Sexagesima Sunday 24 February 2019 Sexagesima Sunday 24 February
2019
From all this it is evident, that the Christian, who would spend
Septuagesima according to the spirit of the Church, must make war
upon that false security, that self-satisfaction, which are so
common to effeminate and tepid souls, and produce spiritual
barrenness. It is well for them, if these delusions do not
insensibly lead them to the absolute loss of the true Christian
spirit. He that thinks himself dispensed from that continual
watchfulness, which is so strongly inculcated by our Divine Master,
is already in the enemy’s power. He that feels no need of combat
and of struggle in order to persevere and make progress in virtue,
(unless he have been honoured with a privilege, which is both rare
and dangerous), should fear that he is not even on the road to that
Kingdom of God, which is only to be won by violence. He that
forgets the sins, which God’s mercy has forgiven him, should fear
his being the victim of a dangerous delusion. Let us, during these
days, which we are going to devote to the honest unflinching
contemplation of our miseries, give glory to our God, and derive,
from the knowledge of ourselves, fresh motives of confidence in
Him, who, in spite of all our wretchedness and sin, humbled himself
so low as to become one of us, in order that he might exalt us even
to union with Himself.
Dom Prosper Guéranger on Sexagesima Sunday
The Church offers to our consideration, during this week of
Sexagesima, the history of Noah and the deluge. Man has not
profited by the warnings already given him. God is obliged to
punish him once more, and by a terrible chastisement. There is
found out of the whole human race one just man God makes a covenant
with him, and with us through him. But, before he draws up this new
alliance, he would show that he is the Sovereign Master, and that
man, and the earth whereon he lives, subsist solely by his power
and permission. This awful chastisement of the human race by the
Deluge was a fresh consequence of sin. This time, however, there
was found one just man; and it was through him and his family that
the world was restored. Having once more mercifully renewed his
covenant with his creatures, God allows the earth to be re-peopled,
and makes the three sons of Noah become the Fathers of the three
great families of the human race. This is the Mystery of the Divine
Office during the week of Sexagesima. The Mystery expressed in
to-day’s Mass is of still greater importance, and the first is but
a figure of the second. The earth is deluged by sin and heresy. But
the Word of God, the Seed of life, is ever producing a new
generation, a race of men, who, like Noah, fear God. It is the Word
of God that produces those happy children, of whom the Beloved
Disciple speaks, saying: they are born not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Let us
endeavour to be of this family; or, if we already be numbered among
its members, let us zealously maintain our glorious position. What
we have to do, during these days of Septuagesima, is to escape from
the Deluge of worldliness, and take shelter in the Ark of
salvation; we have to become that good soil, which yields a
hundred-fold from the heavenly Seed. Let us flee from the wrath to
come, lest we perish with the enemies of God: let us hunger after
that Word of God, which converteth and giveth life to souls. At
Rome, the Station is in the Basilica of Saint Paul outside the
walls. It is around the tomb of the Doctor of the Gentiles, - the
zealous sower of the divine Seed, - the Father by his preaching, of
so many nations, - that the Roman Church assembles her children on
this Sunday, whereon she is about to announce to them, how God
spared the earth on the condition that it should be peopled with
true believers and with faithful adorers of his Name. The Introit
[of the Mass], which is taken from the Psalms, cries out to our
Lord for help. The human race is all but extinct after the Deluge,
and is here represented as beseeching its Creator to bless and
increase it. The Church adopts the same prayer, and asks her
Saviour to multiply the children of the Word, as he did in former
days.
Rev. Msgr. James T. Byrnes, Pastor Rectory (Friday-Monday):
484-480-4414 Priory (Tuesday-Thursday): 203-431-0201 ext.14 Email:
[email protected]
Mr. Michael Sparks, Chapel Coordinator Tel. 856-223-0741
Mr. James Hayes, Chapel Treasurer
Mr. Gregory Golm, Choir Director
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass Friday 7 PM Saturday 9 AM Sunday 8 AM
(Low Mass) 10 AM (Sung Mass) Monday 10 AM
Confessions Approximately 45 minutes before the start of Mass
(except Monday)
Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament 3rd Sunday of the month
following the 10 AM Mass.
St. Jude Roman Catholic Church
Society of St. Pius X 1402 E. 10th Street, Eddystone, PA
19022
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]
Sexagesima Sunday 24 February 2019 Sexagesima Sunday 24 February
2019
SANCTUARY LAMP INTENTION
Week of February 24th: Rita Kelley (+)
Please contact Victoria Foley at 215-380-5168 if you would like
to place an intention.
STATUE OF OUR LADY
Month of February:
Please contact Janine Mullen at 215-804-5517 if you would like
to host Our Lady.
There will be no 10am Mass tomorrow, 25 February, due to the
annual Priests’ Meeting taking place in Winona, Minnesota.
Catechism classes will take place this coming Saturday, 2 March
following the 9am Mass.
The 2nd Collection next Sunday is the monthly collection for the
Ridgefield Priory. Please be as generous to this collection as your
means will allow. Thank you.
Stations of the Cross will be prayed on the Fridays of Lent
beginning at 7pm followed by Holy Mass. The first Friday of Lent is
8 March. This is an excellent practice to add to your Lenten
sacrifices as it requires a sacrifice of time, one of our most
precious commodities.
