Feast of Corpus Christi

         Traditional Latin Mass with Procession
          Thursday June 19th at 7:00 P.M. 
                                  St. Martha Church 214 Brainard Rd. Enfield Ct.

         Traditional Latin Mass every Sunday at 11:00 A.M.

 No TLM FOR WEDS. 6/18/25 OR SAT. 6/21/25 THIS WEEK

 Traditional Latin Mass this Sat. 9:00 A.M. June 14th low Mass

St. Martha Church 214 Brainard Rd. Enfield Ct

 Traditional Latin Mass this Weds. 7:00 P.M. June 11th

St. Martha Church 214 Brainard Rd. Enfield Ct

 Traditional Latin Mass schedule for this weekend. St. Martha Church 214 Brainard rd. Enfield Ct. 

1st Friday June 6th at 7:00PM for Sacred Heart of Jesus.

1st Saturday at 9:00 AM June 7th in honor of Our Lady of Fatima.

Traditional Latin Mass for Sunday Pentecost High Mass 

                Sunday at 11:00 A.M. June 8th

                  Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus

  Traditional Latin Mass this Weds. 7:00 P.M. June 4th

St. Martha Church 214 Brainard Rd. Enfield Ct

 Traditional Latin Mass Sunday June 1st at 11:00 A.M. 

Followed immediately after Mass by Blessing of Sacramentals

St. Martha Church 214 Brainard Rd. Enfield Ct.

  Traditional Latin Mass this Sat. 9:00 A.M. May 31st

St. Martha Church 214 Brainard Rd. Enfield Ct

 

Ascension of Of Our Lord. Thurs. May 29th at 7 P.M.

                                       Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus

         Ascension of Of Our Lord. High Mass at 7:00 P.M.

The Holy Communion of The Blessed Virgin

St. Paul speaks of the institution of the Holy Eucharist

with more detail than any of the four Evangelists

see 1st Corinthians chapter XI 23-29

These words "Take ye, and eat; this is my body"

and

"This chalice is the new testament in my blood"

Understood in their true meaning, literally and without metaphor, are to human understanding an impenetrable mystery. That which Christ gave to His disciples was no longer bread, but His Body which was about to be sacrificed; the chalice contained His very Blood which was about to be shed. The Apostles did not ask:

"How can this be done?" 

In the fullness of their faith, realizing that Christ was Omnipotent , they believed His words and partook of His Body and His Blood under the appearances of bread and wine. In saying to His Apostles 

" this do for the commemoration of me," 

Christ gave to the Priesthood the power of reproducing and carrying on through-out all time, the holy sacrifice of the Mass. 

Mary, the Mother of Jesus, must have received holy Communion daily from hands of one of the Apostles, especially from St. John, the beloved disciple, with whom she abode after the Ascension of Christ into heaven.

                                                 from The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary in                      pictures. 1919 artist Lafon

 Traditional Latin Mass Weds. May 28th

      St. Martha Church Enfield Ct at 7:00 P.M. (low Mass)

St. Martha Church Enfield Ct

                                214 Brainard Rd

 Traditional Latin Mass schedule at St. Martha this Memorial day weekend. Saturday May 24th at 9:00 A.M. High Mass in honor of Pope Leo XIV and Sunday May 25th at 11:00 A.M. High Mass

St. Martha Church 214 Brainard Rd. Enfield Ct.

 Traditional Latin Mass this Sat. 9:00 A.M. May 17th

St. Martha Church 214 Brainard Rd. Enfield Ct

This Sunday May 18th Traditional Latin Mass at 11:00 A.M. High Mass

Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus

 Traditional Latin Mass this Weds. 7:00 P.M. April 23rd

St. Martha Church 214 Brainard Rd. Enfield Ct

 

                    April 20th  at 10:30 A.M. Traditional Latin Mass
                                            St. Martha Catholic Church Enfield Ct 214 Brainard Rd. 
                                                         
                                 Easter Sunday

EASTER SUNDAY

[Easter is the Anglo- Saxon word for April, and was derived, as Venerable Bede tells us, (in his book De temporum ratione c. 13,) from Easter, a goddess of our pagan ancestors. Others derive Easter from Oest, Oost the Saxon for rising, or the east: and hence, Osteren, the Resurrection. Tr. from Butler’s Moveable Feasts.]

