Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Jim Finley - John of the Cross test 1
2022-09-20
Topic: Jim Finley – John of the Cross
Time: Oct 25, 2021 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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Compline Zoom test
2022-09-20

Tenebrae Psalms test
2022-09-20
GOOD FRIDAY: First Nocturn – 2, 21, 26 Second Nocturn – 37, 39, 68

Vigils Reading -St Andrew Kim Taegon
2022-09-20
Love and perseverance are the crown of faith: a reading
from the final exhortation of Andrew Kim Taegon, priest and martyr. [1]

My brothers and sisters, my dearest friends, think again and again on this: God has ruled over all things in heaven and on earth from the beginning of time; then reflect on why and for what purpose he chose each one of us to be created in his own image and likeness.

In this world of perils and hardship if we did not recognize the Lord as our Creator, there would be no benefit either in being born or in our continued existence. We have come into this world by God’s grace; by that same grace we have received baptism, entrance into the Church, and the honor of being called Christians. Yet what good will this do us if we are Christians in name alone and not in fact? We would have come into the world for nothing, we would have entered the Church for nothing, and we would have betrayed even God and his grace. It would be better never to have been born than to receive the grace of God and then to sin against him.

Look at the farmer who cultivates his rice fields. In season he plows, then fertilizes the earth; never counting the cost, he labors under the sun to nurture the seed he has planted. When harvest time comes and the rice crop is abundant, forgetting his labor and sweat, he rejoices with an exultant heart. But if the crop is sparse and there is nothing but straw and husks, the farmer broods over his toil and sweat and turns his back on that field with a disgust that is all the greater the harder he has toiled.

The Lord is like a farmer and we are the field of rice that he fertilizes with his grace and by the mystery of the incarnation and the redemption irrigates with his blood, in order that we will grow and reach maturity. When harvest time comes, the day of judgment, those who have grown to maturity in the grace of God will find the joy of adopted children in the kingdom of heaven; those who have not grown to maturity will become God’s enemies and, even though they were once his children, they will be punished according to their deeds for all eternity.

Dearest brothers and sisters: when he was in the world, the Lord Jesus bore countless sorrows and by his own passion and death founded his Church; now he gives it increase through the sufferings of his faithful. No matter how fiercely the powers of this world oppress and oppose the Church, they will never bring it down. Even since his ascension and from the time of the apostles to the present, the Lord Jesus has made his Church grow even in the midst of tribulation.

For the last fifty or sixty years, ever since the coming of the Church to our own land of Korea, the Faithful have suffered persecution over and over again. Persecution still rages and as a result many who are friends in the household of the faith, myself among them, have been thrown into prison and like you are experiencing severe distress. Because we have become the one Body, should not our hearts be grieved for the members who are suffering? Because of the human ties that bind us, should we not feel deeply the pain of our separation? But, as the Scriptures say, God numbers the very hairs of our head and in his all-embracing providence he has care over us all. Persecution, therefore, can only be regarded as the command of the Lord or as a prize he gives or as a punishment he permits.

Hold fast, then, to the will of God and with all your heart fight the good fight under the leadership of Jesus; conquer again the diabolical power of this world that Christ has already vanquished. I beg you not to fail in your love for one another, but to support one another and to stand fast until the Lord mercifully delivers us from our trials. There are twenty of us in this place and by God’s grace we are so far all well. If any of us is executed, I ask you not to forget our families. I have many things to say, yet how can pen and paper capture what I feel? I end this letter. As we are all near the final ordeal, I urge you to remain steadfast in faith, so that at last we will reach heaven and there rejoice together. I embrace you all in love.
[1] Pro Corea Documenta, ed. Mission Catholique Seoul (Seoul-Paris, 1938) v. 1, pp. 74-75; trans. in NCCB Newsletter, v. 21, August/September 1985.

Vigils Reading - 18th Sun ORD test
2022-09-20
A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke by St Basil the Great [1]

“The land of a rich man produced abundant harvests, and he thought to himself: What am I to do? I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones.”
Now why did that land bear so well, when it belonged to a man who would make no good use of its fertility? It was to show more clearly the forbearance of God, whose kindness extends even to such people as this. He sends rain on both the just and unjust, and makes the sun rise on the wicked and the good alike.
But what do we find in this man? A bitter disposition, hatred of other people, unwillingness to give. This is the return he made to his Benefactor. He forgot that we all share the same nature; he felt no obligation to distribute his surplus to the needy. His barns were full to the bursting point, but still his miserly heart was not satisfied. Year by year he increased his wealth, always adding new crops to the old. The result was a hopeless impasse: greed would not permit him to part with anything he possessed, and yet because he had so much there was no place to store his latest harvest. And so he is incapable of making a decision and could not escape from his anxiety. What am I to do?
Who would not pity a man so oppressed? His land yields him no profit but only sighs: it brings him no rich returns, but only cares and distress and a terrible helplessness. He laments in the same way as the poor do. Is not his cry like that of one hard pressed by poverty? What am I to do? How can I find food and clothing?
You who have wealth, recognize who has given you the gifts you have received. Consider yourself, who you are, what has been committed to your charge, from whom have you received it, why have you been preferred to most other people? You are the servant of the good God, a steward on behalf of your fellow servants. Do not imagine that everything has been provided for your own stomach. Take decisions regarding your property as though it belonged to another. Possessions give you pleasure for a short time, but then they will slip through your fingers and be gone, and you will be required to give an exact account pf them.
What am I to do? It would have been so easy to say: “I will feed the hungry, I will open my barns and call in all the poor. I will imitate Joseph in proclaiming my good will toward everyone. I will offer the generous invitation: “Let anyone who lacks bread come to me. You shall share, each according to need, in the good things God has given me, just as though you were drawing from a common well.
[1] Journey with the Fathers – Year C – New City Press – 1994 – pg 104

Vigils Reading test3
2022-09-20
A reading from a commentary on an Easter hymn of St. Gregory of Nazianzen, by St. Dorotheus of Gaza. 1
This is the Day of Resurrection.
Let us offer God its first-fruits — which is ourselves.
Let us, as his most precious children, return to the likeness [of God],
What is truly his likeness in us.
Let us reverence our worth.
Let us honor our Exemplar.
Let us come to understand the power of the ‘mystery’ wherein Christ died.

The Israelites of old, coming together for their festivals, according to the Law offered God gifts such as incense, burnt offerings, first-fruits, and the like. St. Gregory invites us too to celebrate this feast in God’s honor as they did, and exhorts us to do so by saying, “This is the Day of Resurrection”, a day to replace all their holy feasts, a day of divine assembly, the day of Christ’s Passover. What is this Passover of Christ? The Israelites kept the Passover when they came out of Egypt. Easter, the Passover which we are now keeping and which the Saint commends to our celebration, is enacted in the soul, which comes out of the spiritual Egypt, that is, from sin. When the soul passes over from sin to virtue, then it celebrates the Passover of the Lord, As Evagrius says: “The Passover of the Lord is the passage away from evil.”

