It is a fact of human nature that if our senses are constantly bombarded with the same thing, say for example, music that is too loud or an environment that is all the same color, or even violent or wicked images, we become numbed and even start to tune out, shut down. Too much of…
The Roman Station for the 3rd Sunday of Lent is the Minor Papal Basilica of St. Lawrence outside-the-walls. There are five Papal Basilicas, four Major and one Minor. They were once called Patriarchal Basilicas and they corresponded to the five ancient Patriarchates, St. John Lateran in Rome with the Patriarch of the West, the Pope.…
You’ve probably noticed that Gospel readings begin, “In illo tempore… in that time.” Well… what time is that? It is helpful to interrogate texts with classic questions from ancient rhetoric: “Quis, quid, ubi, quibus auxiliis, cur, quomodo, quando?” You can probably recognize what I am about without me telling you. Aristotle formulated them, Cicero rendered…
With the “Gesima,” pre-Lent Sundays we added a layer of context to our contexts: Roman Station churches. Each day of Lent has, by millennial tradition, an assigned church in Rome. On weekdays, people gathered at a nearby “collect” church and then processed singing penitential litanies and hymns to the “stopping” church, or “statio” where the…
Context is important. We are in “Gesima” time, Pre-Lent, a time of preparation, for the time of preparation, for Easter. Holy Church, like our mothers, remind us that we have some chores coming due; she reminds us that Lent is around the corner: after this “Fiftieth” Sunday, Quinquagesima, in three days is Ash Wednesday and…
In union with the catechumens preparing for baptism in the early Church of Rome, we stroll from the heart of the City under the long covered walkway that stretched from the great walls to the Ostian Basilica, the Roman Station church for Sexagesima Sunday, St. Paul’s outside-the-walls. Last week we went to St. Lawrence outside-the-walls,…
We are now nine Sundays out from Easter. Once again, context helps. In the course of the Church’s liturgical year, we have great cycles, such as the one we just concluded, which stretched from Advent, through Christmas, Epiphany and, in important respects, ended with the Feast of the Purification or Presentation. Advent was the joyfully…
As it happens, I wrote about this very Sunday a couple of months ago, at the beginning of November. That’s because of when Easter fell last year. There were few Sundays between Epiphany and pre-Lent’s Septuagesima Sunday and empty slots to fill before Advent 2021 began. Hence, this Sunday’s and next Sunday’s (5th and 6th)…
As a reminder, the antiphons for Holy Mass for these last Sundays of Epiphanytide are the same. This shows us how, linked as they are, they are anchored in the Feast of Epiphany and they underscore the divinity of the Lord manifested through His miracles. The nature of the miracles themselves reveal that Christ is…
We enjoy this year a goodly stretch of verdant Epiphanytide. Some years it is very short indeed, depending on when Easter falls. This year we get through the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Sundays after Epiphany, though not the 6th, which gives way to Septuagesima Sunday. Take note that the opening chant for Holy Mass in…
We made a firm move into Epiphanytide, the few weeks before pre-Lent’s Septuagesima Sunday. There is a strong magnetic attraction back to Epiphany on this 2nd Sunday after that great feast. Epiphany, really always on 6 January, was once endowed with its own Octave, regrettably abolished in 1955. The former Octave Day, always 13 January…
