Tag Archives: catechesis

Catechesis

Latin Mass for the 24th and Last Sunday after Pentecost

The Twenty-fourth and Last Sunday after Pentecost will be observed in a celebration of High Mass at St. Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street, New Haven, this Sunday, November 22, at 2:00 p.m. The Reverend Ian Pikulski will be the celebrant, and the Schola Cantorum of the St. Gregory Society will sing the Gregorian chant and polyphony for the service.

On this final Sunday of the Church Year, the Liturgy calls our minds to reflection on the end of this world. The dread of the Last Judgment invoked in the Gospel is offset by the promise of Christ’s second coming in glory with its promise of salvation for the faithful, as expressed in the Introit: “I think thoughts of peace, and not of affliction”.

During this time, let us meditate on last things—death, judgment, heaven and hell—and pray that we receive the discernment to choose to the good in our lives and to resist temptations to do evil.

Music for the liturgy will include the Gregorian chant ordinary “Missa Orbis factor” (Mass XI)  the proper Gregorian chants, motets by Heinrich Isaac and William Byrd, and organ music by Charles Tournemire and Alexandre Guilmant

Catechesis

Latin Mass in New Haven for Christ the King

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, 27 October, at 2:00 pm. The Reverend Michael Novajosky, Pastor of the Cathedral Parish of Bridgeport will be the celebrant and homilist, and The Reverend Donald Kloster will be the deacon. 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 the Pope 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 the Gregorian chant ordinary “Missa Marialis” (Vatican edition IX/X), the Mass proper for the feast of Christ the King (“Dignus est agnus”), motets by John Dunstable and Guillaume Dufay, and organ music by Jacques Boyvin and Guillaume de Nivers.

Catechesis

TLM for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost will be observed in a celebration of High Mass at St. Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street in New Haven, on Sunday, 13 October, at 2:00 pm. The Reverend Peter Langevin, Chancellor of the Diocese of Norwich, and the Schola Cantorum of the Saint Gregory Society will sing the Gregorian chant and polyphony for the service.

During these last Sundays of the liturgical year, the Church reminds us with special emphasis of the of the return of Christ when he comes at the end of time to lead us the house of His Father. All the parts of the Mass proper for this Sunday mention the house of God as a prefiguration of heaven, the eternal temple which all nations are summoned to enter. Belonging to the Church means entering here on earth the House of the Lord and obtaining in full measure the treasures of salvation that Christ there bestows upon us.

The Church on earth is the heavenly city which is building up here below, in which, through the ministry of her priests, we receive the pardon of sins, the sacrifice of the Mass, and the Eucharist, which enable us to participate increasingly in the divine life and prepare us for the everlasting life.

Music for the liturgy will include the Gregorian chant ordinary “Missa Marialis” (Vatican edition IX/X), the Mass proper for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost (“Da pacem, Domine”), motets by Tomás Luis de Victoria, and organ music by Antonio de Cabezon and Francisco Correa de Arrauxo

Catechesis

High Mass on September 15

The schedule of High Masses in the traditional Latin form at St. Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street in New Haven, will resume this fall with the celebration of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on Sunday, September 15, at 2:00 pm. The Reverend Richard Cipolla, Pastor Emeritus of St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk, will be the celebrant and homilist, and the Schola Cantorum of the St. Gregory Society will sing the Gregorian chant for the service.

The Feast of the Holy Cross commemorates the finding of the True Cross by St. Helena, Mother of the Emperor Constantine, who erected churches upon the sites of the Holy Sepulchre and Calvary. The dedication took place on the 13th and 14th of September of 335. In this feast we memorialize Christ’s death on the Cross, which was at once His sacrifice and His victory. He Himself foretold on the eve of His Passion: “The prince of this world is to be cast out. Yes, if only I am lifted up from the earth, I will attract all men to myself.” (Gospel). St. Paul also points out that the law of exaltation through suffering may be said to have governed the whole of Christ’s life. (Epistle), and draws the moral that “it behoves us to glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Introit).

The external celebration of this feast has special significance for the members and friends of the St. Gregory Society. It was on this feast day in 2007 that Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum went into effect, granting all priests of the Latin rite Church the right to celebrate Mass in the traditional Latin form and the faithful to request such celebrations be regularly available in their parishes. It is, therefore, a most fitting occasion for us thankfully to rejoice in the Holy Father’s provision for widespread use of the traditional Roman liturgy.

Catechesis, Easter

Fifth Sunday after Easter

The Fifth Sunday after Easter will be celebrated in a High Mass in the traditional Latin form at St. Stanislaus Church in New Haven on Sunday, May 26, at 2:00 pm. The celebrant will be The Reverend Peter Langevin, Chancellor of the Diocese of Norwich and Parochial Vicar of the Cathedral of St. Patrick, Norwich.

The proper texts of the liturgy for this Sunday’s Mass continue to sing of Christ’s victory and of the salvation of Christian people whom He has redeemed. During the Rogation Days that follow, the Church exhorts us to pray in “His name” and ask for what is necessary for us, salvation first and foremost; these prayers will unfailingly be granted us “that our joy may be full.”

We must ask, too, that we may be worthy to enter with Him into His Father’s kingdom, while acknowledging that prayer that is sincere implies generosity: St. Jame’s Epistle reminds us that it is not enough merely to pray; we must also be “doers of the Word.”

Music for the service, sung by the Schola Cantorum of The Saint Gregory Society, will include the Gregorian Mass Ordinary for Eastertide (Vatican Edition I: “Lux et origo,” Easter antiphons, and the proper Gregorian chants.