It is most fitting that the Station for the first Sunday in the most solemn season of the year is at the Mater et Caput omnium Ecclesiarum, the Cathedral of the Holy Roman Church, the Basilica of the Most Holy Savior in the Lateran, better known by the secondary patronage under Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. In the primitive days of the Roman Church, before four ferias were added by Saint Gregory the Great (or some other Pontiff in the following decades) to complete 40 days of fasting, the Station at the Lateran, the old palatial basilica on the ancient estate of the Lateran family handed to Saint Sylvester, signaled the beginning of Lent (from the Secret of the Mass: "sacrificium quadragesimalis initii", of the beginning of the Lenten sacrifice).
It is always refreshing for Catholics to see the Traditional Mass celebrated once again in this Mother and Head of all Churches. In early Eastertide, the Traditional Mass will be celebrated at least twice in the Lateran: on April 16 (Thursday), 10 AM, by Father Stefano Maria Manelli, Superior of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, celebrating the 800th anniversary of the Rule of Saint Francis (the Rule of 1209); and, on the anniversary of the City of Rome, April 21 (Tuesday), 10 AM, by His Eminence Cardinal Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
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Source: AGI News Agency.
Source: AGI News Agency.
