High Mass for the 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 30, at 2:00 pm. The celebrant will be The Reverend Robert L. Turner, Pastor, St. Ambrose Parish, North Branford

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,”) the motets “Regina caeli, and Ave verum corpus by Charles Gounod, the Gregorian Mass proper, “Jubilate Deo,” and organ music by Eugène Gigout and Léon Boëllmann.

The Saint Gregory Society Needs Your Support!

We remind our members and friends that the St. Gregory Society’s mission of preserving and promoting the traditional liturgy in our community and throughout the world is supported largely by their generosity.

We are deeply grateful to St. Stanislaus Parish for their hospitality in providing a splendid setting for the Latin Mass offered in New Haven. Nevertheless, the manifold expenses in support of these celebrations in the traditional liturgy—clergy travel expenses, choristers’ stipends, printing of service leaflets, etc., all depend upon the funds raised by the St. Gregory Society through memberships, sales of publications, and contributions to the second offering at our Masses.

We therefore encourage all who are devoted to the traditional liturgy to become new members or join those who have renewed their annual memberships for 2023. After the many expenses of Holy Week, your contribution will be a welcome assurance that we may afford the remaining High Masses on the Spring Schedule.

Please click on the “Membership” link at the left to make an online contribution via PayPal or a contribution by mailing a check or money order.

Easter Day Solemn Mass at St. Stanislaus Church, New Haven


Easter Day will be celebrated in a Solemn High Mass in the traditional Latin form at St. Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street, in New Haven on Sunday, April 9, at 2:00 pm. The Celebrant will be The Reverend Robert L. Turner, Pastor, St. Ambrose Parish, North Branford; and the deacon will be The Reverend Canon Joel Estrada, Pastor, St. Patrick Parish and Oratory, Waterbury..

The Feast of Easter commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead on the third day after his death on the cross on Good Friday. The Resurrection is the climax of Holy Week, and, indeed of the entire Church Year, as it represents the central tenet of Christian belief: Christ’s triumph over sin and death and redemption of fallen mankind.

Jesus confounded the powers of evil by clothing in glory the Body which had been the Victim of the cruelty of sinful man. Christ’s triumph over depth is the most conclusive proof of His divinity and is thus the foundation of our faith. “God hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He hath raised us up together with Christ and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 2.6)

Let us joyfully keep this day on which our Lord has restored life to us in His own rising from the dead, and affirm with the Church that “the Lord is risen indeed.” In following Him, let us make our Easter a passing to an entirely new and righteous way of life.

Music for the service, sung by the full Schola Cantorum of The Saint Gregory Society, will include the Gregorian chant proper, “Resurrexi,” the Mass ordinary “Lux et origo” (Vatican Edition I), motets by François Couperin and Jean-François Lallouette, and organ music by François Couperin and Louis Marchand.

 

Good Friday in the traditional Latin form for Holy Week at St. Stanislaus Church, New Haven

 GOOD FRIDAY

The Solemn Liturgy of Good Friday will be celebrated in the traditional Latin form at St. Stanislaus Church in New Haven on April 7, at 11:00 A.M. The Reverend Peter Lenox, Episcopal Vicar for Liturgy and Worship, Diocese of Bridgeport, will be the celebrant.

The Good Friday liturgy is at once one of the most dramatic and austere services of the Church Year. It comprised of four parts: the lessons, solemn orations, adoration of the cross, and communion.  The externals of this service are marked by both a solemnity and simplicity appropriate to the day.  The altar is bare except for one cloth, the missal stand is not covered, the vestments are black for the first portions of the service and violet for the communion, and bells are not rung.

Most striking perhaps is the Adoration of the Cross in which the priest progressively unveils the cross and thrice chants, each time on a higher pitch, Ecce Lignum Crucis (Behold the Wood of the Cross).  After the cross the unveiled, it is laid on a cushion and the clergy and servers venerate it by removing their shoes and making three double genuflections as they advance toward it before kissing it.  Removing shoes is a common act of piety in the Coptic Rite (Catholic and Orthodox), and reminds us of when God told Moses to remove his sandals since where he was standing is holy ground (Exodus 3:5).  During the Adoration of the Cross the “Reproaches” are sung by the choir.

Besides the Kyrie regularly sung at Mass, the Reproaches are the only other liturgical text in the Roman Rite in which Greek is used. The Trisagion is sung in both Greek and Latin and is another indication of how ancient certain elements of the Good Friday liturgy are.  Other reminders of the antiquity of this rite are its simplicity with the use of one altar cloth and the rather abrupt beginning of the service with a lack of preparatory prayers.

Music for the service, sung by the Schola Cantorum of the St. Gregory Society, will include Tomás Luis de Victoria’s “Reproaches,” motets by Palestrina, Lasso,  and Loyset Compère, and the proper Gregorian chants.

Easter Day will be celebrated in a Solemn High Mass in the traditional Latin form at St. Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street, in New Haven on Sunday, April 9, at 2:00 pm. The Celebrant will be The Reverend Robert L. Turner, Pastor, St. Ambrose Parish, North Branford; and the deacon will be The Reverend Canon Joel Estrada, Pastor, St. Patrick Parish and Oratory, Waterbury.

 

Blessing of Palms, Procession and High Mass for Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday will be celebrated in the traditional Latin form with the Blessing of Palms, Procession and High Mass at St. Stanislaus Church, StateStreet at Eld Street, in New Haven on April 2, at 2:00 pm. The celebrant will be The Reverend Peter Lenox, Episcopal Vicar for Liturgy and Worship, Diocese of Bridgeport.

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 motets “Pueri Hebraeorum” by Tomás Luis de Victoria, and “Adoramus te, Christe” by Orlando di Lasso, and the plainsong hymn, “Vexilla Regis prodeunt.”