Showing posts with label Lent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lent. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Lenten Prayer Before the Crucifix
A plenary indulgence is offered
on Fridays in Lent for the Christian faithful who piously
pray the below prayer in front of a Crucifix, after Communion:
BEHOLD, O good and sweetest Jesus,The usual conditions for the granting of a plenary indulgence apply:
I cast myself upon my knees in Thy sight,
and with the most fervent desire of my soul
I pray and beseech Thee
to impress upon my heart
lively sentiments of faith,
hope and charity,
with true repentance for my sins
and a most firm desire of amendment:
whilst with deep affection and grief of soul
I consider within myself
and mentally contemplate Thy five most precious Wounds,
having before mine eyes that which David, the prophet,
long ago spoke in Thine own person concerning Thee,
my Jesus: “They have pierced My hands and My feet,
they have numbered all My bones.”
N20. §1. To gain a plenary indulgence, in addition to excluding all attachment to sin, even venial sin, it is necessary to perform the indulgenced work and fulfill the following three conditions:
Sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, and prayer for the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff.
§2. A single sacramental confession suffices for gaining several plenary indulgences; but Holy Communion must be received and prayer for the intention of the Holy Father must be recited for the gaining of each plenary indulgence.
§ 3. The three conditions may be fulfilled several days before or after the performance of the prescribed work; it is, however, fitting that Communion be received and the prayer for the intention of the Holy Father be said on the same day the work is performed.
§4. If the full disposition is lacking, or if the work and the three prescribed conditions are not fulfilled, saving the provisions given in Norm 24 and in Norm 25 regarding those who are “impeded,” the indulgence will only be partial.
§5. The condition of praying for the intention of the Holy Father is fully satisfied by reciting one Our Father and one Hail Mary; nevertheless, one has the option of reciting any other prayer according to individual piety and devotion, if recited for this intention.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Pope Benedict’s Twitter Followers Jump 400 Percent in a Single Day
CNA February 24, 2012:
The number of people following Pope Benedict XVI on Twitter has increased 400 percent over the last 24 hours.
On Feb. 23 his account had 2,500 subscribers, but today that figure is at more than 12,500 and is rising.
“It is quite incredible,” said Monsignor Paul Tighe, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, to CNA on Feb. 24.
“And not just the numbers who are now following the Pope’s Tweets but also the number who are then re-Tweeting his message to others. It’s great.”
The dramatic upsurge in interest in the Pope’s Twitter presence coincided with the beginning of Lent on Feb. 22.
On that day, Vatican officials began Tweeting part of the Pope’s Lenten message, an innovation they will continue every day until Easter.
Twitter is an online social networking site that enables users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters. Anyone can sign up to follow the Pope, whose messages are tweeted in English, Italian, Spanish, German and French, via @Pope2YouVatican. Soon they will also be available in Portuguese.
“It’s an important initiative for evangelization and evangelization through communication,” Fr. Paolo Padrini, the coordinator of Pope2You, told CNA.
“The initiative puts the Pope in contact with the people of God and in particular with young people, because Pope2You was created mainly for young people.”
Wednesday’s message told followers; “Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works.” Today’s Tweet explained how Lent is “a time to renew our journey of faith, both as individuals and as a community, with the help of the word of God and the sacraments.”
Msgr. Tighe says his boss at the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, got it right when he said Twitter is like “a small mustard seed that once scattered grows into bushes where birds can rest.”
The Lenten Twitter campaign is the latest attempt by the Vatican to make the most of social communications.
In June 2011, the social communications council also unveiled an online news service, www.news.va, which Pope Benedict launched with a Tweet. The site now has over 10,000 people using it every day.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Clerical Narcissism and Lent
From http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2012/02/clerical-narcissism-and-lent
Feb 22, 2012
Feb 22, 2012
George Weigel
Since the introduction of the new liturgical texts this past
November, I’ve attended Mass in Australia, California, New York, Rome,
Washington, and Phoenix, and in none of these venues have I detected any
of the calamities confidently predicted by opponents of the new texts.
Not only has there been no visible distress over “consubstantial”; the
People of God seem to have rather quickly and painlessly adjusted to the
changes, so that, three months into the process, it’s a rare “And also
with you” that escapes the lips of an unthinking congregant. In fact,
most of the people who’ve spoken to me about the changes have applauded
them.
Things are not-quite-the-same with priests.
One implicit purpose of the new translations, with their deliberate recovery of a sacral vocabulary and their adoption of a more formal literary rhythm, was to discipline the tendency of priests to turn the Mass into an expression of the celebrant’s personality. The difficulties some priests have had with adjusting to the changes suggests that this tendency was, in fact, a real problem in implementing the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Prominent Catholic psychologist Paul Vitz once wrote of this as a problem of “clerical narcissism,” and while the phrase undoubtedly stings, there’s something to it—something that needs correcting.
At Mass in the cathedral church of a major American city recently, I ran headlong into the problem in a rather striking way. The celebrant in question seemed not to understand that the invitation to the penitential rite is now prescribed, and not a matter for personal chattiness. Having failed to set up the Missal properly before Mass, he nattered on about his difficulty with “new books” while searching for the Collect of the day. He belted out those parts of the Offertory that the Missal prescribes as being said “quietly.” He rearranged several phrases in Eucharistic Prayer II to his liking. And he prefaced the Prayer after Communion with another voluble commentary on the difficulty of finding the right page.
I’m sure the priest in question is not a wicked or ill-intentioned man; he doubtless imagines that he’s making the Mass more user-friendly by taking liberties with the Missal. But, objectively speaking, he’s a prime example of clerical vanity: a man who imagines that his chirpy personality is the key to what Vatican II called the people’s “full, conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations.” It was neither the time nor the place to challenge this essentially narcissistic assumption after Mass. But had I the opportunity, I would have told this priest, in as kind a way as I could manage, that what he deemed helpful was in fact distracting; that what he thought user-friendly was silly and offensive (as it seemed based on the notion that a congregation of adults would be amused by such shenanigans); and that what he intended as an aid to prayer was in fact an obstacle to prayer and reflection.
Bad habits built up over decades are as hard to break in liturgy as they are in any other facet of life. So it will take awhile for the nobility of the new Mass texts to elicit a similar nobility of manner from celebrants who have acquired bad habits over the years. But as Lent is an appropriate time for addressing bad habits, here’s a suggestion for all priest-celebrants: make a Lenten resolution—This Lent, I will do the red and read the black. Period.
In the Missal, rubrical instructions are in red; the words to be spoken by the celebrant are in black. Priests who simply “do the red and read the black” for the six weeks of Lent will have gone a long way toward breaking bad habits that have become default positions. They will also, I predict, garner a lot of thanks from their congregants, most of whom are quite uninterested in celebrants acting like talk-show hosts.
The point, as always, is not liturgical prissiness. The point is to celebrate the sacred liturgy so that it’s experienced as the participation in the heavenly liturgy that it is.
George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
Things are not-quite-the-same with priests.
One implicit purpose of the new translations, with their deliberate recovery of a sacral vocabulary and their adoption of a more formal literary rhythm, was to discipline the tendency of priests to turn the Mass into an expression of the celebrant’s personality. The difficulties some priests have had with adjusting to the changes suggests that this tendency was, in fact, a real problem in implementing the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Prominent Catholic psychologist Paul Vitz once wrote of this as a problem of “clerical narcissism,” and while the phrase undoubtedly stings, there’s something to it—something that needs correcting.
At Mass in the cathedral church of a major American city recently, I ran headlong into the problem in a rather striking way. The celebrant in question seemed not to understand that the invitation to the penitential rite is now prescribed, and not a matter for personal chattiness. Having failed to set up the Missal properly before Mass, he nattered on about his difficulty with “new books” while searching for the Collect of the day. He belted out those parts of the Offertory that the Missal prescribes as being said “quietly.” He rearranged several phrases in Eucharistic Prayer II to his liking. And he prefaced the Prayer after Communion with another voluble commentary on the difficulty of finding the right page.
