Masses For Ash Wednesday And The First Sunday In Lent

Translation And Comment By Father C. C. Martindale, S.J.
Folded carefully the text below should be slipped into a missal for use on the second Sunday following our date of publication Cat along this line
The season of Lent is meant to be taken seriously even if we do not fast technically from food. It is because the Church expects us to take Lent seriously that the Liturgy insists so much on " mercy." Mercy, not misery. Those who take Lent lightly need perhaps more reminding of the gravity of Sin and the need of repentance.
ASH WEDNESDAY.
INntorr. (Ps. lxviii). Hear us, 0 Lord, for tender is Thy mercy; according to the multitude of Thy mercies, so look towards us, Lord!—Save me, 0 Lord, for the waters have come in to my very soul.
Prayers for the Blessing of the Ashes (we translate only part of these). Almighty, everlasting God, spare the penitent, be kind to the suppliant! . . . Bless Thou these Ashes, and make them a healing remedy to all who humbly implore Thy holy Name, and accuse themselves of their sins whereof they are all too conscious, and in the presence of Thy divine mercy do lament their evil acts, and suppliantly and obstinately cry out for the sunshine of Thy love; and grant, through the invocation of Thy most holy Name, that whosoever shall have been sprinkled by these Ashes, for the forgiveness of their sins, may receive both health of body, and a protection for their mind . . 0 God, who desirest not the death of sinners but their sorrow, look in great kindness upon the frailty of our human state (and bless these ashes) that we, who know we are ourselves but ashes, and that because of the offence of our iniquity we shall return to dust, may be enabled to win pardon for all our sins and, in Thy mercy, the graces promised to the penitent. —0 God . . . pour forth generously the grace of Thy blessing, so as to fill us with the spirit of contrition, and effectively bestow on us what we justly ask, and so as to decree that Thy gifts may be for ever ratified and for ever remain inviolate.
When the Ashes are given: Remember. Man, that thou art dust, and into dust shalt thou return.
Many, if not most. cannot get the Ashes in the morning nor hear the AshWednesday Mass. We translate therefore only two parts of it, to show its spirit.
lerrRorr. Thou hast pity upon all, 0 Lord, and hatest nothing of all that Thou hast made, and disregardest the sins of men if they repent, and sparest them—Have mercy on me, 0 God, have mercy on me! For it is in Thee that my soul trusteth.
PRAYER. Grant, Lord, that Thy Faithful may both undertake the solemn observance of the Fast with proper piety, and carry it through devout and undisturbed. Through
Impossible to pray such words sincerely. unless we really mean to make something of Lent...But our " devotion 7 ought not to be feverish, a nuisance to others, or ostentatious. The whole Gos pel is against Showing Off. If you have to eat more in Lent than technically you should, eat your tongue. too, if it wants to say unclean, unkind, or conceited things.
FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT.
Some may be able to go to Mass daily in Lent. Hints as to these weekday Masses are found in The Mind of the Missal, pp. 99-132.
INTROIT. (Ps. xc.) He shall call upon Me, and I will listen to him: I will rescue him, and give him glory: with length of life will I satisfy him. He who lives helped by the Most High, shall have the protection of the God of heaven for his home.
PRAYER. 0 God, who dost purify Thy Church by the annual observance of Lent, grant to Thy Family that what it tries to obtain from Thee by abstinence, it may follow up by good works. Through . . .
How can the Church need purification? Because I am part of her. and I need it. But just not doing wrong is only half my task. When purified. I must proceed to perform something positive.
Degree. (II (or. vi. 1-10.1 Brethren, we call on you not to receive the Grace of God all for nothing! For the Scripture says: " In an ' acceptable time ' have I listened to thee: and in a 'day of salvation ' will I help thee! " Behold—now is the 'acceptable time '! Behold, now is the 'day of salvation '! To no one and in no thing offer grounds of offence, lest our ministry ' be criticised, but in all things let us present ourselves as God's tninisters — in much endurance, in hardships, in difficult situations, in awkward positions tI very nearly wrote ' in tight corners,' but did not, because everyone would say it was too slangy • : yet St. Paul piles up all sorts of words, some dignified, others less so—but, n.b., he invariably assumes that whether you are let in for a snub, or the axe, it is always because you are a Christian in non-Christian surroundings!] in figlos, in prisons, in revolutions, in hard labour, in sleeplessness, in foodlessness—ah! in chastity. in insight, in long-suffering, in just goodness, in a holy spirit, in genuine charity, in the Word of Truth, in the Power of God . . . by means of the weapons of Righteousness to right and to left—by means of repute and disreputableness, being clapped or being hissed, being treated as traitors or as truthful, as ignored or notorious, as dying—yet behold we live! — as kicked yet never killed, as in anguish yet ever exultant, as paupers yet plutocrats, as having nothing yet possessing everything!
