Lent & Holy Week – Page 10

Lent: When fallen humanity humbles himself before divine justice

Lent needs some explanation. The liturgical season is so vast and complex one needs to enter into this period of preparation for Easter with eyes wide open. It is a time for our conversion. The famous 19th century Benedictine monk Dom Prosper Guéranger (founder and Abbot of the Abbey of Solesmes 1837-1875) wrote brilliantly of the our Christian life of prayer in a multi-volume collection that is unfinished, The Liturgical Year. While Guéranger’s images are typical of the 19th century, they remain crucial, I contend.

Here is his piece on Lent:

Yesterday, the world was busy in its pleasures, and the very children of God were taking a joyous farewell to mirth: but this morning, all is changed. The solemn announcement, spoken of by the prophet, has been proclaimed in Sion: the solemn fast of Lent, the season of expiation, the approach of the great anniversaries of our Redemption. Let us, then, rouse ourselves, and prepare for the spiritual combat.

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Lent’s begun: let’s do spiritual battle against sin

“…is essentially a gesture of humility, which means that I recognise myself for what I am: a fragile creature made of earth and destined to return to the earth, but also made in the image of God and destined to return to him.” (Benedict XVI)

The pope’s teaching is heard here…

Prayer

In preparation for today, Ash Wednesday, pray with the readings for the day: Joel 2:12-18; Psalm 51, 12-13, 14 and 17; 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18. It is a great lenten practice to review and pray with the daily scripture readings during Lent by visiting the U.S. bishops’ website, www.usccb.org/bible/readings.

Asking Lord for forgiveness by receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation and attending daily Mass.

Spending time with the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is a superb spiritual practice. 15 minutes in quiet prayer is a true blessing. Time in silence and listening to the Lord and you talking with the Lord from your heart builds a relationship with Him.

Pray the Rosary.

Let’s pray for one another.

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Melkite and Maronite Churches begin Lent today

The Byzantine Catholic Church, along with the Maronite
Church, begin the Lenten observance. The Byzantines call today Clean Monday,
the first day of the Great Fast. Maronites call today “Ash Monday.” The
Byzantine Orthodox Church will open their Lent on Monday, February 27.

The Latin Church begins her Lent on Wednesday, 22 February.

Among
the Byzantines the traditional liturgical practice is to celebrate Great
Compline, which will include the singing of a portion of the Great Canon of
Saint Andrew of Crete. Find a Melkite parish near you to celebrate
Compline tonight.

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Pope urges concern for others, reciprocity and personal holiness for lenten lessons

The Pope’s lenten message for the Church is rooted in the Letter to the Hebrews by which he develops three aspects of Christian life: concern for others, reciprocity and one’s holiness. As he says at the start, Hebrews tells us to have confidence in, trust in, Jesus who is our high priest. The presentation of the message is made by Cardinal Robert Sarah.

Lent begins February 22 with the imposition of ashes beginning a 40 day season of fasting, prayer and almsgiving. In some segments of the Church, spiritual preparations have begun with observing the preparatory Sundays –the pre-Lent– whereby Christians begin engaging more and more in acts of penance. The Church recommends a gradual acceptance of penance rather than a full scale plunge. One of my favorite narratives in the Gospel is the Transfiguration of Christ. Here Giovanni Bellini does a terrific job in developing my Catholic imagination in helping me to focus on Christ rather than myself. With the assistance of Pope Benedict’s lenten message we can help grace become more and more part of our own humanity whereby we are transfigured from doing sinful things to doing things of true Charity.

“Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works”

(Hebrews 10:24)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Lenten season offers us once again an opportunity to reflect upon the very heart of Christian life: charity. This is a favourable time to renew our journey of faith, both as individuals and as a community, with the help of the word of God and the sacraments. This journey is one marked by prayer and sharing, silence and fasting, in anticipation of the joy of Easter.

This year I would like to propose a few thoughts in the light of a brief biblical passage drawn from the Letter to the Hebrews: “Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works”. These words are part of a passage in which the sacred author exhorts us to trust in Jesus Christ as the High Priest who has won us forgiveness and opened up a pathway to God. Embracing Christ bears fruit in a life structured by the three theological virtues: it means approaching the Lord “sincere in heart and filled with faith” (v. 22), keeping firm “in the hope we profess” (v. 23) and ever mindful of living a life of “love and good works” (v. 24) together with our brothers and sisters. The author states that to sustain this life shaped by the Gospel it is important to participate in the liturgy and community prayer, mindful of the eschatological goal of full communion in God (v. 25). Here I would like to reflect on verse 24, which offers a succinct, valuable and ever timely teaching on the three aspects of Christian life: concern for others, reciprocity and personal holiness.

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Christ crucified transforms the old man, a new creation: is our gaze on Him?

The Church is silent. The Lord is dead; His mother and the Beloved disciple have buried the Lord. We carry on in sorrow, our hearts are quiet and searching for the one who made the promise that things would be different if we believed in Him. Holy Saturday is a distinct day in the Church. Good Friday totally transforms us from something old to something new, this is a time of patient awareness that it is not business as usual. If it is, if we can’t see that our real lives are not the same, then we need to beg the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Mother to show the reasons why life is different now with Jesus crucified and in the tomb.

Pope Benedict’s meditation at the Colosseum lst evening gives us focus:

This evening, in faith, we have accompanied Jesus as he takes the final steps of his earthly journey, the most painful steps, the steps that lead to Calvary. We have heard the cries of the crowd, the words of condemnation, the insults of the soldiers, the lamentation of the Virgin Mary and of the women. Now we are immersed in the silence of this night, in the silence of the cross, the silence of death. It is a silence pregnant with the burden of pain borne by a man rejected, oppressed, downtrodden, the burden of sin which mars his face, the burden of evil. Tonight we have re-lived, deep within our hearts, the drama of Jesus, weighed down by pain, by evil, by human sin.

