A Treasure To Be Shared

Evil works... . to create familiarity, and by subtly exploiting weaknesses  stirs up temptations ( see below ), raises doubts and undermines trust in others and in oneself, then capitalizes on confusion by offering a cheap sympathy through false allies to coax dependence,  fueling crisis and chaos, meanwhile feeding despair and fomenting self destruction and death. Before the start of His mission, the Lord Jesus faced the devil in the wilderness. The devil, i.e., Satan, sought to appropriate the very identity, power, and mission of Jesus by assaulting Him with three temptations. Satan challenged Jesus to: turn stones into bread to satisfy his hunger jump from the temple and misuse his power seize the kingdoms of the world by force The devil's temptations follow three approaches: The first temptation of Jesus is the lust of the flesh (St Matthew 4:3–4). Our Lord is hungry, and the devil tempts Him to turn stones into bread, but Jesus responds with Scripture from Deuteronomy 8:3...

Sudbury.com Today is Collop Monday, Gie's a collop, an' let's away. Prior to Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras) in Shrovetide, there's Collop Monday. Save your bacon fat! The British name Collopy Monday is after the traditional dish of the day, consisting of slices of leftover meat (collops of bacon) along with eggs. It is eaten for breakfast and is part of the traditional Lenten preparations. In addition to providing a little meat, the collops were also the source of the fat for the following day's pancakes. - WP Penny Scramble In 1881, Edward Brook of Meltham began a custom of distributing "new pennies" to local children on Collop Monday. A similar practise of distributing small gifts took place in Meltham on other days of year, including Whit Monday. Reportedly the coins would be handed out from a leather pouch, then any that remained would be thrown into the street and a "scramble" would take place to retrieve them. The children would then often use...

Motet (Just for fun, choose a part and sing along!) Emendemus in melius (Let us amend for the better) Matins response for the first Sunday in Lent by William Byrd for SATTB voices Cantiones sacrae, quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur (1575) Emendemus in melius quae ignoranter peccavimus;   ne subito praeoccupati die mortis,  quaeramus spatium poenitentiae,  et invenire non possimus. Attende, Domine, et miserere;  quia peccavimus tibi.  Adjuva nos, Deus salutaris noster,  et propter honorem nominis tui libera nos. Let us amend for the better in those things in which we have sinned through ignorance; lest suddenly overtaken by the day of death, we seek space for repentance, and be not able to find it. Hearken, O Lord, and have mercy: for we have sinned against thee. Help us, O God of our salvation, and for the honour of thy name deliver us. (English translation by William Mahrt ) List of melodies:  https://cantus.uwaterloo.ca/chant/516275 Score: ...

A 2019 article at CNA by Mary Farrow, featuring comments by Fr. James Bradley and edited for this blog, captures essential features of the season of Shrovetide, which ends today. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/how-to-pregame-lent-septuagesima-carnival-and-shrovetide-56266 Septuagesima Sunday, follows Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sundays. Sunday kicks off Carnival season, which comes right before Shrovetide, which culminates in Shrove Tuesday - more popularly known as Mardi Gras. [...] “Septuagesima is kept in the personal ordinariates established by Pope Benedict XVI for former Anglicans, now within the full communion of the Catholic Church,” said Father James Bradley, a priest from the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in the United Kingdom.   “Septuagesima is still marked in the older Anglican prayer books, and is part of the Anglican patrimony preserved by Divine Worship: The Missal, used by the ordinariates,” Bradley told...

Battle of Carnival & Lent - Breugel Shrovetide, the Pre-Lenten Season, is a period of preparation before the liturgical season of Lent. Shrovetide starts on Septuagesima Sunday, includes Sexagesima Sunday, Quinquagesima Sunday (Shrove Sunday) and Shrove Monday, and culminates on Shrove Tuesday, also known as Mardi Gras. Catholic Encyclopedia Shrovetide is the English equivalent of what is known in the greater part of Southern Europe as the "Carnival", a word which, in spite of wild suggestions to the contrary, is undoubtedly to be derived from the "taking away of flesh" ( carne levare ) which marked the beginning of Lent. The English term shrovetide (from "to shrive", or hear confessions) is sufficiently explained by a sentence in the Anglo-Saxon Ecclesiastical Institutes translated from Theodulphus by Abbot Aelfric about A.D. 1000: "In the week immediately before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the c...