Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.

Tuesday, 2 March 2021

Tuesday Of The Second Week In Lent. Lenten Station At The Basilica Of Santa Balbina.




Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless stated otherwise.

Tuesday of The Second Week in Lent.

Station at Saint Balbina's.

Indulgence of 10 Years and 10 Quarantines.

Violet Vestments.



English: Basilica of Saint Balbina, Rome.
Italiano: Roma - Chiesa di S. Balbina.
Photo: October 2008.
Source: Own work.
Author: MarkusMark
(Wikimedia Commons)


Basilica of Santa Balbina, Rome.
Available on YouTube at



The Lenten Station is at The Sanctuary of Saint Balbina, a Roman Virgin who lived in the 2nd-Century A.D. and whose remains lie under the Altar with those of her father, the Martyr Saint Quirinus. This Church, which stands on a slope of The Aventine, was, in the 5th-Century A.D., one of the twenty-five Parish Churches of Rome. Formerly, it was the house of a Roman Lady, named Balbina, who was Martyred during The Persecution of Emperor Trajan.

The reason for the choice of this Church is explained by the Epistle, which speaks of the widow of Sarephta. Thus, is celebrated, the Faith of one who transformed her residence into a Church.


English: The Basilica of Saint Balbina, Rome.
Photo: January 2007.
Source: Own work.
Author: Lalupa
(Wikimedia Commons)




Santa Balbina, Rome.
Available on YouTube at

Jesus declares, in the Gospel, that the Jews, who taught The Law of Moses, did not observe it. On the other hand, The Kingdom of God is open to the heathen, who, by Baptism, become Disciples of Christ and do His works.

The Epistle tells of Elias going to a heathen widow woman of Sarephta, to ask for nourishment, when a drought had fallen on impenitent Israel. The widow took two pieces of wood, typical of The Cross of Jesus, and prepared a hearth cake for The Prophet and one for herself. Her compassion was rewarded, for never after did she want for bread. Whereas the Jews suffer from the scarcity, the Gentiles, as a reward for their fidelity, receive daily The Eucharistic Bread, which applies to them the merits gained for them by The Saviour on The Cross.

Let us Pray that God may grant us the Grace of perseverance in the observance of The Fast, of which He has set us an example (Collect).

Mass: Tibi dixit.
Preface: Of Lent.





His Eminence, Péter Erdő,
and Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Balbinæ, Rome.
Illustration: CATHOLIC LANE



The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia.

Santa Balbina is a Basilica Church in Rome, devoted to Saint Balbina. It was built in the 4th-Century A.D., over the house of Consul Lucius Fabius Cilo, on The Aventine Hill, behind The Baths of Caracalla. Possibly the ancient Titulus Tigridæ, the Basilica was Consecrated by Pope Gregory I.

The adjoining Monastery has a commanding Mediæval Defence Tower. Inside the Basilica, there is a very fine Episcopal Chair, with a Cosmatesque decoration from the 13th-Century. The Church was heavily restored in the 1930s, when frescœs were discovered on the walls from the 9th-Century A.D. to the 14th-Century.


External Ornaments of a Cardinal, who is a Bishop.
Date: 26 May 2011.
Source: Own work, elements by Heralder and Alekjds.
Author: Adelbrecht
(Wikimedia Commons)



The Baroque frescœs in the Apse, and the Triumphal Arch, were painted by Anastasio Fontebuoni in 1599. The Arch is decorated with the figures of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, while, in the Apse, we can see Saint Balbina between other Martyrs. An ancient Sarcophagus was also discovered during the Restoration. It is now used as a Font.


English: Flag of Hungary,
from 6 November 1915 to 29 November 1918,
and from August 1919 until Mid- to Late-1946.
Magyar: Magyarország 3:2 oldalarányú zászlaja
1915. november 6. és 1918. november 29.,
valamint 1919 augusztusa és 1946 közepe-vége között.
Date: 2 December 2013.
Source: Own work.
Author: Thommy
(Wikimedia Commons)



There is a strong connection between the Basilica of Santa Balbina, Rome, and Hungary.

In 1270, the first known Hungarian Cardinal, István Váncsa, was buried in the Basilica.

The current Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Balbinæ is Péter ErdőArchbishop of Esztergom, Hungary.

In 1270, the first known Hungarian Cardinal, István Váncsa, was buried in the Basilica. Another 13th-Century Hungarian Clergyman, Pál, Bishop of Paphos, erected an Altar in the Church for Saint Nicholas. Both the Altar and the Grave disappeared during later Centuries, but a Plaque Commemorates the Offerings of Pál.

The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Balbinae is Péter ErdőArchbishop of Esztergom. According to Péter Erdő, the Hungarian connections of this Church played a part in Pope Saint John Paul II's decision when he chose Santa Balbina for Archbishop Erdő's Titular Church. The Cardinal also recommended Hungarian Pilgrims to visit the Basilica and said he feels a special responsibility for the building. Among the previous Titulars are Alfonso de la Cueva, marqués de Bedmar, and Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros.

