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Lenten Calendar & Planner 2023

by Filed Under: Lenten Calendar, Liturgical Calendar, Prints, Septuagesima Leave a Comment

Ash Wednesday is February 22 this year. Septuagesima in 2022 starts on Sunday, February 5. Septuagesima is the season that preludes to the penitential mortifications of Lent and is a time to prepare.

The Church, therefore, has instituted a preparation for the holy time of Lent. She gives us the three weeks of Septuagesima, during which she withdraws us, as much as may be, from the noisy distractions of the world, in order that our hearts may be the more readily impressed by the solemn warning she is to give us, at the commencement of Lent, by marking our foreheads with ashes.

The Liturgical Year by Dom Guéranger, Septuagesima

This Lenten Calendar was created several years ago and my children insist that we have it every Lent. It’s not grand by any means but it goes to show that a simple visual can have a great impact on all ages. I encourage you to find what your family can be fond of as you set to grow closer to Christ in Lent.

Pictured: Lenten calendar from a previous year

Please do not think that your Lenten plans must be extravagant or lengthy. There are many fruits to be found in a simple rhythm during all seasons, especially in the most penitential season of the year.

The institution of Lent is thus brought before us with everything that can impress the mind with its solemn character and with its power to appease God and purify our souls. Look beyond the little world that surrounds us and see how the entire Christian universe is, at this very time, offering forty days’ penance as a sacrifice of propitiation to the offended Majesty of God.

Abbot Gueranger, O.S.B.’s The Liturgical Year.

As always, you are invited to use this Lenten Calendar for your personal use.

This Lenten Calendar is set for a min offering. You may offer more if you wish but it is not required or expected. If you desire to print this calendar but are unable to pay, do not hesitate to reach out.

Includes 4 variations of the 2023 Lenten Calendar!
  • You may download and print the calendar for your personal use.
  • You may also link to this post but please do not link directly to the file download.
  • Email me at JOYfilledfamily{at}gmail{dot}com if you need my assistance.  
  • This year’s calendar prints best as 11×17 or 24×36.
    • Staples offers inexpensive printing options. The colored prints can be printed on 65-63 lb 11×17 cardstock for less than $2. The BW Calendar can be printed as a 24×36 “Blue Print” ($3.80) or colored for under $10– It’s thin paper but large and easy to read.

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Includes 4 variations of the 2023 & several Lenten Planning Sheets!

O most benign Jesus! who didst so desire to suffer for us, grant, that we may willingly suffer for love of Thee; that we may hate and flee from the detestable pleasures of the world and the flesh, and practice penance and mortification, that by so doing we may merit to be released from our spiritual blindness to love Thee more and more ardently, and finally possess Thee forever.

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2023 Lenten Calendar Guide:

  • This calendar follows the Liturgical Calendar of the Traditional Roman Rite (with rubrics from St. Pope Pius X)
  • Saints are listed on Feria Days so we can invoke their intercession on their patronal feast day.
  • Saints listed with “H” are from the Historical Calendar
  • Each saint featured by a picture is identified by the name immediately above the image
  • This calendar is the work of a lay Catholic for one’s personal observance of Lent and private devotions

Lenten Planner

2023 Planner:

  • Liturgical Planner | Lent Feastday Planner – printed and used to help you plan for holy days & feastdays in the Lenten, Easter, Pentecost, and Time after Pentecost, season – 6 pgs
  • Lent Examination for the duration of Advent 2023 – 1 pg
  • Lent Plan to document your resolutions – 2 pgs
  • Lent Calendar – one dated and one blank to use as needed – 2 pgs
  • Lent Weekly Log to track resolutions – 8 pgs
  • Lent Calendar 2023 – list form for easy reference. 2 pgs

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Below are FREE Lenten Resources

Lenten Resources for Children:

Lenten Spiritual Reading & Sermons:

Septuagesima Sunday

by Filed Under: Septuagesima, Septuagesima Sunday Leave a Comment

Not more than a week has past since Christmas ended (2.2) and now Holy Mother Church moves us into Septuagesima. This is the time for us to prepare for Lent — there is no idleness.

