Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Vigils Reading - St Norbert
2023-06-06
ANSWERING THE DEMAND OF GOD’S TRINITY AND UNITY
From the writing of Hadewijh3 ◊◊◊
The most sublime life and the most rapid growth lie in dying away and wasting away in the pain of Love… the great debt-payment of which is being demanded every hour-that Love demands of Love… By the demand of the Father’s omnipotence, through the wisdom of the Son and the goodness of the Holy Spirit, in the Trinity, man was created. But because man did not answer the demand of the Unity, he fell. By the demand of the Trinity God’s Son was born, and to satisfy the debt to the Unity he died. By the demand of the Trinity he rose again among men; and to satisfy the debt to the Unity he ascended to his Father.
So it is also with us. When payment of the debt we owe is demanded of us by the Trinity, grace is given us to live worthily according to the noble Trinity, as is fitting. But if, because our will is estranged, we thwart this and fall back from this unity into our own self-complacency, we no longer grow and no longer make progress in that perfection which was thus demanded of us from the beginning by the Unity and the Trinity. But if rational man’s noble reason would recognize its just debt and follow Love’s leading into her land—that is, follow Love according to her due then he would be capable of attaining that great object and being enriched in God with divine riches…
There are three things through which one lives for Love, here with the Trinity and, in the beyond, in the Unity. First, here, one desires Love under the guidance of reason, and one desires to content her with all just works of perfection, and to be perfect and worthy of all perfection. In this manner one lives the Son of God. Second, at all hours one wills in this way the will of Love with new ardor, and exercises all the virtues with overflowing desire, and enlightens all creatures according to what they are and according to the due of the nobility he recognizes in them, be it in nobility or in lowness; so shall we, for the honor of love, do the pure will of our God in our works and love. In this manner one lives the Holy Spirit.

Third, one is held by sweet constraint to be in perpetual exertion; and with never-conquered power to be a match for this Being; and strong and unconquered and joyful – by ardent striving to grow up as <the> loved one in the Beloved in every respect: to work with his hands; to walk with his feet; to hear with his ears where the voice of the Godhead never ceases to speak through the mouth of the Beloved, in all truth of counsel, of justice, of sweet sweetness, of consolation for everyone according to each person’s need, and of caution against sin; to appear like the Beloved, unadorned and without beauty live for no one else but for the Beloved in love alone, live in him as the loved one in the Beloved, with the same way of acting, with one spirit, and with one heart; and in one another to taste the unheard-of sweetness he merited by his sufferings. Oh yes! To feel heart in heart, with one single heart and one single sweet love and continually have fruition of one full-grown love. And lastly, that one must ever know certainly, without any doubt, that one is wholly in the Unity of Love. In this state one is the Father.
Thus one pays off here on earth the debt that the Trinity demands, and that it has always demanded of the Unity from all eternity

3 Hadewijch. The Complete Works. Trans. Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B. New York: Paulist Press, 1980. 116-118.

Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
2023-06-07
A CONTEST OF LOVE
From the writing of Servant of God Dolindo Ruotolo4 ◊◊◊
According to the revelation of Saints and we might even say according to logic, Purgatory is divided into different areas, depending on the degree of purification that the soul has to endure in proportion to the sin committed…
Saint Francesca Romana saw Purgatory divided into three distinct parts: in the upper region are the souls who suffer only the pain of loss, that is the lack of the vision of God or some small pain… which prepares them for the vision and enjoyment of God. In the middle region, …suffer the souls who committed venial sins or those… who must atone for the punishment due to mortal sin already forgiven. At the bottom of the abyss, close to Hell, the Saint saw the third region, which she calls the “lower Purgatory”, filled with a clear and penetrating fire, different from that of Hell, where <it> is dark and gloomy.
This third region she saw divided <into> three further areas where the pain increases according to the responsibility of the soul and the degree of glory and happiness they are destined to reach. The first is for the laity; the second for the non-ordained Clergy; the third for the Priests and Bishops. It should be understood that this third area has an even lower level reserved for members of Religious Orders: men and women, who had higher means of sanctification and light from God and now have to bear greater responsibility for their faults and, therefore, a greater need of expiation.

Both Priests and Religious, called to the greatest sanctity, are called to a very high state of glory… In consequence, their pains are likewise stronger and lengthier… The intensity of the pain is in exact proportion to the sins committed and… is intensely dominated by the pain of loss, which is the sense of abandonment by God and the desire to possess Him, because of the intensity of love that the souls feel for Him and the even more intense love that God has for the souls.
That is why we call Purgatory “a contest of love”. The Lord is not very severe with souls. Instead, He is very loving and He purifies them since He wants perfect happiness for them. The soul realizes this love of God and, even more, it soars toward Him: it yearns and groans for His love; it is aware of the dark fog that envelops it, knowing that it is loved and the soul loves in return. It begs for help to come out of this state, that it may be shortened. Yet <the soul> cannot shorten the time with its own merits, being unable to acquire merits. All this anxiety it has is love.
The groaning of love the soul has for God and the attraction to the Divine Love, feeling that God wants its happiness, is the pain of loss and the contest of love… It seems like a paradox but… the contest of love itself makes the soul look at each purifying pain as a step that brings it closer to the Supreme Good and to its eternal happiness

4 Ruotolo, Dolindo. Who Dies Shall See: Purgatory and Heaven. Trans. Giovanna Invitti Ellis. Self- Published online by Giovanna Invitti Ellis: www.dolindo.org/english, 2008. 29-30.

Vigils Reading
2023-06-08
THE ETERNAL PROMISE
By the 19th century Quaker Thomas R. Kelly5 ◊◊◊
The old self, the little self-how weak it is, and how absurdly confident and how absurdly timid it has been! How jealously we guard its strange precious pride! Famished for superiority… its defeats must be offset by a dole of petty victories. In religious matters we still thought that we should struggle to present to God a suitable offering of service. We planned, we prayed, we suffered, we carried the burden. The we, the self, how subtly it intrudes itself into religion! And then steals in, so sweetly, so all-replacing, the sense of Presence, the sense of Other, and he plans, and he bears the burdens, and we are a new creature.
Prayer becomes not hysterical cries to a distant God, but gentle upliftings and faint whispers, in which it is not easy to say who is speaking, we, or an Other through us. Perhaps we can only say: praying is taking place. Power flows through us, from the Eternal into the rivulets of Time. Amazed, yet not amazed, we stride the stride of the tender giant who dwells within us, and wonders are performed. Active as never before, one lives in the passive voice, alert to be used, fearful of nothing, patient to stand and wait.
It is an amazing discovery, at first, to find that a creative Power and Life is at work in the world. God is no longer the object of a belief; He is a Reality, who has continued, within us, his real Presence in the world. God is aggressive. He is an intruder, a lofty lowly conqueror on whom we had counted too little, because we had counted on ourselves. Too long have we supposed that we must carry the banner of religion, that it was our concern. But religion is not our concern; it is God’s concern. Our task is to call men to “be still,” and… hearken to that of God within them, to invite, to unclasp the clenched fists of self-resolution, to be pliant in his firm guidance, sensitive to the inflections of the inner voice.

For there is a life beyond earnestness to be found. It is the life rooted and grounded in the Presence, the Life which has been found by the Almighty. Seek it, seek it. Yet it lies beyond seeking. It arises in being found. To have come only as far as religious determination is only to have stood in the vestibule. But our confidence in our shrewdness, in our education, in our talents, in some aspect or other of our self-assured self, is our own undoing. So earnestly busy with anxious, fevered efforts for the kingdom of God have we been, that we failed to hear the knock upon the door, and to know that our chief task is to open that door and be entered by the Divine Life.
…To become unselfed is to become truly integrated as a richer self. The little, time-worn self about which we fretted – how narrow its boundaries, how unstable its base, how strained its structure. But the experience of discovering that life is rooted and grounded in the actual, active, loving Eternal One is also to experience our own personal life firm-textured and stable.
…There is an introduction to suffering which comes with the birth pains of Love. And in such suffering one finds for the first time how deep and profound is the nature and meaning of life. And in such suffering one sees, as if one’s eye were newly opened upon a blinding light, the very Life of the Eternal God himself. And there too is suffering, but there, above all, is peace and victory

