St Romuald Mass Friday 19th June 2015

Monastic Office of Vigils         



      Dom Donald's Blog: St Romuald Mass Thursday 11th Week Ord Time: Night Office Saints,   http://www.monasterodicamaldoli.it/   St Romuald       June 19. Portrait St. Romuald (FaceBook) Chris...



For the Memorial of Saint Romuald:

SECOND READING

From the life of Saint Romuald by Saint Peter Damian, bishop
(Cap.31 et 69: PL 144, 982-983, 1005-1006)

Denying oneself and following Christ

Romuald lived in the vicinity of the city of Parenzo for three years.  In the first year he built a monastery and appointed an abbot with monks. For the next two years he remained there in seclusion. In that setting, divine holiness transported him to such a summit of perfection that, breathed upon by the Holy Spirit, he foresaw many future events and comprehended with the rays of his intelligence hidden mysteries of the Old and New Testaments.

Frequently he was seized by so great a contemplation of divinity that he would be reduced to tears with the boiling, indescribable heat of divine love. In this condition he would cry out: Beloved Jesus, beloved, sweet honey, indescribable longing, delight of the saints, sweetness of the angels, and other things of this kind.  We are unable to express the ecstasy of these utterances, dictated by the Holy Spirit.

Wherever the holy man might arrange to live, he would follow the same pattern. First he would build an oratory with an altar in a cell; then he would shut himself in and forbid access.

Finally, after he had lived in many places, perceiving that his end was near, he returned to the monastery he had built in the valley of Castro. While he awaited with certainty his approaching death, he ordered a cell to be constructed there with an oratory in which he might isolate himself and preserve in silence until death.

Accordingly the hermitage was built, since he had made up his mind that he would die there. His body began to grow more and more oppressed by afflictions and was already failing, not so much from weakness as from the exhaustion of great age. One day he began to feel the loss of his physical strength under all the harassment of increasingly violent afflictions.  As the sun was beginning to set, he instructed two monks who were standing by to go out and close the door of the cell behind them; they were to come back to him at daybreak to celebrate matins. They were so concerned about his end that they went out reluctantly and did not rest immediately. On the contrary, since they were worried that their master might die, they lay hidden near the cell and watched this precious treasure. For some time they continued to listen attentively until they heard neither movement nor sound. Rightly guessing what had happened, they pushed open the door, rushed in quickly, lit a candle and found the holy man lying on his back, his blessed soul snatched up into heaven.  As he lay there, he seemed like a neglected heavenly pearl that was soon to be given a place of honor in the treasury of the King of kings.

RESPONSORY
Deuteronomy 2:7; 8:5

The Lord has blessed you in all that you have done;
he has watched over your progress
as you journeyed through the vast desert.
– The Lord your God has been with you;
no need of yours has been forgotten.

As a father teaches his son,
so the Lord your God was disciplining you.
– The Lord your God has been with you;
no need of yours has been forgotten.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Let us pray.

Father,
through Saint Romuald
you renewed the life of solitude and prayer in your Church.
By our self-denial as we follow Christ
bring us the joy of heaven.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Thomas Merton

Monastic Office of Vigils.  

Year II      SEVENTH SUNDAY  OF EASTER

Fr. Thomas Merton, ocso

  

First Reading      1 Corinthians 12:1-27

          Responsory          1 Cor 12:9-10; 7:4

The Spirit gives one the gift of wise speech, another the gift of healing, the power to work miracles, or the gift of prophecy. + In each one the Spirit is manifested in a particular way for the good of all, al­leluia.

V. There is a variety of gifts, but they come from the same Spirit. + In each one ...

Second Reading

From the writings of Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O.   (The NewMass, 117-119)

Life in Christ

When we speak of "life in Christ," according to the phrase of Saint Paul, It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, we are speaking not of self-alienation but of our discovery of our true selves in Christ. In this discovery we participate spiritually in the mystery of his resurrection. And this sharing of the death and resurrection of Christ is the very heart of the Christian faith and of Christian mysticism.

