Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Consecration Louisville Cathedral
2022-10-03
A READING ABOUT THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY AS THE NEW TEMPLE,
FROM A BOOK BY FR JEAN DANIELOU.[1]
It is the manhood of Jesus that is the Temple of the new Law, but this manhood must be taken as a whole, that is to say, it is the Mystical Body in its entirety; this is the complete and final Temple. The dwelling of God is the Christian community whose Head is in heaven, and whose members are still making their earthly pilgrimage; it is the true Temple of which the Temple of stone was the figure. “Be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”(1Pt2,5). “Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners: but you are fellow citizens with the saints and the domestics of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone: in whom all the building, being framed together, grows up into a holy temple in the Lord”(Eph2,19-21).
There is a basic difference between the Temple at Jerusalem and the Christian Church. Under the old law, the presence of God is connected with the building of stone; under the new law, it is connected with the spiritual community. The church of stone is not in the succession of the Temple, but of the synagogue; it is the assembly, the ecclesia, the meeting-place. Or rather, at the same time it continues both of them, since it is the normal place for the sacrifice. But it can be dispensed with; it is not necessary that it should be there for the celebration of the Mass, while the community is necessary.
Thus is fulfilled the saying of Jesus: “Where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”(Mt18,20). It is the essential condition required for the offering of an acceptable host that is presented in the Sermon on the Mount, where it is written: “If you offer your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has any thing against you, go first to be reconciled to your brother: and then coming you shall offer your gift”(Mt5,23-24). No offering is accepted save that which is made in charity, in community. For there the temple is, the one and only place where man is in the presence of God.
This is an extraordinary fact, as extraordinary in its own order as the presence of God in the Temple at Jerusalem. God enters into relationship not with isolated souls, but with the community. Through the baptismal rites, the entry of the catechumen into the church of stone is a figure of entry into the living Church, into the community which is the place of meeting with God. Of this meeting the Eucharist is the permanent sign, being at once the sacrament of the mystical body and the sign of the real presence, and bringing about at the same time union with God and the strengthening of the bonds of charity. Sin has the effect simultaneously of alienating the sinner from the presence of God, and of separating the sinner from the community. The primitive discipline of the Church made this clear when it excluded the sinner publicly from the community. The sinner still remains excluded from communion; and reconciliation with God is necessarily required by the community as intermediary. This is the meaning of confession, in which the priest represents the people, which itself represents God.
This is why the Church has the deposit of the living Word of God. It is in her that the Word mysteriously dwells, thus continuing the Incarnation of the Logos. We come to faith in Christ not by the study of dead literary documents, but in a preliminary way through the living witness of an organism sustained and animated by Christ, through the teaching of the living Apostolic Church; in a full and effective way by immediate contact with the living Christ in the Church, through the operation of grace acting in all its fullness in the sacrament.
[1]The Presence of God, Jean Danielou, Baltimore 1958, 29-31.

Skema 27th Week in Ordinary Time
2022-10-02
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
27th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (II)
October 2 – 8, 2022

Sun
2
Mon
3
Tue
4
Wed
5
Thu
6
Fri
7
Sat
8

Office
27th Sunday
Louisville Cathedral
St Francis
Weekday
St Bruno
Our Lady of the Rosary
Weekday

Vigils
Sir 18:1-18
2 Chron 7:1-16
Sir 18:19-33
Sir 19:1-17
Sir 19:20-30
Judith 15:8-16:2, 11-16
Sir 20:1-15

Lauds
Mic 5:9-14
Ezek 43:1-7a
Mic 6:1-8
Mic 6:9-16
Mic 7:1-7
Sir 39:12-22
Mic 7:8-10

Mass
141
701.1, 704.3, 706.2
462
463
464
465
466

1st
Habb 1:2-3; 2:2-4
Heb 12:18-19, 22-24
Gal 1:13-24
Gal 2:1-2, 7-14
Gal 3:1-5
Gal 3:7-14
Gal 3:22-29

2nd
2 Tim 1:6-8, 13-14

Gospel
Luke 17:5-10
Luke 19:1-10
Luke 10:38-42
Luke 11:1-4
Luke 11:5-13
Luke 11:15-26
Luke 11:27-28

Vespers
Philem 12-25
Acts 7:44-50
Jas 1:1-11
Jas 1:12-18
Jas 1:19-27
Acts 1:12-14
Jas 2:1-13

