Monday, February 24, 2014

Special Upcoming Area Traditional Latin Masses



Saturday, March 1, 2014
11:30 AM - Low Mass in the Upper Church
Fr. Harold B. McKale, Celebrant

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary R.C. Church
2535 E. Allegheny Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19134
215-739-2735



Wednesday, March 19, 2014 – Solemnity of St. Joseph

6:40 PM – Recitation of the Holy Rosary
7:00 PM – Solemn High Mass
Fr. Dennis J. Carbonaro – Celebrant
Msgr. Charles L. Sangermano – Homilist
Reception following Mass

Our Lady of the Assumption R.C. Church
35 Old Eagle School Rd.
Strafford, PA 19087
610-688-1178


Holy Week
Holy Trinity will be the only Archdiocesan church offering Holy Week’s liturgies in the Extraordinary Form. 
Click the following link to view a complete schedule: 






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Saturday, February 22, 2014

2014 Lenten-Easter Schedule at Holy Trinity

Passion Sunday
April 6, 2014
Noon
Palm Sunday
April 13, 2014
Noon
Holy Thursday
April 17, 2014
7 PM
Good Friday
April 18, 2014
5 PM
Holy Saturday
April 19, 2014
5 PM
Easter Sunday
April 20, 2014
Noon

Special Parking Hours:

Holy Thursday, 6-10 PM
Good Friday, 4-9 PM
Holy Saturday 4-9 PM

Note: Special parking placards, available in the back of church, must be displayed on your vehicle's dashboard when parking at Holy Trinity.  Please click here for complete details on the parking accommodations at Holy Trinity.


Saturday, February 15, 2014

Catechesis on Septuagesima Sunday

Today is called Septuagesima Sunday.  Septuagesima Sunday is the third Sunday before the start of Lent, which makes it the ninth Sunday before Easter. Traditionally, Septuagesima Sunday marked the beginning of preparations for Lent. No one is quite sure why Septuagesima Sunday bears that name. Literally, Septuagesima means “seventieth” in Latin, but contrary to common error, it is not 70 days before Easter, but only 63. The most likely explanation is that Septuagesima Sunday and Sexagesima Sunday simply derived their names from Quinqagesima Sunday, which is 49 days before Easter, or 50 if you include Easter. (Quinqagesima means “fiftieth”).  The 17-day period beginning on Septuagesima Sunday was intended to be observed as a preparation for the season of Lent, which is itself a period of spiritual preparation (for Easter).   In an old devotional book, published by the Confraternity of the Precious Blood, the following beautiful meditation is provided.

The Way of the Cross leads to Calvary; the seasons of Septuagesima and Lent lead to Good Friday.  Our ways of penance leads to crucifixion of sin and sacrifice of self.  But the darkness of Good Friday eventuates in the glorious light of Easter; crucifixion paves the way for resurrection.  Our oblation of self-life will bring us the new Christ-life.  The Mystical Body of Christ now prepares to walk the Way of the Cross, ascend the Mount of Calvary, share in sacrificial suffering. 

We prepare our oblation of self in union with the self-oblation of Our Lord, Who is our strength and our Deliverer.  We will share the “prize” won by Him if we “so run as to obtain it”.  Our participation in the Sacred Liturgy, which makes effective all that it portrays, will powerfully assist us to live the Christian life and perform the work of Christ.  We Catholics are God’s laborers, doing for souls the work which He gives us. 


Saint Paul calls us “slaves of Christ”. As in the material life some servants work harder and longer than others, so in the spiritual life the labor of one “slave” will be more arduous than that of another, but the generosity of God rewards each servant justly.  The reward is eternal, heavenly life, a foretaste of which is received in the heavenly, life-imparting Gift of the Holy Eucharist.  The liturgy is Christ active in the work of prayer; our offering of the Liturgy is made effective by the intercessory power of Jesus Christ, working in and through us, His mystical members. (“My Daily Prayer”, Confraternity of the Precious Blood, 1955).

