St. John Cantius Parish

Mother’s Day Triduum Mass III with Special Blessing

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May. 13, 7:30 pm

The third and final Mass of the Mother's Day Triduum honoring our mothers and grandmothers with a special blessing given by Fr. Frank Phillips, C.R. on our mothers and grandmothers.

Mother’s Day Triduum Mass II

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May. 12, 7:30 pm  -  Feast of Our Lady of Fatima

The second Mass of the Mother's Day Triduum honoring our mothers and grandmothers. Mass is offered at 7:30 p.m.

Mother’s Day Triduum Mass I

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May. 11, 7:30 pm

The first Mass of the Mother's Day Triduum honoring our mothers and grandmothers.

Station - St. John Lateran

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Apr. 18, 2:00 am

SATURDAY IN EASTER WEEK
STATION – ST. JOHN LATERAN

In the Lateran Basilica, “head and mother of all the churches of the city and the world,” we began the Paschal solemnities; in this basilica we also conclude them. Today our Most Holy Savior gathers us together for a farewell celebration, desirous to write on our hearts the high dignity that is ours, but also the tremendous responsibility we have as branches in vital union with Christ, the Vine.

The design above illustrates the thoughts for today’s meditation. Upon the tomb are the linens, signs of Christ’s resurrection; they also remind us of the baptism robes put aside today by the neophytes, signs of their spiritual resurrection. Participants in the solemn celebration are Peter, Paul, John the Baptist (Stational church) and John the Evangelist; the two Johns carry a baptismal robe and a lamp. The Lamb with palm and milk pitcher represents the holy Eucharist, means by which the neophytes “put on Christ.” The lamb stands on the Cornerstone referred to in Sacred Scripture.

Through the mouth of St. Peter, whom Christ appointed shepherd and watchman over His flock he tells us:

Remember your Christian dignity, that you are living stones, set on the Supreme Cornerstone, Christ. Remember that you are a chosen generation, the adopted sons and daughters of God. Remember your royal priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices daily. Remember that you were purchased with the Lord’s most precious Blood.

St. Peter also reminds us of our responsibilities as followers of Christ. As living stones you must never, depart from the Chief Cornerstone. As a chosen generation you must by a truly Christian life declare the virtues of your God. As a royal priesthood you must make the Eucharistic Sacrifice the center and source of your words and deeds. Finally, as a purchased people you must keep away from the works of darkness and walk in Christ’s marvelous Easter light.

Grant us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, ever to rejoice in these Paschal mysteries, that the continued work of our redemption may be to us a source of perpetual joy. Amen.

And so today we conclude our Paschal Pilgrimage, our dying and rising with Christ. May these meditations restore you to full vigor in the Risen Christ and may these Fifty Days of Paschal Glory fill you with joy.

Station - St. Mary of the Martyrs (The Pantheon)

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Apr. 17, 2:00 am

FRIDAY OF EASTER WEEK
STATION – ST MARY OF THE MARTYRS (THE PANTHEON)

Today we celebrate the paschal mysteries with the most holy Mother of God who on Good Friday was made “regina martyrdom, Queen of martyrs.” The Stational church is the old Pantheon erected by Agrippa, friend and relative of Caesar Augustus, and dedicated by the Roman people to “all their gods.”

In 610, Pope Boniface IV purified this “temple of iniquity” and turned it into a “temple of the true and living God” under the title of “St. Mary of the Martyrs” after he had transferred from the catacombs hundreds of bodies of martyrs to this imposing rotunda.

The original structure of the Pantheon remained the same, but that which made if false and ungodly was taken out, and a new spirit given it. May the temples of our bodies, consecrated in Baptism always be temples of the Holy Spirit.

Conducted by the Queen of martyrs we ascend this morning to the three mountains of salvation, power and life: Mount Calvary, the mount of Galilee and the holy mount of the altar.

1. Who would not think on this joyous Friday – one week after Good Friday – of the terrible conflict on Mount Calvary where “Christ died once for our sins, the Just for the unjust.”

2. Our hearts are filled with awe and reverence as we behold on the mount of Galilee the glorious Teacher, High Priest and King of the world bestowing on His Church his threefold power to teach, to sanctify and to rule.

3. This morning the risen Lord to Whom “all power is given in heaven and on earth” will appear on the holy mount of the altar to offer with us and for us His Sacrifice of Calvary; to speak to each one of us the words He spoke to His disciples on the mount of Galilee and to assure us that His apostles of this century will teach us, administer to us the life-giving sacraments, and that He Himself will remain with us all the days of our lives.

Holy Mother of God, glorious Queen of martyrs, accompany us on our way up to the mount of the altar and help us to celebrate always the Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ in the spirit of love and unselfishness with which you did participate in it on Calvary so that after this life we may be found worthy to reign with your victorious Son on the mount of glory in the eternal “Galilee” of His Kingdom.

Station - The Twelve Apostles

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Apr. 16, 2:00 am

THURSDAY IN EASTER WEEK
STATION – THE TWELVE APOSTLES

O victorious hand of Christ! Hand of strength and mercy! A week ago, on Holy Thursday this victorious hand gave to the apostles the most holy Eucharist “for the life of the world.”

A week ago today we saw how this victorious hand was raised over a few fishermen of Galilee consecrating teachers, priest and shepherds, empowering them to carry the fruits of the blessed passion and glorious resurrection unto men, to the end, that they be lifted from darkness into God’s wonderful light; that, as a purchased people, they might declare the virtues of their Savior and King.

This Thursday in a special way is dedicated to Mary Magdalene. It is the fourth time that we commemorate an appearance of the risen Savior. Today, I join Mary Magdalene and rejoice with her that Our Lord also calls us by name. He called me at baptism, and daily.

At times it is with a stern voice admonishing me, at times with words of love. During Lent He spoke like a father appealing to his child to return home; now at Easter His voice resembles that of a bridegroom speaking to his bride. In every Holy Mass the Good Shepherd calls His sheep by name, “I know Mine and Mine know Me.”

The basilica dedicated to the Twelve Apostles is no strange place for us. On the Ember Days we pilgrimage to it to atone for and expiate the sins of the past quarter year.

The stational church as represented in this design reminds us of the unity effected among peoples by Baptism. The twelve stones representing the Apostles are united to Christ, the Cornerstone. The lower portion of the design shows Philip and the Ethiopian, and water for baptism. Above them hovers the Holy Spirit. The top portion shows Mary Magdalene as the messenger of Easter’s glad tidings to the apostles.

Station - St. Lawrence Outside the Walls

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Apr. 15, 2:00 am

EASTER WEDNESDAY
STATION - ST. LAWRENCE OUTSIDE THE WALLS

A Eucharistic chastity hovers over Easter Week which can better be sensed by the heart than expressed in words. Today, as we keep station with the Eucharistic Deacon whom St. Leo the Great calls the “most chaste Deacon” we are made even more conscious of that delicate paschal purity which permeates this season of inexpressible gladness. To this heroic Deacon were led the catechumens during their struggling days of Lent. To this chase Levite are presented on this Easter Wednesday “the new lambs who have come forth from the waters and are now filled with brightness.” “Come, blessed of My Father, receive the Kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world, alleluia.” Surely, the Lord has opened to them the doors of heaven. But to us also, and so we join these neophytes, God’s new-born children, to render thanks through the pure hands of St. Lawrence to Christ, the spotless Lamb of God.

“Hail, purest victim heav’n could find

The powers of hell to overthrow;

Who didst the bonds of death unbind;

Who dost the prize of life bestow.” (Ad regias)

Who can read today’s gospel without sensing the fragrance of paschal purity which pervaded the ‘morning-agape’ at the lake-shore of Galilee? Seven of the apostles went fishing, but caught nothing until the risen Lord arrived. “But when the morning came, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.” But one of them knew. The pure one, St. John. “It is the Lord” he cried out. “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.”

On the shores of His holy altar the risen Lord is preparing this morning a Eucharistic love-feast for us. St. Augustine says, “the broiled Fish is the immolated Christ,” our food, our manna, our strength and the deepest source of purity.

May the most chaste Deacon Lawrence accompany us to the altar and pray for us that the paschal Meal “may cleanse us from our old nature and make of us a new creature.” During these fifty days we should feel as if we were living in heaven. A Christian walks on earth but lives in heaven.

Station - St. Paul Outside the Walls

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Apr. 14, 2:00 am

EASTER TUESDAY
STATION – ST. PAUL OUTSIDE THE WALLS

Today the co-apostle, St. Paul, brings us the joyful message of the Lord’s resurrection. “Of the water of wisdom God gave you to drink” (Introit) are the apostle’s words of welcome to us as in spirit we enter his basilica. St. Paul’s Outside the Walls is one of Rome’s larges churches. Three weeks ago those preparing for Baptism received three precious jewels, the Our Father, the Gospels and the Creed. Today St. Paul instructs us through his Epistles. With the water of Baptism, Christ has satisfied our thirst with Divine Wisdom. Who knows better the transforming power of the “water and wisdom” than he who by this very water was changed from a Saul to a Paul, from a persecutor of Christ to His defender, from a foolish man to a wise Apostle?

Our baptismal day was our resurrection; was Christ’s resurrection in us, was our resurrection in Christ, the beginning of the “newness of life,” life in Christ. “If you are risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, mind the things that are above.” Who preserved more faithfully and more gratefully the grace of baptism than Paul, the apostle of Christ? After the scales had fallen from his eyes and heart, he was through with the “things that are below.”