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Fr Cantalamessa: Good Friday – there is one truth…

The papal preacher preaches to the Pope each Good Friday. A distinction not given to many. The renown Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa said many good things to think about, not a few points that are crucial to our own witness of the Gospel, a few are given here now. The link to his homily is given below.

There is a truth that must be proclaimed loud and
clear on Good Friday. The One whom we contemplate on the cross is God “in
person.” Yes, he is also the man Jesus of Nazareth, but that man is one person
with the Son of the Eternal Father. As long as the fundamental dogma of the
Christian faith is not recognized and taken seriously — the first dogma
defined at Nicea, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and is himself God, of
one substance with the Father — human suffering will remain unanswered.

The
response of the cross is not for us Christians alone, but for everyone, because
the Son of God died for all. There is in the mystery of redemption an objective
and a subjective aspect. There is the fact in itself, and then awareness of the
fact and our faith-response to it. The first extends beyond the second. “The
Holy Spirit,” says a text of Vatican II, “offers to all the possibility of
being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery.”

One thing
distinguishes genuine accounts of martyrdom from legendary ones composed later,
after the end of the persecutions. In the former, there is almost no trace of
polemics against the persecutors; all attention is concentrated on the heroism
of the martyrs, not on the perversity of the judges and executioners. St.
Cyprian even ordered his followers to give twenty-five gold coins to the
executioner who beheaded him. These are the disciples of the one who died
saying: “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.” Truly, “Jesus’ blood speaks a different language from the blood of Abel
(Hebrews 12:24): it does not cry out for vengeance and punishment; it brings
reconciliation.”

Read the papal preacher’s homily in full here: Fr Cantalamessa Good Friday homily 2011.pdf

Christ’s love is both horizontal and vertical

Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the Scripture: “I thirst.” A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished”; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

“I thirst.” “It is finished.” With these two phrases Jesus, looking first to humanity and then to the Father, bequeaths to us the burning passion at the heart of his person and mission: love for man and obedience to the Father. His is a love both horizontal and vertical: in the shape of the cross! And at the intersection of this twofold love, at the place where Jesus bows his head, the Holy Spirit wells up, the first fruits of his return to the Father.

This final breath which brings Jesus’ life to completion evokes the work of creation, which now is redeemed. But it is also a summons to all of us who believe in him to “bring to completion in our own flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions”. That all may be complete!

Lord Jesus, who died for our sake!
You ask, that you may give,
you die, that you may leave a legacy,
and thus you make us see that the gift of self
opens a space for unity.
Pardon the gall of our rejection and unbelief,
pardon the deafness of our hearts
to your cry of thirst
which echoes in the suffering of our many brothers and sisters.

Come, Holy Spirit,
parting gift of the Son who dies for us:
may you be the guide who “leads us into all the truth”
and “the root which sustains us in unity”!

Spy Wednesday: dancing with the devil?

Here we are: Spy Wednesday, the eve of the sacred Triduum. Lent is about to end and we’re entering into a liturgical period and facing the Paschal Mystery of Christ. The term “Spy Wednesday” is not heard often these but we get the point: the struggle between life and death, sin and grace, friendship and betrayal, good and evil.

Jesus shares the Passover meal his closest collaborators, he was having “Communio” with his friends and not strangers and one among them has already set in motion the process of betrayal. The intimacy once shared vigorously is now betrayed; it is one of the most terrible experiences any person can live through.

Spy Wednesday is not a day to point the finger at someone else’s problem. It’s a day to examine the soul to understand the ways we’ve betrayed Christ in simple and also likely profound ways. There is portion of Judas in all of us. While we may not have used 30 pieces of silver but perhaps we’ve opened the door to evil.

How different are you going to live today?

Walking that new path of liberation by the gravitational force of God’s love, Pope Benedict tells

Pope Benedict is nothing if not a master of the spiritual life and superb pastor of souls. His Palm Sunday homily delivered earlier today is extraordinarily beautiful for its content and style , but most importantly it gives us a path to Jesus. He’s not giving a legacy; he’s giving us truth.

It is a moving
experience each year on Palm Sunday as we go up the mountain with Jesus,
towards the Temple, accompanying him on his ascent. On this day, throughout the
world and across the centuries, young people and people of every age acclaim
him, crying out: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord!”

But what are we really doing when we join this procession as
part of the throng which went up with Jesus to Jerusalem and hailed him as King
of Israel? Is this anything more than a ritual, a quaint custom? Does it have
anything to do with the reality of our life and our world? To answer this, we
must first be clear about what Jesus himself wished to do and actually did.
After Peter’s confession of faith in Caesarea Philippi, in the northernmost
part of the Holy Land, Jesus set out as a pilgrim towards Jerusalem for the
feast of Passover. He was journeying towards the Temple in the Holy City,
towards that place which for Israel ensured in a particular way God’s closeness
to his people. He was making his way towards the common feast of Passover, the
memorial of Israel’s liberation from Egypt and the sign of its hope of
definitive liberation. He knew that what awaited him was a new Passover and
that he himself would take the place of the sacrificial lambs by offering
himself on the cross. He knew that in the mysterious gifts of bread and wine he
would give himself for ever to his own, and that he would open to them the door
to a new path of liberation, to fellowship with the living God. He was making
his way to the heights of the Cross, to the moment of self-giving love. The
ultimate goal of his pilgrimage was the heights of God himself; to those
heights he wanted to lift every human being.

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Category: Lent & Holy Week