Today… is therefore the ‘Passover’ of Christ, a day of brilliant festival, the day of Resurrection, the day of his nailing sin to the Cross, of his dying and being raised to life—all for our sakes. Let us offer ourselves as sacrificial gifts and holocausts to the Lord, who has no desire for senseless animals. “You did not desire irrational sacrifices and offerings, and are not pleased with burnt offerings of sheep and cattle” (Ps 40.6, Heb 10.5-6). …What sort of gift ought we offer to Christ in order to please him on the day of his Resurrection, if he does not desire the sacrifice of senseless animals?

The Saint in his teaching tells us the answer, for after saying “This is the Day of Resurrection”, he adds, “Let us offer up its first-fruits, which is ourselves.” The Apostle [Paul] too instructs us: “Offer up your own bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, the worship that your reason dictates” (Rom 12.1).

How then ought we to make an offering of our bodies as a living sacrifice to God? “By no longer following our physical desires and our own ideas,” but “walking in the spirit and not fulfilling the desires of the flesh”(Gal 5.16). “For this is to mortify our earthly members” (Col 3.5). This is what is meant by a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God.

But why a living sacrifice? Because an animal destined for sacrifice, by the very fact that it becomes a sacrificial victim, dies. But the saints who offer themselves to God, offer themselves alive, every day—as David says, “For your sake we are put to death all the day long, we are considered as sheep for the slaughter” (Ps 44.22). …By not loving the world or what is in the world [but by] taking up the Cross and following Christ and crucifying the world to themselves and themselves to the world… this is how the saints put themselves to death.

But how did they offer themselves up? By not living for themselves, but reducing themselves to servitude to God’s commandments and putting away their own will for the sake of the command and love of God and their neighbor.. As St. Peter says, “Behold, we have given up everything and followed you” (Mt 19.27). …This is how the saints offered themselves up, putting themselves to death… in regard to all their passionate desires and doing their own will and living solely for Christ and his commandments.

So then for us! Let us offer ourselves as St. Gregory teaches us. For he wants us to be “God’s most precious children.”
1 Dorotheus of Gaza, “Commentary on an Easter Hymn of St. Gregory Nazianzen,,” Discourses and Sayings (Cistercian Studies Series 33), Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1977, pp. 220 ff.

Vigils Reading
2022-09-19
TO COMPREHEND WITH THE SAINTS THE DEPTH OF GOD,
from the Works of St Bernard[1]

[“That you may have the power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth..”(Eph 3:18) St Paul says] “comprehend” not “know” so that we should not be content to be curious for knowledge, but seek with all our power to comprehend. The reward lies not in knowing but in comprehending. To put it another way, as someone says, it is a sin for someone to know what is good and not to do it(Jas 4:17). And Paul himself says in another place, “So run that you may comprehend (1Cor 9:24).
What then is God? He is “length,” I say. What is that? Eternity. Eternity is so long that it has no end of place or time. He is also breadth. And what is that? Love. And who shall draw boundaries to God’s love, for he hates nothing that he has made? Indeed, he causes his sun to rise upon the good and the wicked and rain falls upon the just and the unjust. Therefore his bosom enfolds even his enemies. And not satisfied with that, it stretches to infinity. He goes beyond every bound not only of love but of knowledge, as the Apostle goes on to say, “And to know the love of Christ, which passes all understanding”(Eph 3:19). What more can I say? He is eternal, or perhaps even greater, eternity itself. Do you see that the width is as great as the length? Would that you could see not only what it is like but what it actually is! To be breadth is to be depth. The one no less than two; the two no more than one. God is eternity; “God is love” (1Jn 4:16). He is length without extension, breadth without distension. In both equally he exceeds local and temporal limits, but by the freedom of his nature, not by the vastness of his substance. He who made everything according to measure is immense in this way, and although he is immense, this is the measure of his immensity.
Again, what is God? “The height and the depth.” In one he is above all, in the other, he is within all. It is clear that nowhere in the Godhead is equality limited. It stands square on all sides and is utterly consistent. Consider his power as the height and his wisdom as the depth. They correspond to one another symmetrically, and while the height is beyond reach the depth is equally beyond seeing into. Paul wonders at it and exclaims, “O height of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God; how inscrutable are his judgments, and his ways are beyond searching out”(Rom 11:33). Let us exclaim with Paul, gazing upon the most simple unity of those attributes with God and in God. O powerful wisdom, reaching everywhere in strength. O wise power, disposing all things sweetly! One reality, many effects, different acts; And this one reality is length because it is eternity, breadth because it is love, height because it is majesty, depth because it is wisdom.
[1]BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX (Classics of Western Spirituality) Trans. by G R Evans (Paulist Press NY 1987) pp. 169-170.

Vigils Reading - 25th Sunday ORD
2022-09-18
A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke by Gaudentius of Brescia 1
The Lord Jesus, true teacher of the precepts that lead to salvation, wished to urge the apostles in his own time and all believers today the Christian duty of almsgiving. He therefore related the parable of the steward to make us realize that nothing in this world really belongs to us. We have been entrusted with the administration of our Lord’s property to use what we need with thanksgiving, and to distribute the rest among our fellow servants according to the need of each one. We must not squander the wealth entrusted to us, nor use it on superfluities, for when the Lord comes we shall be required to account for our expenditure.
Finally, at the end of the parable, the Lord adds: Use worldly wealth to make friends with the poor, so that when it fails you, when you have spent all you possess on the needs of the poor and have nothing left, they may welcome you into eternal dwellings.
In other words, these same poor people will befriend you by assuring your salvation, for Christ, the giver of eternal rewards, will declare that he himself received the acts of kindness done to them. Not in their own name, then, will these poor folk welcome us, but in the name of him who is refreshed in their persons by the fruit of our faith and obedience. Those who exercised this ministry of love will be received into the eternal dwellings of the kingdom of heaven, for the King will say: Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world; for I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink.
But if you have been untrustworthy in the administration of worldly wealth, who is going to trust you with true riches? For if someone cannot be relied on to administer worldly possessions that provide the means for all sorts of wrong doing, would anyone dream of trusting that person with the true heavenly riches rightly and deservedly enjoyed by thosde who have been faithful in giving to the poor?
The Lord’s query above is immediately followed by another: If you cannot be trusted with another’s property, who will give you your own? Nothing in this world really belongs to us. We who hope for a future reward are told to live in this world as strangers and pilgrims, so as to be able to say to the Lord without fear of contradiction: I am a stranger and a pilgrim like all my ancestors.
What believers can regard as their own is that eternal and heavenly possession where our heart is and our treasure, and where intense longing makes us dwell already through faith, for as Saint Paul teaches, Our homeland is in heaven.
1Journey with the Fathers – Year C – New City Press – New York – 1997 – pg 118

Skema
2022-09-18
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
25th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (II)
September 18 – 24, 2022

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

Office
25thSunday
Weekday
St Andrew Kim-Taegon &Companions
St Matthew
Weekday
St Pius of Pietrelcina
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
2 Macc 12:1-16
2 Macc 12:17-31
2 Macc 12:32-46
Job 28:1-28
2 Macc 13:1-12
2 Macc 13:13-26
2 Macc 14:1-14