Holy Mother Church desires that we preserve the grace of the paschal mystery, i.e., the effects of those sacred actions which in these holy days are celebrated on the altar and applied to our souls.

In today’s Eucharistic celebration the Risen Lord will stand also in our midst to impart to us His “Pax vobix,” to show us His hands and feet and to give us those sacred “remains” to eat that will augment in us the newness of His life.

Accompanied by St. Paul let us approach our triumphant Lord and place into His hand the promise that, having risen with Him, we shall now seek the things that are above where He is sitting at the right hand of God, alleluia!

Station - St. Peter in the Vatican

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Apr. 13, 2:00 am

EASTER MONDAY
STATION – ST. PETER IN THE VATICAN

The desert of Lent lies behind us. Fifty days of paschal joy are the reward for forty days of Lenten penance faithfully kept with Christ and the Church. St. Peter invites us to spend this Easter Monday with him. He desires to tell us, out of the fullness of his pastoral heart, all that Jesus of Nazareth has done for the salvation of His sheep; how He went about doing good, how they put Him to death hanging Him upon a tree, how God raised Him up on the third day, and how in His name all receive remission of sins who believe in Him.

Through the Holy Eucharist we are drawn deeper and deeper into the saving death and glorious resurrection of the immortal Christ. Like Cleophas and Luke of Emmaus we are Table-guests of Christ, we know Him, our crucified and risen Lord, in the breaking of the Bread; our cold hearts begin to burn, our blind eyes are opened, and our souls are filled with that paschal peace and joy with which these two disciples hastened from Emmaus back to Jerusalem on the first blessed Easter evening.

St. Gregory the Great offers two suggestions that should prove quite helpful towards a real Eucharistic Easter week. The first: “Because they doubted, He hid the countenance they would have recognized.” In other words, the manifestation of Christ to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus was in accordance with their spiritual dispositions. Let us, therefore, approach the Table of the immolated and risen Lord with great faith, and He will manifest Himself to us accordingly. The second: “Behold the Lord was not recognized while speaking to them but deigned to make Himself known when they set food before Him.” This, too, we must do in these blessed days, prepare for Him a table of love, and do it in the corporate spirit of Cleophas and Luke, then the risen Lord, Who appeared to Peter will also manifest Himself to us. Peter’s lambs and sheep.

The design depicts the journey to Emmaus with the risen Savior; our hearts burn within us as He explains to us the Scriptures. The middle section illustrates the land flowing with milk and honey which is the Church. Peter (keys), the day’s stational saint, unlocks these treasures to us: spiritual milk and honey from the rock of Christ. At the Eucharistic banquet “our eyes are opened” to a deeper understanding of Christ.

Station - Mary Major

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Apr. 12, 2:00 am

EASTER SUNDAY
STATION – ST. MARY MAJOR

“This is the day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad.” The head of the old serpent is crushed. Darkness has disappeared. The light of Christ is with us. Man cast out from the garden of Eden has been admitted to the fields of Paschal delights.

The doorposts of our hearts are sprinkled with the blood of the true Lamb, who by His death has destroyed our death and by rising has given us eternal life. The Egypt of slavery is behind us, we have entered the land of promise flowing with the milk of the Easter Eucharist and the honey of Paschal rejoicing. The heavy stone of guilt is removed from the tomb of our souls and our life is hid with Christ in God.

St. Mary Major is the Stational church because the first one whom we wish to meet with hearts full of Easter joy is God’s own Mother. Today we rejoice and like the three chanted alleluias in full crescendo –

The Lord has completed His redeeming work, alleluia!

Our souls have risen anew, alleluia!

Springtime has made its appearance in the land, alleluia!

Station - St. John Lateran

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Apr. 11, 2:00 am

HOLY SATURDAY
ST. JOHN LATERAN – EASTER VIGIL

In peace, in the selfsame I will sleep, and I will rest.

Good Friday at evening! Before the sun descends into his grave they must take the body of the “Sun of Justice” down from the altar of the Cross. With holy awe and love they let it down…and lay It into those pure, maternal arms that were the first to hold It, thirty-three years ago, in the cave of the not-too-distant Bethlehem.

Holy Mother, pierce me through
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Savior crucified

Let me share with thee His pain,
Who for all my sins was slain,
Who for me in torments died. (Stabat Mater)

The body is wrapped in linen cloths. Mother of Sorrows, remember that holy night when you wrapped in swaddling clothes the Blessed Light?

The funeral procession begins. John, a newly consecrated Bishop, Joseph of Arimathea, the owner of the tomb, Nicodemus, the courageous convert, Mary, His Mother and ours, the penitent Magdalen, some of His nearest relatives and a few devout women accompany the body of the God-Man to His place of rest.

“Now all is still. We breathe again now that the terrible distress is over at last, deep peace lies about the lonely tomb. It is the peace of fulfillment. He Who sleeps therein has, with divine fidelity, brought to an end all that the Father had laid upon Him to do. Now He rests from His work.”

Station - The Holy Cross in Jerusalem

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Apr. 10, 2:00 am

GOOD FRIDAY
STATION – THE HOLY CROSS IN JERUSALEM

“Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the Savior of the world. Come, let us adore!”

The long expected day is at hand, the day of divine mercy and redemption! Good Friday! God’s Friday! That Thou might redeem the slave, Thou gavest up Thine own Son! “Thou didst set mankind’s salvation upon the Tree of the Cross, so that where death came, life might rise again; and he who overcame by the tree, on the Tree also might be overcome, through Christ our Lord.” O day of sadness and gladness, we salute you! With faith and love, with sorrow and hope we join Mother Church in today’s most holy re-enactment of the world-redeeming, life-bestowing death of our glorious High priest, Who by His Own Blood obtained for us an eternal redemption.

May we spend this day in silent preparation and reflect upon the Holy Word of God, especially the Passion narratives. Today let us gaze upon the Holy Wood, the wood of the cross on which hung the Salvation of the world. Today we may receive the Holy Fruit in reception of Holy Communion.

Station - St. John Lateran

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Apr. 9, 2:00 am

THURSDAY IN HOLY WEEK – HOLY THURSDAY
STATION – ST. JOHN LATERAN

Holy Thursday, the beginning of the Paschal Mysteries! Hail, thrice blessed day, birthday of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, of the Eucharistic priesthood and of the Eucharistic commandment! Hail also to you, blessed “upper room,” for you witnessed the birth of this triple gift.

1. How intensely the Lord longed for this day! “With desire I have desired to eat this Pasch with you.” Today His longing is to be fulfilled. For the last time He celebrates with His disciples the ancient Pasch, observed for the first time fifteen centuries before, in that sacred night when God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt.

Tonight our Lord bequeaths to the world His sacrificed Body and Blood, the priceless pearl of the New Law, the center of Christian life, the Sacrifice of salvation, the food of pilgrims, the “elevator” into the Mystical Body, the guarantee of immortality.

“As often as you shall do these things, you shall do them in remembrance of Me.” Today we are doing these things, most solemnly, most gratefully, most joyfully, with desire we have desired to eat this Pasch with Him! Today!

2. Intimately related to His first gift is His second: the Eucharistic priesthood. He pours His priesthood into human beings, sending them as the Father had sent Him, making them carriers of the blessings of redemption, “ministers of Christ and dispensers of the mysteries of God.” Holy Thursday, a blessed day for every priest!

But let the faithful also rejoice! Is not every Christian – through the indelible character bestowed in baptism and confirmation – a sharer in Christ’s priesthood? The noblest deed of a priest is to offer. How well do you, a partaker in the Lord’s priesthood, perform this noblest of deeds today?

3. “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; that as I have loved you, you also love one another. By this will all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” A new commandment. A Eucharistic commandment. The holy Eucharist is the difference between paganism and Christianity. The holy Eucharist is the source of union, of charity, of that love “whereby men know that we are the disciples of Christ.”

May “the right hand of the Lord” imprint the full meaning of this triple gift on our heart as we assemble today around God’s altar to carry out what “on this day Christ commanded His disciples to celebrate in memory of Him.”

Station - St. Mary Major

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Apr. 8, 2:00 am

WEDNESDAY IN HOLY WEEK
STATION – ST. MARY MAJOR

Could we have a more powerful leader to Jesus Christ on this, the last day of preparation, than Mary, our most holy Mother? Into thy hands, dearest Mother, we place the humble efforts we have made since Ash Wednesday. Mother of our Savior, carry them, together with thy own most worthy and most pleasing merits, to the throne of divine mercy. Petition the eternal Father that, through the infinite merits of His Son and through thy powerful intercession, He would “look down on this, His family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ hesitated not to be delivered up into the hands of wicked man, and to undergo the torment of the Cross.”

Let us pray: Only a few hours separate us from the arrival of the Paschal Mysteries. “Behold, thy Savior comes; behold His reward is with Him and His work before Him.” For all men the Savior died, for Mary and for Judas, and for all who stand between these two. The winepress of the Cross has made the one “Queen of all the Saints,” and the other…God only knows! Lord, turn not away Thy face from Thy servant. Mary, my Mother, pray for me that the divine Blood of thy Son be to me a laver of redemption and of life.

