Category Archives: Devotion

Devotion

Winter Ember Days 2020

The Winter (Lucy) Ember Days

Wednesday, December 16
Friday, December 18
Saturday, December 19

The Ember days are set for us, four times a year, to center our attention on God’s Providence given through the beauty of creation. The Ember Days refine our understanding that by the quarterly periods that there is a sacramentality of creation. We have now past the feast of Saint Lucy, one of the great Virgin-Martyrs on December 13. This feast day signals that the winter ember days are coming coming historically after the harvest (some people will say following the harvest of the olives).

As you note from the dates above, the three days of asceticism (a disciplined time of prayer and fasting) preparing us for the Nativity of the Lord. Part of the Church’s tradition is to fast on Wednesday and Saturday, and to fast and abstain on Friday.

Pray for the poor and the ill, pray for the clergy, for the Latin Mass apostolate.

For more information on Ember Days, read this blog post at Fisheaters.

Fr. Arnaud Devillers, FSSP, has a brief essay on the Ember Days.

Devotion

Vatican extends November Plenary Indulgence for 2020

The Holy See has extended the availability of certain plenary indulgences for the souls in Purgatory, out of concern for the faithful during this time of pandemic.

According to a decree of 23 October, certain indulgenced acts, which can help to remit the temporal punishment due to sin for those who have died in a state of grace, can be obtained throughout the entire month of November 2020.

The decree was signed by Mauro Cardinal Piacenza, major penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary.

A Plenary Indulgence, applicable to the Faithful Departed, may be gained, under the usual conditions of Confession, Holy Communion and prayer for the Holy Father’s intentions, by making a devout visit to a parish church or a cemetery throughout November this year.

Devotion

Requiem Mass

“I look forward to the resurrection of the dead

and the life of the world to come.”

This year, our observance of All Souls Day, the spiritual work of All Souls Indulgence, and the Purgatorial Society Mass bear an unusual weight for Catholics across the world. We turn to God the father in faith, hope and love begging for His consolation and mercy. Many of us have confronted the anxieties of this era with prayer, fasting and almsgiving for the souls who have died. In fact, no day goes by without recalling before the Lord of Life the names of our beloved families and friends who have died, including those who died from complications to COVID 19.

November is the month of Souls in Purgatory. We begin special observances on November 2 and continue through the month.  A particularly important observance for all of us is the annual Requiem Mass offered for those souls enrolled in the St Gregory Purgatorial Society.

We invite you to enroll your departed loved ones whom you would like remembered at the altar of the Lord. The enrollment form is here:  St Gregory Purgatorial Soc Form.

The Solemn Purgatorial Mass will be Saturday, November 21, at 11:00 a.m., at St Stanislaus Church, New Haven. The traditional chants for the Requiem will be sung. The absolution at the catafalque will be prayed.

Devotion

Purgatorial Mass 2020

The annual  High Mass for those enrolled in the Purgatorial Society will be offered on Saturday, November 21st at 11:00 a.m. at St. Stanislaus Church, New Haven.

Fr. Richard Cipolla will be the celebrant and homilist.

The form for enrolling your family and friends may be found on the Purgatorial Society’s page. Or, you may email the St. Gregory Society and the enrollment form can be emailed to you. The address: saintgregorysociety@gmail.com

Devotion

Prayer in Times of Pestilence

We invite our Members and Friends to visit this page frequently for updated news regarding the reopening of churches and resumption of the schedule of Latin Masses at St. Stanislaus Church in New Haven.

In the meantime, we encourage all to offer the following Prayer in Times of Pestilence with a beautiful antiphon attributed to the Sisters of the Monastery of Santa Clara in Coimbra, Portugal, during the Black Death. One among many renditions of this chant available online here.

  Stélla caéli extirpávit 

Quae lactávit Dóminum 

Mórtis péstem quam plantávit

Prímus párens hóminum.

Ipsa stélla nunc dignétur

Sídera compéscere,

Quórum bélla plébem caédunt

Dírae mórtis úlcere.

O gloriósa stélla máris

A péste succúre nóbis:

Audi nos, nam te fílius

Níhil négans honórat.

Sálva nos, Jésu!

Pro quíbus vírgo máter te órat.

V. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genitrix.

R. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi

Oremus.

Deus misericórdiae, Deus pietátis, Deus indulgéntiae, qui misértus es super afflictiónem pópuli tui, et dixísti Angelo percuténti pópulum tuum: Cóntine manum tuam ob amórem illíus Stellae gloriósae, cuius úbera pretiósa contra venénum nostrórum delictórum quam dúlciter suxísti; praesta auxílium grátiae tuae, ut intercedénte Beata Vírgine María Matre tua et Sancto Ráphael tuo Archángelo, ab omni peste et improvísa morte secúre liberémur, et a totíus perditiónis incúrsu misericórditer salvémur. Per Te, Iesu Christe Rex glóriae, qui vivis et regnas in saécula saeculórum. Amen.

 The Star of Heaven 

That nourished the Lord 

Drove away the plague of death 

Which the first parents of man 

Brought into the world. 

May this bright Star now vouchsafe to Extinguish that foul constellation whose battles Have slain the people with the wound of death.

O most pious Star of the Sea,

Preserve us from pestilence; 

Hear us, O Lady, for Thy Son honours Thee 

By denying Thee nothing. 

Save us, O Jesus, 

For whom Thy Virgin Mother supplicates Thee.

V. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray.

O God of mercy, God of forbearance, God of forgiveness, who was moved to compassion for the affliction of Thy people, and who said to the Angel devastating Thy people: AStay thy hand,@ for the love of that glorious Star, at whose dearest breast Thou graciously fed against the poison of our sins; grant the help of Thy grace, that as Thy Mother the Blessed Virgin Mary, and Saint Raphael, Thine Archangel, we be safely freed from every disease and from an unprovided death, and that we may be mercifully saved from the assault of utter ruin. Through Thee, Christ Jesus, King of Glory, who lives and reigns, world without end. Amen.