The Roman Station for this 1st Sunday of Lent is Rome’s Cathedral, the Basilic of St. John Lateran, referred to as the “Mother Church of the City and of the World”. It’s full title is the Papal Archbasilica Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist in the…
In this Sunday’s Mass for Sexagesima, we have in the Epistle from 2 Corinthians the mysterious description by Paul of his elevating vision of Heaven which readied him for his trials, which gave him authority, which transformed his person. He was drawn into mystery and changed. In the Gospel from Luke 8 we have the…
Our coming Sunday is already Septuagesima. Let’s do the technical stuff first. Septuagesima slides around from year to year because Easter slides around because the Moon is a bit of a calendrical coquette, or as Juliet calls her, “inconstant”. Easter is early this year, 31 March. We celebrate Easter in the Western Churches on the…
I must keep this brief today… briefer. I hear loud shouts of joy even through my monitor. In short, “life happened” in the last couple of days. Thus, my lateness and brevity. Though it doesn’t make too much difference if you get this before or after Mass. It is a good practice to review the…
It seems as if, once Christmas has passed – BAM! – it’s over. Trees are at the curb, decorations come down, music on the radio goes back to whatever it was. However, Holy Church gives us an Octave to rest within the feast of the Nativity itself and contemplate it from different angles, including the…
It’s hard to know what to write about for this Sunday. In the Novus Ordo in most places the observance of Epiphany will take place. In the Vetus Ordo it is the Feast of the Holy Family. In the Novus Ordo last Sunday was Holy Family, while in the Vetus it was Sunday in the…
St. Philip Neri (+1595) was praying one night, as he often did, in the Catacombs of St. Sebastian. A ball of light came down from above and entered his mouth. He was so overwhelmed by the love of God that he cried out, “Enough, Lord! I cannot take anymore” and passed out. When he awoke,…
When I visit Rome, at least once during my time there I go to the Ara Pacis or “Altar of Peace” of the Emperor Augustus Caesar (+14), which is housed in dreadful building that looks like a gas station. I don’t go in to see the actual altar. What I revisit is the supporting wall…
This lovely liturgical season of Advent is more than a sentimental journey to the side of the manger with an ox and an ass and some straw strewn around for ambience. We Christians fast before our feasts with vigils and with whole seasons. Advent, dressed in violet and not white, is therefore penitential. We sing…
We might be tempted to ask rhetorically if there was ever a time in the Church when divisions in factions, disagreements between groups was ever so bad as now? On the 2nd Sunday of Advent we hear from Paul’s letter to the Romans. There had been sizeable Jewish community in Rome because of both 2nd…
This penultimate Sunday of the Liturgical Year brings us a pericope from Paul’s 1st Letter to the Thessalonians 1:2-10. Paul’s Letter could be one of his earliest, along with Galatians. Some scholars think it could be the earliest section of the New Testament. Thessalonica is in modern Greece. Paul visited there and converted both pagans…
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