Vigil of St. Matthias

Commemoration (1955 Calendar): February 23 or February 24 if leap year

On February 23rd the Church commemorates the Vigil of St. Matthias, whose feastday is kept tomorrow on the 24th day of February. In a leap year, the Vigil of St. Matthias is kept on February 24, and any Feasts usually occurring from February 24 through 28 are kept one day later. Because February 23rd is the Feast of St. Peter Damian, this Vigil is only commemorated in the Church's liturgy when it falls on February 23rd.

While not one of the original twelve apostles, St. Matthias is honored with the same rank of as the other Apostles as he legitimately took the spot which the traitor Judas Iscariot lost. This election is recounted in detail in the Acts 1:12-26. The Holy Ghost would not have inspired so many lines about his election were it not important.

Before the changes to the Roman calendar in 1955, nearly all feasts of the Apostles were preceded by a special Vigil Day. And the Church put those days in place to help us prepare for the importance of a feast of an Apostle. We have lost the importance of the feasts of the Apostles I believe, in part, due to losing the vigils. We can change that for ourselves by observing these vigils in our own prayer lives.

Collect:

Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that the solemn feast of Thine apostle Matthias, which we anticipate, may both increase our devotion and advance our salvation.

Prayer by Dom Gueranger to St. Matthias:

O Apostle Mathias! thou didst complete the sacred college, from which Judas had fallen; and by the power of the Holy Ghost, thou didst put to flight the darkness of idolatry by the admirable lightnings of thy wise words. Do thou now beseech the Lord that he grant peace and much mercy to our souls. Amen.

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Make Real Progress & Resolutions This Lent

Lent is less than a week away. What will you do? This is not a time to diet and focus on giving up dessert. Ask yourself - what real fasting can you do? What real penance can you perform to make up for your sins and those of others? What true Christian charity can you do? What real sins and addictions do you really have to give up?

Why should we observe a strict Lent? See: Pope Benedict XIV (1714) on the Strictness of Lent

Some Lenten Resolution Resources:

• Printable Lent Preparation Guide
• Enroll Your Family for Masses this Lent for free
• Top 20 Actions for Lent including a bonus one
• The Origin of Lent
• The Purpose of Lent according to Monsignor Massimo Camisasca
• Fasting and Abstinence Rules
• Why do we fast? St. Thomas Aquinas Explains
• Book Recommendations for Lent
• 10 Traditional Catholic Charities: Almsgiving During Lent
• Each Feria Day in Lent has a Proper Mass
• Holy Communion in Lent: The Most Pleasing to God
• Stational Churches for Each Day of Lent

Lenten Prayers:

• Prayer for Avoiding Sin
• Lenten Prayer II
• Prayer before a Crucifix
• Stations of the Cross
• Prayer for the Grace of the Passion
• Prayer in the Steps of the Passion
• Lenten Prayer of St. Ephraim
• Litany of the Passion

Fight Impurity this Lent:

• Devotion of the 3 Hail Marys
• 15 Remedies for Those Struggling with Impurity. Use this Lent.
• Maxims of St. Philip Neri to Conquer Lust

Fight Technology Addiction this Lent:

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Commemoration of the Passion of Christ (Tuesday after Sexagesima)

The Commemoration of the Passion of Christ was a feast listed in the pre-1962 Roman Missal as observed in some places, and kept on the Tuesday after Sexagesima. Its was instituted with the purpose of providing a devout remembrance and honour of Christ's sufferings for the redemption of mankind. It was the patronal feast of the Passionist Order.

Quoted from the Facebook Page of Restore the '54:

The Votive Feast of the Commemoration of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which is a Duplex Maius, and is always the Tuesday after Sexagesima. 

This feast can be found in the M.P.A.L. of the Roman Missal (and in this case, except for a proper Collect, the M.P.A.L. refers the priest to the Votive Mass of the Passion, "Humiliaverunt," in the Missae Votivae section of the Missal. Pope Leo XIII included these feasts of the Passion and Instruments of the Passion as Votive Offices in the Breviary before the revision of Divinu Afflatu from 1911-1913. However, the designation of it in the M.P.A.L. means unless it has always been celebrated in the Diocese where one resides or it is celebrated out of custom by an Order or country/territory as a whole, then it cannot be used. However, the exception to this rule is by retaining an indult of the local Ordinary or the Holy See. 

