Portsmouth Ordo, Fourth Week of Lent
Sunday, March 27: Fourth Sunday of Lent
Monday, March 28: Feria
Tuesday, March 29: Feria
Wednesday, March 30: Feria
Thursday, March 31: Feria
Friday, April 1: Feria
Saturday, April 2: Feria
We are elevated this Sunday with the arrival of “Laetare Sunday,” the liturgical color of rose, and the awareness that our Lenten journey is well on its way. It is a Lenten week uninterrupted by further commemorations, perhaps signaling to us to persevere in the practices we established for ourselves for the season. We begin the month of April at the end of the week, anticipating the following weeks of the traditional “Passiontide,” and the arrival of Holy Week on April 10.
Portsmouth Ordo, Third Week of Lent
Sunday, March 20: Third Sunday of Lent
Monday, March 21: Passing of Saint Benedict
Tuesday, March 22: Feria
Wednesday, March 23: Feria
Thursday, March 24: Feria, Oscar Romero, martyr (Mass Collect only)
Friday, March 25: The Annunciation
Saturday, March 26: Feria
The middle of Lent this year brings us to the first days of spring and to a series of significant feasts. Having finished last week with St. Joseph’s Day, the current week brings a central Benedictine feast as well as an important feast of the church universal. On Monday, our fast is again broken as we celebrate St. Benedict in his “Transitus” or passing. His death is recounted for us by Gregory the Great in Book II of his Dialogues: “Six days before he died, he gave orders for his tomb to be opened. Almost immediately, he was seized with a violent fever that rapidly wasted his remaining energy. Each day his condition grew worse until finally, on the sixth day, he had his disciples carry him into the chapel where he received the Body and Blood of our Lord to gain strength for his approaching end. Then, supporting his weakened body on the arms of his brethren, he stood with his hands raised to heaven and, as he prayed, breathed his last.” (St. Gregory the Great, Book Two of Dialogues, chapter 37). In the same week that we remember the end of Benedict’s earthly life, we celebrate the beginning of Our Lord’s incarnation in the Annunciation. This fixed feast, nine months before Christmas, interrupts our Lenten fast with this first “Joyful Mystery” falling this year on a Friday. We also remember a more recent saint, Oscar Romero, the El Salvadoran archbishop and advocate for social justice who was assassinated while celebrating Mass on March 24, 1980.
Portsmouth Ordo, Second Week of Lent
Sunday, March 13: Second Sunday of Lent
Monday, March 14: Feria
Tuesday, March 15: Feria
Wednesday, March 16: Feria
Thursday, March 17: Patrick, bishop (Mass Collect only)
Friday, March 18: Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop and doctor (Mass Collect only)
Saturday, March 19: Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
While our celebrations of saints remain muted during the season of Lent, we do remember them in the collects at Mass on their feast days. Such is the case this week for Saint Patrick, perhaps the most recognized saint’s day of the secular world. The fifth-century's Patrick, and his fellow bishop, the fourth-century's Cyril of Jerusalem, led lives we might consider Lenten, suffering banishment, exile, and persecutions in their efforts to share the gospel of Christ and to serve the poor. The solemnity of Saint Joseph, a feast recognized in calendars since the 10th century, allows us to break our Lenten fast, since the promulgation of the 1983 Code of Canon Law. If the day falls on a Friday, we may eat meat. If the day falls on a Sunday, we celebrate it the following day. With gratitude, we continue our Lenten journey, grateful for the prayers of these three holy men.
