FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT
Taken from
The Liturgical
Year – Dom Prosper Guéranger
This Sunday, the first of the six which come during
Lent, is one of the most solemn throughout the year. It has the same privilege
as Passion and Palm Sundays, — that is, it never gives place to any Feast, not
even to that of the Patron, Titular Saint, or Dedication of the Church. In the
ancient Calendars, it is called Invocabit, from the first word of the Introit
of the Mass. In the Middle Ages (More especially in France), it was called
Brand Sunday, because the young people, who had misconducted themselves during
the carnival, were obliged to show themselves today, at the Church, with a
torch in their hands, as a kind of public satisfaction for their riot and
excess.
Lent
solemnly opens today. We have already noticed, that the four preceding days
were added since the time of St. Gregory the Great, in order to make up Forty
days of fasting. Neither can we look upon Ash Wednesday as the solemn opening
of the Season, for the Faithful are not bound to hear Mass on that day. The
Holy Church, seeing her children now assembled together, speaks to them, in her
Office of Matins, these eloquent and noble words of St. Leo the Great:
‘Having to announce to you, dearly beloved, the most
sacred and chief fast, how can I more appropriately begin, than with the words
of the apostle, in whom Christ Himself spoke, and by saying to you what has
just been read: Behold I now is the acceptable time; behold! now is the day of
salvation. For although there be no time which is not replete with divine
gifts, and we may always, by God’s grace, have access to His mercy, yet ought
we all to redouble our efforts to make spiritual progress and be animated with
unusual confidence, now that the anniversary of the day of our redemption is approaching,
inviting us to devote ourselves to every good work, that so we may celebrate,
with purity of body and mind, the incomparable mystery of our Lord’s Passion.
‘It is true
that our devotion and reverence towards so great a mystery should be kept up
during the whole year, and we ourselves should be at all times, in the eyes of God,
the same as we are bound to be at the Easter solemnity. But this is an effort
which only few among us have the courage to sustain. The weakness of the flesh
induces us to relent our austerities; the various occupations of every-day life
take up our thoughts; and thus even the virtuous 'find their hearts clogged by
this world’s dust. Hence it is that our Lord has most providentially given us these
forty days, whose holy exercises should be to us a remedy, whereby to regain
our purity of soul.
The good works and the holy fastings of this season were
instituted as an atonement for, and an obliteration of, the sins we commit
during the rest of the year.
‘Now,
therefore, that we are about to enter upon these days, which are so full of
mystery, and which were instituted for the holy purpose of purifying both soul
and body, let us, dearly beloved, be careful to do as the apostle bids us, and
cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit: that thus
the combat between the two substances being made less fierce, the soul, which,
when she herself is subject to God, ought to be the ruler of the body, will
recover her own dignity and position. Let us also avoid giving offense to any
man, so that there be none to blame or speak evil things of us. For we deserve
the harsh remarks of infidels, and we provoke the tongues of the wicked to
blaspheme religion, when we who fast lead unholy lives. For our fast not consist in the mere abstinence from food;
nor is it of much use to deny food to our body, unless we restrain the soul
from sin.’
Each Sunday
of Lent offers to our consideration a passage from the Gospel, which is in
keeping with the sentiments wherewith the Church would have us be filled. Today she
brings before us the temptation of our Lord in the desert. What light and encouragement
there is for us in this instruction!
We
acknowledge ourselves to be sinners; we are engaged, at this very time, in
doing penance for the sins we have committed—but how was it that we fell into
sin? The devil tempted us; we did not reject the temptation; then we yielded to
the suggestion, and the sin was committed. This is the history of our past; and
such it would, also, be for the future, were we not to profit by the lesson
given us today by our
Redeemer.
When
the apostle speaks of the wonderful mercy shown us by our divine Saviour, who
vouchsafed to make Himself like to us in all things save sin, he justly lays
stress on His temptations. He, who is very God, humbled Himself even so low as
this, to prove how tenderly He compassionated us. Here, then, we have the Saint
of saints allowing the wicked spirit to approach Him, in order that we might
learn, from His example, how we are to gain victory under temptation.
Satan
has had his eye upon Jesus; he is troubled at beholding such matchless virtue.
The wonderful circumstances of His birth; the shepherds called by angels to His
crib, and the Magi guided by the star; the Infant’s escape from Herod’s plot;
the testimony rendered to this new Prophet by John the Baptist: all these things,
which seem so out of keeping with the thirty years spent in obscurity at Nazareth,
are a mystery to the infernal serpent, and fill him with apprehension. The
ineffable mystery of the Incarnation has been accomplished unknown to him; he
never once suspects that the humble Virgin, Mary, is she who was foretold by
the prophet Isaias, as having to bring forth the Emmanuel; but he is aware that
the time has come, that the last week spoken of to Daniel has begun its course,
and that the very pagans are looking towards Judea for a deliverer. He is
afraid of this Jesus; he resolves to speak with Him, and elicit from Him some
expression which will show him whether He be or not the Son of God; he will
tempt Him to some imperfection, or sin, which, should he commit it, will prove
that the object of so much fear is, after all, but a mortal Man.
The enemy
of God and men is, of course, disappointed. He approaches Jesus; but all his
efforts turn only to his own confusion. Our Redeemer, with all the self-possession
and easy majesty of a God Man, repels the attacks of satan; but He reveals not
His heavenly origin. The wicked spirit retires without having made any
discovery beyond this— that Jesus is a prophet, faithful to God. Later on, when
he sees the Son of God treated with contempt, calumniated and persecuted; when
he finds that his own attempts to have Him put to death are so successful: his pride
and his blindness will be at their height; and not till Jesus expires on the
cross, will he learn that his victim was not merely Man, but Man and God. Then
will he discover how all his plots against Jesus have but served to manifest, in
all their beauty, the mercy and justice of God: His mercy, because He saved mankind;
and His justice, because He broke the power of hell for ever.
These were
the designs of divine Providence in permitting the wicked spirit to defile, by
his presence, the retreat of Jesus, to speak to Him, and to lay his hands upon
Him. But let us attentively consider the triple temptation in all its
circumstances; for our Redeemer suffered it only in order that He might instruct
and encourage us.
We have
three enemies to fight against; our soul has three dangers; for, as the beloved
disciple says, all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and
the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life! By the concupiscence of
the flesh, is meant the love of sensual things, which covets whatever is
agreeable to the flesh, and, when not curbed, draws the soul into unlawful
pleasures. Concupiscence of the eyes expresses the love of the goods of this
world, such as riches, and possessions; these dazzle the eye, and then seduce
the heart. Pride of life is that confidence in ourselves, which leads us to be
vain and presumptuous, and makes us forget that all we have, our life and every
good gift, we have from God.
Every one
of our sins comes from one of these three sources; every one of our temptations
aims at making us accept the concupiscence of the flesh, or the concupiscence of
the eyes, or the pride of life. Our Saviour, then, who would be our model in
all things, deigned to subject Himself to these three temptations.
First of
all satan tempts Him in what regards the flesh: he suggests to Him to satisfy
the cravings of hunger, by working a miracle, and changing the stones into
bread. If Jesus consent, and show an eagerness in giving this indulgence to His
body, the tempter will conclude that He is but a frail mortal, subject to
concupiscence like other men. When he tempts us, who have inherited evil
concupiscence from Adam, his suggestions go further than this: he endeavours to
defile the soul by the body. But the sovereign holiness of the Incarnate Word
could never permit satan to use upon Him the power which he has received of
tempting man in his outward senses. The lesson, therefore, which the Son of God
here gives us, is one of temperance: but we know that, for us, temperance is
the mother of purity, and that intemperance excites our senses to rebel.
The second
temptation is to pride; ‘Cast Thyself down; the angels shall bear Thee up in
their hands.’ The enemy is anxious to see if the favours of heaven have
produced in Jesus’ soul that haughtiness, that ungrateful self-confidence, which
makes the creature arrogate God’s gifts to itself, and forget its benefactor. Here,
also, he is foiled; our Redeemer’s humility confounds the pride of the rebel
angel.
He then
makes a last effort: he hopes to gain over by ambition Him who has given such
proofs of temperance and humility. He shows Him all the kingdoms of the world,
and the glory of them; and says to Him: ‘All these will I give Thee, if falling
down, Thou wilt adore me.’ Jesus rejects the
wretched offer, and drives from Him the seducer, the
prince of this world; hereby teaching us that we must despise the riches of
this world, as often as our keeping or getting them is to be on the condition
of our violating the law of God and paying homage to satan.
But let us
observe how it is that our divine Model, our Redeemer, overcomes the tempter.
