Traditional Mass Propers: 4th Sunday after Easter

DOUBLE / WHITE

INTROIT Ps. 97:1, 2

Sing to the Lord a new canticle, alleluia! For the Lord has done wondrous deeds, alleluia! He has revealed His justice in the sight of the nations, alleluia, alleluia! Ps. 97:1. His right hand has won him victory, and his holy arm has brought salvation. V. Glory be . . .



COLLECT
O God, in whom all the faithful are united in one mind, let Your people everywhere love Your commandments and yearn for Your promises, so that, even amid the changes of this world, their hearts may always be fixed upon the true happiness of heaven. Through Our Lord . . .

EPISTLE 
James 1:17-21

Beloved: Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no change nor shadow of alteration. For of his own will hath he begotten us by the word of truth, that we might be some beginning of his creature. You know, my dearest brethren. And let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak and slow to anger. For the anger of man worketh not the justice of God. Wherefore, casting away all uncleanness and abundance of naughtiness, with meekness receive the ingrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

Alleluia, alleluia!  Ps. 117:16
The right hand of the Lord has exercised power, the right hand of the Lord has lifted me up. Alleluia!
Rom. 6:9 Christ, having risen from the dead, dies now no more; death shall no longer have dominion over Him. Alleluia!

GOSPEL  
John 16:5-14

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: "I go to him that sent me, and none of you asketh me: 'Whither goest thou?' But because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow hath filled your heart. But I tell you the truth: it is expedient to you that I go. For if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you: but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he is come, he will convince the world of sin and of justice and of judgment. Of sin: because they believed not in me. And of justice: because I go to the Father: and you shall see me no longer. And of judgment: because the prince of this world is already judged. "I have yet many things to say to you: but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth. For he shall not speak of himself: but what things soever he shall hear, he shall speak. And the things that are to come, he shall shew you. He shall glorify me: because he shall receive of mine and shall shew it to you."

OFFERTORY ANTIPHON  
Ps. 65:1-2, 16
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; sing a psalm to the glory of His name. Come and hear, all you who fear God, the great things the Lord has done for me, alleluia!



SECRET
O God, who allows us to share in Your own divine nature by partaking of this sacrifice, grant that our conduct may be guided by Your revealed truth. Through Our Lord . . .

COMMUNION ANTIPHON  
John 16:8
When the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will convict the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment, alleluia, alleluia!

POSTCOMMUNION
Help us, O Lord our God, that we may be cleansed from sin and shielded from all dangers by these Gifts which we receive with faith. Through Our Lord . . .

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Catholic Liturgical Year Program through CatechismClass.com

Christus Resurrexit!

Please consider, as part of you and your children's religious education, adding the Catholic Liturgical Year Program to your schedule.  This online program is meant to provide you with dozens of lessons for Catholic Feasts and Fasts throughout the year.  Best of all, if you purchase it now for $59.99, you will lock in at that price and any future lessons added to this program will be uploaded automatically and freely into your account.

Not sure if it is right for you?  Please check out our lesson on the 4th Sunday after Easter for only a few dollars.  If you like what you read, please sign up for the Catholic Liturgical Year Course.  If it's not for you, then feel no pressure to sign up!

I would highly recommend these lessons. Even the most informed, traditional Catholic will walk away learning new and forgotten pieces of our Catholic heritage.

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Cornerstone for upcoming SSPX Virginia Seminary Blessed

The process for building the new seminary in Virginia for the Society of St. Pius X is well under way.  As summarized by the Society's website, "With the Blue Ridge Mountains as the backdrop and a blue sky overhead, Bishop Bernard Fellay presided over the various ceremonies: the blessing of the cornerstone and cloister bells, then a Pontifical Mass, followed by a conference concerning the new project and current affairs in the SSPX."

In late 2011, the Society had broken ground for an additional seminary in Virginia.  Your support for this project is also much appreciated and needed.

Photos are courtesy of the Society's website.