HAEC DIES QUAM FECIT DOMINUS; EXSULTEMUS ET LAETEMUR IN EA!

THIS IS THE DAY WHICH THE LORD HATH MADE; LET US BE GLAD AND REJOICE THEREIN!

 

MORNING

The night between Saturday and Sunday has well nigh run its course, and the day-dawn is appearing. The Mother of sorrows is waiting, in courageous hope and patience, for the blissful moment of her Jesus’ return. Magdalene and the other holy women have spent the night in watching, and are preparing to start for the sepulchre. In limbo, the Soul of our crucified Lord is about to give the glad word of departure to the myriads of the long-imprisoned holy souls, who cluster round Him in adoring love. Death is still holding his silent sway over the sepulchre, where rests the Body of Jesus. Since the day when he gained his first victim, Abel, he has swept off Countless generations; but never has he held in his grasp a prey so noble as this that now lies in the tomb near Calvary. Never has the terrible sentence of God, pronounced against our first parents, received such a fulfilment as this; but, never has death received such a defeat as the one that is now preparing. It is true, the power of God has, at times, brought back the dead to life: the son of the widow of Naim, and Lazarus, were reclaimed from the bondage of this tyrant death; but he regained his sway over them all. But his Victim of Calvary is to conquer him for ever, for this is He of whom it is written in the prophecy: ‘O death! I will be thy death!’ [Osee, xiii, 14]. Yet a few brief moments and the battle will be begun, and life shall vanquish death.
As divine justice could not allow the Body that was united to the Word to see corruption, and there wait, like ours must, for the Archangel’s word to ‘rise and come to judgement,’ so neither could it permit the dominion of death to be long over such a Victim. Jesus had said to the Jews: ‘A wicked generation seeketh a sign; and a sign shall not be given it, but that of Jonas the prophet.’ [St. Matth. xii, 39]. Three days in the tomb, - the afternoon and night of Friday, the whole of Saturday, and a few hours of the Sunday, - yes, these are enough: enough to satisfy divine justice; enough to certify the death of the Crucified, and make His triumph glorious; enough to complete the martyrdom of that most loving of mothers, the Queen of sorrows.
‘No man taketh away my life from Me: I lay it down of Myself: I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.’ [St. John, x, 18].  Thus spoke our Redeemer to the Jews before His Passion: now is the hour for the fulfilment of His words, and death shall feel their whole force. The day of light, Sunday, has begun, and its early dawn is struggling with the gloom. The Soul of Jesus immediately darts from the prison of limbo, followed by the whole multitude of the holy souls that are around Him. In the twinkling of an eye, it reaches and enters the sepulchre, and reunites itself with that Body, which, three days before, it had quitted amidst an agony of suffering. The sacred Body returns to life, raises itself up, and throws aside the winding-sheet, the spices, and the bands. The bruises have disappeared, the Blood has been brought back to the veins; and from these limbs that bad been torn by the scourging, from this head that had been mangled by the thorns, from these hands and feet that had been pierced with nails, there darts forth a dazzling light that fills the cave. The holy Angels had clustered round the stable and adored the Babe of Bethlehem; they are now around the sepulchre, adoring the conqueror of death. They take the shrouds, and reverently folding them up, place them on the slab, whereon the Body bad been laid by Joseph and Nicodemus.
But Jesus is not to tarry in the gloomy sepulchre. Quicker than a ray of light through a crystal, He passes through the stone that closes the entrance of the cave. Pilate had ordered his seal to be put upon this stone, and a guard of soldiers is there to see that no one touches it. Untouched it is, and unmoved; and yet Jesus is free! Thus, as the holy Fathers unanimously teach us, was it at His birth: He appeared to the gaze of Mary, without having offered the slightest violence to her maternal womb. The birth and the resurrection, the commencement and the end of Jesus’ mission, these two mysteries bear On them the seal of resemblance: in the first, it is a Virgin Mother; in the last, it is a sealed tomb giving forth its captive God.
And while this Jesus, this Man-God, thus breaks the sceptre of death, the stillness of the night is un disturbed. His and our victory has cost Him no effort. 0 death! where is now thy kingdom? Sin had made us thy slaves; thy victory was complete; and now, lo! thou thyself art defeated! Jesus, whom thou didst exultingly hold under thy law, has set
1 Apec. 1, 5. 2 I. Cor. xv, 26.
‘Ibid. 56.
Himself free; and we, after thou hast domineered over us for a time, we too shall be free from thy grasp. The tomb thou makest for us, will become to us the source of a new life, for He that now conquers thee is ‘the First-born among the dead ; ~1 and to-day is the Pasch, the Passover, the deliverance, for Jesus and for us, His brethren. He has led the way; we shall follow; and the day will come, when thou, the enemy, that destroyest all things, shalt thyself be destroyed by immortality.2 Thy defeat dates from this moment of Jesus’ resurrection, and, with the great Apostle, we say to thee: ‘O death! where is thy victory? O death! where is thy sting ? ‘3
From The Liturgical Year Volume 7    Abbot Dom Prosper Gueranger

