Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani Abbey

Vigils reading - 2nd Sun of Advent
2025-12-07
THE TIME FOR FAITH
From a commentary by St Augustine
◊◊◊
The gospel tells us that some people were rebuked by the Lord because,
clever as they were at reading the face of the sky, they could not recognize the
time for faith when the kingdom of heaven was at hand. It was the Jews who
received this reprimand, but it has also come down to us. The Lord Jesus began
his preaching of the gospel with the admonition: Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand. His forerunner, John the Baptist, began in the same way:
Repent, he said, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Today, for those who will
not repent at the approach of the kingdom of heaven, the reproof of the Lord is
the same. As he points out himself, You cannot expect to see the kingdom of
heaven coming. The kingdom of heaven, he says elsewhere, is within you.
Each of us would be wise therefore to take to heart the advice of his
teacher, and not waste this present time. It is now that the Savior offers us his
mercy; now, while he still spares the human race. Understand that it is in hope
of our conversion that he spares us, for he desires no one’s damnation. As for
when the end of the world will be, that is God’s concern.
Now is the time for faith. Whether any of us here present will see the end
of the world I know not; very likely none of us will. Even so, the time is very near
for each of us, for we are mortal. There are hazards all around us. We should be
in less danger from them were we made of glass. What is more fragile than a
vessel of glass? And yet it can be kept safe and last indefinitely. Of course it is
exposed to accident, but it is not liable to old age and the suffering it brings.
We therefore are the more frail and infirm. In our weakness we are
haunted by fears of all the calamities that regularly befall the human race, and if
no such calamity overtakes us, still, time marches on. We may evade the blows
of fortune, but shall we evade death? We may escape perils from without, but
shall we escape what comes from within us? Now, suddenly, we may be attacked
by any malady. And if we are spared? Even so, old age comes at last, and nothing
will delay it.

Vigils reading - Immaculate Conception
2025-12-08
THE FAVORED ONE
From a commentary by Sophronius of Jerusalem
◊◊◊
Hail full of grace, the Lord is with you. Truly blessed are you among
women, for you have changed the curse of Eve into a blessing and caused Adam,
once accursed, to be blessed through you. Truly blessed are you among
women, for it was through you that the Father’s blessing dawned on humankind
and freed it from the ancient curse. Truly blessed are you among women, for
through you your ancestors will be saved, since you are going to bear the Savior
who will gain them God’s salvation. Truly blessed are you among women, for
without seed you produced the fruit that brings blessing to all the earth,
releasing it from the curse that made it bear thorns. Truly blessed are you
among women, for though by nature you are a woman, you will in very truth
become the mother of God: if he who is to be born of you is truly God incarnate,
then, since you will be giving birth to God, you will with perfect justice be called
the mother of God.
Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God that can
never be lost. You have won from God a most glorious favor, a grace long
desired, a grace of great splendor, a saving grace, an unfailing grace, a grace that
will last for ever. Many before you have been holy, but no one has been as
favored as you, no one as blessed as you, no one as perfectly sanctified as you, no
one as highly praised as you. No one else has like you been possessed from the
first by purifying grace, no one else has been enlightened like you, or exalted like
you, for no one has approached so close to God as you, or been enriched with
such divine gifts, or endowed with such heavenly grace.
You surpass all human desire; you surpass all the gifts given by God to the
whole human race, for God’s dwelling within you has made you richer than all
others. No one else has been able to contain God as you do; no one else has been
capable of receiving God as you have; no one else has deserved to be so
enlightened by God. And therefore you have not only received God, the Creator
and Lord of the universe, but He has in an unheard-of way taken flesh from you;
you bear him in your womb, and will later give birth to him who will redeem
humankind from the Father’s sentence, and confer on it eternal salvation.

