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THURSDAY IN THE FIFTH (PASSION) WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Apollinaris There are actually two stational churches indicated for today. The first Lenten Station was established by Pope Gregory II (715-731) in the Church of St. Apollinaris and the second established by Pope Pius IX (1846-1878) with apostolic privilege in the Church of St. Mary the New in the Roman Forum as a closing for a Holy Year of Redemption. A week from today we shall begin the Pascal Mysteries. The truer the sorrow for our sins and the greater the realization of the need of God's grace, the more fruitful...

WEDNESDAY IN THE FIFTH (PASSION) WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Marcellus A patient sufferer, condemned by his enemies to work in a horse-stable, the good shepherd, Pope Marcellus, is our leader today to the King of Martyrs, Christ, our Good Shepherd. Why must a human being suffer, physically, spiritually, or both? This has always been and ever will be, the great problem—indeed a problem and a riddle for the worldly individual, but not for the follower of Christ, who finds the answer at the foot of the Cross. For the Christ-loving soul, there is no suffering for suffering sake, there is...

TUESDAY IN THE FIFTH (PASSION) WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Cyriacus The Sacred Texts, which like a garland, surround the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice and the Divine Office must not only be understood in their literal and historical sense, but above all in their liturgical one. This is always the case, but especially during Passiontide. The Divine Head, who nineteen centuries ago underwent the great Passion is now undergoing it in His Body, the Church. An attack on the Church is an attack on Christ. Whenever the Church suffers, her Divine head suffers. But all these sufferings lead to victory....

MONDAY IN THE FIFTH (PASSION) WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Chrysogonus We are branches of Christ, the Vine. As such, we share in His life, share in His joys, and must share also in His sufferings, and thus—as the Apostle so boldly put it—make up in our own body what is yet wanting in the sufferings of Christ, the Head. This we shall do gladly in these holy Passion days. Our mortifications, our self-discipline, our temptations, our trials from within and from without, all our sufferings, we will unite with Christ's Blessed Passion. They will then be lifted out of their...

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT PASSION SUNDAY Station—St. Peter in the Vatican Passion Sunday! The Cross of Christ is veiled, so that we may seek it, and Him who died on it, all the more. The holiest season of the year is at hand, so holy, that "all other seasons of the year prepare us for keeping this one duly and worthily. These present days call for special fidelity seeing that they bring us so near to that sublime mystery of the Divine Mercy, the blessed Passion of Jesus Christ." (from the Divine Office) With an open mind and a willing...

SATURDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Nicholas in Carcere This Station is at a church built on the ruins of three pagan temples and consecrated to St. Nicholas. It is called in carcere because in ancient times it had been a dungeon—a prison devoid of light. Water, food and light are indispensable for the maintenance and up-building of our natural life. Sacred Water, Sacred Food and Sacred Light are indispensable for the maintenance and up-building of our supernatural life. 1. "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he can not enter into the...

FRIDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Eusebius The Roman Martyr-Priest, Eusebius, whom the Arian Emperor Constantius II had imprisoned for seven months in the priest's own home so that he might slowly starve to death, is today our leader to the blessed Christ for whose Divinity Eusebius died and won eternal life. Two weeks from today, we shall celebrate the Lord's life-giving death—the source of our resurrection and life. Christ's death is the Sacrament of all sacraments. All the Christian mysteries flow from this main-spring: "the mystery of new life" "out of water and the Holy Spirit;" restoring...

THURSDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT Station—Sts. Sylvester and Martin Near this church the penitents used to pass through one of the most infamous of places, near the crossroads of Mercury and the Serbian walls, where there was the merulana necropolis (cemetery). That was where pagan Rome left the bodies of slaves and criminals to rot in the open, until the Christians built a chapel with the aim of venerating the Christian martyrs. Two weeks from today, the Church will celebrate the mystery of the living and life-giving Bread, the first source of life and health. "For he that...

WEDNESDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Paul Outside the Walls At one time, a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Paul in this Lenten penitential procession took on an exceptional character in view of the riches of doctrinal teaching, which has come down to us from the Apostle to the Gentiles. For this reason, it used to happen, that in this particular Lenten Station, the Pope carried out a "third scrutiny" for the baptismal candidates—that is, for those catechumens, who wanted to be baptized in water. In this church, at the tomb of this great convert-exemplar, the catechumens,...

TUESDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Lawrence in Damaso We celebrate the holy mysteries in spirit in the church of St. Lawrence in Damaso, built by the "poet-Pope" and "lover of the catacombs," St. Damasus, whose remains rest in this venerable edifice Mother Church points today to two leaders: Moses and Christ—figure and fulfillment. Both of them were unappreciated by their flock. Both of them were unmoved in their consecration to God and their holy calling. Their people were superficial, proud and selfish, while they, the leaders, were filled with the spirit of prayer, humility and the love...

MONDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT Station—The Four Crowned Martyrs 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...

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT Station—Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem 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...

SATURDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Susanna 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...

FRIDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Lawrence in Lucina 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...

THURSDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT Station—Sts. Cosmas and Damian 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. 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...

WEDNESDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Sixtus 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...

TUESDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Prudentiana 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,...

MONDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Mark's In the historic center of the city, near Piazza Venezia, stands the elegant basilica of St. Mark. St. Mark had a very important role in the evangelization work in the Rome of his time, and after the death of the Apostles, it was in this city that he wrote the Gospel of Mark. The more sincerely we enter into each Lenten day, the more perfectly will the Holy Eucharist transform us and the more pleasing to God will be our Lenten efforts. Our spiritual life will take on a freshness, like...

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT Station—St. Lawrence Outside the Walls The stational Mass brings us to another basilica, St. Lawrence Outside the Walls, erected by the Emperor Constantine in the year 330. As the basilica is near the Verano cemetery and above ancient catacombs, where the bodies of the martyred St. Lawrence, St. Stephen and St. Justin were laid to rest, the penitential character of the Lenten Station takes on particular significance. On this day, the catechumens of old were taken to the tomb of St. Lawrence, the illustrious deacon whose "eyes were ever towards the Lord." Today, they had to...

SATURDAY IN THE SECOND WEEK OF LENT Station—Sts. Marcellinus & Peter This Station is in the basilica founded by St. Helen on the Via Lavicana, in which were buried the bodies of St. Marcellinus, priest, and St. Peter, exorcist, martyred at Tome during the Diocletian persecution. Their names are mentioned in the Roman Canon of the Mass. May today's stational saints, not brothers in the flesh, but in spirit, obtain for us the gift of gratitude both for our holy calling—God's free gift—as well as for the grace of conversion, our homecoming to the Father. For the remainder of our...