Station - St. Prisca

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Apr. 7, 2:00 am

TUESDAY IN HOLY WEEK
STATION – ST. PRISCA

The last Lenten station is that of Saint Prisca on the Aventine. It is only a short way from Saint Sabina, from which church the procession left forty days ago to visit the tombs of the Martyrs. It is significant that the point of departure and the final arrival of the Lenten stations are on the Aventine Hill, for it was considered particularly sacred by the early Christians. It was, in fact, here that St. Peter and St. Paul lived for some time, in the house of saints Aquila and Priscilla, which was located on the spot where the church now stands.

St. Prisca, the faithful co-worker of St. Paul in the apostolate of “Christ Crucified,” leads us into the Sacred Triduum. We recommend to her our prayers and intentions. May this woman of faith, who was privileged to hear from the Doctor of the Gentiles of the power and triumph of the Cross, watch over us and assist us “that we may celebrate the mysteries of our Lord’s Passion in such a manner as to deserve to obtain God’s pardon.” (Collect)

Let us pray: (Pause in silent prayer, reflecting on your Lenten observances.) Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Station - St.  Praxedes

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Apr. 6, 2:00 am

MONDAY IN HOLY WEEK
STATION – ST. PRAXEDES

The spirit of this second day of the holiest of all weeks may be summed up in four words: Jesus, a supper, a penitent and an impenitent.

Jesus! Holy Savior, Thou art the center of our thoughts and love. Accept our thanks for all that Thou hast done for our salvation.

The Last Supper: A supper for Jesus! In a few days Jesus will make a supper for us, a “sacred banquet in which Christ is eaten;…symbol of that One Body of which He is the Head and to which He willed that we should be united as members by the closest bonds of faith, hope and charity, so that we should all speak the same thing, and that there should be no divisions among us,” as the Council of Trent so beautifully says.

A Penitent: Mary, “took a pound of ointment of costly nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair.”

An impenitent-traitor: An apostle of Christ is changed into a traitor, because he loved – not Christ – but thirty pieces of silver. “It were better if this man had not been born.”

We entrust ourselves today to St. Praxedes, the virgin who loved Jesus with her beautiful soul; who so often in her home prepared the table for the celebration of the Eucharistic Supper; and who anointed the “feet of Christ,” that is, the “lowest members” of the Mystical Body, the poor, by gladly giving to them all she possessed.

Let us pray: Help us, holy virgin, to spend this second day of Holy Week in thy spirit. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Palm Sunday - 12:30 PM Tridentine High Mass

Extraordinary Form of the Mass (Tridentine High Mass)

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Apr. 5, 12:30 pm  -  Palm Sunday

Join us at 12:30 pm on Palm Sunday for the Latin High Mass in the Extraordinary Form

Reading

from Dom Gueranger's "The Liturgical Year"

Eearly in the morning of this day, Jesus sets out for Jerusalem, leaving Mary His Mother, and the two sisters Martha and Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus, at Bethania. The Mother of sorrows trembles at seeing her Son thus expose Himself to danger, for His enemies are bent upon His destruction; but it is not death, it is triumph, that Jesus is to receive to-day in Jerusalem. The Messias, before being nailed to the cross, is to be proclaimed King by the people of the great city; the little children are to make her streets echo with their Hosanna to the Son of David; and this in presence of the soldiers of Rome's emperor, and of the high priests and pharisees: the first standing under the banner of their eagles; the second, dumb with rage.

The prophet Zachary had foretold this triumph which the Son of Man was to receive a few days before His Passion, and which had been prepared for Him from all eternity. ' Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion! Shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold thy King will come to thee; the Just and the Saviour. He is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.' Jesus, knowing that the hour has come for the fulfilment of this prophecy, singles out two from the rest of His disciples, and bids them lead to Him an ass and her colt, which they would find not far off. He has reached Bethphage, on Mount Olivet. The two disciples lose no time in executing the order given them by their divine Master; and the ass and the colt are soon brought to the place where He stands.

The holy fathers have explained to us the mystery of these two animals. The ass represents the Jewish people, which had been long under the yoke of the Law; the colt, upon which, as the evangelist says, no man yet hath sat, is a figure of the Gentile world, which no one had ever yet brought into subjection. The future of these two peoples is to be decided a few days hence: the Jews will be rejected, for having refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Messias; the Gentiles will take their place, to be adopted as God's people, and become docile and faithful.

The disciples spread their garments upon the colt; and our Saviour, that the prophetic figure might be fulfilled, sits upon him, and advances towards Jerusalem. As soon as it is known that Jesus is near the city, the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of those Jews, who have come from all parts to celebrate the feast of the Passover. They go out to meet our Lord, holding palm branches in their hands, and loudly proclaiming Him to be King. They that have accompanied Jesus from Bethania, join the enthusiastic crowd. Whilst some spread their garments on the way, others cut down boughs from the palm-trees, and strew them along the road. Hosanna is the triumphant cry, proclaiming to the whole city that Jesus, the Son of David, has made His entrance as her King.

Thus did God, in His power over men's hearts, procure a triumph for His Son, and in the very city which, a few days later, was to clamour for His Blood. This day was one of glory to our Jesus, and the holy Church would have us renew, each year, the memory of this triumph of the Man-God. Shortly after the birth of our Emmanuel, we saw the Magi coming from the extreme east, and looking in Jerusalem for the King of the Jews, to whom they intended offering their gifts and their adorations: but it is Jerusalem herself that now goes forth to meet this King. Each of these events is an acknowledgment of the kingship of Jesus; the first, from the Gentiles; the second, from the Jews. Both were to pay Him this regal homage, before He suffered His Passion. The inscription to be put upon the cross, by Pilate's order, will express the kingly character of the Crucified: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Pilate, the Roman governor, the pagan, the base coward, has been unwittingly the fulfiller of a prophecy; and when the enemies of Jesus insist on the inscription being altered, Pilate will not deign to give them any answer but this: ' What I have written, I have written.' To-day, it is the Jews themselves that proclaim Jesus to be their King: they will soon be dispersed, in punishment for their revolt against the Son of David; but Jesus is King, and will be so for ever. Thus were literally verified the words spoken by the Archangel to Mary, when he announced to her the glories of the Child that was to be born of her: ' The Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David, His father; and He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever.' Jesus begins His reign upon the earth this very day; and though the first Israel is soon to disclaim His rule, a new Israel, formed from the faithful few of the old, shall rise up in every nation of the earth, and become the kingdom of Christ, a kingdom such as no mere earthly monarch ever coveted in his wildest fancies of ambition.

This is the glorious mystery which ushers in the great week, the week of dolours. Holy Church would have us give this momentary consolation to our heart, and hail our Jesus as our King. She has so arranged the service of to-day, that it should express both joy and sorrow; joy, by uniting herself with the loyal hosannas of the city of David; and sorrow, by compassionating the Passion of her divine Spouse. The whole function is divided into three parts, which we will now proceed to explain.

The first is the blessing of the palms; and we may have an idea of its importance from the solemnity used by the Church in this sacred rite. One would suppose that the holy Sacrifice has begun, and is going to be offered up in honour of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. Introit, Collect, Epistle, Gradual, Gospel, even a Preface, are said, as though we were, as usual, preparing for the immolation of the spotless Lamb; but, after the triple Sanctus! Sanctus! Sanctus! the Church suspends these sacrificial formulas, and turns to the blessing of the palms. The prayers she uses for this blessing are eloquent and full of instruction; and, together with the sprinkling with holy water and the incensation, impart a virtue to these branches, which elevates them to the supernatural order, and makes them means for the sanctification of our soul and the protection of our persons and dwellings. The faithful should hold these palms in their hands during the procession, and during the reading of the Passion at Mass, and keep them in their homes as an outward expression of their faith, and as a pledge of God's watchful love.

It is scarcely necessary to tell our reader that the palms or olive branches, thus blessed, are carried in memory of those wherewith the people of Jerusalem strewed the road, as our Saviour made His triumphant Entry; but a word on the antiquity of our ceremony will not be superfluous. It began very early in the east. It is probable that, as far as Jerusalem itself is concerned, the custom was established immediately after the ages of persecution. St. Cyril, who was bishop of that city in the fourth century, tells us that the palm-tree, from which the people cut the branches when they went out to meet our Saviour, was still to be seen in the vale of Cedron. Such a circumstance would naturally suggest an annual commemoration of the great event. In the. following century, we find this ceremony established, not only in the churches of the east, but also in the monasteries of Egypt and Syria. At the beginning of Lent, many of the holy monks obtained permission from their abbots to retire into the desert, that they might spend the sacred season in strict seclusion; but they were obliged to return to their monasteries for Palm Sunday, as we learn from the life of Saint Euthymius, written by his disciple Cyril. In the west, the introduction of this ceremony was more gradual; the first trace we find of it is in the sacramentary of St. Gregory, that is, at the end of the sixth, or the beginning of the seventh, century. When the faith had penetrated into the north, it was not possible to have palms or olive branches; they were supplied by branches from other trees. The beautiful prayers used in the blessing, and based on the mysteries expressed by the palm and olive trees, are still employed in the blessing of our willow, box, or other branches; and rightly, for these represent the symbolical ones which nature has denied us.

The second of to-day's ceremonies is the procession, which comes immediately after the blessing of the palms. It represents our Saviour's journey to Jerusalem, and His entry into the city. To make it the more expressive, the branches that have just been blessed are held in the hand during it. With the Jews, to hold a branch in one's hand was a sign of joy. The divine law had sanctioned this practice, as we read in the following passage from Leviticus, where God commands His people to keep the feast of tabernacles: And you shall take to you, on the first day, the fruits of the fairest tree, and branches of palm-trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. It was, therefore, to testify their delight at seeing Jesus enter within their walls, that the inhabitants, even the little children, of Jerusalem, went forth to meet Him with palms in their hands. Let us, also, go before our King, singing our hosannas to Him as the conqueror of death, and the liberator of His people.

