Saturday, February 22, 2014
Saint Peter’s Chair at Antioch
We are called upon, a second time, to honor St. Peter’s Chair: first, it was his Pontificate in Rome; today it is his Episcopate at Antioch. The seven years spent by the Prince of the Apostles in the second of these cities were the grandest glory she ever had; and they are too important a […]
0 Comments
Friday, February 21, 2014
Friday of Septuagesima Week
The curse, which is henceforth to lie so heavily on every human being, has been expressed in the sentence pronounced against Eve; the curse, to which the earth itself is to be subjected, is Adam’s sentence. “Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded […]
0 Comments
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Thursday of Septuagesima Week
Forgiveness is promised; but atonement must be made. Divine justice must be satisfied, and future generations be taught that sin can never pass unpunished. Eve is the guiltier of the two, and her sentence follows that of the serpent. Destined by God to aid man in peopling the earth with happy and faithful children, formed […]
0 Comments
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Wednesday of Septuagesima Week
The guilty pair appear before the great God, whom they have offended; and instead of acknowledging their guilt, they seek to palliate and excuse it. But divine justice pronounces their condemnation, and the sentence will be felt by their posterity, even to the last generation. The two beings that had committed the heinous crime had […]
0 Comments
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Tuesday of Septuagesima Week
The serpent’s promises had stifled, in Eve’s heart, every sentiment of love for the God that had created her and loaded her with blessings: she ambitions to be God like Him! Her faith, too, is wavering; she is not sure that God may not have deceived her, by threatening her with death should she disobey […]
0 Comments
Saint Simeon, Bishop and Martyr
How venerable our Saint of today, with his hundred and twenty years, and his episcopal dignity, and his Martyr crown! He succeeded the Apostle St. James in the See of Jerusalem; he had known Jesus, and had been his disciple; he was related to Jesus, for he was of the House of David; his father […]
0 Comments
Monday, February 17, 2014
Monday of Septuagesima Week
The serpent said to the woman: “Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?” Thus opened the conversation which our mother Eve so rashly consents to hold with God’s enemy. She ought to refuse all intercourse with Satan; she does not; and thereby she imperils the salvation of […]
0 Comments
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Septuagesima Sunday
The holy Church calls us together today in order that we may hear from her lips the sad history of the fall of our first parents. This awful event implies the Passion and cruel Death of the Son of God made Man, who has mercifully taken upon Himself to expiate this and every subsequent sin […]
0 Comments
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Saturday Before Septuagesima Sunday: Suspension of the ‘Alleluia’
The calendar of the liturgical year will soon bring us to the commemoration of the Passion and Resurrection of our Redeemer; we are but nine weeks from these great solemnities. It is time for the Christian to be preparing his soul for a fresh visit from his Savior; a visit even more sacred and more […]
0 Comments
Season of Septuagesima
The History of Septuagesima The season of Septuagesima comprises the three weeks immediately preceding Lent. It forms one of the principal divisions of the liturgical year, and is itself divided into three parts, each part corresponding to a week: the first is called Septuagesima; the second, Sexagesima;, the third, Quinquagesima. All three are named from […]
0 Comments