View Full Version : Lent 2010
Ash Wednesday The time has now come in the Church year for the solemn observance of the great central act of history, the redemption of the human race by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In the Roman Rite, the beginning of the forty days of penance is marked with the austere symbol of ashes which is used in today's liturgy. The use of ashes is a survival from an ancient rite according to which converted sinners submitted themselves to canonical penance. The Alleluia and the Gloria are suppressed until Easter.
Fasting and Abstinence: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are obligatory days of universal fast and abstinence. Fasting is obligatory for all who have completed their 18th year and have not yet reached their 60th year. Fasting allows a person to eat one full meal. Two smaller meals may be taken, not to equal one full meal. Abstinence (from meat) is obligatory for all who have reached their 14th year.
If possible, the fast on Good Friday is continued until the Easter Vigil (on Holy Saturday night) as the "paschal fast" to honor the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus, and to prepare ourselves to share more fully and to celebrate more readily his Resurrection.
Fridays in Lent are obligatory days of complete abstinence (from meat) for all who have completed their 14th year.
Stational Church
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Ash Wednesday
At the beginning of Lent, on Ash Wednesday, ashes are blessed during Mass, after the homily. The blessed ashes are then "imposed" on the faithful as a sign of conversion, penance, fasting and human mortality. The ashes are blessed at least during the first Mass of the day, but they may also be imposed during all the Masses of the day, after the homily, and even outside the time of Mass to meet the needs of the faithful. Priests or deacons normally impart this sacramental, but instituted acolytes, other extraordinary ministers or designated lay people may be delegated to impart ashes, if the bishop judges that this is necessary. The ashes are made from the palms used at the previous Passion Sunday ceremonies. — Ceremonies of the Liturgical Year, Msgr. Peter J. Elliott
The act of putting on ashes symbolizes fragility and mortality, and the need to be redeemed by the mercy of God. Far from being a merely external act, the Church has retained the use of ashes to symbolize that attitude of internal penance to which all the baptized are called during Lent. — Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy
From the very early times the commemoration of the approach of Christ's passion and death was observed by a period of self-denial. St. Athanasius in the year 339 enjoined upon the people of Alexandria the 40 days' fast he saw practiced in Rome and elsewhere, "to the end that while all the world is fasting, we who are in Egypt should not become a laughing stock as the only people who do not fast but take our pleasure in those days." On Ash Wednesday in the early days, the Pope went barefoot to St. Sabina's in Rome "to begin with holy fasts the exercises of Christian warfare, that as we do battle with the spirits of evil, we may be protected by the help of self-denial."
— Daily Missal of the Mystical Body
Things to Do:
•Go with your family to receive ashes at Mass today. Leave them on your forehead as a witness to your faith. Here is a Lenten reflection http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=537 on the meaning of the ashes on Ash Wednesday. If you have children, you may want to share this with them in terms that they can understand.
•Today parents should encourage their children to reflect upon what regular penances they will perform throughout this season of Lent. Ideally, each member of the family should choose his own personal penance as well as some good act that he will perform (daily spiritual reading, daily Mass, extra prayers, almsgiving, volunteer work, housecleaning, etc.), and the whole family may wish to give up one thing together (TV, movies, desserts) or do something extra (family rosary, Holy Hour, Lenten Alms Jar) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=112.
•The use of Sacrifice Beans http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=295 may help children to keep track of their Lenten penances. Some families begin this activity (with undyed beans!) on Ash Wednesday and then use the collected beans to cook a penitential bean dish for Good Friday at the end of Lent.
•Here is a Lenten prayer http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=176 that the family may pray every night from Ash Wednesday to the first Saturday in Lent, to turn the family's spiritual focus towards this holy season.
•Read the Holy Father's 2010 Message for Lent. http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=9245
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Stational churches http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1056 are the churches that are appointed for special morning and evening services during Lent, Easter and some other important days. The tradition started in order to strengthen the sense of community within the Church in Rome, as this system meant that the Holy Father would visit each part of the city and celebrate Mass with the congregation.
The first stational church during Lent is St. Sabina at the Aventine. It was built in the 5th century, presumably at the site of the original Titulus Sabinae, a church in the home of Sabina who had been martyred c. 114. The tituli were the first parish churches in Rome. St Dominic lived in the adjacent monastery for a period soon before his death in 1221. Among other residents of the monastery were St Thomas Aquinas.
Visit "Station Churches", a Lenten Journey by Fr. Bill http://www.mostholyname.org/stationchurches/ for more information about stational churches.
RECIPES
Fritatta Sardegna (Omelet Sardinian) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1075
Oeufs ŕ la Mistral (Baked Eggs) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1078
Pain Doré (Golden Toast) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1083
Dark Rye Bread
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1082
Herb Omelet III
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1077
Old-Fashioned Johnnycake http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1084
Ricotta Omelet
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1080
Scrambled Eggs and Cheese http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1074
Scrambled Eggs with Mushrooms http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1079
Scrambled Eggs with Shrimps http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1076
ACTIVITIES
A Two-Fold Theme: Baptism and Penance http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1011
Ash Wednesday
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=537
Ash Wednesday Pretzels: Fastenbrezel http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=546
Attende Domine - Hear, O Lord http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1023
Examination of Conscience http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=423
Family Chart
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1018
Farewell to Alleluia
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=187
Lenten Alms Jar
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=112
Lenten Customs of the Russian Germans http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=823
Lenten Fasting Regulations http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1013
NOW Cross
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1019
Palm Burning Procession for Ash Wednesday http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=370
Personal Program for Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1016
Pretzels for God: Lent and the Pretzel http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=543
Sorrow, Keystone for Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=531
Spirit of Lent, The
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=509
The "Now Cross"
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=174
The Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1017
The Liturgy of Lent
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1015
The Mystery of Lent
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1010
The Precepts of the Church http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1021
The Springtime of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1012
Time for God
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=533
Tuesday-Before-Ash-Wednesday Procession http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=194
Value of Fasting, The
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1009
Why Ashes?
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1020
Why Fasting and Abstinence? http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1014
Why Forty Days?
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1022
The Stational Church
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1056
PRAYERS
Prayer Before a Crucifix
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=175
Prayer from Ash Wednesday to Saturday http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=176
Way of the Cross
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=488
To Keep A True Lent
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=535
Blessing and Distribution of Ashes http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=734
LIBRARY
Ash Wednesday Emphasizes That Life Is a Pilgrimage | Cardinal John O'Connor http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=2760
What Are the Origins of Ash Wednesday and the Use of Ashes? | Fr. William Saunders http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=262
Thursday After Ash Wednesday
Old Calendar: St. Simeon, bishop and martyr; St. Bernadette Soubirous, virgin; St. Flavian, bishop and martyr (Hist)
Yesterday we began Lent. Today we take up our cross and follow Christ. We are presented with a choice, "Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. . . Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him."
In her effort to inspire us with courage for the coming battle, the Church puts heroes before our eyes at the very outset of Lent. The first hero is the soldier George, the station saint. He proved himself mightier than the dragon, a thrilling accomplishment. Christ also is challenging the powers of darkness; He must fight the dragon from hell and crush his head. The same holds for the mystical Christ, the Church. Catechumens, penitents, faithful — all must do battle with the dragon. ...Today the fighting proceeds under the flag and leadership of the solider St. George. It is a battle of life or death. Only he who declares total war on the dragon can hope for life in abundance.
— The Church's Year of Grace
Stational Church
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2010-02-18#station
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St. Simeon
A blood relative of Christ, he was martyred in early apostolic times. Succeeding the apostle James, Simeon, the son of Cleophas, was, it may be said, the first bishop of Jerusalem. Under the Emperor Trajan he was arraigned before Atticus, the governor, on charges of being a Christian and a relative of Jesus. For at a certain period, all descendants of David were apprehended. After enduring all types of torture, he was affixed to a cross, even as His Savior. Those present marveled how a man of such advanced age (he was 120 years old) could so steadfastly and joyously bear the excruciating pains of crucifixion. He died on the 18th of February, 106 A.D.
The siege and the destruction of Jerusalem took place during his episcopacy. He accompanied the Christian community to Pella.
Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch
Things to Do:
•In the spirit of the blind man in today's Gospel and mindful of St. Simeon's joy upon his martyrdom, pray for vision to see the Crucified Christ in all your struggles.
•Saint Josemaria Escriva recommends that the serious Christian carry with him a small crucifix, which he may keep before himself at all times. In your case, this may be the kitchen, the office, the classroom, or any place in which you are fulfilling your duties. When it becomes difficult to persevere, look upon Christ and be reminded of the value of your small trials.
•Read this account of the martyrdom of St. Simeon http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1996&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=139735 by St. Eusebius of Caesarea.
•If you are interested in genealogy you might like to read about the genealogy of Christ at New Advent. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06410a.htm
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St. Flavian
St. Flavian was patriarch of Constantinople, and he was hated by the Emperor Theodosius II's chancellor, partly because he would not give Church money to the Emperor. In 448, St. Flavian held a synod that condemned the abbot Eutyches for denying that Jesus Christ had two distinct natures, a denial that was the beginning of the Monophysite heresy. Eutyches then appealed to Pope St. Leo I, but the Pope sustained the decision and wrote his famous "Leo's Tome" to St. Flavian, a letter expounding the orthodox position on the matter. The Emperor called another council at Ephesus in 449, which St. Leo later called a "robber synod." Conducted in open violence, it unjustly deposed St. Flavian and Eusebius, Eutyches' accuser in 448. St. Flavian was beaten so severely that he died days later in his place of exile. In 451 the Council of Chalcedon vindicated St. Flavian, reinstated Eusebius and exiled the Bishop of Alexandria, who had supported the heresy. St. Pulcheria had St. Flavian's body brought back to Constantinople and buried with those of his predecessors.
Excerpted from Saints Calendar & Daily Planner by Tan Books
Things to Do:
•Read more about St. Flavian at EWTN.
http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/FLAVIAN.HTM
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St. Bernadette
Born to a very poor family on January 7, 1844, she suffered severely from asthma and was such a poor student she was delayed from making her First Holy Communion until 1858, when she was 14. On February 11 of that year, the first of her visions took place as she was gathering firewood along the river Gave. This drama is known to most Catholics as the Apparition at Lourdes.
On March 25, 1858, the Blessed Virgin appeared for the last time and identified herself as the "Immaculate Conception." With these words the Mother of God confirmed the pious belief which Pope Pius IX, 4 years earlier, had raised to the dignity of a dogma of the infallible Church.
The Sisters of Nevers, who operated a school at Lourdes, were later entrusted with Bernadette's care, and when she was 22, was admitted to their order. She spent the rest of her days there, a short distance from Lourdes. After suffering heroically for years from tuberculosis of the bone in the right knee, including several complications, she died a holy death on April 15, 1879.
The body was first exhumed 30 years after her death. On September 2, 1909, in the presence of representatives appointed by the postulators of the cause, 2 doctors, and the sister of the community, the coffin was removed by workmen from the place where it was intombed. On opening the lid, they discerned no odor and the virginal body lay exposed, completly victorious over the laws of nature.
The arms and face were completly unaffected from corruption and had maintained their natural skin tone. The teeth were barely visible through her slightly parted lips. The rosary in her hands had become rusty, and the crucifix was coated with verdigris.
The sisters, with the best of intentions, thoroughly washed the body and reclothed it in a new religious habit before placing it in a new casket. After the official documents pertaining to the exhumation were placed beside the body, and the double casket officially sealed, the remains were again placed in the tomb.
The second exhumation took place at the end of the Process on April 3, 1919. The body of the Venerable was found in the same state of preservation as 10 years earlier, except that the face was slightly discolored, due to the washing it had undergone during the first exhumation. A worker in wax who was experienced in such duties applied a coating to the face of the Saint who had been dead 40 years.
This sacred relic was placed in a coffin of gold and glass and can be viewed in the Chapel of Saint Bernadette at the motherhouse in Nevers.
Things to Do:
•See the following websites for more information about
St. Bernadette and the apparitions at Lourdes:
A Biography of St. Bernadette - by Dan Paulos
http://www.nmia.com/~paulos/stbernadette.html
Lourdes: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
http://www.nd.edu/~wcawley/corson/lourdes.htm
Our Lady of Lourdes
http://www.indefenseofthecross.com/Lourdes.htm
The Apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes,
http://roystonusanthoniushieronymus.blogspot.com/2008/02/apparition-of-our-lady-of-lourdes.html
Apparitions of St. Bernadette Soubirous
http://www.grottooflourdesemmitsburg.com/docs/apparitions_benadette.pdf
My Name is Bernadette.
http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/BERNLIFE.HTM
•Visit the website of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes
http://www.grottooflourdesemmitsburg.com/%20National%20Shrine
•Visit this website http://www.bernadette-of-lourdes.co.uk/bernadette-of-lourdes.htm for the background of the well-known film The Song of Bernadette
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Today's station is at St. George's. Pope St. Gregory established a diaconia, an institution that cared for the poor, at the site of this church. The area has a special place in the history of Rome, as an ancient tradition claims that it was here that Romulus killed his brother Remus before founding the city.
RECIPES
Lehi Lentils
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1390
PRAYERS
Prayer from Ash Wednesday to Saturday
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=176
Prayer on the Feast of St. Simeon
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1257
Friday after Ash Wednesday Jesus, on seeing a crowd rapidly gathering, rebuked the unclean spirit and said to it, "Mute and deaf spirit, I command you: come out of him and never enter him again!" Shouting and throwing the boy into convulsions, it came out. He became like a corpse, which caused many to say, "He is dead!" But Jesus took him by the hand, raised him, and he stood up. When he entered the house, his disciples asked him in private, "Why could we not drive it out?" He said to them, "This kind can only come out through prayer (Mk 9:25-29)."
The Station today is at St. Balbina's, virgin and martyr (130), the daughter of the tribune and martyr, St. Quirinus. The church is ancient, and was probably built in the 4th century above the house of the consul Lucius Fabius Cilone. The first reference to it is found in a 6th century document, where it is referred to as Sanctae Balbinae. It was consecrated by Pope St. Gregory the Great.
Stational Church
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On Lent
Use Lent to vanquish the enemy, and be thus preparing for Eastertide. Accordingly, dearly-beloved, that we may be able to overcome all our enemies, let us seek Divine aid by the observance of the heavenly bidding, knowing that we cannot otherwise prevail against our adversaries, unless we prevail against our own selves. For we have many encounters with our own selves: the flesh desires one thing against the spirit, and the spirit another thing against the flesh. And in this disagreement, if the desires of the body be stronger, the mind will disgracefully lose its proper dignity, and it will be most disastrous for that to serve which ought to have ruled. But if the mind, being subject to its Ruler, and delighting in gifts from above, shall have trampled under foot the allurements of earthly pleasure, and shall not have allowed sin to reign in its mortal body, reason will maintain a well-ordered supremacy, and its strongholds no strategy of spiritual wickednesses will cast down: because man has then only true peace and true freedom when the flesh is ruled by the judgment of the mind, and the mind is directed by the will of God. And although this state of preparedness, dearly-beloved, should always be maintained that our ever-watchful foes may be overcome by unceasing diligence, yet now it must be the more anxiously sought for and the more zealously cultivated when the designs of our subtle foes themselves are conducted with keener craft than ever. For knowing that the most hollowed days of Lent are now at hand, in the keeping of which all past slothfulnesses are chastised, all negligences alerted for, they direct all the force of their spite on this one thing, that they who intend to celebrate the Lord's holy Passover may be found unclean in some matter, and that cause of offence may arise where propitiation ought to have been obtained.
Fights are necessary to prove our faith. As we approach then, dearly-beloved, the beginning of Lent, which is a time for the more careful serving of the Lord, because we are, as it were, entering on a kind of contest in good works, let us prepare our souls for fighting with temptations, and understand that the more zealous we are for our salvation, the more determined must be the assaults of our opponents. But "stronger is He that is in us than He that is against us," and through Him are we powerful in whose strength we rely: because it was for this that the LORD allowed Himself to be tempted by the tempter, that we might be taught by His example as well as fortified by His aid. For He conquered the adversary, as ye have heard, by quotations from the law, not by actual strength, that by this very thing He might do greater honour to man, and inflict a greater punishment on the adversary by conquering the enemy of the human race not now as God but as Man. He fought then, therefore, that we too might fight thereafter: He conquered that we too might likewise conquer. For there are no works of power, dearly-beloved, without the trials of temptations, there is no faith without proof, no contest without a foe, no victory without conflict. This life of ours is in the midst of snares, in the midst of battles; if we do not wish to be deceived, we must watch: if we want to overcome, we must fight. And therefore the most wise Solomon says, "My son in approaching the service of God prepare thy soul for temptation." For He being a man full of the wisdom of God, and knowing that the pursuit of religion involves laborious struggles, foreseeing too the danger of the fight, forewarned the intending combatant; lest haply, if the tempter came upon him in his ignorance, he might find him unready and wound him unawares.
Excerpted from Sermon 39, Leo the Great
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The station for today is on Mt. Coelius in the basilica which the Christian Senator Pammachius built over the home of the martyrs Sts. John and Paul and which is dedicated to them. Near the church was a hospice where Pammachius dispensed his fortune in charity to the poor.
ACTIVITIES
On how our Work is Love, and how we can work with Christ to save Souls with our Love http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=245
PRAYERS
Prayer from Ash Wednesday to Saturday http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=176
LIBRARY
Christ's Temptations and Ours | Fr. Roger J. Landry http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=5878
Saturday after Ash Wednesday Then he questioned his father, "How long has this been happening to him"? He replied, "Since childhood. It has often thrown him into fire and into water to kill him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." Jesus said to him, " 'If you can!' Everything is possible to one who has faith." Then the boy's father cried out, "I do believe, help my unbelief!" Jesus, on seeing a crowd rapidly gathering, rebuked the unclean spirit and said to it, "Mute and deaf spirit, I command you: come out of him and never enter him again" (Mark 9:21-26)
Stational Church
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Thanks to Fear of the Lord, There is no Fear of Evil
History, in fact, is not alone in the hands of dark powers, chance or human choices. Over the unleashing of evil energies, the vehement irruption of Satan, and the emergence of so many scourges and evils, the Lord rises, supreme arbiter of historical events. He leads history wisely towards the dawn of the new heavens and the new earth, sung in the final part of the book under the image of the new Jerusalem (cf. Revelation 21-22).
It must be reaffirmed, therefore, that God is not indifferent to human events, but penetrates them realizing his "ways," namely his plans and his efficacious "deeds."
According to our hymn, this divine intervention has a very specific purpose: to be a sign that invites all the peoples of the earth to conversion. Nations must learn to "read" in history a message of God. Humanity's history is not confused and without meaning, nor is it given over, without appeal, to the malfeasance of the arrogant and perverse. There is the possibility to recognize divine action hidden in it. In the pastoral constitution "Gaudium et Spes," Vatican Council II also invites the believer to scrutinize, in the light of the Gospel, the signs of the times to see in them the manifestation of the very action of God (cf. n. 4 and 11). This attitude of faith leads man to recognize the power of God operating in history, and thus to open himself to fear of the name of the Lord. In biblical language, in fact, this "fear" does not coincide with dread, but is the recognition of the mystery of the divine transcendence. Because of this, it is the basis of faith and is joined with love: "the Lord your God requires of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul" (cf. Deuteronomy 10:12).
Following this line, in our brief hymn, taken from Revelation, fear and glorification of God are united: "Who will not fear you, Lord, or glorify your name" (15:4)? Thanks to fear of the Lord there is no fear of the evil that rages in history and one takes up again with vigor the journey of life, as the prophet Isaiah declared: "Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak, say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not!'" (Isaiah 35: 3-4).
Excerpted from Thanks to Fear of the Lord, There Is No Fear of Evil http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=6457, Pope Benedict XVI, May 11, 2005
Things to Do:
•Your children may want to spend their Saturday afternoon learning about different local charitable organizations or needy families to whom the alms from the family's Lenten Jar will be given.
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The station for today is at the church dedicated to St. Augustine of Hippo. Michalangelo was one of the artists commissioned for the decoration of the church. The Renaissance façade, one of the first in this style, is built of travertine marble said to be from the ruins of the Colosseum.
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Second Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=178
Sacrifice Beads
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=195
Lent Table Blessing 2
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=684
LIBRARY
Why the Christian Must Deny Himself | Austin G. Murphy http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=2721
First Sunday of Lent
Old Calendar: First Sunday of Lent
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit for forty days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing in those days; and when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." And Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone." And the devil took him up. and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, "To you I will give all this authority and their glory; for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it shall all be yours." And Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve."
Stational Church
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Sunday Readings
The first reading is from Deuteronomy 26: 4-10. In these verses we have the ritual prescribed by Moses for the feast of the harvest thanksgiving. The people once settled in the Promised Land are to show their gratitude to the good God who brought them out of the slavery of Egypt and gave them this good land to be their home.
The second reading is from St. Paul to the Romans 10: 8-13. He is discussing the sad fact that Israel (as a whole) rejected Christ as the promised Messiah and the Son of God.
The Gospel is from St. Luke 5:1-11. Christ's voluntary self-mortification of forty days' fast, with its accompanying temptations, was but part of the self-mortification, with its climax on the Cross, which He gladly underwent for our salvation. He did not need to fast in order to keep the inclinations of the body in subjection, He did not need to allow the insult of temptation. He could have said, "begone Satan" at the beginning as easily and as effectively as be said it at the end. But He willingly underwent this humiliation in order to set us an example and to prove to us the infinite love He bears us and the value, the priceless value, He sets on our eternal salvation. He became like us in all things (except sin) in order to make it possible for us to become like Him—the beloved of his Father—and co-heirs with Him in the kingdom of heaven.
With this example given us by Christ no Christian can or should expect to travel the road to heaven without meeting obstacles and temptations. Our weak human nature is of itself, even without any external tempter, a source of many temptations to us, especially of those three illustrated in the case of Christ. Our body desires all the pleasures and comforts that can be got out of life and resents any curtailment of these desires even on the part of our Creator and Benefactor. Our gifts of intelligence and free-will often tempt most of us to look for power, political or economic, over our fellowmen. We want to be better off than others in this world, when our purpose in life is to help ourselves and our fellowmen to the better life. Finally. so fully occupied are many in the mad rush after pleasure and power that they have no time to devote to the one thing that matters, the attainment of eternal life.
Yet, through some foolish logic of our own, we expect God to do for us what we refuse to do for ourselves. We are tempting God by presuming he will save us if we have deliberately chosen the road to perdition.
There are few, if any, amongst us who can honestly say: "I am free from such inclinations or temptations." The vast majority of us can and should beat our breasts and say with the publican: "O God, be merciful to me a sinner." And merciful he will be if we turn to him with true humility. He may not remove all our temptations, all our wrong inclinations, but he will give us the grace to overcome them if we sincerely seek his aid.
Excerpted from The Sunday Readings by Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.
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The Station today is at St. John Lateran. The Lateran is comprised of the Basilica, the Pontifical Palace and the Baptistry. The church is dedicated to the Christ the Savior. In the fifth century the titles of St. John Baptist and St. John the Evangelist were added. The Papal altar contains the wooden altar on which St. Peter is said to have celebrated Mass. This basilica is the mother of all churches and is the only church which has the title of Archbasilica.