Holy Mother Church helps to bring us to the necessary sorrow. She has the flowers removed from the altar, the somber violet vestments are on the priest’s shoulders – the vestments of death, a priest is dressed like this when he is about to be carried forth to his grave. The Gloria and the Alleluia are gone from the Church’s lips, and the Alleluia won’t be heard again until it bursts from her heart on Holy Saturday morning.

We bury the Alleluia at our home as well, to unite with the Church and help to bring our children deeper into the season — fight against self while strengthening our hope in God.

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“The kingdom of heaven is compared to the proprietor who hires laborers to work in his vineyard.” St. Gregory the Great writes that the primordial Eden was a figure foreshadowing the present vineyard: the Kingdom of God, the Church:

Who can be more justly represented as head of a household than our Creator who governs all creatures by His Providence and who, just as a master has servants in his house, has his elect in this world from the just Abel to the last of His chosen, destined to be born at the very end of time?

The vineyard which He owns is His Church, while the laborers in this vineyard are all those who with a true faith have set themselves, and urged others, to the task of doing good.

By those who came at the first, as well as at the third, sixth and ninth hours, are meant the ancient people of the Hebrews, who from the beginning of the world, striving in the person of their saints to serve God with a right faith ceased not, as it were, to work in the cultivation of the vineyard.

But at the eleventh hour, the Gentiles are called and to them are spoken the words, “Why stand ye here all the day idle?” Thus all are called to work in the Lord’s vineyard, by sanctifying themselves and their neighbor in glorifying God, since sanctification consists in searching for our supreme happiness in Him alone.

In response to the call of the Master, who comes to seek us even in the depths wherein we are plunged through our first parents’ sin (Tract), let us go and work in the Lord’s vineyard; let us enter the arena and take up with courage the struggle which will intensify during Lent.

#DomGasparLefebvre 1945 #standrewmissal

Embrace Tradition in Lent (and always)

by Filed Under: Lent, Pre-Lent, Septuagesima Leave a Comment

Some of the most transformative Lents for my family’s spiritual lives have been the times when we made a move towards the traditions of the Church.  

They have not been easy by any means.  Most of the time they have been met with attacks from the enemy.  We do not question that our Heavenly Father allowed them to try us and refine us.

Lent ‘07 was one of those years for us.  My husband and I believe it was a pivotal point in our lives — filled with immense grace, stripping, heavy crosses, true joy, and refinement that led us closer to Our Lord. 

So, when I’m asked, “where is the best place to start” or what I suggest for a family Lenten plan, I most always refer back to that Lent.  It included all that has been traditionally prescribed for Lent – penance, prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and a separation form the world.

The following is a list of what I suggest for anyone desiring to make a fervent Lent.  It’s the basis of what we followed then/now.  I invite you to use it and join me and others in #comingtotradition 

Pick one item in each category or just pick one category.  Do do it right-ordered — with prayer & discernment, approval of your husband, and with spiritual direction from a solid traditional priest  (especially if it could be considered outside of the norm or extreme).  

  1. Grow in Devotion to Our Blessed Mother 
  2. Return to the traditions of the Church
  3. Offer mortification as reparation for your offenses against modesty or any other sin
  4. Create, refine, or more vigorously live out your Rule of Life 

This list is general so it can be used for all.  For example, the second category could be to attend the TLM or pray the DO if you already attend the TLM, or observe traditional requirements of fasting. One must take into account their current spiritual lives (personal and familial), physical state, duties, and the like.  

I have expanded on all of the above recently and over the years — on my site, posts, or stories.  I’m happy to answer any questions or expand further.  


You can also check out #comingtotradition on Instragram to see how other mamas have journeyed to the Tridentine Mass.  We invite you to share your own journey towards the traditions of the Church or join us in any way.  ALL FOR!

I’ll  leave you with the words of Dom Prosper Gueranger as you continue to discern your Lenten plan or go further enter into your Lenten plan.  

