Posted on 02/08/2005 10:05:59 PM PST by Salvation
Tuesday, Fifth Week of Lent |
Because He spoke this way, many came to believe in Him. (John 8:30)
Lenten Fact. When the Moslem Turks blocked the access to the Holy Land, reproductions of the Stations of the Cross were erected at popular spiritual centers, including the Dominican Friary at Cordova and Poor Clare Convent of Messina (early 1400s); Nuremberg (1468); Louvain (1505); Bamberg, Fribourg and Rhodes (1507); and Antwerp 1520). Many of these stations were reproduced by renowned artists and are considered masterpieces today. |
Wednesday, Fifth Week of Lent |
"If you live according to my teaching, you are truly my disciples." (John 8:31)
Lenten Fact. St. Leonard Casanova (1676-1751) of Porto Maurizio, Italy, reportedly erected over 600 sets of the Stations of the Cross throughout Italy. |
Thursday, Fifth Week of Lent |
"I solemnly assure you, if a man is true to my word he shall never see death." (John 8:51)
Lenten Fact. In the early 3rd century, Lent was lengthened to 6 days. About 800 AD it was changed to 40 days.
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Friday, Fifth Week of Lent Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence. |
Lord of hosts, you who test the just, who probe mind and heart...to you I have entrusted my cause. (Jeremiah 20:12)
Lenten Fact. Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, being seized with a malady which rendered it dangerous to his health to take Lenten diet, applied, in the year 1297, to Pope Boniface VIII., for leave to eat meat. The Pontiff commissioned two Cistercian abbots to inquire into the real state of the prince's health; they were to grant the dispensation sought for, if they found it necessary, but on the following conditions: that the king had not bound himself by a vow, for life, to fast during Lent; that the Fridays, the Saturdays, and the vigil of St. Mathias, were to be excluded from the dispensation; and, lastly, that the king was not to take his meal in presence of others, and was to observe moderation in what he took. |
Saturday, Fifth Week of Lent |
Jesus would die for the nationand not for this nation only, but to gather into one all the dispersed children of God. (John 11:51-52)
Lenten Question Q: Why do we fast and abstain during Lent?
Whoever does not renounce all that he has, cannot be my disciple. The Christian must take up his Cross daily and follow Christ. Walk in the spirit and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. St. Paul says, those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If you live according to the flesh, you will die. Whoever seeks to lose his life, will gain it. Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Many live as enemies of the Cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly. And their glory is their shame, with minds set on earthly things. If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. You have died and your life is hid with Christ in God. Enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. |
Passion (Palm) Sunday |
They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks across its back, and he sat on it. (Mark 11:7) Reflection. Lenten Fact According to the account of a fifth-century Spanish pilgrim to the Holy Land, Passion Sunday Mass was celebrated in Jerusalem at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. After this the people were invited to meet again in the afternoon at the Mount of Olives, in the Church of Eleona (the grotto of the Our Father). They then proceeded to the Church of the Ascension for a service consisting of hymns and antiphons, readings and prayers, where at five o'clock in the afternoon the Gospel of the palms was read and the procession set out for the city. The people responded to the antiphons with the acclamation, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," as we say even today. |
Monday of Holy Week |
Then she dried his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the ointments fragrance. (John 12:3) Reflection.
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Tuesday of Holy Week |
"I tell you solemnly, one of you will betray me!" (John 13:21) Reflection.
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Wednesday of Holy Week |
I looked for sympathy, but there was none; for comforters, and I found none. (Psalm 69:21) Reflection. My mom has prayed the daily rosary for as long as I can remember. We used to say it together as a family. At home, she always used a large wooden rosary she had owned for many years. The count of "Hail Marys" through five mysteries everyday was always accurate except for the third decade. Here, as my mom fingered the last "Hail Mary" bead, Sam would always say one more "Hail Mary" and naturally everyone would give the "Holy Mary" response. "There he goes again," she'd think to herself as he began the "extra" prayer. "Why does he always say eleven 'Ave Marias' in the third decade?" That pattern continued for several years until one day when my mom left her purse in the car and had to borrow a pair of rosaries from the lady sitting next to her. Lo and behold, this time when my mom fingered the final "Hail Mary" bead of the third decade, Sam dutifully followed with the "Glory Be." This prompted my mom to do something she otherwise wouldn't have thought of: to check the rosary beads in her purse - that set only contained nine beads in the third decade!
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Thursday of Holy Week |
"But if I washed your feet...then you must wash each others feet." (John 13:14) Reflection.
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Friday of Holy Week Good Friday Fast & Abstinence Today |
Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured. (Isaiah 53:4) Reflection.
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Saturday of Holy Week |
"He has been raised up; he is not here." (Mark 16:6) Reflection. THE CROSS The cross is the hope of Christians
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Easter Sunday |
Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining. (Sequence of Easter Sunday)
On Easter Sunday, the Church is recollected in contemplation of the risen Christ. Thus she relives the primordial experience that lies at the basis of her existence. She feels imbued with the same wonder as Mary Magdalen and the other women who went to Christ's tomb on Easter morning and found it empty. That tomb became the womb of life. Whoever had condemned Jesus, deceived himself that he had buried his cause under an ice-cold tombstone. The disciples themselves gave into the feeling of irreparable failure. We understand their surprise, then, and even their distrust in the news of the empty tomb. But the Risen One did not delay in making himself seen and they yielded to reality. They saw and believed! Two thousand years later, we still sense the unspeakable emotion that overcame them when they heard the Master's greeting: "Peace be with you.'"....
After the Easter season the candle should be kept with honor in the baptistry, so that in the celebration of Baptism the candles of the baptized may be lit from them. In the celebration of funerals, the paschal candle should be place near the coffin to indicate that the death of a Christian is his own passover. The paschal candle should not otherwise be lit nor placed in the sanctuary outside the Easter season. |
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