Universalis
Sunday 11 February 2024    (other days)
6th Sunday in Ordinary Time 

Using calendar: Australia. You can pick a diocese or region.

We are the people of the Lord, the flock that is led by his hand: come, let us adore him, alleluia.

Year: B(II). Psalm week: 2. Liturgical Colour: Green.

In other years: Our Lady of Lourdes

In 1858 the immaculate Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous, near Lourdes in France, in the cavern called “de Massabielle.” Through this poor, fourteen-year-old girl, Mary calls on sinners to change their lives. She has inspired in the Church a great love of prayer and good works, especially in the service of the poor and the sick. See the articles in the Catholic Encyclopaedia and Wikipedia.

Other saints: Saint Gobnait

Ireland
Gobnait is a fifth-century Irish saint. Although there are many legends and traditions associated with her, there are few if any historical facts. This commonly happens to people whose memory is kept alive by tradition rather than written records, and it casts no doubt on her existence or her merits. See the article in Wikipedia.

About the author of the Second Reading in today's Office of Readings:

Second Reading: St Ephraem the Deacon (306 - 373)

Saint Ephraem was a poet and a theologian. He lived all his life in Mesopotamia, first founding a school and then, when the Persians invaded his native town of Nisibis, moving to Edessa. He preached there, and laid the foundations of its great school of theology.
  He is famous not only for the beauty of expression of his homilies but also for his hymns, which have spread far beyond his native Syriac church and are in use in East and West alike.

Liturgical colour: green

The theological virtue of hope is symbolized by the colour green, just as the burning fire of love is symbolized by red. Green is the colour of growing things, and hope, like them, is always new and always fresh. Liturgically, green is the colour of Ordinary Time, the orderly sequence of weeks through the year, a season in which we are being neither single-mindedly penitent (in purple) nor overwhelmingly joyful (in white).

Other notes: Quinquagesima Sunday

Today is the last Sunday before Lent. Ash Wednesday is only three days away. It is a good time to make sure that you are ready for Lent. At some times, and in some parts of the world, Quinquagesima had a semi-lenten character, because Lent started gradually rather than, as now, all at once on the Wednesday. The liturgy also reflected the coming start of Lent, and the liturgical colour was already violet.
  The modern calendar has curbed this tendency of Lent to spread backwards, and there is no sign at all that this is the last Sunday of Ordinary Time for quite a few months. Nevertheless, it is still worth reflecting that Lent is coming very soon and we should make our plans for it.
  Incidentally, Quinquagesima means ‘fiftieth’, and indeed if you count Easter as 1, and count backwards, you will reach exactly 50 when you get to today.

Local calendars

General Calendar

Australia

 - Adelaide

 - Armidale

 - Ballarat

 - Bathurst

 - Brisbane

 - Broken Bay

 - Broome

 - Bunbury

 - Cairns

 - Canberra-Goulburn

 - Darwin

 - Geraldton

 - Hobart

 - Lismore

 - Maitland-Newcastle

 - Melbourne

 - Military Ordinariate

 - Ordinariate

 - Parramatta

 - Perth

 - Port Pirie

 - Rockhampton

 - Sale

 - Sandhurst

 - Sydney

 - Toowoomba

 - Townsville

 - Wagga Wagga

 - Wilcannia-Forbes

 - Wollongong


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