A Prayer for Lent...

 "I must become a great saint.  

My Jesus wants it." - St Bernadette 

 

"The world is content with setting right

the surface of things;

the church aims at regenerating

the very depths of the heart."

St John Henry Cardinal Newman

The Idea of a University (1852)

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A Prayer of Offering for Lent

My God, I know well, you could have saved us at Your word,

without Yourself suffering; but You did choose to purchase us at the

price of Your Blood.  I look on You, the Victim lifted up on Calvary, and

I know that Your death was an expiation for the sins of the whole world. 

My Lord, I offer You myself in turn as a sacrifice of thanksgiving. 

You have died for me, and I in turn make myself over to You.  My wish

is to be separated from everything of this world; to cleanse myself

simply from sin.  Enable me to carry out what I profess.

Source: A Newman Prayer Book

Editor: VF Blehl, SJ (1990)

Rejoice - be encouraged: Fourth Sunday of Lent...

The fourth Sunday of Lent is called " Lætare Sunday", taking its name from the opening words of the Mass, the Introit's "Lætare, Jerusalem" — "Rejoice, O Jerusalem".  In celebration, the priests wear rose-colored vestments.  The point is to provide us encouragement as we progress toward the end of the penitential season.  The day is a day of relaxation from normal Lenten rigors; a day of hope with Easter being at last within sight. Instrumental music is permitted, and the altar may be decorated with flowers.

Lætare Jerusalem: et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam: gaudete cum laetitia, qui in tristitia fuistis: ut exsultetis, et satiemini ab uberibus consolationis vestrae. (Psalm) Laetatus sum in his, quae dicta sunt mihi: in domum Domini ibimus. Gloria Patri.

Rejoice, O Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her: rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow: that you may exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation. (Psalm) I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: we shall go into the house of the Lord. Glory be to the Father.

  Prayer over the Offerings (Today's Liturgy)

 We place before You with joy these offerings,

which bring eternal remedy, O Lord,

praying that we may both faithfully revere them

and present them to You, as is fitting,

for the salvation of all the world.

Through Christ our Lord.

   

A bit more on Lætare Sunday:

Lætare Sunday is also called Mothering Sunday in Europe, which is similar to the celebration of Mother's Day in the United States. The name Mothering Sunday came about after the Epistle of the day from Galatians 4:26, which states, "But Jerusalem which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all." The Epistle calls Jerusalem the mother of us all and this Sunday all mothers, the Blessed Virgin Mary and especially “mother church” are honored. People frequently try to attend Mass at the nearest cathedral, their mother church. 

Tradition also holds that on Lætare Sunday, English children who lived away from home returned to visit the church in which they were baptized or raised. Children also visited their mothers, bringing flowers or a type of fruit cake. The occasion led to the old saying, "He who goes a-mothering finds violets in the lane."