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The Easter Cycle
nature to the spirit. Mortification is a powerful remedy for the weaknesses and ills of the spirit.
It is indispensable as a means of acquiring perfection and union with God. “And they that are
Christ’s, have crucified their flesh with the vices and concupiscences” (Gal 5:24). Can this be
said of the followers of Christ today? Very few of them prize mortification, and most of them
flee from it. Are we, then, still really Christians?
In the prelenten season and during Lent, the liturgy centers our attention on mortification
and self-denial. Daily it calls to our attention in the Preface for Lent the value of mortification:
“By the fasting of the body Thou dost curb our vices, elevate our minds, and bestow virtue
and reward.” Do we live according to this principle? The mortification urged by the liturgy is
required, not merely of great sinners, penitents, novices, and newly ordained priests, but even of
those advanced in virtue; those advanced in age also need mortification both of body and mind.
These, too, need to mortify their pride and self-will, their unruly passions, their dissatisfaction,
their bitterness, and their self-seeking. Even those advanced in age and virtue daily experience
how prone the human spirit is to evil. Age is no protection against foolishness or temptation; for
temptation follows us always, and even an old man may easily fall unless he unceasingly practices
self-control by all manner of mortification. “We suffer with Him [Christ] that we may be also
glorified with Him” (Rom 8:17). We die in order to live. Without death through mortification
during Lent, there can be no resurrection at Easter, or eternal life.
Prayer
We beseech Thee, O Lord, graciously to hear our prayers. Deliver us from our sins; protect us
from all evil. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Sexagesima Sunday
The Mass
The stational church for Sexagesima Sunday is St. Paul’s in Rome. St. Paul speaks today for
the assembled faithful. Their needs are his needs, their griefs his griefs, their cries his cries.
He has experienced in his own person all the bitterness and weakness and the sufferings
of the Church, and here where we are assembled today he allows us to share his struggles
again with him.
“Arise, why sleepest Thou, O Lord? Arise and cast us not off to the end” (Introit; Ps. 43:23). O
suffering Church of Christ! Psalm 43 recounts for us the wonders and miracles God worked on
behalf of His people; it relates His intervention and the destruction of their powerful enemies.
Today His people cry out, “Our belly hath cleaved to the earth” (Introit). Yes, O Lord, Thou
dost lift Thy eyes to behold Thy children, the children born to Thee in baptism, nurtured and
raised for God, and instructed in holy wisdom. Thou hast healed their wounds with Thy holy
sacraments and nourished them with the Holy Eucharist. In these days of licentiousness, when
men dance and sing, when the world is steeped in materialism and sensuality, and nations live
at enmity with God and His Christ, Thou standest before us as before so many living corpses.
In so many of Thy children Thou cleavest to the earth.
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