But Jesus Hid Himself...

Our Lord hid Himself today from the fury of those who reject His claims to Divinity. These are the same who would scorn and mock Him upon the cross whilst He hid Himself again, but in a different manner. In the former He hides from them physically because His hour had not yet come, showing that He had full control over all that He was to accomplish but at the moment chosen by Him. The latter was the veiling of His Divinity whilst on the cross - suffering all that He would in order to prove His love for us. 

 

In this spirit Holy Mother Church enters into Passiontide. Veiling the physical statues and images that surround us and comfort us; and the spiritual joys that surround the Mass by omitting the Psalm 42 at the Foot of the Altar (specifically the response 'ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam') and the Gloria.

Instead on this day we have parts of Psalm 42 read at the Introit in the person of Christ who says, "ipsa me deduxerunt et adduxerunt in montem sanctum tuum et in tabernacula tua". What else is Calvary but the Holy Mountain of our Redemption? And what else this Tabernacle but the "greater and more perfect tabernacle" spoken of in today's Epistle?

Neither by the blood of goats, or of calves, but by his own blood, entered once into the holies, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of an heifer being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted unto God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God? - Hebrews 12-14

I will take the chalice of salvation, and call upon the Name of the Lord. Praising I will call upon the Lord, and I shall be saved from my enemies.

Passiontide Purple

But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple. - Jn. 8:58
from the gospel of Passion Sunday

The Fast of Lent

 

The temptation of Our Lord in the desert.

Lent is a time that we may and should look towards with a certain holy joy and enthusiasm.  It is a time to reform ourselves, to do penance, to catch up as it were in the way of paying our debts to God.  There are perhaps so many things that we have promised to do, so many guilty indulgences or bad habits we have long been resolving to give up.  Now is the time, now if ever, during the holy time of Lent.  

Lent is the great Fast of the Church in which all Her children are called to take part.  The forty days serve to commemorate the time spent by Our Lord in the desert before His public ministry.  It was a time of prayer, fasting and fighting against temptation.  Lent is a time to recall the excess of Christ’s Love, especially His fasting, sorrows, Passion and Death.  It is a time to return this Love by serious efforts to conform ourselves more to His Pattern.  ‘If every year we rooted out one vice,’ says Thomas a Kempis ‘we should soon become perfect men.’ (Im. Bk. I cp. Xi).  Ah!  Indeed, if we and all sons and daughters of Holy Church would use the time of Lent to begin in earnest to forsake and uproot some evil propensity, some unmortified passion or inordinate attachment, how our lives would be changed for the better!  

To do something befitting the holy time of Lent, we could consider to abstain from meat and eggs during the forty days.  Then there are our personal and voluntary sacrifices that we should think about and prepare to make beforehand.  Even the most weak, the most weighed down by sin, need not feel gloomy and depressed when the time of Lent comes round, since it is for many a powerful incentive for sincere conversion and reconciliation with God.

How many times have we resolved to pray more, to meditate, to do spiritual reading and to make a steady habit of daily spiritual exercises?!  Lent is coming!  Let us make up our minds to offer God the spiritual service of prayer in a more fervent and constant manner!  At least now and then, it will be of great benefit and fittingness to make the Way of the Cross and to spend some time, if possible before the Blessed Sacrament.  We will surely find it most rewarding to spend more time with God in the quiet peace of prayer.  Our daily tasks will seem less enormous and painful to deal with and we will desire to return to the presence of God by retiring again to converse with Him in silence.  The habit of spending time with God will deepen our sense of His indwelling in our souls.  We will find that by retiring to Him, we are aspiring to Him.   ‘Prayer is good with fasting,’ (Tob. 12. 8) said the Angel to Tobias, and indeed the one helps the other.  Prayer is made easier and more agreeable with some fasting and fasting is made bearable with the support of prayer.  Let us be firmly decided this year, to make our season of Lent a time for God and an occasion of profit to our immortal souls.

— by a Transalpine Redemptorist monk.

Maundy Thursday. Et in medio nostri sit Christus Deus...

The Mass of Maundy Thursday

Christchurch, New Zealand.

 Epistle: 

Fratres, convenientibus vobis in unum...

