From the onset, I am sure we all feel a sense of anticipation about the new pontificate of Leo XIV. There is anxiety in the waiting and there is joy at the fulfillment. This is a theme of today’s Gospel as well, for Christ uses the image of childbirth in speaking to His Apostles in…
A few minutes by foot from where I presently write in Rome is the Basilica of St. Peter on the Vatican Hill. This was the traditional Roman Station for this Sunday in ancient times. The present church replaced the original built by the Emperor Constatine in the 4th century. It soars with its vast vaults…
In the post-Conciliar calendar this is the “Second Sunday of Easter”. In the 1962 Missale Romanum and in previous editions this Sunday is labelled: Dominica in Albis in Octava Paschae… Sunday in white garments on the Octave of Easter. In traditional parlance today is called “Low Sunday” or sometimes “Thomas Sunday” because of the Gospel…
Happy Easter! My hopeful prayer is that you experience, in this Easter Season, true joy in a personal encounter with the Risen Lord. The Church’s firehose of imagery and traditions and sacred liturgy has been blasting fully at our little drinking cups. Holy Week and the Sacred Triduum can overwhelm as we reach the apex…
From the pre-Lent, “Gesima” Sundays onward, Holy Mother Church began her plunge into liturgical death. At first we lost the “Alleluia”, the Gloria, and on Sundays we dressed in penitential violet to herald the proximity of Lent. With Lent, these privations applied every day, with the exception of our great feasts. Moreover, we became stiller…
I will guess that we have all heard the explanation of why this Sunday is called Laertare (“Rejoice”) and why we have rose (rosacea) vestments and that the Roman Station is at the Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. St. John Henry Newman wrote of this church: “This Basilica is so called, because Saint…
Welcome to the second part of Lent. As Pius Parsch puts it in The Church’s Year of Grace, in the first two weeks we put ourselves on guard against attacks by the Prince of this world, the Devil and fallen angels, with the weapon of mortifications. On this Sunday we move from defense against the…
If we try to put ourselves into the shoes of the ancient Roman catechumens, being prepared from the pre-Lent “Gesima” Sundays onward, we can perhaps grasp the psychological and pedagogical importance of having the Gospel reading about the Transfiguration on this 2nd Sunday of Lent. Much of the content of the Mass formularies and the…
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…
With Quinquagesima Sunday we are at the threshold of the season of Lent. Holy Mother Church has been preparing us for spiritual combat through these preparatory Sundays. When you follow the Vetus Ordo of the Roman Rite, Lent can never take you by surprise. As part of our arming for battle, this Sunday asks us…
Easter can fall at its latest on 25 April in the Gregorian Calendar codified by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. In this 2025th year of our salvation Easter is quite late, occurring on 20 April. This is because the first full Moon after the Vernal Equinox will be at 20:22 of 12 April EDT which…