During the middle ages, it was the custom, in many churches, to carry the book of the holy Gospels in this procession. The Gospel contains the words of Jesus Christ, and was considered to represent Him. The procession halted at an appointed place, or station: the deacon then opened the sacred volume, and sang from it the passage which describes our Lord's entry into Jerusalem. This done, the cross which, up to this moment, was veiled, was uncovered; each of the clergy advanced towards it, venerated it, and placed at its foot a small portion of the palm he held in his hand. The procession then returned, preceded by the cross, which was left unveiled until all had re-entered the church. In England and Normandy, as far back as the eleventh century, there was practised a holy ceremony which represented, even more vividly than the one we have just been describing, the scene that was witnessed on this day at Jerusalem: the blessed Sacrament was carried in procession. The heresy of Berengarius, against the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, had been broached about that time; and the tribute of triumphant joy here shown to the sacred Host was a distant preparation for the feast and procession which were to be instituted at a later period.

A touching ceremony was also practised in Jerusalem during to-day's procession, and, like those just mentioned, was intended to commemorate the event related by the Gospel. The whole community of the Franciscans (to whose keeping the holy places are entrusted) went in the morning to Bethphage. There, the father guardian of the holy Land, being vested in pontifical robes, mounted upon an ass, on which garments were laid. Accompanied by the friars and the Catholics of Jerusalem, all holding palms in their hands, he entered the city, and alighted at the church of the holy sepulchre where Mass was celebrated with all possible solemnity.

This beautiful ceremony, which dated from the period of the Latin kingdom in Jerusalem, has been forbidden for now almost two hundred years, by the Turkish authorities of the city.

We have mentioned these different usages, as we have doneothers on similar occasions, in order to aid the faithful to the better understanding of the several mysteries of the liturgy. In the present instance, they will learn that, in to-day's procession, the Church wishes us to honour Jesus Christ as though He were really among us, and were receiving the humble tribute of our loyalty. Let us lovingly go forth to meet this our King, our Saviour, who comes to visit the daughter of Sion, as the prophet has just told us. He is in our midst; it is to Him that we pay honour with our palms: let us give Him our hearts too. He comes that He may be our King; let us welcome Him as such, and fervently cry out to Him: 'Hosanna to the Son of David!'

At the close of the procession a ceremony takes place, which is full of the sublimest symbolism. On returning to the church, the doors are found to be shut. The triumphant procession is stopped; but the songs of joy are continued. A hymn in honour of Christ our King is sung with its joyous chorus ; and at length the subdeacon strikes the door with the staff of the cross; the door opens, and the people, preceded by the clergy, enter the church, proclaiming the praise of Him, who is our resurrection and our life.

This ceremony is intended to represent the entry of Jesus into that Jerusalem of which the earthly one was but the figure--the Jerusalem of heaven, which has been opened for us by our Saviour. The sin of our first parents had shut it against us; but Jesus, the King of glory, opened its gates by His cross, to which every resistance yields. Let us, then, continue to follow in the footsteps of the Son of David, for He is also the Son of God, and He invites us to share His kingdom with Him. Thus, by the procession, which is commemorative of what happened on this day, the Church raises up our thoughts to the glorious mystery of the Ascension, whereby heaven was made the close of Jesus' mission on earth. Alas l the interval between these two triumphs of our Redeemer are not all days of joy; and no sooner is our procession over, than the Church, who had laid aside for a moment the weight of her grief, falls back into sorrow and mourning.

The third part of to-day's service is the offering of the holy Sacrifice. The portions that are sung by the choir are expressive of the deepest desolation; and the history of our Lord's Passion, which is now to be read by anticipation, gives to the rest of the day that character of sacred gloom, which we all know so well. For the last five or six centuries, the Church has adopted a special chant for this narrative of the holy Gospel. The historian, or the evangelist, relates the events in a tone that is at once grave and pathetic; the words of our Saviour are sung to a solemn yet sweet melody, which strikingly contrasts with the high dominant of the several other interlocutors and the Jewish populace. During the singing of the Passion, the faithful should hold their palms in their hands, and, by this emblem of triumph, protest against the insults offered to Jesus by His enemies. As we listen to each humiliation and suffering, all of which were endured out of love for us, let us offer Him our palm as to our dearest Lord and King. When should we be more adoring, than when He is most suffering?

These are the leading features of this great day. According to our usual plan, we will add to the prayers and lessons any instructions that seem to be needed.

This Sunday, besides its liturgical and popular appellation of Palm Sunday, has had several other names. Thus it was called Hosanna Sunday, in allusion to the acclamation wherewith the Jews greeted Jesus on His entry into Jerusalem. Our forefathers used also to call it Pascha Floridum, because the feast of the Pasch (or Easter), which is but eight days off, is to-day in bud, so to speak, and the faithful could begin from this Sunday to fulfil the precept of Easter Communion. It was in allusion to this name, that the Spaniards, having on the Palm Sunday of 1513, discovered the peninsula on the Gulf of Mexico, called it Florida. We also find the name of Capitilavium given to this Sunday, because, during those times when it was the custom to defer till Holy Saturday the baptism of infants horn during the preceding months (where such a delay entailed no danger), the parents used, on this day, to wash the heads of these children, out of respect to the holy chrism wherewith they were to be anointed. Later on, this Sunday was, at least in some churches, called the Pasch of the competent,, that is, of the catechumens, who were admitted to Baptism; they assembled to-day in the church, and received a special instruction on the symbol, which had been given to them in the previous scrutiny. In the Gothic Church of Spain, the symbol was not given till to-day. The Greeks call this Sunday Baïphoros, that is, Palm-bearing.

Palm Sunday - Ordinary form of the Mass - 9:30 AM

Ordinary Form of the Mass (Latin)

Details:

Apr. 5, 9:30 am  -  Palm Sunday

Missa Dominus Deus Noster
Leonard Lechner (c. 1553 – 1606)

Ingrediente Domino
Giovanni Jannaconi (1741 – 1816)

St. Mark Passion
Giaches de Wert (1535 – 1596)

Improperium
Charels Russell Woolen (1923 – 1994)

Christus Factus est
Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger (1839 – 1901)

St. Cecilia Choir

Reading

from Dom Gueranger’s “The Liturgical Year”

Eearly in the morning of this day, Jesus sets out for Jerusalem, leaving Mary His Mother, and the two sisters Martha and Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus, at Bethania. The Mother of sorrows trembles at seeing her Son thus expose Himself to danger, for His enemies are bent upon His destruction; but it is not death, it is triumph, that Jesus is to receive to-day in Jerusalem. The Messias, before being nailed to the cross, is to be proclaimed King by the people of the great city; the little children are to make her streets echo with their Hosanna to the Son of David; and this in presence of the soldiers of Rome’s emperor, and of the high priests and pharisees: the first standing under the banner of their eagles; the second, dumb with rage.

The prophet Zachary had foretold this triumph which the Son of Man was to receive a few days before His Passion, and which had been prepared for Him from all eternity. ‘ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion! Shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold thy King will come to thee; the Just and the Saviour. He is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.’ Jesus, knowing that the hour has come for the fulfilment of this prophecy, singles out two from the rest of His disciples, and bids them lead to Him an ass and her colt, which they would find not far off. He has reached Bethphage, on Mount Olivet. The two disciples lose no time in executing the order given them by their divine Master; and the ass and the colt are soon brought to the place where He stands.

The holy fathers have explained to us the mystery of these two animals. The ass represents the Jewish people, which had been long under the yoke of the Law; the colt, upon which, as the evangelist says, no man yet hath sat, is a figure of the Gentile world, which no one had ever yet brought into subjection. The future of these two peoples is to be decided a few days hence: the Jews will be rejected, for having refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Messias; the Gentiles will take their place, to be adopted as God’s people, and become docile and faithful.

The disciples spread their garments upon the colt; and our Saviour, that the prophetic figure might be fulfilled, sits upon him, and advances towards Jerusalem. As soon as it is known that Jesus is near the city, the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of those Jews, who have come from all parts to celebrate the feast of the Passover. They go out to meet our Lord, holding palm branches in their hands, and loudly proclaiming Him to be King. They that have accompanied Jesus from Bethania, join the enthusiastic crowd. Whilst some spread their garments on the way, others cut down boughs from the palm-trees, and strew them along the road. Hosanna is the triumphant cry, proclaiming to the whole city that Jesus, the Son of David, has made His entrance as her King.

