SUN. JAN. 30. FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER •EPIPHANY. sd. Comm. of St. Martina. Third prayer Dent qui salmis. Creed. Preface of Trinity (Green)
COLLECT: 0 God, Who dost know that we are set among so great perils that—such is our human frailty—we can find no foothol 1. grant us health of mind and of body. that by Thy help we may conquer what we are undergoir.g tor our sins. A prayer. really. full of paradoxes We are "established" among such dangers that we cannot "stand firm." And this, because of our "fragility"—we arc brittle. easily broken. We stagger and slip in a situation out of which we cannot get; and if we fall, we are broken into bits. Then we acknowledge that what we arc "suffering." victims of, is due to "our" sins.
We protest 1 I do not see that the wretchedness of modern times is due to my sins. First, let us admit that it is due to Sin—a word not mentioned in Parliament or electioneering campaigns. however much vitriol is spat at the Party to which we don't belone. But all injustice. callousness. wrong done to men is in reality an offence to God: no man. no claes. no nation or race has absolute riehts. God is supreme and alone absolute. Any offence aeainst His creatures is sin against Him. But "our"—n1'—sins?
Yes: we are all "members of one another" "no man standeth or talleth to himself." As a V.C. (you will guess who) said to me at Christmas' ''Every man who doesn t pray is choking the life of the Church": we can prevent the life-blood of Christ circulating as He wishes throughout His mystical Body and the world. I can suffocate His Spirit—not forever nor altogether. but certainly in myself, and so, I cannot communicate it as I should God grant us to stand upright and firm and draw deep breaths: yes, and to walk steadi# forward and lend a strong hand to others.
C.C. Martindale. S. J.
MON. JAN. 31. St. John Bosco T(uWEshit.e2 FEB. 1. St. Ignatius
(Bishop and Martyr). d. (Red)
WED., FEB. 2. THE PURIFICATION OF OUR LADY (Candlemas). d. 2 cl. Blessing and distribution of candles. Creed. Preface of the Nativity. (White) THURS., FEB. 3. St. Laurence (Bishop and Confessor), d. Comm. of St. Blaise (White) FRI., FEB. 4, St. Andrew Corsine ci. (White) SAT., FEB. 5. Mass of the 5th. Sunday after Epiphany (anticipated). sd. Comm. of St. Agatha. Creed. Preface of Trinity. (Green) SUN., FEB. 6. Septuagesima Sunday. sd. Comm. of St. Titus and St. Dorothy. Creed. Preface of Trinity. (Purple)