Does He hearken to His words? Does He allow the temptation time, and give it
strength by delay? We did so, when we were tempted; and we fell. But our Lord
immediately meets each temptation with the shield of God’s word. He says: ‘It
is written: Not on bread alone doth man live. It is written: Thou shalt not
tempt the Lord thy God. It is written: The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him
only shalt thou serve.’ This, then, must be our practice for the time to come.
Eve brought perdition on herself, and on the whole human race, because she
listened to the serpent. He that dallies with temptation is sure to fall. We
are now in a season of extraordinary grace; our hearts are on the watch, dangerous
occasions are removed, everything that savours of worldliness is laid aside;
our souls, purified by prayer, fasting, and almsdeeds, are to rise with Christ,
to a new life; but, shall we persevere? All depends upon how we behave under
temptation. Here, at the very opening of Lent, the Church gives us this passage
of the holy Gospel, that we may have not only precept but example. If we be
attentive and faithful, the lesson she gives us will produce its fruit; and
when we come to the Easter solemnity, we shall have those sure pledges of
perseverance: vigilance, self-diffidence, prayer, and the never-failing help of
divine grace.
The Greek
Church, in spite of her principle of never admitting a feast during Lent,
celebrates today one of her greatest solemnities. It is called Orthodoxia, and
was instituted in memory of the restoration of sacred images in Constantinople
and the eastern empire, in the year 842, when the empress Theodora, aided by
the holy patriarch Methodius, put a stop to the Iconoclast persecution, and restored
to the churches the holy images which the fury of the heretics had taken away.
SAINT VALENTINE,
PRIEST AND MARTYR
The Church honours, on this fourteenth day of February,
the memory of the holy priest Valentine, who suffered martyrdom towards the
middle of the third century. The ravages of time have deprived us of the details
of his life and sufferings; so that extremely little is known of our saint.
This is the reason of there being no lessons of his life in the Roman liturgy.
His name, however, has always been honoured throughout the whole Church, and it
is our duty to revere him as one of our protectors during the season of
Septuagesima. He is one of those many holy martyrs, who meet us at this period
of our year, and encourage us to spare no sacrifice which can restore us to, or
increase within us, the grace of God. Pray, then, O holy martyr, for the
faithful, who are so persevering in celebrating thy memory. The day of judgment
will reveal to us all thy glorious merits: oh, intercede for us, that we may
then be made thy companions at the right hand of the great Judge, and be united
with thee eternally in heaven.
ANTIPHON
This saint fought, even unto death, for the law of his
God, and feared not the words of the wicked; for he was set upon a firm rock.
LET US PRAY
Grant, we beseech thee, O almighty God, that we who solemnize
the festival of blessed Valentine, thy martyr, may, by his intercession, be
delivered from all the evils that threaten us. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
MASS PROPERS
Quadragesima
Sunday - FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT
Commemoration: St.
Valentine, Martyr
Semi - double
1st class
Violet
Vestments
Missa ‘Invocabit
me’
Commentary from
The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger
MASS
The Station, at Rome, is in the patriarchal basilica
of Saint John Lateran. It was but right, that a
Sunday of such solemnity as this should be celebrated
in the church which is the mother and mistress of all churches, not only of the
holy city itself, but of the whole world. It is here that the public penitents
were reconciled on Maundy Thursday; it is here, also, in the baptistery of
Constantine, that the catechumens received Baptism on the night 'preceding
Easter Sunday. No other basilica could have had such a claim for the Station of
a day like this; for it is there that the Lenten Fast had been so often
proclaimed by Leo and Gregory.
The Introit,
as likewise the Gradual, Tract, Offertory, and Communion are all taken
from Psalm 90. We have elsewhere
spoken of the appropriateness of this beautiful psalm to the spirit of the
Church during the season of Lent. It bids the Christian soul confide in the
divine aid. She is now devoting her whole energies to prayer; she is engaged in
battle with her own and God’s enemies. She has need of support. Let her not be
afraid: God tells her, in these words of the Introit, that her confidence in Him shall not be in vain.
INTROIT - Psalm 90: 15-16
Invocabit me, et ego exáudiam eum:
erípiam eum, et glorificábo eum: longitúdine diérum adimplébo eum. Ps. 90. 1. Qui hábitat in adjutório Altíssimi:
in protectióne Dei cæli commorábitur. V. Glória Patri.
