2008/03/24

First Sunday of Easter

It is on Sunday that we all assemble, because Sunday is the first day: the day on which God transformed darkness and matter and created the world, and the day on which Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead. He was crucified on the eve of Saturn's day, and on the day after, that is, on the day of the sun, he appeared to his apostles and disciples and taught them what we have now offered for your examination.

Justin
Second Century

2008/03/19

Holy Thursday

Maundy Thursday served as a preparation for the feast of Easter about to follow. The penitents were to be able to join in the Easter celebrations; therefore they had to be "reconciled" on the day before the Paschal Triduum began, that is, on Maundy Thursday.


Josef Jungmann



濯足日乃是為著緊接著到來之復活節筵席所做的預備。因為悔罪者能夠在復活節的慶典中加入,因此在逾越節之三重日之前那天,也就是濯足日,他們必須被「復和」。


馮曼

Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Lent

Father of life and God not of the dead but of the living,
you sent your Son to proclaim life,
to snatch us from the realm of death,
and to lead us to the resurrection.

Free these elect
from the death-dealing power of the spirit of evil,
so that they may bear witness
to their new life in the risen Christ.


Rite of Christian
Initiation of Adults



生命的父,不是死人的,乃是活人的上帝,
你差派你的聖子來宣揚生命,
拯救我們脫離死亡的權勢,
領我們進入復活之中。

求你釋放那些從邪靈死亡權勢中所揀選的人,
使得他們能夠為他們在復活基督裡的新生命作見證。


基督教禮儀
成人入會禮

2008/03/18

Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Lent

Not only our ancestors alone did the Holy One redeem but us as well, along with them, as it is written: "And God freed us from Egypt so as to take us and give us the land which had been sworn to our ancestors."

Therefore, let us rejoice at the wonder of our deliverence: from bondage to freedom, from agony to joy, from mourning to festivity, from darkness to light, from servitude to redemption. Before God let us ever sing a new song.

The Passover
Haggadah



聖者所救贖的不僅是我們的祖先,我們也在其中,正如經上記著:「上帝將我們從埃及釋放出來,為了領我們,並將那已經立約要賜給我們祖先的應許之地賜予我們。
因此,讓我們為我們蒙拯救的奇妙歡喜,就是從綑綁到自由,從痛苦到喜樂,從哀哭到歡慶,從黑暗到光明,從為奴到得贖。在上帝面前,讓我們不斷地唱新歌。


逾越節軼事

2008/03/17

Monday of the Sixth Week of Lent

When the church is reborn of water in this same Spirit, she becomes one body in Christ, so that they are two in s single body.

This wedding lasts from the first moment of Christ's incarnation until his return, so that all its rites may be completed. Then those who are ready, having duly fulfilled the requirements of so exalted a marriage, will go in to the eternal wedding banquet with Christ, filled with awe. Meanwhile, Christ's promised bride is brought to her husband, and in faith and mercy they pledge themselves to one another every day until he comes again.



Paschasius Radbertus
Ninth Century



當教會在同一的聖靈中,由水裡重生之時,她就變成了在基督裡的身體,以致於他們就成了兩位一體。

此一結合乃是從基督道成肉身的那一刻開始,一直延續到祂再來為止,使得一切所有的儀式都告完成。然後那些預備好的人,就是已經充分地滿足這崇高婚姻之要求,將要滿有敬畏地與基督一同步入這婚筵當中。此刻,基督所承諾的新婦將要被帶到她的良人面前,並且他們每日要以信心和仁慈彼此立誓,直等到祂再來。


拉得伯徒
第九世紀

2008/03/12

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

That, then, is the evening sacrifice: the Lord's own passion, his cross, the offering on it of the saving victim, of that holocaust which is acceptable to God. And by his rising, Christ turned that evening sacrifice into a morning oblation.

Similarly, the pure prayer which ascends from a faithful heart will be like incense rising from a hallowed altar. No fragrance can be more pleasing to God than that of the Son. May all the faithful breathe out the same perfume.


Augustine of Hippo
Fifth Century



那麼這就是晚祭:主自己的受難,祂的十架,在其上是獻祭犧牲,是被上帝所悅納的燔祭。並且藉著基督的復活,祂將晚祭轉為晨間的奉獻。
類似的是,從忠實可靠的心中所發出之純潔禱告,就像是從聖壇中裊裊升起的馨香。沒有任何香氣比聖子的馨香更討上帝喜悅。願所有忠實可靠之人,都吐露同樣的馨香之氣。


希坡的奧古斯丁
第五世紀

2008/03/11

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Christ, the life of all the living,
Christ, the death of death, our foe,
Christ, yourself for me once giving
To the darkest depths of woe:
Through your suff'ring, death, and merit
Life eternal I inherit.
Thousand, thousand thanks are due
Dearest Jesus, unto you.

Ernst C. Homburg
Seventeenth Century


Observe those who hold erroneous opinions concerning the grace of Jesus Christ, which has come to us, and see how they run counter to the mind of God! They concern themselves with neither works of charity, nor widows,nor orphans, nor the distressed, nor those in prison or out of it, nor the hungry or thirsty.


Ignatius of Antioch
second Century



基督,你是一切活物的生命,
基督,你是死亡,我們的仇敵,的死,
基督,你曾為我將你自己棄於那苦難的深處:
通過你的受苦、受死和功勞,
我承受了永生。
最為親愛的耶穌,萬分萬分的感激都要歸予你!

恩斯特‧C‧洪堡
十七世紀


仔細看清楚那些對於那已經臨到我們之耶穌基督的恩惠,抱持著錯謬觀點的人,並且瞧瞧他們是如何背離上帝的意念。他們看重自己,卻毫無慈善行為,他們眼中既看不見孤兒、寡婦,也沒有貧乏需要之人;既沒有囚禁在監或釋放出獄的,也沒有飢餓乾渴的。


安提阿的伊格那丟
第二世紀

2008/03/10

Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Too much searching conceals the things we really ought to find. Nor is it certain that we have any urgent obligation to find sin in ourselves. How much sin is kept hidden from us by God, in mercy? After which God hides it even from God.


Thomas Merton



太多的搜尋遮掩了那些我們所應該發現的事物。難道我們沒有任何迫切責任感去發掘那在我們裡面的罪?有多少罪被上帝以慈悲從我們身上被隱藏?在此之後,上帝甚至將罪從祂面前隱藏起來!


多瑪斯‧牟頓

Fifth Sunday of Lent

Without the sense of God's Will we narrow down our lives to the material world. We are like misers crouching over their hoards and never seeing the skies; indeed we may narrow our prison still further, seeing in everything only the image of ourselves.

But once we are made aware of the greatness of events as expressions of God's love, once we see and live their sacramental value, then we liberated into a greater lifer; the winds of eternity blow about us, and the infinite skies are our home, and we too walk the eternal hills.

Gerald Vann

如果沒有上帝旨意之意識的話,那麼我們的生活將被窄化淪落為物質世界而已。我們就像是個盤據在自己財產上頭的守財奴,從來沒看過天空。的確,我們不斷地窄化我們的牢籠,只以我們的想像來看待每件事情。

但是一旦我們明白了事物的偉大乃是上帝愛的表現,我們看到並且活出它們的聖禮性價值,那麼我們就得著釋放,成為一個更大的無期徒刑囚徒:永恆的風吹拂著我們,而無垠的天空是我們的家,並且我們也要在無盡的山嶺中奔跑。

傑洛德‧范