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SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY Station—St. Augustine/St. Tryphon Pope Pasquale II (1099-1118) laid the relics of St. Tryphon to rest under the present church of St. Augustine. Health of body and, above all, health of soul are precious gifts from God—gifts for which we must be grateful. The Church is particularly concerned about the health of our soul, the well being in us of the life of Christ. She knows our spiritual shortsightedness, she knows, the unsteadiness of our will, she knows the power of our passions, all of them—infirmities caused by Original Sin, as well as by our personal sins....

FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY Station—Sts. John and Paul The third Lenten Station takes us up to a high hill of ancient Rome—the Celian Hill, which stands in front of the Palatine and which dominates the valley of the Circus Maximus. The church was built upon the house where Saints John and Paul were martyred and buried. Martyred in the year 361, by Julian the Apostate, they were two imperial officers in Constantine's court. We celebrate the divine mysteries today in the light of the "two candelabras shining before the Lord," as the Church calls the two brothers John and Paul....

THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY Station—St. George Just a short distance from St. Sabina stands our second stational church, St. George in Velabro. The church dates back to the year 500, but was reconstructed under Leo II (682-683). This church is one of the original 25 diaconal seats of the Roman church. The head of this warrior Saint is preserved under the high altar. The purpose of Holy Lent is to bring about a spiritual renovation. This work of renovation is accomplished by both God and man; by God, principally through the holy Eucharist; by man, mainly by fasting, prayer, and...

ASH WEDNESDAY Station—St. Sabina Remember man that thou art dust, and into dust thou shalt return If there is any place in Rome where Lent, with its atmosphere of penitential solitude mixes with the reawakening of spring, then it must be along this path which climbs up from the Circus Maximus towards the Aventine, on the top of which stands the Church of St. Sabina. In God's name then let us go up to the holy mount. Is it not significant that the first Lenten mystery is celebrated on a mount, the Aventine? Already in pre-Christian days this hill was...

TUESDAY IN HOLY WEEK Station-St. Prisca The last Lenten Station is that of Saint Prisca on the Aventine Hill. It is only a short way from the church of Saint Sabina, from which the procession left forty days ago to visit the tombs of the Martyrs. It is significant that the point of departure and the final arrival of the Lenten stations are on the Aventine Hill, for it was considered particularly sacred by the early Christians. It was in fact here that St. Peter and St. Paul lived for some time in the house of Saints Aquila and Priscilla,...

MONDAY IN HOLY WEEK Station—St. Praxedes The spirit of this second day of the holiest of all weeks may be summed up in four words: Jesus, a supper, a penitent and an impenitent. Jesus—Holy Savior, You are the center of our thoughts and love. Accept our thanks for all that You have done for our salvation. The Last Supper—A supper for Jesus! In a few days, Jesus will make a supper for us, a "sacred banquet in which Christ is eaten," "symbol of that One Body of which He is the Head and to which He willed that we should...

PALM SUNDAY Station—The Archbasilica of St. John Lateran Today, begins the greatest and holiest week of the year, a week opening with triumph and closing with triumph; a week commencing with the Hosanna, continuing with the Cross and terminating in the Alleluia. This week is a picture of our Christian life, which began with the "Hosanna to our King" on that day when, at the font, Christ our Redeemer took possession of the city of our soul. At that blessed spot He made us His disciples and gave us the Cross. "If thou will be My disciple, take Thy cross...

THURSDAY IN THE FIFTH (PASSION) WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Apollinaris There are actually two stational churches indicated for today. The first Lenten Station was established by Pope Gregory II (715-731) in the Church of St. Apollinaris and the second established by Pope Pius IX (1846-1878) with apostolic privilege in the Church of St. Mary the New in the Roman Forum as a closing for a Holy Year of Redemption. A week from today we shall begin the Pascal Mysteries. The truer the sorrow for our sins and the greater the realization of the need of God's grace, the more fruitful...

TUESDAY IN THE FIFTH (PASSION) WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Cyriacus The Sacred Texts, which like a garland, surround the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice and the Divine Office must not only be understood in their literal and historical sense, but above all in their liturgical one. This is always the case, but especially during Passiontide. The Divine Head, who nineteen centuries ago underwent the great Passion is now undergoing it in His Body, the Church. An attack on the Church is an attack on Christ. Whenever the Church suffers, her Divine head suffers. But all these sufferings lead to victory....

