Peterborough Cathedral.
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Quadragesima Sunday.
First Sunday of Lent.
Station at Saint John Lateran.
Indulgence of 10 Years and 10 Quarantines.
Semi-Double.
Privileged Sunday of The First Class.
Violet Vestments.
Illustration: UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY
Artist: René de Cramer.
“Copyright Brunelmar/Ghent/Belgium”.
Used with Permission.
English: Papal Arch-Basilica of Saint John Lateran.
Main façade of the Arch-Basilica of Saint John Lateran,
Rome, by Alessandro Galilei, 1735.
Latin: Archibasilica Sanctissimi Salvatoris et Sanctorum Iohannes Baptistæ et Evangelistæ in Laterano. Omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput.
Italiano: Facciata principale della Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, progettata da Alessandro Galilei (1735).
Français: Façade principale de la basilique Saint-Jean-de-Latran (Rome) par Alessandro Galilei, 1735.
Photo: 2006/09/07.
Source: Own work.
Author: Jastrow
(Wikimedia Commons)
Immediately after His Baptism, Our Lord began to prepare for His Public Life by a Fast of Forty Days in the mountainous desert which stretches between Jericho and the mountains of Judea. [Tradition tells us that Our Lord took shelter in the grotto on the highest peak of all, known as Mount of the Quarantine.] It was there that He was tempted by Satan, who wished to discover whether The Son of Mary was, in reality, The Son of God (Gospel of The Mass of The Day).
As in the case of Adam, Satan addresses his first attack to the senses. Our Lord is hungry and the tempter suggests to Him that He should turn stones into bread. In the same way, he tries, during these Forty Days, to make us give up on our Fasting and mortification. This is the concupiscence of the flesh.
English: Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Vatican.
With its length of 400 feet, this Basilica ranks fifteenth
among the largest Churches in the World.
Français: Basilique Saint-Jean-de-Latran, Vatican, située à Rome. Avec sa longueur de 121,84 mètres, cette Basilique se classe au 15è rang parmi les plus grandes églises au monde.
Photo: September 2010.
Source: Own work.
Author: Tango7174
(Wikimedia Commons)
Finally, just as he had promised Adam a knowledge which, like that of God Himself, should enable him to know all things, so Satan assures Jesus that he will make Him Ruler over all Created Things, if He will fall at his feet and worship him. In the same way, the devil seeks to attach us to Temporal goods, when we ought, by Alms and Works of Charity, to be doing good to our neighbour. This is the concupiscence of the eyes, or Avarice.
Since the Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God, Our Lord made use of Psalm XC against Satan, and this is the theme of the whole Mass and is found again and again in The Office of The Day. “His Truth shall cover thee with a shield,” says the Psalmist. This Psalm is, therefore, the ideal Psalm for Lent as a special time of warfare against the devil.
English: Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Vatican.
The Choir and Apse. The mosaics in the Dome are a
19th-Century rebuilding of Jacopo Torriti’s works,
dating to the 13th-Century.
Français: Basilique Saint-Jean-de-Latran,
située à Rome. Chœur et abside. La mosaïque du dôme
est une réfection du XIXè siècle de l'œuvre de
Jacopo Torriti remontant au XIIIè siècle.
Photo: September 2010.
Source: Own work.
Author: Tango7174
(Wikimedia Commons)
Some of its Verses make up the Introit, with its Verse, the Gradual, the Communion and the Offertory, which last was formerly composed, in today’s Mass, of three Verses instead of one, following the order of the threefold temptation as recorded in the Gospel.
Side-by-side with this Psalm, the Epistle, certainly dating from the time of Pope Saint Leo, sounds one of the characteristic notes of Lent. There, Saint Paul borrows a Text of Isaias: “In an accepted time, have I heard thee, and in the Day of Salvation have I helped thee.” “Behold,” says the Apostle, “now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the Day of Salvation” (Epistle and First Nocturn).
The Decorated Ceiling,
Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Rome.
Photo: March 2010.
Source: Own work.
Author: Grenouille vert
(Wikimedia Commons)
In this manner, with pure Souls and bodies, shall we celebrate this Mystery of The Lord’s Passion, Sublime beyond all others. True, we ought always to be in The Divine Presence, just as much as on the Easter Feast. But, because this spiritual vigour is the possession of only a few, while, on the other hand, the weakness of the flesh leads to any very severe observance being relaxed, and on the other, the varied occupations of this life share and divide our interest, it necessarily happens that the dust of the World soils the hearts, even of Religious themselves.
