Home Page
for
Lenten/Easter Season
Celebrated 25 February (Ash Wednesday)
through 31 May 2009 (Feast of Pentecost)
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Days to Lent 2009 |
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The
Passion of Christ - by DUCCIO di Buoninsegna - from Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena |
Rome has Spoken
Critics of the Mel Gibson movie, "The
Passion of the Christ," are confounded. That's because the pope has seen the film and
has extended his blessings. "It is as it was," Pope
John Paul II said.
Passion - by Mel Gibson
"See what it is to love"
Note Bene: These Web Pages for the Lenten/Easter Season have many full-size
museum paintings which dramatically compliment the Scripture readings and homily. The
artists (El Greco, Michelangelo, Rubens, Rembrandt, Raphael, et al) who drew them, spent
many months doing so, using their God-given talents. It is hoped that you will have the
patience to wait for them to download, and will spend time in contemplating their beauty
and spiritual message. Once downloaded from the Web for the first time, these pictures
will be loaded on to your screen from your hard disk and will be displayed much faster,
for all subsequent viewing. The El Greco below and the Duccio above are examples of the
fine art collected for these pages.
Christ
Carrying the Cross - by El GRECO - from Museo del Prado, Madrid
Several artists are particularly noted for
their contributions to the Lenten/Easter Season. One of these is the Dutch Master,
Rembrandt. Another is the Italian Master, Michelangelo Caravaggio who inflenced Mel Gibson
in his filming of the Passion. Web Pages containing their paintings of this period of
Jesus' life can be accessed below. Fourteen (14) El Greco masterpieces and other
Renaissance Art are also available.
From the Catholic Catechism
Christian Art was used for centuries as a
teaching tool, even as a catechism. The artist can help us to
see something in a new way, or to feel the emotion of an event centuries before. We can
use the image as a visual template to enter a scene in our imagination and thus experience
the great events of our salvation.
CCC-2502 Sacred art is true and
beautiful when its form corresponds to its particular vocation: evoking and glorifying, in
faith and adoration, the transcendent mystery of God - the surpassing invisible beauty of
truth and love visible in Christ, who "reflects the glory of God and bears the very
stamp of his nature," in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily."296
This spiritual beauty of God is reflected in the most holy Virgin Mother of God, the
angels, and saints. Genuine sacred art draws man to adoration, to prayer, and to the love
of God, Creator and Savior, the Holy One and Sanctifier.
Christ
at the Column - by ANTONELLO da Messina, from Musée du Louvre, Paris
Note Bene: For those interested in such things, the bloody sweat depicted in the
painting above by Antonello da Messina, is a well documented medical occurrence called
'Hematidrosis'. Under great emotional stress, tiny capillaries in the sweat glands can
break, thus causing bloody sweat.
 Lent
The forty days of Lent recall a number
of events. The forty days of Noah in the Ark; the
forty years of the Israelites in the
desert; the forty years from the death of Jesus to
the destruction of Jerusalem; the forty days from Jesus' Resurrection to His Ascension into Heaven; and above
all, the forty days of Jesus in the wilderness. All of these were times of preparation. In
the case of Noah, preparation for the renewed covenant; for the Israelites, preparation
for their entry into the promised land; for Jerusalem, time to repent for their
Deicide; for Jesus, preparation of the apostles to receive
the Holy Spirit; and again for Jesus, preparation for the start of His ministry.
How is Easter Sunday Determined?
Easter Sunday is the date of the annual
celebration of Christ's Resurrection from the Tomb, and is defined as the "Sunday following the
Paschal Full Moon (PFM)". The aim of the Easter dating method is to maintain for each
Easter Sunday, the same season of the year and the same relationship to the preceding
astronomical full moon that occurred at the time of His actual resurrection in 30 A.D.
Watch the countdown to Easter 2009.
The Lunar Tracker above will show the Pascal Full Moon
occurring at 14:56 on Thursday, 9 April 2009.
Easter is the first Sunday after the PFM, 12 April 2009.
The Forty Days of Lent
What's all this about forty days? Lent is from Ash
Wednesday to Easter Sunday and that makes forty-six days. The answer is that we do not
count Sundays in the forty days of lent. You can enjoy the Sunday as the Lord's day to
celebrate. Why not treat yourself to something as an encouragement to get on with Lent on
Monday?
It was quite early in the history of the Church that
the preparation for Easter took the form of forty days of special prayer and penance. The
number forty was in imitation of Christ who spent forty days in the desert. The Christians
in the Eastern tradition needed seven weeks to complete their forty days because they
excluded Saturday as well as Sunday from their days of penance. The Western tradition
excluded Sunday only so six weeks provided thirty six days, nearly enough. Still four days
more were needed to make up the forty. The solution was to start Lent three days before
the first Sunday. They did this in the Seventh century and so today we have Ash Wednesday,
forty days (and six Sundays) before Easter.
How do I Navigate This Lenten Web Site?
 All pages of this Lenten Web Site can be
accessed individually from the multi-colored matrices located at the top of this
Lenten/Easter Homepage. Some pages are stand-alone, i.e. they do not rely on
previous pages in order to portray their religious message. Other pages, such as the
five(5) pages that constitute the Passion of Jesus, as best viewed sequentially in order
to more clearly understand the gospel message. When sequential viewing is intended, a link
to the next page will be provided at the bottom of the current page. All pages will also
contain a link back to a homepage.
[The Spirit of Lent] [Lenten Homilies] [Historical Perspective]
[The Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 AD]
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