By far the most famous Church bearing his name is the octagonal Basilica of San Vitale at Ravenna, Italy, a masterpiece of Byzantine art, erected on the purported site of his Martyrdom. He is also The Patron Saint of Granarolo and Marittima in Italy, as well as of Thibodaux, Louisiana, in The United States.
Saint Paul of The Cross was born at Ovada, in the State of Genoa, in 1694. As his name indicates, he had during all his life a burning love for Jesus Crucified. "Nailed to The Cross with Christ" (Gospel), he devoted himself to Preaching everywhere with singular Charity, The Mystery of The Cross (Collect, Epistle).
To carry out this great work in The Church (Gospel), he instituted The Passionists, who make a Vow to propagate The Blessed Memory of The Saviour's Passion.
Consumed by the love which he drew from The Holy Sacrifice of The Mass, "which is The Perpetual Memorial [Editor: It IS NOT a "Shared Meal".] of the boundless Charity of Christ" (Postcommunion), he offered himself to God with Jesus "as an oblation of agreeable odour" (Offertory) and died in 1775.
Let us, like Saint Paul of The Cross, suffer with The Crucified Saviour, so that we may rejoice with Jesus Risen Again (Alleluia, Communion).
Sacristy art is a rare subject. As someone who spends a lot of time in Sacristies around the World, I have to say this one really caught my eye.
I took this photo in the Sacristy of The Basilica of Saint Mary Major, Rome. The framed image, probably from the '60s, rests atop the Paramenti Cabinet, where the Clergy Vest.
I think it worth mentioning because words sometimes fail and important messages need to be repeated. Often, there is but one word seen in a sacristy: SILENTIVM.
The thought depicted here, which is really a Prayer, is a beautiful and profound reminder.
Priest of God,
Celebrate this Mass as though it was your first Mass.
Celebrate this Mass as though it was your only Mass.
Celebrate this Mass as though it was your last Mass.
I hope some Pastors may be inspired to commission and display a similar image on their Sacristy wall.
WARSAW, April 25, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — An avalanche of support for toddler Alfie Evans has grown in Pro-Life Poland.
Polish people cannot accept this injustice and some are hoping for Royal intervention. While the Queen is mostly a figurehead, she has an enormous potential to raise awareness and shape public opinion.
Meanwhile, Polish TV celebrity Wojciech Cejrowski has been the driving force in making Alfie a household name in Poland. Cejrowski has 700,000 followers on his Facebook account, and his comments on social media quickly reached millions of Poles living outside the Country.
Polish people are shocked and cannot believe that the British Courts and Alder Hey Hospital can hold Alfie a hostage. The Poles cannot do much, but still try what they can.
Hundreds of thousands are active on Facebook, and a few even came to the hospital in Liverpool. A small group visited Alfie’s father, Tom, and gave him a Polish flag. They encouraged their Facebook followers to Pray to Saint Rita of Cascia, a Patron Saint for the impossible.
Luke Mintz, of The Liverpool Echo Newspaper, wrote on Twitter that he saw three Polish flags outside Alder Hey Hospital. He also noticed that Polish President Andrzej Duda expressed his solidarity with Alfie on Twitter:
Alfie Evans must be saved ! His brave little body has proved again that The Miracle Of Life can be stronger than death. Perhaps all that's needed is some good will on the part of decision makers. Alfie, we Pray for you and your recovery !
Polish magazine Solidarnośćstarted a petition to grant Alfie Polish Citizenship. Alfie and his parents Tom Evans and Kate James also received support from Pope Francis, and political leaders in Italy, Croatia, and The United States.
Poles in Cracow, Warsaw, and Lublin, brought Teddy Bears for Alfie to British Consulates in a show of support. In Warsaw, a group of college students Prayed The Rosary outside The British Consulate. In Cities without Consular representation, such as Rybnik, people gathered near monuments to Pray.
There was also a special Mass Celebrated for Alfie in Szczecin. The Candles are lit in windows, or on the Streets. The whole Country is Praying and thinking about little Alfie.
The Church Celebrates, on 25 April, two Solemnities, which have nothing in common: The Greater Litanies, so called on account of their Roman origin, and The Feast of Saint Mark, which is of later date. The word "Litany" means "Supplication".
