Posted on 03/25/2006 10:20:53 PM PST by Salvation
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Farewell to Alleluia and Gloria
During the penitential seasons of the Church, the Gloria and the Alleluia are not said or sung. The Gloria is sung only at the Mass on Holy Thursday, usually with great ceremony, organ and sometimes trumpets, and often with the ringing of bells. After the singing of the Gloria, musical instruments are to be silent until the Alleluia at the Easter Vigil. (Catholic families might imitate this solemn silence by not playing instrumental music in their homes at this time.)
In the Middle Ages and throughout the 16th century, the "burying" of the Alleluia was a solemn ritual on Septuagesima Sunday. A procession of children carrying a wooden plaque bearing the word "Alleluia" laid it at the feet of the statue of the Blessed Virgin, covering it with a purple cloth. It remained there until Easter at the Gospel procession, when the plaque was carried as the priest intoned the three Alleluias before the Easter Gospel. In Paris, a straw figure inscribed with the word was carried out of the choir at the end of the service and burned in the church yard.
Although the practice of literally removing the Alleluia from the Church may have disappeared, even today in some parish celebrations of the Easter Vigil an Alleluia card is carried in procession and placed in front of the altar during the singing of the first Alleluias before the Gospel for Easter.
The hymn Alleluia, Song of Gladness and the one that follows date from the early 9th and 10th centuries; both refer to the farewell to the Alleluia in the liturgy.
The Holy Season of Lent -- Fast and Abstinence
The Holy Season of Lent -- The Stations of the Cross
Mardi Gras' Catholic Roots [Shrove Tuesday]
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI FOR LENT 2006
Lent a Time for Renewal, Says Benedict XVI
Lent: A Time to Fast From Media and Criticism Says President of Pontifical Liturgical Institute
From: 2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23
The Reign of Zedekiah (Continuation)
From: Ephesians 2:4-10
Salvation As a Free Gift
From: John 3:14-21
The Visit of Nicodemus (Continuation)
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Laetare Sunday |
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03/05/05 |
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Toward the beginning of this weeks gospel text, Jesus states what His mission is: "We have to do the works of the One Who sent me." Being sent by the Father, Jesus must do the Fathers works. |
Thank you.
Thank you for coming onto the thread.
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John 3:16 and Grace |
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03/25/06 |
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For years, evangelical Protestants have extolled John 3:16 as the heart of the Gospel. In their minds, if you only have a moment to tell people something about the Christian faith, this little Bible verse is the Scripture you should quote: For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son that whosoever believes in Him may not die but may have eternal life. |
Year B- Fourth Sunday of Lent
God loved the world so much![]() 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, |
Author: Joseph of Jesus and Mary
Sunday, March 26, 2006 Fourth Sunday of Lent |
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O God, come to my aid.
O Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
A suitable hymn may be inserted at this point.
Psalm 23 (24) |
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The Lord comes to his temple |
The Lords is the earth and its fullness, the world and all who live in it. He himself founded it upon the seas and set it firm over the waters. Who will climb the mountain of the Lord? Who will stand in his holy place? The one who is innocent of wrongdoing and pure of heart, who has not given himself to vanities or sworn falsely. He will receive the blessing of the Lord and be justified by God his saviour. This is the way of those who seek him, seek the face of the God of Jacob. Gates, raise your heads. Stand up, eternal doors, and let the king of glory enter. Who is the king of glory? The Lord of might and power. The Lord, strong in battle. Gates, raise your heads. Stand up, eternal doors, and let the king of glory enter. Who is the king of glory? The Lord of hosts he is the king of glory. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. |
Psalm 65 (66) |
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Hymn for a sacrifice of thanksgiving |
Cry out to God, all the earth, sing psalms to the glory of his name, give him all glory and praise. Say to God, How tremendous your works! Faced with the greatness of your power your enemies dwindle away. Let all the earth worship you and sing your praises, sing psalms to your name. Come and see the works of God, be awed by what he has done for the children of men. He turned the sea into dry land, and they crossed the waters on foot: therefore will we rejoice in him. In his might he will rule for all time, his eyes keep watch on the nations: no rebellion will ever succeed. Bless our God, you nations, and let the sound of your praises be heard. Praise him who brought us to life, and saved us from stumbling. For you have tested us, O Lord, you have tried us by fire, as silver is tried. You led us into the trap, heaped tribulations upon us. You set other men to rule over us but we passed through fire and water, and you led us out to our rest. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. |
Psalm 65 (66) |
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I shall enter your house with burnt-offerings. I shall fulfil my vows to you, the vows that I made with my lips, the vows that I uttered in my troubles. I shall offer you rich burnt-offerings, the smoke of the flesh of rams; I shall offer you cattle and goats. Draw near and listen, you who fear the Lord, and I will tell all that he has done for me. I cried out aloud to him, and his praise was on my tongue. If I looked upon sin in the depths of my heart, the Lord would not hear me but the Lord has listened, he has heard the cry of my appeal. Blessed be God, who has not spurned my prayer, who has not kept his mercy from me. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. |
Reading | Leviticus 8:1 - 9:24 © |
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The consecration of the priests | |