I’m sure the priest in question is not a wicked or ill-intentioned man; he doubtless imagines that he’s making the Mass more user-friendly by taking liberties with the Missal. But, objectively speaking, he’s a prime example of clerical vanity: a man who imagines that his chirpy personality is the key to what Vatican II called the people’s “full, conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations.” It was neither the time nor the place to challenge this essentially narcissistic assumption after Mass. But had I the opportunity, I would have told this priest, in as kind a way as I could manage, that what he deemed helpful was in fact distracting; that what he thought user-friendly was silly and offensive (as it seemed based on the notion that a congregation of adults would be amused by such shenanigans); and that what he intended as an aid to prayer was in fact an obstacle to prayer and reflection.
Bad habits built up over decades are as hard to break in liturgy as they are in any other facet of life. So it will take awhile for the nobility of the new Mass texts to elicit a similar nobility of manner from celebrants who have acquired bad habits over the years. But as Lent is an appropriate time for addressing bad habits, here’s a suggestion for all priest-celebrants: make a Lenten resolution—This Lent, I will do the red and read the black. Period.
In the Missal, rubrical instructions are in red; the words to be spoken by the celebrant are in black. Priests who simply “do the red and read the black” for the six weeks of Lent will have gone a long way toward breaking bad habits that have become default positions. They will also, I predict, garner a lot of thanks from their congregants, most of whom are quite uninterested in celebrants acting like talk-show hosts.
The point, as always, is not liturgical prissiness. The point is to celebrate the sacred liturgy so that it’s experienced as the participation in the heavenly liturgy that it is.
George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Receiving Holy Communion During Lent
A meditation from The Liturgical
Year by Abbot Dom Guéranger,
O.S.B.
Of all the works whereby a Christian can sanctify the time of Lent, there is none so pleasing to God as to assist at the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in which is offered the Victim of man's salvation. But now that his own unworthiness is more than ever evident to him, ought he to abstain from partaking, by holy Communion, of this life-giving and purifying Host? Such is not our Saviour's will. He came down from heaven, not to judge, but to save us (St. John 3:17). He knows how long and rugged is the road we have to traverse, before we reach that happy day, on which we shall rest with Him, in the joy of His Resurrection. He has compassion on us; He fears lest we faint in the way (Mt. 15:32); and He, therefore, offers us the divine food, which gives light and strength to our souls, and refreshes them in their toil. We feel that our hearts are not yet pure enough; let us then, with a humble and contrite heart, go to Him, who has come that he may restore to our souls their original beauty. Let us, at all times, remember the solemn injunction which this Saviour so graciously deigned to give us: 'Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, ye shall not have life in you' (St. John 6:54).
If, therefore, sin has no longer dominion over us; if we have destroyed it by true sorrow and sincere confession, made efficacious by the absolution of God's priest: let us not deprive ourselves of the Bread of life (St. John 6:35), no matter how great soever our infirmities may seem; for it is for us that our Jesus has prepared the feast. If we feel that the chains of sin are still upon us; if by self-examination made with the light of the truth that is now granted to us, we discover in our souls certain stains, which the false principles of the world and too easy a conscience have hitherto made us overlook; let us lose no time, let us make a good confession: and when we have made our peace with the God of mercy, let us approach the holy Table, and receive the pledge of our reconciliation.
Yes, let us go to holy Communion, during this season of Lent, with a most heart-felt conviction of our unworthiness. If may be that hitherto we have sometimes gone with too much familiarity, on account of our not sufficiently understanding our nothingness, our misery, and the infinite holiness of of the God who thus unites Himself with His sinful creatures. Henceforth, our heart shall be more truthful; blending together the two sentiments of humility and confidence, we will say, with an honest conviction, those words of the centurion of the Gospel, which the Church puts upon our lips, when she is distributing to us the Bread of life: 'Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my roof; say but the world, and my souls shall be healed' (Mt. 8:8).
Of all the works whereby a Christian can sanctify the time of Lent, there is none so pleasing to God as to assist at the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in which is offered the Victim of man's salvation. But now that his own unworthiness is more than ever evident to him, ought he to abstain from partaking, by holy Communion, of this life-giving and purifying Host? Such is not our Saviour's will. He came down from heaven, not to judge, but to save us (St. John 3:17). He knows how long and rugged is the road we have to traverse, before we reach that happy day, on which we shall rest with Him, in the joy of His Resurrection. He has compassion on us; He fears lest we faint in the way (Mt. 15:32); and He, therefore, offers us the divine food, which gives light and strength to our souls, and refreshes them in their toil. We feel that our hearts are not yet pure enough; let us then, with a humble and contrite heart, go to Him, who has come that he may restore to our souls their original beauty. Let us, at all times, remember the solemn injunction which this Saviour so graciously deigned to give us: 'Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, ye shall not have life in you' (St. John 6:54).
If, therefore, sin has no longer dominion over us; if we have destroyed it by true sorrow and sincere confession, made efficacious by the absolution of God's priest: let us not deprive ourselves of the Bread of life (St. John 6:35), no matter how great soever our infirmities may seem; for it is for us that our Jesus has prepared the feast. If we feel that the chains of sin are still upon us; if by self-examination made with the light of the truth that is now granted to us, we discover in our souls certain stains, which the false principles of the world and too easy a conscience have hitherto made us overlook; let us lose no time, let us make a good confession: and when we have made our peace with the God of mercy, let us approach the holy Table, and receive the pledge of our reconciliation.
Yes, let us go to holy Communion, during this season of Lent, with a most heart-felt conviction of our unworthiness. If may be that hitherto we have sometimes gone with too much familiarity, on account of our not sufficiently understanding our nothingness, our misery, and the infinite holiness of of the God who thus unites Himself with His sinful creatures. Henceforth, our heart shall be more truthful; blending together the two sentiments of humility and confidence, we will say, with an honest conviction, those words of the centurion of the Gospel, which the Church puts upon our lips, when she is distributing to us the Bread of life: 'Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my roof; say but the world, and my souls shall be healed' (Mt. 8:8).
Friday, April 15, 2011
Rome's station churches revive ancient tradition
ROME (AP) — Every morning during the 40 days of Lent, a band of worshippers walk literally in the footsteps of early, persecuted Christians, visiting some of the world's oldest churches in preparation for the most solemn week on the church calendar.
They were heading to Sant'Apollinare, one of the "station churches" of Rome, the nearly 40 ancient churches that centuries ago were designated to hold a rotating daily Mass during Lent, the period leading to Holy Week and Easter when the faithful mark the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The dawn processions take place every morning, a different church slated for worship each day.
At a time when most churches in Italy are empty — evidence of the dwindling Catholic faith in much of Europe— the seminarians of the Pontifical North American College pack these 7 a.m. English services on a regular basis.
Starting in the mid-1970s, they began reviving the tradition and making a daily pilgrimage to each church on the Lenten circuit, paying tribute to early Christians who risked their lives to worship.
The tradition caught on with a wider group. And today, the Masses are often standing room only events.
"You think: 'on this day for 1,300 years Christians have been going to this church on this day,'" said Deacon Riley Williams, of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, who is in his fourth year at the North American College. "Going to this place where the saints died, it joins us to Christ."
Poland's ambassador to the Holy See, Hanna Suchocka, has been a regular for years, a dean of sorts of the lay crowd who flock to the Masses and attend the de rigueur cappuccino and cornetti run afterward at a nearby cafe. The breakfast — the Roman equivalent of coffee and doughnuts in the church hall after Mass — has in recent years become almost as much of a tradition as the service itself.
"I started eight years ago with the Italian Mass in the afternoons, but only five people would come, old people," Suchocka said Thursday. "I decided to join the (American) group because it is a young church, it gave me hope that the church is not descending but is growing."
She was joined Thursday by Canada's ambassador to the Holy See, Anne Leahy. (The American and Irish ambassadors often round out the diplomatic set but missed Thursday's Mass because of travel and other engagements.)
College kids on their junior year abroad, seminarians, nuns and priests and a handful of English-speaking expats and visitors filled the pews — in all well over 200 people plus the 50-odd priests who concelebrated with American Cardinal Raymond Burke, head of the Vatican's supreme court.
Author and commentator George Weigel was in church as well, as he has been every day this Lent; he's writing a book on the station churches due out in 2013.
"I think the whole notion of Lent as itself a pilgrimage is embodied in this walk through these historic churches, where you can touch the origins of Christianity in the West," he said.
Faith aside, the 40-day itinerary is a great way to see Rome, with daily pre-dawn walks through the Eternal City's silent streets to visit some of the world's oldest and most beautiful places of Christian worship, some of which aren't open except on their station days.
Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, brings the faithful to Santa Sabina, where according to tradition, the widow Sabina was converted to Christianity by her slave in the 2nd century and both were later killed for it.
Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Ash Wednesday there just as popes from earliest Christianity visited station churches to unify the faithful.
Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York is often credited with having helped revive the tradition while a student at the North American College in the 1970s, when he said he and a friend used to research the station church of the day and walk there for a visit.
Dolan returned to the college in 1994 as rector and found that the ritual had stuck, albeit informally.
"I said 'Bravo, let's put this on steroids. Let's make this part of our college Lenten spiritual regimen,'" Dolan said Thursday from New York. "It's an act of penance. Is there anything colder, damper than taking off on a dark Roman morning ... to walk a half hour to a church? That's what Lent is all about."
On Thursday, the seminarians gathered at the college's front gate at dawn and hiked down the Janiculum hill, crossed the bridge over the Tiber and snaked their way through back cobblestone streets to Sant'Apollinare, once a Jesuit church that now belongs to the conservative Opus Dei movement.
Audrey Anderson, a 20-year-old from Stillwater, Minnesota on a study abroad program, did her own pilgrimage to get there, walking nearly an hour, but said she wouldn't miss it.
"This trumps everything," she said. "Thousands of people have been coming here for hundreds of years, and the one thing that unites us is our Lord. It boggles my mind."
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.Sunday, March 7, 2010
How to Keep Lent, Part 3: Almsdeeds
(An excerpt from the booklet How to Keep Lent, + Imprimatur by Patrick Cardinal Hayes, February 6, 1935).
The Gospel shows us what value God sets on works of charity. These works are the standard by which He will judge all men at the last day.
St. Augustine thus explains this Gospel truth: "It is written: Redeem your sins with alms, because, in effect, our Lord loves the charitable above all things, and recompenses His elect principally in consideration of the relief they have given to the miserable. As if He should more clearly say: It is a difficult matter diligently to examine your life and use mercy towards you; nevertheless, go enter into the eternal kingdom; for I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me to drink; so that the kingdom of heaven is not given to you because you have not sinned but because you have redeemed your sins with alms."
St. Peter of Ravenna goes a step farther: "It is an admirable thing to see how pleasing to God the relief is that is given to the poor, since that, in the kingdom of heaven, in the presence of angels, and in that great assembly of men raised from the dead, there is no mention of the death that Abel suffered, nor of the world which Noe preserved, nor of the faith that Abraham had, nor of the law which Moses gave, nor of the cross to which St. Peter was fastened, but only of the bread that is given to the poor."
The day of judgment will be a day of surprises; but the greatest surprise of all will be to see how easily we might have redeemed our sins, how easily we might have attained heaven, and how we have gone out of the way to reach hell.
"Charity covereth a multitude of sins."
Almsgiving must be the faithful companion of fasting. Persons who do not fast may give alms more liberally but almsgiving must not merely supply the place of fasting. There is a poor-box in every church. Sometimes a special box is placed for Lenten alms. Few know of the many and varied calls made on a priest in every large city. How often the sick and poor of the parish stand in need of things and the priest has not the wherewith to supply the need.
Day by day in Lent we call on God for mercy. God is liberal to us; le us be liberal and generous with temporal goods. We ask for mercy, but we cannot hope to receive it unless we ourselves are merciful. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
Under almsdeeds come all the works of mercy. There is no man so poor who cannot perform this good work. The poor, pinched as they are by poverty often perform works of mercy. They suffer so much they have more than their share of sympathy for those in distress. When we are unable to assist the poor, the sick, the suffering with temporal goods, we have it still in our power to perform one or other of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Above all we can assist them with our prayers.
St. Gregory says: "He whose heart is touched with compassion gives no less than he who exercises liberality toward the poor; for the one gives his wealth, and the other his soul, which is much more precious than all the worldly wealth."
St. Augustine says: "Of all the works of mercy with which we may obtain pardon for our sins, there is none greater or more prevalent than willingly to pardon those who have offended us."
St. Peter Chrysologus says: "Consider, brethren, that you cannot be without sin, and that you always desire your sins should be forgiven you; if, you will, then, be forgiven, you must forgive, and so know that your happiness is in your own hands, and that in pardoning others, you pardon yourselves."
St. Caesarius says: "If you have not wherewithal to relieve the captives or clothe the naked, be at least very careful to banish out of your heart all kinds of ill-will against your neighbor. Render not to your enemies evil for evil; on the contrary, love them and pray for them. Living thus, ground yourself securely on the mercy and promises of God, and fear not to say to Him with confidence: Give me, O Lord, for I have given; pardon me because I have pardoned."
***
Remember the word of the Lord Jesus, how He said: It is more blessed to given than to receive (Acts xx. 35).
"He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brethren in need, and shall shut up his bowels from him; how doth the charity of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth" (1 John iii. 17,18).
"Give alms out of thy substance, and turn not away thy face from any poor person, for so it shall come to pass that the face of the Lord shall not be turned from thee" (Tobias iv. 7).
"Let each one love his brother in charity. We have each our faults. He who has to put up with his brother's fault today, will have to be borne with himself tomorrow." - St. Alphonsus Liguori
The Gospel shows us what value God sets on works of charity. These works are the standard by which He will judge all men at the last day.
St. Augustine thus explains this Gospel truth: "It is written: Redeem your sins with alms, because, in effect, our Lord loves the charitable above all things, and recompenses His elect principally in consideration of the relief they have given to the miserable. As if He should more clearly say: It is a difficult matter diligently to examine your life and use mercy towards you; nevertheless, go enter into the eternal kingdom; for I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me to drink; so that the kingdom of heaven is not given to you because you have not sinned but because you have redeemed your sins with alms."
St. Peter of Ravenna goes a step farther: "It is an admirable thing to see how pleasing to God the relief is that is given to the poor, since that, in the kingdom of heaven, in the presence of angels, and in that great assembly of men raised from the dead, there is no mention of the death that Abel suffered, nor of the world which Noe preserved, nor of the faith that Abraham had, nor of the law which Moses gave, nor of the cross to which St. Peter was fastened, but only of the bread that is given to the poor."
The day of judgment will be a day of surprises; but the greatest surprise of all will be to see how easily we might have redeemed our sins, how easily we might have attained heaven, and how we have gone out of the way to reach hell.
"Charity covereth a multitude of sins."
Almsgiving must be the faithful companion of fasting. Persons who do not fast may give alms more liberally but almsgiving must not merely supply the place of fasting. There is a poor-box in every church. Sometimes a special box is placed for Lenten alms. Few know of the many and varied calls made on a priest in every large city. How often the sick and poor of the parish stand in need of things and the priest has not the wherewith to supply the need.