Vigils reading
2025-12-09
THE ADVENT OF GOD
From “Pathways in Holy Scripture” by Dom Damasus Winzen
◊◊◊
The word Advent had for the people of old a magic sound. It put before
their eyes the glorious scene of the king’s return from a victorious war. Preceded
and followed by the might of his arms, carrying with him the spoils of victory,
the hosts of the captives, the treasures of the enemy, he stands on his chariot,
vested in the purple of triumph, the golden wreath of victory on his head. The
whole city is in a delirium of joy. The festive throngs of the citizens line the
streets. They greet their king with the royal shout, acclaiming him as savior and
kyrios with incense and hymns. In the evening thousands of lights appear on
windows and doorways, on temples, gates and palaces, for the light is come, and
the glory of the king is risen upon the city.
The Advent of our Ecclesiastical Year does not celebrate the triumphant
entry of an earthly king into his capital, but it sees the King of kings whose might
covers the earth like a cloud, returning to the world which He had left because of
its sin, crushing His enemies, extirpating sin and establishing a kingdom of
peace for those who believe in Him. This is the Divine Action of salvation which
constitutes the real meaning of history, although it may take centuries and
centuries to be accomplished. That the birth of Mary’s little babe in the humble
manger of Bethlehem is the beginning of this glorious Advent would be hidden
from the eyes of men, had the glad tiding not been announced from heaven and
had the Holy Spirit not spoken in times past to the fathers by the prophets.
It is really the vision of the prophets which opens the eyes of the faithful to
see beneath the humble form of man the glory of God, and to realize that Christ’s
First Coming in patience and charity is the beginning of the Day of judgment
which will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven to receive the
Eternal Kingdom from the hands of the Father. It is the unique gift of the
prophets to see sign and reality, the human and the divine, the present and the
future in their compenetration. Therefore, they “rendered service not so much
to them selves but to us,” [as it is written in the first letter of Peter, us] who
celebrate the Advent of God in that incomparable compenetration of visible sign
and divine reality which is the liturgy of the Church.

Vigils reading
2025-12-10
SAINT AND MISSION
From “The World of Prayer” by Adrienne von Speyr
◊◊◊
A saint’s standing before God with a community within is no plain and
simple fact. The saints can be in God’s presence in such a personal way that,
involuntarily or even voluntarily, they forget their mission. And between these
two poles there is a whole spectrum. It may happen involuntarily when God
alone wishes it so because he wants to have his saint to himself. It happens
voluntarily when the saint feels it right on this occasion to be alone in God’s
presence, leaving the particular mission out of focus in the background.
There is another extreme in relation to these two forms of prayer, namely,
the prayer of those saints who never appear before God except in the very midst
of their mission, whether because God wills it so or because the saint will not
have it otherwise. Here too there are gradations. One is inclined to a certain
suspicion of those who always do everything completely deliberately and of
their own free will, choosing whether to go before God with or without the
mission entrusted to them, whereas there can be no grounds for suspicion in the
case of the saint who, involuntarily and only as God requires, is always standing
before God in one sense or another. In general, however, there is an alternation:
There are times and moments in which the saint is more important to God than
the individual mission, and others when the mission itself is the most important
thing.
If the saints themselves make no choice, God can work in them or in their
mission or in both, within the relationship he chooses. But if the saint and the
mission constitute a single unity as willed by God, God’s shaping influence on
the one will always benefit the other.
It can happen, then, that when a particular mission begins to make itself
felt it brings difficulties for the saint in standing before God in prayer. But these
difficulties and their mastery contribute to the saint’s fruitfulness. They never
take the form of insuperable obstacles but of a gain at a higher level, be it a
deeper insight or a better adaptation to God’s will or a closer integration of saint
and mission. Mission here always means an embodiment of the community. It is
what, in the saint, is of and for the community: the seed of community, a task
within the community, a fruit entrusted to the community. This fruit is greater
than the I; it is the Thou, in all its manifold forms, which has been entrusted to
the I. Ultimately this multiplicity belongs to the Church and indeed can be the
Church.

