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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...

THURSDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT Station—Sts. Cosmas and Damian This church, made from two pagan temples, holds the bodies of the holy martyrs, Cosmas and Damian, who were put to death during the Diocletian persecution. The sick came in crowds to visit the tomb of these two brothers, doctors by profession, imploring them to restore their health. The "unsalaried" physicians, Cosmas and Damian, devoted time and talents to the service of the poor and the sick, so that, by curing the infirmities of the body without renumeration, they might more easily win immortal souls for Christ. Today, the...

WEDNESDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Sixtus The St. Sixtus Stational Church is located on the Appian Way and is a parish church dating to the fifth century. It was in this church that the catechumens were presented to the Church by their sponsors. Their names were written on tablets of ivory covered in leather, which were read at the Commemoration of the Living. After the Collect of the Mass, the catechumens received the initial parts of the Baptismal ceremony, viz. the rites of exsufflation, of the sign of the cross, of the imposition of hands and that...

TUESDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Prudentiana The church of St. Prudentiana, on the Viminal Hill, was one of the most venerated places for Roman Christians. St. Prudentiana lived here with her sister, St. Praxedes. Here, St. Peter received hospitality and the first Christians often assembled. Today, this church stands rather forgotten because it was closed for a very long time. We turn to St. Prudentiana on this day. May she obtain for us by her powerful prayers: 1. The grace of mutual forgiveness, so that we may be able to say in truth: "Forgive us our trespasses,...

MONDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Mark's In the historic center of the city, near Piazza Venezia, stands the elegant basilica of St. Mark. St. Mark had a very important role in the evangelization work in the Rome of his time, and after the death of the Apostles, it was in this city that he wrote the Gospel of Mark. The more sincerely we enter into each Lenten day, the more perfectly will the Holy Eucharist transform us and the more pleasing to God will be our Lenten efforts. Our spiritual life will take on a freshness, like...

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT Station—St. Lawrence Outside the Walls The stational Mass brings us to another basilica, St. Lawrence Outside the Walls, erected by the Emperor Constantine in the year 330. As the basilica is near the Verano cemetery and above ancient catacombs, where the bodies of the martyred St. Lawrence, St. Stephen and St. Justin were laid to rest, the penitential character of the Lenten Station takes on particular significance. On this day, the catechumens of old were taken to the tomb of St. Lawrence, the illustrious deacon whose "eyes were ever towards the Lord." Today, they had to...

SATURDAY IN THE SECOND WEEK OF LENT Station—Sts. Marcellinus & Peter This Station is in the basilica founded by St. Helen on the Via Lavicana, in which were buried the bodies of St. Marcellinus, priest, and St. Peter, exorcist, martyred at Tome during the Diocletian persecution. Their names are mentioned in the Roman Canon of the Mass. May today's stational saints, not brothers in the flesh, but in spirit, obtain for us the gift of gratitude both for our holy calling—God's free gift—as well as for the grace of conversion, our homecoming to the Father. For the remainder of our...

FRIDAY IN THE SECOND WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Vitalis Mother Church points today to the "Great Friday" on which our High Priest and Redeemer obtained for us eternal redemption. She takes us today to the church of St. Vitalis—father of the holy martyrs, Gervase and Protase. For his loyalty to Christ, St. Vitalis was first buried up to the waist in an old cistern and then stoned to death. Here at the altar of this martyr—his name means "full of life"—Holy Mother Church directs our attention to the life-giving death of the Savior. In four weeks we will celebrate the...

THURSDAY IN THE SECOND WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Mary Trastevere In the heart of Transtiber, in a beautiful Romanesque square stands the church of St. Mary. On the spot of this church, shortly before the birth of Christ, oil gushed out of the ground. Mary carried Christ "the Anointed One" (reference to the oil) in her arms. The Mother of God is today's stational leader to Christ, the Light of the world. We fly to your patronage, Holy Mother of God. Do present our humble prayers to Him, whom you did bring forth, the King that rules heaven and earth....

WEDNESDAY IN THE SECOND WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Cecelia In the heart of Transtiber Rome, entered by way of a Baroque gateway portal and a cheerful courtyard, towers the splendid church of St. Cecilia, in which is buried St. Cecilia, the virgin-martyr. In the fifth century, this church was one of the most celebrated churches in Rome. On Ash Wednesday, the church was St. Sabina, the martyr-matron. On Wednesday of the first week of Lent, we visited St. Mary Major. On this third Wednesday, it is again a woman—the virgin-martyr and "glory of the early Church," St. Cecilia, who leads...

