night Satan has demanded to sift
you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail.
Is the protector to pray, while the person in danger has no need to do so?
But in asking whether the Son of Man would find faith on earth at his
coming, the Lord was speaking of perfect faith. That kind of faith is indeed
hardly to be found on earth. Look at God’s Church: it is full of people. Who
would come here if faith were non-existent? But who would not move
mountains if that faith were present in full measure? Mark the apostles: they
would never have left everything they possessed and spurned worldly ambition
to follow the Lord unless their faith had been great; and yet that faith of theirs
could not have been perfect, otherwise they would not have asked the Lord to
increase it.

Vigils Reading - St Bruno
2025-10-06
ST BRUNO
FOUNDER OF THE CARTHUSIANS
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints
◊◊◊
Bruno came of a good family and was born at Cologne about the year
1020. While still young he left home to finish his education at the cathedral
school of Rheims… In 1056 he was invited to return to his school as professor of
grammar and theology. He taught in the school of Rheims for eighteen years…
However Bruno had decided to abandon the active…life precisely at a
time when the church of Rheims was ready to choose him as archbishop.
He…renounced whatever held him in the world, and persuaded some of his
friends to accompany him into solitude. They first put themselves under the
direction of St Robert, abbot of Molesmes (who afterwards founded Citeaux),
and lived in a hermitage at Seche-Fontaine near by. In this solitude Bruno and
his companions deliberated what it was best for them to do. He decided to apply
to St Hugh, bishop of Grenoble…
St Bruno and his six companions arrived at Grenoble about midsummer
in 1084, and begged from St Hugh some place where they might serve God,
remote from worldly affairs… Hugh…assigned them to the desert of Chartreuse,
promising his utmost assistance to establish them there. Bruno and his
companions immediately built an oratory there, and small cells at a little
distance from the other, like the ancient lauras of Palestine. Such was the origin
of the order of the Carthusians, which took its name from this desert of
Chartreuse…
St Hugh became so great an admirer of Bruno that he took him for his
spiritual father and often went from Grenoble to the Chartreuse to enjoy his
conversation and improve himself by his advice and example. But his fame went
beyond Grenoble and reached the ears of Eudes de Chatillon, his former pupil
and now Pope Urban II… The Pope sent him an order to come to Rome that he
might assist him by his counsels in the governance of the Church. Bruno could
scarcely have met with a more severe trial of his obedience or made a greater
sacrifice. Nevertheless he set out in 1090…
Bruno…had permission to occupy a hermitage among the ruins of the
baths of Diocletian, where he would be close at hand when required by the pope.
Soon Pope Urban pressed him to accept the archbishopric of Reggio in Calabria,
but Bruno excused himself with great earnestness, and redoubled his requests
to live in solitude. Urban consented at length that he might retire to a wilderness
in Calabria where he would be at hand…
In 1099 Landuin, whom Bruno had appointed as Prior of the Chartreuse,
went to Calabria to consult Bruno about the form of living which he had
instituted, for the monks were desirous not to depart from the spirit and rule of
their master. Bruno wrote them a letter full of tender charity and the spirit of
God. In it he instructed them in all practices of solitary life, solved the
difficulties which they proposed to him, comforted them in their troubles, and
encouraged them in perseverance.
His last sickness came upon him towards the end of September 1101… He
resigned his soul to God on Sunday, October 6, 1101. St Bruno has never been
formally canonized, the Carthusians being averse to all occasions of publicity.
But in 1514 they obtained permission from Pope Leo X to keep his feast, and in
1674 Clement X extended it to the whole western Church.

