The Ecclesiastical Year and the Sacred Liturgy

The Ecclesiastical Year and the Sacred Liturgy

The Divisions of the Ecclesiastical Year

The ecclesiastical year begins on the first Sunday of Advent, that is, on the Sunday next, whether before or after, the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, November 30.

Following this are the four weeks of Advent and the Christmas festivals, ending with the Epiphany, January 6.

The Sundays that follow are called the first, the second, and so forth, after the Epiphany. They are never more than six in number, and their series is, as a rule, interrupted by the coming of Septuagesima Sunday, which is the ninth before Easter and the first of those on which the liturgy is of a penitential character.

Septuagesima is followed by Sexagesima and Quinquagesima; this last is the Sunday next before Ash Wednesday, on which Lent begins. Lent has six Sundays: the two last of these are, respectively, Passion Sunday and Palm Sunday. The week beginning with Palm Sunday, that in which Our Lord was betrayed and crucified, is known as Holy Week. Easter Sunday, the feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord, upon the date of which the foregoing celebrations depend, is the Sunday next following the full moon first occurring after the twentieth day of the month of March. The earliest possible date for Easter is March 22, and the latest April 25.

The weeks between Easter and Trinity Sunday are known as Paschal Time. Forty days after Easter is the feast of the Ascension of Our Lord, which always falls on a Thursday; and ten days later, that is on the seventh Sunday and fiftieth day after Easter, is the feast of the Descent of the Holy Ghost, called Pentecost or Whit-Sunday. Trinity Sunday is the Sunday next following; on the Thursday after this Holy Church celebrates Corpus Christi, the festival of the Most Holy Sacrament, and after its octave day the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, with which her cycle of movable feasts ends.

The remaining Sundays of the year, which cannot number more than twenty-eight nor less than twenty-three, are described as the third, fourth, etc., after Pentecost.

The Movable Feasts Around Which the Ecclesiastical Year Is Arranged.

The Sundays after Epiphany and Pentecost.—Easter may occur as early as March 22, and as late as April 25. This movable feast determines the date of other movable feasts, such as the Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity, and so forth. When Easter is exceedingly early there is not sufficient time between Epiphany and Septuagesima Sunday for the six Sundays, as found in the liturgy, after Epiphany, whereas after Pentecost more than the twenty-four prescribed Sundays will be needed to complete the ecclesiastical year. It may happen, too, when Easter is late that there are not twenty-four Sundays after Pentecost.

The Sundays omitted after Epiphany are employed, as far as necessary, to make up the number required after Pentecost, that is, the liturgical parts with some slight changes are transferred. When one Sunday only is required, the sixth Sunday after Epiphany is taken; if two are necessary to fill out the ecclesiastical year, the fifth and sixth Sundays after Epiphany are transferred, or, if necessary, the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth.

Because of the special liturgical features of the twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost, this Sunday comes last, though it be the twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth, and so forth. The Sundays transferred as above are placed after the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost. Septuagesima Sunday can not be earlier than January 18 or later than February 22. There may be as few as twenty-three Sundays after Pentecost, and as many as twenty-eight. When there are only twenty-three Sundays after Pentecost, the twenty-fourth will retain Sunday, while the twenty-third will be observed, rubrics permitting, on the day before (Saturday). The office of one of the Sundays after Epiphany, namely, the third, fourth, fifth, or sixth (there are special rubrics for the second), when it would otherwise be omitted, is said on the Saturday which immediately precedes Septuagesima Sunday.

Besides the above celebrations, there is the calendar of festivals fixed to particular days of the month. This varies according to the country and the diocese. The calendar (see list of contents) shows all festivals that are of obligatory observance throughout the Christian world.

Those festivals that are special to the United States, and certain others kept in various Religious Orders, have been placed in several special Supplements and will be found immediately after the Masses for the Dead (page 1546). To find a certain feast, consult the Alphabetical Index at the back of the book as every Mass and Feast in this missal is given therein. The calendar suffices for general needs to show what Mass is to be said on any particular day, but to ensure accuracy in every detail the directory or Ordo annually published in the locality should be consulted. This is the more necessary because of the overlapping of movable and fixed feasts, which often involves the transfer, or putting off, to another day of the one or the other. As a rule a feast of lesser always yields to one of higher liturgical rank.

Note: The reader is again advised to study the section in the front part of the book entitled, Read Mass with the Priest, which will enable him to use this book readily and appreciate its relation to the character of the Ecclesiastical Year as explained in this portion.

The Sacred Liturgy

The Yearly Liturgical Cycle

Liturgy in its full meaning is a vast and intelligent putting together of the affections toward the Supreme and Infinite Good by means of which the Church carries on forever that perfect worship in spirit and in truth which Christ came to render unceasingly to His divine Father. It includes all the sacrifices, rites, and chants, as well as the artistic inspirations in the mind of the painters, the sculptors, and the architects, who unite their talents and their prayers so that there may evolve therefrom the sacred edifice of the Catholic Church.

The Liturgy is not only the rule of prayer; it is the rule of faith. “The law of praying, is the law of believing.” It not only comprises the relations or aspirations of the Church to Christ and to God, but also contains and transmits to us who have faith the divine word of the most Holy Trinity. It puts to the proof the efficacy of its prayers on the divine heart, and exerts a powerful influence on the “naturally Christian soul” of man, and in a special manner on the religious education of the masses. It has an immense influence on the catechetical training of the faithful; in former days the collective participation in the Liturgy with the fervor and spirit desired by our Mother the Church would be a great source of knowledge as well as of devotion. The Liturgy, as the true mouthpiece of God, aims at being eminently for the people, because it treats man according to his nature, that is, as a being formed of both spirit and matter, who, consequently, infers and abstracts that which is conceivable from that which is perceptible, and which, by reason of its external qualities, is manifest to the senses. So in order to be sure of reaching the intellect, it first conquers and subjugates the senses and the heart, and by means of all the attractions of art, painting, sculpture, and architecture, of music, poetry, and literature, binds the imagination and compels it to act as the handmaid of faith, at the very moment in which it transmits to the intellect the message of God.

Despite the many associations and celebrations in our day the knowledge of God makes but little headway even amongst Christians. Even those who are Catholics in name and in intention often know very little of the Catechism, and even if, for the most part, they are not ignorant of the actual words of the Acts of faith, hope, and charity, yet one cannot therefore say that the Gospel is in truth the standard and rule of life of all those who inscribe their names in the various Catholic societies.

A fatal error of the Reformation was that of individualizing religion through the principle of private judgment, and of presenting before God the Father, not one great family united by faith, but isolated individuals. The spirit of the Catholic Liturgy, on the other hand, is essentially social, in its character public, tangible, and dramatic. In this lies the secret of its early popularity.

The Church, says St. Ambrose, presents the most perfect form of admirable community and social life. As it has been redeemed collectively, and as it is collective in its constitution, so it believes, hopes, and loves collectively, combats collectively, is persecuted collectively, prays and triumphs collectively. The Church lives through Christ; not through Christ the Head separated from His mystical body, but through Christ, Head and Body, which is the Church.

The sacred Liturgy contains a spiritual teaching which is the most complete in itself, because it does not dwell almost conclusively, as so many personal devotions do, on one particular mystery, but in the course of the entire year it unfolds before the faithful and explains to them in a marvellous order the whole series of the dogmas concerning our holy redemption.

The Liturgy is best put into practice, in the hearing of Mass and receiving of Holy Communion, by keeping in touch with the various cycles of the sacred Liturgy, all of which lead to Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, and demonstrate in the sacrifice of the cross and the altar the realization and continuation of all that they offer to our faith, our hope, and our love.

From the late middle ages we distinguish in the Missal and the Breviary two parts—the Proper of the time (Proprium de Tempore) and the Proper of the Saints (Proprium Sanctorum). The Proper of the Saints is intended not to weaken nor replace the temporal cycle, but to adorn it and give it greater variety and grace, in the manner in which an artist would surround the figure of Christ in the apse of a Christian basilica with a circle of martyrs. The Proper of the Time occupies the entire year, so that the faithful may not simply glance at the mysteries, but by continuous acts of piety and practices of devotion assimilate them and be transformed in them. The true liturgical cycle of the Church is represented by the Proprium de Tempore, which, beginning with Advent, passes through the four weeks of expectation before Christmas, through the Epiphany, the forty days of Christ’s fasting in the desert, the two weeks of His Passion, the fifty days of the Paschal feasts, and on to the Ascension and Pentecost, completing in this way our catechetical instruction on the mystery of Christ.

To this long cycle of fifty-two weeks, which contains the vivid and dramatic unfolding of the whole Christian catechism, it is as well to add that other short cycle, which, during the course of each week, celebrates the divine masterpiece of the six days of the Creation and draws a parallel between them and the acts of grace in the regeneration of the world through the blood of the Saviour.

There remains lastly a daily cycle, which, divided into seven periods, or, as the Breviary calls them, canonical hours, especially commemorates each day the mysteries of the Passion and death of our Saviour. This last daily cycle, which is the basis of the other two cycles, forms in its turn the setting, as it were, of the Eucharistic sacrifice which is daily offered up to God as the act of perfect worship in spirit and in truth which redeemed humanity offers to the ever-blessed Trinity.

One only God, one only Church, one only form of Catholic piety, one complete whole, but with many sides; like a complex but closely connected organism, or rather, like a harmony produced by an infinity of sounds; we know only one devotion which fulfils all these conditions and blends in one harmony theology, art, architecture, music, all that is most true, most beautiful, and most worthy in this poor world: in a word, that which we have from the first called in the fullest significance of the word—“Catholic Liturgy.”

The Sacred Liturgy from Advent to Septuagesima

First Part of the Ecclesiastical Year: 1. First Sunday of Advent to Christmas Eve. 2. Christmas to the Octave of the Epiphany. 3. Epiphany Octave to Septuagesima Sunday.

The essential object of the Liturgy’s yearly cycle is to adore in spirit and in truth, to praise, to propitiate and to offer thanksgiving to the triune God for His great glory and goodness. This glory and this goodness are especially manifest in the twofold work of cosmic creation and human redemption; hence in early times these two theophanies (divine manifestations) of the divine magnificence, while they afforded the central theme of the Eucharistic prayer and sacrifice, likewise gave inspiration to the liturgical cycle, as well for the week as for the year.

In the ancient Roman Liturgy, as well as that of other churches, there were two distinct cycles, the weekly and the yearly. The days of the week commemorate the six days of creation, while the annual cycle celebrated the work of our redemption. The Vesper hymns of St. Ambrose celebrate in beautiful words the work of each day of creation. The mysteries fulfilled by Our Saviour in traversing the way of redemption are honored, on the other hand, by a succession of feasts, which, beginning with Advent, and going on to Christmas, Lent, Easter and the twenty-four Sundays after Pentecost, embraces the whole year, and always maintains a wonderful harmony between the logical order of ideas and the chronological sequence of events. The weekly cycle recalls the work of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; that of the year deals rather with our salvation and our last end, but both the one and the other have as their permanent objective the glorifying of God in His manifestations of power and of love.

1. Advent

From the stem of Jesse, according to the prophecy of Isaias, there came forth a most fair flower, and that flower was Christ. It is therefore only natural that there should be a continuity between the liturgy of the synagogue and that of the Christian faith. The authority of Imperial Rome even confused the Christians with the Jews; during the transitional period the Christian family, presenting the outward and legal appearance of a Jewish community, borrowed therefrom likewise various liturgical usages which still form part of her Sacred patrimony, and, like her faith, are, so to speak, of the seed of Abraham and of Israel by origin and descent.

The Roman Advent bore a joyful character; now we regard this season as a penitential time, or at least, a time in which the absence of Christ is stressed in the Liturgy. Until recent years it was customary in the United States to fast on the Fridays of Advent, but this is no longer done. It is a season of preparation, because during all the years before the birth of Our Saviour, the events of human history led up to this central fact.

The chants of the Mass, the responsories, the antiphons of the divine Office, all contain Alleluias. The Gloria in excelsis is omitted from the ferial Masses until Christmas. It would seem that the whole of nature, looking forward, as the Apostle describes it, to the last judgment, awaiting the revelation of the Son of God, feels herself uplifted by the Incarnation of the Word of God, Who after so many ages of waiting, comes at length into this world to bring His greatest handiwork to its final perfection. The Sacred Liturgy, during this time, gathers from the Scriptures all those passages which are most forcible and best adapted to express the intense and joyful longing with which the holy patriarchs, the prophets and the just men of the Old Testament hastened by their prayers the coming of the Son of God. We cannot do better than associate ourselves with their pious feelings, and pray the Word made Flesh that He will deign to be born in the hearts of all men and spread His kingdom likewise throughout those many lands where His holy Name has not hitherto been made known, and whose inhabitants still sleep in darkness and the shadow of death.

2. Christmas Season

The period from Christmas to the Octave of the Epiphany is filled with first of all the festal days commemorating the birth of Our Saviour and His manifestation of Himself to the world, and secondly, with the feasts of saints associated with Our Saviour’s birth, or by tradition occupying these places in the Cycle of the Saints. From all eternity the Son of God lived with the Father and the Holy Ghost; on Christmas we celebrate the Word made Flesh, Christ born for us.

The exact day of Our Lord’s birth on earth has never been revealed to us; but the Roman Church has, from early ages, set apart for its solemn celebration the twenty-fifth day of December. In the East, however, the birthday of Our Lord is kept on the sixth of January, and for that reason the one and the other festival has been continued, that of December 25 as the Nativity of Our Lord, that of January 6 as His Epiphany, or manifestation to the Gentiles.

Only on two days of the year may the priest celebrate three Masses, on the day of the commemoration of All Souls, and on Christmas. In the last instance, when sung, the first Mass is appointed for midnight, the second for daybreak, the third for the customary hour of high Mass. In the second Mass a commemoration is made of St. Anastasia, a holy Roman matron, who suffered martyrdom under Diocletian (A. D. 304), and whose feast is kept on December 25.

3. Epiphany Octave to Septuagesima Sunday

The Sundays of the year are now counted after the Epiphany and after Pentecost. The number after the Epiphany before Septuagesima changes according to the earlier or later date of Easter.

Generally speaking the Sundays throughout the year had no fixed Station, or Church at which the Pope said Mass. This is true outside of Advent, Lent and Eastertime, except in a few cases such as the Second Sunday after the Epiphany. The Chants (Introit and other Propers) of the Third Sunday after Epiphany are repeated on the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth when such Sundays occur. The Epistles are taken from St. Paul, a rule which continues until the Easter Cycle.

The Church goes back to the regular or usual order in the Office and Mass. The green vestments are used for the Sunday and ferial Masses. On such days a commemoration is made of Our Blessed Lady and the prayer said is for the Church or Pope.