This astounding paragraph is characteristic of the volcanic St. Paul. He begins so quietly — " You have become Christians. Don't let it come to nothing! Keep yourselves as God's servants outside of criticism. True, you will have
much to put up with. The good Christian will—in the long run—be loved, but probably, not popular . . . He then heaps up the hard things that a Christian (as we see well today in Russia or Spain) may have to endure. ' Much endurance '! Then up he soars. What the Christian is ' in for' is not only unpopularity up to persecution point, hut holiness. 'Then he returns. If you are holy. you will be misunderstood. You will he a living contradiction. In one sense, you will be good for nothing: in another, good for everything. Since nothing niuch of this sort happens to us in England now, we may ask ourselves rather anxiously whether we are truly Christian at all! But, the day may easily come when it will happen to us. It happened to our ancestors: it is happening to our fellow-Christians right now. What, when it is our turn?
GRADUAL. To His Angels hath God given command concerning thee, that they should guard thee in all thy ways. In their hands shall they carry thee, lest ever thou crash thy foot against a stone,--He that dwells in the help of the Most High, shall have his home in the protection of the God of Heaven. He will say to the Lord: Tis Thou that dost acknowledge me and art my Refuge! My God! Yes, in Him will I trust! For Himself hath He delivered me from the snare of the huntsman, and from cruel tongues.' With His arms shall He overshadow thee, and beneath His wings shalt thou hope. As with a shield shall His loyalty surround thee; thou shalt not fear because of the terrors of the night, the arrow that flicth by day, the Thing that walked] in the night, the devil that destroyeth in the noon. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand—yet unto thee shall the enemy not draw near! For to His Angels hath He given charge concerning thee, to guard thee in all thy ways. In their hands they shall carry thee, lest ever thou crash thy foot against a stone. On viper and on scorpion shalt thou tread, and trample on lion and snake! ' Because it was in Me that he trusted, I will rescue him; him will I protect, because he did homage to My Name. He shall call on me, and I will hear him: / am along with him in his distress. I will rescue him, and give him glory: with length of life will I satisfy him, and display to him My Salvation!' (Ps. xc.)
This superb psalm needs no explanation.
GOSPEL. (Mt. iv.) At that time, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tested by the Devil. And, having fasted 40 days and 40 nights, He was hungry. And the Tempter approached and said to Him: 'If you are a Son of God, say that these stones become bread!' He answered: 'It is written—Not by means of bread only doth man live, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God!' Then the Devil took Him into the Holy City (Jerusalem), and stood Him on a tower of the Temple, and said to Him: `If you are a Son of God, leap down! For the scripture says—To His Angels hath He given charge of Thee, and in their hands shall they carry Thee, lest perhaps Thou crash Thy foot against a stone!' Jesus said to him: 'Thou shalt not test the Lord, thy God!' Again, the Devil took Him up into a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and said to Him: ' All these will I give you, if you will bow down and worship me!' Then Jesus said to him: `Go away, Adversary! For it is written= The Lord Thy God shalt thou worship and Him only shalt thou serve!' Then the Devil left Him, and Angels came, and did service to Him.
The wings of Angels whisper through all this Mass! The point of the Gospel is this—Jesus could have imposed Himself on our attention, our astonishment —and have won our service, by a series of marvels. He refused to do so. He would not change bread into stones, nor float flamboyantly down into the Temple-courts — all that would have meant but a ' worldly' triumph over us. Never did He work a miracle for His own sake. Having become man, He became Man thoroughly, and gave Himself no privileges or lettings-off. What the Epistle foreshadows as the Christian Life, Christ went through without any selffavouritism. All that would have been ' world-worship.' In this Mysterious ' retreat' before beginning His Public Ministry, He ' was with the beasts' (St. Mark), and with Angels. Henceforward, He would live. as Man, with men. And so He still does.
7'he Offertory and Communion are from the same Psalm.
SILENT PRAYER. We solemnly sacrifice to Thee, 0 Lord, the Sacrifice of the Beginning of Lent, and beg that along with the restriction we put upon fleshly feasting, we may also check ourselves from (spiritually) harmful pleasures.
POST-COMMUNION. May our tasting of Thy Sacrament, 0 Lord, re-create us, so that—purged of that old stuff—we may be made by It to cross over into fellowship in the Mystery of Salvation.
We hope to translate this Prayer better some day. Meanwhile, the Roman Liturgy (like the Romans themselves) is rather brutal. It is not too much to say that it often regards God's Grace and Sacraments as a purgative. A sort of spiritual pill. They are to drive out of us the old accumulated 'muck that is poisoning us. We are given New Life. A mysterious one. most certainly; bur one which anyway means nothing narrowly selfish, but, a Fellowship with Christ, and with all who are in Communion with Him. No Christian dare be an individualist.