I came, said Jesus, that they may have life. The life he came to bring us is his own life as Son of God. And because of his resur­rection he received the power to communicate to us all his Spirit as the principle of our own life and the life of our own spirit. The uncreated image, buried and concealed by sin in the depths of our souls, rises from death when, sending forth his Spirit into our spirit, he manifests his presence within us and becomes for us the source of a new life, a new identity, and a new mode of action.

This new life in us is an extension of Christ's own risen life. It forms an integral part of that new existence which he inaugu­rated when he rose from the tomb. Before he died on the cross, the historical Christ was alone in his human and physical exis­tence. As he himself said, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Rising from the dead, Jesus lived no longer merely in himself. He be­came the vine of which we are the branches. He extends his personality to include each one of us who is united to him by faith. The new existence which is his by virtue of his resurrection is no longer limited by the exigencies of matter. He can now pass through closed doors, appear in many places at once, or exer­cise his action upon the earth while remaining hidden in the depths of the Godhead: yet these are only secondary aspects of his risen life. The primary aspect of his risen life is his life in the souls of his elect. He is now not only the natural Christ, but the mystical Christ, and as such he includes all of us who believe in him.

Christ living in me is at the same time himself and myself.

From the moment that I am united to him in one spirit there is no longer any contradiction implied by the fact that we are different persons. He remains, naturally and physically, the Son of God who was born of the blessed Virgin in Nazareth, who went about doing good, and who died on the cross two thousand years ago. I remain the singular person that I am. But mystically and spiritually Christ lives in me from the moment that I am united to him in his death and resurrection by the sacrament of baptism and by all the moments and incidents of a Christian life. This union is not merely a moral union, or an agreement of wills, nor merely a psychological union which flows from the fact that I keep him in my thoughts. Christ mystically identifies his members with himself by giving them his Holy Spirit.

Responsory          1 Cor 12:6-7.27

There are different ministries but the same God who accomplishes

all of them in everyone. + The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one in a particular way for the good of all, alleluia.

V, You are the body of Christ; each one of you is a member of it. + The manifestation of ...

Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, alleluia. 31 May 2014

Church of Visitation at Ein Karem - Donald & Nivard  2004

COMMENT: 
Night Office Readings, The Song of Songs, St. Bede "sing Mary’s hymn (Magnificat) at the time of evening prayer.

Previous day, a book in the Library needed the dusk cover to be laminated. The book was St Bernard's Commentary on the Song of Songs.

Next night, 31 May,  to happy surprise, we found the association of the Readings in the Vigil Office and the Hours continue with the weaving of Antiphons on the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
10 years remembering Holy Land  pilgrimage. Donald and Nivard at Ein Karem.

Scheduled for 31 May 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpNCSBjFE88

Pope Francis attends the closing celebration of the Marian month.
Cerimonia di chiusura del mese mariano con la partecipazione di Papa Francesco, nei Giardini Vaticani.

Pictures photos from YouTube screen

Monastic Office of Vigils,    - iBreviary

Ant. Let us sing to the Lord as we celebrate the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, alleluia.   

Statue of the Visitation

Visitation Ein Karem  

FIRST READING

From the Song of Songs
2:8-14; 8:6-7

The coming of the beloved

Hark! my lover—here he comes
springing across the mountains,
leaping across the hills.
My lover is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Here he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattices.

My lover speaks; he says to me,
“Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,
and come!
For see, the winter is past,
the rains are over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of pruning the vines has come,
and the song of the dove is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.
Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,
and come!

“O my dove in the clefts of the rock,
in the secret recesses of the cliff,
Let me see you,
let me hear your voice,
For your voice is sweet,
and you are lovely.”

Set me as a seal on your heart,
as a seal on your arm;
For stern as death is love,
relentless as the nether world is devotion;
its flames are a blazing fire.
Deep waters cannot quench love,
nor floods sweep it away.
Were one to offer all he owns to purchase love,
he would be roundly mocked.

