BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey - ECPv6.15.18//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20210314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20211107T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20220313T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20221106T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20230312T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20231105T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Chicago BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20210314T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20211107T070000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20220313T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20221106T070000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20230312T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20231105T070000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221229 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221230 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221224T162441Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221224T162441Z UID:9809-1672272000-1672358399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading DESCRIPTION:On the Nativity of Christ4 by St Gregory of Nazianzus \nChrist is born\, give glory; Christ is from the heavens\, go to meet him; Christ is on earth\, be lifted up. “Sing to the Lord\, all the earth\,” and\, to say both together\, “Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice\,” for the heavenly one is now earthly. Christ is in the flesh\, exult with trembling and joy; trembling because of sin\, joy because of hope…Who would not worship the one “from the beginning”? Who would not glorify “the Last”? \nAgain the darkness is dissolved\, again the light is established…Let the people sitting in the darkness of ignorance see a great light of knowledge. “The old things have passed; behold\, all things have become new.” The letter withdraws\, the spirit advances; the shadows have been surpassed\, the truth has entered after them…The laws of nature are dissolved. The world above must be filled. Christ commands\, let us not resist. “All nations\, clap your hands\,” “for to us a child is born\, and to us a son is given\, the power is on his shoulder\,” for he is lifted up along with the cross\, and he is called by the name “angel of great counsel\,” that of the Father. Let John proclaim\, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” I myself will proclaim the power of this day. The fleshless one takes flesh\, the Word is made coarse\, the invisible one is seen\, the impalpable one is touched\, the timeless one makes a beginning\, the Son of God becomes Son of Man\, “Jesus Christ\, the same yesterday and today and for the ages.” \nThis is our festival\, this is the feast we celebrate… in which God comes to live with human beings\, that we may journey toward God\, or return – for to speak thus is more exact – that laying aside the old human being we may be clothed with the new\, and that as in Adam we have died so we may live in Christ\, born with Christ and crucified with him\, buried with him and rising with him. For it is necessary for me to undergo the good turnaround\, and as painful things came from more pleasant things\, so out of painful things more pleasant things must return. “For where sin abounded\, grace superabounded\,” and if the taste [offorbidden fruit] condemned\, how much more does the Passion of Christ justify? Therefore we celebrate the feast not like a pagan festival but in a godly manner\, not in a worldly way but in a manner above the world. We celebrate not our own concerns but the one who is ours\, or rather what concerns our Master\, things pertaining not to sickness but to healing\, not to the first molding\, but to the remolding. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nNow welcome for me his conception and leap for joy\, if not indeed like John in the womb\, then like David when the ark came to rest. Be awed at the census record through which you have been recorded in heaven\, and revere the birth through which you have been released from the bonds of birth\, and honor little Bethlehem\, which has brought you back to paradise \n\n\n4 St. Gregory of Nazianzus. Festal Orations. Trans. Nonna Verna Harrison. Crestwood\, New York: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press\, 1998. 61-77. \n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-43/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221228 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221229 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221224T162312Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221224T162312Z UID:9807-1672185600-1672271999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Holy Innocents DESCRIPTION:A Reading about the Three Kinds of Martyrdom3 from a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux \nBlessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord: the Lord is God\, and he has shone upon us. Blessed be his glorious name for he is holy. It was not in vain that Holiness Itself was born of the Virgin Mary since it has spread both the name and the grace of sanctity so widely. Unquestionably\, it is because of this grace that Stephen is holy\, John is holy and the young Innocents are holy. It is therefore by a profitable disposition that these three feasts accompany the birth of our Lord\, not only in order that our devotion may be kept alive by so many feasts\, but also in order that we should see the fruit of the birth of our Lord more clearly in them as an effect and a consequence of the nativity. We can notice in these three feasts\, three different types of sanctity… In blessed Stephen we have both the will and the act of martyrdom; in blessed John we have the will only; in the Holy Innocents we have the act only. All of these drank the chalice of salvation\, either in the body and the spirit\, or in the spirit alone or in the body alone. \nMy chalice indeed you shall drink\, said the Lord to James and John\, and undoubtedly he was speaking of the chalice of his passion. Then when he said to Peter\, Follow me\, evidently calling him to imitate his passion\, Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following\, not so much with physical steps as with an unwavering love of ready devotion. Therefore John also drank the chalice of salvation and like Peter followed the Lord\, although not like Peter in every way. For that he should remain like this and not follow the Lord in his physical suffering accorded with the divine plan\, for the Lord himself said: I wish him to remain till I come. As if he had said: he indeed wishes to follow me but I wish him to remain. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nWho can be in doubt as to whether the Holy Innocents received the martyr’s crown?…For how could that Child who was born for us\, not against us\, permit that those children\, born at the same time as himself\, should be killed\, when he could prevent it by one act of his will\, unless he had something better prepared for them? Therefore we may presume that the martyrdom they underwent for him was sufficient for their sanctification just as\, for the other infants of that time\, circumcision was sufficient for salvation without any use of their own will\, and just as baptism is sufficient nowadays. And do you think that Herod’s wickedness is greater than Christ’s love\, that the former should be able to kill such innocents and Christ should not be able to crown the children who were killed for his sake? \nLet Stephen be a martyr before human beings\, then. That his suffering was voluntary appears especially clearly in this\, that at the very moment of death he showed more concern for his persecutors than for himself. The emotion of inner compassion overcame in him the sensation of physical passion\, so that he wept more for their crime than for his own wounds. We may say that John was a martyr in the eyes of the angels\, to whom as spiritual creatures the spiritual signs of his devotion were more clearly evident. But the Holy Innocents are most especially Your martyrs\, Lord\, because in them\, in whom neither humans nor angels found any merit\, You have clearly manifested the prerogatives of Your grace. Out of the mouth of infants and babes you have perfected praise\, and the angels declare Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to all those of good will \n\n\n3 For the Feast of the Holy Innocents\, from St. Bernard: The Nativity; Chicago – Dublin – London 1959\, pp. 95-97. \n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n  \n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-holy-innocents/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221227 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221228 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221224T162050Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221224T162050Z UID:9805-1672099200-1672185599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St John DESCRIPTION:The Heartbeats of the Lord Jesus2 by St Gertrud the Great \nWhen she saw others hurrying off to a sermon\, she plaintively said to the Lord: ‘You know\, most loving one\, that right now I would be heartily glad to hear a sermon\, if I were not prevented by sickness’. The Lord replied: ‘Do you wish me to preach to you\, dearest?’ She replied\, ‘Very\, very much’. Then the Lord let her lie on his Heart\, so that the heart of her soul was placed next to his divine Heart. When her soul had taken sweet rest there for a while\, she felt in the Lord’s Heart two wonderful and intensely delightful beats. The Lord said to her: ‘Each of those two heartbeats works human salvation in three ways. The first beat works the salvation of sinners; the second\, of the righteous. For by the first beat in the first way I continuously address God the Father\, winning his favor for sinners and inclining him to mercy. Secondly\, I address all my saints\, excusing a sinner in their eyes with brotherly faithfulness and inspiring them to pray for a sinner. Thirdly\, I address the sinner himself\, mercifully recalling him to penitence and awaiting with unspeakable desire his conversion.’ \n‘With the second beat in the first way I address God the Father so that he must rejoice with me that the ransom of my blood was paid out so profitably for the redemption of the righteous\, in whose hearts I now delight to take such varied pleasure. Secondly\, I address all the heavenly host so that we may together praise the praiseworthy way of life of the righteous and that they must thank me for all the blessings that have been given and will from now on be given. Thirdly\, I address the righteous themselves\, coaxing them to salvation in many different ways and faithfully urging them that they may go forward from day to day\, from hour to hour. And just as the human heartbeat is not hindered from constantly beating by sight or hearing or any manual labor\, so the government and \n\n\n\n\n\n\ndisposition of heaven\, of earth\, or of the whole universe can never\, even a little\, slow or modify or hinder in any way these two beats in my divine Heart\, even unto the end of the world \n\n\n2 Gertrud the Great. The Herald of God’s Loving-Kindness: Book Three. CF 63. Trans\, Alexandra Barratt. Kalamazoo\, MI: Cistercian Publications\, 1999. 