A Wonderful Event: the Impression of the Holy Stigmata on Saint Francis

Giotto, Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata
Musée du Louvre (1295)

On September 17, we celebrate the memory of the awesome impression of the Holy Stigmata of Our Lord Jesus Christ on Saint Francis on the Tuscan hill known as Mount Alvernia (La Verna), in 1224.

Brother Ugolino tells the story in detail in his Fioretti (Little Flowers), and we encourage reading it for the feel of the place, the times, the people -- and how it is all connected with the feasts and flows of the Traditional Liturgical Year and the Breviary, including the period that goes from the Feast of the Holy Cross to the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel:

As the Feast of the Holy Cross then drew nigh, in the month of September, Brother Leo went one night at his accustomed hour to say Matins with St Francis.

Prepare ye the way of the Ordo

Sunday, 24 December 2017 may be a confusing day for diocesan priests who offer the TLM, a reminder that every priest and sacristy should have an Ordo.  On that Sunday, the Vigil of Christmas is the Mass to be offered all day, using the 1962 calendar, including Sunday morning. The Vigil of Christmas takes the place of the Fourth Sunday of Advent, as it has for centuries when landing on Sunday the 24th. As we mentioned last week, the novus ordo (of course) does the complete opposite.

The photo above shows the FSSP Ordo.  The Vigil of Christmas entry is based on the rubrics, which state:

New year, old calendar

It's that time of year, when a novus Ordo we actually like is issued.

Much of the world is already celebrating a secularized version of Christmas. As the lights and trees go up, it is a good time to emphasize some key dates concerning the new liturgical season.

Advent begins on Sunday, 3 December, this year (technically beginning with first vespers on 2 December).

The feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 8 December, falls on a Friday this year, meaning one may eat meat that day following the centuries-old discipline where abstinence is waived on days of precept.  The winter ember days are 20 December, 22 December and 23 December.

Christmas Eve, 24 December, falls on a Sunday this year instead of the Fourth Sunday of Advent (this differs from the novus ordo), the first time that will happen since Summorum Pontificum.  The Vigil of Christmas TLM, celebrated in violet, will be new to a lot of communicants. The traditional discipline of fasting and abstinence on Christmas Eve does not apply this year due to the vigil falling on a Sunday, although many dinner menus will probably still go with the customary seven fishes.

Lent is coming: Time to prepare Printable Lent worksheet

Lent is coming and it's now that we should be preparing.

Today, we once again post the worksheet below, which was made years ago for us to use by a wonderful traditional priest (click for larger view and printing). It's a good tool to make our plans, to refer to throughout Lent and to evaluate our progress when Lent ends.

Planning for Lent should be no different than planning for other things in life: Plan, prepare, execute and evaluate. Today we give you a tool to use. Tomorrow, we'll give you some inspiration. 

Guest Op-Ed - The festivals of the Church: The glories of the liturgical calendar

By Veronica A. Arntz

The glorious liturgical calendar reveals the heart of the Church. At the center of the Church’s life, we find profound festivity, for the liturgical year is comprised of many feasts in honor of our Lord, His Blessed Mother, and “the great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1, RSV). The liturgical year unites us more deeply with the Church, for through it, we enter into the ancient traditions of the Church, alongside the great communion of saints. At this beautiful time in the liturgical year, having just finished the Christmas Octave and as we approach the Feast of the Epiphany, it is fitting to reflect on what the festivity of the Church is, what it means for her members and how it influences man’s relationship with God.

Septuagesima: In the beginning

The lessons for Matins introduce the theme of the penitential pre-lenten season of Septuagesima: Creation and Fall, and Original Sin; and God's intervention in human History to purify mankind through a remnant in an ark (Sexagesima week) and to choose a People for himself; and the will of the unfathomable Divinity to reveal himself through his chosen people of Israel; and the Mystery of the Incarnation, through which the promise to Abraham ("in thee shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed", First Lesson in the Matins for Quinquagesima Sunday) would be fulfilled by the Divine Son of the Blessed Virgin ("I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel", Third Lesson in the Matins for Wednesday in Septuagesima week).

