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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261103
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261104
DTSTAMP:20261031T224118Z
CREATED:20261031T224118Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261031T224118Z
UID:15761-1793664000-1793750399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A reading from “Rule of Life for a Recluse” by \nST AELRED OF RIEVAULX \n◊◊◊ \nImagine now that you are standing before Christ’s judgment-seat \nbetween these two companies and have not yet been assigned to one or the \nother. Turn your eyes to the left of the judge and gaze upon that wretched \nmultitude. What horror is there\, what a stench\, what fear\, what grief? They \nstand there miserable and unhappy\, gnashing their teeth\, their bare flesh \nshaking with fear\, dreadful to look upon\, their faces distorted\, cast down from \nshame\, in confusion because of their body’s degradation and nakedness. They \nwant to hide and they are not allowed\, they try to flee and it is not granted them. \nIf they raise their eyes the Judge’s fury bears down upon them from above. If \nthey lower them they are filled with the horror of hell’s pit. They have no excuse \nto offer for their crimes nor is there any chance of claiming that the judgment is \nunfair\, since whatever is decided their own conscience will recognize as just. \nSee now how you should love him who has set you apart from this doomed \ncompany by his predestination\, separated you by his call\, cleansed you by his \njustification. Now turn your eyes to the right and look at those among whom he \nwill place you by glorifying you. What grace is there\, what honor\, what \nhappiness\, what security. Some take their seat on high to give judgment\, some \nare resplendent in martyrs’ crowns\, some are bearing the white flower of \nvirginity\, some display the fruit of almsgiving\, some are illustrious for their \ndoctrine and their learning\, but they are all united by the bond of charity. Jesus’ \nface shines upon them\, not terrible but lovable\, not bitter but sweet\, not \nfrightening but attractive. \nNow stand in the middle\, not knowing to which company the Judge’s \nsentence will assign you. O what a dreadful waiting. Fear and trembling have \ncome upon me and darkness has covered me.’ If he sends me to join those on the \nleft I cannot complain of injustice; if he sets me among those on the right it is to \nbe attributed to his grace\, not to my merits. Truly\, Lord\, life is at your disposal.” \nYou see then how your spirit should be absorbed in his love. \nAlthough in all justice he could have extended to you the sentence passed \non the wicked\, he preferred to place you among those who are to be saved. \nNow imagine yourself associated with that holy company and hearing his \nvoice utter the decree: “Come\, ye blessed of my Father\, receive the kingdom \nwhich was prepared for you from the beginning of the world\,” while those other \nwretched souls hear the harsh words\, full of anger and fury: “Depart from \nme…into eternal fire.” “Then\,” we read\, “they will go to eternal punishment\, but \nthe just to eternal life.” What a harsh separation\, what a miserable lot.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-482/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261104
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261105
DTSTAMP:20261031T224225Z
CREATED:20261031T224225Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261031T224225Z
UID:15763-1793750400-1793836799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Charles Borromeo
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nFR RONALD KNOX \n◊◊◊ \nWhen our Lord’s apostles came to look back upon that terrible night in the \nLake of Galilee\, when they strained every nerve against the tempest while their \nMaster lay sleeping in the boat\, they found in it an allegory of their own \nsituation\, as they launched out the frail bark of his Church upon waves so \ntroubled\, with prospects so uncertain. And in every age the Church has looked \nback to that picture and taken comfort from it in times of adversity. [With great \nconfidence]\, the Church of God\, which is Peter’s boat\, has breasted the waves all \nthrough her troubled history. It is not upon the captain’s judgment or the pilot’s \nexperience\, not human wisdom or human prudence\, that she depends for her \nsafe voyage: she rests secure in the presence of her inviolable passenger. \nYet we should do ill if we grudged recognition and gratitude to those \nservants of his