Brethren, when you come together therefore into one place...

 Mandatum novum do vobis...

A new commandment I give unto you...

 ...alter alterius lavare pedes...

...to wash one another's feet...

 Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est...

Where are charity and love, God is there...

Timeamus et amemus Deum vivum...

Let us fear and love the living God... 

Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.

And let us love one another with sincere hearts.

 ... et in medio nostri sit Christus Deus.

..and may Christ, our God, be in the midst of us.

Domine, exaudi orationem meam.

Et clamor meus ad te veniat.

O Lord hear my prayer.

And let my cry come unto Thee.

Ubi est refectio mea

Christchurch, New Zealand

Holy Thursday

Ubi est refectio mea

Say to the master of the house:

The Master saith:

Where is My refectory where I may eat the Pasch

with my disciples.

Et invererunt...

And they found as He had told them:

and they prepared the pasch.

Palm Sunday in Christchurch, New Zealand

Today, 

Palm Sunday,

we officially began our apostolate in

the Diocese of  Christchurch, New Zealand.

Palm Sunday

Church of St Therese

Riccarton, Christchurch.

click on photos to see them in larger format! :)

The Blessing of Palms in front of the church. 

Hosanna filio David.

Hosanna to the Son of David. 

Hosanna in excelsis.

Hosanna in the highest. 

 Procession with Palms.

 Brother Clemens strikes the Church doors, 

the gates of the city of Jerusalem,

that they be opened to receive the King of Glory.

 Attollite, portae, capita vestra,

et attollite vos, fores antiquae,*

ut ingrediatur Rex gloriae!

Lift up O gates, your lintels,

and be ye lifted up, O ancient double doors:

and the King of Glory shall enter in! 

Ingrediente Domino in sanctam civitatem,

Hebraeorum pueri 

resurrectionem Vitae pronuntiantes,*

cum ramis palmarum:

"Hosanna in excelsis."

 As our Lord entered the holy city,

the Hebrew children,

heralding the resurrection of Life,

with palm branches cried out:

"Hosanna in the highest!" 

Jesus autem iterum clamans voce magna,

emisit spiritum.

And Jesus again crying with a loud voice,

yielded up the spirit.

O all ye that pass by

Good Friday Morning Stations of the Cross.

R. Caligaverunt oculi mei a fletu meo:
quia elongatus est a me, qui consolabatur me.
Videte omnes populi,
* Si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus.
V. O vos omnes qui transitis per viam, attendite et videte.
R. Si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus.
R. Caligaverunt oculi mei a fletu meo:
quia elongatus est a me, qui consolabatur me.
Videte omnes populi, *
Si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus.

Oratio.
Respice, quaesumus Domine,
super hanc familiam tuam,
pro qua Dominus noster Iesus Christus
non dubitavit manibus tradi nocentium,
et crucis subire tormentum:

Et sub silentio concluditur
Qui tecum vivit et regnat
in unitáte Spíritus Sancti
Deus per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum.
R. Amen.

R. Mine eyes do fail with tears,
because the Comforter that should relieve me
is far from me.
Behold, O all ye nations*
If there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.
V. O all ye that pass by, behold, and see
R. If there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.
R. Mine eyes do fail with tears,
because the Comforter that should relieve me
is far from me.
Behold, O all ye nations, *
If there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.

Prayer
Look down, we beseech thee, O Lord,
on this thy family,
for which our Lord Jesus Christ
did not hesitate to be delivered up into the hands of wicked men,
and to suffer the torment of the Cross.

Finish silently
Who livest and reignest with God the Father,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, world without end.
R. Amen

Passiontide's Feast

The early morning of the
Feast of the Annunciation
Monday 26 March.

Expectation.
The sheep we pass on the way to meditation.

~Passiontide Waiting~
And I lay down my life for my sheep.
(Jn 10:15)

Morning Meditation.
~ The Feast of the Annunciation in Passiontide. ~
Since yesterday the images are veiled,
an atmosphere of shrouded sorrow tinges the feast.