Vigils reading
2025-12-11
MY HEART IS READY
From a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny
◊◊◊
Do you want to hear more explicitly about the confession you should
make in preparation for the coming of the Lord? “A just man is the first to accuse
himself,” says the Scripture. And what follows? His Friend comes, who before
the accusation was withdrawing farther away, estranged. For when he said: “I
will confess against myself my injustice to the Lord,” the Lord forgave him. “He
comes and shall search him.” Indeed he shall search him like a strong draft
searching the heart and the reins, reaching into the division of the soul and the
spirit, drawing out all impurity from the recesses of the soul and the deep
caverns of the mind, purging love that it may bring forth more fruit. God the
Father, the husbandman, rejoices already over the first-fruits of that confession.
However, he who – after such confession – is present sometimes even
before he is called on, at other times waits for you to invite him. And in order to
increase your merits he often dissimulates for a long time so that by being more
attentive at the psalmody and more instant in prayer you may in your gentle
violence compel him to enter. If you do not, the prophet laments that the cities
of the south are shut up, with none to enter them.
When therefore you can say: “My heart is ready, O God,” because it is
emptied of evil, “my heart is ready,” because it is full of holy desires, then busy
yourself with what follows: “I will sing and recite a psalm.” And whatever may
be your voice, singing or reciting, let this intention be in your mind: “Arise, my
Glory, arise at my coming, for as far as it is in me [to go,] I have gone to meet
you.”
O good Jesus, how swift and prompt, how full of joy and gladness are you
in running to greet such devotion as this. How cheerful do you show yourself in
these ways. As Isaiah says: “You have met him that rejoices and does justice: in
your ways they shall remember you.” For if you sing wisely in the way of
integrity, coming he will come and will bring to light what is hidden from you so
that you may understand the mysteries of the Scriptures you do not at present
know. Then it will be as you say: “I will sing and I will understand in the
unspotted way when you shall come to me.” Stir up, Lord, your power, which at
your coming stirs up our sluggishness, and come to save us, O Savior of the
world, who live and reign, God for ever and ever.

Vigils reading -Our Lady of Guadalupe
2025-12-12
THE APPEARANCE OF THE
BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
AT GUADALUPE
From the first written Aztec account of the apparition6
◊◊◊
Upon his reaching the top of the hillock, Juan Diego catches sight of a
woman, one who has been taking her stand there. She beckons him to come on,
closer up to herself. Upon reaching her presence, he greatly marvels at her
extreme, her surpassing, her perfect wonderfulness.
Her garments are as the sun, gleaming, glittering. Even the boulder, the
crag, on which she takes her stand sparkles in resplendence, like fine emerald
jade or a bangle when it shines, like the swarming glow of a rainbow in the
gloom. Even the soil, the brambles and prickles and the rest of the varied weeds
that struggle to survive there are shining like emerald, like divine turquoise, to
the tip of every leaf; are glittering like the golden scourings of the gods up every
stalk and twig and thorn.
In her presence he prostrates; he listens to her utterance, her declaration.
These are as of one who sets others at ease, one whose manner is to attract, one
whose attitude is to esteem. She addresses him: “Do listen to me, my littlest one,
Juanito!… “Do know this, do be assured of it in your heart, my littlest one, that I
myself, I am the entirely and ever Virgin Saint Mary, Mother of the True
Divinity, God Himself: Because of Him, life goes on, Creation goes on; His are
all things afar, His are all things near at hand, things above in the heavens,
things here below on the earth. How truly I wish it, how greatly I desire it, that
here they should erect me my temple! Here would I show forth, here would I lift
up to view, here would I make a gift of all my fondness for my dear ones, all my
regard for my needy ones, my willingness to aid them, my readiness to protect
them. For truly I myself, I am your compassionate mother, yours, for you
yourself, for everybody here in the land, for each and all together, for all others
too, for all folk of every kind, who do but cherish me, who do but raise their
voices to me, who do but seek me, who do but raise their trust to me.
For here I shall listen to their groanings, to their saddenings; here shall I
make well and heal up their each and every kind of disappointment, of
exhausting pangs, of bitter aching pain… Therefore, to realize all that my
clemency claims, go to the palace of the Bishop of Mexico, and say that I sent you
to make manifest to him my great desire; namely, that here in the valley a temple
should be built to me. Tell him word for word all that you have seen and heard and
admired. Be assured that I shall be grateful and that I will reward you, for I will
make your life happy and cause you to become worthy of the labor you have taken
and the trouble you perform to do what I enjoin you. Now you have heard all my
bidding, least of my sons. Go and do your utmost.’
“At this point he bowed before her and said, ‘Lady, I go to do your bidding.
As your humble servant, I take my leave of you.’ Then he went on to accomplish
her will, taking the causeway that leads directly to Mexico City.”

