Lenten Station At The Church Of The Holy Martyrs, John And Paul. Friday After Ash Wednesday.

Text is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal for Friday after Ash Wednesday.

Friday after Ash Wednesday.
Station at The Church of The Holy Martyrs John and Paul.

Indulgence of 10 years and 10 Quarantines.

Violet Vestments.

Français: Vue d'ensemble de la Basilique Santi Giovanni e Paolo de Rome sur le Celio.

English: Basilica of the Church of the Holy Martyrs, John and Paul, on Mount Coelius, Rome.

Photo: May 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: LPLT.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Station at Rome was on Mount Coelius, in the Residence that the Christian Senator, Pammachius, in the 5th-Century, transformed into a Parish Church, which bears the Title of Saints John and Paul (Feast Day is 26 June). Six frescoes of that period represent the captivity and death of these two Romans, “who in the same Faith and the same Martyrdom were truly united as brethren”.

English: Church of The Holy Martyrs, John and Paul.

Italiano: SS. Giovanni e Paolo - Roma, Italia.

Photo: July 2006.

Source: Flickr

Author: Patrick Denker

Reviewer: Mac9

(Wikimedia Commons)

Near this Church is a Hospice for Pilgrims (Xenodochium Valerii). Pammachius, in other directions, spent his whole fortune upon the Poor. The Gospel of this Mass and the Postcommunion also speak of Charity.

The Epistle and the Gospel declare that the external works of Penance, such as Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving, which should be practised during Lent, have no value in the sight of God unless they are accompanied by the spirit of internal sacrifice. This spirit shows itself in works of mercy, done out of consideration for our neighbour, without distinction of friend or enemy and with the sole intention of pleasing God. Let us ask for the spirit of sacrifice and mercy.

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Lenten Station At San Giorgio-In-Velabro. Thursday After Ash Wednesday.

Roman Text is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal for Thursday after Ash Wednesday.

Italic Text, Illustrations and Captions, are taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Thursday after Ash Wednesday.

Station at St. George's.

Indulgence of 10 years and 10 Quarantines.

Violet Vestments.

San Giorgio-in-Velabro 
is a Minor Basilica Church 
in Rome, Italy, 

devoted to Saint George.

Photo: April 2006.

Source: Own work.

Author: User: Zello

(Wikimedia Commons)

This Station is, since the time of Pope Gregory II (7th-Century A.D.), at Saint George's-in-Velabro. This Church is in the district called the Velabrum or Velum aureum, on account of a Relic kept in a Golden Veil. Saint George's is one of the twenty-five Parishes of Rome in the 5th-Century A.D., where, under The High Altar, is kept the Head of this Christian warrior, a victim of The Persecution of The Emperor Diocletian, and called by the Greeks "The Great Martyr".

The Liturgy of today inculcates in us the spirit of Prayer, which forms part of the Forty Days' Penance. It was by Prayer that Ezechias obtained a prolongation of his life (Epistle of today) and the Centurion the healing of his servant (Gospel), and it is by Prayer that we shall obtain from God the strength to mortify ourselves, in order that we may gain the pardon of our sins, and, with it, the healing of our Souls and Life Eternal.

Interior of San Giorgio-in-Velabro.

Photo: August 2012.

Source: Own work.

Author: Luc.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Gospel, in former times, reminded the Catechumens that, through Baptism, they were about to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Remember that, if sin offends God and draws upon us the scourge of His Righteous Anger, Penance, on the contrary, appeases Him and procures for us the effects of His Mercy (Collects).

Interior of San Giorgio-in-Velabro. 

Photo: March 2012.

Source: Own work.

Author: sailko

(Wikimedia Commons)

San Giorgio-in-Velabro is a Minor Basilica Church in Rome, Italy, devoted to Saint George.

The Church is located in the ancient Roman Velabrum, near the Arch of Janus, in the rione of Ripa. Sited near the River Tiber, it is within a complex of Republican-era pagan temples associated with the port of Rome. The ancient Arcus Argentariorum is attached to the side of the Church's façade.

San Giorgio-in-Velabro is The Station Church for The First Thursday in Lent.

The first religious building attested, in the place of the current Basilica, is a diaconia, funded by Pope Gregory the Great.

The High Altar at San Giorgio-in-Velabro.

Photo: March 2012.

Source: Own work.