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Pray for the Soul of the Founder of Neumann Press

Dennis L. McCoy, age 72 of Long Prairie, formerly of Sauk Centre, died Monday, April 22, 2013 surrounded by his family at the Fairview University Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

A Funeral Mass will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 27 at Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Church in Sauk Centre with Rev. John Paul Erickson officiating. Interment will be in the parish cemetery.
Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Patton-Schad Funeral Home in Sauk Centre. A Rosary will be prayed at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. with parish prayers held at 6 p.m. Friday evening at the funeral home.
Dennis Lee McCoy was born September 3, 1940 in Mitchell, South Dakota to Ronald and Marie (Sullivan) McCoy. He graduated from Woonsocket High School in 1958 and went on to Mankato State the following year. In 1959, he started working at the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, the daily newspaper in Sioux Falls, where he met his future bride, Dorothy McDonald. The couple was united in marriage on June 17, 1961 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
In 1961, they moved to Minnesota and operated the Brooten Review. Along with his brothers, Dennis started the Dairyland Peach in 1967. Together, they ran the Dairyland Peach until the early 1980's. In 1981, he founded the Neumann Press, a classic Catholic book publishing company.
He was a former member of Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Church in Sauk Centre. His Faith was very important to him. Dennis founded the Central Minnesota Chapter of Una Voce, a group dedicated to the promotion and support of the traditional Latin Mass, in union with Rome. He enjoyed restoring classic cars, woodworking, and listening to his favorite music. He also loved ballroom dancing with his wife at the Lakeside Dance Club in Glenwood and spending time with his family.
Survivors include his wife, Dorothy McCoy of Long Prairie; children, Colleen (Joseph) Cianflone of Sauk Centre, Michael McCoy of Long Prairie, Kathleen (Paul) Kerin of Sauk Centre, Timothy (Mary) McCoy of Long Prairie, and Steven McCoy of Long Prairie; ten grandchildren; brothers, Tom (Mary) McCoy of Longmont, Colorado, Jim (Marlene) McCoy of Little Falls, William "Joe" (Audrey) McCoy of Long Prairie; and Brian (Shirley) McCoy of Sauk Centre; brother-in-law, Marvin Vearrier of Sauk Centre; and sister-in-law, Regina McCoy of Browerville.
Dennis was preceded in death by his parents; sister, Mary Ellen Vearrier; and brother, Kirk McCoy.
Serving as casket bearers will be Dennis's grandsons, Sean Kerin, Brendan Kerin, John Cianflone, and Patrick Kerin.
In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred.
Sincerely,

Colleen Cianflone
Editor, The Neumann Press Express

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Fr. Daniel Themann: 3 Part SSPX Conference

The following videos document a public conference given by Fr. Daniel Themann on April 16, 2013, at St. Mary's, Kansas, which answers some questions from the so-called "Resistance" concerning the SSPX's recent discussions with Rome. Fr. Themann carefully outlines necessary principles for properly understanding the situation while contrasting examples of Archbishop Lefebvre during his own talks with the Holy See, particularly of what led up to the "May Protocol". Source: the Society of St. Pius X

Editor's Note: The videos have been removed from YouTube. Visit the SSPX website mentioned above.

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Major Rogation Day 2013

Today is April 25, the Feast of St. Mark, and the Major Rogation. While no longer required after Vatican II, Rogation Days can still (and should) be observed by the faithful. I encourage my readers to observe these days. Fasting and penance were required, and the faithful would especially pray Litanies on this day.

Not until relatively recently, it was a requirement that this day was kept with two conventual Masses where choral obligation existed.  The first, post tertiam, was the festive Mass of St. Mark the Evangelist.  The second post nonam was the more penitential Mass formula of Rogation tide.  For those bound to the Divine Office, the Litany was mandatory today.

What are Rogation Days?

"Rogation Days are the four days set apart to bless the fields, and invoke God's mercy on all of creation. The 4 days are April 25, which is called the Major Rogation (and is only coincidentally the same day as the Feast of St. Mark); and the three days preceding Ascension Thursday, which are called the Minor Rogations. Traditionally, on these days, the congregation marches the boundaries of the parish, blessing every tree and stone, while chanting or reciting a Litany of Mercy, usually a Litany of the Saints" (1)

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Prayer:

"All we can do is worth nothing Unless God blesses the deed; Vainly we hope for the harvest-tide Till God gives life to the seed; Yet nearer and nearer draws the time, The time that shall surely be When the earth shall be filled with the glory of God As the waters cover the sea."

To the regular family prayers, which we say during the Easter season, we add the following:

Father:	Praise the Lord; for He is good.
Family:	His mercy endures forever.
Father:	We beseech Thee, Almighty God, that because of our afflictions we may rely on Thy goodness, and with Thy protection may be defended against all adversities.
Family:	And I say to you; ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened. Alleluia.

