New Years Indulgences

 
December 31 Indulgence: A PLENARY INDULGENCE is granted when the Te Deum is recited publicly on the last day of the year. Otherwise a partial indulgence is granted to those who recite the Te Deum in thanksgiving.

January 1 Indulgence: A PLENARY INDULGENCE is granted when the Veni, Creator Spiritus is recited on the first of January or Pentecost.

If you don't know what an indulgence is or how to get one, please view my Indulgences post.

General Notes on Indulgences:

Requirements for obtaining a plenary indulgence:

•  Do the work while in a state of grace,
•  Receive Sacramental confession within 20 days of the work (several plenary indulgences may be earned per reception),
•  Receive Eucharistic communion (one plenary indulgence may be earned per reception),
•  Pray for the pope’s intentions (Our Father and Hail Mary, or other appropriate prayer, is sufficient),
•  Have no attachment to sin (even venial) – i.e., it is sufficient that the Christian makes an act of the will to love God and despise sin.

Requirements for a partial indulgence: The work must be done while in a state of grace and with the general intention of earning an indulgence.

Notes:

• Only baptized persons in a state of grace who generally intend to do so may earn indulgences.
• Indulgences cannot be applied to the living, but only to the one doing the work or to the dead.
• Only one plenary indulgence per day can be earned (except for prayer at the hour of one’s own death).
• Several partial indulgences can be earned during the same day.
• If only part of a work with plenary indulgence attached is completed, a partial indulgence still obtains.
• If the penance assigned in confession has indulgences attached, the one work can satisfy both penance and indulgence.
• Confessors may commute the work or the conditions if the penitent cannot perform them due to legitimate obstacles.
• In groups, indulgenced prayer must be recited by at least one member while the others at least mentally follow the prayer.
• If speech/hearing impairments make recitation impossible, mental expression or reading of the prayer is sufficient.
• For an indulgence attached to a particular day requiring a church visit, the day begins at noon the day before and ends at midnight.

Read more >>

CatechismClass.com Now Offering Bishop Vasa’s Meditation on "The Soul of the Apostolate"

CatechismClass.com is pleased to announce that effective immediately it will begin offering a series of 16 talks given by His Excellency Bishop Robert Vasa on Dom Chautard's (Jean-Baptiste Chautard) work: “The Soul of the Apostolate.” The entire series of 16 talks is available for purchase for only $9.99. This series of talks was given when His Excellency was still the Bishop of the Diocese of Baker, Oregon.

Bishop Robert Vasa serves as the Episcopal Advisor to CatechismClass.com. CatechismClass.com operates with the singular goal of being nothing short of the best online Catholic catechesis program in the world. The company provides online, interactive catechetical lessons for parishes and families. They offer a comprehensive K-8 program as well as the original online high school program modeled after the USCCB’s “Doctrinal Elements of a Curriculum Framework for the Development of Catechetical Materials for Young People of High School Age.”

Additionally, the site provides a well-received and thoroughly developed program for use for Adult Catechesis, which has been used around the country as part of RCIA programs.

Now, CatechismClass.com is expanding into audio lessons and will start by offering Bishop Vasa’s series of sixteen talks. Additionally, the company has offered to donate 85% of all sales to the Diocese of Baker, Oregon as a gift to the ministry of the Diocese.

Click here to learn more and receive ordering information.

Read more >>

Catholic Resolutions 2012

So the year 2011 has come and nearly gone.  This past year I did not specifically compose any "Catholic Resolutions" as I have done in past years, but I would like to take some time to reflect upon some of my achievements this past year.

The year 2011 overall was a year without significant activity but I did have several personal milestones this past year.

In May, I earned my Artium Baccalaureus (Bachelor of Arts) with a major in Business Administration and a minor in Philosophy.  The end of May marked my move to the city of Minneapolis where I lived in a downtown apartment until Thanksgiving.