RESPONSORY
Luke 1:41b-43, 44

Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit
and cried out:
Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
– And who am I
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

For when your greeting sounded in my ears,
the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
– And who am I
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

SECOND READING

From a homily by Saint Bede the Venerable, priest
(Lib. 1, 4: CCL 122, 25-26. 30)

Mary proclaims the greatness of the Lord working in her

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior. With these words Mary first acknowledges the special gifts she has been given. Then she recalls God’s universal favors, bestowed unceasingly on the human race.

When a man devotes all his thoughts to the praise and service of the Lord, he proclaims God’s greatness. His observance of God’s commands, moreover, shows that he has God’s power and greatness always at heart. His spirit rejoices in God his savior and delights in the mere recollection of his creator who gives him hope for eternal salvation.

These words are often for all God’s creations, but especially for the Mother of God. She alone was chosen, and she burned with spiritual love for the son she so joyously conceived. Above all other saints, she alone could truly rejoice in Jesus, her savior, for she knew that he who was the source of eternal salvation would be born in time in her body, in one person both her own son and her Lord.

For the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. Mary attributes nothing to her own merits. She refers all her greatness to the gift of the one whose essence is power and whose nature is greatness, for he fills with greatness and strength the small and the weak who believe in him.

She did well to add: and holy is his name, to warn those who heard, and indeed all who would receive his words, that they must believe and call upon his name. For they too could share in everlasting holiness and true salvation according to the words of the prophet: and it will come to pass, that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This is the name she spoke of earlier: and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.

Therefore it is an excellent and fruitful custom of holy Church that we should sing Mary’s hymn at the time of evening prayer. By meditating upon the incarnation, our devotion is kindled, and by remembering the example of God’s Mother, we are encouraged to lead a life of virtue. Such virtues are best achieved in the evening. We are weary after the day’s work and worn out by our distractions. The time for rest is near, and our minds are ready for contemplation.

RESPONSORY
Luke 1:45, 46; Psalm 66:16

Happy are you who have believed,
because the Lord’s promises will be accomplished in you.
And Mary said:
– My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.

Come, and listen,
and I will tell what great things God has accomplished for me.
– My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.

St. Pachomius the Great. 'Around Him, the Monks Swarm'

   

Mass and Night Office
 Every May 11th a Monastic Office of Vigils on St. Pachomius we are indebted courtesy of Websites.

St. Pachomius - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online

www.catholic.org400 × 432Search by image

Saints Fun Facts for St. Pachomius

'Around Him, the Monks Swarm'—St Pachomius the Great

15 May 2012

"St Pachomius the Great was both a model of desert dwelling, and with Sts Anthony the Great (January 17), Macarius the Great (January 19), and Euthymius the Great (January 20), a founder of the cenobitic monastic life in ...

http://nunraw.blogspot.com/

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http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/st-pachomius-great.html 

FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2009

St. Pachomius the Great

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Agios Paxomios

Icon of St. Pachomius (Icon courtesy of www.eikonografos.comused with permission)

St. Pachomius the Great - Commemorated on May 15 (text taken from: http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=101384)

"St Pachomius the Great was both a model of desert dwelling, and with Sts Anthony the Great (January 17), Macarius the Great (January 19), and Euthymius the Great (January 20), a founder of the cenobitic monastic life in Egypt.

St Pachomius was born in the third century in the Thebaid (Upper Egypt). His parents were pagans who gave him an excellent secular education. From his youth he had a good character, and he was prudent and sensible.

When Pachomius reached the age of twenty, he was called up to serve in the army of the emperor Constantine (apparently, in the year 315). They put the new conscripts in a city prison guarded by soldiers. The local Christians fed the soldiers and took care of them.

When the young man learned that these people acted this way because of their love for God, fulfilling His commandment to love their neighbor, this made a deep impression upon his pure soul. Pachomius vowed to become a Christian. Pachomius returned from the army after the victory, received holy Baptism, moved to the lonely settlement of Shenesit, and began to lead a strict ascetic life. Realizing the need for spiritual guidance, he turned to the desert-dweller Palamon. He was accepted by the Elder, and he began to follow the example of his instructor in monastic struggles.