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Catechesis on Saint Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, by Rev. Ronald W. Check

Monday was the Feast of St. Blaise, about whom we know very little.   We have only this very brief entry in the Martyrologium Romanum: Sancti Blasii, episcopi et martyris, qui pro christiano nomine Sabaste in Armenia passus est sub Licino imperatore. … [Feast of] St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, who suffered for the name of Christ in Sabaste in Armenia under the Emperor Licinus.



That "pro Christiano nomine" probably needs to be rendered as "for the name of Christ" along the lines of rendering dies dominica or oratio dominica as, respectively, "the Lord’s Day = Sunday" or "the Lord’s Prayer".  It is entirely possible, of course, just to keep it literal and say, "for the Christian name", which would be pretty much the same thing in the balance. 

Either way, he was killed because as a Christian Blaise professed belief in Christ.

COLLECT:
Exaudi, Domine, populum tuum,
cvm beati Blasii martyris patrocinio supplicantem,
ut et temporalis vitae nos tribuas pace gaudere,
et aeternae reperire subsidium.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
O Lord, graciously hear Your people
begging by means of the patronage of blessed martyr Blaise,
that you grant us to delight in the peace of temporal life
and obtain the protection of eternal life.

We can take away from this prayer the serious message that life is often dangerous.  The word subsidium means “support, assistance, aid, help, protection” and often in liturgical Latin “help”.  Either way, subsidium sets up a stark contrast between the life we have now and the life to come.  Even the phrase about enjoying the peace of this life, indicates subtly how precarious everything is in this earthly existence which Catholics are accustomed to call a “vale of tears”.

Through the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr,
may God free you from illness of the throat and from any other sort of ill.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Catechesis on Candlemas, by Rev. Ronald W. Check

What is Candlemas?


Today is a day of purification, renewal, and hope. On this day, exactly 40 days after Christmas, we commemorate Mary's obedience to the Mosaic law by submitting herself to the Temple for the ritual purification, as commanded in Leviticus.  Saint Luke tells us (St. Luke 2:22-24) “And after the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they carried him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord: As it is written in the law of the Lord: Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord: And to offer a sacrifice, according as it is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”  Mary, of course, didn't need this purification -- which Catholic women imitate, in a sense, with the rite of the “Churching of Women” -- but she submitted out of obedience to the Law. Also, as the Lukan verses revealed, Our Lady and St. Joseph presented Jesus to the Temple for His "redemption," also per the Law.  Also commemorated on this “Feast of Light” (“Lichtmess” in German) or “Feast of the Candles” (Candlemas in English)  is the prophecy of Holy Simeon -- the “just and devout” man of Jerusalem who was inspired by the Holy Ghost to know that he would live to see the “consolation of Jerusalem” -- and the encounter with the aged widow, Anna the Prophetess, who lived in the Temple and confessed Christ upon meeting Him. It was Simeon to whom Mary presented Jesus, and in his prophecy to her, he told Mary her heart would be pierced with a sword, a prophecy found in the second chapter of the Gospel according to (St. Luke 2:34-35) “And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother: Behold this child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted; And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.”  On this day, there will be a Blessing of the Candles and Procession. The symbolism of the candles is described by Dom Prosper GuĂ©ranger, OSB, in his Liturgical Year: “The mystery of today's ceremony has frequently been explained by liturgists, dating from the 7th century. According to Ivo of Chartres, the wax, which is formed from the juice of flowers by the bee, always considered as the emblem of virginity, signifies the virginal flesh of the Divine Infant, who diminished not, either by His conception or His birth, the spotless purity of His Blessed Mother. The same holy bishop would have us see, in the flame of our Candle, a symbol of Jesus who came to enlighten our darkness. St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking on the same mystery, bids us consider three things in the blessed Candle: the wax, the wick, and the flame. The wax, he says, which is the production of the virginal bee, is the Flesh of our Lord; the wick, which is within, is His Soul; the flame, which burns on top, is His divinity.”