Vigils Reading - Our Lady of the Rosary
2025-10-07
THE PRAYER OF MARY
From the Apostolic Letter of Pope John Paul II on the rosary
◊◊◊
The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, which gradually took form in the second
millenium under the guidance of the Spirit of God… still remains, at the dawn of
this third millenium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a
harvest of holiness. It…has lost none of the freshness of its beginnings and feels
drawn by the Spirit of God to set out into the deep…in order once more to
proclaim, and even to cry out, before the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and
Savior, the way, and the truth and the life, the goal of human history and the
point on which the desires of history and civilization turn.
The Rosary, though clearly Marian in character, is at heart a
Christocentric prayer. In the sobriety of its elements, it has all the depth of the
Gospel message in its entirety, of which it can be said to be a compendium. It is
an echo of the prayer of Mary, her perennial Magnificat for the work of the
redemptive Incarnation that began in her virginal womb. With the Rosary, the
Christian people sit at the school of Mary and are led to contemplate the beauty
of the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the Rosary
the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the
mother of the Redeemer…
The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary. In a
unique way, the face of the Son belongs to Mary. It was in her womb that Christ
was formed, receiving from her a human resemblance that points to an even
greater spiritual closeness. No one has ever devoted themselves to the
contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as Mary. The eyes of her heart
already turned to Him at the Annunciation, when she conceived him by the
power of the Holy Spirit.
Mary lived with her eyes fixed on Christ, treasuring His every word: She
kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. The memories of Jesus…were
always with her, leading her to reflect on the various moments of her life at her
Son’s side. In a way those memories were to be the rosary that she recited
uninterruptedly throughout her earthly life.
Even now, amid the joyful songs of the heavenly Jerusalem, the reasons
for her thanksgiving and praise remain unchanged. They inspire her maternal
concern for the pilgrim Church, in which she continues to relate her personal
account of the Gospel. Mary constantly sets before the faithful the mysteries of
her Son, with the desire that the contemplation of those mysteries will release
all their saving power. In the recitation of the Rosary, the Christian community
enters into contact with the memories and the contemplative gaze of Mary.

Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
2025-10-08
THE NEWNESS OF LIFE
From “The Mystery of Time” by Fr Jean Mouroux
◊◊◊
Christ died to deliver us from the condemnation to eternal death and from
the fear which enslaves the sinner. He has conquered death, the child of sin,
because he has conquered sin itself. He has undergone death to destroy it. He
has overcome this radical contradiction by elevating us to a participation in his
risen life, in “life eternal.” Death has not yet been completely eradicated, but it
has been completely transformed. Christ has delivered us all to the Cross
because He, the Head of mankind, the Center of the redeemed universe, the
Savior, “bore us all in Himself” during his sacrifice. Thus “if one died for all, then
all were dead”, and all are saved from the satanical power of death. It is love, not
damnation, which envelops us and restores us to God. It envelops us as
individuals; as members of the human race; and as members of the Church…
It’s infinite blessing affects our personal life at baptism, where with Christ
we “are dead to sin, but alive to God”. The power of the Risen Christ dwells in us
that “we may walk in the newness of life,” that each day we may cast sin farther
away and crown our lives with the divine agape. The life of Christians in time is
a paradoxical one. They are dead to sin, yet must die to it each day; they live in
God, and must live for him each day; they are the battleground of an
eschatological struggle in which Christ the Conqueror faces the vanquished
devil, that he may triumph once again in the freedom of a regenerated heart. By
immersing himself ever more deeply into baptism and Christ, the Christian
grows with Christ and brings about his victory even in death.
Insofar as he lives in Christ, the Christian is totally enveloped by Christ
both before and after death. Before death, Christ is the life-giving, saving Lord.
After death, he calls, judges, purifies, and transfigures the life he has given. Here
below, he communicates the seed of immortality, especially in the Eucharist. Up
above, He will be the source of glory which will transform our soul and our body.
The Eternal One is present before and after death. So at our death Christ is
present as the Savior who protects Christians from the last assault of the evil
one, revives their flagging spirits, and leads them from the time of testing to
their eternal reward.
Christ is the Mediator through whom and in whom every Christian
experiences death. Externally, death still seems to be a terrible process of
annihilation. But internally it is the mysterious maturation of the new creature
in Jesus Christ. “This is the will of my Father who sent me: that every one who
sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise them on
the last day”. “I am the bread of life. This is the bread that came down from
heaven so that one may eat it and not die”.