In ancient Rome, on 25 April, used to be celebrated the pagan feast of Robigalia. It consisted, principally, of a Procession, which, leaving the City by The Flaminian Gate, went to The Milvian Bridge and ended in a suburban Sanctuary situated on The Claudian Way.
There, a ewe was sacrificed in honour of a god or goddess of the name Robigo (god or goddess of frost). The Greater Litany was the substitution of a Christian, for a pagan, Ceremony. Its itinerary is known to us by a convocation of Saint Gregory the Great. It is, approximately, the same as that of the pagan Procession.
All The Faithful in Rome betook themselves to the Church of Saint Laurence-in-Lucina, the nearest to The Flaminian Gate. Leaving by this Gate, the Procession made a Station at Saint Valentine's, crossed The Milvian Bridge, and branched off to the Left towards The Vatican.
After halting at a Cross, it entered The Basilica of Saint Peter for the Celebration of The Holy Mysteries.
This Litany is recited throughout The Church to keep away calamities, and to draw down The Blessing of God on the harvest. "Vouchsafe to grant us to preserve the fruits of the Earth, we Pray Thee, hear us," is sung by the Procession through the Countryside.
The whole Mass shows what assiduous Prayer may obtain, when in the midst of our adversities (Collects, Offertory) we have recourse with confidence to Our Father in Heaven (Epistle, Gospel, Communion).
If The Feast of Saint Mark is Transferred, The Litanies are not Transferred, unless they fall on Easter Sunday. In which case, they are Transferred to the following Tuesday.
In consequence of the public calamities that afflicted the Diocese of Vienne, Dauphiny, France, in the 5th-Century A.D., Saint Mamertus instituted a Solemn Penitential Procession on The Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, before Ascension Thursday.
Under an Order of The Council of Orleans, in 511 A.D., the Devotion spread to the rest of France. In 816 A.D., Pope Leo III introduced it in Rome and, soon after, it became a general observance throughout The Church.
The Litany of The Saints, and The Psalms and Collects sung in Procession, on these days, are Supplications; hence, the term "Rogations" applied to them. The object of these Devotions is to appease The Anger of God and avert the scourges of His Justice, and to draw down The Blessings of God on the fruits of the Earth.
Violet is used as a token of Penance, and The Paschal Candle is left unlighted. The Litany of The Saints, consisting of ejaculations in the form of a dialogue, is an admirable manner of Prayer, which it should be our purpose to cultivate.
The Celebrant wears a Violet Stole and Violet Cope. All in the Choir stand as they sing the first Antiphon Exsurge, Domine.
MASS OF ROGATION.
Stations:
Monday. At Saint Mary Major.
Tuesday. At Saint John Lateran.
Wednesday. At Saint Peter's.
Indulgence of 30 Years and 30 Quarantines each day.
Violet Vestments.
The Mass, throughout, points to the efficacy of The Prayer of The Just Man, when humble, sure, and persistent. Elias, by Prayer, closed and opened the heavens (Epistle), and Our Lord shows us by two Parables that God gives His Holy Spirit to whomever asks Him, because He is good (Gospel, Alleluia). In our afflictions, let us place our trust in God and He will hear our Prayers (Introit, Collect).
The following Mass is said during, or after, the Procession of both The Greater Litanies and The Lesser Litanies.
Mass of Rogation:Exaudivit de templo. The Gloria is not said. Preface: Of Easter.
The Litany Of The Saints is used in connection with:
Holy Mass on The Greater Litanies (25 April);
The Lesser Litanies (Rogation Days);
Holy Saturday;
The Vigil of Pentecost;
Masses of Ordination, before the conferring of Major Orders.
On Saint Mark's Day and Rogation Days, if the Procession is held, the Litany is preceded by the Antiphon, "Exurge, Domine," (Psalm XLIII. 26), and all Invocations are sung by the Cantors and repeated in full by the Choir [i.e., "Doubled"].
If the Procession cannot be held, the Invocations are not repeated.
On The Vigils of Easter and Pentecost, the Invocations marked with an asterisk (*) in The Missal are omitted; all the remaining Invocations are repeated, either there be a Font and a Procession from The Baptistry, or not.
At Masses of Ordination, only The First Five Invocations are repeated.
