Sunday, 8 April 2012

Lenten Station at Saint Mary Major


Non-Italic Text taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal for Easter Sunday
Pictures and Italic text taken from Wikipedia (the free encyclopaedia) (unless otherwise accredited)
Station at Saint Mary Major
Plenary Indulgence
Double of the First Class with Privileged Octave of the First Order
White Vestments



Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major
Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore (Italian)
Basilica Sanctae Mariae Maioris (Latin)
(From Wikimedia Commons. Photo taken by LPLT, November 2008)

As at Christmas, the Station is made at Saint Mary Major, on this greatest Feast of the whole year. The Church never separates Jesus and Mary, and today, in one and the same triumph, she honours the Mother and the Son. Before all else, the Risen Christ offers the homage of His gratitude to His Father in Heaven (Introit). 

In her turn, the Church gives thanks to God, inasmuch as, by the victory of His Son, He has re-opened the way to Heaven, and implores Him to assist us that we may attain this, our final goal (Collect). For this, Saint Paul tells us, just as the Jews eat the Paschal Lamb with the unleavened bread, so we must feast on the Lamb of God, with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (Epistle and Communion), that is free from the leaven of sin.


Santa Maria Maggiore
by M. Ohlmüller (dated 1883)
Watercolours
(From Wikimedia Commons)

In the Gospel and the Offertory, we read of the coming of the holy women to the sepulchre to embalm Our Lord. They find an empty tomb, but an angel proclaims to them the great mystery of the Resurrection. Let us joyfully keep this day on which Our Lord has restored life to us in His own rising from the dead (Easter Preface), and affirm with the Church that "the Lord is risen indeed", and, like Him, make our Easter a passing to an entirely new way of life.

Every Parish Priest celebrates Mass for the people of his Parish.


(From The Church of England Newspaper
at http://religiousintelligence.org/churchnewspaper/)

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