 Find  The Triduum in the Traditional Roman Rite at these locations. All 3 Churches are Institute of Christ The King Sovereign Priests.

No Latin Mass at St. Martha until Easter Sunday at 10:30 A.M.

St. Patrick Oratory
50 Charles Street Waterbury, CT 06708. Church Address: 48 Charles Street Waterbury, CT 06708. Phone: (203) 756-8837. Email: stpatrick@icksp.org ·
Thursday April 17th Maundy Thursday 6:00 P.M. High Mass of The Lord's Supper
Good Friday April 18th 12pm Stations of The Cross 1PM High Mass of The Presanctified
Holy Saturday April 19th 10AM Confessions then 12pm Easter Vigil High Mass

 

Saints Cyril and Methodius Oratory
79 Church Street Bridgeport, CT 06608. Phone: (203) 333-7003. Email: stscyrilandmethodius@institute-christ-king.org
Thursday April 17th Maundy Thursday 12 Noon High Mass. Followed by Procession of The Blessed Sacrament.
Good Friday April 18th 12 noon Mass of the presanctified.
Holy Saturday April 19th 3:00 P.M. Easter Vigil

 

St. Paul Oratory
1060 Main St. Warren, Ma 01083 Phone: (413) 436-8034
Holy Thursday April 17th High Mass at 6:00 P.M.
Good Friday April 18th 3:00 P.M. Mass of the presanctified
Holy Saturday April 19th 4:00 P.M. Easter Vigil

 

Easter Sunday TLM at St. Martha at 10:30 A.M.

              

 

Traditional Latin Mass for Palm Sunday April 13th at 11:00 A.M. With Procession                                               St. Martha Church 214 Brainard Rd. Enfield Ct

PALM SUNDAY

Hodie si vocem Domini audieritis, nolite obdurare corda vestra.

To-day, if ye shall hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.

