Category Archives: Catechesis

Catechesis, Lent, Sacred Liturgy

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.”

Catechesis, Lent

High Mass for the Fourth Sunday in Lent or “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 19, at 2:00 pm.  The celebrant will be the Reverend Richard G. Cipolla, Pastor Emeritus of St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk .

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 into the second half of Lent with courage and generosity in our penance, prayers, 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 motet “Ave Regina caelorum” and the hymn “Audi benigne conditor” by Guillaume Dufay, and organ music by Jean Titelouze.

Catechesis, Sacred Liturgy

High 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 5 at 2:00 pm. The celebrant will be the Reverend Richard G. Cipolla, Pastor Emeritus, St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk.

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.

May the light of the grandeur and glory 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 Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni, and Leone Leoni.

Catechesis, High Mass

Solemn Mass for Gaudete Sunday

The Third Sunday of Advent or Gaudete Sunday will be observed in a celebration of Solemn Mass at St. Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street, New Haven, this Sunday, December 11, at 2:00 pm. The Reverend Richard Cipolla, Pastor Emeritus of St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk, will be the celebrant and homilist, and The Reverend Peter Lenox, Episcopal Vicar for Liturgy and Worship, Diocese of Bridgeport  will serve as Deacon. The Schola Cantorum of the St. Gregory Society will sing the Gregorian chant for the service.

Gaudete Sunday marks the midpoint of Advent. As on Laetare Sunday, the midpoint of Lent, the penitential character of the liturgy is relaxed; the organ is played, flowers are permitted on the altar, and violet vestments are replaced with rose.  The Introit at Mass exhorts Christians to rejoice at the coming of Christ at Christmas in anticipation of His Second Coming at the end of time.

Saint John the Baptist preaches in the Gospel at today’s Mass, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord … the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose.” Following John’s exhortation to prepare for the coming of the Lord, the Church urges her faithful in the Communion Antiphon to “take courage and fear not: behold our God will come, and will save us.”

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,” motets by Nicholas Renouf (“Ne timeas Maria”) and Palestrina (“Alma Redemptoris Mater”),  the Advent Hymn, “Veni Emmanuel,” and organ music by Jean Titelouze and Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers.

 

 

 

 

Catechesis, News

Solemn High Mass for the Feast of Christ the King

The Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King will be observed in a celebration of Solemn High Mass and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at St. Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street in New Haven, on Sunday, 31 October, at 2:00 pm. The Reverend Canon Joel Estrada, ICKSP, Pastor of St. Patrick’s Parish and Oratory, Waterbury will be the celebrant, and The Reverend Robert L. Turner, Pastor of St. Ambrose Parish, North Branford, will be the deacon.

Pope Pius XI instituted the feast of Christ the King in his Encyclical Letter Quas primas of 1925. This letter explained how laïcism and secularism by organizing society without any reference to God, lead to the apostasy of the masses and the ruin of society because of their complete denial of Christ’s Kingship, which is one of the greatest heresies of our time. The Pope proposed this feast as an annual liturgical assertion of Christ’s divine right of Kingship as an effective means of combating this pernicious heresy.

By its position on the last Sunday in October, towards the end of the Liturgical Year and just before the All Saints’ Day, the feast of Christ the King comes at the climax of the celebration of all Christ’s mysteries and a kind of earthly anticipation of his everlasting reign over the elect in the glory of heaven.

Music for the liturgy sung by the Schola Cantorum of the St. Gregory Society will include the Gregorian Mass Ordinary IV, the motets “Gloria tibi” by Wm. Byrd,  and “O Sacrum Convivium” by Ludovico Viadana, the Gregorian chant proper of the feast (“Dignus est agnus”), and organ music by William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons.