Feria IV Cinerum ~ Feria privilegiata

Wed, 3/5/25: Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, under the 1954 (simple, privileged major feria) and 1962 (I class feria) rubrics. Station church at St. Sabina. Mass: Proper Mass. Violet. Omit Gloria. Gradual/Tract (with genuflection at Adjuva nos). Omit Credo. Preface of Lent. Prayer over the people. Benedicamus (1954)/Ite (1962). Under 1954, 2nd prayer A cunctis for the intercession of the saints. 3rd prayer Omnipotens for the living and the dead. No additional prayers under 1962. Office: Ferial office. Violet. Matins of 1 nocturn of 3 lessons. Omit Te Deum. Psalms and antiphons of the feria (Lauds = schema II). All else from the ferial office per annum after Septuagesima. Proper Benedictus antiphon. Collect of Ash Wednesday. No commemorations at Lauds. Preces (1962: at Lauds only). Suffrage (1954 only). At Prime, add displaced psalm 96 as the fourth psalm; under 1962, psalm 96 is omitted entirely.

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Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to Matthew
Matt 6:16-21
In that time Jesus said to his disciples: And when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. And so on.

"...But those professors of Christianity, who turn all eyes on themselves by an eccentric show of groveling and dirtiness, not suffered by necessity, but by their own choice, of them we must judge by their other works whether their conduct really proceedeth from the desire of mortification by giving up unnecessary comfort, or is only the mean of some ambition; the Lord biddeth us beware of wolves in sheep's clothing, but by their fruits, saith He, ye shall know them.

"The test is when, by diverse trials, such persons lose those things which under the cover of seeming unworldliness they have either gained or sought to gain. Then must it needs appear whether they be wolves in sheep's clothing, or indeed sheep in their own. But that hypocrites do the contrary maketh it no duty of a Christian to shine before the eyes of men with a display of needless luxury; the sheep need not to lay aside their own clothing because wolves sometimes falsely assume it.” (Saint Augustine)

Collect
℣. The Lord be with you.
℟. And with thy spirit.
Let us pray.
Grant, O Lord, that Your faithful people may, with true piety, undertake the time-honored custom of fasting and may carry it out with unwavering devotion.
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.
Collect of the Saints
From all perils of soul and body defend us, O Lord, we beseech thee, and by the intercession of blessed and gloriosus ever Virgin Mary, Mother of God, of blessed Joseph, of thy blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and of blessed N. and all the Saints, graciously grant us safety and peace that all adversities and errors being overcome, thy Church may serve thee in security and freedom.

pro vivis et mortuos
Almighty and eternal God, who has dominion over both the living and the dead, and has mercy upon all whom You foreknow will be Yours by faith and good works; we humbly beseech You that all for whom we have resolved to make supplication, whether the present world home still holds them in the flesh or the world to come holds them out of the body, may, through the intercession of Your saints, obtain of Your goodness and clemency pardon for all their sins.
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.