Saturday, February 29, 2020
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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Friday, February 28, 2020
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 27, 2020
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 26, 2020
Ash Wednesday
Violet Privileged 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 of […]
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Tuesday, February 25, 2020
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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Saint Matthias, Apostle
Red Double of the Second Class An Apostle of Jesus Christ, St. Matthias is one of the Blessed choir which the Church would have us honor during the Season of Lent. Matthias was one of the first to follow our Savior, and he was an eyewitness of all his divine actions up to the very […]
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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 24, 2020
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 23, 2020
Quinquagesima Sunday
Violet Semidouble (Privilege of the Second Class) 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 […]
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Saint Peter Damian, Cardinal and Doctor of the Church
White Double It is the Feast of the austere reformer of the 11th century, Peter Damian, the precursor of the holy Pontiff Gregory the Seventh, that we are called upon to celebrate today. To him is due a share of that glorious regeneration which was effected at that troubled period when judgment had to begin […]
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