Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Vigils Reading
2023-03-07
I Have Brought Fasting into My Soul3
A Meditation by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich
With fasting I gladden my hope in You, my Lord, Who are to come again. Fasting hastens my preparation for Your coming, the sole expectation of my days and nights. Fasting makes my body thinner, so that what remains can more easily shine with the spirit.
…But truly, abstaining from food will not save me. Even if I were to eat only the sand from the lake, You would not come to me, unless the fasting penetrated deeper into my soul.
I have come to know through my prayer, that bodily fasting is more a symbol of true fasting, very beneficial for someone who has only just begun to hope in You, and nevertheless very difficult for someone who merely practices it.
Therefore I have brought fasting into my soul to purge her of many impudent fiancés and to prepare her for You like a virgin. And I have brought fasting into my mind, to expel from it all daydreams about worldly matters and to demolish all the air castles, fabricated from those daydreams. I have brought fasting into my mind, so that it might jettison the world and prepare to receive Your Wisdom.
And I have brought fasting into my heart, so that by means of it my heart might quell all passions and worldly selfishness. I have brought fasting into my heart, so that heavenly peace might ineffably reign over my heart, when Your stormy Spirit encounters it.

I prescribe fasting for my tongue, to break itself of the habit of idle chatter and to speak reservedly only those words that clear the way for You to come.
And I have imposed fasting on my worries so that it may blow them all away before itself like the wind that blows away the mist, lest they stand like dense fog between me and You, and lest they turn my gaze back to the world.
And fasting has brought into my soul tranquility in the face of uncreated and created realms, and humility towards men and creatures. And it has instilled in me courage, the likes of which I never knew when I was armed with every sort of worldly weapon. What was my hope before I began to fast except merely another story told by others, which passed from mouth to mouth? The story told by others about salvation through prayer and fasting became my own.
False fasting accompanies false hope, just as no fasting accompanies hopelessness. But just as a wheel follows behind a wheel, so true fasting follows true hope..

3 Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich. A Treasury of Serbian Orthodox Spirituality Volume 5 – Prayers by the Lake. Trans. Rt. Rev. Archimandrite Todor Mika, S.T.M. and Very Rev. Dr. Steven Scott. Grayslake, IL: The Serbian Orthodox Metropolitante of New Gracanica, 1999. 72-73.

Vigils Reading
2023-03-06 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York)
Be Merciful2
from the mystical writings of St Gertrud the Great
…The Lord Jesus appeared to her as he is seen when scourged at the pillar, standing bound between two men, of whom the one seemed to strike him with thorns and the other a knotted scourge, but each was striking him in the face. As a result his face appeared so wretched that, with melted heart, all her inner organs were moved to compassion as she gazed on him, so much so that throughout that day, as often as that picture came to her mind, she could not restrain her tears; for she had never considered in her heart that one would see on earth someone of such wretched appearance as was the Lord’s at that moment. For that part of his face that she saw struck with thorns appeared so lacerated that even the pupil of his inner eye was wounded, black and blue from the swelling caused by the knotted scourge. Also from the bitterness of his suffering he seemed to turn his face away, and when he turned away from one, the other assaulted him the more keenly.
Then turning to the woman who saw these things, he said, “Have you not read what is written of me: We saw him as it were a leper and so on?” Then she replied, “Ah, Lord, how can the pain, so wretched and sharp, of your most tender face now be relieved?” Then the Lord said, “If anyone meditating on my passion with devout heart were pierced through love of compassion and in such charity prayed for sinners, that person’s heart would be a gentlest dressing for me, by which all that pain would be relieved.” Also she understood that the two who were striking him symbolized those who at that time were devoted to the attractions of gluttony, that is, laypeople who openly <strike the Lord> as if with thorns, and some religious who, the more greatly they offend against their religious state, the more they <strike him> as if with knotted scourges. And this <they do> in the face: for as far as they can they do not [fear] to dishonor the sight of him who reigns in heaven. From this she understood that this is why the account of the Lord’s passion is recited in the gospel… that that passion may be more devoutly honored by the special <friends> of Christ, both to the honor of the Lord and to the amendment of the church. But in particular she understood that there is good reason that there are two mentions of the flagellation in the same gospel, the manner of which was shown her on that very day so wretchedly.

Then she also understood that love is so greatly commended in <the epistle> because, as the proverb says, the love of friends is proved in dire necessity. Hence on those days the Lord’s special friends ought particularly to exert themselves in the love of both God and neighbor, that is, by whole-heartedly feeling compassion for God, because the little son of the gentle Virgin, so lovable and delicate, is suffering so innocently and undeservedly at the hands of those for whom he died. Also we should have compassion on our neighbors as if they were our brothers, because they are provoking so stern a judge against themselves. Hence for the amendment of both let us be particularly mindful of the benefit of the Lord’s passion, for which let us devoutly give praise to the Lord, and let us pray that he may have mercy and spare those for whom he suffered

2 Gertrud the Great of Helfta. The Memorial of the Abundance of the Divine Sweetness. Trans. Alexandra Barratt. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2022. 278-279.

Vigils Reading - 2nd Sun Lent
2023-03-05
His Face Shone like the Sun1
A sermon by St Leo the Great
In the presence of chosen witnesses the Lord unveils his glory, investing with such splendor that bodily appearance which he shares with the rest of the human race that his face shines like the sun and his clothes become white as snow.
The primary purpose of this transfiguration was to remove the scandal of the cross from the hearts of Christ’s disciples; the greatness of his hidden glory was revealed to them to prevent their faith being shaken by the self-abasement of the suffering he was voluntarily to undergo. In his foresight, however, he was also laying the foundations of the Church’s hope, teaching the whole body of Christ the nature of the change it is to receive, and schooling his members to look forward to a share in the glory which had already shone forth in their head. The Lord had told them of this when he spoke of his coming in majesty: Then shall the just shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The blessed apostle Paul bears witness to the same thing: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. And again: You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Still further instruction was to come from the transfiguration to fortify the apostles and perfect their understanding. Moses and Elijah, representing the law and the prophets, appeared in conversation with the Lord. Thus through the presence of these five men the saying was fulfilled: On the evidence of two or three witnesses every word shall stand. What could be more firmly established than that Word in whose proclamation the trumpets of Old and New Testaments sound in unison, and the writings of ancient witnesses are in perfect accord with the teaching of the gospel? The pages of both covenants agree with one another. He who had been promised beforehand by mysteriously veiled signs was now revealed clearly and distinctly in the radiance of his glory, since, as Saint John says, The Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ. In Christ what was promised by prophetic figures and what was signified by legal precepts are alike fulfilled, for by his presence he teaches the truth of the prophecies, and by grace he makes it possible for us to obey the commandments.

May we all therefore be confirmed in our faith through the preaching of the holy Gospel, and let no one be ashamed of the cross by which Christ has redeemed the world. None of us must be afraid to suffer for the sake of justice or doubt the fulfillment of the promises, for it is through toil that we come to rest and through death that we pass to life. If we continue in the acknowledgment and love of Christ who took upon himself all the weakness of our lowly nature, what he conquered we too shall conquer, and the promise he gave us we shall receive. So then, whether it is to encourage us to obey his commands or toendure hardships, let the Father’s voice always be ringing in our ears and telling us: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased: listen to him

1 Journey with the Fathers: Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels – Year A. Ed. Edith Barnecut, OSB. New York: New City Press, 1992. 38-39.