Prayer Source: Family Customs: Easter to Pentecost by Helen McLoughlin, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, 1956

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Traditional Mass Propers: Third Sunday after Easter

DOUBLE / WHITE

INTROIT Ps. 65:1-2

Shout joyfully to God, all the earth, alleluia, alleluia! Sing a psalm to the glory of His name, Alleluia, Proclaim His glorious praise, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
Ps. 65:3. Say to God, "How tremendous are your deeds, O Lord! because of Your great strength Your enemies cringe before You." V. Glory be . . .

COLLECT
Show us the light of Your truth, O God, which guides the sinner back to th epath of justice. Let those who profess to be Christians avoid whatever will endanger their faith, and follow those things which will help it. Through Our Lord . . .

EPISTLE 
I Peter 2:11-19

Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, to refrain yourselves from carnal desires which war against the soul, Having your conversation good among the Gentiles: that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by the good works which they shall behold in you, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Be ye subject therefore to every human creature for God's sake: whether it be to the king as excelling, Or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of the good. For so is the will of God, that by doing well you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free and not as making liberty a cloak for malice, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle but also to the forward. For this is thankworthy: if, for conscience towards God, a man endure sorrows, suffering wrongfully.

Alleluia, alleluia!  
V. Ps. 110:9
The Lord has sent deliverance to His people. Alleluia!
V. Luke 24:26. Thus Christ should suffer and should rise again from the dead and should enter into His glory. Alleluia!

GOSPEL  
John 16:16-22

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: "A little while, and now you shall not see Me: and again a little while, and you shall see Me: because I go to the Father." Then some of his disciples said one to another: "What is this that he saith to us: A little while, and you shall not see me: and again a little while, and you shall see me, and, Because I go to the Father?" They said therefore: "What is this that he saith, A little while? We know not what he speaketh."

And Jesus knew that they had a mind to ask him. And he said to them: "Of this do you inquire among yourselves, because I said: A little while, and you shall not see Me; and again a little while, and you shall see Me? Amen, amen, I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice: and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labour, hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she hath brought forth the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. So also you now indeed have sorrow: but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice. And your joy no man shall take from you."

OFFERTORY ANTIPHON  
Ps. 145:2
Praise the Lord, O my soul; I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God while I live, alleluia!

SECRET
May this sacred rite help us to overcome our earthly desires, O Lord, and teach us to love the things of heaven. Through Our Lord . . .

COMMUNION ANTIPHON  
John 16:16
A little while and you shall see Me no longer, alleluia! and again a little while and you shall see Me, because I go to the Father, alleluia, alleluia!

POSTCOMMUNION
O Lord, may the Sacrament which we have received strengthen us in spirit and comfort us in body. Through Our Lord.

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Friday Reminder - Still a Day of Penance (even in Eastertide)

Today is Friday, the day in which we commemorate Our Lord's passion and death. It was our own sins that condemned our glorious Lord to death on Good Friday - death on a Cross. As Catholics, we are still bound to either abstain from meat or rather to do some act of penance each Friday in the entire year. It was on this day of the week that our glorious Redeemer died for us. Please, never forget this, especially at 3 o'clock, the hour that He died. At 3 o'clock attempt to pray the 3 o'clock Mercy Prayer. Please remember Our Lord's love and repent today.

Code of Canon Law:

Can. 1249 All Christ's faithful are obliged by divine law, each in his or her own way, to do penance. However, so that all may be joined together in a certain common practice of penance, days of penance are prescribed. On these days the faithful are in a special manner to devote themselves to prayer, to engage in works of piety and charity, and to deny themselves, by fulfilling their obligations more faithfully and especially by observing the fast and abstinence which the following canons prescribe.

Can. 1250 The days and times of penance for the universal Church are each Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent.

Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Can. 1252 The law of abstinence binds those who have completed their fourteenth year. The law of fasting binds those who have attained their majority, until the beginning of their sixtieth year. Pastors of souls and parents are to ensure that even those who by reason of their age are not bound by the law of fasting and abstinence, are taught the true meaning of penance.

Can. 1253 The Episcopal Conference can determine more particular ways in which fasting and abstinence are to be observed. In place of abstinence or fasting it can substitute, in whole or in part, other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety.

