Today is of course the day we celebrate the “fullness of time”.
In the fullness of time, the Eternal Word, the Second Person, took our humanity into an indestructible bond with His divinity.
Today is the Feast of the Annunciation. It is nine months from Christmas.
Because of can. 1251 members of the Latin Church, usually bound to do penance on Fridays of Lent, are not bound today.
The people who put together the calendar that hangs on the walls of offices of the Roman Curia seem to have been unaware of can. 1251. You can see at the bottom of today’s page “Astinenza dalle carni”.
But wait! What is this we see?
It is the feast of the St. Dismas, the Good Thief.
Here is his entry from the Martyrologium Romanum:
2. Commemoratio sancti latronis, qui, in cruce Christum confessus, ab eo meruit audire: “Hodie mecum eris in paradiso”.
And from today’s LENTCAzT you can hear more about the Station, San Vitale in Fossa.
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I haven’t found a calendar yet that doesn’t have a fish on it today. As an editor, it’s rather annoying. Doesn’t anyone check these things? ;-)
Today is also the celebration of the martyrdom of St. Margaret Clitherow. What a delightful lady! Pray for us, lady, that we will be able to follow you with cheerfulness if it is God’s will!
The feast of St Dismas falling on this day is used by some authors as proof of Dec 25 as the real date of the birth of Jesus. The theory is that in ancient Jewish hagiography, holy men lived ‘perfect’ years. The commemoration of St Dismas implies that Jesus died on March 25, which implies that his human existence, recorded in the Bible (and clear to human reason) as being from his conception, was on March 25.
Also I see that it is the memorial of St. Lucia Filippini, teacher and role model to Catholic girls.
Thank you, dear Mary, for your saying ‘YES’ on this day! Thank you for your ‘Fiat’!
@ GirlCanChant,
I recommend writing to those organizations that make Catholic calendars and informing them of their mistake. Cite Canon 1251 in your e-mail or letter. It works!
Last year, I wrote to the Catholic Extension Society- which provides Catholic calendars for many parishes across the USA- about their mistake of putting a fish symbol on the Solemnity of Saint Joseph which fell on a Friday of Lent.
This year’s calendar does not have a fish symbol for the Solemnity of the Annunciation.
From olden days in Canada:
S. BONI LATRONIS: CONFESSORIS
In carceribus intra fines Canadensis Ditionis, celebrari potest, semel in anno, Missa de S. Bono Latrone Conf., ut sequitur, tamquam votiva II classis, ides dummodo non occurat dies liturgicus I classis. III Classis.
There is now an option for prisons and institutions named after St. Dismas to celebrate on the Second Sunday of October for the U.S. and Canada. I do not know outside of North America.
Below is the text:
Ant ad introitum: Ait latro Iesum: “Memento Mei, Domine, dum veneris in Regnum tuum.”
Collecta: Omnipotens et misericors Deus, qui iustificas peccatores, te supplices exoramus, ut nos benigno intuitu, quo Unigenitus tuus beatum Latronem traxit, ad dignam paenitentiam provoces, et illam quam ei promisit, tribuas nobis gloriam sempiternam. Per Dominum.
Super Oblata: Hanc oblatio nos, Domine, quasumus, ab omnibus purget offensis, quae in ara Crucis etiam totius mundi tulit offensa.
Ant ad communionem: Amen, dico tibi: Hodie mecum eris in paradiso.
Post communionem: Sumpta mysteria, quaesumus, Domine Iesu, ad illam felicitatem nos praeparent, quam in Crucis patibulo pendens Latroni confitenti misericorditer promisisti, Qui vivis.
(Any errors in transcibing are on my part alone).
My Catholic calendar doesn’t have a fish on this day. In fact, I’m going to a wedding rehearsal tonight and the groom’s mother said that her son had the following conversation with the priest: “So, Father, we can eat meat at my wedding rehearsal because it’s the Annunciation.” “I don’t know about that. I’ll have to check with the Diocese.” “Well, there’s no fish on my calendar.”
The Transalpine Redemptorists don’t have a fish on their calendar today; in fact, the daily box is festively decorated! http://www.papastronsay.blogspot.com/
I just learned who St. Dismas was by way of researching a Rat Pack concert from 1965 in St Louis that our local PBS was airing this week. Jimmy Hoffa financially supported the Dismas House, started by a Jesuit Fr. Clark in STL, as a halfway house for ex-cons. Fr. Clark named the apostolate after St. Dismas. Hoffa brought in the Rat Pack for a big fundraiser after Fr. Clark’s death.
Speaking of calendars:
I am in need (even at this late date) of a Catholic wall calendar for someone in the US who keeps with the ordinary calendar (but has some slight interest in things of the extrodinary form). Would anyone care to make a suggestion? Also, any suggestion for a pocket calendar or planner that includes Catholic dates pre-printed?
“In fact, I’m going to a wedding rehearsal tonight…”
Hmmm. I’m rehearsing a wedding tonight…which surprised me when I looked at my schedule because I thought weddings were a no-no during Lent. Alas, I just do what they tell me.
Re: weddings.
http://www.usccb.org/laity/marriage/mpanalysis.shtml
“There are no legal restrictions on when the Rite of Marriage may be celebrated, with the exception of the Triduum, as long as the various guidelines specific to the particular parish are respected…When a wedding coincides with a major feast the readings for that feast must be respected. Weddings during penitential seasons must respect the church tone and décor appropriate for the season.”
I have two different Catholic calendars, provided by the two competing funeral homes in my parish. Both bear the fish symbol for today. While not the most heinous crime, it does show that the people who put these calendars together are clueless about the nuances of our faith, which is sad.
I wouldn’t have a wedding during Lent, but that’s just me.
My 70 year old godfather is currently scandalized a friend is celebrating a 40 year or so wedding anniversary with a big party during Lent. I have to agree, but that’s just me.
But re St. Dismas (St., right?), I greatly admire him, and Magdalene, since I have joined them in the gutter and hope to join them one day elsewhere.
I did make use of this particular provision of the law myself on Friday. It wasn’t exactly what I had planned to do, but as I was traveling that afternoon and staying that evening in mostly non-Catholic company things developed such that the relaxation of the rule was quite convenient.
Now that isn’t to say that Friday was without its Lenten character, but it was maintained in other ways this time.