Early in the morning of this day, Jesus sets out for Jerusalem, leaving Mary His Mother, and the two sisters Martha and Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus, at Bethania. The Mother of sorrows trembles at seeing her Son thus expose Himself to danger, for His enemies are bent upon His destruction; but it is not death, it is triumph, that Jesus is to receive to-day in Jerusalem. The Messias, before being nailed to the cross, is to be proclaimed King by the people of the great city; the little children are to make her streets echo with their Hosannas to the Son of David; and this in presence of the soldiers of Rome’s emperor, and of the high priests and Pharisees: the first standing under the banner of their eagles; the second, dumb with rage.
The prophet Zachary had foretold this triumph which the Son of Man was to receive a few days before His Passion, and which had been prepared for Him from all eternity. ‘Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion! Shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold thy King will come to thee; the Just and the Saviour. He is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.’ [Zach. ix. 9]. Jesus, knowing that the hour has come for the fulfilment of this prophecy, singles out two from the rest of His disciples, and bids them lead to Him an ass and her colt, which they would find not far off. He has reached Beth phage, on Mount Olivet. The two disciples lose no time in executing the order given them by their divine Master; and the ass and the colt are soon brought to the place where He stands.
The holy fathers have explained to us the mystery of these two animals. The ass represents the Jewish people, which had been long under the yoke of the Law; the colt, upon which, as the evangelist says, no man yet hath sat [St. Mark xi. 2], is a figure of the Gentile world, which no one had ever yet brought into subjection. The future of these two peoples is to be decided a few days hence: the Jews will be rejected, for having refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Messias; the Gentiles will take their place, to be adopted as God’s people, and become docile and faithful.
From The Liturgical Year Volume 6    Abbot Dom Prosper Gueranger

 

 Traditional Latin Masses this weekend at St. Martha Church 214 Brainard Rd.

1st Friday April 4th at 7:00 P.M. Low Mass

1st Saturday April 5th at 9:00 A.M. Low Mass

Sunday April 6th Passion Sunday at 11:00 A.M. High Mass

PASSION SUNDAY

Hodie, si vocem Domini audieritis, nolite obdurare corda vestra.

To-day if you shall hear the voice of the Lord, harden not  your hearts.

The holy Church begins her night Office of this Sunday with these impressive words of the royal prophet. Formerly, the faithful considered it their duty to assist at the night Office, at least on Sundays and feasts; they would have grieved to lose the grand teachings given by the liturgy. Such fervor has long since died out; the assiduity at the Offices of the Church, which was the joy of our Catholic forefathers, has now become a thing of the past; and even in countries which have not apostatized from the faith, the clergy have ceased to celebrate publicly Offices at which no one assisted. Excepting in cathedral churches and in monasteries, the grand harmonious system of the divine praise has been abandoned, and the marvelous power of the liturgy has no longer its full influence upon the faithful.
This is our reason for drawing the attention of our readers to certain beauties of the Divine Office, which would otherwise be totally ignored. Thus, what can be more impressive than this solemn Invitatory of to-day’s Matins, which the Church takes from one of the psalms, and which she repeats on every feria between this and Maundy Thursday? She says; To-day, if ye will hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts! The sweet voice of your suffering Jesus now speaks to you, poor sinners! be not your own enemies by indifference and hardness of heart. The Son of God is about to give you the last and greatest proof of the love that brought Him down from heaven; His death is nigh at hand: men are preparing the wood for the immolation of the new Isaac: enter into yourselves, and let not your hearts, after being touched with grace, return to their former obduracy; for nothing could be more dangerous. The great anniversaries we are to celebrate have a renovating power for those souls that faithfully correspond with the grace which is offered them; but they increase insensibility in those who let them pass without working their conversion. To-day, therefore, if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts!
From The Liturgical Year Volume 6    Abbot Dom Prosper Gueranger

Followed by Blessing of Sacramentals.

 Traditional Latin Mass 4th Sunday in Lent March 30th at 11:00 A.M. (High Mass) St. Martha Church 214 Brainard Rd. Enfield Ct. Followed by Monthly TLM Potluck social.

Introit

Rejoice, O Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her: rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow: that you may exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation. (Psalm) I rejoiced at the things that were said to me; we shall go into the house of the Lord. Glory be to the Father. Rejoice...

