MARCH 2, 2025 – ST. SIMPLICIUS, POPE.

• Blessed Charles the Good (1124). Martyr, Patron or Patroness. Male counts & crusader. (Historical)

QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY & THE FORTY HOURS’ DEVOTION.

QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY is the third day preceding Ash Wednesday. That holy season is approaching when the Church denies herself her songs of joy in order the more forcibly to remind us, her children, that we are living in a Babylon of spiritual danger, and to excite us to regain that genuine Christian spirit which every thing in the world around us is striving to undermine. If we are obliged to take part in the amusements of the few days before Lent, let it be with a heart deeply imbued with the maxims of the Gospel. But, as a substitute for frivolous amusements and dangerous pleasures, the Church offers a feast surpassing all earthly enjoyments, and a means whereby we can make some amends to God for the insults offered to His divine majesty. The Lamb that taketh away the sins of the world is exposed upon our altars. On this His throne of mercy He receives the homage of those who come to adore Him and acknowledge Him for their King; He accepts the repentance of those who come to tell Him how grieved they are at having followed any other Master; and He offers Himself again to His Eternal Father as a propitiation for those sinners who yet treat His favors with indifference. It was the pious Cardinal Gabriel Paleotti, Archbishop of Bologna, who, in the sixteenth century, first originated the admirable devotion of the Forty Hours. His object in this solemn exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament was to offer to the Divine Majesty some compensation for the sins of man, and, at the very time when the world was busiest in deserving His anger, to appease it by the sight of His own Son, the Mediator between heaven and earth. Pope Benedict XIV granted many indulgences to all the faithful of the Papal States who, during these days, should visit Our Lord in this mystery of His love, and should pray for the pardon of sinners. This favor, at first so restricted, afterward was extended by Pope Clement XIII to the Universal Church. Thus the Forty Hours’ Devotion has spread throughout the whole world and become one of the most solemn expressions of Catholic piety.

REFLECTION: Let us then go apart, for at least one short hour, from the dissipation of earthly enjoyments, and, kneeling in the presence of our Jesus, merit the grace to keep our hearts innocent and detached.

ed. note:  This doesn’t seem to be happening anymore right before Lent as proposed (at least by surveying parishes generally), but the reader is invited to see what was going on in Mother Church at the end of the 19th century and turn of the 20th century. 

ST. SIMPLICIUS, POPE.

ST. SIMPLICIUS was the ornament of the Roman clergy under SS. Leo and Hilarius, and succeeded the latter in the pontificate in 497. He was raised by God to comfort and support his Church amidst the greatest storms. All the provinces of the Western Empire, out of Italy, were fallen into the hands of barbarians. The emperors for many years were rather shadows of power than sovereigns, and in the eighth year of the pontificate of Simplicius, Rome itself fell a prey to foreigners. Italy, by oppressions and the ravages of barbarians, was left al most a desert without inhabitants; and the imperial armies consisted chiefly of barbarians, hired under the name of auxiliaries. These soon saw their masters were in their power. The IIeruli demanded one-third of the lands of Italy, and, upon refusal, chose for their leader Odoacer, one of the lowest extraction, but a resolute and intrepid man, who was proclaimed king at Rome in 476. He put to death Orestes, who was regent of the empire for his son Augustulus, whom the senate had advanced to the imperial throne. Odoacer spared the life of Augustulus, and appointed him a salary of six thousand pounds of gold, and permitted him to live at full liberty near Naples. Pope Simplicius was wholly taken up in comforting and relieving the afflicted, and in sowing the seeds of the Catholic faith among the barbarians. The East gave his zeal no less employment and concern. Peter Cnapheus, a violent Eutychian, was made by the heretics patriarch of Antioch; and Peter Mongus, one of the most profligate men, that of Alexandria. Acacius, the patriarch of Constantinople, received the sentence of St. Simplicius against Chapheus, but supported Mongus against him and the Catholic Church, and was a notorious changeling, double dealer, and artful hypocrite, who often made religion serve his own private ends. St. Simplicius at length discovered his artifices, and redoubled his zeal to maintain the holy faith, which he saw betrayed on every side, whilst the patriarchal sees of Alexandria and Antioch were occupied by furious wolves, and there was not one Catholic king in the whole world. The emperor measured every thing by his passions and human views. St. Simplicius having sat fifteen years, eleven months, and six days, went to receive the reward of his labors, in 483. He was buried in St. Peter’s on the 2d of March.

REFLECTION: “He that trusteth in God, shall fare never the worse,” saith the Wise Man in the Book of Ecclesiasticus.

WORD OF THE DAY

CATECHISM. A popular manual of instruction in Christian doctrine. In the early Church, catechetical instruction was standardized in preparation for baptism as in the writings of St. Augustine (354-430) and St. Gregory of Nyssa (330-95). After the invention of printing, books of catechetical instruction multiplied. The best known catechisms in the Catholic Church are St. Peter Canisius’ Summa of Christian Doctrine (1555) and the Catechism of the Council of Trent, or Roman Catechism (1566). Numerous catechisms were published in various countries authorized by their respective hierarchies, e.g., the so-called Penny Catechism in Great Britain and the series of Baltimore Catechisms in the United States. Since the Second Vatican Council, all catechisms published by ecclesiastical authority must also be "submitted to the Apostolic See for review and approval" (General Catechetical Directory, 119).

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)

March is the Month of St. Joseph

Daily devotional meditations on Saint Joseph: March 2d — St. Joseph’s Parentage and Birth.

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