Stational Church: Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Today's Stational Church is at St. Augustine. For information on this devotion, see the Stational Churches of Lent Homepage. I will post on each Stational Church for Lent. Information is from the Canon Regulars of St. John Cantius:

Pope Pasquale II (1099-1118) laid the relics of St. Tryphon to rest under the present church of St. Augustine.

Health of body and, above all, health of soul are precious gifts from God—gifts for which we must be grateful. The Church is particularly concerned about the health of our soul, the well being in us of the life of Christ. She knows our spiritual shortsightedness, she knows, the unsteadiness of our will, she knows the power of our passions, all of them—infirmities caused by Original Sin, as well as by our personal sins. She sees her children make resolutions and break them. She knows how often the fuller unfolding of the sacramental life is impeded because her sons and daughters are lacking in purity of intention and proper appreciation of God's gifts.

For that very reason she instituted this holy season as a time of great healing. Lent is God's hospital. Serious operations are to be performed during this time. And blessed are they who gladly submit to them. Vitia comprimis, mentem elevas—vices are to be curbed, spiritual cancers to be removed, the mind is to be renewed, elevated, so that, after our stay in His hospital, the same mind may be in us, which is also in Christ Jesus. We humbly implore our dual Saints to guide us to the Divine Physician, the Healer of our soul and body.

Let us pray: Be mindful, O Lord, of our supplications, and grant that we may keep with devout service this solemn fast, which thou has wholesomely ordained for the healing of our souls and bodies. Through Christ, Our Lord.
Amen.

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Coming Canonizations in 2007

An Ordinary Public Consistory was held by Pope Benedict XVI to announce the canonization on June 3, 2007 for the following Blesseds. The Brazilian priest will be canonized on May 11 when Pope Benedict XVI visits Brazil:

George Preca, priest and founder of the Societas Doctrinae Christianae

Szymon of Lipnica, priest of the Order of Friars Minor

Charles of St. Andrew, priest of the Congregation of the Passion

Antonio de Santa Ana, priest of the Order of Discalced Friars Minor and founder of the Convent of the Conceptionist Sisters "Recolhimento da luz."

Marie Eugenie de Jesus, founder of the Institute of the Sisters of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

Image Source: REUTERS/Osservatore Romano/Pool (VATICAN)

Sources:

United Press International
Argent by the Tiber

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Traditional Latin Mass at Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis

Update: Watch Video

Update: View the photos

As a supporter and defender of the Tridentine Latin Mass, I am extremely pleased to hear that a Tridentine Mass will be celebrated in the Cathedral Basilica.

On Wednesday, March 7, 2007 at 7 p.m., the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas according to the traditional calendar, the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest will offer Solemn High Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis.

This is a truly exciting event-- it will will be the first traditional Latin Mass publicly celebrated in the Archdiocesan Cathedral for at least 35 years. Deo gratias! All are welcome to attend.

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Thou, Art Dust...

At Ash Wednesday Mass I didn't hear the traditional "Remember, man dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return" when I received my ashes. Instead I heard the new, modern option: "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." I personally prefer the old, traditional method since Lent is an appropriate time to remind me of my coming death and a need to be prepared to die in grace. Today I found this excerpt and felt it would be appropriate to share:

A few years ago a deacon pal and I were discussing ashes. He was helping to distribute them for the first time in his parish and was trying to decide if he would use the old smudge-formula, “Remember you are dust and into dust you shall return,” or if he would forego that for the “new, improved, feel-good” formula, “Turn away from sin and believe the Gospel.”

I could only tell him that I didn’t need to be treated like a delicate flower with some benign advice about believing the Gospel. “If we’re Christians and we’re there receiving ashes, isn’t it pretty much a given that we’re already believing the Gospel? No, please, say it the old way - it’s a pithy reminder that we should ask ourselves - if we die tomorrow - have we been living our lives to right purpose? We hear nothing but happy platitudes about our specialness from the rest of the world (and too many lecterns) every single day. For this one day, let us face some cold, hard truth.”

He wrote me the other day that he remembered that conversation and that this year he will be reminding people that they are dust…I’m glad.

We need to hear it from time to time, that no matter what we do we’re going to die.

Ash Wednesday is a good time to take a look at how we’re living our lives, which are over quickly. Are we fully living the lives for which God loved us into being, or just treading water waiting for the next wave?

How are we managing our time and talents? Are we fully utilizing the gifts with which we (every one of us) were born? Are we sharing them, being generous with them?

What about the rest of our time - the few weeks or decades we have left? Maybe you haven’t murdered anyone this week, but have you been indulging in some so-called “innocent gossip” at work today? Is that what you were born for?

Have you been sitting at your computer for four hours tapping out one vile word after another in an unstoppable seizure of hate for anyone with whom you disagree? Is that the purpose for which you were begotten - loved into being?

Have you been slacking off at home, taking people for granted? Is that what you do with the love that has been given to you?

Seen in the light of eternity our lives are mere momentary blips, little flashes here and gone, noted only by the Eternal, who waits for our return, who says, “come back to me, with all your heart…” (Hosea 14:2-10).

Today, we acknowledge that we are finite, that we will not last, and that all of our fusses and furies won’t matter much, really, in the end. But our love - how much we have loved, or how little - that will define us, both in this life and the next.

In a world and an era where humility is for losers, we take a little time to let ourselves be humbled. And in that humility, we find some commonality, and perhaps inspiration to do better - to work on ourselves a bit - and to seek reconciliation where we can.

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Agnus Dei

"It was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, While we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; But the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all" (Isaiah 53:4-6).

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Telus will not sell pornography!

The second-largest phone company in Canada has reversed its earlier decision to begin selling pornography thought its mobile phone service after numerous customers, including the Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver, threatened to cancel their contracts.

"It was the type of feedback and the sincerity of it that caused us to reflect on the service and ultimately to withdraw it," Telus spokesman Jim Johannsson told Reuters in an interview.

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Stational Church: Friday after Ash Wednesday

Today's Stational Church is at Sts. John and Paul. For information on this devotion, see the Stational Churches of Lent Homepage. I will post on each Stational Church for Lent. Information is from the Canon Regulars of St. John Cantius:

The third Lenten Station takes us up to a high hill of ancient Rome—the Celian Hill, which stands in front of the Palatine and which dominates the valley of the Circus Maximus. The church was built upon the house where Saints John and Paul were martyred and buried. Martyred in the year 361, by Julian the Apostate, they were two imperial officers in Constantine's court. 

We celebrate the divine mysteries today in the light of the "two candelabras shining before the Lord," as the Church calls the two brothers John and Paul. There can be no fruitful lent without practical charity. Practical charity means that we must come to our brother's rescue sincerely, unselfishly and supernaturally. 

As children of the God of charity, let us so approach today's Eucharist that it may enkindle in us the spirit of true Christian charity, and thus to "be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect." 

Let us pray: Regard with Thy loving care, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the fast which we have begun; that the abstinence, which we keep with our body may be exercised with sincerity of mind. We ask this Through Christ, Our Lord.
Amen.

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It is Lent!

No Lent is worthy of the name without a personal effort of self-reformation, of leading a life more in accordance with God's commands and an attempt by some kind of voluntary self-denial to make reparation for past negligence. But the Church, together with the personal effort which she requires of all of us, her children, sets up in the sight of God the cross of Christ, the Lamb of God who took upon Himself the sins of man and who is the price of our redemption. As Holy Week approaches the thought of the passion becomes increasingly predominant until it occupies our whole attention, but from the very beginning of Lent it is present, for it is in union with the sufferings of Christ that the whole army of Christians begins on the holy "forty days", setting out for Easter with the glad certitude of sharing in His resurrection.

"Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation." The Church puts Lent before us in the very same terms that formerly she put it before the catechumens and public penitents who were preparing for the Easter graces of baptism and sacramental reconciliation. For us, as it was for them, Lent should be a long retreat, one in which under the guidance of the Church we are led to the practice of a more perfect Christian life. She shows us the example of Christ and by fasting and penance associates us with his sufferings that we may have a share in His redemption.

We should remember that Lent is not an isolated personal affair of our own. The Church avails herself of the whole of the mystery of redemption. We belong to an immense concourse, a great body in which we are united to the whole of humanity which has been redeemed by Christ. The liturgy of this season does not fail to remind us of it.

This, then, is the meaning of Lent for us: a season of deepening spirituality in union with the whole Church which thus prepares to celebrate the Paschal mystery. Each year, following Christ its Head, the whole Christian people takes up with renewed effort its struggle against evil, against Satan and the sinful man that each one of us bears within himself, in order at Easter to draw new life from the very springs of divine life and to continue its progress towards heaven.

Source: St. Andrew Daily Missal

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The Primacy of St. Peter

~by Pope St. Leo the Great

Out of the whole world one man, Peter, is chosen to preside at the calling of all nations, and to be set over all the apostles and all the fathers of the Church. Though there are in God’s people many shepherds, Peter is thus appointed to rule in his own person those whom Christ also rules as the original ruler. Beloved, how great and wonderful is this sharing of his power that God in his goodness has given to this man. Whatever Christ has willed to be shared in common by Peter and the other leaders of the Church, it is only through Peter that he has given to others what he has not refused to bestow on them.

The Lord now asks the apostles as a whole what men think of him. As long as they are recounting the uncertainty born of human ignorance, their reply is always the same.

But when he presses the disciples to say what they think themselves, the first to confess his faith in the Lord is the one who is first in rank among the apostles.

Peter says: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”. Jesus replies: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven”. You are blessed, he means, because my Father has taught you. You have not been deceived by earthly opinion, but have been enlightened by inspiration from heaven. It was not flesh and blood that pointed me out to you, but the one whose only-begotten Son I am.

He continues: And I say to you. In other words, as my Father has revealed to you my godhead, so I in my turn make known to you your pre-eminence. You are Peter: though I am the inviolable rock, the cornerstone that makes both one, the foundation apart from which no one can lay any other, yet you also are a rock, for you are given solidity by my strength, so that which is my very own because of my power is common between us through your participation.

And upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. On this strong foundation, he says, I will build an everlasting temple. The great height of my Church, which is to penetrate the heavens, shall rise on the firm foundation of this faith.

The gates of hell shall not silence this confession of faith; the chains of death shall not bind it. Its words are the words of life. As they lift up to heaven those who profess them, so they send down to hell those who contradict them.

Blessed Peter is therefore told: To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth is also bound in heaven. Whatever you lose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven.

The authority vested in this power passed also to the other apostles, and the institution established by this decree has been continued in all the leaders of the Church. But it is not without good reason that what is bestowed on all is entrusted to one. For Peter received it separately in trust because he is the prototype set before all the rulers of the Church.

Image: Pope St. Leo the Great confronts Atilla the Hun

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Feast of the Chair of St. Peter

Image: St. Peter's Basilica (c) 2016 by A Catholic Life Blog.

Greater Double (1954 Calendar): January 18
Feast (1969 Calendar): February 22

Today the universal Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, which recalls the primacy of the apostle Peter. Indeed, in the Gospel, Jesus Christ gave the keys of Heaven and Hell to St. Peter, the first pope (See Primacy of St. Peter).

Traditionally January 18th is the Feast of St. Peter's Chair at Rome and Feb 22 is St. Peter's Chair at Antioch. Pope Paul IV in 1558 instituted this Feast on January 18th in order to confound the errors of the protestants who sought to discredit that St. Peter actually lived and died in Rome. The two feasts were included in the Tridentine Calendar with the rank of Double, which Pope Clement VIII raised in 1604 to the newly invented rank of Greater Double. 

In 1960 Pope John XXIII removed from the General Roman Calendar the January 18th feast of the Chair of Peter, along with seven other feast days that were second feasts of a single saint or mystery. The February 22 celebration became a Second-Class Feast. This calendar was incorporated in the 1962 Roman Missal. For those Catholics who follow the pre-1955 Missal and Office, they will keep today's Feast of St. Peter's Chair at Rome.

Note: Today is the day to begin the Prayers for the Octave of Christian Unity

Collect:

O God, Who by delivering to Thy blessed Apostle Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven, didst confer upon him the pontifical power of binding and of loosing, grant that, by the help of his intercession, we may be freed from the bonds of sin: Who livest and reignest.

Commemoration of St. Paul is made whenever St. Peter is mentioned:

O God, you have instructed many nations through the preaching of the blessed apostle Paul. Let the power of his intercession with You help us who venerate his memory this day.

The Primacy of St. Peter by Pope St. Leo the Great:

Out of the whole world one man, Peter, is chosen to preside at the calling of all nations, and to be set over all the apostles and all the fathers of the Church. Though there are in God’s people many shepherds, Peter is thus appointed to rule in his own person those whom Christ also rules as the original ruler. Beloved, how great and wonderful is this sharing of his power that God in his goodness has given to this man. Whatever Christ has willed to be shared in common by Peter and the other leaders of the Church, it is only through Peter that he has given to others what he has not refused to bestow on them.

The Lord now asks the apostles as a whole what men think of him. As long as they are recounting the uncertainty born of human ignorance, their reply is always the same.

But when he presses the disciples to say what they think themselves, the first to confess his faith in the Lord is the one who is first in rank among the apostles.

Peter says: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”. Jesus replies: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven”. You are blessed, he means, because my Father has taught you. You have not been deceived by earthly opinion, but have been enlightened by inspiration from heaven. It was not flesh and blood that pointed me out to you, but the one whose only-begotten Son I am.

He continues: And I say to you. In other words, as my Father has revealed to you my godhead, so I in my turn make known to you your pre-eminence. You are Peter: though I am the inviolable rock, the cornerstone that makes both one, the foundation apart from which no one can lay any other, yet you also are a rock, for you are given solidity by my strength, so that which is my very own because of my power is common between us through your participation.

And upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. On this strong foundation, he says, I will build an everlasting temple. The great height of my Church, which is to penetrate the heavens, shall rise on the firm foundation of this faith.

The gates of hell shall not silence this confession of faith; the chains of death shall not bind it. Its words are the words of life. As they lift up to heaven those who profess them, so they send down to hell those who contradict them.

Blessed Peter is therefore told: To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth is also bound in heaven. Whatever you lose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven.

The authority vested in this power passed also to the other apostles, and the institution established by this decree has been continued in all the leaders of the Church. But it is not without good reason that what is bestowed on all is entrusted to one. For Peter received it separately in trust because he is the prototype set before all the rulers of the Church.

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