Father Simpliciano of The Nativity Founded The Congregation of The Franciscan Sisters of The Sacred Heart, here.

Monday, 1 March 2021

“Hapus Dydd Gwyl Dewi”. A Very Happy Saint David’s Day. Feast Day 1 March.



The Welsh National Anthem.
Available on YouTube at


The Welsh Dragon.
Flag of Wales.
Illustration: DINO



Paragraph from:
In Wales, the Daffodil is a symbol of The Patron Saint,
David (Welsh: Dewi Sant), and of rebirth and faithfulness,
because they bloom every year, even after the harshest Winters.
Illustration: PINTEREST


The Welsh National Anthem.
Sung just before Wales beat England 30-3,
Saturday, 16 March 2013.
Available on YouTube at



The Welsh National Anthem.
Available on YouTube at

“Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau”
is the Welsh National Anthem.

The tune and words were the work of
the father and son team of Evan James (1809 - 1878)
and James James (1833 - 1902).

Cymraeg:

Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi
Gwlad beirdd a chantorion enwogion o fri
Ei gwrol ryfelwr, gwlad garwyr tra mad
Tros ryddid collasant eu gwaed.

Gwlad Gwlad,
Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad,
Tra mor yn fur i'r bur hoff bau
O bydded i'r hen iaith barhau


English:

Land of my Fathers, O land of the free,
A land of poets and minstrels, famed men.
Her brave warriors, patriots much blessed,
It was for freedom that they lost their blood.

Wales ! Wales !,
I am devoted to my Country.
So long as the sea is a wall to this fair beautiful land,
May the ancient language remain.


Cymraeg: Baner Dewi Sant
Image: August 2006.
Source: Altered from Image:Flag of Cornwall.svg
(Wikimedia Commons)



Saint David's Day.
Available on YouTube at

Saint David's Day is on 1 March. He brought Christianity to Wales
in the 6th-Century A.D. Saint David (Dewi Sant) is The Patron Saint of Wales and 1 March is The Welsh National Day. This is an edited version of 'Songs of Praise' 24/02/2013. The final song is sung by Rhys Meirion, in Welsh, accompanied by a Traditional Welsh Harp. The Welsh name for the City of Saint David is Tyddewi.



Cymraeg: Darlun o Ddewi Sant ar ffenestr lliw yng
Nghapel Coleg yr Iesu, Rhydychen. 19eg ganrif hwyr.
English: Late-19th-Century Stained-Glass Window in
Jesus College Chapel, Oxford, England, depicting Saint David.
Photo: June 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Casper Gutman.
(Wikimedia Commons)



HAPUS DYDD GWYL DEWI.

HAPPY SAINT DAVID'S DAY.


The Welsh Flag.
Illustration: WALES ONLINE


The Treorchy Male Voice Choir
singing "Sanctus",
Saint David's Day, 1989.
Available on YouTube at


And, as a Saint David’s Day Bonus to all Welshmen,
watch “The Greatest Rugby Try Ever Scored”
(The Barbarians versus The All Blacks).
Scored, naturally, by a Welshman.
Watch, below.


“The Greatest Rugby Try Ever Scored”.
[And it was scored by Wales, of course.]
Available on YouTube at


Monday Of The Second Week In Lent. Lenten Station At The Basilica Of Saint Clement.




Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless stated otherwise.

Monday of The Second Week in Lent.

Station at Saint Clement's.

Indulgence of 10 Years and 10 Quarantines.

Violet Vestments.



English: Basilica of Saint Clement, Rome.
Italiano: Basilica di San Clemente al Laterano.
Photo: May 2007.
Source: Own work.
(Wikimedia Commons)



The Station is at the Church of Saint Clement, built above the very house of the third successor of Saint Peter, whose name is found in The Canon of The Mass. This Sanctuary, a Parish of Rome in the 5th-Century A.D., is a most faithful example of an old Roman Basilica, although it was rebuilt in the 11th-Century. There are found, under the Altar, the remains of The Holy Martyr and of Saint Ignatius of Antioch.

Our Lord foretells in the Gospel that the Jews will lift Him up on The Cross, and thrice He asserts that they will die in their sin, because they have not believed in Him and done His works.

The wrath of God, which fell a first time on Jerusalem at the time of the Captivity of Babylon (Epistle), was renewed against Israel at the burning of the Temple. Like guilty Christians, they would only be able to return to The Lord by Penance, while the heathen are called, instead, to believe in Jesus, to become part of His people by Baptism.

“Let us mortify our flesh by Abstinence from food and let us Fast from sin by following Justice” (Collect).

Mass: Rédime me.
Preface: Of Lent.


