1st Sunday of LentOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(St Peter's Chair) This feast has been celebrated in Rome since at least the fourth century. It signifies the unity of the Church founded upon the Apostles.

Saints Cyril, monk, and Methodius, BishopOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassSt Methodius (826? - 885) He was born in Thessalonica. With his brother Cyril he went to Moravia to preach the faith. They translated liturgical texts into the Slavonic language and invented the Glagolithic and possibly also the Cyrillic alphabet. After his brother’s death he went to Pannonia, where he was assiduous in the work of evangelization. In the complicated international politics of the time he suffered much from attacks by his enemies, but he was always supported by the Popes. He died on 6 April 885. See the article on Cyril and Methodius in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.St Cyril (827? - 869) He was born in Thessalonica and was educated in Constantinople. With his brother Methodius he went to Moravia to preach the faith. They translated liturgical texts into the Slavonic language and invented the Glagolithic and possibly also the Cyrillic alphabet. They were called back to Rome, where Cyril died on 14 February 869. See the article in Wikipedia and the article on Cyril and Methodius in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.(Saint Valentine, Martyr)

Saturday after Ash Wednesday, (commemoration of Saint Peter Damian, Bishop, Doctor) Office of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(St Peter Damian (1007 - 1072)) Peter Damian was born in Ravenna in 1007 and studied theology and canon law, becoming a renowned teacher in both Parma and Ravenna. In his late twenties he abandoned all this and joined the hermitage of Fonte Avellana, near Gubbio, where he became prior in 1043: a position he held until his death. He strongly promoted the religious life in many parts of Italy. The Church at that time was in a terrible state and he supported the Popes in their efforts at reform, both by his writings and as a papal envoy. Pope Stephen IX named him a cardinal and Bishop of Ostia. He died on 21 February 1072 and was immediately acclaimed as a saint. See the article in Wikipedia.(St Robert Southwell (1561 - 1595)) Although a Norfolk man by birth, Robert Southwell spent part of his boyhood at Roughway (now Roffey) Place near Horsham, which belonged to his mother’s family. She was a Copley, and her own mother a Shelley – both staunch Sussex Catholic families. Robert’s cousin Margaret Copley married John Gage of Firle. It was she who pressed through the crowd to ask Robert’s blessing on his way to Tyburn, and who was subsequently imprisoned for harbouring priests.At the age of fifteen, in 1576, Robert was sent to school at Douai and then to Paris. Before he was seventeen, he had decided to apply to join the Jesuits. The Belgian novitiate was closed because of the war between Spain and the Netherlands, so he walked to Rome and was accepted there. He was ordained priest in 1584 and for a time was Prefect of Studies at the Venerable English College in Rome.His great desire was to return to England, and in 1586 he was sent here with Father Henry Garnet. Before the end of the year he was established at Arundel House in the Strand, as chaplain to Anne, the wife of St Philip Howard, who was then imprisoned in the Tower. From Arundel House Robert conducted a remarkable apostolate. He had great gifts as a writer. His letters to St Philip Howard played a great part in strengthening Philip’s resolve during the long years of his imprisonment. Later they were printed, from a secret place in London, as “An Epistle of Comfort”. He also wrote many poems, the best-known being “The Burning Babe”, and among his prose works was “A Humble Supplication to Her Majestie”, on behalf of persecuted Catholics. His writings were widely read and held in high esteem by the literary men of the time.Robert was an organiser as well as a poet, and was reckoned by the authorities as “the chief dealer for the papists in England”. He was responsible for getting candidates for the priesthood out of the country for their training abroad, and for finding accommodation for those returning to work here. Small wonder that he was the priest most ardently sought by the infamous priest-hunter, Richard Topcliffe.By 1592, after Robert had spent six years in England, Topcliffe was hard on his heels. He knew that Robert had been at Roffey that year, but did not attempt to arrest him in that Catholic stronghold. But later that year Topcliffe put pressure on a Catholic girl, Anne Bellamy, to betray Robert. She asked him to come to see her at her home near Harrow. Topcliffe and his men arrived, and surrounded the house. When Robert realised that he had been betrayed, he came forward. Topcliffe had to be forcibly restrained from killing him there and then.Robert Southwell was a great prize. Topcliffe took him to his own house, and there had him tortured ten times over a space of four days, “worse than the rack”. Constantly questioned under torture to betray his friends, he consistently refused to give any names, even at the beginning his own. He was then moved to the Gatehouse Prison, and after a month there in the most squalid conditions he was committed to the Tower, where he remained for two and a half years. All this time he had not been brought to trial, and in the end he asked that he should be tried. In February 1595 he was tried for treason, on the ground that he was a priest remaining in the country against the law of 1585, and condemned to be hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. The following day, 21 February 1595, the sentence was carried out. As he stood on the cart at Tyburn, after praying for the Queen, he said: “I acknowledge that I am a priest (I thank God most highly for it), and of the Society of Jesus. I commend into the hands of Almighty God my poor country, desiring him for his infinite mercy’s sake to reduce it to such perfect insights, knowledge and understanding of the truth that they may learn to praise and glorify God, and gain their soul’s health and eternal salvation.” Then he died, aged 33, and we are told that there was not one bystander to cry “Traitor”.Some time before his arrest he had written to his Superior General: “It seems to me that I see the beginning of a religious life set on foot in England, of which we now sow the seed in tears, that others hereafter may with joy carry in the sheaves to the heavenly granaries. We look for the time (if we are not unworthy of so great a glory) when our day shall come.” He was canonised as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales in 1970.