5 Kelly, Thomas R. Quaker Spirituality: Selected Writings. New York: Paulist Press, 1984. 307-309.

Vigils Reading - St Ephrem
2023-06-09
THE DAYS ARE PASSING,
AND SOON YOU WILL ENCOUNTER THE END
From the prayers of Ephraim the Syrian6 ◊◊◊
Let us awake from sleep and with sighs call out to the Lord. Day and night let us labor, attending to our correction while our life still lasts, until the time comes when there will be no more place for repentance. Let us stand vigilant at the Bridegroom’s door, that we might enter with the Bridegroom into His bridal chamber and inherit eternal life. Come, let us all sing praises to God at night and imitate the hosts of angels who ceaselessly praise Him. And our Savior, when He arises and comes, accompanied by the angels, and sees our wakefulness and our vigilance, will call us His good servants and will seat us at His banquet.
With the righteous, who have pleased God day and night, let us labor in good things, beg our Lord for mercy; and, singing with David, let us say: at midnight I arose to give thanks unto Thee because of Thy righteous judgements. Spare me and have mercy on me and vouchsafe me the inheritance of Thy kingdom. I will not cease to praise Thee, O our Lord. Ceaselessly will I sing of Thy glory, that Thy truth might not condemn me. I know the extent of my guilt. I know that if Thou dost punish me according to my sins, then my inheritance will be gehenna. Then all hope will be lost. My prayer will be silenced. Have mercy on me therefore, and forgive me my debts… Extend to me Thy right hand and I will arise, like the harlot in Simon’s house, like the thief on the cross. Have mercy on me, Thou Who art kindhearted to sinners…

To Thee, O only good Lord Who bearest no grudges, do I confess my sins. Even were I to keep silent, Thou, O Lord, knowest all, and nothing is hidden before Thine eyes. For Thou, O Lord, hast said by Thy Prophet: declare your sins beforehand and you will be justified. And so I will say: I have sinned, O Lord, and I am not worthy to look up and behold the heights of heaven because of the multitude of mine iniquities… What am I to do, I who am the most miserable of all men? I shall weep over myself day and night, while there is yet time to offer tears… Grant me tears of contrition, O only good and merciful Lord, that with them I might gain from Thee purification from the defilement of my heart…
God requires from us only our consummate determination; it is He Who gives us strength and grants us victory… He gave these lips of dust the capacity to magnify Him, so that through them all creation might sing praise unto Him.
Come, ye who are endowed with speech, let us sing praise unto Him until we repose in the sleep of death.. Let us rouse our bodies with psalms and spiritual hymns that we might join the wise virgins whom our Lord praised, and in vigilance behold His glory in the night that will cause the world to tremble… The body that burdened itself with prayer shall soar through the air on the day of the resurrection; without shame shall it behold its Lord; with Him shall it enter into the habitation of light, where it will be cherished by the angels and by those who here burdened themselves with vigilance and prayer.
Blessed is He Who made us instruments of His glory and put exaltation in our unworthy lips! Praise be to His compassion, for He has made those who were of dust concelebrants with the angels, that every night and at all times they might sing His holy name

6 Ephraim the Syrian. A Spiritual Psalter or Reflections on God. Excerpted by Bishop Theophan the Recluse. Trans. Antonina Janda. Liberty, TN: The St. John of Kronstadt Press, 1997. 150-155.

LCG Retreat June 9 - 11, 2023
2023-06-09 08:00 - 2023-06-11 14:00 (America/New_York)
Content is protected.

Vigils Reading - Memorial of B.V.M.
2023-06-10
THE LIFE OF CHRIST, HIDDEN IN YOUR HEARTS
From a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny7
◊◊◊
What can so stir up man to the love of God as the love which God first bestows on man, a love for man so ardent that he wills to become man for the sake of man?… Or what exhibits more plainly the power and merit of faith as that the Virgin conceived God by faith, by faith deserved to have all that God had promised her fulfilled? “Blessed,” we read, “is she who believed, for what was told her by the Lord shall be brought to fulfillment.”
Now that you may know more fully that the Virgin’s conception has not only a mystical but also a moral sense, what is a mystery for your redemption is also an example for your imitation, so that you clearly frustrate the grace of the mystery in you if you do not imitate the virtue of the example. For she who conceived God by faith promises you the same if you have faith; if you will faithfully receive the Word from the mouth of the heavenly messenger you too may conceive the God whom the whole world cannot contain, conceive him however in your heart, not in your body…
Pay careful attention then to your hearing as it is written, for “faith comes from hearing, while hearing comes through the word of God,” which without any doubt the angel of God proclaims to you when a faithful preacher treats with you of the fear or the love of God… How blessed are they who can say: “For fear of you, Lord, we have conceived and given birth to the Spirit of Salvation,” which indeed is no other than the Spirit of the Savior, the Truth of Jesus Christ. Behold the unspeakable condescension of God and at the same time the power of the mystery which passes all understanding. He who created you is created in you, and as if it were too little that you should possess the Father, he wishes also that you should become a mother to himself. “Whoever,” he says, “does the will of my Father he is my brother and sister and mother.” O faithful soul, open wide your bosom, expand your affections, admit no constraint in your heart, conceive him whom creation cannot contain. Open to the Word of God an ear that will listen. This is the way to the womb of your heart for the Spirit who brings about conception; in such fashion are the bones of Christ, that is the virtues, built up in the pregnant womb.

Thanks be to you, Spirit, who breathe where you will. By your gift I see not one but countless faithful souls pregnant with that noble offspring. Preserve your works, lest anyone should suffer miscarriage and expel, shapeless and dead, the progeny he has conceived of God.
You also, blessed mothers of so glorious an issue, attend to yourselves until Christ is formed in you. Be careful lest any violent blow coming from without should… extinguish the spirit you have conceived. Spare, if not yourselves, at least the Son of God in you; spare him not only from evil deeds and utterances but also from harmful thoughts and deadly pleasures which obviously stifle the seed of God. Guard your heart with all vigilance, for from it life will come forth, that is, when the offspring is ready for birth and the life of Christ which is now hidden in your hearts will be made manifest in your mortal flesh. You have conceived the spirit of salvation, but you are still in labor, you have not yet given birth. If there is labor in giving birth, great consolation comes from the hope of offspring… For he who is now conceived as God in our spirits, conforming them to the Spirit of his charity, will then be born as man in our bodies, conforming them to his glorified body, in which he lives in majesty, God, for ever and ever

7 Bl. Guerric of Igny, “The Second Sermon for the Annunciation”, Liturgical Sermons, (vol.2), Spencer, MA: Cistercian Publications, 1971, pp. 44-46.

AC Dialogue with the Monks
2023-06-10 15:00 - 16:00

Skema: 10th Week in Ordinary Time
2023-06-11
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
10th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
June 11 – 17, 2023

Sun
11
Mon
12
Tue
13
Wed
14
Thu
15
Fri
16
Sat
17

Office
Corpus Christi
St Alice
St Anthony of Padua
Bl Gerard
Weekday
Sacred Heart of Jesus
Immaculate Heart of Mary

Vigils
Exod 16:2-15
Gen 12:1-20
Gen 13:1-18
Gen 14:1-24
Gen 15:1-21
Jerm 30:18-31:5, 18-20
Gen 16:1-16

Lauds
Wis 16:20-28
Prov 5:15-23
Prov 8:1-11
Prov 8:12-21
Prov 8:22-31
Jerm 32:36-42
Prov 8:32-36

Mass
167
359
360
361
362
170
364, 573

1st
Deut 8:2-3, 14b-16a
2 Cor 1:1-7
2 Cor 1:18-22
2 Cor 3:4-11
2 Cor 3:15-4:1, 3-6
Deut 7:6-11
2 Cor 4:7-15

2nd
1 Cor 10:16-17

1 Jn 4:7-16

Gospel
John 6:51-58
Matt 5:1-12
Matt 5:13-16
Matt 5:17-19
Matt 5:20-26
Matt 11:25-30
Luke 2:41-51

Vespers
Acts 2:42-47
Gal 4:1-11
Gal 4:12-20
Gal 4:21-31
1 Jn 3:14-18
Eph 2:1-8
Gal 5:1-6