Once, after ten years of asceticism, St Pachomius made his way through the desert, and halted at the ruins of the former village of Tabennisi. Here he heard a Voice ordering him to start a monastery at this place. Pachomius told the Elder Palamon of this, and they both regarded the words as a command from God.

They went to Tabennisi and built a small monastic cell. The holy Elder Palamon blessed the foundations of the monastery and predicted its future glory. But soon Palamon departed to the Lord. An angel of God then appeared to St Pachomius in the form of a schemamonk and gave him a Rule of monastic life. Soon his older brother John came and settled there with him.

St Pachomius endured many temptations and assaults from the Enemy of the race of man, but he resisted all temptations by his prayer and endurance.

Gradually, followers began to gather around St Pachomius. Their teacher impressed everyone by his love for work, which enabled him to accomplish all kinds of monastic tasks. He cultivated a garden, he conversed with those seeking guidance, and he tended to the sick.

St Pachomius introduced a monastic Rule of cenobitic life, giving everyone the same food and attire. The monks of the monastery fulfilled the obediences assigned them for the common good of the monastery. Among the various obediences was copying books. The monks were not allowed to possess their own money nor to accept anything from their relatives. St Pachomius considered that an obedience fulfilled with zeal was greater than fasting or prayer. He also demanded from the monks an exact observance of the monastic Rule, and he chastized slackers.

Add caption

The Angel of God revealing the monastic dress to St. Pachomius(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZEUmoKu2DsYqHU1hKZ8W1txMGTVVO_-vntPLBKWt9fNl5ohHmogwsXOR8bZ3jF0Ewwi1sUa9vcTShOAHqnW2vfuJi3liEoX6N-btKilUe0dbddx6EpymI0thQRKZfnvWqhz_j8Q4DHP1M/s1600/Monaxos-Aggelos-strof-nef.png)

   

His sister Maria came to see St Pachomius, but the strict ascetic refused to see her. Through the gate keeper, he blessed her to enter upon the path of monastic life, promising his help with this. Maria wept, but did as her brother had ordered. The Tabennisi monks built her a hut on the opposite side of the River Nile. Nuns also began to gather around Maria. Soon a women's monastery was formed with a strict monastic Rule provided by St Pachomius. The number of monks at the monastery grew quickly, and it became necessary to build seven more monasteries in the vicinity.

The number of monks reached 7,000, all under the guidance of St Pachomius, who visited all the monasteries and administered them. At the same time St Pachomius remained a deeply humble monk, who was always ready to comply with and accept the words of each brother.

Severe and strict towards himself, St Pachomius had great kindness and condescension toward the deficiencies of spiritually immature monks. One of the monks was eager for martyrdom, but St Pachomius turned him from this desire and instructed him to fulfill his monastic obedience, taming his pride, and training him in humility.

Once, a monk did not heed his advice and left the monastery. He was set upon by brigands, who threatened him with death and forced him to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. Filled with despair, the monk returned to the monastery. St Pachomius ordered him to pray intensely night and day, keep a strict fast and live in complete solitude. The monk followed his advice, and this saved his soul from despair.

The saint taught his spiritual children to avoid judging others, and he himself feared to judge anyone even in thought.

St Pachomius cared for the sick monks with special love. He visited them, he cheered the disheartened, he urged them to be thankful to God, and put their hope in His holy will. He relaxed the fasting rule for the sick, if this would help them recover their health. Once, in the saint's absence, the cook did not prepare any cooked food for the monks, assuming that the brethren loved to fast. Instead of fulfilling his obedience, the cook plaited 500 mats, something which St Pachomius had not told him to do. In punishment for his disobedience, all the mats prepared by the cook were burned.

St Pachomius always taught the monks to rely only upon God's help and mercy. It happened that there was a shortage of grain at the monastery. The saint spent the whole night in prayer, and in the morning a large quantity of bread was sent to the monastery from the city, at no charge. The Lord granted St Pachomius the gift of wonderworking and healing the sick.