Day by day in Lent we call on God for mercy. God is liberal to us; le us be liberal and generous with temporal goods. We ask for mercy, but we cannot hope to receive it unless we ourselves are merciful. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
Under almsdeeds come all the works of mercy. There is no man so poor who cannot perform this good work. The poor, pinched as they are by poverty often perform works of mercy. They suffer so much they have more than their share of sympathy for those in distress. When we are unable to assist the poor, the sick, the suffering with temporal goods, we have it still in our power to perform one or other of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Above all we can assist them with our prayers.
St. Gregory says: "He whose heart is touched with compassion gives no less than he who exercises liberality toward the poor; for the one gives his wealth, and the other his soul, which is much more precious than all the worldly wealth."
St. Augustine says: "Of all the works of mercy with which we may obtain pardon for our sins, there is none greater or more prevalent than willingly to pardon those who have offended us."
St. Peter Chrysologus says: "Consider, brethren, that you cannot be without sin, and that you always desire your sins should be forgiven you; if, you will, then, be forgiven, you must forgive, and so know that your happiness is in your own hands, and that in pardoning others, you pardon yourselves."
St. Caesarius says: "If you have not wherewithal to relieve the captives or clothe the naked, be at least very careful to banish out of your heart all kinds of ill-will against your neighbor. Render not to your enemies evil for evil; on the contrary, love them and pray for them. Living thus, ground yourself securely on the mercy and promises of God, and fear not to say to Him with confidence: Give me, O Lord, for I have given; pardon me because I have pardoned."
***
Remember the word of the Lord Jesus, how He said: It is more blessed to given than to receive (Acts xx. 35).
"He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brethren in need, and shall shut up his bowels from him; how doth the charity of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth" (1 John iii. 17,18).
"Give alms out of thy substance, and turn not away thy face from any poor person, for so it shall come to pass that the face of the Lord shall not be turned from thee" (Tobias iv. 7).
"Let each one love his brother in charity. We have each our faults. He who has to put up with his brother's fault today, will have to be borne with himself tomorrow." - St. Alphonsus Liguori
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
How to Keep Lent, Part 2: Fasting
(An excerpt from the booklet How to Keep Lent, + Imprimatur by Patrick Cardinal Hayes, February 6, 1935).
The fast of Lent is twofold. There is a spiritual fast and a corporal fast. The spiritual fast is the fast from sin and it is the first condition for the sanctification of the corporal fast. This fast is binding on every Christian, at all times and at every period of life, but special care and watchfulness are needed to keep this fast, to avoid sin in the season of Lent.
The corporal fast of Lent is that by which we limit the amount of food we eat in accordance with the instruction issued by the Church. This fast is binding upon all Christians of the age of twenty-one to fifty-nine unless a dispensation is given by the proper authorities.
For our corporal health we will submit to anything. The doctor lays down strict rules; we submit. We swallow the bitterest of medicines. We accept without complaint the knife of the surgeon when an operation is necessary. What is there a man will not undergo to preserve life? What is there that many women will not undertake in the way of a diet for the sake of vanity?
Shall we do nothing for the eternal life of the soul? God does not ask too much. For our spiritual diseases and in order that we may have eternal life, our Divine Physician recommends us, every now and then, and for a short time, to abstain from certain kinds of food and to limit ourselves to necessity in the amount taken. If the Church did not appoint a certain time and certain days for fasting the majority of Christians would, perhaps, totally neglect this important duty. Have you ever in your lifetime appointed a fasting day for yourself?
The obligation of fasting in Lent is something serious. It is not a question of inclination. It is not a matter of choice. When the Church commands us to fast in Lent we are bound by this obligation unless legitimately dispensed.
Our Divine Lord was born in poverty and died in torments. His life was a life of humiliation, self-denial, suffering and ignominy. There was no need for Him to add fasting to His sufferings, yet He prepared Himself by fasting to preach the Gospel.
He is the leader and captain of our spiritual warfare and though invulnerable, before He encountered the tempter He prepared Himself by a rigorous fast of forty days. This was for our example, to show us how to meet the assaults of the enemy. And Holy Scripture tells us that a heavenly blessing is attached to fasting: "For then the devil left Him and angels came and ministered to Him."
It is strange that while our Lord lived a life of suffering, we His disciples shrink from the least mortification. He, the Sinless One, carried His heavy Cross on shoulders lacerated by the cruel scourge; we, full of sin, refuse even to touch the Cross. Unless we imitate His self-denial we can hardly hope to be admitted into His kingdom--"He that taketh not up his cross and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me" (Matt. x. 38).
Now the Church, in her kindly spirit of interest and thought for her children, has recognized that the rigorous observance of Lent would be too severe a task for many. The aged, the sick, the hard-working people, are, therefore, excused from the strict fast.
There are, no doubt, many people who are not so excused, and who could, not indeed without difficulty and trial--for penance supposes these--but without any serious injury to themselves, observe the Lenten fast. Should you have any doubt as to the extent of your obligation in this respect, you should consult your confessor.
For the vast majority, the strict observance of Lent is not of obligation. But our Catholic instinct will tell us that if it be not within our power to observe Lent strictly, we should substitute other acts of penance that will, as far as possible, make up for the deficiency. While we cannot do all, we can do something.
Self-denial in eating and drinking is the principal form of Lenten penance prescribed by the Church. Naturally, in keeping with the Church's wish, our self-imposed acts of penance would do well to follow the same line. If we cannot keep the fast completely, can we not do so in part or on some days? If we cannot deny ourselves in the quantity of food, can we not do so in quality and variety? If we cannot forego the necessaries at table, can we not abstain from the luxuries? Each one can deny himself something. One who may be in the habit of using intoxicating drink, even though moderately, could during Lent abstain totally. Another who has a strong appetite for this or that delicacy in the line of eatables, would do well, in the spirit of penitential abstinence, to forego that delicacy completely. Or another who is accustomed to smoking could give up the practice throughout Lent.
Then there are other matters in which we can deny ourselves. For many the theater, the dance, other kinds of amusement form a strong attraction. While such things may be perfectly legitimate in themselves, the spirit of Lent would suggest we abstain from such pleasures, that the soul may be freer to devote itself to higher things.
***
"A man's chief care ought to be turned within himself; the renunciation of self-will is a greater thing than the raising of the dead to life." - St. Ignatius
"Prayer without mortification is like a soul without a body, just the same as mortification without prayer is a body without a soul." - St. Francis de Sales
"Whilst a single passion reigns in our hearts, though all the others have been extirpated, the soul will never enjoy tranquility. The fruits of a good heart which God waters and nourishes with His grace, are a total forgetfulness of itself, a great love of humiliation, and a universal joy and satisfaction in everybody's good." - St. Jane Frances de Chantal
"When you fast, be not, as the hypocrites, sad; for they disfigure their faces, that to men they may appear fasting. Amen I say to you they have received their reward" (Matt. vi, 16).
"But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face" (Matt. vi, 17).
"That thou appear not fasting to men, but to thy Father, who is in secret; and thy Father who seeth in secret, will reward thee (Matt. vi, 18).
The fast of Lent is twofold. There is a spiritual fast and a corporal fast. The spiritual fast is the fast from sin and it is the first condition for the sanctification of the corporal fast. This fast is binding on every Christian, at all times and at every period of life, but special care and watchfulness are needed to keep this fast, to avoid sin in the season of Lent.
The corporal fast of Lent is that by which we limit the amount of food we eat in accordance with the instruction issued by the Church. This fast is binding upon all Christians of the age of twenty-one to fifty-nine unless a dispensation is given by the proper authorities.