Author: sailko

(Wikimedia Commons)

The current Basilica was built during the 7th-Century, possibly by Pope Leo II, who Dedicated it to Saint Sebastian. A 482-inscription in the catacombs of Saint Callixtus probably refers to a Church in the same zone. Its plan is irregular, indeed slightly trapezoidal, as a result of the frequent additions to the building. The interior columns are almost randomly arranged, having been taken from sundry Roman temples.

The Basilica was inside the Greek Quarter of Rome, where Greek-speaking merchants, civil and military officers, and monks of the Byzantine Empire lived — the nearby Santa Maria in Cosmedin, for example, was known as Schola Graeca at the time. Pope Zachary (741 A.D. - 752 A.D.), who was of Greek origin, moved the relic of St. George to this Basilica from Cappadocia, so that this Saint had a Basilica dedicated in the West, well before the spreading of his devotion associated with the return of the Crusaders from the East.

After a restoration by Pope Gregory IV (9th-Century), the Basilica received the addition of the Portico and of the Bell-Tower in the first half of the 13th-Century. The Apsis was decorated with frescoes by Pietro Cavallini in the 13th-Century.

San Giorgio al Velabro e Arco di Giano.

Photo: April 2007.

Source: Own work.

Author: Lalupa

(Wikimedia Commons)

Between 1923 and 1926, the Superintendent of Monuments of Rome, Antonio Muñoz, completed a more radical restoration programme, with the aim of restoring the building's "mediaeval character" and freeing it from later additions. This was done by returning the floor to its original level (and so exposing the column bases), reopening the ancient windows that gave light to the central nave, restoring the apsis, and generally removing numerous accretions from the other most recent restorations. During this process, fragments (now displayed on the Basilica's internal walls) were found indicating a schola cantorum on the site, attributed to the period of Pope Gregory IV.

The building, as we see it today, is largely a product of the 1920s restoration. However, five years' further restoration followed the explosion of a car bomb, parked close to the Basilica's facade, at midnight on 27 July 1993. That explosion caused no fatalities but left the 12th-Century Portico almost totally collapsed and blew a large opening into the wall of the main Basilica, as well as doing serious damage to the residence of the Generalate of the Crosiers (Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross), next door. The Ministry of Cultural Heritage researched and catalogued what was damaged or destroyed, placing the fragments in 1050 crates, with dates and locational references, before restoring the building with them, although some details, particularly in the Portico, were deliberately left un-restored as a memorial to the bombing.

Gianfranco Ravasi is, since November 2010, Cardinal-Deacon of the Church. Among the previous Titulars are: Oddone Colonna, who later became Pope Martin V; Raffaele Riario; Giacomo Stefaneschi; and John Henry Newman. Cardinal Alfons Maria Stickler was Titular of San Giorgio, as a Cardinal Priest, until his death in 2007.

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Domine Non Secundum Peccata Nostra. The Tract For Ash Wednesday.

"Domine non secundum peccata nostra".

The Tract for Ash Wednesday.
Sung by Schola Bellarmina.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/UG0zkf694PA

"Domine non secundum peccata"

by Juan de Anchieta (1462-1523).

The Tract for Ash Wednesday.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/TaPOM0ClzAk

The following Text is from Wikipedia.

Juan de Anchieta (Azpeitia, Gipuzkoa, Spain, 1462 – Azpeitia, 1523)

was a leading Spanish Basque composer of The Renaissance,

at The Royal Court Chaplaincy, in Granada, Spain,

of Queen Isabel I of Castile.

Ash Wednesday. Lenten Station At The Basilica Of Saint Sabina.

Text is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal for Ash Wednesday.

Ash Wednesday.
Station at Saint Sabina's.

Indulgence of 15 years and 15 Quarantines.

Privileged Feria.

Violet Vestments.

English: Santa Sabina, Rome.
Česky: Interiér baziliky Santa Sabina, Řím

Photo: February 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: Rumburak

(Wikimedia Commons)

Today's Station at Rome is at Saint Sabina's, on The Aventine, in a Sanctuary built on the former site of the Holy Martyr's house. Having been converted by her maid-servant, she was beheaded for the faith and secretly buried. It is to this Church that, in former times, the Pope used to go barefoot "to begin, with holy fasts, the exercises of Christian warfare, that as we do battle with the spirits of evil, we may be protected by the help of self-denial" [the Prayer at the Blessing of the Ashes]. In the 5th-Century, this Church was one of the twenty-five Parishes of Rome.

