Lent: April 11th

MASS READINGS

April 11, 2025 (Readings on USCCB website)

PROPERS [Show]

Mass Propers for Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Entrance Antiphon, Ps 31 (30): 10, 16, 18: Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in distress. Deliver me from the hands of my enemies and those who pursue me. O Lord, let me never be put to shame, for I call on you.

Gospel Verse, Cf. Jn 6:63c, 68c: Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life; you have the words of everlasting life.

Preface I of the Passion of the Lord: It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God.

For through the saving Passion of your Son the whole world has received a heart to confess the infinite power of your majesty, since by the wondrous power of the Cross your judgment on the world is now revealed and the authority of Christ crucified.

And so, Lord, with all the Angels and Saints, we, too, give you thanks, as in exultation we acclaim:

Communion Antiphon, 1 Pt 2:24: Jesus bore our sins in his own body on the cross, so that dead to sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds we have been healed.

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Mass Propers for the Optional Memorial of St. Stanislaus (Common of Martyrs: for One Martyr):

Entrance Antiphon: This holy man fought to the death for the law of his God and did not fear the words of the godless, for he was built on solid rock.

Gospel Verse, Mt 5:10: Blessed are they who are persecuted for my sake of righteousness; for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

Communion Antiphon, Cf. Mt 16:24: Whoever wishes to come after me, must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me, says the Lord.

COLLECT PRAYER

Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent: Pardon the offenses of your peoples, we pray, O Lord, and in your goodness set us free from the bonds of the sins we have committed in our weakness. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

OR: O God, who in this season give your Church the grace to imitate devoutly the Blessed Virgin Mary in contemplating the Passion of Christ, grant, we pray, through her intercession, that we may cling more firmly each day to your Only Begotten Son and come at last to the fullness of his grace. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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Optional Memorial of St. Stanislaus: O God, for whose honor the Bishop Saint Stanislaus fell beneath the swords of his persecutors, grant we pray, that we may persevere strong in faith even until death. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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Recipes (2)

• Pierogi (Potato Dumplings)
• Polish Potato Pancakes IV

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Activities (4)

• Namedays
• Religion in the Home for Elementary School: April
• Religion in the Home for Preschool: April
• What is a Nameday?

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Prayers (4)

• Prayer for the Fifth Week of Lent
• Lent Table Blessing 4
• Book of Blessings: Blessing Before and After Meals: Lent (2nd Plan)
• Novena to St. Bernadette

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Library (3)

• Now Is the Time to Remember All These Martyrs and to Pay Them Due Honour | Pope Saint John Paul II
• Rutilans Agmen | Pope Saint John Paul II
• We Give Praise and Thanks to God That the Gospel Seed Has Borne Abundant Fruit | Pope Saint John Paul II

Blog & Podcasts (0)

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It is one week before Good Friday. Today's Mass is a further reminder of how hatred against Christ escalated in those final days before Holy Week. Fridays of Lent have a special penitential quality. —The Vatican II Weekday Missal

The Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. Stanislaus (1030-1079). Stanislaus was the Bishop of Cracow, Poland. A champion of the liberty of the Church and of the dignity of man, he defended the lonely and the poor. When he reproached King Boleslaus II for his immoral life, the king himself killed him during Mass. He is the patron saint of Poland.

Today's Station Church >>>

Meditation for Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent:
What do we do for the salvation of souls? It is true that we pray for one another, offer a few words of comfort, and do each other slight favors; but we do little more. Christ was more generous. He endured the crowning of thorns and dragged the heavy cross to Calvary. We pamper our bodies as if they were our last end. We prefer to have our heads crowned with laurels and roses. We are impatient and consider ourselves unfortunate whenever we are called on to carry a mere splinter of the cross of Christ. Are we one in spirit with Him?

Now, during Passiontide, we must begin to love and treasure pain and suffering. In the cross, in suffering, in our crucifixion with Christ, we shall find salvation. For Him and with Him we should bear all the slight injustices committed against us. For Him we should suffer freely and willingly the unpleasant and disagreeable things that occur to us. But our faith is weak. We flee from the cross instead of holding it dear, instead of loving it and welcoming it as our Savior did.

What St. Paul says of many Christians of his day is equally true of many in our time: "For many walk, of whom I have told you often (and now tell you weeping) that they are enemies of the cross of Christ. Whose end is destruction; whose God is their belly; whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things" (Phil. 3:18 f.).
—Excerpted from The Light of the World by Benedict Baur, O.S.B.

Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Station with Santo Stefano Rotondo al Celio (St Stephen's Rotunda at the Coelian Hill):

The Station, at Rome, is in the church of St. Stephen on Monte Celio (the Coelian Hill). The church is dedicated first to St. Stephen, the First Martyr, but is also dedicated unofficially to St. Stephen of Hungary.This is the Hungarian national church. This church is southeast of the Colosseum, off the usual beaten path. The actual site of the church was occupied by a set of barracks housing Roman soldiers. The earliest church was consecrated by Pope Simplicius between 468 and 483. Its architecture is unique in the Late Roman world and the oldest example of a circular church, often thought that it was modelled on the Anastasis of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Although the inside is circular, the exterior is on a cruciform plan. The church has undergone various periods of ruination, disrepair, and restoration. The relics of the first martyr were never in the church.

Besides being one of the original churches in the round, another key feature is found on the walls of the church, decorated with numerous frescoes, portraying 34 scenes of martyrdom, commissioned by Gregory XIII in the 16th century. Each painting has a titulus or inscription explaining the scene and giving the name of the emperor who ordered the execution, as well as a quotation from the Bible.

For more information on Santo Stefano Rotondo al Celio, see:

• Roman Churches
• Great Buildings
• Liturgical Arts Journal
• Rome Art Lover
• PNAC
• Aleteia
• Station Church

For further information on the Station Churches, see The Stational Church.

St. Stanislaus of Cracow
Stanislaus was born in 1030 and was educated at Gnesen and at Paris. After his ordination to the priesthood he was made a canon of the cathedral at Cracow as well as archdeacon and preacher. Upon the death of the bishop of Cracow, he was nominated bishop of the diocese by Pope Alexander II.

The king at the time, Boleslaus II, trying to strengthen his own power, led an expedition against the grand duchy of Kiev, making himself very unpopular with the nobles of the country, who opposed his policies. St. Stanislaus of Cracow sided with the nobles, led by the king's brother, Ladislaus, and this brought him into conflict with the king.

Stanislaus had opposed the king before for his tyrannical ways and once confronted him boldly for his immoral behavior when Boleslaus had abducted the wife of a Polish nobleman and carried her off to his castle. No one seemed willing to face the king from a fear of his rage, but Stanislaus boldly went to the king and threatened excommunication if he did not change his ways. Furious, the king promised revenge on the bishop. Later, Stanislaus sided with the nobles in their opposition to the king's political policies, and the king accused him of being a traitor and condemned him to death.

At first the king commanded his soldiers to kill the bishop when he was celebrating Mass at St. Michael's chapel in Cracow, but the soldiers refused, fearing to bring down upon themselves the wrath of God. Undeterred, the king himself entered the church, drew his sword, and killed the bishop, ordering his soldiers to dismember the body.

Pope Gregory VII placed the country under interdict and Boleslaus fell from power, fleeing to Hungary, where he entered the monastery of Osiak to do penance for his crime. Stanislaus, canonized by Pope Innocent IV in 1253, is one of the patron saints of Poland.
—The One Year Book of Saints by Rev. Clifford Stevens

Patronage: soldiers in battle; Poland; archdiocese of Cracow, Poland; city of Cracow, Poland; diocese of Plock, Poland; archdiocese of Warsaw

Symbols and Representation: Bishop being hacked to pieces at the foot of an altar; bishop with a sword

Highlights and Things to Do:

• Read more about St. Stanislaus:
  • Catholic Encyclopedia
  • Catholic Ireland 1
  • Catholic Ireland 2
  • Saints Stories for All Ages
  • Catholic Saints Info
• Learn a little more about the city of Kracow where both St. Stanislaus and Pope John Paul II came from.
• For those who are extremely interested in knowing more about Polish history this online book, Polish Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland may prove to be a good source of information.
• The final work of Franz Liszt is the unfinished oratorio St. Stanislaus, for which he left two scenes (one and four) and two polonaises. Learn more about this oratorio here and if you are able find a copy and listen.
• St. Stanislaus' relics are in the The Wawel Royal Cathedral of St Stanislaus and St Wenceslaus in Cracow, Poland.