Skema
2023-03-05
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
2nd Week of Lent

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
March 5 – 11, 2023

Sun
5
Mon
6
Tue
7
Wed
8
Thu
9
Fri
210
Sat
11

Office
2nd Sunday of Lent
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday
Lenten Weekday

Vigils
Exod 9:1-12
Exod 9:13-35
Exod 10:1-20
Exod 10:21-11:10
Exod 12:1-20
Exod 12:21-36
Exod 12:37-51

Lauds
Deut 6:10-15
Deut 6:16-19
Deut 6:20-25
Deut 7:1-6
Deut 7:7-11
Deut 7:12-15
Deut 7:16-21

Mass
25
230
231
232
233
234
235

1st
Gen 12:1-4a
Dan 9:4b-10
Isa 1:10, 16-20
Jer 18:18-20
Jer 17:5-10
Gen 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a
Mic 7:14-15, 18-20

2nd
2 Tim 1:8b-10

Gospel
Matt 17:1-9
Luke 6:36-38
Matt 23:1-12
Matt 20:17-28
Luke 16:19-31
Matt 21:33-43, 45-46
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Vespers
Heb 6:1-8
Heb 6:13-20
Heb 7:17-28
Heb 8:1-6
Heb 8:7-13
Heb 9:1-10
Heb 9:11-14

Vigils Reading
2023-03-04 08:00 - 17:00
Love Your Enemies
An excerpt from “The Cost of Discipleship” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
…For the first time in the Sermon on the Mount, we meet the word which sums up the whole of its message, the word “love.” Love is defined in uncompromising terms as the love of our enemies. Had Jesus only told us to love our brethren, we might have misunderstood what he meant by love, but now he leaves us in no doubt whatever as to his meaning…
In the New Testament our enemies are those who harbour hostility against us, not those against whom we cherish hostility, for Jesus refuses to reckon with such a possibility. The Christian must treat his enemy as a brother, and requite his hostility with love. His behaviour must be determined not by the way others treat him, but by the treatment he himself receives from Jesus…
…Love asks nothing in return, but seeks those who need it. And who needs our love more than those who are consumed with hatred and are utterly devoid of love? Who in other words deserves our love more than our enemy? Where is love more glorified than where she dwells in the midst of her enemies?
Christian love draws no distinction between one enemy and another, except that the more bitter our enemy’s hatred, the greater his need of love… In such love there is no inner discord between private person and official capacity. In both we are disciples of Christ, or we are not Christians at all. Am I asked how this love is to behave? Jesus gives the answer: bless, do good, and pray for your enemies without reserve and without respect of persons.

Jesus… bids us not only to bear with evil and the evil person patiently, not only to refrain from treating him as he treats us, but actively to engage in heart- felt love towards him. We are to serve our enemy in all things without hypocrisy and with utter sincerity. No sacrifice which a lover would make for his beloved is too great for us to make for our enemy. If out of love for our brother we are willing to sacrifice goods, honour and life, we must be prepared to do the same for our enemy. We are not to imagine that this is to condone his evil; such a love proceeds from strength rather than weakness, from truth rather than fear, and therefore it cannot be guilty of the hatred of another. And who is to be the object of such a love, if not those whose hearts are stifled with hatred?
Through the medium of prayer we go to our enemy, stand by his side, and plead for him to God… For if we pray for them, we are taking their distress and poverty, their guilt and perdition upon ourselves, and pleading to God for them. We are doing vicariously for them what they cannot do for themselves. Every insult they utter only serves to bind us more closely to God and them. Their persecution of us only serves to bring them nearer to reconciliation with God and to further the triumphs of love.
How then does love conquer? By asking not how the enemy treats her but only how Jesus treated her. The love for our enemies takes us along the way of the cross and into fellowship with the Crucified. The more we are driven along this road, the more certain is the victory of love over the enemy’s hatred. For then it is not the disciple’s own love, but the love of Jesus Christ alone, who for the sake of his enemies went to the cross and prayed for them as he hung there. In the face of the cross the disciples realized that they too were his enemies, and that he had overcome them by his love. It is this that opens the disciple’s eyes, and enables him to see his enemy as a brother

7 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. New York: Touchstone, 1995, 146-150.

Vigils Reading
2023-03-03
Christ’s Patient Endurance of Suffering
From the Spiritual Writings of John Ruusbroec
…He began to suffer at the time of his birth, for he was born in poverty and in cold. He was circumcised and so shed his blood. He was forced to flee to a strange land… He suffered hunger and thirst, disgrace and contempt, and… slanderous words and deeds… He fasted, kept vigils, and was tempted by the devil. He was subject to everyone. He went from country to country and from city to city with much labor and zeal in order to preach the Good News.
Finally he was arrested by… enemies even though he was a friend to them. He was betrayed, mocked, and insulted; scourged and beaten; and condemned on the basis of false testimony. In great pain he carried his cross to the highest place on earth and was there stripped naked. No man or woman has ever seen so beautiful a body so cruelly treated. He suffered disgrace, pain, and cold before all the world, for he was naked and it was cold, with a sharp wind cutting into his wounds. He was nailed to the wood of the cross with blunt nails and was so stretched out that his veins were ruptured. He was raised up on the cross, which was then dropped down into its hole with such force that his wounds began bleeding. His head was crowned with thorns. His ears heard the… shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” and many other abusive words. His eyes saw… obstinacy and malice… and the misery of his mother, and his eyes lost their power of sight in the bitterness of pain and death. His nose smelled the foulness which those standing by spat out of their mouths into his face. His mouth and his sense of taste were drenched with vinegar and gall. Every sensitive part of his body was pervaded with the pain of the scourging. Thus was Christ our Bridegroom wounded unto death, abandoned by God and all creatures; he hung dying on the cross like a piece of wood for which no one cared except Mary his mother, who could do nothing to help him.

Christ also suffered spiritually, in his soul, because of the obdurate willfulness of… those who put him to death, for however many signs and wonders they saw, they persisted in their evil ways. He suffered because of the ruin and retribution which would come upon them on account of his death, for God would inflict retribution upon them in both soul and body. He also suffered because of the distress and misery of his mother and his disciples, who were sorely afflicted. He suffered because his death would be of no avail for so many persons and because many would be ungrateful and even swear false oaths in order to ridicule and revile him who had died out of love for us. His human nature and his lower reason suffered because God withdrew from them the influx of his gifts and consolation and left them to themselves in such distress. For this reason, Christ said in complaint, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But our Lover was silent about all his sufferings and cried out to his Father, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”. Christ was heard by his Father because of his reverence, for those who acted out of ignorance were afterwards probably all converted.
These, then, were interior virtues of Christ: humility, charity, and the patient endurance of suffering. Christ practiced them throughout his life, died with them, and so redeemed us through his righteousness..

6 John Ruusbroec. The Spiritual Espousals and Other Works. Trans. James A. Wiseman, O.S.B. New York: Paulist Press, 1985. 50-51.

Vigils Reading
2023-03-02
The Deep Meaning of Fasting
A Meditation by Matthew the Poor
Fasting… represents the first battle in which Christ did away with His adversary, the prince of this world. In His forty days’ experience of absolute fasting, Christ laid down for us the basis of our dealings with our enemy – along with all his allurements and vain illusions. “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting”. For when a person enters into prayerful fasting, Satan departs from the flesh.
As the Son of God, Christ did not need fasting, nor did He need an open confrontation with Satan or baptism or filling with the Holy Spirit. Yet He fulfilled everything for our sake so His life and deeds would become ours… Fasting was to elevate the flesh to the level of war with the spirits of evil, those powers that hold sway over our weaker part, the flesh.
…Baptism, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and fasting form a fundamental and inseparable series of acts in Christ’s life that culminated in perfect victory over Satan in preparation for his total annihilation by the cross.
It is then extremely important to accept and to feel the power of each of these three acts in our depths and draw from Christ their action in us as they worked in Him, so that His same life may identify with ours. The ultimate aim of baptism, of being filled with the Holy Spirit, and of fasting is that Christ Himself may dwell in us: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me”.
…It is impossible for us to carry our cross well and get through the temptation of the devil, the ordeal of the world, and the oppression of evil without fasting on the Mount of Temptation… Here the Church’s imitation of Christ’s work is a necessary course of life for us, in which we may discover our salvation, strength, security, and victory. It was not for Himself that Christ was baptized, nor was it for Himself that He was crucified, and, consequently, it was not for Himself that He fasted forty days. The works of Christ – themselves a mighty and omnipotent power – have become sources of our salvation and life. Their power, however is not imparted to us unless we experience and practice it…

In Lent we prepare ourselves for the Last Supper. We prepare for two like things coming together. How could those who do not sacrifice themselves be worthy of Him who sacrificed His life? If we eat of a sacrificed body and do not sacrifice our own selves, how can we claim that a union takes place? The Mystical Supper on Thursday, which is the intentional acceptance of a life of sacrifice, is but a preparation for accepting suffering openly, even unto death

5 Matthew the Poor. The Communion of Love. Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1984. 109-122.

Vigils Reading
2023-03-01
Behold, Now is the Acceptable Time
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 let 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

4 Aelred of Rievaulx. The Liturgical Sermons: The Reading-Cluny Collection, 1 of 2 – Sermons 85-133. Trans. Daniel Griggs. Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2021. 108-115.