From Fr. Wegner, the District Superior: The Angelus magazine has
been in operation for over 30 years and is a crucial part of the
apostolate of the Society of Saint Pius X. The Angelus magazine
defends tradition and educates those looking to deepen their
Catholic Faith. To make The Angelus even more accessible it is now
available online. If we are going to reach as many people as
possible, we need your help to spread the word to family and
friends. Subscribe for either a print or digital copy! Or call
(800) 966-7337. Keep Learning ~ Keep Growing ~ Keep the Faith Go
to: angelus.online to read our latest issue on "The Episcopacy”
Anyone who has not received their boxed offering envelopes
should see Msgr. Byrnes to obtain them.
Anyone wishing to be included in the St. Jude’s email list
should email Msgr. Byrnes ([email protected]) with the request.
Please include in the email, along with your request, your full
name, address and phone number.
Dom Prosper Guéranger on the Spiritual Practices of
Septuagesima
The joys of Christmastide seem to have fled far from us. The
forty days of gladness brought us by the Birth of our Emmanuel are
gone. The atmosphere of holy Church has grown overcast, and we are
warned that the gloom is still to thicken. Have we, then, for ever
lost Him, we so anxiously and longingly sighed after, during the
four slow weeks of our Advent? Has our divine Sun of Justice, that
rose so brightly in Bethlehem, now stopped his course, and left our
guilty earth? Not so. The Son of God, the Child of Mary, has not
left us. The Word was made Flesh in order that he might dwell among
us. A glory, far greater than that of his Birth, when Angels sang
their hymns, awaits him, and we are to share it with him. Only, he
must win this new and greater glory by strange countless
sufferings; he must purchase it by a most cruel and ignominious
death: and we, if we would have our share in the triumph of his
Resurrection, must follow him in the Way of the Cross, all wet with
the Tears and the Blood he shed for us. The grave maternal voice of
the Church will soon be heard, inviting us to the Lenten penance;
but she wishes us to prepare for this laborious baptism, by
employing these three weeks in considering the deep wounds caused
in our souls by sin. True, - the beauty and loveliness of the
Little Child, born to us in Bethlehem, are great beyond measure;
but our souls are so needy, that they require other lessons than
those He gave us of humility and simplicity. Our Jesus is the
Victim of the divine justice, and he has now attained the fulness
of his age; the altar, on which he is to be slain, is ready: and
since it is for us that he is to be sacrificed, we should at once
set ourselves to consider, what are the debts we have contracted
towards that infinite Justice, which is about to punish the
Innocent One instead of us the guilty. The mystery of a God
becoming Incarnate for the love of his creature, has opened to us
the path of the Illuminative Way; but we have not yet seen the
brightest of its Light. Let not our hearts be troubled; the divine
wonders we witnessed at Bethlehem are to be surpassed by those that
are to grace the day of our Jesus’ Triumph: but, that our eye may
contemplate these future mysteries, it must be purified by
courageously looking into the deep abyss of our own personal
miseries. God will grant us his divine light for the discovery; and
if we come to know ourselves, to understand the grievousness of
original sin, to see the malice of our own sins, and to comprehend,
at least in some degree, the infinite mercy of God towards us, - we
shall be prepared for the holy expiations of Lent, and for the
ineffable joys of Easter. The Season, then, of Septuagesima is one
of most serious thought. Perhaps we could not better show the
sentiments, wherewith the Church would have her children to be
filled at this period of her year, than by quoting a few words from
the eloquent exhortation, given to his people, at the beginning of
Septuagesima, by the celebrated Ivo of Chartres. He spoke thus to
the Faithful of the 11th century [12th Sermon for Septuagesima]:
“We know, says the Apostle, that every creature groaneth, and
travaileth in pain even till now: and not only it, but ourselves,
also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves
groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of
God, the redemption of our body. The creature here spoken of is the
soul, that has been regenerated, from the corruption of sin, unto
the likeness of God: she groaneth within herself, at seeing herself
made subject to vanity; she, like one that travaileth, is filled
with pain, and is devoured by an anxious longing to be in that
country, which is still so far off. It was this travail and pain
that the Psalmist was suffering, when he exclaimed: Woe is me, that
my suffering is prolonged!. Nay, that Apostle, who was one of the
first members of the Church, and had received the Holy Spirit,
longed to have, in all its reality, that adoption of the sons of
God, which he already had in hope; and he, too, thus exclaimed in
his pain: I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. During
these days, therefore, we must do what we do at all seasons of the
Year, - only, we must do it more earnestly and fervently: we must
sigh and weep after our country, from which we were exiled in
consequence of having indulged in sinful pleasures; we must
redouble our efforts in order to regain it by compunction and
weeping of heart. Let us now shed tears in the way, that we may
afterwards be glad in our country. Let us now so run the race of
this present life, that we may make sure of the prize of the
supernal vocation. Let us not be like imprudent wayfarers,
forgetting our country, and preferring our banishment to our home.
Let us not become like those senseless invalids, who feel not their
ailments, and seek no remedy. We despair of a sick man, who will
not be persuaded that he is in danger. No: let us run to our Lord,
the Physician of eternal salvation. Let us show him our wounds, and
cry out to him with all our earnestness: Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for I am weak: heal me, for my bones are troubled. Then, will he
forgive us our iniquities, heal us of our infirmities, and satisfy
our desire with good things
continued on back page…
MASSES FOR THE UPCOMING WEEK Friday, 1 March: Votive Mass of the
Sacred Heart Saturday, 2 March: Votive Mass of the Immaculate Heart
of Mary Sunday, 3 March: Quinquagesima Sunday Monday, 4 March: St.
Casimir, Confessor
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