Lauds
Amos 8:9-14
Amos 9:1-6
Amos 9:7-10
Prov 15:27-33
Amos 9:11-15
Mic 1:1-9
Mic 2:1-5

Mass
135
449
450
643
452
453
454

1st
Amos 8:4-7
Prov 3:27-34
Prov 21:1-6, 10-13
Eph 4:1-7, 11-13
Eccl 1:2-11
Eccl 3:1-11
Eccl 11:9-12:8

2nd
1 Tim 2:1-8

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

Vespers
1 Tim 4:6-10
1 Tim 4:11-16
1 Tim 5:1-8
2 Tim 3:10-17
1 Tim 5:17-25
1 Tim 6:3-10
1 Tim 6:11-16

Vigils Reading - Office for the Dead
2022-09-17
Fear and Hope from a book by Michael Schmaus1
To Understand God’s call as one of love does not do away with the awesomeness of death; even the faithful anticipate it with fear. Indeed, the element of fear in the believer is liable to be stronger than in the atheist or nihilist, who has resolved to his own satisfaction the problem of what comes after death and is chiefly disturbed by the knowledge the one must abandon a work which one has begun, leaving something unfinished. The believer, however, sees in death the moment of encounter with God, that moment towards which the person has been journeying, in an anticipation never free of tension, during one’s whole lifetime. As the person awaits the judgment God will pronounce, anxiety can be overcome only in a loving confidence. The death of the faithful Christian is a death in the Lord. It is a death which will not bring condemnation, since no one who lives and has faith in Christ will ever die.
Although God is an impenetrable mystery, the person of faith perceives the meaning of the divine summons in a way that prevents one from falling into despair. When the time had come for him to take leave of his disciples, Christ said: “Trust in God always; trust also in me.” In that hour Christ gave his own assurance that they would have life, and have it abundantly. He never promised them an untroubled existence within time, but only a life of joy in God. Thus anxiety is changed into tremulous expectation: the Lord comes. In the First Letter of John, Jesus’ exhortation to his disciples to have confidence in the Father and in himself is made explicit when he says: “There is no room for fear in love; perfect love banishes fear. For fear brings with it the pains of judgment, and anyone who is afraid has not attained to love in its perfection.” So, in the face of death, there remains to everyone only trust and hope with which to meet the unavoidable fear of death.
1 Dogma 6, Justification & the Last Things. Michael Schmaus, Sheed & Ward, 1977, pp.220-221

Compline at Gethsemani via Zoom
2022-09-16 19:30 - 20:00 (America/New_York)

Jim Finley - John of the Cross
2022-09-16 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York)

Jim Finley - Turning to the Mystics
2022-09-16 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York)
Topic: LCG Jim Finley Turning to the Mystics
Time: Dec. 14, 2020 12:00 PM
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Vigils Reading - SS Cornelius & Cyprian
2022-09-16
St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage – from Butler=s Lives of Saints [1]

Caecilius Cyprianus was born about the year 200, probably at Carthage. According to St. Jerome, he was a native of Proconsular Africa. Very little is known of his life before he became a Christian. He was a public orator, teacher of rhetoric, and pleader in the courts, and engaged to the full in the life of Carthage, both public and social. God=s instrument of his conversion, somewhere about middle age, was an old priest, Caecilian, and Cyprian ever reverenced him as his father and guardian angel. Caecilian, in turn, had the greatest confidence in his virtue and on his deathbed recommended his wife and children to Cyprian=s care and protection. A complete change came over Cyrpian=s life. Before his baptism he made a vow of perfect chastity, which greatly astonished the Carthaginians.
With the study of the Holy Scriptures St Cyprian joined that of their best expositors, and in a short time became acquainted with the works of the great religious writers. He particularly delighted in the writings of his countryman Tertullian. Cyprian was soon made a priest, and in 248 he was designated for the bishopric of Carthage. At first he refused and sought to flee, but ultimately yielded and was consecrated.
The Church continued to enjoy peace for about a year after Cyprian=s promotion to the see of Carthage, till the Emperor Decius began his reign by raising a persecution. Years of quiet and prosperity had had a weakening effect among the Christians, and when the edit reached Carthage there was a stampede to the capitol to register apostasies with the magistrates, amid cries of ACyprian to the lions@! from the pagan mob. The bishop was proscribed and his goods ordered forfeited, but Cyprian had already retired to a hiding-place, something that brought upon him much adverse criticism both from Rome and in Africa. He felt placed on the defensive, and set out justifying reasons for his actions in several letters to the clergy.
During the absence of Cyprian a priest who had opposed his Episcopal election, named Novatus, went into open schism. Some among the lapsed, as well as some who were displeased at Cyprian=s discipline toward the former, adhered to him, for Novatus received all apostates who desired to return to the communion of the Church without requiring any canonical penance. Cyprian denounced Novatus, and at a council convened at Carthage when the persecution slackened he read a treatise on the unity of the Church.
The leaders of the schismatics were excommunicated, and Novatus departed to Rome to stir up trouble there, where Novatian had set himself up as antipope. Cyprian recognized Cornelius as the true pope and was active in his support both in Italy and Africa during the ensuing schism. With Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, he rallied the bishops of the East to Cornelius, making it clear to them that to adhere to a false bishop of Rome was to be out of communion with the Church. In connection with these disturbances he added to his treatise on Unity one on the question of the Lapsed.
Cyprian complained in many parts of his works that the peace that the Church had enjoyed enervated some Christians in the watchfulness and spirit of their profession, and had opened the door to many converts who had no true spirit of faith, and many lacked courage to stand the trial. These, whether apostates who had sacrificed to idols or those who had purchased for money certificates that they had offered sacrifice, were the lapsed, who gave rise to the great controversy which raged during and after the Decian persecution. On the side of excessive leniency Novatus went into schism, while Novatian=s severity crystallized into heresy that the Church cannot absolve an apostate at all. At this time those guilty of less heinous sins than apostasy were not admitted to assist at the holy Mysteries before they had gone through a rigorous course of public penance, consisting of several years penance. Relaxations of these penances were granted on extraordinary occasions, and it was also customary to grant Indulgences@ to penitents who received a recommendation from some martyr, or some confessor in prison for the faith. In Cyprian=s time this custom degenerated into an abuse by being granted in too vague and peremptory terms, without examination or discernment.
Cyprian condemned these abuses severely, yet he himself pursued a middle way, and in practice was considerate and lenient. After consulting the Roman clergy, he insisted that his episcopal rulings must be followed without question until the matter could be brought up for discussion by all the African bishops and priests. This was eventually done in 251, at the Council of Carthage.
Between the years 252 and 254 Carthage was visited by a terrible plague. Cyprian organized the Christians of the city and spoke to them strongly on the duty of mercy and charity, teaching them that they ought to extend their care not only to their own people, but also to their enemies and persecutors.
In August 257 was promulgated the first edict of Valerian=s persecution, which forbade all assemblies of Christians and which required bishops, priests and deacons to take part in official worship under pain of exile. On August 30 the bishop of Carthage was brought before the proconsul. Paternus ordered him into exile, but when Galerius replaced him ads proconsul, Cyprian was recalled from exile and again put on trial. Once more, however, he refused to offer sacrifice to pagan gods, and on this occasion he was sentenced to death by beheading. The sentence was carried out immediately. It was September 14, 258.
[1] Butler=s Lives of the Saints, Revised edition, edited by Michael Walsh, Harper, San Francisco,
1991m p. 289