Following the example of the Ninivites, who did Penance in sackcloth and ashes, the Church today, to humble our pride and remind us of the sentence of death, which, as a consequence of our sins we are bound to undergo, sprinkles ashes on our heads with the words: "Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return". [Ashes are a symbol of Penance and, having become a Sacramental by the Church's blessing, help to develop within us the spirit of humility and sacrifice.] We come from dust and unto dust we shall return ! Here, indeed, is a thought that should humble our pride.

In this custom, we have the remains of an ancient ceremony referred to in the Roman Pontifical. Those Christians who were guilty of grave faults had to undergo public Penance. Accordingly, on Ash Wednesday, the Bishop used to bless the sackcloth, which was to be worn by the penitents during the Holy Forty Days, and place upon their heads ashes made from palms used the previous year in the Palm Sunday procession. Then, while the faithful were singing the Seven Penitential Psalms, "the penitents were expelled from the Holy Place on account of their sins, just as Adam was driven out of Paradise because of his disobedience". [Roman Pontifical.] They were not allowed to put off their penitential garb or to re-enter the Church before Holy Thursday, after they had gained their reconciliation by toil and Penance, and by Sacramental Confession and Absolution.

Français: Interieur de l'église de Santa Sabina, Aventin, Rome.

English: Interior of Santa Sabina, Aventine, Rome.

Photo: 2012.

Source: Own work.

Author: Ursus

(Wikimedia Commons)

At the Council of Beneventum (1091), Pope Urban VI commanded that the ashes should be received by all the faithful indiscriminately. Let us receive them in a spirit of humility and Penance, that, by this powerful Sacramental, we may obtain from Almighty God the blessings which the Church implores in the act of blessing them.

For truly, "God overlooks the sins of men for the sake of repentance" (Introit). He is "rich in mercy" to those who are "converted to Him with all their heart in fasting and in weeping and in mourning" (Epistle). We must not indeed, like the Pharisees, rend our garments as a sign of grief, but, rather, our hearts" (ibid.), for it is not men who are to testify to our fasting, but Our Father who sees our innermost Souls and will repay us (Gospel), as Our Lord Himself tells us in the Sermon on the Mount. [According to tradition, this Mount is Kurn Hattin.] Let us, then, draw from the Eucharist the help which we need (Postcommunion), so that, celebrating today the institution of this Sacred Fast (Secret), we may "perform it with a devotion which nothing can disturb" (Collect).

THE BLESSING OF THE ASHES.

Before Mass, Ashes are Blessed. These Ashes are made from the Palms which were Blessed in the previous year's Palm Sunday Procession. The formula used in the Blessing dates from about the 8th-Century.

After the Office of None, the Priest, Vested in Alb and Violet Stole, with or without a Violet Cope, with Deacon and Sub-Deacon in Vestments of the same colour, goes up to The Altar and The Choir begins singing.

After the appropriate Prayers have been said by the Priest, he sprinkles Holy Water on The Ashes and then Incenses them, three times. The Faithful then receive The Ashes on their foreheads.

Mass then commences.

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Are You Ready For Lent ?

Illustration: TRANSALPINE REDEMPTORISTS

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.

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Lenten Station Days.

Please note: Zephyrinus will be Posting every day during Lent on The Lenten Stational Church for that day. It is humbly offered as an aid to every Reader's Lenten Journey of Introspection, Penance, and Prayer.

Roman Text is taken from the Web-Site of The Most Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church at http://www.mostholyname.org/stationchurches/

or from Wikisource at
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Station_Days

Italic Text, Illustrations and Captions, are taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Saint Peter's Basilica, Rome. 
One of the Lenten Stations.

Crepuscular rays in Saint Peter's Basilica. 

Crepuscular rays are regularly seen in Saint Peter's at certain times each day.

Photo: 6 October 2008 (original upload date) (2 July 2008 (according to EXIF data).

Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia by SreeBot.

Author: Jraytram at en.wikipedia.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Lenten Station Days were days of Fasting in the Early Christian Church. The practice of keeping "Stations" died out during the Avignon Papacy, but was revived by Pope Leo XIII and Pope John XXIII.

Pope Gregory the Great, 590 A.D. - 604 A.D., designated certain Churches in Rome as "stationes" and recommended that, on the more Solemn Festivals, they should be made Stations (stationes fieri) until the Hour of Sext, and at these same Churches on the appointed days (statis dicbus) The Faithful should assist at The Daily Office.

Today, they are Days associated with Processions to particular Churches in which The Faithful may gain certain Indulgences.

From as early as the 3rd-Century, the Church of Rome observed the Season of Lent by journeying each day, while singing the Litanies of The Saints, to a "Station Church" or one of the ancient and prominent Churches of Rome.

Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (Saint Mary Major). 
One of the Lenten Stations.

Photo: Taken by Jack Curran, December 2005. 
Original upload date: 7 January 2006.

Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia

Author: Original uploader was JACurran at en.wikipedia

(Wikimedia Commons)

Here the Bishop of Rome, the Holy Father, would lead the people in Prayer as they honoured the Holy Martyrs of Rome. The Holy Relics of the Saints are exposed on this day and the Holy Mass is celebrated. It is a Pilgrimage of Faith, a symbol of unity, and an incentive for us all to adhere more fully to the Gospel.

In the 6th-Century, Pope Saint Gregory I ("The Great"), 590 A.D. - 604 A.D., designated it as a Lenten Practice. Unfortunately, the custom ceased during the Avignon Papacy, in 1305, but interest was revived by Pope Leo XIII at the turn of the 20th-Century. Pope Saint John XXIII fully restored the custom in 1959 and it continues to this day. As our Holy Father, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, reminds us:

“These Rites retain their value, despite the passing of Centuries, because they recall how important it also is in our day to accept Jesus’ words without compromises: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his Cross, daily, and follow me” (Lk 9:23) (Benedict XVI, Ash Wednesday Homily, 1 March 2006).

English: Basilica of Saint Paul without-the-Walls,
Rome, Italy.
One of the Lenten Stations.

German: Rom, Sankt Paul vor den Mauern, San Paolo fuori le mura

Italiano: Statua di San Paolo di fronte alla facciata della 

Basilica di San Paolo fuori le Mura a Roma.

Photo: May 2007.

Source: Own work.

Author: Berthold Werner.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The following information is taken from Wikisource at http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Station_Days
which states information from The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), "Station Days", by Henri Leclercq.

The following is the List of The Station Churches, as it was compiled in the time of Pope Saint Gregory I (6th-Century): 

Patriarchal Basilicas:

S. Giovanni in Laterano, S. Pietro, S. Maria Maggiore, S. Paolo Fuori le Mura, S. Lorenzo Fuori le Mura; 

Cardinalitial Titles:

S. Sisto; SS. Giovanni e Paolo, SS. Quattro Coronati, S. Clemente, S. Marcellino e Pietro, S. Pietro in Vincoli, S. Silvestro ai Monti, S. Prassede, S. Pudenziana, S. Eusebio, S. Vitale, S. Susanna, S. Ciriacos, S. Marcello, S. Lorenzo in Lucina, S. Lorenzo in Damaso, S. Marco, S. Anastasia, S. Nereo e Achilleo, S. Balbina, S. Sabina, S. Prisca, S. Maria in Trastevere, S. Cecilia, S. Crisogono; 

Diaconates (those which had been Stations before they were Diaconates):

S. Nicolo in Carcere, SS. Cosma e Damiano, S. Maria in Via Lata, S. Maria in Porticu, S. Maria in Domnica.

Basilica of The Twelve Holy Apostles, 
Rome, Italy.
One of the Lenten Stations.

Photo: August 2012.

Source: Own work.

Author: Luc.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The number of Stations is eighty-six, and, that of the Churches being less, some of them have the Station several times in the year. Santa Sabina, the Station established by Pope Urban VIII for Ash Wednesday, is the most important of all because it was long customary for the Popes to repair thither on that day to distribute The Ashes to the people.

Persons desirous of gaining the Station Indulgences, first repair to a Church in the vicinity of the Station, in imitation of the ancient Collect, or gathering of the Clergy and the people, preparatory to the Procession.

In this Church, Prayers are recited from The Station Manual, consisting of Invocations to The Blessed Virgin and The Martyrs. Then begins the journey to The Station, accompanied by the Recitation of the Miserere, five Paters, the Ave and Gloria, and The Steps of The Passion of Christ.

On arrival at The Station Church, The Litany of The Saints is said, with Versicles and Prayers, ending with the "De Profundis". The Pope grants dispensations to all who are unable to go in person to The Stations, such as Cloistered Religious, prisoners, the sick, etc., who are free to visit their own Church and say the Prayers prescribed.

Cardinals and their attendants, and Prelates of The Papal Court, may gain the Station Indulgence by reciting certain Prayers in their Oratory. These Prayers are printed annually and distributed to the Cardinals and Prelates, who assist at the First Sistine Chapel of Lent.

BURNICRON in Etudes, CIV (Paris, 1905), 205-24.

H. LECLERCQ.

Basilica of Saint John Lateran, 
Rome, Italy.
One of the Lenten Stations.

