Category: Catholicism

Why stop now?

3 comments

For the last six weeks Catholics have been abstaining from meat on Fridays as part of their Lenten observance. Lent is over!…Easter is here!…does that mean that we can stop now?

In centuries past

Christians have historically done penance on Fridays to remember our Lord’s Passion, as well as on Wednesdays to recall Judas’ betrayal:

…fast on [Wednesday] and [Friday] – The Didache (1st Century), Chapter 8

What about now?

There has been some confusion over this subject in recent years, but Canon Law states:

The penitential days and times in the universal Church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent – Canon 1250

So, it’s clear that every Friday is a penitential day. But what kind of penance is required?

Read more

Sunday Lectionary: Doubt and Mercy

Leave a comment

2nd Sunday of Easter: 15th April, 2012

This Sunday, as well being the Second Sunday of Easter, it is also Divine Mercy Sunday (declared by Pope John-Paul II in April 30, 2000). The Readings in the Lectionary therefore accordingly celebrate and proclaim the great mercy of God.

Three times in our psalm we sing “His mercy endures forever”. In our Gospel, when the fearful Apostles encounter the Lord whom they abandoned, they are greeted not with anger and condemnation but with invitations of “peace”. Our First Reading describes the early Christian community’s response to this Divine Mercy. Because of their experience of God’s great love for them, they in turn loved one another. They cared deeply for the brethren and put themselves and their possessions at the service of the community. This great love for God and neighbour is further explored by St. John in this week’s Second Reading.

Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself – Divine Mercy Chaplet

Read more

Good News on a “Good” Friday

Leave a comment

Today is “Good Friday”, considered “good”  because in Middle English the word refers to holiness and piety.

Remember, it is a day of abstinence, so no meat today. It is also a day of fasting, which means you are allowed only one full meal today and two small snacks. This is health permitting, of course. It is also only a requirement for those between the age of 18 and 59.

Sounds like a the case of the Maundays…

8 comments

Today is Holy Thursday. Last week at JP2 I referred to this day as “Maundy Thursday” and was greeted with a number of confused looks. Apparently this moniker isn’t used that often in the United States…

The name “Maundy Thursday” comes from a verse in John’s Gospel. The Latin translation in the Vulgate is as follows:

“Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos”
– Johannes XIII:XXXIV

The word “Maundy”  is a corruption of the first word in the above quotation. That word, “Mandatum”, is the root from which we get the English words “mandate” and “mandatory”, terms which we use to indicate that something is required. This is because “Mandatum” literally means “commandment”, as we can see from the translation of the previous passage:

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another”
– John 13:34

This is the passage which we will hear read at Mass today and which is then enacted by the priest, where he washes the feet of twelve of his parishioners, in imitation of Christ washing the feet of the Twelve:

1 … 264 265 266 267 268 … 317