Saturday, February 21, 2015
Saturday After Ash Wednesday
The station for today is as noted in the missal, in the church of St. Trypho, martyr; but this church having been destroyed many centuries ago, the station is now in that of St. Augustine, which is built on the same site. Collect Adesto, Domine, supplicationibus nostris, et concede ut hoc solemne jejunium, quod animabus […]
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The Season of Lent
The History of Lent The forty days’ fast, which we call Lent, is the Church’s preparation for Easter, and was instituted at the very commencement of Christianity. Our blessed Lord Himself sanctioned it by fasting forty days and forty nights in the desert; and though He would not impose it on the world by an […]
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Friday, February 20, 2015
Friday After Ash Wednesday
The station for today is in the church of the holy martyrs, St. John and St. Paul. Collect Inchoata jejunia, quæsumus Domine, benigno favore prosequere: ut observantiam, quam corporaliter exhibemus, mentibus etiam sinceris exercere valeamus. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen. Graciously favor us, O Lord, we beseech thee, in the fast we have undertaken: that […]
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Thursday, February 19, 2015
Thursday After Ash Wednesday
Although the law of fasting began yesterday, yet Lent, properly so called, does not begin till the Vespers of Saturday next. In order to distinguish the rest of Lent from these four days which have been added to it, the Church continues to chant Vespers at the usual hour, and allows her ministers to break […]
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Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Ash Wednesday
Purple Privileged Major Feria Yesterday the world was busy in its pleasures, and the very children of God were taking a joyous farewell to mirth: but this morning, all is changed. The solemn announcement, spoken of by the prophet, has been proclaimed in Sion: the solemn fast of Lent, the season of expiation, the approach […]
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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 […]
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Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Tuesday of Quinquagesima Week
The fundamental rule of Christian life is, as almost every page of the Gospel tells us, that we should live out of the world, separate ourselves from the world, hate the world. The world is that ungodly land which Abraham, our sublime model, is commanded by God to quit. It is that Babylon of our […]
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Monday, February 16, 2015
Monday of Quinquagesima Week
The life of a faithful Christian, like that of a patriarch Abraham, is neither more nor less than a courageous journeying onwards to the place destined for him by his Creator. He must put aside everything that could impede his progress, nor must he look back. This is, undoubtedly, hard doctrine; but if we reflect […]
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Sunday, February 15, 2015
Quinquagesima Sunday
Purple Double The Church gives us today another subject for our meditation: it is the vocation of Abraham. When the waters of the deluge had subsided, and mankind had once more peopled the earth, the immorality, which had previously excited God’s anger, again grew rife among men. Idolatry too, into which the antediluvian race had […]
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Saints Faustinus and Jovita, Martyrs
Red Simple The two Brothers whom we are to honor today, suffered martyrdom in the beginning of the second century, and their memory has ever been celebrated in the Church. The glory of the great ones of this world passes away, and men soon forget even their very names. Historians have oftentimes a difficulty in […]
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