Vigils reading - St Lucy
2025-12-13
ST LUCY
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints
◊◊◊
St Lucy is said to have been a Sicilian, born in the city of Syracuse of noble
and wealthy parents and brought up a Christian. She wished to devote her life to
God and to give her fortune to the poor, but during the Diocletian persecutions a
man, usually represented as a Roman soldier, tried to rape her, and she resisted.
He denounced her as a Christian, and she was arrested, tortured and killed.
Though these traditions have no ascertainable historical basis, her
connection with Syracuse and the existence of an early cult connected with her
name are well established. A fourth-century inscription mentioning that a girl
called Euskia died on Lucy’s feast-day survives at Syracuse. Lucy was honoured
at Rome in the sixth century as one of the most illustrious virgin martyrs whose
lives the Church celebrates. Her name is included in the Canons of the Roman
and Ambrosian rites and occurs in the oldest Roman sacramentaries, in Greek
liturgical books, and in the marble calendar of Naples.
Churches were dedicated to her in Rome, Naples, and eventually Venice.
In England two ancient churches were dedicated to her, and she has certainly
been known since the end of the seventh century…
Possibly on account of her name, which has connotations of light and
purity (in Latin Lux and Lucia), legends have long gathered around St Lucy.
Some of the legends and many paintings relate to her eyes. One gruesome story
is that she tore her eyes out rather than surrender to her attacker, and she is
sometimes shown offering them to him. Oddly, she is the patron saint of those
with eye trouble, and a gentler interpretation is that this is because the eyes are
the source of our awareness of light. Her feast-day had long been the occasion
for special ceremonies connected with virginity. It occurs near the shortest day
of the year and is especially celebrated in Sweden as a festival of light, with a
procession of young girls dressed in white and crowned with lighted candles.
The song “Santa Lucia” celebrates her memory.

Skema
2025-12-14
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
3rd Week of Advent

Mass Readings: Sunday (A), Weekdays (II)
December 14 – 20, 2025

Sun
14
Mon
15
Tue
16
Wed
17
Thu
18
Fri
19
Sat
20

Office
3rd Sunday of Advent
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday
Advent Weekday

Vigils
Micah 4:1-14
Micah 5:1-14
Micah 7:7-20
Isa 40:1-11
Isa 40:12-31
Isa 41:8-20
Isa 41:21-29

Lauds
Zech 2:10-17
Isa 24:21-25:5
Isa 52:1-7
Isa 42:1-9
Isa 45:1-8
Isa 45:18-25
Isa 46:5-13

Mass
7
187
188
193
194
195
196

1st
Isa 35:1-6a, 10
Num 24:2-7, 15-17a
Zeph 3:1-2, 9-13
Gen 49:2, 8-10
Jer 23:5-8
Judg 13:2-7, 24-25a
Isa 7:10-14

2nd
Jas 5:7-10

Gospel
Matt 11:2-11
Matt 21:23-27
Matt 21:28-32
Matt 1:1-17
Matt 1:18-24
Luke 1:5-25
Luke 1:26-38

Vespers
Rom 9:1-8
Rom 10:1-13
Rom 11:13-20
1 Thess 5:16-24
Phil 1:3-11
Phil 3:17-21
Phil 4:4-9

Vigils Reading - 3rd Sunday Advent
2025-12-14
THE ONE WHO IS TO COME
From a commentary by Thomas of Villanova
◊◊◊
The 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.
In 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.
John’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.
The 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.
Isaiah had uttered three prophecies about the Christ. The first was this:
Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unsealed,
and the lame man will leap like a stag. 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.