For a history of this Feast I refer you to the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia

Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God, Who as a pattern of lowliness for mankind to follow, didst bring our Saviour to take flesh and undergo the cross: mercifully grant that as we celebrate the solemn commemoration of His Passion, so we may also deserve to have the schooling of His longsuffering and partnership of His resurrection. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Lent Preparation Guide

Use this helpful guide to plan what your sacrifice will be this Lent.

For a helpful list of ideas to consider, read my past post: 20 Pious Practices for Lent: What Should I Give Up for Lent?

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How to Improve Personal Prayer Life?

Go to the Sacraments, Confession and Holy Communion. Prayer is a fruit of grace, so we must go to the sources of grace to help improve our prayer lives. Retreats and spiritual reading are also very useful in feeding our souls to help cultivate a better prayer life. And lastly, we should pray the Rosary daily and meditate on its mysteries.

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Sarum Use Vespers Chanted in Philadelphia

This is the official video of the Vespers according to the Use of Sarum, celebrated at St Patrick's Catholic Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Candlemas Eve: February 1, 2020. Over 700 came to attend this unique celebration of Evening Prayer according to the Use of Salisbury: the local adaptation of the Roman Rite used throughout most of England from the Norman Conquest until the Reformation introduced the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549. Relics of St Thomas Becket and St Edward the Confessor were set upon the high altar for this liturgy, organized by the Durandus Institute for Sacred Liturgy & Music.

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Enroll Your Family This Lent with the Hermits of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

The Hermits of Our Lady of Mount Carmel will be offering 40 days of Masses, prayers, vigils, fasting, and penances for all those enrolled this Lent. In this time of crisis in the world and the Church, now we must pray and do penance, fast and beg God for...

• Spiritual renewal in the Church
• Sanctification of souls
• Healing of families and individuals
• Reversion of fallen-away Catholics
• Conversion of sinners who are far from God

Enroll your loved ones or those in particular need of prayers. You can help save souls and renew the Church! Enroll by clicking here.

Now that Septuagesima has started, let us prepare for the holy season of Lent and decide what we will do for fasting, what we will do for alms, and what we will do for penance. For our almsgiving, the Hermits of Our Lady of Mount Carmel are certainly worth the support.

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Commemoration of St. Apollonia

Commemoration (1954 Calendar): February 9

Today is the feastday of St. Cyril of Alexandria which includes a Commemoration of St. Apollonia. St. Apollonia was a virgin of Alexandria who died for Christ during the bloody persecution of the faithful in 249 AD.

The following is taken from the Roman Martyrology: "At Alexandria, in the reign of Decius, the birthday of St. Apollonia, virgin, who had all her teeth broken out by the persecutors; then, having constructed and lighted a pyre, they threatened to burn her alive unless she uttered with them certain impious words. Deliberating a while within herself, she suddenly slipped from their grasp and prompted by the greater fire of the Holy Ghost with her, she rushed voluntarily into the fire which they had prepared. Those responsible for her death were struck with terror at the sight of a woman who was more willing to die than they to kill her."

This account was preserved in a letter from Fabius, Bishop of Antioch, in what is now Syria. She is the patron saint of dentists.

Collect:

O God, one of the marvelous examples of Your power was granting the victory of martyrdom even to delicate womanhood. May the example of the blessed virgin martyr Apollonia, whose birthday we celebrate today, draw us closer to You.

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St. Julian Peter Eymard on the Eucharist

"He loves, He hopes, He waits. If He came down on our altars on certain days only, some sinner, on being moved to repentance, might have to look for Him, and not finding Him, might have to wait. Our Lord prefers to wait Himself for the sinner for years rather than keep him waiting one instant” (St. Julian Peter Eymard)

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Traditional Dominican Little Office in Latin and English

If anyone is interested in the traditional Dominican Little Office in Latin and English, I ordered a copy for only $18 of it in spiral bound form. The SSPX-SO (Resistance) Traditional Dominican Tertiaries affiliated with the Domincans in Arville France have it for sale. The text for this Office was published in 1940 by the Sisters of St. Dominic in Racine, Wisconsin.

If anyone would like to order it, I'll share with you the email address. I don't know if they want their email posted publicly so please just message me for it by commenting below with your email address.

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