The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia.
Rogation Days are, in The Calendar of The Western Church, observed on 25 April (The Major Rogation) and the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday immediately preceding Ascension Thursday (The Minor Rogations).
The first Rogation, The Greater Litanies, has been compared to the ancient Roman religiousfestival of The Robigalia, a ritual involving prayer and sacrifice for crops held on 25 April. The first Rogation is also observed on 25 April, and a direct connection has sometimes been asserted, with the "Christian substitute" following the same processional route in Rome. If Easter falls on 24 April or on this day (the latest possible date for Easter), The Rogations are transferred to the following Tuesday.
The second set of Rogation Days, The Lesser Litanies, or Rogations, introduced about 470 A.D. by Bishop Mamertus of Vienne, and eventually adopted elsewhere, are the three days (Rogation Monday, Rogation Tuesday and Rogation Wednesday) immediately before Ascension Thursday in The Christian Liturgical Calendar.
The word "Rogation" comes from the Latin verb "rogare", meaning "to ask," and was applied to this time of The Liturgical Year because the Gospel Reading for the previous Sunday included the passage: "Ask, and ye shall receive" (Gospel of John 16:24). The Sunday itself was often called Rogation Sunday, as a result, and marked the start of a three-week period (ending on Trinity Sunday), when Roman Catholic and Anglican Clergy did not Solemnise marriages (two other such periods of marital prohibition also formerly existed, one beginning on The First Sunday in Advent and continuing through The Octave of Epiphany, or 13 January, and the other running from Septuagesima until The Octave of Easter, the Sunday after Easter). In England, Rogation Sunday is called "Chestnut Sunday".
The Faithful typically observed The Rogation Days by Fasting in preparation to Celebrate The Ascension, and farmers often had their crops Blessed by a Priest at this time. Violet Vestments are worn at The Rogation Litany and its associated Mass, regardless of what Colour Vestments were worn at the ordinary Liturgies of The Day.
A common feature of Rogation Days, in former times, was the Ceremony of "Beating The Bounds", in which a Procession of Parishioners, led by The Minister, Churchwarden, and Choirboys, would proceed around the boundary of their Parish and Pray for its protection in the forthcoming year. This was also known as 'Gang-Day'.
The reform of The Liturgical Calendar for Latin Roman Catholics, in 1969, delegated the establishment of Rogation Days, along with Ember Days, to The Episcopal Conferences.Their observance in The Latin Church subsequently declined, but the observance has revived somewhat, since 1988, (when Pope Saint John Paul II issued his Decree Ecclesia Dei Adflicta), and especially since 2007 (when Pope Benedict XVI issued his Motu Proprio, called "Summorum Pontificum"), when the use of older Rites was encouraged. Churches of The Anglican Communion reformed their Liturgical Calendar in 1976, but continue to recognise The Three Days before Ascension Day as an Optional Observance.
Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, unless otherwise stated.
Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen. Martyr. Feast Day 24 April.
Double.
Red Vestments.
English: Wall painting of Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen
in the Church of Saint Venantius, Pfärrenbach, Horgenzell, Germany.
Deutsch: Filialkirche St. Venantius, Pfärrenbach, Gemeinde HorgenzellWandmalerei
im Kirchenschiff: Hl. Fidelis von Sigmaringen.
Photo: 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Photo: Andreas Praefcke.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Saint Fidelis was born at Sigmaringen, Swabia (or, Suabia), Germany, in 1577. He was at first a Magistrate and took so much interest in the Poor that he was called "the Advocate of the Poor". He entered the Seraphic Order of Saint Francis, intimately united to God in continual Prayer and work. He asked, and obtained from Him, to shed his blood for The Catholic Faith.
He was sent to the Country of the Grisons, where Protestant Soldiers, fearing his influence, stabbed him to death at Sévis in 1622 (Collect).
This Holy Martyr, who, in The Paschal Cycle, takes his place among the attendants of The Risen Lord, shares with Him the felicity of The Sons of God (Epistle).
The Gospel of The Martyr's Mass in Paschaltide is, like the Gospels after Easter, a passage from the last discourse pronounced by The Master on the eve of His Death.