Friday after Ash WednesdayOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(Bl. Christopher of Milan OP (c.1410 - 1484)) Dominican Friar and Priest.Blessed Christopher was born at Milan around 1410. He dedicated his whole life to itinerant preaching after the example of Saint Vincent Ferrer. The austerity of his life and his zeal for souls led an ancient chronicler to say of him: “He was truly a Christ-bearer, for he carried Christ not only in name, but in his heart and on his lips.” While master of novices for the Dominican Order he wrote a treatise On the Service of God for them. He died at Taggia in March, 1484.

Thursday after Ash WednesdayOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(Day of Sanctifying Works (Vietnam)) The third day of the Vietnamese New year celebration is concerned with what we are going to do with this new year which has been given us. It is a celebration of human work. As Christians we do not find fulfilment by self-absorbed self-contemplation. We do.The First Reading tells how God put man in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and take care of it. In the Second Reading Paul boasts to the Ephesians how he has never asked them for money to support him in his preaching: when he needed money, he sat down and made tents. The Gospel is one of the most terrifying of all: the Parable of the Talents, which tells of the terrible fate of anyone who is given talents and uses them purely for sitting around and feeling safe.(Bl. Alvarez of Cordoba OP ( - 1430)) Dominican Friar and Priest.Born at Zamora, Spain, towards the middle of the fourteenth century, Blessed Alvarez entered the Order in 1368. He preached throughout Spain and Italy and established the priory of Scala Caeli at Cordova where he promoted the regular life. By his preaching and contemplation of the Lord’s Passion he spread the practice of the Way of the Cross throughout the West. He died on February 19, about the year 1430.

Ash WednesdayOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassAsh Wednesday Lent is the forty-day period of preparation for Easter, which is marked by prayer, fasting and almsgiving.How exactly those forty days are calculated has varied across the world and at different times in history. In Jerusalem in the fourth century, Lent was 40 fasting days, but those were spread over eight weeks because Saturday and Sunday were not fast days. The way we calculate Lent today, Sundays are not fast days, so Lent spreads over six and a half weeks, which means that it begins on Ash Wednesday.We all remember Ash Wednesday because of the ashes. They commemorate the ‘repentance in sackcloth and ashes’ which is a sign of mourning and penance throughout the Old Testament. We go up in turn to the altar and have ashes rubbed into our foreheads as the priest says some variant of ‘Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.’ This mark stays on us through the rest of the day, like a Hindu caste mark, unless prudence or fear make us wipe it off.Being reminded that we are dust does not mean being told we are worthless. What we are being told is that our value comes not from ourselves, but through us, from God. If people were light-bulbs, we would find it easy to understand this. A light-bulb does not produce light. It cannot. What a light-bulb can do (and a working light-bulb does do) is take the energy given to it from outside, and shine brightly by accepting and transforming what it has received. If we understand the true source of value, we avoid the perils of both pride and depression. If we shine brightly in this world, that does not come from within ourselves. It is because we deal faithfully with whatever power we have been given us – greater power or lesser power – as in the parable of the talents, the two good servants take what their master has given them and do something with it.Ash Wednesday falls on a Wednesday in most parts of the world, but not quite all. In Milan, the ashes are imposed on the first Sunday of Lent. In Vietnam, the celebration of the lunar New Year occasionally collides with Ash Wednesday, in which case Ash Wednesday is slightly postponed. For instance, in 2026 Ash Wednesday in Vietnam is celebrated on the Friday.(Day of Venerating Ancestors (Vietnam)) The second day of the Vietnamese New year celebration is as concerned with the family as the first day was, but in terms of all our ancestors, who made this family what it is, and without whom it would not exist at all.“Ancestor worship” is the way many of us were taught to think of (and look down on) the pagan religions of the East, just as “saint-worship” is what many Protestants despise us for. The response in both cases is the same: veneration is not worship, and if we remember that all veneration of created things is ultimately worship of the God who created them, all is well.As you might expect, the Second Reading and the Gospel at Mass today concentrate on the commandment ‘Honour your father and your mother’. The First Reading is the opening of the (long) hymn of praise and veneration of the ancestors and patriarchs of Israel: ‘Let us praise illustrious men, our ancestors in their successive generations. The Lord has created an abundance of glory, and displayed his greatness from earliest times.’(Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara, Priest) (Bl. John of Fiesole OP (c.1386 - 1455)) Dominican Friar and Priest, better known as Fra Angelico.Guido of Vicchio was born in the region of Tuscany in 1386 or 1387 and studied art in Florence while still a young man. Feeling drawn to religious life he entered the Dominican Order at the convent of San Domenico in Fiesole. This convent had recently been established as a house of regular observance by Blessed John Dominic whose name he took when he entered. He served as superior of San Domenico, promoted regular observance and handed on the fruits of his contemplation through his paintings for the altars at Fiesole and for the convent of San Marco in Florence. He was called to Rome by Pope Eugene IV to decorate two chapels, one in the Basilica of St. Peter and one in the Vatican. Pope Nicholas V also commissioned him to decorate his private chapel at the Vatican. His work is also found in the convent of San Domenico in Cortona and the cathedral at Orvieto. Pope Eugene IV wished to appoint him archbishop of Florence, but he declined in favor of Saint Antoninus. On February 18, 1455, he died in Rome at Santa Maria sopra Minerva and was buried there. The special quality of his painting earned him the title “Fra Angelico.”

