Quinquagesima Sunday - "And the greatest of these is love"

Quinquagesima is the name for the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. It was also called Esto mihi after the opening words of the Introit, taken from Psalm 31:3.

The Gospel tells us the wonderful story of the man who was blind and our Lord, hearing his cry for aid, miraculously cures him.

The name stems from the Latin quinquagesimus (fiftieth) which refers to the fifty days before Easter Day, counting so as to include Sundays.

Since the forty days of the Lenten fast do not include Sundays, the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, succeeds Quinquagesima Sunday three days later.



The earliest Quinquagesima can occur is 1 February and the latest is 7 March. This year, 2012, it falls upon 19 February.

Needless to say, Archbishop Annibale Bugnini with his egalitarian-republican-Liberal-Modernist preference for the grey, the dull and the tedious did away with this day in his Novus Ordo Missae Calendar, together with the two preceding Sundays, Sexagesima and Septuagesima.

It is, of course, retained in the traditional mass and the lesson is taken from St Paul's Letter to the Corinthians [1 Cor. 13. 1] with that most beautiful of passages so evocative of the Christian Catholic faith.

Let us conclude with it.

THOUGH I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three:

BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE IS


LOVE

Love never faileth...

...

Beautiful hymn to a mother...

I think this the most poignantly beautiful tribute I have ever seen.

The music is by 15th century Spanish composer Juan de Anchieta and is entitled Con Amores La Mi Madre and is here performed by performed by the Kings' Singers.

The accompanying selection of photographs are of Signora Carla Cintoli (nee Aldega), from her childhood to 1981, presented by her devoted sons Alessandro and Fabrizio.

A few months after the last picture presented, Signora Cintoli avoided being photographed, although still very attractive, but she became ill and died in 2000, aged only 67, it seems, but clearly mourned by her family. Her husband, Sergio, died in the same year, aged 70.

Surely this devotion by her sons to the memory of their mother is both a reminder of the sadness of this life when we are compelled to witness the loss of those we love and yet, also, evidence that love never dies.

Here, surely, is a reflection of the love of God for us and especially for His mother.

Can it be that such love does not endure beyond life and death as the poor atheists tell themselves? Of course not.

Yes, we may be sure that this love endures and lives forever, both here and in the beyond.

That is because God is love and, to use the dying words of the great Ecuadorean martyr, Gabriel Garcia Morena: Dios no muere - God never dies.

Con amores, la mi madre

Con amores, la mi madre
con amores m'adormí
Asi dormida soñaba lo que el corazon velaba,
Qu'el amor me consalabe
Con mas bien que mereci.

With love, my mother,
I fell asleep with love.
I dreamed about my heart's care
and love consoled me
far more than I deserved.


...

Quinquagesima Sunday

Quinquagesima is the name for the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. It was also called Esto mihi after the opening words of the Introit, taken from Psalm 31:3.

The Gospel tells us the wonderful story of the man who was blind and our Lord, hearing his cry for aid, miraculously cures him.

The name stems from the Latin quinquagesimus (fiftieth) which refers to the fifty days before Easter Day, counting so as to include Sundays.

Since the forty days of the Lenten fast do not include Sundays, the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, succeeds Quinquagesima Sunday three days later.



The earliest Quinquagesima can occur is 1 February and the latest is 7 March. This year, 2011, it falls upon 6 March, and so very late.

Needless to say, Archbishop Annibale Bugnini with his egalitarian-republican-Liberal-Modernist preference for the grey, the dull and the tedious did away with this day in his Novus Ordo Missae Calendar, together with the two preceding Sundays, Sexagesima and Septuagesima.

It is, of course, retained in the traditional mass and the lesson is taken from St Paul's Letter to the Corinthians [1 Cor. 13. 1] with that most beautiful of passages so evocative of the Christian Catholic faith.

Let us conclude with it.

THOUGH I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three:

BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE IS


LOVE

Love never faileth...

...