Vigils Reading
2025-12-15
CREATED TO DO HIS WILL
By St John Henry Newman
◊◊◊
God was all-complete, all-blessed in Himself; but it was His almighty will
to create a world for His glory. He is Almighty, and might have done all things
Himself, but it has been His will to bring about His purposes by the beings He
has created. We are all created to His glory – we are created to do His will. I am
created to do something or to be something for which no one else is created; I
have a place in God’s counsels, in God’s world, which no one else has; whether I
be rich or poor, despised or esteemed by man, God knows me and calls me by
my name.
God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed
some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission – I
never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am
necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his – if,
indeed, I fail He can raise another, as He could make stones children of
Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work: I am a link in a chain, a bond of
connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good,
I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own
place, while not intending it, if I but do keep His commandments and serve Him
in my calling.
Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be
thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my
perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My
sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end,
which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life, He
may shorten it; He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends, He
may throw me among strangers, He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits
sink, hide the future from me – still He knows what He is about.

Vigils Reading
2025-12-16
CONFIDENCE IN GOD’S POWER
By Fr Romano Guardini
◊◊◊
Elizabeth calls the Virgin Blessed because she had faith – for everything
would happen as the Lord had told her; through the power of the Holy Spirit she
would become the Mother of the Redeemer, and in this find the fulfillment of
her life and salvation. To be assured of this was not always easy. When the
Gospel speaks of Mary and her son, one perceives a great love, but also a
remoteness.
The answer of the twelve-year-old boy in the temple; the answer Jesus
gave at the wedding feast of Cana; his words to the bystanders, when Mary, at
the door, asks for him; what he said to the woman who exalted his Mother; and
his last testament in which he committed her to the care of the disciple – in each
of these, something is revealed that removes him from her, and we always sense
the possibility that she might have become perplexed about God’s guidance. But
each time her confidence increased and she placed all into his hands. Mary lived
completely through her confidence in God’s power, a power that is capable of
consummating all, even in darkness and opposition.
Hope is confidence in God’s power to accomplish all things. He has
promised that we shall become new persons, and that his creation shall be a
“new heaven and a new earth”. This is gainsaid by the impression made on us by
worldly things; by the course our life is taking; by the opinions of people around
us; by our own daily insufficiency and sin – by everything. Hope is the
“nevertheless” of faith. In spite of all contradiction, the new life is within us, and
God will complete it if we trust in him despite all opposition. But that is difficult,
sometimes impossible. So we must ask again that the Lord “may strengthen our
hope.”

Vigils Reading
2025-12-17
THE HOLINESS OF THE CHURCH
From the Second Vatican Council’s document “Lumen Gentium”
◊◊◊
The Church, whose mystery is set forth by this sacred Council, is held, as a
matter of faith, to be unfailingly holy. This is because Christ, the Son of God,
who with the Father and the Spirit is hailed as “alone holy,” loved the Church as
his Bride, giving himself up for her so as to sanctify her; he joined her to himself
as his body and endowed her with the gift of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God.
Therefore all in the Church, whether they belong to the hierarchy or are
cared for by it, are called to holiness, according to the apostle’s saying: “For this
is the will of God, your sanctification”. This holiness of the Church is constantly
shown forth in the fruits of grace which the Spirit produces in the faithful and so
it must be; it is expressed in many ways by the individuals who, each in his or
her own state of life, tend to the perfection of love, thus sanctifying others; it
appears in a certain way of its own in the practice of the counsels which have
been usually called “evangelical.” This practice of the counsels prompted by the
Holy Spirit, undertaken by many Christians whether privately or in a form or
state sanctioned by the Church, gives and should give a striking witness and
example of that holiness.
The Lord Jesus, divine teacher and model of all perfection, preached
holiness of life (of which he is the author and maker) to each and every one of his
disciples without distinction: “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly
Father is perfect”. For he sent the Holy Spirit to all to move them interiorly to
love God with their whole heart, with their whole soul, with their whole
understanding, and with their whole strength, and to love one another as Christ
love them.
The followers of Christ, called by grace, and justified in the Lord Jesus,
have been made sons and daughters of God in the baptism of faith and partakers
of the divine nature, and so are truly sanctified. They must therefore hold on to
and perfect in their lives that sanctification which they have received from God.
They are told by the apostle to live “as is fitting among saints”, and to put on “as
God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness,
meekness, and patience”, to have the fruits of the Spirit for their sanctification.
But since we all offend in many ways, we constantly need God’s mercy and must
pray everyday: “And forgive us our debts.”
It is therefore quite clear that all Christians in any state or walk of life are
called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love, and by this
holiness a more human manner of life is fostered also in earthly society.