TUESDAY IN THE SECOND WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Balbina The Station today is at the sanctuary of St. Balbina—a Roman virgin, who lived in the second century and whose remains, along with those of her father, the martyr St. Quirinus, lies under the altar. This church stands on a slope of the Aventine Hill. St. Balbina followed Christ. To Him she gave her home that it might henceforth be His home where He would "have mercy on His people according to His great mercy and blot out their iniquity" and where they would seek His face, and finding it, "relate...

MONDAY IN THE SECOND WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Clement This stational church is built above the very house of the third successor of St. Peter, whose name is found in the Roman Canon—St. Clement. This parish church of Rome established in the fifth century is a most faithful example of the old Roman basilicas. Under the high altar are the remains of the martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, as well as, St. Clement. Sts. Clement and Ignatius are true heroes, as their martyr-blood became the "seed of Christians." Clement and Ignatius—kindness and fire—symbols of Him, who is kindness to men of...

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...

SATURDAY IN THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Peter in the Vatican In the past, people used to prepare with prayer and fasting throughout the night before coming to this Station, which takes place in the major church of Christendom, at the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles. It was at this Station that the Pope consecrated priests, joining to the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist that of the Ordination of Priests. The monumentality of the Basilica and the columned square, which embraces the vast crowds like immense arms, is only a framework to the great light, which from...

FRIDAY IN THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT Station—The Twelve Apostles Today we find ourselves at the Basilica dedicated to the Apostles and in particular to the Saints Philip and James the Minor, whose bodies are enclosed in a precious marble urn located under the main altar in the crypt. Today, thirty-eight days before Easter, the Church reads to us the account of the cure of a man sick for thirty-eight years. This miracle occurred at the pool of Bethsaida. The merciful Jesus healed body and soul of this friendless sufferer. After the cure, Jesus said to him: "Behold thou art...

THURSDAY IN THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Lawrence in Panisperna This church was built in ancient times under the Emperor Valerian on the site of the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence (258). In its harmonious interior, at the end of the nave is a large fresco depicting the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence. We place all our Lenten petitions in the hands of the "standard-bearer of the Roman Church"-St. Lawrence, to whose prayers and martyrdom is attributed the final triumph at Rome of the Cross over paganism—of light over darkness. May the Holy Deacon, whose heart was filled with Eucharistic fervor,...

WEDNESDAY IN THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Mary Major On the Esquiline Hill, not far from St. Peter in Chains, towers the Basilica of St. Mary Major. IfGrandiose, both in its exterior and in it interior, the Basilica was erected by Pope Sixtus III (432-440), one year after the proclamation by the Council of Ephesus of the dogma of Theotokos—Mary, Mother of God. Before being called "St. Mary Major," the ancient Romans had called it the Basilica Liberii (back to Pope Liberius (352-366). In August 352, Pope Liberius experience a vision of Our Lady and it was She, who...

TUESDAY IN THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Anastasia Linked to this church is the tradition of the "first-light" Mass—Mass at dawn—which is celebrated in the first hours of the Christmas morning. We keep this day in company with the widow-martyr, whose heavenly birthday the Church observes on the very birthday of the Light of the world. In the Christmas Mass "at dawn" St. Anastasia, whose name means "dawn"—the new light—is commemorated. In that "aurora Mass" and again today, the words fulgebit, fulgeat—"shine, radiate—occur. A holy "radiating" is the fruit of a holy Lent. Everyone is called to be an...

MONDAY IN THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT Station—St. Peter in Chains From the heart of the Roman Forum, the penitential procession climbed up the road winding up towards the Esquiline Hill and came to the church of St. Peter in Chains, also called the "Eudossian Basilica" (as it had been built in the place of another church by Eurdossia, wife of the emperor Valentinian III, to preserve in it the chains of St. Peter). The Station of this day is at St. Peter in Chains and the Church takes us today to the divinely appointed watchman of "the lambs and...

FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT Station—Our Most Holy Savior in the Lateran The Cathedral Basilica of Rome—caput et mater omnium ecclesiarum Urbis et Orbis—triumphantly celebrates the first solemn day of Lent. Today, the faithful pilgrim in spirit to the Lateran Basilica of the Most Holy Savior, "head and mother of all the churches of the City and the World," the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome. In this basilica Lent officially begins, in this church also, it is concluded. The acceptable time is at hand. "We exhort that you receive not the grace of God in vain." "It is true," says...