Vigils Reading - Our Lady of Sorrows
2022-09-15
From a Sermon in Honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Amadeus of Lusanne (CF 18:105-106)
With deep calling to deep, two loves had come together into one and from the two loves was made a single love when the Virgin mother gave to her Son the love she gave to God, and showed her love for her son in loving God. Therefore the more she loved, the more she grieved and the greatness of her love brought the increase of her suffering.
What was she doing when she stood on Calvary and saw the cross, the nails, the wounds of the One who was dying in innocence and the insatiable cruelty of the Pharisee afire with malice? [Jesus] hung there atoning not for his sins but for ours, and the Pharisees with the Scribes, mocking him, struck him on the head and offered to his lips vinegar mingled with gall that there might be fulfilled the prophecy of David, saying in the person of Christ, ‘They added to the pain of my wounds.’ In the midst of this the Mother of God was distressed in mind, and sorrows seized upon her as upon a woman in childbirth. There are groans, sobs, sighs, sorrow, grief, agony, distress of heart, fires, a death more cruel than death. There life is not taken away yet the bitterness of death is suffered. O memory to be revered, full of devotion and tears, to recall how that glorious holy soul suffered, and what anguish she endured in the death of Christ. The pale face of Jesus reflected the bloodless face of his mother. He suffered in the flesh, she in her heart. Finally the insults and scoffing of the wicked came back upon his mother’s head. The Lord’s death was to her more bitter than her own [would have been]. Although, taught by the Spirit, she would not doubt the resurrection, yet she had to drink the Father’s cup and to know the hour of her own passion. Concerning this, the venerable Simeon prophesied to her: ‘A sword shall pierce your soul.’ O Lord Jesus, terrible in your counsels beyond the sons of men, you did not spare your mother from the sword piercing her soul. By this road must we all pass by the fiery sword turning this way and that to the tree of life which is in the midst of paradise.
But to return: Blessed Mary was able to cry out that which was especially appropriate to Christ: ‘O all you who pass by, behold and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow. What a sorrow and how great! And in that sorrow what was Mary like? Alas, as she was then, how different from the girl who had once tended her son amid a choir of angels while shepherds worshiped and Magi adored him with an offering of mystic gifts. Very different, not indeed in virtue but in sadness, not in grace but in grief. For she increased in virtue and grew in grace. For set in the midst of adversity she neither relaxed her modesty nor lost the strength of her constancy.

Vigils Reading - Exaltation of Holy Cross
2022-09-14
The Triumph of the Cross: a reading from a treatise by St. John Chrysostom.1

Isaiah made it clear that Christ will raise up all men when he said: “The dead shall be raised up again, even those in the tombs shall be raised up. For the dew from you is healing for them.” That was not all. After his cross, after his slaughter, his glory will shine forth more brightly; after his resurrection, he will advance the message of his Gospel still more.
He was bound, betrayed by an apostle, spat upon, outraged with insults, scourged, nailed to the cross, and, as far as [some] were concerned, he did not deserve to be buried in a tomb. His executioners divided his garments. They suspected that he aspired to be a king, and he died for it. “For everyone who makes himself king, sets himself against Caesar.” They suspected him of blasphemy, and he died for it. “Behold, you have heard his blasphemy.”
Even though he would undergo all these torments, he roused up those who would listen, he stirred them to courage by saying: “Do not be afraid because of these things which they did to me. I was crucified, I was scourged, I was outraged and insulted by robbers, I was arrested on suspicion of blasphemy and of being a king. But after my death and resurrection, people will look on my sufferings in such a way that no one will say that they were not filled with abundant value and honor.”
Certainly, this did come to pass. And a prophet predicted it long beforehand when he said: “There shall be the root of Jesse, even he who rises up to rule nations. In him nations will put their trust, and his resting place shall be glorious.” This kind of death is more glorious than a crown. Certainly, kings have laid aside their crowns and taken up the cross, the symbol of his death. On their purple robes is the cross, on their crowns is the cross, at their public prayers is the cross, on their weapons is the cross, on the sacred table of their altar is the cross. Everywhere in the world, the cross shines forth more brightly than the sun. As it says in the Scriptures: “And his resting place shall be glorious.”
In human affairs things do not generally happen that way. Men of distinction flourish while they are alive; after they die, their exploits are reduced to nothing. Anyone could see how true this is not only in the case of the wealthy and rulers but even in the case of the emperor himself. Their laws are abrogated, their images are obscured, people’s memory of them is blotted out, their name is forgotten, those who enjoyed their favor are held in scorn. This is the lot even of those emperors who waged wars, of those who, by their nod, changed the conditions of peoples, cities, and affairs, of those who had the power to put men to death, of those who could give a reprieve to men on their way to execution. But all their great powers have perished despite the great honors shown to them while they were alive.
With Christ it is quite the opposite. Before the cross, his situation was one of shame and dejection. Judas betrayed him, Peter denied him, the others fled. He stood alone and was led off in the midst of his foes; many who had believed in him now deserted him. But after he had died on the cross, his situation was not destroyed but became brighter, more glorious, and more sublime. From this you may understand that the crucified one was no mere man.

1 Demonstration Against the Pagans That Christ is God. Trans. Paul W. Harkins, Fathers of the Church Series, vol. 73. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1985. pp.221ff.

Vigils Reading - St John Chrysostom
2022-09-13
St John Chrysostom – from a book:
The Fathers of the Church” By Pope Benedict XVI [1]

St John Chrysostom was born on Antioch in Syria om 344.. His father died when he was an infany, and his mother Anthusa raised him. He studied with the most famous rhetorician of the day, Libanus. Baptized as a young adult in 368, John undertook an ascetic life for four years, living alone on the neighboring Mount Silpius. He extended his stay for a further two years, living alone in a cave under the guidance of an old hermit.
Having fallen ill, he found it impossible to care for himself and returned to the city and was ordained a deacon and then a priest from 386 to 397 he preached in the cathedral at Antioch, perhaps the most satisfying and happiest years of his life. There he delivered courses of sermons on books of the Bible. John was nicknamed “Chrysostom”, that is, “golden mouthed”, because of his elqquebce,
In 397 he was taken, almost by force, to Constantinople, ordained bishop, and made patriarch of the capitol city. He lives ascetically and showed deep concern fpr the poor and the sick. But his style of life offended some powerful people, including the Empress Eudoxia. Theophilus, the patriarch of Alexandria, was also among his enemies, and in 403 Theophilus presided at a synod near Constantinople that deposed John. John was banished twice, the first time for only a short while. But during the second exile he died on September 14, 407 while being forced to travel in harsh weather. John is known for a large corpus of homilies, most of them on Scripture. Among his best known and most read books are the six books On the Priesthood.
[1] Fathwers of the Church – Pope Benedict XVI =erdmans Publishing C0 – Grahnd Rapids, MI – 2020 – pg 169