The reality of Original Sin ("I am the Immaculate Conception") and the great need for penitence in our times ("Penance! Penance! Penance!") were also the messages of the memorable events which began on February 11, 1858:

On "liturgical blue" for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

At the end of last year the Filipino Traditionalist Catholic blog Dei praesidio fultus published a comprehensive article on the use of blue -- or, rather, cerulean -- vestments for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception:

Liturgical blue

The article defends the existence of the privilege while meticulously noting the restrictions placed upon it to prevent its indiscriminate dissemination. The privilege was not automatically given to every portion of the former Spanish empire, but had to be specifically petitioned by a Hispanophone diocese, ecclesiastical province or national hierarchy from the Holy See and granted by the Sacred Congregation of Rites. 

Plenary Indulgence Reminders for the first full week in November (November 1st-8th) - Repost (Enchiridion Indulgentiarum)

Canon Alonso Lobo

Libera me, Domine (Resp. Off. Def.)

__________________

There are several plenary indulgences available for the first week in November, beginning today, November 1st, All Saints Day. They are the following:

"He appointed men to fight, till they had cleansed the holy places. He chose priests without blemish, whose will was set upon the law of God."

Henri-Camille Danger
Mattathias refuses to obey the orders of the tyrant Antiochus (1882)
Musée de Soissons

***

Congregati sunt inimici nostri, 

et gloriantur in virtute sua: 

contere fortitudinem illorum, Domine, et disperge illos:

* Ut cognoscant, quia non est alius qui pugnet pro nobis, 

nisi tu Deus noster.

Then Judas, and his brethren said: "Behold our enemies are discomfited: let us go up now to cleanse the holy places and to repair them." And all the army assembled together, and they went up into mount Sion. And they saw the sanctuary desolate, and the altar profaned, and the gates burnt, and shrubs growing up in the courts as in a forest, or on the mountains, and the chambers joining to the temple thrown down. And they rent their garments, and made great lamentation, and put ashes on their heads. And they fell face down to the ground on their faces, and they sounded with the trumpets of alarm, and they cried towards heaven.

Repost: Ember in September

The equinox has just arrived, bringing with it the beautiful days of Autumn (and Spring in the Southern Hemisphere). The Roman Church once again reminds us of the cycle of the seasons in these Ember Days in September.

We re-post, for those who are not aware of it, this article first posted by us in 2008. May you all have fruitful days.

___________________________________________________________

THE GLOW
OF THE EMBER DAYS

By Michael P. Foley

Passiontide Begins + EGO SUM

"Abraham pater vester exsultavit ut videret diem meum: vidit, et gavisus est." Dixerunt ergo Iudæi ad eum: "Quinquaginta annos nondum habes, et Abraham vidisti?" Dixit eis Iesus: "Amen, amen dico vobis, antequam Abraham fieret, ego sum." (From the Gospel for Passion Sunday, John viii, 56-58: "Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day: he saw it, and was glad." The Jews therefore said to him: "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them: "Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am.")

...Abraham's Creator bears a great testimony to Abraham. "Abraham rejoiced," He says, "to see my day." He did not fear, but "rejoiced to see it." For in him there was the love that casts out fear. He says not, rejoiced because he saw; but "rejoiced that he might see." [Non ait: Exsultavit, quia vidit; sed, exsultavit ut videret.] Believing, at all events, he rejoiced in hope to see with the understanding. "And he saw." And what more could the Lord Jesus Christ say, or what more ought He to have said? "And he saw," He says, "and was glad." Who can unfold this joy...? If those rejoiced whose bodily eyes were opened by the Lord, what joy was his who saw with the eyes of his soul the light ineffable, the abiding Word, the brilliance that dazzles the minds of the pious, the unfailing Wisdom, God abiding with the Father, and at some time come in the flesh and yet not to withdraw from the bosom of the Father?