Vigils Reading
2023-02-28
Penance and Prayer
A sermon by St Oscar Romero
Not everyone… will have the honor of offering their blood physically or of being killed for the faith. But God does ask all those who believe in him to have the spirit of martyrdom. In other words, all of us should be ready to die for our faith even if the Lord does not grant us this honor. If we are so disposed, then when our time comes to give an accounting of our lives, we can say: “Lord, I was willing to give my life for you. And I have given it, because giving one’s life is not only being killed; it means living with the spirit of martyrdom and giving through duty, through silence, through prayer”. Indeed, it is in the honest fulfillment of duty and in the silence of daily life that we give our lives to God. We give our lives as does the mother who with no fuss, with the simplicity of motherly martyrdom, gives birth and gives her breast to her children and lovingly cares for them. This is what it means to give one’s life… May we all interpret for our lives what is now so necessary: surrendering our lives to holiness and being faithful to our obligations…
I tell you, sisters and brothers, it is wonderful to be Catholic at this time. Let us not be distressed but happy. Let us feel joyful in our spirit of courage and in our commitment to God… The less we place our trust in the things of earth, the greater will be God’s protection. “Now has come the victory of the Lord.” In God is our hope.
Penance was the word with which Christ began to preach the gospel, and it is also the substance of the church’s preaching: “Do penance! Be converted! Leave behind your evil ways!”… How I wish… that this Gospel word, spoken with tenderness…would reach those places where so many criminals are hidden, those dark corners of hell where so many calumnies are being plotted: “Be converted. Do not plant seeds of hatred! Do not kill more of our sisters and brothers! Do not spread more calumnies. Be converted, for these perverse roads lead to hell, and the Virgin wants you in her heaven.

… May prayer never fail in our hearts and on our lips. May we lift up our hearts to God, seeking favors, giving thanks, and asking for mercy. At this time I have great confidence… because there are many souls deep in prayer. As long as people are praying, I am not distressed. I tell the Lord in the intimacy of myMass, as all priests do, “Lord, look not on my sins, but on the faith of your church”. The faith of your church, Lord, is the old woman praying her rosary. The faith of our church is the sick man who feels useless but offers his suffering to God. The faith of the church is the father worried about supporting his family, honest and faithful to his home. The faith of the church is the religious who becomes holy in her own vocation. It is the priest, the seminarian, the child, and all those who live their vocation as church. The church is made up of all of us, and insofar as we pray and become holy, we are the power of the world, the force that descends from God, because the power of our prayer is derived from God.
…Let us become a church of penance and prayer… that this Blood of Christ “that is shed for you” may become truly a rain of peace, tranquility, harmony and reconciliation..

3 Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero. A Prophetic Bishop Speaks to His People: Vol. 1. Trans. Joseph Owens, S.J. Miami, FL: Convivium Press, 2015. 110-114.

Jim Finley
2023-02-27 12:00 - 13:00, 2023-02-20 12:00 - 13:00
Content is protected.

Vigils Reading
2023-02-27
I Ask Not for Thy Gifts but for Thyself
An Excerpt from “Meditations and Prayers” by Evelyn Underhill
Adoration, as it more deeply possesses us, inevitably leads on to self- offering: for every advance in prayer is really an advance in love. “I ask not for thy gifts but for thyself,” says the Divine Voice to Thomas à Kempis. There is something in all of us which knows that to be true.
Growth in spiritual personality means growth in charity. And charity… operating in the world of prayer, is the live wire along which the power of God, indwelling our finite spirits, can and does act on other souls and other things; rescuing, healing, giving support and light. That, of course, is real intercession; which is gravely misunderstood by us, if we think of it mainly in terms of asking God to grant particular needs and desires. Such secret intercessory prayer ought to penetrate and accompany all our active work, if it is really to be turned to the purpose of God. It is the supreme expression of the spiritual life on earth: moving from God to man, through us, because we have ceased to be self-centered units, but are woven into the great fabric of praying souls, the “mystical body” through which the work of Christ on earth goes on being done.
Those who deal much with souls soon come to know something about the strange spiritual currents which are at work under the surface of life, and the extent in which charity can work on supernatural levels for supernatural ends. But if you are to do that, the one thing that matters is that you should care supremely about it; care in fact, so much that you do not mind how much you suffer for it. We cannot help anyone until we do care, for it is only by love that spirit penetrates spirit.

Real saints do feel and bear the weight of the sins and pains of the world.
It is the human soul’s greatest privilege that we can thus accept redemptive suffering for one another – and they do. St Theresa says that if anyone claiming to be united to God is always in a state of peaceful beatitude, she simply does not believe in their union with God. Such a union, to her mind, involves great sorrow for the sin and pain of the world; a sense of identity not only with God but also with all other souls, and a great longing to redeem and heal. That is real supernatural charity. It is a call to love and save not the nice but the nasty; not the lovable but the unlovely, the hard, the narrow, and the embittered, and the tiresome, who are so much worse. To love irrespective of merit or opinion or personal preference; to love even those who offend our taste. If you are to love your people thus, translating your love, as you must, into unremitting intercessory work, and avoid being swamped by the great ocean of suffering, sin and need to which you are sent, once again this will only be done by maintaining and feeding the temper of adoration and trustful adherence. This is the heart of the life of prayer; and only in so far as we work from this centre can we safely dare to touch other souls and seek to affect them. For such intercession is a sacrificial job; and sacrificial jobs need the support of a stronger inner life if they are to be carried through. They are rooted and grounded in love

2 The Very Thought of Thee. Arranged and Ed. Douglas V. Steere and J. Minton Batten. Nashville, TN: The Upper Room, 1953. 72-74.

Vigils Reading - 1st Sun of Lent
2023-02-26
Jesus Fasted for Forty Days and Nights
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 that 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 tries 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 imposter. 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 prostrate before me.” At these words he can only surrender in shame; as he retreated before Christ, the light of the world, so will he depart from those illumined by that light. Such are the gifts conferred by baptism on those who understand its powers; such the rich banquet it lays before those who hunger for the things of the Spirit.