The Sacred Liturgy from Septuagesima to Easter

Second Part of the Ecclesiastical Year: 1. Septuagesima to Passion Sunday. 2. Passion Time and Holy Week.

In the Church of the Apostolic time the custom existed of keeping a vigil each Saturday in expectation of the coming of the Lord. Wednesday and Friday were fast days, the basis of the liturgical week. This primitive fast and vigil was known by the military term statio; as kept by the Christians it was of a wholly voluntary character.

The very spirit and supernatural character of Christianity must, even before the canons of the Councils existed, have given rise to special observances in preparation for Easter. Otherwise it would be difficult to explain the different rules of the various churches in this matter. Thus, whilst originally the fast lasted a week at Alexandria, at Rome, and in Gaul, other churches kept as a fast only the last two days of Holy Week, from the Lord’s Supper on Maundy Thursday until Easter morning, precisely as was done, we are told by the Apostle St. James the Just.

The Council of Nicæa, fixed the duration of the fast at forty days. St. Gregory introduced a three weeks’ preparation for Lent. At Jerusalem the Holy Sacrifice was not offered up on week-days during Lent, but at Rome Mass was omitted only on the last two days. A trace of this custom remains in the omission of Mass on Good Friday.

At the stational Masses the Kyrie and Litany were not said; the Litany was recited on the way from the place of the gathering (Collecta) to the stational church. The Introit was, however, repeated and the other ceremonies carried out. Lent was also the preparatory period for the catechumens who were baptized on Holy Saturday.

Nowadays the changed conditions-of social life have caused the Church herself to introduce some minor alterations into her rites. The preparatory ritual for catechumens has long fallen into disuse, but this does not mean that the Lenten liturgy has lost its living force, for even in these latter times many souls outside the fold of the Catholic Church await the touch of heavenly grace, and it is the duty of the Church to hasten by her prayers the hour of their conversion—Oremus et pro catechumenis nostris—as we are taught to say in the Office for Good Friday.

Lent, moreover, is the season of penitence, of amendment of life, of preparation for Easter, and these conditions of the spiritual pilgrimage transcend the ages and still continue the common duty of all the faithful.

The holy joys of Easter will shine more radiantly and will touch the heart of the Christian more intimately if, purified by penance, he shall have rendered himself worthy to live a supernatural life given entirely to God, after the likeness of the risen Christ, of Whom St. Paul writes: “He dies once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God.”

The Sacred Liturgy During the Easter Cycle

Third Part of the Ecclesiastical Year: 1. Easter to Pentecost. 2. Time after Pentecost.

Following the death of Christ on the Cross, which paid the penalty for our sins, the Church knowing that this death was for our redemption, remembers even the crown of thorns as a crown of glory. After contemplating Christ upon the cross we now eagerly await His rising from the dead. When two days have passed the time comes at last for this poor weakened humanity, torn and bruised in the divine person of the Crucified, having now made fitting satisfaction to God for its sins, to be restored to its former honorable state. Jesus on the cross yields himself up into the hands of the Father. The Father accepts the offering—a lifeless body covered with wounds and bruises—and pressing it to His heart, warms it with the fire of His very being, and communicates to it His own divine life. Jesus rises again from death at the dawn of the third day, and as He had associated the entire human race with Himself in His atonement, so now He shares His triumph with His whole mystical body on Whom He, as head, sheds the glory of His resurrection.

The Eastertime proper extends from Easter Saturday to Pentecost Sunday. In the United States the period allowed for fulfilling the precept of Easter Communion extends from the first Sunday of Lent to Trinity Sunday. The prayers and masses of this season are all joyful; the Alleluia is restored to the Liturgy and repeated many times. Instead of the Asperges, the Vidi aquam recalling the baptism of the neophytes is sung before the principal mass on Sundays. The paschal candle is given an honored place for it symbolizes the presence of Christ on earth; it is extinguished on Ascension Day. The feasts of Eastertime are chiefly those of martyrs who straightway after death are admitted into Heaven.

The Sacred Liturgy During the Time After Pentecost

After Pentecost, the work of the regeneration of the human race has reached its highest point. Christ and the Paraclete live and dwell within the hearts of the faithful, who are thus able to render to the august Triad that perfect adoration in spirit and in truth which alone the Father desires. This is the profound significance of the feast of the most holy Trinity which closes the Octave of Pentecost, and begins the cycle of the twenty-four weeks or so which elapse between Trinity Sunday and Advent. This long cycle, which comprises nearly half the liturgical year, represents the daily history of the Church throughout the ages, a history which begins with the first Christian Pentecost, celebrated by the Apostles in the Upper Room, and which comes to a close with the coming of Christ as Judge, in His second Advent at the end of the world. This is the inner meaning of the two Gospel passages concerning the end of the world and the appearance of the divine Judge which the Liturgy causes to be read on the last Sunday after Pentecost and on the first Sunday in Advent.

During the cycle of the Sundays after Pentecost the marks of the Church, one, holy, catholic and apostolic in her being and in her life, are magnificently expressed in her Liturgy. Through the reading of the Epistles of the Princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul, we experience over again their preaching and realize that the edifice of our faith rests on that one prophetic and apostolic foundation upon which Christ has built His Church. The history of the early Church contains also the forecast of that which the life of Christ’s flock was to be in the ages to come.

Explanation of the Liturgy of the Proper of Time

First Sunday of Advent

Station at St. Mary Major¹

The Roman Missal to-day begins the liturgical cycle. The Incarnation is the true central point which divides the course of the ages. By the period of preparation called Advent, the ages before Christ and leading us to His birth are recalled; following the feast of Christmas the great events in the life of Christ and the ages that lead toward the final judgment are kept in mind. The Missal, therefore, is logical and corresponds closely to this lofty concept of history, by which the Incarnation is made the true central event in the world’s drama. The early Christians began their liturgical cycle with the festival of Christmas; the present arrangement came into use towards the middle of the fifth century.

The spirit of the sacred Liturgy during Advent, full of the joyful announcement of approaching freedom, is one of holy enthusiasm, tender gratitude, and an intense longing for the coming of the Word of God in the hearts of all the children of Adam.

The Introit gives eloquent expression to the feelings of humanity, cast down, yet full of hope, and begs the Saviour to bring it back into the path which leads to Bethlehem, along the way of truth and justice. The Epistle calls upon us after our period of slackness and spiritual lethargy to rouse from sleep. The Church in the Gospel connects the second coming of Our Lord at the end of the world with his first appearance at Bethlehem as Our Redeemer. At one time the Dies iræ, dies illa, now used in masses for the dead, was sung on this day before the Gospel.

Man is made up of spirit and flesh, and whilst the former is desirous of being drawn towards truth and love, the latter understands only such good or evil as can be perceived by the senses, and must therefore be held in check by penance and by a salutary fear of the judgments of almighty God.

The indulgences of the Roman Stations are:

Plenary Indulgence (under the usual conditions).

1. To those who on the day of a Station devoutly visit the Church and assist at functions morning or evening, according to the local custom or the instruction of the Pope.

2. If there be no public services in the Church, by saying before the Blessed Sacrament the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be to the Father, five times; adding the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be to the Father, three times before any relics set out for veneration, and the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be to the Father, at least once for the intention of the Pope.

Partial Indulgence of ten years to all members who make a visit to the Church and recite the prayers above. (Pius XI, April 12, 1932; cfr. Sacr. Pœnit., Feb. 25, 1933.)

The Second Sunday of Advent

Station at Holy Cross in Jerusalem

After Bethlehem and the manger comes Golgotha with the cross already shining far off over the peaceful country of Ephrata, where the Incarnate Word first appeared upon earth. The station is therefore at the Sessorian Basilica—the Roman counterpart of the Martyrdom at Jerusalem. Here was kept the holy cross which the Empress Helena had presented to the Church in Rome. Many allusions are made to-day to Jerusalem in the Liturgy.

The Prayer is inspired by the famous cry of the Baptist, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord;” so we pray to God to pour His grace into our hearts. This preparation consists in the spirit of contrition purifying the soul and in the sincere purpose of obedience to the divine precepts.

In the Epistle St. Paul in a few touches sketches the mission of the Redeemer to establish all mankind in one single family, the Church. The Gospel testifies to the divinity of Christ by deeds rather than by words.

The Eucharistic grace for which we beg in the Post-Communion is that the holy bread, the memorial of the death of Our Lord, may destroy in us the germs of evil and may nourish us unto everlasting life.

The Third Sunday of Advent

Station at St. Peter’s

In Rome on the fourth Sunday of Advent there was no station—because of the great ordinations of priests and deacons, mense Decembri, which took place on the preceding night—hence this third station preparatory to Christmas was celebrated at St. Peter’s with great splendor.

The stational Mass for this day, as it immediately precedes the Christmas season, had originally a strikingly festive character. We know the novenas and triduums in preparation for the greater feasts are of later origin, and in the golden age of the Liturgy these weeks before Easter and Christmas, with their vigiliary Masses and stational synaxes at the most famous basilicas of the Eternal City, were intended to prepare the souls of the faithful and to obtain for them from heaven the grace to profit by the various solemnities of the liturgical cycle.

The note of joy has diminished somewhat in modern times; however, at the Mass the sacred ministers are clothed in rose-colored vestments in place of the customary ones of violet, and the organ once again fills the aisles with its strains.

To dispose our souls for the worthy reception of divine grace demands suitable preparation before approaching the sacraments, by giving due care to prayer and meditation. Wholly immersed in vain and worldly desires Jerusalem was indeed ill-prepared to see the King of Glory in the Man of Sorrows. Ritual and external practices of worship are praiseworthy and necessary, but preparation for the right use of grace is something far more searching and needful.

Wednesday in Ember Week

Collecta at the Title of Eudoxia. Station at St. Mary Major

The solemn fast of the three days in Ember Week originally peculiar to the Roman Church, was afterwards borrowed by the other Latin dioceses. St. Leo I explains the Ember Days saying that especially at the end of the year it is fitting that we dedicate the first fruits to the Divine Providence. An ancient tradition reserved the ordinations of priests and deacons to the month of December, and the faithful—following a custom introduced by the Apostles themselves—felt constrained to unite with the bishop in prayer and fasting, in order to call down from God an abundance of priestly gifts upon the heads of those newly chosen to minister at the altar.

Formerly, after assembling, the procession of clergy and people, chanting the Litany, went from St. Peter in Vinculis to St. Mary Major by way of the Suburra, the Viminal and the Esquiline. To-day’s station—following the custom for Ember Wednesdays—is at St. Mary Major, in order that the new Levites may be placed under the heavenly patronage of her whom the Fathers of the Church sometimes call the “virgin-priest,” in whose temple the Incarnate Word Himself was anointed priest by the divine Paraclete.

Originally, on the days of the stational processions, when the great Litany was sung on the way, the Introit was omitted, and the Pope, on reaching the church, recited the Prayer after the last Kyrie. The deacon first invited the faithful to prostrate themselves so that they might pray for a while in secret—Flectamus genua; then, after a few moments spent in prayer, he gave the signal to get up again, and the Pontiff summed up the petitions of the assembly in a brief formula—collecta—and presented them to God.

In the Post-Communion we pray Our Lord that he will grant<!-- obscured by an ink mark in the 1936 scan; “grant” per the 1945 printing --> us not to rest satisfied with that pleasure in outward devotion which is sometimes kindled by partaking of the heavenly food, but to aim at laying a firm foundation of virtue.

Friday in Ember Week

Collecta at St. Mark’s. Station at the Twelve Holy Apostles

The collecta, or place of assembly, whence the stational procession used on this day to start on its way to the Apostoleion, must have been in the ancient titular Church of St. Mark in Pallacinis, which is quite near by.

The station preceding the solemn ordinations in Rome is always at the Church of the Twelve Holy Apostles, partly in homage to the holy Apostles whose mission to evangelize the world is to be carried on by the Levites of to-morrow, and partly on account of the great celebrity to which this venerable basilica attained under Julius I and John III.

The Mass is once again an impassioned longing of the soul for the coming Emmanuel. Isaias speaks in the Epistle, and describes for us in glowing colors the future emancipator of Israel. The Gospel narrates the visitation when Mary begins her works as the dispenser of grace. She visits the house of Elizabeth and Jesus sanctifies John in his mother’s womb. Thus is John the first among the saints to owe all his gifts of grace to Mary, and there, under the humble roof of Zacharias, is sung for the first time that sublime canticle, the Magnificat, which shall form the dedication hymn of the first church of Our Lady, and shall be the daily prayer of the Church through all the ages.

The coming of the Incarnate Word inaugurates a new era. We are brought into this new kingdom by the Sacrament of Redemption. We pray Our Lord that the sacred outpouring of the chalice of salvation, while it cleanses us from old stains, may renew our interior life and make us partakers of the mystery of salvation.

Saturday in Ember Week

Station at St. Peter’s

In the first ages ordinations took place in Rome only in the month of December, usually at the tomb of St. Peter. The Pope alone inherits the plenitude of St. Peter’s primacy, and in the Twelfth Century it came to be the rule that the papal consecration alone was carried out at the altar over the tomb of the Apostle.

The long Mass contains the traces of the fast which began after supper on Friday and lasted until the dawn of Sunday; in that period there was no Mass on Saturday. St. Gregory shortened the primitive vigil and the Mass assumed the form in which we have it to-day. The Mass includes the great canticle of the Blessings which, in the earlier rite, formed the morning doxology. According to the Pontifical now in use, Tonsure is conferred after the Kyrie Eleison; the ordination of Porters follows the first lesson; of Readers, the second; of Exorcists, the third; of Acolytes, the fourth; of sub-deacons, the fifth. Deaconship is conferred at the end of the Epistle; the priesthood is conferred after the first versicle of the Tract.

Christianity came into a world in which events were carefully noted; the oriental religions arose in a primitive world lost in the haze of primitive barbarism. It is for this reason that St. Luke begins the narrative of the Gospel of Jesus with chronological notes concerning the rulers who were then controlling the destinies of Palestine.

The Messias assumes the consoling name of Emmanuel, God with us. The Word Himself will soon come to make His dwelling-place amongst us and to redeem us, and, in order to show by His very name all this merciful plan of salvation, He will be called Emmanuel and Jesus—that is, Saviour.

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Station at the Twelve Holy Apostles

When the vigils were kept there was no station because the Mass of this Sunday concluded the night vigil at St. Peter’s. When this vigil was shortened the second Mass was introduced at the basilica of the Holy Apostles. This accounts for the use of the same Gospel as in the Mass of Saturday.

A Roman tradition attributed the compilation of the Gregorian Antiphonary to the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Consequently this work was deemed to be intangible, so no alterations nor additions could be permitted. Hence the chants of to-day’s Mass were borrowed from other preceding Masses, so that the fourth Sunday of Advent possesses nothing peculiar to itself save the Offertory, the Epistle and the three Prayers.