The Lord revealed to him the future of monasticism. The saint learned that future monks would not have such zeal in their struggles as the first generation had, and they would not have experienced guides. Prostrating himself upon the ground, St Pachomius wept bitterly, calling out to the Lord and imploring mercy for them. He heard a Voice answer, "Pachomius, be mindful of the mercy of God. The monks of the future shall receive a reward, since they too shall have occasion to suffer the life burdensome for the monk."

Toward the end of his life St Pachomius fell ill from a pestilence that afflicted the region. His closest disciple, St Theodore (May 17), tended to him with filial love. St Pachomius died around the year 348 at the age of fifty-three, and was buried on a hill near the monastery." (taken from:http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=101384)

See the following link for the prayer rule that St. Pachomius received from the Angel, and which forms the backbone of almost every service of the Orthodox church: http://www.saintjonah.org/services/stpachomius.htm. May St. Pachomius intercede for all of us and help us!

Icon of St. Pachomius the Great receiving the tradition of the monastic habit and coenobitic rule from an Angel (Icon courtesy of http://www.eikonografos.com/ used with permission)
   

Apolytikion in the Plagal of the First Tone
Thou didst prove a chief pastor of the Chief Shepherd, Christ, guiding the flocks of monastics unto the heavenly fold, whence thou learntest of the habit and the way of life that doth befit ascetic ranks; having taught this to thy monks, thou now dancest and rejoicest with them in heavenly dwellings, O great Pachomius, our Father and guide.

Kontakion in the Second Tone
Since thou hadst shown forth the life of the Angels while in a body, O God-bearing Pachomius, thou wast also counted worthy of their glory; and with them thou standest before the Lord's throne, interceding that divine forgiveness be granted unto all.

(taken from: http://goarch.org/chapel/saints_view?contentid=55&type=saints&date=5/15/2009&D=F)
   

Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, bestowing life!
Truly the Lord is risen!

Friday of Epiphany, Saint Edith Stein, Night Office Reading

Stein, Edith (1891-1942), born at Breslau, Germany, of Jewish parentage, studied at Gottingen and at Freiburg/Breisgau under Husserl, the leading phenomenologist. She was received into the Catholic Church in 1922, and in the following year entered the Carmelite convent in Cologne where she received the name Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. At the end of 1938 she moved to the convent at Echt on account of the Nazi persecution of the Jews, but during the German occupation of Holland she was arrested, transported to Poland, and killed at Auschwitz. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987 and canonized by him in 2000.

Friday after Epiphany           Year II

Friday, 10 January 2014

First Reading      Baruch 4:5-29.   

          Responsoru           Bar 4:27.29; Ps 96:3

Take courage, my children, and cry out to the Lord; he who has brought this upon you will remember you. + He will give you everlasting joy and salvation.

V. Proclaim to the nations the glory of the Lord and to all peoples his marvellous deeds. t He will give ...

Second Reading

From the writings of Saint Edith Stein (Le Mystere de Noel, 51-60). A Word In Season, 2001edition.

Christ has not left us orphans

God has come to redeem us, to unite us to himself and to each other, to conform our will to his. He knows our nature. He reckons with it, and has therefore given us every help necessary to reach our goal.

The divine child has become a teacher and has told us what to do. In order to penetrate a whole human life with the divine life it is not enough to kneel once a year before the crib and let ourselves be captivated by the charm of the holy night. To achieve this, we must be in daily contact with God, listening to the words he has spoken and which have been transmitted to us, and obeying them. We must, above all, pray as the saviour himself has taught us so insistently. Ask and it shall be given to you. This is the certain promise of being heard. And if we pray every day with all our heart: "Lord, your will be done" we may well trust that we shall not fail to do God's will even when we no longer have subjective certainty.

Christ has not left us orphans. He has sent his Spirit, who teaches us all truth. He has founded his Church which is guided by his Spirit, and has ordained in it his representatives by whose mouth his Spirit speaks to us in human words. In his Church he has united the faithful into one community and wants them to support each other. Thus we are not alone, and if confidence in our own understanding and even in our own prayer fails us, the power of obedience and intercession will assist us.