All this did Abraham see. For in saying "my day," it may be uncertain of what He spoke; whether the day of the Lord in time, when He should come the flesh, or that day of the Lord which knows not a dawn, and knows no decline. But for my part I doubt not that father Abraham knew it all. And where shall I find it out? Ought the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ to satisfy us? Let us suppose that we cannot find it out, for perhaps it is difficult to say in what sense it is clear that Abraham "rejoiced to see the day" of Christ, "and saw it, and was glad." ...

Fontgombault Sermon - Feast of Saint Benedict: "The Foundations of European Civilization are being destroyed by the liberally-minded."

FEAST OF SAINT BENEDICT

Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau

Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault

and Administrator of St. Paul of Wisques

(Wisques, March 21, 2015)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

My dearly beloved Sons,

We celebrate today the day on which our Blessed Father St. Benedict was called to God, and we give thanks for the blessings that this life has brought, and for the gift that through him and his sons has been granted, and is still granted, to mankind.

St. Benedict’s undertaking has by far gone beyond the limits of the houses that he founded and of the times in which he lived. By the network of monasteries that were sown on our Old World countries, St. Benedict has made a major contribution to the foundation of Europe on the rock of Christian values. Come hell or high water, the Old World has stood fast and has even spread this civilisation,

especially in the African and American worlds.

St. Benedict does indeed deserve the title of “great confessor”. We have just sung: Blessed is the man that fears the Lord, that delights greatly in His commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon the earth: the generation of the righteous shall be blessed. (Ps 111:1-2)

How can we explain such an influence? The sequence of the Mass calls him magni ducis, a great chief. Monks call him their Blessed Father. More than a chief, St. Benedict has been a Father. If he is the Father of Europe, it is because he has been first Father of his monks.

What is then this fatherhood that is not derived from the bonds of the flesh, and yet seems to hold fruitfulness, as can be seen in the monastic Order? The Apostles have forsaken all to follow Jesus. The same applies to monks. Monastic fatherhood is a living relationship, which conversely entails a living “sonship”. If St. Benedict has become the Father of Europe, it is because he had sons who passed on the heritage that they had received from their Father.

Ember Wednesday in Lent: The Sign of Jonah

We are in the Ember Days in Lent - the first one being this Wednesday, whose Gospel is dedicated to the signs demanded from the Lord by Scribes and Pharisees. The words of Christ on the sign of Jonah, the prophet, also bring to mind the distressing situation of so many of our Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq and Syria, in particular those expelled from Mosul/Nineveh and surrounding areas, still under the brutal occupation (for how long, o Lord?) of the most hideous group of bandits imaginable. May the world recognize the sign of Jonah and believe in the Resurrected Lord - Maranatha!

***

Fr. Nicolas Caussin, S.I., confessor to kings, is well-known as the author of "La Cour Sainte" ("The Holy Court"). In his "Entretiens" ("Entertainments") for Lent, some of his sermons for the Season are presented in a devotional format: an examination of the traditional scriptural readings for the day in the Roman Rite followed by the aspirations of the soul thirsty for Christ. 

________________________________________

"He answered and said to them, 'An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, and no sign shall be given it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. For even as Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Ninive will rise up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.'" (From the Gospel for Ember Wednesday in Lent, St. Matthew, xii)

It is a very ill sign when we desire signs to make us believe in God. The signs which we demand to fortify our faith are often marks of our infidelity. There is not a more dangerous plague in the events of worldly affairs than to deal with the devils or to play with predictions. All these things fill men with more faults than knowledge. For divine oracles have more need to be reverenced than interpreted. He that will find God must seek him with simplicity and possess him with piety.

Sermon for Sexagesima Sunday 2015: The Sower and the New Thorns

From the Gospel for Sexagesima Sunday:  “The sower went out to sow his seed.”

Once again in this season of Septuagesima we prepare for Lent by hearing one of Jesus’ familiar parables, the parable of the sower.  And once again we have to remind ourselves that these parables are not meant to be understood or heard like Aesop’s Fables, homely stories with a moral message.  These are all parables of the Kingdom of God and the one who speaks the parable is the Word of God himself, incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ.  How wonderful it is that in the Traditional Roman Mass that the Gospel is sung and in Latin, for this helps us to understand that the readings at Mass are not meant to be didactic, they are not meant to teach per se as if they were read at a Bible study session, but they are rather part of the worship offering, they are sung to God in the context of the Holy Sacrifice, and sung in a language that is not our own but rather in a language that formed the Roman Rite and that now allows it to soar beyond what any vernacular language could do.