For our corporal health we will submit to anything. The doctor lays down strict rules; we submit. We swallow the bitterest of medicines. We accept without complaint the knife of the surgeon when an operation is necessary. What is there a man will not undergo to preserve life? What is there that many women will not undertake in the way of a diet for the sake of vanity?
Shall we do nothing for the eternal life of the soul? God does not ask too much. For our spiritual diseases and in order that we may have eternal life, our Divine Physician recommends us, every now and then, and for a short time, to abstain from certain kinds of food and to limit ourselves to necessity in the amount taken. If the Church did not appoint a certain time and certain days for fasting the majority of Christians would, perhaps, totally neglect this important duty. Have you ever in your lifetime appointed a fasting day for yourself?
The obligation of fasting in Lent is something serious. It is not a question of inclination. It is not a matter of choice. When the Church commands us to fast in Lent we are bound by this obligation unless legitimately dispensed.
Our Divine Lord was born in poverty and died in torments. His life was a life of humiliation, self-denial, suffering and ignominy. There was no need for Him to add fasting to His sufferings, yet He prepared Himself by fasting to preach the Gospel.
He is the leader and captain of our spiritual warfare and though invulnerable, before He encountered the tempter He prepared Himself by a rigorous fast of forty days. This was for our example, to show us how to meet the assaults of the enemy. And Holy Scripture tells us that a heavenly blessing is attached to fasting: "For then the devil left Him and angels came and ministered to Him."
It is strange that while our Lord lived a life of suffering, we His disciples shrink from the least mortification. He, the Sinless One, carried His heavy Cross on shoulders lacerated by the cruel scourge; we, full of sin, refuse even to touch the Cross. Unless we imitate His self-denial we can hardly hope to be admitted into His kingdom--"He that taketh not up his cross and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me" (Matt. x. 38).
Now the Church, in her kindly spirit of interest and thought for her children, has recognized that the rigorous observance of Lent would be too severe a task for many. The aged, the sick, the hard-working people, are, therefore, excused from the strict fast.
There are, no doubt, many people who are not so excused, and who could, not indeed without difficulty and trial--for penance supposes these--but without any serious injury to themselves, observe the Lenten fast. Should you have any doubt as to the extent of your obligation in this respect, you should consult your confessor.
For the vast majority, the strict observance of Lent is not of obligation. But our Catholic instinct will tell us that if it be not within our power to observe Lent strictly, we should substitute other acts of penance that will, as far as possible, make up for the deficiency. While we cannot do all, we can do something.
Self-denial in eating and drinking is the principal form of Lenten penance prescribed by the Church. Naturally, in keeping with the Church's wish, our self-imposed acts of penance would do well to follow the same line. If we cannot keep the fast completely, can we not do so in part or on some days? If we cannot deny ourselves in the quantity of food, can we not do so in quality and variety? If we cannot forego the necessaries at table, can we not abstain from the luxuries? Each one can deny himself something. One who may be in the habit of using intoxicating drink, even though moderately, could during Lent abstain totally. Another who has a strong appetite for this or that delicacy in the line of eatables, would do well, in the spirit of penitential abstinence, to forego that delicacy completely. Or another who is accustomed to smoking could give up the practice throughout Lent.
Then there are other matters in which we can deny ourselves. For many the theater, the dance, other kinds of amusement form a strong attraction. While such things may be perfectly legitimate in themselves, the spirit of Lent would suggest we abstain from such pleasures, that the soul may be freer to devote itself to higher things.
***
"A man's chief care ought to be turned within himself; the renunciation of self-will is a greater thing than the raising of the dead to life." - St. Ignatius
"Prayer without mortification is like a soul without a body, just the same as mortification without prayer is a body without a soul." - St. Francis de Sales
"Whilst a single passion reigns in our hearts, though all the others have been extirpated, the soul will never enjoy tranquility. The fruits of a good heart which God waters and nourishes with His grace, are a total forgetfulness of itself, a great love of humiliation, and a universal joy and satisfaction in everybody's good." - St. Jane Frances de Chantal
"When you fast, be not, as the hypocrites, sad; for they disfigure their faces, that to men they may appear fasting. Amen I say to you they have received their reward" (Matt. vi, 16).
"But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face" (Matt. vi, 17).
"That thou appear not fasting to men, but to thy Father, who is in secret; and thy Father who seeth in secret, will reward thee (Matt. vi, 18).
The Second Sunday of Lent
A meditation on Lent from The Liturgical Year by Abbot Dom Guéranger, O.S.B.
THE subject offered to our consideration, on this second Sunday, is one of the utmost importance for the holy season. The Church applies to us the lesson which our Saviour gave to three of His apostles. Let us endeavour to be more attentive to it than they were.
Jesus was about to pass from Galilee into Judea, that He might go up to Jerusalem and be present at the feast of the Pasch. It was that last Pasch, which was to begin with the immolation of the figurative lamb, and end with the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world. Jesus would have His disciples know Him. His works had borne testimony to Him, even before those who were, in a manner, strangers to Him; but as for His disciples, had they not every reason to be faithful to Him, even to death? Had they not listened to His words, which had such power with them that they forced conviction? Had they not experienced His love, which it was impossible to resist? And had they not seen how patiently He had borne with their strange and untoward ways? Yes, they must have known Him. They had heard one of their company, Peter, declare that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God. (St. Matt. xvi. 16.) Notwithstanding this, the trial to which their faith was soon to be put was of such a terrible kind, that Jesus would mercifully arm them against temptation by an extraordinary grace.
The cross was to be a scandal and a stumbling-block (1 Cor. i. 23.) to the Synagogue, and alas! to more than it. Jesus said to His apostles at the last Supper: `All of you shall be scandalized in Me this night.' (St. Matt. xxvi. 31.) Carnal-minded as they then were, what would they think when they should see Him seized by armed men, handcuffed, hurried from one tribunal to another, and doing nothing to defend Himself! And when they found that the high priests and pharisees, who had hitherto been so often foiled by the wisdom and miracles of Jesus, had now succeeded in their conspiracy against Him, what a shock to their confidence! But there was to be something more trying still: the people, who, but a few days before, greeted Him so enthusiastically with their Hosannas, would demand His execution; and He would have to die, between two thieves, on the cross, amidst the insults of His triumphant enemies.
Is it not to be feared that these disciples, when they witness His humiliations and sufferings, will lose their courage? They have lived in His company for three years; but when they see that the things He foretold would happen to Him are really fulfilled, will the remembrance of all they have seen and heard keep them loyal to Him? Or will they turn cowards and flee from Him? Jesus selects three out of the number, who are especially dear to Him: Peter, whom He has made the rock, on which His Church is to be built, and to whom He has promised the keys of the kingdom of heaven; James, the son of thunder, who is to be the first martyr of the apostolic college; and John, James's brother, and His own beloved disciple. Jesus has resolved to take them aside, and show them a glimpse of that glory, which, until the day fixed for its manifestation, He conceals from the eyes of mortals.
He therefore leaves the rest of His disciples in the plain near Nazareth, and goes in company with the three privileged ones towards a high hill called Thabor, which is a continuation of Libanus, and which the psalmist tells us was to rejoice in the name of the Lord. (Ps. lxxxviii. 13.) No sooner has He reached the summit of the mountain, than the three apostles observe a sudden change come over Him; His Face shines as the sun, and His humble garments become white as snow. They observe two venerable men approach and speak with Him upon what He is about to suffer in Jerusalem. One is Moses, the lawgiver; the other is Elias, the prophet, who was taken up from earth on a fiery chariot without having passed through the gates of death. These two great representatives of the Jewish religion, the Law and the Prophets, humbly adore Jesus of Nazareth. The three apostles are not only dazzled by the brightness which comes from their divine Master; but they are filled with such a rapture of delight, that they cannot bear the thought of leaving the place. Peter proposes to remain there for ever and build three tabernacles, for Jesus, Moses, and Elias. And while they are admiring the glorious sight, and gazing on the beauty of their Jesus' human Nature, a bright cloud overshadows them, and a voice is heard speaking to them: it is the voice of the eternal Father, proclaiming the Divinity of Jesus, and saying: `This is My beloved Son!'
This transfiguration of the Son of Man, this manifestation of His glory, lasted but a few moments: His mission was not on Thabor; it was humiliation and suffering in Jerusalem. He therefore withdrew into Himself the brightness He had allowed to transpire; and when He came to the three apostles, who, on hearing the voice from the cloud, had fallen on their faces with fear, they could see no one save only Jesus. The bright cloud was gone; Moses and Elias had disappeared. What a favour they have had bestowed upon them! Will they remember what they have seen and heard? They have had such a revelation of the Divinity of their dear Master! Is it possible that, when the hour of trial comes, they will forget it, and doubt His being God? And when they see Him suffer and die, will they be ashamed of Him and deny Him? Alas! the Gospel has told us what happened to them.
A short time after this, our Lord celebrated His last Supper with His disciples. When the supper was over, He took them to another mount, Mount Olivet, which lies to the east of Jerusalem. Leaving the rest at the entrance of the garden, He advances with Peter, James, and John, and then says to them: `My soul is sorrowful even unto death: stay you here and watch with Me.' (St. Matt. xxvi. 38.) He then retires some little distance from them, and prays to His eternal Father. The Heart of our Redeemer is weighed down with anguish. When He returns to His three disciples, He is enfeebled by the agony He has suffered, and His garments are saturated with Blood. The apostles are aware that He is sad even unto death, and that the hour is close at hand when He is to be attacked: are they keeping watch? are they ready to defend Him? No: they seem to have forgotten Him; they are fast asleep, for their eyes are heavy. (Ibid. 43.) Yet a few moments, and all will have fled from Him; and Peter, the bravest of them all, will be taking his oath that he never knew the Man.
After the Resurrection our three apostles made ample atonement for this cowardly and sinful conduct, and acknowledged the mercy wherewith Jesus had sought to fortify them against temptation, by showing them His glory on Thabor a few days before His Passion. Let us not wait till we have betrayed Him: let us at once acknowledge that He is our Lord and our God. We are soon to be keeping the anniversary of His Sacrifice; like the apostles, we are to see Him humbled by His enemies and bearing, in our stead, the chastisements of divine justice. We must not allow our faith to be weakened, when we behold the fulfilment of those prophecies of David and Isaias, that the Messias is to be treated as a worm of the earth, (Ps. xxi. 7.) and be covered with wounds, so as to become like a leper, the most abject of men, and the Man of sorrows. (Is. liii. 3. 4.) We must remember the grand things of Thabor, and the adorations paid Him by Moses and Elias, and the bright cloud, and the voice of the eternal Father. The more we see Him humbled, the more must we proclaim His glory and divinity; we, must join our acclamations with those of the angels and the four-and-twenty elders, whom St. John, one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration, heard crying out with a loud voice: `The Lamb that was slain, is worthy to receive power and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and benediction!' (Apoc. v. 12.)
The second Sunday of Lent is called, from the first word of the Introit, Reminiscere; and also Transfiguration-Sunday, on account of the Gospel which is read in the Mass.
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. Laurence had charge, and from which he distributed to the poor the alms of the Church.
THE subject offered to our consideration, on this second Sunday, is one of the utmost importance for the holy season. The Church applies to us the lesson which our Saviour gave to three of His apostles. Let us endeavour to be more attentive to it than they were.
Jesus was about to pass from Galilee into Judea, that He might go up to Jerusalem and be present at the feast of the Pasch. It was that last Pasch, which was to begin with the immolation of the figurative lamb, and end with the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world. Jesus would have His disciples know Him. His works had borne testimony to Him, even before those who were, in a manner, strangers to Him; but as for His disciples, had they not every reason to be faithful to Him, even to death? Had they not listened to His words, which had such power with them that they forced conviction? Had they not experienced His love, which it was impossible to resist? And had they not seen how patiently He had borne with their strange and untoward ways? Yes, they must have known Him. They had heard one of their company, Peter, declare that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God. (St. Matt. xvi. 16.) Notwithstanding this, the trial to which their faith was soon to be put was of such a terrible kind, that Jesus would mercifully arm them against temptation by an extraordinary grace.
The cross was to be a scandal and a stumbling-block (1 Cor. i. 23.) to the Synagogue, and alas! to more than it. Jesus said to His apostles at the last Supper: `All of you shall be scandalized in Me this night.' (St. Matt. xxvi. 31.) Carnal-minded as they then were, what would they think when they should see Him seized by armed men, handcuffed, hurried from one tribunal to another, and doing nothing to defend Himself! And when they found that the high priests and pharisees, who had hitherto been so often foiled by the wisdom and miracles of Jesus, had now succeeded in their conspiracy against Him, what a shock to their confidence! But there was to be something more trying still: the people, who, but a few days before, greeted Him so enthusiastically with their Hosannas, would demand His execution; and He would have to die, between two thieves, on the cross, amidst the insults of His triumphant enemies.
Is it not to be feared that these disciples, when they witness His humiliations and sufferings, will lose their courage? They have lived in His company for three years; but when they see that the things He foretold would happen to Him are really fulfilled, will the remembrance of all they have seen and heard keep them loyal to Him? Or will they turn cowards and flee from Him? Jesus selects three out of the number, who are especially dear to Him: Peter, whom He has made the rock, on which His Church is to be built, and to whom He has promised the keys of the kingdom of heaven; James, the son of thunder, who is to be the first martyr of the apostolic college; and John, James's brother, and His own beloved disciple. Jesus has resolved to take them aside, and show them a glimpse of that glory, which, until the day fixed for its manifestation, He conceals from the eyes of mortals.
He therefore leaves the rest of His disciples in the plain near Nazareth, and goes in company with the three privileged ones towards a high hill called Thabor, which is a continuation of Libanus, and which the psalmist tells us was to rejoice in the name of the Lord. (Ps. lxxxviii. 13.) No sooner has He reached the summit of the mountain, than the three apostles observe a sudden change come over Him; His Face shines as the sun, and His humble garments become white as snow. They observe two venerable men approach and speak with Him upon what He is about to suffer in Jerusalem. One is Moses, the lawgiver; the other is Elias, the prophet, who was taken up from earth on a fiery chariot without having passed through the gates of death. These two great representatives of the Jewish religion, the Law and the Prophets, humbly adore Jesus of Nazareth. The three apostles are not only dazzled by the brightness which comes from their divine Master; but they are filled with such a rapture of delight, that they cannot bear the thought of leaving the place. Peter proposes to remain there for ever and build three tabernacles, for Jesus, Moses, and Elias. And while they are admiring the glorious sight, and gazing on the beauty of their Jesus' human Nature, a bright cloud overshadows them, and a voice is heard speaking to them: it is the voice of the eternal Father, proclaiming the Divinity of Jesus, and saying: `This is My beloved Son!'
This transfiguration of the Son of Man, this manifestation of His glory, lasted but a few moments: His mission was not on Thabor; it was humiliation and suffering in Jerusalem. He therefore withdrew into Himself the brightness He had allowed to transpire; and when He came to the three apostles, who, on hearing the voice from the cloud, had fallen on their faces with fear, they could see no one save only Jesus. The bright cloud was gone; Moses and Elias had disappeared. What a favour they have had bestowed upon them! Will they remember what they have seen and heard? They have had such a revelation of the Divinity of their dear Master! Is it possible that, when the hour of trial comes, they will forget it, and doubt His being God? And when they see Him suffer and die, will they be ashamed of Him and deny Him? Alas! the Gospel has told us what happened to them.