The Offertory is from St. Luke and repeats the gracious salutation of the Angel to Mary, interwoven with the blessings addressed to her by Elizabeth. The history of the prayer Ave Maria, so dear to the piety of the faithful, and grown so familiar to us especially through the rosary, begins with this splendid Gregorian Offertory which gives us the text of the Ave in its original form as it was used throughout the Middle Ages. The Holy Mary has been added at a later time out of that Christian piety of the time of the first Franciscans distinguished by its tender love for the Blessed Virgin.

During Advent the Church surrounds the Immaculate Mother of God with special devotion, because she, during the nine months in which she bore Our Lord in her womb, made it her first thought to sanctify by her love, her humility, her entire consecration to Jesus, this period of glad expectancy and of preparation for the birth of the Son of God.

December 24—Christmas Eve

Station at St. Mary Major

It was only when Our Lord’s nativity was celebrated with increasing solemnity that a special Mass was said on this vigil. The actual solemnity of December 25, instead of consisting of two Masses, one of the vigil and the other of the feast, with a third inserted in commemoration of St. Anastasia, ended by allowing four Masses, all of them in honor of the Christian mystery—viz., one in the evening of December 24 at the beginning of the night Office, one at midnight at the first cock-crowing, one in the early morning, and one, finally, at the hour of Terce.

Unlike the other vigils, in which the penitential character and a sense of sadness predominate, that of Christmas, is full of vivacity and holy joy. This is fully in accordance with the nature of the heart of man. After so long a period of anxious and painful expectation the sudden news of our approaching deliverance lightens the heart, while a common joy unites us and makes us forget for a moment the hard conditions of our life here below.

December 25—Christmas Day

The First Mass—at Midnight. Station at St. Mary at the Crib

The feast of Christmas was from the first a feast of the Apostolic See. The fixation of the date resulted from the separation by the Roman Church of the celebration of Our Savior’s birth from that of His other great manifestation now placed on the Epiphany.

The characteristic feature of the feast of Christmas in the Roman rite is the custom of the three Masses, one at the first cock-crowing—ad galli cantum—the next at dawn, the third in broad daylight. St. Gregory bears witness to the custom, but it is certainly older than his time, for the biographer of Pope Telesphorus, in the Liber Pontificalis, claims that it was this latter Pontiff who first introduced the singing of the Gloria in excelsis into the midnight Mass at Christmas. The Mass at midnight recalls the circumstance that Christ was born in Bethlehem at midnight.

The midnight Mass commemorates the eternal birth of the Word of God amid the magnificence of His Father’s glory; the Mass at dawn celebrates His appearance in time in the humility of the flesh, and lastly, the third Mass, at St. Peter’s, symbolizes His final coming on the day of judgment, to judge both the living and the dead.

In order to reproduce in liturgical form at Rome, as at Jerusalem, the scene of the Savior’s birth, Pope Sixtus III (432-40) had erected in St. Mary Major a sumptuous oratory at the crib, and one which was considered by the Romans to be a copy of the original at Bethlehem.

At the foot of the crib we say to the Christ Child in the words of St. Alphonsus “Ah, how much it has cost Thee to love us!”

The Second Mass—at Dawn. Station at St. Anastasia

Originally, the stational Mass at St. Anastasia was wholly in honor of the martyr of that name, but later on, as the feast of Christmas gradually gained in importance, that of St. Anastasia dwindled down to a commemorative Collect. Under the Diocletian persecution this holy martyr was burnt alive on this day. The mystical meaning attached by mediæval liturgists to the hour of dawn had no foundation in the Roman custom.

This Mass draws its chief inspiration from the thought of the sun, whose rising already begins to dispel the shades of night and leads us to the contemplation of Him who was begotten, Light of Light, from the bosom of the divine Father before the rising of the day-star.

Generosity, magnificence and light, these are always the marks of God’s handiwork. Sin is generally committed in darkness and in secret, for the wicked hate the light, but the Redemption is wrought upon Calvary in sight of the whole world, so that all people, through the light of faith, may recognize and adore the crucified Savior.

The Third Mass—in Daylight. Station at St. Mary Major (at one time at St. Peter’s)

The shortness of the winter days and the difficulty of going in procession to the Vatican lead to the substitution of St. Mary Major as the stational Church instead of St. Peter’s. In the Middle Ages the Pope celebrated Mass in the great hall of Sicininus with unusual ceremony and great solemnity.

The Introit is from Isaias: “Behold a child is born to us, and a son is given to us,” Who, notwithstanding the infinite nothingness to which He stoops, is God eternal, the creator of the universe, Who rules and governs all things in the power of His Word, and upon Whose shoulder rests the divine and universal monarchy. He, as the brightness and express image of the Father, will reveal Him to men, and will be to them the envoy of the Most Holy Trinity, the angel or messenger of the glad tidings of redemption.

The Gospel, from St. John contains, perhaps, the most sublime page to be found in the whole of the Scriptures. It speaks of the twofold begetting of the Word in His divine and in His human nature. As the image of the supreme artificer, the Word is at once the prototype and the pattern of all that is created; but in Him this image is identical with His own substance, so that all things live in Him.

Jesus is born of woman in order that we may one day cease to be the children of woman and may be raised to the dignity of sonship to almighty God. The Word joins our human nature to His person, to make us sharers in the divine grace.

December 26—St. Stephen, Proto-Martyr

Station at St. Stephen’s on the Cœlian Hill

The feast of St. Stephen is one of the oldest in the Liturgy. The greatest saints, that would appear, wish to gather around the cradles of the Christ-Child as if to give additional grandeur. The Church of St. Stephen on the Cœlian Hill was finished only under John I (523-26).

In the Prayer we pray to God that we may imitate the example of Stephen, not only by forgiving our enemies, but by even loving them and asking for them the grace of conversion.

The Lesson or Reading in the Mass contains the trial of Stephen as preserved in the Acts of the Apostles, along with the account of his martyrdom.

Stephen is not only a martyr; he is one of the most striking personages of the apostolic age; so much so that the Greeks give him the title of Apostle, so the Roman Liturgy places him in the category of the prophets, doctors and masters, whose cruel fate is described to us in the Gospel for to-day.

On this day, then, let us beg, through the intercession of St. Stephen, the grace of fortitude, which is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost.

December 27—St. John, Apostle and Evangelist

Station at St. Mary Major

The feast of St. John is the only feast of an apostle now remaining in the Christmas cycle. The station is at St. Mary Major, dedicated to the Savior; this basilica seemed the most suitable place for the celebration of the Christmas station in honor of St. John to whom the Blessed Virgin had been entrusted, both on account of the Savior’s crib there preserved, and of the mosaics of Sixtus III commemorating the Council of Ephesus, held near the tomb of the Evangelist.

The Gradual is drawn from that passage of St. John’s Gospel in which reference is made to the popular belief current in the first generation of Christians in Asia that the beloved disciple should not die before the parousia or last coming of Christ. The advanced age of the Apostle, on the other hand, seemed to lend credit to this opinion. So St. John, in the very last chapter of his Gospel, desired—as a sort of final postscript—to rectify this erroneous interpretation of the Savior’s words. “So I will have him to remain till I come, what is it to thee?” The words were uttered by Our Lord merely as an hypothesis. “So (if) I will”; but in the several oral versions of the episode the conditional and hypothetical particle “if” was easily passed over; hence St. John felt the necessity of explaining the misunderstanding and setting the matter right.

December 28—The Holy Innocents

Station at St. Paul’s

The relics of the Holy Innocents are said to have been preserved in the splendid church of St. Paul’s; the station of to-day, however, was determined by the delicate feeling of the ancient liturgy that the great solemnities of the year should always be celebrated by a station at the tombs of SS. Peter and Paul.

At a very early date the feast of the Holy Innocents massacred by Herod out of fear of Him who was born King of the Jews, was placed near the feast of Christmas; hence in Rome this day was observed as a day of mourning and penance. Purple vestments were used and the faithful abstained from flesh meat and foods cooked in fats. The fast, however, is no longer observed.

The Gospel describes the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt and the massacre of the Innocents. How short-sighted is human scheming! At the very time that it tries to thwart the designs of almighty God, it is just then that it merely serves them the better. Herod is desirous of slaying the new-born Messias; this he fails to do, but sends instead a number of innocent babes into Limbo, there to proclaim His coming, while the Savior goes forth to enlighten and to bless the land of Egypt.

December 31—St. Sylvester, Pope and Confessor

Station at the Cemetery of Priscilla

To-day’s station was celebrated in the Via Salaria, at the Basilica of St. Sylvester in the cemetery of Priscilla, where the great Pontiff of the Church’s triumphant peace lay resting beside the martyrs Felix and Philip, two of the sons of St. Felicitas, and at a short distance from Pope Marcellus and the martyr Crescentian. St. Gregory the Great delivered one of his forty homilies there; indeed, for many centuries that spot was the goal of pious pilgrims when visiting the holy places of the Eternal City.

St. Sylvester was one of the very earliest saints to receive public veneration, even though he was not a martyr, but only a confessor crowned by the Lord, by reason of his exile in the caves of Soracte. This title prope martyribus, joined to his extraordinary personal virtues and to the circumstance of his having inaugurated a new era of splendor and prosperity for the Church, availed to surround the brow of Sylvester with the aureole of the blessed and make his name famous even in the far-off East. Legendary fancy did not fail to take advantage of the popularity of the great Pontiff: thus he became the destroyer of the famous dragon which used to poison the air with its breath, a curious but very impressive figure of the Church’s victory over idolatry.

January 1—Octave of Christmas: Feast of the Circumcision

Station at St. Mary in Trastevere

The Roman Calendars originally made no mention of the Circumcision which came in through the influence of the Gallican Liturgies. Rome preferred to solemnize the eighth day after the Nativity of Our Lord.

The Mass and Office for to-day’s feast show a mixed character. At first it was merely a question of the Octave of Our Lord; then, in connection with the Basilica of Our Lady, where the station was held, a special commemoration of the virginal motherhood of Mary Most Holy was inserted, the Circumcision and Presentation in the Temple being afterwards added, although this last, doubtless through Byzantine influence, was afterwards expunged from the office of January 1, so that it should be celebrated on February 2.

The grand Post-Communion, terse and forcible, yet perfectly balanced and rhythmical, implores through the prayers of Mary our purification from sin and our attainment of celestial bliss.

Jesus in heaven, in the essential brightness of His glory, is seated at the right hand of the Father, but here below his more fitting throne of mercy and grace is in the bosom of the Virgin who holds Him a little babe in her arms.

January 5—Vigil of the Epiphany

Station at St. Peter’s

The festive character which originally pervaded the whole fortnight after Christmas Day necessarily forbade the keeping of this vigil, which, however elaborate, must always bear a penitential character. When, about the Eighth Century, the stational afternoon Mass was introduced, it was assigned to the Vatical Basilica, whither the Pope was accustomed to repair from the Lateran on that afternoon with his Court for the celebration of Vespers and of the Night Office. This explains why the station is noted in the Missal as being at the Basilica of St. Peter on two days in succession.

In the Holy Family of Nazareth authority and personal dignity are seen in inverse order. Jesus is the last in the house and is obedient to all. Mary, indeed, commands her divine Son, but yields obedience to Joseph; and he, out of obedience to the eternal Father who so ordains it, serves both Jesus and Mary, giving them commands, thus setting an example of the manner in which all prelates and superiors should act in the Church of God.

January 6—The Epiphany of Our Lord

Station at St. Peter’s

Epiphany means “appearance” or “manifestation,” and among the Eastern Christian had originally the same significance as Christmas in Rome. It was the festival of the eternal Word, clothed in the flesh, revealing Himself to mankind. Three different phases of this historical manifestation were especially venerated—viz., the adoration of the Magi at Bethlehem, the changing of the water into wine at Cana, and the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan.

The station at St. Peter’s is inspired by the same thought as that of Christmas Day. In Rome the greater festivals are celebrated at the Pastor Ecclesiæ whose basilica is the sheepfold of the Roman flock.

The interior life of a Christian is the reproduction of the life of Jesus; thus the object of the Church in placing before us the annual cycle of feasts is not merely to commemorate the great historical epochs in the history of our redemption, but also to reproduce in our souls their spiritual teaching. Hence in the Night Office of this feast of the Epiphany we do not so much adore the Christ who showed Himself twenty centuries ago to the Magi, but rather the Christ who has revealed Himself to us, too, who are now living.

Sunday within the Octave of the Epiphany

Station at the Title of Pammachius

On the day following the Epiphany the station was on the Cœlian Hill where once the martyrs John and Paul were beheaded and buried; about the Eighth Century it was transferred to the Sunday. The Octave of the Epiphany, repeating the same mass each day, is of comparatively late origin.

The Prayer is one of the most beautiful in the Missal. In this true theological gem we pray God of His heavenly mercy to grant the prayers of His suppliant people that they may not only see by the divine light that which they ought to do, but may also have strength to carry it out.

Second Sunday after the Epiphany

Station at St. Eusebius

The ordinary Sundays of the year are never characterized by any stational solemnity. This Sunday, counted either from Christmas or from the Epiphany in ancient Lectionaries, is an exception. Why this day was chosen for a station we do not know. Possibly on one of the days following the Epiphany there was a procession at St. Eusebius and when this procession was abandoned the station was transferred to the Sunday. The Communion tells of the miraculous changing of the water into wine and of the surprise of the ruler of the feast, and brings out fully the meaning of the miracle by connecting it with the Holy Eucharist. Our Lord has kept the good wine until now because only in this last age of the world, the Messianic age, as St. John calls it, has He given to men the good wine of His Blood in the Blessed Sacrament. Furthermore, the sweetness of the holy love of God is an inebriating draught which He keeps until the last for those who serve Him faithfully.

Septuagesima Sunday

Station at St. Lawrence-without-the-Walls

The Eastern usage regarded Saturday and Sunday as festival days, and therefore as exempt from the Lenten fast; so, in order to complete the forty days of Lent, the Greeks anticipated the penitential season by some weeks, and from this Sunday onward abstained from the use of meat. Among the Latins four days had to be supplied making Lent begin on Ash Wednesday; the piety of the more devout wished for something more. St. Gregory therefore instituted, or at least gave definite form to, a cycle of three weeks’ preparation for Lent, with three solemn stations at the patriarchal Basilicas of St. Lawrence, St. Paul, and St. Peter, as though to begin the Easter fast under the auspices of the three great patrons of the Eternal City.

From this Sunday until Maundy Thursday the Gloria in excelsis is omitted in masses of the season. The Collect, which immediately follows the litany (at present the Kyrie) on days of fasting and penance, truly represents, therefore, the ordinary and normal form of the litany as used in the ancient liturgy of the Mass and of the Divine Office.