who at various times have steered our course for us through \ndifficult waters\, and especially to the saints of the Counter-Reformation — that \nremarkable group of saints whom God raised up at the time of Europe’s \napostasy\, by whose influence\, humanly speaking\, the faith survived that terrible \nordeal. And not the least\, nor the least prominent\, of these is [St Charles \nBorromeo]\, who ruled the Church of Milan in the latter part of the sixteenth \ncentury… \nWhatever be the rights and wrongs of all the controversies we hear about \nthe medieval Church\, this at least is clear\, that in the days of the Council of Trent \nits organization needed reform. And reform needs more than mere legislation to \ndecree it; it needs administration to execute it. That is St Charles’s characteristic \nlegacy to the Church: it was the influence of his example\, in great measure\, that \nmolded her organization on the new model which Trent had decreed. The \nbishop has got to be the center of everything in his diocese\, and the clergy of the \ndiocese are to be his clergy — a family of which he is to be the father\, a guild of \nwhich he is to be the master. \nSee how fond St Charles was of synods: the whole of his comparatively \nshort episcopate is a long record of the synods he gathered amongst his clergy. \nSee how enthusiastic he is for the seminary idea; the bishop\, henceforth\, is not \nmerely to ordain people\, he is to know whom he is ordaining. And above all what \nwas characteristic of St Charles was the institute which he left behind him — a \nbody of secular priests\, putting themselves at the disposal of the bishop as \nabsolutely as the religious puts himself at the disposal of his superior. \nYes\, there is much about St Charles’s life which is more exciting\, and much \nwhich is more attractive\, than all this; his boundless generosity to the poor\, the \nrelentless mortification that regulated his busy\, competent life. But what makes \nhim stand out among the saints more than either is his intense devotion even to \nthe most uninspiring details of diocesan routine.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-charles-borromeo-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261105
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261106
DTSTAMP:20261031T224327Z
CREATED:20261031T224327Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261031T224327Z
UID:15765-1793836800-1793923199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nJOHN OF FORD \n◊◊◊ \n‘May your will’\, Lord Jesus\, ‘be done on earth as it is in heaven \,̓ \nfor you \nsaid that it was your will that fire be enkindled on this earth\, the fire you came to \nsend upon it. What you desired has happened. The furnace that is in Jerusalem \nhas enkindled a furnace on earth. Here on earth\, just as in heaven\, you have \nmade your ministers flames of fire\, and like a devouring fire\, they devour to the \nright and to the left. \nIndeed\, love is never satisfied. It feels distaste for nothing\, it does not \nthink anything should be rejected. It issues its call equally to the good and to the \nbad\, receiving them indiscriminately and making no distinction in favor of one \nrather than the other. The only distinction\, perhaps\, is that it usually overflows \nmore copiously for those in whom sin has abounded. It is characteristic of love \nthat\, like fire\, it burns more fiercely where it finds sturdier tinder\, and the \nquality and quantity of what instigates it\, makes its flame grow ever stronger. \nJesus makes this crystal clear in his parable of the two debtors; it is the one who \nis forgiven most who loves most). He loves more\, says Jesus\, to whom more is \ngiven; he loves more\, meaning that he is urged by the debt and the material is \nthere to prompt him to greater love. \nIn my opinion\, this is why Zechariah said those words I quoted above\, that \nhe would make ‘the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood\, like a \nflaming torch among the sheaves Obviously\, because wood is harder than hay\, it .̓ \nis better material for fires\, and the more difficult it is to set it burning\, the more it \nblazes up once it has begun. It seems to change into the very substance of fire\, \ntaking on its color as well as its heat. \nThe sheaves\, on the other hand\, are those whose sins are venial\, and the \nflaming torch\, that is\, the opportunity to be forgiven and receive unmerited \ngrace\, consumes them with a spark. Yet it is not a fiery torch that touches the \nwood\, but a furnace\, so that\, in some wonderful way\, the wood itself becomes \nfire by the intensity of the heat. And the wood takes to itself not only the ability \nto burn\, but also to enkindle.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-483/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261106
