The Holy Week is the last part of the Lenten Season, which starts on Palm Sunday and ends on Black Saturday. It is called Holy Week because it focuses on the life, passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. The last tree days of the Holy Week is called Sacred Tridum. During Sacred Tridum, there are traditions that Catholics do as an act of penance.
Lent or Quadregisima is a 40-Day season of prayer and act of penance such as fasting and abstinence. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. In this season, the church will start to use the purple color including the vestments in the Holy Mass and cover the images with purple veil or cloth. Quadregisima is from a Latin word means “forty” while lent from the old English word “lencten” which means “spring”
The Holy Mass is the most important Sacrament that God gave to us. It is a sacrifice on the Calvary of our Lord Jesus Christ which re-presented to us every time the Holy Mass is celebrated. This is not only our Lord’s sacrifice, it is also a sacrifice for the Priest and for us, the Faithful.
The most important part of the Holy Mass is the consecration where the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. This is also where the faithful genuflect because this where we see our Lord Jesus Christ in the form of the bread and wine. But, how can be a bread and wine become the Body and Blood of our Lord? The taste of the host does not change when we receive it from the priest (though its taste is very different from most bread). The change by which the bread and wine in the Eucharist becomes Christ's real presence—that is, his body and blood, is called Transubstantiation.
Altar servers are one of the most important roles in the Holy Mass because they assist the priest. Following Vatican II, some churches have dispensed with the use of altar servers and substituted them with lay ministers. The Altar Servers or altar boys always have a role in the Holy Mass in the previous centuries and one of the known altar servers in third century is Saint Tarcisius (he is also known as a deacon), the patron saint of the altar servers. But why do some churches, orders, or societies keep using Altar Servers, like those who celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass? Let's answer some questions about them.
During the early centuries of Christianity, a number of false beliefs and ideas surfaced and attacked the Truth taught by Our Lord Jesus Christ and spread by the Apostles. An example of these false beliefs is the question on Christ's Divinity, where some bishops and priests taught that Jesus is only man and not God. These teaching bore another heresy against the Marian Dogma of Theotokus or Mother of God, where they contested that the Blessed Virgin Mary is only the Mother of Christ and not the Mother of God. These myths and false doctrines poisoned the wells of Christian faith and deceived a number of faithful throughout the centuries. Even in today's modern world, these false teachings are rehashed and continued to lead the flock astray from the Truth. We call these poisonous doctrines as Heresy.
We always hear the 40 days as Lent season approaches. Most probably because Lent covers 40 days when it starts from Ash Wednesday until Holy week. It’s the season of reflection for all of us being sinners as we do acts of contrition and meditation. During these 40 days, we are expected to prepare and meditate on the Passion of Christ. Preparations such as fasting and abstinence, prayer and sacrifices. To prove our commitment, we must perform our duties as Christians. Following the practices and traditions of our Holy Mother Church of performing works of charity as members of the faith. Just like Pope St. Gregory the great said: "The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist."
On November 1, 1950, at Saint Peter’s Square, Pope Pius XII declared the Munificentissimus Deus. The Munificentissimus Deus stated that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary, was taken up both body and soul into Heaven when she completed her mortal life. That is what the Pope declared at that time. How come that the Assumption of the Virgin Mary occurred? The Bible does not state anything about the Assumption, so how come the Catholics have a dogma about it? Remember that Catholic Church’s teachings come from three sources: Tradition, Sacred Scriptures, and the Magisterium. The Assumption is not in the Sacred Scriptures.
In our generation, most of us attend the New Mass or the Novus Ordo Mass that was codified by Pope Paul VI in 1969 under the Vatican II Council. Some priests teach the faithful that the Holy Mass is a Holy Meal or Sacred Banquet because it has a table, bread and wine. And some meal or banquet has dancing because a mass is a celebration. It also reenacts the Last Supper of our Lord together with His Apostles which our Lord said “Do this for a commemoration of me.” But why was the first mass before the Novus Ordo Mass, the Traditional Latin Mass or the Tridentine Mass did not have any table and did not look like a Meal? Even the Mass before the codification of the Tridentine Mass also had no table. Let’s answer these frequently asked questions one by one.
In Christianity especially the Catholic Church, the Doxology is the typical hymn that is sung by the faithful. It is an expression of praise sung to the Holy Trinity. The word Doxology is from the Greek word Doxologia; “Doxa” means “glory” and “logia” means “saying”. Doxologies in the Catholic Church is often said or sung during Holy Mass, the Liturgy Hours and in Catholic Devotions such as the Holy Rosary and Novena. There are two types of Doxologies, The Greater Doxology and the Lesser Doxology.
The Blessed Virgin Mary is well-known for her apparitions in different places of the world. Some of her apparitions were accompanied by the praying of the Holy Rosary. One of her popular apparitions is in Lourdes France, where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette of Soubirous.
“The sign of the cross is the most terrible weapon against the devil. Thus the Church wishes not only, that we have it continually in front of our minds, to recall to us just what our souls are worth and what they cost Jesus Christ but also that we should make it at every juncture ourselves: when we go to bed, when we awaken during the night, when we get up, when we begin any action, and, above all, when we are tempted.” -St John Vianney (1786-1859)