The fruit of to-day’s meditation on the Epistle of St. Paul and on the parable of the vineyard is the uncertainty of eternal salvation. It is not enough for us to have been baptized or called to a holy state; it is necessary to labor diligently and imitate the chosen few, that is, the saints and martyrs.

Sexagesima Sunday

Station at St. Paul

To-day’s Mass at the Basilica of St. Paul combines a melancholy strain of penitence with notes of rejoicing in honor of the Apostle of the Gentlies.

The Epistle describes vividly the incredible trial endured by St. Paul in his apostolate among the Gentiles. The parable of the sower related in the Gospel, is aptly chosen by the Church for this feast of the Apostle Paul, who scattered the seed of the good tidings from Damascus and Arabia in the east even unto the Pillars of Hercules in the west.

Many are the evils that threaten our eternal salvation in the midst of the world; the good seed falls on the highway, but its growth is prevented in many ways. Each one of us should resolve at the foot of the altar to make use, as St. Paul would have us do, of every means to ensure our final salvation. What shall it profit us to gain the whole world, if by so doing, we imperil our own soul?

Quinquagesima Sunday

Station at St. Peter

Having assured ourselves by the stations at St. Lawrence and St. Paul on the two preceding Sundays of the patronage of these saints we go to-day to the Basilica of St. Peter and on next Sunday to that of the Holy Savior in order to commence with full confidence the holy cycle of penance. On Wednesday of this week the Church begins the Lenten fast.

In the Epistle, St. Paul attempts to raise a corner of the veil which hides the Eternal Love from the eyes of mortals. God is the primary and immediate object of the precept of charity, as He is the final end to which the creature tends. Nevertheless, the Apostle dwells rather upon His illuminative intercourse with men, in so far as they are created in His likeness and are the mystical members of Christ.

The Gospel gives us the definite announcement of the approaching Passion of Our Lord. The miracle of the blind man confirms the wavering faith of the disciples. Even the Apostles did not yet understand the mystery of the cross; how necessary, then, is it for us to meditate upon Christ crucified, lest we should fail in a matter of the highest moment, towards which the whole of our spiritual life should be directed—that is, the mystery of expiation through suffering.

The Lenten Liturgy at Rome¹

From the time of the Apostles two weekly fasts, Wednesday and Friday, were regarded as the principal foundation of the liturgical week. In the third century in Rome the fast was prolonged for three weeks. It was the example of Our Lord’s forty days’ fast in the desert which impelled the Fathers at the Council of Nicæa to fix the duration of the fast ordained by them at exactly forty days. Through many centuries almost down to our time, Lent was regarded as the support of Christian training, the “truce of God,” during which period even the law-courts and the places of amusement were closed, the whole body of the faithful put aside all other concerns, and endeavored by practices of penance and by liturgical instruction to renew their spiritual energy in order to rise to a holier life with Christ risen and triumphant over death.

At Jerusalem, Lent began eight weeks before Easter, a custom which was imitated to a certain degree by the Latins, when they, too, began the fast on the Wednesday of Quinquagesima—afterwards known as Ash Wednesday—in order to make up the four days lacking to their Lenten fast of thirty-six days. The very first idea of a penitential period in preparation for Easter seems to have arisen with regard to the catechumens, who prepared themselves by prayer and fasting to receive holy baptism on the night before Easter.

Ash Wednesday has now for many centuries marked the beginning of the venerable solemnities of the fast, but in the Roman Liturgy it is still possible to discern through subsequent changes different formulas for the beginning of Lent, which at various times superseded one another. Three weeks before Easter the Pope wearing his crown (regnum), as on all great festivals, passed from the Lateran to the stational basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, carrying in his hand a golden rose sprinkled with balsam, which he afterwards presented to the prefect of the city.

In the time of St. Gregory the Great the paschal fast began on the first Monday of Lent, so in reality only thirty-six days were devoted to rigorous penance. This Pope also reorganized the stational functions in Rome. The people were accustomed to assemble at a certain church and await the arrival of the Pope; a prayer (collecta) was said, and then the procession moved to the stational church where Mass was said. This was usually late in the day, for it was the custom not to take either food or drink until sunset. The season of Lent was also the time in which the catechumens were prepared for baptism; at the beginning of Lent their names were given to the bishop and later the great scrutiny was held.

Ash Wednesday

Privileged Major Feria

Collecta at St. Anastasia. Station at St. Sabina

Since the time of St. Gregory this day has inaugurated at Rome the forty holy days of Lent, and was called in capite jejunii. The canonical penance imposed on public penitents began on this day. In the rite of the blessing of the ashes, a last trace remains of the ceremony of the imposition of canonical penance on public penitents. Towards the Eleventh Century the disciplinary rule of public penance being done away with, instead of the penitents of former days, the Pope, the clergy, and the Roman people took part indiscriminately in this function, and began to walk barefoot, with ashes sprinkled on their heads, to the Basilica of St. Sabina.

The collecta or assembly of the people was at the church of St. Anastasia, where the ashes were imposed on the heads of the clergy and people. They then proceded up the Aventine Hill to the little church founded or rebuilt under Celestine I (423-32) by an Illyrian priest by the name of Peter and called by the name Sabina even before the relics of the martyred St. Sabina were brought thither from the area Vindiciani.

The rubric prescribes that the ashes blessed on this day be obtained by the burning of the palms, or green branches, blessed on the Palm Sunday of the preceding year.

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Collecta at St. Nicholas in Carcere. Station at St. George in Velabro

The Basilica of St. Nicholas stands in the ancient forum olitorium near the theatre of Marcellus; during the Middle Ages it was raised to the status of a deaconry.

The station at St. George’s was instituted by St. Gregory II (715-31), when the cultus of the great Cappadocian martyr had become exceedingly popular in Rome. A titular church already existed here in 482, as an inscription of that date mentions an Augustus lector de Belabru, but the dedication to St. George was certainly of later date.

To-day’s Gospel, telling of the centurion of Capharnaum, alludes to the military character ascribed by tradition to St. George, which caused him to be specially invoked during the Middle Ages as the armed champion of the Christian family.

The Mass is a call to penance. The Lesson from Isaias recalls the warning given to Ezechias of his approaching death; the thought of death is a powerful inducement to us to change our mode of life. If we would only realize that the moment of our passing from this world to eternity may come unawares, we would implore earnestly a space of time in which to do penance, and resolve to lead a good life.

Friday after Ash Wednesday

Collecta at Santa Lucia in Septizonio. Station at Sts. John and Paul

Santa Lucia in Septizonio is an ancient deaconry which stood at the southern corner of the Palatine, near the Septizonium of Septimius Severus.

The stational Mass was on the Cœlian Hill, in the Basilica of Bizante, erected by that senator and his son Pammachius within the house of SS. John and Paul. The two martyrs had suffered death on this spot for the faith, and had been secretly buried in a crypt. They were thus the only Roman martyrs buried in the very heart of the Eternal City.

The Mass sets forth the emptiness of external ceremonies where these are not accompanied by an internal spirit of true repentance. The Gospel sets forth the Christian law of love and good-will toward our neighbor. To return the courtesy of others with equal grace is a rule of good manners that even pagans may practice, but in order to be able to pardon injuries, to do good without hope of return, we need the example, the command, and the grace of Jesus Christ.

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Collecta at St. Lawrence in Lucina. Station at St. Trypho

St. Lawrence in Lucina stands on the Via Lata in the Campus Martius. The tile of Lucina still stands first in hierarchical rank among the presbyteral titles, and besides many other relics of early martyrs, a large portion of the gridiron on which St. Lawrence was burnt is preserved in the spacious basilica, consecrated by Pope Celestine III in 1196.

The title of St. Trypho is of mediæval origin, and appears to have been built by the famous Crescenzi family. Under Clement VIII the building being in a ruinous condition, both the station and the relics of Sts. Trypho, Réspicius, and Nympha were transferred to the neighboring Church of St. Augustine.

The Lesson of the Mass teaches that in order to receive the divine graces, we must break the bond of sin, perform outward works of mercy, and render God inward and spiritual worship. The choice of the Gospel has reference to the numerous miracles obtained by the faithful at the tomb of St. Lawrence. The Sabbath is symbolical of the peace of God, and of the repose of the soul after the tempests of this life. Many desire it but few attain it. He who would rest with Christ must first climb the mount of Calvary and die upon the cross before he can find peace in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

First Sunday in Lent

Station at St. John Lateran

As to-day is not a day of fasting, there is no collecta previous to the stational procession, this procession being a rite of a distinctly penitential character, and therefore not in keeping with the Sunday festival.

St. Peter’s is the ancient liturgical cathedral of the Roman Pontiffs, who repair there to officiate on all the great festivals, but the habitual seat, the normal residence of the Popes, is the Lateran, and for this reason the Basilica Salvatoris (St. John Lateran) can claim the title of Mother and Head of all the churches of the city and of the world.

In the Mass for this Sunday great prominence is given to Psalm 90 that psalm which was quoted by Satan when tempting Our Lord. The faithful should contemplate with special devotion the mystery of Christ tempted in the desert, for there is no other which shows more clearly how the divine Providence makes even the wiles of the devil serve to our sanctification.

Although the faithful have already been fasting for four days, it is only to-day that the Liturgy celebrates the beginning of Lent, for until this Sunday nothing has been changed either in the divine Office or in the Mass. The proper Preface and other prayers are now used and the Lenten forms are followed in the divine Office.

Monday after the First Sunday in Lent

Collecta at Sts. Cosmas and Damian. Station at St. Peter’s Chains

Pope Felix IV (526-30) constructed the basilica where the collecta in honor of the two celebrated Eastern doctors takes place. During the Byzantine period it was held in very great veneration, and crowds flocked to the sanctuary of the two martyred physicians as to a sure source of health. The chains of St. Peter are preserved at the Basilica in exsquiliis, dedicated by Sixtus III to the Apostles Peter and Paul; the relics of the seven martyred Machabees are preserved under the altar. The Chains of St. Peter are kept there; those of St. Paul are at the Ostian basilica.

The Prayer begs almighty God to illuminate our minds with His heavenly light, so that the Lenten fast may not only discipline our bodies, but may render our souls both contrite and earnest. The Lesson from Ezechiel describes a scene frequently reproduced in the cubicula of the ancient cemeteries. It teaches the docility with which the soul entrusts itself to the care of the divine Shepherd, keeps it from all danger, and renders it the object of his heart’s tenderest solicitude.

Tuesday after the First Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. Nicholas in Carcere. Station at St. Anastasia

In the Middle Ages the church of St. Nicholas was one of the most central and important of the Roman churches. The funeral ceremony of Urban II was held here; the name in carcere (in prison) also goes back to the Middle Ages.

St. Anastasia is commemorated in the second Mass of Christmas; her feast at Rome is perhaps older than the feast of Christmas itself. The church is said to mark the spot of the martyr’s dwelling; she was a holy widow martyred under Diocletian.

The Lucernare (Psalm 140) of the Gradual is noteworthy. In oriental liturgies it belongs to the Night Office. We must bear in mind that for many centuries Rome did not use the canonical Office of Vespers, its place being taken by the stational Mass celebrated either during Lent or on the eve of some solemn feast, at the very hour of sunset, when the Eastern Church was reciting the Office of the Lucernare. We learn from the Mass the importance of prayer and meditation, and how careful should be our preparation to approach the sacraments.

Ember Wednesday after the First Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. Peter ad Vincula. Station at St. Mary Major

The ancient Roman sources speak of three ember fasts, not four. Perhaps the actual fixing of the spring ember days in the sixth week before Easter dates from a time when the paschal fast began only three weeks before the great festival.

It was customary at Rome on the Wednesday preceding the ordinations of the month of March to hold the scrutinies of the candidates for the priesthood in the Liberian Basilica (St. Mary Major) under patronage of her whom Proculus of Constantinople invoked in the words: “O temple, in which God was made a priest.”

The first Prayer and Lesson, in this time of fast and on this ancient catechetical day, evoked the remembrance of Mount Horeb where Moses dwelt for forty days, fasting and conversing with God in order to receive from him the Tables of the Law. The second Lesson tells of the wonder-working bread which fortified the prophet Elias: a type of the Eucharist, the true unleavened bread of mortification which, as the Scripture says, purifies the soul and leads it to the height of Calvary.

Thursday after the First Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. Agatha in Monasterio. Station at St. Lawrence in Panisperna

The titular church of the famous deaconry of the Suburra was dedicated to the Sicilian martyr Agatha; in the eighth century a monastery was attached to it.

St. Lawrence in Panisperna on the Viminal marks the spot of his martyrdom. Gregory II who instituted this station with a graceful allusion to the splendor of the sepulchral Basilica, called the Speciosa, (St. Lawrence-outside-the-Walls) in the Introit celebrates the sanctity of the great archdeacon, to whose prayers the early Fathers especially attributed the final triumph at Rome of the cross over paganism.

The Mass dwells on fasting and prayer; the Gospel recalls the woman of Chanaan who, by humility and perseverance in prayer, obtained the cure of her daughter. Our Lord at first appeared to refuse to perform a miracle in favor of a Gentile woman; the cure of her daughter showed the mercy of God calling to penance the Chanaanite and the publican.

Ember Friday after the First Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. Mark. Station at the Twelve Holy Apostles

The church built by Pope Mark (337-40) is reckoned among the first erected in Rome. It is possible that the dedication to the Evangelist of Alexandria is of later date. Under the altar of the Basilica of the Holy Apostles dedicated by John III (560-73) are preserved the relics of St. Philip and St. James. In the Middle Ages, many bodies of saints were brought hither from the Apronian Cemetery on the Via Latina, amongst them that of the martyr Eugenia, in whose honor the station of the Fourth Sunday in Advent was celebrated in this church.

The Liturgy insists on the necessity of a reformation of life; when baptism was administered to adults, it was expected that the sacrament should effect in the catechumen a complete change of heart. The Pool of Bethsaida, of which the Gospel (John 5, 1-15) speaks, symbolizes the baptismal font of the catechumens, and is, to all the faithful, a figure of the adorable Heart of Jesus, through Whose wounded side they pass into an ocean of love and compassion.

Ember Saturday of the Twelve Lessons after the First Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. Mary in Transpontina. Station at St. Peter

St. Mary in Transpontina stood between the Ælian Bridge and the colonnade which led to St. Peter’s. The present church is not an ancient building nor does it stand on the original site, but about three hundred yards nearer the Vatican.

The station is at St. Peter because of the ordinations; according to the Roman idea every transmission of ecclesiastical power through sacred orders, was derived from the supreme power of Peter. Therefore ordinations in Rome must take place at the Vatican, with this distinction, that whereas it was the prerogative of the Pope to receive consecration at the altar which was over the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, in other cases the ceremony took place in one of the adjoining oratories.