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261107
DTSTAMP:20261031T224434Z
CREATED:20261031T224434Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261031T224434Z
UID:15767-1793923200-1794009599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nHANS URS VON BALTHASAR \n◊◊◊ \nChristians live with their involvement in the involvement of God for the \nfreedom of the world. They know that each one has been chosen by God and \ncalled by name to assist in his work of liberation. In this work human beings are \ncentral\, not the angels nor the subhuman things created for the sake of human \nbeings to rule as God commanded and chose them to do. \nChristians must\, first of all\, learn to see fellow human beings and all \ncreated things through the eyes of God. This does not mean that the human \nbeing seen in this light\, ceases to be a profound mystery. Just the opposite. If it \nis true that God has made the human being in his own image and likeness\, then \nthis ought rather to mean that something of the uniqueness and \nunfathomableness of God shines in the human person\, so much more clearly to \nthe beholder when God\, in choosing him and acting in and for him\, sheds upon \nhim God’s own mysterious light. \nTo look through God’s eyes at the human world means enduring both the \nopenness and contradictions of humans\, not forcing them onto a dogmatic \nprocrustean bed but bringing everything under the unity of God’s plan. \nWhoever can see more truth than someone else when they look\, is in the right. \nThis means first that the human being exists centrally as a person: a person \nintended by God\, loved by God\, and for whom God dies in order to rescue and \ndraw him to God. Hence all that has the status of a thing\, all that is not personal \nin this world\, has value only in so far as it serves the purposes of the person\, and \nis harmful when it betrays the person into the hands of the impersonal\, reducing \nhim to slavery and to the status of a thing. This determines the Christian’s \nattitude towards technology. Our battle with the universe will always remain \nsomething of a struggle and perhaps even a violent war\, but such a war will be \njust and permissible only so long as its normative aim remains the \nhumanization of the human being. \nAs a fellow human being\, the Christian is of course committed to taking \npart in the total effort of humanity towards the humanizing of the world\, the \nperduring problematic and indeed tragic nature of which we have already \nindicated. The Christian\, however\, has no clear-cut recipes or solutions to offer \nto this problem\, and like others must wrestle with the deciphering of the riddles \nof nature and of history. In this pursuit Christians are at one with their fellows. \nBut from their knowledge of God’s involvement for the world\, they have a wider \nhorizon which embraces the problematic and tragic\, without eliminating it\, and \nfrom which there falls on the world the only light that is truly illuminating and \nhelpful. They must bear witness to this light not just abstractly – by professions \nof faith – but concretely in their professional and human involvement.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-484/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261107
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261108
DTSTAMP:20261031T224624Z
CREATED:20261031T224624Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261031T224624Z
UID:15769-1794009600-1794095999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Memorial of BVM
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nST THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX \n◊◊◊ \nIn speaking of our Lady\, we ought not to make improbable assertions \nabout matters that are beyond our knowledge\, for example\, that when she was a \nsmall child she went up to the Temple to offer herself to God with extraordinary \nfervor and a heart on fire with love. For all we know\, she went simply in \nobedience to her parents. \nIf a sermon on the Blessed Virgin is to bear fruit\, it must describe her \nreal life\, such as the Gospel gives us a glimpse of\, and not her fancied life. And \nwe perceive clearly that her real life at Nazareth and later on must have been \nquite ordinary…”He was subject to them”. How simple it all is! \nSometimes