Corpus Christi Sunday: 10th Week in Ordinary Time
2023-06-11
THE BODY OF CHRIST
From a commentary by St Augustine1
◊◊◊
You see on God’s altar bread and a cup. That is what the evidence of your
eyes tells you, but your faith requires you to believe that the bread is the body of
Christ, the cup the blood of Christ. In these few words we can say perhaps all
that faith demands.
Faith, however, seeks understanding; so you may now say to me: “You
have told us what we have to believe, but explain it so that we can understand it,
because it is quite possible for someone to think along these lines: We know from
whom our Lord Jesus Christ took his flesh – it was from the Virgin Mary. As a
baby, he was suckled, he was fed, he developed, he came to young man’s estate.
He was slain on the cross, he was taken down from it, he was buried, he rose
again on the third day. On the day of his own choosing, he ascended to heaven,
taking his body with him; and it is from heaven that he will come to judge the
living and the dead. But now that he is there, seated at the right hand of the
Father, how can bread be his body? And the cup, or rather what is in the cup,
how can that be his blood?”
These things, my friends, are called sacraments, because our eyes see in
them one thing, our understanding another. Our eyes see the material form; our
understanding, its spiritual effect. If, then, you want to know what the body of
Christ is, you must listen to what the Apostle tells the faithful: Now you are the body
of Christ, and individually you are members of it.
If that is so, it is the sacrament of yourselves that is placed on the Lord’s
altar, and it is the sacrament of yourselves that you receive. You reply “Amen” to
what you are, and thereby agree that such you are. You hear the words “The
body of Christ” and you reply “Amen.” Be, then, a member of Christ’s body, so
that your “Amen” may accord with the truth.
Yes, but why all this in bread? Here let us not advance any ideas of our own,
but listen to what the Apostle says over and over again when speaking of this
sacrament: Because there is one loaf, we, though we are many, form one body. Let
your mind assimilate that and be glad, for there you will find unity, truth, piety,
and love. He says, one loaf. And who is this one loaf? We, though we are many,
form one body. Now bear in mind that bread is not made of a single grain, but of
many. Be, then, what you see, and receive what you are.
So much for what the Apostle says about the bread. As for the cup, what we
have to believe is quite clear, although the Apostle does not mention it expressly.
Just as the unity of the faithful, which holy Scripture describes in the words: They
were of one mind and heart in God, should be like the kneading together of many
grains into one visible loaf, so with the wine. Think how wine is made. Many
grapes hang in a cluster, but their juice flows together into an indivisible liquid.
It was thus that Christ our Lord signified us, and his will that we should belong to
him, when he hallowed the sacrament of our peace and unity on his altar. Anyone,
however, who receives this sacrament of unity and does not keep the bond of
peace, does not receive it to his profit, but as a testimony against himself.
1 Journey with the Fathers: Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels – Year A. Ed. Edith Barnecut, OSB.
New York: New City Press, 1992. 76-77.

Advisory Council Meeting
2023-06-11 14:00 - 17:00

St. Alice
2023-06-12
PURITY OF HEART
From a sermon by Isaac of Stella2
◊◊◊
“HAPPY are the pure in heart, they shall see God.” Once love is present there
too is longing to see what is loved… Those alone who have purified their hearts shall
see him, because it is solely by a pure heart that God can be seen. And I ask you
frankly, brothers, of what use are all our years of such effort if we have not made our
hearts clean? Perhaps we have indeed purified our hearts for the sake of virtue?
Well, now they must be purified for the sake of truth. And if we have already
cleansed them for loving, now they must be made clean for seeing…
When the Lord purifies the eye of a man’s mind, enabling him to perceive
truth, he is indeed giving a blind man his sight. It must be clearly understood, then,
that when we speak of purity of heart, we do not mean simply that the heart is to be
purified from vices, call them disordered desire or perverted love, but that it must
be purified from the phantasies that are absorbed by the corporeal senses and
remain in the imagination, for these become an obstruction that prevents our seeing
the sun’s clear light. They either cut us off from that solar body, the very source of
light itself (they are so unlike it) or at least they reduce the sun’s brightness…
Don’t let this discourage you! Once you have passed through all these clouds
by vigilance of mind and purity of heart, once your every thought is silent, or, rather,
left far behind then, at last, brothers, there will appear before you a shining cloud, “a
cloud filled with light”, not stormy now nor dense, a cloud of wisdom, not of
ignorance.
For there is darkness in light, darkness all the deeper in much light, until
finally, when the light reaches the threshold of its own incomprehensibility and
enters that unapproachability in which dwells “ that peace which passes all
understanding,” it is taken from our eyes so that any further knowledge of the Light
is obtained not through speculation but through revelation, just as the apostles
gazing heavenward, learned from the men who stood beside them in white
garments…
So now you know from what things the heart must be purified and to what
extent, and for what purpose, namely, to be able to gaze upon the Being who is
Perfection unlimited, who is Beauty without quality, Greatness without extension,
Presence uncircumscribed by place, Existence beyond time. But without this
purification it is impossible to see God and so he tells us: “Happy are the pure in
heart, they shall see God.” Here, “a confused reflection; there, as he is.”…
To speak plainly, brothers, no man can be fully and perfectly spiritual nor can
he be ready to go out with tranquil mind from his tent in the leisure of
contemplation, unless he has first rid his home of vice, that is, of all perverted and
disordered love, and has furnished and decorated it with good habits, and left it
fortified with a strong guard of virtues. Otherwise, the adulterous unclean spirit… if
he find “the house swept clean and put in order,” but empty of virtues, may make his
way in by force or favor and take possession, protecting himself with a bodyguard of
seven associates more evil than himself… Then indeed, “the last state of this type of
spiritual a man is worse than the first”. He who began in the Spirit is now ending
with the flesh, or rather, is ended by the flesh.
If a man desires to be truly spiritual, let him first pay attention to his desires
rather than to his ideas, to his way of life rather than his form of meditation. For he
must first use his feet to walk before soaring into flight. And since he cannot always
be in flight, let him go about sensibly on foot lest he suddenly crash down.
2 Isaac of Stella. Sermons on the Christian Year: Volume One. CF 11. Trans. Hugh McCaffery.
Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1979. 29-34.

St. Anthony of Padua
2023-06-13
ST ANTHONY OF PADUA 3
◊◊◊
Anthony was born in the year 1195 at Lisbon, Portugal, where his father
was a captain in the royal army. Already at the age of fifteen years the youth had
entered the Congregation of Canons Regular of St. Augustine… in the monastery
at Coimbra, when… the relics of St. Berard and companions, the first martyrs of
the Franciscan Order, were being brought from Africa to Coimbra. At the sight of
them, Anthony was seized with an intense desire to suffer martyrdom as a
Franciscan missionary in Africa. In response to his repeated and humble
petitions, the permission of his superiors to transfer to the Franciscan Order was
reluctantly given. At his departure, one of the canons said to him ironically: “Go
then, perhaps you will become a saint in the new order.” Anthony replied:
“Brother, when you hear that I have become a saint, you will surely praise God
for it.”
In the quiet little Franciscan convent at Coimbra he received a friendly
reception, and in the very same year his earnest wish to be sent to the missions
in Africa was fulfilled… Anthony scarcely set foot on African soil when he was
seized with a grievous illness. Even after recovering from it, he was so weak that,
resigning himself to the will of God, he boarded a boat back to Portugal…
Anthony was sent to Forli with some other brethren, to attend the
ceremony of ordination. At the convent there the superior wanted somebody to
give an address for the occasion. Everybody excused himself, saying that he was
not prepared, until Anthony was finally asked to give it. When he, too, excused
himself most humbly, his superior ordered him by virtue of the vow of obedience
to give the sermon. Anthony began to speak in a very reserved manner; but soon
holy animation seized him, and he spoke with such eloquence, learning, and
unction that everybody was fairly amazed. When St. Francis was informed of the
event, he gave Anthony the mission to preach all over Italy. At the request of the
brethren, Anthony was later commissioned also to teach theology, “but in such a
manner,” St. Francis distinctly wrote, “that the spirit of prayer be not
extinguished either in yourself or in the other brethren.”
St. Anthony himself placed greater value on the salvation of souls than on
learning. For that reason he never ceased to exercise his office as preacher along
with the work of teaching. The concourse of hearers was sometimes so great
that no church was large enough to accommodate the audiences and he had to
preach in the open air. He wrought veritable miracles of conversion. Deadly
enemies were reconciled with each other. Thieves and usurers made restitution
of their ill-gotten goods. Calumniators and detractors recanted and apologized.
He was so energetic in defending the truths of the Catholic Faith that many
heretics re-entered the pale of the Church, so that Pope Gregory IX called him
“the ark of the covenant.”… In all his labors he never forgot the admonition of his
spiritual Father, that the spirit of prayer must not be extinguished. If he spent
the day in teaching, and heard the confessions of sinners till late in the evening,
then many hours of the night were spent in intimate union with God…
Due to his taxing labors and his austere practice of penance, he soon felt
his strength so spent that he prepared himself for death. After receiving the last
sacraments he kept looking upward with a smile on his countenance. When he
was asked what he saw there, he answered: “I see my Lord.”… He breathed forth
his soul on June 13, 1231, being only thirty-six years old. Pope Gregory IX
enrolled him among the saints the very next year… In 1946 he was declared a
Doctor of the Church.
3 Habig, Marion O.F.M. The Franciscan Book of Saints. Chicago, IL: Franciscan Herald Press, 1959. 415-418.

