Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Vigils Reading - St John Bosco
2026-01-31
GENTLE AND HUMBLE OF HEART
From a letter by St John Bosco
◊◊◊
My sons, in my long experience very often I had to be convinced of this
great truth. It is easier to become angry than to restrain oneself, and to threaten
a boy than to persuade him. Yes, indeed, it is more fitting to be persistent in
punishing our own impatience and pride than to correct the boys. We must be
firm but kind, and be patient with them.
See that no one finds you motivated by impetuosity or willfulness. It is
difficult to keep calm when administering punishment, but this must be done if
we are to keep ourselves from showing off our authority or spilling out our
anger.
Let us regard those boys over whom we have some authority as our own
sons. Let us place ourselves in their service. Let us be ashamed to assume an
attitude of superiority. Let us not rule over them except for the purpose of
serving them better.
This was the method that Jesus used with the apostles. He put up with their
ignorance and roughness and even their infidelity. He treated sinners with a
kindness and affection that caused some to be shocked, others to be scandalized,
and still others to hope for God’s mercy. And so he bade us to be gentle and humble
of heart.

Skema
2026-02-01
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
4th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (II)
February 1 – 7, 2026

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

Office
4th Sunday
Presentation of the Lord
Weekday
Office for the Dead
St Agatha
St Paul Miki & Comp
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Judg 14:1-20
Exod 13:1-16
Judg 15:1-20
Judg 16:1-22
Judg 16:23-31
Judg 17:1-13
Judg 18:1-11

Lauds
Amos 7:10-17
1 Sam 1:20-28
Amos 8:1-8
Amos 8:9-14
Amos 9:1-6
Amos 9:7-10
Amos 9:11-15

Mass
70
524
324
325
326
327
328

1st
Zeph 2:3; 3:12-13
Mal 3:1-4
2 Sam 18:9-10, 14b, 24-25a, 30-19:3
2 Sam 24:2, 9-17
1 Kgs 2:1-4, 10-12
Sir 47:2-11
1 Kgs 3:4-13

2nd
1 Cor 1:26-31
Heb 2:14-18

Gospel
Matt 5:1-12a
Luke 2:22-40
Mark 5:21-43
Mark 6:1-6
Mark 6:7-13
Mark 6:14-29
Mark 6:30-34

Vespers
Col 2:16-23
Rom 12:1-5
Col 3:1-11
Col 3:12-17
Col 3:18-4:1
Col 4:2-9
Col 4:10-18

Vigils Reading - 4th Sunday ORD
2026-02-01
BLESSED ARE
THE POOR IN SPIRIT
From a commentary by Symeon the New Theologian
◊◊◊
When holy Scripture is being read we should look at ourselves as though
in a mirror and consider our state of soul. Let me explain what I mean. We hear
the Lord saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. This must make us always examine and test ourselves whenever we
suffer humiliation, whenever we are insulted, dishonored, and treated with
contempt, to see whether or not we possess the virtue of humility. A person who
has it bears everything without feeling hurt or taking offense. His heart is not
wounded by anything that happens to him.
If he is slightly wounded he is not completely upset; on the contrary,
because of that heart wound, simply for having been slightly pained instead of
accepting what happened with joy, he is distressed and thinks himself
despicable, he grieves and weeps. Withdrawing into the inner chamber of his
soul or his cell, he falls down before God and confesses to him as though he had
completely forfeited eternal life.
Then again we hear: Blessed are those who mourn. Notice that the Lord
does not say those who have mourned, but those who continually mourn.
Concerning this too, then, we must examine ourselves to see whether we mourn
every day, for if we have been made humble by repentance, obviously we shall
not pass a single day or night without tears, without mourning, and without
compunction.
And again: Blessed are the gentle. Can anyone who mourns every day
continue to live in a state of anger and not become gentle? Just as water
extinguishes a blazing fire, so mourning and tears extinguish anger in the soul
so completely that a person who had long been given over to it sees his irascible
disposition transformed into perfect serenity.
Again we hear: Blessed are the merciful. Who, then, are the merciful?
Those who give away their possessions or who feed the poor? No. Then who
are they? Those who have become poor for the sake of him who became poor for
our sake, those who have nothing to give, but who in a spiritual way are always
mindful of the poor, the widows, the orphans, and the sick. Seeing them
frequently, they have compassion on them and shed burning tears over them.
Such was Job, who said: I wept over every infirmity. When they have anything
they cheerfully give alms to them, as well as ungrudgingly reminding all of how
they can save their souls, thus obeying the one who said: What I learned with
pure intention I pass on without grudging. These are the ones the Lord calls
blessed, the ones who are truly merciful, for such mercy is like a step by which
they ascend to attain perfect purity of heart.
In virtue of this God then proclaims the pure of heart blessed, saying:
Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. The purified soul sees God
in everything and is reconciled to him. Peace is established between God our
creator and the soul, his erstwhile enemy, and it is then called blessed by God for
being a peacemaker: Blessed are the peacemakers, he says, for they shall be
called children of God.

Vigils Reading - Presentation of the Lord
2026-02-02
COME TO THE TEMPLE
From a commentary by Origen
◊◊◊
Let us reflect on the way everything was prearranged for Simeon to
embrace the Son of God. In the first place, he had been given a revelation by the
Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Anointed.
Then, he did not enter the temple by chance or routine, but he came there under
the prompting of the Spirit of God, for all who are led by the Spirit of God are
children of God.
If you too wish to embrace Jesus and enfold him in your arms, strive with
all your might to follow the guidance of the Spirit and come to God’s temple.
Now, at this moment you are standing in the temple of the Lord Jesus, which is
his Church, the temple built of living stones. When your life and conduct are
really worthy of the name of Church, you are standing in the Lord’s temple.
If, led by the Spirit, you come to the temple, you will find the child Jesus,
you will lift him up in your arms and say: Now, Lord, you let your servant go in
peace as you promised. Notice at once that peace is joined to death and
dismissal, for Simeon does not say only that he wishes to go, but adds that he
wished to go in peace. This is the same promise as was made to blessed
Abraham: You shall go to your ancestors in peace when you have reached a
ripe old age.
Who dies in peace? Only the person who has the peace of God which
surpasses all understanding, and which guards the heart of its possessor. Who
departs from this world in peace? Only the person who understands that God
was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, and who, being in no way at
enmity with God or opposed to him, has acquired complete peace and concord
through good works, and so is allowed like Abraham to go in peace and join the
holy patriarchs.
But why speak of the patriarchs? Shall I not rather go on to speak about
Jesus, the prince and lord of the patriarchs, about whom Saint Paul says: It is
better to die and be with Christ? That person possesses Jesus who dares to say:
It is no longer I who live – it is Christ who lives in me.
And so, as we stand in the temple and hold the Son of God and embrace
him, let us pray to almighty God and to the child Jesus that we may be found
worthy of discharge and departure to better things, for we long to speak with
Jesus and embrace him. To him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen

Vigils Reading
2026-02-03
THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE
From a commentary by St Augustine
◊◊◊
Jacob the Patriarch set a stone under his head and while he slept he saw
the heavens open and a ladder stretching from heaven to earth, and angels
ascending and descending. After seeing this, he woke up, anointed the stone,
and departed. In this stone he understood Christ, that is why he anointed it. And
this was done symbolically, and then he left. For he did not anoint the stone, and
keep going back there to worship, and to offer sacrifices there.
What happened was this: expression was given to a mystery. Take a look
at the stone: The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief
cornerstone. And it is because Christ is the head of man that the stone is placed
at the head. Take note of this great symbol: the stone is Christ. A living stone,
says Peter, rejected by mankind, but chosen by God. And the stone is at the
head, because Christ is the head of the man. And the stone is anointed because
the name Christ derives from anointing.
And as Christ unfolds this picture, a ladder is seen, from earth to heaven,
or from heaven to earth, and angels ascending and descending. What this is all
about we shall see better when we have look at the Lord’s words in the Gospel.
You know that Jacob himself is Israel. When the Lord saw Nathaniel in the
Gospel, he said: Behold, here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile. This is
the sort of language that was used about Jacob himself: And Jacob was free from
guile and he lived at home. The Lord called Nathaniel an Israelite in whom there
was no guile because of Jacob.
And Nathaniel said: How do you know me? And the Lord said: When you
were beneath the fig tree I saw you. This means, when you were within the
Jewish people and under the Law, which covered over that people with a bodily
shadow, that is where I saw you. And Nathaniel made his confession and said:
You are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel. And the Lord said: It is
because I saw you under the fig tree that you have believed. You shall see things
greater than these. He is speaking with Israel, with Jacob, with the one who
placed a stone under his head.
What greater things? The fact that already that stone is by the head: Truly
I tell you, you shall see the heavens open, and the angels of God ascending and
descending on the Son of Man. Let God’s angels ascend and descend on that
ladder. Let this happen in the Church. God’s angels are heralds of the truth, let
them ascend and see: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and God was the Word. Let the angels descend and see that, The Word
became flesh and dwelt among us.

Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
2026-02-04
SILENCE, POVERTY, AND DEATH
By Thomas Merton
◊◊◊
If, at the moment of our death, death comes to us as an unwelcome
stranger, it will be because Christ also has always been to us an unwelcome
stranger. For when death comes, Christ comes also, bringing us the everlasting
life which he has bought for us by his own death. Those who love true life,
therefore, frequently think about their death. Their life is full of a silence that is
an anticipated victory over death. Silence, indeed, makes death our servant and
even our friend. Thoughts and prayers that grow up out of the silent thought of
death are like trees growing where there is water. They are strong thoughts, that
overcome the fear of misfortune because they have overcome passion and
desire. They turn the face of our soul, in constant desire, toward the face of
Christ.
A whole lifetime of silence is ordered to a final utterance; by this I do not
mean that we must all contrive to die with pious speeches on our lips. It is not
necessary that our last words should have some special or dramatic significance
worthy of being written down. Every good death, every death that hands us over
from the uncertainties of this world to the unfailing peace and silence of the love
of Christ, is itself an utterance and a conclusion. It says, either in words or
without them, that it is good for life to come to its appointed end, for the body to
return to dust and for the spirit to ascend to the Father, through the mercy of
our Lord, Jesus Christ.
A silent death may speak with more eloquent peace than a death
punctuated by vivid expressions. A lonely death, a tragic death, may yet have
more to say of the peace and mercy of Christ than many another comfortable
death.
For the eloquence of death is the eloquence of human poverty coming face
to face with the riches of divine mercy. The more we are aware that our poverty
is supremely great, the greater will be the meaning of our death: and the greater
its poverty. For the saints are those who wanted to be poorest in life, and who,
above all else, exulted in the supreme poverty of death.

Vigils Reading - St Agatha
2026-02-05
ST AGATHA
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints
◊◊◊
St Agatha has retained her place in the Universal Calendar following the
reforms of 1969, even though nothing that can be called historical fact is known
of her life. There is, however, good evidence of an early cult, with many versions
of her legend recorded in both Greek and Latin, the Greek being the earlier, with
the Latin dating from the sixth century. This means that however fictitious the
details of her Acts, she cannot be dismissed as a mere fiction altogether. Her
Acts, though, are more of an indication of the type of woman held up for
veneration as a saint in the early centuries than anything else.
She is described as a wealthy woman who had dedicated her virginity to
Christ. This, then, rather than her life, is the most precious thing she has to
offer. Her birthplace is assigned to either Palermo or Catania in Sicily, and she is
said to have died at Catania, which has the stronger historical claim to be her
birthplace. Among those who try to take the precious gift she has vowed to
Christ from her is a consul named Quintianus. He used the imperial edict
against Christians to have her brought before him, then placed in a brothel run
by a woman with the appropriate name of “Aphrodisia” and her assistants,
referred to as her daughters. All tricks, assaults and threats to make her yield
her virginity fail, and so she stands as an example of “virginity as a sacred power,
a concrete realization within this world of the divine spirit”.
Quintianus then handed her over to be tortured, and her Acts dwell on the
tortures inflicted on her, culminating in the cutting off of her breasts, which
were placed on a platter. Perhaps because further details of her tortures involve
her being rolled over live coals, she is invoked against fire in general. This may,
though, be an extension of her protection against eruptions from Mount Etna,11
because she is associated with Sicily, and her legend states that after her death a
flow of lava from Mount Etna was miraculously diverted by her silken veil held
up on a staff. This is last recorded as happening in the 1840s, and her veil is still
carried in solemn procession on her feast day in Catania. By extension she
protects against earthquakes everywhere.
She is also patron saint of bell-founders. The association is ancient and
certain, but the reason has not been determined. It may be that it derives from
her protection against volcanic eruptions and fire, as bells were rung to warn of
both. Another explanation given is that the molten metal involved in casting
bells suggests the flow of molten lava. Her breasts also brought a more
appropriate patronage, as she is invoked against diseases of the breast. Her
breasts on a dish were often mistaken for loaves in the Middle ages, from which
arose the custom of blessing bread on a dish at her altar on her feast day…
Whatever the facts behind her legend, Agatha remains one of the best-
loved and most invoked saints in the Christian devotional life.