He shall cry to me, and I will hear
him: I will deliver him, and I will glorify him: I will fill him with length of
days. Ps. He that dwelleth in the aid of the Most High shall abide under the
protection of the God of Heaven. V. Glory be to the Father.
In the Collect, the Church prays for her
children, that their fast may not only purify
them, but also
obtain for them that divine assistance,
which will secure their salvation by enabling them to abound in good works.
COLLECT
O God, who dost purify Thy Church by
the yearly observance of forty days; grant to Thy household that what we strive
to obtain from Thee by self denial, we may secure by good works. Through our
Lord.
Saint
Valentine baptizing Saint Lucilla by Jacopo Bassano
SECOND COLLECT – ST. VALENTINE, MARTYR
Grant, we beseech You, almighty God,
that we who celebrate the anniversary of the death of Your holy Martyr,
Valentine, may by his intercession be delivered from all evils that threaten
us.
THIRD COLLECT – FOR THE INTERCESSION OF THE SAINTS
Defend us, we beseech Thee, O Lord,
from all dangers of mind and body: and through the intercession of the blessed
and glorious Mary, ever Virgin, mother of God, of Saint Joseph, of Thy holy
apostles, Saints Peter and Paul, and of all the saints, in Thy loving kindness
grant us safety and peace; that, all adversities and errors being overcome, Thy
Church may serve Thee in security and freedom.
FOURTH COLLECT PRAYER FOR THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
O Almighty and Eternal God, Who hast
dominion over both the living and the dead, and hast mercy on all Whom Thou
knowest shall be Thine by faith and good works: we humbly beseech Thee that all
for whom we have resolved to make supplication whether the present world still
holds them in the flesh, or the world to come has already received them out of
the body, may, through the intercession of all Thy saints, obtain of Thy
goodness and clemency pardon for all their sins, through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost; One
God; forever and ever, Amen.
EPISTLE - 2 Corinthians 6: 1-10
Lesson from the Epistle of the Blessed Apostle Saint Paul to the
Corinthians.
Brethren, we exhort you that you
receive not the grace of God in vain. For He saith: In an accepted time have I
heard thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee. Behold, now is the
acceptable time, behold now is the day of salvation. Giving no offence to any
man, that our ministry be not blamed: but in
all things let us exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience,
in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in prisons, in
seditions, in labours, in watchings, in fastings, in chastity, in knowledge, in
longsuffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Ghost, in charity unfeigned, in the
word of truth, in the power of God: by the armour of justice on the right hand
and on the left: by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as
deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet known: as dying, and behold we live:
as chastised and not killed: as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing: as needy, yet
enriching many: as having nothing and possessing all things.
These words of the apostle give us a
very different idea of the Christian life from that which our own tepidity
suggests. We dare not say that he is wrong, and we are right ; but we put a
strange interpretation upon his words, and we tell both ourselves and those around
us that the advice he here gives is not to be taken literally nowadays, and
that it was written for those special difficulties of the first age of the
Church, when the faithful stood in need of unusual detachment and almost heroism,
because they were always in danger of persecution and death. The interpretation
is full of that discretion which meets with the applause of our cowardice, and
it easily persuades us to be at rest, just as though we had no dangers to fear,
and no battle to fight; whereas, we have both: for there is the devil, the world,
flesh and blood. The Church never forgets it; and hence, at the opening of this
great season, she sends us into the desert, that there we may learn from our
Jesus how we are to fight. Let us go; let us learn, from the temptations of our
divine Master, that the life of man upon earth is a warfare, and that, unless
our fighting be truceless and brave, our life, which we would fain pass in peace,
will witness our defeat. That such a misfortune may not befall us, the Church cries
out to us, in the words of St. Paul: Behold!
now is the acceptable time. Behold! now is the day of salvation. Let us, in
all things, comport ourselves as the servants of God, and keep our ground unflinchingly
to the end of our holy campaign. God is watching over us, as He did over His
beloved Son in the desert.
The Gradual tells us that we are under the
protection of the angels, and that these blessed spirits leave us not, either
day or night. During Lent they redouble their efforts against our enemies, and
rejoice at seeing us sinners accept the penance which is to bring us to
salvation.
GRADUAL - Psalm 90: 11-12
God hath given His angels charge over
Thee, to keep Thee in all Thy ways. V. In their hands they shall bear Thee up,
lest Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.