Thus did God, in His power over men’s hearts, procure a triumph for His Son, and in the very city which, a few days later, was to clamour for His Blood. This day was one of glory to our Jesus, and the holy Church would have us renew, each year, the memory of this triumph of the Man-God. Shortly after the birth of our Emmanuel, we saw the Magi coming from the extreme east, and looking in Jerusalem for the King of the Jews, to whom they intended offering their gifts and their adorations: but it is Jerusalem herself that now goes forth to meet this King. Each of these events is an acknowledgment of the kingship of Jesus; the first, from the Gentiles; the second, from the Jews. Both were to pay Him this regal homage, before He suffered His Passion. The inscription to be put upon the cross, by Pilate’s order, will express the kingly character of the Crucified: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Pilate, the Roman governor, the pagan, the base coward, has been unwittingly the fulfiller of a prophecy; and when the enemies of Jesus insist on the inscription being altered, Pilate will not deign to give them any answer but this: ‘ What I have written, I have written.’ To-day, it is the Jews themselves that proclaim Jesus to be their King: they will soon be dispersed, in punishment for their revolt against the Son of David; but Jesus is King, and will be so for ever. Thus were literally verified the words spoken by the Archangel to Mary, when he announced to her the glories of the Child that was to be born of her: ‘ The Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David, His father; and He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever.’ Jesus begins His reign upon the earth this very day; and though the first Israel is soon to disclaim His rule, a new Israel, formed from the faithful few of the old, shall rise up in every nation of the earth, and become the kingdom of Christ, a kingdom such as no mere earthly monarch ever coveted in his wildest fancies of ambition.

This is the glorious mystery which ushers in the great week, the week of dolours. Holy Church would have us give this momentary consolation to our heart, and hail our Jesus as our King. She has so arranged the service of to-day, that it should express both joy and sorrow; joy, by uniting herself with the loyal hosannas of the city of David; and sorrow, by compassionating the Passion of her divine Spouse. The whole function is divided into three parts, which we will now proceed to explain.

The first is the blessing of the palms; and we may have an idea of its importance from the solemnity used by the Church in this sacred rite. One would suppose that the holy Sacrifice has begun, and is going to be offered up in honour of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Introit, Collect, Epistle, Gradual, Gospel, even a Preface, are said, as though we were, as usual, preparing for the immolation of the spotless Lamb; but, after the triple Sanctus! Sanctus! Sanctus! the Church suspends these sacrificial formulas, and turns to the blessing of the palms. The prayers she uses for this blessing are eloquent and full of instruction; and, together with the sprinkling with holy water and the incensation, impart a virtue to these branches, which elevates them to the supernatural order, and makes them means for the sanctification of our soul and the protection of our persons and dwellings. The faithful should hold these palms in their hands during the procession, and during the reading of the Passion at Mass, and keep them in their homes as an outward expression of their faith, and as a pledge of God’s watchful love.

It is scarcely necessary to tell our reader that the palms or olive branches, thus blessed, are carried in memory of those wherewith the people of Jerusalem strewed the road, as our Saviour made His triumphant Entry; but a word on the antiquity of our ceremony will not be superfluous. It began very early in the east. It is probable that, as far as Jerusalem itself is concerned, the custom was established immediately after the ages of persecution. St. Cyril, who was bishop of that city in the fourth century, tells us that the palm-tree, from which the people cut the branches when they went out to meet our Saviour, was still to be seen in the vale of Cedron. Such a circumstance would naturally suggest an annual commemoration of the great event. In the. following century, we find this ceremony established, not only in the churches of the east, but also in the monasteries of Egypt and Syria. At the beginning of Lent, many of the holy monks obtained permission from their abbots to retire into the desert, that they might spend the sacred season in strict seclusion; but they were obliged to return to their monasteries for Palm Sunday, as we learn from the life of Saint Euthymius, written by his disciple Cyril. In the west, the introduction of this ceremony was more gradual; the first trace we find of it is in the sacramentary of St. Gregory, that is, at the end of the sixth, or the beginning of the seventh, century. When the faith had penetrated into the north, it was not possible to have palms or olive branches; they were supplied by branches from other trees. The beautiful prayers used in the blessing, and based on the mysteries expressed by the palm and olive trees, are still employed in the blessing of our willow, box, or other branches; and rightly, for these represent the symbolical ones which nature has denied us.

The second of to-day’s ceremonies is the procession, which comes immediately after the blessing of the palms. It represents our Saviour’s journey to Jerusalem, and His entry into the city. To make it the more expressive, the branches that have just been blessed are held in the hand during it. With the Jews, to hold a branch in one’s hand was a sign of joy. The divine law had sanctioned this practice, as we read in the following passage from Leviticus, where God commands His people to keep the feast of tabernacles: And you shall take to you, on the first day, the fruits of the fairest tree, and branches of palm-trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. It was, therefore, to testify their delight at seeing Jesus enter within their walls, that the inhabitants, even the little children, of Jerusalem, went forth to meet Him with palms in their hands. Let us, also, go before our King, singing our hosannas to Him as the conqueror of death, and the liberator of His people.

During the middle ages, it was the custom, in many churches, to carry the book of the holy Gospels in this procession. The Gospel contains the words of Jesus Christ, and was considered to represent Him. The procession halted at an appointed place, or station: the deacon then opened the sacred volume, and sang from it the passage which describes our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem. This done, the cross which, up to this moment, was veiled, was uncovered; each of the clergy advanced towards it, venerated it, and placed at its foot a small portion of the palm he held in his hand. The procession then returned, preceded by the cross, which was left unveiled until all had re-entered the church. In England and Normandy, as far back as the eleventh century, there was practised a holy ceremony which represented, even more vividly than the one we have just been describing, the scene that was witnessed on this day at Jerusalem: the blessed Sacrament was carried in procession. The heresy of Berengarius, against the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, had been broached about that time; and the tribute of triumphant joy here shown to the sacred Host was a distant preparation for the feast and procession which were to be instituted at a later period.

A touching ceremony was also practised in Jerusalem during to-day’s procession, and, like those just mentioned, was intended to commemorate the event related by the Gospel. The whole community of the Franciscans (to whose keeping the holy places are entrusted) went in the morning to Bethphage. There, the father guardian of the holy Land, being vested in pontifical robes, mounted upon an ass, on which garments were laid. Accompanied by the friars and the Catholics of Jerusalem, all holding palms in their hands, he entered the city, and alighted at the church of the holy sepulchre where Mass was celebrated with all possible solemnity.

This beautiful ceremony, which dated from the period of the Latin kingdom in Jerusalem, has been forbidden for now almost two hundred years, by the Turkish authorities of the city.

We have mentioned these different usages, as we have doneothers on similar occasions, in order to aid the faithful to the better understanding of the several mysteries of the liturgy. In the present instance, they will learn that, in to-day’s procession, the Church wishes us to honour Jesus Christ as though He were really among us, and were receiving the humble tribute of our loyalty. Let us lovingly go forth to meet this our King, our Saviour, who comes to visit the daughter of Sion, as the prophet has just told us. He is in our midst; it is to Him that we pay honour with our palms: let us give Him our hearts too. He comes that He may be our King; let us welcome Him as such, and fervently cry out to Him: ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’

At the close of the procession a ceremony takes place, which is full of the sublimest symbolism. On returning to the church, the doors are found to be shut. The triumphant procession is stopped; but the songs of joy are continued. A hymn in honour of Christ our King is sung with its joyous chorus ; and at length the subdeacon strikes the door with the staff of the cross; the door opens, and the people, preceded by the clergy, enter the church, proclaiming the praise of Him, who is our resurrection and our life.

This ceremony is intended to represent the entry of Jesus into that Jerusalem of which the earthly one was but the figure--the Jerusalem of heaven, which has been opened for us by our Saviour. The sin of our first parents had shut it against us; but Jesus, the King of glory, opened its gates by His cross, to which every resistance yields. Let us, then, continue to follow in the footsteps of the Son of David, for He is also the Son of God, and He invites us to share His kingdom with Him. Thus, by the procession, which is commemorative of what happened on this day, the Church raises up our thoughts to the glorious mystery of the Ascension, whereby heaven was made the close of Jesus’ mission on earth. Alas l the interval between these two triumphs of our Redeemer are not all days of joy; and no sooner is our procession over, than the Church, who had laid aside for a moment the weight of her grief, falls back into sorrow and mourning.

The third part of to-day’s service is the offering of the holy Sacrifice. The portions that are sung by the choir are expressive of the deepest desolation; and the history of our Lord’s Passion, which is now to be read by anticipation, gives to the rest of the day that character of sacred gloom, which we all know so well. For the last five or six centuries, the Church has adopted a special chant for this narrative of the holy Gospel. The historian, or the evangelist, relates the events in a tone that is at once grave and pathetic; the words of our Saviour are sung to a solemn yet sweet melody, which strikingly contrasts with the high dominant of the several other interlocutors and the Jewish populace. During the singing of the Passion, the faithful should hold their palms in their hands, and, by this emblem of triumph, protest against the insults offered to Jesus by His enemies. As we listen to each humiliation and suffering, all of which were endured out of love for us, let us offer Him our palm as to our dearest Lord and King. When should we be more adoring, than when He is most suffering?

These are the leading features of this great day. According to our usual plan, we will add to the prayers and lessons any instructions that seem to be needed.

This Sunday, besides its liturgical and popular appellation of Palm Sunday, has had several other names. Thus it was called Hosanna Sunday, in allusion to the acclamation wherewith the Jews greeted Jesus on His entry into Jerusalem. Our forefathers used also to call it Pascha Floridum, because the feast of the Pasch (or Easter), which is but eight days off, is to-day in bud, so to speak, and the faithful could begin from this Sunday to fulfil the precept of Easter Communion. It was in allusion to this name, that the Spaniards, having on the Palm Sunday of 1513, discovered the peninsula on the Gulf of Mexico, called it Florida. We also find the name of Capitilavium given to this Sunday, because, during those times when it was the custom to defer till Holy Saturday the baptism of infants horn during the preceding months (where such a delay entailed no danger), the parents used, on this day, to wash the heads of these children, out of respect to the holy chrism wherewith they were to be anointed. Later on, this Sunday was, at least in some churches, called the Pasch of the competent,, that is, of the catechumens, who were admitted to Baptism; they assembled to-day in the church, and received a special instruction on the symbol, which had been given to them in the previous scrutiny. In the Gothic Church of Spain, the symbol was not given till to-day. The Greeks call this Sunday Baïphoros, that is, Palm-bearing.