Vigils Reading - St Paul Miki & Companions
2026-02-06
THE MARTYRDOM OF ST PAUL MIKI
AND HIS COMPANIONS
By a contemporary writer
◊◊◊
The crosses were set in place. Fr Pasio and Fr Rodriguez took turns
encouraging the victims. Their steadfast behavior was wonderful to see. The
Father Bursar stood motionless, his eyes turned heavenward. Brother Martin
gave thanks to God’s goodness by singing psalms. Again and again he repeated:
“Into your hands, Lord, I entrust my life.” Brother Francis Branco also thanked
God in a loud voice. Brother Gonsalvo in a very loud voice kept saying the Our
Father and Hail Mary.
Our brother, Paul Miki, saw himself now standing in the noblest pulpit he
had ever filled. To his “congregation” he began by proclaiming himself a
Japanese and a Jesuit. He was dying for the Gospel he preached. He gave thanks
to God for this wonderful blessing and he ended his “sermon” with these words:
“As I come to this supreme moment of my life, I am sure none of you would
suppose I want to deceive you. And so I tell you plainly: there is no way to be
saved except the Christian way. My religion teaches me to pardon my enemies
and all who have offended me. I do gladly pardon the Emperor and all who
have sought my death. I beg them to seek baptism and be Christians
themselves.”
Then he looked at his comrades and began to encourage them in their
final struggle. Joy glowed in all their faces, and in Louis’ most of all. When a
Christian in the crowd cried out to him that he would soon be in heaven, his
hands, his whole body strained upward with such joy that every eye was fixed on
him.
Anthony, hanging at Louis’ side, looked toward heaven and called upon
the holy names – “Jesus, Mary!” He began to sing a psalm: “praise the Lord, you
children!”… Others kept repeating “Jesus, Mary!” Their faces were serene. Some
of them even took to urging the people standing by to live worthy Christian lives.
In these and other ways they showed their readiness to die.
Then, according to Japanese custom, the four executioners began to
unsheathe their spears. At this dreadful sight, all the Christians cried out,
“Jesus, Mary!” And the storm of anguished weeping then rose to batter the very
skies. The executioners killed them one by one. One thrust of the spear, then a
second blow. It was over in a very short time.

Vigils Reading - Memorial of the BVM
2026-02-07
THE PRAISES OF
THE BLESSED VIRGIN
From a sermon by Amadeus of Lausanne
◊◊◊
Since we have, at the bidding of God, embarked upon the praises of the
Blessed Virgin, it remains for us to complete her praise from the bottom of our
heart and with dutiful voice. Let us gaze upon her glory and, entering the depth
of so great a light, let us with swelling heart and unspeakable joy hasten through
the vivid brightness of the paths, saying with Solomon, ‘Her paths are lovely and
all her ways are peaceful’. What if, as the same prophet says, ‘the path of the just,
as a shining light, goes forth and grows into the perfect day’? Who will be able to
express the light and brightness of her paths? Yet we shall try to explain in part
the progress and additions of her paths so that she may be perceived as glorious
in her steps and be proclaimed in each of them.
For she possessed progress clearly marked and distinct growth, so that
she advanced according to the fairest order of Charity and, going forward from
virtue to virtue, she saw the God of gods in Sion, being changed from glory to
glory as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Firstly, therefore, she was deemed worthy to be adorned with the beauty
of all the virtues. Secondly she was united to the Holy Spirit in a bond of
wedlock. Thirdly, she was found the Mother of the Savior. Fourthly, a sword
pierced her soul and by the flesh taken of her flesh the ruin of the lost world is
restored. Fifthly, she rejoices in her Son arising and ascending above the heaven
of heavens to the right hand of the Father. Sixthly, she is caught up from this
world and as the Lord hastens to meet her she is places above the denizens of
heaven. Seventh, she will be completed when the fullness of the Gentiles shall
have entered and all Israel shall be saved. For beyond what it is right to be said
or believed, she rejoices in the general salvation of the elect, knowing that it was
for them that the Son of God took flesh from her. Therefore she will then be
fulfilled, God providing a better thing, lest without us she should not be made
perfect.

Vigils Reading - 5th Sunday ORD
2026-02-08
LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE
BEFORE ALL
From a commentary by St John Chrysostom
◊◊◊
We who have once for all clothed ourselves in Christ, and been made worthy
to have him dwelling within us, may show everyone, if we choose, simply by the
strict discipline of our life and without saying a word, the power of him who dwells
in us. Therefore Christ said: Let your light so shine before all, that people may see
your good works and praise your Father in heaven. This is a light that reaches not
only the bodily senses, but illuminates also the beholder’s mind and soul. It
disperses the darkness of evil, and invites those who encounter it to let their own
light shine forth, and to follow the example of virtue.
Let your light shine before all, Christ said; and he used the words before all
advisedly. He meant, “Let your light be so bright that it illuminates not only
yourself, but shines also before those needing its help.” As the light our senses
perceive puts darkness to flight, and enables those traveling along a road
perceptible to the senses to follow a straight course, so also the spiritual light which
shines from blameless conduct illuminates those who cannot see clearly how to live
a virtuous life, because their spiritual eyesight has been blurred by the darkness of
error. It purifies their inward vision, leads them to live upright lives, and makes
them walk henceforth in the path of virtue.
That people may see your good works and praise your Father in heaven.
Christ means: Let your virtue, the perfection of your life, and the performance of
good works inspire those who see you to praise the common Master of us all.
And so I beg each of you to strive to live so perfectly that the Lord may be
praised by all who see you. By the perfection of your lives attract to yourselves the
grace of the Spirit, so that the Lord of all creation may be glorified, and so that we
may all be found worthy of the kingdom of heaven by the grace, mercy, and
goodness of God’s only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with the
Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, might, and honor now and for ever and for
endless ages. Amen.

Skema
2026-02-08
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
5th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (II)
February 8 -14, 2026

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

Office
5th Sunday
Weekday
St Scholastica
St Benedict of Aniane
Bl Humbleline
Weekday
SS Cyril & Methodius

Vigils
Judg 18:13-31
Judg 19:1-21
Judg 19:20-30
Judg 20:1-19
Judg 20:20-48
Judg 21:1-25
Ruth 1:1-22

Lauds
Habakkuk 1:1-4
Hab 1:5-11
Hab 1:12-17
Hab 2:1-4
Hab 2:5-8
Hab 2:9-14
Hab 2:15-20

Mass
73
329
330
331
332
333
334

1st
Isa 58:7-10
1 Kgs 8:1-7, 9-13
1 Kgs 8:22-23, 27-30
1 Kgs 10:1-10
1 Kgs 11:4-13
1 Kgs 11:29-32; 12:19
1 Kgs 12:26-32; 13:33-34

2nd
1 Cor 2:1-5

Gospel
Matt 5:13-16
Mark 6:53-56
Mark 7:1-13
Mark 7:14-23
Mark 7:24-30
Mark 7:31-37
Mark 8:1-10

Vespers
1 Thess 1:1-10
1 Thess 2:1-8
1 Thess 2:9-12
1 Thess 2:13-16
1 Thess 2:17-3:5
1 Thess 3:6-13
1 Thess 4:1-12

Vigils Reading
2026-02-09
EVERYTHING WILL BEGIN AGAIN
By Marie Noël
◊◊◊
The way of all humanity traces a circle….
The path that we took when we came naked into the world and which we
climbed from year to year until we came to the middle of our life — on that same
path we will go down again to return, naked, to the place of departure.
Little by little we grew, and raised our stature above the earth; little by
little we will shrink and become bent down towards the earth.
Little by little we opened our senses, hearing, sight and all the others, like
windows in the morning; little by little, one after the other, we will close them
again like windows in the evening.
Little by little, every day, we stored up all kinds of knowledge in our
memory; they will daily escape from our memory a little later on.
A little later, day by day, our arms became strong, our hands skilled, our
tongues able, and rich in words; our arms will become weak, our hands clumsy,
our tongues poor and stammering, day by day, a little later on.
One day, we learned to speak; one day, we will not be able to speak. One
day we came down from our mother’s arms and walked by ourself; one day we
will stop walking by ourself and will lean on [another’s] arm.
One day we had not yet left our cradle and a woman took us up from time
to time to nurse us and change our clothes; one day we will not leave our bed
again and a [another] will come from time to time to wash us and give us drinks.
One day, for the first time, we opened our eyes and saw; one day, for the
last time, we will shut our eyes and see no more.
One day, for the first time, we inhaled the air of this world and were born;
one day, for the last time, we will exhale the air of this world and die.
One day, before all these days, we spent long months in the darkness of
our mother to form our bones and flesh and compose our bodies; one day, after
all these days, we will spend long months in the darkness of the earth to
decompose our bodies and unmake our flesh and bones.
One day, before all these days, we came out of our father as a little seed of
life; one day, after all these days, we will re-enter the Father of fathers to be
begotten anew in eternal life.
And everything, in a new Being, will begin again.

