Saturday of Lazarus

Today in the Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church is commemorated one of their most important feastdays in the year: Lazarus Saturday. This feast commemorates the great miracle of our Lord when he raised Lazarus from the dead after Lazarus had already been in the grave for four days.

As Lent for the Eastern Catholics began a few days earlier than for Roman Catholics, Lazarus Saturday marks the end of Great Lent for them.  Holy Week is a separate week of penance and fasting for them outside of the Great Lent of forty days of fasting and penitence.

On Lazarus Saturday,  the Church bears witness to the power of Christ over death and exalts Him as King before entering the most solemn week of the year, one that leads the faithful in remembrance of His suffering and death and concludes with the great and glorious Feast of Easter.

The Roman Catholic Church also, while not calling it Lazarus Saturday, recalls this miracle today as well. The Gospel reading for the Saturday in Passion Week (the Saturday before Palm Sunday) is the story of the Resurrection of Lazarus.

During Friday vespers the reading of Genesis (which began on the first day of Great Lent) is concluded with the description of the death, burial and mourning of Jacob (Genesis 49:33-50:26) and on Friday night, at compline, a Canon on the Raising of Lazarus by Saint Andrew of Crete is sung; this is a rare full canon, having all nine canticles.

The scripture readings and hymns for this day focus on the raising of Lazarus as a foreshadowing of the Resurrection of Christ and a prefiguring of the General Resurrection. The Gospel narrative is interpreted in the hymns as illustrating the two natures of Christ: his humanity in asking, "Where have ye laid him?" (John 11:34), and his divinity by commanding Lazarus to come forth from the dead (John 11:43). A number of the hymns, written in the first or second person, relate Lazarus' death, entombment and burial bonds symbolically to the individual's sinful state. Many of the resurrectional hymns of the normal Sunday service are sung while prayers for the departed, prescribed on Sundays, are permitted. During the divine liturgy, the baptismal hymn, "As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Romans 6:3) replaces the Trisagion indicating that this had been a day on which baptisms were performed [2] and in some churches nowadays adult converts are still baptized on this day.

Lazarus Saturday is the day when, traditionally, hermits would leave their retreats in the wilderness to return to the monastery for the Holy Week services. Although the forty days of Great Lent end on Lazarus Friday, this day is still observed as a fast day; however, the fast is mitigated to allow consumption of caviar, eggs being a symbol of the resurrection and prominent on Pascha, and fish eggs being a shadow thereof show the raising of Lazarus as a foreshadowing of Christ's Resurrection, as elucidated in the propers of the day.

The antiquity of this commemoration is demonstrated by the homilies of St. John Chrysostom (349 - 407), St Augustine of Hippo Regia (354 - 430), and others. In the 7th and 8th centuries, special hymns and canons for the feast were written by St. Andrew of Crete, St. Cosmas of Maium and St. John Damascene, which are still sung to this day.

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Lazarakia

One common tradition throughout Greece for the Saturday of Lazarus is the baking of Lazarakia. Lazarakia is a spice bread used to remember the miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. It has many sweet spices in it and is Lenten, meaning it has no dairy or eggs in it. Lazarakia comes in the shape of a man (which is supposed to be Lazarus). There is a mouth and cloves for eyes. Unlike Tsoureki, Lazarakia is not brushed with egg or butter to give it a gloss finish (to not break the fast). One recipe can be found here. "If you don't make a Lazaro, you won't have your full of bread" (“Λάζαρο δεν πλάσεις, ψωμί δεν θα χορτάσεις”), is a saying among some Greeks. Lazarakia should look like the Lazarus in the icon of his resurrection, bound like a dead man with a shroud.

On the island of Kos girls who are engaged make a Lazaro the size of a small child, filled with countless goodies and embroidered almost like the coils of the wedding, to send to the groom. The "Lazaroudia" in many households are filled with ground walnuts, almonds, figs, raisins, honey, extra spices and children eat it hot.

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Requiem Aeternam: Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly

Aged 87, he died on April 9 in a San Diego hospital. Born in 1927, Cardinal Delly was ordained to the priesthood in 1952 and the episcopate in 1963. In October 2003 he was elected patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, and Pope Benedict XVI named him a cardinal in 2007.

May his soul rest in peace.  Requiem Aeternam.

De Profundis

Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice.
Let Your ears be attentive to my voice in supplication.
If You, O Lord, mark iniquities, Lord, who can stand?
But with You is forgiveness, that You may be revered.
I trust in the Lord; my soul trusts in His word.
My soul waits for the Lord more than sentinels wait for the dawn.
More than sentinels wait for the dawn, let Israel wait for the Lord,
For with the Lord is kindness and with Him is plenteous redemption;
And He will redeem Israel from all their iniquities.

Source: Vatican Radio

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10th Annivesary of My Baptism

Today, April 10th, is an important day in my life.  Today marks the 10th Anniversary of my Baptism at the Easter Vigil in 2004.  As I reflect on these past 10 years, I look back on the many successes and the many shortcomings in my Faith life.  I reflect on the nine years that A Catholic Life has been around and think of all of the people that I have met in the Faith along the way.  Truly the day of my Baptism was my rebirth and the start of a new life.  I would not be the person that I am today - by any stretch of the imagination - if April 10, 2004, did not happen.

We all should be thankful for our Baptism.  In a world that condemns God and rejects that which is holy, we have been called to holiness.  We are a people marked aside for God.  What would any of us be without the Faith?  Do we know our Baptism anniversaries and celebrate them each year?

Thank you for all of your support over these past 10 years.  I pray that I will be involved in strong Catholic education for many more years to come on A Catholic Life, CatechismClass.com, Holy Vocations, and the many other venues that God will put in front of me during my remaining years on this year.

Glory to Jesus Christ.  Glory to Him Forever.

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Reflection for Passion Sunday

This Sunday, called Judica from the first word of the Introit, is also called Passion Sunday, because from this day the Church occupies herself exclusively with the contemplation of the passion and death of Christ. The pictures of Christ crucified are covered today in memory of his having hidden Himself from the Jews until His entrance into Jerusalem, no longer showing Himself in public. (John XI. 54.) In the Mass the Glory be to the Father, etc. is omitted, because in the person of Christ the Holy Trinity was dishonored. The psalm Judica is not said today, because on this day the high priests held council about our Lord, for which reason the Church in the name of the suffering Saviour uses these words at the Introit.

Why did Christ ask the Jews, which of them should convince Him of sin?

To show us that he who would teach and punish others, should strive to be irreproachable himself; and to prove that He, being free from sin, was more than mere man, and therefore, the Messiah, the Son of God, as He repeatedly told the Jews, especially in this day's gospel, and substantiated by His great and numerous miracles.

Why did He say: He that is of God, heareth the words of God?

To prove that the Jews on account of their stubbornness and unbelief were not the children of God, but of the devil. "Therefore," St. Gregory says, "let every one when he hears the word of God, ask himself, of whom he is. Eternal truth demands that we be desirous of the heavenly fatherland, that we tame the desires of the flesh, be indifferent to the praises of the world, covet not our neighbor's goods, and give alms according to our means. Therefore examine yourself, and if you find in your heart this voice of God, then you will know that you are of God."

CONSOLATION UNDER CALUMNY

When Christ told the Jews the truth, He received insults and calumny; they called Him a Samaritan, that is, an unbeliever, a heretic, one possessed of a devil. This was a terrible slander, and it must have pained Him exceedingly, but at the same time it is a great consolation to those who are innocently calumniated, when they consider that Christ Himself received nothing better. St. Augustine consoles such by saying: "O friend, what is there that can happen to you that your Saviour did not suffer before you? Is it slander? He heard it, when He was called a glutton, a drunkard, a heretic, and a rebel, a companion of sinners, one possessed of a devil; He even heard, when casting out devils, that He did so by Beelzebub, prince of devils." (Matt. IX. 34.) He therefore comforts His apostles, saying, If they have called the good man of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household? (Matt, X. 25.) Are the pains bitter? There is no pain so bitter that He has not endured it; for what is. more painful, and at the same time more ignominious, than the death of the cross? For think, says St. Paul, diligently upon him who endured such opposition from sinners against himself: that you be not wearied (by all contempt and calumny), fainting in your minds. (Heb. XII. 3.)

How and why did Christ defend Himself against those who slandered Hate?

Only by denying with the greatest modesty the things with which they reproached Him, saying that He had not a devil, that He was not a Samaritan, because He honored His Father not in their manner, but in His own. In repelling this calumny while He left the rest unanswered, Christ removed all doubt in regard to His divine mission, thus vindicating the honor of God, and securing the salvation of man. Christ thus teaches us by His own conduct to defend ourselves only against those detractions and insults which endanger the honor of God and the salvation of man, and then to defend ourselves with all modesty; by no means however to do it, if they injure only our own good name, for we should leave the restoration of that to God, as exemplified by Christ, who knows better than we how to preserve and restore it.

How had Abraham seen Christ's day?

In spirit, that is, by. divine revelation he foresaw the coming of Christ and rejoiced; also, he heard, by revelation from God, with the other just in Limbo, that Christ's coming had taken place, and derived the greatest comfort from it.

Learn more here: Veiling of Sacred Images in Passiontide

Why did Christ conceal Himself from the Jews, instead of taking vengeance?

Because the time of His death had not come; because He would show His meekness and patience and teach us that we should avoid our enemies rather than resist them or take vengeance on them; Christ wished to instruct us to avoid passionate and quarrelsome people, for it is an honor for a man, to separate from quarrels: but all fools are meddling with reproaches. (Prov. XX. 3.)

PETITION  When Thine enemies calumniated Thee, most meek Jesus, Thou didst answer them with tender words, and when they were about to stone Thee, Thou didst depart from them, whilst we can scarcely bear a hard word, and far from yielding to our neighbor, defend and avenge ourselves most passionately. Ah! pardon us our impatience, and grant us the grace to bear patiently the wrongs done us, and when necessary, answer with gentleness for Thy glory and the salvation of our neighbor.

Source: "The Church's Year" by Fr Leonard Goffine (19th Century)

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Noah Movie: Masterwork of Global Indoctrination

The following is a guest article.  The Noah movie was directed by an atheist who has produced the least Biblically accurate movie ever put on the big screen.

Darren Aronofsy's "Noah" is a masterwork of demonic deception wherein the meek and just Noah is portrayed as a radical, foul-mouth barbarian who spearheads the cause of Antichrist. In a word, the point of the movie is to say that the world in Noah's time was punished because man didn't bow to the environment as a globalist pagan. There is absolutely no reference made whatsoever to sin or the fact that man offended God, but rather that man didn't bow to the planetary idol and its prince, Lucifer. Noah's sons in the movie are not even portrayed as having wives as they are in the Bible, which shouldn't seem queer. This too is part of global agenda. The author truly shows ignorance, since man's idolatrous union with the flesh and the planet was the reason God destroyed the world in Noah's time, just as He will unleash His wrath soon upon humanity for this same reason. Ignorant man refuses to learn from his past.

What is interesting is that during the initial showing of the movie in Los Angeles on March 28, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck the area and sent Apocalyptic chills down movie goers spines. But what is even more interesting is that the quake hit right during the climactic scene in the movie which depicts the end of the world. Was God trying to tell the people something? Can viewers not open their eyes and see that using the name of God and His servants to advance global agenda is blasphemy of the most depraved order?

Yea, the people better take cover because the end is coming quickly. Not the end of the world, but the end of time as we know it (Mt. 24:21). God will spare the just as in Noah's time, but the wicked will be destroyed because of their ingratitude manifested by their having "worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen." (Romans: 1:25)

Article by David Martin

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Recommended Book: Sacred Triduum Missal

A traditional missal for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of Holy Week according to the 1962 rubrics.

This book is very helpful if you do not have a 1958 or later missal which contains the revised rite of Holy Week of Pope Pius XII. Surprisingly, many people who do have the revised Holy Week in their missal, still like to use the Sacred Triduum Missal because the type is fairly large and the entire rite is laid out so that you do not have to flip back and forth.

This book contains the entire ceremonies for Holy Thursday evening, Good Friday's Solemn Liturgy and the Paschal Vigil with parallel Latin and English texts with rubrics in violet.

190 pages, softcover.  Order via Angelus Press.

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Pray for the Repose of the Soul of Fr. Ottonello

Father Ottonello 90th Birthday Mass May 24, 2013

Fr. Ottonello passed away yesterday, March 28th, at 1:00am this morning. May his soul rest in peace.

In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem. 

May angels lead you into paradise; upon your arrival, may the martyrs receive you and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem. May the ranks of angels receive you, and with Lazarus, once a poor man, may you have eternal rest.

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Indulged Prayer to the Cross for Fridays in Lent

Prayer to the Glorious Cross:

I adore You, O glorious Cross, which was adorned with the Heart and Body of my Savior Jesus Christ, stained and covered with blood. I adore You, O Holy Cross, out of love for Him, Jesus, who is my Savior and my God.

(Pope Pius IX declared that reciting this prayer five times on Friday will free five souls from Purgatory and 33 souls by reciting it on Good Friday. This prayer should be recited before a crucifix with a contrite heart and praying a few minutes for the Pope).

Prayer to Jesus Christ Crucified:

My good and dear Jesus, I kneel before you asking you most earnestly to engrave upon my heart a deep and lively faith, hope, and charity, with true repentance for my sins, and a firm resolve to make amends. As I reflect upon your five wounds, and dwell upon them with deep compassion and grief, I recall the words the prophet David spoke long ago concerning yourself: they have pierced my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones!

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Nativity Stones: Own a Piece of the Cave of Bethlehem

Nativity Stones Crosses are unique as we are the only ones selling a cross that contains a stone from the Cave of The Nativity in Bethlehem, the celebrated birth place of Jesus Christ. In the heart of each piece a one of a kind authentic Nativity Stone from one time excavation that took place in 1963.

I am pleased to say that I received my order last Sunday.  The item came in a beautiful package and after I took off the cover (see the photo below), it illustrated the beautiful cross necklace that features a piece of the Cave of Bethlehem.  Below it was a Booklet detailing the history and it also came with a rolled up letter of authenticity.

In year 2000 Nativity Stones were even honored with a plaque placed in the Vatican.  Each cross includes a numbered certificate of authenticity signed by the High Priest of the Church of the Nativity and a booklet telling the story.

To be able to hold next to our heart a piece of the Cave in which the Lord was born is truly priceless.

I would encourage all of you to check out their website and I happily endorse this.  They can be found at: http://www.nativitystonescollection.com/   Please feel free to use LIFE15 to save 15% on your order.

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23rd Anniversary of the Death of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre

Today's the 23rd anniversary of the passing of His Excellency Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre to his eternal reward.  Requiescat in pace, Monseigneur.

In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem.

May angels lead you into Paradise; may the martyrs receive you at your coming and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem. May a choir of angels receive you, and with Lazarus, who once was poor, may you have eternal rest.


"Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy" (John 16:20)

"In the spiritual reality of the church, neither Marcel Lefebvre, nor his bishops and priests, nor the people who frequent the SSPX chapels suffered or suffer excommunication. I believe history will record that the intent to impose such an excommunication was invalid and illicit." - Father Malachi Martin

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