Vigils Reading
2022-09-12
Wisdom as the source of life,
from Pathways in Scripture by Damasus Winzen. [1]

The most wonderful field for contemplation is the way in which God led his chosen people through the vicissitudes of history. Sections of the book of Wisdom, as well as Sirach reviews the course of Jewish history to praise the magnitude of God=s mercy in which he delivered Israel, his firstborn, out of the hands of them that sought his life. There is no better way to a deep understanding of the Scripture than the passages of Wisdom which refer the whole history of the patriarchs to the constant presence of wisdom in God=s chosen ones. A few words are sufficient, for example, to put Noah in the full light of God=s eternal designs fulfilled in Christ: When the deluge destroyed the earth, wisdom healed it again, steering the course of the just one with contemptible wood. When wisdom throw=s her light on the great fathers of the chosen people, they begin to shine as the images of him in whom they were all fulfilled. Sirach is a master in the art of painting, with a few strokes, a faithful picture of the great spiritual leaders of Israel and in their portraits we recognize the features of Christ…

The teaching of the sapiential books would not be complete, however, without the revelation of two other great mysteries, which represent in some way the beginning and the end of God’s ways: the mystery of the divine personality of the Word of God, and that of the eternal life of the just. Wisdom is not a mental image or an abstract thought or a guiding principle. It is a divine person. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made anything from the beginning. I was set up from eternity and of old before the earth was made. I was with him in forming all things; and was delighted every day, playing before him at all times, playing in the world, and my delights were to be with the children of men (Prov 8:22ff). It is the inner nature of wisdom to be the true, substantial image of the Father=s glory. The words of wisdom: For she is the breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of his almighty glory, a reflection of the everlasting light and a spotless mirror of God’s majesty, and the image of his goodness were used in the letter to the Hebrews (1:3) to describe the only-begotten Son of God.

If wisdom were only a personification of the law she would be dead. Only as a divine person can she become a source of life. Though she is one, she can do all things, and while remaining in herself she makes everything new (Wis 7:27). As this is shown in the beginning of creation, so still more gloriously at the end. The last triumph of wisdom is the last judgment, which will bring eternal life to the just. In the earlier periods of the Old Testament revelation, the immortality of the soul was shrouded in mystery. Now it enters into the full light of faith. The souls of the just are in the hands of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them. In the eyes of the unwise they seemed to die, but they are in peace (Wis 3:1-2).

From the beginning to the end the universal rule of wisdom has been established. Nevertheless, those whose eyes have been opened in baptism to the light of Christ will realize that the teaching of Solomon lacks one thing: the foolishness of God, Christ crucified. Wisdom was going to be more than a guide to the wise, more than eternal life for the just, more, even, than the beginning of creation. She was to become the Lamb who should not only expose but take away the sin of the world. The Wisdom of Solomon preached reward to the virtuous and death to those who hate her. But more than Solomon is here, where Christ Jesus becomes unto us sinners wisdom and justice and sanctification, and redemption through the foolishness of the cross (1Cor 1:30).
[1] Ann Arbor, Michigan: Word of Life, 1976, pp. 192-194.

Vigils Reading
2022-09-11
A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke by Peter Chrysologus 1
Finding something we have lost gives us a fdresh joy, and we are happier at having found the lost object that we should have been had we never lost it. This parable, however, is concerned more with divine tenderness and compassion than with human behavior, and it expresses a great truth. Humans are too greedy to forsake things of value for love of anything inferior. That is something only God can do. For God not only brought what was not into being, but he also went after what was lost while still protecting what he left behind, but he also went after what was lost while still protecting what he had left behind, and found what was lost without losing what he had in safe keeping.
This story, then, speaks of no earthly shepherd but of a heavenly one , and far from being a portrayal of human activity, this whole parable conceals divine mysteries, as becomes clear from the number mentioned when Christ says: Which of you, if you had a hundred sheep and lost one of them… You see how the loss of a single sheep made the shepherd grieve as though the whole flock were no longer in safe keeping but had gone astray, and how this made him leave the ninety-nine to go after the lost one and search for it, so that its recovery might make the flock complete again.
But let us now unfold the hidden meaning of this heavenly parable. The man who owns the hundred sheep is Christ. He is the good shepherd, the loving shepherd, who in a single sheep, that is in Adam, fashioned the whole flock of humankind. He set this sheep in a place of rich pasturage amidst the pleasures of paradise, but heedless of the shepherd’s voice it trusted in nthe howling of wolves, lost the protection of the sheepfold, and was pierced through by deadly wounds.
Christ therefore came into the world to loook for it, and he found it in nthe Virgin’s womb. He came in the body assumed at his human birth, and raising that body on the cross, he placed the lost bsheep on his own shoulders by his passion. Then in the intense joy of the resurrection he brought it to his heavenly home. And he called his friends and neighbors, that is the angels, and said to them: Rejoice with me, for I have found the sheep that was lost.
The angels joined Christ in gladness and rejoicing at the return of the Lord’s sheep. They did not take it amiss that he now reigned over them upon the throne of majesty, for the sin of envy had long since been banished from heaven together with the devil, and it could not gain entry there again through the Lamb who took away the sin of the world!
Brothers and sisters, Christ sought us on earth; let us seek him in heaven. He has borne us up to the glory of his divinity; let us bear him in our bodies by holiness. As the apostle says: Glorify and bear God in your bodies. That person bears God in his b0ody whose bodily activities are free from sin.
1Journey with the Fathers – Year C – New City Press – New York – 1971 – pg 116

Skema Wk 24 ORD
2022-09-11
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
24th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (II)
September 11 – 17, 2022

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

Office
24thSunday
Weekday
St John Chrysostom
Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Our Lady of Sorrows
SS Cornelius & Cyprian
Office for the Dead

Vigils
2 Macc 9:13-29
2 Macc 10:1-19
2 Macc 10:20-38
Isa 52:13-53:12
2 Macc 7:20-41
2 Macc 11:1-15
2 Macc 11:16-38

Lauds
Amos 6:8-14
Amos 7:1-6
Amos 7:7-9
Isa 45:21-25
Baruch 4:9b-20
Amos 7:10-17
Amos 8:1-8

Mass
132
443
444
638
639
447
448

1st
Exod 32:7-11, 13-14
1 Cor 11:17-26, 33
1 Cor 12:12-14, 27-31a
Phil 2:6-11
Heb 5:7-9
1 Cor 15:12-20
1 Cor 15:35-37, 42-49

2nd
1 Tim 1:12-17

Gospel
Luke 15:1-32
Luke 7:1-10
Luke 7:11-17
John 3:13-17
John 19:25-27
Luke 8:1-3
Luke 8:4-15

Vespers
1 Tim 1:12-20
1 Tim 2:1-8
1 Tim 3:1-7
Gal 6:14-18
Col 1:21-24
1 Tim 3:8-13
1 Tim 3:14-4:5