Vigils Reading - St Scholastica
2026-02-10
THE LIFE OF
ST SCHOLASTICA
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints
◊◊◊
St Scholastica, who was St Benedict’s sister, traditionally his twin,
consecrated herself to God from her earliest years, as we learn from St Gregory.
It is not known where she lived, whether at home or in a community, but after
her brother had moved to Monte Cassino, she settled at Plombariola in that
same neighborhood, probably founding and ruling a nunnery about five miles to
the south of St Benedict’s monastery. St Gregory tells us that St Benedict
governed the nuns as well as the monks, and it seems clear that St Scholastica
must have been their Abbess, under his direction. She used to visit her brother
once a year and, since she was not allowed to enter his monastery, he used to go
with some monks to meet her at a house a little way off. They spent these visits
in praising God and in conferring together on spiritual matters.
St Gregory gives a remarkable description of the last of these visits. After
they had passed the day as usual they sat down in the evening to have supper.
When it was finished, Scholastica, possibly foreseeing that it would be their last
visit in this world, begged her brother to delay his return till the next day that
they might spend the time discoursing of the joys of Heaven. Benedict, who was
unwilling to transgress his rule, told her that he could not pass a night away
from the monastery.
When Scholastica found that she could not move him, she laid her head
upon her hands which were clasped together on the table and besought God to
interpose on her behalf. Her prayer was scarcely ended when there arose such a
violent storm of rain that St Benedict and his companions were unable to set
foot outside the door. He exclaimed, “God forgive you sister; what have you
done?” Whereupon she answered, “I asked a favor of you and you refused it. I
asked it of God, and He has granted it.” Benedict was therefore forced to comply
with her request, and they spent the night talking about holy things. The next
morning they parted, and three days later St Benedict saw the soul of his sister
rising to heaven like a dove.

Vigils Reading - St Benedict of Aniane
2026-02-11
ST BENEDICT OF ANIANE
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints
◊◊◊
Benedict was the son of Aigulf of Maguelone and served King Pepin and
his son, Charlemagne, as cupbearer. At the age of twenty he made a resolution
to seek the kingdom of God with his whole heart. He took part in the campaign
in Lombardy, but, after having been nearly drowned in the river Tesino, near
Pavia, in endeavoring to save his brother, he made a vow to quit the world
entirely.
Upon his return to Languedoc he was confirmed in this determination by
the advice of a hermit called Widmar, and he went to the abbey of Saint-Seine,
fifteen miles from Dijon, where he was admitted as a monk. He spent two and a
half years here learning the monastic life and bringing himself under control by
severe austerities. Not satisfied with observing the rule of St Benedict, he
practiced those other points of perfection which he found prescribed in the
Rules of St Pachomius and St Basil. When the abbot died, the brethren were
disposed to elect him to fill the post, but he was unwilling to accept the charge
because he knew that the monks were opposed to anything in the shape of
systematic reform.
Benedict accordingly quitted Saint-Seine and, returning to Languedoc,
built a small hermitage beside the brook Aniane upon his own estate. Here he
lived for some years in self-imposed destitution, praying continually that God
would teach him to do His will. Some solitaries, of whom the holy man Widmar
was one, placed themselves under his direction, and they earned their livelihood
by manual labour, living on bread and water except on Sundays and great
festivals when they added a little wine or milk if it was given them in alms. The
superior worked with them in the fields and sometimes spent his time in
copying books. When the number of his disciples increased, Benedict left to
build a monastery in a more spacious place.
In a short time he had many religious under his direction, and at the same
time exercised a general inspection over all the monasteries of Provence,
Languedoc and Gascony, becoming eventually the director and overseer of all
the monasteries in the empire; he reformed many with little or no opposition.
In order to have him close at hand, the Emperor Louis the Pious obliged
Benedict to dwell first at the abbey of Maurmünster in Alsace and then, as he
wanted him yet nearer, he built a monastery upon the Inde, later known as
Cornelimünster, near Aachen, the residence of the emperor and court. Benedict
lived in the monastery yet continued to help in the restoration of monastic
observance throughout France and Germany. He was the chief instrument in
drawing up the canons for the reformation of monks at the council of Aachen in
817, and presided in the same year over the assembly of abbots to enforce the
restoration of discipline…
This great restorer of monasticism in the West, worn out by
mortifications and fatigues, suffered much from continual sickness in the latter
part of his days. He died at Inde with great tranquility in 821, being then
seventy one years of age.

Vigils Reading - Blessed Humbleline
2026-02-12
BLESSED HUMBELINE
From the Life of St Bernard
◊◊◊
From earliest childhood Humbeline and Bernard had been drawn together
by a special bond of affection and sympathy… After her marriage, forgetful of her
mother’s example and exhortations, she began to follow the fashions of the world.
In 1117 she came to Clairvaux surrounded with all the splendor of dress and
attendants that unlimited wealth could bestow, thinking, so it seems, that she was
doing her brother honor. Her brother Andrew, the porter, in announcing her
arrival, did not omit to describe to his Abbot the pomp and ceremony that attended
her.
It grieved Bernard to hear that his beloved sister had become a worshiper at
the shrine of vanity. He refused to see her himself, nor would he allow any of his
brothers to see her, but told Andrew to tell her…that with these worldly ornaments
she was making herself the devil’s instrument for the ruin of immortal souls.
Andrew delivered the message, adding on his own: “Why so much solicitude to
embellish a body destined for worms and rottenness, while the soul that now
animates it is burning in everlasting flames?”
Humbeline burst into tears, crying out: “I deserve it all because I am a
sinner. Yet it is for such as I that Christ suffered on the Cross. Indeed it is because of
my sinfulness that I seek counsel and encouragement from the saints. If my brother
Bernard, who is the servant of God, despises my body, let him at least have pity on
my soul. Let him come; let him command; and whatever he thinks proper to enjoin
I am prepared to carry out.” There was no resisting such an appeal. Bernard and
his brothers hastened to meet her and to confirm her in these good dispositions.
It was the holy Abbot’s desire that she should enter religion; but as this was
unlawful without her husband’s consent, he recommended her to live as much as
possible like a recluse in the world, shunning ostentation and all kinds of vanity,
and devoting herself, after her mother’s example, to the service of God and the
poor. She promised to do so.
Five years later, in 1122, having obtained after much resistance her
husband’s consent, she left the world altogether and entered the convent of Jully
where Elizabeth, her sister-in-law, was superioress. When the latter went forth
about 1130 to found a new convent in the neighborhood of Dijon, Humbeline was
appointed to succeed her. Under her direction the house flourished greatly; the
noblest ladies of the land sought admission in such numbers that she was forced to
make about a dozen new foundations. She rivaled Bernard himself in her love of
the Cross. Of food and sleep she allowed herself much less than the minimum
which nature demands; her clothes were the meanest she could find, and it was her
happiness to be employed in the humblest occupations. When her nuns begged her
to be more careful of her health, which seemed in danger of breaking down under
such austere practices, she replied: “For you, my dear sisters, whose lives have been
consecrated to the service of God, this is an excellent counsel. But for me, who have
lived so long amidst worldly vanities, no kind of penance can be excessive.”…
Her last hours were consoled by the presence of three of her brothers,
Bernard, Andrew and Nivard… When about to breathe her last she looked with a
radiant smile at Bernard and said: “Oh, how happy I am to have followed your
counsel and consecrated myself to God! And what a beautiful reward I expect to
receive for the love I have entertained for you in this life!”… With these words, she
gave up her spirit.

