From mendicus comes the English word "mendicant" which is the same as "beggar." Let us look at Webster's definition:

"mendicant, beggar" - noun, [From the Latin mendicus beggar.] A beggar; specif., a member of a mendicant order. adj. [From Latin mendicans, -antis, pres. part. of mendicare to beg, from mendicus. 1. One who begs; esp. one who lives by asking alms; a mendicant. 2. Practicing beggary by living by alms (as the Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, and Augustinians). 3. A pauper. 4. A rogue; rascal; - often playful; as, a good-hearted little beggar. - v.t. 1. To ask for as a charity; habitually or from house to house. 2. To ask earnstly for or of; to beseech; as, to beg a favor. 3. To make petition; to make an earnest or polite request. Syn. Beg, entreat, beseech, implore, supplicate, adjure, importune all man to ask, or request urgently."

    We can see in today's Mass both in the Ordinary and the Proper of the Holy Mass how many times we beg, entreat, beseech, and implore God to forgive us, to give us grace, to protect us and to provide for our needs. We are all beggars and, in that state we have a better chance than the rich man robed "in purple and fine linen" who "feasted sumptuously" as we see in today's Gospel from Luke 16: 19-31:

In illo tempore: Dixit Jesus Pharisaeis : "Homo quidam erat dives, qui induebatur purpura et bysso : et epulabatur quotidie splendide. Et erat quidam mendicus, nomine Lazarus, qui jacebat ad januam ejus, ulceribus plenus, cupiens saturari de micis, quae cadebant de mensa divitas, et nemo illi dabat : sed et canes veniebant, et lingebant ulcera ejus. Factrum est autem ut moreretur mendicus, et portaretur ab Angelis in sinum Abrahae, Mortuus est autem et dives, et sepultus est in inferno. Elevans autem oculos suos, cum esset in tormentis, vidit Abraham a longe, et Lazarum in sinu ejus, et ipse clamans, dixit : Pater Abraham, Miserere mei, et mitte Lazarum, ut intingat extremum digit sui in aquam, ut refrigeret linguam meam, quia crucior in hac flamma. Et dixit illi Abraham : Fili , recordare quia recepisti bona in vita tua, et Lazarus similiter mala : nunc autem hic consolatur, tu vero cruciaris. Et in his omnibus inter nos et vos chaos magnum firmatum est : ut hi, qui volunt hinc transpire ad vos, non possint, neque inde hunc transmeare Et ait : Rogo ergo te, pater, ut mittas eum in domum patris mei. Habeo enim quinque fratres, ut testetur ne et ipsi veniant in hunc locum tormentorum. Et ait illi Abraham : Habent Moysen et prophetas : audiant illos. At ille dixit : Non, pater Abraham : sed si quis ex mortuis ierit ad eos, poenitentiam agent. Ait autem illi : Si Moysen, et prophetas non audiunt, neque si quis ex mortuis resurrexerit credent."		At that time Jesus said to the Pharisees :"There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, and no one did give him : moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom And the rich man also died, and he was buried in hell. And lifting up his eyes when he was in torments, he saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom, and he cried and said : Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. And Abraham said to him : Son, remember that thou didst receive good things in thy lifetime and likewise Lazarus evil things : but now his is comforted and thou art tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is fixed a great chaos : so that they who would pass from hence to you cannot, nor from hence come hither. And he said :Then, father, I beseech thee that thou wouldst send him to my father's house, for I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torments. And Abraham said to him : They have Moses and the prophets : let them hear them. But he said : No, Father Abraham : but if one went to them from the dead, they will do penance. And he said to him : If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe if one rise again from the dead."

    In today's Collect we beg God

Praesta nobis, quaesumus, Domine, auxilium gratiae tuae : ut jejuniis et orationibus convenienter intenti, liberemur ab hostibus mentis et corporis.		Grant us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the help of Thy grace: that being duty intent on fasts and prayers, we may be delivered from enemies of soul and body.