Vigils Reading
2025-12-18
THE GIFT OF FAITH
By Catherine de Hueck Doherty
◊◊◊
What is faith? Some say they have lost it. Some hunger for the first taste.
Some are indifferent to whether they have it or not. Others fight against it, hate
it, and want to destroy it in others. What is faith? A Catholic can easily answer
from early catechetical instructions in childhood. Faith is a free gift from God,
given to a person at Baptism. A Catholic will say too that no one can really
acquire faith by his own efforts. He will repeat over and over again that it is
indeed a free gift from God.
Yes, faith is a free, loving gift of God to us. Faith is the cradle of love and of
hope. But this gift given to us at Baptism can grow, must grow, must be
incarnated into our lives, must become part of us, must become, like breathing,
an utterly integral part of us.
How can it become all these things? By prayer. God never refuses a prayer
for the deepening and growth in faith. Prayer is the food that will make faith
grow, strengthen it, root it with deep and lasting roots into human hearts. Faith
grows by living it out. Faith is a pilgrimage toward the Absolute. Faith gives
every Christian sandals and a pilgrim’s staff and bids him to arise and go in
search of him whom every Christian longs for – God.
Faith appears to be blind sometimes but in reality it sees very deeply. It
alone can walk in utter darkness. It alone can fold the wings of the intellect when
necessary and open them when it needs to. Chasms, abysses, steep mountains
present no problem or difficulty to faith. On the contrary, all of life – pains,
sorrows, joys symbolized by these chasms – becomes its food and its
nourishment. Faith grows until it leaves all darkness behind and walks like a
child bathed in the light of God’s love.
No one can keep or hide faith for himself alone. It will escape and extend
itself to others. Faith never walks alone, but always walks with love and hope.
Faith can be transmitted by words, but it is best communicated by actions. Faith
cries out to be lived, to be incarnated, incarnated in love. For love is a Person,
love is God, and faith is his gift to us. The hands of faith are filled with gifts for
those who embrace her. Gifts of peace, love, joy and strength. Gifts of courage
and laughter. Faith is a child who smiles at theologians and at human wisdom.

THE GOSPEL WITHOUT COMPROMISE , Catherine de Hueck Doherty (Ave Maria Press IN 1976) pp. 127-128.11 invites them to come and play with God.