And the word was made flesh. This became reality in the stable of Bethlehem. But it has also been fulfilled in another form. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. The Saviour, knowing that we are and remain people who daily have to struggle with our weaknesses, aids our humanity in a manner truly divine. Just as our earthly body needs its daily bread, so the divine life in us must be constantly fed. This is the living bread that came down from heaven. If we make it truly our daily bread, the mystery of Christmas, the incarnation of the Word, will daily be re-enacted in us. And this, it seems, is the surest way to remain in constant union with God, and to grow every day more securely and more deeply into the mystical body of Christ.

If we take part in the daily sacrifice, we shall be drawn quite without effort into the liturgical life. Within the cycle of the Church's year, the prayers and rites of the services present to us the story of our salvation again and again and cause us to penetrate ever more deeply into their meaning. The sacrifice of the Mass impresses on us time and again the central mystery of our faith, the pivot of the world's history, the mystery of the incarnation and redemption.

The Christian mysteries are an indivisible whole. If we become immersed in one, we are led to all the others. Thus the way from Bethlehem leads inevitably to Golgotha, from the crib to the cross. The way of the incarnate Son of God leads through the cross and passion to the glory of the resurrection. In his company the way of everyone of us, indeed of all the human race, leads through suffering and death to this same glorious goal.

          Responsorq           Ti 2:11-12

Begotten before the daystar and before all ages, + our Lord and Saviour has appeared in the world today.

V. The grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all, schooling us to reject all impiety and worldly desires, and to live sober, up­right, and godly lives in this world.+ Our Lord and ...

Epiphany, 'They venerated in him what was still to come; we venerate its fulfilment'. Augustine

Monastic Office of Vigils,

Comment on the side - Link to
The exchange with Pope Francis and the Union of Superiors General

Saturday, 04 January 2014 11:27  

Pope Francis & Union of Superiors General

   The exchange with Pope Francis and the Union of Superiors General of Men which took place Nov. 29 last year was published for the first time in the latest edition of La Civiltà Cattolica.

Father Antonio Spadaro, editor-in-chief of the Society of Jesus-owned periodical, was with the 120 superiors general attending the meeting. His 15 page article recounts the free and spontaneous conversation that covered a wide range of issues. (Rome, January 03, 2014 - Zenit.org )

http://www.laciviltacattolica.it/articoli_download/extra/Wake_up_the_world.pdf

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From Epiphany to the Baptism of the Lord

TUESDAY Year II

First Reading

Isaiah    55:1-13

Responsorv          Is 55:4-5; Tb 13:14

I have set him as a witness to the peoples, as leader and teacher of all nations. + You shall summon a nation unknown to you, and nations that did not know you shall run to you.

V. The nations will come to you from afar. They will come bearing gifts to worship the Lord. + You shall summon ...

Second Reading

From a sermon by Saint Augustine of Hippo
(Sermo 203: PL 38, 1035-1037)

We venerate the fulfilment

The Redeemer of all nations was manifested, and so he has made a feast day for all nations. As this is the day on which he is believed to have been worshiped by the Magi, it seemed only right, was indeed right and just, that the nations should dedicate it to Christ the Lord with a solemn service of thanksgiving. Those Magi, the first Gentiles to recognizes Christ the Lord, had not yet been moved by any word of his, but they followed the star that appeared to them and that spoke visibly, like a heavenly tongue, on behalf of the infant inarticulate Word.

The shepherds, of course, were the firstfruits of the Jews as re­gards faith in Christ and his revelation. Coming from close at hand, they saw him on the very day of his birth. They received the news from angels, whereas the Magi received it from a star. The shepherds heard the words: Glory to God in the highest; for the Magi, the prophecy: The heavens declare the glory of God, was ful­filled. The two of them were like the beginnings of two walls coming from opposite directions, one of the circumcision, the other of  the uncircumcision, and running toward the cornerstone so that he might be their peace, and make the two one.