June 1st marked my entry into a secular career, of which I found great opposition to adherence to Catholicism (e.g. abstaining from work on Sundays and all 1st Class Feast Days, refraining from crude and inappropriate jokes, etc).

The week of Thanksgiving ushered in a new era, as I was permanently laid off, forcing me to at least temporarily relocate back to the far south Chicago suburbs.  While this newfound time again with my family is highly welcoming, I do miss the ability to frequently attend Masses at Immaculate Heart of Mary (SSPX) Chapel in St. Paul.  Now I am driving around 60 miles each way to attend a Traditional Mass or Divine Liturgy.

So with six months of the year in a secular job that considered 40 hour work weeks to be "lazy," my ability to focus on the blog and on my other apostolates declined notably.  Now, with more time to again devote to my online Catholic endeavors and the daily recitation of the Divinum Officium, I can again focus on cultivating a true Catholic life.

Thus, I would like to list my Catholic Resolutions for the upcoming year.


2012 Catholic Resolutions

1) Continue to pray the Rosary daily (at least 5 decades) along with Lauds, Prime, one of the day time offices (Terce, Sext, or None), and Vespers.
2) Increase my network of Catholics who attend the Traditional Sacraments in the greater Northern Illinois area.
3) Purchase many different books and build up my Catholic library further.  I have an Amazon Wishlist for some of these items (along with some of my other interests).  If anyone would like to send me one of these items, please know that you will be remembered in my prayers each day while I recite the Breviary at my home altar.  I would specifically like to obtain a copy of the Liber Usualis, the Liber Hymnarius, a Summa Theologica, the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary (pre Vatican II version), Divine Intimacy by Fr. Gabriel, the Catechism of the Council of Trent (Hardcover), My Catholic Faith by Angelus Press, How Christ Said the First Mass by Meagher, The Holy Mass by Dom Prosper, and the Forty Dreams of St. John Bosco.
4) Continue to discern a vocation with a Traditional Order and try to save up more money so that, if I am called, I may more easily join one
5) Attend a 5-day Ignatian Silent retreat in February 2012 at the SSPX retreat center in Phoenix, Arizona
6) Seek to grow spiritually and avoid all of the sins that I have committed often in the past.  As part of this, my goal is to make a weekly Confession.
7) Increase my proficiency in Latin through private tutoring, individual self study, and/or reciting liturgical prayers in Latin.

Additionally, I intend to post regular updates on this blog on the above goals and continue to provide you with inspiring Catholic content.  As long time readers will notice, my blog does not post sacrilegious liturgies, reports of liturgical abuse, or other depressing stories.  My goal is to continue to provide you with the devotions, prayers, and beliefs necessary to foster a traditional Catholic culture for yourselves and your families.

In addition to the above, I of course have several goals for 2012 for CatechismClass.com and will be working diligently each day in order to expand our programs, hire more employees, and deliver orthodox Catholic teachings.  To be updated on developments in this area, please sign up for a free CatechismClass.com account and subscribe to our free newsletter.  2012 should be a very good year for CatechismClass.com.

2012 Catholic Resolutions (updated as of February 13, 2012)

After just returning from the five day Ignatian retreat (#5 mentioned above), I have updated an added to my resolutions:

1) 15 minutes of daily spiritual reading
2) Find a spiritual director

Read more >>

Age of Martyrs Continues: Anno Domini 2011

Taken from Catholic World News
December 30, 2011

Twenty-six pastoral workers--including 18 priests, 4 sisters, and 4 laity--were killed in 2011, according to the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Seven were killed in Colombia, five in Mexico, three in India, two in Burundi, and one each in Brazil, Paraguay, Nicaragua, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Tunisia, Kenya, the Philippines, and Spain.

