Category Archives: Catechesis

Catechesis

Christ the King Latin Mass 2020

The Feast of Christ the King will be observed in a celebration of Solemn Mass at St. Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street in New Haven, on Sunday, 25 October, at 2:00 pm. Father Richard Cipolla, Pastor emeritus of St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk will be the celebrant and homilist, and Father Robert Turner, Pastor of St. Ambrose Parish, North Branford, will be the Deacon. Members of the Schola Cantorum of the Saint Gregory Society will sing the Gregorian chant and polyphony for the service.

Pope Pius XI instituted the feast of Christ the King in his Encyclical Letter of Quas primas of 1925. In this letter showed 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 will include William Byrd’s “Mass for Three Voices” and the Mass proper for the feast of Christ the King (“Dignus est agnus”), and organ music.

Catechesis, Lent

Second Sunday in Lent 2020

The Transfiguration, 1480 (oil on panel) by Bellini, Giovanni (c.1430-1516); Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy.

The Second Sunday in Lent will be celebrated in a Latin High Mass at St. Stanislaus Church in New Haven on March 8, at 2:00 pm. The celebrant will be the Reverend Jan Pikulski.

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 or 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.

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 Jachet de Berchem and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

Catechesis

Quinquagesima Sunday 2020

Quinquagesima Sunday will be celebrated in a traditional Latin High Mass at St. Stanislaus  Church, New Haven, Sunday, February 23, at 2:00 pm. The celebrant will be the Reverend Richard G. Cipolla, Pastor Emeritus of St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk.

The third of the Sundays preparing us for the fast of Lent, Quinquagesima, on the fiftieth day 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.”

In the Gospel of St. Luke on this day, our Lord prepares His  apostles for His coming sufferings, that is, His sacred Passion in Jerusalem. The blind man represents the sinners who break their relationship with God, rejecting the offer of the promises of the Kingdom because of fallen man’s own selfishness in pride. The cry of the blind man 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

Candlemas 2020

The feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, commonly as Candlemas, will be celebrated this Sunday, February 2, at 2:00 P.M., at St. Stanislaus Church, State and Eld Streets, New Haven. The Celebrant of the Solemn Mass will be the Fr. Peter J. Langevin, Chancellor of the Diocese of Norwich, the Deacon will be Fr. Robert L. Turner, Pastor of St. Ambrose Parish, North Branford and Subdeacon will be William Riccio.

Candlemas celebrates both the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary forty days after his birth. In both respects it is connected with the mysteries of Christmas and is filled with Christmas joy. It is a feast of light—first because of aged Simeon’s prophetic words when he greeted Jesus at the temple as the Light which sould enlighten the Gentiles, and also on account of the Candlemas procession, in which candles are carried, as once was done on other feasts of Our Lady. Today’s procession has been retained on one of her most ancient feasts to celebrate the revelation of Christ as the Light of the world.

The solemn blessing of candles and procession through the church by the entire congregation, with the servers holding the newly blessed lit candles, followed by Solemn Mass, comprise one of the loveliest services of the Church Year. Please bring family and friends to participate in this festive celebration. Music for the service performed by the Schola Cantorum of the St. Gregory Society, will include the Gregorian chant Missa Marialis (Vatican ed. IX/X), the chant propers for the procession and Mass, polyphonic motets by Palestrina and Victoria, and organ music by William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons.

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Catechesis

Latin Mass for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany

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 Peter J. Langevin, Chancellor of the Diocese of Norwich, 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 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;” the motet “Alma Redemptoris Mater, and organ music by Johann Pachelbel and J. K. F. Fischer.

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