Vigils Reading
2026-02-13
CONCERNING FOUR WAYS
OF LOVE
By St Bernard of Clairvaux
◊◊◊
There are two loves, carnal and spiritual, from which four ways of loving
are derived: to love the flesh carnally, love the spirit carnally, love the flesh
spiritually, and love the spirit spiritually. A certain progress and ascent from
the lower to the higher occurs in these. For God was made flesh in order for
human beings to make progress, so that humans (who had only known how to
love the flesh carnally) could also love God spiritually. By speaking and keeping
company with human beings, God made himself first loved carnally by them.
Moreover, when he was willing to lay down his life for his friends, they
were already loving the spirit, but still in a carnal way. So even Peter responded
thus to Christ when he spoke about his passion: Far be it from you! Look out
for yourself! But when they recognized that through the same passion the
mystery of redemption takes place, then in that passion they were already loving
the flesh spiritually. When, however, he rises again and ascends, they love the
spirit spiritually, and joyfully they sing: And if we have known Christ
according to the flesh, now we know him so no longer.
We also love our flesh carnally when we carry out its desires; the spirit
carnally with weeping, sighing and grieving in prayer; the flesh with good deeds,
we watch over it with discretion. [We love] the spirit spiritually when out of
charity we postpone even our spiritual pursuits for fraternal benefit.

Vigils Reading - SS Cyril & Methodius
2026-02-14
SAINTS CYRIL AND METHODIUS
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints
◊◊◊
In 862 there arrived in Constantinople an ambassador charged by
Rostislav, prince of Moravia, to ask if the emperor would send him missionaries
capable of teaching his people in their own language. Photius, now patriarch of
Constantinople, decided that Cyril and Methodius were most suitable for the
work; they were learned men, who knew Slavonic.
In 863 the two brothers set out with a number of assistants and came to
the court of Rostislav. The new missionaries made free use of the vernacular in
their preaching and ministrations, and this made immediate appeal to the local
people. To the German clergy this was objectionable, and their opposition was
strengthened when the Emperor Louis forced Rostislav to take an oath of fealty
to him. The Byzantine missionaries, armed with their pericopes from the
Scriptures and liturgical hymns in Slavonic, pursued their way with much
success, but were soon handicapped by their lack of a bishop to ordain more
priests. The German prelate, the bishop of Passau, would not do it, and Cyril
therefore determined to seek help elsewhere, presumably from Constantinople
whence he came.
On their way the brothers arrived in Venice. It was at a bad moment.
Photius at Constantinople had incurred excommunication; the proteges of the
Eastern emperor and their liturgical use of a new tongue were vehemently
criticized. They came to Rome bringing with them alleged relics of Pope St
Clement, which St Cyril had recovered when in the Crimea on his way back from
the Khazars. Adrian II warmly welcomed the bearers of so great a gift. He
examined their cause, and he gave judgment: Cyril and Methodius were to
received episcopal consecration, their neophytes were to be ordained, and the
use of the liturgy in Slavonic was approved.
While still in Rome Cyril died, on February 14, 869. He was buried with
great pomp in the church of San Clemente on the Coelian, where the relics of St
Clement had been enshrined. St Methodius now took up his brother’s
leadership. Having been consecrated bishop he returned, bearing a letter from
the Holy See recommending him as a man of “exact understanding and
orthodoxy”. Kosel, prince of Pannonia, asked that the ancient archdiocese of
Sirmium (now Mitrovitsa) be revived. Methodius was made metropolitan and
the boundaries of his charge extended to the borders of Bulgaria.

Chicago LCG 2/14/26 at 9:00 am CST
2026-02-14 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago)
You are welcome to join us.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86028356465
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Skema
2026-02-15
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
6th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (II)
February 15 – 21, 2026

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

Office
6th Sunday
Office for Vocations
Weekday
Ash Wednesday
Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Friday after Ash Wednesday
Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Vigils
Ruth 2:1-23
Ruth 3:1-18
Ruth 4:1-22
Isa 58:1-14
Exod 1:1-22
Exod 2:1-22
Exod 2:23-3:22

Lauds
Hab 3:1-7
Hab 3:8-15
Hab 3:16-19
Sir 17:20-32
Deut 1:3-8
Deut 4:1-8
Deut 4:9-14

Mass
76
335
336
219
220
221
222

1st
Sir 15:16-21
Jas 1:1-11
Jas 1:12-18
Joel 2:12-18
Deut 30:15-20
Isa 58:1-9a
Isa 58:9b-14

2nd
1 Cor 2:6-10

2 Cor 5:20-6:2

Gospel
Matt 5:17-37
Mark 8:11-13
Mark 8:14-21
Matt 6:1-6, 16-18
Luke 9:22-25
Matt 9:14-15
Luke 5:27-32

Vespers
1 Thess 4:13-18
1 Thess 5:1-11
1 Thess 5:12-28
2 Cor 5:14-21
Heb 1:1-9
Heb 1:13-2:4
Heb 2:5-9