Skema
2023-02-26
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
1st Week of Lent

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
February 26 – March 4, 2023

Sun
26
Mon
27
Tue
28
Wed
1
Thu
2
Fri
3
Sat
4

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

Reading: Saturday After Ash Wednesday
2023-02-25
The Mercy of God to a Penitent 7
From a Letter of St Maximus the Confessor
God’s will is to save us, and nothing pleases him more than our coming back
to him with true repentance. The heralds of truth and the ministers of divine grace
have told us this from the beginning, repeating it in every age. Indeed, God’s desire
for our salvation is the primary and preeminent sign of his infinite goodness. It is
precisely in order to show that there is nothing closer to God’s heart than the divine
Word of the Father, with untold condescension, lived among us in the flesh, and
did, suffered and said all that was necessary to reconcile us to God the Father, when
we were at enmity with him, and to restore us to the life of blessedness from which
we had been exiled. He healed our physical infirmities by miracles; he freed us from
our sins, many and grievous as they were, by suffering and dying, taking them upon
himself as if he were answerable for them, sinless though he was. He also taught us
in many different ways that we should wish to imitate him by our own kindness and
genuine love for one another.
So it was that Christ proclaimed that he had come to call sinners to
repentance, not the righteous, and that it was not the healthy who required a doctor,
but the sick. He declared that he had come to look for the sheep that was lost, and
that it was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel that he had been sent.
To give the same lesson he revived the man who, having fallen into the hands
of brigands, had been left stripped and half-dead from his wounds; he poured wine
and oil on the wounds, bandaged them, placed the man on his own mule, and
brought him to an inn, where he left sufficient money to have him cared for, and
promised to repay any further expense on his return.
Again, he told of how that Father. Who is goodness itself, was moved with
pity for his profligate son who returned and made amends by repentance; how he
embraced him, dressed him once more in the fine garments that befitted his own
dignity, and did not reproach him for any of his sins.
So too, when he found wandering in the mountains and hills the one sheep
that had strayed from God’s flock of a hundred, he brought it back to the fold, but
he did not exhaust it by driving it ahead of him. Instead, he placed it on his own
shoulders and so, compassionately, he restored it safely to the flock.
So also he cried out: “Come to me, all you that toil and are heavy of heart.
Accept my yoke”, he said, by which he meant his commands, or rather the whole
way of life that he taught us in the Gospel. He then speaks of a burden, but that is
only because repentance seems difficult. In fact, however, “my yoke is easy”, he
assures us, “and my burden is light”.
Then again he instructs us in divine justice and goodness, telling us to be like
our heavenly Father, holy, perfect and merciful. “Forgive”, he says, “and you will be
forgiven. Behave toward other people as you would wish them to behave toward
you”.
7 The Liturgy of the Hours – vol II – pg 304 – Catholic Book Publishing co – 1976

Reading: Friday After Ash Wednesday
2023-02-24
Anoint Your Head and Wash Your Face 6
A Sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux
…Beloved, we enter the holy season of Lent, a season of Christian warfare.
We are not the only ones who observe it; it is common to all who are in the unity of
the same faith. Why should all Christians not share in Christ’s fast? Why should
the members not follow the Head? If we receive good from this Head, why should
we not endure the bad? Or do we wish to reject what is disagreeable but take our
share of pleasure? If that were the case we would show ourselves unworthy to share
the life of the Head. All that he suffered, he suffered for us. If we are put off by
being his collaborators in the work of our own salvation, how will we later show
ourselves his coworkers? Surely it is no great thing for one who is to sit with Christ
at the Father’s table to fast with him, no great thing if a member suffer with the
head with whom he will be glorified! Happy is the member who clings to this Head
through everything, and follows him wherever he goes! But if he is cut off and
separated, it must follow that he is deprived even of the breath of life. How will any
part that does not remain united to the Head possess consciousness and life?
Clearly there will be someone to take possession of the parts exposed to view so they
don’t remain headless! The root of bitterness will spring up again, and a poisonous
head will again come forth – the head which that valiant woman, Mother Church,
had previously crushed…
For me, it is good to cling to you, O glorious Head, blessed forever, on which
even the angels desire to look! I will follow you wherever you go; if you pass
through fire I will not be torn away from you, nor will I fear evil, for you are with
me. You bear my griefs and you grieve over me; you go first through the narrow
door of the passion to prepare a broad entrance for the members who follow.
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? By this love the whole body
grows through its joints and ligaments. This is the good soldier Isaiah mentions.
This is what makes it so good and pleasant a thing for brethren to dwell together in
unity. This ointment that flows down from the Head on to the beard flows even to
the skirts of the garment so that not the smallest thread lacks anointing. On the
Head is the fullness of graces of which we all receive; on the Head is all mercy, an
inexhaustible font of divine loving-kindness, and the whole abundance of spiritual
ointment. As it is written, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness
beyond your companions. That Head, which the Father had anointed so freely,
Mary also did not fear to anoint. The disciples were scandalized, but Truth
answered for her that she had performed a good work.
…One who is faithful in a small thing is judged worthy of a greater reward.
Therefore anoint your Head, pouring out on him who is above whatever devotion or
delight or affection you have. Anoint your Head, so that if there is any grace in you
it may be ascribed to him, and you may not seek your own glory, but his… Anoint
your head and wash your face, that is to say, show yourself blameless so that you
strive to win for yourself divine grace and in the sight of others seek not your own
glory, but that of your Creator…
6 Bernard of Clairvaux. Sermons for Lent and the Easter Season. CF 52. Trans. Irene Edmonds.
Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2013. 24-28.

Reading: Thursday After Ash Wednesday
2023-02-23
Jesus Christ Deserves Our Love in Return 5
From the writings of St Alphonsus de Liguori
A person will become perfectly holy by loving Jesus Christ, our God, our chief
good, and our Savior. He himself says that anyone who loves him will be loved by
the eternal Father: “For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me”.
“Some people,” says St. Francis de Sales, “think that perfection can be found by an
austere life; others make it a matter of much prayer, or of frequenting the
sacraments, or of acts of charity. They are all mistaken. Perfection consists in
loving God with our whole heart…
…He has loved us from the very beginning of eternity: “With age-old love I
have loved you”. God was the first to love you. Before you existed, indeed, even
before the world itself existed, God was already loving you. For as long as he has
been God, he has been loving you.
When God saw how human beings were attracted by good things, he set out
to win them over by his gifts: “I drew them with human cords, / with bands of love”.
Every gift of his was created for human beings. First, he endowed the soul made in
his image with its powers of memory, intellect, and will, and gave it a body with all
its senses, created heaven and earth and all that is in them… everything was an act
of his love. All these created things were for the use of human beings, so that they
love him in return for so many gifts. “The heavens and the earth and everything in
them,” says St. Augustine, “cry out to me that I must love you.”
…There was once a holy hermit. On his walks through the countryside, it
seemed to him as if the wild flowers and plants along the way reminded him of his
ingratitude to God, and he would strike them with his staff, saying, “Be silent, be
silent! You call me ungrateful. You tell me that God has created you out of love for
me, yet I do not love him. I understand you now. Be silent! Be silent! Do not
reproach me anymore.”
God was not content simply to give us a beautiful creation. In order to win us
totally, the Eternal Father has gone so far as to give us his one and only Son: “For
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”. Seeing us dead and deprived of
grace through sin, in his overwhelming love for us, he sent his Son to make
satisfaction for us, and to restore to us the life which sin had destroyed…
What is even more astonishing is that he could have saved us without dying
and without suffering. Yet he chose a life of affliction and contempt, and a bitter
and ignominious death. He went so far as to die on the shameful scaffold of the
Cross: “He humbled himself, / becoming obedient to death, / even death on a
cross”. If he could have redeemed us without suffering, why then did he choose to
die, and to die on a cross? It was for no other reason than to show his love for us…
That is why St. Paul, the great lover of Jesus Christ, could say “the love of
Christ impels us”. He meant that it was not so much what Jesus Christ has suffered
for us as the love he has shown in suffering for us which obliges us, and indeed
forces us, to love him. Commenting on this text, St. Francis de Sales asks…
“Why, then, do we not throw ourselves on Jesus crucified to die on the cross
along with him who was willed to die there for love of us? I will cling to him, and
will never more abandon him. I will die with him, and be consumed by the fire of
his love. Let the same fire consume the creature as consumes the creator. My Jesus
gives himself totally to me, and I give myself totally to him. I will live and die on his
breast… Savior of our souls, grant that we might sing for ever “May Jesus live whom
I love, I love Jesus who lives for ever and ever.”
5 Alphonsus de Liguori. Selected Writings. New York: Paulist Press, 1999. 112-115.

