What is the Origin of Lent?

Essentially, Lent is a biblical concept. Lent is a period of 40 days of penance in preparation for the solemn celebration of the Lord's Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Jesus, before beginning His earthly public ministry, fasted and prayed for 40 days and 40 nights (Mt. 4:1-11). As the Gospel continually reaffirms, penance is an important part of repentance (Mk. 1:15 cf. Mt. 6:16-18). And, Jesus provided us with the example of fasting for 40 days and nights.

The concept of 40 days existing as preparation was seen by Elijah, who fasted and journeyed to Horeb for 40 days (1 Kings 19:8). There are dozens of other references to the number 40 in the Old Testament.

The great liturgical Dom Gueranger writes that Lent was founded by the Apostles themselves:

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 express commandment (which, in that case, could not have been open to the power of dispensation), yet He showed plainly enough, by His own example, that fasting, which God had so frequently ordered in the old Law, was to be also practiced by the children of the new. The disciples of St. John the Baptist came, one day, to Jesus, and said to Him: 'Why do we and the pharisees fast often, but Thy disciples do not fast?' And Jesus said to them: 'Can the children of the Bridegroom mourn, as long as the Bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast.'

Hence we find it mentioned, in the Acts of the Apostles, how the disciples of our Lord, after the foundation of the Church, applied themselves to fasting. In their Epistles, also, they recommended it to the faithful. Nor could it be otherwise. Though the divine mysteries whereby our Saviour wrought our redemption have been consummated, yet are we still sinners: and where there is sin, there must be expiation.

The apostles, therefore, legislated for our weakness, by instituting, at the very commencement of the Christian Church, that the solemnity of Easter should be preceded by a universal fast; and it was only natural that they should have made this period of penance to consist of forty days, seeing that our divine Master had consecrated that number by His own fast. 

The Baltimore Catechism: 

Q. 1342. When do fast days chiefly occur in the year?

A. Fast days chiefly occur in the year during Lent and Advent, on the Ember days and on the vigils or eves of some great feasts. A vigil falling on a Sunday is not observed.

Q. 1343. What do you mean by Lent, Advent, Ember days and the vigils of great feasts?

A. Lent is the seven weeks of penance preceding Easter. Advent is the four weeks of preparation preceding Christmas. Ember days are three days set apart in each of the four seasons of the year as special days of prayer and thanksgiving. Vigils are the days immediately preceding great feasts and spent in spiritual preparation for them.

Q. 1344. What do you mean by days of abstinence?

A. By days of abstinence I mean days on which no meat at all may be taken (complete abstinence) or on which meat may be taken only once a day (partial abstinence). This is explained in the regulations for Lent. All the Fridays of the year are days of abstinence except when a Holyday of obligation falls on a Friday outside of Lent.

Q. 1345. Are children and persons unable to fast bound to abstain on days of abstinence?

A. Children, from the age of seven years, and persons who are unable to fast are bound to abstain on days of abstinence, unless they are excused for sufficient reason.

Q. 1346. Why does the Church command us to fast and abstain?

A. The Church commands us to fast and abstain, in order that we may mortify our passions and satisfy for our sins.

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Seven Founders of the Servite Order

Today is their feastday, and I suggest readers look to my post from last year for information on them.

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Roman Catholics to become largest denomination in UK

From Catholic World News:

London, Feb. 16, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Roman Catholics will soon become the largest religious group in Great Britain, outnumbering Anglicans for the first time since the Reformation, the London Times reports.

Weekly Mass attendance at Catholic parishes now stands at about 1 million, roughly equal to the number attending Anglican services. But the Catholic population of Britain is steadily expanding, mostly because of immigration, while the Anglican community is in decline, the Times observes.

I'd be interested in hearing opinions from any of my readers from Great Britain.

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Lent is Approaching

News reports indicate that Pope Benedict XVI will preside at Mass on Ash Wednesday in the basilica of Santa Sabina. The Holy Father will begin with an period of prayer in the church of St. Anselm, and then he will join the cardinals and bishops of Rome as well as the Benedictine Monks of St. Anselm in a penitential procession to Santa Sabina.