In former days there was no Mass on this morning; the day was spent in strict fasting, the whole of the night in prayer, singing psalms, and listening to the reading, both in Greek and in Latin, of twelve lessons from Holy Scripture. The five lessons which now precede the Epistle are the last relics of this ancient solemnity; the conferring of holy orders, minor and major were joined with them.

The Gospel of to-day shows us how deeply imbedded was the thought of the cross in the heart of Jesus. Even amid the glory of Mount Thabor He spoke with Moses and Elias of His approaching death, in order to make known the force of the love which impelled Him to sacrifice Himself for us.

Second Sunday in Lent

Station at St. Mary in Dominica

In early days there was no stational Mass, nor proper Mass for this Sunday; there was only the Mass following the long fast of Saturday. The name given to the Basilica of St. Mary on the Cœlian Hill, in Dominica, is of very ancient origin—of the Fourth Century, at least—when the Lord’s house was generally called the Dominicum.

The Mass is made up chiefly of parts of the Mass of Saturday. In the Prayer we ask God to behold our poverty, our weakness and our need, and implore His help that our bodies may not succumb to outward evils, and our souls to sin. The use of the Gospel of the Transfiguration for the second time emphasizes this festival. The early Roman Liturgy did not, it is true, devote many festivals to celebrating even the most important mysteries of the life and Passion of Our Savior, but in its annual cycle it offered to the faithful full opportunity of meditating, at the proper season, on all the solemn mysteries of the Redemption. The spirit of the liturgy is strongly opposed to the novelty so dear to the secular mind.

Monday after the Second Sunday in Lent

Collecta at Sts. Cosmas and Damian. Station at St. Clement

The basilica of the two holy physicians stands in the Forum, having been adapted from the ancient templum Romuli and the templum sacræ urbis.

The Basilica of St. Clement (whose name is mentioned in the Canon of the Mass) rises on the site of an ancient Roman domus, which tradition connects with his name. During the final persecution, there was a deliberate attempt to profane that sanctified spot, by erecting here an altar to Mithras, which, however, under Constantine, gave place once more to the cross of Christ. In the Introit (Ps. 25) the martyr himself speaks in the person of the Psalmist: “In the churches will I bless the Lord”—that is, in those assemblies which were brought together by Clement in his own house, and which were the forerunners of the stational gatherings.

Tuesday after the Second Sunday in Lent

Station at St. Balbina

There was no collecta on this day, perhaps because the Basilica of St. Balbina stood alone, far away on the Aventine, there being no other church in its vicinity from which the stational procession could set out.

The foundress of the titulus Balbinæ—dedicated at first to the divine Redeemer, before it took the name of the martyr Balbina, who was buried in the cemetery of Prætextatus—was perhaps the matron—Balbina, after whom a portion of the Catacomb of St. Calixtus<!-- under an ink blot in the 1936 scan; “Calixtus” per the 1945 printing --> was called.

The Mass recalls our needs and places them before God. In the final Benediction of the people, we pray that the divine mercy may favorably accept our supplications, and heal the diseases of our souls, so that having obtained the forgiveness of our sins, we may truly rejoice in the blessing of God.

Wednesday after the Second Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. George. Station at St. Cecilia

The Basilica of St. George still stands on the further side of the pons Senatorum, in the regio of the Velabrum.

The titulus Cæciliæ is in Trastevere, in the actual house of the martyr. In 1595, the sarcophagus under the altar containing her relics was opened, and the body of the holy virgin was found in the same position as it had assumed after the fatal blow of the executioner, lying on one side, with the knees slightly bent and her arms stretched along the side.

The privelege which Jesus concedes to His chosen friends is that of drinking His chalice. The draught is bitter, but it gives strength to the soul. Love is nourished on sacrifice and pain. The more we love Jesus, the more we shall suffer for Him.

Thursday after the Second Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. Chrysogonus. Station at St. Mary in Trastevere

The Basilica of St. Chrysogonus, in Trastevere, built under Constantine stands on the same spot as the former house of the martyr.

An ancient tradition says that on the site of the Basilica of St. Mary in Trastevere Pope Callixtus (219-24) died for the faith, being thrown into a well. The Christians obtained from the Emperor Alexander Severus the right to have a meeting-place in Trastevere; the present church is near this ancient site; a tavern was near-by, the remembrance of which may have suggested the choice of the parable of the rich reveller in the Gospel.

The rich man dies and is buried in hell. This is a fearful warning for those who allow themselves to be carried away by the lure of earthly pleasures.

Friday after the Second Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. Agatha in Monasterio. Station at St. Vitalis

The meeting-place to-day is in the deaconry of St. Agatha “of the Goths” in the Suburra, which was restored to Catholic worship by Gregory the Great.

From there the procession went to the neighboring Church of Vestian, dedicated under Innocent 1 (402-17) to the martyr Vitalis. The martyrology of Ado confused this Vitalis with the saint of the same name at Ravenna. In the Mass, the choice of the lesson of Joseph let down by his brothers into an empty well, and the Gospel of the wicked husbandmen who stoned their master’s son, was suggested by the Acta of St. Vitalis, which tell us how the martyr was first buried up to the waist in a pit and then stoned to death.

The Church, as though she feared that the very splendor of her liturgy might lead simple folk into thinking that Christianity consisted merely in holding functions and receiving the sacraments, insists continually in her Lenten formulas that we should by our good works, give reality to what is so sublimely expressed in the liturgy.

Saturday after the Second Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. Clement. Station at Sts. Peter and Marcellinus

The church of SS. Peter and Marcellinus is about three hundred yards distant from St. Clement’s. Pope Damasus as a boy learnt the circumstances of the martyrdom of these two saints from the lips of the executioner himself.

As the liturgy of this day lays great stress on the contrast between the two brothers, Esau and Jacob, and between the faithful son and the prodigal, it is possible that underneath there lies an allusion to that executioner, who expiated his crime by baptism and penitence.

We ourselves were once a long way off, like the prodigal son, and if we now belong to the household of the faith it is because the Good Shepherd has brought us back to the fold. We must try to smooth away difficulties, to help on conversions, and to imitate the angels of God, who rejoice with Jesus in heaven over one repentant sinner.

Third Sunday in Lent

Station at St. Lawrence-without-the-Walls

Pope Pelagius II (578-90) added a large upper aula to the original Laurentian Basilica and dedicated it to the Blessed Virgin. For this reason Leo IV (847-55) decreed that the station of the Octave of the Assumption should be held there, and the Gospel of to-day alludes to this dedication by praising the great Mother of God.

In the Epistle to the Ephesians read as the Lesson for to-day, St. Paul speaks very appropriately of the divine light and its fruits, which are first described in their negative aspect, when he warns his hearers against sensual pleasures, evil-speaking, and covetousness, and then in their positive aspect, goodness and justice and truth.

The Church celebrates her solemn stations in the sanctuaries of the martyrs in order to remind us that we are the heirs of their spiritual patrimony. Their blood cemented the first Christian edifice, and we, as children of the martyrs, possess their sepulchres and the places sanctified by their confession, inasmuch as we succeed them in the profession of the same faith.

Monday after the Third Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. Adrian. Station at St. Mark

The church of St. Adrian was dedicated by Pope Honorius I (625-38) to the memory of this famous martyr of Nicomedia, who, during the Byzantine era, was the object of much devotion in Rome.

The stational Basilica de Pallacine, dedicated later on to St. Mark the Evangelist, was erected by the Pope of that name (337-40), and is the only church in Rome sacred to the memory of this devoted disciple of St. Paul, and faithful interpreter of St. Peter, who wrote his Gospel after St. Peter’s death, at the request of the faithful in Rome.

The scriptural passages read to-day have in mind the Eastern origin of the titular patrons of the Basilica, and tell us, therefore, of the Syrian Naaman, who, rejecting the grander rivers of Damascus, was cleansed from his leprosy in the lesser waters of the Jordan.

Catechumens desiring to be healed from the leprosy of infidelity and original sin, must humble themselves, and, abandoning the rivers of Damascus—that is, the attractions of their former worldly life—must wash themselves clean in the pure waters of holy baptism.

Tuesday after the Third Sunday in Lent

Collecta at Sts. Sergius and Bacchus. Station at Pudentiana

The Byzantines built at least five churches in Rome to the honor of the martyrs Sergius and Bacchus. The one where the people collected for the procession to the Basilica of Pudens, was called the Canelicum, and stood in the regio of the Montes. The titulus sancti Pudentis was one of the oldest of the urban titular churches; ancient ecclesiastical tradition asserts that it was sanctified by the sojourn of Peter in the house of the senator Pudens, mentioned by St. Paul in his epistles. The memories of Pope St. Pius I (158-67), of his brother Hermas, the mystic author of the Pastor, those of Priscilla, Pudentiana, Praxedes, Justin the Philosopher, Hippolytus the Doctor are all connected with the history of this house; it was really the papal residence in the second century.

The Lessons and prayers may have reference to St. Peter, whose presence in the house of Pudens was the cause of all manner of prosperity and abundance. Charity and hospitality never impoverished anyone, and when the needy are given shelter for the love of God it draws down upon that roof the blessings of divine Providence.

Wednesday after the Third Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. Balbina. Station at St. Sixtus

The distance from the Church of St. Balbina on the Aventine to that of St. Sixtus on the Via Appia is not great. St. Sixtus (Xystus) was the first Pope martyred in the Catacombs; his name is in the Canon of the Mass.

In ancient times the scrutiny of the catechumens who wished to be admitted to holy baptism on Easter Eve began to-day; the Mass, therefore, has a distinctly catechetical character, especially in the Lessons.

The Communion speaks of the ways of life; the way of the cross, of the sepulchre, and of the descent into Limbo, by which Christ passed to the glory of the resurrection.

Thursday after the Third Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. Mark. Station at Sts. Cosmas and Damian

Under the high altar of St. Mark’s rest the bodies of the martyrs Abdon, Sennen, and Hermes, transferred thither by Gregory IV (827-44).

The stational Basilica we have already noticed as the place of the collecta on the second Monday in Lent. The Mass refers chiefly to the anniversary of the martyrdom, and the frequent mention of health, sickness, and healing recalls the great popularity of the veneration paid to the holy Anargyri (moneyless) in those early days.

Friday after the Third Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. Mary ad Martyres. Station at St. Lawrence in Lucina

St. Mary ad Martyres is the name given to the beautiful Pantheon of Agrippa when it was turned into a Christian Church by Boniface IV (608-15). The Romans of the Middle Ages loved this majestic sanctuary, where among other relics was preserved in a casket locked with thirteen keys the image of the Holy Face.

Lucina was a matron living in the time of Pope Marcellus (304-9) who placed her houses in the Via Lata at the disposal of the ecclesiastical authorities; these erected there the titulus Marcelli, and, when the church was confiscated, built another not far off, in Lucina. Pope Celestine III placed under the altar a large piece of the gridiron on which St. Lawrence was martyred.

The Liturgy now becomes permeated with the thought of Baptism. After hearing of the water gushing from the rock in the desert, we now read in the Gospel (John 4, 5-42) of the living water which Our Lord promised to the Samaritan woman. This second scriptural scene was also familiar to the faithful as a type of the sacrament of Baptism, and we see it represented as early as the second century in the cemetery of Prætextatus.

Saturday after the Third Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. Vitalis “ad duas domos.” Station at St. Susanna

St. Vitalis was dedicated by Innocent I (412-17) to the martyrs Vitalis, Gervase, and Protase. The Basilica of St. Susanna is the ancient titulus Gaii, called also after the saints Gabinius and Susanna, the brother and the niece of the Pontiff who performed the dedication; it rises on the ruins of an ancient Roman building (the two houses, ad duas domos) and was a parish church in the time of Pope Symmachus (498-514).

The story of Susanna, so familiar to the early Church, and so often reproduced in the paintings of the Catacombs, should fill our souls with loving confidence. Susanna prefers to fall a victim to the vengeance of her accusers rather than sin against God. She places all her trust in the Lord, and her prayer becomes her salvation.

The holy Gospel describing the scene where the woman taken in adultery is brought before Christ, is a great consolation to sinners who can never hope to regain the esteem of their fellow men but who hear the voice of God within them saying: “Neither will I condemn thee.”

Fourth Sunday in Lent

Station at Holy Cross in Jerusalem

Ever since the time of St. Helen, a large portion of the true cross has been preserved in the basilica in œdibus sessoriis, and for this reason the station is held there to-day. Its earliest designation was Basilica Heleniana, or more commonly Sancta Hierusalem, whence we have those frequent allusions to Jerusalem in to-day’s Mass.

Sending the golden rose blessed by the Pope as a gift to one of the Catholic princes is a ceremony which at Rome gives a special distinction to the Fourth Sunday in Lent.

The Introit sounds the note of joy (Lætare) in the triumph of the holy cross; to-day is the feast of holy Jerusalem. The church invites us, as it were, to take a little rest in order to recruit our strength before proceeding with renewed fervor on the road of penance.

The Liturgy, therefore, reminds us of how Our Lord multiplied the loaves and the fishes in the desert, and fed therewith five thousand persons (John 6, 1-15). That food represents the Word of God, which is the food of the soul; it also represents the material blessings with which divine Providence unfailingly sustains our human nature.

Monday after the Fourth Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. Stephen on the Cœlian Hill. Station at the Four Holy Crowned Martyrs

The circular church of the Proto-martyr Stephen is situated less than three hundred yards from the Basilica of the Four Holy Crowned Martyrs, which rises fortress-like on the hill-side.

The relics of the titular saints (there are three groups of four martyrs in Roman History: Clement, Simpronianus, Claudius, and Nicostratus, buried ad duas lauros on the Via Labicana; a group of stone-cutters from Pannonia drowned in the river Save, and a group of four other martyrs from Albano), are preserved in the crypt under the high altar.

The story of the judgment of Solomon, of which we find a representation even in the paintings at Pompeii, teaches that the Church herself, rather than the Synagogue, is the Mother of souls: the true Mother loves her children.

Tuesday after the Fourth Sunday in Lent

Collecta at the Monastery of “Santa Maria Domnæ Rosæ.” Station at St. Lawrence in Damaso

The church of the collecta corresponds to the present Sta. Caterina dei Funari; at one time Sancta Maria domnæ rosæ was the residence of the Dean of the Lateran Schola, and in 1536 Paul III granted it to St. Ignatius Loyola, who founded there an institution for poor girls.

St. Lawrence in Damaso is built on a spot full of memories connected with the family of Pope Damasus (366-84). His relics rest under the high-altar.

The Lesson (Exod. 32, 7-14) contains the beautiful prayer of Moses for his people, who had fallen into the sin of idolatry. This is perfect love—to be willing that one’s name be struck off from the book of life rather than let one’s own brethren perish beneath the justice of God.

In going up to the feast of Tabernacles only when the festival was well begun, Jesus wishes to teach us to love and reverence the sacred Liturgy and the rites of religion, and shows us that He Himself is the center of creation and of all history.

