Category Archives: Catechesis

Catechesis

Second Sunday in Lent 2019

The Second Sunday in Lent will be celebrated in a Latin High Mass at St. Stanislaus Church in New Haven on March 3, at 2:00 pm. The celebrant will be the Rev. Jan Pikulski.

Between Moses and Elias, Jesus shows forth his divine glory, thus foreshadowing His resurrection. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end of all things. Today’s Mass places before us the transfigured Lord and the model toward Whom we must tend, and our own transfiguration as the goal we must attain. We reach this goal by a profound realization of our sinfulness and need of a Redeemer; by preserving purity of body and soul; by combatting our passions and carnal instincts and observing the commandments; and, most importantly, by participating in the Mass.

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 Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso.

Catechesis

Quinquagesmina Sunday

Quinquagesmina Sunday will be celebrated in a Latin High Mass at St. Stanislaus Church in New Haven on March 3, at 2:00 pm. The celebrant will be the Rev. Jan Pikulski.

The third of the Sundays preparing us for the fast of Lent, Quinquagesima Sunday, 50 days before Easter, signals that Ash Wednesday is close at hand. The great Benedictine abbot, Dom Prosper Guéranger, speaks of Quinquagesima as a “time of Abraham” because of Abraham’s “docility and devotedness in following the call of his God.”

The Church has given us in today’s sacred Liturgy the Gospel of St. Luke in which our Lord prepares His apostles for the coming sufferings, that is, His sacred Passion in Jerusalem. The blind man represents the sinners who break their relationship with God, thus rejecting the offer of the promises of the Kingdom because of fallen man’s own selfishness in pride. We ought to understand the blind man as a model. It is said that “this man has lost the light and knows it” while “others lose the light and refuse to acknowledge it.” Some of have a keen awareness of the movements of grace and sin, while others are patently ignorant of them.

The cry of the blind man, then, is our cry, too: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”. This prayer moved the heart of Jesus who stopped, called him, and healed him. This personal encounter prompted our Lord to ask the blind man to name the desire of his heart: “What do you want me to do for you?” the Lord asks him. “Master, let me receive my sight,” the blind man answers. “Go your way, your faith has saved you.”

Quinquagesima Sunday invites us to ask for the grace that the blind man had been given: sufficient awareness to beg for the Lord’s mercy in hearing our prayers for forgiveness of sins so that we may live in perfect freedom. Are we as Catholics prepared to be docile and devoted, like Abraham, like the blind man, before the promptings of the Holy Trinity?

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 (Esto mihi), polyphonic motets by Guillaume Dufay and Antonio Cebrián, and organ music by Eugène Gigout and Ernest Chausson.

Catechesis

The Latin Mass January 20 in New Haven

The Second Sunday after the Epiphany will be observed in a celebration of High Mass at St. Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street, New Haven, this Sunday, January 20, at 2:00 pm. The Reverend Matthew Mauriello will be the celebrant, and the Schola Cantorum of the St. Gregory Society will sing the Gregorian chants for the service.

Saint Augustine observes in a homily read as a lesson at Matins on this day, “Our savior was invited to the wedding feast at Cana, and He went there to reveal to us the mystery typified by this wedding, that is, the union of Christ with His Church.” St. Thomas Aquinas further noted that the conversion of water into wine is a symbol of transubstantiation, the greatest of all miracles, whereby the wine of the Eucharist becomes the blood of the covenant of peace which God has made with His Church.

Let us all then, at this Epiphanytide heed the exhortation of St. Paul in the Epistle for this feast that we as members of the mystical Body, of which Christ is the Head, have those same dispositions of charity and humility that were His.

Music for the Sacred Liturgy to be sung by the Schola Cantorum of the Saint Gregory Society will include the Missa de Angelis (Vatican edition VIII) chant ordinary, the Gregorian proper for the Epiphany: “Omnis terra adoret te;” motets by Tomás Luis de Victoria and William Byrd; and organ music by Johann Pachelbel and J. K. F. Fischer.

Catechesis

The Mass for Epiphany 2019

The Epiphany of Our Lord Jesus Christ will be observed in a celebration of High Mass at St. Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street, New Haven, this Sunday, January 6, at 2:00 pm. The Reverend Jan Pikulsi will be the celebrant and the Reverend Matthew Dougherty, O.Praem., will be the homilist. The Schola Cantorum of the St. Gregory Society will sing the Gregorian chants for the service.

On the feast of the Epiphany the Church celebrates the revelation of Our Lord to the whole world and the shining forth in all its splendour of the Incarnation. Christians commemorate a triple manifestation of Christ: first, to the Magi, that is, to the Gentiles; then His baptism, when the Voice of God from heaven declared: “This is My Beloved Son;” and finally, in the miracle of His changing the water into wine at Cana.

Saint Leo I saw in the three Kings who sought out the Christ Child a foreshadowing of the future, as they brought in their train all the peoples of the world to adore the newborn King of Kings. That is the meaning of Isaiah’s magnificent prophecy appointed for the Epistle and Gradual at Mass on the Epiphany: “All they from Saba shall come bringing gold and frankincense and showing forth praise to the Lord.”

Music for the liturgy to be sung by the Schola Cantorum of the Saint Gregory Society will include the Missa Cunctipotens Genitor Deus (Vatican edition IV) chant ordinary, the Gregorian proper for the Epiphany: “Ecce advenit;” the Hymns “Jesu Redemptor omnium” and “A solis ortus;” the organ music by Maurice Duruflé and Paul de Maleingreau.

Catechesis

Gaudete Sunday 2018

The Third Sunday of Advent or Gaudete Sunday will be observed in a celebration of High Mass at St. Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street, New Haven, this Sunday, December, at 2:00 pm. Father Peter J. Langevin, Parochial Vicar of the Cathedral of St. Patrick, Norwich, will be the celebrant and homilist, and the Schola Cantorum of the St. Gregory Society will sing the Gregorian chant for the service.

Gaudete Sunday marks the midpoint of Advent and, similar to Laetare Sunday in Lent, the penitential character of the liturgy is relaxed; e.g., the organ is played, flowers are permitted on the altar, and violet vestments are replaced with rose.  These externals are easily observable, but less obvious is the significance of some of the texts that the Church has selected for Gaudete Sunday’s liturgy.  For example, verse one from Psalm 84 occurs twice in the Mass propers for the day; first as the Introit verse, and then again as the Offertory Antiphon.  

While the appropriateness of some scriptural verses for proper texts is obvious, other scriptural verses often give the impression that they are generic without a close connection to the feast or season.  To ascertain the rationale behind the selection of a particular psalm verse often requires an understanding of how the psalm is interpreted as a prefiguration of Christ. A note at the head of Psalm 84 in the Douay Bible summarizes the meaning of the psalm as representing “the coming of Christ, to bring peace and salvation to man.” Additionally, The Saint Andrew Daily Missal explains verse one’s reference to the rescue of Jacob’s people from their captivity in Babylon as representing Christ freeing His people from the bondage of sin. With these insights, may our prayerful participation in this Sunday’s liturgy be enriched.

Music for the liturgy to be sung by the Schola Cantorum of the Saint Gregory Society will include the Missa Cum jubilo (Vatican edition IX) chant ordinary, the Gregorian proper for Advent Sunday: “Gaudete in Domino semper,” the Antiphon “Alma Redemptoris Mater” set by Joseph Kempter, and the Advent Hymn, “Veni Emmanuel.”

All in attendance at this Mass are cordially invited to a coffee hour sponsored by the Saint Gregory Society immediately following Mass in the Holy Name Society room in the basement of the school building next to the church.