The Tract, inspires us with confidence: it speaks
to us of the goodness of God, and of His fatherly watchfulness over us His
ungrateful children, whom He wishes to make His faithful friends and coheirs of
His kingdom.
TRACT - Psalm 90: 1-7, 11-16
He that dwelleth in the aid of the
Most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven.
V. He shall
say to the Lord: Thou art my protector and my refuge: my God, in Him will I
trust.
V. For He hath
delivered me from the snare of the hunters, and from the sharp word.
V. He will
overshadow thee with His shoulders, and under His wings thou shalt trust.
V. His truth
shall compass thee with a shield: thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the
night.
V. Of the
arrow that flieth in the day, of the business that walketh about in the dark,
of invasion or of the noonday devil.
V. A thousand
shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand: but it shall not
come nigh thee.
V. For He hath
given His angels charge over Thee, to keep Thee in all Thy ways.
V. In their
hands they shall bear Thee up, lest Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.
V. Thou shalt
walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and Thou shalt trample underfoot the lion
and the dragon.
V. Because he
hoped in Me I will deliver him: I will protect him, because he hath known My
name.
V. He shall
cry to Me, and I will hear him: I am with him in tribulation.
V. I will
deliver him, and I will glorify him: I will fill him with length of days, and I
will show him My salvation.
GOSPEL - Matthew 4: 1-11
The continuation of the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew
At that time Jesus was led by the
Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted
forty days and forty nights, afterwards He was hungry. And the tempter coming said
to Him: If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Who
answered and said: It is written: Not in bread alone doth man live, but in
every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God. Then the devil took Him up
into the holy city and set Him upon the pinnacle of the temple, and said to
Him: If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down. For it is written: That He
hath given His angels charge over Thee, and in their hands shall they bear Thee
up, lest perhaps Thou dash Thy foot against a stone. Jesus said to him: It is
written again: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord Thy God. Again the devil took Him
up into a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and
the glory of them, and said to Him: All these will I give Thee, if falling down
Thou wilt adore me. Then Jesus saith to him: Begone, Satan! for it is written:
The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve. Then the
devil left Him: and behold angels came, and ministered to Him.
Let us admire the exceeding goodness of
the Son of God, who, not satisfied with atoning for all our sins by dying on the
cross, deigns to suffer a fast of forty days and forty nights, in order to encourage
us to do penance. He would not that the justice of His heavenly Father should
exact any punishment from us, unless He Himself first suffered it, and that, too,
a thousand times more severely than we could. What are all our penances, even
were they done thoroughly, when we compare them with the severity of this fast
of Jesus in the desert? Can we have the face to be ever seeking for
dispensations from the little which our Lord asks of us in atonement for our
sins—sins, alas! which deserve such rigorous penance? Instead of complaining at
our feeling a slight inconvenience of a few days’ duration, let us
compassionate our innocent Jesus, who subjects
Himself to forty days of most rigorous
privation of food and drink.
What was it that supported Him? Prayer, devotedness to us, and the
knowledge of the exigencies of His Father’s justice. And when the forty days
were over, and His human Nature was faint from exhaustion, He is assailed by
temptation; but here again He thinks upon us, and sets us an example: He
triumphs over the temptation, calmly and resolutely, and thereby teaches us how
to conquer. How blasphemous the boldness of satan, who dares to tempt the Just
by excellence! But, how divine is the patience of Jesus, who permits the
hellish monster to lay his hand upon Him, and carry Him from place to place!
The Christian soul is often times exposed to the vilest insults from this same enemy;
nay, at times, she is on the point of complaining to her God, for permitting
her to have such humiliations. Let her, on these occasions, think upon Jesus,
the Saint of saints, who was given over, so to speak, to the wicked spirit; and
yet, He is not the less the Son of God, the Conqueror of hell; and all that
satan gains by his attack is utter defeat.
In the same way, if the soul, when under
the violence of temptation, resist with all her energy, she is not one jot less
dear to God, and satan retires with one more eternal shame and chastisement
upon him. Let us take part with the holy angels, who, as soon as the tempter is
gone, come to our Redeemer, and respectfully administer food to Him. How
affectionately do they compassionate His hunger and thirst! How zealously they
make amends, by their adorations, for the frightful outrage offered to their
King! How fervently they extol the charity of their God, who, out of His love
for man, seems to have been forgetting His own dignity, in order to provide for
the wants of the children of Adam.
At the Offertory, the Church borrows, once more, the
words of David, and shows us our Lord overshadowing
His faithful people with the wings of His, tenderest care, and shielding us, with the truth of holy, faith,
from every attack
OFFERTORY - Psalm 90: 4-5
The Lord will overshadow thee with
His shoulders, and under His wings thou shalt trust: His truth shall compass
thee with a shield.
Lent consists in something more than
mere fasting. Fasting will not produce our conversion, unless we join with it
the avoiding of dangerous occasions; for these would lead us into sin, and rob
us at once of God’s grace. Hence it is that the Church, in her Secret,
beseeches our Lord to bless us with the special grace of keeping from noxious
pleasures.
SECRET
We solemnly offer Thee, O Lord, the
sacrifice of the beginning of Lent, beseeching Thee, that by refraining from
flesh at our meals, we may learn also to avoid sinful pleasures. Through our
Lord.
SECOND SECRET – ST. VALENTINE
We offer these sacrificial gifts at
the beginning of Lent, praying You, O Lord, that while we practice restraint in
the use of bodily food, we may also refrain from harmful pleasures.
Through our Lord.
THIRD SECRET – FOR THE INTERCESSION OF THE SAINTS
Graciously hear us, O God our Savior,
and by the virtue of this sacrament protect us from all enemies of soul and
body, bestowing on us both grace in this life and glory hereafter. Through our
Lord.
FOURTH SECRET PRAYER FOR THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
O Almighty and Eternal God, O God,
Who alone knowest the number of the elect to be admitted to the happiness of
Heaven, grant, we beseech Thee, that through the intercession of all Thy
saints, the names of all who have been recommended to our prayers and of all
the faithful, may be inscribed in the book of blessed predestination. Protect
us, O Lord, who assist at Thy mysteries; that, fixed upon things divine we may
serve Thee in both body and mind, through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who
liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost; One God; forever
and ever, Amen.
PREFACE FOR LENT
It is truly meet and just, right and
availing unto salvation, that we should at all times and in all places give
thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty and everlasting God. Who by the
fasting of the body dost curb our vices, elevate our minds and bestow virtue
and reward; through Christ our Lord. Through whom the angels praise Thy
majesty, the dominions worship it, and the powers stand in awe. The heavens and
the heavenly hosts, with the blessed seraphim join together in celebrating
their joy. With these we pray Thee join our voices also, while we say with
lowly praise…
In order to impress our minds with more
and more confidence, the Church repeats, in her Communion antiphon, the encouraging
words already spoken to us in the Offertory. The sacrifice which has just been
offered for us is a fresh earnest of how much God loves us
COMMUNION - Psalm 90: 4-5
The Lord will overshadow thee with
His shoulders, and under His wings thou shalt trust: His truth shall compass
thee with a shield.
In the Postcommunion, the Church reminds
us that the holy Eucharist is our richest source of strength, because it
purifies us. Let the sinner, therefore, lose no time in making his peace with
his God ; let him not wait for Easter, but receive, as soon as may be, that heavenly
food, which saves us from the anger of God, because it makes us one with the very
author of salvation.
POSTCOMMUNION
May the holy partaking of Thy
sacrament, restore us, O Lord, and cleansing us from our old life, make us to
pass into the fellowship of the
mystery of salvation. Through our Lord.
SECOND POSTCOMMUNION – ST. VALENTINE
May the heavenly sacrament, O Lord,
renew our souls and minds, so that by the intercession of Your blessed Martyr
Valentine we may feel the benefit of the worship we perform.
THIRD POSTCOMMUNION – FOR THE INTERCESSION OF THE SAINTS
Graciously hear us, O God our Savior,
and by the virtue of this sacrament protect us from all enemies of soul and
body, bestowing on us both grace in this life and glory hereafter. Through our
Lord.
FOURTH POSTCOMMUNION PRAYER FOR THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
May the sacraments which we have
received purify us, we beseech Thee, O almighty and merciful Lord; and through
the intercession of all Thy saints, grant that this Thy sacrament may not be
unto us a condemnation, but a salutary intercession for pardon; may it be the
washing away of sin, the strength of the weak, a protection against all dangers
of the world, and a remission of all the sins of the faithful, whether living
or dead, through our Lord.
PRAYER OVER THE PEOPLE
Bow your heads to God.
Loose the bonds of our sins, we
beseech You, O Lord, and mercifully turn aside whatever punishment we deserve
for them. Through our Lord.
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