Passiontide purple mixes with the flowers of the feast.
Since Adam's fall, the world, purpled in mournng
awaited the coming of salvation.
The Blessed Virgin Mary,
the only Lily of our vale,
is by a singular privilege raised up by God
to receive into Her spotless womb on this feast,
the Word
through Whom all things were made,
the Saviour of the World - Salvator Mundi.

It was a splendid morning as our boat left Papa Stronsay
for Mass on our neighbouring island.
Nature reflected the season and the feast.

The sea was calm,
the sun on the horizon
announced itself, majestically present indeed,

Yet, like the images on the altar,
it was present in the sky all veiled, restrained,
brilliant through a cover of haze.

An Ancient Doorway to a Lovely Lent.

This ancient doorway

to a lovely Lent
is inviting you to enter.

If you would like to know what to do for Lent
try this:

1 Prayer:
Say the following prayer
every time you pass through a doorway of any kind.

Incline unto my aid, O God!
O Lord, make haste to help me!

or if you would like to say it in Latin:
Deus, in adjutorium meum intende;
Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina!

Incline unto my aid, O God!
O Lord, make haste to help me!


Deus, in adjutorium meum intende;
Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina!

(Goal: To pray always.)

2 Abstinence:
Sacrifice eating all meat and eggs
for the 40 days plus the Sundays.

I will abstain from all meat, -but only for Lent!

I will abstain from eggs, -but only until Easter!

This was part of the Catholic Lent
for far longer than 1200 years ...
... until about 1900;
they also had the burden of strict fasting.

But you could more easily undertake this abstinence
since you are not also obliged to their strict fasting;
this is only the abstinence.

If you are looking for something solid for Lent
I would say:
Why not try it?

It is all traditional, ancient, from our Fathers in the Faith.

One clear prayer.
One full abstinence.
One lovely Lent.


Appreciate the centuries of abstaining
that brought us
the beautiful Easter Egg!


As for other things, go to Confession as soon as possible.
Remember that Ash Wednesday and Good Friday
are days of Fast and Abstinence.

May you have a blessed and Holy Season of Lent!

Fr. Michael Mary, F.SS.R.

Participate for a minute in the Forty Hours.

This evening at 5.00 p.m. we opened

The Forty Hours Devotion.
We are not many but we are all delighted to have
these hours of grace with Our Lord.

We invite you to participate in the Forty Hours,
from your computer,
by making a spiritual communion.
This takes nearly one minute.
Give Him a minute of love and desire.

Jesus waits for our love and desire.
Information on Spiritual Communions:
A Spiritual Communion consists in an ardent desire to receive
Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament
and in lovingly embracing Him as if we had actually received Him.
The Holy Council of Trent greatly praises Spiritual Communions
and encourages the faithful to practise them.

Here is how to do it and
what to say to Jesus from your heart:

AN ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus
I believe that Thou art truly present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love Thee above all things and
I desire to possess Thee within my soul.
Since I am unable now to receive Thee sacramentally,
come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace Thee as being already there,
and unite myself wholly to Thee;
never permit me to be separated from Thee.
Amen.

That's a Spiritual Communion
and
here is the shorter 10 second version.

I believe that Thou, O Jesus, art present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love Thee and desire Thee!
I embrace Thee; oh never leave me.

Spy Wednesday

Today is Spy Wednesday.

Intrávit autem satanas in Judam...
And Satan entered into Judas,
who was surnamed Iscariot, one of the twelve:
and he went and discoursed with the chief priests and the magistrates,
how he might betray Him to them.
And they were glad,
and covenanted to give him money:
and he promised.
And he sought opportunity to betray Him,
in the absence of the multitude.
(Lk. 22: 3-6.)

Painting the chapel and Passion Sunday

Over the last week we have taken the opportunity of painting Our Lady's Chapel on Stronsay in preparation for Easter. We decided to change it from the all-white it had been and try and give it some character.


Brothers painting the ceiling.




Br. Nicodemus Mary, F.SS.R. gives a second coat.




The first stars are sprayed. They are the eight-pointed star from the veil of Our Mother of Perpetual Succour.


Marking the positions of the stars.






As the job approaches, the sanctuary can begin to be cleared.


The last star...


...very satisfying!


Mass of Passion Sunday on Stronsay.


O, Most Precious Blood of Jesus, Be our salvation!