The shepherds, then, came from nearby to see, and the Magi came from a great distance to worship. This is the humility for which the wild olive deserved to be grafted into the cultivated one and to produce olives contrary to its nature, since grace enabled it to change its nature. For like the wild olive the whole world had grown wild and bitter, but by the grace of ingrafting it became fertile. People come from the ends of the earth saying in the words of Jeremiah: Truly our ancestors to worshiped lies. And they come not just from one part of the world but, as the gospel according to Luke says, from east and west, north and south to sit at table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

The Magi, the firstfruits of the Gentiles, came to see and worship Christ, and were found worthy not only to receive their own salvation but also to be a sign of the salvation of all nations. Let us then celebrate this day with the greatest devotion, worshiping the Lord Jesus in his heavenly dwelling, who was worshiped by those firstfruits of ours as he lay in an inn. They venerated in him what was still to come; we venerate its fulfilment. The firstfruits of the nations worshiped him at his mother's breast; now the nations worship him seated at the right hand of God the Father.

Responsory

This is a glorious day on which the Saviour of the world appeared, whom the prophets foretold, and the angels adored. + When they saw his star the wise men rejoiced and offered him gifts.

V. God's holy day has dawned for us: Let all nations come and worship the Lord. + When they saw.

  

Epiphany to the Baptism of the Lord, Monastic Office of Vigils,

COMMENT: Sermon in the Chapter House on monastic observance and asceticism.

Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar enter the Crib

 JULIAN OF VEZELAY** (1080 - 1160): ... Julian of Vezelay was a Benedictine monk noted for the sermons he gave in the chapterhouse of his monastery to stimulatemonastic observance and asceticism. ...

FideCogitActio : omnis per gratiam: Wisdom from... [January 14]

veniaminov.blogspot.com/2008/01/wisdom-from-january-14.html‎

After Epiphany to the Baptism of the Lord.

Year II

MONDAY 6^th Jan 2014

First Reading    Isaiah 54:1-17

Responsory   Is 54:8.10; 43:11

With an everlasting love I have had compassion on you, says the Lord your Redeemer. + My mercy will not leave you, and my cove­nant of peace will not be changed.

V. I am the Lord, there is no savior but me, says the Lord. + My mercy will ...

Second Reading

From a sermon by Julian of Vezelay (Sermon 11: SC 192, 80-85)

Imitate the faith of the magi and follow their path

Herod is troubled, the prince of this world is troubled, when they learn that a heaven-appointed king has been born. Herod hides his resentment, however, and pledges his homage. Guided by the star, the magi reach Bethlehem. They enter the house, which they recognize by the pointing star that stands over the place where the child was. They find the child with his mother, but a mother who is a virgin. "His mother": but who is meant by "his"? The one who had neither father nor mother, the one who had both a Father and a mother: where he had a Father, he did not have a mother; where he had a mother; he did not have a father. Here is a marvel for the human beings for whose sake God is born and dies a man!

The magi fell down and worshiped him. Do you do likewise? The magi, experts in divine worship, teach you how you are to worship God. Luke says: They fell down and worshiped him. But that is not how you act: rather, when you enter the house of prayer, the house in which we pray to Jesus, you immediately collapse or sit down, overpowered by your idleness or negligence as by a heavy load; then, carelessly, or even eagerly, you settle yourself not for prayer but for sleep. Not only do you not kneel for prayer, but you yawn and scratch yourself, and you cast your wandering gaze now up, now down. As for the  prayers themselves - if they are to be called prayers - and the psalms, you run through them so quickly that you cut the verses short by half.

Yet Solomon had knelt on both knees when, after the temple had been completed, this unwearying petitioner poured out his lengthy prayer. As for David, even though his knees were weakened through fasting and his flesh was changed because of the oil (oil being the supreme luxury which that temperate king allowed himself!), he says that when he prayed, his soul was humbled to the dust and his belly clung to the earth. He prostrated himself in adoration: Come, he says, let us adore and fall down ... before the Lord.

If it seems to you too difficult to imitate kings, who prayed so devoutly and fervently amid the cares and agitation of the court, then imitate at least the magi, who fell down and worshiped him. That was how the devil had wanted the Lord to worship him, when he said to him, after showing him the glory of the world: All these will I  give you if you will fall down and worship me.