    In today's Gradual we see our mendicant ways with God repeated twice:

Propitius esto, Domine, peccatis nostris, ne Quando dicant gentes : Ubi est Deus eorum? V. Adjuva nos, Deus salutaris noster : et propter honorem nominis tui, Domine, libera nos.		Forgive us our sins, O Lord, lest the Gentiles should say : Where is their God? V. Help us, O God, our Savior: and for the honor of Thy name, O Lord, deliver us.

    In the Offertory Moses begs the Lord to appease His anger in the passage from Exodus 32: 11, 13-14 and in the Secret the priest prays that God will sanctify our fast and may our external actions truly reflect and benefit our interior soul. Again in the Postcommunion we beseech God to not let His grace forsake us and that it will keep us dedicated to Him as servants, the same recurring theme throughout this past week. In the Prayer over the People we ask God's favors and supplications to keep us on the straight and narrow.

    In the Ordinary of every Mass, besides adoration at the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, we petition God to help us . We then beg forgiveness in the Confiteor, and beseech God in the Prayers ascending the Altar with the Aufer a nobis and Oramus Te just before the Introit. In the Munda cor meum just before the Gospel, the priest beseeches God to cleanse his lips so that he might "worthily proclaim Thy holy Gospel" ut sanctum Evangelium Tuum digne valeam nuntiare. After professing the Catholic's sincere belief expressed in the Credo, the priest begs God to make him worthy and all others worthy to be in His presence and that it may avail to all present the means to eternal life. At the Orate, fratres, the priest, on our behalf, begs God to receive the sacrifice being prepared. Once the Canon has begun the priest prays in an inaudible voice the Te igitur which we beseech God to b merciful and accept the gifts of sacrifice. Through the priest at the Memento, we beg God to hear our prayer for the living before the Consecration, and again for the faithful departed after the Consecration in the Diptych of the Dead. Immediately following Transubstantiation, the priest silently prays the Supra quae and than the Supplices in begging God's approval and begs again for forgiveness at the Nobis quoque peccatoribus. And of course, we entreat God to give us our daily bread and keep us free of sin when the priest recites the Pater Noster, followed immediately with yet another plea to the Lord to "deliver us from all evils, past, present and to come" in the Libera nos quaesumus, Domine, ab omnibus malis praeteritis, praesentibus et futuris:. Then the priest beseeches once again that God deliver him by reception of Christ's Body and Blood. That is the prayer of supplication made by the priest in receiving first the Body of Christ, then the Blood of Christ in imploring God to preserve his soul. After the second Confiteor in which we once again ask God's forgiveness, the priest asks the same supplication for our soul individually when placing the Sacred Host on our tongue:

Corpus Domini nostri Jesu Christi custodiat animam tuam in vitam aeternam. Amen.		May the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy soul unto life everlasting. Amen.

    During the Ablutions and the Final Blessing the priest continues to beseech God. Throughout the Holy Mass the priest, like a holy beggar, implores God with the utmost humility. This is what God has asked and today so many have abandoned this mandatory sacrifice for the quick-fix pagan rite that has stripped the Holy Sacrifice of the Propitiatory vertical purpose and emphasized the participatory horizontal nonsense that is pure humanism and a sacrilege. Do we really want to tempt God with such profanity? Let's see what the renowned Abbot Dom Gueranger writes about today's poignant Gospel in his fifth volume of The Liturgical Year:

   "The commandments of God cannot be broken with impunity; he that sins shall be punished. This is the teaching of today's Gospel; and after reading it, we exclaim with the apostle: 'How fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God!' (Hebrews 10: 31). What a terrible truth is here told us! A man is in the enjoyment of every comfort and luxury this life can give; when suddenly death surprises him, and he is buried in hell! In the midst of those eternal burnings, he asks for a drop of water, and that drop is refused him. Other men, whom he knew on earth a few hours ago, are now in the abode of eternal happiness, and a great chaos separates him from them for ever. Oh, what misery! To be in despair for endless ages! And yet there are men that live and die without giving so much as one day to think upon hell! Happy, then, are they that fear, for this fear will aid them to lighten that weight of their sins, which would drag them into the bottomless pit."