The Prayer To The Most Holy Trinity

Receive, O Holy Trinity, this offering which we make to Thee, in remembrance of the Passion,Resurrection, and Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and in honor of Blessed Mary ever Virgin, and of blessed John the Baptist, of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, of these and all the Saints; that it may avail to their honor and our salvation: and may they intercede for us in Heaven whose memory we celebrate on Earth. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen

Postcommunion

We are constantly filled with Thy holy mysteries, O merciful God; grant, we beseech Thee, that we may celebrate them with sincere homage and always receive them with steady faith. Through our Lord. 

St. Joseph Pray for us. Amen

 

Hail Mary Full of Grace

 

 Traditional Latin Mass Tuesday March 25th The Annunciation of The Blessed Virgin Mary 7:00 P.M. St. Martha Church 214 Brainard Rd. Enfield Ct

This is the great Festival of the Incarnation, commemorating the announcement by the Archangel Gabriel to our Lady that the Divine Son of God, the Word, would take human nature upon Him in her virginal womb. Its date is determined by that of Christmas Day, and as the day that which marked the beginning of the Christian dispensation it was for many centuries regarded as the first day of the civil year

The Angelus

V/. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary,
R/. And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary…

V/. Behold the handmaid of the Lord,
R/. Be it done unto me according to your Word.
Hail Mary…

V/. And the Word was made flesh,
R/. And dwelt among us.
Hail Mary…

V/. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God,
R/. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray. Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts: that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an Angel, may by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Gradual

Grace is poured in thy lips; therefore hath God blessed thee for ever. Because of truth and meekness, and justice; and thy right hand shall conduct thee wonderfully.

Behold The Lamb of God, behold Him Who taketh away the sins of the world.

 

Postcommunion for 3rd Sunday in Lent

IN Thy mercy, we beseech Thee, O Lord, do Thou from all guilt and peril absolve us, whom Thou grantest to be sharers in so great a mystery. Through our Lord.

 

Traditional Latin Mass 3rd Sunday in Lent
St Martha Catholic Church 214 Brainard Rd. Enfield Ct        11:00 A.M. High Mass
                                                              