159-160. \n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-john/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221226 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221227 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221224T161820Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221224T161927Z UID:9802-1672012800-1672099199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Stephen DESCRIPTION:A Reading from the Third Sermon \nof St Fulgentius\, Bishop of Ruspe1 \nYesterday we celebrated the birth in time of our eternal king; today we celebrate the triumphant suffering of a soldier. For yesterday our king\, nobly arrayed in flesh\, proceeding from the chaste womb of the Virgin Mary\, deigned to visit this world; today a soldier\, leaving the confines of the body\, made his way in triumph to heaven. \nOur king\, though he is the Most High\, for our sake came in humility; yet he could not come empty-handed. It was indeed a generous gift that he brought for us\, one by which he not only abundantly enriched us but gave us the strength to do battle and never be vanquished. What he brought was the gift of love\, which was to lead us to become sharers in the godhead. He brought it only to expend it\, without in any way diminishing his own store; while turning the poverty of his followers into riches he remained himself\, as by a miracle\, fully possessed of his own inexhaustible treasury. \nLove then\, the same love that brought Christ down from heaven to earth\, raised Stephen from earth to heaven; the same love shown first in the king was reproduced in its splendor in the warrior. \nAnd so Stephen\, in order to earn his right to the crown his name signifies\, armed himself with love\, and by that same love won every battle. It was love of God that made him yield not an inch\, love of his neighbor that led him to intercede for those who stoned him. It was through love that he was able to expose those in error so that they might change their ways; through love that he prayed for those who \n\n\n\n\n\n\nstoned him so that they should not be punished. Trusting only in love\, he overcame Saul’s cruel rage\, and the very man who had been his persecutor on earth he won as his companion in heaven. That same holy and untiring love longed to win over by prayer those whom it could not convert by persuasion… \nLove is therefore the source and origin of every good\, an unrivalled protection\, the road that leads to heaven. Those who walk in love can be neither lost nor afraid; love is the guide and protector\, and brings them to the end of their journey. For this reason\, beloved\, since Christ has set up a stairway of love by which every Christian can mount up to heaven\, keep a firm hold on love alone; love one another\, and by growing in love climb together up to heaven \n\n\n1Sermon 3\,1-3\,5-6: CCL 91A\, 905-909. cf. A Word in Season\, I (1st series) p132f. \n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-nativity-of-the-lord/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221225 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221226 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221225T204721Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221225T204721Z UID:9816-1671926400-1672012799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Sun\, Nativity of the Lord DESCRIPTION: URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-sun-nativity-of-the-lord/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221225 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221226 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221224T161400Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221224T161400Z UID:9799-1671926400-1672012799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Skema DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\nChristmas Octave\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (A)\, Weekdays (I)\nDecember 25 – 31\, 2022\n\n\n\nSun\n25\nMon\n26\nTue\n27\nWed\n28\nThu\n29\nFri\n30\nSat\n31\n\n\nOffice\nNativity of the Lord\nSt Stephen\nSt John\nHoly Innocents\n5th Day in Christmas Octave\nHoly Family\n7th Day in Christmas Octave\n\n\nVigils\n*vigil and midnight mass\nActs 6:1-15\nWis 7:21-8:1\nExod 1:6-22\nCol 1:1-14\nEph 5:21-6:4\nCol 2:4-15\n\n\nLauds\nBaruch 3:36-4:4\nWis 4:7-15\nProv 8:22-30\nJer 31:15-20\nIsa 43:14-21\nSir 26:1-4\, 13-16\nIsa 44:6-8\, 21-23\n\n\nMass\n16\n696\n697\n698\n202\n17\n204\n\n\n1st\nIsa 52:7-10\nActs 6:8-10; 7:54-59\n1 John 1:1-4\n1 John 1:5-2:2\n1 John 2:3-11\nCol 3:12-21\n1 John 2:18-21\n\n\n2nd\nHeb 1:1-6\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nJohn 1:1-18\nMatt 10:17-22\nJohn 20:1a\, 2-8\nMatt 2:13-18\nLuke 2:22-35\nMatt 2:13-15\, 19-23\nJohn 1:1-18\n\n\nVespers\nActs 13:16-26\nGal 2:15-21\nActs 4:13-20\n1 Pet 4:12-19\nEph 1:1-10\nPhil 2:1-11\nRev 11:19-12:6\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n*Mass during the Night: 1) Isa 9:1-6 2) Titus 2:11-14 Gospel) Luke 2:1-14 URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-14/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221224 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221225 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221217T142555Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221217T142555Z UID:9770-1671840000-1671926399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading DESCRIPTION:Christmas Eve In Algeria \nAn excerpt from The Last Monk of Tibhirine \nChristmas Eve arrived. Jean-Pierre was in the sacristy getting the liturgical instruments and the vestures ready for midnight Mass\, while the prior was in his office; Michel was in the kitchen preparing hot cocoa… Suddenly Jean-Pierre heard strange whispering sounds. He assumed it was Celestin\, whose health was delicate…but then he saw that Celestin was threatened by a young man in military uniform who was squatting on the ground armed with a Kalashnikov rifle. Christophe and Philippe fled into the cellar. The armed man had the order to round up the brothers in the guesthouse. Luc\, the medical doctor\, slept exceptionally well that night and did not notice a thing. When Jean-Pierre saw how they led Michel away\, who was a particularly sensitive man\, the following words from the Bible came to mind: “Like a sheep you led me to the slaughter.” \nIn the front yard of the guesthouse there he was…Syad-Attia\, the dreaded boss of the gang. Jean-Pierre heard a member of the flying squad talking in Arabic to the priest and the two students: “We won’t harm you. We are fighting against the government.” Yet Sayad demanded in a sharp voice: “I want to see the pope of this corner here.” Paul hurried to call Christian\, who was in his cell\, but the latter answered in unbelievable calmness: “I am not in a hurry.” When he went down the staircase\, he said in a voice so everyone could hear him: “One does not come to this place in arms. If you want to have a dialogue\, then the weapons have to go. This is a house of peace\, or we will discuss it outside the gate.” Basically\, his words were quite audacious\, but Sayad followed him to an area beyond the chapel and related his conditions. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nFirst he demanded that Luc should accompany him into the mountains in order to tend to a wounded man. The prior refused because this could have been interpreted as partisanship for the GIA [the Groupe Islamique Armé – Armed Islamic Group]. Then the terrorist leader asked for medication\, but Christian pointed out that Luc suffered from asthma and could not leave the ward. He added that no matter who came to ask him for help would be treated\, and that the medication supply was only enough for the population of the village. Finally\, Sayad demanded money. Christian emphasized that the monastery was not wealthy and lived off the toil of their hands. “But I know that you are rich\,” Sayad interrupted him. Yet he received the following answer: “We live off what we have and still give to the poor.” \nThen the prior dared to ask a counter question that could have cost him his life: “Are you aware on what day you appear before us? We are getting ready for tonight’s celebration of the arrival of our Prince of Peace\, Sidna-Aissa.” “We did not know this\,” Sayad answered\, “but we will return.” Sayad extended his hand to the prior\, who hesitated to shake it because it was smudged with the blood of the Croatians\, but then returned the gesture. \nJean-Pierre was deeply impressed by the courage his prior had shown by starting a discussion with a terrorist in such a precarious situation. Christian had looked in Sayad’s eyes both with determination and gentleness. He believed in the power that such an encounter at eye level could have. Soon after\, he wrote his testament in which he described it as “VISUALIZING.” When Amedee…woke up Luc…and told him that the GIA had shown up…the latter just shrugged his shoulders \n\n\n7 Derwahl\, Freddy. The Last Monk of Tibhirine: A True Story of Martyrdom\, Faith\, and Survival. Trans. Andreas Kiryakakis. Brewster\, MA: Paraclete Press\, 2013. 74-76. \n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-42/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221223 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221224 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221217T142200Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221217T142200Z UID:9768-1671753600-1671839999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading DESCRIPTION:Hope – A meditation by St Charles de Foucauld \nO God\, tell me about hope! How can hopeful thoughts originate in this poor world? Are they not bound to come from heaven? Everything we see\, all we experience\, all we are only proves our nothingness to us. How can we realize we were created to be Jesus’ brothers and co-heirs\, and your children\, unless you tell us so? Mother of Beautiful Love and Sacred Hope\, pray to your Son Jesus for me and inspire in me the thoughts I should have. \nThe hope of being one day in heaven\, at your feet\, my Lord\, in the company of the holy Virgin and the saints\, gazing on you\, loving you\, possessing you for all eternity\, with nothing able ever to separate me from you for a single moment\, my Good and my All – what a vision that is! A vision of true peace\, of heavenly peace indeed. It is a hope far above our dreams and raises us far above our normal selves. Yet you not only permit us to have it\, you tell us we must have it. Could you possibly have given us a pleasanter commandment? O God\, how good you are! \nHope is symbolized by an anchor – and how secure that anchor is! However wicked I may be\, however great a sinner\, I must hope that I shall go to heaven. You forbid me to despair. However ungrateful or lukewarm or cowardly I may be\, however much I may misuse your graces\, O God\, you make it my dutyto hope to live eternally at your feet in love and holiness. You forbid me