“The institution of Lent is thus brought before us with everything that can impress the mind with its solemn character and with its power to appease God and purify our souls. Look beyond the little world that surrounds us and see how the entire Christian universe is, at this very time, offering forty days’ penance as a sacrifice of propitiation to the offended Majesty of God. Let us hope that, as in the case of the Ninivites, He will mercifully accept this year’s offering of our atonement and pardon us our sins.”


Season of Septuagesima

by Filed Under: Pre-Lent, Septuagesima Leave a Comment

Dom Guéranger offers the following instruction on Septuagesima.

SATURDAY BEFORE SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY

The calendar of the liturgical year will soon bring us to the commemoration of the Passion and Resurrection of our Redeemer; we are but nine weeks from these great solemnities. It is time for the Christian to be preparing his soul for a fresh visit from his Saviour; a visit even more sacred and more important than that He so mercifully paid us at His Birth.

Our holy mother the Church knows how necessary it is for her to rouse our hearts from their lethargy, and give them an active tendency towards the things of God…She takes the song of heaven away from us: she forbids our further uttering that Alleluia, which is so dear to us, as giving us a fellowship with the choirs of angels, who are for ever repeating it. 

How is it that we poor mortals, sinners, and exiles on earth, have dared to become so familiar with this hymn of a better land?

It is true, our Emmanuel, who established peace between God and men, brought it us from heaven on the glad night of His Birth; and we have had the courage to repeat it after the angels, and shall chant it with renewed enthusiasm when we reach our Easter.

But to sing the Alleluia worthily, we must have our hearts set on the country whence it came. It is not a mere word, nor a profane unmeaning melody; it is the song that recalls the land we are banished from, it is the sweet sigh of the soul longing to be at home.

The word Alleluia signifies praise God: but it says much more than this, and says it as no other word or words could. The Church is not going to interrupt her giving praise to God during these nine weeks. She will replace this heaven-lent word by a formula also expressive of praise: 

Laus tibi, Domine, Rex æternæ gloriæ! 

Praise be to Thee, O Lord, King of eternal glory! 

But this is the language of earth; whereas Alleluia was sent us from heaven. ‘…the word Alleluia has not been translated; it has been left in its original Hebrew, as a stranger to tell us that there is a joy in his native land, which could not dwell in ours: he has come among us to signify, rather than to express that joy.’

During this season of Septuagesima, we have to gain a clear knowledge of the miseries of our banishment, under pain of being left for ever in this tyrant Babylon. It was, therefore, necessary that we should be put on our guard against the allurements of our place of exile. It is with this view that the Church, taking pity on our blindness and our dangers, gives us this solemn warning. 

By taking from us our Alleluia, she virtually tells us that our lips must first be cleansed, before they again be permitted to utter this word of angels and saints; and that our hearts, defiled as they are by sin and attachment to earthly things, must be purified by repentance. 

She is going to put before our eyes the sad spectacle of the fall of our first parents, that dire event whence came all our woes, and our need of Redemption. This tender mother weeps over us, and would have us weep with her.

Let us, then, comply with the law she thus imposes upon us. If spiritual joy is thus taken away from us, what are we to think of the frivolous amusements of the world? 

And if vanities and follies are insults to the spirit of Septuagesima, would not sin be an intolerable outrage on that same spirit? We have been too long the slaves of this tyrant. 

Our Saviour is soon to appear, bearing His cross; and His sacrifice is to restore fallen man to all his rights. Surely, we can never allow that precious Blood to fall uselessly on our souls, as the morning dew that rains on the parched sands of a desert! 

Let us with humble hearts confess that we are sinners, and, like the publican of the Gospel, who dared not so much as to raise up his eyes, let us acknowledge that it is only right that we should be forbidden, at least for a few weeks, those divine songs of joy, with which our guilty lips had become too familiar; and that we should interrupt those sentiments of presumptuous confidence which prevented our hearts from having the holy fear of God.