Station - The Archbasilica of St. John Lateran

Details:

Apr. 5, 2:00 am

PALM SUNDAY
STATION – THE ARCHBASILICA OF ST. JOHN LATERAN

Today begins the greatest and holiest week of the year, a week opening with triumph and closing with triumph; a week commencing with the Hosanna, continuing with the Cross and terminating in the Alleluia.

This week is a picture of our Christian life, which began with the “Hosanna to our King” on that day when, at the font, Christ our Redeemer took possession of the city of our soul. At that blessed spot He made us His disciples and gave us the Cross. “If thou wilt be My disciple, take thy cross upon thyself and follow Me.” He, the divine Cross-bearer, shows us the way, strengthens us while on the way, and leads us to final victory, the eternal Easter with its never-ending Alleluia!

One of the main purposes of this week is to renew the first, i.e., the Christ-life we received in holy baptism, and to prepare us for the second, the everlasting triumph with Christ, our glorious Head.

In the hustle and bustle of material things we are so apt to forget “the things that are above.” Little conscious we are of the sacred mark printed indelibly upon our soul, the character of baptism and confirmation, the sign which neither time nor eternity can efface, and by which we became partakers in the priesthood of the immortal Christ.

The Church needs “Palm-Sunday men and women” who, with “the angels in heaven and with the children of Israel,” will sing their Hosanna to the conqueror of death.

Let us pray: Grant, O Lord, that what Thy people this day bodily do in Thy honor, they may perfect spiritually with complete submission, by gaining a victory over the enemy and ardently loving the work of Thy mercy. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. “Hosanna to the Son of David.”

Palm Sunday - Schedule - Please note time changes

Details:

Apr. 5, 12:00 am

7:00 AM Tridentine Low Mass
9:30 AM Solemn Blessing of Palms/Procession/Sung Passion/Mass
12:30 PM Tridentine High Mass

[ The 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. Masses are combined.]

Reading

from Dom Gueranger's "The Liturgical Year"

Eearly in the morning of this day, Jesus sets out for Jerusalem, leaving Mary His Mother, and the two sisters Martha and Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus, at Bethania. The Mother of sorrows trembles at seeing her Son thus expose Himself to danger, for His enemies are bent upon His destruction; but it is not death, it is triumph, that Jesus is to receive to-day in Jerusalem. The Messias, before being nailed to the cross, is to be proclaimed King by the people of the great city; the little children are to make her streets echo with their Hosanna to the Son of David; and this in presence of the soldiers of Rome's emperor, and of the high priests and pharisees: the first standing under the banner of their eagles; the second, dumb with rage.

The prophet Zachary had foretold this triumph which the Son of Man was to receive a few days before His Passion, and which had been prepared for Him from all eternity. ' Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion! Shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold thy King will come to thee; the Just and the Saviour. He is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.' Jesus, knowing that the hour has come for the fulfilment of this prophecy, singles out two from the rest of His disciples, and bids them lead to Him an ass and her colt, which they would find not far off. He has reached Bethphage, on Mount Olivet. The two disciples lose no time in executing the order given them by their divine Master; and the ass and the colt are soon brought to the place where He stands.

The holy fathers have explained to us the mystery of these two animals. The ass represents the Jewish people, which had been long under the yoke of the Law; the colt, upon which, as the evangelist says, no man yet hath sat, is a figure of the Gentile world, which no one had ever yet brought into subjection. The future of these two peoples is to be decided a few days hence: the Jews will be rejected, for having refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Messias; the Gentiles will take their place, to be adopted as God's people, and become docile and faithful.

The disciples spread their garments upon the colt; and our Saviour, that the prophetic figure might be fulfilled, sits upon him, and advances towards Jerusalem. As soon as it is known that Jesus is near the city, the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of those Jews, who have come from all parts to celebrate the feast of the Passover. They go out to meet our Lord, holding palm branches in their hands, and loudly proclaiming Him to be King. They that have accompanied Jesus from Bethania, join the enthusiastic crowd. Whilst some spread their garments on the way, others cut down boughs from the palm-trees, and strew them along the road. Hosanna is the triumphant cry, proclaiming to the whole city that Jesus, the Son of David, has made His entrance as her King.

Thus did God, in His power over men's hearts, procure a triumph for His Son, and in the very city which, a few days later, was to clamour for His Blood. This day was one of glory to our Jesus, and the holy Church would have us renew, each year, the memory of this triumph of the Man-God. Shortly after the birth of our Emmanuel, we saw the Magi coming from the extreme east, and looking in Jerusalem for the King of the Jews, to whom they intended offering their gifts and their adorations: but it is Jerusalem herself that now goes forth to meet this King. Each of these events is an acknowledgment of the kingship of Jesus; the first, from the Gentiles; the second, from the Jews. Both were to pay Him this regal homage, before He suffered His Passion. The inscription to be put upon the cross, by Pilate's order, will express the kingly character of the Crucified: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Pilate, the Roman governor, the pagan, the base coward, has been unwittingly the fulfiller of a prophecy; and when the enemies of Jesus insist on the inscription being altered, Pilate will not deign to give them any answer but this: ' What I have written, I have written.' To-day, it is the Jews themselves that proclaim Jesus to be their King: they will soon be dispersed, in punishment for their revolt against the Son of David; but Jesus is King, and will be so for ever. Thus were literally verified the words spoken by the Archangel to Mary, when he announced to her the glories of the Child that was to be born of her: ' The Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David, His father; and He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever.' Jesus begins His reign upon the earth this very day; and though the first Israel is soon to disclaim His rule, a new Israel, formed from the faithful few of the old, shall rise up in every nation of the earth, and become the kingdom of Christ, a kingdom such as no mere earthly monarch ever coveted in his wildest fancies of ambition.

This is the glorious mystery which ushers in the great week, the week of dolours. Holy Church would have us give this momentary consolation to our heart, and hail our Jesus as our King. She has so arranged the service of to-day, that it should express both joy and sorrow; joy, by uniting herself with the loyal hosannas of the city of David; and sorrow, by compassionating the Passion of her divine Spouse. The whole function is divided into three parts, which we will now proceed to explain.

The first is the blessing of the palms; and we may have an idea of its importance from the solemnity used by the Church in this sacred rite. One would suppose that the holy Sacrifice has begun, and is going to be offered up in honour of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. Introit, Collect, Epistle, Gradual, Gospel, even a Preface, are said, as though we were, as usual, preparing for the immolation of the spotless Lamb; but, after the triple Sanctus! Sanctus! Sanctus! the Church suspends these sacrificial formulas, and turns to the blessing of the palms. The prayers she uses for this blessing are eloquent and full of instruction; and, together with the sprinkling with holy water and the incensation, impart a virtue to these branches, which elevates them to the supernatural order, and makes them means for the sanctification of our soul and the protection of our persons and dwellings. The faithful should hold these palms in their hands during the procession, and during the reading of the Passion at Mass, and keep them in their homes as an outward expression of their faith, and as a pledge of God's watchful love.

It is scarcely necessary to tell our reader that the palms or olive branches, thus blessed, are carried in memory of those wherewith the people of Jerusalem strewed the road, as our Saviour made His triumphant Entry; but a word on the antiquity of our ceremony will not be superfluous. It began very early in the east. It is probable that, as far as Jerusalem itself is concerned, the custom was established immediately after the ages of persecution. St. Cyril, who was bishop of that city in the fourth century, tells us that the palm-tree, from which the people cut the branches when they went out to meet our Saviour, was still to be seen in the vale of Cedron. Such a circumstance would naturally suggest an annual commemoration of the great event. In the. following century, we find this ceremony established, not only in the churches of the east, but also in the monasteries of Egypt and Syria. At the beginning of Lent, many of the holy monks obtained permission from their abbots to retire into the desert, that they might spend the sacred season in strict seclusion; but they were obliged to return to their monasteries for Palm Sunday, as we learn from the life of Saint Euthymius, written by his disciple Cyril. In the west, the introduction of this ceremony was more gradual; the first trace we find of it is in the sacramentary of St. Gregory, that is, at the end of the sixth, or the beginning of the seventh, century. When the faith had penetrated into the north, it was not possible to have palms or olive branches; they were supplied by branches from other trees. The beautiful prayers used in the blessing, and based on the mysteries expressed by the palm and olive trees, are still employed in the blessing of our willow, box, or other branches; and rightly, for these represent the symbolical ones which nature has denied us.

The second of to-day's ceremonies is the procession, which comes immediately after the blessing of the palms. It represents our Saviour's journey to Jerusalem, and His entry into the city. To make it the more expressive, the branches that have just been blessed are held in the hand during it. With the Jews, to hold a branch in one's hand was a sign of joy. The divine law had sanctioned this practice, as we read in the following passage from Leviticus, where God commands His people to keep the feast of tabernacles: And you shall take to you, on the first day, the fruits of the fairest tree, and branches of palm-trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. It was, therefore, to testify their delight at seeing Jesus enter within their walls, that the inhabitants, even the little children, of Jerusalem, went forth to meet Him with palms in their hands. Let us, also, go before our King, singing our hosannas to Him as the conqueror of death, and the liberator of His people.