RECIPES
Pease Porridge
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=220
ACTIVITIES
The Kaleidoscope of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=530
PRAYERS
Prayer for the First Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=177
Memorial of St. Polycarp of Smyrna, bishop and martyr
Old Calendar: St. Peter Damian, bishop and doctor
St. Polycarp of Smyrna, was converted to Christianity by St. John the Evangelist. He was a disciple of the apostles and friend of St. Ignatius of Antioch. He was ordained bishop of Smyrna (now Izmir, Turkey) and was about eighty-six when the Roman pro-consul urged him to renounce Christ and save his life. St. Polycarp said, "For eighty-six years I have served Him and he has never wronged me. How can I renounce the King who has saved me?" He suffered martyrdom in 155 by burning at the stake in the amphitheater of Smyrna.
According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. Peter Damian. His feast in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite is celebrated on February 21. St. Polycarp's feast is observed on January 26.
Stational Church
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St. Polycarp of Smyrna
Polycarp had known those who had known Jesus, and was a disciple of St. John the Apostle, who had converted him around the year 80 AD. He taught, says his own pupil Irenaeus of Lyons, the things that he learned from the Apostles, which the Church hands down, which are true. Irenaeus, who as a young boy knew Polycarp, praised his gravity, holiness, and majesty of countenance. He had lived near Jerusalem and was proud of his early associations with the Apostles.
Polycarp became bishop of Smyrna and held the see for about 70 years. He was a staunch defender of orthodoxy and an energetic opponent of heresy, especially Marcionism and Valentinianism (the most influential of the Gnostic sects). Toward the end of his life he visited Pope St. Anicetus in Rome and, when they could not agree on a date for Easter, decided each would observe his own date. To testify his respect and ensure that the bonds of charity were unbroken, Anicetus invited Polycarp to celebrate the Eucharist in the papal chapel on this occasion. Polycarp suffered martyrdom with 12 others of his flock around the year 156.
Excerpted from St. Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr by Fr. Paul Haffner (Inside the Vatican, February 2004)
Among the select few from apostolic times about whom we have some historical information is Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna and one of the most glorious martyrs of Christian antiquity. His life and death are attested by the authentic "Acts" of his martyrdom (no similar account is older), as well as by other contemporary writings. It moves us deeply when, for example, we find in St. Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp, the passage in which he reminisces:
"The memory of that time when as a youth I was with Polycarp in Asia Minor is as fresh in my mind as the present. Even now I could point to the place where he sat and taught, and describe his coming and going, his every action, his outward appearance, and his manner of discourse to the people. It seems as though I still heard him tell of his association with the apostle John and with others who saw the Lord, and as though he were still relating to me their words and what he heard from them about the Lord and His miracles. . . ."
On the day of his death (February 23) the Martyrology recounts with deep reverence:
"At Smyrna, the death of St. Polycarp. He was a disciple of the holy apostle John, who consecrated him bishop of that city; and there he acted as the primate of all Asia Minor. Later, under Marcus Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, he was brought before the tribunal of the proconsul; and when all the people in the amphitheater cried out against him, he was handed over to be burned to death. But since the fire caused him no harm, he was put to death by the sword. Thus he gained the crown of martyrdom. With him, twelve other Christians, who came from Philadelphia, met death by martyrdom in the same city."
Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch.
Patron: Against ear ache, dysentery.
Things to Do:
•Read the Golden Legend
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/golden332.htm account of the life of St. Polycarp http://faithofthefathersearlychurchfathers.blogspot.com/2005/08/saint-polycarp-of-smyrna.html and this life of St. Polycarp from The Early Church Fathers website. Read an account of his martyrdom. http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/stp13001.htm
•Read St. Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians. http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/stp13002.htm
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At Rome, the Station is in the church of St. Anastasia, where, formerly, the Mass of the Aurora on Christmas Day was celebrated. The first church was built in the late 3rd or early 4th century, and was one of the first parish churches of ancient Rome. It was given by a woman called Anastasia and called titulus Anastasiae after her. Later, it was dedicated to a martyr of the same name.
RECIPES
Baklava with Cream Filling http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1579
Red Lentil Soup
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1581
Turkish Delight
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1580
ACTIVITIES
Namedays
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=208
What is a Nameday? http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1026
PRAYERS
Prayer for the First Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=177
Lent Table Blessing 1
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=683
LIBRARY
The Epistle Of Polycarp To The Philippians | St. Polycarp of Smyrna http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=3834
Wednesday of the First Week of Lent
Old Calendar: St. Matthias, apostle
While still more people gathered in the crowd, he said to them, "This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here (Lk 11:29-32).
Stational Church
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Meditation - The Faults of Our Neighbor
In disagreements between you and your neighbor, you must always remember that to be in the right is the consideration that influences a Christian the least. The philosopher may indulge such a satisfaction. But to be in the right and to act as if one were not, to allow one's opponent to triumph on the side of injustice,this means to overcome evil by good, and to secure peace for one's soul. No more convincing argument for your own vindication is required than the silent exterior acknowledgment that you are in the wrong. He who edifies does more for the truth than he who is zealous for the combat. Instead of trying to refute those that are in the wrong, it is better to pray for them. A stream flows much more rapidly when nothing is done to hold it back. Pray for those who are prejudiced against you, never become embittered against them, pity them, await their return to better feelings, and help to free them from their prejudices. One would not be human if he does not feel how easy it is to stray, and how much it costs to acknowledge this. The spirit of meekness, of indulgence, of patience and humility in examining the behavior of others toward us, secures us that peace of mind which is not compatible with the jealous, suspicious sensibilities of self-love. — Fénelon
Things to Do:
•Read this thought-provoking article by George Rutler, Why We Need Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=4110, to understand why such a season of mortification is necessary for us to become saints.
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Today's Station is at St. Mary Major. The spring Ember Week consecrated the new season to God and by prayer and fasting sought to obtain abundant graces for those who on Saturday were to receive Holy Orders. The Station was fittingly held in the church, which witnessed the first scrutinies for the coming ordinations, and which was dedicated to the mother of the great High Priest.
Thursday of the First Week of Lent
Old Calendar: St. Walburga, abbess (Hist)
Historically today is the feast of St. Walburga, sister of Sts. Willibald and Winebald. She became a nun at Wimborne in Dorset under St. Tatta and followed St. Lioba to Germany at the invitation of St. Boniface. She died abbess of Hiedenheim, whence her relics were translated to Eichstatt.
Stational Church
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St. Walburga
St. Walburga was born around 710. She is the daughter of St. Richard and the niece of St. Boniface. When St. Richard set out for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with his sons, Ss. Willibald & Winibald, he entrusted 11 year old Walburga to the monastery school at Wimborne. She remained as a nun, spending a total of 26 years there.
When St. Boniface put out an appeal for nuns to help him in the evangelization of Germany, St. Walburga answered the call. On the way to Germany, there was a terrible storm at sea. Walburga knelt on the deck of the ship and prayed. The sea immediately became calm. Some sailors witnessed this and spread the word that she was a wonderworker, so she was received in Germany with great respect.
At first, she lived at Bischofsheim, under the rule of St. Lioba. Then she was made abbess at Heidenheim, near to where her brother, Winibald served as an abbot over a men's monastery. After his death, she ruled both monasteries. She worked many miracles in the course of her ministry. She wrote a biography of her brother, Winibald, and of Willibald's travels in Palestine, in Latin. She is regarded as the first woman author in both England and Germany.
On September 23, 776, she assisted Willibald in translating the uncorrupt relics of their brother, Winibald, to a new tomb in the church at Heidenheim. Shortly after this, she fell ill. Willibald cared for her until she died on February 25, 777, then placed her next to Winibald in the tomb.
After St. Willibald's death in 786, people gradually forgot St. Walburga and the church fell into disrepair. In 870, Bishop Oktar was having Heidenheim restored. Some workmen desecrated Walburga's grave. She appeared in a dream to the bishop, who then translated her relics to Eichstadt. In 893, St. Walburga's body was found to be immersed in a mysterious sweet-smelling liquid. It was found to work miraculous healings. The liquid, called St. Walburga's oil, has flowed from her body, ever since, except for a brief period when the church was put under the interdict after robbers shed the blood of a bell-ringer in the church. Portions of St. Walburga's relics have taken to several other cities and her oil to all parts of the world.
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The Station today is at St. Lawrence in Panisperna. The church stands on the site of St. Lawrence's martyrdom. The appellation refers to the name of the street, which in turn most likely refers to the tradition of the Poor Clares in the adjacent convent of distributing bread and ham (pane e perna) on August 10th, the feast day of St. Lawrence. This is done in remembrance of St. Lawrence distributing funds from the church to the poor.
Friday of the First Week of Lent
Old Calendar: Saint Porphyrius, bishop (Hist)
Historically today is the feast of St. Porphyrius, a wealthy Greek who became a hermit first in the desert of Skete in Egypt and then in Palestine on the banks of the Jordan. Much against his will he was raised to the see of Gaza, which he ruled with extraordinary energy, ability and success. He almost completely uprooted the remnants of paganism in his diocese. His biography written by his deacon Mark is one of the most valuable historical sources of the fifth century.
Stational Church
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Saint Porphyrius
Saint Porphyrius, Archbishop of Gaza, was born about the year 346 at Thessalonica. His parents were people of substance, and this allowed St Porphyrius to receive a fine education. Having the inclination for monastic life, he left his native region at twenty-five years of age and set off for Egypt, where he lived in the Nitrian desert under the guidance of St Macarius the Great (January 19). There he also met St Jerome (June 15), who was then visiting the Egyptian monasteries. He went to Jerusalem on pilgrimage to the holy places, and to venerate the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord (September 14), then he moved into a cave in the Jordanian wilderness for prayer and ascetic deeds.
After five years, St Porphyrius was afflicted with a serious malady of the legs. He decided to go to the holy places of Jerusalem to pray for healing. As he lay half-conscious at the foot of Golgotha, St Porphyrius fell into a sort of trance. He beheld Jesus Christ descending from the Cross and saying to him, "Take this Wood and preserve it."
Coming out of his trance, he found himself healthy and free from pain. Then he gave away all his money to the poor and for the adornment of the churches of God. For a time he supported himself by working as a shoemaker. The words of the Savior were fulfilled when the saint was forty-five years old. The Patriarch of Jerusalem ordained St Porphyrius to the holy priesthood and appointed him custodian of the Venerable Wood of the Cross of the Lord.
In 395 the bishop of the city of Gaza (in Palestine) died. The local Christians went to Caesarea to ask Metropolitan John to send them a new bishop who would be able to contend against the pagans, which were predominant in their city and were harassing the Christians there. The Lord inspired the Metropolitan to summon the priest Porphyrius. With fear and trembling the ascetic accepted the office of bishop, and with tears he prostrated himself before the Life-Creating Wood and went to fulfill his new obedience.
In Gaza there were only three Christian churches, but there were a great many pagan temples and idols. During this time there had been a long spell without rain, causing a severe drought. The pagan priests brought offerings to their idols, but the woes did not cease. St Porphyrius imposed a fast for all the Christians; he then served an all-night Vigil, followed by a church procession around the city. Immediately the sky covered over with storm clouds, thunder boomed, and abundant rains poured down. Seeing this miracle, many pagans cried out, "Christ is indeed the only true God!" As a result of this, 127 men, thirty-five women and fourteen children were united to the Church through Holy Baptism, and another 110 men soon after this.
The pagans continued to harass the Christians. They passed them over for public office, and burdened them with taxes. St Porphyrius and Metropolitan John of Caesarea journeyed to Constantinople to seek redress from the emperor. St John Chrysostom (September 14, January 27 and 30) received them and assisted them.
Ss. John and Porphyrius were presented to the empress Eudoxia who was expecting a child at that time. "Intercede for us," said the bishops to the empress, "and the Lord will send you a son, who shall reign during your lifetime". Eudoxia very much wanted a son, since she had given birth only to daughters. Through the prayer of the saints an heir was born to the imperial family. As a result of this, the emperor issued an edict in 401 ordering the destruction of pagan temples in Gaza and the restoration of privileges to Christians. Moreover, the emperor gave the saints money for the construction of a new church, which was to be built in Gaza on the site of the chief pagan temple.
St Porphyrius upheld Christianity in Gaza to the very end of his life, and guarded his flock from the vexatious pagans. Through the prayers of the saint numerous miracles and healings occurred. The holy archpastor guided his flock for twenty-five years, and reposed in 420 at an advanced age.
http://molonlabe70.blogspot.com/2008/02/st-porphyrius-bishop-of-gaza.html
Things to Do:
•Learn more about St. Porphyrius at A Second Sampson—St Porphyrius of Gaza http://logismoitouaaron.blogspot.com/2009/03/second-sampsonst-porphyrius-of-gaza.html and also read Deacon Mark's biography, The life of Porphyry, bishop of Gaza. http://www.archive.org/details/lifeofporphyrybi00marcrich
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Today's station is at the Church of the Twelve Apostles. Traditionally, this is the place where the Romans choose their candidates for priesthood (Rite of Election). It was erected by Julius I (337-352) over the barracks of ancient Rome's firemen and entrusted since 1463 to the Conventual Franciscans. Originally dedicated to the Apostl
RECIPES
Vdolky (Bohemian Pan Cakes) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1237
Whole Wheat Bread
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=207
PRAYERS
Lenten Psalm
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=111
Saturday of the First Week of Lent
Old Calendar: St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, confessor
Now Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am"? They said in reply, "John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets." And he asked them, "But who do you say that I am"? Peter said to him in reply, "You are the Messiah." Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him (Mark 8:27-30).
Stational Church
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St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows
On Ascension Day, 1920, Pope Benedict XV bestowed the honors of sainthood on a youth who is rightly called the Aloysius of the 19th century. He was Francis Possenti, known in religion as Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother.
Born in Assisi, January 3, 1838, he was given the name of the city's illustrious patron, St. Francis, at baptism. As a student in neighboring Spoleto, he led a good though rather worldly kind of life until God drew him closer to Himself through an illness. The decisive step was taken while seeing the highly honored miraculous picture of our Lady in Spoleto borne about in solemn procession. As his eyes followed our Blessed Mother, Francis felt the fire of divine love rising in his heart and almost at once made the resolve to join the Passionists, a religious congregation dedicated to the veneration of and meditation on the passion of Jesus Christ (1856).
After overcoming many difficulties, he carried out his resolution and received the religious name, Gabriel of the Mother of Sorrows. Even as a novice, he was regarded as a model of perfect holiness both within and beyond the cloister.
Saint Gabriel did not stand out from his community in any extraordinary way — his heroism lay in his obedient attitude. He conformed himself to his community in complete humility. Little is known of his life - only that he was blessed with an excellent memory and other gifts that made him an outstanding student. He also had a great devotion to the Passion of Christ and the Sorrows of Mary. Pius X and Leo XIII especially desired that he be the patron saint of young people and novices in religious orders, as their model in the interior life. He died in the year 1862.
Saint Gabriel Possenti wrote: "Love Mary!... She is loveable, faithful, constant. She will never let herself be outdone in love, but will ever remain supreme. If you are in danger, she will hasten to free you. If you are troubled, she will console you. If you are sick, she will bring you relief. If you are in need, she will help you. She does not look to see what kind of person you have been. She simply comes to a heart that wants to love her. She comes quickly and opens her merciful heart to you, embraces you and consoles and serves you. She will even be at hand to accompany you on the trip to eternity."
Patron: Abruzzi region of Italy; Catholic Action; clerics; students; young people in general.
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The Station is in the basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, where the people would assemble towards evening, that they might be present at the ordination of the priests and sacred ministers. This day was called Twelve-Lesson-Saturday, because, formerly, twelve passages from the holy Scriptures were read, as upon Holy Saturday. Built by Constantine in 323, the basilica was erected over the place where St. Peter was buried.
RECIPES
English Eggs and Bacon
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=52
PRAYERS
Prayer for the First Week of Lent
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=177
Lent Table Blessing 1
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=683
Collect for the Feast of St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=999
LIBRARY
A Strong Sense of the Privilege and Duty of Living in Assisi | Pope Benedict XVI
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=7694
Second Sunday of Lent
Old Calendar: Second Sunday of Lent
Between Moses and Elias Jesus shows forth His divine glory, thus foreshadowing His resurrection. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all things. Today's Mass places before us the transfigured Lord and the model toward Whom we must tend, and our own transfiguration as the goal we must attain. We attain this goal by a profound realization of our sinfulness and need of a Redeemer; by preserving purity of body and soul; by combatting our passions and carnal instincts and observing the commandments and most importantly by participating in the Mass. — Excerpted from Cathedral Daily Missal
Stational Church
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Sunday Readings
The first reading is taken from the book of Genesis 15:5-12; 17-18. God made a Covenant or pact with Abram in which he promised to make Abram the father of a great race to which he would give the land of Canaan as their territory. The faith of Abram is praised because he believed God's promise, I.e. that he would have descendants even though his wife Sarah was barren.
The second reading is from the letter of St. Paul to the Philippians 3:17; 4:1. In the preceding verses St. Paul has been telling his converts that he has given up all earthly things for the sake of the Christian faith and promise. He admits he is far from perfect but he continues to press forward on the road to heaven.
The Gospel is from St. Luke 9:28-36. It was out of the abundance of his divine love that God gave a glimpse of the future glory of Christ in his risen humanity to the three disciples on that memorable occasion. And with Christ he showed two others of his faithful servants also in glory. He understood the human weakness of the disciples, and foresaw the shock to their faith which the sad scenes of the passion and crucifixion of their beloved Master would be some weeks later. So, to strengthen and forearm them for that sad trial, he gave them a glimpse of the future glory which was to be theirs, too. if they persevered.
It is for this same reason that this all-important event in the life of Christ and of his Apostles has been preserved for us in the Gospels and is put before us today.
Like the Apostles, we. too, believe firmly in God. We. too, are convinced that Christ was sent by God to bring us to heaven. We now have much more convincing proof that Christ was not only the Messiah, an envoy of God, but the very Son of God—something the Apostles did not then understand. But we are still very like them in our human weakness, and in our half-hearted acceptance of God's purpose for and promises to us.
The Apostles had to face the awful test to their faith and trust in God, which the passion and crucifixion of Christ was for them. We now accept with gratitude and realize that Christ "had to suffer and thus enter into his glory." We even understand that the very purpose of Christ's passion was that, in spite of our mortality and weakness, we also might enter into eternal glory through his suffering, on condition that we remain true to our faith.
In our moments of cool, calm reasoning we can see clearly how good God has been to us, how wonderful his love which has arranged for us an eternity of happiness, the perfect fulfillment of every rational human desire. We can also see how little God asks of us during our few short years here, in return for the everlasting happy home he has prepared for us.
But unfortunately we have many moments in life in which cool, calm reasoning does not prevail. We have moments when our vices and not our virtues take charge, moments when we are prepared to sell our eternal heritage in exchange for a mess of earthly pottage. Some of us may already have bartered our heavenly home for some temporal gain or pleasure—but while there is life there is hope. We can still put things right with God.
"Lord, it is good for us to be here"; it is wonderful to be adopted sons of God on the road back to our Father. It is wonderful to be assured that in death this body of ours with its pains and aches, its attraction to earthly things and worse still its propensity to sin, will give place to a glorified body. This glorified body will be free from all pain and corruption and will possess all the human spiritual gifts of intelligence and will to so much greater a degree as will enable us to appreciate and enjoy the eternal happiness in store for us.
Excerpted from The Sunday Readings by Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.
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The Station at Rome is in the church of St. Mary in Dominica, on Monte Celio. Tradition tells us that in this basilica was the diaconicum of which St. Lawrence had charge, and from which he distributed to the poor the alms of the Church.
RECIPES
Fall or Winter Sunday Dinner Menuhttp://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=768
Huevos Rancheros
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=471
ACTIVITIES
How the Devil Tempts Us http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=264
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Second Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=178
Lent Table Blessing 2 http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=684
Monday of the Second Week of Lent
Old Calendar: Wales and England: St. David
Today the Church in Wales and England celebrates the feast of St. David, bishop and patron of Wales. Very little is known about the life of St. David (Dewi Sant). He belonged to that great monastic movement which became influential in Wales in the sixth century and which had links with monasticism in Gaul and in Ireland. The earliest references to David are in the Irish Annals. Many churches across South Wales claim David as their founder. His chief foundation was at Mynyw or Menevia in Dyfed. He was canonized by Pope Callistus II in 1123.
Stational Church
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St. David
All the information we have about David is based on the unreliable eleventh-century biography written by Rhygyfarch, the son of Bishop Sulien of St. David's. According to it David was the son of King Sant of South Wales and St. Non, became a priest, studied under St. Paulinus on an unidentified island for several years, and then engaged in missionary activities, founding some dozen monasteries, the last of which, at Mynyw (Menevia) in southwestern Wales, was noted for the extreme asceticism of its rule, which was based on that of the Egyptian monks. David attended a synod at Brefi, Cardiganshire, in about 550 where his eloquence is said to have caused him to be elected primate of the Cambrian Church with the understanding that the episcopal see would be moved from Caerleon to Mynyw, now St. David's. He was supposedly consecrated archbishop by the patriarch of Jerusalem while on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and a council he convened, called the Synod of Victory because it marked the final demise of Pelagianism, ratified the edicts of Brefi, and drew up regulations for the British Church. He died at his monastery at Mynyw, and his cult was reputedly approved by Pope Callistus II about 1120. Even his birth and death dates are uncertain, ranging from c. 454 to 520 for the former and from 560 to 601 for the latter. — Dictionary of Saints, John J. Delaney
The Station today is at St. Clement's. The oldest level is thought to be the titulus Clementis, one of the first parish churches in Rome, and probably belonged to the family of Titus Flavius Clemens, consul and martyr and a contemporary of Pope St. Clement. Set right next to a pagan temple, a Mithraeum or Temple of Mithras, it was one of the first churches in Rome.
RECIPES
Creamed Leeks with Pimiento http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=304
Leek Soup
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=253
Welsh Leek Soup
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=30
ACTIVITIES
Namedays
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=208
What is a Nameday? http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1026
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Second Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=178
Lent Table Blessing 2 http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=684
Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Lent (2nd Plan) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=746
Collect for the Feast of St. David http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1001
Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent Lent should be seen not only as a season in preparation for the Passover of Our Lord Jesus, but also as a time and a path of grace, as we make our way, amidst temptation and struggle with sin, towards the encounter with the glory of the Risen Lord, as a river flows towards its sea. The river, not yet sea, will one day become the sea.
The Lord asks us to follow him at all times, but especially when the cross is heavy. We cannot receive everything without emptying ourselves of self: “He called the people and his disciples to him and said, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.'" (Mk 8, 34-35). — Mgr Luciano Alimandi
Stational Church
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The Value of Fasting
Is fasting really worthwhile? Whenever I consider the value of a religious practice, I always look into the earthly life of our Savior. He is our model. He dwelt with us in order to teach us how to form our lives inwardly and outwardly. Christ Himself fasted often and accorded it high praise in His teaching. Recall how He fasted forty days before entering upon His work of teaching. At the beginning of Lent the Church wishes to stamp this fact deep in our hearts: our fasting must be in union with and in imitation of Christ's.
