MASS READINGS
April 05, 2013 (Readings on USCCB website)
COLLECT PRAYER
Almighty ever-living God, who gave us the Paschal Mystery in the covenant you established for reconciling the human race, so dispose our minds, we pray, that what we celebrate by professing the faith we may express in deeds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
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"Children, have you any fish?" They answered him, "No." He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!"
Over the charcoal fire, Peter is given the opportunity to tell Jesus he loves Him, three times, repairing for his triple denial of Christ at His Passion.
Outside of Easter Week today is the Optional Memorial of St. Vincent Ferrer.
Fourth Sunday in Lent (Laetare Sunday)
Station with Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (Holy Cross In Jerusalem):
This church is one of the seven pilgrim churches in Rome. St. Helen, mother of the emperor Constantine, had a church built in Rome to house the relics of the Passion of Our Lord which she had obtained during her pilgrimage to the Holy Land. St. Helen discovered the true Cross of Our Savior with its title and the instruments of His death such as the nails and the crown of thorns. She had the top layer from Mount Calvary removed and placed in barges that carried this material to Rome. She then had the builders use this soil as the ground on which she had the basilica built for the sacred relics. The true Cross and other holy items have been kept in this basilica since its consecration in the fourth century and can be visited to this day. Because of the great relic enshrined there, the basilica is called the Holy Cross and because it is built on the soil from Mount Calvary it is said to be in Jerusalem.
For more on Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, see:
For further information on the Station Churches, see The Stational Church.
Rejoice, Jerusalem!
Uninterrupted sorrow is just as hard for man as uninterrupted joy. Who knows this better than the "mistress of psychology," Mother Church? She, therefore, inserts into this "season of affliction" a day of rest and joy "that we may have relief by the comfort of God's grace" (collect). Her altars are adorned with flowers, her chants perfumed with the music of the organ, her ministers clothed in the "dalmatic of joy," of a color which unites the purple of the forty penitential days with the white of the fast-approaching fifty Paschal days. "Laetare, Jerusalem," and so she rejoices today with all her children.
Joy is the keynote of the Mystical Body. Did not God's angel say so on the birthday of its divine Head? "I bring you tidings of great joy that shall be to all the people." "Laetare, Jerusalem!" These two words are more than an aggregate of sixteen letters. They are a message, a powerful reminder that, where the Holy Ghost operates and where souls co-operate with Him, there also must be joy, which is a fruit of the Holy Ghost.
Why is it that Christians often are so joyless? They act as though they were not redeemed, as though they were not branches of Him who is the cause and fountain of all joy. They walk as children of the "bond woman," the Testament of fear, when in reality they should live as sons and daughters of the "free woman," the Church of love, our Jerusalem (introit), our Mother at whose eucharistic breasts of consolation we drink the joyous "liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free" (epistle).
True, our whole life is a texture of sorrows and joys. Good Fridays and Easter days accompany us on our journey to the land of perennial Easter. But as there is no Good Friday without the assurance that "by the wood of the Cross joy has come into the whole world," so in the soul of a true Christian there is no sorrow bereft of the joy that will come from living faith, strong hope and sincere love: a joy ever sustained and increased by that wonderful Bread which Christ's loving hand multiplies for us in this desert of life.
How strikingly this truth is shown forth by the rose which our holy Father blesses on this day. Does not this queen of all flowers crown a stem of many thorns? Sorrows and joys! Such was the life of our Lord. Thirty-three years filled with thorns of sorrows until on the stem of the Cross He bloomed like a glorious rose filling the whole world with the fragrance of redemption and life. So it must be in the life of His followers, who are not greater than "the First-born among many brethren."
Remember the station of today: Holy Cross! By the wood of this Cross joy has come into the world, into your heart also. Laetare, Jerusalem! Endure the thorns of life courageously. Supernaturalize them. The rose-bud of joy is opening more and more until it reaches its perfection on the day when you will be able to chant: "I rejoice at the things that were said to me: we shall go into the house of the Lord," we shall now make our glorious "introit" into the eternal Jerusalem.
Then there will be no more thorns, only the rose of celestial fragrance, the rose that grew out of a thorn-clad rod of sorrow, blooming to your joy and to the joy of Him who by His precious blood obtained for you an unending "Laetare Jerusalem."
—From Martin Hellriegel, Vine and Branches