English: Main façade of the Basilica of St. John Lateran 
by Alessandro Galilei, 1735.

Italiano: Facciata principale della Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano (Roma), 
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: Marie-Lan Nguyen (user:Jastrow).

(Wikimedia Commons)

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Quinquagesima. Sunday, 15 February 2015.

Text is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

Illustrations, unless stated otherwise, are taken from 
The Saint Andrew Daily Missal at UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY

and are reproduced there with the kind permission of ST. BONAVENTURE PRESS

Quinquagesima Sunday.
Station at Saint Peter's Basilica, Rome.

Semi-Double.
Privilege of the Second Class.

Violet Vestments.

Jesus said to him: "Receive thy sight, thy faith hath made thee whole".

In the same way that the first three Prophecies of Holy Saturday, with their accompanying Prayers, are concerned with Adam, Noah and Abraham, so, during the Septuagesima Season, our attention is called in Missal and Breviary to these same Patriarchs, known respectively by the Church as the father of the human race, the father of future generations and the father of those who believe.

Adam, Noah and Abraham were types of Christ in the Paschal Mystery, a fact which we have already shown to be true in the case of the first two, in our notes on Septuagesima Sunday and Sexagesima Sunday. That it is true of Abraham, also, we shall see today.

In the Ambrosian Liturgy, Passion Sunday was called "Abraham's Sunday" and the "Response of Abraham" was read in the Office for that day; in the Roman Liturgy, also, he is still the subject of the Gospel for Passion Sunday.

The Introit

for Quinquagesima Sunday.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/0dKhhRW1apw.

Esto mihi in Deum protectorem, et in locum refugii, 

ut salvum me facias: quoniam firmamentum meum, 

et refugium meum es tu: et propter nomen 

tuum dux mihi eris, 

et enutries me.

Ps. In te, Domine, speravi, non confundar in aeternum: 

in iustitia tua libera me, et eripe me. 

V. Gloria Patri.

"Abraham, your father", says Our Lord, "rejoiced that he might see My day, he saw it and was glad

. . . Amen, Amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am". God had indeed promised Abraham that the Messias should descend from him, and he was overwhelmed with great joy, when, by Faith, he contemplated beforehand the day of the Redeemer's coming.

Again, when this was fulfilled, he still contemplated it with a fresh joy in Limbo, where he was waiting, with the Just Men of the Old Law, for Jesus to come and deliver them after His Passion. When the three weeks of the Septuagesima Season were added to Lent, Quinquagesima became the Sunday on which the Liturgy is devoted to Abraham, so that, in the Lessons and Responses for today, the whole history of the Patriarch is described.

The Offertory

for Quinquagesima Sunday.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/f3Mc6AssvoE.

Psalm CXVIII.12-13.

Bendictus es, Domine, 

doce me iustificationes tuas: 

in labiis meis pronuntiavi 

omnia iudicia oris tui.

With the desire of forming a people, who should be specially His own in the midst of the idolatrous nations of the world (Gradual and Tract), Almighty God chose Abraham as its Head and gave him his name, which means father of many nations. "And He took him from Ur, in Chaldee, and kept him from harm in all his wanderings" [Prayers taken from the Rituale Romanum, for the Recommendation of a Soul, and before a journey].

The Communion

for Quinquagesima Sunday.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/2qKjDhVLNCE.

Psalm LXXVII. 29-30.

Manducaverunt, et saturati sunt nimis,

et desiderium eorum attulit eis Dominus:

non sunt fraudati a desidero suo.

A man is not saved by being a son of Abraham, according to the flesh, but by being Abraham's son by means of a Faith like his. So Saint Paul writes: "In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision (to be a Jew) availeth anything, nor uncircumcision (to be a Gentile), but a new creature". "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness".

If the custom of allowing ourselves a little relaxation of spirit, before undertaking the Lenten Penance which binds us all, is of Liturgical origin, let us not forget that the Church condemns all excess. To atone, therefore, for those sins that are committed, let us make a Solemn Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, besides saying this Prayer of Reconciliation known as the Forty Hours' Prayer, which was instituted, either, by Saint Anthony-Mary Zaccaria († 1539), or by the Capuchin Father, Joseph Piantanida da Fermo (about 1636), a Prayer richly Indulgenced by Pope Clement XIII (1765).

The Forty Hours' Devotion originated from the Forty Hours that Jesus passed in the tomb. Exposition of The Blessed Sacrament was included, but at a later date, and regulated by Pope Clement XI, in 1705.

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

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