I call to mind the mystery-laden, pregnant words spoken by our Savior when the disciples, unable to cure a possessed boy, asked, "Why could we not cast him out?," and Jesus answered, "This kind can be driven out in no way except by prayer and fasting" (Mark 9:29). This reply has always made the deepest impression on me. Prayer and fasting are extraordinary means (we may call them violent means) when other simpler ways are of no avail against the powers of hell.
Now another saying of Jesus comes to mind. When John's disciples began to reproach Him, "Why do Your disciples not fast?," He replied: "Can you make the wedding guests fast as long as the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; in those days they will fast" (Luke 5:35). There is a hidden depth of meaning in these words. The coming of Christ among men was a wedding feast. Fasting had no place. But it is most proper to fast when the divine Bridegroom is taken away. Fasting on Fridays and during Holy Week, then, is in accord with Christ's own wishes.
I should like to cite one further passage from the Gospel, one which casts light on fasting from another direction. Once our Savior compared Himself with the Baptist in these words, "John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, `He has a devil!' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, `Behold a glutton and a wine drinker.'" John was a man devoted to penance, an ascetic, who fasted throughout his life. Not so Christ. His way of living was not based exclusively upon self-denial and mortification, but upon an ordered enjoyment of life. So we learn from the Savior that fasting should be the exception, not the rule, in Christian morality.
To complete the lesson let us consider for a moment the passage in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus speaks of the three important pious exercises of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. He highly recommends all three, but warns against practicing these virtues in a pharisaical manner.
The main points in Jesus' doctrine on fasting, then, are:
1.Fasting is an extremely important means of resisting the inroads of hell (hence Lent).
2.Fasting should be practiced as a memorial of Christ's death (Friday, Holy Week).
3.Fast days occur by way of exception in Christian life, they are not the normal practice.
4.Fasting holds a place alongside prayer and almsgiving as a pious exercise.
Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch
The Station today is at St. Balbina's, virgin and martyr (130), the daughter of the tribune and martyr, St. Quirinus. The church is ancient, and was probably built in the 4th century above the house of the consul Lucius Fabius Cilone. The first reference to it is found in a 6th century document, where it is referred to as Sanctae Balbinae. It was consecrated by Pope St. Gregory the Great.
RECIPES
Almond Milk Frumenty
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=41
ACTIVITIES
Dramatics at Home for Elementary Children http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=36
Importance of Liturgy during Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=529
Lenten Calendar
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=942
Lenten Candelabra
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=945
Lenten Practices for Children http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=943
Lenten Pretzel
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=204
Lenten Reading Program http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=389
Lenten Sacrifice Beans http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=295
Motivating Children to Perform Good Deeds http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=113
Precious Coins: Mortification and Self-Denial http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=532
Sorrow, Keystone for Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=531
Spirit of Lent, The
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=509
Teaching Self-Denial http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=114
The Kaleidoscope of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=530
Time for God
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=533
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Second Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=178
Way of the Cross
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=488
To Keep A True Lent
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=535
Lent Table Blessing 2 http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=684
Eucharistic Stations Of The Cross http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1254
Optional Memorial of St. Katharine Drexel, virgin (USA) Today the dioceses of the United States celebrate the optional memorial of St. Katharine Drexel. Born into a wealthy Philadelphia family, Katharine took an avid interest in the material and spiritual well-being of African and Native Americans. She founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People, and opened mission schools in the West for Native Americans and in the South for African Americans. In 1915 she founded Xavier University in New Orleans. At her death, there were more than 500 sisters teaching in 63 schools.
Stational Church
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St. Katharine Drexel
Katharine Drexel was born in Philadelphia in 1858. She had an excellent education and traveled widely. As a rich girl, she had a grand debut into society. But when she nursed her stepmother through a three-year terminal illness, she saw that all the Drexel money could not buy safety from pain or death, and her life took a profound turn.
She had always been interested in the plight of the Indians, having been appalled by reading Helen Hunt Jackson's A Century of Dishonor. While on a European tour, she met Pope Leo XIII and asked him to send more missionaries to Wyoming for her friend Bishop James O'Connor. The pope replied, "Why don't you become a missionary?" His answer shocked her into considering new possibilities.
Back home, she visited the Dakotas, met the Sioux leader Red Cloud and began her systematic aid to Native American missions.
She could easily have married. But after much discussion with Bishop O'Connor, she wrote in 1889, "The feast of Saint Joseph brought me the grace to give the remainder of my life to the Indians and the Colored." Newspaper headlines screamed "Gives Up Seven Million!"
After three and a half years of training, she and her first band of nuns (Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored) opened a boarding school in Santa Fe. A string of foundations followed. By 1942 she had a system of African American Catholic schools in thirteen states, plus forty mission centers and twenty-three rural schools. Segregationists harassed her work, even burning a school in Pennsylvania. In all, she established fifty missions for Native Americans in sixteen states.
Two saints met when she was advised by Mother Cabrini about the "politics" of getting her order's rule approved in Rome. Her crowning achievement was the founding of Xavier University in New Orleans, the first university in the United States for African Americans.
At seventy-seven, she suffered a heart attack and was forced to retire. Apparently her life was over. But now came almost twenty years of quiet, intense prayer from a small room overlooking the sanctuary. Small notebooks and slips of paper record her various prayers, ceaseless aspirations and meditation. She died at ninety-six and was canonized in 2000.
Excerpted from Saint of the Day, Leonard Foley, O.F.M.
Things to Do:
•St. Katharine had a great love for the Eucharist, the center and source of her activity. Make a family visit to the Blessed Sacrament today.
•St. Katharine became a spiritual mother of African Americans and Native Americans, fighting for equal rights for these neglected ethnic groups. She was particularly concerned with achieving a quality education for these people. Find out about nearby educational programs for underprivileged inner city children (an excellent parent organization concerned with this is Youth Service International) http://www.ysi.org/ and look for ways to support them. If you cannot give any of your time, consider making a small donation.
•St. Katharine grew up in a wealthy home but her parents instilled in her the understanding that her wealth belonged to her only on loan so that she could share it with others. She gave generously and with full trust in God. Do you tithe on a regular basis? Do you encourage your children to be generous with their allowance money?
•Visit this website about Katharine Drexel
http://www.katharinedrexel.org/ that features many photos, a history and information about her shrine.
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The Station is at the church of St. Cecelia where the Saint lived and was martyred and where her body now rests. The first church on the site was built in the 3rd or 5th century, and the baptistery from this church was found during excavations, situated underneath the present Chapel of Relics. A house from the Imperial era was also found, and tradition claims that the church was built over the house in which St Cecilia lived. This house was one of the tituli, the first parish churches of Rome, known as the titulus Ceciliae.
RECIPES
Hopi Corn Stew
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1536
ACTIVITIES
Namedays
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=208
What is a Nameday?
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1026
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Second Week of Lenthttp://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=178
Lent Table Blessing 2
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=684
Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Lent (2nd Plan) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=746
Novena in Honor of St. Katharine Drexel http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1290
Optional Memorial of St. Casimir of Poland, confessor
Old Calendar: St. Casimir; St. Lucius I, pope & martyr
St. Casimir was born in 1458 and was the son of the King of Poland. At an early age he saw through the superficiality and corruption of court life. Throughout his short life—he died of consumption at the age of 26—he dedicated himself wholly to the service of God and of his fellow-men. His love for the poor was immense. He was also renowned for his devotion to the Eucharist and to the Blessed Virgin. — Excepted from The Saints In Season by Austin Flannery, O.P.
Stational Church
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St. Casimir
St. Casimir, to whom the Poles gave the title of "The Peace-maker," was the third of the thirteen children of Casimir IV, King of Poland, and of Elizabeth of Austria, daughter of the Emperor Albert II. ...Devout from his infancy, the boy gave himself up to devotion and penance, and had a horror of anything approaching softness or self-indulgence. His bed was often the ground, and he was wont to spend a great part of the night in prayer and meditation, chiefly on the passion of our Saviour. His clothes were plain, and under them he wore a hairshirt. Living always in the presence of God, he was invariably serene and cheerful, and pleasant to all. The saint's love of God showed itself in his love of the poor who are Christ's members, and for the relief of these the young prince gave all he possessed, using in their behalf the influence he had with his father and with his brother Ladislaus when he became king of Bohemia. In honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Casimir frequently recited the long Latin hymn "Omni die dic Mariae," a copy of which was by his desire buried with him. This hymn, part of which is familiar to us through Bittleston's version, "Daily, daily sing to Mary," is not uncommonly called the Hymn of St Casimir, but it was certainly not composed by him; it is three centuries older than his time.
The nobles of Hungary, dissatisfied with their king, Matthias Corvinus, in 1471 begged the King of Poland to allow them to place his son Casimir on the throne. The saint, at that time not fifteen years old, was very unwilling to consent, but in obedience to his father he went to the frontier at the head of an army. There, hearing that Matthias had himself assembled a large body of troops, and finding that his own soldiers were deserting in large numbers because they could not get their pay, he decided upon the advice of his officers to return home. The knowledge that Pope Sixtus IV had sent an embassy to his father to deter him from the expedition made the young prince carry out his resolution with the firmer conviction that he was acting rightly. King Casimir, however, was greatly incensed at the failure of his ambitious projects and would not permit his son to return to Cracow, but relegated him to the castle of Dobzki. The young man obeyed and remained in confinement there for three months. Convinced of the injustice of the war upon which he had so nearly embarked, and determined to have no further part in these internecine conflicts which only facilitated the further progress into Europe of the Turks, St Casimir could never again be persuaded to take up arms though urged to do so by his father and invited once more by the disaffected Hungarian magnates. He returned to his studies and his prayers, though for a time he was viceroy in Poland during an absence of his father. An attempt was made to induce him to marry a daughter of the Emperor Frederick III, but he refused to relax the celibacy he had imposed on himself.
St Casimir's austerities did nothing to help the lung trouble from which he suffered, and he died at the age of twenty-six in 1484 and was buried at Vilna, where his relics still rest in the church of St Stanislaus. Miracles were reported at his tomb, and he was canonized in 1521.
Excerpted from Butler's Lives of the Saints
Patron: Poland, Lithuania, bachelors, kings, princes
Symbols: Lily (for purity)
Things to Do:
•St. Casimir died at age 26 due to tuberculosis. Teach the young people in your family about this saint who was so ready to die at such a young age, that they may realize that sanctity is fully attainable regardless of their state in life.
•The story of Esther interceding on behalf of her people in today's reading is a real example of how morally influential a woman can be by virtue of her femininity. Not through leaving her femininity behind and seeking power did Esther impact her world for the good, but it was directly through her beautiful, pure womanhood that Esther swayed the King, her husband, to save her people. Tell this story to your daughters, if you have been blessed with any — they will love hearing it! Read Pope John Paul II's encyclical On the Dignity of Woman http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=3381, and his message Women: Teachers of Peace http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=5522 to learn more about the mission of women in society today.
•Don't be a Catholic who doesn't know Scripture! In the Gospel today there is a good Scripture verse to memorize that will deepen your trust in your Heavenly Father: "If you, with all your sins, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to anyone who asks him!" — Matt 7:11
•Implement this Lenten table blessing http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=746 throughout this holy season.
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St. Lucius I
St. Lucius, according to the "Liber Pontificalis," was a Roman, the son of Porphyrius. When he succeeded St. Comelius, the persecution of Trebonianus Gallus was still raging, and the new Pope was exiled. Soon, however, the persecution died away and Lucius was able to return to Rome. There is extant a letter from St. Cyprian congratulating the Pope on his return from exile and praising him for his confession of Christ.
St. Lucius continued the policy of Cornelius in admitting repentant apostates to communion after due penance. St. Cyprian praises him for this.
The "Liber Pontificalis" attributes to Pope Lucius a decree ordering that two priests and three deacons should live with a bishop that they might be witnesses for him. Duchesne, however, considers this decree apocryphal.
According to the "Liber Pontificalis," Pope Lucius was beheaded in the persecution of Valerian. This is almost certainly inaccurate, for Lucius died before the persecution of Valerian broke out. At any rate, St. Lucius died some time in the beginning of March 254, and was buried in the Cemetery of Calixtus. His tombstone has been discovered. The feast of St. Lucius is kept on March 4.
Excerpted from Popes Through the Ages, by Joseph Brusher
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The Station for today is in the celebrated basilica, St. Mary's across the Tiber. It was consecrated in the third century, under the pontificate of St. Callixtus, and was the first church built in Rome in honor of our blessed Lady.
RECIPES
Lenten Soup
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=262
ACTIVITIES
Namedays
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=208
What is a Nameday? http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1026
PRAYERS
Lent Table Blessing 2
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=684
Daily, Daily Sing to Mary - Omni die dic Mariae http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1002
Prayer of Saint Casimir http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1291
LIBRARY
Today in Poland There is a Need for True Heralds of the Gospel and Messengers of the Truth | Pope John Paul II
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=2911
Friday of the Second Week of Lent Historically today is the feast of St. John Joesph of the Cross who was born on the Island of Ischia in Southern Italy. At the age of sixteen years he entered the Order of St. Francis at Naples , amongst the Friars of the Alcantarine Reform, being the first Italian to join this reform which had been instituted in Spain by St. Peter of Alcantara. In 1674 he was sent to found a friary at Afila, in Piedmont; and he assisted with his own hands in the building. Much against his will , he was raised to the priesthood. In 1702 he was appointed Vicar Provincial of the Alcantarine Reform in Italy. He was beatified in 1789, and canonized in 1839.
Stational Church
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St. John Joseph of the Cross
Saint John Joseph of the Cross was born on the feast of the Assumption in 1654, on the island of Ischia in the kingdom of Naples. From his childhood he was a model of virtue, and in his sixteenth year he entered the Franciscan Order of the Strict Observance, or Reform of Saint Peter of Alcantara, at Naples. Such was the edification he gave in his Order, that within three years after his profession he was sent to found a monastery in Piedmont. He assisted in its construction himself and established there the most perfect silence and monastic fervor.
One day Saint John Joseph was found in the chapel in ecstasy, raised far above the floor. He won the hearts of all his religious, and became a priest out of obedience to his Superiors. He obtained what seemed to be an inspired knowledge of moral theology, in prayer and silence. He assisted at the death of his dear mother who rejoiced and seemed to live again in his presence, and after he had sung the Mass for the repose of her soul, saw her soul ascend to heaven, to pray thereafter their God face to face.
With his superiors’ permission he established another convent and drew up rules for the Community, which the Holy See confirmed. Afterward he became a master of novices vigilant and filled with gentleness, and of a constantly even disposition. Some time later he was made Provincial of the Province of Naples, erected in the beginning of the 18th century by Clement XI. He labored hard to establish in Italy this branch of his Order, which the Sovereign Pontiff had separated from the same branch in Spain. His ministry brought him many sufferings, especially moral sufferings occasioned by numerous calumnies. Nonetheless, the Saint succeeded in his undertakings, striving to inculcate in his subjects the double spirit of contemplation and penance which Saint Peter of Alcantara had bequeathed to the Franciscans of the Strict Observance. He gave them the example of the most sublime virtues, especially of humility and religious discipline. God rewarded his zeal with numerous gifts in the supernatural order, such as those of prophecy and miracles.
Finally, consumed by labors for the glory of God, he was called to his reward. Stricken with apoplexy, he died an octogenarian in his convent at Naples, March 5, 1734. Countless posthumous miracles confirmed the sanctity and glory of the Saint, and he was canonized in 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI.
Excerpted from Lives of the Saints for Every Day of the Year, edited by Rev. Hugo Hoever, S.O. Cist., Ph.D.
The Station for today is in the church of St. Vitalis, martyr, the father of the two illustrious Milanese martyrs, Sts. Gervasius and Protasius. It was built about 400, and consecrated by Pope Innocent I in 401/2. The dedication to St. Vitalis and his family was given in 412. The church has been rebuilt several times, of which the most comprehensive rebuilding was that of Pope Sixtus IV before the 1475 Jubilee. It was then granted to Clerics Regular.
RECIPES
Almond Pretzels
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=847
Lenten Eggs Benedict
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=36
ACTIVITIES
How the Devil Tempts Us http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=264
Teaching Self-Denial http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=114
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Second Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=178
Lent Table Blessing 2
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=684
Litany of Humility
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=914
Saturday of the Second Week of Lent
Old Calendar: Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas, martyrs; St. Colette, virgin & religious (Hist)
"If your virtue goes no deeper than that of the scribes and pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:20)." The need to make reparation is a vital, inescapable urge of a free person. His very nature cries out for order and peace. His reason tells him that where an order has been violated, the order must be repaired; and the higher the order, the greater must be the reparation. To be free at all, is to accept the responsibility for atonement. Sin is a violation of God's order. Sin demands reparation — the reparation of personal penance, personal prayer, personal charity to all. Part of our atonement to God is made by serving our fellow men. — Daily Missal of the Mystical Body
According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas. Their feast in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite is celebrated on March 7. Historically today is the feast of St. Colette, who revived the Franciscan spirit among the Poor Clares. Her reform spread throughout France, Savoy, Germany and Flanders, many convents being restored and seventeen new ones founded by her. She helped St. Vincent Ferrer in the work of healing the papal schism.
Stational Church
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St. Colette
Born in 1380, Nicolette was named in honor of St. Nicholas of Myra. Her loving parents nicknamed her Colette from the time she was a baby. Colette's father was a carpenter at an abbey in Picardy. Quiet and hard-working, Colette was a big help to her mother with the housework. Her parents noticed the child's liking for prayer and her sensitive, loving nature.
When Colette was seventeen, both her parents died. The young woman was placed under the care of the abbot at the monastery where her father had worked. She asked for and received a hut built next to the abbey church. Colette lived there. She spent her time praying and sacrificing for Jesus' Church. More and more people found out about this holy young woman. They went to see her and asked her advice about important problems. They knew that she was wise because she lived close to God. She received everybody with gentle kindness. After each visit, she would pray that her visitors would find peace of soul. Colette was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis. She knew that the religious order of women who followed St. Francis' lifestyle are the Poor Clares. They are named after St. Clare, their foundress, who was a follower of St. Francis. During Colette's time, the Poor Clares needed to go back to the original purpose of their order. St. Francis of Assisi appeared to Colette and asked her to reform the Poor Clares. She must have been surprised and afraid of such a difficult task. But she trusted in God's grace. Colette traveled to the Poor Clare convents. She helped the nuns become more poor and prayerful.
The Poor Clares were inspired by St. Colette's life. She had a great devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist. She also spent time frequently meditating on the passion and death of Jesus. She loved Jesus and her religious vocation very much.
Colette knew exactly when and where she was going to die. She died in one of her convents in Ghent, Flanders, in 1447. She was sixty-seven. Colette was proclaimed a saint by Pope Pius VI in 1807.
Excerpted from Holy Spirit Interactive http://www.holyspiritinteractive.net/dailysaint/march.asp
Things to Do:
•See the Ty Mam Duw Poor Clare Colettine Community http://www.poorclarestmd.org/chaplet-of-saint-colette.htm for more information and for a printable pdf file. http://www.poorclarestmd.org/the-chaplet-of-saint-colette.pdf
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The Station is in the church of Sts. Peter and Marcellinus, two celebrated martyrs of Rome under the persecution of Diocletian. Their relics were brought to the church in 1256, and the church was restored the same year on order from Pope Alexander IV.
ACTIVITIES
Lenten Practices for Children http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=943
Precious Coins: Mortification and Self-Denial http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=532
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Second Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=178
Lent Table Blessing 2
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=684
Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Lent (2nd Plan) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=746
The Chaplet of St. Colette http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1292
Third Sunday of Lent
"Sir," the man replied "leave it one more year and give me time to dig round it and manure it: it may bear fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down." (Lk. 13:9) "In the Christian life, faith has consequences, that to 'serve God' we must renounce 'Mammon,' that to be free for God we must break the hold that the world has on us. Faith demands a reconstruction of the inner life, a reforming that can be brought about only by overcoming.— The Conversion of Augustine, Romano Guardini
The feast of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2009-03-07 is superseded by the Sunday liturgy.
Stational Church
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Sunday Readings
The first reading is taken from the book of Exodus, 3:1-8, 13-15. The story of the salvation of God's people continues during this Lenten season. Today we hear of Moses' encounter with God at the burning bush.
The second reading is from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, 10:1-6, 10-12. St. Paul establishes a parallel between the situation of the Israelites in the desert and the Corinthians. "Paul wants to remind us that we are not saved merely because we happen to have been the recipients of God's free grace. We have to demonstrate that we are willing recipients of that free gift. The children of Israel received it, but they proved to be unworthy of it, and so they were not saved." (Origin (ca. A.D. 240, Commentary on First Corinthians 4, 45, 205)
The Gospel is from St. Luke, 13:1-9. Our Lord stresses that we need to produce plenty of fruit (cf. Lk 8:11-15) in keeping with the graces we have received (cf. Lk 12:48). But he also tells us that God waits patiently for this fruit to appear; he does not want the death of the sinner; he wants him to be converted and to live (Ezek 33:11) and, as St Peter teaches, he is "forebearing towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance" (2 Pet 3:9). But God's clemency should not lead us to neglect our duties and become lazy and comfort-seeking, living sterile lives. He is merciful, but he is also just and he will punish failure to respond to his grace.
"There is one case that we should be especially sorry about — that of Christians who could do more and don't; Christians who could live all the consequences of their vocation as children of God, but refuse to do so through lack of generosity. We are partly to blame, for the grace of faith has not been given us to hide but to share with others (cf. Mt 5:151). We cannot forget that the happiness of these people, in this life and in the next, is at stake. The Christian life is a divine wonder with immediate promises of satisfaction and serenity — but on condition that we know how to recognize the gift of God (cf. Jn 4:10) and be generous, not counting the cost" (J. Escriva, Christ is passing by, 147). — The Navarre Bible - St. Luke
Things to Do:
•Truly observe this Sunday in Lent with your family — Make it relaxing as befits the Lord's Day. Remember that the Sundays of Lent are not counted in the total forty days of this holy season, so you are not expected to continue your penances and fasting on this day. Reread the Gospel together and discuss it as a family, play games, cook a nice meal. We especially recommend the Late Spring Special Menu http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=774, with chicken stew and dumplings as the main dish, or the Spring, Fall, or Winter Sunday Dinner Menu http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=763, with the "best-ever meat loaf!"
•Read this document by our Holy Father, On Keeping the Lord's Day Holy http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=419.
•Begin to pray the Prayer for the Third Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=179 with your family.
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The Station is in the basilica of St. Lawrence outside the walls. The name of this, the most celebrated of the martyrs of Rome, would remind the catechumens that the faith they were about to profess would require them to be ready for many sacrifices. In the primitive Church, the third Sunday in Lent was called Scrutiny Sunday, because it was on this day that they began to examine the catechumens, who were to be admitted to Baptism on Easter night.