From The Liturgical Year Volume 5 pgs 247---253  Abbot Dom Prosper Gueranger

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

The holy Church gave us, as the subject of our meditation for the first Sunday of Lent, the Temptation which our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to suffer in the Desert. Her object was to enlighten us with regard to our own temptations, and teach us how to conquer them. To-day, she wishes to complete her instruction on the power and stratagems of our invisible enemies; and for this she reads to us a passage from the Gospel of St. Luke. During Lent, the Christian ought to repair the past, and provide for the future; but he can neither understand how it was he fell, nor defend himself against a relapse, unless he have correct ideas as to the nature of the dangers which have hitherto proved fatal, and are again threatening him. Hence, the ancient Liturgists would have us consider it as a proof of the maternal watchfulness of the Church, that she should have again proposed such a subject to us. As we shall find, it is the basis of all to-day’s instructions.
Assuredly, we should be the blindest and most unhappy of men, if, - surrounded as we are by enemies, who unceasingly seek to destroy us, and are so superior to us both in power and knowledge, - we were seldom or never to think of the existence of these wicked spirits. And yet, such is really the case with innumerable Christians now-a-days; for, truths are diminished from among the children of men [Ps. xi. 2].
So common, indeed, is this heedlessness and forgetfulness of truth, which the Holy Scriptures put before us in almost every page, that it is no rare thing to meet with persons who ridicule the idea of Devils being permitted to be on this earth of ours! They call it a prejudice, a popular superstition, of the Middle-Ages! Of course they deny that it is a dogma of Faith. When we read the History of the Church or the Lives of the Saints, they have their own way of explaining whatever is there related on this subject. To hear them talk, one would suppose that they look upon Satan as a mere abstract idea, to be taken as the personification of evil.
When they would account for the origin of their own or others’ sins, they explain all by the evil inclination of man’s heart, and by the bad use we make of our free-will. They never think of what we are taught by Christian doctrine; namely, that we are also instigated to sin by a wicked being, whose power is as great as is the hatred he bears us. And yet, they know, they believe, with a firm faith, that Satan conversed with our First Parents, and persuaded them to commit sin, and showed himself to them under the form of a serpent. They believe, that this same Satan dared to tempt the Incarnate Son of God, and that he carried him through the air, and set him first upon a pinnacle of the Temple, and then upon a very high mountain. Again; they read in the Gospel, and they believe, that one of the Possessed, who were delivered by our Saviour, was tormented by a whole legion of devils, who, upon being driven out of the man, went, by Jesus’ permission, into a herd of swine, and the whole herd ran violently into the sea of Genesareth, and perished in the waters. These, and many other such like facts, are believed, by the persons of whom we speak, with all the earnestness of faith; yet, notwithstanding, they treat as a figure of speech, or a fiction, all they hear or read about the existence, the actions, or the craft of these wicked spirits. Are such people Christians, or have they lost their senses? One would scarcely have expected that this species of incredulity could have found its way into an age like this, when sacrilegious consultations of the devil have been, we might almost say, - fashionable. Means, which were used in the days of paganism, have been resorted to for such consultations; and they who employed them seemed to forget, or ignore, that they were committing what God in the Old Law, punished with death, and which, for many centuries, was considered by all Christian nations as a capital crime.
But if there be one Season of the Year more than another in which the Faithful ought to reflect upon what is taught us both by faith and experience, as to the existence and workings of the wicked spirits, - it is undoubtedly this of Lent, when it is our duty to consider what have been the causes of our last sins, what are the spiritual dangers we have to fear for the future, and what means we should have recourse to for preventing a relapse. Let us, then, hearken to the Holy Gospel. Firstly, we are told, that the devil had possessed a man, and that the effect produced by this possession was dumbness. Our Saviour casts out the devil, and, immediately, the dumb man spoke. So that, the being possessed by the devil is not only a fact which testifies to God’s impenetrable justice; it is one which may produce physical effects upon them that are thus tried or punished. The casting out the devil restores the use of speech to him that had been possessed. We say nothing about the obstinate malice of Jesus’ enemies, who would have it, that his power over the devils, came from his being in league with the prince of devils:- all we would now do is, to show that the wicked spirits are sometimes permitted to have power over the body, and to refute, by this passage from the Gospel, the rationalismof certain Christians. Let these learn, then, that the power of our spiritual enemies is an awful reality; and let them take heed not to lay themselves  open to their worst attacks, by persisting in the disdainful haughtiness of their Reason.
Ever since the promulgation of the Gospel, the power of Satan over the human body has been restricted by the virtue of the Cross, at least in Christian countries; but this power resumes its sway as often as faith and the practice of Christian piety lose their influence. And here we have the origin of all those diabolical practices, which, under certain scientific names, are attempted first in secret, and then are countenanced by being assisted at by well-meaning Christians. Were it not that God and his Church intervene, such practices as these would subvert society. Christians! remember baptismal vow! you have renounced Satan: take care, then, that by a culpable ignorance you are not dragged into apostacy. It is not a phantom that you renounced at the Font; he is a real and formidable being, who, as our Lord tells us, was a murderer from the beginning [St. John, viii. 44].
But, if we ought to dread the power he may be permitted to have over our bodies; if we ought to shun all intercourse with him, and take no share in practices over which he presides, and which are the worship he would have men give him; - we ought, also, to fear the influence he is ever striving to exercise over our souls. See, what God’s grace has had to do in order to drive him from our soul! During this holy season, the Church is putting within your reach those grand means of victory, - Fasting, Prayer, and Almsdeeds. Tue sweets of peace will soon be yours, and, once more, you will become God’s temple, for both soul and body will have regained their purity. But be not deceived; your enemy is not slain. He is irritated; penance has driven him from you; but he has sworn to return. Therefore, fear a relapse into mortal sin; and in order to nourish within you this wholesome fear, meditate upon the concluding part of our Gospel.

