Saturday, September 05, 2009
I Think I Can Confidently Predict
That today, September 5th, will one day be the feast of Saint Mother Theresa of Calcutta.
I hope one day that selected saints canonized since 1962 find their way into a modest revision of the 1962 Ordo, Padre Pio being one, Maximilian Kolbe another, Thomas More and John Fisher comprising a third. And among those not yet canonized, I hoped one day to pray the traditional Mass (or Extraordinary Form, if you prefer) for the feasts of Fulton Sheen, Mother Theresa, Anna Catherine Emmerich, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, Ronald Knox, Michael McGivney, and Robert Hugh Benson.
I hope one day that selected saints canonized since 1962 find their way into a modest revision of the 1962 Ordo, Padre Pio being one, Maximilian Kolbe another, Thomas More and John Fisher comprising a third. And among those not yet canonized, I hoped one day to pray the traditional Mass (or Extraordinary Form, if you prefer) for the feasts of Fulton Sheen, Mother Theresa, Anna Catherine Emmerich, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, Ronald Knox, Michael McGivney, and Robert Hugh Benson.
Labels: Our Saintly Brethern
Our Blessed Lady's Saturday
PRAYER TO OUR SORROWFUL MOTHER
O Mother of Sorrows, thou, who beneath the Cross of Jesus were given to
us as our Mother, look down with pity on us, thy children, who weep and
mourn in this valley of tears. By that sword of sorrow which pierced thy
Heart when thou looked upon the Face of thy dead Son, obtain for us
that comfort we so sorely need in our sufferings.
Thou were given to us our Mother in the hour of thy greatest grief that
thou might be mindful of our frailty and the evils that press upon us.
Without thy aid, O Sorrowful Mother, we cannot gain the victory in this
struggle against flesh and blood. Therefore, we seek thy help,
O Queen of Sorrows, lest we fall prey to the wiles of the enemy.
We are orphans in need of the guiding hand of our Mother amid the
dangers that threaten our destruction. Thou whose grief was boundless
as the sea, grant us by the memory of those sorrows the strength to be
victorious.
Intercede further, O Mother of Sorrows, for us and all who are near and
dear to us, that we may ever do the Will of thy Son, and may direct all
our actions to His honor, and to the furtherance of devotion to thy sorrows.
Amen.
Virgin Most Sorrowful, pray for us.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be.
Labels: Our Blessed Lady
Friday, September 04, 2009
Friday At the Foot Of the Cross
Dear Jesus, in the Sacrament of the Altar, be forever thanked and praised. Love, worthy of all celestial and terrestrial love! Who, out of infinite love for me, ungrateful sinner, didst assume our human nature, didst shed Thy most Precious Blood in the cruel scourging, and didst expire on a shameful Cross for our eternal welfare! Now illumined with lively faith, with the outpouring of my whole soul and the fervor of my heart, I humbly beseech Thee, through the infinite merits of Thy painful sufferings, give me strength and courage to destroy every evil passion which sways my heart, to bless Thee by the exact fulfillment of my duties, supremely to hate all sin, and thus to become a Saint.
Labels: Friday At the Foot Of the Cross
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Whodda Thunk It?
Saint Pope Pius X
September 3rd is his feast in the Ordo in use before 1970. He was canonized in 1954 by Servant of God Pope Pius XII.
In the 1970 Ordo, this is the feast of Saint Pope Gregory the Great. September 3rd is the date of the beginning of his pontificate. His feast is March 12th (the date of his death) in the traditional Ordo. The move was made because March 12th always falls in Lent, and there are no obligatory memorials during that season.
Labels: Our Saintly Brethern
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Saint Stephen Of Hungary
Saint Stephen Of Hungary, pray for us!
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
End Of Summer Or Beginning Of Fall
The trend of school systems messing with the traditional post-Labor Day back-to-school regimen and pushing up the start of school into the last 2 weeks in August has left this time as a grey area. In my day, this was a time to savor the last few days of summer vacation, a time to cling frantically to leisure, as the leisure would come to a crashing end 2 days after Labor Day. Now, many, if not most, kids are already back in school. This used to be a time to gear up for the return to the grind, a time to shop for back-to-school clothes.