Prayer to the Glorious Cross:

I adore You, O glorious Cross, which was adorned with the Heart and Body of my Savior Jesus Christ, stained and covered with blood. I adore You, O Holy Cross, out of love for Him, Jesus, who is my Savior and my God.

(Pope Pius IX declared that reciting this prayer five times on Friday will free five souls from Purgatory and 33 souls by reciting it on Good Friday. This prayer should be recited before a crucifix with a contrite heart and praying a few minutes for the Pope).

Prayer to Jesus Christ Crucified:

My good and dear Jesus, I kneel before you asking you most earnestly to engrave upon my heart a deep and lively faith, hope, and charity, with true repentance for my sins, and a firm resolve to make amends. As I reflect upon your five wounds, and dwell upon them with deep compassion and grief, I recall the words the prophet David spoke long ago concerning yourself: they have pierced my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones!

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Mid Eastertide Reflection on the Resurrection

Our Lord Jesus Christ has conquered the chains of death. For forty days we fasted and prayed during Lent and now we partake of the fifty days of celebration for Easter. The Alleluia from the 1962 Roman Missal so beautifully sings of the hope and victory still deserving to be proclaimed on the mountaintops: “Alleluia, Alleluia. The Lord hath sent redemption to His people. Alleluia. It behooved Christ to suffer and to rise again from the death, and so to enter into His glory. Alleluia.”

What is truly profound is that Jesus Christ really and physically rose from the dead! It is a historical reality.

This event is likewise recounted in the private revelations of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich as recorded in "The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ." In her visions of the Lord, at the instance of His death on the Cross, He descended to the Limbo of the Fathers.  In the Limbo of the Fathers, He preached to the patriarchs, prophets, and holy people that had died before Heaven was opened by His death (cf. 1 Peter 4:6). Included among these souls was Adam and Eve. In her visions, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich also saw that our Divine Lord commanded nearly one hundred of the holy people in the Limbo of the Fathers to re-enter their bodies temporarily. He then commanded them to visit their relatives and preach the truth of His sacrificial death, which the Scriptures further substantiate in Matthew 27:52-53. Yet, the souls of those who rose from the graves in their bodies did not look like Jesus' glorified bodies. They merely re-entered their bodies temporarily to fulfill the command of Jesus. Afterwards, their souls again left their bodies and returned to Limbo. Upon our Lord's Ascension into Heaven, the souls of the Just at last entered into Heaven and on that day,  Limbo was closed forever.

Concerning Jesus, the Scripture attests, "He is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor. 15:12). With His glorified Body, He is no longer bound by the limitations of time, space, or physics. As we believe as part of the Faith also that the Blessed Virgin Mary was assumed body and soul into Heaven at the end of her earthly life. They remain the only two people to have a glorified body.

But we too shall follow! That is our hope! The very same Body we have now will be raised again at Judgment and perfected. For we, unlike Mary (e.g. Immaculate Conception) and Jesus, are sinners, so our Resurrection is yet to come. At the time of Judgment, all people will be united with their bodies. At that time, the prophets, patriarchs, saints, etc will all receive a glorified body. The souls who enter Heaven will enjoy perpetual happiness in body and soul, and the souls of the damned in Hell will suffer not only emotionally and mentally but also physically in their own bodies for all eternity.

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The Benedictines of Mary: "Angels and Saints at Ephesus"

As you may be aware the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles are about to release their second album- Angels and Saints; set for release on May 7!  Please listen to some excerpts above as well as some insightful interviews with members of the community.

Last Nov./ Dec., the Sisters’ debut album, ADVENT AT EPHESUS, with De Montfort Music/Decca, spent six weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Classical Music Chart, and the Sisters ended up as the #1 Classical Traditional Artist of 2012, according to Nielson’s Soundscan. (That has NEVER happened for a group of cloistered nuns.) Featured on NPR, USA Today, People Magazine and The Washington Times as well as countless other critically acclaimed press outlets, the Benedictines of Mary have created another beautiful recording of their music.

The sisters' second album, a year-round collection, will entertain and inspire, featuring 17 English and Latin pieces sung a cappella for the feasts of the holy saints and angels. Recorded once again at their Priory in the heartland of America, this new album is a dynamic yet pure fusion of their contemplative sound. The sisters call to mind the glory of the future vision of God in the company of all of His angels and saints.

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