“Word from Rome”.
Pilgrimage to Rome.
Basilica of Saint Clement.
Friends, here is the next episode of our
“Word from Rome: The Pilgrimage” video series.
Please watch and share.
To watch all these videos go to
wordfromrome.com
Available on YouTube at


Basilica di San Clemente, Rome, Italy.
Photo: March 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Sixtus
Permission: GFDL
(Wikimedia Commons)



The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,
unless otherwise stated.


The Basilica of Saint Clement (Italian: Basilica di San Clemente-al-Laterano) is a Roman Catholic Minor Basilica, Dedicated to Pope Clement I, located in Rome, Italy. Archæologically-speaking, the structure is a three-tiered complex of buildings:

(1) The present Basilica, built just before the year 1100, during the height of The Middle Ages;

(2) Beneath the present Basilica, is a 4th-Century A.D. Basilica that had been converted out of the home of a Roman nobleman, part of which had, in the 1st-Century A.D., briefly served as an early Church, and the basement of which had, in the 2nd-Century A.D., briefly served as a mithraeum;

(3) The home of the Roman nobleman had been built on the foundations of a Republican-era building that had been destroyed in The Great Fire of 64 A.D.


Ceiling of the Basilica of Saint Clement, Rome.
Photo: May 2007.
Source: Own work.
(Wikimedia Commons)



This ancient Church was transformed over the Centuries from a private home, that was the site of clandestine Christian worship in the 1st-Century A.D., to a grand public Basilica by the time of the 6th-Century A.D, reflecting the emerging Catholic Church's growing legitimacy and power.

The archaeological traces of the Basilica's history were discovered in the 1860s by Joseph Mullooly, Lector in Sacred Theology, beginning in 1849 at the College of Saint Thomas in Rome, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum.

The lowest levels of the present Basilica are remnants of the Foundation of a Republican-era building that was destroyed in The Great Fire of 64 A.D. An industrial building, possibly the Imperial Mint of Rome, was built on the site during the "Flavian" Period and, shortly thereafter, a "domus", or multi-level house, alongside it, separated form the industrial building by a narrow alleyway.

About a hundred years later (circa 200 A.D.), the central room of the domus was re-modelled for use as part of a mithraeum, that is, as part of a sanctuary of the cult of Mithras. The main cult room (the speleum, "cave", which is about 9.6 m long and 6 m wide, was discovered in 1867, but could not be investigated until 1914, due to lack of drainage. The "exedra", the shallow Apse at the far end of the low vaulted space, was trimmed with pumice to render it more cave-like.


English: Mithraeum, under the Basilica of Saint Clement, in Rome.
Italiano: Mitreo sottostante la basilica di San Clemente a Roma.
Русский: Митреум под базиликой святого Климента.
Date: 17 December 2006.
Source: Uploaded on Flickr as 2006-12-17 12-22 Rom 560j 
(Wikimedia Commons)



Central to the main room of the sanctuary, was found an altar, in the shape of a sarcophagus, and with the main cult relief of the tauroctony, Mithras slaying a bull, on its front face. The torch-bearers, Cautes and Cautopates, appear on, respectively, the Left and Right faces of the same monument.

A dedicatory inscription identifies the donor as one Pater Cnaeus Arrius Claudianus, perhaps of the same clan as Titus Arrius Antoninus' mother. Other monuments discovered in the sanctuary include a bust of Sol, kept in the sanctuary in a niche near the entrance, and a figure of "Mithras petra generix, i.e. "Mithras, born of the rock".


Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius bring the body of Saint Clement to Rome.
11th-Century fresco in the Basilica di San Clemente, Rome.
Source/Photographer: Unknown.
(Wikimedia Commons)



All three monuments, mentioned above, are still on display in the Mithraeum. A fourth monument, – a statue of Saint Peter found in the Speleum's Vestibule, and still on display there – is not of the mysteries.

Sunday, 28 February 2021

True Devotion.



True Devotion.

“The Rogation Days”. From “The Liturgical Year”. By: “Servant Of God”, Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.



Abbot Prosper Guéranger, O.S.B.
1805-1875.
Printmaker was Claude-Ferdinand Gaillard (1834–1887).
Published 1878, or earlier.
Date: 7 May 2007 (original upload date).
Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.
Author: The original uploader was Ikanreed at English Wikipedia
(Wikimedia Commons)


Text from Wikipedia -the free encyclopædia,
unless stated otherwise.

Prosper Louis Pascal Guéranger (commonly referred to as Dom Guéranger, 4 April 1805, Sablé-sur-Sarthe, France – 30 January 1875, Solesmes, France) was a French Benedictine Monk and Priest, who served for nearly forty years as The Abbot of Solesmes Abbey (which he Founded in the abandoned Priory of Solesmes).