RECIPES
Spring, Fall or Winter Sunday Dinner Menu http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=763
ACTIVITIES
Explaining the Mass and Sacraments http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=63
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Third Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=179
Lent Table Blessing 3 http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=685
Optional Memorial of St. John of God, religious
Old Calendar: St. John of God
"God is love! Whoever abides in love; abides in God and God in him" (motto of St. John's community). St. John of God, who was of Portuguese descent, was first a shepherd, a dealer and then a soldier. At the age of forty he was converted, and devoted himself to the care of those sick in mind, showing himself in this thankless task to be a true innovator and a saint of super-human heroism. He founded the Order of the Brothers Hospitalers, which bears his name. He died at Granada in 1550. Pope Leo XIII declared him patron of hospitaliers and of the sick and commanded his name to be placed in the Litanies of the Dying.
Stational Church
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St. John of God
In 1503, at the age of eight, John fled from his parents for some unknown reason. For a while he was a cowherd, then a book dealer. Matters spiritual were of no particular interest until he heard the preaching of Blessed John of Avila. Then his conversion was so sincere and sudden that he was considered to be out of his mind. While rescuing the sick from a burning hospital at the risk of his own life, it became clear to him what his future work should be.
In 1540 he founded the Brothers of Mercy (approved by Pius V, 1572), a community dedicated to caring for the sick. The members bind themselves by a fourth vow, the service of the sick. Because of his work our saint has become the patron of hospitals and the dying. His name is in the Litany of the Dying.
From St. John's Life by Bihlmeyer:
A fire broke out in the kitchen of the hospital at Granada that had been founded by the Spanish king and queen, Ferdinand and Isabella. It threatened to spread to the large wards where hundreds of sick were lying. The storm and fire bells rang loudly. People rushed from all sides, John in the lead. The fire was beyond control, firemen and volunteers were unable to extinguish it. No one dared to enter the burning building from which came the pitiful cries of the sick in the agony of imminent and certain death. Fire and smoke choked the exits. Those who could still arise from their beds stood pleading at the windows. The scene was enough to drive a person insane.
John could not stand idly by. Disregarding smoke and flame, he rushed in among the sick, opened doors and windows, gave terse orders and directions as to how they who could might save themselves; some he led, others he dragged or carried into the open, often two at a time. When all the bedridden were safe, he wasted no time in throwing coverlets, bed clothing, chairs and other valuables out of the windows, thus saving the property of the poor.
Then he took an axe, climbed to the roof and began chopping away vigorously. Suddenly the liberated flames leapt up high beside him. He fled, only to continue his heroic work in another part of the building. There too a wave of fire soon stopped him. He was standing literally between two infernos. Moments passed, he was lost in the heat of the flames and the choking smoke. A quarter of an hour—loud cries of fear could be heard for the brave man—and then he sprang from the fire, blackened by smoke but unscathed except for singed eyebrows. Joyously the crowd surrounded him, congratulating the savior of the sick. John's modesty, however, prevented him from accepting praise and honors.
Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch
Patron: Booksellers; printers; publishers; heart patients; hospitals; nurses; the sick; the dying; alcoholics (because a Dublin hospital for alcoholics was named after him); Tultepec; Mexico and firefighters.
Symbols: Crown of thorns (brought to him by the Virgin); heart; an alms box; crucifix; rosary; holding a pomegranate. Art depicts him as a Capuchin monk with a long beard, with two bowls hung around his neck, and a basket. He is portrayed washing Jesus' feet, carrying sick persons, or with a beggar kneeling at his feet.
Things to Do:
•St. John of God followed his impulses when it came to serving Christ. He never reconsidered or second-guessed the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, but he acted on them instantly, whether or not they seemed practical. Today do not dissuade yourself from doing heroic little acts of charity, but follow God's will immediately as it is manifested to you.
•St. John of God never thought of himself but always reached out to others. Examine your conscience tonight and ask yourself: do I habitually give greater importance to others' needs before my own? Do I esteem myself over-highly, or do I consider myself of least importance?
•There is something lacking in present day hospital methods that characterized the age-old practice of the Church, viz., a harmonious, organic relationship between liturgy and care of the sick http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1003. Pray the Litany of the Sick for those hospitalized. And pray that hospital care will incorporate the Christian dimension and respect each person as an image of God.
The Station is in the church of St. Mark, which was built in the fourth century in honor of the evangelist, by the holy Pope Mark, whose relics are kept there.
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Third Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=179
Lent Table Blessing 3
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=685
Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Lent (2nd Plan) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=746
Litany for the Sick and Afflicted http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1003
Litany of Saint John of God http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1152
Optional Memorial of St. Frances of Rome, religious; Feast of Blessed John Ogilvie, priest and martyr (Scotland)
Old Calendar: St. Frances of Rome; St. Dominic Savio (Historical)
"I give you a new commandment: Love one another as I have loved you, says the Lord (Jn 13:34)." In the fifteenth century St. Frances, among the noble ladies of Rome, showed herself an example of what a Christian wife should be. After the death of her husband she retired from the world and lived in a monastery of Oblates that she had founded under the Rule of St. Benedict. God favored her with the visible presence of her guardian angel with whom she conversed familiarly.
Today Catholics in Scotland celebrate the Feast of Blessed John Ogilvie, who was educated as a Calvinist and was received into the Church at Louvain by Father Cornelius a Lapide. After becoming a Jesuit at the age of seventeen, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1613, and at his own request was sent on a perilous Scottish mission. He was eventually betrayed, but during a long imprisonment no tortures could force him to name any fellow Catholics. Though his courage was admired by the judges he was condemned as a traitor and hanged at Glasgow. The customary beheading and quartering were omitted owing to undisguised popular sympathy, and his body was hurriedly buried in the churchyard of Glasgow cathedral.
Stational Church
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St. Frances of Rome
St. Frances of Rome founded the institute known as the "Oblati di Tor de Specchi" in the Holy City. She was a wealthy patrician and after her husband died, she gave up all her wealth to live a life of abject poverty. Her special privilege from heaven was familiar conversation with her guardian angel. Reading the life of St. Frances, one gains the impression that she moved and lived in the spiritual world more than on earth; in fact, that which gives her life its unique character is her intimate relationship with the blessed world of holy spirits.
During the three periods of her life, three angels of different rank accompanied her, ready to protect her soul against any onslaught of hell and to lead her step by step to spiritual perfection. Day and night the saint saw her angel busy at a mysterious task. With three little golden spindles he unceasingly spun golden threads, strung them around his neck, and diligently wound them into balls. A half year before her death he changed his work. Instead of spinning more golden thread, he began to weave three carpets of varying size with the golden thread he had spun. These carpets symbolized her lifework as virgin, mother, and religious.
Shortly before her death, she noticed how the angel was hurrying his work, and his face was unusually fresh and happy. At the very moment when the last carpet had reached its required length, her soul departed into eternal bliss.
Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch
Patron: automobile drivers, automobilists, cab or taxi drivers, death of children, lay people, motorists, people ridiculed for their piety, Roman housewives, widows.
Symbols: often depicted as a woman habited in black with a white veil, accompanied by her guardian angel, and sometimes carrying a basket of food; Nun with her guardian angel dressed as a deacon. Monstrance and arrow; book; angel with a branch of oranges; receiving the veil from the Christ Child in the arms of the Blessed Virgin.
Things to Do:
•Today's Gospel is often used by Protestants to challenge the Catholic practice of calling our priests "Father." Learn how to defend this practice — begin by reading Art Kelly's apologetics article, Call No Man Father? http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=2875. Discuss this custom and the reasoning behind it with your children.
•Invoke St. Frances' protection as you are getting in your car to drive somewhere today.
•St. Frances was certain that she had a vocation to the religious life from the age of eleven. However, her father forced her to marry, and so she instead joyfully loved and served her husband until his death enabled her to enter the religious life when she was fifty-two years old. Even when you may have certainty that God is calling you to walk a certain path, His timing may be different from your own. Reflect on your own vocation: regardless of any doubts you may have, or seemingly unfulfilled desires to do more for God, abandon yourself to His will of the present moment, and joyfully focus on fulfilling the small duties which your vocation asks of you. Read about sanctification through the present moment in Rev. Jean-Pierre de Caussade's excellent little work, Abandonment to Divine Providence (online version).
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=catholiccultu-20&link_code=am2&path=tg/stores/offering/list/-/0385468717/all/ASIN/0385468717&camp=1789&creative=9325
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Bl. John Ogilvie
Born in 1579 at Drum, Keith, Scotland. Walter Ogilvie was a Scottish noble who raised his son John in the state religion of Scotland, Calvinism. John converted to Catholicism at the age of 17 in Louvain, Belgium. Blessed John joined the Jesuits soon after in 1597, and was ordained in Paris in 1610. He was sent to work in Rouen, France.
He repeatedly requested assignment to Scotland where wholesale massacres of Catholics had taken place, but by this point the hunters were searching more for priests than for those who attended Mass.
The Jesuits were determined to minister to the oppressed Catholic laity. When captured, they were tortured for information, then hanged, drawn, and quartered.
Ogilvie's request was granted, and he returned to Scotland in November 1613. He worked as an underground missionary in Edinburgh and Glasgow, dodging the Queen's priest-hunters, disguising himself as a soldier named Watson. After 11 months in the field, John was betrayed, imprisoned, interrogated, then tortured for the names of active Catholics. He suffered in silence.
He is the Church's only officially recorded Scottish martyr. He died hanged on March 10, 1615 in Glasgow, Scotland and was canonized by Paul VI on October 17, 1976.
Things to Do:
•Read more about the life of Bl. John Ogilvie.
http://www.companysj.com/v182/ogilvie.htm
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St. Dominic Savio
Here was a boy-saint who died at the age of fifteen, was one of the great hopes of St. John Bosco for the future of his congregation, and was canonized in 1954.
He was one of ten children of Carlo and Birgitta Savio. Carlo was a blacksmith and Birgitta was a seamstress. When Don Bosco was looking for young men to train as priests for his Salesian Order, his parish priest suggested Dominic Savio. Dominic became more than a credit to Don Bosco's school—he single-handedly organized those who were to be the nucleus of Don Bosco's order.
St. Dominic Savio was twelve when he met Don Bosco and organized a group of boys into the Company of the Immaculate Conception. Besides its religious purpose, the boys swept and took care of the school and looked after the boys that no one seemed to pay any attention to. When, in 1859, Don Bosco chose the young men to be the first members of his congregation, all of them had been members of Dominic's Company.
For all that, Dominic was a normal, high-spirited boy who sometimes got into trouble with his teachers because he would often break out laughing. However, he was generally well disciplined and gradually gained the respect of the tougher boys in Don Bosco's school.
In other circumstances, Dominic might have become a little self-righteous snob, but Don Bosco showed him the heroism of the ordinary and the sanctity of common sense. "Religion must be about us as the air we breathe," Don Bosco would say, and Dominic Savio wore holiness like the clothes on his back.
He called his long hours of prayer "his distractions." In 1857, at the age of fifteen, he caught tuberculosis and was sent home to recover. On the evening of March 9, he asked his father to say the prayers for the dying. His face lit up with an intense joy and he said to his father: "I am seeing most wonderful things!" These were his last words.
— Excerpted from The One Year Book of Saints by Rev. Clifford Stevens
Patron: Boys; children's choirs; choir boys; choirs; falsely accused people; juvenile delinquents; Pueri Cantors.
Things to Do:
•Learn more about the Salesians http://www.salesianmissions.org/aboutus/history.htmland Salesian http://www.salesianmissions.org/aboutus/sanctity.html saints.
The Station is in the church of St. Pudentiana, daughter of Pudens the senator. This holy virgin of Rome lived in the second century. She was remarkable for her charity, and for the zeal wherewith she sought for and buried the bodies of the martyrs. Her church is built on the very spot where stood the house in which she lived with her father and her sister St. Praxedes. St. Peter the Apostle had honored this house with his presence, during the lifetime of Pudentiana's grandfather.
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Third Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=179
Lent Table Blessing 3
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=685
Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Lent (2nd Plan) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=746
Novena Prayer in Honor of St. John Ogilvie http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1293
Prayer to Saint Dominic Savio http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1294
Thursday of the Third Week of Lent In certain ways the Lenten Christian is like the Jew in exile. He is still exposed to the attacks of the enemies. Lent, like the exile in Babylon, is a time of cleansing. It intends to create in us a greater desire and longing for deliverance which God has promised us through our Savior Jesus Christ. All the chants and prayers in today's Mass are urgent pleas for God's mercy and help. — St. Andrew Bible Mission
Stational Church
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Meditation - The Just Man Shall Fall Seven Times
"The just man shall fall seven times, and shall rise again; but the wicked shall fall down into evil" (Prov. 24:16). The characteristic of real wickedness is to fall "down, into evil"-that is, to fall and then consciously and obstinately to remain fallen. Yet, is it not comparative wickedness to fall even into venial sins with such interior dispositions as will not permit the sinner to rise again promptly?
Mark well, the distinguishing trait of the just man is not his absolute freedom from every fall, but rather his entire and quick readiness to rise again-the honest interior disposition which bars out all malice, all settled bad will, and all affection for his wrongdoings; the penitent disposition which will accomplish this so effectually, that his later sins will be committed only in more or less unguarded moments of special weakness or surprise or fickleness, and therefore with only partial freedom and consent of his will. Even so effectually will he guard himself that after a sin, however slight, he will quickly return to his normal virtuousness, acknowledge his guilt, fill his heart and soul with sincere remorse, and then and there long and pray to become more truly humble and less self-reliant, more watchful over himself and quicker in his recourse to God. 0 the shame of your relapses, so many altogether inexcusable! The shame of your repeated relapses, habitual relapses, some perhaps clear evidence of more or less hardness of heart and malice of will! O the shaming thought of the piercing truth: If you had sinned less, Jesus would have suffered less!
Excerpted from Our Way to the Father, Rev. Leo M. Krenz, S.J.
Things to Do:
•If you have not done so already, read the Message of Pope Benedict XVI for Lent of 2009. http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=8700
•Cook a traditional Lenten recipe to reemphasize this liturgical season in the daily fare of your home. We suggest Split Pea Soup.
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=263
The Station is at the church of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, physicians. These martyrs were twin brothers originating from Arabia. They practiced medicine in Aegea, Cilicia, but accepted no money from the poor. Their beautiful Christian lives edified the pagans and converted many to the Faith. They were arrested in the persecution of Diocletian, subjected to torture, and finally beheaded.
RECIPES
Pretzels
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=958
ACTIVITIES
Fish Mobile
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=944
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Third Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=179
Novena to St. Joseph
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=294
Lent Table Blessing 3
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=685
Novena to St. Joseph II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1219
Traditional Novena Prayer to St. Joseph
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1271
Friday of the Third Week of Lent
Old Calendar: St. Gregory the Great, pope and doctor
God gave the Israelites a miraculous water which would have kept them alive in their desert journey. But on account of their lack of faith and their murmuring against God they died in spite of this saving water. Christ, our Savior, gives to us, the new chosen people, the living water of the Spirit and the bread of doing the will of the Father. With this new water and bread we shall never thirst again and we shall not die on our way to the eternal Promised Land. In the Eucharistic meal that we are going to celebrate we shall receive from God this heavenly nourishment in abundance. — St. Andrew Bible Mission
According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. Gregory the Great whose feast is celebrated in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite on September 3.
Stational Church
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Meditation - The Tree of Knowledge and the Cross
The sin that was wrought through the tree was undone by the obedience of the tree, obedience to God whereby the Son of man was nailed to the tree, destroying the knowledge of evil, and bringing in and conferring the knowledge of good; and evil is disobedience to God, as obedience to God is good. And therefore the Word says through Isaiah the prophet, foretelling what was to come to pass in the future—for it was because they told the future that they were "prophets"—the Word says through him as follows: I refuse not, and do not gainsay, my back have I delivered to blows and my cheeks to buffets, and I have not turned away my face from the contumely of them that spat. [Is. 50, 6] So by obedience, whereby He obeyed unto death, hanging on the tree, He undid the old disobedience wrought in the tree. And because He is Himself the Word of God Almighty, who in His invisible form pervades us universally in the whole world, and encompasses both its length and breadth and height and depth—for by God's Word everything is disposed and administered—the Son of God was also crucified in these, imprinted in the form of a cross on the universe; for He had necessarily, in becoming visible, to bring to light the universality of His cross, in order to show openly through His visible form that activity of His: that it is He who makes bright the height, that is, what is in heaven, and holds the deep, which is in the bowels of the earth, and stretches forth and extends the length from East to West, navigating also the Northern parts and the breadth of the South, and calling in all the dispersed from all sides to the knowledge of the Father. — St. Irenaeus
Things to Do:
•The fasting desired by the Lord is not so much denying oneself food (although this is important) but rather, consists in "Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; / Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own." Many families take these words to heart by having an inexpensive, penitential dinner on Fridays in Lent (such as beans and rice) and then giving the extra money to the poor.
•Many families give each child one pretzel during Friday dinners in Lent. Remind your children of the spiritual significance of the pretzel.
•Pray the Stations of the Cross today with your family. An excellent version with beautiful meditations composed by our Holy Father is his Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum. Some other recommended versions are: Eucharistic Stations of the Cross, and the more traditional Stations of the Cross written by Saint Alphonsus Liguori can be found in most Catholic bookstores. Here are some guidelines for praying the Stations of the Cross in your home.
•Any of the linked activities (Fun Pretzel Project, Lenten Scrapbook, Candelabrum for Stations of the Cross) are a perfect way for your children to spend their Friday afternoons throughout this season of Lent.
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The Station today is at St. Lawrence's in Lucina. Near the church was a well which was very dear to the Romans and which probably suggested the Epistle and Gospel of today's Mass. The church also contains a part of the gridiron on which St. Laurence was burned. The Introit and Gradual refer to the prayers of the Saint while he was being tortured.
RECIPES
Lenten Soup
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=262
Whole Wheat Bread http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=207
ACTIVITIES
Good Example — A Lesson in Discipline http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=606
Open, O Hard and Sinful Heart! http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=333
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Third Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=179
Novena to St. Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=294
Lent Table Blessing 3 http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=685
Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Lent (1st Plan) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1042
Novena to St. Joseph II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1219
Traditional Novena Prayer to St. Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1271
Saturday of the Third Week of Lent On the Cross, Christ is both priest and victim; he fulfills Isaiah's description of him as the suffering servant. And the whole of his teaching is to make us ready to live our sacramental life in his spirit of sacrifice. He impressed on us that we must match the outward sign of his sacraments in our lives. When we became other Christs in Baptism, we became other Christs in Baptisms, we became sharers in the priesthood of the Lord. We gained the ability and the responsibility of combining our inward obedience with every outward act of sacrifice that we make as priests and victims. In every Mass, then, we agree to offer our obedience to atone for, to correct the disobedience of sin. On his part, Christ agrees to renew his sacrifice of atonement and obedience, in which we join; and to nourish us on the victim, his flesh and blood, the covenant food. — St. Andrew Bible Mission
Stational Church
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Confidence and Union with God in Temptation
Nothing is more efficacious against temptation than the remembrance of the Cross of Jesus. What did Christ come to do here below if not to "destroy the works of the devil"? And how has He destroyed them, how has He "cast out" the devil, as He Himself says, if not by His death upon the Cross?
Let us then lean by faith upon the cross of Christ Jesus, as our baptism gives us the right to do. The virtue of the cross is not exhausted. In baptism we were marked with the seal of the cross, we became members of Christ, enlightened by His light, and partakers of His life and of the salvation He brings to us. Hence, united to Him, whom shall we fear? Dominus illuminatio mea et salus mea; quern timebo? Let us say to ourselves: "He hath given His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways."
"Because he hoped in Me (says the Lord) I will deliver him; I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify him. I will fill him with length of days, and I will show him My salvation."
Excerpted from Christ the Life of the Soul, Dom Marmion.
The Station is in the church of St. Susanna, virgin and martyr of Rome. The first Christian place of worship was built here in the 4th century. It was probably the titulus of Pope Caius (283-296). Caius was St. Susanna's uncle, and tradition claims that the church stands on the site of her martyrdom.
ACTIVITIES
La Falla de San Chusep—Saint Joseph's Day in Valencia http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1048
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Third Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=179
Novena to St. Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=294
Lent Table Blessing 3 http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=685
Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Lent (2nd Plan) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=746
Novena to St. Joseph II
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1219
Fourth Sunday of Lent
Old Calendar: Laetare Sunday
"Rejoice, Jerusalem! Be glad for her, you who love her; rejoice with her, you who mourned for her, and you will find contentment at her consoling breasts." This Sunday is known as Laetare Sunday and is a Sunday of joy. Lent is half over, and Easter is enticingly near.
This Sunday was formerly called "Laetare Sunday" since its mood and theme was one of hope and rejoicing that Easter was near. In the reformed calendar this Sunday is not different from the other Sundays of Lent even though the entrance antiphon for the day still begins with the Latin word "laetare" and the vestments worn by the celebrant are rose-colored, not violet. The day is important because it is the day of the second scrutiny in preparation for the baptism of adults at the Easter Vigil.
Stational Church
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Sunday Readings
The first reading is taken from the book of Joshua, 5:9, 10-12. Today's reading recounts the celebration of the Passover in the Promised Land by Joshua and those who had sojourned with him in the desert for 40 years.
The second reading is from the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians, 5: 17-21. The reconciliation of mankind with God has been brought about by Christ's death on the cross. Jesus, who is like men in all things "yet without sinning" bore the sins of men and offered himself on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for all those sins, thereby reconciling men to God; through this sacrifice we became the righteousness of God.
The Gospel is from St. Luke 15:1-3, 11-32. This reading recounts the parable of the Prodigal Son, one of Jesus' most beautiful parables. It teaches us once more that God is a kind and understanding Father. The son who asks for his part of the inheritance is a symbol of the person who cuts himself off from God through sin. "Although the word 'mercy' does not appear, [this parable] nevertheless expresses the essence of the divine mercy in a particularly clear way" (John Paul II, Dives in misericordia, 5).
Mercy — as Christ has presented it in the parable of the prodigal son — has the interior form of the love that in the New Testament is called agape. This love is able to reach down to every prodigal son, to every human misery, and above all to every form of moral misery, to sin. When this happens, the person who is the object of mercy does not feel humiliated, but rather found again and 'restored to value'. The father first and foremost expresses to him his joy, that he has been 'found again' and that he has 'returned to life'. This joy indicates a good that has remained intact: even if he is a prodigal, a son does not cease to be truly his father's son; it also indicates a good that has been found again, which in the case of the prodigal son was his return to the truth about himself" (Dives in misericordia, 6)
The Station at Rome is in the basilica of Holy Cross in Jerusalem, one of the seven principal churches of the holy city. It was built in the fourth century, by the emperor Constantine. The emperor's mother, St. Helen, enriched it with most precious relics, and wished to make it the Jerusalem of Rome.
