The Church Militant

HOLY SATURDAY & EASTER VIGIL

http://cardinalsblog.adw.org/

Divine Office, Saturday April 4th, 2015 (http://divineoffice.org):

“What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled.”[1]
Holy Saturday is a day of silence, rest, and prayer. Today God is concealed, which creates a divine pause, stilling our hearts. Today, as the Church waits for the return of the Servant, there are no liturgical celebrations until the Easter Vigil Mass. As the people of God, we are asked to enter into Christ’s rest, a form of self-emptying. As Pope Francis said, “Holy Week is not so much a time of sorrow, but rather a time to enter into Christ’s way of thinking and acting. It is a time of grace given us by the Lord so that we can move beyond a dull or mechanical way of living our faith, and instead open the doors of our hearts.”[2][3]
Written by Sarah Ciotti
Reviewed by Fr. Hugh Feiss, OSB, STD
[1] Unknown, The Lord’s Descent into Hell, ed Pontifical University Saint Thomas Aquinas, Vatican.va.
[2] Francis I, March 27, 2013.
[3] Adrian Nocent, OSB, The Liturgical Year: Lent & Holy Week (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1977), 94-98.

Tonight is my favourite celebration of The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass ~ THE EASTER VIGIL MASS.

When I was younger I always felt that it was too early to celebrate the Resurrection. What an experience though.

In my opinion it's best if the celebration does not begin until late at night so that Mass itself does not begin until after midnight -- IE Sunday. (The Church today makes sure that it follows the Jewish method of keeping track of the days. Holy Saturday ends at sundown.)

What a wonderful and glorious night!
God became Man.
God grew in Mother Mary and was born a humble baby.
God was obedient to His Mother and foster father St. Joseph.
God taught us ... He performed miracles ... He left us His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Blessed Sacrament ... He established His Church which provided us with the bible and His sacraments ... He took our sins upon His sinless Self AND SUFFERED AND DIED OUT OF LOVE FOR US.
Death has no power over God. He was the first to rise from the dead. We shall follow if we so choose.

http://ivehadanepiphany.blogspot.ca/

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/

http://www.sacerdotus.com/

http://www.greatstbarts.com/

https://therottedapple.wordpress.com/

http://www.stpeterslist.com/

GOOD FRIDAY ... O SACRED HEAD

Lyrics: O Sacred Head Surrounded
(Latin: Salve caput cruentatum, St. Bernard)

O Sacred Head surrounded
By crown of piercing thorn!
O bleeding Head so wounded,
Reviled and put to scorn!
Death's pallid hue comes o'er Thee,
The glow of life decays,
Yet angel hosts adore Thee,
And tremble as they gaze.

In this, Thy bitter passion,
Good shepherd, think of me,
With Thy most sweet compassion,
Unworthy though I be:
Beneath Thy cross abiding,
Forever would I rest;
In Thy dear love confiding,
And with Thy presence blest.

Meditation by St. Alphonsus De Liguori

Ah, cruel thorns, ungrateful creatures, wherefore do ye torment your Creator thus? But to what purpose asks St. Augustine, dost thou find fault with the thorns? They were but innocent instruments--our sins, our evil thoughts, were the wicked thorns which afflicted the head of Jesus Christ: "What are the thorns but sinners?"

Thou, too, therefore, O my soul, didst then inflict torture upon the venerable head of thy Redeemer by thy many consentings to evil: Know thou and behold how grievous and bitter it is for thee to have left the Lord thy God." Open now thine eyes, and see, and bitterly bewail all thy life long the evil that thou hast done in so ungratefully turning thy back upon thy Lord and God.

Ah, my Jesus! No, Thou hast not deserved that I should have treated Thee as I have done. I have done evil; I have been in the wrong; I am sorry for it with all my heart. Oh, pardon me, and give me a sorrow which may make me bewail all my life long the wrongs that I have done Thee. My Jesus, my Jesus, pardon me, wishing, as I do, to love Thee forever.

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This always gives me puse for thought:

"Yet angel hosts adore Thee,
And tremble as they gaze."

For Holy Week: THE ROSARY CHANTED IN LATIN.

PASSIONTIDE ~ REFLECTIONS OF SUFFERING

http://luke2-14.blogspot.ca/2014/04/passiontide-and-my-lenten-moment.html

Passiontide -

Two weeks to consider suffering, both Christ's suffering and our own.

Wikipedia has a good summary:

Passiontide (in the Christian liturgical year) is a name for the last two weeks of Lent, beginning on the Fifth Sunday of Lent, long celebrated as Passion Sunday, and ending on Holy Saturday.