Bl. Gerard Matt
2023-06-14
LAMENT FOR THE DEATH OF GERARD
By St Bernard of Clairvaux4
◊◊◊
How much better for me, O Gerard, if I had lost my life rather than your
company, since through your tireless inspiration, your unfailing help and under
your provident scrutiny I persevered with my studies of things divine. Why, I
ask, have we loved, why have we lost each other? O cruel circumstance! But pity
pertains to my lot only, not to his.
And the reason, dear brother, is that though you have lost your loved ones,
you have found others more lovable still. As for me, already so miserable, what
consolation remains to me, and you, my only comfort, gone? Our bodily
companionship was equally enjoyable to both, because our dispositions were so
alike; but only I am wounded by the parting. All that was pleasant we rejoiced to
share; now sadness and mourning are mine alone: anger has swept over me, rage
is fastened on me. Both of us were so happy in each other’s company, sharing the
same experiences, talking together about them; now my share of these delights
has ceased and you have passed on, you have traded them for an immense
reward.
What harvest of joys, what a profusion of blessings is yours. In place of my
insignificant person you have the abiding presence of Christ, and mingling with
the angelic choirs you feel our absence no loss. You have no cause to complain
that we have been cut off from you, favored as you are by the constant presence
of the Lord of Majesty and of his heavenly friends. But what do I have in your
stead? How I long to know what you now think about me, once so uniquely
yours, as I sink beneath the weight of cares and afflictions, deprived of the
support you lent to my feebleness! Perhaps you still give thought to our
miseries, now that you have plunged into the abyss of light, become engulfed in
that sea of endless happiness. It is possible that though you once knew us
according to the flesh, you now no longer know us and because you have entered
into the power of the Lord you will be mindful of his righteousness alone,
forgetful of ours.
Furthermore, “he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him,”
his whole being somehow changed into a movement of divine love. He no longer
has the power to experience or relish anything but God, and what God himself
experiences and relishes, because he is filled with God. But God is love, and the
deeper one’s union with God, the more full one is of love. And though God cannot
endure pain, he is not without compassion for those who do; it is his nature to
show mercy and pardon. Therefore you too must of necessity be merciful,
clasped as you are to him who is Mercy; and though you no longer feel the need
of mercy, though you no longer suffer, you cans still be compassionate. Your love
has not diminished but only changed; when you were clothed with God you did
not divest yourself of concern for us, for God is certainly concerned about us. All
that smacks of weakness you have cast away, but not what pertains to love. And
since love never comes to an end, you will not forget me for ever.
It seems to me that I can almost hear my brother saying: “Can a woman
forget the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet I will not forget you.”
This is how it must be.
4 On The Song Of Songs II Sermon 26.III. Trans. Kilian Walsh. Cistercian Publications 1976. 62-64.

Weekday
2023-06-15
ON THE SIN OF ANGER
A Sermon by Alphonsus Liguori 5
◊◊◊
ANGER resembles fire; hence, as fire is vehement in its action, and, by the
smoke which it produces, obstructs the view, so anger makes men rush into a
thousand excesses, and prevents them from seeing the sinfulness of their
conduct; and thus exposes them to the danger of the judgment of eternal death.
“Whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment”. Anger
is so pernicious to man, that it even disfigures his countenance. No matter how
comely and gentle he may be, he shall, as often as he yields to the passion of
anger, appear to be a monster and a wild beast full of terror… But, if anger
disfigures us before men, how much more deformed will it render us in the eyes
of God!…
But you will perhaps say: If I resent such an injury, God will have pity on
me, because I have just grounds for resentment. Who, I ask, has told you, that
you have just grounds for seeking revenge? It is you, whose understanding is
clouded by passions, that say so. I have already said, that anger obscures the
mind, and takes away our reason and understanding. As long as the passion of
anger lasts, you will consider your neighbour’s conduct very unjust and
intolerable; but, when your anger shall have passed away, you shall see that his
act was not so bad as it appeared to you. But, though the injury be grievous, or
even more grievous, God will not have compassion on you, if you seek revenge.
No; he says: vengeance for sins belongs not to you, but to me; and when the time
shall come, I will chastise them as they deserve… But let us pass to the things…
which will assist you to overcome this vice…
In the first place, it is necessary to know that it is not possible for human
weakness, in the midst of so many occasions, to be altogether free from every
motion of anger… All our efforts must be directed to the moderation of the
feeling of anger which spring up in the soul. How are they to be moderated? By
meekness. This is called the virtue of the lamb–that is, the beloved virtue of
Jesus Christ. Because, like a lamb, without anger or even complaint, he bore the
sorrows of his passion and crucifixion…
A certain monk once passed through a corn field: the owner of the field ran
out, and spoke to him in very offensive and injurious language. The monk
humbly replied: Brother, you are right; I have done wrong; pardon me. By this
answer the husbandman was so much appeased, that he instantly became calm,
and even wished to follow the monk, and to enter into religion. The proud make
use of the humiliations they receive to increase their pride; but the humble and
the meek turn the contempt and insults offered them into an occasion of
advancing in humility…
The meek are useful to others; because, as… St. Chrysostom says, there is
nothing better calculated to draw others to God, than to see a Christian meek and
cheerful when he receives an injury or an insult… The reason is, because virtue is
known by being tried; and, as gold is tried by fire, so the meekness of men is
proved by humiliation…
When we meet with crosses, persecutions, and injuries, let us turn to God,
who commands us to bear them with patience; and thus we shall always avoid
anger. Remember the fear of God, and be not angry with thy neighbour. Let us
give a look at the will of God, which disposes things in this manner for our merit,
and anger, shall cease. Let us give a look at Jesus crucified, and we shall not have
courage to complain.
5 St. Alphonsus Liguori. The Sermons of St. Alphonsus Liguori – For All the Sundays of the Year.
Rockford, IL: Tan Books and Publishers, INC, 1982. 254-255, 257-259.

Sacred Heart of Jesus
2023-06-16
CAST YOURSELF INTO HIS HEART
From the mystical dialogue between Jesus and Sister Josefa Menéndez6
◊◊◊
With a gesture of indescribable love He drew her into His Heart: “Come, and
take your rest here in My Heart.”…”Do not think that I love you more now that I
console you, than when I ask you to suffer.”… But the more feeble you are, the more
tenderly I love you.’
“I entreated Him again to give me a love true and strong,” she wrote…, “for
I believe that if I really loved Him in the right way I should be better able to
conquer myself. This was during my prayer, and Jesus came and said to me: ‘Yes,
Josefa, let your food be love and humility. But do not forget that I want you to be
always abandoned and happy, because My Heart cares for you tenderly.’ “Then I
explained how sad I feel that I cannot conquer myself nor correspond to so much
goodness.” “Never mind. Cast yourself into My Heart, and follow the guidance that
is given you. That will suffice.”… “I asked Him how we can console Him, since we
are so full of miseries and weakness. He answered me by pointing to His Heart: ‘I
make little account of all that,’ He said, ‘provided souls come to Me with confidence
and love. I Myself make up for all their frailty.’
“During the nine-o’clock Mass,” she wrote…, “Jesus came with a radiant
Heart. It might have been the sun. “Behold the Heart that gives life to souls,” He
said. “The fire of this love is stronger than the indifference and ingratitude
of men.” “Behold the Heart that bestows on the souls He has chosen a vehement
desire to consume themselves, and if necessary, die to prove Me their love.” “His
words were so forcible that they went through and through my soul. Then,
glancing at me, He continued: ‘Sinners tear Me to pieces and fill My Heart with
sorrow… Will not you, My chosen little victim, repair all this ingratitude?’
“I asked Him what He would have me do, for He knows my helplessness well.
‘My will is that you should enter deeply into My Heart today; there you will find
strength to suffer. Do not reflect on your helplessness; My Heart is powerful
enough to sustain you. It is yours; take from It all you need. Be consumed in It …
offer this Heart and this Blood to the Eternal Father. Cease to live except a life of
love, reparation, and suffering.’”
That evening during Benediction Jesus again manifested Himself, and from
His Heart there streamed light. “A little group of fervent souls can obtain mercy
for many sinners,” He said, “for My Heart cannot resist their prayers…”
“After a few minutes of silence He continued: ‘Come near Me, Josefa, rest on
My Heart and share Its grief. So many fill It with sorrow, but your love will comfort
Me.’ “As He drew me nearer to His Heart, mine was instantly drowned in
inexpressible sorrow and bitterness. I knew that I could not assuage His grief, for
I am so powerless . . . so I offered Him His own pain, to supply for the insufficiency
of mine… For a long while I stayed in silence, adoring, humbling myself and asking
forgiveness for souls; Jesus then said: ‘Repair, Josefa, for those who ought to but
do not make reparation.”…
“Ask forgiveness for the sins of the world. O! how they sin… how many are
lost… souls that once knew and loved Me… but now they prefer their own
enjoyment and pleasure to My Heart… where shall I find relief for My distress?’ “I
said to Him: ‘Why, here Lord, in this house, in our souls… there are still many
everywhere who love Thee.’ ‘Yes, I know, but those are the souls I seek; I love them
with a boundless love.’
6 Sister Josefa Menéndez. The Way of Divine Love – or The Message of the Sacred Heart to the
World. Westminster, Maryland: The Newman Press, 1950. 150-151, 154, 156, 159.

