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News, Sacred Liturgy

Holy Week 2022: 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 15, at 11:00 A.M. The Reverend Jan Pikulski will be the celebrant.

The Good Friday liturgy is at once one of the most dramatic and austere services of the Church Year. It is 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 that God told Moses to remove his sandals since he was standing on 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, and Loyset Compère, and the proper Gregorian chants.

Lent, News

Holy Week: Blessing of Palms, Procession, and High Mass

Palm Sunday will be celebrated in the traditional Latin form in the Blessing of Palms, Procession and High Mass at St. Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street, in New Haven on April 10, at 2:00 pm. The celebrant will be the Rever­end Jan Pikulski.

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 Orlando di Lasso, and the plainsong hymn, “Vexilla Regis prodeunt.”

 

Lent

High Mass for Laetare Sunday

The Fourth Sunday in Lent or “Laetare Sunday” will be celebrated in a Latin High Mass at St. Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street, in New Haven on March 27, at 2:00 pm.  The celebrant will be the Reverend Jan Pikulski.

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 members of the Schola Cantorum of the St. Gregory Society, will include the Gregorian chant proper for the Mass (Laetare), the motets “Memento salutis auctor” and “Ave verum Corpus” by William Byrd, and organ music by Byrd and Orlando Gibbons.

Catechesis, Lent

Mass for the Second Sunday in Lent

The Second Sunday in Lent will be celebrated in a traditional Latin High Mass at St. Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street, in New Haven on March 6 at 2:00 pm. The celebrant will be the Reverend Matthew Mauriello.

Between Moses and Elias on Mount Tabor, Jesus shows forth his divine glory, thus foreshadowing His resurrection. He in Whom His Father was well pleased has joined Himself in fellowship with us, even taking on flesh like unto our sinful flesh, as St. Paul says. He died on the cross to make us co-heirs of His glory and the well-beloved children of His Father in heaven.  He is our elder brother and head; in our prayer we should claim kinship with Him; we should obey His law and unite ourselves with Him in our endeavor to purify ourselves and raise ourselves up towards God.  The texts of the liturgy of this second Sunday in Lent put before us all those dispositions of soul that should be ours in God’s presence in this glorious manifestation of the divinity of Jesus.

Let the light of the grandeur of Jesus transfigured prepare us for a contemplation of the humiliation of His Passion.

Music for the service performed by the Schola Cantorum of the St. Gregory Society, will include the Gregorian chant Missa Orbis factor (Vatican edition XI), the chant proper for the Mass (Reminiscere), and polyphonic motets by Guillaume Dufay and Leon Leoni.

Lent, News

Mass for Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday will be celebrated in a traditional Latin Mass at St. Stanislaus Church, New Haven on Wednesday, March 2, at 5:30 pm. The celebrant will be The Reverend Jan Pikulski.  Ashes will be blessed and imposed immediately before the Mass begins.

One of the most important liturgical days of the year, Ash Wednesday opens the season of Lent, which extends for forty days through Holy Saturday (the Sundays during Lent are not included). These forty days remember the fast of our Lord in desert before his passion and death on the cross.

In the Old Law, ashes were generally a symbolic expression of grief, mourning, or repentance.  In the Early Church, the use of ashes had a like signification and with sackcloth formed a part of liturgical rites of the year.  It was originally instituted for public penitents, but is now intended for all Christians, as Lent should be a time of penance for all.  The ashes used this day are obtained by burning palms of the previous year.  Traditionally, they a re blessed by four ancient prayers, sprinkled with holy water and incensed, and then placed in the form of a cross on the foreheads of each of the faithful with the words, “Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.”  The ancient prayers of the blessing suggest suitable thoughts for the opening of Lent. They are summarized here:

“Almighty and everlasting God, spare the penitent … bless these ashes, that they maty be a remedy to all who invoke Thy Name … O God, who desirest not the death but the conversion of sinners, look in kindness upon our human frailty … and bless those ashes, so that we, who know ourselves to be but ashes … and that we must return to dust, may deserve to obtain pardon and the rewards offered to the penitent.”