Through his efforts, he became the Founder of The French Benedictine Congregation (now The Solesmes Congregation), which re-established Monastic Life in France after it had been wiped out by The French Revolution.

Guéranger was the author of “The Liturgical Year”, which covers every day of The Catholic Church's Liturgical Cycle in fifteen volumes. He was well regarded by Blessed Pope Pius IX, and was a proponent of the Dogmas of Papal Infallibility and The Immaculate Conception.

Guéranger is credited with reviving The Benedictine Order in France, and the implementation of The Tridentine Mass in France, though he is also regarded as the grand-father of The Liturgical Movement, which led to further reform of The Mass of The Roman Rite beyond its Tridentine Form.

The cause for his Canonisation is currently being studied by The Holy See, which has approved the Title for him of “Servant of God”.


“The Liturgical Year”.
By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Available in fifteen Volumes from
or
or
or

The following Text is from “The Liturgical Year”.
By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 9.
Paschal Time - Book III.


MONDAY.

It seems strange that there should be anything like mourning during Paschal Time: And yet these three days [Editor: Rogation Monday; Rogation Tuesday; Rogation Wednesday] are Days of Penance.

A moment's reflection, however, will show us that the institution of The Rogation Days is a most appropriate one. True, Our Saviour told us, before His Passion, that “the children of The Bridegroom should not Fast whilst The Bridegroom is with them”; but is not sadness in keeping with these last hours of Jesus's presence on Earth ? Were not His Mother and Disciples oppressed with grief at the thought of their having so soon to lose Him, Whose company had been a foretaste of Heaven ?

Let us see how The Liturgical Year came to have inserted in its Calendar these three days [Editor: Rogation Monday; Rogation Tuesday; Rogation Wednesday], during which Holy Church, though radiant with the joy of Easter, seems to go back to her Lenten observances.


The Holy Ghost, Who guides her in all things, willed that this completion of her Paschal Liturgy should owe its origin to a Devotion peculiar to one of the most illustrious and Venerable Churches of Southern Gaul, The Church of Vienne, France.

The second half of The 5th-Century A.D. had but just commenced, when the Country around Vienne, which had been recently conquered by The Burgundians, was visited by calamities of every kind. The people were struck with fear at these indications of God's anger. Saint Mamertus, who, at the time, was Bishop of Vienne, prescribed three days' Public Expiation, during which The Faithful were to devote themselves to Penance, and walk in Procession chanting appropriate Psalms.

The three days preceding The Ascension were the ones chosen. Unknown to himself, the Holy Bishop was thus initiating a practice, which was afterwards to form part of The Liturgy of The Universal Church.

The Churches of Gaul, as might naturally be expected, were the first to adopt the Devotion. Saint Alcimus Avitus, who was one of the earliest successors of Saint Mamertus in The See of Vienne, informs us that the custom of keeping The Rogation Days was, at that time, firmly established in his Diocese.


Saint Cæsarius of Arles, who lived in the early part of the 6th-Century A.D., speaks of them as being observed in Countries afar off; by which he meant, at the very least, to designate all that portion of Gaul which was under The Visigoths. That the whole of Gaul soon adopted the custom, is evident from The Canons drawn up at The First Council of Orleans, held in 511 A.D., which represented all the Provinces that were in allegiance to Clovis.

The regulations, made by The Council regarding The Rogation Days, give us a great idea of the importance attached to their observance. Not only Abstinence from flesh-meat, but even Fasting, is made of obligation. Masters are also required to dispense their servants from work, in order that they may assist at the long functions which fill up almost the whole of these three days [Editor: Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday].

In 567 A.D., The Council of Tours, likewise, imposed the precept of Fasting during The Rogation Days; and, as to the obligation of resting from servile work, we find it recognised in the “Capitularia” of Charlemagne Charles the Bald.

The main part of The Rogation Rite originally consisted, at least in Gaul, in singing Canticles of Supplication while passing from place to place; and, hence, the word “Procession”. We learn, from Saint Cæsarius of Arles, that each day's Procession lasted six hours; and that, when the Clergy became tired, the women took up the chanting.


The Faithful of those days had not made the discovery , which was reserved for modern times, that one requisite for Religious Processions is that they be as short as possible.

The Procession for The Rogation Days was preceded by The Faithful receiving The Ashes upon their heads, as now at the beginning of Lent; they were then sprinkled with Holy Water, and The Procession began. It was made up of The Clergy and people of several of the smaller Parishes, who were headed by The Cross of the principal Church, which conducted the whole Ceremony.

All walked bare-foot, singing The Litany, Psalms, and Antiphons, until they reached the Church appointed for The Station, where The Holy Sacrifice was offered. They entered the Churches that lay on their route, and sang an Antiphon or Responsory appropriate to each.

The remainder of this Article can be read in full at
“The Liturgical Year”.
By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 9.
Paschal Time - Book III.
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