The Lord spoke to Moses; he said: Take Aaron, his sons with him, and the vestments, and the chrism, the bull for the sacrifice for sin, the two rams and the basket of unleavened bread. Then call the whole community together at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Moses followed the orders of the Lord; the community gathered at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, and Moses said to them, This is what the Lord has ordered to be done. He made Aaron and his sons come forward, and washed them with water. He put the tunic on him, passed the girdle round his waist, dressed him in the robe and put the ephod on him. Then he put round his waist the woven band of the ephod with which he clothed him. He put the pectoral on him, and placed the Urim and Thummim in it. He put the turban on his head, with the golden plate on the front; this is the sacred diadem as the Lord prescribed it to Moses. Then Moses took the chrism and anointed the tabernacle and everything in it, to consecrate them. He sprinkled the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and its furnishing, the basin and its stand, to consecrate them. Then he poured the chrism on Aarons head, consecrating him by unction. Then Moses made Aarons sons come forward; he put the tunics on them, passed the girdles round their waists and put on their head-dress, as the Lord had ordered Moses. Then he had the bull for the sacrifice for sin brought forward. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the victims head and Moses immolated it. Then he took the blood and with his finger put some of it on the horns round the altar, to take away its sin. Then he poured out the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar, which he consecrated by performing the rite of atonement over it. Then he took all the fat that covers the entrails, the fatty mass which is over the liver, the two kidneys and their fat; and he burnt them all on the altar. The bulls skin, its flesh and its dung he burnt outside the camp, as the Lord had ordered Moses. Then Aaron raised his hands towards the people and blessed them. Having thus performed the sacrifice for sin, the holocaust and the communion sacrifice, he came down and entered the Tent of Meeting with Moses. Then they came out together to bless the people and the glory of the Lord appeared to the whole people a flame leaped forth from before the Lord and consumed the holocaust and the fat that was on the altar. At this sight the people shouted for joy and fell on their faces. |
Reading | From a treatise on John by Saint Augustine, bishop |
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Christ is the way to the light, the truth and the life | |
The Lord tells us: I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. In these few words he gives a command and makes a promise. Let us do what he commands so that we may not blush to covet what he promises and to hear him say on the day of judgement: I laid down certain conditions for obtaining my promises. Have you fulfilled them? If you say: What did you command, Lord our God? he will tell you: I commanded you to follow me. You asked for advice on how to enter into life. What life, if not the life about which it is written: With you is the fountain of life? Let us do now what he commands. Let us follow in the footsteps of the Lord. Let us throw off the chains that prevent us from following him. Who can throw off these shackles without the aid of the one addressed in these words: You have broken my chains? Another psalm says of him: The Lord frees those in chains, the Lord raises up the downcast. Those who have been freed and raised up follow the light. The light they follow speaks to them: I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness. The Lord gives light to the blind. Brethren, that light shines on us now, for we have had our eyes anointed with the eye-salve of faith. His saliva was mixed with earth to anoint the man born blind. We are of Adams stock, blind from our birth; we need him to give us light. He mixed saliva with earth, and so it was prophesied: Truth has sprung up from the earth. He himself has said: I am the way, the truth and the life. We shall be in possession of the truth when we see face to face. This is his promise to us. Who would dare to hope for something that God in his goodness did not choose to promise or bestow? We shall see face to face. The Apostle says: Now I know in part, now obscurely through a mirror, but then face to face. John the Apostle says in one of his letters: Dearly beloved, we are now children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. We know that when he is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. This is a great promise. If you love me, follow me. I do love you, you protest, but how do I follow you? If the Lord your God said to you: I am the truth and the life, in your desire for truth, in your love for life, you would certainly ask him to show you the way to reach them. You would say to yourself: Truth is a great reality, life is a great reality; if only it were possible for my soul to find them! |
A concluding prayer may follow here. |
Chr 36:15-16, 19-23 / Eph 2:4-10 / Jn 3:14-21 There's a law in physics that a pendulum can never return to a point higher than the point from which it's released. In fact, because of friction and gravity, it will fall just a little short of the release point. Each time it swings, the arc gets smaller and smaller till it finally comes to rest. A physics teacher had just taught this lesson when a student decided to get even for all his bad grades. "Teacher," he asked "do you really believe that?" "Of course I do," huffed the teacher. "I've been teaching it for twenty years!" "Well, then, let's just put it to a little test." And with that the student made a huge pendulum by suspending 300 pounds of weight-lifting disks from the ceiling. He brought the weights right up to the teacher's nose. "Now, sir, if the law of the pendulum is true, when I release this mass of metal, it will swing across the room and then back, and stop just a little short of your nose. Sir, do you believe that?" "Yes," said the teacher, looking not at all certain. The boy released the pendulum. At the far end of its arc it paused just a moment and than swung faster and faster back toward the teacher - who had disappeared under the desk! He knew the law of pendulums, but when the crunch came, he wasn't willing to bet his nose on it! + + + In Sunday's Gospel, Jesus says, "Whoever believes in me will not die, but will have eternal life." He's saying, in other words, that faith in God is a matter of life and death for us! So we'd better get very clear about what faith is. First of all, it's a lot more than just knowing and signing off on the big dogmas: One God, three persons, died for our sins, and so on. They're important and true, but signing off on them isn't the essence of faith. Real faith in God is a relationship in which we entrust ourselves into God's hands. Now why would we entrust ourselves to someone we can't even see? Because ever so quietly, God has been showing himself to us in thousands of different ways every day: In the majesty of a sunset, in a glistening dewdrop resting on a rose, in the forgiveness and understanding that come our way so often, in the round little faces of our children and the wrinkled faces of our dear old friends, and best of all in the face of our brother Jesus. How much he wants the best for us. And so, when it finally sinks in, we whisper, I believe. I know you love me and I can trust you, Lord. So I give myself to you. If those words have deep roots, they will bear fruit in peaceful hearts and in confident hearts that know how to relax in the Lord. If those words have deep roots, they will bear fruit in hearts that know what matters and what does not, hearts that don't falter or pull away when heavy weights bear down upon them, hearts that are ready for everything because they are connected to the Lord. Those are the strong and peaceful hearts we want for ourselves and that God wants for us. So speak from deep inside the words he's been waiting to hear: "Lord, I know you love me. So I give myself to you! I give it all and I'm holding nothing back." Peace and strength will follow! |
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