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Lent Taking its name from the Middle-English “Lenten”, or “spring”, the origins of Lent itself are particularly obscure. It seems possible that in some parts of the early Church there was a commemoration of Christ’s forty day fast in the wilderness and which followed immediately on from the celebration of the Baptism of Christ. The forty days attached to Easter began to appear in Rome and elsewhere shortly after the Council of Nicea in 325 and although the records of the Council make no mention of the establishment of such a fast it is possible that it was ordered by the assembled bishops. In the New Testament there is no mention of a determined period of fasting amongst the early Christian Community, although, in the Acts of the Apostles, in the account of the shipwreck of St. Paul, it states that, "A great deal of time had been lost, and navigation was already hazardous, since it was now well after the time for the Fast" (27: 9). In the immediate post-apostolic age there is a general sense of some sort of fast being observed in the period before Easter. The early Christian writer and apologist, Tertullian (c. 160 - c. 225) mentions a period of fasting to commemorate the period when the spouse, Jesus Christ, was taken away. Another early writer, Irenaeus, (c. 130 - c. 200) [right] in a letter to Victor, the Bishop of Rome from about 190 until 200, speaks of the fast before Easter and of the different methods of its observance in different places stating that the difference of observance was not a new thing but that it had arisen "even long before, in a past generation". It is clear from Tertullian that from very early times the Lenten fast, whatever its duration may have been, was considered obligatory and passages to the same effect are found in the later literature of the Church. The Council of Gangra, in the middle of the fourth century, anathemizes those who neglected to keep the fasts "observed by the Church". St. Jerome (c. 341 - 420) lays down strict obligations in the keeping of the Lenten fast. During the first three centuries of the history of the Church, most Christians prepared for Easter by only fasting for two or three days. In some places this "paschal fast" was extended to cover the entire week before Easter, the period now known as Holy Week. In Rome, this pascal fast may have lasted for as long as three weeks, but by the fourth century ad developed into the forty day Lent as it is observed today. The Roman Lent, in its three week form, was linked to the pastoral and liturgical preparation of catechumens for baptism at the Easter Vigil and until recently this baptismal motif was thought to explain the origins of Lent, a practice restored by the Second Vatican Council. Father, through our observance of Lent, help us to understand the meaning of your Son’s death and resurrection, and teach us to reflect it in our lives. See also: |
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17th March - Feast of St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland. Born - c. 385, Roman Britain (present-day Great Britain) Died - c. 17 March 461, Saul, Dál Fiatach, Ulaid, Gaelic Ireland (present-day Northern Ireland) Venerated in - Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, Lutheran Churches Major shrine - Armagh, Northern Ireland, Glastonbury Abbey, England Feast - 17 March (Saint Patrick's Day) Attributes - Patron; Holding a shamrock; carrying a cross, serpent, harp Patronage - Ireland, Nigeria, Montserrat, Archdiocese of New York, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, Boston, Rolla, Missouri, Loíza, Puerto Rico, Murcia (Spain), Clann Giolla Phádraig, engineers, paralegals, Archdiocese of Melbourne; invoked against snakes, sins All that we know about St. Patrick’s life comes from his Confessio or autobiography. He was British by birth, the son of a town councillor who was also a deacon. His place of birth is uncertain but appears to have been somewhere in the west of England between the Severn and the Clyde called Bannaven Taburinae. While still a youth he was kidnapped by Irish pirates and reduced to slaver for six years. It was during this time that he underwent a religious conversion. Following his escape or release, it is uncertain which he made his way back to his family a changed man. He received some sort of training for the priesthood which included the Latin Bible, which he came to know well, but it was not a higher education which he regretted. Patrick returned to Ireland in c. 435 working principally in the north setting up he see at Armagh and organising the Church on lines of territorial sees as elsewhere in the West and East. Whilst Patrick encouraged the Irish to become monks and nuns it is not certain that he was a monk himself and it is less likely that in his time the monastery became the principal unit of the Irish church at the expense of the Episcopal see. Although he had little learning, Patrick had sincere simplicity and deep pastoral care and was concerned with abolishing paganism, idolatry and sun-worship, In his old age he retained a consciousness of being an unlearned exile and former slave and fugitive who learnt to trust completely in God. It would be from a converted Ireland, as well as through the mission of St. Augustine of Canterbury in 596, that the Christian faith would be re-introduced to a pagan Britain. Almighty and ever living God, you chose the bishop Saint Patrick to preach your gospel to the people of Ireland, grant that through his merits and intercession those who now follow the teachings of your Son may never cease to proclaim your wondrous deeds to all. See also: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11554a.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick http://www.cin.org/patrick.html https://catholicsaints.info/saint-patrick/ https://www.christianiconography.info/goldenLegend/patrick.htm https://www.bartleby.com/210/3/171.html https://saintscatholic.blogspot.com/2012/03/st-patrick.html |