That indifference for the liturgy of the Church, which is the strongest indication of a weak faith, and which now reigns so universally in the world, is the reason why so many, even practical Catholics, can witness this yearly suspension of the Alleluia, without profiting by the lesson it conveys. A passing remark, or a chance thought, is the most they give to it, for they care for no other devotions but such as are private; the spirit of the Church, in her various seasons, is quite beneath their notice. If these lines should meet their eye, we would beg of them to reflect for a moment that the Church is their mother; that her authority is the highest on earth; that her wisdom enables her to know what is best for her children. Why, then, keep aloof from her spirit, as though there were some other to be found, that could better lead them to their God? Why be indifferent in this present instance? Why deem of no interest to piety this suspension of the Alleluia, which she, the Church, considers as one of the principal and most solemn incidents in her liturgical year? Perhaps we shall be doing them a service, by showing them how keenly this interruption of the word of heavenly joy was felt by the Christians of those ages, when faith was the grand ruling principle, not only with society at large, but with each individual.

The farewell to Alleluia, in the Middle Ages, varied in the different Churches. Here, it was an affectionate enthusiasm, speaking the beauty of the celestial word; there, it was a heart-felt regret at the departure of the much-loved companion of all their prayers.

SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY

The holy Church calls us together to-day in order that we may hear from her lips the sad history of the fall of our first parents. This awful event implies the Passion and cruel Death of the Son of God made Man, who has mercifully taken upon Himself to expiate this and every subsequent sin committed by Adam and us his children. It is of the utmost importance that we should understand the greatness of the remedy; we must, therefore, consider the grievousness of the wound inflicted. For this purpose, we will spend the present week in meditating on the nature and consequences of the sin of our first parents.

Formerly, the Church used to read in her Matins of to-day that passage of the Book of Genesis, where Moses relates to all future generations, but in words of most impressive and sublime simplicity, how the first sin was brought into the world. In the present form of the liturgy, the reading of this history of the fall is deferred till Wednesday, and the preceding days give us the account of the six days of creation. We will anticipate the great instruction, and begin it at once, inasmuch as it forms the basis of the whole week’s teaching.

Septuagesima Sunday {Bury the Alleluia}

by Filed Under: Fr. Leonard Goffine, Lent, Lent 2018, Septuagesima, Septuagesima Sunday Leave a Comment

Lent is coming! — **UPDATED with new printables 2.7.22**

The Season of Septuagesima comprises the three weeks immediately preceding Lent. It forms one of the principal divisions of the Liturgical Year, and is itself divided into three parts, each part corresponding to a week: the first is called Septuagesima; the second, Sexagesima; the third, Quinquagesima.

All three are named from their numerical reference to Lent, which, in the language of the Church, is called Quadragesima, – that is, Forty, – because the great Feast of Easter is prepared for by tile holy exercises of Forty Days. The words Quinquagesima, Sexagesima, and Septuagesima, tell us of the same great Solemnity as looming in the distance, and as being the great object towards which the Church would have us now begin to turn all our thoughts, and desires, and devotion.

Now, the Feast of Easter must be prepared for by a forty-days’ recollectedness and penance. Those forty-days are one of the principal Seasons of the Liturgical Year, and one of the most powerful means employed by the Church for exciting in the hearts of her children the spirit of their Christian vocation. It is of the utmost importance, that such a Season of penance should produce its work in our souls, – the renovation of the whole spiritual life. The Church, therefore, has instituted a preparation for the holy time of Lent. She gives us the three weeks of Septuagesima, during which she withdraws us, as much as may be, from the noisy distractions of the world, in order that our hearts may be the more readily impressed by the solemn warning she is to give us, at the commencement of Lent, by marking our foreheads with ashes. ~The Liturgical Year by Dom Guéranger, Septuagesima

 

Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine’s
The Church’s Year

SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY

Why is this Sunday called “Septuagesima”?