Portsmouth Ordo, First Week of Lent
Sunday, March 6: First Sunday of Lent
Monday, March 7: Feria (Mass Collect: Perpetua and Felicity, martyrs)
Tuesday, March 8: Feria
Wednesday, March 9: Feria (Mass Collect: Frances of Rome)
Thursday, March 10: Feria
Friday, March 11: Feria
Saturday, March 12: Feria
In the time of St. Gregory the Great, the Roman season of Lent began with Sunday, creating a 36-day period of abstinence and penance. Gregory called this a “tithe”, a special offering of one-tenth of the year to the Lord. We still refer to the current week as “Week One,” though the church subsequently added the four days prior to Sunday I, to create a forty-day fast. We retain commemorations of our saints. This week provides us with a reminder of Perpetua and Felicity, Roman martyrs of the early third-century (though Felicity may have been martyred decades earlier). These two young women - Perpetua a noblewoman and very recent mother, Felicity a slave imprisoned while pregnant and giving birth days before her death – both offer stark and uncompromising witness to their faith. Perpetua’s diary is an important early Christian text. Frances of Rome (1384-1440) is one of the principal patrons of Benedictine oblates. Her witness is seen in her dedication to the Rule and to her extensive service to Rome’s poor and sick.
Portsmouth Ordo, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time / Lent Begins
Sunday, February 27: Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Monday, February 28: Feria
Tuesday, March 1: David, bishop
Wednesday, March 2: Ash Wednesday
Thursday, March 3: Feria (Mass Collect: Katharine Drexel)
Friday, March 4: Feria
Saturday, March 5: Feria
The week begins in Ordinary Time, but offers itself to the season of Lent midweek, with the arrival of Ash Wednesday. Along the way, we celebrate David, sixth-century bishop of Wales. And shortly after the introduction of Lent, our Mass remembers Katharine Drexel (born Catherine Mary Drexel) of Philadelphia, the first American citizen to be canonized. These two saints bear witness, across centuries and across cultures, to the steadfast faith that supports and sustains us, and to which we rededicate ourselves this week for the blessed season of Lent.
March 1
This year, Sunday supersedes the commemoration of David, Patron of Wales. A native of Wales, David’s life history is intertwined with legend. He lived in the 6th century, a pious and ascetic monk known for preaching and miracles. The famous story has a dove resting on his shoulder, as a hill miraculously rises beneath the preaching David, to make him more visible to his congregation. He is associated with Glastonbury Abbey, either as founder or re-dedicator. He worked to combat Pelagianism Saint David’s Day is celebrated in many Welsh towns and cities.
March 7
These Roman Christians, martyrs at Carthage under Septimus Severus (193-211), who was said to have forbidden all imperial subjects from becoming Christians., are remembered regularly in the Mass. Perpetua was a noblewoman, Felicity a slave. Perpetua was a young mother, Felicity pregnant, able to give birth two days before her martyrdom, her newborn child adopted by a Christian woman. We learn of the witness of these two young women in a document which may well have been written in part by Perpetua herself. Notable n their story is the strength of their faith to supersede family obligation, as Perpetua resists her father’s demand that she apostatize, and the two both give up their lives despite having young children. From the account of their martyrdom: “The day of their victory shone forth, and they proceeded from the prison into the amphitheater, as if to an assembly, joyous and of brilliant countenances; …with joy, and not with fear. Perpetua followed with placid look, and with step and gait as a matron of Christ, beloved of God; casting down the luster of her eyes from the gaze of all. Moreover, Felicitas, rejoicing that she had safely brought forth, so that she might fight with the wild beasts; from the blood and from the midwife to the gladiator, to wash after childbirth with a second baptism.”
March 8
The life of John of God provides one of the most remarkable stories of saints that one may hear. The recurring theme one finds is his seemingly impulsive commitment to those in need, regardless of risk to himself. He was born March 8, 1495 in Montermor-O-Novo, Portugal, and died on his birthday 55 years later. Those decades saw him leave home at the age of eight, inspired or kidnapped by a priest whom he had heard speak of “great adventures,” which soon included begging from town to town. He was eventually adopted in Oropesa by a farmer who later sought to have John marry his daughter. John fled this situation, becoming a soldier in the armies of Charles V fighting the French and later the Turks. He later sought his purpose by traveling to Africa to assist Christians enslaved there, and along the way joined a family of Portuguese nobility being sent into exile, who were robbed of all of their money along the way, and then fell ill. John helped to care for them, indicative of what was to become his life’s work, following a life-changing encounter with John of Avila. Thought to be insane after his extreme reaction to his call to repentance, he was eventually liberated from a mental hospital by John of Avila, committing his life to work with the poor and the sick. He famously and selflessly saved many from a fire in a hospital, leading to his patronage of firefighters.
