O God our Saviour, grant us a change of heart and form our minds by heavenly instruction, so that we may profit by our Lenten fast: through Our Lord…
The Station today is at St. Peter in Chains. The church was one of the tituli, Rome’s first parish churches, known as the Titulus Eudoxiae or the Eudoxiana. It was built over the ruins of an Imperial villa in 442 (or possibly 439), to house the chains that had bound St. Peter in prison in Jerusalem.
Station for the Mass of Monday after the First Sunday of Lent is the collecta of Saints Cosmas and Damian.
Pope Felix IV (526-30) constructed the basilica where the collecta in honor of the two celebrated Eastern doctors, Sts. Cosmas and Damian, takes place. During the Byzantine period it was held in very great veneration, and crowds flocked to the sanctuary of the two martyred physicians as to a sure source of health.
The chains of St. Peter are preserved at the Basilica in exsquiliis, dedicated by Sixtus III to the Apostles Peter and Paul; the relics of the seven martyred Machabees are preserved under the altar. The Chains of St. Peter are kept there; those of St. Paul are at the Ostian basilica. The Prayer begs almighty God to illuminate our minds with His heavenly light, so that the Lenten fast may not only discipline our bodies, but may render our souls both contrite and earnest. The Lesson from Ezechiel describes a scene frequently reproduced in the cubicula of the ancient cemeteries. It teaches the docility with which the soul entrusts itself to the care of the divine Shepherd, keeps it from all danger, and renders it the object of his heart’s tenderest solicitude.
Loosen the bonds of our sins, we pray Thee, Lord; have mercy and ward off the punishment we have deserved: through Our Lord…
The Brighton Oratory 
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