A short time after this, our Lord celebrated His last Supper with His disciples. When the supper was over, He took them to another mount, Mount Olivet, which lies to the east of Jerusalem. Leaving the rest at the entrance of the garden, He advances with Peter, James, and John, and then says to them: `My soul is sorrowful even unto death: stay you here and watch with Me.' (St. Matt. xxvi. 38.) He then retires some little distance from them, and prays to His eternal Father. The Heart of our Redeemer is weighed down with anguish. When He returns to His three disciples, He is enfeebled by the agony He has suffered, and His garments are saturated with Blood. The apostles are aware that He is sad even unto death, and that the hour is close at hand when He is to be attacked: are they keeping watch? are they ready to defend Him? No: they seem to have forgotten Him; they are fast asleep, for their eyes are heavy. (Ibid. 43.) Yet a few moments, and all will have fled from Him; and Peter, the bravest of them all, will be taking his oath that he never knew the Man.
After the Resurrection our three apostles made ample atonement for this cowardly and sinful conduct, and acknowledged the mercy wherewith Jesus had sought to fortify them against temptation, by showing them His glory on Thabor a few days before His Passion. Let us not wait till we have betrayed Him: let us at once acknowledge that He is our Lord and our God. We are soon to be keeping the anniversary of His Sacrifice; like the apostles, we are to see Him humbled by His enemies and bearing, in our stead, the chastisements of divine justice. We must not allow our faith to be weakened, when we behold the fulfilment of those prophecies of David and Isaias, that the Messias is to be treated as a worm of the earth, (Ps. xxi. 7.) and be covered with wounds, so as to become like a leper, the most abject of men, and the Man of sorrows. (Is. liii. 3. 4.) We must remember the grand things of Thabor, and the adorations paid Him by Moses and Elias, and the bright cloud, and the voice of the eternal Father. The more we see Him humbled, the more must we proclaim His glory and divinity; we, must join our acclamations with those of the angels and the four-and-twenty elders, whom St. John, one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration, heard crying out with a loud voice: `The Lamb that was slain, is worthy to receive power and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and benediction!' (Apoc. v. 12.)
The second Sunday of Lent is called, from the first word of the Introit, Reminiscere; and also Transfiguration-Sunday, on account of the Gospel which is read in the Mass.
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. Laurence had charge, and from which he distributed to the poor the alms of the Church.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
The Mystery of Lent
A meditation on Lent by Abbot Dom Guéranger, O.S.B.
We may be sure that a season so sacred as this of Lent is rich in mysteries. The Church has made it a time of recollection and penance, in preparation for the greatest of all her feasts; she would, therefore, bring into it everything that could excite the faith of her children, and encourage them to go through he arduous work of atonement for their sins. During Septuagesima, we had the number seventy, which reminds us of those seventy years of captivity in Babylon, after which God's chosen people, being purified from idolatry, was to return to Jerusalem and celebrate the Pasch. It is the number forty that the Church now brings before us: a number, as St. Jerome observes, which denotes punishment and affliction.[1]
Let us remember the forty days and forty nights of the deluge[2] sent by God in His anger, when He repented that He had made made, and destroyed the whole human race with the exception of one family. Let us consider how the Hebrew people, in punishment for their ingratitude, wandered forty years in the desert, before they were permitted to enter the promised land.[3] Let us listen to our God commanding the Prophet Ezechiel to lie forty days on his right side, as a figure of the siege which was to bring destruction on Jerusalem.[4]
There are two persons in the Old Testament who represent the two manifestations of God: Moses, who typifies the Law; and Elias, who is the figure of the Prophets. Both of these are permitted to approach God: the first on Sinai,[5] the second on Horeb;[6] but both of them have to prepare for the great favor by an expiatory fast of forty days.
With these mysterious facts before us, we can understand why it is that the Son of God, having become Man for our salvation and wishing to subject Himself to the pain of fasting, chose the number of forty days. The institution of Lent is thus brought before us with everything that can impress the mind with its solemn character, and with its power of appeasing God and purifying our souls. Let us, therefore, look beyond the little world which surrounds us, and see how the whole Christian universe is, at this very time, offering this forty days’ penance as a sacrifice of propitiation to the offended Majesty of God; and let us hope that, as in the case of the Ninivites, He will mercifully accept this year’s offering of our atonement, and pardon us our sins.
[1] In Ezechiel, cap. xxix.
[2] Gen. 7:12
[3] Num. 14:33
[4] Ezechiel 4:6
[5] Exodus 24:18
[6] 3 Kings 19:8
We may be sure that a season so sacred as this of Lent is rich in mysteries. The Church has made it a time of recollection and penance, in preparation for the greatest of all her feasts; she would, therefore, bring into it everything that could excite the faith of her children, and encourage them to go through he arduous work of atonement for their sins. During Septuagesima, we had the number seventy, which reminds us of those seventy years of captivity in Babylon, after which God's chosen people, being purified from idolatry, was to return to Jerusalem and celebrate the Pasch. It is the number forty that the Church now brings before us: a number, as St. Jerome observes, which denotes punishment and affliction.[1]
Let us remember the forty days and forty nights of the deluge[2] sent by God in His anger, when He repented that He had made made, and destroyed the whole human race with the exception of one family. Let us consider how the Hebrew people, in punishment for their ingratitude, wandered forty years in the desert, before they were permitted to enter the promised land.[3] Let us listen to our God commanding the Prophet Ezechiel to lie forty days on his right side, as a figure of the siege which was to bring destruction on Jerusalem.[4]
There are two persons in the Old Testament who represent the two manifestations of God: Moses, who typifies the Law; and Elias, who is the figure of the Prophets. Both of these are permitted to approach God: the first on Sinai,[5] the second on Horeb;[6] but both of them have to prepare for the great favor by an expiatory fast of forty days.
With these mysterious facts before us, we can understand why it is that the Son of God, having become Man for our salvation and wishing to subject Himself to the pain of fasting, chose the number of forty days. The institution of Lent is thus brought before us with everything that can impress the mind with its solemn character, and with its power of appeasing God and purifying our souls. Let us, therefore, look beyond the little world which surrounds us, and see how the whole Christian universe is, at this very time, offering this forty days’ penance as a sacrifice of propitiation to the offended Majesty of God; and let us hope that, as in the case of the Ninivites, He will mercifully accept this year’s offering of our atonement, and pardon us our sins.
[1] In Ezechiel, cap. xxix.
[2] Gen. 7:12
[3] Num. 14:33
[4] Ezechiel 4:6
[5] Exodus 24:18
[6] 3 Kings 19:8
Friday, February 5, 2010
How to Keep Lent - Part 1
(An excerpt from the booklet How to Keep Lent, + Imprimatur by Patrick Cardinal Hayes, February 6, 1935).
The Season of Lent
Ash Wednesday is the index to Lent. It tells us the meaning of Lent. It is not a day by itself, but the first day of a period of time, called by the Church, the acceptable time. It is the first of forty days of public penance, which is binding in a greater or less degree upon all Christians who have come to the use of reason.
The Church, usually so rich and grand in her ceremonies, on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the day of salvation, gathers together her people for a ceremony unusually simple in its externals, yet one which contains within it depths of meaning.
On Palm Sunday of last year the Church blessed branches of palm and gave a branch to each of her children. On the first Palm Sunday the Jews bore their Lord and King in triumph into Jerusalem, and waving palm branches in their hands, made the streets resound again and again with their joyous hosannas. We can hardly believe it, but on Friday of the very same week the voices of these same Jews swelled the cry which raised their Lord and King on the ignominious Cross.