Wednesday In Mediana After the Fourth Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. Mennas. Station at St. Paul “in aperitione aurium”

The Church of St. Mennas stood on the left bank of the Tiber at the first milestone on the Via Ostiensis. The Alexandrians in Rome had such devotion to this Egyptian saint that his natalis on November 11 was still honored in the Seventh Century by the celebration of the station at his sanctuary.

St. Paul is the prototype and model of catechumens, on account of his conversion on the way to Damascus. The miracle which Christ worked upon the blind man was renewed in a spiritual sense upon the candidates for baptism, to whom the Pontiff explained for the first time with solemn rites the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer and the beginning of the four Gospels.

The entire Mass is inspired by the thought of the sacrament of Baptism. Holiness is the common vocation of all; one often speaks nowadays of a vocation to the priesthood or to the religious life, but too little is said of the call to the Christian life, which is bestowed on us through the grace of holy Baptism. Yet the religious vocation itself does but develop in us the call to a Christian life, by means of the counsels of perfection. These are not two separate forms of Christianity; the Christianity of the Gospel and that of the monastic rule are but one and the same Christian profession.

Thursday after the Fourth Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. Quiricus. Station at St. Martin “ad montes”

The Church of St. Quiricus (at one time St. Quiricus and Julitta, Oriental martyrs) is at the foot of the Quirinal hill.

Through the zeal of Pope Symmachus, two oratories were erected beside the ancient titulus equitii, dedicated to the first two confessors to whom after the martyrs liturgical cultus was paid, Sts. Martin and Sylvester. It is located on the Esquiline hill.

The Mass dates only from the time of Gregory II: the sung parts are from other feasts. Both the Epistle and the Gospel recount a miracle of raising the dead to life; St. Martin of Tours was celebrated as the resuscitator of three dead persons. The story of Elisæus is an example of the discretion needed by superiors in dealing with those under their care.

Friday after the Fourth Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. Vitus in “Macello Liviæ.” Station at St. Eusebius

The assembly of the faithful was appointed for to-day at a church once called ad Lunam. During the Seventh Century, when St. Vitus was a popular Italian saint, this church received his name. St. Eusebius, whose house occupied the site of the stational church, was martyred under the Arian Emperor Constantius II (337-361)<!-- “37” partly covered by an ink stamp in the 1936 scan; the 1945 printing drops the parenthesis; 337 = the start of his reign -->. The nearness of an ancient burying-ground may have influenced the choice of the Epistle and Gospel of the Mass.

The resurrection of Lazarus may be regarded as a type of the sacrament of Penance. Jesus alone has power to convert the heart, but He delegates to his apostles and ministers the office of freeing Lazarus from the bands and the winding-sheet which envelope him.

Saturday after the Fourth Sunday in Lent

Collecta at St. Angelius “in piscibus.” Station at St. Nicholas in Carcere

The gathering of the faithful to-day was near the fish-market; the church was in existence before the Eighth Century. The seven martyred sons of St. Symphorosa repose here.

Over sixty churches were dedicated to St. Nicholas: this one stands near the ancient site of a public prison, and is built on the ruins of a pagan temple of Piety.

This Saturday is called sitientes from the opening words of the Introit. Since the time of Pope Gelasius it has been a day for conferring Holy Orders, and was therefore once a day of great fast, extending through the night.

The Gospel teaches us that if the house of God on earth is not to be turned into a house of traffickers—still less can we purchase our entrance into heaven. We are to drink with joy from the fountains of grace which flow from the blessed Eucharist.

Passion Sunday, or Sunday In Mediana

Station at St. Peter

The liturgical cycle of the Passion begins with the Mass at the Vatican, where Nero crucified the first Vicar of Christ and where Symmachus had built an oratory named Sancta Hierusalem, as the Sessorian Basilica was originally called, in honor of the triumphant Standard of Redemption.

The Mass of this Sunday is entirely dominated by the memory of the Sacrifice on Golgotha, and is one of the most beautiful and pathetic in the whole Roman Antiphonary. During the fortnight, the early Ordines Romani forbid the final doxology. In to-day’s Mass the Judica me is sung at the Introit, and is therefore omitted previous to the Confession before the priest goes up to the altar.

The communion verse (1 Cor. 11 24-25) expresses the union of the daily sacrifice with the Passion of our Lord. The liturgical celebration of the Passion begins today; the words of St. Paul (as adapted by the Church) emphasize the commemoration of the sufferings and death of Christ in every reception of Holy Communion. The whole Christian life (as St. Ambrose remarked) is linked through its sufferings, austerities, self-denials and sacrifices, with the one only sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The whole work of salvation is the continuation and completion of the mystery of our Saviour’s death and resurrection. His sacrifice sanctifies and consecrates all our sacrifices and makes of them one offering before God.

Monday after Passion Sunday

Collecta at St. Mark. Station at St. Marcellus

The Church of St. George de Balabru is at the foot of the Palatine, where the four-sided arch of Janus stands, and where, from remote antiquity, the pagan populace used to seek divinations.

The Basilica of St. Chrysogonus in Trastevere, near the classical guard-house of the Vigiles, still preserves under the sanctuary the remains of the dwelling-place of the martyr of that name, which dates back to the time of Constantine.

In the Prayer we ask two things of God: firstly, that He would so sanctify our lenten fast that our interior dispositions may harmonize with our bodily abstinence; and, secondly, that our penitence and contrition of heart may obtain for us the pardon of our past shortcomings.

In the Gospel, grace is compared to water, because, like water, it extinguishes the fire of the passions, refreshes the spirit, quenches the thirst of immoderate desires, and gives life and growth to the beauteous flowers of virtue.

Tuesday after Passion Sunday

Station at St. Cyriacus at the Baths of Diocletian

A very ancient regulation prohibited the procession and the stational Mass on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the year, except on the feasts of the martyrs. Hence the Ordines Romani observe that no station was held on this day.

St. Cyriacus was long venerated at the Basilica of St. Mary in Via Lata; his body was brought there during the middle ages.

The story of Daniel in the lion’s den read in this Mass was widely known in the early days of Christianity, for it is reproduced in many of the catacombs. St. Cyriacus is said to have first exercised, like Daniel, his apostolate at the Persian Court, that of King Sapor.

In the Post-Communion we beseech God that our frequency in drawing near to the holy table may be for us both a token and a pledge of our approaching each day nearer to the celestial altar and the eternal prize.

Wednesday after Passion Sunday

Collecta at St. Mark. Station at St. Marcellus

The Collecta is at the church built by Pope Marcus, where the station is held on Monday after the third Sunday in Lent. The title of Marcellus stands on the Via Lata, on the site once occupied by the house of a matron named Lucina. Recent excavations have corroborated the data furnished by the Acta of St. Marcellus, so that we may hold for a certainty that the church was erected during the pontificate of the martyr who was afterwards buried there.

The Lenten fast is now drawing to its close, wherefore we pray in the Collect that the abstinence which we have practiced, being sanctified by the mortification of all our evil passions, may serve to enlighten the hearts of the faithful. God himself has placed this desire in our hearts, so we trust that he will graciously accept it and will grant it abundant fruit.

Thursday after Passion Sunday

Collecta at Sta. Maria “in Via Lata.” Station at St. Apollinaris in Archipresbyteratu

Under the high altar of Sta. Maria is preserved with all veneration the body of Agapitus, the famous martyr of Præneste (Palestrina), together with some relics of St. Cyriacus, the martyr of the Via Ostiensis.

On the feast of St. Apollinaris (July 23) the Lesson from the Epistle is read dealing with the Prince of Pastors, and with humility and faith, because the archbishops of Ravenna began to arrogate to themselves papal honors. St. Apollinaris, who came to Rome with St. Peter, was martyred in Ravenna in A.D. 79; many churches and chapels were built in Rome in his honor during the period of the greatness of Ravenna.

Rome replied to the usurpations of the Patriarchs of Ravenna in the Middle Ages with lessons on humility drawn from the Gospels. This is the law ordained by God: the papal blessing consolidates and gives increase to the position of her sons, but if one of these rises up against the See of Peter, he will infallibly be crushed by the majesty of Rome. From the Gospel we learn that Jesus desires all humanity to behold the Magdalen and repent for their sins. We are not all able to fast, nor can we all be apostles, but everyone of us has a heart to consecrate to the love of God alone.

Friday after Passion Sunday

(For the Feast of the Seven Dolors of the B.V. Mary, kept on this day, see p. 966

Collecta at Sts. John and Paul. Station at St. Stephen on the Cœlian

The Basilica of SS. John and Paul was built by Bizante and Pammachius over the very house where the two martyrs suffered death for the Faith.

The circular church of St. Stephen was called in Cœlio monte in order to distinguish it from the many churches dedicated to him in the city itself. Primus and Felician, the first martyrs whose bodies were brought from extra-mural cemeteries into the city were placed by Pope Theodore I in a small chapel of this church.

Caiphas the high priest spoke, saying that Jesus should die for the nation. Christ is to die in order to bring together all the children of God dispersed throughout the world in one great family, which shall be neither Jew nor Greek nor Gentile, but only one holy Catholic Church. Stephen receives this last wish of his divine Master, and boldly announces it to the Hellenist Synagogues of Jerusalem.

God holds the souls of all men in his hands, and we should welcome with open arms those whom he has brought back from a long way off, remembering how we, too, had once strayed far away, but are now converted to the Shepherd of our souls.

Saturday after Passion Sunday

Collecta at St. Peter “when the Pope gives the paschal alms to the poor.” Station at St. John before the Latin Gate

To signify their close connection with the Apostolic See, a host consecrated by the Pope was sent to the titular priests. When they said their own Mass they placed in the chalice a particle of the host sent to them on this Saturday; abundant alms were distributed to the poor.

In course of time both these ceremonies became obsolete and in their place a new station was instituted at the Church of St. John before the Latin Gate. The tradition which relates that St. John was miraculously preserved from death when plunged into a caldron of boiling oil is very ancient, as it is vouched for by Tertullian; the first to connect this scene with the place before the Latin Gate where the Church of St. John now stands is Ado in his Martyrology.

In the Prayer we beseech God that the people who are dedicated to Him may increase in the affections of pious devotion and may develop by good works that seed of holiness which was sown in their haerts at holy Baptism. The school in which they must learn this lesson of perfection is the Church herself with her Sacraments and her Liturgy; so that the Christian life may become one long chain of graces connected one with another, each grace serving to prepare and dispose us to receive another. During our present lives every chastisement sent by God is for our correction; in the final prayer the Church asks for the special help of God that will enable the soul to make the acts of contrition and love which must precede its reconciliation and forgiveness; then comes the purification from sin by the infusion of sanctifying grace. In a few days Christ will be lifted up on the cross, whence He will draw all men unto Himself.

Palm Sunday

Collecta at St. Sylvester in the Lateran. Station at St. John Lateran

The great ceremonies of Holy Week took place in the ancient pontifical residence in the Lateran Palace. After the palms were blessed, they were carried to the chapel of St. Sylvester and distributed. The Mass was sung in the Basilica of the Savior.

In the blessing of the palms we have an ancient type of the liturgical synaxes or gatherings for the recitation of the Divine Office, the instruction of the faithful and prayer, which were not followed by the celebration of Mass. This type of synaxis, taken from the Jewish rite used in the synagogues of the Dispersion, formed part of the Christian ritual from the time of the Apostles.

In our present rite, not all parts are equally ancient; the Collects or prayers which follow the Preface in the blessing of the palms are of ancient origin and sublime conception; in them the Church seems to wish to pour out all her love for her Redeemer about to sacrifice Himself for her.

The Mass begins upon the return of the procession; it dwells chiefly upon the sufferings of the Redeemer, His humiliations and sorrows, though not unmindful of His glorious resurrection. This week was called “paschal” week because the sacred Liturgy in these last days of Lent does not separate the remembrance of the Saviour’s Passion from that of His triumphant resurrection. The Collect expresses this in beautiful words.

The remembrance of the sufferings endured for our sakes by Jesus Christ should be constantly revived in our hearts, that it may awaken in them those feelings of love and gratitude of which St. Paul speaks: “Christ has loved me, and has given Himself for me. I live, but it is no more I who live, it is Christ who liveth in me. I live in His faith.” The reading of the whole narrative of the Passion of Our Lord is a very ancient Roman tradition; the Ordines of the ninth century attest it.

Monday in Holy Week

Collecta at St. Balbina. Station at St. Praxedes

A little way off from the titular Church of Balbina stands the Basilica de fasciola (of the bandage), the ancient station for this day. Tradition says that St. Peter, when he sought to leave Rome to escape persecution, stopped to replace the bandage which covered the wound in his leg caused by the chains he had worn in prison. At that moment Christ appeared to him. St. Peter inquired: “Domine, quo vadis?” (Lord, whither goest Thou?), and Our Lord made answer: “I go to Rome to be crucified again.” The vision passed and Peter understood from these words that it was in the person of his first Vicar that Christ was to be put to death in Rome, and in obedience to the implied command, he returned in all haste to the city.

The title of Praxedes has been the station since the end of the Middle Ages; an ancient mosaic representing the Blessed Virgin and SS. Praxedes and Pudentiana is venerated here. A column of reddish jasper brought to Rome from Jerusalem in 1223 is affirmed by tradition to be the one to which Our Redeemer was bound for the scourging at the pillar.

In the Mass, Christ calls upon His Father, protesting His own innocence and imploring him to curb the attacks of Satan upon the human race.

The Gospel, recounting the anointing of the feet of Jesus with the spikenard of great price, and the remarks of Judas Iscariot, are reminders of the coming betrayal, Passion and death. The sweet perfume is the symbol of the perfection of the contemplative life, which the worldlings look upon as wasted, but which fills the Church of Christ with sweetness.

Tuesday in Holy Week

Collecta at Sta. Maria in Portico. Station at St. Prisca

In the porch of the palace of Galla, the daughter of the consul Symmachus, a mediæval church existed. Galla, on entering a convent, turned her own house into a hospital and refuge for the poor, in the time of Pope John I (523-26). A new church now exists, a little distant from the ancient site.

The Basilica of St. Prisca on the Aventine is rightly associated with the Roman domestic church of Aquila and Priscilla, saluted by St. Paul (Romans 16, 3, 5). It is one of the most ancient sanctuaries in Rome, hallowed by the presence and ministry of St. Peter and St. Paul. Under the high altar lies the body of Prisca, a virgin and martyr (not the wife of Aquila and disciple of St. Paul).

The Mass is a celebration of the mysteries of the Passion of the Redeemer, that we may derive therefrom the fruit which the Church offers us in the holy Liturgy. We are not simply commemorating an historic event. The works of Christ bear fruit when they are recalled, and have the same divine power when the Church expounds them to the Christian world to-day as they had when they were first done or spoken before the Jews.