Immaculate Heart of Mary
2023-06-17
THE VIRGIN KEPT ALL THESE THINGS IN HER HEART
By St Elizabeth of the Trinity 7
◊◊◊
“Those whom God has foreknown He has also predestined to become
conformed to the image of His divine Son,” the One crucified by love…No one has
penetrated the depths of the mystery of Christ except the Blessed Virgin.” John
and Mary Magdalene penetrated deeply this mystery; St. Paul often speaks of
“the understanding of it which was given to him”; and yet, how all the saints
remain in the shadows when we look at the Blessed Virgin’s light!
This is the unspeakable “secret” that she kept in mind and pondered in her
heart” which no tongue can tell or pen describe! This Mother of grace will form
my soul so that her little child will be a living, “striking” image of her first-born,
the Son of the Eternal, He who was the perfect praise of His Father’s glory…
She responded fully to the divine election of which the Apostle speaks; she
was always “pure, immaculate, and without reproach” in the eyes of the thriceholy God. Her soul is so simple. Its movements are so profound that they cannot
be detected. She seems to reproduce on earth the life which is that of the divine
Being, the simple Being. And she is so transparent, so luminous that one would
mistake her for the light, yet she is but the “mirror” of the Sun of Justice…
“The Virgin kept all these things in her heart”: her whole history can be
summed up in these few words! It was within her heart that she lived, and at
such a depth that no human eye can follow her. When I read in the Gospel “that
Mary went in haste to the hill country of Judea” to perform her loving service for
her cousin Elizabeth, I imagine her passing by so beautiful, so calm and so
majestic, so absorbed in recollection of the Word of God within her. Like Him,
her prayer was always this: “Ecce, here I am!”… “The servant of the Lord,” the
lowliest of His creatures: she, His Mother! Her humility was so real for she was
always forgetful, unaware, freed from self. And she could sing: “The Almighty
has done great things for me, henceforth all peoples will call me blessed.”
This Queen of virgins is also Queen of martyrs; but again it was in her heart
that the sword pierced,” for with her everything took place within!… Oh! How
beautiful she is to contemplate during her long martyrdom, so serene, enveloped
in a kind of majesty that radiates both strength and gentleness… She learned
from the Word Himself how those must suffer whom the Father has chosen as
victims, those whom He has decided to associate with Himself in the great work
of redemption, those whom He “has foreknown and predestined to be conformed
to His Christ,” crucified by love.
She is there at the foot of the Cross, standing, full of strength and courage,
and here My Master says to me: “Behold your mother”. He gives her to me for my
Mother… And now that He has returned to the Father and has substituted me for
Himself on the Cross so that “I may suffer in my body what is lacking in His
passion for the sake of His body, which is the Church,” the Blessed Virgin is again
there to teach me to suffer as He did, to tell me, to make me hear those last songs
of His soul which no one else but she, His Mother, could overhear.
7 St Elizabeth of the Trinity. I have Found God: Complete Works – Volume 1. Trans. Sister Aletheia
Kane, O.C.D. Washington: ICS Publications, 1984. 141, 160-161.

Skema
2023-06-18
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
11th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
June 18 – 24, 2023

Sun
18
Mon
19
Tue
20
Wed
21
Thu
22
Fri
23
Sat
24

Office
11th Sunday
Weekday
Office for Vocations
St Aloysius of Gonzaga
SS John Fisher & Thomas More
Weekday
Nativity of St John the Baptist

Vigils
Gen 17:1-27
Gen 18:1-15
Gen 18:16-33
Gen 19:1-14
Gen 19:15-38
Gen 20:1-18
Malachi 3:1-7b, 19-24

Lauds
Prov 10:1-6
Prov 10:7-12
Prov 10:13-17
Prov 10:18-21
Prov 10:22-25
Prov 10:27-32
Jerm 1:4-10

Mass
91
365
366
367
368
369
587

1st
Exod 19:2-6a
2 Cor 6:1-10
2 Cor 8:1-9
2 Cor 9:6-11
2 Cor 11:1-11
2 Cor 11:18, 21-30
Isa 49:1-6

2nd
Rom 5:6-11

Acts 13:22-26

Gospel
Matt 9:36—10:8
Matt 5:38-42
Matt 5:43-48
Matt 6:1-6, 16-18
Matt 6:7-15
Matt 6:19-23
Luke 1:57-66, 80

Vespers
Gal 5:7-15
Gal 5:16-26
Gal 6:1-10
Gal 6:11-18
Col 1:1-8
Acts 13:15-26
1 Jn 4:1-6

Vigils Reading - 11th Sun ORD
2023-06-18
GATHER IN THE HARVEST
From a commentary by St John Chrysostom1 ◊◊◊
All farm work is undertaken with a view to the harvest that will come at the end. How then could Jesus apply the word “harvest” to work that was only beginning? Idolatry held sway all over the world. Everywhere there was fornication, adultery, licentiousness; everywhere greed, robbery, bloodshed. When the world was filled with so many evils, when the good seed had not yet been sown, when the land had not been cleared, and there were briars, thistles and weeds everywhere, when no ploughing had been done, no furrow cut, how could Jesus speak of a harvest and say it was plentiful? Why did he speak thus of the gospel?
Why indeed, if not that with things in such a state, he was about to send out his apostles all over the world. Most likely they were bewildered and anxious; they probably asked themselves: How can we even open our mouths, let alone stand up and preach in front of huge crowds of people? How can eleven of us put the whole world to rights? Can we speak to the wise when we are ignorant, to soldiers when we are unarmed, to rulers when we are subjects, to people of many different languages, people of foreign nations and alien speech, when we have only one language? Who will tolerate us if no one can understand what we say?
It was to save them from the anxiety of such reasoning that the Lord called the gospel a harvest. It was almost as if he said: Everything is ready, all is prepared. I am sending you to harvest the ripe grain. You will be able to sow and reap on the same day. You must be like the farmer who rejoices when he goes out to gather in his crops. He looks happy and is glad of heart. His hard work and many difficulties forgotten, he hurries out eagerly to reap their reward, hastening to collect his annual returns. Nothing stands in the way, there is no obstacle anywhere, nor any uncertainty regarding the future. There will be no heavy rain, no hail or drought, no devastating legions of locusts. And since the farmer at harvest time fears no such disasters, the reapers set to work dancing and leaping for joy.

You must be like them when you go out into the world — indeed your joy must be very much greater. You also are to gather in a harvest — a harvest easily reaped, a harvest already there waiting for you. You have only to speak, not to labor. Lend me your tongue, and you will see the ripe grain gathered into the royal granary. And with this he sent them out, saying: Remember that I am with you always, until the end of the world

1 Journey with the Fathers: Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels – Year A. Ed. Edith Barnecut, OSB. New York: New City Press, 1992. 98-99.

