We always begin the fifth week of Lent, as we enter its most intense period, with the story of Susannah and the elders from Daniel chapter 13. This is part of the Old Testament which you won’t find in Protestant Bibles as it’s only in the Greek text of Daniel and was rejected by Luther and others at the Reformation. She is a victim of unjust accusation, and the Church uses the account to point forward to the unjust arrest and imprisonment of Our Lord. Christians have also used it to attack tyrannical leaders who condemn people on trumped up charges or without a proper trial (the Sardinian bishop Lucifer of Cagliari in the 4th century uses the story in this way in his attack on the Emperor Constantius II). Please pray today for those unjustly imprisoned in the world.
God bless and take care
Fr Ashley
In the fifth week of Lent we are allowed to start using music for Holy Week, such as the hymn ‘Pange Lingua’
Posted by St Edmund’s Church, Beckenham on Monday, March 22, 2021