MASS READINGS
April 16, 2025 (Readings on USCCB website)
PROPERS [Show]
COLLECT PRAYER
Wednesday of Holy Week: O God, who willed your Son to submit for our sake to the yoke of the Cross, so that you might drive from us the power of the enemy, grant us, your servants, to attain the grace of the resurrection. 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.
Recipes (1)
Activities (12)
Prayers (6)
Library (11)
Blog & Podcasts (6)
» Enjoy our Liturgical Seasons series of e-books!
Wednesday of Holy Week is traditionally known as Spy Wednesday, to commemorate the treachery of Judas, who made a bargain with the high priest to betray Jesus for 30 silver pieces (Matt 26:14-16; Mark 14:10-11; Luke 22:1-6). This ends the official Lenten period; tomorrow we enter into the Holy Triduum, the three great liturgical days: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
In Poland, the young people throw an effigy of Judas from the top of a church steeple. Then it is dragged through the village amidst hurling sticks and stones. What remains of the effigy is drowned in a nearby stream or pond.
The Sacrament of Penance and the Easter Duty
One of the duties of a Catholic is to fulfill the six Precepts of the Church, the positive laws which are "meant to guarantee to the faithful the indispensable minimum in the spirit of prayer and moral effort, in the growth in love of God and neighbor" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2041). Two of these precepts directly relate to the upcoming Easter season. The third precept is "You shall humbly receive your Creator in Holy Communion at least during the Easter season." This is tied in with the second precept to "confess your sins at least once a year." If we want to receive Jesus worthily in Holy Communion during Easter, we need to cleanse our souls, especially of any mortal sin through the Sacrament of Penance. Most parishes offer extra confession times for Holy Week, but usually any priest is available on request to hear confession by appointment.
Meditation for Wednesday of Holy Week: Mary's Martyrdom
Five weeks ago, when St. Mary Major first appeared on the station church pilgrimage, the great Marian basilica and the readings of the day prompted a reflection on Jesus's mother as the paradigm of discipleship: the woman of faith whose articulated fiat—"Let it be to me according to your word" [Luke 1.28]—set the pattern for all subsequent followers of her son. Mary's articulated fiat was the prologue to the Incarnation, to the mission of Jesus, and to the Church; Mary's consent to bearing the Son of God pointed humanity into the two great mysteries of salvation history, the Incarnation and the Trinity.
Now, on "Spy Wednesday," the last full day of Lent, the stational pilgrimage returns to what Romans know as the "Liberian Basilica." On the eve of the Paschal Triduum, the forces of darkness are closing in on the Light of the world, and the Lamb of God is preparing to celebrate his last Passover before he enters into the mystery of the new and definitive Passover of his own death. On this day of lengthening shadows and foreboding, the Lenten pilgrim's attention is naturally drawn to Mary's "second fiat": the inarticulate, silent fiat at the foot of the Cross, where the Redemptoris Mater (the Mother of the Redeemer, as Blessed John Paul II entitled his 1987 encyclical on Our Lady) receives the dead body of her son and conforms her will to the inscrutable will of God once again.
In recent centuries, as other Christian communities have come to a deeper appreciation of Mary's unique role in salvation history, there have also been notable developments of Marian doctrine in the Catholic Church. These developments are both Christological and ecclesiological; they deepen our understanding of the mystery of Christ and of the mystery of the Church. In 1854, Blessed Pius IX, after consulting the world episcopate, declared that Mary had been preserved from original sin in order to be the Theotokos, the God-Bearer, this is the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, the celebration of which, on December 8, is the patronal feast of the United States. In 1950, Pope Pius XII, again after consulting the world episcopate, declared that Mary had been assumed into heaven soul and body; as the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it, Mary's Assumption was "a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians." Thus Mary is both the origin of the Church and the icon of the Church in glory—a "sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim People of God," as the Fathers of Vatican II wrote in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.
Over two millennia, the Church has honored Mary with many titles, the most beautiful of which are in the Litany of Loretto: "Mirror of Justice," "Seat of Wisdom, "Mystical Rose," "Gate of Heaven," "Refuge of Sinners,""Comforter of the Afflicted," and so forth. Yet while many Christians are aware of these various titles for the Mother of God, few are familiar with the idea of Mary as martyr. Today's statio, coming two days before that martyrdom is proclaimed in the Johannine Passion narrative, is an apt moment to reflect on this often unremarked aspect of Mary's life and witness.
The idea of Mary as a martyr who, like the Beloved Disciple who stands with her at the foot of the Cross, does not die the typical martyr's death, is a venerable one: St. Bernard of Clairvaux invoked it in the eleventh century in a sermon that the Church reads every year on September 15, the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. There, Bernard reflects on the "sword" (Luke 2.35) that Simeon prophesied would pierce the soul of Mary and identifies it with the soldier's spear that pierced the side of Mary's dead son, bringing forth the blood and water that are signs of Baptism and the Eucharist:
Truly, O blessed Mother, a sword has pierced your heart. For only by passing through your heart could the sword enter the flesh of your Son. Indeed, after your Jesus—who belongs to everyone, but is especially yours—gave up his life, the cruel spear, which was not withheld from his lifeless body, tore open his side. Clearly it did not touch his soul and could not harm him, but it did pierce your heart. For surely his soul was no longer there, but yours could not be torn away. Thus the violence of sorrow has cut through your heart, and we rightly call you more than martyr, since the effect of compassion in you has gone beyond the endurance of physical suffering. ...
Perhaps someone will say ... "Did she not expect him to rise again? ..." Surely, "And still she grieved over her crucified Son?" Intensely. Who are you and what is the source of your wisdom that you are more surprised at the compassion of Mary than at the Passion of Mary's Son? For if he could die in body, could she not be with him in spirit? He died in body through a love greater than anyone had known. She died in spirit through a love unlike any other since his.
Mary's martyrdom is thus a martyrdom of love, born of unfailing fidelity to the designs of Providence.
—George Weigel, Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches
Wednesday of Holy Week
Station with Santa Maria Maggiore (St. Mary Major):
The Station today is at St. Mary Major for the second time during Lent. As we set our eyes on the Sacred Triduum, it is good to stand in solidarity with our Mother of Sorrows as we contemplate our Redemption.
For more on Santa Maria Maggiore, see:
For further information on the Station Churches, see The Stational Church.
