Friday, January 26, 2007

Feast days of the week 28 January - 3 February 2007 (1962 liturgical calendar).

First part of the Liturgical Year: the Christmas Cycle.[1]
Season after Epiphany (The Christmas Cycle ends with Candlemas, 2 February.)

"This period, which begins the day after the Octave of Epiphany, is an extension of Christmastide. Jesus asserts His Divinity - not by the appearance of angels or the Star of the Magi, but speaking Himself as God. He subjects our hearts to His teachings, explaining His Divine doctrine with parables and manifesting the truth of His words and works by many miracles.

At the time of our Lord, Palestine contained four provinces: Peraea, Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. It was in the province of Galilee that the miracles and preaching of Jesus took place.

At Cana, He changed water into wine - His first miracle - at the request of His mother. At Nazareth, He preached His doctrine - and 'all wondered at these things that proceeded from the mouth of God,' says the Communion of the fourth, fifth, and sixth Sundays after Epiphany with the words of Luke. In Galilee, a word from our Lord cleansed the leper. From the shore of the Lake of Genesareth, He miraculously stilled the storm. All these miracles He performed to show His Apostles that He was God.

The Christmas cycle has a fixed character, and the Feasts of the Nativity and Epiphany always fall on December 25 and January 6."

Sunday, 28 January, 2007
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
"Jesus our Lord commands the uncontrolled forces in nature: the fury of the sea and the violence of the winds, and thus manifests His Divinity."
Epistle: Rom 13:8-10.
Gospel: Matt 8:23-27.

Monday, 29 January, 2007
St. Francis de Sales, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church
St. Francis, Count of Sales, Bishop of Geneva, patron of Catholic writers, preached the word of God to the Calvinists and brought back sixty thousand to the Catholic faith. He founded with St. Jane Fremiot de Chantal the Order of the Visitation. He died A.D. 1622.”
Epistle: II Tim 4:1-8.
Gospel: Matt 5:13-19.

Tuesday, 30 January 2007
St. Martina, Virgin, Martyr
"This noble Roman Virgin was beheaded after the most atrocious torments, A.D. 228."
Lesson: Ecclesiasticus 51:1-8, 12.
Gospel: Matt 25:1-13.

Wednesday, 31 January 2007
St. John Bosco, Confessor
"Don Bosco founded the Salesian Fathers and the Order of Our Lady, Help of Christians, for the education of poor boys and girls. He died A.D. 1888.”
Epistle: Philip 4:4-9.
Gospel: Matt 18:1-10, down to +.

Thursday, 1 February 2007
St. Ignatius, Bishop and Martyr
"Like St. Polycarp, Ignatius, the Bishop of Antioch, was a disciple of St. John the Apostle. His letters are precious documents for our Faith. He was sent in chains to Rome and, when condemned to the wild beasts, exclaimed: 'I am the wheat of Christ; may I be ground by the fangs of wild beasts and become agreeable to my Lord!' A.D. 110."
Epistle: Rom 8:35-39.
Gospel: John 12:24-26.

Friday, 2 February 2007
First Friday
Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Candlemas Day
The Feast of Candlemas, which derives its origin from the local observance of Jerusalem, marks the end of the Feasts included in the Christmas cycle of the Liturgy. It is perhaps the most ancient festival of Our Lady. It commemorates not only the obedience of the Blessed Virgin to the Mosaic Law in going to Jerusalem forty days after the birth of her Child and making the accustomed offerings, but also the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, and the meeting of the Infant Jesus with the old man Simeon - the Occursus Domini, as the Feast was anciently termed. This is the principal theme of the liturgy on this day: Jesus is taken to the Temple 'to present Him to the Lord.' So the Lord comes to His Temple, and is met by the aged Simeon with joy and recognition.

The procession on this day is one of the most picturesque features of the Western Liturgy. The blessing and distribution of candles, to be carried lighted in procession, precedes the Mass today - a symbolic presentation of the truth proclaimed in the Canticle of Simeon: Our Lord is the 'Light for the revelation of the Gentiles.' The anthems sung during this procession, eastern in origin, will express the joy and gladness of this happy festival, and the honour and praise we give to our blessed lady and her Divine Son by its devout observance
.”
Lesson: Malachias 3:1-4.
Gospel: Luke 2:22-32.

Saturday, 3 February 2007
First Saturday
Commemoration of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr
St. Blaise, bishop of Sebaste, was beheaded after terrible torments, under Licinius, A.D. 317.”
Epistle: 2 Cor: 1:3-7.
Gospel: Matt 16:24-27.


[1] Remarks are abstracted from The Daily Missal and Liturgical Manual, from Editio Typica of the Roman Missal and Breviary, 1962
(Baronius Press Limited, London, 2004, in conjunction with the Fraternal Society of St. Peter, www.baroniuspress.com)

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