Catechesis

TLM for Third Sunday after Easter

The Third Sunday after Easter will be celebrated in a High Mass in the traditional Latin form at St. Stanislaus Church, State and Eld Streets in New Haven, on Sunday, April 25, at 2:00 pm. The celebrant will be Father Richard Cipolla, Pastor Emeritus of St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk.

Holy Mother Church, rejoicing in the Resurrection, sings her joy and proclaims the glory of God (Introit, Offertory).  “A little while now, and you shall not see me,” said our Lord in the Cenacle, “and you shall lament and weep; and again a little while, and you shall see me and your heart shall rejoice” (Gospel). When the Apostles saw the risen Christ again, they experienced this joy with which the Easter liturgy is still overflowing.

Easters celebrated on earth are a preparation and symbol of the eternal Easter when joy shall be full—the joy of the Church when, having with sorrow begotten souls to God, she shares the glories and joys of the Lord.  This holy joy begins here below; it is founded on hope and on Christ’s invisible but real presence even now with us.  As strangers and pilgrims on our way to heaven, we should be imbued with this Christian joy which frees us from earthly pleasures and leads us to God, whose grace succors us and upholds us to the end of our journey. 

Music for the service, sung by members of the Schola Cantorum of The Saint Gregory Society, will include the Gregorian Mass Ordinary for Eastertide (Vatican Edition I: “Lux et origo,” motets by Charles Gounod, the Gregorian Mass proper, “Jubilate Deo,” and organ music by Eugène Gigout and Léon Boëllmann.

Lent

Palm Sunday 2021

 

Palm Sunday will be celebrated in the Blessing of Palms, Procession and High Mass at St. Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street, in New Haven on March 28, at 2:00 pm. The celebrant will be the Father Richard G. Cipolla, Pastor Emeritus of St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk.

In the liturgy of Palm Sunday, the two-fold point of view from which the Church regards the Cross is expressed in two ceremonies, one marked by joy and the other by sadness. First comes the Blessing and Procession of Palms, in which everything overflows with a holy joy, enabling us after twenty centuries to revive the spirit of the magnificent scene of our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Then follows the Mass with its chants and lessons relating exclusively to the sorrowful memory of our Redeemer’s Passion.

We should keep carefully a blessed palm branch in our home. This palm is a sacramental, and, fastened to our crucifix, should serve to remind us of the victory gained for us by Christ on the Cross.

Music for the service performed by members of the Schola Cantorum of the St. Gregory Society, will include the proper Gregorian chants for the the Blessing of Palms, Procession and Mass, the Missa ‘Orbis Factor’ ordinary (Vatican ed. XI), the motet “Adoramus te, Christe” by William Byrd, and the plainsong hymn, “Vexilla Regis prodeunt.”

Lent

Fourth Sunday in Lent, 2021

The Fourth Sunday in Lent will be celebrated in a Latin Solemn High Mass at St. Stanislaus Church in New Haven on March 14, at 2:00 pm. The celebrant will be Father Richard Cipolla, Pastor emeritus of St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk; the deacon will be Father Robert L. Turner; and the subdeacon will be Mr. William V. Riccio, Jr.

Laetare Sunday marks the midpoint of the season of Lent in preparation for the great feast of Easter. On this day the Church takes “time out” from the penitential emphasis in the texts of the liturgy in Lent to encourage Christians with the reminder of the great reward of Christ’s redemptive presence in the world. The opening Introit at Mass “Laetare, Jerusalem” exhorts us as citizens of the New Jerusalem to rejoice as we enter the house of the Lord; the Epistle encourages us to rejoice in Christ as the true Moses who has released us from the bondage of the law and sin; and the Gospel, presenting the miracle of the multiplication of loaves and fishes, reminds us to rejoice in the Eucharist, which is the figure of the heavenly banquet.

This spirit of rejoicing is reflected in the use of rose-colored vestments and the organ on this Sunday. Fortified by this liturgy filled with thought of Easter, let us go forward in the second half of Lent with courage and generosity in our penance, prayer and charitable works.

Music for the service performed by the Schola Cantorum of the St. Gregory Society, will include the English Renaissance master William Byrd’s “Mass for Three Voices” and motets “Memento salutis auctor” and “Ave verum Corpus”; the chant proper for the Mass (Laetare); and organ music by Byrd and Orlando Gibbons.