The Cloisters at Saint John Lateran.
Photo: August 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Kodiak
(Wikimedia Commons)
However, we must be careful to give no-one the least cause of complaint or scandal, so that our general behaviour may not be inconsistent with our Fasting and Penance. For it is useless to reduce the nourishment of the body unless the Soul departs from sin" (Second Nocturn).
In this "acceptable time" and in these "Days of Salvation", let us purify ourselves with The Church (Collect), "in Fastings, in Chastity," by zeal in hearing and meditating on The Word of God and by Charity unfeigned (Epistle).
Every Parish Priest Celebrates Mass for the people of his Parish.
Mass: Invocábit me.
Creed: Is said.
Preface: For Lent.
“S. Giovanni in Laterano,” as Zephyrinus notes, is the second highest church in rank in Catholic Christendom only S. Peter’s. Begun after “The Peace of the Church” (313 AD) was designed in the classic Roman Basilica form with two side aisles. Very little of the original church remains—-the church suffered massive damage from an earthquake and 905 A.D. and many additions and reconstructions beginning in the 15th century going through the 17th century of overlaid or expanded much of the original Constantinian church—-except for the apse mosaics, riding over the papal throne, which mosaics have a luminous gold effect, and are mostly original from the 4th C. church.
ReplyDeleteThe baldachin over the high altar in the church’s center, at the cruciform crossing, is of Gothic design (Giovanni di Stefani, 1367). Beautiful Cosmatesque mosaic inlay decorates the pillars and the floor, dating from the 15th C., made of porphyry, serpentine, and granite, and also decorates the church, especially on the left side near the high altar, where there is the entrance to the cloister for the former Benedictine abbey, and also decorates the area around the papal throne under the apse. (cont., Dante P)
(Cont.). Also of note are the ornate and massive bronze doors at the very front and center of the church, which originally were the entry way doors to the Roman Senate during imperial times.
ReplyDeleteS. Giovanni in Laterano many visitors have said is rather severe and cold in appearance, its grandeur and massive scale overwhelming, because its design and expansion in the 15th-17th C. was intended to be a place for pomp and papal coronations, which it was up until the 1870s. There aren’t many quiet nooks for the pilgrim, although there are several historic chapels: but no places really where one can sit down and “take it all in,” such as at Santa Maria Maggiore or other Roman churches..
However, to the right of the Lateran’s great façade, and to the right of the massive Lateran Palace, across the street titled “Piazza di S. Giovanni Laterano”, is a really important site for the pilgrim, “The Holy Steps,” or “Scala Santa:” These are 28 white marble steps which one can only ascend on one’s knees, being that they were brought from Jerusalem by S. Helena in the 4th C. and are said to have been the steps leading to the throne of the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate (so sometimes referred to as “Scala Pilati”), over which Jesus traversed on His way to His condemnation. What could be more appropriate for Lent?
The Gospel for the Sunday is the Temptations of Christ (Matt. 4:1-11). Dom Lefebvre OSB, does not offer a specific reason as to why St. John Lateran was chosen as the stational church for the first Sunday in Lent: perhaps it is because this was where the catechumens would eventually be baptized at the Easter Vigil Mass in the early centuries of the church .
But, as Zephyrinus points out, Psalm 90 (“He shall not suffer your foot to slip, the Holy One of Israel..”) is prominently quoted 5 times in the Mass: in the Introit, the Gradual, the Tract, offertory verse, and communion verse— a unique series of repetitive quotations from the same psalm—-echoing the Devil’s temptation to “cast thyself down” and test God. The scripture readings, and the repeated quotations from Psalm 90, most definitely foreshadow the Passion of our Lord in Holy Week. -Note by Dante P
Another riveting and exquisite Comment from Dante P, our Rome Correspondent, for which we are very grateful.
DeleteThis is a wonderful summation of the Lenten Station for The First Sunday in Lent. It encapsulates everything about the Divine Mass of the day and its profound Scripture Readings, especially, of course, the “ . . . unique series of repetitive quotations from the same psalm [Psalm 90]—- echoing the Devil’s temptation to “cast thyself down” and test God. The scripture readings, and the repeated quotations from Psalm 90, most definitely foreshadow the Passion of our Lord in Holy Week.”