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St Gregory Purgatorial Society Enrollment

Dear Friends,

The Church has again arrived at a special time of the year devoted by to the holy souls in Purgatory. Holy Mother Church exhorts us during the month of November to increase our prayers and sacrifices for the remission of the residual effects incurred by the faithful departed whose sins have already been pardoned.

St. Augustine taught: “It is not to be doubted that we can aid the souls of the departed by the prayers of the Church, by the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and by the alms which we offer for them.” Holy Mother Church has always taught that prayers for the faithful departed are good, pious and useful, and she has always offered Masses for the deceased.

In order to honor this venerable tradition in providing relief to the suffering souls, the Saint Gregory Purgatorial Society, is accepting names of the deceased. In 2018, the Purgatorial High Mass for those enrolled in the Society will be offered on Tuesday, November 13th at 7:00 p.m. Enrollment of your beloved deceased in the Purgatorial Society is for one year. We ask for a sacrificial offering of $35 for the first name, and $10 for each additional name.

The Enrollment form is here. Please remit your enrollment by November 12.

We will place these names on the altar to be remembered at the commemoratio pro defunctis of every Mass offered at annual Requiem Mass, at each First Friday of the year, and at the 2:00 p.m. Latin Masses on Sundays during November.

In addition to joining us for Mass on November 13th, for the relief of the poor souls in purgatory —especially in a time when caring for the souls has sadly diminished—we encourage you to pray for daily for the deceased during November and visit a cemetery to pray for the deceased some time between November 1st and the 8th, when one may also gain a plenary indulgence for the faithful departed. See a brief outline on how to obtain a plenary indulgence for the Holy Souls in Purgatory on the Saint Gregory website (https://saint-gregory.org).

Finally, I encourage each of you to begin now inviting your friends and family members to participate in this noble effort. Many thanks for your generosity on behalf of the holy souls in purgatory.

Yours faithfully in the Lord,

Nicholas Renouf
Chairman on behalf of the Officers of the Society

TLM for Christ the King

The Feast of Christ the King will be observed in a celebration of High Mass at St. Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street in New Haven, on Sunday, 28 October, at 2:00 pm. The Reverend Jan Pikulski will be the celebrant, and the Schola Cantorum of the St. Gregory Society will sing the Gregorian chant for the service. A guest preacher will be with us, Father Matthew Doughtery, O.Praem., a Norbertine canon of the Abbey of Saint Norbert and currently a student at Yale.

The Feast of Christ the King was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 with the encyclical, Quas Primas, to be celebrated on last Sunday in October. Not coincidentally, this date is celebrated by Protestants as “Reformation Sunday.” The Gospel centers on the dialogue between Pilate and Our Lord on Good Friday, wherein Pilate asks if Christ is a King. It ends with, “Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.”

The liturgy of the Mass concludes with two special additional elements: the Litany of the Sacred Heart and the Act of Consecration before the Blessed Sacrament exposed. The Act of Consecration is a supplication for those who do not hear the Truth through his Church and are in error, Protestant, Jew and Moslem. The service ends with Benediction.

Music for the service will include the Gregorian Mass Ordinary XI (“Orbis factor”), the proper Gregorian chants for Christ the King, the Hymn “Vexilla Christus inclyta,” a setting of the hymn “Festum nunc celebre” by Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474), and organ music by Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643).

Mass for the 21st Sunday after Pentecost 2018

The gospel for the Mass of the Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost presents the parable of the unmerciful servant. Like many of the liturgical texts for the final weeks of the church year, this gospel alludes to the time of reckoning and judgment. We are reminded by Our Lord with severity that if we are to be forgiven our debts in the final accounting, we must forgive the debts owed to us by others.

In the prism of the liturgy, all the other proper texts of the Mass focus on an exhortation to patience in the endurance of suffering and utter reliance on the support of God for our sustenance and salvation.

Music for the service will include the Gregorian Mass Ordinary XI (“Orbis factor”), the proper Gregorian chants for the 21st Sunday after Pentecost, the Antiphon “Salve Regina,” a setting of the hymn “Aures ad nostras deitatis preces” by Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474), and organ music by Jean Titelouze (1563-1633).

The second offering will be for the benefit of the St. Gregory Society.