Church Fathers and Lent

As celebrations for Mardi Gras are well underway, my thought is obvious.  For God’s sake and ours, there’s got to be a better way.  The Divine Office for today includes this from the Office of Readings:

“I thought to myself, ‘Very well, I will try pleasure and see what enjoyment has to offer.’ And there it was: vanity again! This laughter, I reflected, is a madness, this pleasure no use at all. I resolved to have my body cheered with wine, my heart still devoted to wisdom; I resolved to embrace folly to see what made mankind happy, and what men do under heaven in the few days they have to live.”

My reflections then turned to wisdom, stupidity, folly. For instance, what can the successor of a king do? What has been done already. More is to be had from wisdom than from folly, as from light than from darkness; this, of course, I see:”   Ecclesiastes 2:1-3
“The wise man sees ahead,
the fool walks in the dark.”   Ecclesiastes 2:14

The Church Fathers showed the Church the way though centuries of attack and heresy.  They speak loudly today as the world speaks heretically louder than ever.  Now the attacks on the Church and Truth are both more blatant and more subtle.  So ready, set, go!  Take on the liars for Lent!

For the “wise man”  looking forward to this time of new submission, here’s the ticket!

Compiled by Church Year. Net

Church Father Lenten Reading Plan Logo

2009 Date Day in Lenten Fast Lite Reading
2/25 1 Epistle to Diognetus: 1-6
2/26 2 Epistle to Diognetus: 7-12
2/27 3 St. Ignatius of Antioch: Letter To the Ephesians: 1-7
2/28 4 St. Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to the Ephesians: 8-14
3/2 5 St. Ignatius of Antioch: Letter To the Ephesians: 15-21
3/3 6 St. Ignatius of Antioch: Letter To the Magnesians: 1-5
3/4 7 St. Ignatius of Antioch: Letter To the Magnesians: 6-10
3/5 8 St. Ignatius of Antioch: Letter To the Magnesians: 11-15
3/6 9 St. Justin Martyr: First Apology: 1-7
3/7 10 St. Justin Martyr: First Apology: 8-14
3/9 11 St. Justin Martyr: First Apology: 15-21
3/10 12 St. Justin Martyr: First Apology: 22-29
3/11 13 St. Justin Martyr: First Apology: 30-37
3/12 14 St. Justin Martyr: First Apology: 38-45
3/13 15 St. Justin Martyr: First Apology: 46-53
3/14 16 St. Justin Martyr: First Apology: 54-60
3/16 17 St. Justin Martyr: First Apology: 61-68
3/17 18 St. Cyprian: On the Unity of the Church (Treatise I): 1-9
3/18 19 St. Cyprian: On the Unity of the Church (Treatise I): 10-18
3/19 20 St. Cyprian: On the Unity of the Church (Treatise I): 19-21
3/20 21 St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: 1-9
3/21 22 St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: 10-16
3/23 23 St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: 17-25
3/24 24 St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: 26-33
3/25 25 St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: 34-41
3/26 26 St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: 42-49
3/27 27 St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: 50-58
3/28 28 St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: 59-66
3/30 29 St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: 67-73
3/31 30 St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: 74-81
4/1 31 St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: 82-89
4/2 32 St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: 90-94
4/3 33 St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures: Lecture XX
4/4 34 St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures: Lecture XXII
4/6 35 St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures: Lecture XXIII (1-11)
4/7 36 St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures: Lecture XXIII (12-23)
4/8 37 St. Ambrose of Milan: Concerning the Mysteries: 1-4
4/9 38 St. Ambrose of Milan: Concerning the Mysteries: 5-9
4/10 39 St. Leo the Great: Sermon XLIX (On Lent XI): complete
4/11 40 St. Leo the Great: Sermon LXXII (On the Lord’s Resurrection): complete


Click on  compilation of Lenten readings.

Printer-Friendly Version of Outline: Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan PDF

There is also a heavy duty version of the plan:  Complete Version : Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan: With Texts


Cool and Charitable!

The Anchoress is right on.  This is cool indeed!  A priest with a heart for the poor brings doodling celebs into the picture to do good with their pictures.   The big bucks their art brings are really great when they’re turned into loaves and fish.

A Prayer Before Blogging

My God, I believe and I adore You.  Be ever before the eyes of my heart and mind that I may see You in all circumstances and look for You in those I meet today.  I place Your blood over my heart, before my lips and around my mind as I pray and before I venture forth into this day.  May Your good angels, and Your  saints assist me, especially in drawing my thoughts to You.   Be glorified, My Love, in the Church, in the world and in me.

And they all said…….AMEN!

Particular to this day:  May I remember that it’s Sunday and spend lots of time with You.  Amen

Oh Happy Day!

THE ORDINATION OF JEFFREY NEILL STEENSON TO THE SACRED PRIESTHOOD

SATURDAY,THE TWENTY-FIRST OF FEBRUARY,TWO THOUSAND AND NINE

At SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS CATHOLIC CHURCH, RIO RANCHO, NEW MEXICO


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Procession of the Cross


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The Candidate for the Sacred Priesthood –  Jeffrey Neill Steenson


entrance

Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan

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Calling and Presentation of the Candidate for the Priesthood  Jeffrey Neill Steenson


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Prostration and Litany of the Saints

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Ordained and Invested


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Kiss of Peace


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Greeting by Rev. Fr. Scott Mansield

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Presentation of the Gifts by the Steenson Family


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Eucharist


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A Few Words

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Recessional  – Rev. Fr. Jeffrey Neill Steenson


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Recessional and Blessing by Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan

Thanks Be To God!


This is the Day The Lord Has Made!

Update:  Old Bishop, New Priest

I’ll be off in a bit to attend the ordination of Jeffrey Steenson.  I can only imagine what is going on in his heart and head at this moment.  Please say a prayer for Jeff, his family, and his church family, both  Anglican and Catholic.

New directions bring mixed blessings for partings are hard.  For Jeff, the need to explain his conscientious decision is an integral part of moving forward.  “Forward” in God’s grace and plan means continuing to put your hands to the plow and looking back only with gratitude for the gift of the past.  Friends, mentors, and teachers, all helped to prepare Jeff for this day.  Now  is a time of celebration.  Now, with the Laying on of Hands, Jeffrey becomes a priest of the Roman Catholic Church.  He  enters on a new path on the road home.  God bless you, soon-to-be, Rev. Fr. Jeffrey Neil Steenson!

Making the Connection – My Rosary, My Weapon

The Anchoress had an encounter with Mystery.  Seems the little children of Fatima, Jacinta and Francisco,  now beatified by John Paul II, want to get the word out;  the Rosary is our weapon!

Indeed, it is!  If you remember, the apparitions at Fatima occurred immediately before the Bolshevik Revolution.  Russia had little world power.  No one saw it as a menace when the Blessed Virgin Mary gave us her prophetic message,  that WW I would soon end but a far worse war would follow if our Lady’s warning was not heeded and Russia consecrated to her Immaculate Heart:

You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.

The whole world is still at risk and in error.  Those who faced down the enemies of Faith have clung to their rosaries.  In Ukraine, blood and beads battled for the soul of that country. The Ukrainian Bishop of Lutsk, Markijam Trofimiak, wrote: A Monument to Heroism in Ukraine. He recounts:

Once at a symposium, I was asked: “Should it ever be decided to erect a monument in the Ukraine  to the person who has made the greatest contribution to safeguarding the faith in this land, to whom would it be justly dedicated?”. I pondered awhile before answering. In a flash, the faces of well-known priests who survived the concentration camps, Soviet prisons and years of physical and moral terror passed before my eyes. The witness to faith of these priests surpasses what we are accustomed to call “heroism”. Although remembering their undeniable merits, I answered: The monument would have to be dedicated to an elderly woman with the Rosary in her hands“.