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18th March - Commemoration of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop, Doctor of the Church Born - c. 313 AD, possibly near Caesarea Maritima, Syria Palaestina (Modern-day Israel) Died - 386 AD (aged 73), Jerusalem, Syria Palaestina Cyril was born in or near Jerusalem in c. 315 and was educated there. He became a priest and was entrusted by St. Maximus with the instruction of the catechumens. The discourses for those preparing for or who had just received the sacrament of Baptism are his most famous work. In c. 349 he was ordained a bishop and it is said that during the first year of his episcopate strange lights were seen over the city. His episcopate was also marked by a long dispute with the metropolitan of Caesarea, Acacius, over the precise status of his see and its jurisdiction. Cyril refused to appear before a council of bishops who accused him of contumacy and with having sold church goods to relive the poor. The emperor was called into the dispute with the result that Cyril was exiled in 357, recalled in 359 and then banished again twice. Although his own orthodoxy had been questioned he was probably orthodox in intention, if not always in language. Restored to his see by the Council of Seleucia, which deposed his accuser Acacius, Cyril took a full part in and consented to the conclusions of the Council of Constantinople in 381. Cyril died in 386 having been a bishop for 35 years, 16 of them in exile. He was named a Doctor of the Church in 1882. Almighty and ever living God, grant that through the intercession of St. Cyril we may come to have a deeper sense of the mysteries of salvation and to have life more abundantly. See also: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04595b.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_of_Jerusalem https://catholicsaints.info/saint-cyril-of-jerusalem/ https://www.bartleby.com/210/3/182.html https://ccel.org/ccel/s/schaff/npnf207/cache/npnf207.pdf https://saintscatholic.blogspot.com/2012/03/st-cyril-of-jerusalem.html |
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19th March - Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary First century AD. Attributes - Carpenter's square or tools, the infant Jesus, staff with lily blossoms, two turtle doves, rod of spikenard. Patronage - Catholic Church, unborn children, fathers, immigrants, workers, employment, explorer, pilgrims, traveller, carpenters, engineers, realtors, against doubt and hesitation, and of a happy death, China, Belgium, From the State of Ceará and the city of Macapá in Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Korea, Indonesia, Zapotlan in Mexico, Vietnam, Tagbilaran City, Bohol, Mandaue City, Bailen, Cavite, Cebu, Philippines, and many others The little that we know about the life of St. Joseph comes from the pages of Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels. He was descended from the House of David and his trade as a carpenter shows that he was impoverished. The apocryphal Protoevangelium of James makes him an old man at the time of his betrothal to Mary but his implied duties in protecting the Holy Family an in bringing up Jesus make this unlikely. A Greek document, the History of Joseph the Carpenter from the fifth or sixth century was influential in establishing a liturgical cult of St. Joseph that had its origins in the east but reached its full development in the west much later. The feast of St. Joseph was celebrated in England at Winchester, Worcester, Ely and other places before 1100 and various medieval saints such as Vincent Ferrer, Bridget of Sweden and Bernardino of Siena propagated devotion to St. Joseph partly as a reaction to the mystery plays of the time where he was shown as a comic figure. The diffusion and popularity of his feast was due in great part to Teresa of Avila who dedicated the mother-house of her reformed Carmelites to him. Pope Gregory XV made his feast a holyday of obligation, now no longer observed. In 18710 he was declared “Patron of the Universal Church” by Pope Pius IX who also encouraged his Patronage on the third Sunday after Easter. This was replaced by the feast of St. Joseph the Worker on the 1st of May by Pope Pius XII and Saint Pope John XXIII added his name to the Canon of the Mass. Almighty and ever living God, grant that through the intercession of St. Joseph your Church may constantly watch over the mysteries of human salvation whose beginnings you entrusted to his faithful care. See also: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08504a.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Joseph https://www.bartleby.com/210/3/191.html https://catholicsaints.info/saint-joseph/ Apostolic Letter Patris Corde Of The Holy Father Francis On The 150th Anniversary Of The Proclamation Of Saint Joseph As Patron Of The Universal Church https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0805.htm https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0847.htm |