Vigils Reading
2025-12-19
PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD
From a homily by Origen
◊◊◊
We read in the Old Testament, in the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one
crying in the wilderness…” For the Lord wishes to find in you a way prepared
before him, where he may enter in, and have there a right-of-way. Prepare for
him this path, of which it is written: “Make straight his path.”
The Voice cries: “Prepare the way of the Lord.” First the voice strikes
upon the year, then after the voice, indeed together with the voice, the word
penetrates the mind. In this way was Christ announced by John. Let us then
hear what the Voice announces concerning the Word. “Prepare,” it says, “the
way of the Lord.” Which way shall we prepare for the Lord? A way on the earth?
Can the Word of God travel such road? Or rather must we not prepare the way
within us, setting up in our hearts a straight and true way?
This is the way through which the Word of God enters, and comes to rest
within the bounds of the human body. And great indeed is the heart of man,
wide and spacious as if it were a world in itself. Do you wish to know how great
and how profound it is? Behold what a sweep of divine knowledge it can
embrace: “For he has given me true knowledge of the things that are: to know
the disposition of the whole world, and the virtues of the elements, the
beginnings and the endings and midst of the times, the alterations of their
courses, and the changes of the seasons, revolutions of the year, and the
dispositions of the stars, the natures of living creatures, and the reasonings of
men.”
See then that the heart of man, which can contain so much, is no small
thing. And see also that its greatness is not in bodily quantity, but in the power
by which it can receive such knowledge of the truth. Let me recall to you a
simple example from our daily life, so that you may see how great is this power.
Let us consider this: through whatever cities we may have passed, we have still
within our minds the style and the shape of their squares and houses and walls
and buildings, stored in our memory. We keep within us, as in the picture, the
roads we have traveled. The sea we have voyaged over we can recall in moments
of quiet recollection. No small thing, as I have said, is the heart of man.
If it then can contain so much, and is not something small and narrow,
then let a way for the Lord be prepared in it, and let his path be made straight, so
that the Word of God and his Wisdom may enter there. Prepare this way by a
worthy manner of living, and with good works make straight the path, so that
without hindrance the word of God may tread this way to you, and give you
understanding, both of his coming and of his mysteries, to whom be glory and
empire forever and ever.

Vigils Reading
2025-12-20
TO SEEK GOD
By Fr Louis Bouyer
◊◊◊
The discovery of grace, the discovery of love which loves us without
looking for any return, which loves us although we are sinners, which loves us in
our sin, but which alone will lead us, by obscure ways known to God alone, from
sin to sanctity, that is, in the last analysis, the great discovery. Then it is that God
reveals Himself to us as One who speaks to us, as One whose Word for the
second time draws us out of nothingness to being, as One whom we have not so
much to seek as to discover seeking us. It is He, the Shepherd who left the
ninety-nine sheep in safety to seek and save that which was lost. It is He, the
Father of the prodigal who goes along the road to welcome his son when he has
scarcely started out to meet his father, and takes him in his arms.
“To seek God”, to seek Him as a person, as the Person par excellence, and
not only as the “Thou” to whom all our love should be addressed, but as the “I”
who has first approached us, whose word of love, addressed to the primeval
chaos, drew us forth from it in the first place, and, spoken to us in our sin, draws
us forth from it again: to be a monk is nothing else than this. To be a monk, then,
is simply to be an integral Christian. And regarded in this light, the Christian is
simply the person restored by the Word of the Gospel to the vocation which the
creative Word destined for each: to respond to the Word of Agape by the word of
faith, in order eventually to meet God face to face.
Commenting on the Canticle of Canticles, Origen tells us that the Church,
under the old dispensation, only heard the Bridegroom’s voice, whereas in the
new, she is offered the sight of his countenance. And he adds that the
development of the Christian life is made up solely of this transition. The monk
is the one who does not limit him or herself to accepting it in some measure
passively, by yielding to grace slothfully and reluctantly. The monk is one who
responds with the whole heart to the call which comes from the very heart of
God.
Monks are of the number of the violent who will not allow the divine
Kingdom to fall upon them as it were unawares, but who take it by storm in
advance. For that the monks have staked their all, they have burned their boats.
To the one who believes that life consists in what is possessed, the monk seems
to be consenting to, even to be deliberately seeking, a fatal renunciation. To the
one who knows that being is of greater value than having, and that being which
is of value is not that which passes but that which endures, the monk will seem
to be the only true humanist. For the human person is born only as subject to the
divine Word and will only be fully that person the day when, freed from the
nothingness which holds one prisoner, fully surrendered to the Word which
calls, the person will at last come to discover the Face which promised us being
in promising us His own image.
