SAINT AGNES CATHEDRAL 533 South Jefferson Springfield, MO 65806
EXTRAORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS (LATIN)
CELEBRANT Father Jeff Fasching
March 17th, 2013 Passion Sunday
Epistle: Heb. 9: 11-15; Gospel: Jn. 8: 46-59
Mass schedule March 18th through March 22nd
Monday of Passion Week--NO LATIN MASS
Tuesday—Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Wednesday of Passion Week
Thursday of Passion Week
Friday of Passion Week
During the Fridays of Lent following the 12:15pm Mass, there will be Stations of the Cross with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction.
On each of the Fridays of Lent, a plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful who, after Communion, recite the “Prayer before a Crucifix.”
Laws of Days of Abstinence: The Discipline of 1962
• Applies on one’s 7th birthday.
• Complete Abstinence: all Fridays of the year, Ash Wednesday, Holy Saturday, and the Vigil of Christmas.
• Partial Abstinence (meat and soup or gravy made from meat permitted once a day at the principle meal): all the days of Lent, the Ember Days of Wednesday and Saturday, and the Vigils of Pentecost and the Assumption.
• Abstinence from meat is dispensed on Holy Days of Obligation
Laws of Fast: The Discipline of 1962
• Applies for those aged 21 to 59, inclusive.
• Days of Lent from Ash Wednesday inclusive, Ember Days, and Vigils of Christmas, Pentecost, and the Assumption.
• One full meal permitted and two other meals may be taken which, when combined, are less than a full meal.
The Law of the Eucharistic Fast: The Discipline of 1962
• The complete fast from all food and drink (except for water or medicine) for three hours before the reception of Holy Communion. In the document reducing the fast to three hours, the Pope still encouraged those who were able to maintain the midnight fast which was the previous discipline.
As baptized Christians we are all vessels of election. God has given over to us an immense treasure of grace that we may be holy and spotless in His presence and that we may worthily carry His name before the nations. We have been purchased, and at a price, so we are to glorify God in our bodies. The grace we received at baptism must not remain sterile. We cannot be perfect and thus worthy of God unless we fight manfully at all times against our tendencies to evil.
Saint Alphonsus says that what saddens Jesus Christ is the sight of a baptized soul habitually negligent, without concern for such disorder, without seeking to escape that state of torpor, without fearing that his shameful sleep is the forerunner of spiritual death. You are neither cold by mortal sin, nor hot with an ardent love. You are lukewarm and provoke the disgust of the Almighty. God must restrain Himself not to vomit such a soul out of His mouth! A lukewarm soul is like the paralytic lying helpless before the fountain of grace without strength to approach it. We must wish for Christ’s coming. He alone can cure us. We cannot allow our disease to invade all our members so that we no longer even recoil at the touch of sin! We cannot allow our will to sleep so that it no longer thrills at the remembrance of God’s favors. We cannot allow our faculties to become dulled so that they no longer have any spirit either for prayer or for action or for combat!
Speaking of venial sins, the saint reminds us that the danger is even greater for those who commit many venial sins through attachment to any passion, such as pride, ambition, aversion to a neighbor, or an inordinate affection for any person. Satan slowly draws us in first by a slender thread, then by a cord, then by a rope, and finally by a chain of Hell—that is by mortal sin! Then we are his slaves. We must fight to be slaves of Jesus Christ, rather than Satan.
Fr. Jeff Fasching