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
2022-10-02
A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke by St. Augustine [1]
Reading the holy gospel nourishes in us the habit of prayer, builds up our faith, and disposes us to trust in the Lord rather than in ourselves. What more powerful motive to prayer could be proposed to us than the parable of the unjust judge? An unprincipled man, without fear of God or regard for other people, that judge nevertheless ended by granting the widow’s petition. No kindly sentiment moved him to do so; he was rather worn down by her pestering. Now if a man can grant a request even when it is odious to him to be asked, how can we be refused by the one who urges us to ask?
Having persuaded us, therefore, by a comparison of opposites that we ought always to pray and never lose heart, the Lord goes on to put the question: Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, do you think he will find faith on earth? Where there is no faith, there is no prayer. Who would pray for something he did not believe in? So when the blessed apostle exhorts us to pray he begins by declaring: Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; but to show that faith is the source of prayer and the stream will not flow if its springs are dried ip, he continues: But can people call upon him in whom they do not believe?
We must believe, then, in order to pray; and we must ask God that the faith enabling us to pray may not fail. Faith gives rise to prayer, and this prayer obtains an increase of faith. Faith, I say, gives rise to prayer, and is in turn strengthened by prayer. It was to guard against their faith failing in times of temptation that the Lord told his disciples: Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.
Watch, he says: and pray that you may not enter into temptation. What does it mean to enter into temptation? It means to turn one’s back on faith. Temptation grows stronger in proportion as faith weakens, and becomes weaker in proportion as faith grows strong. To convince you, beloved, that he was speaking of the weakening and loss of faith when he told his disciples to watch and pray that they might not enter into temptation, the Lord said in this same passage of the gospel: This night Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail. Is the protector to pray, while the person in danger has no need to do so?
But in asking whether the Son of Man would find faith on earth at his coming, the Lord was speaking of perfect faith. That kind of faith is indeed hardly to be found on earth. Look at God’s Church: it is full of people. Who would come here if faith were non-existent? But who would not move mountains if that faith were present in full measure? Mark the apostles: they would never have left everything they possessed and spurned worldly ambition to follow the Lord unless their faith had been great; and yet that faith of theirs could not have been perfect, otherwise they would not have asked the Lord to increase it.
[1] Journey with the Fathers – Year C – New Coty Press – 1994 – pg 122

Vigils Reading - St Theresa of Child Jesus
2022-10-01
10SN0102
10.01.2022

The mission of St. Thérèse of Lisieux: a reading from a book by Hans Urs von Balthasar. 1
There can be no doubt that Thérèse of Lisieux was directly entrusted by God with a mission to the Church. Thérèse’s mission, at the very first glance, displays the marks of a clearly defined, and quite exceptional character. This is much less due to the personal drama of the little saint than to the sacred Form into which the trickling grains of petty anecdotes are compressed, into a hard, unbreakable block, by a firm invisible hand. It is contrary to all expectation that the simple, modest story of this little girl should eventually culminate, as it irrefutably does, in the enunciation of theological truths. Originally she herself never dreamt that she might be chosen to bear some fundamental message to the Church. She only became aware of it gradually; in fact, it did not occur to her until her task was almost completed, after she had already lived out her teaching and was writing the last chapters of her book. Suddenly, as she saw it all laid out before her, she recognized its strangeness, that in her obedience she had unwillingly conceived something beyond her own personality. And now that she saw it she also understood it, and seized it with a kind of violence.
Ever since her childhood Thérèse had shown a striking inclination to meditating and reflecting upon herself. [This] meant that when she discovered her mission she became intensely conscious of it in a manner rare amongst the saints. At that moment she realized she was to be set on a pedestal, and that every bit of her life, even its smallest details, would be used as a pattern for many of the little ones. She regards the publication of her manuscript as an important work; she knows that all the world will love me@, and that her writings will do a great deal of good. During her last months, as if making her last will and testament, she repeats constantly: One must tell souls Exactly the same expressions recur in reference to the mission she is soon to begin in heaven: AI feel that my mission will soon begin C to teach souls to love God as I love Him, to give them my little way. If my wishes are realized, I shall spend my Heaven on earth until the end of the world. Similarly she recognizes the function within the Church of her mission. She not only foresees the proclamation of her own sanctity Y but she also, as it were, foresaw the canonization of her doctrine. The two are not separable C it is not so much her writings as her life itself which is her doctrine, especially since her writings speak about her life more than anything else. Nor does she hesitate to propose her life as an example for the Church, because it is in her life that she sees the realization of that doctrine which can do so much good.
So her life only contains exemplary value for the Church insofar as the Holy Spirit has possessed her and used her in order to demonstrate something for the sake of the Church, opening up new vistas onto the Gospels. That, and that alone, should be the motive for the Church’s interest in Thérèse. That, and that alone, should engage the attention of those who feel themselves put off my many features of her cultus, or even of her character, or who experience indefinable objections to them. In fact, there are few other cases in which it is so prudent to distinguish between the mission of a saint and its essentials.
In the case of Thérèse of Lisieux the dramatic tension between her mission and her person needs specially to be borne in mind, and to be appreciated primarily in theological terms; the essence of sanctity has to be grasped as truly evangelical, as belonging to the Church, as a mission and not simply as an individual ascetical, mystical manifestation. Moreover it is not just because of contemporary needs but because of the depth of revealed truth that portraits of the saints must in future be remodeled, so that the saints can again live amongst us, and in us, as the best protectors and inspirers of the community of the saints, which is the Church.
1
Thérèse of Lisieux: The Story of a Mission, trans. by Donald Nicholl, New York: Sheed and Ward, 1954, pp xix ff.

