9781644135945

The Easter Cycle
During Lent we retire for forty days to fast and to fight against our evil inclinations and against
the devil if God should allow him to tempt us. If we cannot observe so severe a fast as our Lord
observed, let us do at least as much as we can. In the desert of Lent to which we have withdrawn,
let us show ourselves in all things the servants of God. Let us serve God “in much patience,
in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses, . . . in labors, in watchings, in fastings, in chastity, in
knowledge, in long-suffering, in sweetness, . . . in charity unfeigned; . . . by honor and dishonor,
by evil report and good report” (Epistle). We must preserve this attitude without becoming
impatient, without complaint, without giving in to ill-humor, without exonerating ourselves,
keeping the spirit of sacrifice at all times for the love of Christ.
During the trying season that is before us, our lives should be characterized by a firm confidence
in God, who lives in us, fights in us, and conquers again in us. “Thou art my protector
and my refuge; my God, in Him will I trust. For He hath delivered me from the snares of the
hunter. . . . He will overshadow thee with His shoulders, and under His wings thou shalt trust.
His truth [grace] shall compass thee with a shield; thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the
night. . . . For He hath given His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. . . . Because
he hoped in Me, I will deliver him; I will protect him because he hath known My name. He
shall cry to Me, and I will hear him; I am with him in tribulation. I will deliver him and I will
glorify him; I will fill him with length of days, and I will show him My salvation” (Tract; Psalm
90). So we believe and trust.
Prayer
O God, who dost purify Thy Church with the annual observance of Lent, grant to Thy household
that what it strives to obtain from Thee by abstinence, it may secure with good works.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Monday
Like the neophytes of the early Church, we now seek to stir up in our hearts the grace which
we received at our baptism. At baptism we were chosen to be the children of God and were
received into the number of the “blessed of the Father.” The stational church for the Mass
today is that of St. Peter in Chains. In the person of St. Peter, who was bound with chains
and miraculously delivered by Christ, we recognize ourselves. We, too, were bound by the
chains of sin and were miraculously delivered by Christ through our second baptism in the
holy sacrament of penance. The Mass today reminds us of the grace of our baptism and the
obligations it imposes.
The grace of baptism. “I will bring [my sheep] out from the peoples [the heathens] and will
gather them out of the countries, and bring them to their own land [the Church]. And I will
feed them in the mountains of Israel; . . . I will feed them in the most fruitful pastures. . . . 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” (Epistle). At the time of our
baptism Christ lovingly and mercifully segregated us from the pagan world and placed us in
His Church. Thus He manifested Himself as the good shepherd who leads His sheep to good
pastures (to grace, truth, and the sacraments, particularly the Holy Eucharist). By means of
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