Sundays of Lent

General Lenten Prefaces

Preface I of Lent

Lent I

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,
through Christ our Lord.

For by your gracious gift each year
your faithful await the sacred paschal feasts
with the joy of minds made pure,
so that, more eagerly intent on prayer
and on the works of charity,
and participating in the mysteries
by which they have been reborn,
they may be led to the fullness of grace
that you bestow on your sons and daughters.

Preface II of Lent

Lent II

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 you have given your children a sacred time
for the renewing and purifying of their hearts,
that, freed from disordered affections,
they may so deal with the things of this passing world

as to hold rather to the things that eternally endure.

Preface III of Lent

Lent III

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 you will that our self-denial should give you thanks,
humble our sinful pride,
contribute to the feeding of the poor,

and so help us imitate you in your kindness.

Preface IV of Lent

Lent IV

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 bodily fasting you restrain our faults,
raise up our minds, and bestow both virtue and its rewards,
through Christ our lord.

First Sunday: The Temptation of Jesus

Sunday Readings 2012 (B)

"This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel."

Preface of the First Sunday of Lent."

Father, all-powerful and ever-living God,
we do well always and everywhere to give You thanks,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

By abstaining forty long days from earthly food,
he consecrated through his fast
the pattern of our Lenten observance and,
by overturning all the snares of the ancient serpent,
taught us to cast out the leaven of malice,
so that, celebrating worthily the Paschal Mystery,
we might pass over at last to the eternal paschal feast.

Father, fill us with that same Spirit which sustained your Son
during His forty days of fasting and prayer.

Show us how we have sinned against You.

Empower us to break our sinful habits
and to live lives made new by the power of Your love at work in us.

May Your will be done in us this Lent through your Son,
Jesus Christ Our Lord,
Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
One God, forever and forever.

Amen.

Second Sunday: Transfiguration

Sunday Readings 2012 (B)

Preface of the Second Sunday of Lent

Father, all-powerful and ever-living God,
we do well always and everywhere to give You thanks,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

On Your holy mountain He revealed Himself in glory
in the presence of His disciples.
He had already prepared them for His approaching death.
He wanted to teach them through the law and the Prophets
that the promised Christ had first to suffer
and so come to the glory of His resurrection.

Third Sunday: The Woman at the Well (A)

Sunday Readings 2012 (B)

Year B: Cleansing of the Temple in the Gospel of John (Jn 2:13-25).

Preface of the Third Sunday of Lent

Father, all-powerful and ever-living God,
we do well always and everywhere to give You thanks,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

When He asked the woman of Samaria for water to drink,
Christ had already prepared for her the gift of faith.
In His thirst to receive her faith
He awakened in her heart the fire of Your love.

Fourth Sunday (Laetare): The Man Born Blind (A)

Sunday Readings 2012 (B)

Year B: Jesus speaks to Nicodemus. "God so loved the world ..." (Jn 3:14-21).

Preface of the Fourth Sunday of Lent

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,
through Christ our Lord.

By the mystery of the Incarnation,
he has led the human race that walked in darkness
into the radiance of the faith
and he brought those born in slavery to ancient sin
through the waters of regeneration
to make them your adopted children.

Fifth Sunday: Lazarus (A)

Sunday Readings 2012 (B)

Year B: The Grain of Wheat (Jn 12:20-33)--John's commentary on Agony in the Garden?

Preface of the Fifth Sunday of Lent

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,
through Christ our Lord.

For as true man he wept for Lazarus his friend
and as eternal God raised him from the tomb,
just as, taking pity on the human,
he leads us by sacred mysteries to new life.

Passion Sunday

Sunday Readings 2012 (B)

Preface 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,
through Christ our Lord.

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.