Vigils Reading - St Jerome
2022-09-30
09SN3002
09.30.2022
Saint Jerome’s advice about Scripture: a reading from his letter to Paulinus. 1
You see how, carried away by my love of the scriptures, I have exceeded the limits of a letter yet have not fully accomplished my object. We have heard only what it is that we ought to know and to desire, so that we too may be able to say with the psalmist: “My soul breaks out with the fervent desire it always has had for your judgments” (Ps 119.20). But the saying of Socrates about himself—“I only know this: that I know nothing”—is fulfilled in our case also.
The New Testament I will briefly deal with. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the Lord’s team of four, the true cherubim or store of knowledge. [Like the description in the prophet Ezekiel,] with them the whole body is full of eyes, they glitter as sparks, they run and return like lightning, their feet are straight feet, and lifted up, their backs also are winged, ready to fly in all directions. They hold together each by each and are interwoven one with another: like wheels within wheels they roll along and go wherever the breath of the Holy Spirit wafts them. The apostle Paul writes to seven churches (for the eighth epistle, that to the Hebrews, is not generally counted in with the others). He instructs Timothy and Titus; he interceded with Philemon for his runaway slave. Of him I think it better to say nothing than to write inadequately. The Acts of the Apostles seem to relate a mere unvarnished narrative, descriptive of the infancy of the newly born church; but when once we realize that their author is Luke the physician whose praise is in the gospel, we shall see that all his works are medicine for the sick soul. The apostles James, Peter, John and Jude have published seven epistles at once spiritual and to the point, short and long, short that is in words but lengthy in substance so that there are few indeed who do not find themselves in the dark when they read them. The apocalypse of John has as many mysteries as words. In saying this I have said less than the book deserves. All praise of it is inadequate; manifold meanings lie hid in its every word.
I beg of you, my dear brother, to live among these books, to meditate upon them, to know nothing else, to seek nothing else. Does not such a life seem to you a foretaste of heaven here on earth? Let not the simplicity of the scripture or the poorness of its vocabulary offend you: for these are due either to the faults of translators or else to deliberate purpose: for in this way it is better fitted for the instruction of an unlettered congregation as the educated person can take one meaning and the uneducated another from one and the same sentence. I am not so dull or so forward as to profess that I myself know it , or that I can pluck upon the earth the fruit which has its root in heaven, but I confess that I should like to do so. I put myself before the man who sits idle and, while I lay no claim to be a master, I readily pledge myself to be a fellow-student. “Every one that asks, receives; and those that seek, find; and to those that knock, it shall be opened” (Mt 7.8).Let us learn upon earth that knowledge which will continue with us in heaven.1Letter LIII in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series Two, Volume 6; translated by W. H. Fremantle, p. 101-102.

Vigils Reading - St Michael & All Angels
2022-09-29
Currently unavailable

Vigils Reading
2022-09-28
OT-WIS07
09/28/22

HOW ALL THINGS HAVE BEEN MADE IN WISDOM,
from a Sermon by St. Gregory of Nyssa[1]

How is it then that the voice of the Lord, which promises that God may be seen if we are pure, should not contradict those who, according to St Paul, evidently speak the truth if they contend that the contemplation of God is beyond our power?
I think it will be best first to say a few words relevant to this subject by way of digression, so that our consideration of the present question may become more methodical. The Divine Nature, whatever It may be in Itself, surpasses every mental concept. For It is altogether inaccessible to reasoning and conjecture, nor has there been found any human faculty capable of perceiving the incomprehensible; for we cannot devise a means of understanding inconceivable things. Therefore the great Apostle calls His ways “unsearchable”(Rom 11:33), meaning by this that the way that leads to the knowledge of the Divine Essence is inaccessible to thought. That is to say, none of those who have passed through life before us has made known to the intelligence so much as a trace by which might be known what is above knowledge.
Since such is He whose nature is above every nature, the Invisible and Incomprehensible is seen and apprehended in another manner. Many are the modes of such perception. For it is possible to see Him who has “made all things in wisdom” (Ps 103:24) by way of inference through the wisdom that appears in the universe. It is the same as with human works of art where, in a way, the mind can perceive the maker of the product that is before it, because he has left on his work the stamp of his art. In this, however, is seen not the nature of the artist, but only his artistic skill which he has left impressed on his handiwork. Thus also, when we look at the order of creation, we form in our mind an image not of the essence, but of the wisdom of Him who has made all things wisely. And if we consider the cause of our life, that He came to create us not from necessity, but from the free decision of His Goodness, we say that we have contemplated God by this way, that we have apprehended his Goodness–though again not His Essence, but His Goodness. It is the same with all other things that raise the mind to transcendent Goodness, all these we can term apprehensions of God, since each one of these sublime meditations places God within our sight. For power, purity, constancy, freedom from contrariety–all these engrave on the soul the impress of a Divine and transcendent Mind. Hence it is clear through what has just been said that the Lord speaks the truth when He promises that God will be seen by those who have a pure heart; nor does Paul deceive when he asserts in his letters that no one has seen God nor can see Him. For He is invisible by nature, but becomes visible in His energies. For He may be contemplated in the things that are referred to Him.
[1]LIGHT FROM LIGHT, Edited by L. Dupre & J. Wiseman, OSB (Paulist Press, NY 1988) pp. 50-51.

Vigils Reading - St Vincent de Paul
2022-09-27
09SN2702
09.27.22
From a writing by St Vincent de Paul [1]
Even though the poor are often rough and unrefined, we must not judge them from external appearances nor from the mental gifts they seem to have received. On the contrary, if you consider the poor in the light of faith, then you will observe that they are taking the place of the Son of God who chose to be poor. Although in his passion he almost lost the appearance of a man and was considered a fool by the Gentiles and a stumbling block by the Jews, he showed that his mission was to preach to the poor. He sent me to preach the good news to the poor. We also ought to have this same spirit and imitate Christ’s actions, that is, we must take care of the poor, console them, help them, support their cause.
Since Christ willed to be born poor, he chose for himself disciples who were poor. He made himself the servant of the poor and shared their poverty. He went so far as to say that he would consider every deed which either helps or harms the poor as done for or against himself. Since God surely loves the poor, he also loves those who love the poor. For when one person holds another dear, he also includes in his affection anyone who loves or serves the one he loves. That is why we hope that God will love us for the sake of the poor. So when we visit the poor and needy, we try to be understanding where they are concerned. We sympathize with them so fully that we can echo Paul’s words: I have become all things to all people. Therefore we must try to be stirred by our neighbor’s worries and distress. We must beg God to pour into our hearts sentiments of pity and compassion and to fill them again and again with these dispositions.
It is our duty to prefer the service of the poor to everything else and to offer such service as quickly as possible. If a needy person requires medicine or other help during prayer time, do whatever has to be done with peace of mind. Offer the deed to God as your prayer. Do not become upset or feel guilty because you interrupted your prayer to serve the poor. God is not neglected if you leave him for such service. One of God’s works is merely interrupted so that another can be carried out. So when you leave prayer to serve some poor person, remember that this service is performed for God. Charity is certainly greater than any rule. Moreover, all rules must lead to charity. Since she is a noble mistress, we must do whatever she commands. With renewed devotion, then, we must serve the poor, especially beggars and outcasts. They have been given to us as our masters and patrons.
[1]
The Liturgy of the Hours vol. IV Catholic Book Publishing Co – New York – 1975 – pg 1424

Vigils Reading - Office for Vocations
2022-09-26
A READING ABOUT THE MONK AND THE WORLD
from a Book by Thomas Merton.[1]
The monastic life is a search for God and not a mission to accomplish this or that work for souls. The monk fulfills his function in the Church in proportion as he finds God in the peculiar way that God makes possible for him. Each of us will find God in our own way, but all of us together will find Him by living together in the Spirit, in perfect charity, as members of one another in Christ, recognizing the fact that Christ lives in us both as a community and as individuals. Our vocation is to live by the will of God in prayer and sacrifice that we may become able to see and glorify Christ in His Church and reach perfect union with Him by the action of the Spirit, in the sanctuary of our own souls. Thus we return, through Christ, to the Father of all.
We must never forget that we will not be able to do this unless we have really renounced the past and left the world for the love of God. It is not possible to be a monk and at the same time to live in the monastery in a spirit of compromise, retaining all the comforts and ambitions and concerns that characterize life n the world. Without true metanoia, a true conversion of one’s whole life, monastic discipline is an illusion. There must be a total reorientation of our entire being from the love of self to the love of God. We cultivate “contempt” for the world in the sense in which the world is opposed to God. But at the same time, we retain our love for and concern with all those souls redeemed by Christ, who are struggling to find Him and serve Him even in the midst of the world–and above all for those who, loved and sought by Christ, never think of Him and have never, perhaps, heard His Holy Name.
It would be an illusion to think that the monk could live entirely unrelated to the rest of the world. As individuals, it is true, we retain only a minimum of contact with worldly society. We live in solitude, far from the world’s cities. We do not go out to preach or teach. We remain in the cloister contemplating and praising God. Nevertheless, we are inextricably involved in the common sufferings and problems of the society in which we live. From these sufferings and problems there is and can be no escape.
On the contrary, they may perhaps be felt more acutely, because in a more spiritual form in the cloister. Far from being exempted from service in the battles of his age, the monk, as a Soldier of Christ, is appointed to fight these battles on a spiritual, hidden front–in mystery–by prayer and self-sacrifice. We cannot do this unless we are somehow in contact with the rest of the world, somehow identified with the others who suffer outside the cloister walls and for whom we are fighting in our solitude, fighting not against flesh and blood “but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, and against the spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Eph 6,12).
Hence, though we are withdrawn from the world, we preserve an intimate spiritual contact with those with whom we are actually or potentially united “in Christ”–in the Mystery of our unity in the Risen Savior, the Son of God. Their needs are our own, their interests are our interests, their joys and sorrows are ours, for we have identified ourselves with them not only by a realization that they all share one human nature, but above all by the charity of Christ, poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us in Christ.
[1]Basic Principles of Monastic Spirituality, Gethsemani, KY. 1957, 28-29.

Vigils Reading
2022-09-25
NT-LK27
09.25.22

A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke by St John Chrysostom [1]

It is worthwhile inquiring why the rich man saw Lazarus in Abraham’s arms, and not in the company of some other righteous person. The reason is that Abraham was hospitable, and so the sight of Lazarus with Abraham was meant to reproach the rich man for his own inhospitality. Abraham used to pursue even passers-by and drag them into his home, whereas the rich man disregarded someone lying in his own doorway. Although he had within his grasp so great a treasure, such an opportunity to win salvation, he ignored the poor man day after day. He could have helped him but he failed to do so. The patriarch was not like that but just the opposite. He would sit in his doorway and catch all who passed by. And just as a fisherman casting a net into the sea hauls up fish, yes, but also quite often gold and pearls, so Abraham while catching people in his net finished by catching angels, though strangely enough without knowing it.
Even Paul marvels at this and gives the advice: Remember to welcome strangers into your homes, for some by doing so have entertained angels without knowing it. And he did well to say without knowing it, for if Abraham had welcomed his guests with such kindness because he knew who they were he would have done nothing remarkable. He is praiseworthy only because, without knowing who the passers-by were and taking them to be simply human wayfarers, he yet invited them in with such good will.
And this is true of you also. If you show much eagerness in welcoming some famous and distinguished person you do nothing remarkable; often the high rank of a guest compels even a reluctant host to show every sign of courtesy. But we do something truly great and admirable when we give a most courteous welcome to all, even the outcasts of society or people of humble condition. Hence Christ himself praised those who so acted, declaring: Whatever you did for one of these very poor people you did to me. He also said: It is not your Father’s will that one of these little ones should perish. Indeed throughout the gospel Christ speaks a great deal about the little people and those of the humblest condition.
And so Abraham also, knowing this, did not ask who travelers were or where they come from, as we do today, but simply welcomed them all. Anyone wishing to show kindness should not inquire into other people’s lives, but has only to alleviate their poverty and supply their needs, as Christ commanded when he said: Imitate your Father in heaven, who makes his sun to rise on good and bad alike, and sends rain on the just and unjust.
[1] Journey with the Fathers – Year C – New City Press – 1984 – pg 120