Compline
2023-06-18 19:25 - 20:00
Sunday, June 18th at 7:25 pm
Zoom link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/3917499727

Vigils Reading
2023-06-19
LOVING YOUR ENEMIES
A sermon by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.2 ◊◊◊
I am certain that Jesus understood the difficulty inherent in the act of loving one’s enemy. He never joined the ranks of those who talk glibly about the easiness of the moral life. He realized that every genuine expression of love grows out of a consistent and total surrender to God. So when Jesus said “Love your enemy,” he was not unmindful of its stringent qualities. Yet he meant every word of it. Our responsibility as Christians is to discover the meaning of this command and seek passionately to live it out in our daily lives.
Let us be practical and ask the question, how do we love our enemies? First, we must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love… Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on an evil act. It means, rather, that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship. Forgiveness is a catalyst creating the atmosphere necessary for a fresh start and a new beginning. It is the lifting of a burden or the canceling of a debt. The words “I will forgive you, but I’ll never forget what you’ve done” never explain the real nature of forgiveness. Certainly one can never forget, if that means erasing it totally from his mind. But when we forgive, we forget in the sense that the evil deed is no longer a mental block impeding a new relationship. Likewise, we can never say, “I will forgive you, but I won’t have anything further to do with you.” Forgiveness means reconciliation, a coming together again. Without this, no man can love his enemies. The degree to which we are able to forgive determines the degree to which we are able to love our enemies.
Second, we must recognize that the evil deed of the enemy- neighbor, the thing that hurts, never quite expresses all that he is. An element of goodness may be found even in our worst enemy. Each of us is something of a schizophrenic personality, tragically divided against ourselves. A persistent civil war rages within all of our lives… to repeat with the Apostle Paul, “The good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.”… This simply means that there is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies… We recognize that his hate grows out of fear, pride, ignorance, prejudice, and misunderstanding, but in spite of this, we know God’s image is ineffably etched in his being. Then we love our enemies by realizing that they are not totally bad and that they are not beyond the reach of God’s redemptive love.

Third, we must not seek to defeat or humiliate the enemy but to win his friendship and understanding. At times we are able to humiliate our worst enemy. Inevitably, his weak moments come and we are able to thrust in his side the spear of defeat. But this we must not do. Every word and deed must contribute to an understanding with the enemy and release those vast reservoirs of goodwill which have been blocked by impenetrable walls of hate…
We should be happy that he did not say, “Like your enemies.” It is almost impossible to like some people. “Like” is a sentimental and affectionate word. How can we be affectionate toward a person whose avowed aim is to crush our very being and place innumerable stumbling blocks in our path? How can we like a person who is threatening our children and bombing our homes? This is impossible. But Jesus recognized that love is greater than like. When Jesus bids us to love our enemies, he is speaking neither of eros nor philia; he is speaking of agape, understanding and creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. Only by following this way and responding with this type of love are we able to be children of our Father who is in heaven

2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Strength to Love. New York: Pocket Book, Inc., 1964. 41-44.

Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
2023-06-20
WHEN PRAYER PROCEEDS FROM PURE GRIEF FOR SOMEONE
From a reflection by St Silouan the Athonite3 ◊◊◊
The Lord would save all men, and in His goodness He summons all the world to salvation. The Lord does not take a man’s will away from him but by His grace urges him towards goodness and draws him to His love. And when the Lord would have mercy on a man, He inspires others with the desire to pray for him, and helps them in their prayer. Therefore we must know that when we feel a wish to pray for someone, it means that the Lord Himself wants to shew mercy on that soul and will graciously hear our prayers…
When prayer proceeds from pure grief for someone, whether among the living or the dead, it holds no element of morbid attachment in it. The soul in her prayer grieves for the man and prays fervently, and this is a sign of God’s mercy… Therefore, if it befalls you to sorrow over anyone, you must pray for that person, because the Lord for your sake would be gracious unto him…
When a mother knows that her children are in distress, she suffers grievously and may even fall mortally ill. And I have myself experienced something of the kind. A tree that was being felled and stripped of its branches started crashing down on the man below. I saw what was happening but my distress was so great that it prevented me from shouting to him to get out of the way. My heart felt sick and it wept, and the tree stopped in its course. I did not know the man but had it been my own flesh and blood, I think I should have died…

An old priest-monk who dwelt on the upper slopes of Mt. Athos used to see the prayers of the monks rising to heaven, and this does not surprise me. The same staretz, when he was a little boy and saw his father’s distress over a serious drought which threatened the whole harvest, went to the kitchen-garden where hemp was growing, and started praying: ‘O Lord, Thou art merciful, Thou didst create us, Thou dost feed and clothe all men. Thou seest, O Lord, how my father mourns because there is no rain. Do Thou send rain upon the earth.’ And the clouds gathered, and the rain fell and drenched the earth.
And another old monk, who lived by the sea, near the harbour, told me:
‘It was a dark night. The harbour was full of fishing-vessels. A storm blew up and quickly gathered force. The boats began to bump one against the other. The fishermen tried to tie them up but it was impossible in the darkness and the storm. Confusion reigned. The fishermen began to shout for all they were worth, and it was dreadful to hear the shouts of the terrified men. I grieved for the people and prayed with tears: “Lord, hush the storm, and still the waves. Have pity and save Thine afflicted people.” ‘And soon the storm ceased, the sea grew calm, and the people, their fears lifted, gave thanks to God.’…
In their inexperience many people declare that such-and- such a saint performed a miracle, but I know that it is the Holy Spirit living in man Who performs the miracles. The Lord would have all men find salvation and dwell eternally with Him, and so He gives ear to the sinner’s prayer, either for the good of others or for the good of him who prays

3 Archimandrite Sophrony. St Silouan the Athonite. Trans. Rosemary Edmonds. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1999. 491

Vigils Reading - St Aloysius Gonzaga
2023-06-21
FROM A LETTER TO HIS MOTHER
by St Aloysius Gonzaga4 ◊◊◊
Your letter found me lingering still in this region of the dead, but now I must rouse myself to make my way to heaven at last and to praise God for ever in the land of the living; indeed I had hoped that before this time my journey there would have been over. If charity, as St. Paul says, means to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who are glad, then, dearest mother, you shall rejoice exceedingly that God in His grace and His love for you is showing me the path to true happiness, and assuring me that I shall never lose Him.
The divine goodness… is a fathomless and shoreless ocean, and I confess that when I plunge my mind into thought of this it is carried away by the immensity and feels quite lost and bewildered there. In return for my short and feeble labors, God is calling me to eternal rest; His voice from heaven invites me to the infinite bliss I have sought so languidly, and promises me this reward for the tears I have so seldom shed.
Take care above all things… not to insult God’s boundless loving kindness; you should certainly do this if you mourned as dead one living face to face with God, one whose prayers can bring you in your troubles more powerful aid than they ever could on earth. And our parting will not be for long; we shall see each other again in heaven; we shall be united with our Savior; there we shall praise him with heart and soul, sing his mercies forever, and enjoy eternal happiness. When He takes away what He has once lent us, His purpose is to store our treasure elsewhere more safely and bestow on us those very blessings that we ourselves would most choose to have.

I write all this with the one desire that you and all <the> family may consider my departure a joy and favor and that you especially may speed with a mother’s blessing my passage across the waters till I reach the shore to which all blessings belong. I write the more willingly because I have no clearer way of expressing the love and respect I owe you as your son

8

4 The Liturgy of the Hours – vol. III – Catholic Book Publishing Co – New York – 1975 – pg 1475.

Vigils Reading - SS John Fisher & Thomas More
2023-06-22
FROM A LETTER WRITTEN IN PRISON TO HIS DAUGHTER, MARGARET
by St Thomas More5 ◊◊◊
Although I know well, Margaret, that because of my past wickedness I deserve to be abandoned by God, I cannot but trust in his merciful goodness. His grace has strengthened me until now, and made me content to lose goods, land, and life as well, rather than to swear against my conscience. God’s grace has given the king a gracious frame of mind toward me, so that as yet he has taken from me nothing but my liberty. In doing this His Majesty has done me such great good with respect to spiritual profit that I trust that among all the great benefits he has heaped so abundantly upon me I count my imprisonment the very greatest. I cannot, therefore, mistrust the grace of God. Either he will keep the king in that gracious frame of mind to continue to do me no harm, or else, if it be his pleasure that for my other sins I suffer in this case as I deserve, then his grace shall give me the strength to bear it patiently, and perhaps even gladly.
By the merits of his bitter passion joined to mine and far surpassing in merit for me all that I can suffer myself, his bounteous goodness shall release me from the pains of purgatory and shall increase my reward in heaven besides.
I shall not mistrust him… though I shall feel myself weakening and on the verge of being overcome with fear. I shall remember how St. Peter at a blast of wind began to sink because of his lack of faith, and I shall do as he did: call upon Christ and pray to him for help. And then I trust he shall place his holy hand on me and in the stormy seas hold me up from drowning.