Only in the Middle Ages was St. Mark’s account of the Passion introduced as the Gospel for this Mass. The Psalm of the Introit (Ps. 66) is the most beautiful prayer that we can, in union with the Church, lift up to Christ crucified; may the light of His countenance shine upon us; may God have mercy on us and bless us. His dying eyes are fixed on us in love, and that glance is a living and shining ray which enlightens the whole world.

Wednesday in Holy Week

Morning synaxis at the Latern. Collecta at St. Peter in Chains. Station at St. Mary Major

In the early Roman church, there was no Liturgy for this day; it was kept as we now keep Good Friday; the Mass was omitted and only the Litany solemnly recited. The Mass was reserved for the evening, in St. Mary Major. By the time of St. Leo the Great, this day already had its Mass. It was the rule that it be celebrated in St. Mary Major, to entrust as it were the aspirants for Baptism to her loving care who on Good Friday will be named the Mother of Mercy and the Advocate of the human race.

The Introit announces the triumph of the Cross; the Church desires to confirm our faith in Him whose Passion is read in the Gospel according to St. Luke, Whom to-morrow we shall see crucified between two thieves. The crucifixion is the summary of Catholic belief. The Cross is the crown of all the works of God, and the masterpiece of His love. God is well pleased with it; He cannot hear it commemorated nor behold its image without being moved with pity towards us.

Maundy Thursday

Station at the Lateran

The Basilica of the Savior, or the Church of St. John Lateran, is the scene of the solemn rites with which the Church commences on this day the celebration of the paschal feast. Originally there were three Masses, one in the morning for the reconciliation of public penitents, another for the consecration of the holy oils destined for Extreme Unction and Baptism, and a third at the close of the day in commemoration of the Last Supper and for the Easter Communion. These rites have now been simplified, and the holy oils are blessed in the Mass of the Easter Communion. After the Mass of to-day, Holy Communion is not distributed until the Resurrection has been celebrated in the liturgy. For detailed description of the ceremonies of Maundy Thursday, see note in proper part of the Missal for this day.

Good Friday

Collecta at the Lateran. Station at the Holy Cross in Jerusalem

The Roman Basilica, Holy Cross in Jerusalem, is to-day’s station, for Christ had said, “It cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.” Formerly, the Pope walked barefoot from St. John Lateran, swinging a censer filled with precious perfumes before the wood of the true Cross, carried by a deacon.

Originally, there was not even the Mass of the Presanctified on this day, as a sign of deep mourning. Our present rite does not go back beyond the Middle Ages, and represents the order used in the titular churches of Rome, in which the Pope was never present. For detailed description of the ceremonies of Good Friday see note in proper part of the Missal for this day.

Holy Saturday

Collecta at St. John Lateran, for the catechumens

In olden days the paschal fast was very strict, extending from the evening of Good Friday until the dawn of Easter Sunday. In Rome, not even children were dispensed from this fast; this was also the rule in the Celtic Church. Mass was not celebrated on this day, as the whole Church was watching in devout expectation until the night should come in which the mystery of Christ’s Resurrection should be celebrated. The night between Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday was spent in prayer; Tertullian speaks of this custom as a law. It was only in the later Middle Ages that the ceremony was definitely anticipated in the afternoon, and eventually, as now, in the morning of Holy Saturday.

The first ceremony is that of the Lights, or Easter fire (Eucharistia lucernaris). It seems to have a twofold origin: the Easter fire of the Celtic Churches and the sacred rite of lighting the evening candle, to burn throughout the long vigil; it was not among the primitive rites in Rome, but was adopted during the Carlovingian period.

Next follows the vigil, with its primitive form of the Divine Office, with the ancient prophecies whose reading filled the night. Then came the blessing of the font and the Baptism of the catechumens, followed by the Mass. For detailed description of the ceremonies for Holy Saturday see note in proper part of the Missal for this day.

Easter Sunday

Station at St. Mary Major

Throughout this paschal week the Roman Liturgy is entirely absorbed by two great thoughts, that of the Resurrection of Our Lord and that of the Baptism of the neophytes. These are, as it were, two mysteries which mutually complete and explain each other. Each is a symbol of the other; the one is the prototype, the other the antitype; but neither can be understood if considered by itself, for the regeneration of souls to the life of grace through the sacrament of Baptism, after a spiritual manner which yet is full of reality, is a new Resurrection of Christ in His Mystical Body.

There is no longer any mention of fasts and corporal penances, but instead, visits are paid to the great Roman Basilicas, the white-clad band of neophytes being conducted thither as in a triumphal procession.

After the paschal vigil of Holy Saturday at the Lateran the first basilica to be visited is that of the Mother of God on the Esquiline, for it is fitting that to her, before any other, the joys of the Resurrection should be announced, to her who more intimately than any other shared in the Passion of Jesus.

The Introit is derived from Psalm 138, which extols the knowledge and the presence of God that pervade the innermost part of our being. The antiphon has, however, been adapted to the paschal solemnity. Truly Christ fell asleep upon the cross, having yielded up His spirit to His Father, and now He awakens in the loving arms of the Almighty, who has accepted the spotless victim spontaneously offered to Him, and, pressing Him to His bosom, has revived within Him the spark of His own divine life. Christ has indeed arisen from the dead.

In the Postcommunion we are reminded that the Holy Eucharist is a pledge of the Communion of Saints, uniting the hearts of all the faithful in the spirit of love. This is why, in olden days, the faithful, at the moment of receiving Holy Communion from the hands of their bishop, gave him the kiss of peace, of which we find a last trace in our present custom of kissing the ring of a bishop.

The Holy Eucharist is not only for the commemoration of the death of Our Lord, it is also a representation of Him in His glory. Therefore, whilst it sows in us the seeds of death, that we may learn to die with Christ, it gives us at the same time a part and share in His Resurrection.

Easter Monday

Station at St. Peter

Among the early Christians the Easter festivities were prolonged for the entire week; to no other feast was so much solemnity given. During this week Rome kept continuous festival; business transactions were suspended; every morning the stational Mass was celebrated at one of the chief basilicas. The station at St. Peter’s brings to his tomb the newly baptized and bears witness in the Mass to the lively faith of the Apostle in whose house to-day the Roman Church is desirous of renewing, as it were, the paschal feast.

In the Epistle St. Peter lifts up his voice and proclaims the glory of Christ’s Resurrection. In the Gospel mention is made of the apparition of Our Lord to Peter on the evening of Easter Sunday. The disciples on the way to Emmaus knew the Lord in the breaking of the bread. It is probable that this was the eucharistic bread; as the Savior at the Last Supper received the Eucharist first Himself, in all likelihood He did so again after His Resurrection.

The Prayer speaks of the paschal Sacrament as being closely bound up with the redemption of the world. The spiritual Israel has come forth from the slavery of Egypt. May the Lord then protect this newly won liberty.

Easter Tuesday

Station at St. Paul

After visiting St. Peter’s, it was fitting that the neophytes should at once be brought to the Doctor of the Gentiles, beside whose tomb they had learnt the first rudiments of the new law of the Gospel. Therefore in the Lesson from the Acts of the Apostles chosen for to-day, it is Paul who announces to the faithful the Resurrection of the Savior as Peter did on Easter Monday.

The Gospel from St. Luke describes the first appearance of Jesus to the Apostles. As the Resurrection of Our Lord is the central tenet of the Christian faith, so the Divine Wisdom, in order to take away all excuse for the unbelief of the synagogue, willed that the miracle should be proved beyond all possibility of doubt.

In the Prayer with solemn simple words a rule of life is set forth to-day surpassing the heights to which any mere human mind could rise. The Church prays that God may grant to the baptized realization of all which Baptism means inasmuch as it communicates the very life of Jesus Christ Himself. In the Postcommunion the Church teaches that there are two kinds of Communion, the sacramental and the spiritual. By the first we partake actually of the body and blood of Christ; by the second we live by the spirit of the Eucharist. As the sacramental Communion can be received only at certain times and in certain places, Our Lord unites the soul so intimately to Himself in the Holy Eucharist that it lives by His spirit and breathes in unison with His heart. Such, in its highest sense, is spiritual Communion.

Wednesday in Easter Week

Station at St. Lawrence-without-the-Walls

To-day we honor St. Lawrence, the Cross-bearer of the Roman Church, to express our gratitude for the favor shown by him to the catechumens in bringing them to holy Baptism.

The Gospel gives the account of the third appearance of the risen Savior to the Apostles. On the shores of Lake Tiberias St. John, the virgin soul among the Apostles, sees him first, but Peter, the most ardent and the most impetuous, in the vigor of his faith throws himself into the water and is the first to reach the divine Master, whilst the others slowly follow in the boat. The fishes brought by St. Peter at the command of Jesus are interpreted to represent the neophytes baptized on Holy Saturday.

Throughout the paschal season the Church displays a great veneration for the martyrs, of which the first evidence is seen to-day at the tomb of St. Lawrence. The reason of this devotion is that the martyrs have a special claim to the glory of the Resurrection, since they have participated more closely than others in the ignominy of the Cross.

Thursday in Easter Week

Station at the Twelve Holy Apostles

Under the high altar of the Church of the Twelve Apostles are preserved the relics of the Apostles Philip and James only; the stational feast is celebrated in honor of all the Apostles together. The Lesson from the Acts of the Apostles deals with the conversion of the treasurer of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians by Philip the deacon, not the Apostle.

The Gospel gives the account of the appearance of the risen Savior to Mary Magdalen; this occurred before He showed Himself to the Apostles, but in the Liturgy it is put back until to-day on account of the respect for them.

The words of Jesus to the Magdalen are very consoling; by the Resurrection Our Lord has linked humanity to Himself by an intimate bond. Jesus is truly our Brother, God is in every deed our Father. By the death of Christ we have gained far more than we had lost by sin, and it is in this sense that the deacon sings in the Easter præconium: “O happy fault, that was worthy of so great a Redeemer.”

Friday in Easter Week

Station at St. Mary ad Martyres

In the Seventh Century the Roman Pantheon was dedicated to St. Mary and the heroic sons of the Roman Church who had suffered martyrdom. The martyrs indeed seem to have a particular right to the glory of the Resurrection on account of their perfect resemblance to Christ crucified; and many ancient liturgies kept a special feast in their honor in the very midst of the Easter festival. To-day’s station at Martyres remains as a last record of this early liturgical tradition, for, later on, the collective feast of the martyrs was transferred, even in Rome, to the middle of the month of May and still later to the first day of November.

The Introit contains an allusion to the paschal feast of the neophytes, who, like the Israelites of old, have escaped from the slavery of Egypt across the Red Sea, which is a symbol of holy Baptism. The enemy who was overwhelmed by the waves is Satan, or sin.

The doctrine taught in the lesson taken from 1 Peter 1 that contained in the article of the creed: “He descended into hell.” Among the souls in Limbo were patriarchs and prophets and some who had paid no heed to the warnings of Noe when he predicted the destruction of the world in the flood.

The words must not be taken to mean that Christ preached in hell in order to convert the souls who had already been condemned for their sin of unbelief; for the state of the soul cannot change after death. Christ descended into the abode of the dead to announce both to the good and to the wicked the redemption now accomplished; to the good for their supreme consolation, to the wicked as a further reason for their condemnation.

In the Communion the mission of the Church to teach nations and baptize is proclaimed.

Saturday in Easter Week

Station at St. John Lateran

The conclusion to-day of the baptismal celebrations the neophytes together again in the Lateran Basilica beside the font in which on Easter Eve they were born to newness of life. To-day’s stational liturgy seems to be influenced more than ever by the thought of purity and innocence, like a loving mother carried away by the beauty of her newborn child.

On this day in the early Roman Liturgy the Pope used to distribute to the people the Agnus Dei of the blessed wax mixed with sacred chrism, on which was impressed the image of the Lamb of God. This custom, one of great antiquity, took place during the Mass, whilst the schola of the cantors chanted the invocation Agnus Dei before the Kiss of Peace preceding the Communion.

The Epistle explains the teaching of St. Peter to the first Christian converts about the sublime dignity to which they have been raised by Baptism. The Gospel befits the return of the newly baptized to the Lateran Basilica; Peter is the pastor whose words have taught the neophytes; John is the co-titular patron of the Lateran baptistry, so that it is in his house, as it were, that the station is celebrated to-day.

After eight days Jesus showed Himself to His Apostles saying: “Peace be to you.” When time is drawing to an end and the last day is at hand, He will appear once more to His Church, and by the gift of His peace will strengthen her against the final persecutions of Antichrist.

Low Sunday (or Dominica in Albis)

In the morning, Station at St. Pancras; in the afternoon, at Sts. Cosmas and Damian

Low Sunday, so-called in English, by contrast with Easter or High Sunday, is known in the Liturgy as Dominica in Albis, the Sunday of the laying aside of the white robes; for in early ages it was on the evening before this Sunday that the neophytes, or converts, baptized together on Holy Saturday and then solemnly robed in white, the color symbolical of the innocence recovered by them through the grace of the sacrament, returned to the use of the ordinary habiliments of civil life.

From the time of St. Gregory the Great, the Basilica of the martyrs outside the walls were never chosen as the object of the stational processions on account of their distance. On the Octave of Easter, when everything is eloquent of spiritual youth, an exception is made in honor of the tomb of a young martyr, the fourteen-year-old Pancras or Pancratius.

According to the ancient Roman tradition Easter Week ended with the Vespers of the Saturday after Easter; hence to-day the neophytes lay aside their white garments as a sign that the festival is over, and resume their ordinary dress, and the Church in the Collect at the Mass speaks of Easter as of a festival which has already taken place.

The Gospel recalls the institution of the Sacrament of Penance. It was fitting that the Lord should on the very day of the Resurrection institute that sacrament which takes away sorrow and mourning in this world and calls sinners to a new life of sanctity. In memory of that fact Catholic tradition still imposes on the faithful the duty of receiving absolution from a priest before receiving their Easter Communion.

When the veneration of the martyrs Sts. Cosmas and Damian became general in Rome, the Easter stations had been for a long time already settled; however, under Felix IV a station was assigned to the Basilica of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, on the second Sunday after Easter. As this conflicted with the station at St. Peter, it was put back until the afternoon of Low Sunday.

Second Sunday after Easter

Station at St. Peter

On this Sunday St. Gregory the Great delivered his magnificent homily on the Gospel of the Good Shepherd, near the tomb of the first universal pastor. Christ founded the papal primacy on the unshakable faith and intense love of Peter; and he, following in his Savior’s steps, did not hesitate to give his life for the flock entrusted to him.