Reading: Ash Wednesday
2023-02-22
Ash Wednesday 4
by Thomas Merton
…Lent is not a season of punishment so much as one of healing… a season of special reflection and prayer, a forty-day retreat in which each Christian, to the extent he is able, tries to follow Christ into the desert by prayer and fasting…
The cross of ashes, traced upon the forehead of each Christian… is the sign of Christ’s victory over death. The words “Remember man that thou art dust, and that to dust thou shalt return” are not to be taken as… a kind of “sacrament of death”… The declaration that the body must fall temporarily into dust is a challenge to spiritual combat, that our burial may be “in Christ” and that we may rise with Him to “live unto God.”…
Only the inner rending, the tearing of the heart, brings this joy. It lets out our sins, and lets in the clean air of God’s spring, the sunlight of the days that advance toward Easter. Rending of the garments lets in nothing but the cold. The rending of the heart which is spoken of in Joel is that “tearing away” from ourselves… the “oldness” of the old man, wearied with the boredom and drudgery of an indifferent existence, that we may turn to God and taste His mercy…
To say there is joy in Ash Wednesday is not to empty the procession of its sorrows and anguish. “Save me O God… for the waters are come in even unto my soul.” This is not a song of joy. If we present our selves before God to receive ashes from the hand of the priest it is because we are convinced of our sinfulness. … A sinner is a drowning man, a sinking ship. The waters are bursting into him on all sides… They are closing over his head, and he cries out to God: “the waters are come in even unto my soul.”…
Ash Wednesday is for people who know what it means for their soul to be logged with these icy waters: all of us are such people, if only we can realize it… The light of Lent is given us to help us with this realization.
Nevertheless, the liturgy of Lent is not focused on the sinfulness of the penitent but on the mercy of God… Nowhere will we find more tender expressions of the divine mercy than on this day… In the Introit for Ash Wednesday we sing: “You have mercy upon all, O Lord, and hate none of those which You have made.”
…Those who deny Him say they do so because evil in the world could be the work only of a God that hated the world. But even those who profess to love Him regard Him too often as a furious Father, who seeks only to punish and revenge Himself for the evil that is done “against Him”… This is not the God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who Himself “hides” our sins and gets them out of sight, like a mother making quick and efficient repairs on the soiled face of a child just before entering a house where he ought to appear clean… is everywhere shown to us as “plenteous in mercy”.
And from the infinite treasure of His mercies He draws forth the gift of compunction…The God of Lent is like a calm sea of mercy. In Him there is no anger. This “hiding” of God’s severity is not a subterfuge. It is a revelation of His true nature. He is not severe…He is love. Love becomes severe only to those who make Him severe for themselves. Love is hard only to those who refuse Him. It is not, and cannot be Love’s will to be refused. Therefore it is not and cannot be Love’s will to be severe and punish… Those who refuse Him are severe to themselves, and immolate themselves to the blood-thirsty god of their own self-love. It is from this idol that Love would deliver us. To such bitter servitude, Love would never condemn us.
4 Merton, Thomas. Seasons of Celebration. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1965. 113-121. 9

Reading: St. Peter Damian
2023-02-21
A Letter from Peter Damian to Rainerius II, marquis of Monte S. Maria 3
To Sir Rainerius, the illustrious marquis, the monk Peter the sinner sends his
greetings. For the sins you confessed to me, noble sir, I have enjoined you to travel
to Jerusalem, and thus appease divine justice by the penance of this long
pilgrimage. But since, according to Scripture, you have no idea what tomorrow will
bring, you are putting off this matter until later; and while fearing the uncertainties
of the journey, you are not providing for yourself a secure city in which you might
live. And so, in your case we see the pronouncement carried out that says: “He who
watches the wind never sows, and he who keeps his eye on the clouds never reaps.”
…Therefore, my dear friend, do not conjure up every possible thing you can
invent or imagine… do not fear misfortunes that might happen unexpectedly, but
“trust in the Lord and do good.” For often, the more anxious we are because of our
dependence on human reason, the more readily divine goodness comes to our aid;
and when we despair of human comfort we often become aware of God’s assistance.
And now to say a few words about the pilgrimage with which we are
concerned. It came to my attention from the report of my brother and fellow monk,
Richard… that this very year eight men are returning from Jerusalem, having
fulfilled the vow they had been so piously intent on making. But as they walked
through uninhabited regions, and had been suffering for four days without food, as
one man they began to beg God’s mercy to help them in their great necessity, and
that “he who gives food to all his creatures,” should not deny them at least some
nourishment in their hour of need. Just as they had finished praying, they saw a
loaf of bread of enormous size and marvelous brightness lying in the road. They
wondered at this sight before their very eyes, not unaware… that something of such
great weight could not have fallen unnoticed from the pack of him who carried it.
They at once recognized this bounty as evidence of God’s goodness…
Bonizo, another brother of ours… once suffered shipwreck as he was
returning by sea from Jerusalem. In the angry waves this ship went down, and all
his companions were lost in the wild storm. But he took hold of a sack that was
filled with baled cotton, and riding on it amid the rolling waves for almost three
days and two nights, like a man fighting for his life, he battled the sea and held
death at bay. Then it happened that several oarsmen in their boat came cutting
through the waves, saw him from some distance away, and after generously
rescuing him and giving him something to eat, treated him most kindly. And so, he
who managed to save Paul, adrift for twenty-four hours on the open sea, also kept
this brother afloat amid the wash of contending waves, lest he be swallowed up by
the storm…
Therefore, noble sir, meditate on these and similar flowers of heavenly mercy,
do not depend on your own ability, but, as is only proper, place your trust in the
unfailing protection of him who is almighty. Our ignoble body is afraid, but the
native ardor of a courageous soul is already on fire. Set out, be up and doing, and
join the fight, for he who rewards our determination will lead the pilgrimage. It is
your task to take on this journey, but it is God who directs the steps of those who
search for him. He who causes the generous heart to love, brings our good works to
fruition. And he who encourages the human spirit to do well, undoubtedly will
fulfill the vows that our piety suggests to us.
3 Peter Damian. The Fathers of the Church – Medieval Continuations: The Letters of Peter Damien, 151-180.
Trans. Owen Blum and Irven M. Resnick. Catholic University of America Press, 2014. 3-6.