And if he permits me to play Saint Peter further and to fall to the ground and to swear and foreswear, may God our Lord in his tender mercy keep me from this, and let me lose if it so happen, and never win thereby! Still, if this should happen, afterward I trust that in his goodness he will look on me with pity as he did upon Saint Peter, and make me stand up again and confess the truth of my conscience afresh and endure here the shame and harm of my own fault.
And finally… I know this well: that without my fault he will not let me be lost. I shall, therefore, with good hope commit myself wholly to him. And if he permits me to perish for my faults, then I shall serve as praise for his justice. But in good faith…I trust that his tender pity shall keep my soul safe and make me commend his mercy.
And therefore, my own good daughter, do not let your mind be troubled over anything that shall happen to me in this world. Nothing can come but what God wills. And I am very sure that whatever that be, however bad it may seem, it shall be the best

5 The Liturgy of the Hours – vol. III – Catholic Book Publishing Co – New York – 1975 – pg 1479.

Vigils Reading
2023-06-23
HOW NOAH, DANIEL, AND JOB CROSSED THE SEA
A Sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux6 ◊◊◊
This great and wide sea, and it is certain that nothing else is signified by it but this present bitter and stormy age gives passage for three types of people to cross to freedom… the first crossed on a ship, the second by a bridge, and the third by the shallows. Now these three men signify three orders in the church: Noah steered the ark so that it did not perish in the deluge, and in that I see the type of the rulers of the church. Daniel, a man of dreams,’ dedicated to abstinence and chastity and occupied only with God, represents the order of those who are penitent and chaste. Job in marriage ordered well the good things of this world, and he is the figure of the faithful people who lawfully possess the things of the world…
The continent are those who go by a bridge, which is an easier and shorter way, and everyone knows it is safer… Your path is straight, my brothers, and safer than that of married people, but it is not completely safe. For there is a threefold danger to be feared, namely, if anyone should want to compare himself to another, to look back, or to stand or even sit down in the middle of the bridge. For the narrowness of the bridge does not allow for any of these three things, and narrow is the way that leads to life.
Let us then all pray against this danger with the prophet; let not the foot of pride come against us, for they who work iniquity have fallen. For the one who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back will certainly fall straightway, and the waters will cover his head. But the one who wishes to stand, not leaving the Order but pretending to advance in it, must needs fall, driven forth and tripped up by those who follow. For narrow is the way, and that is a hindrance to those who would advance and travel along it. Thus they assert themselves and are censorious and cannot bear the inactivity of tepidity but drive themselves on as though by some goad and push themselves, so that they must necessarily do one of two things, either make some progress or give up entirely. It is not right, then, to halt one’s steps; likewise, it is not profitable to look back or to compare oneself with others. Instead, let us run with all humility and make haste, so that we may not be far from him who goes forth as a giant to run a race. And if we are wise, we shall keep him before our eyes and, attracted by his aroma, we shall run more easily and quickly.

But the pathway over the bridge will not be found too narrow for those who wish to walk along it. For it is made of three kinds of wood, so that the foot of those who wish to rely on it entirely shall not slip on the path. These three are punishment of the body,” poverty of worldly goods, and the humility of obedience… When these things have been duly linked, see if you have not passed over three perils of this sea: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Duly linked, I say, so that you are sure that there is not a trace of impatience in the penance, a speck of desire in the poverty, a stain of self-will in the obedience. For those who murmured perished by serpents,’ and those who want to be rich–not those who are, but those who want to be rich–fall into the snare of the devil…
But because, according to the saying of the Savior, by the measure with which we measure out it shall be measured to us again, it is good for people to give in abundance, so that they may be of the number of those to whose breast others shall give good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over

6 St Bernard of Clairvaux. Sermons for the Autumn Season. Trans. Irene Edmonds, OCSO. Collegeville, Minnesota: Cistercian Publications, 2016. 85-88.

Vigils Reading - Nativity of St John the Baptist
2023-06-24
MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD
A homily by Johannes Tauler7 ◊◊◊
When the Baptist said: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord,” he refers to the path of the virtues. This path is very straight. And again he says that he is to prepare the Lord’s paths. Footpaths reach the goal faster than public roads. The shortcut across the fields is indeed rougher and may lead one astray; and yet it is more direct than the open road.
Beloved! Whoever would discover the paths leading to the ground, he would take the shortest and most direct way, keeping all his energies to himself so as to be very attentive. For these paths are rugged, dark, and alien to our nature, and only those who are sufficiently skilled can take them. If they are aware of this, they will not be put off by hurdles and hindrances or any other human anguish. Quite the opposite: Everything will point to the ground, beckon, and draw them there.
In the same manner we should straighten the paths within ourselves, the paths which lead our spirit to God, and God to us. These relations also require skill, and their difficulties are of a hidden nature. At this point many give up and begin to run after exterior devotions and activities. They are like people starting for Rome and taking the road to Holland. The more they advance, the farther they get away from their destination. And when they return, they are old and spent and no longer up to the tempestuous work of love.
Beloved, when we find ourselves in the tempests of love, we should not dwell on our sins and failings. Our only concern should be that love’s work be accomplished. We can be overcome by this tempest even when our hearts appear cold, disinterested and hard. Now more than ever we must adhere to love, clinging to it in perfect faith, freed and stripped of everything that is not love. Constantly long for it, put your whole trust in it, cleave to it. and your experience will be as powerful and overwhelming as is possible in this life. If your faith in love is imperfect, your desire will fade away. Love will be extinguished, and nothing will come of it all.

This may seem very hard to you. The devil will allow you all the marks of a spiritual life, but he will do everything in his power to deprive you of love’s true witness. He will leave you with all kinds of treacherous love which many will mistake for the real thing. If they looked deeply into their ground, they would see whether their love was true or false. The one thing necessary is to give access to the ground in order to be able to enter its depth. There you would find that grace which would incessantly raise you up. But we often resist that voice until we make ourselves unworthy to ever receive it again. This is due to complacency. If only we would respond to the glance of grace, it would lead us to find such union with God that we would experience in time the joy that will be ours in eternity, as some have done before us. May God grant that we may all experience this..

7 The Classics of Western Spirituality. Johannes Tauler, “Sermon 44 – Feast of John the Baptist”. Paulist Press, 1985, pp. 151-152.

Skema
2023-06-25
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
12th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (I)
June 25 – July 1, 2023

Sun
25
Mon
26
Tue
27
Wed
28
Thu
29
Fri
30
Sat
1

Office
12th Sunday
Weekday
Weekday
St Ireneaus
SS Peter & Paul
Weekday
Memorial of BVM

Vigils
Gen 21:1-19
Gen 21:20-34
Gen 22:1-24
Gen 23:1-20
Gal 1:11-2:10
Gen 24:1-27
Gen 24:28-49

Lauds
Prov 11:1-6
Prov 11:7-12
Prov 11:13-18
Prov 11:23-28
Isa 49:1-6
Prov 12:5-9
Prov 12:13-19

Mass
94
371
372
373
591
375
376

1st
Jer 20:10-13
Gen 12:1-9
Gen 13:2, 5-18
Gen 15:1-12, 17-18
Acts 12:1-11
Gen 17:1, 9-10, 15-22
Gen 18:1-15

2nd
Rom 5:12-15

2 Tim 4:6-8, 17-18

Gospel
Matt 10:26-33
Matt 7:1-5
Matt 7:6, 12-14
Matt 7:15-20
Matt 16:13-19
Matt 8:1-4
Matt 8:5-17

Vespers
Col 1:9-14
Col 1:15-23
Col 1:24-29
Acts 3:1-10
1 Peter 4:12-19
Col 2:1-8
Col 2:9-15

Vigils Reading - 12 th Sun ORD
2023-06-25
GRAINS OF WHEAT
From a commentary by St Augustine1 ◊◊◊
Thanks be to that grain of wheat who freely chose to die and so be multiplied! Thanks be to God’s only Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for whom the enduring of our human death was not a thing to be scorned if it would make us worthy of his life! Mark how alone he was before his passing: his is the voice of the psalmist who said, I am all alone until I depart from this place — a solitary grain that nevertheless contained an immense fruitfulness, a capacity to be multiplied beyond measure.
How many other grains of wheat imitating the Lord’s passion do we find to gladden our hearts when we celebrate the anniversaries of the martyrs! Many members has that one grain, all united by bonds of peace and charity under their one head, our Savior himself, and, as you know from having heard it so often, all of them form one single body. Their many voices can often be heard praying in the psalms through the voice of a single speaker calling on God as if all were calling together, because all are one in him.
Let us listen to their cry. In it we can hear the words of the martyrs who found themselves hard pressed, beset by danger from violent storms of hatred in this world, a danger not so much to their bodies which, after all, they would have to part with sometime, but rather to their faith. If they were to give way, if they should succumb either to the harsh tortures of their persecutors or to love of this present life, they would forfeit the reward promised them by the God who had taken away all ground for fear. Not only had he said: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; he had also left them his own example. The precept he had enjoined on them he personally carried out, without attempting to evade the hands of those who scourged him, the blows of those who struck him, or the spittle of those who spat on him. Neither the crown of thorns pressed into his head nor the cross to which the soldiers nailed him encountered any resistance from him. None of these torments did he try to avoid. Though he himself was under no obligation to suffer them, he endured them for those who were, making his own person a remedy for the sick. And so the martyrs suffered, but they would certainly have failed the test without the presence of him who said: Know that I am with you always, until the end of time

1 Journey with the Fathers: Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels – Year A. Ed. Edith Barnecut, OSB. New York: New City Press, 1992. 100-101.