Because in accordance with the words of the First Council of Orleans, some pious Christian congregations in the earliest ages of the Church, especially the clergy, began to fast seventy days before Easter, on this Sunday, which was therefore called Septuagesima” – the seventieth day. The same is the case with the Sundays following, which are called Sexagesima, Quinquagesima , Quadragesima, because some Christians commenced to fast sixty days, others fifty, others forty days before Easter, until finally, to make it properly uniform, Popes Gregory and Gelasius arranged that all Christians should fast forty days before Easter, commencing with Ash Wednesday.

Why, from this day until Easter, does the Church omit in her service all joyful canticles, alleluias, and the Gloria in excelsis etc?

Gradually to prepare the minds of the faithful for the serious time of penance and sorrow; to remind the sinner of the grievousness of his errors, and to exhort him to penance. So the priest appears at the altar in violet, the color of penance, and the front of the altar is covered with a violet curtain. To arouse our sorrow for our sins, and show the need of repentance, the Church in the name of all mankind at the Introit cries with David: The groans of death surrounded me, the sorrows of hell encompassed me: and in my affliction I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice from his holy temple. (Ps. XVII, 5-7.) I will love thee, O Lord, my strength; the Lord is my firmament, and my refuge, and my deliverer. (Fs. XVII. 2-3.) Glory be to the Father, etc.

COLLECT O Lord, we beseech Thee graciously hear the prayers of Thy people; that we who are justly afflicted for our sins may, for the glory of Thy name, mercifully be delivered. Through our Lord, Jesus Christ etc.

EPISTLE (I. Cor. IX. 24-27., to X. 1-5.) Brethren, know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty; I so fight, not as one beating the air; but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection; lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea: and all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink (and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ); but with the most of them God was not well pleased.

EXPLANATION Having exhorted us to penance in the Introit of the Mass, the Church desires to indicate to us, by reading this epistle, the effort we should make to reach the kingdom of heaven by the narrow path (Matt. VII. 13.) of penance and mortification. This St. Paul illustrates by three different examples. By the example of those who in a race run to one point, or in a prize-fight practice and prepare themselves for the victor’s reward by the strongest exercise, and by the strictest abstinence from everything that might weaken the physical powers. If to win a laurel-crown that passes away, these will subject themselves to the severest trials and deprivations, how much more should we, for the sake of the heavenly crown of eternal happiness, abstain from those improper desires, by which the soul is weakened, and practice those holy virtues, such as prayer, love of God and our neighbor, patience, to which the crown is promised! Next, by his own example, bringing himself before them as one running a race, and fighting for an eternal crown, but not as one running blindly not knowing whither, or fighting as one who strikes not his antagonist, but the air; on the contrary, with his eyes firmly fixed on the eternal crown, certain to be his who lives by the precepts of the gospel, who chastises his spirit and his body as a valiant champion, with a strong hand, that is, by severest mortification, by fasting and prayer. If St. Paul, notwithstanding the extraordinary graces which he received, thought it necessary to chastise his body that he might not be cast away, how does the sinner expect to be saved, living an effeminate and luxurious life without penance and mortification? St. Paul’s third example is that of the Jews who all perished on their journey to the Promised Land, even though God had granted them so many graces; He shielded them from their enemies by a cloud which served as a light to them at night, and a cooling shade by day; He divided the waters of the sea, thus preparing for them a dry passage; He caused manna to fall from heaven to be their food, and water to gush from the rock for their drink. These temporal benefits which God bestowed upon the Jews in the wilderness had a spiritual meaning; the cloud and the sea was a figure of baptism which enlightens the soul, tames the concupiscence of the flesh, and purifies from sin; the manna was a type of the most holy Sacrament of the Altar, the soul’s true bread from heaven; the water from the rock, the blood flowing from Christ’s wound in the side; and yet with all these temporal benefits which God bestowed upon them, and with all the spiritual graces they were to receive by faith from the coming Redeemer, of the six hundred thousand men who left Egypt only two, Joshua and Caleb, entered the Promised Land. Why? Because they were fickle, murmured so, often against God, and desired the pleasures of the flesh. How much, then, have we need to fear lest we be excluded from the true, happy land, Heaven, if we do not continuously struggle for it, by penance and mortification!