   Both today's Gospel and the Abbot's description of this very real reality should shock us to, as the Apostle Paul says in Philppians 2: 12, "work out your salvation with fear and trembling." Let us continue with the wisdom the holy Gueranger expresses:

   "Alas! what strange darkness has come upon the mind of man as a consequence of sin! People that are shrewd, and prudent, and far-sighted in everything that regards their temporal concerns, are mere idiots and fools in every question that regards eternity. Can we imagine anything more frightful than their surprise when they awaken in the next world and find themselves buried in hell! Observe, too, that our Savior, in order to make His instruction more impressive, has not here described the condemnation of one whose crimes scandalize the neighborhood, and make even worldlings look upon him as a sure prey of hell. The history He gives us is that of a man who led a quiet life; he was agreeable in company, and sought after; he was respected, and did honor to the position he held in society. He is not accused of any public scandals; there is no mention made of any atrocious crime; our Savior simply says of him: he was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted sumptuously every day. It is true, he was not charitable to the poor man who lay at his gate; but he did not ill-treat him; he allowed him to lie there,and did not even insult his misery. Why, then, was this rich man condemned to burn eternally in that fire which God created for the wicked? It is because a man who leads a life of luxury and feasting, such as he lived - never thinking of eternity, caring for nothing but this world, which we are told to use as though we used it not (1 Corinthians 7: 31), with nothing about him of the spirit of the cross of Christ - such a man as this is already a victim to the triple concupiscence of pride, avarice, and luxury; he is their slave, and seems determined to continue so, for he never makes an effort to throw off their tyranny. He has yielded himself up to them; and they have worked their work in him - the death of the soul. It was not enough that he should not ill-treat the poor man that sat at his gate, he ought to have shown him kindness and charity, for such is God's commandment. His very dogs had more compassion than he; therefore, his condemnation and perdition were most just. But had he been told of his duty? Yes, he had the Scriptures; he had Moses and the prophets; nay more, he had Jesus and the Church. Men who are leading a life like this, are now surrounded by the graces of the holy season of Lent. What excuse will they have, if they so far neglect them, that they do not even give themselves the trouble to think of them? They will have turned their Lent into judgment against themselves, and it will have been but on great step nearer to eternal misery."

    Wow! Talk about thoughts to shake us to our roots and really wake us up! The very vices the Abbot mentions above are addressed by John Gregory in his meditation on The Scourging at the Pillar. Thank God for Dom Gueranger and his dedication to providing serious and spiritually enriching food for thought for each day of the year in his magnificent 15 volume masterpiece The Liturgical Year. Think of the beggar and how God rewarded him for his poverty and it should prompt many to amend their ways, especially when we realize that the rich man was not a terrible scoundrel who covered up child abuse, moved priests from parish to parish, lied not only to their flocks but to themselves and God, and abandoned the only true means of worship. No this man merely wore fine clothes and ate well. Every Novus Ordo potentate should read this Gospel and ask God to forgive him and submit his resignation and retire to an orthodox monastery where he can live out the rest of his life in fear and trembling for his salvation. If this Gospel does not wake Novus Ordinarians to abandon their sumptuous feasts at the pagan table of the Masonic-Zionist-Protestant rite concocted by Giovanni Montini, and take up the "rags" of traditional Catholicism however meager may the facilities be, if we are faithful to God's commandments and all He has asked through His holy Church, our begging will be worthwhile and be well rewarded down the road forever.

    Christ asks us to practice charity. What is more charitable than wanting our neighbor, especially our Novus Ordo neighbors to realize the fate of the rich man and amend their ways by walking away from the false church and embrace the only Church and Faith which can get him to Heaven - the True Church? That is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church - the Church of the Immemorial Mass of All Ages where we go as beggars to humbly implore God's forgiveness, mercy and heavenly protection. Unlike the pick-and-choose religions that think one can have his worldly feast and Heaven too, Traditional Catholic "beggars" can't afford to be choosy!

VerbumQUO for Thursday in the Second Week of Lent