the Blessed Virgin is represented as being quite \nunapproachable. Instead\, we ought to show that she was imitable in her practice \nof hidden virtues; we ought to point out that she lived a life of faith\, just as we \ndo. \nWe know well that the Blessed Virgin is queen of heaven and earth; but \nshe is more of a mother than a queen\, and we ought not to give out the idea\, as I \nhave heard it done more than once\, that because of her prerogatives she eclipses \nthe glory of all the saints\, just as the sun\, rising in brilliance\, makes the stars \ndisappear. My God\, what a strange thing to say! A mother who makes the glory \nof her children disappear! For my part\, I believe just the opposite; I think that \nshe will greatly increase the splendor of the elect. \nWe do well to speak of her prerogatives. But we should not stop there. \nWe should make her loved. If\, when we hear a sermon on the Blessed Virgin\, the \npreacher tries to do nothing from beginning to end but call forth our \nadmiration\, we become bored\, and that does not lead to love and imitation. Who \nknows but what some souls will not experience a certain sense of estrangement \nfrom a creature so lofty? \n  \nThe Theology of the Mystical Body \, Emile Mersch SJ\, B. Herder Book Co.\, St Louis MO 1951\, pp. 169-170\,174ff.15 \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-memorial-of-bvm-25/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261108
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261109
DTSTAMP:20261108T000414Z
CREATED:20261108T000414Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261108T000414Z
UID:15878-1794096000-1794182399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Skema
DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n32nd Week in Ordinary Time\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (A)\, Weekdays (II)\nNovember 8 – 14\, 2026\n\n\n\nSun\n8\nMon\n9\nTue\n10\nWed\n11\nThu\n12\nFri\n13\nSat\n14\n\n\nOffice\n32nd Sunday\nLateran Basilica\nSt Leo the Great\nSt Martin of Tours\nWeekday\nAll Benedictine Saints\nMemorial of the BVM\n\n\nVigils\nDaniel 8:1-14\nExodus 40:1-34\nDaniel 8:15-27\nDaniel 9:1-19\nDaniel 9:20-27\nDan 7:1-3\, 9-22\, 27\nDaniel 10:1-11:1\n\n\nLauds\nZech 13:1-6\n1 Macc 4:52-59\nZech 13:7-9\nIsa 58:6-12\nZech 14:1-5\nWisdom 5:1-5\, 14-16\nZech 14:6-11\n\n\nMass\n154\n671\n492\n493\n494\n573\, 677\n496\n\n\n1st\nWis 6:12-16\nEzek 47:1-2\, 8-9\, 12\nTitus 2:1-8\, 11-14\nTitus 3:1-7\nPhlm 7-20\nIsa 61:9-11\n3 John 5-8\n\n\n2nd\n1 Thess 4:13-18\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nMatt 25:1-13\nJohn 2:13-22\nLuke 17:7-10\nLuke 17:11-19\nLuke 17:20-25\nJohn 15:1-8\nLuke 18:1-8\n\n\nVespers\n3 John 1-8\nHeb 10:19-25\n3 John 9-15\nGal 6:1-5\nJude 1-7\nEph 6:10-18\n2 Cor 6:14-7:1
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-175/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261108T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261108T170000
DTSTAMP:20261108T000606Z
CREATED:20261108T000606Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261108T000606Z
UID:15880-1794124800-1794157200@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - 32nd Sunday
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nST ANTHONY THE GREAT \n◊◊◊ \nBlessed are the pure in heart\, for they shall see God\, since purity of heart \nleads to perfection. Two things are contained within the heart – goodness which \nis natural to it and evil which is unnatural. This latter gives rise to such passions \nof the soul as murmuring\, envy\, detraction\, and all the rest. Goodness\, on the \nother hand\, promotes knowledge of God and rids the soul of all these passions. \nIf people honestly try to root out vice and avoid evil\, if they repent with tears and \nsighs\, devoting themselves humbly to a life of prayer\, fasting\, and watching\, the \nLord in his goodness will come to their aid and free them from all sinful \ninclinations. \nMany who have lived a celibate monastic life for a long time have failed to \nlearn what purity of heart is\, because instead of studying the teaching of the \nfathers\, they have followed their own wayward desires. So evil spirits and rebel \nmarauders of the air have prevailed against them\, hurling invisible darts by day \nand night\, and thus preventing them from finding rest anywhere. Moreover they \nfill their hearts with pride\, vanity\, jealousy\, criticism\, raging anger\, strife\, and \nany number of other passions. \nSuch people are to be reckoned with the five foolish virgins because they \nhave spent their time foolishly. They have not