Our Saviour tells its, that when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through places without water. There he writhes under his humiliation; it has added to the tortures of the hell he carries everywhere with him and to which he fain would give some alleviation, by destroying souls that have been redeemed by Christ. We read in the Old Testament that, sometimes, when the devils have been conquered, they have been forced to flee into some far-off wilderness: for example. the holy Archangel Raphael took the devil, that had killed Sara’s husbands, and bound him in the desert of Upper Egypt [Tob. viii. 3]. But the enemy of mankind never despairs of regaining his prey. His hatred is as active now, as it was at the very beginning of the world, and he says: I will return into my house, whence I came out. Nor will he come alone. He is determined to conquer; and therefore he will, if he think it needed, take with him seven other spirits, even more wicked than himself. What a terrible assault is this that is being prepared for the poor soul, unless she be on the watch, and unless the peace, which  God has granted her, be one that is well armed for war! Alas! with many souls the very contrary is the case and our Saviour describes the situation in which the devils finds them on his return: they are swept and garnished, and that is all! No precautions, no defence, no arms. One would suppose that they were waiting to give the enemy admission. Then Satan, to make his re-possession sure, comes with a seven-fold force. The attack is made;- but, there is no resistance, and straightways the wicked spirits entering in, dwell there; so that, the last state becometh worse than the first; for before, there was but one enemy, - and now there are many.
In order that we may understand the full force of the warning conveyed to us by the Church in this Gospel, we must keep before us the great reality, that this is the acceptable time. In every part of the world, there are conversions being wrought; millions are being reconciled with God; divine Mercy is lavish of pardon to all that seek it. But, will all persevere? They that are now being delivered from the power of Satan, - will they all be free from his yoke, when next year’s Lent comes round? A sad experience tells the Church, that she may not hope so grand a result. Many will return to their sins, and that too before many weeks are over. And if the Justice of God overtake them in that state - what an awful thing it is to say it, yet it is true, - some, perhaps many, of these sinners will be eternally lost! Let us, then, be on our guard against a relapse; and in order that we may ensure our Perseverance, without which it would have been to little purpose to have been for a few days in God’s grace, - let us watch, and pray; let us keep ourselves under arms; let us ever remember that our whole life is to be a warfare. Our soldier-like attitude will disconcert the enemy, and he will try to gain victory elsewhere.
Tue Third Sunday of Lent is called Oculi, from the first word of the Introit. In the primitive Church, it was called Scrutiny-Sunday, because it was on this day that they began to examine the Catechumens, who were to he admitted to Baptism on Easter night. All the Faithful were invited to assemble in the Church, in order that they might bear testimony to the good life and morals of the candidates. At Rome, these examinations, which where called the Scrutinies, were made on seven different occasions, on account of the great number of the aspirants to Baptism; but the principal Scrutiny was that held on the Wednesday of the Fourth Week We will speak of it later on.
The Roman Sacramentary of St. Gelasius gives us the form, in which the Faithful were convoked to these assemblies. It is as follows. “Dearly beloved Brethren: you know that the day of Scrutiny, when our elect are to receive the holy instruction, is at hand. We invite you, therefore, to be zealous and assemble on N., (here, the day was mentioned,) at the hour of Sext; that so we may be able, by the divine aid, to achieve without error, the heavenly mystery, whereby is opened the gate of the kingdom of heaven, and the devil is excluded with all his pomps.” The invitation was repeated, if needed, on each of the following Sundays. The Scrutiny of this Sunday ended in the admission of a certain number of candidates: their names were written down, and put on the Diptychs of the Altar, that they might be mentioned in the Canon of the Mass. The same also was done with the names of their Sponsors.
The Station was, and still is, in the Basilica of Saint Laurence outside the walls. The name of this, the most celebrated of the Martyrs of Rome, would remind the Catechumens, that the Faith they were about to profess, would require them to be ready for many sacrifices,