The Fides news agency commented:

"The true imitation of Christ is love," said the Holy Father on December 26. And this was certainly the rule of life for Sister Angelina, who was killed in South Sudan by militants of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) while she was bringing medical aid to refugees; and also for Maria Elizabeth Macías Castro, of the Scalabrinian Lay Movement of Nuevo Laredo (Mexico), who worked for a newspaper and was committed to assisting migrants, she was kidnapped and murdered by drug dealers; even for Father Fausto Tentorio, Italian missionary of PIME, priest in Mindanao (Southern Philippines), who devoted his life to the service of literacy and development of indigenous people; or even for the layman Rabindra Parichha, killed in Orissa in eastern India: former itinerant catechist was very involved in the legal field and a promoter of human rights.

Fides’ list does not only include missionaries ad gentes in the strict sense, but all pastoral care workers who died violent deaths. We do not propose to use the term "martyrs," since it is up to the Church to judge their possible merits and also because of the scarcity of available information in most of cases, with regard to their life and even the circumstances of their death.

Additional sources for this story: THE NAMES OF PASTORAL WORKERS, BISHOPS, PRIESTS, MEN AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS AND LAY CATHOLICS, KILLED IN THE YEAR 2011 (Fides) http://www.fides.org/eng/documents/missionaries_killed_2011.doc

Read more >>

3 Year Anniversary of Grandfather's Death

Today marks the three-year anniversary of the death of my grandfather, John J.  Your prayers this day for the repose of his soul are most appreciated.  I will be reciting the Office for the Dead this day at Lauds and at Vespers.

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Amen.

In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem.

Read more >>

Validity of SSPX Confessions & Marriages in light of Canon Law

Drawing upon the first two paragraph's of Father Paul L. Kramer's "The Suicide of Altering the Faith in the Liturgy," Chapter II, Part II.  The book is a work of outstanding scholarship and many of the following sentences and throughout the book are footnoted extensively.  This book is highly recommended.

The faithful have the right to receive sacraments that are certainly valid.  The Canon Law Society Commentary elaborates, "This right is rooted in baptism; it is not a privilege granted by Church authorities but a claim rooted in the action of Christ."  The Church may not impose new rites on the faithful, because Catholics have the "right to worship God according to the prescriptions of their own right."  This right establishes on the part of the faithful an inviolable moral faculty according to which they can and must demand to be provided the goods and services of the Church according to their own custom and rite.

Since the Divine Law establishes the right and duty which constitutes an inviolable claim on the part of the faithful to receive the sacraments according to their own custom and rite, that claim may not be legitimately denied.  It is in virtue of this inviolable claim, and that if the faithful are unlawfully denied their traditional rites, then, in accord with the principle of equity, they may not be punished for availing themselves of services of priests and bishops whose adherence to Tradition has earned for them the withdrawal or deprivation of their priestly faculties.  Such withdrawal of faculties is unlawful, while the penal deprivation of faculties under such circumstances is certainly invalid, since such priests are guilty of nothing other than exercising  their divinely commissioned ministry.

Continued...

Image Source: SSPX.ORG

Read more >>

Nativitate Domini (Christmas)

The following Mass Propers are from the First Mass at Midnight.  For all priests saying more than three Masses on Christmas, since priests are permitted to say three Masses on this day, they should be familiar with the rules for celebrating Mass more than once the same day. See The Celebration of Mass - A Study of the Rubrics of the Roman Missal by Rev. O'Connell pages 371 - 373 for more information specific to Christmas. Also, while the time in which Mass may traditionally be said is specified in the 1917 Code of Canon Law as no earlier than one hour before dawn, Canon 821 §2 provides the specific exception for the time of midnight Mass.

Epistle (Titus 2: 11-15) - Dearly beloved, The grace of God our Savior hath appeared to all men, instructing us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly and justly and godly in this world, looking for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ: Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and might cleanse to Himself a people acceptable, a pursuer of good works. These things speak and exhort: in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Secret - May our offering on this day's feast be acceptable to Thee, O Lord, we beseech Thee: that by Thy bounteous grace, though this sacred intercourse, we may be found like unto Him, in whom our nature is united to Thee. Who with Thee liveth and reigneth...