controlled their tongues nor \ncleansed their eyes and bodies from concupiscence\, neither have they purged \ntheir hearts of lust and other deplorable defilement. It was enough for them \nmerely to wear a woolen garment signifying virginity. \nConsequently they lack the heavenly joy which would kindle their lamps\, \nand the Bridegroom does not open the door to them but repeats what he said to \nthe foolish virgins: Truly I say to you\, I know you not… \nLet us awake\, then\, while we are still in this body\, and grieve over \nourselves\, lamenting day and night from the bottom of our hearts\, so that we \nmay escape the bitter torment\, the weeping\, wailing\, and remorse that will have \nno end. We must beware of entering through the wide gate and taking the easy \nroad that leads to perdition\, for many go that way. Instead we must enter by the \nnarrow gate and take the path of sorrow and affliction that leads to life. Few \npeople enter this gate\, but those who do are real workers who will have the joy of \nreceiving the reward of their labors and will inherit the kingdom. \nIf any are prepared to set out I do beg them not to delay and waste time\, \nfor they may be like the foolish virgins and find no one willing to sell them oil. T \nhese virgins burst into tears and cried out: Lord\, open to us. But he answered: T \nruly I say to you\, I know you not. And this happened to them simply because of \ntheir laziness. \nI beg you by the grace of God to obey me as I also will obey you; and may we \nall obey the Lord who said by the tongue of the Prophet: Who longs for life and \ndesires to see good days? Keep your tongue from evil talk and your lips from deceitful \nspeech. Turn away from evil and do good; seek and strive after peace.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-32nd-sunday-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261109
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261110
DTSTAMP:20261108T000820Z
CREATED:20261108T000820Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261108T000820Z
UID:15882-1794182400-1794268799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Lateran Basilica
DESCRIPTION:A reading on \nTHE DEDICATION OF \nTHE LATERAN BASILICA \n◊◊◊ \nThe blessed Pope Sylvester I instituted the rites which the Roman Church \nobserves in consecrating churches and altars. For although from the ages of the \napostles places had been dedicated to God where assemblies were held every \nSabbath\, yet those places had not been consecrated by a solemn rite before this. \nUp to the time of Sylvester an altar was not erected under title\, which\, anointed \nwith chrism\, symbolizes our Lord Jesus Christ\, who is our Altar\, our Victim\, our \nPriest. \nBut when the Emperor Constantine obtained health and salvation \nthrough the sacrament of Baptism\, then for the first time\, by an edict published \nby him\, the Christians throughout the world were permitted to build churches; \nhe himself encouraged this holy building by his own example\, as well as by this \nedict. For in his own Lateran palace he dedicated a church to the Savior and \nfounded adjacent to it a Basilica\, under the title of St John the Baptist\, on the \nvery spot where he had been baptized by St Sylvester and cleansed from the \nleprosy of unbelief. This basilica the same Pope consecrated on November 9\, \nand the memory of this consecration is celebrated today\, when\, for the first \ntime\, a church was publicly consecrated at Rome\, and there appeared to the \nRoman people an image of the Savior depicted on the wall. \nAlthough later on St Sylvester decreed that from that time forward all \naltars should be built of stone\, yet the altar of the Lateran Basilica was built of \nwood. This is not surprising. For since\, from St Peter down to Sylvester\, because \nof persecutions\, the Pontiffs could not dwell in any fixed abode\, they offered the \nHoly Sacrifice [of the Mass] wherever necessity compelled them\, whether in \ncrypts or in cemeteries\, or in the homes of the faithful\, upon a wooden altar \nwhich was hollow like a chest \nWhen this altar had been placed in the first church\, the Lateran\, St \nSylvester decreed that from that time on\, no one except the Roman Pontiff \nshould celebrate Mass upon it\, in honor of the Prince of the Apostles and of the \nrest of the Popes who had been accustomed to use it. This same church\, having \nbeen destroyed by fires\, pillaging\, and earthquakes\, and repaired by the \nlaborious effort of the Supreme Pontiffs\, was afterwards rebuilt anew. Pope \nBenedict XIII\, a Dominican\, consecrated it on April 28\, 1726\, by a solemn rite.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-lateran-basilica-4/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261110
