Have a lugubrious Lent


"Have a lugubrious Lent" was a greeting invented by a boy at my school in a whimsical moment. More seriously, may the good Lord assist you with his divine grace in the penances that you undertake.

I celebrated three Masses at Blackfen today, one of them according to the usus antiquior. There was a good number of young families at Mass today, but quite a few people seem not to bother with Ash Wednesday nowadays. Perhaps this is partly down to the fact that since the Holydays of precept have been moved to Sunday, it is harder to imagine coming to Mass during the week voluntarily, even when a popular sacramental is on offer.

The above photo is a screen grab posted by Fr Z from the CTV coverage of the Holy Father's Mass at Santa Sabina today. He has lots more and there are plenty of encouraging liturgical details: pontifical dalmatic, Cardinals in dalmatics, no concelebration, "Philip cut" Roman vestments... all as we are now becoming accustomed to.

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