RECIPES
Bury Simnel Cake http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1301
Chocolate Pecan Pie http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1437
Easy Simnel Cake http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=441
Never Out of Season Sunday Dinner (Sample Menu) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=785
Shrewsbury Simnel Cake http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1300
Simnel Cake I http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=38
Simnel Cake II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=215
Simnel Cake IV http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1332
Simnel Cake V http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1421
ACTIVITIES
How to be a Good Father http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=128
Mothering Sunday http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=482
Mother's Day http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=453
Story-Telling http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=405
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Fourth Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=180
Novena to St. Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=294
Lent Table Blessing 4 http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=686
Novena to St. Joseph II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1219
Traditional Novena Prayer to St. Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1271
Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Old Calendar: St. Louise de Marillac, widow
According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. Louise de Marillac. She was born in 1592, and married in 1613. When her husband died she made a vow of widowhood and devoted herself entirely to works of charity. St. Vincent de Paul, who became her spiritual director, gradually initiated her into his own charitable works for the poor and afflicted, and in 1639 they founded the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity to which St. Louise dedicated the rest of her life. She was canonized by Pope Pius XI on March 11, 1934.
Stational Church
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St. Louise de Marillac
St. Louise de Marrillac married an official of the royal court, Antony Le Gras, and after his death in 1625 was an active supporter of the charitable work of St Vincent de Paul, who came to put more and more reliance on her. Mademoiselle Le Gras, as she was known, became the co-founder with him of the Daughters of Charity, whose 'convent is the sick-room, their chapel the parish church, their cloister the city streets'; it was she who drew up the first draft of their rule of life. Her clear intelligence and wide sympathy played a big part in the beginnings of the congregation, whose aspirants she trained and whose rapid growth involved responsibilities which largely fell on her. At the time of her death there were already over forty houses of the sisters in France, the sick poor were looked after at home in twenty-six Parisian parishes, hundreds of women were given shelter, and there were other undertakings as well. St Louise was not physically robust, but she had great powers of endurance, and her selfless devotion was a source of incalculable help and encouragement to Monsieur Vincent.
— Dictionary of Saints by Donald Attwater.
Patron: Disappointing children, widows, loss of parents, sick people, social workers, Vincentian Service Corps, people rejected by religious orders.
Symbols: Saint Louise is depicted wearing the original Vincentian habit of grey wool with a large headdress of white linen (typical of poor women in 17th century Brittany), perhaps with an infant in her arms.
Things to Do:
•Teach your children this simple morning aspiration by St. Louise: "Grant me the grace to spend this day without offending You and without failing my neighbor."
•Begin planning a family Passion presentation http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=36 or play in which all can participate. You may want to plan this for the end of Lent — Spy Wednesday or Holy Thursday would be particularly appropriate days for this.
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The Station is in the venerable church of the Four Crowned (brothers); their names are, Severus, Severianus, Carpophorus, and Victorinus; they suffered martyrdom under the persecution of Diocletian. Their bodies, as also the head of the great martyr St. Sebastian, are among the relics of this church.
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent The Liturgy continues to impress us with the hatred which the enemy of God has for his Anointed. We are not surprised at the opposition the Church has to go through, because Christ and his Church are one: the Whole Christ. He himself said at the last discourse before his Passion: "If they have persecuted me they will persecute you also. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before you." (John 15:20, 18). — St. Andrew Bible Mission
Stational Church
Meditation - On the Compassion of Some Women of Jerusalem
A goodly number of the women of Jerusalem (not disciples of Jesus) met this saddest of funeral processions. No doubt their weeping and sobbing and loud wailing, however sincere, was not in real accord with the sorrow that was straining Jesus' heart to the breaking point-His sorrow, namely, over their refusal to accept the truth of His Messiahship and of His supreme royalty as the promised Christ and Savior. Still, the heart of Jesus was deeply affected by the sympathy of these women. Contrasted with all else that was poured into His ears, it was very acceptable and was gratefully received.
But what lastingly gives this incident its chief significance is the fact that, even here in His greatest misery, Jesus is thinking predominantly of the doom of the Holy City and its temple, now practically sealed. Evidently His heart is aching at the vision of the horrors that will soon overtake it and the whole Jewish race, for its criminal blindness to His divine credentials and its obstinate refusal to profit by His teaching and His Precious Blood. For the days are near, when the barren among the Jewish women will be called blessed; when death, sudden and terrible though it be, will seem preferable to life. Try, therefore, to look deep into Jesus' Sacred Heart in its very keen sympathy for these women, and especially for their children. For of the children here present in the procession, or carried in the arms of their mothers, many no doubt were to be witnesses and victims of the abomination of desolation coming upon Jerusalem not forty years hence (Luke 19:41-44)
Excerpted from Our Way to the Father, Leo M. Krenz, S.J.
The Station today is in St. Lawrence's in Damaso—a church built by Pope St. Damascus in honor of the martyred deacon. It was one of the first parish churches in Rome and was rebuilt in the late 15th century by Bramante, and has since been restored several times. Pope St. Damasus' relics are beneath the altar. Today the church is part of the Cancelleria, or the chancery, and houses the Holy Father's Tribunals: the Roman Rota, Apostolic Signatura, and Apostolic Penitentiary.
ACTIVITIES
La Falla de San Chusep—Saint Joseph's Day in Valencia http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1048
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Fourth Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=180
Novena to St. Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=294
Lent Table Blessing 4 http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=686
Novena for the Annunciation http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1220
Optional Memorial of St. Patrick, bishop and confessor (Solemnity Aus, Ire, Feast Scot, Wales)
Old Calendar: St. Patrick
This day is not all about leprechauns, shamrocks and green beer. This is a day to honor and pray to St. Patrick. He was an influential saint who, 1,500 years ago, brought Christianity to the little country of Ireland. He was born about 385 in the British Isles, was carried off while still very young during a raid on Roman Britain by the Irish and sold as a slave. At the end of six years he contrived to escape to Europe, became a monk and was ordained; he then returned to Ireland to preach the Gospel. During the thirty years that his missionary labors continued he covered the Island with churches and monasteries; in 444 he founded the metropolitan see of Armagh. St. Patrick died in 461. After fifteen centuries he remains for all Irishmen the great bishop whom they venerate as their father in the Faith.
Stational Church
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St. Patrick
Not many facts are known about the life of St. Patrick. We know that he was born around 415 AD, and was a Roman Briton. When he was about 16, while he was tending his sheep some Irish raiders captured him and made him a slave. He eventually was able to escape and return to Britain. There he heard the call to return and bring Christianity to Ireland. He was ordained a priest, consecrated a bishop and came back to Ireland around 435 AD. Many legends are associated around St. Patrick: how he drove the snakes out of Ireland, and the use of the shamrock to teach the mystery of the Trinity. Whether or not the legends are true, St. Patrick succeeded in bringing Catholicism to Ireland, and in time, the whole country converted from their pagan gods to the one true God.
Although a small country, Ireland has played a large role in saving and bringing Christianity throughout the world. During the early Dark Ages, the Irish monasteries preserved Western writings while Europe remained in darkness. But as the Catholic country remained solidly Catholic, the Irish spread the faith to all corners of the world. To learn more on this subject, read Thomas Cahill's How the Irish Saved Civilization.
We have a few works attributed to St. Patrick, one being his autobiography called Confessions. It is a short summary of the events in his life, written in true humility. Below is a short excerpt:
I am greatly God's debtor, because he granted me so much grace, that through me many people would be reborn in God, and soon after confirmed, and that clergy would be ordained everywhere for them, the masses lately come to belief, whom the Lord drew from the ends of the earth, just as he once promised through his prophets: "To you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited naught hut lies, worthless things in which there is no profit." And again: "I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the uttermost ends of the earth."
Patron: Ireland; against snakes; against ophidiophobia; archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts; diocese of Burlington, Vermont; engineers; excluded people; fear of snakes; diocese of Fort Worth, Texas; diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; archdiocese of New York; Nigeria; diocese of Norwich, Connecticut; ophidiophobics; diocese of Portland, Maine; diocese of Sacramento, California; snake bites.
Symbols: A bishop trampling on snakes; bishop driving snakes away; shamrock; snakes; cross; harp; demons; baptismal font.
Things to Do:
•This is a good day to honor St. Patrick by trying typical Irish fare: corned beef and cabbage, soda bread, scones, stew, Shepherd's pie, potatoes in various forms and the famous beer and spirits of Ireland. For dessert, try making the Irish Porter Cake.
•Read the Lorica (Breastplate) of St. Patrick. Here is an older translation http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=139 —
pray it with your family after your rosary tonight.
•From the Catholic Culture library: The Conversion of Ireland http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=101 by Warren Carroll, The Irish Soldiers of Mexico http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=6030%20 by Michael Hogan, The Irish Madonna of Hungary http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=3052%20 by Zsolt Aradi and Our Lady in Old Irish Folklore and Hymns http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=3137%20 by James F. Cassidy.
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The Station today is at St. Paul without-the-walls. On this day the catechumens were subjected to a new examination and, if approved, were registered for Baptism. The beginning of the four Gospels was read to them, and the Creed and the Our Father was "given," or explained to them. Today's Mass has a decided Baptismal character. The joys of this day were anticipated on Laetare Sunday.
ACTIVITIES
Gaelic Prayers http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=293
Namedays http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=208
Pain and Suffering http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=262
St. Patrick's Testimony http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=292
What is a Nameday? http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1026
PRAYERS
"Breast Plate" Prayer (Lorica) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=107
Novena to St. Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=294
Annunciation Novena http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1034
Litany of Saint Padrig of Eire http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1171
Novena for the Annunciation http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1220
Optional Memorial of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop, confessor and doctor
Old Calendar: St. Cyril of Jerusalem; Our Lady of Mercy (Hist)
Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, was banished from his see on three occasions. With St. Athanasius and others, he belongs to the great champions of faith in the fight against Arianism. Famous as a teacher and preacher, he has left a series of catechetical instructions that constitute a priceless heirloom from Christian antiquity. Of the twenty-four extant discourses, nineteen were directed to catechumens during Lent as a preparation for baptism, while five so-called mystagogical instructions were given during Easter time to make the mysteries of Christianity better known to those already baptized.
Historically today is the feast of Our Lady of Mercy.
Stational Church
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St. Cyril of Jerusalem
Cyril of Jerusalem was given to the study of the Holy Scriptures from childhood, and made such progress that he became an eminent champion of the orthodox faith. He embraced the monastic institute and bound himself to perpetual chastity and austerity of life. He was ordained priest by St. Maximus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and undertook the work of preaching to the faithful and instructing the catechumens, in which he won the praise of all. He was the author of those truly wonderful Catechetical Instructions, which embrace clearly and fully all the teaching of the Church, and contain an excellent defense of each of the dogmas of religion against the enemies of the faith. His treatment of these subjects is so distinct and clear that he refuted not only the heresies of his own time, but also, by a kind of foreknowledge, as it were, those which were to arise later. Thus he maintains the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the adorable sacrament of the Altar. On the death of Patriarch St. Maximus, the bishops of the province chose Cyril in his place.
As Bishop he endured, like blessed Athanasius, his contemporary, many wrongs and sufferings for the sake of the faith at the hands of the Arians. They could not bear his strenuous opposition to their heresy, and thus assailed him with calumnies, deposed him in a pseudo-council and drove him from his see. To escape their rage, he fled to Tarsus in Cilicia and, as long as Constantius lived, he bore the hardships of exile. On the death of Constantius and the accession of Julian the Apostate, Cyril was able to return to Jerusalem, where he set himself with burning zeal to deliver his flock from false doctrine and from sin. He was driven into exile a second time, under the Emperor Valens, but when peace was restored to the Church by Theodosius the Great, and the cruelty and insolence of the Arians were restrained, he was received with honor by the Emperor as a valiant soldier of Christ and restored to his see. With what earnestness and holiness he fulfilled the duties of his exalted office was proved by the flourishing state of the Church at Jerusalem, as described by St. Basil, who spent some time there on a pilgrimage to the holy places.
Tradition states that God rendered the holiness of this venerable Patriarch illustrious by signs from heaven, among which is numbered the apparition of a cross, brighter than the sun, which was seen at the beginning of his Patriarchate. Not only Cyril himself, but pagans and Christians alike were witnesses of this marvel, which Cyril, after having given thanks to God in church, announced by letter to Constantius. A thing no less wonderful came to pass when the Jews were commanded by the impious Emperor Julian to restore the Temple which had been destroyed by Titus. An earthquake arose and great balls of fire broke out of the earth and consumed the work, so that Julian and the Jews were struck with terror and gave up their plan. This had been clearly foretold by Cyril. A little while before his death, he was present at the Ecumenical Council at Constantinople, where the heresies of Macedonius and Arius were condemned. After his return to Jerusalem, he died a holy death at sixty-nine years of age in the thirty-fifth year of his bishopric. Pope Leo XIII ordered that his office and mass should be said throughout the Universal Church.
Things to Do:
•Read part of St. Cyril's Catechetical Lectures On the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ ,http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=103 which is very fitting meditation material for Lent.
Our Lady of Mercy
Devotion to the Virgin of Mercy dates back to the time of the founding of Lima. It is known that the Mercederian friars, who came to Peru with the conquerors, had already built their primitive convent chapel around 1535. This chapel served as Lima's first parish until the construction of the Main Church in 1540. The Mercederians not only evangelized the region, but they also participated in the city's development, building beautiful churches that have been preserved as a valuable cultural and religious patrimony.
With these friars came their celestial patroness, the Virgin of Mercy, a Marian title of the thirteenth century. Tradition has it that around 1218, St. Peter Nolasco and James I, King of Aragon and Catalonia, experienced separately a vision of the Most Holy Virgin who asked them to found a religious order dedicated to rescuing the many Christian captives held by the Moslems. This Order of Our Lady of Mercy, approved as a military order in 1235 by Pope Gregory IX, was able to liberate thousands of Christian prisoners, and later became dedicated to teaching and social work. The Mercederian friars' habit imitates the garments worn by the Virgin when she appeared to the founder of the order. [Our Lady of Our Lady of Mercy] The image of the Virgin of Mercy is dressed all in white: over her long tunic she wears a scapular with the shield of the order imprinted breast high. A cloak covers her shoulders and her long hair is veiled by a fine lace mantilla. Some images have her standing, with the child in her arms, and others with her arms extended showing a royal scepter in her right hand and in the left some open chains, a symbol of liberation. Such is the appearance of the beautiful image venerated in the Basilica of Mercy in the capital of Peru. It was enthroned at the beginning of the XVII century and has been considered the patroness of the capital. In 1730 she was proclaimed "Patroness of the Peruvian Lands" and in 1823 "Patroness of the Armies of the Republic." On the first centennial of the nation's independence, the image was solemnly crowned and received the title of "Grand Marshall of Peru," on September 24, 1921, Feast of Our Lady of Mercy, since then declared a national holiday, when every year the army renders homage to her high military rank.
The image carries numerous decorations granted by the Republic of Peru, its governors and national institutions. In 1970 the town council of Lima gave her the "Keys of the City," and in 1971 the president of the Republic conferred on her the Great Peruvian Cross of Naval Merit, gestures which evidence the affection and devotion of Peru to Our Lady of Mercy, that many consider their national patroness.
Excerpted from The Mary Page
http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/resources/english.html
The Station is at the church of Saints Sylvester and Martin, which is one of the most venerable in Rome. It was originally built by Pope St. Sylvester, and still bears his name: but in the sixth century, it was consecrated to St. Martin of Tours. In the seventh century, it was enriched with the relics of Pope Saint Martin, which were brought from Chersonesus, where he had died a martyr a few years before. This church was the first Title of St. Charles Borromeo. It was also that of the learned liturgiologist, the Blessed Joseph-Mary Tommasi, whose body is now venerated in this church, and has been miraculously preserved, even to this day, in a state of incorruption.
ACTIVITIES
La Falla de San Chusep—Saint Joseph's Day in Valencia http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1048
Namedays http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=208
What is a Nameday? http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1026
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Fourth Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=180
Novena to St. Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=294
Lent Table Blessing 4 http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=686
Annunciation Novena http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1034
Novena for the Annunciation http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1220
Solemnity of St. Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Old Calendar: St. Joseph, Spouse of the Virgin Mary
St. Joseph, the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the foster-father of Jesus, was probably born in Bethlehem and probably died in Nazareth. His important mission in God's plan of salvation was "to legally insert Jesus Christ into the line of David from whom, according to the prophets, the Messiah would be born, and to act as his father and guardian (Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy)." Most of our information about St. Joseph comes from the opening two chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel. No words of his are recorded in the Gospels; he was the "silent" man. We find no devotion to St. Joseph in the early Church. It was the will of God that the Virgin Birth of Our Lord be first firmly impressed upon the minds of the faithful. He was later venerated by the great saints of the Middle Ages. Pius IX (1870) declared him patron and protector of the universal family of the Church.
Stational Church
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St. Joseph
St. Joseph was an ordinary manual laborer although descended from the royal house of David. In the designs of Providence he was destined to become the spouse of the Mother of God. His high privilege is expressed in a single phrase, "Foster-father of Jesus." About him Sacred Scripture has little more to say than that he was a just man-an expression which indicates how faithfully he fulfilled his high trust of protecting and guarding God's greatest treasures upon earth, Jesus and Mary.
The darkest hours of his life may well have been those when he first learned of Mary's pregnancy; but precisely in this time of trial Joseph showed himself great. His suffering, which likewise formed a part of the work of the redemption, was not without great providential import: Joseph was to be, for all times, the trustworthy witness of the Messiah's virgin birth. After this, he modestly retires into the background of holy Scripture.
Of St. Joseph's death the Bible tells us nothing. There are indications, however, that he died before the beginning of Christ's public life. His was the most beautiful death that one could have, in the arms of Jesus and Mary. Humbly and unknown, he passed his years at Nazareth, silent and almost forgotten he remained in the background through centuries of Church history. Only in more recent times has he been accorded greater honor. Liturgical veneration of St. Joseph began in the fifteenth century, fostered by Sts. Brigid of Sweden and Bernadine of Siena. St. Teresa, too, did much to further his cult.
At present there are two major feasts in his honor. On March 19 our veneration is directed to him personally and to his part in the work of redemption, while on May 1 we honor him as the patron of workmen throughout the world and as our guide in the difficult matter of establishing equitable norms regarding obligations and rights in the social order.
Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch
St. Joseph is invoked as patron for many causes. He is the patron of the Universal Church. He is the patron of the dying because Jesus and Mary were at his death-bed. He is also the patron of fathers, of carpenters, and of social justice. Many religious orders and communities are placed under his patronage.
Patron: Against doubt; against hesitation; Americas; Austria; Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; California; Belgium; Bohemia; bursars; cabinetmakers; Canada; Carinthia; carpenters; China; confectioners; craftsmen; Croatian people (in 1687 by decree of the Croatian parliament) dying people; emigrants; engineers; expectant mothers; families; fathers; Florence, Italy; happy death; holy death; house hunters; immigrants; interior souls; Korea; laborers; Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin; Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky; Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire; Mexico; Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee; New France; New World; Oblates of Saint Joseph; people in doubt; people who fight Communism; Peru; pioneers; protection of the Church; Diocese of San Jose, California; diocese of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; social justice; Styria, Austria; travelers; Turin Italy; Tyrol Austria; unborn children Universal Church; Vatican II; Vietnam; Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston West Virginia; wheelwrights; workers; working people.
Symbols: Bible; branch; capenter's square; carpenter's tools; chalice; cross; hand tools; infant Jesus; ladder; lamb; lily; monstrance; old man holding a lily and a carpenter's tool such as a square; old man holding the infant Jesus; plane; rod.
Things to Do:
•You must have a table that is simply overflowing with good Italian food on this day! The feast of San Giuseppe began in the Middle Ages when Sicily was suffering from a severe drought and the desperate people begged St. Joseph for rain. When they received rainy weather in response, they held a huge "feste" in Saint Joseph's honor. Even today, Sicilians go to Mass before their St. Joseph's day dinner and then process to their festive tables, decked out in flowers, breads, and all sorts of Italian foods. The priest blesses the food, and everyone shouts "Viva la tavola di San Giuse!" (which your children will readily do with great gusto). After the meal is done, everyone present is given something to take home, in the generous spirit of this day. Try some of our delicious recipes linked here. We especially recommend the traditional Minestrone. Italian sausage is always a favorite, as well. And you should have bread of all kinds — this recipe for Italian Decorative Breads can provide the traditional shape of your choice (St. Joseph's staff, his beard, etc). Also a traditional must with children is St. Joseph's Sfinge, (Cream Puffs), for which we have several recipes on this site. Plan a St. Joseph's potluck for this day with other Catholic families — invite a parish priest and ask his blessing over the food before you begin the meal. If you do not have the time or resources to do this, plan a smaller affair with your own family, complete with prayers to St. Joseph, a little procession with candles for the older children and your favorite hymns, and then the father of the family ought to say a special blessing over the food before you begin.
•Check out this wonderful site that explains the St. Joseph Altar more in detail, includes recipes, history, and allows virtual offerings.
•For further reading:
1.Viva San Giuseppe: A guide for Saint Joseph Altars. This wonderful booklet is available for $5.00 plus $1.50 postage. All proceeds from the sale of this book will be used to assist the Sisters of St. Joseph in their ministries. Make your check payable to St. Joseph Guild, 1200 Mirabeau Ave., New Orleans, LA 70122.
2.The St. Joseph Altar Traditions of South Louisiana (Louisiana Life Series; No. 4) by Ethelyn Gay Orso, small booklet with photographs, available for purchase at online bookstores, such as Amazon.
3.Brand new beautifully illustrated hardcover book, Saint Joseph Altars by Kerri McCaffety (Photographer), also available at bookstores.
4.Read the section of Directory on Popular Piety http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=4620#115 and Liturgy on St. Joseph.
5.Read Pope Leo XIII's encyclical on Devotion to St. Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=4882.
6.Interested in history? Read this article on the history of devotions to St. Joseph, Finding St. Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=4464, by Sandra Miesel.
•Pray this prayer http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=226 and litany http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1006 in honor of St. Joseph with your family rosary tonight.
•Here is a link to several meditations on St. Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=3333 — choose the one that is perfect for you and your family!
•Here are some ideas for teaching children about St. Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=359.
•Young girls ought to pray to St. Joseph for their future spouse.
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The Station is in the church of St. Eusebius, priest of Rome, who suffered for the faith in the Arian persecution under the emperor Constantius.