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261111
DTSTAMP:20261108T000934Z
CREATED:20261108T000934Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261108T000934Z
UID:15884-1794268800-1794355199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Leo the Great
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nST LEO THE GREAT \n◊◊◊ \nAlthough the Lord Jesus Christ is one and there is really one and the same \nperson in Him\, composed of true divinity and true humanity\, the exaltation with \nwhich God exalted Him (as the Teacher of the Gentiles says) and gave to Him a \nname superior to every other name – this exaltation\, as we know\, took place in \nthat same nature which needed enrichment by the increase of so great a \nglorification. Indeed\, in His nature as God the Son was equal to the Father; and \nthere was no distinction of essence between the Father and the Only-begotten\, \nno difference in majesty; and through the mystery of the Incarnation the Word \ndid not lose anything which the Father might restore to Him as a gift. \nBut the servile form through which the non-sentient God fulfilled the \nmystery of great and fatherly concern\, is human lowliness\, which was carried up \nto the glory of divine power. The divinity and humanity were bound together in \nso great a unity from the very time of conception by the Virgin that divine acts \nwere not done without the man and human acts were not done without God. \nFor that reason\, just as the lord of Majesty is said to have been crucified\, so He \nwho from all eternity is equal to the Father is said to have been exalted. For\, \nsince the unity of person remains inseparable\, He is one and the same – wholly \nthe Son of Man because of the flesh\, and wholly the Son of God because of the \ndivinity He has in common with the Father. Hence\, whatever Christ received in \ntime He received in his humanity\, on which are bestowed the things it did not \nhave. \nAs regards the power of the Godhead\, all that the Father has belongs also to the Son \nwithout distinction. According to His divine nature\, as the Father has life in himself\, even \nso he has given to the Son also to have life in himself. But in His servile state\, His soul is \nsad even unto death. As the Apostle teaches\, he is at once both poor and rich: rich \nbecause\, as the Evangelist says: In the beginning was the Word\, and the Word was with \nGod: and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made \nthrough him\, and without him was made nothing. But he was poor because on our \naccount the Word was made flesh\, and dwelt among us.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-leo-the-great-4/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261111
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261112
DTSTAMP:20261108T001047Z
CREATED:20261108T001047Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261108T001047Z
UID:15886-1794355200-1794441599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Martin of Tours
DESCRIPTION:A reading from a letter by \nPOPE ST JOHN XXIII \n◊◊◊ \nIf St Martin was a bishop and a zealous pastor who can well be imitated in \nthe practice of charity\, he was also and first of all a monk. You might even say \nthat the only reason he was such a marvelous man of action was that he was first \nof all a man of prayer. And from this point of view too\, he has a great lesson to \ngive to the Christians of today. \nEager for solitude and union with God\, this giant of the apostolate lived in \nconstant prayer: “he never turned his mind away from prayer\,” according to the \nexpression\, later picked up by the liturgy\, of his contemporary and first \nbiographer Sulpicius Severus\, who adds that once he was elevated to the \nepiscopacy\, the servant of God “remained what he had been before and bore the \ndignity of bishop without abandoning the design of life and the virtue of a \nmonk.” Was not his principal means of evangelization to found churches and \nmonasteries everywhere?