During the middle ages, it was the custom, in many churches, to carry the book of the holy Gospels in this procession. The Gospel contains the words of Jesus Christ, and was considered to represent Him. The procession halted at an appointed place, or station: the deacon then opened the sacred volume, and sang from it the passage which describes our Lord's entry into Jerusalem. This done, the cross which, up to this moment, was veiled, was uncovered; each of the clergy advanced towards it, venerated it, and placed at its foot a small portion of the palm he held in his hand. The procession then returned, preceded by the cross, which was left unveiled until all had re-entered the church. In England and Normandy, as far back as the eleventh century, there was practised a holy ceremony which represented, even more vividly than the one we have just been describing, the scene that was witnessed on this day at Jerusalem: the blessed Sacrament was carried in procession. The heresy of Berengarius, against the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, had been broached about that time; and the tribute of triumphant joy here shown to the sacred Host was a distant preparation for the feast and procession which were to be instituted at a later period.

A touching ceremony was also practised in Jerusalem during to-day's procession, and, like those just mentioned, was intended to commemorate the event related by the Gospel. The whole community of the Franciscans (to whose keeping the holy places are entrusted) went in the morning to Bethphage. There, the father guardian of the holy Land, being vested in pontifical robes, mounted upon an ass, on which garments were laid. Accompanied by the friars and the Catholics of Jerusalem, all holding palms in their hands, he entered the city, and alighted at the church of the holy sepulchre where Mass was celebrated with all possible solemnity.

This beautiful ceremony, which dated from the period of the Latin kingdom in Jerusalem, has been forbidden for now almost two hundred years, by the Turkish authorities of the city.

We have mentioned these different usages, as we have doneothers on similar occasions, in order to aid the faithful to the better understanding of the several mysteries of the liturgy. In the present instance, they will learn that, in to-day's procession, the Church wishes us to honour Jesus Christ as though He were really among us, and were receiving the humble tribute of our loyalty. Let us lovingly go forth to meet this our King, our Saviour, who comes to visit the daughter of Sion, as the prophet has just told us. He is in our midst; it is to Him that we pay honour with our palms: let us give Him our hearts too. He comes that He may be our King; let us welcome Him as such, and fervently cry out to Him: 'Hosanna to the Son of David!'

At the close of the procession a ceremony takes place, which is full of the sublimest symbolism. On returning to the church, the doors are found to be shut. The triumphant procession is stopped; but the songs of joy are continued. A hymn in honour of Christ our King is sung with its joyous chorus ; and at length the subdeacon strikes the door with the staff of the cross; the door opens, and the people, preceded by the clergy, enter the church, proclaiming the praise of Him, who is our resurrection and our life.

This ceremony is intended to represent the entry of Jesus into that Jerusalem of which the earthly one was but the figure--the Jerusalem of heaven, which has been opened for us by our Saviour. The sin of our first parents had shut it against us; but Jesus, the King of glory, opened its gates by His cross, to which every resistance yields. Let us, then, continue to follow in the footsteps of the Son of David, for He is also the Son of God, and He invites us to share His kingdom with Him. Thus, by the procession, which is commemorative of what happened on this day, the Church raises up our thoughts to the glorious mystery of the Ascension, whereby heaven was made the close of Jesus' mission on earth. Alas l the interval between these two triumphs of our Redeemer are not all days of joy; and no sooner is our procession over, than the Church, who had laid aside for a moment the weight of her grief, falls back into sorrow and mourning.

The third part of to-day's service is the offering of the holy Sacrifice. The portions that are sung by the choir are expressive of the deepest desolation; and the history of our Lord's Passion, which is now to be read by anticipation, gives to the rest of the day that character of sacred gloom, which we all know so well. For the last five or six centuries, the Church has adopted a special chant for this narrative of the holy Gospel. The historian, or the evangelist, relates the events in a tone that is at once grave and pathetic; the words of our Saviour are sung to a solemn yet sweet melody, which strikingly contrasts with the high dominant of the several other interlocutors and the Jewish populace. During the singing of the Passion, the faithful should hold their palms in their hands, and, by this emblem of triumph, protest against the insults offered to Jesus by His enemies. As we listen to each humiliation and suffering, all of which were endured out of love for us, let us offer Him our palm as to our dearest Lord and King. When should we be more adoring, than when He is most suffering?

These are the leading features of this great day. According to our usual plan, we will add to the prayers and lessons any instructions that seem to be needed.

This Sunday, besides its liturgical and popular appellation of Palm Sunday, has had several other names. Thus it was called Hosanna Sunday, in allusion to the acclamation wherewith the Jews greeted Jesus on His entry into Jerusalem. Our forefathers used also to call it Pascha Floridum, because the feast of the Pasch (or Easter), which is but eight days off, is to-day in bud, so to speak, and the faithful could begin from this Sunday to fulfil the precept of Easter Communion. It was in allusion to this name, that the Spaniards, having on the Palm Sunday of 1513, discovered the peninsula on the Gulf of Mexico, called it Florida. We also find the name of Capitilavium given to this Sunday, because, during those times when it was the custom to defer till Holy Saturday the baptism of infants horn during the preceding months (where such a delay entailed no danger), the parents used, on this day, to wash the heads of these children, out of respect to the holy chrism wherewith they were to be anointed. Later on, this Sunday was, at least in some churches, called the Pasch of the competent,, that is, of the catechumens, who were admitted to Baptism; they assembled to-day in the church, and received a special instruction on the symbol, which had been given to them in the previous scrutiny. In the Gothic Church of Spain, the symbol was not given till to-day. The Greeks call this Sunday Baïphoros, that is, Palm-bearing.

Station - St. John Before the Latin Gate

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Apr. 4, 2:00 am

SATURDAY IN THE FIFTH (PASSION) WEEK OF LENT
STATION – ST. JOHN BEFORE THE LATIN GATE

The station of this eve of Palm Sunday is of a comparatively late origin: formerly, the Pope spent a part of the day distributing alms to the poor, and rested in preparation for Holy Week.

As a Stational church was chosen St. John’s before the Latin Gate. Near the place where the Appian Way braches off, forming to the left the Latin Way, it was built on the spot where St. John was, by order of Domitian, plunged into a cauldron of boiling oil. St. John, who with Mary shared the privilege of standing near the Cross, also joined his sacrifice to that of Christ when he gladly accepted martyrdom in the boiling oil.

May St. John teach us the spirit of active, soulful participation in the very mysteries in which he did partake with great faith, reverence and love. The mystery of the Lord’s Table, the mystery of the Lord’s Cross and the mystery of the Lord’s Triumph.

Let us pray: May the people prosper who are devoted to Thee by the affection of pious devotion, we beseech Thee, O Lord; that instructed by the holy rites, they may be made more pleasing to Thy majesty, and more may they abound in excellent gifts. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross in Latin)

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Apr. 3, 7:00 pm

Vexilla Regis
Giovanni Cavaccio (c. 1556 – 1626)

Eripe Me De Inimicis
Andreas Raselius (c. 1562 – 1602)

Factus est Dominus firmamentum meum
Orlando di Lasso (1532 – 1594)

Caligaverunt
Colin Mawby (b. 1936)

Ecce Vidimus
Anonymous

Christus Factus Est
Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni (1657 – 1743)

Sepulto Domino
Jacob Handl (1550 – 1591)

St. Cecilia Choir

Station - St. Stephen on Mt. Coelius

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Apr. 3, 2:00 am

FRIDAY IN THE FIFTH (PASSION) WEEK OF LENT
STATION – ST. STEPHEN ON MT. COELIUS

This Lenten Station takes us back to a sacred area which still preserves its aura of mystery. The area was sacred to the pagans who had, on the nearby Palatine, the black rock of the Magna Mater and who had there the sacred land on which the “profane” outsiders were forbidden to set foot. It was sacred also to the Christians who even today venerate it as the place which gave martyrdom and glory to saints. St. Stephen on Mt. Coelius, or St. Stephen Rotondo as the Romans call it because of its circular plan, is among the most ancient of the round churches with the altar in the center and thus visible from all sides. It was built between 400 and 450 and was consecrated by Pope Simplicius.

St. Stephen was the first martyr or witness of Christ. While dying, he beheld the Savior at the right hand of the Father in heaven. Thus it was fitting to assemble in this basilica at this holy time, consecrated to the memory of the Savior’s Passion, which prepares us to celebrate His triumph at Easter.

The interior decoration of this church contains a series of frescos depicting a martyrology of 34 saints.

Let us pray: Pour forth Thy grace into our hearts, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that we who refrain from sin by self-denial, may be rather afflicted in time than condemned to eternal punishment. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Station - St. Apollinaris

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Apr. 2, 2:00 am

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.

In a week from today we shall begin the paschal mysteries. The truer the sorrow for our sins and the greater the realization of the need of God’s grace, the more fruitful will be the efficacy of these paschal mysteries.

Let us pray: Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God: that the dignity of human nature, wounded by excess, may be reformed by the practice of self-denial. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Station - St. Marcellus

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Apr. 1, 2:00 am

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 suffering only for Easter’s sake, with its peace and strength and never fading victory.

The mystery of the Cross is the great answer, a solution which the carnal-minded man will never find. St. Marcellus found it, and having found it, suffered gladly as a true athlete of Christ. “I will extol Thee, O Lord, for Thou hast upheld me and hast not made my enemies to rejoice over me.”