RECIPES
Paella Valenciana (Chicken and fish with rice) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1422
Turron de Jijona http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1426
Almond Cookies http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1207
Almond Squares http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1208
Broiled Veal Rolls http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1012
Cannoli (Shells) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1203
Cannoli Filling http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1204
Cavazune http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=4
Heart Cake (cut-up) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1446
Italian Anise Toast http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1199
Italian Bread Sticks http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1200
Italian Decorative Breads http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1201
Italian Vegetable Soup http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1010
Maccu http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1215
Meatless Antipasto http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1209
Minestrone http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1420
Minestrone http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=34
Palermo Bread http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1198
Pane de San Giuseppe http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=3
Pecan Cookies http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1206
Pignolatti http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1205
Red Wine Cookies http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1202
Ricotta Filling http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=308
Saint Joseph's Day Dinner http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1424
Sopa de Pescado http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1423
Spaghetti with Fennel Sauce http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=217
St. Joseph's Cream Puffs I http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=307
St. Joseph's Cream Puffs II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1011
St. Joseph's Cream Puffs III http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1013
St. Joseph's Cream Puffs IV http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1248
St. Joseph's Cream Puffs V http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1427
St. Joseph's Sfinge I http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=35
St. Joseph's Sfinge II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=218
Symbolic Pastries http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1197
Vuccidrato -- Jesus Wreath http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1212
Vuccidrato -- Joseph's Staff http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1213
Vuccidrato -- Mary's Palms http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1214
ACTIVITIES
"Tupa-Tupa" (Knocking) for St. Joseph's Day http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1031
La Falla de San Chusep—Saint Joseph's Day in Valencia http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1048
Family and Friends of Jesus Scrapbook Album http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1131
Feast of St. Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=359
History of the St. Joseph Altar http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1029
Namedays http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=208
St. Joseph's Table or Buffet Dinner http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=454
St. Joseph's Table: An Age-Old Tradition http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1024
Traditions related to Saint Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1050
What is a Nameday? http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1026
PRAYERS
Prayer to St. Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=226
Novena to St. Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=294
Blessing of Saint Joseph's Table http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=735
March Devotion: Saint Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=755
St. Joseph Prayer for protection http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=904
Ad te Beate Ioseph - To thee, O blessed Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1005
Litany of St. Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1006
Chaplet of St. Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1007
Seven Sorrows and Joys of Saint Joseph http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1008
Blessing of the St. Joseph Altar http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1026
Annunciation Novena http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1034
Novena for the Annunciation http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1220
LIBRARY
Finding St. Joseph | Sandra Miesel http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=4464
Guardian of the Redeemer (Redemptoris Custos) | Pope John Paul II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=5462
Imitate St Joseph's Simple, Hard-Working Style | Pope John Paul II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=2615
Love and Serve the Church Like St Joseph | Pope John Paul II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=3468
On Devotion to St. Joseph | Pope Leo XIII http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=301
Saint Joseph Continues in His Role as Protector of the Body of Christ | Pope John Paul II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=3332
Saint Joseph the Worker, Man of Faith and Prayer | Pope John Paul II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=3329
St. Joseph — a Compilation | Various http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=3333
St. Joseph and the Third Christian Millennium! | Rev. Regis Scanlon O.F.M. Cap. http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=6355
St. Joseph, a Witness to Fulfillment of the Promise | Pope John Paul II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=3328
St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church | Pope John Paul II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=5296
St. Joseph: Man of Trust | Pope John Paul II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=3326
Thirty Days Prayer to St. Joseph | Unknown http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=859
Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Old Calendar: St. Photina (Hist)
The theme of life and light has colored the Liturgy of this week. Before leading the catechumens into the Mystery of Christ's Passion and Death, the Church presents Christ to them once more as the Light of the world who has power to open man's eyes to his Light. He will veil it for a while during his Passion but it will burst forth in full splendor again on Easter morning.
Historically today is the feast of St. Photina, the Samaritan woman at the well.
Stational Church
Meditation
We must forgive our neighbor always. This fraternal charity is the source of strength among the members of the Mystical Body: "If two of you shall consent upon earth concerning anything whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done to them by my Father". This charity should animate us in giving fraternal correction, which should always be free from all vanity, self-love and desire to humiliate and defame.
The Church dispenses Christ's forgiveness through the power of the keys: "whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven". Christ's pardon of us is limitless. Just as the small quantity of oil, increasing miraculously at the word of Elias, enabled the poor widow to pay all her debts, so the infinite merits of Christ enable us to expiate all our sins.
Love of God and of neighbor imposes on us constant self-denial and self-mastery. Only love working through mortification will enable us to ascend the "holy hill" and dwell in "God's tabernacle". — The Cathedral Daily Missal by Right Rev. Msgr. Rudolph G. Bandas
Things to Do:
•Discuss the idea of forgiveness with your children — emphasizing with today's Gospel that Christ's forgiveness is limitless to those who humbly repent of their offenses against Him. Ask them ways in which they practice this virtue every day, with their sisters and brothers, with their parents, and with their friends.
•Throughout this fourth week of Lent, often the time when children begin to lose focus or weary of this penitential season, give them something tangible to work on, such as a Lenten Scrapbook, an ongoing activity that will engage their minds and stretch their creativity in putting their faith into pictures.
St. Photina
St. Photina was that Samaritan woman whom our Lord met at Jacob’s Well. When He disclosed the secret of her profligate life, she believed in Him at once as that Messiah which was to come, and began spreading the Gospel among the Samaritans, converting many. Later, she and her son Josiah and her five sisters went to Carthage to preach and then to Rome. Another son, Victor, was a soldier and had already come to Emperor Nero’s attention as being a Christian. The Emperor summoned the whole family and with threats and tortures tried to force them to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ. Meanwhile, when Nero’s daughter Domnina came in contact with Photina (the Lord Himself had given her the name, meaning “resplendent” or “shining with light”), she, too, was converted. The enraged emperor had the heads of the sons and sisters cut off; Photina was held in prison for a few more weeks before being thrown into a well, where she joyously gave her soul to the Lord.
Excerpted from Orthodox America
Today's Station is at St. Nicholas in Prison. It was constructed in the ruins of two temples and the ancient Forum Olitorium, and you can see fragments from them reused in the church. The most important of the temples was the Temple of Piety, built by Acilius Glabrius, consul in 191 B.C. The dedication to St. Nicholas was made by the Greek population in the area.
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Old Calendar: Passion Sunday
"Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Jesus did not deny the Scribes and Pharisees the right to carry out this prescription of the Law, but he insisted on one condition, namely, that they have no sin on their consciences. When Jesus and the woman were left alone, he looked up and said, "Woman, where are they?" Ironically, the self-righteous observers of the Law, so eager to throw stones, could not measure up to the requirement that Jesus had laid down.
Previously called "Passion Sunday", this Sunday marks the beginning of Passiontide, a deeper time of Lent. This is the third Sunday of the scrutinies for the preparation of adult converts, and the final Sunday of Lent before the beginning of Holy Week. The Liturgy of the Word of this day speaks of re-creation, resurrection, and new life.
Stational Church
Sunday Readings
The first reading is taken from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, 43:16-21. Last week we heard of the conclusion of the exodus from Egypt; the first Passover celebration in the land of Canaan. This week we look forward to a new exodus that God promises through the prophet Isaiah. The new exodus promises to be far more wonderful than the first. God promises to restore His people after they have suffered in exile.
The second reading is from the Letter of St. Paul to the Philippians, 3:8-14, and is a warning to the Philippians about false teachers; Judaizers who would try to hang on to the old ways while at the same time claiming to be Christians. The Judaizers taught that in order to be a Christian, you first had to be a Jew: to be circumcised and to obey all 613 Old Covenant commandments. This question, whether or not Gentile converts to Christianity must first become full and legal Jews, prompted the Council of Jerusalem.
The Gospel is from St. John, 8:1-11 and is about the woman caught in adultery. "The two of them were left on their own, the wretched woman and Mercy. But the Lord, having smitten them with the dart of injustice, does not even deign to watch them go but turns his gaze away from them and once more writes on the ground with his finger. But when the woman was left alone and they had all gone, he lifted up his eyes to the woman. We have already heard the voice of justice; let us now hear the voice of gentleness. I think that woman was the more terrified when she heard the Lord say, 'Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her,' . . . fearing now that she would be punished by him, in whom no sin could be found. But he, who had driven away her adversaries with the tongue of justice, now looking at her with the eyes of gentleness, asks her, 'Has no one condemned you?' She replies, 'No one, Lord.' And he says, 'Neither do I condemn you; I who perhaps you feared would punish you, because in me you have found no sin.' Lord, can it be that you favour sinners? Assuredly not. See what follows: 'Go and sin no more.' Therefore, the Lord also condemned sin, but not the woman' (St Augustine, In Ioann. Evang., 33, 5-6).
Jesus, who is the just One, does not condemn the woman; whereas these people are sinners, yet they pass sentence of death. God's infinite mercy should move us always to have compassion on those who commit sins, because we ourselves are sinners and in need of God's forgiveness. — The Navarre Bible - St. John
At Rome, the Station is in the basilica of St. Peter. The importance of this Sunday, which never yields to any feast no matter what its solemnity may be, requires that the place for the assembly of the faithful should be in one of the chief sanctuaries of the holy city.
RECIPES
Classic Beans and Rice http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1539
ACTIVITIES
Carling or Passion Sunday http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1058
PRAYERS
Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Lent (2nd Plan) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=746
Annunciation Novena http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1034
Novena for the Annunciation http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1220
Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent God's protection extends to all his children, to the innocent and sinful. He will never leave us to our enemies. Christ, the champion of the weak, shows himself in today's celebration of the word as defender of womankind against cruelty and lust. It is this same Champion and Defender that we meet in the Eucharistic mystery.
Stational Church
Meditation - God's Appeal to All the World
Pilate's "Ecce, Homo!" his appeal to the scornful multitude now on the point of breaking out into mob violence, was even more truly the mighty appeal of God's marvelous mercy to his chosen people and to all the human race.
"Behold the Man!" Behold the Lamb of God, the Son of the living God, in all these unsightly wounds, the most beautiful of men here disfigured beyond recognition, as one stricken by leprosy and all the other filthy diseases of mankind; yes, behold Him here, the most frightful symbol and demonstration of the monstrous evil of mortal sin ever to be given to the world; but even more, behold Him here, the clearest and the mightiest appeal of Heaven to all the world of souls to be converted and to rise from spiritual death to life, true and even divine.
"Behold the Man." O my soul, behold Christ Jesus there as the Lamb of God loaded with your own personal sins and bearing the ghastly wounds your sins inflicted on Him. Pray that you may recognize here, in this reed and purple and crown, God's very own caricature of your senseless pride, of the folly of your imaginary greatness. In that purple rag of a cloak see the sham honor and dignity in which your self-conceit and self-complacency clothe you! In that reed recognize the might of your strength in which you have been trusting. In that crown acknowledge the depth of humiliation you deserve for all your vanity and your open and secret envious ambition for recognition and authority and for honors and offices. O my soul, be honest enough to see and to acknowledge what a spectacle you are to all heaven in the light of the revelation in God's word: "Behold the Man!"
Yet again, "Behold the Man!" Look on Him that you may be filled with hope and courage. Let the crushing truth you have just been making your very own, serve to crush your nauseating and contaminating pride in all its open and especially its hitherto hidden forms. Behold the Man, the Lamb of God laden with your sins, but only to wash them away and to cast them into the deep sea of oblivion; yes, and even to take away your stony heart and give you a heart of flesh, to put His own spirit in your midst, and to cause you to walk in His commandments and to keep His judgments and to do them (Ezech. 36:26-30); in a word, to make a way in your wilderness, that shall be called "The Holy Way." (Isa. 35:6-8.)
Excerpted from Our Way to the Father, Rev. Leo M. Krenz, S.J.
The Station, at Rome, is in the church of St. Chrysogonus, one of the most celebrated martyrs of the Church of Rome. His name is inserted in the Canon of the Mass. The church was probably built in the 4th century under Pope Sylvester I.
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Fifth Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=181
Annunciation Novena http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfmid=1034
Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Lent (1st Plan) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1042
Novena for the Annunciation http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1220
Optional Memorial of St. Turibio de Mogrovejo, bishop St. Turibio, a Spaniard, served God from his infancy. Appointed Archbishop of Lima, he landed in South America in 1581. He died March 23, 1606, having, by his indefatigable zeal and by the boundlessness of his charity, literally renewed the face of the Church of Peru. According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite his feast is celebrated on April 27.
Historically today is the feast of Our Lady of Victories, (there are nine seperate days in honor of Our Lady of Victory, the main being October 7) Today's feast commemorates the victory in Hungary. On August 6, 1716, Prince Eugene of Savoy defeated a large invading Ottoman army at Peterwardein, Hungary. The victory set the stage for the reconquest of Hungary from the Turks.
Stational Church
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St. Turibio de Mogrovejo
Together with Rose of Lima, Turibio is the first known saint of the New World, serving the Lord in Peru, South America, for twenty-six years.
Born in Spain and educated for the law, he became so brilliant a scholar that he was made professor of law at the University of Salamanca and eventually became chief judge of the Inquisition at Granada. He succeeded too well. But he was not sharp enough a lawyer to prevent a surprising sequence of events.
When the archbishopric of Lima in Spain's Peruvian colony became vacant, it was decided that Turibio was the man needed to fill the post: He was the one person with the strength of character and holiness of spirit to heal the scandals that had infected that area.
He cited all the canons that forbade giving laymen ecclesiastical dignities, but he was overruled. He was ordained priest and bishop and sent to Peru, where he found colonialism at its worst. The Spanish conquerors were guilty of every sort of oppression of the native population. Abuses among the clergy were flagrant, and he devoted his energies (and suffering) to this area first.
He began the long and arduous visitation of an immense archdiocese, studying the language, staying two or three days in each place, often with neither bed nor food. He confessed every morning to his chaplain, and celebrated Mass with intense fervor. Among those to whom he gave the Sacrament of Confirmation was Saint Rose of Lima, and possibly Saint Martin de Porres. After 1590 he had the help of another great missionary, Saint Francis Solanus.
His people, though very poor, were sensitive, dreading to accept public charity from others. Turibio solved the problem by helping them anonymously.
When Turibio undertook the reform of the clergy as well as unjust officials, he naturally suffered opposition. Some tried, in human fashion, to "explain" God's law in such a way as to sanction their accustomed way of life. He answered them in the words of Tertullian, "Christ said, 'I am the truth'; he did not say, 'I am the custom."'
Patron: Peru, Latin American Bishops, Native Rights, (Also, Lawyers may seek his intercession because he was a Lawyer in Spain)
Things to Do:
•Read more about St. Turibio.
•St. Turibio started the first seminary in the Americas, the Conciliar Seminary of Lima, and was named the first male saint of the New World. Offer a rosary today for an increase in vocations and for those studying for the priesthood.
•St. Turibio fought for social justice, championing the rights of the natives against the Spanish masters. Make a contribution to your local food pantry, volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center, cut out pictures of children from third world countries and make a display in your home to encourage your children to make sacrifices or to contribute money to the less fortunate.
•Cook a Peruvian dish in honor of St. Turibio.
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Our Lady of Victory
In 1432, John Hunyady, a Catholic Hungarian national distinguished himself at the Siege of the Szendro Castle in Hungary. For this very reason King Sigismund appointed him as one of his royal counselors. John Hunyady later became Count of Temes and supported the election of Wladislaw III of Poland, to the throne of Hungary. For supporting the Polish King, Hunyady was proclaimed Commander of the Fortress of Belgrade and Voivode of Transylvania. John Hunyady was privately devoted to the Blessed Virgin and prayed for her intercession during the wars against the Ottoman powers. Victories always occurred, following his prayers to Our Lady. In 1441, the Hungarians were victorious against the Ottomans at Szendro, at Maros-Szent-Imre in 1442, and captured Sofia in Bulgaria in 1443. In 1453, the Ottoman Islamists invaded the Christian territories, conquering Constantinople. Churches were demolished and the Byzantine Cathedral, referred to as Saint Sophia’s Cathedral, was desecrated and converted into a mosque. Following the fall of Constantinople, Sultan Mehmet II prepared for war against Hungary.
In 1454, Serbia fell to the Ottoman Sultan. Together with the Franciscan monk, Father John Capistrano, John Hunyady marshaled an army at Szeged, and won back the territory at Szendro. The Ottomans pressed forward and Hunyady defended the Southern border of Hungary. Father Capistrano was ordered by the Catholic Pontiff to preach a crusade against the Ottoman invaders. On July 21 and 22, Father Capistrano and John Hunyady lead the Hungarian troops to battle. Invoking the name of Jesus Christ and his Blessed Mother, Father John urged the troops and led them to victory. The cleric was hailed as the ‘Apostle of Europe’ for the victory delivered on July 21, halted the Islamic Ottoman expansion for another seventy years. In 1690, Father Capistrano was canonized. Both Father Capistrano and John Hunyadi died shortly following the Battle at Belgrade where the miraculous intervention of the Blessed Virgin took place.
John Hunyady experienced defeats and was at least twice captured by his enemies, in 1458 his second son became King of Hungary. Following the victory at Belgrade, in recognition of the heavenly aid granted by Our Lady, Pope Callistus III ordered the daily Angelus to be recited at midday, for that was the hour the Ottoman forces were defeated. In modern times the prayer of the Angelus is recited at midday commemorating the Catholic victory at Belgrade and in honor of Our Lady. Apart from Father Capistrano, a second Franciscan who saved Hungary from similar invasions was the Capuchin Father Mark D’Aviano. Following the successful defense in Vienna of 1683, the Battle of Budapest in Hungary, was the next place where the Ottoman Scimitar was to fall. Budapest capitulated to the Islamic Empire and a triple ring of fortifications was constructed around the city. The city’s Catholic Cathedral, dedicated to Saint Stephen, was similarly to Constantinople’s Saint Sophia, profanely converted into a mosque. Holding a large banner bearing the Image of Saint Joseph, Father Mark ran into the thick of battle. Once the bastions were breached, Father Mark entered the breach intending to reach the profaned cathedral. Fearlessly, ignoring the thundering cannons, he sang litanies to the Blessed Virgin and by evening he placed the banner of Saint Joseph in the reconquered cathedral. Following this victory, Catholic churches were once again rebuilt in this land and a short period of peace ensued. At the Battle of Essech, Father Mark encouraged the generals by assuring them a speedy victory. He postulated that in order to defeat such a formidable enemy, the recourse with confidence to the God of the Heavenly Hosts was necessary, “…without whom all human endeavor is vain.”(1) Although he was a cleric, Father Mark D’Aviano did not neglect the necessary and essential preparations for properly training troops, stocking ammunition, defining supply lines, speed when marching, efficient spying and the maintenance of a good diplomatic rapport between the Christian leaders. He advocated that: “The leaders must fight with upright intentions and not out of jealousy, pride, or personal interest.”(2) Belgrade was the next battle scene. When exposed to the grandiose power of the Ottoman forces the Catholic leaders faltered and hesitated, Father Mark insisted that even if such odds were against them, the Christians would be victorious. According to Father D’Aviano, armies could do nothing against the Ottoman Turk, but if Our Lady was worthily honored, she would intercede for victory. The battles were indeed won and the Ottomans ousted. In 1699, the Turks signed the Peace of Karlowitz. That same year Father Mark D’Aviano, passed away peacefully.
The son of Prince Eugene Maurice of Savoy was born in 1663 and named Eugene after his father. Throughout his early youth he brought himself as an exemplary Catholic. Many at court thought that Eugene was destined at becoming an abbot, in fact he was referred to as the ‘petit abbe’ or the ‘little abbot.’ To the court’s surprise, Eugene developed a liking for the military but was denied entrance by the king. Eugene left France to enroll within the Austrian military, and was deployed where the most need was required, that meant against the invading Ottomans. In 1683, Eugene distinguished himself at Petronell and was appointed Commander of a Dragoon regiment. He served against the Ottomans at Buda and Belgrade. In 1690, the Ottoman Turks recaptured Belgrade and Eugene defeated the Ottomans at the Battle of Zenta. The 1699, the ‘Treaty of Karlowitz’ followed the victory. After Karlowitz, a short time of peace was welcome, unfortunately, the Ottoman Empire was not true to the treaty. The Empire ignored its pledges of Peace and invaded the West, retaking Morea from Venice in 1714. The Austrians declared war on the Ottoman Empire on April 13, 1716. Prince Eugene of Savoy defeated the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Peterwardein on August 5 (Feast of Our Lady of the Snows) and Temesvar on the morrow of the Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar, October 13, 1716, he captured Belgrade. In 1716, the Battle at Peterwardein witnessed an Ottoman army consisting of 40,000 Janissaries, 20,000 Sipahis and 10,000 Tartars under the command of Grand Vizier Damad Ali. Battles started on August 3, and on August 5 the Austrian counter-attack under Prince Eugene began. The Austrians attacked by encircling the Sipahis and the Tartars, who gave way to the superior, disciplined army. Following this victory, Eugene attacked the Ottoman camp and was supported by the firing cannon of six frigates from the Danube River. In the Ottoman camps many were slain, including Damad Ali, their Commander. An event which was considered unusual for the time and season of the year, was a heavy snowfall on the morning of August 5, which covered Peterwardein. Prince Eugene sought the intercession of Our Lady of the Snows and following this victory granted by Our Lady’s intercession; he commemorated this event by ordering the construction of a church on Tekije Hill. The church overlooks the battlefield and is today known as ‘Our Lady of Tekije’ and ‘Our Lady of the Snows.’ The church is used both by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox denominations. On the morrow of the Feast of the Assumption of 1717, on August 16, the Ottoman forces were ousted from Belgrade. At the Treaty of Passarowitz on July 21, 1718, the Ottoman Empire ceded the Banat, Serbia, a portion of Bosnia and Vallachia to Austria.
Excerpted from The Catholic Southern Front Dispatch Chapter 9/32 - Hungary invaded
Things to Do:
•Visit this link for more information.
•Learn more about Fr. Baker and Our Lady of Victory here.
The Station in Rome was formerly the church of the martyr St. Cyriacus, and as such it is still given in the Roman missal; but this holy sanctuary having been destroyed, and the relics of the holy deacon translated to the church of St. Mary in Via lata, it is here that the Station is now held.
RECIPES
Aji de Gallina http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1429
Arroz con Leche http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1430
ACTIVITIES
None
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Fifth Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=181
Annunciation Novena http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1034
Novena for the Annunciation http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1220
Prayer to Our Queen of Victories http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1288
Litany of Our Lady of Victory http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1289
Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Old Calendar: St. Gabriel, archangel; St. Catherine of Sweden (Hist)
"Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted." (Lk. 18:14) "Even if we should have mounted to the very pinnacle of virtue, let us consider ourselves last of all; having learned that pride is able to cast down even from the heavens themselves him who takes not heed, and humbleness of mind to bear up on high from the very abyss of sins him who knows how to be sober. For this it was that placed the publican before the Pharisee." — St. John Chrysostom
According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. Gabriel. His feast in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite is celebrated on September 29 which is also the feast of Sts. Michael and Raphael. Historically the feast of St. Catherine of Sweden, the fourth child of St. Bridget of Sweden, is celebrated today.
Stational Church
St. Catherine of Sweden
Catherine of Sweden, Saint, the fourth child of Saint Bridget of Sweden (q.v.) and her husband, Ulf Gudmarsson, b. 1331 or 1332; d. March 24, 1381. At the time of her death St. Catherine was head of the convent of Wadstena, founded by her mother; hence the name, Catherine Vastanensis, by which she is occasionally called. At the age of seven she was sent to the abbess of the convent of Riseberg to be educated and soon showed, like her mother, a desire for a life of self-mortification and devotion to spiritual things. At the command of her father, when about thirteen or fourteen years old, she married a noble of German descent, Eggart von Kürnen. She at once persuaded her husband, who was a very religious man, to join her in a vow of chastity. Both lived in a state of virginity and devoted themselves to the exercise of Christian perfection and active charity. In spite of her deep love for her husband, Catherine accompanied her mother to Rome, where St. Bridget went in 1349.