Reading: Weekday
2023-02-20
An Excerpt from The Practice of the Presence of God 2
by Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection
…A soul depends on grace in proportion to its desire for greater perfection.
God’s help is necessary at every moment because without it the soul can do nothing.
The world, nature, and the devil together wage war so fiercely and so relentlessly
that, without this special help and this humble, necessary dependence, they would
carry off the soul against its will…
The holiest, most ordinary, and most necessary practice of the spiritual life is
that of the presence of God. It is to take delight in and become accustomed to his
divine company, speaking humbly and conversing lovingly with him all the time, at
every moment, without rule or measure, especially in times of temptation, suffering,
aridity, weariness, even infidelity and sin.
We must continually apply ourselves so that all our actions, without
exception, become a kind of brief conversation with God, not in a contrived manner
but coming from the purity and simplicity of our hearts…
During our work and other activities, even during our reading and writing, no
matter how spiritual – and, I emphasize, even during our religious exercises and
vocal prayers – we must stop for a moment, as often as possible, to adore God in the
depths of our hearts, to savor him, even though in passing and stealthily. Since you
are aware that God is present to you during your actions, that he is in the depths
and center of your heart, stop your activities and even your vocal prayers, at least
from time to time, to adore him within, to praise him, to ask his help, to offer him
your heart, and to thank him. Nothing is more pleasing to God than to turn away
from all creatures many times throughout the day to withdraw and adore him
present within. Moreover, this turning inward imperceptibly destroys self-love
found only among creatures. In the end, we can offer God no greater evidence of
our fidelity than by frequently renouncing and scorning creatures in order to enjoy
their Creator for a moment. I do not mean by this that you must withdraw forever
from your duties, for that would be impossible; prudence, the mother of all virtues,
must be your guide…
All these adorations must be made by faith, believing that God is truly in our
hearts, that we must adore, love, and serve him in spirit and in truth, that he sees
everything that happens and will happen in us and in all creatures; that he is
independent of everything and the one on whom all creatures depend, infinite in
every kind of perfection. He is the one who, by virtue of his infinite excellence and
sovereign domain, deserves all that we are as well as everything in heaven and on
earth, of which he can dispose as he wishes in time and in eternity. All our
thoughts, words and actions belong by right to him… We must have recourse to God
with complete confidence at the moment of combat, remain firm in the presence of
his divine majesty, adore him humbly, bring him our miseries and weaknesses, and
lovingly ask him for the help of his grace. In this way we will find every virtue in
him without our having any of our own.
2 Br Lawrence of the Resurrection. The Practice of the Presence of God. Trans. Salvatore Sciurba, OCD.
Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1994. 35-37.

Compline
2023-02-19 19:25 - 20:00
February 19, 2023 at 7:25 pm on zoom at the link below:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85468277442?pwd=[REDACTED]

7th Sunday in Ordinary Time
2023-02-19
Love Your Enemies1
A Commentary by Walter Hilton
When love acts in the soul it does so wisely and gently, for it has great power
to kill anger and envy, and all the passions of wrath and melancholy, and it brings
into the soul the virtues of patience, gentleness, peaceableness, and friendliness to
one’s neighbor. People guided only by their own reason find it very hard to be
patient, peaceful, sweet-tempered and charitable to their neighbors when they treat
them badly and wrong them. But true lovers of Jesus have no great difficulty in
enduring all this, because love fights for them and kills such movements of wrath
and melancholy with amazing ease. Through the spiritual sight of Jesus it makes
the souls of such people so much at ease and so peaceful, so ready to endure and so
conformed to God, that if they are despised and disregarded by others, or suffer
injustice or injury, shame or ill-treatment, they pay no attention. They are not
greatly disturbed by these things and will not allow themselves to be, for then they
would lose the comfort they feel in their souls, and that they are unwilling to do.
They can more easily forget all the wrong that is done them than others can forgive
it even when asked for forgiveness. They would rather forget than forgive, for that
seems easier to them.
And it is love that does all this, for love opens the eye of the soul to the sight
of Jesus, and confirms it in the pleasure and contentment of the love that comes
from that sight. It comforts the soul so much that it is quite indifferent to what
others do against it. The greatest harm that could befall such people would be to
lose the spiritual sight of Jesus, and they would therefore suffer all other injuries
than that one alone.
When true lovers of Jesus suffer harm from their neighbors, they are so
strengthened by the grace of the Holy Spirit and are made so truly humble, so
patient, and so peaceable, that they retain their humility no matter what harm or
injury is inflicted on them. They do not despise their neighbors or judge them, but
they pray for them in their hearts, and feel more pity and compassion for them than
for others who never harmed them, and in fact they love them better, and more
fervently desire their salvation, because they see that they will have so much
spiritual profit from their neighbors’ deeds, though this was never their intention.
But this love and this humility, which are beyond human nature, come only from
the Holy Spirit to those whom he makes true lovers of Jesus.
1 Journey with the Fathers: Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels – Year A. Ed. Edith Barnecut, O.S.B. New
York: New City Press, 1992. 90-91

Skema
2023-02-19
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
7th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
February 19 – 25, 2023

Sun
19
Mon
20
Tue
21
Wed
22
Thu
23
Fri
24
Sat
25

Office
7th Sunday
Weekday
St Peter Damien
Ash Wednesday
Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Friday after Ash Wednesday
Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Vigils
Song 6:4-7:6
Song 7:7-8:4
Song 8:5-14
Isa 58:1-14
Exod 1:1-22
Exod 2:1-22
Exod 2:23-3:22

Lauds
Hag 2:10-14
Hag 2:15-19
Hag 2:20-23
Sir 17:20-32
Deut 1:3-8
Deut 4:1-8
Deut 4:9-14

Mass
79
341
342
219
220
221
222

1st
Lev 19:1-2, 17-18
Sir 1:1-10
Sir 2:1-11
Joel 2:12-18
Deut 30:15-20
Isa 58:1-9a
Isa 58:9b-14

2nd
1 Cor 3:16-23

2 Cor 5:20-6:2

Gospel
Matt 5:38-48
Mark 9:14-29
Mark 9:30-37
Matt 6:1-6, 16-18
Luke 9:22-25
Matt 9:14-15
Luke 5:27-32

Vespers
2 Tim 3:10-17
2 Tim 4:1-8
2 Tim 4:9-22
2 Cor 5:14-21
Heb 1:1-9
Heb 1:13-2:4
Heb 2:5-9

Cleveland LCG Monthly Meeting
2023-02-18 15:00 - 16:30

Vigils Reading - Memorial of B.V.M.
2023-02-18
The Lost Child
A Reading from Caryll Houselander’s “The Reed of God”
Surely there can be no one with a spark of imagination who has not, at some time or other, felt baffled and even hurt by the Gospel record of the loss of the Child Jesus. The striking thing about it is that it was not really loss. Our Lady did not lose Christ; He deliberately went away. He allowed her to imagine Him safe in the company of travellers; and without a word He slipped away and went back to Jerusalem… When she had found Him, after three days of utter bereavement, He returned with her to Nazareth; but after what must have seemed a very short time to her, He left her again, and from that time forward her life was a continual seeking for Him. We hear of her standing outside in the crowd during His public life; of her following Him to the Cross, where the very life she had given Him was taken away from her. For a brief moment He was put into her arms again, and then taken up quickly… and put into the tomb.
Why did Christ treat Our Lady in this way? It was not only to show His absolute trust in her or her trust in Him (although she was the one human being in whom God’s Will was completely unhindered). It was because Our Lady lived the life of all humanity. Concentrated into her tiny history is the life story of the whole human race, the whole relationship of the redeemed human race with God…
Everyone experiences this sense of the loss of the Divine Child. Everyone knows it in different ways and in different degrees. Converts, and others who have received some great revivifying grace, find the springtime of their souls suddenly chill. The uprush and thrust of spring fails, and they are left empty. It does indeed seem to them that the Child was born into their lives; filled the little house of their souls with His laughter: and now, without warning, He is gone. There is no emptiness like the emptiness of the house from which a child has gone away…

…When we were young, or when Faith was young in us, we were aware of the call within us, of the Holy Spirit inspiring us to lead the austere life of sacrifice and uncompromising charity which is the only really free and fetterless life on earth. Then, indeed, there was space, light, and air in us. But we have gradually frittered away the vocation to be free… gradually we have frittered our freedom away: alwaysincreasing our wants, little by little making more and more necessities for ourselves; forming habit after habit of petty indulgence; until one day (if we are given the grace of realizing it), we discover that we too have lost the Divine Child… We started with the one idea of serving God, but gradually the formalities, the necessary social life, the business side, has overcome us.
But whether it be for a long or a short time, a searing grief or one that wears the mind and heart gradually, the experience itself is universal; and if one things stands out particularly in the case of very devout people, it is that in them you can see that it is not a loss but His deliberate going away. They pray, they meditate, they deny themselves; they perform all the works of mercy; nevertheless, Christ seems to leave them…
In every man the impulse to desire and pursue his happiness, his own good, is deeply rooted… This equality of desire makes every man search, makes everyone (whether he knows it or not) seek, seek, seek all his life, for the lost Child, whether he knows Him directly as Christ or as the goodness of his human love; as the peace of his home, the joy in his work, or just as the indefinable lightness of heart which descends upon him like Pentecost

