Dominica I in Quadragesima

Sun, 3/9/25:

Today is the 1st Sunday in Lent under the 1954 (semi-double Sunday of the I class) and 1962 (I class Sunday) rubrics. Mass: Proper Mass. Station church at St. John Lateran. Violet. Omit Gloria. Gradual/Tract. Credo. Preface of Lent. Benedicamus (1954)/Ite (1962). Under 1954, commemoration of St. Frances of Rome, Wid. No commemorations or additional prayers under 1962. Office: Sunday office. Violet. Matins of 3 nocturns of 9 lessons (1954)/1 nocturn of 3 lessons (1962; lesson II = II & III of the old Breviary combined, III = lesson VII of the old Breviary). Omit Te Deum. At Matins, Lenten invitatory Non sit vobis and hymn Ex more on all Sundays until Passion Sunday exclusive. Psalms of Sunday (Lauds = schema II) with proper antiphons. Hymn O sol salutis at Lauds. All else from the proper. Collect of the Sunday. Commemoration of St. Frances of Rome at Lauds (1954 only). Omit suffrage (1954 only). At Prime, under 1954, psalms 92, 99, 118.1, 118.2. Under 1962, psalms 53, 118.1, 118.2.

(Source LB236 on Twitter/X.)

From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew
Matt 4:1-11
In that time, Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry. And so on.

Homily by Pope St. Gregory the Great.
16th on the Gospels
Some persons are accustomed to question what Spirit it was of which Jesus was led up into the wilderness, on account of the words a little farther on Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city and again The devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain. But in truth, and without any searching, we may very fitly take it that we are to believe it was the Holy Ghost Who led Him up into the wilderness; His own Spirit led Him where the evil spirit found Him to tempt Him. When however it is said that He, God and man, was taken up by the devil either into an exceeding high mountain or into the holy city, the mind shrinketh from believing, and the ears of man tingle to hear it. Yet these things we know not to be incredible, when we consider certain other things concerning Him.

In truth, the devil is the head of all the wicked, and every wicked man is a member of this body, of which the devil is the head. Was not Pilate a limb of Satan? Were not the Jews that persecuted, and the soldiers that crucified Christ, likewise limbs of Satan? Is it then strange that He should allow Himself to be led up into a mountain by the head, Who allowed Himself to be crucified by the members? Therefore it is not unworthy of our Redeemer, Who came to be slain, that He was willing to be tempted. It was meet that He should thus overcome our temptations by His own, even as He came to conquer our death by His own.

We ought to know that temptation worketh through three forms. There is, first, the suggestion; then the delectation; lastly, the consent. When we are tempted, it often happeneth that we fall into delectation, and even into consent, because in the sinful flesh of which we are begotten, we carry in ourselves matter to favor the attack. But God, when He took Flesh in the womb of the Virgin, and came into the world without sin, did so without having in Himself anything of this lusting of the flesh against the spirit. It was possible therefore for Him to be tempted in the first stage, namely suggestion; but there was nothing in His Mind in which delectation could fix its teeth. And thus all the temptation which He endured from the devil was without, and none within Him.

Collect
℣. The Lord be with you.
℟. And with thy spirit.
Let us pray.
O God, You Who purify Your Church by the yearly Lenten observance, grant to Your household that what they strive to obtain from You by abstinence, they may achieve by good works.
Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.
℟. Amen.

Let us pray.
Commemoration S. Franciscae Viduae Romanae
O God, Who along with other gifts of Your grace honored blessed Frances, Your handmaid, with the close companionship of an angel, grant, we beseech You, that by the help of her intercession we may be made worthy to attain the companionship of angels.
Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.
℟. Amen.