Soon after her arrival in that city Catherine received news of the death of her husband in Sweden. She now lived constantly with her mother, took an active part in St. Bridget's fruitful labors, and zealously imitated her mother's ascetic life. Although the distinguished and beautiful young widow was surrounded by suitors, she steadily refused all offers of marriage. In 1372 St. Catherine and her brother, Birger, accompanied their mother on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; after their return to Rome St. Catherine was with her mother in the latter's last illness and death.
In 1374, in obedience to St. Bridget's wish, Catherine brought back her mother's body to Sweden for burial at Wadstena, of which foundation she now became the head. It was the mother-house of the Brigittine Order, also called the Order of St. Savior. Catherine managed the convent with great skill and made the life there one in harmony with the principles laid down by its founder. The following year she went again to Rome in order to promote the canonization of St. Bridget, and to obtain a new papal confirmation of the order. She secured another confirmation both from Gregory XI (1377) and from Urban VI (1379), but was unable to gain at the time the canonization of her mother, as the confusion caused by the Schism delayed the process. When this sorrowful division appeared she showed herself, like St. Catherine of Siena, a steadfast adherent of the party of the Roman Pope, Urban VI, in whose favor she testified before a judicial commission. Catherine stayed five years in Italy and then returned home, bearing a special letter of commendation from the pope. Not long after her arrival in Sweden she was taken ill and died. In 1484 Innocent VIII gave permission for her veneration as a saint and her feast was assigned to March 22 in the Roman martyrology. Catherine wrote a devotional work entitled "Consolation of the Soul" (Sielinna Troest), largely composed of citations from the Scriptures and from early religious books; no copy is known to exist. Generally she is represented with a hind at her side, which is said to have come to her aid when unchaste youths sought to ensnare her.
Excerpted from The Catholic Encyclopedia, J.P. Kirsch
The Station today is at the church of St. Marcellus at the Corso. Legend claims that Pope St. Marcellus (308-309) was sentenced by Emperor Maxentius to look after the horses at the station of the Imperial mail on the Via Lata, where the Via del Corso now lies. He was freed by the people, and hidden in the house of the Roman lady Lucina (see also San Lorenzo in Lucina). He was rearrested, and imprisoned in the stables.
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Fifth Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=181
Annunciation Novena http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1034
Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Lent (1st Plan) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1042
Novena for the Annunciation http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1220
Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
Old Calendar: Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Again Lent's austerity is interrupted as we solemnly keep a feast in honor of the Annunciation. The Annunciation is a mystery that belongs to the temporal rather than to the sanctoral cycle in the Church's calendar. For the feast commemorates the most sublime moment in the history of time, the moment when the Second Divine Person of the most Holy Trinity assumed human nature in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Thus it is a feast of our Lord, even as it is of Mary, although the liturgy centers wholly around the Mother of God. — The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch
Stational Church
The Annunciation
A tradition, which has come down from the apostolic ages, tells us that the great mystery of the Incarnation was achieved on the twenty-fifth day of March. It was at the hour of midnight, when the most holy Virgin was alone and absorbed in prayer, that the Archangel Gabriel appeared before her, and asked her, in the name of the blessed Trinity, to consent to become the Mother of God. Let us assist, in spirit, at this wonderful interview between the angel and the Virgin: and, at the same time, let us think of that other interview which took place between Eve and the serpent. A holy bishop and martyr of the second century, Saint Irenaeus, who had received the tradition from the very disciples of the apostles, shows us that Nazareth is the counterpart of Eden.
In the garden of delights there is a virgin and an angel; and a conversation takes place-between them. At Nazareth a virgin is also addressed by an angel, and she answers him; but the angel of the earthly paradise is a spirit of darkness, and he of Nazareth is a spirit of light. In both instances it is the angel that has the first word. 'Why,' said the serpent to Eve, 'hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?' His question implies impatience and a solicitation to evil; he has contempt for the frail creature to whom he addresses it, but he hates the image of God which is upon her.
See, on the other hand, the angel of light; see with what composure and peacefulness he approaches the Virgin of Nazareth, the new Eve; and how respectfully he bows himself down before her: 'Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou among women!' Such language is evidently of heaven: none but an angel could speak thus to Mary.
Scarcely has the wicked spirit finished speaking than Eve casts a longing look at the forbidden fruit: she is impatient to enjoy the independence it is to bring her. She rashly stretches forth her hand; she plucks the fruit; she eats it, and death takes possession of her: death of the soul, for sin extinguishes the light of life; and death of the body, which being separated from the source of immortality, becomes an object of shame and horror, and finally crumbles into dust.
But let us turn away our eyes from this sad spectacle, and fix them on Nazareth. Mary has heard the angel's explanation of the mystery; the will of heaven is made known to her, and how grand an honor it is to bring upon her! She, the humble maid of Nazareth, is to have the ineffable happiness of becoming the Mother of God, and yet the treasure of her virginity is to be left to her! Mary bows down before this sovereign will, and says to the heavenly messenger: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to thy word.'
Thus, as the great St. Irenaeus and so many of the holy fathers remark, the obedience of the second Eve repaired the disobedience of the first: for no sooner does the Virgin of Nazareth speak her fiat, 'be it done,' than the eternal Son of God (who, according to the divine decree, awaited this word) is present, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, in the chaste womb of Mary, and there He begins His human life. A Virgin is a Mother, and Mother of God; and it is this Virgin's consenting to the divine will that has made her conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost. This sublime mystery puts between the eternal Word and a mere woman the relations of Son and Mother; it gives to the almighty God a means whereby He may, in a manner worthy of His majesty, triumph over satan, who hitherto seemed to have prevailed against the divine plan.
Never was there a more entire or humiliating defeat than that which this day befell satan. The frail creature, over whom he had so easily triumphed at the beginning of the world, now rises and crushes his proud head. Eve conquers in Mary. God would not choose man for the instrument of His vengeance; the humiliation of satan would not have been great enough; and therefore she who was the first prey of hell, the first victim of the tempter, is selected to give battle to the enemy. The result of so glorious a triumph is that Mary is to be superior not only to the rebel angels, but to the whole human race, yea, to all the angels of heaven. Seated on her exalted throne, she, the Mother of God, is to be the Queen of all creation. Satan, in the depths of the abyss, will eternally bewail his having dared to direct his first attack against the woman, for God has now so gloriously avenged her; and in heaven, the very Cherubim and Seraphim reverently look up to Mary, and deem themselves honored when she smiles upon them, or employs them in the execution of any of her wishes, for she is the Mother of their God.
Therefore is it that we, the children of Adam, who have been snatched by Mary's obedience from the power of hell, solemnize this day of the Annunciation. Well may we say of Mary those words of Debbora, when she sang her song of victory over the enemies of God's people: 'The valiant men ceased, and rested in Israel, until Debbora arose, a mother arose in Israel. The Lord chose new wars, and He Himself overthrew the gates of the enemies." Let us also refer to the holy Mother of Jesus these words of Judith, who by her victory over the enemy was another type of Mary: 'Praise ye the Lord our God, who hath not forsaken them that hope in Him. And by me, His handmaid, He hath fulfilled His mercy, which He promised to the house of Israel; and He hath killed the enemy of His people by my hand this night. . . . The almighty Lord hath struck him, and hath delivered him into the hands of a woman, and hath slain him.'
Excerpted from The Liturgical Year, Abbot Gueranger O.S.B.
Things to Do:
•This feast is very important in the defense of the life of unborn children. Even with small children, this is a good day to begin teaching about the high value God places on human life. He loved us so much that he became one of us, took on our human nature and became an innocent, completely dependent infant.
•This is a Solemnity, so when this feast falls during the Lenten season, our Lenten penance obligations are lifted. We should celebrate by some special food or dinner. This feast day forecasts the blessed event of Christmas, and illustrates how the liturgical year is an endless circle of days. To celebrate this circle or cycle, serve a cake, coffee rings, or wreath-shaped cookies, or foods shaped in ring molds for this feast day. A perfect symbolic food would be an angel food cake for the archangel Gabriel, baked in a tube pan for the endless circle, decorated with the frosting highlighted with blue for Mary.
•A traditional food for this day is waffles. "Lady Day" or Annunciation, is the only feast of Mary that Sweden still celebrates since the Lutheran faith became the state religion in 1593. In most of Europe, waffles are a traditional feast day food, but on the feast of the Annunciation in Sweden this is THE "Waffle Day" (Vaffeldagen), where waffles are served either for breakfast, lunch or dinner, with lingonberries or cloudberries.
•If you are in the mood to bake cookies you can purchase a beautiful mold from House on the Hill.
http://www.houseonthehill.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_18&products_id=92
The Station at Rome is in the church of St. Apollinaris, who was a disciple of St. Peter, and afterwards bishop of Ravenna. He was martyred. The church was founded in the early Middle Ages, probably in the 7th century.
RECIPES
Angel Food Cake I http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1260
Angel Food Cake II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1261
Boiled White Icing http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1264
Classic Angel Food Cake http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1263
European Chocolate Icing http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1262
Jellied Macaroni Ring http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=355
Luscious Coffee Ring http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=356
Swedish Waffles http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=37
Waffles http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=219
ACTIVITIES
A Single Branch Three Roses Bore http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=346
Angelus Lesson http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=640
Annunciation Day http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=538
Annunciation Tableau http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=639
Annunciation: A Little Play for Preschool Children http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=9
Ave Maria Dear http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=341
Beautiful, Glorious http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=345
Celebrating the Feasts of the Blessed Virgin http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=983
Family and Friends of Jesus Scrapbook Album http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1131
Feast of the Annunciation http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=360
Feast of the Annunciation http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1057
Feasts of Mary in the Family http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1149
Feasts of Our Lady in the Home http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1150
Mary Garden http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=223
Namedays http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=208
Preschool Parent Pedagogy: How to Tell Stories http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=8
Salve Regina http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=342
Stella Matutina http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=344
'Tis Said of Our Dear Lady http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=343
Virgin Blessed, Thou Star the Fairest http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=347
What is a Nameday? http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1026
PRAYERS
Angelus Domini (The Angel of the Lord) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=427
Table Blessing for the Solemnity of the Annunciation http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1033
Annunciation Novena http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1034
Table Blessing for the Feasts of the Mother of God http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1173
Novena for the Annunciation http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1220
Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Old Calendar: Friday in Passion Week
"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (Jn 8:12)." Like the forty days' fast of the Ninevites, our Lent continues in complete confidence in divine mercy; but our hope is founded not so much on our poor efforts at penance but on the passion of our Savior. No one is excluded from the redemption effected by the Blood of Christ; His grace is promised to all who believe in Him.
Stational Church
Meditation
What do we do for the salvation of souls? It is true that we pray for one another, offer a few words of comfort, and do each other slight favors; but we do little more. Christ was more generous. He endured the crowning of thorns and dragged the heavy cross to Calvary. We pamper our bodies as if they were our last end. We prefer to have our heads crowned with laurels and roses. We are impatient and consider ourselves unfortunate whenever we are called on to carry a mere splinter of the cross of Christ. Are we one in spirit with Him?
Now, during Passiontide, we must begin to love and treasure pain and suffering. In the cross, in suffering, in our crucifixion with Christ, we shall find salvation. For Him and with Him we should bear all the slight injustices committed against us. For Him we should suffer freely and willingly the unpleasant and disagreeable things that occur to us. But our faith is weak. We flee from the cross instead of holding it dear, instead of loving it and welcoming it as our Savior did.
What St. Paul says of many Christians of his day is equally true of many in our time: "For many walk, of whom I have told you often (and now tell you weeping) that they are enemies of the cross of Christ. Whose end is destruction; whose God is their belly; whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things" (Phil. 3:18 f.).
Excerpted from The Light of the World by Benedict Baur, O.S.B.
The Station, at Rome, is in the church of St. Stephen on Monte Celio. This church of the great proto-martyr was chosen as the place where the faithful were to assemble on the Friday of Passion week.
RECIPES
New Orleans Shrimp and Spaghetti http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=418
Shrimp Jambalaya http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=414
ACTIVITIES
None
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Fifth Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=181
Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Lent (1st Plan) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1042
Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Old Calendar: St. John Damascene, confessor and doctor
But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all; you do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish." He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad (Jn 11:49-52).
According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. John Damascene. His feast in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite is celebrated on December 4.
Stational Church
Meditation - Christ's Last Days
Every person who loves Christ now tries his best to remain close to his suffering Savior during the last hours of His earthly life. The liturgy places us directly in the midst of the recorded events and expects us to participate. During these next days, therefore, we will traverse each road with Jesus.
Yesterday (Friday) He came with His disciples from the desert village of Ephrem to Jericho. When near the Jordan we heard from His lips the third prophecy of the crucifixion. Then Salome approached with her two sons, John and James, and begged important positions for them in the coming kingdom. This gave Jesus the opportunity to proclaim His wonderful teaching on humility. We stand close and listen.
The Lord enters Jericho. I am Zacheus, the chief publican, the little man who wants to see the Messiah from a tree. He looks up to me and says, "Today salvation has come to your house!" He stays two nights with me, a despised publican!
Over the Sabbath Jesus remains in Jericho. The next day (Sunday) He starts for Jerusalem at the head of a lordly caravan. Along the road there sits a blind beggar. It is I, again. "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" He heals my eyes, I see, I am enlightened!
In procession we pass through Jericho's inhospitable ravines up to Jerusalem. Night intervenes and Jesus stops at Bethany. He is joyously welcomed by Martha and Mary. Am I an active Martha or a meditating Mary? Possibly it was on this Sunday evening that the memorable meal took place when, with Lazarus present and Martha as hostess, Mary poured out the costly ointment for Jesus' burial. It was the act which estranged Judas completely from his Master.
In solemn procession on Monday afternoon the King of Israel comes to the top of Olivet, weeps over Jerusalem, and then continues on to the temple. We feel ourselves part of this festive procession, waving palms in our hands. We accompany our King and watch Him drive the money-changers out of His Father's house. Tuesday morning He returns with His disciples and while crossing Mt. Olivet curses the unfruitful fig tree, a figure of the Jewish people. This barren tree is likewise a warning for us.
Verbal encounters with the Jews take place in the temple courtyard until Wednesday afternoon when Christ hurls His eightfold curse upon Pharisee and Jew, and leaves the temple forever. With His disciples He then proceeds to the Mount of Olives and delivers His powerful discourse on the end of the world and the destruction of Jerusalem. Present in spirit we hear this sermon and take to heart His final admonition, "Be vigilant!" Meanwhile Judas has left the circle of disciples and offers his assistance to the chief priests.
Thursday morning Christ sends Peter and John from Bethany into the city to make the needed preparation for the Passover meal. As evening falls He bids farewell to His mother and His friends and goes with His apostles to the Upper Room in Jerusalem for His "Last Supper" with them.—In mind and in heart we will follow our Blessed Lord closely during these sacred days of Holy Week.
Today's Station takes place in the Church of St. John before the Latin Gate. This ancient basilica is built near the spot where the beloved disciple was, by Domitian's order, plunged into the cauldron of boiling oil.
RECIPES
Lenten Soup http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=262
ACTIVITIES
None
PRAYERS
Prayer for the Fifth Week of Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=181
Family Spiritual Reading http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=205
Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Lent (1st Plan) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1042
Monday of Holy Week
Old Calendar: Monday of Holy Week
The liturgy of today and of the week unfolds for us the events of the last week of Christ's life on earth. By chants and readings it shows us the feelings of our Savior and teaches us how to conduct ourselves during these days. Mary of Bethany is given us today as the example of what we should do for our blessed Lord. "In as far as you did this to one of these least of my brothers you did it to me." (Matthew 24:40). — St. Andrew Bible Mission
Stational Church
Meditation - Mary and Judas
Today the liturgy presents two noteworthy characters who play dissimilar roles in the Lord's passion. One fills us with solace and comfort; the other with uneasiness and wholesome fear. Their juxtaposition produces a powerful effect by way of contrast. The two characters are Mary of Bethany and Judas.
Jesus is in the house of Lazarus, at dinner. Mary approaches, anoints the feet of her Savior for His burial and dries them with her hair. Judas resents her action and resolves upon his evil course. These two persons typify man's relation to Christ. He gives His Body to two types of individuals: to Magdalenes to be anointed, to Judases to be kissed; to good persons who repay Him with love and service, to foes who crucify Him. How movingly this is expressed in the Lesson: "I gave My body to those who beat Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked them. I did not turn away My face from those who cursed and spit upon Me."
The same must hold true of His mystical Body. Down through the ages Christ is enduring an endless round of suffering, giving His body to other Marys for anointing and to other Judases to be kissed, beaten, and mistreated. Augustine explains how we can anoint Christ's body:
Anoint Jesus' feet by a life pleasing to God. Follow in His footsteps; if you have an abundance, give it to the poor. In this way you can wipe the feet of the Lord.
The poor are, as it were, the feet of the mystical Christ. By aiding them we can comfort our Lord in His mystical life, where He receives Judas' kisses on all sides-the sins of Christians.
The Gospel account may be understood in a very personal way. In everyone's heart, in my own too, there dwell two souls: a Judas-soul and a Mary-soul. The former is the cause of Jesus' suffering, it is always ready to apostatize, always ready to give the traitor's kiss. Are you full master over this Judas-soul within you? Your Magdalen-soul is a source of comfort to Christ in His sufferings. May the holy season of Lent, which with God's help we are about to bring to a successful conclusion, bring victory over the Judas-soul and strengthen the Magdalen-soul within our breasts.
— The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch
The Station today is at the church of St. Praxedes which was built over St. Praxedes' house. It was one of the twenty-five original parishes in Rome. It is easily one of the most beautiful churches in the Eternal City and is bedecked with incredibly beautiful mosaics. The present church is the one built by Pope Adrian I c. 780, completed and altered by Pope St. Paschal I c. 822. It was enlarged at that time mainly to serve as a repository for relics from the catacombs.
RECIPES
Holy Thursday Meal Menu http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=349
ACTIVITIES
A Jonas (Jonah) Project http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=298
Holy Week in the Catholic Tradition http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1059
Housecleaning for Holy Week I http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=340
Housecleaning for Holy Week II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=455
Jonas and Holy Week http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1256
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week in the Home http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=512
Music for Lent and Easter: St. Matthew Passion by Bach http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=469
Open, O Hard and Sinful Heart! http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=333
Spring Cleaning http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1061
The Passover Meal: 1. Introduction http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1253
PRAYERS
Prayer for Monday of Holy Week http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=116
Prayer Before a Crucifix http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=175
Prayer for Palm Sunday and Holy Week http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=182
Way of the Cross http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=488
To Keep A True Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=535
Family Evening Prayer for Holy Week http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1036
Tuesday of Holy Week
Old Calendar: Tuesday of Holy Week
"False witnesses have stood up against me, and my enemies threaten violence; Lord, do not surrender me into their power!" Our Lord calls upon His heavenly Father to shield Him against His enemies. In God's providence, however, the Cross of Christ was destined to be a sign of glory and not an emblem of shame: from that Cross came victory over Satan, from it came life, resurrection and salvation: "It behooves us to glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ in whom is our salvation, life and resurrection, by whom we are saved and delivered".
On the Cross Our Lord expiated our avarice by His extreme poverty, our sensuality by His most bitter sufferings, our pride by His profound humiliations, our disobedience by His most perfect submission to the Will of God. Embracing us with His extended arms He draws us into the path which He has trod and which alone leads to life eternal. — Cathedral Daily Missal
Stational Church
Meditation
Today, again, our Savior sets out in the morning for Jerusalem. His intention is to repair to the temple, and continue His yesterday's teachings. It is evident that His mission on earth is fast drawing to its close. He says to His disciples: "You know that after two days shall be the Pasch, and the Son of Man shall be delivered up to be crucified."
On the road from Bethania to Jerusalem, the disciples are surprised at seeing the fig-tree, which their divine Master had yesterday cursed, now dead. Addressing himself to Jesus, Peter says: "Rabbi, behold, the fig-tree, which Thou didst curse, is withered away." In order to teach us that the whole of material nature is subservient to the will of God, Jesus replies: "Have the faith of God. Amen I say to you, that whosoever shall say to this mountain: Be thou removed and cast into the sea! and shall not stagger in his heart, but believe that whatsoever he saith shall be done, it shall be done unto him."
Having entered the city, Jesus directs His steps towards the temple. No sooner has He entered, than the chief priests, the scribes, and the ancients of the people, accost Him with these words: "By what authority dost Thou do these things and who has given Thee this authority, that Thou shouldst do these things?" We shall find our Lord's answer given in the Gospel. Our object is to mention the leading events of the last days of our Redeemer on earth; the holy volume will supply the details.
As on the two preceding days, Jesus leaves the city towards evening: He passes over Mount Olivet, and returns to Bethania, where He finds His blessed Mother and His devoted friends.
— The Liturgical Year, Abbot Gueranger O.S.B.
The Station today is at the church of St. Prisca. Saint Prisca was baptized by Saint Peter when she was thirteen. She was thrown to the lions by Claudius (41-54), but the lion only licked her feet. She was then beheaded. Her home was made into a church by Pope Saint Eutychianus (275-283), who placed her remains under the high altar. It was probably one of the first gathering places for Christians in Rome.
RECIPES
Holy Thursday Meal Menu http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=349
ACTIVITIES
A Jonas (Jonah) Project http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=298
Holy Week in the Catholic Tradition http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1059
Housecleaning for Holy Week I http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=340
Housecleaning for Holy Week II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=455
Jonas and Holy Week http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1256
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week in the Home http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=512
Music for Lent and Easter: St. Matthew Passion by Bach http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=469
Open, O Hard and Sinful Heart! http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=333
Spring Cleaning http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1061
The Passover Meal: 1. Introduction http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1253
PRAYERS
Prayer for Tuesday of Holy Week http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=117
Prayer Before a Crucifix http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=175
Prayer for Palm Sunday and Holy Week http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=182
Way of the Cross http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=488
To Keep A True Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=535
Family Evening Prayer for Holy Week http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1036
Wednesday of Holy Week
Old Calendar: Wednesday of Holy Week Wednesday is known as Spy Wednesday because on this day Judas made a bargain with the high priest to betray Jesus for 30 silver pieces (Matt 26:14-16; Mark 14:10-11; Luke 22:1-6). In Poland, the young people throw an effigy of Judas from the top of a church steeple. Then it is dragged through the village amidst hurling sticks and stones. What remains of the effigy is drowned in a nearby stream or pond.
This is also the day that Jesus was anointed with an expensive jar of alabaster by the woman at Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper (Matt 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; John 12:1-19).
Stational Church
The Sacrament of Penance and the Easter Duty
One of the duties of a Catholic is to fulfill the six Precepts of the Church, the positive laws which are "meant to guarantee to the faithful the indispensable minimum in the spirit of prayer and moral effort, in the growth in love of God and neighbor" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2041). Two of these precepts directly relate to the upcoming Easter season. The third precept is "You shall humbly receive your Creator in Holy Communion at least during the Easter season." This is tied in with the second precept to "confess your sins at least once a year." If we want to receive Jesus worthily in Holy Communion during Easter, we need to cleanse our souls, especially of any mortal sin through the Sacrament of Penance. Most parishes offer extra confession times for Holy Week, but usually any priest is available on request to hear confession by appointment.