Remember, Ash Wednesday, which falls on this coming Wednesday, is a mandatory day of fasting and abstinence. For more information on this and other Lenten issues, please see my page: Everything Lent.

Photo: Last year's procession via Argent by the Tiber

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To You, My Jesus

"I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26)

After doing some Internet searching tonight, I was very saddened by what I found. As I stumbled upon Myspace, I found countless users that claim to be atheists or agnostics. I found pagans and scientologists. I found a few Catholics who obviously didn't follow the faith since they cursed using our Lord's Holy Name in vain on that page. I found not only faithful Catholic - not a single one.

I was reminded of the account of Abraham speaking to the Lord in Genesis 18:20-32. There the Lord promised to spare Sodom and Gomorrah from destruction even if there were as little as ten righteous people left. Yet, as we know, the cities were destroyed because not even ten God-fearing men could be found. Is our world today any better?

I wonder what will happen in our world today. So many people do not believe and live there lives away from God seeking happiness and money - all without God. They will fail in this life and be condemned in the life to come. Then there are people even more horrifying - those that truly hate God and chastity and all things holy. They seek to destroy it. These people are corrupted by the devil. They too shall fail. For hell is not just intense pain, it is more terrible than that. Hell is painful not because God seeks to torture souls. No, not at all. Rather, the souls that go to Hell go there because it is the one place that God is not present. And the deprivation of God's love is the torture suffered by those souls. They rejected the Holy Church and refused to turn aside from sinful ways. These people turned away from God and earned what they had all along - a life without God.

St. Catherine received a vision of the devil once from Our Lord. And she told Him that she would rather walk on burning coals for the rest of eternity than go to hell and look upon the devil's face for one more moment. For in hell, the condemned will look on the face of satan, the father of lies, for all eternity. There truly shall be no end. This is the faith of those that ignore God, hate God, and die in the state of mortal sin.

So now I sit here gazing at the Crucifix contemplating his most precious wounds and the blood loss and pain He endured. Yet He endured that suffering for me as much as for each one of those people hate Him. And even if one of those people had been the only one to ever exist, Jesus would have mounted that cross just for him too. I once saw a picture in store. In the photo a little girl was looking up to Heaven and asked, "How much do you love me, Jesus?" Jesus answered, "I love you this much," and then He opened up His arms and died.

I am re-posting the rest:

I ask you to say this prayer for all that still live in darkness and do not see the great joy of Jesus Christ!

Dear Lord:

On the night before your passion you were taken from us, beaten and mocked and condemned to death. Bound and beaten on your precious head, the very head that lay in a beautiful manager in Bethlehem. Your back was ripped open in the Scourging, and on the road to Calvary so many hated you; you almost died on the way. Your precious face was disfigured - your body beaten and ripped apart. O Lord, your precious hands which worked so many wonders, were pierced. On that day Lord, you liberated me. May your blessings be upon me and transform me on my pilgrimage to Life Everlasting. May the grace and joy of Christmas and Easter enkindle an eternal flame in my heart for love of you and neighbor that shall never abate. And, permit me O Lord, to die in love of Thee for Thou hast died for love of me.

O Lord, so many hate you. So many call you false and a liar. So many pretend as if you ascended to Heaven and left us here - alone. So many pretend the Eucharist is not truly YOU. So many hate the good of your Church and deny your eternal word of scripture; so many utter lies against your faithful. Lord, so many ignore you. They refuse to acknowledge you, and they practice political correctness instead of acknowledging You as the only God to have worked wonders. But, You, O Lord, are the only truth. You are the only light on our journey. If I died today, would I be no more? No! For the miracles you worked are forever recorded in scripture, the miracle of the Eucharist is ever before us. May your light shine upon those that hate you Lord. For, O Lord, your skin was ripped open for them. Your blood poured forth from your heart for them. It was by your Cross alone we are saved. The God of all Creation truly took flesh and mounted a tree to redeem our disfigured race. What love! And what greater love is there than truly giving yourself to me in the Holy Eucharist each and every Mass!