Vigils Reading - 6th Sunday ORD
2026-02-15
BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS
From a commentary by St John Chrysostom
◊◊◊
Christ gave his life for you, and do you hold a grudge against your fellow
servant? How then can you approach the table of peace? Your master did not
refuse to undergo every kind of suffering for you, and will you not even forgo
your anger? Why is this, when love is the root, the wellspring and the mother of
every blessing?
He has offered me an outrageous insult, you say. He has wronged me
times without number, he has endangered my life. Well, what is that? He has
not yet crucified you as the Jewish elders crucified the Lord. If you refuse to
forgive your neighbor’s offense your heavenly Father will not forgive your sins
either.
What does your conscience say when you repeat the words: Our Father
who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, and the rest? Christ went so far as to
offer his blood for the salvation of those who shed it. What could you do that
would equal that? If you refuse to forgive your enemy you harm not him but
yourself. You have indeed harmed him frequently in this present life, but you
have earned for yourself eternal punishment on the day of judgment. There is no
one God detests and repudiates more than the person who bears a grudge,
whose heart is filled with anger, whose soul is seething with rage.
Listen to the Lord’s words: If you are bringing your gift to the altar, and
there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave
your gift there before the altar and first go and be reconciled. Then come and
offer your gift.
What do you mean? Am I really to leave my gift, my offering there? Yes, he
says, because this sacrifice is offered in order that you may live in peace with
your neighbor. If then the attainment of peace is the object of the sacrifice and
you fail to make peace, even if you share in the sacrifice your lack of peace will
make this sharing fruitless. Before all else, therefore make peace, for the sake of
which the sacrifice is offered. Then you will really benefit from it.
The reason the Son of God came into the world was to reconcile the
human race with the Father. As Paul says: Now he has reconciled all things to
himself, destroying enmity in himself by the cross. Consequently, as well as
coming himself to make peace he also calls us blessed if we do the same, and
shares his title with us. Blessed are the peacemakers, he says, for they shall be
called the children of God.
So as far as a human being can, you must do what Christ the Son of God
did, and become a promoter of peace both for yourself and for your neighbor.
Christ calls the peacemakers a child of God. The only good deed he mentions as
essential at the time of sacrifice is reconciliation with one’s brother or sister.
This shows that of all the virtues the most important is love.

Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
2026-02-16
TO LIVE FOR GOD ALONE
From the Second Vatican Council decree “Perfectae Caritatis”
◊◊◊
From the beginning of the Church there have been men and women who
have sought to follow Christ with greater freedom, and to imitate him with
closer fidelity through the practice of the evangelical counsels. They have led
lives dedicated to God, each in his or her own way. Many of them, under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, have lived in solitude or have founded religious
communities, which the Church willingly recognized and approved.
As a result, in accordance with God’s plan, there has grown up a
wonderful variety of religious families. These have been of great service to the
Church in equipping it “for every good work” and preparing it “for the work of
the ministry for the building up of the Body of Christ”, and also in adorning it
with the different gifts of its children, so that the Church may appear in beauty
“as a bride adorned for her husband, and show forth the many-faceted wisdom
of God.”
Surrounded by this rich profusion of gifts, all who are called by God to the
practice of the evangelical counsels and profess them with fidelity, dedicate
themselves to the Lord in a special way. They follow Christ, who in virginity and
poverty redeemed and sanctified humankind through obedience, “even to death
upon a cross.”
Driven thus by the love that the Holy Spirit pours into their hearts, they
live more and more for Christ and for “his Body which is the Church.” The more
fervent their union with Christ through this gift of self throughout their lives,
the richer is the life of the Church, and the more vigorous and fruitful its
apostolate.
The members of each institute should remember above all that in
professing the evangelical counsels they have given their response to the call of
God in such a way that they are to live for God alone, not only by dying to sin but
also by renouncing the world. They have surrendered to his service the whole of
their lives: this constitutes a special consecration, deeply rooted in the
consecration of baptism, to which it gives fuller expression.
Those who profess the evangelical counsels should seek and love above all
things the God who has first loved us. In every circumstance of life they should
strive to foster a life hidden with Christ in God; such a life is a source of, and
stimulus to, the love of one’s neighbor for the salvation of the world and the
building up of the Church. This love is the animating and guiding principle for
the practice of the evangelical counsels.

Vigils Reading
2026-02-17
BEHOLD,
NOW IS THE ACCEPTABLE TIME
From a sermon by St Aelred of Rievaulx
◊◊◊
These forty days are called an acceptable time and named a day of
salvation, because during these days the Lord cleanses and sanctifies his church
through fasting. That is why the Lenten fast was established by the holy fathers,
so that whatever is lacking in us during the year may be purified and made clean
for the remaining times, generally by fasting in this holy observance…
Moses fasted for forty days and nights so that he would merit to receive
the law. And through fasting he merited to have an audience before God and to
see God face to face. So let anyone who desires to approach the Lord love
fasting… Although we do not presume to investigate secret and profound
mysteries of divinity, let us nonetheless gain acquaintance with God as much as
we can. To do so we must still prepare and train ourselves; that way we might
contemplate God here as through a mirror and obscurely, and in the future we
might see him face to face…
That forgiveness of sins is given generously through fasting, we see
manifestly among the Ninevite penitents who took refuge in repentance and
reconciled themselves to God through fasting…when the Lord had threatened
them, through the prophet, with death and overthrow of the city. In fact, the
wise king also learned to avoid the danger; having laid aside royal finery and
sitting in ashes, he exhausted his flesh with fasting, ordering not only human
beings but even beasts to fast and to cry out to God through fasting with
courage. Thus they evaded the overturn of the Ninevite city and peril of death…
Even Christ, King and Lord of prophets, who founded and sanctified
fasting, before he was tempted by the devil fasted forty days and nights, to
teach that the adversary is to be overcome through fasting. The Lord set an
example for us, so if we want a full victory over the devil, the world and the flesh,
then let us take refuge in the weapons of fasting, by which the devil is
slaughtered, the world is conquered, and every attachment of the flesh is
expelled…
Finally we must offer to God repentance in all of our sacrifices, always
repenting that we either overlooked the good or continued in evil… Because
therefore the measure of repentance must be weighted according to the
measure of sin, it is necessary to produce fruit <worthy of> repentance. If your
suffering in correction is less than was your enjoyment in the fault, then the fruit
of your repentance is not worthy…
Still, so that a sinning conscience might be consoled, the method and
measure of exterior repentance have been set; as the conscience is satisfied and
perfected you begin to have confidence, and with a certain holy anticipation in
the hope of divine mercy, you have confidence <regarding> pardon and
forgiveness of sins, so the more truly then the more sincerely you fulfill the
imposed repentance… To the extent that we attain full and perfect pardon we
may also merit eternal glory.