MONDAY IN THE FIFTH (PASSION) WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Chrysogonus We are branches of Christ, the Vine. As such, we share in His life, share in His joys, and must share also in His sufferings, and thus—as the Apostle so boldly put it—make up in our own body what is yet wanting in the sufferings of Christ, the Head. This we shall do gladly in these holy Passion days. Our mortifications, our self-discipline, our temptations, our trials from within and from without, all our sufferings, we will unite with Christ's Blessed Passion. They will then be lifted out of their...

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT PASSION SUNDAY Station—St. Peter in the Vatican Passion Sunday! The Cross of Christ is veiled, so that we may seek it, and Him who died on it, all the more. The holiest season of the year is at hand, so holy, that "all other seasons of the year prepare us for keeping this one duly and worthily. These present days call for special fidelity seeing that they bring us so near to that sublime mystery of the Divine Mercy, the blessed Passion of Jesus Christ." (from the Divine Office) With an open mind and a willing...

SATURDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Nicholas in Carcere This Station is at a church built on the ruins of three pagan temples and consecrated to St. Nicholas. It is called in carcere because in ancient times it had been a dungeon—a prison devoid of light. Water, food and light are indispensable for the maintenance and up-building of our natural life. Sacred Water, Sacred Food and Sacred Light are indispensable for the maintenance and up-building of our supernatural life. 1. "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he can not enter into the...

FRIDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Eusebius The Roman Martyr-Priest, Eusebius, whom the Arian Emperor Constantius II had imprisoned for seven months in the priest's own home so that he might slowly starve to death, is today our leader to the blessed Christ for whose Divinity Eusebius died and won eternal life. Two weeks from today, we shall celebrate the Lord's life-giving death—the source of our resurrection and life. Christ's death is the Sacrament of all sacraments. All the Christian mysteries flow from this main-spring: "the mystery of new life" "out of water and the Holy Spirit;" restoring...

THURSDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT Station—Sts. Sylvester and Martin Near this church the penitents used to pass through one of the most infamous of places, near the crossroads of Mercury and the Serbian walls, where there was the merulana necropolis (cemetery). That was where pagan Rome left the bodies of slaves and criminals to rot in the open, until the Christians built a chapel with the aim of venerating the Christian martyrs. Two weeks from today, the Church will celebrate the mystery of the living and life-giving Bread, the first source of life and health. "For he that...

WEDNESDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Paul Outside the Walls At one time, a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Paul in this Lenten penitential procession took on an exceptional character in view of the riches of doctrinal teaching, which has come down to us from the Apostle to the Gentiles. For this reason, it used to happen, that in this particular Lenten Station, the Pope carried out a "third scrutiny" for the baptismal candidates—that is, for those catechumens, who wanted to be baptized in water. In this church, at the tomb of this great convert-exemplar, the catechumens,...

TUESDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Lawrence in Damaso We celebrate the holy mysteries in spirit in the church of St. Lawrence in Damaso, built by the "poet-Pope" and "lover of the catacombs," St. Damasus, whose remains rest in this venerable edifice. Mother Church points today to two leaders: Moses and Christ—figure and fulfillment. Both of them were unappreciated by their flock. Both of them were unmoved in their consecration to God and their holy calling. Their people were superficial, proud and selfish, while they, the leaders, were filled with the spirit of prayer, humility and the love...

MONDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT Station—The Four Crowned Martyrs The Station is on Mount Caelius, in a church erected in the seventh century in honor of four officers of the Roman army, who having refused to adore a statue of Aesculapius, received the crown of martyrdom. These were the "Four Crowned Ones," whose relics are venerated in this sanctuary together with the head of St. Sebastian, an officer of the army of Diocletian. Under the leadership of the Four Crowned Martyrs let us celebrate the divine Sacrifice. May the Eucharistic Action "refresh us and defend us," as it...

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...

SATURDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Susanna Today's liturgy places before us three women—one in the white garment of virginity, the other in the blue mantle of chastity and the third in the purple robe of penitence. The first shows the triumph of Christ's redemption, the second, the power of faith in the coming Messiah, the third, the compassion of the Good Shepherd, who came to seek what was lost. The first is today's stational guide—St. Susanna, to whom the vow of virginity and consecration to Christ, the royal Bridegroom, meant more than the princely hand of the...

FRIDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Lawrence in Lucina For the second time this week, the chaste Deacon Lawrence is our processional leader to the Savior of the world. Last Sunday, we knelt at his tomb and heard his encouraging words: "walk as children of the light …" Today, we are making our pilgrimage to the church containing a large portion of the gridiron on which this holy Deacon made his last and most perfect oblation to God. It was during the forty years passed in the desert that Moses and Aaron asked God to bring from the...