ever to be discouraged by my shortcomings\, or to say to myself\, “I can go no further. The road is too bad. I must go back – right back to the bottom.” You forbid me to say to myself at the prospect of the sins I renew daily\, the sins I ask you daily to forgive and continually fall back into: “I can never correct myself; holiness is not for me; heaven and I have nothing in common and I am too unworthy to go there.” Even when I think of the infinite graces you have heaped on me and the unworthiness of my present life\, you forbid me to say to myself\, “I have gone too far in misusing my graces; I ought to be a saint\, but I am a sinner; I cannot correct myself\, it is too difficult; I am nothing but wretchedness and pride; after everything God has done\, there is still no good in me; I shall never go to heaven.” \n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn spite of everything\, you want me to hope\, to hope always that I shall receive enough grace to be converted and attain glory. What is there in common between heaven and me – between its perfection and my wretchedness? There is your Heart\, O Lord Jesus. It forms a link between these two so dissimilar things. There is the love of the Father who so loved the world he gave his only Son. I must always hope\, because you have commanded me to\, and because I must always believe both in your love\, the love you have so firmly promised\, and in your power. Yes indeed\, remembering what you have done for me\, I must always have such confidence in your love that\, however ungrateful and unworthy I may seem to myself to be\, I can still have hope in it\, still count on it\, still remain convinced that you are ready to accept me as the father accepted his prodigal son – and even more ready – and still remain convinced too that you will not stop calling me to your feet\, inviting me to come to them and giving me the means to do so \n\n\n6 St. Charles de Foucauld. Spiritual Autobiography of Charles de Foucauld. Ed. Jean-Franҫois Six. Trans. J. Holland Smith. New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons\, 1964. 71-72. \n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-41/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221222 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221223 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221217T142031Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221217T142031Z UID:9766-1671667200-1671753599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading DESCRIPTION:Sermon 87 on the Advent of the Lord \nby Aelred of Rievaulx \nLet us live soberly and piously in this world\, looking for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God. Christ our Savior\, whose advent we celebrate and whose approaching birth we await\, is a lover and rewarder of virtue. \nFor our sake he came from the Father’s bosom into the Virgin’s womb\, and he humbled himself\, taking the form of a servant. So let us also be humbled under his mighty hand so that he may exalt us in the time of visitation…All virtues are necessary for us to imitate the Savior\, but especially these three: sobriety\, piety\, and justice. Sobriety is assigned to us\, piety to God\, justice to a neighbor. \nLet us live soberly so that we turn aside neither to the right nor to the left\, \nbecause sobriety holds the middle place\, and the middle you may walk most safely. Let us live soberly lest we be broken by adversity or puffed up by prosperity. soberly lest we hope excessively or succumb to fear. \nStupid people who love their own flesh are not uncommon. Such people are made more bold in committing sin as they contrive hope for themselves by considering God’s multitudinous mercies… Just as he rewards the chosen through mercy\, so through justice he punishes the condemned…Just aspresumption is dangerous\, so despair is similarly dangerous\, born from a heap of sin and indiscriminate fear. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nIt often happens that people when considering their sins and crimes abhor their own lives in their evils\, unwisely fearing God’s wrath\, judging themselves unworthy of his mercy\, and despairing their own lives\, doing what is inappropriate\, and even desiring\, if it were possible\, to be hidden from God’s face… Therefore\, let us live soberly\, so that we not be enveloped in danger by either of these extremes. \nWe are also ordered to live piously in this world so that we honor God with our whole life\, so that we fear and love him above all. For God\, who has made all things\, must be loved with our whole \, whole strength\, and all our powers. Worship of God is the supreme piety\, for fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…Let us live piously\, so that having compassion for one another\, we bear one another’s burdens\, and thus let us fulfill the law of Christ. \nLet us live justly so that we give back to all what is \, according to the Lord’s precept: To Caesar\, things that Caesar’s\, and to God\, things that are God’s. We owe body and soul to God because he has created both\, he has redeemed both\, he will glorify both. In the faith and love of Christ\, we owe love and consideration to our neighbors. Therefore one loves justly who loves God according to his own power and does nothing to his neighbor that he would hate to have done to himself. \nSo let us live soberly in this world\, looking for the blessed hope of eternal blessedness that we will receive on the Day of Judgment\, when our Judge and Redeemer says to us\, Come\, blessed of my Father\, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. \n5 Aelred of Rievaulx. The Liturgical Sermons: The Reading-Cluny Collection\, 1 of 2\, Sermons 85-133. CF81. Collegeville\, MN: Cistercian Publications\, 2021. 15-19. \n\n\n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-40/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221221 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221222 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221217T141842Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221217T141842Z UID:9764-1671580800-1671667199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Mass for 175 years DESCRIPTION:An excerpt from Gethsemani Abbey: Its Foundation \nby Dom Eutropius Proust \nWe left Louisville on the twentieth of December\, and were to arrive that evening at Bardstown. Here we were to call on the Jesuit Fathers\, who conducted the College of St. Joseph\, and to whom we had a letter of introduction from Mgr. Flaget. We should arrive by daylight at Bardstown\, which was twelve miles from Gethsemani; but the unfavorable weather delayed us very much\, and we were yet nine miles from the town\, when a dark and dreary night set in. We did not stop to take any nourishment by the wayside\, but refreshed ourselves as best we could\, in the wagons\, with bread\, cheese and fruit. The good God supplied the drink. The rain did not cease to fall abundantly the entire day\, so that\, alighting from the wagons\, we resembled water rats that came out of the river. \nWe arrived at eleven o’clock. The streets were so full of water and mud that we were knee-deep therein. We went directly to St. Joseph’s College…Our difficulty was to find the entrance\, for one could not see a yard ahead. Taking with me two Irish religious\, we made a circuit of the house to find the entrance…We kept on seeking and groping until we succeeded in finding the door. We knocked again and again\, but no answer. Not knowing what to do\, we called aloud together the word “Trappist.” In this we were successful. As soon as the good fathers heard that word they opened the windows. I told them who we were\, where we were going\, and that I had a letter of introduction to them from Mgr. Flaget\, asking them to give us lodging for the night. In an instant three or four of the fathers arose\, with as many brothers\, and the doors were opened for us. A good fire was made in the hall\, and the brothers prepared for us something to eat. At the end of half an hour we were led into the refectory\, where we took at the same time our breakfast\, dinner and supper. \n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe following day\, having heard Holy Mass and received Holy Communion\, our conductors arrived\, with a new wagon\, borrowed by them at Bardstown. After thanking our hosts for their kind hospitality\, we installed ourselves in the wagons and pursued our way to Gethsemani. About two o’clock in the afternoon\, we arrived at the entrance of a large forest\, after passing the little village of New Haven on the Nashville Railroad. We were informed that this was the beginning of our property. It is difficult to express the feelings that this announcement produced in our souls. I had the wagons stop. Falling on ourknees we recited a “Pater and Ave” to salute the good guardian angels of Gethsemani; and we kissed the earth soon to be watered by our sweat and even by our tears. We re-entered our wagons and continued our journey through the woods for three-quarters of an hour. Our hearts swelled with emotion. With what feelings of joy and admiration\, did we not contemplate these magnificent woods. We were astonished in finding ourselves so rich\, after having made the vow of poverty…We climbed a hill on which are situated wooden cottages\, declining with age. We were going to find at last the crib of our Divine Saviour at Bethlehem. Such\, too\, were the thoughts of all our religious. They were in transports of joy in beholding these ten or twelve cottages\, thrown here and there on the sloping hillside\, facing the sun. These composed the entire monastery of Gethsemani. \nWe arrived at Gethsemani on the twenty-first of December\, at two P.M.\, feast of St. Thomas\, Apostle. The cold was excessive\, and all we could do the first days was to gather firewood in the forest with which to warm ourselves. We also collected or shucked a field of corn that had remained…Such were ouroccupations during these first days. \n4 Dom Eutropius Proust. Gethsemani Abbey: Its Foundation. Messenger Magazine\, 1898. (Complete manuscript available in CSQ 2021). \n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-mass-for-175-years/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20221220T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20221220T193000 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221021T214220Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221220T035434Z UID:9256-1671562800-1671564600@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Rule of Benedict: Reflections. 