March 9
Frances of Rome is one of the patrons of all Benedictine oblates. Born in Rome in 1384, Frances was a dedicated spouse, mother, and servant of the poor. With her husband Lorenzo’s approval, she founded the Oblates of Mary in 1425, a community that lived in their own homes under the Rule of St. Benedict, without vows but sharing in Frances’s mission to the sick. They were known from 1433 as the Oblate Congregation of Tor de’ Specchi, and upon her husband’s death in 1436, she became their superior, joining them in the building she had acquired for them to live in as a community. Frances endured much hardship in her life: the loss of two children to the plague, a forced exile during papal conflicts, the loss of much of her husband’s property and possessions, his being wounded by Neapolitan forces, so severely that he did not fully recover. A church at the Roman Forum, formerly known as Santa Maria Nova, was later dedicated to her and contains her relics, which were deposited there on March 9, 1649.
March 17
A fifth-century Roman citizen of Britain, Patrick first made his way to Ireland against his will, captured by pirates and sold into slavery. Eventually escaping, he made his way to France where he was trained as a priest and missionary. He returned to Ireland by choice, or by vocation, believing God had called him there. Though encountering significant opposition, he succeeded in converting many to the Christian faith, utilizing the knowledge of Irish culture that he had gained in captivity.
March 18
This 4th century theologian underwent several periods of exile, ultimately producing catechetical works leading to his elevation to Doctor of the Church in 1883. “His life is woven of two dimensions: on the one hand, pastoral care, and on the other, his involvement, in spite of himself, in the heated controversies that were then tormenting the Church of the East. …The basis of his instruction on the Christian faith also served to play a polemic role against pagans, Judaeo Christians and Manicheans. The argument was based on the fulfilment of the Old Testament promises, in a language rich in imagery.” Benedict XVI, General Audience (2007).
March 19
Joseph is visited by the messenger as ‘Mary's spouse,’ as the one who in due time must give this name to the Son to be born of the Virgin of Nazareth who is married to him. It is to Joseph, then, that the messenger turns, entrusting to him the responsibilities of an earthly father with regard to Mary's Son. ‘When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife’ (Mt 1:24). He took her in all the mystery of her motherhood. He took her together with the Son who had come into the world by the power of the Holy Spirit. In this way he showed a readiness of will like Mary's with regard to what God asked of him through the angel.” Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos (1989)
(image from Saint Ignatius Church, San Francisco)
March 21
From the Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great, Book II:
"CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: HOW VENERABLE BENEDICT DID PROPHESY TO HIS MONKS THE TIME OF HIS OWN DEATH.
In the year that was to be his last, the man of God foretold the day of his holy death to a number of his disciples. In mentioning it to some who were with him in the monastery, he bound them to strict secrecy. Some others, however, who were stationed elsewhere he only informed of the special sign they would receive at the time of his death.
March 25
For the Christian faith, the Annunciation marks a moment unique to human history, pivotal to salvation history. In a homily from Santa Marta in 2018, Pope Francis remarked: “The passage from Luke’s Gospel that we have heard tells us the decisive moment in history, the most revolutionary. It is a turbulent situation, everything changes, history turns upside down. It is difficult to preach about this passage… It is the moment that everything changes, everything, from the root. Liturgically, today is the day of the root. The Antiphon that marks the meaning today is the root of Jesse, ‘from which a shoot will be born.’ God lowers himself, God enters history and does so in his original style: a surprise. The God of surprises surprises us (again).” In 2019, visiting Loreto, he called the Holy House a “home of the young”: “because here the Virgin Mary, the young woman full of grace, continues to speak to the new generations, accompanying each one in the search for one’s vocation… Mary is the model of every vocation and the inspirer of every vocation to ministry. Young people…wondering about their future, can find in Mary she who helps them to discern God’s plan for themselves…”