SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT Let us eat and celebrate because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life. (Luke 15:23-24) Reflection. St. Bonaventure once said that the day you no longer burn with love and concern for souls, many others will die of the cold. Where can we go to increase our love? To whom can we turn to find help? I am convinced that the Holy Spirit has raised up hopes in this century to focus our attention and to concentrate our devotion upon the Holy Family. Because in the Holy Family, we are going to find the source of strength. We are going to find the encouragement we need when we have distressful losses on all sides. The Holy Family is the place where we go when we feel like weak nobodies, incapable of withstanding the onslaught of the enemies of the Church, because Christ has raised up the Holy Family as the model of the Christian home, to be sure, but as the nucleus of the New Covenant Church-family of God showing that through detachment, through renunciation, through poverty, through mortification, through trials and sufferings, the war will be won. The Savior will be born and salvation will spill out in all directions and cover the earth. -- Scott Joe HahnQ: What is the significance of forty days? A: Forty is a biblical number signifying enough or ample. Forty days is another way of saying long enough or enough time. The various biblical stories involving forty days all include some significant change or development in the life of the person or commu¬nity: the forty days of Noahs flood (Gen 7:12), Moses on Mount Sinai for forty days until the giving of the Law (Ex 24:18), Elijahs forty-day walk through the desert to Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:8), and Jonahs forty-day warning to the people of Nineveh (Jon 3:4). The forty-year wandering of the Israelites in the desert allowed enough time to pass for an entire generation of people to come and go; hence, a new people was born from this experience. St. Gregory the Great (ca. 540–604) considered the six weeks of lenten weekdays, thirty-six days, as a 10-percent tithe of the year. The forty-day fast of Christ between his baptism and public ministry (Mt 4:2, Mk 1:13, Lk 4:2) is most likely the inspiration for the forty days of Lent. Q: Is there a rite for “burying the alleluia”? A: In some places the word alleluia was written on a scroll or tablet and solemnly carried out of the church on the day before Ash Wednesday. The scroll was buried or at least hidden throughout Lent, then carried into church during the Easter Vigil. A local devotional custom, it was never taken into the official liturgy. --Rev. Paul J. Niemann Prayer. Forgive my sins against the unity of your family; make me love as you loved me. Amen.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 23:35:31 +0000
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