GOD BLESS OUR BISHOPS!!

Meaning of the Ceremonies at Mass : Rev. Leonard Goffine

1. The Priest Goes to the altar – Christ Goes to Mount Olivet.
2 The Priest Commences Mass -Christ Begins to pray.
3 The Priest Says Confiteor – Christ Falls down and sweats blood.
4 The Priest Goes up and kisses the altar – Christ Is betrayed by Judas with a kiss.
5 The Priest Goes to the Epistle side – Christ Is captured, bound, and taken to Annas
6 The Priest Reads the Introit – Christ Is falsely accused by Annas and blasphemed.
7 The Priest Goes to the middle of the altar and says the Kyrie eleison – Christ Is brought to Caiphas and there three times denied by Peter.
8 The Priest Says the Dominus vobiscum – Christ Looks at Peter and converts him.
9 The Priest Reads the Epistle – Christ Is brought to Pilate.
10 The Priest Says the Munda cor meum at the middle of the altar – Christ Is taken to Herod and mocked.
11 The Priest Reads the Gospel – Christ Is taken back to Pilate and again mocked.
12 The Priest Uncovers the chalice – Christ Is shamefully exposed.
13 The Priest Offers bread and wine – Christ Is cruelly scourged.
14 The PriestCovers the chalice – Christ Is crowned with thorns.
15 The Priest Washes his hands – Christ Is declared innocent by Pilate.
16 The Priest Says the Orate Fratres – Christ Is shown by Pilate to the people with the words, Ecce Homo.
17 The Priest Prays in a low voice – Christ Is mocked and spit upon.
18 The Priest Says the Preface and the Sanctus – Christ Is preferred instead of Barrabas and condemned to crucifixion.
19 The Priest Makes the Memento for the living – Christ Carries the cross to Mount Calvary.
20 The Priest Continues to pray the Canon in a low voice – Christ Meets His Mother and the other pious women.
21 The Priest Blesses the bread and wine with the sign of the cross – Christ Is nailed to the cross.
22 The Priest Elevates the Sacred Host – Christ Is raised on the cross.
23 The Priest Elevates the chalice – Christ Sheds blood from the five wounds.
24 The Priest Prays in a low voice – Christ Sees His afflicted Mother at the cross.
25 The Priest Says aloud, Nobis queque peccatoribus – Christ Prays on the cross for men.
26 The Priest Says aloud the Pater noster – Christ Says the seven last words on the cross.
27 The Priest Breaks and separates the Host – Christ Gives up His spirit and dies.
28 The Priest Lets a small portion of the sacred Host fall into the chalice – Christ His soul descends to Limbo.
29 The Priest Says the Agnus Dei – Christ Is acknowledged on the cross as the Son of God by many bystanders.
30 The Priest Administers Holy Communion – Christ Is laid in the tomb.
31 The Priest Cleanses the chalice – Christ Is anointed by pious women.
32 The Priest Prepares the chalice again – Christ Rises from the dead.
33 The Priest Says the Dominus vobiscum – Christ Appears to His Mother and the disciples.
34 The Priest Says the last prayers – Christ Teaches for forty days.
35 The Priest Says the last Dominus vobiscum – Christ Takes leave of His disciples and ascends to heaven.
36 The Priest Gives the benediction to the people – Christ Sends down the Holy Ghost
37 The Priest Says the Ita Missa est and the last Gospel – Christ Sends the apostles into all parts of the world to preach the Gospel.

FOUR SPECIAL FAVORS


    The graces which Our Lord promises to those who are devoted to the
sorrows of His Blessed Mother are very great. St. Alphonsus, in his
discourse on the dolors of Mary, states: It was revealed to St. Elizabeth
[of Hungary] that some years after the Blessed Virgin was assumed into
Heaven, St. John, the beloved disciple, was seized with an ardent desire to
see her again. This favor was granted him. His dear Mother appeared to him
in company with our Divine Lord. Then St. John heard Mary asking of her Son
some special graces for those who were devoted to her dolors. Our Lord
promise the four following graces:

1. Those who invoke the Heavenly Mother through her sorrows will obtain
true sorrow for their sins before death.
2. Our Saviour will protect them in their tribulations, especially at the
hour of death.
3. He will impress upon them the memory of His Passion, and will reward
them for it in Heaven.
4. He will commit such devout servants to the hands of Mary, that she may
dispose of them according to her pleasure, and obtain for them all the
graces she desires.

    Besides these great graces, Father Faber enumerates others which are
obtained through devotion to Mary's sorrows:

    This devotion has a remarkable connection with great interior holiness.

    It reveals the emptiness of worldly joys. Worldliness finds no soul
harder to attack than one entrenched in the sorrows of our Blessed Lady.
The world can graft itself upon nothing in this devotion.

    It gives us a permanent share in the sorrow for sin which Jesus and
Mary felt.

    It keeps our thoughts close to Jesus Christ, and to Him Crucified.

    It communicates to our souls the spirit of the Cross and gives us
strength to endure our own sufferings with resignation to the holy Will of
God.

    This devotion is wholly covered with the Precious Blood of Jesus and
leads us directly into the depths of the Heart of our Saviour.

    Anyone who during his lifetime has cherished compassion for this
afflicted Mother may consider this as a most assured sign of
predestination.

The above is taken from Chapter 2 of the booklet "Devotion to the Sorrowful
Mother" published by TAN

 

How precious the gift of the cross, how splendid to contemplate! In the cross there is no mingling of good and evil, as in the tree of paradise: it is wholly beautiful to behold and good to taste. The fruit of this tree is not death but life, not darkness but light. This tree does not cast us out of paradise, but opens the way for our return.

St. Theodore the Studite


 Also Theodore of Studiurn and Theodore of Studios, abbot, monastic reformer, and ardent enemy of iconoclastic policies in the Byzantine Empire. The nephew of St. Pluto, abbot of Saccudium (a monastery in Bithynia, Asia Minor, near Mt. Olympus in modem Turkey), he studied under his uncle and entered the community about 780. In 794, he followed St. Pluto as abbot when his uncle abdicated in his favor. Theodore soon distinguished himself for his opposition to the adulterous marriage of Emperor Constantine VI (r. 780-797) and was banished until 797 when the emperor was deposed by his mother, Irene.Two years later, Theodore moved the community from Saccudium to Studites in order to escape the growing influence of the Arabs. The monastery subsequently became one of the most prominent in the whole of the Eastern Church. In 809, Theodore was exiled once more, this time by Emperor Nicephorus I (r. 802-811), marking the start of suffering which continued unceasingly virtually until his death. Recalled in 811, he was forced soon after to speak out against the iconoclastic policies of Emperor Leo V (r. 813-820). In revenge, Leo had Theodore seized, cruelly abused, and exiled. Studites was populated by Iconoclast monks, and Theodore lived in banishment until 820 when Emperor Michael II (r. 820-829) brought him back to Constantinople. Theodore remained unbending and died without ever returning to Studites. He died just outside of Constantinople. Theodore was venerated for his personal holiness, his brilliant abilities as a preacher, and his willingness to champion the rights of the Church, even at the price of deep personal sacrifice. He was also the author of five hundred letters, hymns, sermons, polemics against Iconoclasm, and two cathechisms.

 


Study to be patient in bearing the defects of others, and their infirmities, be they what they may; for thou hast many things, which others must bear withal.  If thou canst not make thyself what thou wouldst be, how canst thou expect to have another so exactly to thy mind? We would fain see others perfect and yet our own faults we amend not.

Following of Christ