Vigils Reading - Ash Wednesday
2026-02-18
WHY WE FAST
From a sermon by St John Chrysostom
◊◊◊
Why do we fast for forty days? Formerly many believers approached the
sacraments without any particular preparation, especially at the time when
Christ first gave them to us. But when the fathers realized the harm that could
result from such neglect, they took counsel together and decreed that a period of
forty days of fasting be set aside, during which the people would meet to pray
and listen to the word of God. During this Lenten season each of the faithful
would undergo a thorough purification by means of prayer, almsgiving, fasting,
watching, repentant tears, confession, and every other remedial measure. Then
when they had done all in their power to cleanse their consciences, they could
approach the sacraments.
It is certain that the fathers did well to use such lenience in their desire to
establish us in the habit of fasting. As we know, we could proclaim a fast
throughout the whole year, and no one would pay any attention. But now, with a
set time for fasting of only forty days, even the most sluggish need no
exhortation to rouse themselves to undergo it; they accept it as a regular
observance and recurring encouragement.
So, when someone asks you why you fast, you should not answer: because
of the Passover, or because of the Cross. Neither of these is the reason for our
fasting. We fast because of our sins, since we are preparing to approach the
sacred mysteries. Moreover, the Christian Passover is a time for neither fasting
nor mourning, but for great joy, since the Cross destroyed sin and made
expiation for the whole world. It reconciled ancient enmities and opened the
gates of heaven. It made friends of those who had been filled with hatred,
restoring them to the citizenship of heaven. Through the Cross our human
nature has been set at the right hand of the throne of God, and we have been
granted countless good things besides. Therefore we must not give way to
mourning or sadness; we must rejoice greatly instead over all these blessings.
Listen to the exultant words of Saint Paul: God forbid that I should boast
of anything but the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And elsewhere he writes:
God shows his own love for us because when we were still sinners Christ died for
our sake.
Saint John’s message is the same. God loved the world so much, he
declares, and then, passing over every other manifestation of God’s love, he
comes at once to the crucifixion. God loved the world so much that he gave his
only Son, that is, he gave him up to be crucified, so that those who believed in
him might not perish but might have eternal life. If, then, the Cross has its
foundation in love and is our glory, we must not say we mourn because of the
Cross. Far from it. What we have to mourn over is our own sinfulness, and that
is why we fast.

Vigils Reading - Thursday after Ash Wednesday
2026-02-19
WE ADORE YOUR CROSS
By Aemiliana Löhr
◊◊◊
[Today] the veil is taken off the cross and tearful thanksgiving fills the
Church’s voice as she offers the cross to the people and calls out, “Look upon the
wood of the cross.”
The cross is set up now, no longer on Mount Calvary in front of the gates
of that Jerusalem, but on the altar of the New Jerusalem. No longer is there a
crush about it of blaspheming soldiers and Pharisees, but a reverent assembly of
God’s people which still, in this moment of greatest sadness, receives a delicate
anticipation of the joy of resurrection to come, a sort of consolation from the
cross. “We adore your cross, O Lord, and we praise and glorify your holy
resurrection; for behold, through the cross joy came into the whole world.”
This is a characteristic of the Church’s deepest attitude, not only in the
liturgy, but in her whole life as well. She goes with the incarnate Lord through
time, carrying the cross with him. Again and again she sees his blood poured out
by godless people, and the precious life of God’s anointed done to death; for in
her members the Lord himself dies. Good Friday goes on for her throughout the
world’s age, and thickest darkness is still before her. But she does not complain
or flinch; like Jesus, she makes no complaint. When death comes she dies with a
cry to God, certain of the witness she is giving and the life she is to receive.
[The Church’s] life is a life of carrying the cross, a continual dying. But her
voice is a joyful voice; her liturgy celebrates life. In reality she suffers death but
lives already in the resurrection. Her food is the food of immortality: the body of
the risen Christ. She cannot founder. Rather, …she stands alone in the decline of
this world, daily subject to death and [yet] daily awakened to life. She prays with
upraised hands for her murderers, and in the sign of the cross she calls for joy on
behalf of a tortured world. Indeed, in the posture of her prayer and the complete
oneness she has now with the Lord, she herself becomes the cross, and of her, it
will be said till the end of time and eternity, “Through the cross joy came into the
whole world.”

Vigils Reading - Friday after Ash Wednesday
2026-02-20
THE UNBOUNDED LOVE
OF GOD
From “Seasons of Celebration” by Thomas Merton
◊◊◊
If we look carefully at the famous contrast made by St Paul between the
“law of God in his mind” and “the law of sin in his body” we will see a little more
in it than just these two. It is true, St Paul says he is “delighted with God’s law
according to the inner man,” with his “mind he serves the law of God but with
his lower nature the law which allures him to sin”. Ordinarily this text is not
interpreted fully. Very often for instance, we take it to mean that there is nothing
else for us but to accept this inevitable conflict, to try to keep the law of God in
spite of the bias of concupiscence that draws us toward sin. To accept the
conflict in a spirit of Christian resignation is all that is required of us as
Christians.
Do we not see that this leaves us purely and simply captives of the Law? If
this is all there is to it, then Christ’s victory is not complete in our lives. There is
a third possibility, and this is the right one. It is the grace of God in Christ our
Lord or, to be more succinct, it is Christ himself in us. It is our new life in Christ.
By our life of love and hope in Christ we rise above the dilemma and thus resolve
it. The Christian solution is not merely to continue struggling against
temptation in order to live according to the Law. This is nothing new. It is
exactly what had to be done before the coming of Christ. The Christian is no
longer bound by the law of the flesh, and he is no longer obliged in a spirit of fear
to keep the Law of God considered as a formal code imposed on him from
without.
He may still be tempted by the flesh. He resists temptation and is saved
not by various practices and stratagems but by the spiritual force of love itself,
and of the new life that is in him. He lives by the “Spirit of him who raised Christ
Jesus from the dead,” and by that Spirit he “puts to death the deeds prompted
by the animal instincts, and so lives. In other words, it is not dutiful observance
that keeps us from sin, but something far greater: it is love. And this love is not
something which we develop by our own powers alone. It is a sublime gift of the
divine mercy, and the fact that we live in realization of this mercy and this gift is
the greatest source of growth for our love and for our holiness.
This gift, this mercy, this unbounded love of God for us has been lavished
upon us as a result of Christ’s victory. To taste this love is to share in his victory.
To realize our freedom, to exult in our liberation from death, from sin and from
the Law, is to sing the Alleluia which truly glorifies God in this world and in the
world to come.

Vigils Reading - Saturday after Ash Wednesday
2026-02-21
THE MANNER OF KEEPING
THE LENTEN OBSERVANCE
From a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux
◊◊◊
I beseech you, most dearly beloved, to enter with all possible fervor upon
this Lenten time, which is commended to us not only by the law of abstinence,
but also and much more by the mystery it contains. Oh, with what devotion
should we observe what has been transmitted to us as an inheritance from the
righteous Moses who, by a special privilege granted to no other prophet, spoke
to the Lord face to face. With what eagerness should we embrace a practice
commended to us by the example of Elias, who was taken up to heaven in a fiery
chariot.
We are encouraged to undertake this fast by the example of Moses and
Elias, who, illustrious though they may be, are still our fellow-servants. But
much greater encouragement should be given in the example of our Lord Jesus
Christ Who also fasted for forty days. What kind of monk, or even what kind of
Christian, would one be who would submit only with reluctance to an
observance given to us by Christ?… We ought to imitate His example with all the
more fervor knowing that He fasted not for His own sake but for ours…
They are clearly in error who suppose that these few days are sufficient for
the practice of penance, since it is obvious that the whole period of our earthly
life is ordered for no other purpose. “Seek the Lord,” says the prophet, and not
only during forty days, but “while He may be found”. “Call upon Him while He is
near”… Therefore since the Lord is near during all this time of mercy, “seek
Him,” most dearly beloved, “seek Him while He may be found; call upon Him
while He is near.”
Nevertheless we ought to seek Him with greater ardor during these forty
days of Lent, which is not only a part, but the most sacred part of the whole
season of mercy. If, then, at other times we have allowed our zeal to grow slack,
it is fitting that our hearts should now be warmed with a renewal of spiritual
fervor. If the stomach alone has sinned, let the stomach alone fast, and that
suffices.
But if the other members have sinned also, why should they not be made
to fast as well as the stomach? Therefore let the “eye which has wasted the soul”
be made to fast. Let the ear, too, be made to fast, and the tongue, and the hand,
and even the soul herself. Let the eye fast from curious looks, so that,
wholesomely humbled, it may now be kept in penitential restraint. Let the ear
fast from news and idle tales and from all that is vain and worthless with regard
to salvation. Let the tongue fast from detraction and murmuring, from
unprofitable, vain and frivolous words, and – because of the great importance of
silence – sometimes even from words that seem necessary. Let the hand fast
from every work not sanctioned by obedience.
But above all, let the soul fast from vice and the following of her own will.
For without this kind of fasting, all the rest will have no value in the eyes of God.
For we read in the prophet Isaiah that when the people said to the Lord: “Why
have we fasted and you have not regarded?”, they received this answer: “Behold
in the day of your fast your own will is found.”