On the symbolical vine, which is Jesus, there are two sorts of branches which receive different treatment. Those without fruit are cut off and thrown into the fire. Those that bear fruit are, on the contrary, "carefully pruned, in order that they may produce still more". That is why Saint Fidelis was persecuted and put to death.
Let us obtain by the merits of this Saint to be, like him, "so confirmed in Faith and Charity that we may be faithful in God's service unto death" (Collect).
Saint George, born of an illustrious family in Cappadocia (modern-day Turkey), was promoted by Emperor Diocletian to the First Ranks in the army.
When the Emperor had published at Nicomedia his first Edict against the Christians, Saint George reproached him for his cruelty. Immediately, Saint George was cast into prison and subjected to such atrocious torments that the Eastern Church calls him The Great Martyr. He was beheaded in 303 A.D.
This Patron of armies is Venerated by Greeks and Latins. Rome possesses a Sanctuary erected in his honour, where The Station is held on The Thursday after Ash Wednesday.
England chose him for her Patron in the 13th-Century. Therefore, in this Country, his Feast is a Double of The First-Class with an Octave. He is one of The Fourteen Auxiliary Saints.
The following Text is from Wikipedia -the free encyclopaedia.
Saint George, was a Soldier in the Roman army and was later Venerated as a Christian Martyr. His father was Gerontius, a GreekChristian, from Cappadocia, and an Official in the Roman army; his mother, Polychronia, was a Christian, from Lydda. Saint George became an Officer in the Roman army in the Guard of the Emperor Diocletian, who ordered his death for failing to repudiate his Christian Faith.
The Paulus Institute For The Propagation Of Sacred Liturgy.
WASHINGTON. The organisers of The Traditional Latin Solemn Pontifical Mass announced details on The Liturgy planned for 28 April 2018 at 1.00 p.m., at The Basilica Of The National Shrine Of The Immaculate Conception, Washington D.C.
The Mass, to be Celebrated by His Excellency Alexander Sample, Archbishop of Portland in Oregon, will be broadcast live and worldwide on EWTN.
No tickets are required to attend in person, and all are encouraged to fill the Pews of
The Upper Church of The Basilica of The National Shrine of The Immaculate Conception
In addition to Archbishop Sample, Priests, who will be Serving as Sacred Ministers, include two Diocesan Priests, four from The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, and two from The Institute of Christ The King Sovereign Priest. Dozens of other Clergy will Process and sit In Choir, and Women Religious will be in the front Pews at The Mass.
Music will be a significant part of the 28 April Mass, Sponsored by The Paulus Institute for The Propagation of Sacred Liturgy.
The Choir of the Basilica Shrine will sing "Missa Salve Regina", by Victoria, as The Ordinary of The Mass, and several Renaissance Polyphony Motets, by Palestrina, Ugolini, Monteverdi, Clemens, Manchicourt and Marenzio.
The Propers of The Mass will be sung by The Saint Mary Mother of God Schola in Washington, D.C. Several Preludes will be sung by Guest Choirs, including one from The Lyceum School in South Euclid, Ohio, and another Choir from Saint John the Baptist Church in Allentown, New Jersey.
The 28 April Solemn Pontifical Mass in The Basilica Shrine in Washington D.C., will be the second such Mass in The Upper Church since 1969, this one Commemorating The 10th Anniversary of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum", which greatly expanded the use of The Traditional Latin Mass.
The Mass to be Offered will be a Votive Mass Commemorating The Immaculate Heart of Mary, in The Basilica Dedicated to Our Lady. Additional details on the Mass can be found on the event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1909485235736414/
Pope Soter succeeded Pope Anicetus in 161 A.D., and was Martyred ten years later under Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Pope Caiuss, whose Relics are kept in the Sanctuary of Saint Sylvester, at Rome, governed The Church a Century later and was put to death in 296 A.D.
Like all the Sovereign Pontiffs of the first Centuries, they united their sacrifice to that of Christ and "in Him bore much fruit" (Epistle). "God then avenged the blood of His servants and invited them to The Marriage Feast of The Lamb" (Epistle), to associate them in His Triumph and Happiness (Gospel, Offertory, Communion).
Let us honour the Blessed Martyrs Soter and Caius in order that, in Heaven, their powerful intercession may obtain for us Divine Protection (Collect).