Let us pray: Sanctify this fast, O God, and mercifully enlightening the hearts of Thy faithful, do Thou hear favorable those to whom Thou grant the grace of devotion. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Station - St. Cyriacus

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Mar. 31, 2:00 am

TUESDAY IN THE FIFTH (PASSION) WEEK OF LENT
STATION – ST. CYRIACUS

The Sacred texts which, like a garland, surround the celebration of the Eucharist 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. “They have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. The disciple is not greater than the Master.” Persecutions and sufferings purify the Church. They remove what is not of God. They cast forth all that comes form Satan, the arch-enemy, and that comes from the fatal act in Paradise, the arch-sin.

May the holy Deacon Cyriacus, obtain for us “God’s light and truth; and conduct us and bring us to His holy hill, to the altar, to Calvary, to Easter, to the immortal Christ at the right-hand of the Father.”

Let us pray: O Lord: deliver me from the unjust and deceitful man. Send forth Thy Light and Thy Truth, they shall lead me on. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Station - St. Chrysogonus in Trastevere

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Mar. 30, 1:00 am

MONDAY IN THE FIFTH (PASSION) WEEK OF LENT
STATION – ST. CHRYSOGONUS IN TRASTEVERE

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 own smallness and will share in the greatness and efficacy of His sufferings. He will suffer in us and we in Him.

We humbly ask St. Chrysogonus, in whose Roman home we observe today’s mysteries of redemption, that he would accompany us to “the Lord of Hosts, the King of Glory.”

Let us pray: O God, hear my prayer; give ear to the words of my mouth. Save me, O Lord, by Thy name and in Thy power deliver me. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

5th Sunday of Lent

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Mar. 29, 11:00 am

TBA

Choir of the Holy Innocents

Station - St. Peter in the Vatican

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Mar. 29, 1:00 am

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.” (Divine Office)

With an open mind and a willing heart let us approach the altar to celebrate the Passion Sunday Sacrifice with our High Priest, so that His “Body which shall be delivered for us, and His Blood that shall be shed for us” may bestow upon us the promise of eternal inheritance in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let us pray: Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies: teach me to do Thy will. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Station - St. Nicholas in Carcere

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Mar. 28, 1:00 am

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 Kingdom of heaven.”

2. “Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you.”

3. “I am the Light of the world; he that follows Me walks not in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

Catechumens and Faithful both were deeply impressed while listening to the gospel of “The Light of the World” read in today’s stational church which is over a dark dungeon. There criminals were held in confinement, deprived of light, liberty and the joys of life. A man in mortal sin walks in darkness. The light of Christ is not in him. He sits in darkness and in the shadow of death. With God’s help, we must free ourselves during the remaining days from all darkness.

St. Nicholas, lead us today to Him Who by sacred Water has made us His living branches, to Christ Jesus, our Divine Food and Holy Light.

Let us pray: Mercifully compel our rebellious wills and make them subject to Thee, O Lord. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Station - St. Eusebius

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Mar. 27, 1:00 am

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.

In two weeks from today we shall celebrate the Lord’s lifegiving 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;” the restoring or healing of life in the tribunal of God’s mercy; the reception of the Bread of Life at the Lord’s table, as well as the great “come forth” on the last day: (from our tombs as Lazarus was called from his tomb) these and all the other mysteries of our Faith are rooted in the death of the Lamb of God.

Let us pray: O God, Who renews the world by Thine ineffable sacraments, grant, we beseech Thee, that Thy Church may profit by Thy eternal institutions, and not be lacking in temporal help. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Station - Ss. Sylvester and Martin

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Mar. 26, 1:00 am

THURSDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT
STATION – SS. 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 is 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.

In two weeks from today the Church will celebrate with us the mystery of the living and life-giving Bread, the first source of life and health. “For he that eats this Bread shall have life everlasting…And unless you eat this Bread you shall not have life in you.”

Led by these two stational saints, the first Confessors who were given public veneration in the Church, St. Sylvester and St. Martin, we will go to God’s altar, to the Mystery of Life, to Him Who will say also to us: “I say to thee, arise!”

Let us pray: Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God: that we, who are chastised by fasting, may rejoice with holy devotion, and that our earthly affections being weakened, we may more easily understand the things of heaven. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Station - St. Paul Outside the Walls

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Mar. 25, 1:00 am

WEDNESDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT
STATION – ST. PAUL OUTSIDE THE WALLS

A pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Paul, in this penitential procession, at one time 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, turning westward – towards darkness – renounced Satan, his pomps and his works. Then, turning, eastward – towards the light – they pledged their loyalty to Christ and His Church.

Here at the tomb of the Apostle who was “the salt of the earth,” the catechumens receive a morsel of salt. “Accipe sal sapientiae – receive the salt of wisdom!” Receive the taste for the doctrine of God. Hereafter speak no longer the language of the flesh, but let your conversation be heavenly.

Let us pray: O God, who grantest to the just the reward of their merits, and to sinners pardon through their fasts; have mercy on Thy suppliant people: that the confession of our guilt may enable us to obtain the forgiveness of our sins. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Station - St. Lawrence in Damaso

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Mar. 24, 1:00 am

TUESDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT
STATION – ST. LAWRENCE IN DAMASO

We celebrate in spirit the holy mysteries 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 unappreciated by their flock; both them unmoved in their consecration to God and their holy calling. Their people: superficial, proud and selfish; the leaders: filled with the spirit of prayer, humility and the love of God.

In the spirit of our prayerful, humble and God-loving leader, St. Lawrence, let us make a sincere oblation of ourselves. Then the Divine Victim, through the prayers of the holy deacon, will increase in our souls so strikingly expressed in today’s Mass:

1. Humility. “With expectation I have waited for the Lord and He was attentive to me.”

2. Prayerfulness. “And He heard my prayer.”

3. Love. “And He put a new canticle in my mouth, a song to our God.”

Let us pray: Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication: be attentive to me, and hear me. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Station - The Four Crowned Martyrs

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Mar. 23, 1:00 am

MONDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT
STATION – THE FOUR CROWNED MARTYRS

The Station is on Mount Coelius, in a church erected in the seventh century in honor of four officers of the Roman army who, having refused to adore a stature 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.

Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday)

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Mar. 22, 11:00 am

Messe Sollenelle
Emile Paladilhe (1844 – 1926)

Laudate Domino
Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger (1839 – 1901)

Crux Fidelis
Jean Jules Amable Roger-Ducasse (1873 – 1954)

St. Cecilia Choir

Station - Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem

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Mar. 22, 1:00 am

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT
STATION – CHURCH OF THE HOLY CROSS IN JERUSALEM

In the year 320, Constantine placed the relics of the Holy Cross which his mother, St. Helen, had brought back to Rome from the Holy Land. Also there is soil brought from Calvary, placed under the flooring 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.

“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: a joy ever sustained and increased by that wonderful Bread which Christ’s loving hand multiplies for us in the this desert of life.

By the wood of this Cross, joy has come into the world, into your heart also. Laetare, Jerusalem! Endure the thorns of life courageously. Supernaturalize them.

Note: 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.

Station - St. Susanna

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Mar. 21, 1:00 am

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 guides, 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 is an outcast in the eyes of her merciless accusers, who themselves are whitened sepulchers inwardly full of worms. Jesus, the new Daniel, comes to her rescue. He condemns her sin, but raises her from an erring sheep to a penitential follower. “Has no one condemned you, woman? No one, Sir. Neither will 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.

Station - St. Lawrence in Lucina

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Mar. 20, 1:00 am

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…” (Sunday Mass)

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 token for good: that they who hate me may see, and be confounded: because Thou, O Lord, has helped me and hast comforted me. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Station - Ss. Cosmas and Damian

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Mar. 19, 1:00 am

THURSDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT
STATION – Ss. COSMAS AND DAMIAN

This church is made of two pagan temples, where rest 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 remuneration, 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.

Station - St. Sixtus

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Mar. 18, 1:00 am

WEDNESDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT
STATION – ST. SIXTUS

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 of 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.

Station - St. Pudentiana

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Mar. 17, 1:00 am

TUESDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT
STATION – ST. PUDENTIANA

The church of St. Pudentiana, on the Viminal hill, was one of the most venerated places for Roman Christians. St. Pudentiana 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. Pudentiana 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 each other. Pudentiana 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 Thy grace, ever restraining us from human excesses and conducting us to the gift of salvation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Station - St. Mark

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Mar. 16, 1:00 am

MONDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT
STATION – ST. MARK

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 that of a child, or, rather, it will glow in the very freshness of Christ Himself. The branch will receive daily a new portion of vital energy from the infinite freshness and vitality of the Vine.

Spring experiences not only the coming forth of new plants but also the renewal of old ones. In like manner this spiritual Springtide will witness not only the birth of new Christians “out of water and the Holy Spirit,” but also the re-birth of the entire Christian body.

We are looking forward to the “renewal of our baptismal life” at Easter. But let us not think for a moment that this renewal will be done only then. Easter means completion, the sealing of a process begun on Ash Wednesday and reaching its culmination of the “Day which the Lord hath made.”

Let us pray: Pour forth in Thy mercy, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts, that as we abstain from carnal food, may we also restrain our senses from harmful excesses. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

3rd Sunday of Lent

Details:

Mar. 15, 12:30 pm  -  Latin High Mass (Extraordinary Form)

TBA

Choir of the Holy Innocents

3rd Sunday of Lent

Details:

Mar. 15, 12:30 pm