Special Form of Communicantes - Communicating, and keeping this most holy night, in which the spotless virginity of blessed Mary brought forth a Savior to this world; and also reverencing the memory first of the same glorious Mary, ever Virgin, Mother of the same our God and Lord Jesus Christ: as also . . .

Post Communion - Grant to us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that we, who rejoice in celebrating by these Mysteries, the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, may by worthy lives, deserve to attain unto fellowship with Him. Who with Thee liveth and reigneth in the unity . . .

For the full Mass propers for Christmas Day for all three Masses, please click here.

Read more >>

SSPX Appoints Fr. Petrucci as New Superior of Italian District

Father Pierpaolo Maria Petrucci has been named by the General House as the new Superior of the Italian District of the Society of St. Pius X. Father Petrucci was born in 1962 on the Adriatic coast in Rimni.

In 1981 he graduated from High School and enter the Priestly Seminary of Econe. Six years later he was ordained a a Catholic priest by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. At first he was active for five years as an educator at the Boys Gymnasium "Etoile du Matin" in Bitche (Lothringen). Then he was a Director of Spiritual Excercises in Italy from 1993 as pastor in various priories in France (Priory "St. Regis" in Unieux near Lyon, then Prior of St Louis in Nantes in der Vendée). In 2005 he was the Prior of the Priory of Nantes, the largest operation in the Society after Paris, and Dean of the Society for northwest France. In 2008 he returned back to Italy and took over the priory of "Our Dear Lady of Loretto" in Rimni at the request of the District Superior. 

Source: Eponymous Flower

Read more >>

Feast of the Synaxis

On the second day of the Nativity, the Christian Church gives glory and thanksgiving to the Most-holy Theotokos, who gave birth to our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ. This feast is called 'the Synaxis' because on this day all of the faithful gather to glorify her, the Most-holy Theotokos, and to solemnly and universally celebrate a feast in her honor.

In 431, after the Council of Ephesus, the Byzantine Church established a special feast of the Maternity of Mary on Dec. 26.


KONTAKION (TONE 6)

He who before the birth of the Morning Star was born of the Father, without a mother, became incarnate on earth of you, O mother of God, without a father. Wherefore a star annouces to wise men that you have given birth without human seed, and the angels and shepherds glorify you, O Woman full of grace!

Read more >>

Blessing of Children (Rituale Romanum)

P: Our help is in the name of the Lord.

All: Who made heaven and earth.

P: The Lord be with you.

All: May He also be with you.

Let us pray.


We implore you, almighty God, to bless these children, and we ask that you keep them in your love. Strengthen their hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit, sanctify their lives, foster their innocence. Keep their minds intent on good, help them to prosper, give them peace, health, and charity. By your might and protection shield them always from every temptation of men or demons. And in your mercy may they finally attain the happiness and rest of Paradise; through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.

Let us pray.


Lord Jesus Christ, who embraced the little children when they came or were brought to you (here the priest extends his hands over them), and laying your hands on them blessed them and said: "Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them. The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these; and their angels ever see the face of my Father;" we beg you to look with favor on the devotion of these boys and girls here present, and let your blessing come on them in fullest measure. Let them ever advance in your grace and goodness, the better to know you, love you, fear you, and serve you, and happily reach their blessed destiny. We ask this of you, Savior of the world, who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.

All: Amen.


May the blessing of almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, come upon you, keep and direct you, and remain with you forever.

All: Amen.


They are sprinkled with holy water.

Images: From the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest Shrine in Chicago, Illinois from the Blessing of Children according to the Rituale Romanum in Latin (1962) following the 10 AM Solemn High Mass of Christmas Day.  The children and then the remaining faithful then came forward to venerate a relic of the Crib of Bethlehem (pictured in the third image in the reliquary).

Read more >>