Vigils Reading
2023-06-26
ON SLANDER AND JUDGING
From a commentary by St John Climacus2 ◊◊◊
No sensible person, I think, will dispute that slander is born of hatred and remembrance of wrongs… Slander is an offspring of hatred, a subtle yet coarse disease, a leech lurking unfelt, wasting and draining the blood of love. It is simulation of love, the patron of a heavy and unclean heart, the ruin of chastity… I have heard people slandering, and I have rebuked them. And these doers of evil replied in self- defense that they were doing so out of love and care for the person whom they were slandering. I said to them: ‘Stop that kind of love, otherwise you will be condemning as a liar him who said: “Him that… talked against his neighbour, did I drive away.” If you say you love, then pray secretly, and do not mock the man. For this is the kind of love that is acceptable to the Lord.’ But I will not hide this from you (and of course be careful, lest you judge the offender): Judas was in the company of Christ’s disciples, and the thief was in the company of murderers. Yet it is a wondrous thing, how in a single instant, they exchanged places.
He who wants to overcome the spirit of slander should not ascribe the blame to the person who falls, but to the demon who suggests it. For no one really wants to sin against God, even though we all sin without being forced to do so. I have known a man who sinned openly and repented secretly. I condemned him as a profligate, but he was chaste before God, having propitiated <God> by a genuine conversion.
Do not regard the feelings of a person who speaks to you about his neighbour disparagingly, but rather say to him… ‘I fall into graver sins every day, so how can I criticize him?’ In this way you will achieve two things: you will heal yourself and your neighbour with one plaster. This is one of the shortest ways to the forgiveness of sins; I mean, not to judge. ‘Judge not, and ye shall not be judged.’

Fire and water are incompatible; and so is judging others in one who wants to repent. If you see someone falling into sin at the very moment of his death, even then do not judge him, because the Divine judgment is hidden from men. Some have fallen openly into great sins, but they have done greater good deeds in secret; so their critics were tricked, getting smoke instead of the sun…
If it is true (as it really is true) that ‘with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged,’ then whatever sins we blame our neighbour for, whether bodily or spiritual, we shall fall into them ourselves. That is certain. Hasty and severe judges of the sins of their neighbour fall into this passion because they have not yet attained to a thorough and constant remembrance and concern for their own sins. For if anyone could see his own vices accurately without the veil of self-love, he would worry about no one else in this life, considering that he would not have time enough for mourning for himself, even though he were to live a hundred years, and even though he were to see a whole River Jordan of tears streaming from his eyes…
The demons, murderers as they are, push us into sin. Or if they fail to do this, they get us to pass judgment on those who are sinning, so that they may defile us with the stain which we ourselves are condemning in another… A good grape-picker, who eats the ripe grapes, will not start gathering unripe ones. A charitable and sensible mind takes careful note of whatever virtues it sees in anyone. But a fool looks for faults and defects. And of such it is said: “They have searched after iniquity, and in searching they are grown weary of searching.’ Do not condemn, even if you see with your eyes, for they are often deceived

2 St John Climacus. The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Boston: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 2001. 89- 91.

Vigils Reading
2023-06-27
THE SECRET OF THE PSALTER
From the writing of Dietrich Bonhoeffer3 ◊◊◊
The Psalter occupies a unique place in the Holy Scriptures. It is God’s Word and, with a few exceptions, the prayer of men as well. How are we to understand this? How can God’s Word be at the same time prayer to God?…
A psalm that we cannot utter as a prayer, that makes us falter and horrifies us, is a hint to us that here Someone else is praying, not we; that the One who is here protesting his innocence, who is invoking God’s judgment, who has come to such infinite depths of suffering, is none other than Jesus Christ himself. He it is who is praying here, and not only here but in the whole Psalter…
The Man Jesus Christ, to whom no affliction, no ill, no suffering is alien and who yet was the wholly innocent and righteous one, is praying in the Psalter through the mouth of his Church… He prayed the Psalter and now it has become his prayer for all time…
The Psalter is the vicarious prayer of Christ for his Church… This prayer belongs, not to the individual member, but to the whole Body of Christ. Only in the whole Christ does the whole Psalter become a reality, a whole which the individual can never fully comprehend and call his own. That is why the prayer of the psalms belongs in a peculiar way to the fellowship. Even if a verse or a psalm is not one’s own prayer, it is nevertheless the prayer of another member of the fellowship; so it is quite certainly the prayer of the true Man Jesus Christ and his Body on earth…

In so far as Christ is in us, the Christ who took all the vengeance of God upon himself, who met God’s vengeance in our stead, who thus – stricken by the wrath of God… could forgive his enemies, who himself suffered the wrath that his enemies might go free – we, too… can pray these psalms, through Jesus Christ, from the heart of Jesus Christ… In so far as “Christ’s blood and righteousness” has become “our beauty, our glorious dress,” we can… pray the psalms of innocence as Christ’s prayer for us and gift to us. These psalms, too, belong to us through him.
And how shall we pray those psalms of unspeakable misery and suffering, the meaning of which we have hardly begun to sense even remotely? We can and we should pray the psalms of suffering, the psalms of the passion, not in order to generate in ourselves what our hearts do not know of their own experience, not to make our own laments, but because all this suffering was real and actual in Jesus Christ, because the Man Jesus Christ suffered sickness, pain, shame, and death, because in his suffering and death all flesh suffered and died. What happened to us on the Cross of Christ, the death of our old man, and what actually does happen and should happen to us ever since our baptism in the dying of our flesh, this is what gives us the right to pray these prayers. Through the Cross of Christ these psalms have been bestowed upon his Body on earth as prayers that issue from his heart… The Body of Christ is praying, and as an individual one acknowledges that his prayer is only a minute fragment of the whole prayer of the Church. He learns to pray the prayer of the Body of Christ. And that lifts him above his personal concerns and allows him to pray selflessly…
In all our praying there remains only the prayer of Jesus Christ; this alone has the promise of fulfillment..

3 Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Life Together. Trans. John W. Doberstein. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1954. 44-50.

Vigils Reading - St Ireneaus
2023-06-28
PERFECT KNOWLEDGE CANNOT BE ATTAINED IN THE PRESENT LIFE
From the writing of St Irenaeus of Lyons4 ◊◊◊
Just as the Apostle said, when all other things have been destroyed, these will continue, namely: faith, hope, and love. For faith in our teacher continues firm, assuring us that there is only one who is truly God and that we should really love God always, since he alone is Father; and that consequently we should hope to receive something more and to learn from God that he is good and possesses unlimited riches, an eternal kingdom, and infinite knowledge. Thus, through the many voices of the <Scriptures> there will be heard among us one harmonious melody that hymns praises to God who made all things. If, for example, anyone should ask us what God did before he created the world, we reply that the answer to this is in God’s keeping. The Scriptures do teach us that this world was made complete by God when it began in time; but no Scripture reveals what God did before this. So the answer to this is in God’s keeping…
Since, however, God is all Mind and all Word, what he thinks he speaks, and what he speaks he thinks… For his thought is his Word, and his Word is his Mind; and the Mind that contains all things is the Father himself… The Lord, God’s very Son, admitted that the Father alone knows the very day of judgment and the hour. He said clearly: But about that day and hour no one knows… nor the Son, but only the Father. So if the Son was not ashamed to refer the knowledge of that day to the Father, but told the truth, neither should we be ashamed to leave to God the more important questions we encounter. Really, no one is above the teacher.
If, then, anyone asks the reason why the Father, who has all things in common with the Son, was manifested by the Lord as the only one who knew the hour and the day, he will find no more fitting, proper, or safe answer in the present life than this, namely, that we might learn through the Lord, who alone is the truthful teacher, that the Father is above all things. Truly, he said: The Father is greater than I. Thus, Our Lord proclaimed that the Father excels in regard to knowledge, so that we too, as long as we live in the form of this world, might leave perfect knowledge and such questions to God; and that we should not, while investigating the depths of the Father, fall into so great a danger as to question whether there is another god above the God

4 St. Irenaeus of Lyons. Against the Heresies – Book 2. Trans. Dominic J. Unger, OFM CAP. New York: The Newman Press, 2012. 87-93.
