Venite Prandete

  FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT PASSION SUNDAY 21st MARCH The fifth Sunday of Lent is the start of Passiontide, the two week period leading up to Good Friday, culminating in Easter Sunday, in which the focus of Holy Mother Church turns to the Passion of Our Lord - the word “Passion” from the Latin, meaning “suffering”. From today until Holy Saturday, after Grace and at the finish of each decade of the Rosary, (instead of the Gloria Patri), is said: V. Christus factus est pro nobis obediens usque ad mortem. R. Mortem autem crucis. [V. Christ was obedient unto death. R. Death by the Cross]. The Church enters a mournful period of the Liturgy, more solemn than the hitherto reflective period of the Lenten preparation. The statues are veiled and remain covered until the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday, specifically at the singing of the Gloria. The statues and pictures are covered with a plain, unornamented violet veil before Vespers on the Saturday preceding, with the exception of the Stations of ...

  LAETARE SUNDAY - THE GOLDEN ROSE FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT 14th MARCH Golden Rose of Minucchio da Siena (1330) given by Pope John XXIII to Rudolph III of Nidau, Count of Neuchatel. (John XXIII was an anti-Pope and is said to have been "worthless in spiritual things"). Golden Rose of the Basilica of Our Lady of Scherpenheuvel - given by Pope Benedict XVI on 15th May 2011. Dom Prosper Gueranger describes the solemnity of Laetare Sunday and its traditions (1): “This Sunday, called from the first word of the Introit, Laetare Sunday, is one of the most solemn of the year. The Church interrupts her Lenten mournfulness; the chants of the Mass speak of nothing but joy and consolation; the organ, which has been silent during the preceding three Sundays, now gives forth its melodious voice; the deacon resumes his dalmatic, and the sub-deacon his tunic; and instead of purple, rose-coloured vestments are allowed to be used. These same rites were practised in Advent, on the third Sunday, c...

  ASH WEDNESDAY; 17th FEBRUARY The season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday – a day of public penance, in which the community as a group wear the symbols of mourning, the ashes, on our foreheads. In the Mass, the priest places the mark of the Cross on our foreheads, saying (Genesis 3, 19): "Momento homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris". "Remember man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return". Ashes are an ancient biblical sign of repentance for our sin, remembering our mortality and praying for others- uniting our intense time of prayer in drawing closer to God by detaching ourselves from the pleasures of this world. The Jews of the time of Christ would undertake public penance by the wearing of sackcloth and covering themselves with ashes, (see Daniel 9, 3. Maccabees 1, 3, 47. Ester 14, 1-3). The ashes are symbolic of public penance and repentance - that of a penance undertaken by the community as a group. In this, we are united in our commun...

  THE SECOND PART OF THE LITURGICAL YEAR THE EASTER CYCLE SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY 31st JANUARY The Christmas cycle celebrates the Mystery of the Incarnation. The Easter cycle celebrates the Mystery of the Redemption. (1) Septuagesima Sunday is the beginning of the Easter cycle, introducing the Season of Lent. The Roman Missal expresses it this way: Introduced by three Sundays, (Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima), the season of Lent begins of Ash Wednesday and ends with the death of Jesus in Passion Week. The struggle between Our Lord and Satan ends with the victory of the Saviour at Eastertide. During the period from Septuagesima to Ash Wednesday, the liturgy speaks no more of our greatness but contemplates the misery of our fallen humanity- the fatal consequences of original sin-and the sacrifice that God asked from the faithful Melchisedech, symbol of the sacrifice that Jesus brings for the whole of humanity. In this period we prepare for the fasting and penance of the seas...