Lent: March 16th
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Other Commemorations: St. Heribert, Archbishop (RM); St. Jean Brebeuf, Priest and Martyr (RM)
MASS READINGS
March 16, 2010 (Readings on USCCB website)
COLLECT PRAYER
Father, may our Lenten observance prepare us to embrace the Paschal mystery and to proclaim your salvation with joyful praise. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
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The Liturgy continues to impress us with the hatred which the enemy of God has for his Anointed. We are not surprised at the opposition the Church has to go through, because Christ and his Church are one: the Whole Christ. He himself said at the last discourse before his Passion: "If they have persecuted me they will persecute you also. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before you." (John 15:20, 18). — St. Andrew Bible Mission
Meditation - On the Compassion of Some Women of Jerusalem
A goodly number of the women of Jerusalem (not disciples of Jesus) met this saddest of funeral processions. No doubt their weeping and sobbing and loud wailing, however sincere, was not in real accord with the sorrow that was straining Jesus' heart to the breaking point-His sorrow, namely, over their refusal to accept the truth of His Messiahship and of His supreme royalty as the promised Christ and Savior. Still, the heart of Jesus was deeply affected by the sympathy of these women. Contrasted with all else that was poured into His ears, it was very acceptable and was gratefully received.
But what lastingly gives this incident its chief significance is the fact that, even here in His greatest misery, Jesus is thinking predominantly of the doom of the Holy City and its temple, now practically sealed. Evidently His heart is aching at the vision of the horrors that will soon overtake it and the whole Jewish race, for its criminal blindness to His divine credentials and its obstinate refusal to profit by His teaching and His Precious Blood. For the days are near, when the barren among the Jewish women will be called blessed; when death, sudden and terrible though it be, will seem preferable to life. Try, therefore, to look deep into Jesus' Sacred Heart in its very keen sympathy for these women, and especially for their children. For of the children here present in the procession, or carried in the arms of their mothers, many no doubt were to be witnesses and victims of the abomination of desolation coming upon Jerusalem not forty years hence (Luke 19:41-44)
Excerpted from Our Way to the Father, Leo M. Krenz, S.J.
The Station today is in St. Lawrence's in Damaso—a church built by Pope St. Damascus in honor of the martyred deacon. It was one of the first parish churches in Rome and was rebuilt in the late 15th century by Bramante, and has since been restored several times. Pope St. Damasus' relics are beneath the altar. Today the church is part of the Cancelleria, or the chancery, and houses the Holy Father's Tribunals: the Roman Rota, Apostolic Signatura, and Apostolic Penitentiary.
Saint Heribert
Heribert was born in Worms and he was the son of Hugo, count of Worms. He was educated in the school of Worms Cathedral and at the Benedictine Gorze Abbey in Lorraine, France. He returned to Worms Cathedral to be provost and was ordained a priest in 994.
In the same year, Otto III appointed him chancellor for Italy and four years later also for Germany, a position which he held until Otto's death on 23 January 1002. Heribert was made an archbishop of Cologne on 998. Then, he also served Emperor St. Henry.
Heribert built the monastery of Deutz, on the Rhine and performed miracles, including ending a drought. He is thus invoked for rains.
He died in Cologne on March 16, 1021 and was buried at Deutz.
He was already honored as a saint during his lifetime and was canonized by Pope St. Gregory VII about 1074.
—©Evangelizo.org
Patronage: against drought; for rain; Deutz, Germany
Symbols and Representation: archbishop calling down rain by his prayers; man kneeling before Saint Henry II; episcopal attire
Highlights and Things to Do:
- Read more about St. Heribert:
- Watch this short video from gloria.tv on St. Heribert of Cologne.
- His relics were relocated from Old St. Heribert to the Neu-St.Heribert church in Köln-Deutz.
Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Station with San Nicola in Carcere (St. Nicholas in Prison):
Today's Station is at St. Nicholas of Barin in Prison, dedicated to the popular St. Nicholas of Myra or also referred to as St. Nicholas of Bari, whose feast is December 6. It was constructed in the ruins of two temples and the ancient Forum Olitorium, with visible fragments from the ruins reused in the church. The most important of the temples was the Temple of Piety, built by Acilius Glabrius, consul in 191 B.C. The dedication to St. Nicholas was made by the Greek population in the area.
For more on San Nicola in Carcere, see:
For further information on the Station Churches, see The Stational Church.