SKEMA - 26th Week in Ordinary Time
2022-09-25
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
26th Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (II)
September 25 – October 1, 2022

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

Office
26th Sunday
Office for Vocations
St Vincent de Paul
Weekday
St Michael & All Angels
St Jerome
St Theresa of the Child Jesus

Vigils
2 Macc 14:15-30
2 Macc 14:31-46
2 Macc 15:1-20
2 Macc 15:21-39
Dan 10:4-11:1
Sir 17:1-15
Sir 17:17-32

Lauds
Mic 3:5-8
Mic 3:9-12
Mic 4:1-5
Mic 4:6-8
Tobit 12:6-15
Mic 4:9-14
Mic 5:1-8

Mass
138
455
456
457
647
459
460

1st
Amos 6:1a, 4-7
Job 1:6-22
Job 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23
Job 9:1-12, 14-16
Rev 12:7-12a
Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5
Job 42:1-3, 5-6, 12-17

2nd
1 Tim 6:11-16

Gospel
Luke 16:19-31
Luke 9:46-50
Luke 9:51-56
Luke 9:57-62
John 1:47-51
Luke 10:13-16
Luke 10:17-24

Vespers
1 Tim 6:17-21
Tit 1:1-13a
Tit 2:1-10
Tit 2:11-3:7
Heb 1:5-14
Tit 3:8-15
Philem 1-11

Vigils Reading - Memorial B.V.M.
2022-09-24
When Gabriel Appeared to Mary,
from the Hymns on the Nativity, by St. Ephrem the Syrian.[1]

What indeed was the pure woman doing at the moment
when Gabriel was sent down to her?
She saw him perhaps at the moment of prayer,
for Daniel was also at prayer when he saw Gabriel,
for prayer is next of kin to good tidings.
It is right that they should delight one another
as Mary did Elizabeth, her next of kin.
The dove bore good tidings for prayer.
By Abraham’s prayer good tidings proliferated.
Hezekiah’s prayer hastened and proclaimed
good tidings to him.
The centurion’s good tidings caused his prayers
to be joyful.
and on the roof terrace Simon was made joyful,
And Zechariah at the reward of his incense;
his good tidings came because of his incense.
All good tidings came to the harbor of petition;
this greatest of all good tidings,
the cause of all rejoicing,
found Mary at prayer and eagerly desired her.
For Gabriel, inhabiting an honorable old man,
entered and greeted her so that she would not tremble,
so that the modest girl would not see
a youthful face and be sad.
To two pure old men and to a virgin girl,
to them alone Gabriel was sent with good tidings.
In the will their natures are similar
and resemble one another. – over –
The virgin and the barren woman and Daniel the faithful:
One brought forth the revelation of the word,
and the other a voice for the wilderness,
and the virgin the Word of the Most High.
Lest He bewilder the onlookers by His greatness,
He drew Himself up from all the land of the Hebrews
and from all Judah and all Bethlehem
until He filled a small womb,
and as if he were a seed in our garden
or a small flash of light for our pupil,
He shone forth and diffused and filled the earth.

[1]Ephrem the Syrian, Paulist Press CWS, l989. “Hymns on the Nativity, Hymn 2” p.79-81

Vigils Reading - St Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio)
2022-09-23
St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) from Butler’s Lives of the Saints [1]

The most famous stigmatist since St Francis of Assisi was born into a family of agricultural laborers in Pietrelcina, northeast of Naples, on May 25, 1887. In 1903 he received the capuchin habit, taking the name of Fra Pio. Seven years later he was ordained to the priesthood. Not long after this he began to experience pains in his hands and feet, and on September 11, 1911 he confessed to his spiritual director that he had had invisible stigmata for over a year. He also suffered the pains of Christ’s crown of thorns and scourging.

On august 5, 1918 he underwent the further mystical experience of “transverberation” (piercing with the lance), which left him with a wound in his side that bled continually. A month later the stigmata in his hands and feet became visible and remained so until the final day of his life. The Capuchins made no attempt to conceal Padre Pio’s condition, which soon became known all over Italy and was the main cause of both his celebrity and the controversy that surrounded him. As people started flocking to his convent in their thousands, the Vatican, cautious as ever when faced with “private” favors and revelations, had him examined by a succession of doctors. The physical manifestations were undeniable. But were they from God, the psychosomatic effect of a disturbed personality, or even a fraudulent attempt on his part of that of the convent to achieve notoriety?

Huge crowds attended his Masses, during which he went into ecstatic states that could last for two hours or more. In July 1923 he received an order to say Mass in private, but so real was the threat of a violent popular reaction that it was rescinded the following day. Padre Pio himself made no comment on his condition other than that he was “a mystery to himself” but his gifts should produce benefits for others.