In the Roman Catholic Church, and in Anglo-Catholic churches, all crucifixes and images may be covered in veils (usually violet, the color of vestments in Lent) starting on Passion Sunday: "The practice of covering crosses and images in the church may be observed, if the episcopal conference decides. The crosses are to be covered until the end of the celebration of the Lord's passion on Good Friday. Statues and images are to remain covered until the beginning of the Easter Vigil."^[1] (Specifically, those veils are removed during the singing of the Gloria.) The veiling was associated with Passion Sunday's Gospel (John 8:46-59), in which Jesus "hid himself" from the people.^[2]

From Gloria in Excelsis Deo

This veiling of the statues and icons stems from the Gospel reading of Passion Sunday (John 8:46-59), at the end of which the accusers take up stones to cast at Jesus, Who hides Himself away. The veiling also symbolizes the fact that Christ's Divinity was hidden at the time of His Passion and death, the very essence of Passiontide.

I usually follow the traditional calendar even though my local parish follows the modern calendar and celebrates the "Novus Ordo"/ "Ordinary Form" Mass only. When possible I make the trek the the city to assist in a Tridentine Mass.
Since 1969 Passion Sunday and Palm Sunday have been combined into one, making Holy Week also Passiontide.

Mass readings beginning on the fifth Sunday of Lent concentrate on the idea of suffering, particularly Christ's suffering for us.

How do we suffer?
We have to willingly accept ALL THE LITTLE things that cause us any irritation or suffering, be it physical, mental, or spiritual.

We are not animals. An animal does not possess an immortal soul nor the ability to reflect on life. When an animal suffers it is living in the moment. Humans however can reflect back on how things used to be or how we though things were going to be. We can also be afraid of how our suffering may change our future.

Think of Our Lord's suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane. He struggled but willingly accepted the Father's will for Him:

He accepted the physical suffering to come.
He accepted the horrifying idea that He was to take our sins upon His sinless Self.
He accepted being abandoned by his friends and followers ... even to being abandoned by God the Father as he suffered and died a tortuous death on the cross.
He did all this with the full knowledge that people would mock his sacrifice then and down through the centuries.

http://www.zazzle.ca/jesus_christ_agony_in_the_garden_of_gethsemane_photosculpture-153335356698085618

How can we refuse to willingly accept this cold spring?
The toe we just stubbed?
Our inability to meet a deadline?
Our headaches? Our occasional moodiness? Monotony? Fatigue?
I know I have trouble accepting these and more. I much prefer to grumble rather than quietly and willingly accept these small sufferings.

But that is what we are called to do, especially in the coming two weeks.
Suffer with Our Lord. Offer up a prayer that your suffering may be combined with Jesus' for the salvation of souls.

Dear Lord, I offer you (whatever your concern or problem here) For the conversion of sinners For the forgiveness of sins In reparation for sins and For the salvation of souls. Amen.

From http://christhecomrade.blogspot.ca/2012/08/first-friday-of-august-pope-benedict.html

MARCH 19th, THE FEAST of SAINT JOSEPH ought not be overshadowed by St. Patrick's Day ... for most.

I always find it a shame that the feast day of Our Lord's foster father is overshadowed by the St. Patrick's Day festivities of two days before.

March is the Month of St. Joseph March 19th is the Feast Day of St. Joseph.
St. Joseph was chosen by God the Father to be the 'foster father' of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity Incarnate. God's servant Joseph was charged with bringing up God-Made-Man from a baby into manhood. Joseph is a mighty saint ... the one I picked as my patron after converting to the Catholic Church many years ago.

http://www.catholiccompany.com/

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/

http://images.monstermarketplace.com

http://www.saintanneshelper.com/

Lenten meditations

This Lent I find music to be of help.
The Way of the Cross is a wonderful meditation, along with the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary.

O SACRED HEAD(By St. Bernard Of Clairvaux)

O Sacred Head surrounded
By crown of piercing thorn!
O bleeding Head, so wounded, 
Reviled and put to scorn! 
Death's pallid hue comes o'er Thee, 
The glow of life decays, 
Yet angel hosts adore Thee 
And tremble as they gaze. 

I see Thy strength and vigor 
All fading in the strife, 
And death, with cruel vigor, 
Bereaving Thee of life; 
O agony and dying! 
O love to sinners free! 
Jesus, all grace supplying, 
O turn Thy face on me! 

In this Thy bitter Passion, 
Good Shepherd, think. of me, 
With Thy most sweet compassion, 
Unworthy though I be; 
Beneath Thy Cross abiding,
'Forever would I rest, 
In Thy dear love confiding, 
And wilth Thy presence blest.

THE WAY OF THE CROSS