… And thus it was that\, thanks to him\, monasticism \nwas introduced into France. \nThrowing light on this side of the activity of the great convert-maker is a \nway of reminding us of the immense benefits that the monks brought to their \ncountry; it is a way of drawing their attention\, which is so easily distracted at the \npresent time by the agitated pace of modern life\, back to the lasting greatness \nand beauties of monastic life; it is a way of inviting them to hold this form of life\, \nand\, in general\, the grace of a religious vocation\, high in their esteem… \nThe example of St Martin\, which has been confirmed by the experience of \ncenturies\, shows what invaluable instruments for spiritual elevation cloisters \nare in Christian society and what an effective contribution they make to the \napostolate of the Church… \nMay the great Bishop\, model of the monk and the pastor\, succeed in \nstirring up a new spirit of fervor for the service of God.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-martin-of-tours-5/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261112
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261113
DTSTAMP:20261108T001155Z
CREATED:20261108T001155Z
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UID:15888-1794441600-1794527999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A reading from “Seasons of Celebration” by \nTHOMAS MERTON \n◊◊◊ \nLet us remember especially that the Church is a community of pardon. All \nwho have entered the common life of the body of Christ have done so by the way \nof pardon. And they remain in the Body of Christ only through pardon\, through \nthe mystery of Christ: not only of Christ\, as Head\, but also of Christ in His \nmembers. \nThe mercy and pardon of Christ must be continually at work in all the \nmembers and through all the members of the Mystical Body. This is what makes \nthe Church truly a Mother: she gives life by gentleness\, understanding\, love and \npardon. She forgives sins\, that is to say she heals separations. Sin is separation \nfrom God\, and from those who love God. Sin is a cutting off from life. It is a \nspiritual death and pardon is the restoration of life. \nThe Spirit by which the Church lives is the Spirit of love\, of unity. Unity \ncan be preserved or restored only by understanding\, acceptance and pardon. \nThe Church is a body of people who know they are forgiven and who forgive \nrepeatedly because they are themselves forgiven repeatedly. \nThe Church is then not so much a body of people who are pure and never \noffend\, but of those who\, in their weakness and frailty\, frequently err and \noffend\, but who have received from God the power to forgive one another in His \nname. \nThey possess the Holy Spirit and they can give the Holy Spirit in some \nsense\, to one another. The Holy Spirit Himself moves them to do this\, and acts \nin them\, to save others. \nWe\, then\, who form one body in Christ\, share with one another the \nmessage of Christ’s divine truth\, we share His word\, we share His worship\, we \nshare His love\, we share His Spirit. \nIn building a community of pardon which is the temple of God\, we have to \nrecognize that no one of us is complete\, self-sufficient\, perfectly holy in himself. \nNo one can rest in one’s own virtues and interior life. We do not live for \nourselves alone. To live for oneself alone is to die. We grow and flourish in our \nown lives in so far as we live for others and through others. What we ourselves \nlack God has given them. They must complete us where we are deficient. \nOften the good that is given us by God is given us only to be shared with \nanother. If God sees that we will not pardon and will not be open\, that we will \nnot share\, then the good is not given us. But to the one in whom there is the \ngreatest readiness to share with all\, most is given. The greatest of gifts then is \nthis openness\, this love\, this readiness to accept and to pardon and to share with \nothers\, in the Spirit of Christ. If we are open we will not only offer pardon\, but \nwill not disdain to seek it and recognize our own desperate need of it.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-485/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261113
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261114
DTSTAMP:20261108T001310Z
CREATED:20261108T001310Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261108T001310Z
UID:15890-1794528000-1794614399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - All Benedictine Saints