His community was able to ensure that they were so used when money offerings started coming in from his penitents and admirers. In January 1925, he opened a twenty-bed hospital that was named after St. Francis and remained in operation for thirteen years.

Throughout this time apostolic visitations continued, as the church authorities attempted to establish the “genuineness” of his stigmata and of his ever-growing ministry. In 1931 he was suspended from all priestly functions apart from saying Mass, which he was required to do in private. However after two years official doubt again yielded to popular enthusiasm, and the restrictions were lifted.

In 1940, with the particular support of Maria Pyle, a wealthy American woman to whose mother he had ministered as she was dying in 1929, Padre Pio was in a position to undertake a more ambitious hospital project. Medical and administrative committees were set up, but the Second World War delayed further implementation of the project until 1946, when a limited company was formed to carry the work forward.

By 1948, when the number of penitents was such that Padre Pio was obliged to establish an advanced booking system, Pope Pius XII and the Vatican were taking a more favorable line. Padre Pio was invited to visit the Pope, who suggested the formation of prayer groups to support the work of the hospital. His vision here was original. The schedule for each day was divided into times for prayer and times for science, and he declared that he wanted the foundation to include an international study center, a hospice for old people, and a cenacle for spiritual exercises, all to be run by a “new militia” in the service of the sick.

In 1959 Padre Pio’s own health deteriorated. Then in August he recovered, apparently miraculously, when a statue of Our Lady of Fatima was brought into the hospital for two days.

He died on September 23, 1968, and doctors who examined his body found his hands and feet unmarked and “fresh as those of a child”. He was beatified and later canonized by Pope John Paul II. In his address the Pope spoke not so much of Padre Pio’s extraordinary experiences but of the long hours the friar would spend in the confessional and of his extraordinary charity, which, he said, “was poured like balm on the sufferings of his brothers and sisters.”
[1] Butler’s Lives of Saints – New Full Edition – September – Liturgical Press – Collegeville, MN – 2000 – pg 216f

Vigils Reading
2022-09-22
HOW ALL THINGS HAVE BEEN MADE IN WISDOM,
from a Sermon by St. Gregory of Nyssa[1]
How is it then that the voice of the Lord, which promises that God may be seen if we are pure, should not contradict those who, according to St Paul, evidently speak the truth if they contend that the contemplation of God is beyond our power?
I think it will be best first to say a few words relevant to this subject by way of digression, so that our consideration of the present question may become more methodical. The Divine Nature, whatever It may be in Itself, surpasses every mental concept. For It is altogether inaccessible to reasoning and conjecture, nor has there been found any human faculty capable of perceiving the incomprehensible; for we cannot devise a means of understanding inconceivable things. Therefore the great Apostle calls His ways “unsearchable”(Rom 11:33), meaning by this that the way that leads to the knowledge of the Divine Essence is inaccessible to thought. That is to say, none of those who have passed through life before us has made known to the intelligence so much as a trace by which might be known what is above knowledge.
Since such is He whose nature is above every nature, the Invisible and Incomprehensible is seen and apprehended in another manner. Many are the modes of such perception. For it is possible to see Him who has “made all things in wisdom” (Ps 103:24) by way of inference through the wisdom that appears in the universe. It is the same as with human works of art where, in a way, the mind can perceive the maker of the product that is before it, because he has left on his work the stamp of his art. In this, however, is seen not the nature of the artist, but only his artistic skill which he has left impressed on his handiwork. Thus also, when we look at the order of creation, we form in our mind an image not of the essence, but of the wisdom of Him who has made all things wisely. And if we consider the cause of our life, that He came to create us not from necessity, but from the free decision of His Goodness, we say that we have contemplated God by this way, that we have apprehended his Goodness–though again not His Essence, but His Goodness. It is the same with all other things that raise the mind to transcendent Goodness, all these we can term apprehensions of God, since each one of these sublime meditations places God within our sight. For power, purity, constancy, freedom from contrariety–all these engrave on the soul the impress of a Divine and transcendent Mind. Hence it is clear through what has just been said that the Lord speaks the truth when He promises that God will be seen by those who have a pure heart; nor does Paul deceive when he asserts in his letters that no one has seen God nor can see Him. For He is invisible by nature, but becomes visible in His energies, for He may be contemplated in the things that are referred to Him.
[1]LIGHT FROM LIGHT, Edited by L. Dupre & J. Wiseman, OSB (Paulist Press, NY 1988) pp. 50-51.

Vigils Reading - St Matthew
2022-09-21
Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist, from The Saints, ed. John Coulson[1]

Few people love the tax collector. Even in these days when the relation between taxer and taxed is, no doubt, scrupously correct, his name strikes cold. Much more was this so in the Palestine of the first century, when it was in his interests to bully and harry and falsify. But even the mild and honest tax collector was not acceptable to official Judaism: he did business with the gentile and handled his money; he was legally impure, socially outcast. A Jewish Rabbi would be bold indeed to invite him to join his inner circle of disciples: it would be a gesture of defiance to the established prejudice. And so the formula ‘publicans and sinners’ slipped even into the phrase book of the evangelist and, quaintly enough, into the Gospel of Matthew the publican. This term ‘publican’ by the way does not accurately describe Matthew’s profession but flatters it. The Pharisees might despise it, but the trade was a profitable one and much sought after: whether it be pursued honestly or dishonestly would depend on the character of the officer.