Now, only us old farts think of the end of August and the days of September before Labor Day like that.
And I must admit that the weather here in Boston now is making it feel more like Fall than Summer. We are blessed this week with what I consider the perfect weather: sunny, no humidity, and around 70-75 degrees. And that is typical for early-mid September here in Boston. For me, it is still shorts and polo shirt weather. I live in shorts and polos from Memorial Day through Labor Day. But I see fewer people in the same uniform in the early morning, when the temps are in the 50s.
It is almost like the early part of this summer, which was very damp and cloudy here in Boston. I'd be in my shorts and polos every day, but everyone else was bundled up like it was a new Ice Age. I guess a genetic background of who-knows-how-long in the West of Ireland has left me better suited for 50s and rain than others.
We had a long heatwave in mid-August, and I was miserable. Beach people were happy, but I am not one of them.
But now it is cool again, and I am in my element.
Fall is in the air, and that has me fondly thinking of some of my favorite things: apple-picking, fresh cider, pumpkins, cooking, foliage, Halloween and Hallowmas, Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, New Year, Twelfth Night. It is funny, isn't it, how a little dip in the temperature can set up certain associations.
From a religious standpoint, it is probably well to think of the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady as the real end of summer. And as often as not, that will be pretty close, as the end of August is often cool in Boston.
Now, only us old farts think of the end of August and the days of September before Labor Day like that.
And I must admit that the weather here in Boston now is making it feel more like Fall than Summer. We are blessed this week with what I consider the perfect weather: sunny, no humidity, and around 70-75 degrees. And that is typical for early-mid September here in Boston. For me, it is still shorts and polo shirt weather. I live in shorts and polos from Memorial Day through Labor Day. But I see fewer people in the same uniform in the early morning, when the temps are in the 50s.
It is almost like the early part of this summer, which was very damp and cloudy here in Boston. I'd be in my shorts and polos every day, but everyone else was bundled up like it was a new Ice Age. I guess a genetic background of who-knows-how-long in the West of Ireland has left me better suited for 50s and rain than others.
We had a long heatwave in mid-August, and I was miserable. Beach people were happy, but I am not one of them.
But now it is cool again, and I am in my element.
Fall is in the air, and that has me fondly thinking of some of my favorite things: apple-picking, fresh cider, pumpkins, cooking, foliage, Halloween and Hallowmas, Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, New Year, Twelfth Night. It is funny, isn't it, how a little dip in the temperature can set up certain associations.
From a religious standpoint, it is probably well to think of the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady as the real end of summer. And as often as not, that will be pretty close, as the end of August is often cool in Boston.
Labels: Annual Cycles
September 2009
September early foliage in Hanover, NH.
Important feasts celebrated during September include:
1. St. Giles
2. St. Stephen King of Hungary
3. St. Pope Pius X
5. Bl. Mother Theresa of Calcutta
8. Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
9. St. Peter Claver (USA)
12. Most Holy Name of Mary
13. St. John Chrysostom
14. Exaltation of the True Cross
15. Our Lady of Sorrows
16. SS. Cornelius and Cyprian
17. St. Robert Bellarmine and Bl. Hildegard von Bingen
19. St. Januarius
21. St. Matthew
22. Martyrs of Valencia
23. St. Pio of Pietrelcina
24. Our Lady of Mercy and Our Lady of Walshingham
26. SS. Cosmas and Damian
27. St. Vincent de Paul
28. St. Wenceslaus
29. Michaelmas
30. St. Jerome
The month of September is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, the feast being on September 15th.
September is entirely in in the Season After Pentecost (ordinary Time for those using the 1970 Ordo).
The First Friday of September is Friday, September 4th.
The First Saturday of September is Saturday, September 5th.
The Michaelmas Embertide takes place on Wednesday, September 23rd, Friday, September 25th, and Saturday, September 26th.
Monday, September 7th is the secular US holiday of Labor Day.
Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI's published prayer intentions for the month of September, 2009 are:
General:
That the word of God may be better known, welcomed and lived as the source of freedom and joy.
Mission:
That Christians in Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, who often meet with great difficulties, may not be discourage from announcing the Gospel to their brothers, trusting in the strength of the Holy Spirit.
Labels: First Of the Month Almanac
Sunday, August 30, 2009
The Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
From The Liturgical Year, by Abbot Prosper Gueranger, OSB:
THE dominical series---which formerly counted from the feast of Saint Peter, or of the apostles---never went beyond this Sunday. The feast of Saint Laurence gave its name to those which follow; though that name began with even the ninth Sunday, for the years when Easter was further from the Spring equinox. And when that solemnity was kept at its latest date, the weeks began from to-day to be counted as the weeks of the seventh month (September).
The Ember-days of the autumn quarter sometimes occur even this week; whilst, other years, they may be as late as the eighteenth. We will speak of them when we come to the seventeenth Sunday, for it is in the week following that, that the Roman missal inserts them.
In the western Church, the thirteenth Sunday takes its name from the Gospel of the ten lepers, which is read in the Mass; the Greeks, who count it as the thirteenth of Saint Matthew, read on it the parable of the vineyard, whose labourers, though called at different hours of the day, all receive the same pay.
MASS
Now that she is in possession of the promises so long waited for by the world, the Church loves to repeat the words wherewith the just men of the old law used to express their sentiments. Those just men were living during the gloomy period, when the human race was seated in the shadow of death. We are under incomparably happier circumstances; we are blessed with graces in abundance: eternal Wisdom has spared us the trials our forefathers had to contend with, by giving us to live in the period which has been enriched by all the mysteries of salvation. There is a danger, however, and our mother the Church does her utmost to avert us from falling into it; it is the danger of forgetting all these blessings. Ingratitude is the necessary outcome of forgetfulness, and to-day’s Gospel justly condemns it. On this account, the Epistle, and here our Introit, remind us of the time when man had nothing to cheer him but hope: a promise had, indeed, been made to him of a sublime covenant which was, at some distant future, to be realized; but, meanwhile, he was very poor, was a prey to the wiles of satan, his cause was to be tried by divine justice, and yet he prayed for loving mercy.
THE dominical series---which formerly counted from the feast of Saint Peter, or of the apostles---never went beyond this Sunday. The feast of Saint Laurence gave its name to those which follow; though that name began with even the ninth Sunday, for the years when Easter was further from the Spring equinox. And when that solemnity was kept at its latest date, the weeks began from to-day to be counted as the weeks of the seventh month (September).
The Ember-days of the autumn quarter sometimes occur even this week; whilst, other years, they may be as late as the eighteenth. We will speak of them when we come to the seventeenth Sunday, for it is in the week following that, that the Roman missal inserts them.
In the western Church, the thirteenth Sunday takes its name from the Gospel of the ten lepers, which is read in the Mass; the Greeks, who count it as the thirteenth of Saint Matthew, read on it the parable of the vineyard, whose labourers, though called at different hours of the day, all receive the same pay.
MASS
Now that she is in possession of the promises so long waited for by the world, the Church loves to repeat the words wherewith the just men of the old law used to express their sentiments. Those just men were living during the gloomy period, when the human race was seated in the shadow of death. We are under incomparably happier circumstances; we are blessed with graces in abundance: eternal Wisdom has spared us the trials our forefathers had to contend with, by giving us to live in the period which has been enriched by all the mysteries of salvation. There is a danger, however, and our mother the Church does her utmost to avert us from falling into it; it is the danger of forgetting all these blessings. Ingratitude is the necessary outcome of forgetfulness, and to-day’s Gospel justly condemns it. On this account, the Epistle, and here our Introit, remind us of the time when man had nothing to cheer him but hope: a promise had, indeed, been made to him of a sublime covenant which was, at some distant future, to be realized; but, meanwhile, he was very poor, was a prey to the wiles of satan, his cause was to be tried by divine justice, and yet he prayed for loving mercy.
Labels: The Liturgical Year