Skema
2026-02-22
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
1st Week of Lent

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (II)
February 22 – 28, 2026

Sun
22
Mon
23
Tue
24
Wed
25
Thu
26
Fri
27
Sat
28

Office
1st Sunday of Lent
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday

Vigils
Exod 4:1-17
Exod 4:18-31
Exod 5:1-6:1
Exod 6:2-13, 28-7:7
Exod 7:8-24
Exod 7:25-8:15
Exod 8:16-28

Lauds
Deut 4:25-31
Deut 4:32-40
Deut 5:1-10
Deut 5:11-15
Deut 5:16-22
Deut 5:32-6:3
Deut 6:4-9

Mass
22
224
225
226
227
228
229

1st
Gen 2:7-9; 3:1-7
Lev 19:1-2, 11-18
Isa 55:10-11
Jonah 3:1-10
Esth C:12, 14-16, 23-25
Ezek 18:21-28
Deut 26:16-19

2nd
Rom 5:12-19

Gospel
Matt 4:1-11
Matt 25:31-46
Matt 6:7-15
Luke 11:29-32
Matt 7:7-12
Matt 5:20-26
Matt 5:43-48

Vespers
Heb 2:10-18
Heb 3:1-6
Heb 3:7-13
Heb 3:14-19
Heb 4:1-11
Heb 4:12-16
Heb 5:1-10

Vigils Reading - 1st Sunday of Lent
2026-02-22
THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT
From a commentary by St Gregory Nazianzen
◊◊◊
We must not expect baptism to free us from the temptations of our
persecutor. The body that concealed him made even the Word of God a target
for the enemy; his assumption of a visible form made even the invisible light an
object of attack. Nevertheless, since we have at hand the means of overcoming
our enemy, we must have no fear of the struggle. Flaunt in his face the water and
the Spirit. In them will be extinguished all the flaming darts of the evil one.
Suppose the tempter makes us feel the pinch of poverty, as he did even to
Christ, and taking advantage of our hunger, talks of turning stones into bread:
we must not be taken in by him, but let him learn what he has still not grasped.
Refute him with the word of life, with the word which is the bread sent down
from heaven and that gives life to the world.
He may try to ensnare us through our vanity, as he tried to ensnare Christ
when he set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said: “Prove your divinity:
throw yourself down.” Let us beware of succumbing to pride, for the tempter
will by no means stop at one success. He is never satisfied and is always
pursuing us. Often he beguiles us with something good and useful, but its end is
always evil. That is simply his method of waging war.
We also know how well-versed the devil is in Scripture. When Christ
answered the temptation to turn stones into bread with a rebuke from Scripture
beginning: It is written, the devil countered with the same words, tempting
Christ to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. For it is written
he quoted, he will give his angels charge of you, and on their hands they will
bear you up. O past master of all evil, why suppress the verse that follows? You
did not finish the quotation, but I know full well what it means: that we shall
tread on you as on an adder or a cobra; protected by the Trinity, we shall trample
on you as on serpents or scorpions.
If the tempter tried to overthrow us through our greed, showing us at one
glance all the kingdoms of the world – as if they belonged to him – and
demanding that we fall down and worship him, we should despise him, for we
know him to be a penniless impostor. Strong in our baptism, each of us can say:
“I too am made in the image of God, but unlike you, I have not yet become an
outcast from heaven through my pride. I have put on Christ; by my baptism I
have become one with him. It is you that should fall down before me.” At these
words he can only surrender and retire in shame; as he retreated before Christ,
the light of the world, so he will depart from those illumined by that light. Such
are the gifts conferred by baptism on those who understand its power; such the
rich banquet it lays before those who hunger for the things of the Spirit.

Vigils Reading
2026-02-23
A COMMON SHARING OF
CHRIST’S CROSS
From a sermon by St Leo the Great
◊◊◊
Among all the Christian solemnities the Paschal Mystery holds chief
place, dearly beloved; for this the practices of the whole preceding year prepare
us to worthily and rightly celebrate it. But earnest devotion is required of us
especially in these days which are close to this most sublime mystery of the
divine mercy. So it was right that the holy Apostles, inspired by the Holy Spirit,
should ordain that during these days we are to observe severer fasts, so that we
also, by a common sharing of Christ’s Cross, might suffer a little of what He
endured for us, as the Apostle says: “If we suffer with him, we shall also be
glorified with him”. For where there is a sharing of the passion of the Lord,
there is a sure and certain expectation of our promised happiness.
There is no one, dearly beloved, to whom, because of the state of times,
this fellowship of glory is denied, as though the tranquility of peace gave us no
opportunity for the practice of heroic virtue! For the Apostle foretold that “all
who live godly lives in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecutions”. So where people
live in Christ there shall be no lack of trials or persecutions. The Lord Himself
says to us: “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me, is not worthy of
me”. Nor should we doubt that these words were directed not only to the
disciples of Christ, but also to all the faithful who are all taught unto salvation.
And as at all times we must live worthily, so at all times we must bear the
Cross, which for each one is rightly called his or her own, for it is borne by each
one in his own way and measure. Iniquity does not dwell in peace with virtue;
drunkenness hates sobriety; falsehood has nothing in common with
truthfulness. And this division awakens such enduring conflicts that though it
may outwardly seem to subside, yet never does it cease from disturbing the
inmost soul of the just of heart, so that it is indeed true that “all who will live
godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecutions”; and true as well that all this life
is a warfare. Let each faithful soul, learning from his own experiences, arm
himself with the Cross of Christ, that he may be found worthy of Christ.
So now I wish to awaken your devotion in regard to what this holy season
requires of us: that you beautify your holy and salutary fasting with works of
piety. And since we are especially to labor for the pardon of our sins, you can be
assured of the unfailing divine mercy if you likewise in your dealings with others
change every offense into pardon…
For no matter how great the offenses between one person and another…
we share a common nature; so that with what mercy we judge another, we shall
obtain mercy from God. For “blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain
mercy” from God.

Caritas Meeting 6:30 eastern
2026-02-23 18:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
