Entering into Lent: A Mission and a Meditation
First, for our friends in Birmingham: a Lenten Mission:
We encourage you to attend a special Lenten Mission at the Cathedral on March 17-19 given by our Dominican priests from the Angelicum! Learn more here.
Second, a Meditation: As we enter upon this holy season of Lent, we invite all of you to join us in praying a traditional Dominican devotion called the Canticle of the Passion. Our Lady revealed this devotion to the cloistered Dominican St. Catherine de Ricci, as a way to meditate with love on the Passion of Our Lord.
In his book Reading the Song of Songs with St. Thomas Aquinas, Fr. Serge-Thomas Bonino, O.P., says:
The manifestation of the love of God in Jesus Christ, which provokes in return human love for God, attains its maximum intensity in the humiliations of the Passion. There, the divine mercy reveals itself fully and consequently deploys all its power of attraction:
And so thus lifted up “I will draw all things to myself,” through love; “I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore have I drawn you, taking pity on you” (Jer 31:3). Furthermore, the love of God for men appears most clearly in the fact that he condescended to die for them: “God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). By doing this he fulfilled the request of the bride: “draw me after you, and we will run to the aroma of your perfume” (Song 1:3). [From St. Thomas’ commentary on John’s Gospel.]
We invite you to take ten minutes (the length of this video) to slow down, turn off distractions and notifications, and enter into the contemplative silence of this meditation. A Sister sings the Latin verses, which we have subtitled in English; during the pause that follows each verse, the sacred art helps us contemplate and absorb the meaning of each meditation on Our Lord’s Passion.
Each time we pray this meditation, we can enter into it more deeply, as the newness and the details we notice for the first time give way to a more profound silence and appreciation.
We hope you join us in praying the Canticle of the Passion this Lent.
Learn more about St. Catherine de Ricci. Learn more about the Canticle of the Passion.
Bonus: Learn more about Lent in the monastery!