“And Jesus passed further on, he saw Levi, the son of Alpheus, sitting at work in the customs-house and said to him, “Follow me”; and he rose and followed him. That this was a call to the apostolate there is no doubt – its terms too closely match those of the call of Simon and Andrew to be otherwise. Yet ‘Levi’ does not appear in any list of the Twelve. Now the vocation of the tax collector is reported in the first Gospel too, but there he is called ‘Matthew’, thus identifying him with the Matthew who appears in all the apostolic lists. The widely accepted and most natural explanation is that Matthew and Levi are one person with two Semitic names. It may be that our Lord himself gave him the name Matthew (Mattai, ‘gift of God’, in Aramaic) as he gave Kepha to Simon.

This Matthew then got up from his registers and henceforth – at our Lord’s suggestion – took a lesson from the lilies and birds that never did a day’s calculation in their lives. His master was no longer Antipas, the shrewd ‘fox’ but one who, unlike the foxes, had not even a home. The change destroyed all Matthew’s worldly prospects: Simon and Andrew might return to their fish, but Matthew had thrown over a coveted business and could never recover it. He left it gladly, it seems and completely – at least it was not he but Judas who kept the accounts for the apostolic group.

After the incident of his call Matthew disappears from the New Testament except as a name in the apostolic lists. What became of him? We have a sentence from a book by Bishop Papias of Hieropolis. “Matthew wrote an ordered account of the oracles (of our Lord) and each interpreted these oracles according to his ability.” Time had had its revenge. When the need for a written gospel record began to be felt, upon which of the Apostles would the choice fall? Upon one who used the pen, no doubt. Poor Matthew was back where he started, but this time with an eager will and high purpose. In Palestine, some time between the years 40 and 50, this ex-civil servant produced not the lively and artless Gospel of St. Mark but the orderly, almost ledger like, treatise, which we know as ‘The Gospel according to St. Matthew.’
And so Matthew’s old trade entered a new service; the accountant became an evangelist. It is not surprising that he alone records his Master’s words; “Every scholar whose learning is of the kingdom of heaven…knows how to bring both new and old things out of his treasure house. For there is no poor tool of ours that God’s service will not perfect and dignify.

It is commonly but not unanimously affirmed he died a martyr’s death; but we know for certain that he lived a martyr’s life – and that is enough. And for us he will always be the man who knew what money was and what it was not.
[1]The Saints.ed. John Coulson, Guild Press-NY,1957,p.538-541.

Rule of Benedict: Reflection. 7 pm CDT
2022-09-20 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Chicago)
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Chapter 4: What Are the Instruments of Good Works 44-62
To fear the Day of Judgment; to be in dread of hell; to desire eternal life with all the passion of the spirit; to keep death daily before one’s eyes; to keep constant guard over the actions of one’s life; to know for certain that God sees one everywhere; when evil thoughts come into one’s heart, to dash them against Christ immediately, and to manifest them to one’s spiritual mother; to guard one’s tongue against evil and depraved speech; not to love much talking; not to speak useless words or words that move to laughter; not to love much or boisterous laughter; to listen willingly to holy reading; to devote oneself frequently to prayer; daily in one’s prayers, with tears and sighs, to confess one’s past sins to God, and to amend them for the future; not to fulfill the desires of the flesh; to hate one’s own will; to obey in all things the commands of the Abbess, even though she herself (which God forbid) should act otherwise, mindful of the Lord’s precept, “Do what they say, but not what they do.” Not to wish to be called holy before one is holy; but first to be holy, that one may be truly so called.
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Chicago LCG Meeting
2022-09-20 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York)

LCG Chicago test
2022-09-20

Vigils Reading test1
2022-09-20

Cleveland Monthly Meeting test
2022-09-20

Homily - Thanksgiving Day - Fr. Conner test
2022-09-20
Thanksgiving Day – 2021

We have special reasons for being Thankful at this Thanksgiving. We have successfully passed through the threat of the covid and we can rejoice in the fact that as a nation we have avoided the threat of losing our democratic form of government. As Christians we join together to celebrate, recalling the message of Isaiah: I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted to us”. And we all have SO much to be thankful for. We can be thankful for the fact that Jesus Christ has loved us to such an extent that He became flesh and died an excruciating death in order that we might live. We can be thankful for the many blessings He has bestowed on us, both material and spiritual blessings. We can be thankful even for those who may not still be with us this Thanksgiving. They are still closer with us than we can imagine, for they are one with us in Christ Jesus. And as the second reading from Paul tells us: “Above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And be thankful”. We are thankful for the fact that God Himself has chosen us to be His very own adopted children through the primal gift of His Son Jesus Christ.
The gospel tells us of the ten lepers who were healed by the Lord, but only one who returned to give thanks. All too readily we tend to identify with this one. But in actual fact, in our daily lives, are we truly the one or are we rather the nine others who fail to give thanks? St. Paul tells us what true thankfulness entails: “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, patience. And above all put on love”. The sole leper showed true love by eagerly returning to the Lord in a spirit of humble gratitude. He knew that he did not deserve this miracle, yet precisely because of this, he comes all the way back to give thanks to God. It is precisely his knowledge that he did not deserve the miracle which made him all the more grateful.
We are all deeply conscious of the fact that we have done absolutely nothing to deserve God’s merciful gifts. Yet this very fact makes us only all the more thankful. God chooses each one of us solely because he has first loved us. He has loved us each to the extent of taking on Himself our leprosy in order to cover us with the new flesh of His own divinity, making us truly one in Him in love. He shares this very flesh with us in this Eucharist which we celebrate now. He asks only that we continue to show our gratitude in the very ways that we relate to Him in one another.
True thanksgiving must be filled with a spirit of Eucharistia – thankfulness. Jesus has set the example of this in giving us the very Sacrament of the Eucharist at the very time that he was about to be given up to suffering and death. Even then he could cry out “I thank you, heavenly Father!” and that is what He wants us to cry out also in every circumstance of our lives.
Only then can we truly celebrate Thanksgiving not just as a single day of the year, but as the basis of our daily lives and ways of truly living with one another in a spirit of love and trust and faithfulness. Then when the day arrives when we return to the Father,
Jesus will be able to say: “Here are the other nine!!”

