L E N T
During the Great Fast it is customary to participate in special religious observances such as Stations of the Cross, Bitter Lamentations, and an annual three-day retreat which closes with the reception of the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist. The Sorrow or Bitter Lamentations are a moving, folk composition dating from the seventeenth century and sung in church during the Great Fast. In these Lamentations, a soul talks to Christ and laments over his bitter sufferings.
"A person who even once has celebrated the Bitter Lamentations, especially at a large Polish parish, will not forget this devotion to the end of his life" - the way the great Pope Pius XI did not forget it. - "Nothing in Poland seemed more moving or left a deeper impression.