ASPIRATION Assist me, O Jesus, with Thy grace that, following St. Paul’s example, I may be anxious, by the constant pious practice of virtue and prayer, to arrive at perfection and to enter heaven.

G0SPEL (Matt. XX. 1-6.) At that time, Jesus spoke to his disciples this parable: The kingdom of heaven is like to a householder, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And having agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the

market place idle, and he said to them: Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just. And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in like manner. But about the eleventh hour, he went out, and found others standing; and he saith to them: Why stand you here all the day idle? They say to him: Because no man hath hired us. He saith to them: Go you also into my vineyard. And when evening was come, the Lord of the vineyard saith to his steward: Call the laborers, and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first. When therefore they were come that came about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny, But when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more; and they also received every man a penny. And receiving it, they murmured against the master of the house, saying: These last have worked but one hour and thou hart made them equal to us that have borne the burden of the day and the heats. But he answering said to one of them: Friend, I do thee no wrong; didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine, and go thy way; I will also give to this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? Is thy eye evil, because I am good? So shall the last be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen.

In this parable, what is to be understood by the householder, the vineyard, laborers, and the penny?

The householder represents God, who in different ages of the world, in the days of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and finally, in the days of Christ and the apostles, has sought to call men as workmen into His vineyard, the true Church, that they might labor there industriously, and receive the penny of eternal glory.

How and when does God call people?

By inward inspiration, by preachers, confessors, spiritual books, and conversations, etc., in flourishing youth and in advanced age, which periods of life may be understood by the different hours of the day.

What is meant by working in the vineyard?

It means laboring, fighting, suffering for God and His honor, for our own and the salvation of others. As in a vineyard we spade, dig, root out weeds, cut off all that is useless and noxious, manure, plant, and bind up, so in the spiritual vineyard of our soul we must, by frequent meditation on death and hell, by examination of conscience dig up the evil inclinations by their roots, and by true repentance eradicate the weeds of vice, and by mortification, especially by prayer and fasting cut away concupiscence; by the recollection of our sins we must humble ourselves, and amend our life; in place of the bad habits we must plant the opposite virtues and bind our unsteady will to the trellis of the fear of God and of His judgment, that we may continue firm.

How is a vice or bad habit to be rooted up?

A great hatred of sin must be aroused; a fervent desire of destroying sin must be produced in our hearts; the grace of God must be implored without which nothing can be accomplished. It is useful also to read some spiritual book which speaks against the vice. The Sacraments of Penance and of Holy Communion should often be received, and some saint who in life had committed the same sin, and afterwards by the grace of God conquered it, should be honored, as Mary Magdalen and St. Augustine who each had the habit of impurity, but with the help of God resisted and destroyed it in themselves; there should be fasting, alms-deeds, or other good works, performed for the same object, and it is of great importance, even necessary, that the conscience should be carefully examined in this regard.

Who are standing idle in the market place?

In the market-place, that is the world, they are standing idle who, however much business they attend to, do not work for God and for their own salvation; for the only necessary employment is the service of God and the working out of our salvation. There are three ways of being idle: doing nothing whatever; doing evil; doing other things than the duties of our position in life and its office require, or if this work is done without a good intention, or not from the love of God. This threefold idleness deprives us of our salvation, as the servant loses his wages if he works not at all, or not according to the will of his master. We are all servants of God, and none of us can say with the laborers in the Vineyard that no man has employed us; for God, when He created us, hired us at great wages, and we must serve Him always as He cares for us at all times; and if, in the gospel, the householder reproaches the workmen, whom no man had hired, for their idleness, what will God one day say to those Christians whom He has placed to work in His Vineyard, the Church, if they have remained idle?

Why do the last comers receive as much as those who worked all day?