Weekday
2022-09-10
A READING ABOUT THE ORDER AND HARMONY WHICH GOD HAS GIVEN TO THE WORLD, from a letter to the Corinthians by St Clement, pope[1].
Let us fix our gaze on the Father and Creator of the whole world, and let us hold on to his peace and blessings, his splendid and surpassing gifts. Let us contemplate him in our thoughts and with our mind’s eye reflect upon the peaceful and restrained unfolding of his plan; let us consider the care with which he provides for the whole of his creation.
By the Creator’s direction the heavens are in motion, and they are subject to him in peace. Day and night fulfill the course the Creator has established without interfering with each other. The sun, the moon and the choirs of stars revolve in harmony at his command in their appointed paths without deviation. By the will of the Creator the earth blossoms in the proper seasons and produces abundant food for us and for animals and all the living things on it without reluctance and without any violation of what he has arranged.
Yet unexplored regions of the abysses and inexpressible realms of the deep are subject to the Creator’s laws. The mass of the boundless sea, joined together by his ordinance in a single expanse, does not overflow its prescribed limits but flows as he commanded it. For God said: “Thus far shall you come, and your waves will be halted here.” The ocean, impassable for humankind, and the worlds beyond it are governed by the same edicts of the Lord.
The seasons, spring, summer, autumn and winter, follow one another in harmony. The quarters from which the winds blow function in due season without the least deviation. And the ever-flowing springs, created for our health as well as our enjoyment, unfailingly offer their breasts to sustain human life. The tiniest of living creatures meet together in harmony and peace. The great Creator and Lord of the universe commanded all these things to be established in peace and harmony, in his goodness to all, and in overflowing measure to us who seek refuge in his mercies through our Lord Jesus Christ; to him be glory and majesty for ever and ever. Amen.
[1]The Letter to the Corinthians, Cap 19,2–20,12:Funk 1, 87-89.

St. Peter Claver
2022-09-09
The patron of all missionary enterprises among Negroes: a reading about St. Peter Claver from Butler’s Lives of the Saints.
He was born in Catalonia, about 1581, and as he showed fine qualities of mind and spirit was destined for the Church and sent to study at the University of Barcelona. Here he graduated with distinction [and entered] the Society of Jesus. He left Spain forever in April 1610, and was ordained priest at Cartagena, in what is now the republic of Colombia. By the time of his ordination the slave trade had been established in the Americas for nearly a hundred years, and the port of Cartagena was one of its principal centers, being conveniently situated as a clearing house. The trade had recently been given a considerable impetus, for the local Indians were not physically fitted to work in the gold and silver mines, and there was a big demand for Negroes from Angola and the Congo.
At this time the leader of the work among the Negroes was Father Alfonso de Sandoval, a great Jesuit missionary who spent forty years in the service of the slaves, and after working under him Peter Claver declared himself “the slave of the Negroes forever”. Although by nature shy and without self-confidence he threw himself into the work with method and organization. He enlisted bands of assistants, and as soon as a slave-ship entered the port he went to wait on its living freight. The slaves were disembarked and shut up in the yards. Into these yards or sheds St. Peter Claver plunged, with medicines and food, bread, brandy, lemons, tobacco to distribute among the Negroes, some of whom were too frightened, others too ill, to accept them. “We must speak to them with our hands, before we try to speak to them with our lips”, Claver would say. When he came upon any who were dying he baptized them, and then sought out all babies born on the voyage that he might baptize them. He had a band of seven interpreters, one of whom spoke four Negro dialects, and with their help he taught the slaves and prepared them for baptism, not only in groups but individually. He made use of pictures, showing our Lord suffering on the cross for the; above all he tried to instill in them some degree of self-respect, to give them at least some idea that as redeemed human beings they had dignity and worth, even if as slaves they were outcast and despised.
It is estimated that in forty years St. Peter Claver instructed and baptized over 300,000 slaves. When there was time and opportunity he took the same trouble to teach them how properly to use the sacrament of penance, and in one year is said to have heard the confessions of more than five thousand. Many of the stories both of the heroism and of the miraculous powers of St. Peter Claver concern his nursing of sick and diseased Negroes, in circumstances often that no one else, black or white, could face.
In 1650 he went to preach the jubilee among the Negroes along the coast, but sickness attacked his emaciated and weakened body, and he was recalled to the Jesuit residence at Cartagena. But here a virulent epidemic had begun to show itself, and one of the first to be attacked among the Jesuits was the debilitated missionary, so that his death seemed at hand. After receiving the last sacraments he recovered, but he was a broken man. For the rest of his life pain hardly left him, and a trembling in his limbs made it impossible for him to celebrate Mass. He perforce became almost entirely inactive, but would sometimes hear confessions, especially of his dear friend Doŋa Isabella de Urbina, who had always generously supported his work with her money. Otherwise he remained in his cell, not only inactive but even forgotten and neglected.
On September 6, 1654 he was taken very ill and became comatose. The rumor of his approaching end spread round the city, everyone suddenly remembered the saint again, and numbers came to kiss his hands before it was too late; his cell was stripped of everything that could be carried off as a relic. St. Peter Claver never fully recovered consciousness, and died two days later on the birthday of our Lady. The civil authorities who had looked askance at his solicitude for mere Negro slaves, and the clergy, who had called his zeal indiscreet and his energy wasted, now vied with one another to honor his memory.
St. Peter Claver was never again forgotten and his fame spread throughout the world: he was canonized in 1888 and was declared by Pope Leo XIII patron of all missionary enterprises among Negroes.

Nativity of B. V. M.
2022-09-08
A reading from a sermon for Our Lady’s Birthday
by Blessed Guerric of Igny (CF 32:192-193)
As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odor. Today we celebrate the birthday of the blessed Virgin Mother from whom the Life of all things took his birth. Today is the birthday of that Virgin from whom the Savior of all men willed to be born in order that he might give to all who were born to death the power to be reborn to life. Today is the birthday of that new Mother who has destroyed the curse brought by the first mother’ so that all those who through the fault of the first had been born under the yoke of eternal condemnation might instead, through her, inherit a blessing. She is indeed the new Mother, for she has brought new life to her children already hardening with age and has healed the defect of both inborn and acquired senility. Yes indeed. She is the new Mother, who by an unheard of miracle has given birth in such a way that, becoming a mother, she has not ceased to be a Virgin. And she has given birth to the Child who created all things, even the Mother herself.
It is indeed a wonderful new thing, this fruitful virginity, but far more wonderful is the novelty of the Child born of it. No one who admits that the Child was God, finds any difficulty in believing his Mother remained a Virgin. His birth in no wise could injure the physical integrity of his Mother, this Child who went about making even the diseased whole. Nor could the reality of the body he assumed be thought to limit the power of the Creator as if he could not retain for himself what he gives to many of his creatures. For you find not a few creatures that are born without any harm to the integrity of the parents. In their own way all these bear witness to their Creator’s own immaculate birth.
But the Mother herself, who was quite aware of the mystery surrounding her, has spoken and taught us how and what she brought forth. She speaks however not in contemporary or recent arguments but in the ancient oracles of prophecy, because, as the Apostle Peter tells us, the word of prophecy is a stronger witness than miracles. Indeed what is less open to deceit or suspect of falsity than the testimony from heaven about one not yet born? Long before her birth therefore the Spirit, who would later make his abode in her, borrowed Mary’s voice to defend both the divinity of the Child and the integrity of the Mother – all his own handiwork – against the blasphemies of unbelievers. In her person, if we are to follow a common opinion, he uttered the words you have just heard: As the vine, I have brought forth a pleasant odor
In their context, these words must be applied to the Person of Wisdom himself, that is, the Son. But you know quite well from the rules of Sacred Scripture that this does not mean they cannot be applied also to the Mother, like so many other passages. You know too that there is other evidence, enough, and more than enough, bearing on this question, which is more familiar to you and much clearer than this. But you must not be cheated in your expectations of what today’s lesson can teach us.