7 pm CT DESCRIPTION:Join Zoom Meeting \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/88434101612?pwd=dHMyRkFBNW52eVJIaytWdng0VmZaZz09 \nMeeting ID: 884 3410 1612 \nPasscode: 807992 \nOne tap mobile \n+13126266799\,\,88434101612# US (Chicago) \nour selection: \nChapter 64 (beginning): On Constituting an Abbess 1-6 \nIn the constituting of an Abbess let this plan always be followed\, that the office be conferred on the one who is chosen either by the whole community unanimously in the fear of God or else by a part of the community\, however small\, if its counsel is more wholesome. \nMerit of life and wisdom of doctrine should determine the choice of the one to be constituted\, even if she be the last of the order of the community. But if (which God forbid) the whole community should agree to choose a person who will acquiesce in their vices\, and if those vices somehow become known to the Bishop to whose diocese the place belongs\, or to the Abbots\, Abbesses or the faithful of the vicinity\, let them prevent the success of this conspiracy of the wicked\, and set a worthy steward over the house of God. They may be sure that they will receive a good reward for this action if they do it with a pure intention and out of zeal for God; as\, on the contrary\, they will sin if they fail to do it. URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/rule-of-benedict-reflections-7-pm-ct/ CATEGORIES:LCG open events END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221220 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221221 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221217T141651Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221217T141651Z UID:9762-1671494400-1671580799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading DESCRIPTION:From the Fourth and Fifth Meditations of the Blessed and Ever Glorious Virgin Mary\nby Stephen of Sawley \nGod the Father\, in his exceeding love\, sent us his only begotten Son in the flesh. The Son\, in his unspeakable mercy\, took upon himself our weaknesses\, our labors and sorrows and all the burdens of our misery\, with the exception of sin. The Holy Spirit\, lovingly overshadowed the Virgin with a tenderness indescribable and set her alight and ablaze so that\, absolutely beautiful in body and soul\, her whole being was aflame with love\, like red hot gold in a red hot furnace. Once the surging flood of divine power had placidly entered her virginal womb\, she no longer thought the thoughts of man. Gone from her was every carnal thought; all she experienced was grace in its fullness. \nEnchanted with the sweetness\, think in your ecstasy and jubilation of the singular intervention of the Holy Spirit\, when our Lord Jesus Christ\, the Son of God\, was conceived in this virginal womb. Think how the Holy One was conceived from the stainless Virgin\, the one and only Son from the one and only Virgin. \n…bear in mind that the more exalted the blessed Virgin became as the Mother of the only-begotten Son of God\, the queen of heaven and the mistress of the world\, the more she humbled herself. She crossed the mountain [of Judaea] to greet and serve Elizabeth in greatest humility. This is why Elizabeth\, filledwith the Holy Spirit\, cried out\, ‘Who am I that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?’ \n\n\n\n\n\n\nVisualize the nature and greatness of this joy when upon the mere salutation of the Virgin the mother [of John] began to prophesy\, the Precursor\, still enclosed in her womb\, leapt for joy\, and the soul of the sweet Virgin magnified the Lord. \nIn the sanctuary of her most holy body\, the source of all creatures\, the glory and splendor of the Father\, true light from true light\, chose to dwell for nine months. How happy is she who experienced fully within herself what the whole world could not understand. Who can fully measure the joy and the love\, the loving thoughts\, and the pure ecstasy of the blessed Virgin when she felt the movement of her beloved Son in her virginal womb? Or her delight that the fountain of sweetness deigned to be a guest in her womb over a nine month period? In her dwelt – so to say\, corporeally\, – ‘the fullness of deity’. Thoughtssuch as these will place you in a joyful disposition. \n3 Stephen of Sawley. Treatises. CF 36. Trans. Jeremiah F. O’Sullivan. Kalamazoo\, MI: Cistercian Publications\, 1984. 33-37. \n\n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-39/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221219 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221220 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221217T141501Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221217T141501Z UID:9760-1671408000-1671494399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading DESCRIPTION:A Letter from Blessed Maria Gabriella to her Mother \nDearest Mamma\, \nFor a long time I thought that I would have already gone to Paradise\, but on the contrary it seems the Lord has decided to extend my pilgrimage. May he always be praised in everything. \nI am doing well with this illness\, but we must always be prepared for death…Don’t worry about anything\, but pray that when the Lord comes he will find me prepared. \nI look forward to the feast of Christmas\, and I hope to spend it well with the Child Jesus\, because this year I am more especially united to him through the cross. I wish that the celestial Infant will bring you and the whole family joy\, peace\, and holy gladness. I hope that the angels will sing around you as they sang at the holy manger: glory to God in the highest\, and on earth peace to people of good will. \nThis Infant God teaches us many lessons that we will not perhaps ever understand fully. He\, the Creator of the universe\, God\, humbles himself to be born in a poor stable\, a place for animals where he is unknown to all. See how we are quite the opposite. We’re nearly ashamed to be poor\, and sometimes wewould almost hide this poverty because it seems to humiliate us\, and we don’t recognize that this is a privilege from the Lord to make us more like him. Who would dare to rebel\, thinking of the humiliation and suffering of the man-God? \nMy wish\, my dear Mother\, is for you and for all that the Divine Infant would grant you the virtues of his own cradle\, gentleness\, humility\, and love. May this be for you a feast of holy joy and gladness in accord with him. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nMay the Lord grant you to advance more and more in holiness and in love for him in the new year. I don’t want you to become rich or to be increasingly better off\, but that you become more and more holy and abandoned to the will of God\, and so I always pray the Lord to give you the graces necessary for your state in life. I also wish that you will always desire this for me: to become increasingly holy and grow continuously in love with the divine Bridegroom\, from whom I received so many graces and predilections\, and that you will pray for this. \nAt the cradle of the infant Jesus I’ll be united with you in thought and soul\, and through him\, I greet and embrace you all. \nOnce again I write farewell to you all and ask you to bless me. Always your daughter\, \nSister Maria Gabriella \n2 Bl. Gabriella Sagheddu. The Letters of Blessed Maria Gabriella with the Notebooks of Mother Pia Gullini. MW 57. Trans. David Lavich\, OCSO. Collegeville\, MN: Cistercian Publications\, 2019. 124-126. \n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-38/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221218T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221218T203000 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221123T192324Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221218T011410Z UID:9667-1671391800-1671395400@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Compline DESCRIPTION:Join Zoom Meeting\nhttps://us06web.zoom.us/j/82007773359 \nMeeting ID: 820 0777 3359\nOne tap mobile \n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/compline-3/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221218 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221219 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221217T141247Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221217T141247Z UID:9758-1671321600-1671407999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - 4th Sun Advent DESCRIPTION:A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew by St Bede \nMatthew the evangelist gives us an account of the way in which the eternal Son of God\, begotten before the world began\, appeared in time as the Son of Man. His description is brief but absolutely true. By tracing the ancestry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through the male line he brings it down from Abraham to Joseph\, the husband of Mary. It is indeed fitting in every respect that when God decided to become incarnate for the sake of the whole human race\, none but a virgin should be his mother\, and that\, since a virgin was privileged to bring him into the world\, she should bear no other son but the son who is God. \nBehold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son\, and he shall be called Emmanuel\, a name which means God with us. The name God-with-us\, given to our Savior by the prophet\, signifies that two natures are united in his one person. Before time began he was God\, born of the Father\, but in the fullness of time he became Emmanuel\, God with us\, in the womb of his mother\, because when the Word was made flesh and lived among us he deigned to unite our frail human nature to his own person. Without ceasing to be what he had always been\, he began in a wonderful fashion to be what we are\, assuming our nature in such a way that he did not lose his own. \nAnd so Mary gave birth to her firstborn son\, the child of her own flesh and blood. She brought forth the God who had been born of God before creation began\, and who\, in his created humanity\, rightfully surpassed the whole of creation. And Scripture says she named him Jesus. \nJesus\, then\, is the name of the Virgin’s son. According to the angel’s explanation\, it means one who is to save his people from their sins. In doing so he will also deliver them from any defilement of mind and body they have incurred on account of their sins. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nBut the title “Christ” implies a priestly or royal dignity. In the Old Testament it was given to both priests and kings on account of the anointing with chrism or holy oil which they received. They prefigured the true king and high priest who\, on coming into this world\, was anointed with the oil of gladness above all his peers. From this anointing or chrismation he received the name of Christ\, and those who share in the anointing which he himself bestows\, that is the grace of the Spirit\, are called Christians. \nMay Jesus Christ fulfill his saving task by saving us from our sins; may he discharge his priestly office by reconciling us to God the Father\, and may he exercise his royal power by admitting us to his Father’s kingdom\, for he is our Lord and God\, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen \n1 Journey with the Fathers – Year A – New City Press – 1992 = pg 22 \n  \n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-4th-sun-advent/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221218 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221219 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221217T141043Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221217T141043Z UID:9756-1671321600-1671407999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Skema DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n4th Week of Advent\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (A)\, Weekdays (I)\nDecember 18 – 24\, 2022\n\n\n\nSun\n18\nMon\n19\nTue\n20\nWed\n21\nThu\n22\nFri\n23\nSat\n24\n\n\nOffice\n4th Sunday of Advent\nAdvent Weekday\nAdvent Weekday\nMass for 175 Years\nAdvent Weekday\nAdvent Weekday\nAdvent Weekday\n\n\nVigils\nIsa 46:1-13\nIsa 47:1-15\nIsa 48:1-11\nIsa 48:12-22\nIsa 49:8-26\nIsa 51:1-11\nIsa 51:17-52:10\n\n\nLauds\nIsa 40:6-11\nIsa 40:25-31\nIsa 41:1-10\nIsa 41:11-16\nIsa 41:17-20\nIsa 43:9-13\nIsa 63:15-19\n\n\nMass\n10\n195\n196\n701.1\, 702.4\, 706.3\n198\n199\n200\n\n\n1st\nIsa 7:10-14\nJudg 13:2-7\, 24-25a\nIsa 7:10-14\n1 Kings 8:22-23\, 27-30\n1 Sam 1:24-28\nMal 3:1-4\, 23-24\n2 Sam 7:1-5\, 8b-12\, 14a\, 16\n\n\n2nd\nRom 1:1-7\n\n\n1 Peter 2:4-9\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nMatt 1:18-24\nLuke 1:5-25\nLuke 1:26-38\nJohn 2:13-22\nLuke 1:46-56\nLuke 1:57-66\nLuke 1:67-79\n\n\nVespers\nPhil 1:3-11\nPhil 3:17-21\nPhil 4:4-9\n1 Cor 1:1-9\n1 Cor 4:1-5\nJas 5:7-11\n2 Pet 3:8-14\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-13/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221217 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221218 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221210T142957Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221210T142957Z UID:9745-1671235200-1671321599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading DESCRIPTION:WHAT WAS THE REASON FOR THE WORD OF GOD TO BECOME MAN? \nan excerpt from the writings of St Irenaeus of Lyons7 \nWe have clearly shown that in the beginning the Word was with God\, and that through Him all things were made\, that He was also always with the human race\, and that\, according to the time preordained by the Father\, even in these latter days\, this same one was united with His handiwork and became man\, capable of suffering. Consequently\, every objection of those who say\, “If therefore Christ was born\, then He did not exist before\,” is rejected. For we have shown that the Son of God did not begin to exist then\, having been always with the Father; but when He became incarnate and was made man\, He recapitulated in Himself the long unfolding of humankind\, granting salvation by way of compendium\, that in Christ Jesus we might receive what we had lost in Adam\, namely\, to be according to the image and likeness of God. \nIn fact\, it was not possible for humankind\, which had once been conquered and had been dashed to pieces by its disobedience\, to refashion itself and obtain the prize of victory. Again\, it was not possible for the human race\, which had fallen under sin\, to receive salvation. And so the Son\, Word of God that He is\, accomplished both\, by coming down from the Father and becoming incarnate\, and descending even to death\, and bringing the economy of our salvation to completion. \nThis same one was announced by Paul: For I delivered to you\, he said\, as of first importance\, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures\, that He was buried\, that He was raised on the third day\, in accordance with the Scriptures. So it is evident that Paul did not know another Christ besides Him alone who suffered and was buried and rose again\, who was also born\, whom he also called man. For\, when he had said\, Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead\, he continued\, giving the reason for His incarnation\, for as by man came death\, by a man has come also resurrection from the dead. And whenever he speaks of the passion of our Lord\, and of His human nature and death\, he uses the name of Christ. For example\, Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died; again\, But now in Christ…you\, who were once afar off\, have been brought near through the bloodof Christ. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Lord Himself makes it plain who suffered. When He asked the disciples\, Who do men say that the Son of Man is? And when Peter answered\, You are the Christ\, the Son of the living God\, and when he was praised by Him\, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to him\, but the Father who is in heaven\,then He made it plain that this Son of Man is Christ the Son of the living God. \nHe destroyed disobedience\, because He bound the strong one and loosed the weak ones and gave salvation to His handiwork by destroying sin. For the Lord is most kind and merciful and loves humankind. \nTherefore…He caused humanity to adhere to and to be united with God. For if humankind had not overcome the enemy of humankind\, the enemy would not justly have been overcome. Again\, unless God had given salvation\, we would not possess it securely; and unless the human race had been united with God\, it would not be partaker of imperishability. For it behooved the Mediator of God and humanity\, by His kinship to both\, to lead them back to friendship and concord\, and to bring it about that God would take humankind to Himself\, and that humankind would give itself to God \n\n\n\n7 St. Irenaeus of Lyons. Ancient Christian Writers: Against the Heresies (Book 3). Trans. Dominic J. Unger\, OFM Cap. New York: The Newman Press\, 2012. 87-91. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-37/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221216 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221217 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221210T142826Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221210T142826Z UID:9743-1671148800-1671235199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading DESCRIPTION:An Excerpt from Sermon Eighty-Three on the Song of Songs6 by John of Ford \nFrom the moment that ‘the Word was made flesh’\, the Lord Jesus bore his cross\, truly from then on ‘a man of sorrows\, acquainted with grief’. In fact\, we hold that the evangelist intended to reveal this by saying that ‘the Word was made flesh’\, the word ‘flesh’ standing deliberately for his capacity to suffer and feel compassion. If you think of it\, what in all creation is weaker than human flesh\, or more tender? Weakness implies suffering and tenderness implies compassion\, the two factors form which\, as from two bars of wood\, the cross of Christ was fashioned. We have the word of St Gregory that the real cross of Christ is to suffer and to feel compassion\, by which he means pain of body and sympathy of soul. Of course\, the necessary condition is that a cross like this is carried for Christ’s sake and in his dispositions. \nIt is clear enough that Christ bore a cross of this kind from his very entrance into his mother’s body\, where he suffered the constriction of her virginal womb. Probably he suffered more than other babies\, in that he who had come to learn suffering from experience\, could not be without the sense of pain. From his very beginning\, he was full of grace\, but he was also pre-eminently full of knowledge and truth. So even when in the womb ‘he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows\,’ and he did this all the more truly because he did it with full knowledge and consent. But other babies pass through this experience in what one might call the sleep of ignorance. \nHere\, within the narrowness of the womb\, narrow indeed\, he sought and found what long ago in paradise\, Adam sought\, and could not find its hiding place. Here he seized hold of the urge to sin\, which the serpent had struck the first man\, and drew it out with his hands. He saw his task through to the end\, working now ‘ salvation in the midst of the earth’\, and diligently and vigorously purging out all stain from human conception. Yes\, it was there that the Lamb of God took away the sin of the world\, it was there he did penance for our wickedness\, enduring nine months of weariness and constantly interceding with the Father on our behalf. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nFor it was his choice not to anticipate the hour of his birth\, but to go patiently through the normal stages of being formed. He awaited the ordinary period of being brought forth by his mother\, for he had come to be all things for all men\, and he wanted to be\, also\, a child for all children. In only one respect he evaded the laws that govern other infants when he entered his mother’s womb\, he did not desecrate its sanctity; he caused no inconvenience while he lived within it; he did not tear it when he left. The Lord Jesus is the only infant who was truly innocent\, for he made his mother’s virginity fruitful by his own conception\, he sanctified it by his growth within her\, and he gave her great joy by his actual birth \n\n\n6 John of Ford. Sermons on the Final Verses of the Song of Songs. Trans. Wendy Mary Beckett. CF 46. Kalamazoo\, MI: Cistercian Publications\, 1984. 2-4. \n\n\n  \n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-36/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221215 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221216 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221210T142647Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221210T142647Z UID:9741-1671062400-1671148799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading DESCRIPTION:A Letter from PADRE PIO to his Spiritual Child5 \nMay the divine Spirit come down into your heart and fill it entirely with heavenly charisms. How good our God is who lavished so many graces upon us and loves us so dearly although we do not deserve it. May He be for ever blessed by all creatures. \nAt the opening of the sacred novena in honour of the holy Child Jesus I felt my soul being born\, as it were\, to a new life. My heart felt too small to contain the heavenly favours and my soul seemed to disintegrate in the presence of this God who took human flesh for our sake. How can we help loving Him more and more ardently? Oh\, let us draw near to the Child Jesus with hearts free from sin\, that we may discover how sweet and delightful it is to love Him. \nDo not fail to send up your supplications…especially during these days when heaven is open more than ever to send down divine graces upon us. \nPray\, then\, and do sweet violence to the little heart of this tender Infant who is filled with deep affection for us. \nTake care\, moreover\, not to lose the presence of God by any action whatsoever. Never undertake any work or any action without first raising your mind to God and directing to Him with a pure intention the action you are about to perform. You should do likewise at the end of every action. Examine yourself as to whether you have done everything with the right intention you had at the beginning and if you find you have been at fault\, then ask pardon of the Lord with humility while making a firm resolution to correct your faulty conduct. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nYou must not be discouraged or let yourself become dejected if your actions have not succeeded as perfectly as you intended. What do you expect? We are made of clay and not every soil yields the fruits expected by the one who tills it. But let us always humble ourselves and acknowledge that we are nothing if we lack the divine assistance. \nTo be worried because something we have done has not turned out in accordance with our pure intention shows a lack of humility. This is a clear sign that the person concerned has not entrusted the success of his action to the divine assistance but has depended too much on his own strength. \nMay the ever-present grace of the Lord invariably prevent you from being a prey to this evil spirit even to the slightest extent. It is never a small matter when a soul espoused to the Son of God succumbs to the wiles of this dreadful monster even in little things. \nNever lie down to sleep without having first examined your conscience on the way you have spent the day and without first turning your thoughts to God. Then offer and consecrate your whole person and that of every Christian\, especially my wretched self\, to God\, just as I do for you \n\n\n5 Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. Letters Vol. II: Correspondence with Raffaelina Cerase\, Noblewoman. Ed. Melchiorre of Pobladura and Alessandro of Ripabottoni. Trans. Fr. Gerardo Di Flumeri. Foggia\, Italy: Edizioni\, 1975. 288-294. \n\n\n  \n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-35/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221214 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221215 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221210T142511Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221210T142511Z UID:9739-1670976000-1671062399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Readings - St John of the Cross DESCRIPTION:COUNSELS TO A RELIGIOUS ON HOW TO REACH PERFECTION by St John of the Cross4 \nHe who wishes to be a true religious and fulfill the promises which by his state he has professed\, advance in virtue\, and enjoy the consolations and the delights of the Holy Spirit\, will be unable to do so if he does not try to practice with the greatest diligence the four following counsels concerning resignation\, mortification\, the practice of virtue\, and bodily and spiritual solitude. \nIn order to practice the first counsel\, concerning resignation\, you should live in the monastery as though no one else were in it. And thus you should never\, by word or by thought\, meddle in things that happen in the community\, nor with individuals in it\, desiring not to notice their good or bad qualities or their conduct. And in order to preserve your tranquility of soul\, even if the whole world crumbles\, you should not desire to advert to this or interfere\, remembering Lot’s wife who was changed into hard stone because she turned her head to look at those who in the midst of much clamor and noise were perishing. \nTo practice the second counsel\, which concerns mortification\, and profit by it\, you should engrave this truth upon your heart. And it is that you have not come to the monastery for any other reason than to be worked and tried in virtue\, that you are like the stone which must be chiseled and fashioned before being used in the building. \nThus you should understand that those who are in the monastery are craftsmen placed there by God to mortify you by working and chiseling at you. Some will chisel with words\, telling you what you would rather not hear; others by deed\, doing against you what you would rather not endure; others by their temperament\, being in their person and in their actions a bother and annoyance to you; and other by their thoughts\, neither esteeming nor feeling love for you. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nTrials will never be lacking in religious life\, nor does God want them to be. Since He brings souls there to be proved and purified\, like gold\, with the hammer and the fire\, it is fitting that they encounter trials and temptations from men and from devils\, and the fire of anguish and affliction. \nTo practice the third counsel\, which concerns the practice of virtue\, you should be constant in your religious observance and in obedience\, without any concern for the world\, but only for God. In order to achieve this and avoid being deceived\, you should never set your eyes upon the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the work at hand as a motive for doing it or failing to do it\, but upon doing it for God. Thus you must undertake all things\, agreeable or disagreeable\, for the sole purpose of pleasing God through them. \nTo practice the fourth counsel\, which concerns solitude\, you should deem everything in the world as finished. Thus\, when (for not being able to avoid it) you have to deal with some matter\, do so in as detached a way as you would if it did not exist…Do not desire to know anything in any way except how better to serve God and keep the observance of your institute. \nIf Your Charity observes these four counsels with care\, you will reach perfection in a very short time. These counsels are so interdependent that if you are lacking in one of them\, you will begin to lost the profit and gain you have form practicing the others \n\n\n\n4 St. John of the Cross. The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross. Trans. Kieran Kavanaugh\, OCD and Otilio Rodriguez\, OCD. Washington\, D.C.: ICS Publications\, 1979. 662-665. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-readings-st-john-of-the-cross/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221213 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221214 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221210T142325Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221210T142325Z UID:9737-1670889600-1670975999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Lucy DESCRIPTION:An excerpt from ON THE TWOFOLD COMING AND THE WINGS COVERED IN SILVER3\nby St Bernard of Clairvaux \nThat you celebrate the Lord’s coming with your full devotion – delighting in such consolation\, amazed at such condescension\, and inflamed by such love – is appropriate\, brothers. Yet you must ponder not only that coming at which he came to seek and to save what was lost\, but also and no less the one at which he will come and take us to himself. If only you would constantly mull over these two comings\, ruminating in your hearts how much he performed in the first and how much he promised in the second! If only you would sleep between the middle allotments! These are the Bridegroom’s two arms; between them thebride was sleeping when she said\, His left hand is under my head\, and his right hand will embrace me. \nTherefore\, if we want to sleep between the middle allotments – that is\, between the two comings – we must let our wings be covered with silver. Thus can we preserve the appearance of the virtues that Christ enjoined by both word and example when he was present in the flesh. By silver then it is not inappropriate to understand his humanity\, as by gold his divinity. \nAll our virtue is as far from true virtue as it is from the appearance\, and all our wings are good for nothing if they are not covered with silver. Great is the wing of poverty by which we fly so swiftly to the kingdom of heaven! But in the case of the virtues that follow\, the use of the future tense indicates a promise; poverty is not so much promised as given. So we are told in the present tense that theirs is the kingdom of heaven\, while in other cases\, they will inherit\, they shall be comforted\, and so on. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nWe see other poor people who if they had true poverty would appear\, not so weak-willed and sad\, but instead\, like kings – and kings of heaven at that! Others want to be poor\, on condition that they lack nothing\, and they love poverty in such a way as to suffer no want. Others still are meek but only so long as nothing is said or done without their approval. Their distance from true meekness will become obvious at the slightest provocation…I see mourning\, but if those tears came from the heart they would not so easily change into laughter…Others show such furious zeal against the faults of others that they may seem to hunger and thirst for righteousness if they were to pass the same judgement on their own sins. \nStill others so confess their sins that they can seem to be doing it from a desire to purify their hearts – everything is washed clean in confession – but what they say freely to others\, they are incapable of hearing patiently from others. \nLet us cover our wings with silver\, then\, in our way of life in Christ\, just as the holy martyrs washed their robes in his passion. As much as we can\, let us imitate him who so loved poverty that\, although the ends of the earth were in his hand\, he had yet no place to lay his head…he who did not hesitate to die for his enemies and who prayed for those who crucified him; who committed no sin and who listened patiently to what was laid on him by others; who endured so much to reconcile sinners to himself \n\n\n\n3 Bernard of Clairvaux. Sermons for Advent and the Christmas Season. Trans. Irene Edmonds\, Wendy Mary Beckett\, and Conrad Greenia\, OCSO. Kalamazoo\, MI: Cistercian Publications\, 2007. 27-3 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-lucy/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221212T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221212T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221123T000721Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221123T000721Z UID:9646-1670846400-1670850000@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Jim Finley DESCRIPTION:Content is protected. URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/jim-finley-3/ CATEGORIES:LCG open events END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221212 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221213 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221210T142143Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221210T142143Z UID:9735-1670803200-1670889599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Our Lady of Guadalupe DESCRIPTION:THE SIGNS OF SALVATION by Carlo Cardinal Martini2 \nHuman persons are hearers of God’s word and find fulfillment by putting themselves and their lives totally in an attitude of listening to the word of God manifested in Jesus. Jesus came to us through Mary and so through a person formed by Jewish cult and culture and history. But Jesus didn’t come for Jewsalone and so he had to make God’s word known to Greco-Roman peoples too. If you read the opening chapters of the Gospel according to St. Luke you will see how the Jewish story of God’s incarnation was retold for a Greco-Roman audience. These people\, after all\, were called to share fully in God’s promise of salvation but couldn’t hear the promise if \nspoken only in Jewish cultural ways of speaking. \nWhat God says to us through Mary by her role in the incarnation is so important that there have been what we call Marian apparitions all over the world. When we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe we recall one of these\, and what God gave her to say to the Native American peoples. The words are in Native American language and “picture writing” and expressed using the forms of courtesy and piety of those peoples. Mary appears as one of them and builds a cultural bridge to Europe by