SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT
Station—St. Mary in Dominica
In the Piazza della Navicella (which gets its name from the fountain built around the marble model of a ship) is the Church of St. Mary in Dominica—an ancient church founded around the year 600.
The purpose of this Holy Season is to transfigure us. The transfiguration of Christ, the Head, is the beginning and source of the transfiguration of His Body, the Church, and of every member of the Church.
The stational protectress today is our glorious Mother herself—Sancta Maria in Dominica—the grandest "transfiguration" accomplished by Christ, the Savior. To her maternal love and prayers we commend ourselves and so keep this second Sunday of Lent that we may merit to hear also from her lips: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."
Let us pray: O God, who sees that we have no power whatever from ourselves, keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities, which may happen to the body and from all evil thoughts, which may hurt the soul. Through Christ, Our Lord.
Amen.
The Station today is at St. Clement's. The oldest level is thought to be the titulus Clementis, one of the first parish churches in Rome, and probably belonged to the family of Titus Flavius Clemens, consul and martyr and a contemporary of Pope St. Clement. Set right next to a pagan temple, a Mithraeum or Temple of Mithras, it was one of the first churches in Rome.