Lord, you need nothing as You alone are perfect. Please, permit me, if you will, to offer up the sacrifices in my life to you in reparation for those that hate you, my best friend, my Love, my All. O Lord, you let your apostles help you in the miracles of the loaves, permit me to offer my small sacrifices in union with Your perfect gift on the Cross. May my sufferings offered for you bring one soul to the truth of your Church. O Lord, grant that my work may produce much fruit and at the end, when I leave this world, you may say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." Lord, I love you. Forgive us all, my Crucified Lord. Forgive us, for you are the Savior of the World.

Amen

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The Council of Trent: Part 1

I have recently purchased a copy of the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent on CD-ROM. In addition, I have obtained a copy of "The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent" translated and introduced by Reverend H.J. Schroeder, O.P. Since no decrees of a Council may ever be contradicted, and since the Council of Trent has profoundly impacted the Church, I feel it is proper to study the anathemas issued by the Council.

First and foremost, "anathema" is defined thusly

"After the time of the apostolic church, the term anathema has come to mean a form of extreme religious sanction beyond excommunication, known as major excommunication. The earliest recorded instance of the form is in the Council of Elvira (c. 306), and thereafter it became the common method of cutting off heretics. Cyril of Alexandria issued twelve anathemas against Nestorius in 431. In the fifth century, a formal distinction between anathema and excommunication evolved, where excommunication entailed cutting off a person or group from the rite of Eucharist and attendance at worship, while anathema meant a complete separation of the subject from the Church."

Background:

The Council of Trent convened three times between December 13, 1545 and December 4, 1563 in the city of Trent, Italy. It opened primarily as a response to the theological errors by the Protestant Reformation and to clearly specify Catholic doctrines on such subjects as salvation, the Seven Sacraments, the Biblical canon, and the standardizing of the Mass.

The following is the first set of anathemas to come out of the Council. These come from the Fifth Session celebrated on June 17, 1546, which dealt with the topic of original sin. Additional posts will follow as this will be a regular series on my blog. It is important that we believe exactly what the Catholic Church teaches, so it is important to study the anathemas issued by the Council.

Fifth Session:

1. If any one does not confess that the first man, Adam, when he had transgressed the commandment of God in Paradise, immediately lost the holiness and justice wherein he had been constituted; and that he incurred, through the offence of that prevarication, the wrath and indignation of God, and consequently death, with which God had previously threatened him, and, together with death, captivity under his power who thenceforth had the empire of death, that is to say, the devil, and that the entire Adam, through that offence of prevarication, was changed, in body and soul, for the worse; let him be anathema.

2. If any one asserts, that the prevarication of Adam injured himself alone, and not his posterity; and that the holiness and justice, received of God, which he lost, he lost for himself alone, and not for us also; or that he, being defiled by the sin of disobedience, has only transfused death, and pains of the body, into the whole human race, but not sin also, which is the death of the soul; let him be anathema:--whereas he contradicts the apostle who says; By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death, and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned.

3. If any one asserts, that this sin of Adam,--which in its origin is one, and being transfused into all by propogation, not by imitation, is in each one as his own, --is taken away either by the powers of human nature, or by any other remedy than the merit of the one mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath reconciled us to God in his own blood, made unto us justice, santification, and redemption; or if he denies that the said merit of Jesus Christ is applied, both to adults and to infants, by the sacrament of baptism rightly administered in the form of the church; let him be anathema: For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved. Whence that voice; Behold the lamb of God behold him who taketh away the sins of the world; and that other; As many as have been baptized, have put on Christ.

4. If any one denies, that infants, newly born from their mothers' wombs, even though they be sprung from baptized parents, are to be baptized; or says that they are baptized indeed for the remission of sins, but that they derive nothing of original sin from Adam, which has need of being expiated by the laver of regeneration for the obtaining life everlasting,--whence it follows as a consequence, that in them the form of baptism, for the remission of sins, is understood to be not true, but false, --let him be anathema. For that which the apostle has said, By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death, and so death passed upon all men in whom all have sinned, is not to be understood otherwise than as the Catholic Church spread everywhere hath always understood it. For, by reason of this rule of faith, from a tradition of the apostles, even infants, who could not as yet commit any sin of themselves, are for this cause truly baptized for the remission of sins, that in them that may be cleansed away by regeneration, which they have contracted by generation. For, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

