Sunday Corner.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 44, 1 March 1895, Page 16

Sunday Corner.

CALENDAR.— MARCH 3—9.

Sunday, March 3— FIRBT SUNDAY OF LENT. Monday, 4— St Lucius 1., Pope, martyr. Tuesday, s—St5 — St Caaimir, king, confessor. Wednesday, 6— (Quarter Tense) St Fridolin, abbot. Thursday, 7— St Thomas Aquin, confessor, doctor. Friday, B— (Quarter Tense) St Cataldus, E.G. Saturday, 9— (Quarter Tense; St Frances of Kome.

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, and ends on Easter Sunday. Excluding the six Sundays, on which there iB no fast, there are forty days in Lent. Hence the Latin term, Quadragesima, forty. The forty days of Lent are said to have been instituted by the first Pope, St Peter himself. Pope Telesphorus ordered it to observed as an apostolic custom. In the Old Testament we find that Moses fasted for forty days on the mountain, and the Elias fasted forty days in the desert. Our Divine Lord, the Great Teacher by example as precept, fasted for forty days. An ancient tradition, mentioned byDurandue tells us that Jesus Christ, who wag born on Sunday, and was baptised on a Tuesday, began His fast on Wednesday. We begin the Lent "humbling our hea^s before the Lord," on Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday i 6 so called because of the euatom of sprinkling ashes on the heads of clergy and people ou that day. According to the usage of the Bible sorrow for sio was often exteriorly expressed by " sprinkling dust upon thir heads towards heaven." The sorrows of the daughters of Israel are seen in the dust upon their heads (Lam, 210). In d'stributiog the asbea the priest says, " Remember, nun, that tbou art dust, and into daat thou shalt return " (Gen. 3-19), In the early centuries ashes were only sprinkled on the heads of public sinners, who before Mass, confessed their sins, and formed ia a solemn procession walking barefooted. These penitents were told by the bishop to leave the church. They departed as he said the words :— " We drive you from the bosom of the Church on account of your sine, and for your crimes, as Adam, the first man was driven from Paradise becmse of hia sin." They were re-admitted to the celebration of the Divine Mysteries on Holy Thursday. Public penances ceased about the eleventh century, but the custom of receiving blessed ashes still continued. It is on record that in the twelfth century the Pope and his retinue cams all the way to tbe Church of St Babina in bare feet. The people for a considerable time observed this custom.