Quadragesima Sunday

In today’s Gospel reading, we read about the Temptation of Christ. A rather dramatic story that nevertheless did not receive visual representation until well into the Middle Ages. Among the earliest, this illumination from the Stuttgart Psalter (folio 107v) illustrates Psalm 90, coming between verses 11 and 12.

[11] For he hath given his angels charge over thee; to keep thee in all thy ways.
Quoniam angelis suis mandavit de te, ut custodiant te in omnibus viis tuis.

[12] In their hands they shall bear thee up: lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
In manibus portabunt te, ne forte offendas ad lapidem pedem tuum.

Matthew 4.1-11

The Liturgical Year by Dom Guéranger

Heortology: A History Of The Christian Festivals From Their Origin To The Present Day by Heinrich Kellner (Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1908).

Sermons

Homilies Of Feasts And Sundays By Catholic Church Fathers by D. G. Hubert (Washbourne, 1901).

Explanation of the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays, holydays and festivals throughout the ecclesiastical year, to which are added the lives of many saints by Leonard Goffiné (Pustet, 1880).

Goffine’s Devout Instructions on the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays and Holydays (Benziger, 1896).

Abridged Sermons for all the Sundays of the Year by Saint Alphonsus Liguori.

The Catholic Pulpit: Containing a Sermon for Every Sunday and Holiday in the Year and for Good Friday (Murphy, 1851).

Readings for the Sundays and Holy Days of the Church’s Year (Bosworth, 1881).

Original, Short and Practical Sermons for Every Feast of the Ecclesiastical Year : Three Sermons for Every Feast by Francis Weninger (Lowen, 1882).

Analysis of the Gospels of the Sundays of the Year by Angelo Cagnolo (Benziger, 1892).