DESCRIPTION:A reading from \nBALDWIN OF FORD \n◊◊◊ \nI believe\, O Lord\, in the Holy Spirit\, the holy catholic Church\, the \ncommunion of saints. Here is my hope\, here is my trust\, here is my confidence\, \nhere is my security – however small it may be – which I have in the confession of \nmy faith\, in the generosity of the Holy Spirit\, in the unity of the catholic Church\, \nin the communion of the saints. If it be granted me from above to love you and to \nlove my neighbour\, then even though my own merits are poor and meager\, I \nhave a hope which is above and beyond all my merits: I am sure that through the \ncommunion of charity the merits of the saints will profit me and that the \ncommunion of the saints can make good my own imperfection and \ninsufficiency. The prophet comforts me when he says\, “I have seen an end of all \nperfection\, but your commandment is exceeding broad.” \nO charity\, so broad and so extensive\, how great is the house of God\, how \nvast is the place of his possession! We need not be distressed in our heart; we \nneed not be confined by the boundaries and limits of our insignificant \nrighteousness. Charity extends our hope to the communion of the saints\, and we \ncan therefore share with them their merits and their rewards. But the sharing of \ntheir rewards is [reserved] for the time to come\, for it is the sharing of the glory \nwhich shall be revealed in us. \nThus there are three sorts of sharing\, [three forms of communion\, three \nways in which we have things in common]: the sharing of nature\, which is \nassociated with the sharing of sin and the sharing of wrath; then the sharing of \ngrace; and thirdly\, the sharing of glory. \nBy the sharing of grace\, the sharing of nature begins to be restored and the \nsharing of sin is removed\, but by the sharing of glory\, the sharing of nature will \nbe fully and perfectly restored and the sharing of wrath wholly removed. It is \nthen that God shall wipe away all the tears from the eyes of the saints. It is then \nthat all the saints will be as one heart and one soul\, and they will have all things \nin common when God will be all in all. \n[Our hope is] that we\, too\, may come in common to this communion and \ncome together as one [and therefore we pray that] the grace of our Lord Jesus \nChrist and the charity of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit may be with us \nall always.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-all-benedictine-saints-4/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261114
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261115
DTSTAMP:20261108T001431Z
CREATED:20261108T001431Z
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UID:15892-1794614400-1794700799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Memorial of the BVM
DESCRIPTION:A reading from “The Seat of Wisdom” by \nFR LOUIS BOUYER \n◊◊◊ \nVirginity consecrated to God in Christ has its justification in that it is a \nmeans for engendering offspring without number; and therein lies the real \nnature of its sacrifice. This is the supreme truth revealed to us by Mary’s virginal \nmotherhood\, and\, at the same time\, its supreme justification. By her \nrenunciation in a spirit of perfect faith\, of the very possibility of generation on \nthe earthly plane\, that of the first creation\, she lent herself to be used to generate \nthe human body of the Son of God. \nAnd\, since he is\, in himself\, not only the origin but the whole of the new \ncreation\, she also brought this to birth in bearing him. The sacrifice inherent in \nher chosen virginity was fulfilled in that the “Holy One” born of her was the Son \nof God\, since this made him\, the fruit of her own life\, the absolute Stranger to \nher. though belonging wholly to her as to no one else\, Christ could not but be the \none who was apart form her from the very moment of his birth\, more so than \nany other child from its parents. At the same time\, her virginity was justified in \nthat it made a birth of the kind possible. And all the hopes of renewal that this \nbirth held out to mankind\, in the state it then was in\, justified the seeming \nrefusal of human love by the one most worthy of loving and being loved that had \nbeen seen on earth since Eve. \nThe counterpart of this is that it is by their participation in Mary’s destiny \nthat\, henceforth\, those vowed to virginity will see and fulfill the purpose of their \nown sacrifice. They renounce all possibility of prolonging and continuing the \npresent order of creation in order to dedicate themselves wholly to engendering \nthe new order which is to redeem the old. Such entire devotion to bringing about \nthe new birth of a humanity regenerated in Christ makes of their virginity\, not a \nnegation of love\, but an act of love of the most exalted kind.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-memorial-of-the-bvm-14/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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