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The sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest in which she puts her young - Your altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God! Happy they who dwell in Your house! continually they praise You. Ps 83:4-5 - Communion, Dominica III in Quadragesima, Third Sunday of Lent
It’s Spring Break. Just this morning, we were at University, visiting daughters, before departing at noon to make our Latin Mass. We had a nice dinner, restocked the refrigerator, exchanged some wonderful stories and returned home within 18 hours, for this Mass.
I’m insist on attending:
1) for the past 2 years, the Traditional Latin Mass has been our spiritual home
2) we don’t know yet if changes will occur because of the Rescript.. regardless of what happens, we are grateful for every Holy Mass.
We arrived 15 minutes early, straight from out of town.
I knelt for my Rosary & got as far as Christ’s Ascension, the Second Glorious Mystery.
We mourn.. Jesus’ has left us here.. here we are, all alone, seemingly abandoned even by our own Pope..
Gradual, Ps 9:20, 4
Rise, O Lord, let not man prevail; let the nations be judged in Your presence.
V. Because my enemies are turned back, overthrown and destroyed before You.
Tractus, Ps 122, 1-3
To You I lift up my eyes, Who are enthroned in heaven.
V. As the eyes of a maid are on the hands of her mistress, so are our eyes on the Lord our God, till He have pity on us.
V. Have pity on us, O Lord, have pity on us.
.. at this point, the Tractus ends and our Gospel begins.. I listen to the story in St. Luke of Jesus casting out a devil, the crowd accusing Him of working with Beelze—
Jesus tells them —
If I cast out devils by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.. He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he roams through waterless places in search of rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house which I left.’ And when he has come to it, he finds the place swept. Then he goes and takes seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse that the first. - St. Luke 11, 14-28
I know the devils that haunt me and mine. I’ve seen the mess they’ve left behind, like car wreckage.. bloodied, fingered remnants of memory, images blur but don’t quite fade.. I trace tracks of tears to figure out where my personal hell started, where they all came from for me, for my husband, for my children, for my family, for my friends.. I’ve been there, like anyone else.
But I haven’t had any bad happen that’s any worse, any less than anyone I have personally known. In so many ways, I’m like everyone else, except in this moment, where there is nothing.. before my God, at the Creed.. at the Offferatory.. at the Canon.. then at Communion.
This Mass, this Surrender.. there is nothing before He and I, not the smell of incense, not the Schola, not the Altar, not this beautiful Cathedral.. my eyes, once closely following the silent movements of our Father, slowly turned inward at some point, unbeknowest to me.. and I am poised.
Poised to stand guard at the door to the house the devils have left, this Matriarch, this handmaid, this little woman..
When I kneel after Holy Mass to give my Lord my thanks, I’m not mournfully looking through clouds trying to glimpse heaven,1 awaiting Christ's return.
I wait here — eyes upon His hand, mind silent, prayer not quiet spent2 — in silence, a little sentinel.
Devils mingle with the proud, but it is Christ who mercifully protects the humble who confidently wait in watch for Him.
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart, and His ordinances are sweeter than syrup or honey from the comb; therefore Your servant is careful of them. Ps 18:9-12 -- Offeratory
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always in Love,
your veronica
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Fiat Voluntas Tua. No nobis, Domine, no nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. 3.12.2023, St. Gregory the Great, Third Sunday of Lent.
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart, and His ordinances are sweeter than syrup or honey from the comb; therefore Your servant is careful of them. Ps 18:9-12 - Offertory, Dominica III in Quadragesima, Third Sunday of Lent
To thee have I lifted up my eyes, who dwellest in heaven. Behold as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, As the eyes of the handmaid are on the hands of her mistress: so are our eyes unto the Lord our God, until he have mercy on us. Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us: for we are greatly filled with contempt. For our soul is greatly filled: we are a reproach to the rich, and contempt to the proud. — Psalm 122