Septuagesima: In the beginning

The lessons for Matins introduce the theme of the penitential pre-lenten season of Septuagesima: Creation and Fall, and Original Sin; and God's intervention in human History to purify mankind through a remnant in an ark (Sexagesima week) and to choose a People for himself; and the will of the unfathomable Divinity to reveal himself through his chosen people of Israel; and the Mystery of the Incarnation, through which the promise to Abraham ("in thee shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed", First Lesson in the Matins for Quinquagesima Sunday) would be fulfilled by the Divine Son of the Blessed Virgin ("I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel", Third Lesson in the Matins for Wednesday in Septuagesima week).

The reality of Original Sin ("I am the Immaculate Conception") and the great need for penitence in our times ("Penance! Penance! Penance!") were also the messages of the memorable events which began on February 11, 1858:

The year - One year

One year, the most meaningful of the cycles of nature. Man marks it with celebrations, birthdays, anniversaries - including the anniversaries of the birth (Christmas) and Resurrection (Easter) of the Lord that define the Liturgical Year itself. It is comforting for us today to begin anew the Sunday cycle following the intense time of Advent, Christmastide and Epiphanytide with the same Gospel as in every single year - as our forefathers, both in the West and in the East, always did: one yearly cycle of readings for Mass. A one-year cycle, dictated by nature, received through Tradition, reminding us each year of the great Truths of our Faith.

The first Sunday of the Season after Epiphany (before Septuagesima), which began yesterday, is next Sunday, the Second after Epiphany. It is, of course, the Sunday of the Wedding at Cana: it is fitting to begin the post-Epiphanytide Sundays with the first miracle of the Lord. There are great lessons and reminders in the day's Gospel, but the Roman Breviary reaches even more clearly with the voice of the Church, through Saint Augustine:

Rejoice? Really?...

Fratres: Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete. Modestia vestra nota sit omnibus hominibus: Dominus prope est. Nihil soliciti sitis: sed in omni oratione, et obsecratione, cum gratiarum actione, petitiones vestrae innotescant apud Deum. Et pax Dei, quæ exsuperat omnem sensum, custodiat corda vestra et intelligentias vestras, in Christo Iesu Domino nostro. (Epistle for the Third Sunday in Advent, Philippians iv, 4-7: Brethren, Rejoice in the Lord always: again I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men. The Lord is nigh. Be nothing solicitous: but in every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.)

"Blessed they that mourn," and "woe unto them that laugh" (Matt. v. 4; Luke vi. 25), says Christ. How then does Paul say, "Rejoice in the Lord always"? "Woe to them that laugh," said Christ, the laughter of this world which arises from the things which are present. He blessed also those that mourn, not simply for the loss of relatives, but those who are pricked at heart, who mourn their own faults, and take count of their own sins, or even those of others.

On the 160th Anniversary of the Dogmatic Definition of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX

Dominus possedit me in initio viarum suarum, antequam quidquam faceret a principio. Ab æterno ordinata sum, et ex antiquis, antequam terra fieret. (From the Lesson for the Mass of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Proverbs viii, 22-23: The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made any thing from the beginning. I was set up from eternity, and of old before the earth was made.)

The Morning Star is about to rise upon the night which overspreads the fallen world with its deep shadows. The East already warms, and the glorious Sun of Justice sends His rays before His coming. That beautiful Star precedes Him on His way. It is full of His light, and is the reflection of His purity.

The Essential Book Suggestion: "The Liturgical Year"

Plenary Indulgence Reminders for the first week in November (November 1st-8th)

Canon Alonso Lobo

Libera me, Domine (Resp. Off. Def.)

__________________

There are several plenary indulgences available for the first week in November, beginning tomorrow, November 1st, All Saints Day. They are the following: