I ask for your prayers for the repose of the soul of Fr. Daniel Johnson. It is a righteous act to pray for the dead, and I ask prayers for this priest. He was a holy, traditional priest, who held to the enduring Traditions of the Holy Catholic Church. 
The Station is on Mount Caelius, in a church erected in the seventh century in honor of four officers of the Roman army, who having refused to adore a statue of Aesculapius, received the crown of martyrdom. These were the "Four Crowned Ones," whose relics are venerated in this sanctuary together with the head of St. Sebastian, an officer of the army of Diocletian.
Under the leadership of the Four Crowned Martyrs let us celebrate the divine Sacrifice. May the Eucharistic Action "refresh us and defend us," as it refreshed these great athletes and filled them with heavenly fortitude to go forth to make the supreme sacrifice for a true ideal, for their faith, for Christ, the King of Martyrs.
Let us pray: Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that as we keep with devotion year by year this holy fast, we may please Thee both in body and soul. Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
Today, according to the 1969 and Traditional Calendars, is the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. See my post from last year for more information on today's Solemnity.
In the year 320, Constantine placed here the relics of the Holy Cross, which his mother, St. Helen, had brought to Rome from the Holy Land. Also, there is soil brought from Calvary, placed under the floor of the Chapel of the Holy Cross. Today, in the Church of Calvary at Rome—that is of the Cross—our hope, the Church, sends a ray of light upon our souls to stir us up to persevere in the struggle against the world, the flesh and the devil, until the great feast of Easter is reached.On this day, it was the custom to solemnly bless the "golden rose," which was then presented by the Holy Father to a Catholic, who was zealous and outstanding in the Faith.
"Rejoice, rejoice with joy," we are told in the Introit, for having died to sin with our Lord during Lent, we are shortly to rise with him by the Paschal Confession and Communion.
Our whole life is a texture of sorrows and joys. Good Fridays and Easters accompany us on our journey to the land of perennial Easter. But as there is no Good Friday without the assurance that "by the wood of the Cross joy has come into the whole world," so in the soul of a true Christian there is no sorrow without the joy that will come from living faith, strong hope and sincere love. It is a joy ever sustained and increased by that wonderful Bread, which Christ's loving hand multiplies for us in this desert of life.
By the wood of this Cross joy has come into the world and into your heart, also. Lætare Sunday, Jerusalem! Endure the thorns of life courageously. Supernaturalize them.
Today's liturgy places before us three women—one in the white garment of virginity, the other in the blue mantle of chastity and the third in the purple robe of penitence. The first shows the triumph of Christ's redemption, the second, the power of faith in the coming Messiah, the third, the compassion of the Good Shepherd, who came to seek what was lost.
The first is today's stational guide—St. Susanna, to whom the vow of virginity and consecration to Christ, the royal Bridegroom, meant more than the princely hand of the unprincely Galerius Maximianus. She refused his hand in marriage and was put to death.
The other Susanna is the chaste wife of Joachim living in Babylon in the days of Daniel, the prophet. Two adulterous men, ever to be remembered as a disgrace to manhood, two judges, who perverted justice and drowned their manly honor in the pool of perjury, were this pure women's adversaries. But Susanna prefers to be a victim of the hellish vengeance of her accusers than sin against her God.
And now the third one—the woman caught in adultery. She lost her virginity, her chastity, and has broken fidelity to her marriage vows. "she must be stoned," was the cry. She was an outcast in the eyes of her merciless accusers, who themselves were whitened sepulchers inwardly full of worms. Jesus, the new Daniel, came to her rescue. He condemned her sin, but raised her from an erring sheep to a penitential follower. "Has no one condemned you, woman? No one, Sir. Neither will I condemn you. Now sin no more."
Let us pray: Extend to Thy faithful the right hand of heavenly help, that they may seek Thee with their whole hearts and deserve to obtain what they ask for worthily. Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
I had to post this beautiful image from a Tridentine Christmas Mass that I found on an online message board.
For the second time this week, the chaste Deacon Lawrence is our processional leader to the Savior of the world. Last Sunday, we knelt at his tomb and heard his encouraging words: "walk as children of the light …"
Today, we are making our pilgrimage to the church containing a large portion of the gridiron on which this holy Deacon made his last and most perfect oblation to God.
It was during the forty years passed in the desert that Moses and Aaron asked God to bring from the rock - a figure of Christ - "a spring of living water," so that all the people could quench their thirst. During these forty days of Lent, the Church asks Christ to give us the living water about which he spoke to the woman of Samaria near Jacob's well-the water, which quenches our thirst forever. This water is our faith in Jesus. It is grace. It is the blood, which flows from the wounds of the Savior, and which through baptism, penance and the other sacraments, purifies our souls, and gushes forth into eternal life, of which it assures us a share.
Let us pray: Show me, O Lord, a toke for good; that they, who hate me may see and be confounded because Thou, O Lord, hast helped me and hast comforted me. Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
Half of the people of the Czech Republic do not believe in God, according to a new survey.
The poll by the STEM research organization found that 50% of the country’s people reject belief in God, while 26% believe and the remaining 24% profess uncertainty.
Source: Catholic World News
This church, made from two pagan temples, holds the bodies of the holy martyrs, Cosmas and Damian, who were put to death during the Diocletian persecution. The sick came in crowds to visit the tomb of these two brothers, doctors by profession, imploring them to restore their health.What is fascinating is that the Collect Prayer or today's Lenten feria Mass mentions the station of Ss. Cosmas and Damian. There is only one other occasion, Sexagesima Sunday at St Paul Outside-the-Walls, on which the Collect mentions the Saint at whose church the station is held, even though it is not the feast of that Saint.
The "unsalaried" physicians, Cosmas and Damian, devoted time and talents to the service of the poor and the sick, so that, by curing the infirmities of the body without renumeration, they might more easily win immortal souls for Christ.
Today, the Divine Physician will again come and refresh you. He carries with him the divine antidote, the Eucharistic medicine for the healing of our infirmities.
Let us pray: May the blessed solemnity of Thy saints, Cosmas and Damian, magnify Thee, O Lord, by which Thou hast both granted eternal glory to them and assistance to us by Thy ineffable providence. Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
At Rome, the Station is at the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian, in the forum. The Christians of the middle ages (as we learn from Durandus, in his Rational of the Divine Offices) were under the impression that this Station was chosen because these two saints were, by profession, physicians. The Church, according to this explanation, would not only offer up her prayers of this day for the souls, but also for the bodies of her children: she would draw down upon them—fatigued as she knew they must be by their observance of abstinence and fasting—the protection of these holy martyrs, who, whilst on earth, devoted their medical skill to relieving the corporal ailments of their brethren. The remarks made by the learned liturgiologist Gavantus, in reference to this interpretation, lead us to conclude that, although it may possibly not give us the real motive of the Church’s selecting this Station, yet it is not to be rejected. It will, at least, suggest to the faithful to recommend themselves to these saints, and to ask of God, through their intercession, that they may have the necessary courage and strength for persevering to the end of the holy season in what they have, so far, faithfully observed.
I have just updated my page entitled What's wrong with Martin Luther? by adding a link to a papal document concerning his heretical errors. I strongly suggest all Catholics read Exsurge Domine by Pope Leo X, which was issued on June 15, 1520.
The St. Sixtus Stational Church is located on the Appian Way and is a parish church dating to the fifth century. It was in this church that the catechumens were presented to the Church by their sponsors. Their names were written on tablets of ivory covered in leather, which were read at the Commemoration of the Living. After the Collect of the Mass, the catechumens received the initial parts of the Baptismal ceremony, viz. the rites of exsufflation, of the sign of the cross, of the imposition of hands and that of the salt.
In an age, which makes light of God's commandments, it is of special importance that the faithful be uncompromising in the observance of the "ways of life." Let us be "the salt of the earth and the light of the world," as our holy leader Sixtus was in the third century. We invite this holy pontiff to precede us to the altar and to ask for us "that we, who seek the grace of God's protection, may serve Him with a quiet mind.
Let us pray: Grant us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that disciplined by wholesome fasting, and abstaining from all vices, we may more easily gain forgiveness. Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
I have been blogging about the recent Tridentine Mass celebrated in St. Louis, Missouri, and I am now truly pleased to announce that parts of the Mass were filmed. It can be watched on Youtube.
The church of St. Prudentiana, on the Viminal Hill, was one of the most venerated places for Roman Christians. St. Prudentiana lived here with her sister, St. Praxedes. Here, St. Peter received hospitality and the first Christians often assembled. Today, this church stands rather forgotten because it was closed for a very long time.
We turn to St. Prudentiana on this day. May she obtain for us by her powerful prayers:
1. The grace of mutual forgiveness, so that we may be able to say in truth: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us"—Not seven times, but seventy times seven.
2. The grace also of true love for our glorious Lord and for each other. Prudentiana shows us the way. Where charity and love reign, there is God. Christ will then be in our midst. And He shall be the Savior, Lord and King of our hearts and our home.
Let us pray: May the effect of our redemption be applied unto us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, by means of your grace, ever restraining us from human excesses and conducting us to the gift of salvation. Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS is available at last on the Vatican's website! Update: The Vatican has released a better of the English version. The post has been updated to reflect those changes.None of the above observations should cast doubt upon the importance of such large-scale liturgies. I am thinking here particularly of celebrations at international gatherings, which nowadays are held with greater frequency. The most should be made of these occasions. In order to express more clearly the unity and universality of the Church, I wish to endorse the proposal made by the Synod of Bishops, in harmony with the directives of the Second Vatican Council, (182) that, with the exception of the readings, the homily and the prayer of the faithful, it is fitting that such liturgies be celebrated in Latin. Similarly, the better-known prayers (183) of the Church's tradition should be recited in Latin and, if possible, selections of Gregorian chant should be sung.
Speaking more generally, I ask that future priests, from their time in the seminary, receive the preparation needed to understand and to celebrate Mass in Latin, and also to use Latin texts and execute Gregorian chant; nor should we forget that the faithful can be taught to recite the more common prayers in Latin, and also to sing parts of the liturgy to Gregorian chant. (184)(Sacramentum Caritatis, 62)
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In continuity with the great ecclesial tradition, with the Second Vatican Council (76) and with my predecessors in the papacy, (77) I reaffirm the beauty and the importance of a priestly life lived in celibacy as a sign expressing total and exclusive devotion to Christ, to the Church and to the Kingdom of God, and I therefore confirm that it remains obligatory in the Latin tradition. Priestly celibacy lived with maturity, joy and dedication is an immense blessing for the Church and for society itself. (Sacramentum Caritatis, 24)
Note: Fr. John Zuhlsdorf discusses a poor translation in paragraph 23.
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