We, too, last Palm Sunday joined in the procession and welcomed our God and King with many "Hosannas." How many of us since then have crucified Him over again by mortal sin?
So these palms of last year are burned and reduced to ashes. And on Ash Wednesday these ashes are blessed and the Church throughout the world gathers together her children, places these ashes upon their heads and reminds them of their mortality in the memorable words used by Almighty God when He pronounced sentence of death on our first parents: "Remember, man, thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return."
The Church covers us with ashes in order to imprint indelibly upon our hearts those words first uttered by God Almighty Himself, words which have not lost one jot of their force or meaning. Who dares to say he can forget his origin with impunity? How often we do forget it! How seldom we think of it! How much need in every year for such a season as Lent! This is the truth the Church by her ceremony impresses on us the opening day of Lent. "Remember, man, thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return."
Mindful of our origin we shall not lose sight of our end. No matter how much care we may take to preserve the body, it will decay, it will return to the earth from which it was taken. In what more striking, more effective manner could the Church prepare us for the great work of Lent?
As Ash Wednesday is but the first day of Lent, of a period of time, so the warning must be in our minds and hearts during the whole of Lent. Before the altar of God we make a public act of humiliation. Humbled, we see the seriousness of our crimes and ingratitude as we have never before seen it. This disposition begets an earnest desire to do penance and live up to the spirit of Lent; and the fulfillment of this desire leads us on to a more perfect love of God, which is the essence of perfection, the end for which we were made, and in which alone our true happiness consists both in time and eternity.
Lent calls on us to take account of ourselves before God. It calls on us to search into our souls and see how we stand before God. Lent is the acceptable time and a day of salvation to us according to the manner in which we spend it. If, during these days of public penance, God is liberal and generous towards those who even make but slight efforts, let us not forget that He is equally strict and severe with those who spend the time of Lent carelessly and indifferently, and who abuse the graces and opportunities offered to them at this holy season. Lent, then, according as we use it or abuse it, is a time of salvation or damnation. To abuse Lent is to seek eternal death.
The Right Spirit
However many our practices of self-denial and sacrifice might be, they would be all quite worthless were they not animated by the right spirit. To understand what that spirit is we have but to recall the chief significance of such a season as that of Lent. The forty days are but a journey to Calvary. They lead us to the Cross. They are a meditation upon the passion and death of our Savior. Thus, yearly, the Agony and Crucifixion of our Lord are brought vividly to our mind, that we may, through love of Him, call forth that sorrow for sin which is our best expression of sympathy with the Divine Sufferer.
The spirit of Lent is, then, a spirit of repentance. Our soul is awakened to a sense of its own defects and their gravity, and to the need of an abiding interior sorrow. This spirit will manifest itself first in the active steps we take to stop sin, to avoid the occasions of sin, and to guard ourselves against falling back into sin. We cannot expect to derive any profit or spiritual benefit from Lent, unless, above all things, we put sin behind us, and set our faces, with determination, towards God and the right. This spirit will manifest itself also in outward acts of sorrow for all sins that we have committed, and, hence, the external penances of Lent.
There are Christians who resemble the barren tree of which our Lord speaks when He says: "Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" They bring forth leaves, shadows, appearances, but no fruit. They produce even blossoms and these are good intentions. These blossoms are forever being scattered to the ground by the winds of human respect, want of courage, attachment to the world and love of an easy-going life. There can be no good, true fruit without good works. The good works required of every Christian are comprised under fasting, alms deeds and prayer. There is no one who cannot perform these works, particularly during the Lent season.
The Season of Lent
Ash Wednesday is the index to Lent. It tells us the meaning of Lent. It is not a day by itself, but the first day of a period of time, called by the Church, the acceptable time. It is the first of forty days of public penance, which is binding in a greater or less degree upon all Christians who have come to the use of reason.
The Church, usually so rich and grand in her ceremonies, on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the day of salvation, gathers together her people for a ceremony unusually simple in its externals, yet one which contains within it depths of meaning.
On Palm Sunday of last year the Church blessed branches of palm and gave a branch to each of her children. On the first Palm Sunday the Jews bore their Lord and King in triumph into Jerusalem, and waving palm branches in their hands, made the streets resound again and again with their joyous hosannas. We can hardly believe it, but on Friday of the very same week the voices of these same Jews swelled the cry which raised their Lord and King on the ignominious Cross.
We, too, last Palm Sunday joined in the procession and welcomed our God and King with many "Hosannas." How many of us since then have crucified Him over again by mortal sin?
So these palms of last year are burned and reduced to ashes. And on Ash Wednesday these ashes are blessed and the Church throughout the world gathers together her children, places these ashes upon their heads and reminds them of their mortality in the memorable words used by Almighty God when He pronounced sentence of death on our first parents: "Remember, man, thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return."
The Church covers us with ashes in order to imprint indelibly upon our hearts those words first uttered by God Almighty Himself, words which have not lost one jot of their force or meaning. Who dares to say he can forget his origin with impunity? How often we do forget it! How seldom we think of it! How much need in every year for such a season as Lent! This is the truth the Church by her ceremony impresses on us the opening day of Lent. "Remember, man, thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return."
Mindful of our origin we shall not lose sight of our end. No matter how much care we may take to preserve the body, it will decay, it will return to the earth from which it was taken. In what more striking, more effective manner could the Church prepare us for the great work of Lent?
As Ash Wednesday is but the first day of Lent, of a period of time, so the warning must be in our minds and hearts during the whole of Lent. Before the altar of God we make a public act of humiliation. Humbled, we see the seriousness of our crimes and ingratitude as we have never before seen it. This disposition begets an earnest desire to do penance and live up to the spirit of Lent; and the fulfillment of this desire leads us on to a more perfect love of God, which is the essence of perfection, the end for which we were made, and in which alone our true happiness consists both in time and eternity.
Lent calls on us to take account of ourselves before God. It calls on us to search into our souls and see how we stand before God. Lent is the acceptable time and a day of salvation to us according to the manner in which we spend it. If, during these days of public penance, God is liberal and generous towards those who even make but slight efforts, let us not forget that He is equally strict and severe with those who spend the time of Lent carelessly and indifferently, and who abuse the graces and opportunities offered to them at this holy season. Lent, then, according as we use it or abuse it, is a time of salvation or damnation. To abuse Lent is to seek eternal death.
The Right Spirit
However many our practices of self-denial and sacrifice might be, they would be all quite worthless were they not animated by the right spirit. To understand what that spirit is we have but to recall the chief significance of such a season as that of Lent. The forty days are but a journey to Calvary. They lead us to the Cross. They are a meditation upon the passion and death of our Savior. Thus, yearly, the Agony and Crucifixion of our Lord are brought vividly to our mind, that we may, through love of Him, call forth that sorrow for sin which is our best expression of sympathy with the Divine Sufferer.
The spirit of Lent is, then, a spirit of repentance. Our soul is awakened to a sense of its own defects and their gravity, and to the need of an abiding interior sorrow. This spirit will manifest itself first in the active steps we take to stop sin, to avoid the occasions of sin, and to guard ourselves against falling back into sin. We cannot expect to derive any profit or spiritual benefit from Lent, unless, above all things, we put sin behind us, and set our faces, with determination, towards God and the right. This spirit will manifest itself also in outward acts of sorrow for all sins that we have committed, and, hence, the external penances of Lent.
There are Christians who resemble the barren tree of which our Lord speaks when He says: "Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" They bring forth leaves, shadows, appearances, but no fruit. They produce even blossoms and these are good intentions. These blossoms are forever being scattered to the ground by the winds of human respect, want of courage, attachment to the world and love of an easy-going life. There can be no good, true fruit without good works. The good works required of every Christian are comprised under fasting, alms deeds and prayer. There is no one who cannot perform these works, particularly during the Lent season.
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