7 Houselander, Caryll. The Reed of God. 1944. 95-107.

Reading: Thursday After Ash Wednesday
2023-02-17 08:00 - 17:00
Jesus Christ Deserves Our Love in Return 5
From the writings of St Alphonsus de Liguori
A person will become perfectly holy by loving Jesus Christ, our God, our chief
good, and our Savior. He himself says that anyone who loves him will be loved by
the eternal Father: “For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me”.
“Some people,” says St. Francis de Sales, “think that perfection can be found by an
austere life; others make it a matter of much prayer, or of frequenting the
sacraments, or of acts of charity. They are all mistaken. Perfection consists in
loving God with our whole heart…
…He has loved us from the very beginning of eternity: “With age-old love I
have loved you”. God was the first to love you. Before you existed, indeed, even
before the world itself existed, God was already loving you. For as long as he has
been God, he has been loving you.
When God saw how human beings were attracted by good things, he set out
to win them over by his gifts: “I drew them with human cords, / with bands of love”.
Every gift of his was created for human beings. First, he endowed the soul made in
his image with its powers of memory, intellect, and will, and gave it a body with all
its senses, created heaven and earth and all that is in them… everything was an act
of his love. All these created things were for the use of human beings, so that they
love him in return for so many gifts. “The heavens and the earth and everything in
them,” says St. Augustine, “cry out to me that I must love you.”
…There was once a holy hermit. On his walks through the countryside, it
seemed to him as if the wild flowers and plants along the way reminded him of his
ingratitude to God, and he would strike them with his staff, saying, “Be silent, be
silent! You call me ungrateful. You tell me that God has created you out of love for
me, yet I do not love him. I understand you now. Be silent! Be silent! Do not
reproach me anymore.”
God was not content simply to give us a beautiful creation. In order to win us
totally, the Eternal Father has gone so far as to give us his one and only Son: “For
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”. Seeing us dead and deprived of
grace through sin, in his overwhelming love for us, he sent his Son to make
satisfaction for us, and to restore to us the life which sin had destroyed…
What is even more astonishing is that he could have saved us without dying
and without suffering. Yet he chose a life of affliction and contempt, and a bitter
and ignominious death. He went so far as to die on the shameful scaffold of the
Cross: “He humbled himself, / becoming obedient to death, / even death on a
cross”. If he could have redeemed us without suffering, why then did he choose to
die, and to die on a cross? It was for no other reason than to show his love for us…
That is why St. Paul, the great lover of Jesus Christ, could say “the love of
Christ impels us”. He meant that it was not so much what Jesus Christ has suffered
for us as the love he has shown in suffering for us which obliges us, and indeed
forces us, to love him. Commenting on this text, St. Francis de Sales asks…
“Why, then, do we not throw ourselves on Jesus crucified to die on the cross
along with him who was willed to die there for love of us? I will cling to him, and
will never more abandon him. I will die with him, and be consumed by the fire of
his love. Let the same fire consume the creature as consumes the creator. My Jesus
gives himself totally to me, and I give myself totally to him. I will live and die on his
breast… Savior of our souls, grant that we might sing for ever “May Jesus live whom
I love, I love Jesus who lives for ever and ever.
5 Alphonsus de Liguori. Selected Writings. New York: Paulist Press, 1999. 112-115.

Vigils Reading
2023-02-17
The Altar of the Poor
An excerpt from “The Wellspring of Worship” by Jean Corbon
Poverty is a mystery. It is not to be gauged from outside, in the person of others; it is known in silence by those whom it burdens. And even if we experience its wounds, we are hardly able to give it a life-giving meaning, because it is an absence. Poverty cannot be objectified. Only he who incarnates it can reveal its mystery to us by giving us a share in it. Jesus is the Poor Man. He is more than a model of poverty; he is in his person the mystery of poverty…
When the Word espouses our flesh, he becomes poor in our humanity: poor with the poverty native to man who is made in the image of God and poor with the poverty of sinners who lack the glory of God…
In the final analysis, poverty does not exist; only poor persons exist. If we serve the poor impersonally, we still connive with those who depersonalize them. The evil rich man of the parable is anonymous, like the death that disfigures man; the poor man of the parable is a person with a name: Lazarus, because when all is said and done this poor man is Jesus. He is Jesus not by a juridical pretense or by a pious shift of focus that unites us to Christ without real reference to the poor, but because of the shattering realism of the Incarnation of the poor Son: in him God becomes poor, so that henceforth the poor are God. “What you did to the least of these little ones…”: the final judgment on all of our human behavior is based on the identity of Jesus and this poor person. The suffering of each man is the suffering of Jesus, who makes it his own. It is because of this mystical realism that each man is saved by Christ. Our death is no longer ours but his who died and rose for us…
…In his kenosis the Son of God made his own the suffering of every poor person; conversely, through love he suffers mysteriously in every man – for is there

any man who is not poor… This is what Jesus means when he says, “You have the poor with you always”, just as “I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.” Because Christ in his body really passed through death and destroyed it, he can now incorporate into himself those who are still enslaved to death. The kingdom of God is in our midst because the body of Christ is still with us in this way. Love can spread abroad because the kenosis from which it streams forth is the death in which he was buried with us and for us.
When Saint John Chrysostom was trying to help the faithful of Antioch understand the mysterious unity between the liturgy they were celebrating and the liturgy they were to live out after leaving the church, he told them they were leaving the altar of the Eucharist only to go to the altar of the poor… We must now serve, in the persons of the poor, the same body of Christ that we served in the memorial of his Passion and Resurrection. At the celebration the altar was the sign of the tomb, the nonplace of death, and the origin of the new space of the Resurrection; in daily life the poor are the sign of the risen Christ from whom life-giving love can come.
The altar is also the symbol of the banquet table and the divine hospitality, which all men are invited to share. In the Eucharist we receive everything by sharing in the Body and Blood of Christ; at the altar of the poor we must respond by sharing the Gift we have received and by giving ourselves… It is on the altar of the poor that the passion of God becomes the compassion of his Church for man

6 Corbon, Jean. The Wellspring of Worship. Trans. Matthew J. O’Connell. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005. 241-245.

Vigils Readings - Office for Vocations
2023-02-16
Pray Without Ceasing
A Reading from The Way of a Pilgrim
I went to church to say my prayers there during the Liturgy. The first Epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians was being read, and among other words I heard these – “Pray without ceasing.” It was this text, more than any other, which forced itself upon my mind, and I began to think how it was possible to pray without ceasing… I looked at my Bible, and with my own eyes read the words which I had heard…that we ought always, at all times and in all places, to pray with uplifted hands. I thought and thought, but knew not what to make of it. “What ought I to do?” I thought. “Where shall I find someone to explain it to me?… I heard a number of very fine sermons on prayer; what prayer is, how much we need it, and what its fruits are; but no one said how one could succeed in prayer… how it wasdone was not pointed out…
One day I was told that in a certain village a gentleman had long been living and seeking the salvation of his soul… I got there and found him… “What do you want of me?” he asked… “In God’s name please explain to me the meaning of the Apostle’s words, ‘Pray without ceasing.’
He was silent for a while and looked at me closely. Then he said: “Ceaseless interior prayer is a continual yearning of the human spirit towards God. To succeed in this consoling exercise we must pray more often to God to teach us to pray without ceasing. Pray more, and pray more fervently. It is prayer itself which will reveal to you how it can be achieved unceasingly; but it will take some time.”…Again I set off.
I thought and thought, I read and read, I dwelt over and over again upon what this man had said to me, but I could not get to the bottom of it…