Weekday
2022-09-07
TO KNOW THE FATHER THROUGH THE INCARNATE WISDOM,
from a Discourse by St Athanasius[1]
The only-begotten Son, the Wisdom of God, created the entire universe. Scripture says: ” You have made all things by your wisdom, and the earth is full of your creatures”. Yet simply to be was not enough: God also wanted his creatures to be good. That is why God was pleased that his own wisdom should descend to their level and impress upon each of them singly and upon all of them together a certain resemblance to their Model. It would then be manifest that God’s creatures shared in his wisdom and that his works were worthy of him.
For the word we speak is an image of the Word who is God’s Son, so also is the wisdom implanted in us an image of the Wisdom who is God’s Son. It gives us the ability to know and understand and so makes us capable of receiving him who is the all-creative Wisdom, through whom we can come to know the Father. “Whoever has the Son has the Father also”, Scripture says, and “Whoever receives me receives the One who sent me”. And so, since this image of the Wisdom of God has been produced in us and in all creatures, the true and creative Wisdom rightly takes to himself what applies to his image and says: “The Lord created me in his works.”
But because “the world was not wise enough to recognize God in his wisdom,” as we have explained it, “God determined to save those who believe by means of the ‘foolish’ message that we preach.” Not wishing to be known any longer, as in former times, through the mere image and shadow of his wisdom existing in creatures, he caused the true Wisdom himself to take flesh, to become like us, and to suffer death on the cross so that all who believed in him might be saved by faith.
Yet this was the same Wisdom of God who had in the beginning revealed himself and his Father through himself by means of his image in creatures (which is why Wisdom too is said to be created). Later, as John declares, that Wisdom who is also the Word, became flesh and after destroying the power of death and saving our race, he revealed himself and the Father through himself with greater clarity. “Grant”, he prayed, “that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
So now the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of God, since it is one and the same thing to know the Father through the Son, and to know the Son who comes from the Father. The Father rejoices in his Son, and with the same joy the Son delights in the Father and says: “I was his joy; every day I took delight in his presence.”
[1]ORATIO 2, 78. 81-82: PG 26, 311. 319.

Rule of Benedict: Reflection. 7 pm CDT
2022-09-06 19:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago)
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Jan. 6-May 7-Sept. 6-Prologue 39-44
So, brothers and sisters, we have asked the Lord who is to dwell in His tent, and we have heard His commands to anyone who would dwell there; it remains for us to fulfill those duties. Therefore we must prepare our hearts and our bodies to do battle under the holy obedience of His commands; and let us ask God that He be pleased to give us the help of His grace for anything which our nature finds hardly possible. And if we want to escape the pains of hell and attain life everlasting, then, while there is still time, while we are still in the body and are able to fulfill all these things by the light of this life, we must
hasten to do now what will profit us for eternity.
END OF READING

Weekday
2022-09-06
From a Homily by St Valerian of Cimiez 1
Dearly beloved, our yearning for eternal life is fired with great hope if from time to time we recall the deeds of individual martyrs. As often as the mother of the Maccabees occurs to our memory, our soul bestirs itself with a joy somehow far greater to love God and win his favor. By the encouragement she gave, she on one day put the crown of martyrdom on seven sons. She was just as strong in faith as she was fruitful in offspring.
In her case there are as many proofs of her virtues as she had sons. For, on one day she gave to the almighty God as many martyrs as she had gained sons on separate occasions of motherhood. Blessed is she among mothers, and more fortunate still in her bereavement! Her faith brought her this great blessing: to migrate on one day with all her offspring to the glory of the heavenly kingdom.
Turn your attention from her to that passage in the gospel which tells us that we should prefer neither parents nor children to Christ. Let it be, perhaps, with some a glorious thing, to be explained with salutary examples, that they have offered one son as a victim to God. This mother has exceeded all the power and wishes of souls – so much so that in the grief of her fierce suffering she did not let the affections of her motherly love keep back even one of her sons.
Furthermore, notice through how many degrees of virtue her precious faith grew. It is enough to acquiesce once. Yet, because of her love of the Lord, through her willing bereavement she did violence to her motherly love seven times. She was well aware of what she was about, since she knew that all her offspring were taking their place in that eternity of liffe, according to the scriptural statement: He who loves his life will lose it; and he who hates his life, keeps it to everlasting life.
O new and admirable example of virtue! A mother rejoices in her own bereavement, and her love gains profit from the same source which brought it loss After she has sent ahead her youngest son whom she loves so tenderly, she herself enters the way of glorious death. Pained for a short while by innumerable tortures, she followed her sons in triumph. Despising this short-lived light, she extended her grasp toward heavenly and eternal goods.
Therefore, dearly beloved, if any mother has anxiety for the children of her womb, let her imitate the numerous and brave examples this mother has left. If anyone has gazed on her with eagerness to emulate her, without any doubt he makes his way gifted with the honor of far greater glory. Hence, let any mother whatever judge her children worthy of this honor.
Furthermore, let those who serve Christ imitate the struggles of those brave men.
1A Word in Season – vol. VIII – Augustinian Press – 1999 – pg 234

Weekday--Labor Day
2022-09-05
THE HUMAN DIMENSIONS OF ECONOMY, a Statement by the Catholic Bishops of the United States[1]
Our own rich heritage of Catholic teaching offers important direction and insight. Most importantly, we are guided by the concern for the poor and afflicted shown by Jesus, who came to “bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, new sight to the blind, and to set the downtrodden free” (Lk 4:18). In addition, the social encyclicals of the popes and documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Synod of Bishops defend the basic human right to useful employment, just wages, and decent working conditions as well as the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively. They condemn unemployment, maldistribution of resources, and other forms of economic injustice and call for the creation of useful work experiences and new forms of industrial organization enabling workers to share in decision making, increased production, and even ownership. Again and again they point out the interrelation of economics and ethics, urging that economic activity be guided by social morality.
Catholic teaching on economic issues flows from the Church’s commitment to human rights and human dignity. This living tradition articulates a number of principles which are useful in evaluating our current economic situation. Without attempting to set down an all-inclusive list, we draw the following principles from the social teachings of the Church and ask that policymakers and citizens ponder their implications.
Economic activity should be governed by justice and be carried out within the limits of morality. It must serve people’s needs. The right to have a share of earthly goods sufficient for oneself and one’s family belongs to everyone. Economic prosperity is to be assessed not so much from the sum total of goods and wealth possessed as from the distribution of goods according to norms of justice. Opportunities to work must be provided for those who are able and willing to work. Every person has the right to useful employment, to just wages, and to adequate assistance in case of real need.
Economic development must not be left to the sole judgment of a few persons or groups possessing excessive economic power, or to the political community alone. On the contrary, at every level the largest possible number of people should have an active share in directing that development. A just and equitable system to taxation requires assessment according to ability to pay. Government must play a role in the economic activity of its citizens. Indeed, it should promote in a suitable manner the production of a sufficient supply of material goods. Moreover, it should safeguard the rights of all citizens, and help them find opportunities for employment.
[1]PASTORAL LETTERS, Vol. IV, 1975-1983, Ed. by Hugh J. Nolan (U.S. Cath. Conference, 1984) pp. 93-94.

