Category Archives: Blessed Virgin Mary

Blessed Virgin Mary, Catechesis, High Mass

Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, a Holy Day of Obligation., will be observed in a Low Mass offered in the traditional Latin form on Friday, December 8, at 5:30 p.m. at St Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street, New Haven. The Reverend Peter Lenox, Episcopal Vicar for Liturgy and Worship, Diocese of Bridgeport, will be the celebrant.

The infallibly defined dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Latin Catholic Church reveals to us that “God freely chose Mary from all eternity to be the Mother of his Son. In order to carry out her mission she herself was conceived immaculate. This means that, thanks to the grace of God and in anticipation of the merits of Jesus Christ, Mary was preserved from original sin from the first instant of her conception” (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church).

Mary is the “New Eve,” the Mother of God, Mother of us all. As such, we believe that Mary Immaculate is a type of the Church and the perfect model of holiness for all Christians.

Under the title is the Immaculate Conception she is the patroness of the United States of America. May she intercede for us before the Throne of Grace!

Blessed Virgin Mary, Catechesis

Assumption Mass 2021

The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary will be observed in a celebration of High Mass at St. Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street in New Haven, on Sunday, 15 August, at 2:00 p.m. Father Robert Turner, Pastor of St. Ambrose Parish, North Branford, will be the celebrant and homilist, and the Schola Cantorum of the Saint Gregory Society will sing the Gregorian chant and polyphony for the service.

Belief in the Assumption of our Lady goes back to early Christian tradition, having found expression in the writings of the Church Fathers as well as in various liturgies in the East as well as the West. In the 18th century Pope Benedict XIV declared the Assumption to be a truth that no one is permitted to doubt, but it was not then defined as a dogma. Finally, on 1 November 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed solemnly ex cathedra that “the Immaculate Mother of God, at the close of her earthly career, was taken up into heaven, body and soul.”

The texts for the Mass on this feast present the glorified Virgin as the person of the Woman clothed with the sun (Introit, Apoc. 12.1), as the King’s Daughter in golden robes (Gradual, Ps. 44), and as the Woman, who, with her Son, will be the victorious enemy of the serpent (Offertory, Gen. 3.15). The various collects of the Mass exhort us to follow Mary’s example in longing for heaven, obtaining the glorious resurrection, and enjoying everlasting bliss.

Music for the service will include the Missa Marialis Ordinary (Vatican ed. IX/X), the proper Gregorian chants of the feast, motets by Orlando di Lasso and Ludovico Viadana, and organ music Organ music by Girolamo Frescobaldi and Girolamo Cavazzoni.