Tuesday of week 6 in Ordinary Time, or The Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order Office of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(The Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order) In the early thirteenth century seven young Florentines formed a confraternity of laymen devoted to the praise of Mary. In 1233, after a vision on the feast of the Assumption, they took up the life of hermits on Monte Senario outside Florence. They went preaching through the whole of Tuscany and founded the order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Servites, whose foundation was approved by the Pope in 1304. Their feast is celebrated today because one of the seven founders, Saint Alexius Falconieri, died on 17 February 1310. See the articles on the Servites in the Catholic Encyclopaedia and Wikipedia.(The Vietnamese New Year: first day) The Vietnamese calendar is like the ancient Greek, Jewish, and Chinese calendars in that it has real months, not synthetic ones: each month ends when the old moon has died and starts when the new moon first appears. As for the year, the Athenian calendar used to start a new year at the new moon after the summer solstice. The Vietnamese and Chinese calendars start it on the new moon after the new moon after the winter solstice. Differences in astronomical calculations mean that the Vietnamese and Chinese New Years are sometimes on the same day and sometimes a lunar month apart.Vietnam adopted the Gregorian calendar for official purposes in stages between 1954 and 1975, but the rites, traditions and celebration of the Vietnamese New Year remain on its proper date.As at our Christmas, there is day after day of celebration and families travel long distances to be together. Some New Year traditions are practically identical in Vietnam, Northumberland and Scotland – such as “first-footing”, the tradition that whoever is the first to enter the house on New Year’s Day will give luck to everyone throughout the year.The Church has always sought to fulfil pagan traditions rather than abolish them, and the liturgical celebration of the Vietnamese New Year happens across three or four days:New Year’s Eve is celebrated in the Vigil Mass of New Year’s Day. The readings and celebrate the glory of God and his kindness to his people, and the Gospel reading is of the Beatitudes.New Year’s Day: the first reading at Mass is of the Creation of heaven and earth; the second reading and the Gospel are reminders that we should not worry about things for ourselves but pray to God because he looks after us always. The Entrance Antiphon rejoices at the coming of Spring:Behold, the winter has passed,the cold rains have ceased upon our doorsteps.The blossoms now rise in radiant array,spreading their fragrant perfume across the fields.The season of joy and song returns,and the voice of the birds is heard throughout the villages.Occasionally the Vietnamese New Year coincides with the beginning of Lent. In such years Ash Wednesday is postponed to the fourth day of the Vietnamese New Year in order not to interfere with the New Year celebrations.(Saint Fintan of Clonenagh) Saint Fintan was born in Leinster. He received his religious formation in Terryglass, Co. Tipperary under the abbot Colum, and was deeply influenced by his penitential practices and the severity of the Rule. Fintan made his own foundation in Clonenagh, Co. Laois. He died in 603. See the article in Wikipedia.(Blessed William Richardson (1572 - 1603)) He was born in Yorkshire and studied for the priesthood at seminaries in Valladolid and then Seville. He was ordained priest at some time between 1594 and 1600. He was then sent back to England, where he used the alias William Anderson, but he was quickly betrayed, arrested and imprisoned. He was tried and convicted within a week and hanged, drawn, and quartered.

Monday of week 6 in Ordinary TimeOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(Bl. Nicholas of Paglia OP (1197 - 1256)) Dominican Friar and Priest.Blessed Nicholas was born at Giovinazzo, near Bari, Italy, in 1197. While pursuing studies at Bologna, he was drawn to the Dominican Order by a sermon of Saint Dominic who personally gave him the habit and made him one of his traveling companions. He was well-known for his preaching throughout the Roman Province and compiled a concordance of sacred scripture. He died at Perugia in 1256.

6th Sunday in Ordinary TimeOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(Saint Sigfrid of Växjö, Bishop) (St Claude La Colombière (1641-1682)) Claude la Colombière (1641-1682) was born in France, joined the Society of Jesus in 1659, and was ordained a priest ten years later. In 1675, he was appointed superior of the Jesuit residence in Paray-le-Monial. There he also became the spiritual director of Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitation nun, who was missioned by Christ to promote devotion to his Sacred Heart, in collaboration with Colombière. On learning about this mission, Saint Claude, after prayerful discernment, authenticated the supernatural experiences of Margaret Mary, and became both her supporter and a zealous apostle of the devotion. His preaching and writing helped propagate widespread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1676 he was missioned to be the personal preacher of the Duchess of York. His zeal and the stresses of court intrigue harmed his health, and he began to develop illnesses of the throat and lungs. He was imprisoned as a result of false accusations and deported in 1679. He returned to Lyon, then to Paray-le-Monial, where he died in 1682.

Pope Francis' top diplomats met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance on April 19, where the two sides discussed migrants and refugees following months of clashes between U.S. church leaders and the Trump administration over immigration policy and foreign aid.