Quote:Yesterday, the Church spoke to us upon the certainty of death. Die we must: we have not only God’s infallible word for it, but no reasonable man could ever entertain the thought that he was to be an exception to the rule. But if the fact of our death be certain, the day on which we are to die is also fixed. God, in His wisdom, has concealed the day from us; it becomes our duty not to be taken by surprise. This very night, it might be said to us, as it was to Ezechias: Take order with thy house, for thou shalt die. We ought to spend each day as though it were to be our last. Were God even to grant us, as He did to the holy king of Juda, a prolongation of life, we must come, sooner or later, to that last hour, beyond which there is no time, and eternity begins. The Church’s intention in thus reminding us of our mortality, is to put us on our guard against the allurements of this short life, and urge us to earnestness in the great work of regeneration, for which she has been preparing us during these last three weeks. How many there are of those who yesterday received the ashes, who will never see the joys of Easter, at least in this world! To them, the ceremony has been a prediction of what is to happen to them, perhaps before the month is out. And yet the very same words that were pronounced over them were said to us. May not we ourselves be of the number of those who are thus soon to be victims of death? In this uncertainty, let us gratefully accept the warning, which our Jesus came down from heaven to give us: Do penance; for the kingdom of God is at hand.

Quote:The sacred Scriptures, the fathers, and theologians tell us that there are three eminent good works which are, at the same time, works of penance: prayer, fasting, and almsdeeds. In the lessons she gives us on these three days, which form as it were the threshold of Lent, the Church instructs us upon these works. Today it is a prayer she recommends to us. Look at the centurion of today’s Gospel, who comes to our Savior, beseeching Him to heal his servant. His prayer is humble; in all the sincerity of his heart, he deems himself unworthy to receive Jesus under his roof. His prayer is full of faith; he doubts not for an instant that Jesus is able to grant him what he asks. And with what ardor he prays! The faith of this Gentile is greater than that of the children of Israel, and elicits praise from the Son of God. Such ought to be our prayer, when we solicit the cure of our souls. Let us acknowledge that we are not worthy to speak to God, and yet, let us have an unshaken confidence in the power and goodness of Him who not only commands us to pray that He may pour out His mercies upon us. The season we are now in is one of prayer; the Church redoubles her supplications; it is for us that she makes them; we must take our share in them. Let us, during this season of grace, cast off that languor which fastens on the soul at other times; let us remember that it is prayer which repairs the faults we have already committed, and preserves us from sin for the future.

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

Quote:We are told, in this Lesson from the Prophet Isaias, what are the dispositions which should accompany our Fast. It is God himself who here speaks to us, — that God who had himself commanded his people to Fast. He tells us, that the fasting from material food is a mere nothing in his eyes, unless they who practise it abstain also from sin. He demands the sacrifice of the body; but it is not acceptable to him, unless that of the soul goes along, with it. The living God can never consent to be treated as were the senseless gods of wood and stone, which the Gentiles adored, and which were incapable of receiving any other than a mere external homage. Let, then, the heretic cease to find fault with the Church for her observance of practices, which he pretends to scorn as being material; it is he that grows material by his system of letting the body have every indulgence. The Children of the Church fast, because fasting is recommended in almost every page of both the Old and New Testament, and because Jesus Christ himself fasted for forty days; but they are fully aware that this practice, which is thus recommended and urged, is then alone meritorious, when it is ennobled and completed by the homage of a heart that is resolved to reform its vicious inclinations. And after all, it would be an injustice, if the body, which has been led into guilt solely through the malice of the soul, were to be made to suffer, and the soul herself be allowed to continue in her sinful course. Hence it is, that they whose ill-health prevents them from observing the bodily austerities of Lent, are equally bound to impose on their soul that spiritual fast, which consists in the amendment of their life, in the avoiding everything that is sinful, and in the zealous performance of every good work in their power.

Quote:Almsdeeds is the third of the great penitential works: it is the sister-virtue of Prayer and Fasting. For this reason, the Church puts before us, today, the instructions given by our Saviour on the manner in which we ought to do works of mercy. He puts upon us the duty of loving our fellow-men, without distinction of friends or enemies. God, who has created them all, loves them himself; this is motive enough to make us show mercy to all. If he bears with them, even when they are his enemies by sin, and patiently waits for their conversion even to the end of their lives, so that they who are lost, are lost through their own fault, what ought not we to do, we who are sinners as they are, and their brethren, and created, like them, out of nothing? When, therefore, we do an act of kindness or mercy towards those who have God for their Father, we offer him a most acceptable homage. Charity, the queen of virtues, absolutely requires of us the love of our neighbour, as being part of our love of God; and this Charity, at the same time that it is a sacred obligation incumbent upon each member of the family of mankind, is, in the acts it inspires us to do towards each other, a work of penance, because it imposes upon us certain privations, and requires us to overcome every repugnance which nature stirs up within us, when we have to show this Charity to certain individuals. And finally, we must, in our Almsdeeds, follow the counsel our Blessed Saviour gives us; it is the one he recommended to us, when he bade us fast: we must do it in secret, and shun ostentation. Penance loves humility and silence; it has a dread of being noticed by men; the only one whose applause it seeks, is His who seeth in secret.

Quote:Saturday is a day replete with mystery, It is the day of God’s rest; it is a figure of the eternal peace, which awaits us in heaven after the toils of this life are over. The object of the Church in giving us, today, this Lesson from Isaias, is to teach us how we are to merit our eternal Sabbath. We have scarcely entered on our campaign of penance, when this affectionate Mother of ours comes to console us. If we abound in good works during this holy Season, in which we have taken leave of the distracting vanities of the world, the light of grace shall rise up even in the darkness which now clouds our soul. This soul, which has been so long obscured by sin and by the love of the world and self, shall become bright as the noon-day; the glory of Jesus’ Resurrection shall be ours too; and, if we are faithful to grace, the Easter of time will lead us to the Easter of eternity. Let us, therefore, build up the places that have been so long desolate; let us raise up the foundations, repair the fences, turn away our feet from the violation of holy observances, do not our own ways and our own will in opposition to those of our Divine Master; and then, he will give us everlasting rest, and fill our soul with his own brightness.

Quote:The Ship, the Church, has set sail; the voyage is to last Forty Days. The disciples labour in rowing, for the wind is against them; they begin to fear lest they may not be able to gain the port. But Jesus comes to them on the sea; he goes up to them in the ship; the rest of the voyage is most prosperous. The ancient Liturgists thus explain the Church’s intention in her choice of to-day’s Gospel. Forty Days of penance are, it is true, little enough for a long life that has been spent in everything save in God’s service; and yet, our cowardice would sink under these Forty Days, unless we had Jesus with us. Let us not fear ; it is He ; He prays with us, fasts with us, and does all our works of mercy with us. Was it not He that first began these Forty Days of expiation? Let us keep our eyes fixed on him, and be of good heart If we grow tired, let us go to him, as did the poor sick ones, of whom our Gospel speaks. The very touch of his garments sufficed to restore health to such as had lost it; let us go to him in his adorable Sacrament; and the divine life, whose germ is already within us, will develop itself, and the energy, which was beginning to droop in our hearts, will regain all its vigour.