Friday 13 March 2009


The convent and arch of the Ecce Homo in Jerusalem, the start of the Via Dolorosa


One of the many customs at the Holy Land is to keep stational masses on the Fridays of Lent. They correspond to the five sorrowful mysteries and the sixth Friday (before Palm Sunday) is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows. There are stational masses for these days in the Holy Land Missal and their texts are very moving indeed.
Using that reckoning today is the Ecce Homo Friday – Christ crowned with thorns.

The collect for today says:
All-powerful God, grant that, in the memorial of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ we may venerate his Crown of thorns on earth, so that we may be crowned by him with glory and honour in heaven. This we ask….

The post communion prayer says:
We humbly beg you, all-powerful God, that the Eucharistic bread which we have received in the solemn memorial of the holy Crown of Christ your Son be for all of us a sure pledge of eternal life.

Next Friday will be the commemoration of mysteries of the way of the cross, or as some in Jerusalem like to call it, the feast of the Via Dolorosa.

The liturgical customs of the Church significantly enrich our Lenten discipline and meditation.

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