5. If any one denies, that, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is conferred in baptism, the guilt of original sin is remitted; or even asserts that the whole of that which has the true and proper nature of sin is not taken away; but says that it is only rased, or not imputed; let him be anathema. For, in those who are born again, there is nothing that God hates; because, There is no condemnation to those who are truly buried together with Christ by baptism into death; who walk not according to the flesh, but, putting off the old man, and putting on the new who is created according to God, are made innocent, immaculate, pure, harmless, and beloved of God, heirs indeed of God, but joint heirs with Christ; so that there is nothing whatever to retard their entrance into heaven. But this holy synod confesses and is sensible, that in the baptized there remains concupiscence, or an incentive (to sin); which, whereas it is left for our exercise, cannot injure those who consent not, but resist manfully by the grace of Jesus Christ; yea, he who shall have striven lawfully shall be crowned. This concupiscence, which the apostle sometimes calls sin, the holy Synod declares that the Catholic Church has never understood it to be called sin, as being truly and properly sin in those born again, but because it is of sin, and inclines to sin.

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Pope Benedict XVI's 2007 Lenten Message

From the Vatican:

It is in the mystery of the Cross that the overwhelming power of the heavenly Father’s mercy is revealed in all of its fullness. In order to win back the love of His creature, He accepted to pay a very high price: the blood of His only begotten Son. Death, which for the first Adam was an extreme sign of loneliness and powerlessness, was thus transformed in the supreme act of love and freedom of the new Adam. One could very well assert, therefore, together with Saint Maximus the Confessor, that Christ “died, if one could say so, divinely, because He died freely” (Ambigua, 91, 1956). On the Cross, God’s eros for us is made manifest. Eros is indeed – as Pseudo-Dionysius expresses it – that force “that does not allow the lover to remain in himself but moves him to become one with the beloved” (De divinis nominibus, IV, 13: PG 3, 712). Is there more “mad eros” (N. Cabasilas, Vita in Cristo, 648) than that which led the Son of God to make Himself one with us even to the point of suffering as His own the consequences of our offences?

“Him whom they have pierced”

Dear brothers and sisters, let us look at Christ pierced in the Cross! He is the unsurpassing revelation of God’s love, a love in which eros and agape, far from being opposed, enlighten each other. On the Cross, it is God Himself who begs the love of His creature: He is thirsty for the love of every one of us. The Apostle Thomas recognized Jesus as “Lord and God” when he put his hand into the wound of His side. Not surprisingly, many of the saints found in the Heart of Jesus the deepest expression of this mystery of love. One could rightly say that the revelation of God’s eros toward man is, in reality, the supreme expression of His agape. In all truth, only the love that unites the free gift of oneself with the impassioned desire for reciprocity instills a joy, which eases the heaviest of burdens. Jesus said: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself” (Jn 12:32). The response the Lord ardently desires of us is above all that we welcome His love and allow ourselves to be drawn to Him. Accepting His love, however, is not enough. We need to respond to such love and devote ourselves to communicating it to others. Christ “draws me to Himself” in order to unite Himself to me, so that I learn to love the brothers with His own love.

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St. Valentine's Day

Today is St. Valentine's Day. Do read about the history of St. Valentine's Day from my post that I wrote last year.

Prayer:

O glorious advocate and protector, St Valentine, look with pity upon our wants, hear our requests, attend to our prayers, relieve by your intercession the miseries under which we labour, and obtain for us the divine blessing, that we may be found worthy to join you in praising the Almighty for all eternity: through the merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Why the Church must keep Priestly Celebacy

I am suggesting the following article: "Why the Church must continue to uphold priestly celibacy" by Fr. Pat Stratford.

As someone that is planning on embarking on that journey leading me to ordination, I can not publicly support mandatory priestly celebacy enough. Priestly celebacy is a necessary component of serving God completely. If a priest were allowed to marry, he would have a family and a parish - two vocations. The result would be that one would be primarily focused on, thereby neglecting the other. Celebacy is not meant to be easy, but it is meant to be a sacrifice endured for the greater glory of the Kingdom of Christ.

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Pope Benedict XVI on World Day of the Sick

This past Sunday, February 11, was the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes as well as World Day of the Sick. Here are some photos from the Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI for the World Day of the Sick:



Photo Sources: AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca

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