Posted on 03/06/2005 6:18:12 AM PST by StAthanasiustheGreat
FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT
Station—Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem
In the year 320, Constantine placed here the relics of the Holy Cross, which his mother, St. Helen, had brought to Rome from the Holy Land. Also, there is soil brought from Calvary, placed under the floor of the Chapel of the Holy Cross. Today, in the Church of Calvary at Rome—that is of the Cross—our hope, the Church, sends a ray of light upon our souls to stir us up to persevere in the struggle against the world, the flesh and the devil, until the great feast of Easter is reached.
"Rejoice, rejoice with joy," we are told in the Introit, for having died to sin with our Lord during Lent, we are shortly to rise with him by the Paschal Confession and Communion.
Our whole life is a texture of sorrows and joys. Good Fridays and Easters accompany us on our journey to the land of perennial Easter. But as there is no Good Friday without the assurance that "by the wood of the Cross joy has come into the whole world," so in the soul of a true Christian there is no sorrow without the joy that will come from living faith, strong hope and sincere love. It is a joy ever sustained and increased by that wonderful Bread, which Christ's loving hand multiplies for us in this desert of life.
By the wood of this Cross joy has come into the world and into your heart, also. Laetare, Jerusalem! Endure the thorns of life courageously. Supernaturalize them. (Note: On this day, it was the custom to solemnly bless the "golden rose," which was then presented by the Holy Father to a Catholic, who was zealous and outstanding in the Faith.)
Stational Church Ping!
Leave any details of Today's Mass that you would like to share.
I also need a volunteer to post this stuff when I am on Spring Break :)
(The priests wore pink. Looked nice. Scary Gospel though - the man born blind and the Pharisees.)
The Priest wore a rather loud chasuable (made a joke of it).
Unfortunately, the Fireside Chat with the Rector blogspot seems to have disappeared, but we have a few shining (er. . . ) examples here.
Yes I did. It was quite loud (bright bright pink, some green, gold, sky blue, etc). The Priest said, "I am not normally one for loud chasuables, but since today is Gaudete Sunday, I made an exception."
our priest stuck to purple vestments, thankfully. I don't think our parish even owns a pink chasuable.
I believe at least some of the relics are still at the Vatican. Periodically they remove tiny splinters and give them to priests, especially exorcists. The relics are extremely hard to obtain.
I was under the impression that every Cathedral in the world (maybe only Cardinals' churches) had a sliver to be displayed on the Feast of the Cross (something like that), must have been mistaken.
That could very well be. I was thinking mostly of the small hand held crucifix cases (I don't know the official term).
I recall being somewhere, I don't remember where, on Good Friday where a sliver was on display for veneration.
I was told the slivers are extremely difficult to obtain.
I imagine they are. Once they've been given to certain Cathedrals only a finite amount probably remained in the Vatican. Hence, whatever the Vatican has to give out must be rather difficult to obtain. I'm surprised they are still giving slivers out. I guess I thought they would want to maintain the integrity of the relic that currently remains in Rome.
The slivers are tiny, like 3-4 mm long. I don't know how often new ones are removed but I believe it is done at several years intervals. The Cross is probably huge. I doubt they would remove enough to destroy the integrity.
But hey, I'm just guessing from the sidelines! I'm no expert on this topic by any means.
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