The text goes on to say: Opening their treasures, they offered him gifts. Think of the wonderful faith of the magi: they saw before them an infant wrapped in rags and lying in an unworthy inn that was probably a wretched shack; they saw a mother clothed in the cheap garments of the people, her reputation further blackened because of the work done by her carpenter husband; they saw, finally, the carpenter himself, unkempt from his manual toil and labor as a carpenter, and yet called the father of so mighty a king. The magi saw all this, and yet they did not lose heart nor think that they had journeyed foolishly and in vain; they did not even think to themselves: "Is this poor infant, this child of the people, to become the King of the Jews? Was it for such a child that we have travelled this long road? How shall so poor, humble, and lowly a child rise to royal honours? We regret our toil, we are disgusted with our journey. Let us at least take back with us the gifts we brought."

The magi entertained none of these thoughts. Instead, made certain by the grace given them of the royal and divine majesty of the child, they fell humbly down and adored, and then opened their treasures and joyfully offered gold, frankincense, and myrrh.           

Saint Bede (Hom.l,6: CCL 122, 440-42) God in the Inn

Monastic Office of Vigils

A Word in Season, Readings for the Liturgy of the Hours,
New Edition, Augustinian Press 2001.

CHRISTMAS SEASON From from 1^st Jan to Epiphany

WEDNESDAY  Year II (4^th January 2014, Saturday)

First Reading    Song of Songs 6:2 -7:10

Responsory                 Sg 6:3.7.10; Ps 85:11

You are beautiful, my beloved, sweet and lovely as Jerusalem. + My beloved belongs to me and I to him.

V. Kindness and truth have met; justice and peace have embraced. + My beloved belongs ...

Second Reading     From a homily by Saint Bede of England (Hom.l,6: CCL 122, 440-42)

God in the inn

While they were there, Luke says, the time came for her to be deliv­ered, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. The Lord is said to be her firstborn not because we should believe that the blessed Mother of God had other children afterward, since it is well known that she and Joseph lived their whole lives together in chastity: but because he is rightly called the firstborn of those of whom John says: To as many as received him he gave power to become children of God. Among these children he naturally holds the first place, since even before his birth as a human being he had an eternal birth as the Son of God. He came down to earth, shared in our nature, and gave us a share in his grace, so that he might be, as the apostle says, the first-born of a large family.

And she wrapped him, says scripture, in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them at the inn. Beloved, this should make us' reflect upon our Redeemer's great condescension and say, each one of us, from the bottom of our hearts: How can I repay the Lord for all he has done for me? For he of whom we rightly sing: Great is the Lord and worthy of all praise: his greatness cannot be measured has for us been born as a small child so that we who were small might through rebirth become great or in other words, so that we who were sinners might become righteous. He who is seated in heaven at the right hand of God the Father went without a room at the inn in order to give us many joyful rooms in the house of his Father. He who has adorned with great diversity every creature, whether invisible in the heavens or visible upon earth, and in his state of majesty is himself, as the prophet says, wrapped in light as in a robe when he assumed, our weakness covered with poor clothes in order to restore the best robe to us, or in other words, to give us back again, in his mercy, the immortality we had received in our first parent. He through whom all things were made wished his hands and feet, indeed the whole body he had assumed to be wrapped in swaddling clothes, in order to dispose our hands to do good works, to guide our feet into the ways of peace, and to consecrate every part of our bodies to God's service. He whom all the heavens cannot contain was confined in a poor little manger in order to confer upon us the spaciousness of heavenly habitations. And it was surely in to­ken of a special mystery that he chose to be born in a stable where animals come to feed, for thus he already gave us to un­derstand that all believers were to be fed at the holy table where these same mysteries of his incarnation would be celebrated.

Responsorv

O king of heaven - what strange honors are paid to you! +You contain the whole world, yet you are lodged in a stable.

V. You reign in the heavens, yet you lie in a manger. + You contain the ...