Jim Finley - Turning to the Mystics test6
2022-09-20

Vigils Reading test
2022-09-20
An Easter Sermon by St Aelred of Rievaulx 1
At the time when the sons of Israel were leaving Egypt, it was prescribed in the Law that a lamb was to be slaughtered and eaten. This was called the paschal feast. It was also prescribed that for seven days they should eat unleavened bread – that is, bread without leavening. And this was called the feast of unleavened bread. The Evangelist brings this out when he says: The festival of unleavened bread, called the pasch, was approaching. This first feast, when they killed the lamb , was called only the pasch; the latter was called both the pasch and the feast of unleavened bread. It seems to me, then, that the first feast symbolizes the Lord’s passion and the latter his resurrection. That the first symbolizes the Lord’s passion is sufficiently well known. In it the true Lamb was slain and by his blood we have been saved from the hand of Pharaoh – that is, the devil. The feast is called the pasch – that is, the passing over – because Christ at his passion passed over from this world. As the Evangelist says: Before the day of paschal feast Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father.
Yet let us take a look at how the other feast symbolizes the Lord’s resurrection. And first of all let us reflect on how profoundly that divine majesty humbled himself and to what depths he descended for us. He who is the creator, made himself a creature. He who was Lord, made himself a servant. He who was rich, made himself poor. He who was great, made himself little. And the Word was made flesh. He was bread and he fed the angels. But he did not feed us. And so we were wretched, because a rational creature is always wretched if he is not fed this bread. We were, however, so weak that in no way could we taste that bread in all its purity. We had within us a corrosive leaven that robbed us of our pristine strength. We had become so unlike that pure and untainted bread that we could not taste it at all. This leavening which we had within us was twofold. We had within us the leavening of mortality and we had within us the leavening of iniquity.
You see now how far removed we were from that bread in which there was neither mortality nor iniquity. How were we to ascend to it? How were we to taste it? What things are so contrary to one another as mortality and immortality, iniquity and justice? We are mortals and sinners; he is immortal and just. How were we to come together? He saw this, he who is caring and merciful. Because we could not ascend to him, he came down to us. He took upon himself one part of our leavening and so adapted himself to our weakness. He did not take to himself the whole leaven that was in us, but a certain part of it. If he had taken on the whole of it he would be as we are and he would not be able to help us. If he had taken none of it he would be so distant from us that we would not be able in any way to approach him. And so we would remain forever in our wretchedness. We have said that there was a twofold leavening in us: mortality and iniquity. The one he took on and by it was made like us. The other he avoided so that he could profit us.
The leavening of our mortality therefore he accepted, and abode in the purity of his justice, so that he would be the sort of being who could come down to us and yet remain the sort of being to whom we ought to ascend. You see now, brothers, how that pure bread is leavened for our sake. To this leavening of mortality belongs hunger, thirst, sorrow, misery. All of this our Lord took on himself. He chose to take on this leavening, but he was not obliged to remain in ferment. First he showed this leavening in himself through a wondrous compassion and then he purged himself of this leaven through a wondrous charity. He purged himself of this leavening in such a way as to show his wonderful charity for us. Therefore he willed to purge himself from the leavening of mortality in the way in which we have to purge ourselves from the leavening of iniquity.
We ought to know that our iniquity is the cause of our mortality. And therefore when we are fully purged of iniquity we will doubtless also be purged of mortality. We ought meanwhile to realize that our iniquity is twofold. It comes from the nature in which we were born and from the evil which we later brought to it. From both of these the Lord purges us. He offered for us a sacrifice – his own blood – and through this sacrifice we are purged. And therefore what we suffer now from the corruption of our nature is no longer iniquity but infirmity. From the corruption of our nature come the impulses of concupiscence which we suffer unwillingly. From this come the impulses of lust, anger, pride, ambition. But if we do not consent to them, God does not impute them to us, because the pure sacrifice was offered to offset the corruption of our nature. Note, then, by the workings of his compassion in us in baptism we are purged of all sins, both those which came from nature and those which we added voluntarily.
1The Liturgical Sermons of Aelred of Rievaulx – Sermon 12 – Cistercian Fathers Series – #58 – Cistercian Publications – Kalamazoo – 2001 – pg 194

Skema test
2022-09-20

Vigils test
2022-09-20

Jim Finley - John of the Cross test 3
2022-09-20
Topic: Jim Finley – John of the Cross
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Jim Finley - John of the Cross test2
2022-09-20

Jim Finley - John of the Cross test 1
2022-09-20
Topic: Jim Finley – John of the Cross
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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
