Before Lent was lengthened, yesterday, Laetare Sunday, was the mid-point of Lent. Another nickname for the 4th Sunday in Lent is “Mediana“. In this week the fast, but not abstinence, was somewhat relaxed as a kind of refresher before Passiontide. Hence, Laetare Sunday was also called “Refreshment” Sunday along with “Mothering” Sunday because of the maternal imagery, especially in the Antiphon. On that note, in the Vetus Ordo, today, Monday in mediana, we have the famous judgment of two mothers by Solomon from 1 Kings 3:16-28 (which is 3 Kings in the DRV). The two mothers (prostitutes) symbolize the Synagogue verses the Church. There are representations of the scene in painting in Pompeii!
From today onward our Gospels will be mainly from John. If there are variants, they result from the time of Gregory II as later additions. Today, however, in the Gospel of John 2 the Lord chases the money changers from the Temple where they had occupied the courtyard of the Gentiles. Christ makes a divinity claim that will be held against him in His trial, so we are already looking toward Passiontide in this liturgical moment, as kind of forward-looking review.
Such wealth and depth we have in the traditional Roman Rite, so carefully tended and polished and adjusted over more than a millennium of loving care.
During the feria days of Lent, we have a final “Prayer over the people” after the Postcommunion.
Let us pray.
Bow your heads to God.
Generously heed our entreaty, O Lord, we beseech You, and grant Your helpful protection to those who have been given a desire to pray.
Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.
R. Amen.
Here is today’s with a comment about it by Bl. Ildefonso Schuster.
The missa, or Prayer of Benediction over the people before their dismissal, begs the divine clemency that, having granted us the grace of raising our supplications to God in order to obtain protection from the dangers that threaten us, we may duly attain to the salvation for which we pray.
The grace of prayer is one of the highest favours that God imparts to the human soul. Prayer is indeed the atmosphere in which holiness develops and flourishes; it enables the Holy Ghost to communicate himself to the soul and to bind it to himself with the bonds of love. The whole essence of asceticism is contained in this one word ” prayer.” We first pray in order to obtain the help of God’s grace in our struggles in the path of purification ; and, when we are engaged in the path of meditation, again we have recourse to prayer. In heaven itself we shall do nothing else but pray, so we may consider prayer as the beginning of our future state of blessedness.
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