Because God rewards not the time or length of the work, but the industry and diligence with which it has been performed. It may indeed happen, that many a one who has served God but for a short time, excels in merits another who has lived long but has not labored as diligently. (Wisd. IV. 8-13.)

What is signified by the murmurs of the first workmen when the wages were paid?

As the Jews were the first who were called by God, Christ intended to show that the Gentiles, who were called last, should one day receive the heavenly reward, and that the Jews have no reason to murmur because God acted not unjustly in fulfilling His promises “to them, and at the same time calling others to the eternal reward. In heaven envy, malevolence and murmuring will find no place. On the contrary, the saints who have long served God wonder at His goodness in converting sinners and those who have served Him but a short time, for these also there will be the same penny, that is, the vision, the enjoyment, and possession of God and His kingdom. Only in the heavenly glory there will be a difference because the divine lips have assured us that each one shall be rewarded according to his works. The murmurs of the workmen and the answer of the householder serve to teach us, that we should not murmur against the merciful proceedings of God towards our neighbor, nor envy him; for envy and jealousy are abominable, devilish vices, hated by God. By the envy of the, devil, death came into the world. (Wisd. II. 24.) The envious therefore, imitate Lucifer, but they hurt only themselves, because they are consumed by their envy. “Envy,” says St. Basil “is an institution of the serpent, an invention of the devils, an obstacle to piety, a road to hell, the depriver of the heavenly kingdom.”

What is meant by: The first shall be last, and the last shall be first?

This again is properly to be understood of the Jews; for they were the first called, but will be the last in order, as in time, because they responded not to Christ’s invitation, received not His doctrine, and will enter the Church only at the end of the world; while, on the contrary, the Gentiles who where not called until after the Jews, will be the first in number as in merit, because the greater part responded and are still responding to the call. Christ, indeed, called all the Jews, but few of them answered, therefore few were chosen. Would that this might not also come true with regard to Christians whom God has also called, and whom He wishes to save. (I. Tim. II. 4.) Alas! very few live in accordance with their vocation of working in the vineyard of the Lord, and, consequently, do not receive the penny of eternal bliss.

PRAYER O most benign God, who, out of pure grace, without any merit of ours, hast called us, Thy unworthy servants, to the true faith, into the vineyard of the holy Catholic Church, and dost require us to work in it for the sanctification of our souls, grant, we beseech Thee, that we may never be idle but be found always faithful workmen, and that that which in past years we have failed to do, we may make up for in future by greater zeal and persevering industry, and, the work being done, may receive the promised reward in heaven, through Jesus Christ, Thy Son our, Lord. Amen.

 

Click Here to Download an Alleluia Printable 

Click Here to Download a Colored Alleluia Printable

 

Just as Holy Mother Church banishes the Alleluia, we banish the Alleluia within our with a Burial of the Alleluia.  This is said to be an ancient custom that developed in French churches by Choirboys.

Here is a description of it in the fifteenth-century statute book of the church of Toul:

On Saturday before Septuagesima Sunday all choir boys gather in the sacristy during the prayer of the None, to prepare for the burial of the Alleluia. After the last Benedicámus (i.e., at the end of the service) they march in procession with crosses, tapers, holy water and censers; and they carry a coffin, as in a funeral. Thus they proceed through the aisle, moaning and morning, until they reach the cloister. There they bury the coffin; they sprinkle it with holy water and incense it; whereupon they return to the sacristy by the same way.

On Septuagesima Sunday the Alleluia is sung for the last time (put away, “depositio”), and not heard again until it suddenly bursts into glory during the Mass of the Easter Vigil, when the celebrant intones this sacred word after the Epistle, repeating it three times as a jubilant herald of the Resurrection of Christ.

 

We use a printable Alleluia (that is often decorated by the resident artist/child of the year) and bury (in the ground or box that is held on our family altar) it on Septuagesima Sunday (or week).  It is dug up/opened on Easter Sunday.
 
 
 

You are invited to use the above image/printable for your own family to Bury the Alleluia in your home.

 

May you have a fruitful preparation for Lent.

 
 
 
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