The devotion to Jesus the Redeemer under the figure of the Good Shepherd was dear to the faithful from very early times; in the catacombs Christ is frequently represented as a shepherd. The liturgical and traditional use of the Gospel of the Good Shepherd on the second Sunday after Easter is very old. Jesus, therefore, presents Himself to us to-day as the “Good Shepherd” and tells us what will henceforth be His relationship with His flock. Of those outside the fold Our Lord speaks gently; not a word of reproach but merely a statement of facts.

In the Postcommunion we beseech almighty God that, having participated in the sacrament which causes us to live through his own life, he will grant us the enjoyment in eternity of the grace we have to-day received. How wonderful is the thought that the best preparation for a Holy Communion is that Communion which precedes it!

For the remaining Sundays of Eastertide no stational Church is assigned.

April 25—St. Mark

The Greater Litanies

Collecta at the Title of Lucina. Station at St. Peter

The Litanies and the Mass of Rogation for this day are of ancient origin, except the Introit, which in early days was replaced by the Litany in processions. The feast of St. Mark is of much later origin.

The pagan festival, Robigalia, occurred on April 25th; young people used to go across the Milvian bridge to sacrifice to Robigus who preserved grain from blight. The Christian procession formed at St. Lawrence in Lucina and went by the Flaminian Way over the same bridge, where the sign In hoc singo vinces appeared to Constantine. Then going along the Tiber, passing in back of Castel Sant Angelo entered St. Peter’s. The people were thus taught that it was not the favor of the heathen god, but a devout life, humble prayer, and the intercession of the saints, especially that of St. Peter, the Pastor ovium, which would disarm the justice of God offended by our sins. This rite is called the Greater Litanies, because it was of a much more solemn nature than the ordinary stational litanies.

The procession is a survival of classical tradition incorporated into religious customs; the Church preferred to give a spiritual significance to observances implanted in the hearts of the people, rather than suppress them partially.

The Litany still preserves the very ancient type of prayer which ended the night vigil and served as a transition between the vigil Office and the offering of the Holy Sacrifice. The oldest part of the Litany is that which begins with the words “Through the mystery of thy holy incarnation” which belongs to primitive Christianity.

The whole Mass shows us how highly we should value prayer. Even in the middle of the night, and even to the extent of seeming importunate, our prayers should rise to God, because our miseries and our weaknesses are so numerous, and because God has decreed that His grace shall be granted to us only on the wings of prayer.

St. Mark, who was by birth a Jew, was converted to the Faith by St. Peter, whom he afterward accompanied to Rome, as secretary or interpreter. St. Peter sent him to Alexandria in Egypt, and he was first bishop of that city. He governed his See for about twenty years and in the end was martyred, A.D. 70, by the heathen. His symbol is a lion, for his Gospel begins with the mission of John the Baptist in the desert and the voice of the lion resounds in desert places.

Monday after the Fifth Sunday after Easter

Station at St. Mary Major. The Rogations

In Rome, the Litanies on St. Mark’s day had a festal character. The triduum of penitential litanies before the feast of the Ascension was first instituted at Vienne by St. Mamertus about the year 470, and was accompanied by fasting and abstention from servile work. When Rome adopted this custom the fast was abolished, and the three days’ prayer retained. The procession and Mass followed the same order as on April 25.

Tuesday after the Fifth Sunday after Easter

Station at St. John Lateran. The Rogations

This station is a proof of the late introduction of the Rogations into the Roman Liturgy. The Lateran Basilica is no longer called the Basilica of the Savior, but of St. John the Baptist, to whom is thus given the place immediately after the Blessed Virgin and before the Apostle Peter. St. John the Baptist is the type of that penitence which disposes us to ask for and to obtain grace. The procession and Mass followed the same order as on April 25.

Wednesday Before the Ascension

Station at St. Peter. The Rogations

This station at the Vatican Basilica on the last day of the Rogations was instituted out of veneration for the tomb of the Apostle, and in order to assimilate as far as possible the lesser litanies to the greater ones of April 25 which ended at the Basilica of St. Peter. The Litany of the Saints is a jewel of ancient prayer; in its present form it dates from the Tenth Century. The names of the saints are the glory of the Church; the thought of them fills us with hope. The procession and Mass followed the same order as an April 25.

Ascension Day

Station at St. Peter

The liturgical festival of the Ascension, whilst less ancient than that of Pentecost, is one of the oldest of the cycle, was already so universally observed that St. Augustine was able to attribute its institution to the Apostles themselves. At Rome, the Pope, after the night Office was concluded, and after Mass had been celebrated at the altar of St. Peter, was crowned by the cardinals, and towards the sixth hour was accompanied by bishops and clergy to the Lateran.

On this day Jesus was taken up into heaven; His faithful disciples continued to gaze heavenward. The contemplative vision of Paradise is reserved, however, for those who have already passed into the Church Triumphant.

The supreme glorification of the Head who is this day enthroned at the right hand of the Father in heaven affects the members also, like the precious balsam which, as the psalmist tells us, descended from the head of Aaron on to his flowing beard and on to his gorgeous pontifical vestments. This spiritual unction is the gift of the Holy Ghost, which Christ obtains to-day from heaven for his Church. Hence the connection between the Ascension and Pentecost is very close, nor can we understand the one without the other.

Sunday after the Ascension

Station at St. Mary “ad Martyres”

On this day when the Pope celebrated Mass at Sancta Maria rotunda, formerly in the Pantheon, he preached about the coming of the Holy Ghost; to illustrate his words a shower of roses in figura ejusdem Spiritus Sancti (as a figure of the same Holy Spirit) was scattered from the central opening in the roof upon the people as he preached.

The Night Vigil of Pentecost

Station at St. John Lateran

In ancient times Baptism was administered on this night in the Lateran exactly as on Easter Eve; but in the Twelfth Century, when the ceremony had already been anticipated on the afternoon of Holy Saturday, the Pope went at sunset to celebrate solemnly Vespers and Matins at St. Peter’s. In private Masses the Lessons, the Litany, etc., are omitted, and the Introit is recited as on the Wednesday after the Fourth Sunday in Lent on the occasion of the great baptismal scrutinies.

Throughout the Mass there are references to Baptism and Confirmation. Although Baptism is distinct from Confirmation, yet the latter takes its name of Confirmatio from the fact that the coming down of the Holy Ghost into the soul of the neophyte completes the work of his supernatural regeneration. Through its sacramental character it confers on him a more perfect likeness to Jesus Christ, impressing on his soul the final seal or ratification of his union with the divine Redeemer.

Pentecost Sunday

Station at St. Peter

Peter is the leader around whom gathers the little flock of Sion on this first Christian Pentecost, and he inaugurates to-day his pontifical primacy when he announces for the first time the Gospel message to the representatives of the various nations, without distinction of race or nationality, of country or State.

On this day Christ, risen from the grave and seated at the right hand of the Father, communicates His own divine life to the members of His Mystical Body through the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. So the Church having attained its full development, now first appears before the world.

To appreciate the Introit it should be heard with the majestic and joyful melody which the ancient Gregorian music has allotted to it.

The Sequence, Veni, Sancte Spiritus, attributed to Innocent III, replaced under Pius V an older one of great beauty. This Sequence is repeated daily throughout the Octave.

The Holy Ghost descends in power to vindicate the innocence of Jesus by filling the Church with such surpassing sanctity that it becomes, as it were, a fire prefiguring the final judgment on the enemies of God. The faithful kneel at the invocation of the Holy Spirit, Who at the last day requires the restoration of the Christian soul to the body which has been His mystical temple.

Monday in Pentecost Week

Station at the Apostles, at the Eudoxian Title ad Vincula

Originally the feast of Pentecost brought to an end in Rome the fifty days of the Easter celebrations and introduced the fast of the Ember Days of the summer quarter. Afterwards it became customary to continue the festivity for two more days, the Monday and the Tuesday, and, finally, after the time of St. Leo the Great it was extended like the Octave of Easter through the entire week.

The station was at St. Peter in Chains to avoid having two successive stations at the Vatican.

To-day’s Gospel shows the immense contrast between God and man. God so loves the world that, in order to save it, He sacrifices His only-begotten Son, whilst mankind repays this supreme love with utter ingratitude and obstinately chooses darkness rather than light.

Tuesday in Pentecost Week

Station at St. Anastasia

The titular church of St. Anastasia, once the Court church during the Byzantine period, is chosen for to-day’s station instead of the Basilica of St. Paul, as the latter is too far out for a procession at this season of the year when the weather is too warm.

During the Octave of Pentecost the Church celebrates more especially the glories of the grace of the Holy Ghost and His secret work of sanctification in the Mystical Body of Christ. Thus to-day she repeats in the verse for the Communion the words of Our Lord: “The Spirit who proceedeth from the Father, he shall glorify me,” and this glorification consists chiefly in our sanctification and in the growth of the Kingdom of God in our souls.

Ember Wednesday in Pentecost Week

Station at St. Mary Major

The station is at St. Mary Major, as is the rule in Rome whenever the scrutinies of the candidates for Holy Orders are to take place. The Mass bears a festival character; at one time the Ember fast was postponed for a few weeks. Gregory VII re-established the Ember Days in their proper place, but the festal tone of the Office was retained.

The contrast between to-day’s fast and the Gospel lesson in which Jesus offers Himself as the bread of eternal life is very opportune. Man does not live by bread alone, but has an absolute need of the Word of God, without Whom this earthly existence is as a day without light, an empty pretence of life, a gloomy image of death.

Thursday in Pentecost Week

Station at St. Lawrence-without-the-Walls

The station is now at St. Lawrence, although the Mass would indicate that at one time it was at the Church of the Twelve Apostles.

The Lesson from the Acts describes the joy which filled the people of Samaria when the deacon Philip preached the Gospel and worked miracles among them. This joy is a gift of the Holy Ghost. If the world nowadays is more than ever before restless and eager for amusements, it shows that it has none of the joy and consolation of the divine Paraclete, of which it has become unworthy by its resistance to His grace.

Ember Friday in Pentecost Week

Station at the Twelve Holy Apostles

The stational Mass was at one time placed at Sts. John and Paul, but in the earlier days was held where the Roman Missal now assigns it.

The spirit in which the Church solemnizes her feasts is one of intense spiritual joy. The Introit to-day contains, as it were, the summary of a great ascetic treatise on Christian joy: “My lips shall rejoice when I shall sing to thee, alleluia, alleluia”; this is the inward consequence of this prayer of love.

In the Postcommunion we pray that the sacred mysteries of the altar, which we have just celebrated in obedience to Our Lord’s command, may become a remedy which shall strengthen our weakness in the hard trials that beset us.

Ember Saturday in Pentecost Week

Station at St. Peter

In the Seventh Century due to the postponement of the Ember fast the station was at St. Stephen on the Cœlian Hill; in the Eleventh Century a return was made to the primitive place, St. Peter.

Of the five scriptural Lessons which precede the Gloria in excelsis of the Mass, some refer to the feast of Pentecost and some to the “fast of the fourth month,” as St. Leo the Great calls it; they represent a kind of compromise or fusion of the two rites. Formerly the vigil lasted throughout the night, and twelve lessons were read, both in Greek and in Latin; but in the time of St. Gregory the Great the vigil was shortened and brought within more reasonable limits, as we now find it in our present Missal.

Ordinations are held on this day, the various Orders being given as on the Ember Saturday in September.

The Paschal Season closes with the Mass. The Sacrifice of the Mass fittingly brings the holy season of Easter to an end. Our redemption is now accomplished, and the Holy Ghost has come as though to insure its lasting efficacy by means of the sacramental character which He impresses on our souls. This is the special prerogative of the divine Paraclete; His work is always definite, complete, and final, like a conclusion which follows inevitably and irrevocably on its premises. This is the reason why sins against the Holy Ghost can never find pardon; for they are the outcome of the final hardening of the soul in utter hatred of Supreme Love.

Ember Wednesday in September

Station at St. Mary Major

The Liturgy of the Ember Day fasts possessed originally a distinctly festive quality, and was partly a festival of thanksgiving for the ingathering of the fruits of the season. These rustic feasts originated at Rome. The observance of the Ember Day fasts was only introduced into Milan in the days of St. Charles Borromeo.

The liturgy of this week has kept to a great extent unchanged its early festive character, which recalls so vividly the rural feasts of ancient Rome at the close of the vintage.

The idea of a special preparation for the solemn Ordinations represents a later addition, which, however, dates from the time of Gelasius I.

The station on Ember Wednesday is, as a rule, at St. Mary Major, and the three Lessons in the Mass are a survival of the ancient Roman liturgical use, which recalls those very early times when to the two Lessons from the Law and the Prophets, customary in the synagogues of the Dispersion, the Apostles added a third lesson taken from the Gospels.

The passage from the Gospel of St. Mark (9, 16-28) teaches that humble prayer, on the other hand, and fasting, spiritualize our nature, which is thus raised to a supernatural state, and render it invulnerable to the fatal blows of Satan.

The Church to-day insistently invites us to rejoice, and tells us that this holy joy in the Lord is that which nourishes our spiritual strength.

Ember Friday in September

Station at the Twelve Holy Apostles

The Station on Ember Friday is regularly at the Church of the Twelve Holy Apostles in Rome. This arose from the founding of this Church at the same time when the Friday Liturgy became common. An ancient Roman custom of fasting strictly three days in the week was relaxed somewhat under Pope Callixtus and limited to the three periods of the harvest, the vintage, and the drawing off of the new wine.

The Introit bids us seek the Lord; the search after God is in the ancient rule of St. Benedict the one condition by which the vocation of aspirants to the religious life is to be judged. In the prayer we ask that to bodily abstinence we may add mental observances. The Postcommunion of to-day is used in many feasts of saints; we ask for greater benefits which can be none other than the grace of union with Jesus in heaven.

Ember Saturday in September

Station and Vigil at St. Peter’s

This Mass, which was celebrated during the night at St. Peter’s, is a last relic of the ancient night vigils held every Sunday during the first three centuries. The verse for the Offertory, “I have cried in the day and in the night before thee,” recalls the original nocturnal character of this Mass.

The Lessons recall various Jewish fasts and feasts; thus the second Lesson describes the Fast of Tabernacles. This is also a day for Ordinations; after the first Lesson the Ostiarii or door-keepers are ordained; after the second, the Lectors; after the third, the Exorcists; after the fourth, the Acolytes; after the fifth the Sub-deacons. This Lesson from Daniel and containing the canticle Benedicite concluded the office and served as a transition to the Mass. After the Benedicite came the great Litany with the Ordination of new deacons and priests of the Roman titles. The Roman Pontifical now places the Ordination of sub-deacons after the Lesson from Daniel. The Ordination of deacons after the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews and the Ordination of priests before the last verse of the Tract.

In the Postcommunion we ask God that His grace, of which the Eucharist is the vital source, may be fully efficacious in us, so that the mystical union of the soul with Him which is typified by this Sacrament may attain to its full perfection in heaven.