Monday of the first week of Lent
CLEAN MONDAY
Leviticus,
Chapter 19, verse 14
You shall
not insult the deaf, or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but you
shall fear your God. I am the LORD.
Be like your Heavenly Father; God is not a
bully. Christ was often confronted by the bullies of his time. When the Pharisees heard that he had
silenced the Sadducee, they gathered together, and one of
them [a scholar of the law] tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He
said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all
your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and
the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love
your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two
commandments.” (Mt. 22:34-40)
The modern world attempts to bully the
faithful in abandoning their relationship with the Lord. Saint Pope Pius X was
a pope, who resisted the bullying of the modern world by establishing an oath
against modernism[1]. The
crux of this oath has five main points:
- I profess that God is the origin and end of all things.
- I accept and acknowledge the external proofs of revelation, that
is, divine acts and especially miracles and prophecies as the surest signs
of the divine origin of the Christian religion.
- I believe with equally firm faith that the Church, the guardian
and teacher of the revealed word, was personally instituted by the real
and historical Christ.
- I sincerely hold that the doctrine of faith was handed down to
us from the apostles through the orthodox Fathers in exactly the same
meaning and always in the same purport.
- I hold with certainty and sincerely confess that faith is not a
blind sentiment of religion welling up from the depths of the subconscious
under the impulse of the heart and the motion of a will trained to morality;
but faith is a genuine assent of the intellect to truth.
EPISTLE. Ezech. xxxiv. 11-16.
THUS,
saith the Lord God: Behold I Myself will seek My sheep and will visit them. As
the shepherd visiteth his flock in the day when he shall be in the midst of his
sheep that were scattered, so will I visit My sheep, and will deliver them out
of all the places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
And I will bring them out from the peoples, and will gather them out of the
countries, and will bring them to their own land: and I will feed them in the
mountains of Israel, by the rivers, and in all the habitations of the land. I
will feed them in the most fruitful pastures, and their pastures shall be in
the high mountains of Israel: there shall they rest on the green grass and be
fed in fat pastures upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed My sheep: and I
will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that which was
lost : and that which was driven away I will bring again: and I will bind up
that which was broken, and I will strengthen that which was weak, and that
which was fat and strong I will preserve: and I will feed them in judgment,
saith the Lord Almighty.
GOSPEL. Matt. xxv. 31-46.
Prayer. Convert us, O God, our
salvation; and, that the fast of Lent may benefit us, instruct our minds with
heavenly discipline.
Lenten Calendar[2]
Read: Lent is a special time for those
preparing to be baptized through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults
(RCIA). RCIA is a period of learning and discernment for those seeking to
become Catholic.
Reflect; Take time to reflect on your own
decision to become a member of the Church.
Pray: Keep the elect, candidates, and
their sponsors in your prayers this Lent.
Act: Download the CRS Rice Bowl App. . . today and try a new way of tracking your Lenten
journey, while also receiving daily reflections and meatless recipes.
Clean Monday, also known as Pure Monday, Ash Monday, Monday of Lent or Green Monday, is the first day of Great Lent in the Eastern Orthodox Christian, Saint Thomas Christians of India and Eastern Catholic churches. It is a moveable feast that occurs at the beginning of the 7th week before Orthodox Easter Sunday. The common term for this day, "Clean Monday", refers to the leaving behind of sinful attitudes and non-fasting foods. It is sometimes called "Ash Monday", by analogy with Ash Wednesday (the day when the Western Churches begin Lent). The term is often a misnomer, as only a small subset of Eastern Catholic Churches practices the Imposition of Ashes. The Maronite Catholic Church and The Mar Thoma Nasranis of India-Syro-Malabar Catholic Church are notable amongst the Eastern rite that employs the use of ashes on this day. Liturgically, Clean Monday—and thus Lent itself—begins on the preceding (Sunday) night, at a special service called Forgiveness Vespers, which culminates with the Ceremony of Mutual Forgiveness, at which all present will bow down before one another and ask forgiveness. In this way, the faithful begin Lent with a clean conscience, with forgiveness, and with renewed Christian love. The entire first week of Great Lent is often referred to as "Clean Week", and it is customary to go to Confession during this week, and to clean the house thoroughly. The theme of Clean Monday is set by the Old Testament reading appointed to be read at the Sixth Hour (noon) on this day (Isaiah 1:1–20), which says, in part:
Wash
yourselves and ye shall be clean; put away the wicked ways from your souls
before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well. Seek judgment, relieve
the oppressed, consider the fatherless, and plead for the widow. Come then, and
let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, I will
make them white as snow; and though they be red like crimson, I will make them
white as wool (vv. 16–18).
When ye fast, be not, as the
hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may
appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But
thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear
not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret... (v. 16–18).
Preparing for Battle[4] Know Your Weapons
The weapon of Sacred Scripture
·
Each
time the Devil attacked with the temptation to doubt or disobey God, Jesus
quoted Scripture to throw him back.
·
Scripture
is our sword against Satan!
·
We
must listen carefully to the scriptural readings in Mass and meditate on them
deeply.
·
We
must read Scripture on our own.
·
We
must also memorize scriptural texts that we can use against temptation. Then,
when the Enemy assaults us, we can imitate Our Lord by the effective
counterassault of quoting the word of God.
Daily
Devotions
·
Manhood of the Master-Day 22
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