Meditation
We are healed by His bruises! O heavenly Physician, who takes upon Himself the sufferings of those He comes to cure! But not only was He bruised for our sins, He was also slaughtered as a lamb; and this not merely as a Victim submitting to the inflexible will of His Father who hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all, but (as the prophet here assures us) because it was His own will. His love for us, as well as His submission to His Father, led Him to the great Sacrifice. Observe, too, how He refuses to defend Himself before Pilate, who could so easily deliver Him from His enemies: He shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearers, and He shall not open His mouth. Let us love and adore this divine silence, which works our salvation. Let us not pass over an iota of the devotedness which Jesus shows us—a devotedness which never could have existed save in the heart of a God. Oh! how much He has loved us, His children, the purchase of His Blood, His seed, as the prophet here calls us. O holy Church! thou long-lived seed of Jesus, who laid down His life, thou art dear to Him, for He bought thee at a great price. Faithful souls! give Him love for love. Sinners! be converted to this your Savior; His Blood will restore you to life, for if we have all gone astray like sheep, remember what is added: The Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. There is no sinner, however great may be his crimes, there is no heretic, or infidel, who has not his share in this precious Blood, whose infinite merit is such, that it could redeem a million worlds more guilty even than our own. — The Liturgical Year, Abbot Gueranger O.S.B.
The Station today is at St. Mary Major for the second time during Lent. As we set our eyes on the Sacred Triduum, it is good to stand in solidarity with our Mother of Sorrows as we contemplate our Redemption.
ACTIVITIES
Open, O Hard and Sinful Heart! http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=333
Spring Cleaning http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1061
Tenebrć http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1263
The Passover Meal: 1. Introduction http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1253
PRAYERS
Prayer for Wednesday of Holy Week http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=118
Prayer Before a Crucifix http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=175
Prayer for Palm Sunday and Holy Week http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=182
Way of the Cross http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=488
To Keep A True Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=535
Family Evening Prayer for Holy Week http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1036
Holy Thursday
Old Calendar: Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday)
The last three days of Holy Week are referred to as the Easter or Sacred Triduum (Triduum Sacrum), the three-part drama of Christ's redemption: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
Holy Thursday is also known as "Maundy Thursday." The word maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum (commandment) which is the first word of the Gospel acclamation:
Mandátum novum do vobis dicit Dóminus, ut diligátis ínvicem, sicut diléxi vos:
"I give you a new commandment: Love one another as I have loved you." (John 13:34)
These are the words spoken by our Lord to His apostles at the Last Supper, after he completed the washing of the feet. We should imitate Christ's humility in the washing of the feet.
By meditating on the Gospels (cf. Matt 26:1 ff.; Mark 14:1 ff.; Luke 22:1 ff.; John 13:1 ff.), we can recall to mind Jesus' actions of that day. Father Bernard Strasser summarizes all the events of that first Holy Thursday:
...They included: (1) the eating of the Easter lamb or the paschal meal; (2) the washing of the disciple's feet; (3) the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist (the first Mass at which Jesus Christ, the eternal high priest, is the celebrant; the first Communion of the apostles; the first conferring of Holy Orders); (4) the foretelling of Judas' betrayal and Peter's denials; (5) the farewell discourse and priestly prayer of Jesus; (6) the agony and capture of Jesus in the Garden of Olives. — ©1947, With Christ Through the Year
In all the German speaking countries, Slavic nations and in Hungary this day is also known as "Green Thursday." The word is a corruption of the German word grunen (to mourn) to the German word for green (grün). Many people believe they must eat green at today's meal, which is probably derived from from the Jewish Passover meal that included bitter herbs.
Stational Church
Chrism Mass
There are only two Masses allowed on Holy Thursday -- the Chrism Mass and the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper. In each diocese there is a Chrism Mass or Mass of the Holy Oils, usually said in the morning at the cathedral of the diocese. Catholics should make an effort to participate at the Mass at least once in their lives, to experience the communion of priests with their bishop. All the priests of the diocese are invited to concelebrate with the bishop. The holy oils to be used throughout the diocese for the following year in the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders and the Sacrament of the Sick are blessed by the bishop at this Mass. This Mass also celebrates the institution of the priesthood.
Mass of the Lord's Supper
During the evening of Holy Thursday, the Mass of the Lord's Supper is celebrated. It is celebrated in the evening because the Passover began at sundown. There is only one Mass, at which the whole community and priests of the parish participate. This is a very joyful Mass, as we recall the institution of the Holy Eucharist and the priesthood. The priests wear white vestments, the altar is filled with flowers, the Gloria is sung and the bells are rung. After the Gloria, we shall not hear organ music and the bells until the Easter Vigil. The Liturgy of the Mass recalls the Passover, the Last Supper, which includes the Washing of the Feet. The hymn Ubi Caritas or Where Charity and Love Prevail is usually sung at this time. After the Communion Prayer, there is no final blessing. The Holy Eucharist is carried in procession through Church and then transferred into a place of reposition, usually a side chapel. The hymn Pange Lingua is also usually sung at this time.
After the Mass, we recall the Agony in the Garden, and the arrest and imprisonment of Jesus. The altar is stripped bare, crosses are removed or covered. The Eucharist has been placed in an altar of repose, and most churches are open for silent adoration, to answer Christ's invitation "Could you not, then, watch one hour with me?" (Matt 26:40)
The Altar of Repose
When the Eucharist is processed to the altar of repose after the Mass of the Lord's Supper, we should remain in quiet prayer and adoration, keeping Christ company. There is a tradition, particularly in big cities with many parishes, to try and visit seven churches and their altar of repose during this evening.
Popular piety is particularly sensitive to the adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament in the wake of the Mass of the Lord's supper. Because of a long historical process, whose origins are not entirely clear, the place of repose has traditionally been referred to as "a holy sepulchre". The faithful go there to venerate Jesus who was placed in a tomb following the crucifixion and in which he remained for some forty hours.
It is necessary to instruct the faithful on the meaning of the reposition: it is an austere solemn conservation of the Body of Christ for the community of the faithful which takes part in the liturgy of Good Friday and for the viaticum of the infirmed. It is an invitation to silent and prolonged adoration of the wondrous sacrament instituted by Jesus on this day.
In reference to the altar of repose, therefore, the term "sepulchre" should be avoided, and its decoration should not have any suggestion of a tomb. The tabernacle on this altar should not be in the form of a tomb or funerary urn. The Blessed Sacrament should be conserved in a closed tabernacle and should not be exposed in a monstrance.
After mid-night on Holy Thursday, the adoration should conclude without solemnity, since the day of the Lord's Passion has already begun.
— Directory on Popular Piety
Washing of Feet and a Seder Meal
In imitation of Christ's last supper, many Christians prepare a seder meal or the pasch. Celebrating a paschal meal helps us comprehend the plan of redemption. We see the lamb, cooked whole, with no bones broken, foreshadowing the death of Christ, the Lamb of God. We eat the unleavened bread and recall to mind the Eucharist. We eat the whole meal in prayerful reminder of that Last Supper that Jesus spent with His apostles, His friends, instituting Holy Orders and leaving His greatest gift, the Holy Eucharist.
A typical paschal meal includes the roast lamb, bitter herbs, haroset, matzoh and wine. The meal can be as authentic or representative as desired. There are numerous sources, both Christian and Jewish, that can give recipes, prayers and procedure for an authentic paschal feast.
The Station today is at St. John Lateran. Maundy Thursday is devoted to the institution of the Eucharist and the priesthood. On this day the bishop blesses the Holy Oils; thus is made clear that the sacraments have their source in Christ and derive their fruitfulness from the paschal mystery of salvation.
ACTIVITIES
A Jonas (Jonah) Project http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=298
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1172
Easter Garden I http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=491
Holy Thursday Activities in the Home http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=513
Holy Thursday in the Home with the Trapp Family http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=789
Holy Thursday Meal in the Home -- Remembering the Last Supper http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1038
Holy Week in the Catholic Tradition http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1059
Hymn: Pange Lingua http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1036
Jonas and Holy Week http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1256
Lenten Customs of the Russian Germans http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=823
Maundy Thursday and the Passover Meal http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=456
Maundy Thursday: Do Unto Others http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=485
Music for Lent and Easter: St. Matthew Passion by Bach http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=469
Open, O Hard and Sinful Heart! http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=333
Sacred Triduum in the Home http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1062
Tenebrć http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1263
The Passover Meal: 1. Introduction http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1253
The Passover Meal: 2. Preparing for the Celebration http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=86
The Passover Meal: 3. Meal Preparation http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=87
The Passover Meal: 4. Introductory Blessings http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=88
The Passover Meal: 5. Traditional Passover Prayers http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=110
The Passover Meal: 6. The Questions http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=917
The Passover Meal: 7. Hallel: Psalms of Praise http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=918
The Passover Meal: 8. The Concluding Hallel http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=919
The Seder Meal as a Christian Home Celebration:Preparing and Celebrating the Holy Thursday Meal http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=544
Ubi Caritas http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1037
A Passover Supper On Holy Thursday http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1257
PRAYERS
Prayer Before a Crucifix http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=175
Holy Thursday in the Home http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=190
Way of the Cross http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=488
Holy Thursday Table Blessing http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=687
Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Easter Triduum (2nd Plan) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=747
Table Blessing for Holy Thursday http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1027
Family Evening Prayer for Holy Week http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1036
Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Sacred Triduum (1st Plan) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1043
Good Friday
Old Calendar: Good Friday
"It is accomplished; and bowing his head he gave up his spirit."
Today the whole Church mourns the death of our Savior. This is traditionally a day of sadness, spent in fasting and prayer. The title for this day varies in different parts of the world: "Holy Friday" for Latin nations, Slavs and Hungarians call it "Great Friday," in Germany it is "Friday of Mourning," and in Norway, it is "Long Friday." Some view the term "Good Friday" (used in English and Dutch) as a corruption of the term "God's Friday." This is another obligatory day of fasting and abstinence. In Ireland, they practice the "black fast," which is to consume nothing but black tea and water.
Stational Church
Liturgy
Following the ancient tradition of the Church, there are no sacraments celebrated on Good Friday nor Holy Saturday. "Celebration of the Lord's Passion," traditionally known as the "Mass of the Presanctified," (although it is not a mass) is usually celebrated around three o'clock in the afternoon, or later, depending on the needs of the parish.
The altar is completely bare, with no cloths, candles nor cross. The service is divided into three parts: Liturgy of the Word, Veneration of the Cross and Holy Communion. The priest and deacons wear red or black vestments. The liturgy starts with the priests and deacons going to the altar in silence and prostrating themselves for a few moments in silent prayer, then an introductory prayer is prayed.
In part one, the Liturgy of the Word, we hear the most famous of the Suffering Servant passages from Isaiah (52:13-53:12), a pre-figurement of Christ on Good Friday. Psalm 30 is the Responsorial Psalm "Father, I put my life in your hands." The Second Reading, or Epistle, is from the letter to the Hebrews, 4:14-16; 5:7-9. The Gospel Reading is the Passion of St. John.
The General Intercessions conclude the Liturgy of the Word. The ten intercessions cover these areas:
•For the Church
•For the Pope
•For the clergy and laity of the Church
•For those preparing for baptism
•For the unity of Christians
•For the Jewish people
•For those who do not believe in Christ
•For those who do not believe in God
•For all in public office
•For those in special need
For more information about these intercessions please see Prayers for the Prisoners from the Catholic Culture Library.
Part two is the Veneration of the Cross. A cross, either veiled or unveiled, is processed through the Church, and then venerated by the congregation. We joyfully venerate and kiss the wooden cross "on which hung the Savior of the world." During this time the "Reproaches" are usually sung or recited.
Part three, Holy Communion, concludes the Celebration of the Lord's Passion. The altar is covered with a cloth and the ciboriums containing the Blessed Sacrament are brought to the altar from the place of reposition. The Our Father and the Ecce Agnus Dei ("This is the Lamb of God") are recited. The congregation receives Holy Communion, there is a "Prayer After Communion," and then a "Prayer Over the People," and everyone departs in silence.
Activities
This is a day of mourning. We should try to take time off from work and school to participate in the devotions and liturgy of the day as much as possible. In addition, we should refrain from extraneous conversation. Some families leave the curtains drawn, and maintain silence during the 3 hours (noon — 3p.m.), and keep from loud conversation or activities throughout the remainder of the day. We should also restrict ourselves from any TV, music or computer—these are all types of technology that can distract us from the spirit of the day.
If some members of the family cannot attend all the services, a little home altar can be set up, by draping a black or purple cloth over a small table or dresser and placing a crucifix and candles on it. The family then can gather during the three hours, praying different devotions like the rosary, Stations of the Cross, the Divine Mercy devotions, and meditative reading and prayers on the passion of Christ.
Although throughout Lent we have tried to mortify ourselves, it is appropriate to try some practicing extra mortifications today. These can be very simple, such as eating less at the small meals of fasting, or eating standing up. Some people just eat bread and soup, or just bread and water while standing at the table.
The Station today is at the church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem which contains parts of the true Cross and one of the nails of the Crucifixion. The Church commemorates the redemption of the world with the reading of the Passion, the Collects in which the Church prays with confidence for the salvation of all men, the veneration of the Cross and the reception of Our Lord reserved in the Blessed Sacrament.
RECIPES
Fritatta Sardegna (Omelet Sardinian) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1075
Oeufs ŕ la Mistral (Baked Eggs) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1078
Pain Doré (Golden Toast) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1083
Vdolky (Bohemian Pan Cakes) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1237
Cold Apple Soup http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1015
Cold Tomato Soup with Wine http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1016
Confectioners' Sugar Icing http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=444
Dark Rye Bread http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1082
Dried Cod http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1017
Good Friday Bread http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1365
Herb Omelet III http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1077
Hot Cross Bread http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1364
Hot Cross Buns I http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=45
Hot Cross Buns II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=208
Hot Cross Buns III http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=443
Hot Cross Buns IV http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1005
Hot Cross Buns V http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1360
Hot Cross Buns VI http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1361
Milk Rice http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1019
Old-Fashioned Johnnycake http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1084
Potted Cod with Sour Cream http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1018
Quick Hot Cross Buns http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=445
Ricotta Omelet http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1080
Scrambled Eggs and Cheese http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1074
Scrambled Eggs with Mushrooms http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1079
Scrambled Eggs with Shrimps http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1076
Sourdough Hot Cross Buns http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1362
Spatzle http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=46
ACTIVITIES
A Jonas (Jonah) Project http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=298
Devotions for Good Friday http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1039
Easter Garden I http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=491
Good Friday Activities in the Home http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=514
Good Friday in the Home http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=334
Good Friday in the Home http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=947
Good Friday in the Home with the Trapp Family http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=390
Good Friday Lamentations http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=805
Good Friday Remembrance http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=487
Holy Week in the Catholic Tradition http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1059
Jonas and Holy Week http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1256
Lenten Customs of the Russian Germans http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=823
Music for Lent and Easter: St. Matthew Passion by Bach http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=469
O Head All Scarred and Bleeding http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=332
Open, O Hard and Sinful Heart! http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=333
Pretzels for God: Lent and the Pretzel http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=543
Sacred Triduum in the Home http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1062
Tenebrć http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1263
The Reproaches (Improperia) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1040
The Three O'Clock Hour http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1055
Vexilla Regis Prodeunt http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1074
Good Friday Activities http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1258
PRAYERS
Prayer for Good Friday http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=183
Stations of the Cross at Home http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=296
Good Friday Table Blessing http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=688
Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Easter Triduum (2nd Plan) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=747
To Jesus Forsaken http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=880
The Chaplet of The Divine Mercy http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1031
Divine Mercy Novena http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1032
Family Evening Prayer for Holy Week http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1036
Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Sacred Triduum (1st Plan) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1043
Holy Saturday
Old Calendar: Holy Saturday
On Holy Saturday the Church waits at the Lord's tomb, meditating on his suffering and death. The altar is left bare, and the sacrifice of the Mass is not celebrated. Only after the solemn vigil during the night, held in anticipation of the resurrection, does the Easter celebration begin, with a spirit of joy that overflows into the following period of fifty days.
Outside of Holy Week, the Church clelebrates the Optional Memorial of St. Stanislaus, bishop & martyr. St. John Baptist de La Salle was born in Rheims, France. He was known as the Father of Modern Pedagogy. He opened free schools for poor children, introducing new teaching methods. He organized the congregation called the Brothers of the Christian Schools, which made great contributions to popular education.
Stational Church
Holy Saturday
Holy Saturday (from Sabbatum Sanctum, its official liturgical name) is sacred as the day of the Lord's rest; it has been called the "Second Sabbath" after creation. The day is and should be the most calm and quiet day of the entire Church year, a day broken by no liturgical function. Christ lies in the grave, the Church sits near and mourns. After the great battle He is resting in peace, but upon Him we see the scars of intense suffering...The mortal wounds on His Body remain visible....Jesus' enemies are still furious, attempting to obliterate the very memory of the Lord by lies and slander.
Mary and the disciples are grief-stricken, while the Church must mournfully admit that too many of her children return home from Calvary cold and hard of heart. When Mother Church reflects upon all of this, it seems as if the wounds of her dearly Beloved were again beginning to bleed.
According to tradition, the entire body of the Church is represented in Mary: she is the "credentium collectio universa"(CONGREGATION FOR DIVINE WORSHIP, Lettera circolare sulla preparazione e celebrazione delle feste pasquali,73). Thus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, as she waits near the Lord's tomb, as she is represented in Christian tradition, is an icon of the Virgin Church keeping vigil at the tomb of her Spouse while awaiting the celebration of his resurrection.
The pious exercise of the Ora di Maria is inspired by this intuition of the relationship between the Virgin Mary and the Church: while the body of her Son lays in the tomb and his soul has descended to the dead to announce liberation from the shadow of darkness to his ancestors, the Blessed Virgin Mary, foreshadowing and representing the Church, awaits, in faith, the victorious triumph of her Son over death. — Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy
Although we are still in mourning, there is much preparation during this day to prepare for Easter. Out of the kitchen comes the smells of Easter pastries and bread, the lamb or hams and of course, the Easter eggs.
There are no liturgies celebrated this day, unless the local parish priest blesses the food baskets. In Slavic countries there is a blessing of the traditional Easter foods, prepared in baskets: eggs, ham, lamb and sausages, butter and cheeses, horseradish and salt and the Easter breads. The Easter blessings of food owe their origin to the fact that these particular foods, namely, fleshmeat and milk products, including eggs, were forbidden in the Middle Ages during the Lenten fast and abstinence. When the feast of Easter brought the rigorous fast to an end, and these foods were again allowed at table, the people showed their joy and gratitude by first taking the food to church for a blessing. Moreover, they hoped that the Church's blessing on such edibles would prove a remedy for whatever harmful effects the body might have suffered from the long period of self-denial. Today the Easter blessings of food are still held in many churches in the United States, especially in Slavic parishes.
If there is no blessing for the Easter foods in the parish, the father of the family can pray the Blessing over the Easter foods.
It is during the night between Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday that the Easter Vigil is celebrated. The service begins around ten o'clock, in order that the solemn vigil Mass may start at midnight.
Activities
•Today we remember Christ in the tomb. It is not Easter yet, so it's not time for celebration. The day is usually spent working on the final preparations for the biggest feast of the Church year. The list of suggested activities is long, but highlights are decorating Easter eggs and attending a special Easter food blessing.
•For families with smaller children, you could create a miniature Easter garden, with a tomb. The figure of the risen Christ will be placed in the garden on Easter morning.
•Another activity for families is creation of a paschal candle to use at home.
•The Directory on Popular Piety discusses some of the various devotions related to Easter, including the Blessing of the Family Table, Annual Blessing of Family Home, the Via Lucis and the Visit to the Mother of the Risen Christ.
The Station today is at St. John Lateran. During the afternoon of Holy Saturday the faithful were summoned here for the final scrutiny of the catechumens. Then, in the evening began the vigil or night of watching which concluded at dawn with the solemn baptisms — the neophytes, plunged into the baptismal waters and there buried with Christ, were born to the life of grace at the very time when our Savior came forth triumphant from the tomb at dawn on Easter morning.
RECIPES
Babka I (Polish Easter Bread) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1366
Babka II (Polish Easter Bread) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1367
Casatiella (Egg Pizza) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=48
Paskha (Ukrainian Easter Bread) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=59
Beranek http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1163
Easter Eggs http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1020
Hard-Cooked Egg Cookies http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1220
Italian Easter Baskets http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1546
Moravian Love Cakes http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=49
Babka (Polish Easter Bread) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1217
Koulich (Russian Sweet Easter Bread) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=60
Easter Baba (Polish Easter Coffee Cake) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=264
Easter Story Cookies http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1447
Italian Easter Bread Eggs http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=267
ACTIVITIES
A Jonas (Jonah) Project http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=298
Alleluia Egg http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1071
Baptismal Candles http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=231
Blessing of the Easter Foods http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1064
Creating a Lumen Christi (Light of Christ) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1070
Cross of Victory http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=229
Easter Breakfast Picnic http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=96
Easter Eggs Decorations http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=489
Easter Eggs I http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=197
Easter Eggs II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=238
Easter Eggs III http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=948
Easter Eggs! song http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=338
Easter Garden I http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=491
Easter Garden II http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=905
Easter Hymn http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=337
Easter Lamb http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=239
Easter or Paschal Candle http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=490
Easter Standard http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=493
Easter Vigil http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1043
Holy Saturday Activities in the Home http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=515
Holy Saturday and Easter in the Home http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=457
Holy Saturday Festivities http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=791
Holy Saturday with the Slovaks http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=801
Holy Week in the Catholic Tradition http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1059
Home Altar Hangings http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=241
Home Easter Vigil http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=300
Jonas and Holy Week http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1256
Lenten Customs of the Russian Germans http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=823
Music for Lent and Easter: St. Matthew Passion by Bach http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=469
New Fire of Easter http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=574
Open, O Hard and Sinful Heart! http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=333
Paschal Candle as a Centerpiece http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1066
Paschal Candle for Home http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1065
Rejoice, O Rejoice, Heavenly Queen http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=335
Sacred Triduum in the Home http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1062
Symbolism of the Easter Eggs http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=576
Tenebrć http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1263
Three Women at Break of Day http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=336
Traditional Easter Hymns http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=928
Triptych http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=242
Window Transparencies http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=240
Wreath of Victory http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=230
Decorating Easter Eggs http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1041
PRAYERS
Prayer Before a Crucifix http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=175
Prayer for Palm Sunday and Holy Week http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=182
Prayer for Holy Saturday http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=184
Polish Easter Blessing http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=224
Blessing of the Home with Easter Water http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=271
Way of the Cross http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=488
To Keep A True Lent http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=535
Holy Saturday Table Blessing http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=689
Blessing of Food for the First Meal of Easter http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=736
Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Easter Triduum (2nd Plan) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=747
Divine Mercy Novena http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1032
Family Evening Prayer for Holy Week http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1036
Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Sacred Triduum (1st Plan) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1043
Renewal of Baptismal Promises http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1094
Exsultet (Easter Proclamation) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1227
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