Skema: 23rd Week in Ordinary Time
2022-09-04 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York)
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
23rd Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (II)
September 4 – 10, 2022

Sun
4
Mon
5
Tue
6
Wed
7
Thu
8
Fri
9
Sat
10

Office
23rd Sunday
Weekday Labor Day
Weekday
Weekday
Nativity of the BVM
St Peter Claver
Weekday

Vigils
2 Macc 6:18-31
2 Macc 7:1-19
2 Macc 7:20-42
2 Macc 8:1-21a
Gen 3:8-20
2 Macc 8:21b-36
2 Macc 9:1-12

Lauds
Amos 4:11-13
Amos 5:1-6, 8-9
Amos 5:7, 10-15
Amos 5:16-20
Baruch 5:1-9
Amos 5:21-27
Amos 6:1-7

Mass
129
437
438
439
636
441
442

1st
Wis 9:13-18b
1 Cor 5:1-8
1 Cor 6:1-11
1 Cor 7:25-31
Micah 5:1-4a
1 Cor 9:16-19, 22b-27
1 Cor 10:14-22

2nd
Phlm 9-10, 12-17

Gospel
Luke 14:25-33
Luke 6:6-11
Luke 6:12-19
Luke 6:20-26
Matt 1:18-23
Luke 6:39-42
Luke 6:43-49

Vespers
2 Thess 1:1-7, 11-12
2 Thess 2:1-10
2 Thess 2:11-17
2 Thess 3:1-10
Rom 8:28-39
2 Thess 3:11-18
1 Tim 1:1-11

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
2022-09-04
A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke by John Cassian [1]
The tradition of the Fathers and the authority of holy scriptures both affirm that there are three renunciations which every one of us must strive to practice. To these let us turn our attention.
First, on the material level, we have to despise all worldly wealth and possessions; secondly, we must reject our former way of life with its vices and attachments, both physical and spiritual; and thirdly, we should withdraw our mind from all that is transitory and visible to contemplate solely what lies in the future and to desire what is unseen
We read that the Lord commended Abraham to make all three renunciations at once when he said to him: Leave your country and your kindred and your father’s house. First he said your country, meaning worldly wealth and possessions; secondly your kindred, that is our former way of living, with its habits and vices which have grown up with us and are as familiar to us as kith and kin; thirdly your father’s house, in other words every secular memory aroused by what you see.
This forgetfulness will be achieved when, dead with Christ to the elemental spirits of this world, we contemplate as the apostle says not the things that are seen, for what is seen is temporal but what is unseen is eternal. It will be achieved when in our hearts we leave this temporal and visible house and turn the eyes of our mind toward that in which we shall live for ever; when, though living in the world, we cease to follow the spirit of the world in order to fight for the Lord, proclaiming by our holy way of life that, as the apostle says, our homeland is in heaven. `
It avails little to undertake the first of these renunciations, even with wholehearted devotion inspired by faith, unless we carry out the second with the same zeal and fervor. Then having accomplished this as well we shall be able to go on to the third, whereby we leave the house of our former father, of him who fathered us as members of a fallen race, children of wrath like everyone else, and turn our inward gaze solely toward heavenly things.
We shall attain to the perfection of this third renunciation when our mind, no longer dulled by contact with a pampered body, has been cleansed by the most searching refinement from every worldly sentiment and attitude, and raised by constant meditation on divine things and spiritual contemplation to the realm of the invisible. It will then lose all awareness of the frail body enclosing it or the place it occupies, so absorbed will it be by things divine and spiritual.
Journey with the Fathers – Year C -,New York City Press – 1994 – pg 114
[1] Journey wuth the Fathers 0 Year C 0 New City Press – 1994 0 pg 114

Vigils Reading - St Gregory the Great
2022-09-03
A reading using our gifts for the service of others,
from St. Gregory the Great’s treatise Pastoral Care.

There are those who are gifted with virtues in a high degree and who are exalted by great endowments for the training of others; men who are unspotted in their zeal for chastity, strong in the vigor of their abstinence, replete with feasts of knowledge, humble in their long-suffering patience, erect in the fortitude of authority, gentle in the grace of loving-kindness, strict and unbending in justice. Such, indeed in declining to undertake supreme rule when invited to do so, deprive themselves, for the most part, of the gifts which they have received not for their own sakes only, but for the sake of others also.

When these regard their own personal advantage, not that of others, they lose such advantages in wishing to retain them for themselves, Hence it was that the Truth said to the disciples: “A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house” (Mt 5.14-15). [For this reason] He said to Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” And when Simon replied at once that he loved Him, he was told: “If you love me, feed my sheep” (Jn 21.17). If, then, the care of feeding is a testimony of love, he who, abounding in virtues, refuses to feed the flock of God, is convicted of having no love for the Supreme Shepherd. [It is because of this that] Paul says: “If Christ died for all, then all were dead. And if He died for all, it remains that they also who live, may not now live only for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Cor 5.14-15). Thus, Moses says that the surviving brother must take the wife of his brother who died without children, and raise up children for his brother’s name; and should he refuse to take her, she shall spit in his face…

Now, the deceased brother is [the Lord] who, appearing after the glory of the Resurrection, said: “Go, tell my brethren;” for He died, as it were, without sons, because He had not yet filled up the number of the elect. The surviving brother is ordered to take the wife, because it is fitting that the care of Holy [Mother] Church should be assigned to him who is best fitted to rule it well. If he proves unwilling, the woman spits in his face, because, whosoever does not care to assist others by the favors which he has received, is reprobated by Holy Church also for the good he has, and as it were, she casts spittle in his face….

So, there are those who, endowed, as we have said, with great gifts, in their eagerness for the pursuit of contemplation only, decline to be of service to the neighbor by preaching; they love to withdraw in quietude and desire to be alone for meditation. Now, if they are judged strictly on their conduct, they are certainly guilty in proportion to the public service which they were able to afford. Indeed, what disposition of mind is revealed in him, who could perform conspicuous public benefit on coming to his task, but prefers his own privacy to the benefit of others, seeing that the Only-Begotten of the Supreme Father came forth from the bosom of His Father into our midst, that He might benefit many?
