THE  LITURGIES

IN

IN THE TIME OF

LENT

LITURGIES IN LENT

For the Christian, our Lenten journey of deeper conversion begins on Ash Wednesday.  This season of Lent prepares the faithful to celebrate the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection.  It is a time for reflection and spiritual renewal, a time to examine one’s relationships with God and with others. The Church also calls the faithful to a spirit of penance, above all fasting, prayer and almsgiving, which leads to deeper conversion in relation to oneself, to God, and to others.

Daily Mass in Lent

During Lent, many Anglicans absorb the mood of the season by attending weekday Mass.  Getting up early to attend Mass before work; using lunch breaks; or stopping for an evening Lenten Mass, these Masses help to redirect our whole day as the Spirit quietly works his wonders in the Church and in our hearts.  Often, weekday Masses last only a half-hour. 

WEEK DAY MASSES IN LENT 

Wednesday     9:30am Mass

Saturday          9:30am Mass

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Holy Rosary

Wednesday  9:00am  Rosary

Stations of the Cross

Friday   9:30am  Stations of the Cross

                             Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament

Sacrament of Reconciliation [Confessions]

Confessions  Please call the Parish office

Stations of the Cross

The Stations of the Cross are a popular Anglican devotion which commemorates the Passion and death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  The Stations were originally performed many centuries ago by Christian pilgrims who actually visited the Holy Land, and went to the sites of Jesus' Passion. There are records of similar forms of this devotion which date back to the 400s.

There are tradionally 14 stations.  Each of the fourteen stations stands for an event which occured during Jesus' Passion and Death at Calvalry on Good Friday.  A person walking the Stations of the Cross is to meditate about each event depicted at each station, and pray.

At St. Uriel's mounted along the sides of the interior walls are fourteen plaques which depicts each Station of the Cross.  A person walking the Stations go to each station and pray and meditate about that particular event which Jesus went through in His Passion and death.  

Actually, if a person cannot get to Church, the Stations of the Cross can be prayed anywhere, either with a group of people, alone, our mentally. While there are certain prayers that can be said, in actuality, there are no specific prayers that are to be said.   There are many different prayers written by various people throughout the centuries which are beautiful and profound.  A person can make one's own personal prayer which an individual can recite when meditating at each station.

Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament

Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament is the liturgy in which Jesus Christ is adored in the consecrated Host exposed on the altar, and in which the priest blesses the faithful with the Sacred Host.

Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament begins with the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament (i.e., consecrated Host) in a monstrance set upon the altar.  The liturgy includes singing the ancient Latin hymns written by St Thomas Aquinas, O Salutaris Hostia and Tantum Ergo, followed by the benediction proper. The celebrant holds the monstrance wearing a humeral veil covering his shoulders, arms and hands, and then blesses the faithful with the Blessed Sacrament by tracing the sign of the cross with the monstrance held steadily upright before him.  The liturgy concludes with the Divine Praises and Psalm 117 (LXX 116) "Laudate Dominum" with the antiphon, "Let us forever adore the Most Holy Sacrament."

The monstrance is a vessel used in the Roman Catholic, Old Catholic and Anglican churches to display the consecrated Eucharistic host, during Eucharistic adoration or Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.  The monstrance is usually gold or silver and has an opening through which the Consecrated Host can be viewed.  Benediction is often employed as a conclusion to other services, e.g. Vespers, Compline, the Stations of the Cross, etc., but it is also still more generally treated as a rite complete in itself.  Created in the medieval period for the public display of relics, the monstrance today is usually restricted for vessels used for hosts.  The word monstrance comes from the Latin word monstrare, meaning "to show", and is cognate with the English word demonstrate, meaning "to show clearly".  In Latin, the monstrance is known as an ostensorium (from ostendere, "to show").