At last towards evening I was overtaken by an old man who looked like a cleric of some sort… “What sort of spiritual teaching are you wanting to get?” he asked me… “Well, it’s like this, Father…About a year ago, while I was at the Liturgy, I heard a passage from the Epistles which bade men pray without ceasing…This surprised me very much, and I was at a loss to understand how it could be carried out…
…the old man crossed himself and spoke. “Thank God, my dear brother, for having revealed to you this unappeasable desire for unceasing interior prayer. Recognise in it the call of God, and calm yourself. Rest assured that what has hitherto been accomplished in you is the testing of the harmony of your own will with the voice of God…Many people reason quite the wrong way round about prayer, thinking that good actions and all sorts of preliminary measures render us capable of prayer. But quite the reverse is the case, it is prayer which bears fruit in good works and all the virtues…for the Apostle Paul says, ‘I exhort therefore that first of all supplication be made’. The first thing laid down in the Apostle’s words about prayer is that the work of prayer comes before everything else… The Christian is bound to perform many good works, but before all else what he ought to do is to pray, for without prayer no other good work whatever can be accomplished. Without prayer he cannot find the way to the Lord, he cannot understand the truth, he cannot crucify the flesh with its passions and lusts, his heart cannot be enlightened with the light of Christ, he cannot be savingly united to God…
Consequently it is just to pray often, to pray always, which falls within our power as the means of attaining purity of prayer, which is the mother of all spiritual blessings. ‘Capture the Mother, and she will bring you the children,’ said St. Isaac the Syrian. Learn first to acquire the power of prayer and you will easily practise all the other virtues

5 The Way of a Pilgrim. Trans. R. M. French. London: S.P.C.K., 1965. 1-8.

Vigils Reading
2023-02-15
From Words to Silence
by Father Kallistos Ware
The more a man comes to contemplate God in nature, the more he realizes that God is also above and beyond nature. Finding traces of the divine in all things, he says: ‘This also is thou; neither is this thou.’… In Scripture, in the liturgical texts, and in nature, we are presented with innumerable words, images and symbols of God; and we are taught to give full value to these words, images and symbols, dwelling upon them in our prayer. But, since these things can never express the entire truth about the living God, we are encouraged also to balance this affirmative or cataphatic prayer by apophatic prayer… as Evagrius puts it… ‘a laying aside of thoughts.’
…Reaching out towards the eternal Truth that lies beyond all human words and thoughts, the seeker begins to wait upon God in quietness and silence, no longer talking about or to God but simply listening. ‘Be still, and know that I am God’.
This stillness or inward silence is known in Greek as hesychia… concentration combined with inward tranquility. It is not merely to be understood in a negative sense as the absence of speech and outward activity, but it denotes in a positive way the openness of the human heart towards God’s love… The way of negation and the way of affirmation are not alternatives; they are complementary.
But how are we to stop talking and to start listening? Of all the lessons in prayer, this is the hardest to learn. There is little profit in saying to ourselves, ‘Do not think’, for suspension of discursive thought is not something that we can achieve merely through an exertion of will-power. The ever-restless mind demands from us some task, so as to satisfy its constant need to be active… The mind needs some task which will keep it busy, and yet enable it to reach out beyond itself into stillness. In the Orthodox hesychast tradition, the work which is usually assigned to it is the frequent repetition of some short ‘arrow prayer’, most commonly the Jesus Prayer… an invocation addressed to another Person.

Its object is not relaxation but alertness, not waking slumber but living prayer… the rhythmic repetition of the same short phrase enables…by virtue of the very simplicity of the words…to advance beyond all language and images into the mystery of God…where the soul rests in God without a constantly varying succession of images, ideas and feelings…
The way of negation resembles not so much the peeling of an onion as the carving of a statue. When we peel an onion, we remove one skin after another, until finally there is no more onion left: we end up with nothing at all. But the sculptor, when chipping away at a block of marble, negates to a positive effect. He does not reduce the block to a heap of random fragments but, through the apparently destructive action of breaking the stone in pieces, he ends up by unveiling an intelligible shape…
In some writers the ideas of light and darkness are combined… St Dionysius says, ‘The divine darkness is the inaccessible light in which God is said to dwell.’ There is no self-contradiction about such language, for to God ‘the darkness and the light are both alike’… If God is said to dwell in darkness, that does not mean that there is in God any lack or privation, but that he is a fullness of glory and love beyond our comprehension

4 Ware, Fr. Kallistos. The Orthodox Way. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, 1979. 162-172.

Vigils Reading - Saints Cyril and Methodius
2023-02-14
Saints Cyril and Methodius
Apostles of the Slavic People
Constantine (later Cyril) and Michael (later Methodius) were born early in the 9th century in Thessalonika… At a young age the brothers lost their father and they were raised under the protection of their uncle Theoctistos…a powerful official in the Byzantine government… In 843, he invited Constantine to Constantinople to continue his studies at the university there. He was ordained a deacon in Constantinople.

Theoctistos also arranged a position as an official in the Slavic empire for Michael. He soon went to the monastery at Mount Olympus where he was tonsured with the name Methodius.

…In 862 the two brothers were invited by Prince Rastislav of Great Moravia to preach Christianity in his domains… Rastislav was looking for Christian missionaries to replace those from the Germans… The brothers were dedicated to the idea that Christianity should be presented to the people in their native languages as was the practice in the East. To accomplish their work they developed the Glagolitic alphabet, the precursor of the Cyrillic alphabet, and began the translation of the Scriptures and Christian literature into the Slavic language.
The German clergy had used their liturgical language, Latin, as a measure to maintain their influence in Moravia and therefore were unhappy with the work of Constantine and Methodius, and they used this difference to attack the brothers. After laboring for about four years, the brothers were called by Nicholas I to appear

in Rome to defend their work… However, before their arrival, in 869 Nicholas died and was succeeded by Adrian II. After Adrian was convinced of the orthodoxy of the brothers, he approved their use of Slavonic in their church services and commended their work. He then consecrated Methodius bishop. Constantine took monastic vows in a Greek monastery in Rome. He was given the name Cyril, the

name by which he is now commonly known. Cyril was not to return to Moravia as he died shortly thereafter. The date of Cyril’s death is uncertain, but appears to have been shortly after his consecration, both perhaps in February 869, with his death most probably on February 14.
Adrian II reestablished the old diocese of Panonia, as the first Slavonic diocese of Moravia and Pannonia, independent of the Germans, at the request of the Slavic princes… Here Methodius was appointed to the new diocese as archbishop.

However, on returning to Moravia in 870, King Louis and the German bishops summoned Methodius to a synod at Radisbon, where they deposed him and sent him to prison. After the Germans suffered military defeats in Moravia, John
VIII freed him three years later and restored Methodius as Archbishop of Moravia. Soon his orthodoxy was again under question by the Germans, particularly over the use of Slavonic. Once again John VIII sanctioned the use of Slavonic in
the liturgy but with the stipulation that the Gospel must first be read in Latin before the reading in Slavonic… With his health damaged during his long struggle with his opponents, Methodius died on April 6, 885, after having recommended as his successor his disciple, the Moravian Slav, Gorazd.
…The work of the brothers in translating the Holy Scriptures, the services, Nomocanon, and other Christian literature into Slavonic has been the greatest example of Orthodox missionaries bringing Christianity to the peoples of the world…their work became the foundation of Slavic civilization in eastern and south- eastern Europe and provided the language footings for the missionary efforts in the

coming centuries. It is for this continuation of the practice of the Holy Apostles of speaking of Christianity in the languages of all the nations that Ss Cyril and Methodius are remembered as equal to the apostles

3 Orthodox Wiki. https://orthodoxwiki.org/Cyril_and_Methodius. Accessed February 9, 2023.