giving St. Juan Diego\, a Native American\, Castilian roses for the Bishop of Mexico City. They weren’t being grown in Mexico but picked from a miraculous bush growing on Tepeyac hill. It was to persuade the bishop. Even more persuasive was the word written on Juan Diego’s tilma\, the picture of Mary as a Native American. \nWhat was asked was a church where God’s word given through Mary could be proclaimed to Native American peoples. In many of their languages an unexpected opportunity is called “a flower of God” and in picture writing a word is painted as a flower. One doesn’t pick it but cultivates it so all may share the beauty. St. Juan Diego was chosen to cultivate the flower\, God’s word saying “Mary” as the centerpiece of the small church the bishop let be built. Mary said to Juan Diego just what Jesus said to us on the cross—I am your mother\, and added that she would show Native American peoples God’s love for them. She began by showing them the respect of speaking their language\, wearing their clothes and using their form of writing. Mary really knew her Native American cultural anthropology! \n\n\n\n\n\n\nAdvent is a time dedicated to sharing the Gospel… sharing God’s word as we have personally heard it. It is also a time for speaking of the signs and wonders God has worked for us and for our own people. We are to speak it in a language\, perhaps a kind of sign language\, which those with whom we share can understand in a way that penetrates to their hearts. St. Juan Diego—who had been the equivalent of a Knight in Aztec society and culture—spent the remainder of his life explaining God’s message\, given through the sign of the Virgin who bears a child\, to all the Native Americans who came to the little church to see God’s word and sign to them. They turned to God by the thousands. We have the same task\, and who know what wonders God will work through us \n\n\n2 Martini\, Carlo. Journeying with the Lord. Uxbridge\, UK: Alba House Publishing\, 1987. \n\n\n  \n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-our-lady-of-guadalupe/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221211 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221212 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221210T141915Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221210T141915Z UID:9733-1670716800-1670803199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - 3rd Sun Advent DESCRIPTION:A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew by Thomas of Villanova1 \nThe gospel narrative tells of a question which John the Baptist\, who was in prison\, put to the Lord through his disciples. Are you the one who is to come\, or are we to look for someone else? John himself was in no doubt about the matter. Even from his mother’s womb he had recognized Jesus\, and at the Jordan he had borne his testimony; but he sent this embassy for two reasons. \nIn the first place\, John wished to instruct his disciples. He knew that his own death was imminent and\, like the good leader and teacher he was\, he made provision for his disciples\, to ensure that they would have a teacher and protector. He wanted to see them safe under Christ’s wing and in his care. \nJohn’s second and paramount motive\, however\, was to draw attention to Christ. He knew that he had been sent to bear witness to Christ\, and although he had given his testimony at the Jordan\, few had accepted it. Knowing now that his death was near he devised a profitable and very prudent plan: he would put this question to Jesus publicly and thus bring him into the limelight\, so that in replying to the question Jesus would at the same time bear witness about himself\, and thereby reveal himself to the people. John knew that the Lord’s reply was bound to be very fruitful\, and events proved him right. \nThe disciples approached Jesus\, and in front of the crowd put to him the same question which the Jews had put to John. Everyone eagerly awaited his reply\, for there had already been a rumor among the people that he might indeed be the Messiah. The Lord gave no immediate answer\, but delayed a little\, and in their presence worked wonderful\, mighty miracles. Then he invited them\, Go and report to John what you have heard. The blind are receiving their sight\, the lame are walking\, lepers are cleansed\, the deaf hear\, the dead rise again\, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. He did not give an answer to them in so many words\, but pointed to his deeds\, as much as to say\, “The works that I am doing are my witness. These are the works I am performing; judge for yourself whether I am the Messiah.” This was an admirable reply\, for he not only claimed by means of his works that he was the Messiah; he also proved it. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nIsaiah had uttered three prophecies about the Christ. The first was this: \nThen shall the eyes of the blind be opened\, and the ears of the deaf unsealed\, and the lame man will leap like a [deer]. The second was\, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me… he has sent me to announce good tidings to the poor. The third declared\, He shall be a stone for stumbling over\, and a rock of scandal as well\, for both houses of Israel. The Lord fulfilled these prophecies before their eyes\, and implicitly quoted them in his reply: the first\, by saying\, The blind are receiving their sight\, the lame are walking … the deaf hear; the second in his claim that the good news is proclaimed to the poor; and the third by saying\, Blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me \n\n\n1Journey with the Fathers – Year A – New City Press – NY – 1992 – pg 20 \n\n\n  \n  \n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-3rd-sun-advent/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221211 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221212 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221210T141708Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221210T141708Z UID:9731-1670716800-1670803199@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Skema DESCRIPTION:Biblical Readings for Office and Mass\n3rd Week of Advent\n\n\nMass Readings: Sunday (A)\, Weekdays (I)\nDecember 11 – 17\, 2022\n\n\n\nSun\n11\nMon\n12\nTue\n13\nWed\n14\nThu\n15\nFri\n16\nSat\n17\n\n\nOffice\n3rd Sunday of Advent\nOur Lady of Guadalupe\nSt Lucy\nSt John of the Cross\nAdvent Weekday\nAdvent Weekday\nAdvent Weekday\n\n\nVigils\nIsa 29:13-24\nProv 8:32-9:11\nIsa 30:27-33; 31:4-9\nIsa 31:1-3; 32:1-8\nIsa 32:14-33:6\nIsa 33:7-24\nIsa 45:1-13\n\n\nLauds\nZech 2:10-17\nSir 4:11-18\nIsa 52:1-7\nIsa 45:18-25\nIsa 51:9-16\nIsa 35:1-10\nIsa 40:1-5\n\n\nMass\n7\n690A\n188\n189\n190\n191\n193\n\n\n1st\nIsa 35:1-6a\, 10\nRev 11:19a; 12:1-6a\, 10ab\nZeph 3:1-2\, 9-13\nIsa 45:6c-8\, 18\, 21c-25\nIsa 54:1-10\nIsa 56:1-3a\, 6-8\nGen 49:2\, 8-10\n\n\n2nd\nJas 5:7-10\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGospel\nMatt 11:2-11\nLuke 1:39-47\nMatt 21:28-32\nLuke 7:18b-23\nLuke 7:24-30\nJohn 5:33-36\nMatt 1:1-17\n\n\nVespers\nRom 9:1-8\nGal 3:23-29\nRom 11:13-20\nRom 11:25-36\nRom 13:8-14\nRom 15:4-13\n1 Thess 5:16-24 URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/skema-12/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221210 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221211 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221203T212006Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221203T212006Z UID:9717-1670630400-1670716799@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading DESCRIPTION:The Historical Meeting Point of Martyrdom and Monasticism7 A chapter talk by St. Christian de Chergé \nFrom the beginnings of Christian monasticism\, there has been both continuity and discontinuity between the monastic choice and martyrdom. As we know\, there is continuity in time: during the first centuries of persecutions there were certainly vocations to the solitary life\, dedicated to prayer and intercession for all. It is easy to imagine John the Evangelist withdrawing into solitude and inspiring followers. But the threat was there for them and for everyone\, and there was need to sustain believers’ courage and faith in that direct form of sequela Christi—the offering of martyrdom—to which they left themselves exposed by the very fact of being Christian. And there is discontinuity\, because Constantine’s “peace of the Church” was needed in order for monasticism to find its specific place\, when laxity and ease were quickly undermining the vitality of gospel witness. \nIt was indeed the gospel that incited Anthony to “lose his life” in a way different from the shedding of blood through “pagan” hatred. Paganism was not dead; it transplanted itself in the Church\, where “secularization” made rapid headway. Anthony\, therefore\, would be “pursued” by the Word. He heard it and embodied it by following it literally and on the spot. It happened as quickly as the fall of the ax on the neck of Cecilia or Lucy. But for Anthony it was only the first step of the Pasch\, the passing over. It then took dozens of years for the letter to be truly rewritten in terms of the spirit\, in order to find\, following Jesus’ example\, ways of combining time and eternity\, the earth and the things above. Anthony and many others instinctively returned to the place of the first Passover\, the desert\, for this unique kind of martyrdom. \nEarlier persecutions had singled out towns—and even big cities—to offer the spectacle of faith to the crowds in the arenas as if it were a game. The persecutions faded away\, but the Adversary remained and continued to have his fun. He\, then\, was the one to take on directly. Anthony’s combat was not againstpeople\, pagans or not\, but against the traditional Enemy of humankind\, whom he confronted as a solitary\, confident that he could contribute to conquering him where he is most rampant. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis flight from the spirit of the world and this fierce but humble solitude will become\, strangely enough\, “the seeds of Christianity\,” to use the phrase Tertullian applied to the early martyrs. It is to this drop by drop spending of flesh and blood in the desert 7 Christian de Chergé\, Dieu pour tout jour. Chapitres de Père Christian de Chergé à la communauté de Tibhirine [1986–1996]\, Les Cahier de Tibhirine 1\, Abbaye Notre-Dame d’Aiguebelle\, p. 449. Trans. Fr. Elias Dietz\, OCSO we must constantly return\, in order to sustain the specific fruitfulness of our lives here and now. \n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-34/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221209 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221210 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221203T211848Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221203T211848Z UID:9715-1670544000-1670630399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading DESCRIPTION:If you Knew the Gift of God6\nFrom the spiritual writings of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity \nWhat is the gift of God if not Himself? And\, the beloved disciple tells us: “He came to His own and His own did not accept Him.” St. John the Baptist could still say to many souls these words of reproach: “There is one in the midst of you\, ‘in you\,’ whom you do not know.” \n“If you knew the gift of God…” There is one who knew this gift of God\, one who did not lose one particle of it\, one who was so pure\, so luminous that she seemed to be Light itself. One whose life was so simple\, so lost in God that there is hardly anything we can say about it. \nFaithful Virgin\, “who kept all these things in her heart.” She remained so little\, so recollected in God’s presence\, in the seclusion of the temple\, that she drew down upon herself the delight of the Holy Trinity: “Because He has looked upon the lowliness of His servant\, henceforth all generations shall call meblessed!” The Father bending down to this beautiful creature\, who was so unaware of her own beauty\, willed that she be the Mother in time of Him whose Father He is in eternity. Then the Spirit of love who presides over all of God’s works came upon her; the Virgin said her fiat: “Behold the servant of the Lord\, be it done to me according to Your word\,” and the greatest of mysteries was accomplished. By the descent of the Word in her\, Mary became forever God’s prey. \nIt seems to me that the attitude of the Virgin during the months that elapsed between the Annunciation and the Nativity is the model for interior souls\, those whom God has chosen to live within\, in the depths of the bottomless abyss. In what peace\, in what recollection Mary lent herself to everything she did! How even the most trivial things were divinized by her! For through it all the Virgin remained the adorer of the gift of God! This did not prevent her from spending herself outwardly when it was a matter of charity; the Gospel tells us that Mary went in haste to the mountains of Judea to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Never did the ineffable vision that she contemplated within herself in any way diminish her outward charity. For\, a pious author says\, if contemplation “continues toward praise and towards the eternity of its Lord\, it possesses unityand will not lose it. If an order from Heaven arrives\, contemplation turns towards men\, sympathizes with their needs\, is inclined towards all their miseries; it must cry and be fruitful. It illuminates like fire\, and like it\, it burns\, absorbs and devours\, lifting up to Heaven what it has devoured. And when it has finished its work here below\, it rises\, burning with its fire\, and takes up again the road on high \n\n\n6 Elizabeth of the Trinity. I Have Found God\, The Complete Works: Volume One. Trans. Sister Aletheia Kane\, O.C.D. ICS Publications\, 1984. 110-111. \n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-33/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221208 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221209 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221203T211700Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221203T211700Z UID:9713-1670457600-1670543999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Immaculate Conception DESCRIPTION:“I am the Immaculate Conception” – Mary Reveals Her Name5 The final writing of St. Maximilian Kolbe \nIMMACULATE CONCEPTION. These words fell from the lips of the Immaculata herself. Hence\, they must tell us in the most precise and essential manner who she really is. \nWho then are you\, O Immaculate Conception? \nNot God\, of course\, because he has no beginning. Not an angel\, created directly out of nothing. Not Adam\, formed out of the dust of the earth. Not Eve\, molded from Adam’s rib. Not the Incarnate Word\, who exists before all ages\, and of whom we should use the word “conceived” rather than “conception.” Humans do not exist before their conception\, so we might call them created “conceptions.” But you\, O Mary\, are different from all other children of Eve. They are conceptions stained by original sin; whereas you are the unique\, Immaculate Conception. \nIf the fruit of created love is a created conception\, then the fruit of divine Love\, that prototype of all created love\, is necessarily a divine “conception.” The Holy Spirit is\, therefore\, the “uncreated\, eternal conception\,” the prototype of all the conceptions that multiply life throughout the whole universe. \nThe Father begets; the Son is begotten; the Spirit is the “conception” that springs from their love; there we have the intimate life of the three Persons by which they can be distinguished one from another. But they are united in the oneness of their Nature\, of their divine existence. \nThe Spirit is\, then\, this thrice holy “conception\,” this infinitely holy\, Immaculate Conception. \nIn what does this life of the Spirit in Mary consist? He himself is uncreated Love in her; the Love of the Father and of the Son\, the Love by which God loves himself\, the very love of the Most Holy Trinity. He is a fruitful Love\, “Conception.” Among creatures made in God’s image the union brought about by married love is the most intimate of all. In a much more precise\, more interior\, more essential manner\, the Holy Spirit lives in the soul of the Immaculata\, in the depths of her very being. He makes her fruitful\, from the very first instant of her existence\, all during her life\, and for all eternity. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis eternal “Immaculate Conception” (which is the Holy Spirit) produces in an immaculate manner divine life itself in the womb (or depths) of Mary’s soul\, making her the Immaculate Conception\, the human Immaculate Conception. And the virginal womb of Mary’s body is kept sacred for him; there he conceives in time…the human life of the Man-God. \nAnd so the return to God (which is love)…by the Spirit the Son becomes incarnate in the womb of the Immaculata; and through this Son love returns to the Father. \nIn the Holy Spirit’s union with Mary we observe more than the love of two beings; in one there is all the love of the Blessed Trinity; in the other\, all of creation’s love. So it is that in this union heaven and earth are joined; all of heaven with all the earth\, the totality of eternal love with the totality of created love. It is truly the summit of love. \nAt Lourdes\, the Immaculata did not say of herself that she had been conceived immaculately\, but\, as St. Bernadette repeated it\, “Que soy era immaculada councepciou”: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” \nIf among human beings the wife takes the name of her husband because she belongs to him\, is one with him\, becomes equal to him and is\, with him\, the source of new life\, with how much greater reason should the name of the Holy Spirit\, who is the divine Immaculate Conception\, be used as name of her in whom he lives as uncreated Love\, the principle of life in the whole supernatural order of grace? \n\n\n5 H.M. Manteau-Bonamy\, OP. Immaculate Conception and the Holy Spirit. Trans. Richard Arnandez\, FSC. Libertyville\, IL: Franciscan\, Marytown Press\, 1977. 2-5. \n\n\n\n\n10 \n\n\n\n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-immaculate-conception/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221207 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221208 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221203T211145Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221203T212327Z UID:9711-1670371200-1670457599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Ambrose DESCRIPTION:A Letter to Irenaeus by Saint Ambrose \nIf someone has taken up residence in the heavenly city\, let him not leave its life and customs\, since he is an inhabitant. Let him not again depart\, or retrace the steps\, I do not say\, of the body\, but of the heart. Let him not come back from there. Behind him is wantonness; behind is impurity. Your feet should not turn back\, neither should your actions turn back. Your hands should not hang idle\, nor should the knees of your devotion and faith become weak. Let no weakness cause your will to backslide\, nor evil deeds recur. You have made your entrance\, now remain. You have reached this place\, stand firm. ‘Being safe\, save thy life.’ \nIn your ascent\, take the straight path; it is not safe to turn back. Here is the road; there is downfall. Here is the path upward; there\, a precipice. there is work in ascending\, danger in ascending. The Lord who is powerful will protect you if you are grounded and hedged round with the ramparts of the Prophets and the bulwarks of the Apostles. For this reason\, the Lord says to you: ‘Enter and tread the grape\, for the vintage time is here.’ Let us be found within\, not out of doors. In the Gospel\, too\, the Son of God says: ‘Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take his vessels.’ Surely\, He does not mean our present dwelling but that one of which ‘He has spread the sky like a roof.’ \nRemain within\, therefore\, within Jerusalem\, within your soul which is peaceful\, meek\, and tranquil. Do not leave it or go down to take your vessels with honors or riches or pride. Remain within\, so that strangers may not pass through you\, so that neither sins nor vain works nor useless thoughts may pass through your soul. This will not happen if you wage a holy war against the snare of the passions on behalf of devotion and faith and in the pursuit of truth\, if you will put on the armor of God in your fight against spiritual diseases and the cunning of the Evil One who tempts our senses with cunning and fraud. Yet\, he is easily crushed by the gentle warrior who does not sow discord\, but\, as befits the servant of God\, attaches faith with moderation and refutes those who are his adversaries. Of this man Scriptures says: ‘Let the warrior who is gentle arise\,’ and the weak man says: ‘I can do all things in him who strengthens me.’ \n\n\n\n\n\n\nWaters will flow upon him from his vessels and the depths of his wells\, or from his belly will flow living waters\, spiritual waters which the Holy Spirit gives to the faithful. May He deign to water your soul\, too\, so that in you there may abound the fount of water springing up into life \n\n\n4The Fathers of the Church. Vol 26 – Letters of St. Ambrose. Catholic Univ. Washington\, 1954\, pp. 446-447. \n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n  \n\n  URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-ambrose/ CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20221206T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20221206T193000 DTSTAMP:20260404T101830 CREATED:20221021T214115Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221021T214115Z UID:9254-1670353200-1670355000@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org SUMMARY:Rule of Benedict: Reflection. 7 pm CT DESCRIPTION:Join Zoom Meeting \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/88434101612?pwd=dHMyRkFBNW52eVJIaytWdng0VmZaZz09 \nMeeting ID: 884 3410 1612 \nPasscode: 807992 \nOne tap mobile \n+13126266799\,\,88434101612# US (Chicago) URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/rule-of-benedict-reflection-7-pm-ct-2/ CATEGORIES:LCG open events END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR