FSSP Houston is making progress. If you were a Missive reader back in July 2018, you may remember a post about Regina Caeli Parish’s exciting plans for expansion that included the Blessed Solanus Casey Gatehouse and eventually a new church. The buildings are being constructed in phases as the necessary funds are raised, and this past weekend, the parish celebrated the groundbreaking of the Gatehouse, which constitutes the second building in the overall plan. Their current chapel, St. Athanasius Chapel Hall, was the first; this will eventually be converted into a event/reception hall when a new church building is constructed further down the road. The Gatehouse will provide much-needed additional space to accommodate the parish’s current congregation and encourage future growth while also opening up the possibility of a third priest and expanded Mass schedule. It will contain classrooms, offices and a rectory.

The ceremonial groundbreaking took place on Sunday, January 26th, 2020. More than 360 faithful attended the morning High Mass celebrated by Fr. Zachary Akers, FSSP, Director of Development for North America, and the groundbreaking and reception that followed.

As the Litany of the Saints began after Mass, the faithful processed behind the priests and altar servers to the site of the Gatehouse. Chalk on the ground and stakes helped with visualization by marking the future building’s perimeter and rooms and the gate entrance. Pastor Fr. Charles Van Vliet, FSSP and Fr. Akers welcomed the guests at the conclusion of the Litany, Fr. Van Vliet thanking parishioners and supporters for the many sacrifices and volunteer hours that allowed for the $2.6 million construction to be funded through gifts and pledges. Fr. Akers expressed the Fraternity’s appreciation for the generosity of the faithful, and in noting the vibrant growth of the apostolate, he reminded us that we are blessed to have land for expansion, which many apostolates lack. The remarks ended with a blessing of the site. Fr. Van Vliet, Fr. Akers and Jerry Tipps, architect, then broke the ground with a gold shovel last used on December 20th, 2014, for the groundbreaking of St. Athanasius Chapel Hall.

Please keep the parish in your prayers as they embark on this new phase in the expansion project. For more information about the parish and to see detailed plans of the anticipated buildings, please visit www.reginacaeliparish.org. +

By Fr. John Killackey, FSSP

It is often difficult to pin down one event or person responsible for a vocation. The many puzzle pieces of life, some big and some small, used by the delicate but firm hand of Providence need to be taken together to map out—as far as our limited minds can—what God had in store for us all along. My path to the priesthood was no different, and there are many people to whom I am indebted. But there are some pieces which are more significant than others, and the biggest influence was my family.

I was blessed to be born into a loving family in Wayne, New Jersey with parents who really took the Faith seriously. I remember every year on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception my mother would bring me and my three siblings to a statue of Our Lady and consecrate us to her. We later began to say the family Rosary every night, which of course further helped cement our devotion to Our Blessed Mother. Also, we would often go down to a local adoration chapel, and there, in the Presence of Our Lord, I began to learn better how to pray and to silence myself in His presence.

For all these practices, however, I had no desire to consider the priesthood at first. The life seemed “boring” to me, and other things distracted me from looking honestly at the question. This started to change gradually after we started attending Our Lady of Fatima Chapel, the FSSP’s apostolate in Pequannock, NJ. I remember at first disliking the whole thing, since I didn’t understand it. But we soon found ourselves going there more and more often because of the availability of Mass and confessions every day. Soon my brother and I began altar serving, and I began to love the Traditional liturgy more and more, and to see it as a beautiful expression of the Catholic Faith. I will always remember the first Sung Mass my brother and I served, which was the Easter Vigil. The reverence, incense, Gregorian Chant and symmetry of it all left me with a faint taste of what the grandeur of God must be like. In addition to this experience, the increased interactions with the priests of the Fraternity helped replace the shallow idea I had of the priest’s life with an idea of a life that was intensely identified with Our Lord, and was also well balanced: little did I know that a formidable mental hurtle had been overcome when, in early high school, we started playing regular Sunday soccer with the priests after Mass!

Before I knew it, I had a strong conviction that God wanted me at least to try the seminary, and I never thought of anywhere else than with the Fraternity, which had provided me with many good examples of the priesthood. But I was not completely ready at the end of high school. I went to Christendom College, worked a year as a teacher at a Catholic school and then felt that the time had come to apply. I entered Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in the fall of 2012.

My seminary formation, in many ways, was another beginning to my vocation. It had its good and bad days as God purified any imperfect ideas I had of being a priest. Despite my faults, however, I always felt confident at the end of each year that Our Lord wished me to stay. I was blessed with great confreres and diligent seminary formators, and I am grateful to them for their direction and sacrifices. After seven years, by the grace of God, I was ordained a priest and stationed at Mater Dei, our apostolate in Harrisburg, PA, which has been a wonderful experience. I ask for prayers that I may be faithful to the graces that God gives us each day to be His saints. +

Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word in peace; because my eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples: a light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.
– Luke 2:29-32

A most blessed and joyful feast of Candlemas, also called the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary! Today the Church rejoices with Simeon at the sight of the Christ Child, the Light that has come into the world. This feast provides us a beautiful example of humility and obedience, as the Holy Family goes to the Temple in obedience to the Mosaic law, which required the ritual purification of the mother of a male child 40 days after his birth and his dedication (if he is the firstborn) to the Lord. Christ coming into His own Temple to be dedicated to His Father is particularly striking, in that it emphasizes Our Lord’s total obedience to His Father from the very outset of His life and the self-sacrificing nature of His mission. He reiterates this point throughout the Gospels, saying in John 6:38: “For I have come down from Heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me…”

The feast of the Purification originated in the east in the early centuries of Christianity, but gradually spread throughout the world. The special role of candles on this day developed during the Middle Ages, and remains in today’s liturgy with the blessing of candles before Mass for use throughout the year. The priest blesses not only candles for liturgical use, but also those presented by the faithful that they may use for personal devotion. Dom Guéranger specifically mentions that “these blest candles ought also to be lit near the bed of the dying Christian, as a symbol of the immortality merited for us by Christ, and of the protection of our Blessed Lady” (The Liturgical Year, Vol. II, p. 475). After the blessing of the candles, they are lit and carried in procession as the choir sings three beautiful passages commemorating the events of this day. +

Adorn thy bridal-chamber, O Sion, and welcome Christ the King: with loving embrace greet Mary, the very gate of Heaven; for she bringeth to thee the glorious King of new light: ever Virgin she remaineth, yet in her arms doth bear the Son begotten before the day-star: that Child Whom Simeon did take into his arms and proclaim to the nations as Lord of life and Savior of the world.
– the First Antiphon of the procession

We recently received news from our apostolate in Guadalajara about the work they did with the St. Francis Xavier Mission Trip to Mexico over the summer. To learn more about the St. Francis Xavier Mission Trips or to sign up for a trip, visit their website. To learn more about the FSSP’s work in Mexico, visit their Facebook page (and bookmark their website, which is currently under construction).

This past summer, the St. Francis Xavier Mission Trip to Mexico traveled to Jocotepec, a city about an hour away from the FSSP’s Casa Cristo Rey in Guadalajara. Beginning on July 23rd, 2019, the band of about forty missionaries, consisting mostly of young Mexicans with several Americans, was on a mission of evangelization: to witness to the Faith through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

After beginning each day with a meditation on the Mass, the missionaries spent their mornings inviting the locals of Jocotepec to Mass and their afternoons catechizing both adults and children. Most importantly, every day ended with the Holy Sacrifice, celebrated as solemnly as possible. Almost every Mass was sung with the full Gregorian propers and as much polyphony as the impromptu choir could muster; incense and torchbearers added to the splendor. The missionaries had a deep desire to present the locals of Jocotepec with the Mass in its most beautiful form, and so attract them into the mysteries of the Faith.

The Mission selected Jocotepec because of its large Protestant population, particularly Jehovah’s Witnesses. However, since Mexico is primarily a Catholic country, the missionaries found the majority of their activity serving poorly catechized Catholics.

Most conversations began with an invitation to the evening Mass at the neighborhood church. This invitation was usually followed by an explanation of the Holy Mass and of the Tridentine form in particular. After a morning of such conversations, various “sales pitches” emerged: for the children of Jocotepec, the notion of receiving Our Lord on the tongue as a sign of reverence was quite intriguing. For a Protestant professing loyalty to the Scriptures, there was the reminder that Scripture was fulfilled in the eternal Word made flesh Whose Sacrifice is now perpetuated at every Catholic Mass. For someone who had already attended a Tridentine Mass, an explanation of why the priest keeps his thumbs and forefingers together after touching Our Lord’s Body called their attention to an aspect previously unnoticed.

The missionaries repeated the same ritual every day, trudging through the streets on tired feet, knocking on every door, debating with Protestants, and inviting Catholics to Mass with no guarantee that they would come. According to Fr. Jesus Valenzuela, assistant pastor of the Guadalajara apostolate, sometimes Mass attendance was high, sometimes low as the group made their way each day to different parts of the city. He had long lines for confession, and he considered their labors fruitful and many seeds to have been planted through their efforts.

The Jocotepec mission was a participation in the apostolate started by the Blessed Virgin herself. Our Lady of Guadalupe won the hearts of the Mexican people five centuries ago, bringing to fruition the work begun by Spanish Franciscans. Every year the FSSP missionaries participate anew in this evangelization, entrusting the fruits of their labor to Our Lord and Our Lady; they go into the highways and byways and search out souls, so that the hearts of the Mexican people might be rekindled in their love for Christ and the Holy Faith, and they do this by bringing them back to its source and summit: the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. +

On January 19th, 2020, Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary’s basketball team became the first team in a decade to successfully defend their title at the annual Father Pat O’Malley Invitational Basketball Tournament at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois. Once again, 16 basketball teams from Catholic seminaries across the United States were invited to this annual seminarian basketball tournament sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. The event was celebrating its 20th year and the beautiful campus of the University of St. Mary of the Lake was bedecked in its customary coat of freshly fallen snow.

It was the 5th appearance at this tournament for OLGS and they won 5 of their 6 games, defeating Sacred Heart Seminary and Bishop Simon Bruté Seminary before narrowly losing one to Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in the pool-play stage. A 3-way tie resulted in their pool, but since OLGS possessed the superior point differential, they were top-seeded going into the quarterfinals, where they defeated the hosts, Mundelein Seminary, in a rematch of the 2019 championship game. OLGS and St. John’s Seminary faced each other in the semifinals as they had in 2019, and though St. John’s had the tournament’s three-point shooting champion on their side, OLGS prevailed. The championship game served up a rematch with their pool-play defeaters, Kenrick-Glennon, whom they overcame to claim the title on Sunday morning. The team was led by coaches Fr. Joseph Lee, FSSP and Fr. Anthony Uy, FSSP along with team captain Mr. Nicholas Eichman, FSSP, who was awarded the tournament MVP title for the second time.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary is proud of its players and coaches who sacrificed so many hours of their recreation time to represent the Fraternity of St. Peter well in front of the priests and seminarians of dioceses across the United States. And yet such accomplishments that result from the well-rounded formation of FSSP seminarians would never have been possible without the generous and selfless support of the many benefactors of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary. In particular, the 2020 Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary Championship basketball team would like to honor and ask prayers for the repose of the soul of Mr. Harold Landrigan, who made a most special remembrance in his estate that enabled our beautiful seminary gymnasium to be constructed in 2014. The recreational facilities that were built on the campus in Denton, Nebraska provide ideal conditions for fraternal recreation and healthy exercise for our seminarians, priests and staff throughout the frigid winter months. The team would like to dedicate this year’s hard-fought victory to all the benefactors that make their priestly formation possible and assure them of their prayers.

Participation in the basketball team provided the seminarians with a unique opportunity to grow in camaraderie, discipline and the virtue of Eutrapelia (cf. ST II-II Q. 168, a. 2) while providing entertainment and inspiration to their confreres and the many families and parishioners that tuned in to the live internet video stream produced by Mundelein Seminary. In sum, it was a blessed weekend that will live long in the memory of, Deo volente, many future priests.

Non nobis, Dómine, sed nómini tuo da glóriam! +

Today, the 47th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, is the annual Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children. The U.S. Bishops ask us today to pray and sacrifice in reparation for the sin of abortion and for an end to this diabolical practice, and we encourage you to participate through extra prayers, attendance at Mass, fasting or whatever you are able to do.

On Friday, January 24th, the National March for Life takes place in Washington, D.C., when tens of thousands of pro-lifers – including many FSSP parishioners from such apostolates as Scranton, Allentown, Philadelphia and Richmond – gather to witness to the sanctity of human life and protest the evil of abortion. Even a contingent from All Saints, our apostolate in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is trekking over a thousand miles to march at the nation’s capital! However, if you cannot make the journey to D.C., many local pro-life marches and rallies also take place in various cities across the country at this time of year, such as the Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco, CA on January 25th, where you might spot parishioners from our parishes in Sacramento and San Diego. The Missive will be at large and on the ground at the D.C. March and we’ll be posting about it soon after. Please join in on one of these events if you are able!

The moral gravity of procured abortion is apparent in all its truth if we recognize that we are dealing with murder and, in particular, when we consider the specific elements involved. The one eliminated is a human being at the very beginning of life. No one more absolutely innocent could be imagined. In no way could this human being ever be considered an aggressor, much less an unjust aggressor! He or she is weak, defenceless, even to the point of lacking that minimal form of defence consisting in the poignant power of a newborn baby’s cries and tears.

– Pope St. John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae

Indeed, no one more innocent exists in this world than a baby in the womb. Let us especially ask Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Unborn, to protect these precious little ones, and let us work tirelessly for the enactment of just laws that safeguard their fundamental right to life. +

Cover photo shows the 2019 National March for Life in D.C.

Today is the former feast of the Chair of St. Peter at Rome, which was combined with the feast of his Chair at Antioch on February 22nd. The combined feast, now simply titled the Chair of St. Peter, is kept on the February date. Though the January feast has moved, today still marks the opening of the annual Church Unity Octave, which ends on the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul on January 25th. The Octave is a yearly event on which we pray for the unity of all people under the Holy See: for other Christians, for the Orthodox churches, for non-Christians and the non-religious, and for all who are separated from the one, true, Catholic and apostolic Church.

Each day of the Octave is devoted to a different group of our separated brethren, and you can find the intentions and prayers for each day below.

Antiphon. That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me and I in Thee; that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me.

℣. I say unto thee, thou art Peter;
℟. And upon this rock I will build My Church.

January 18th: The union of all Christians in the one true Faith and in the Church;

January 19th: The return of separated Eastern Christians to communion with the Holy See;

January 20th: The reconciliation of Anglicans with the Holy See;

January 21st: The reconciliation of European Protestants with the Holy See;

January 22nd: That American Christians become one in union with the Chair of Peter;

January 23rd: The restoration of lapsed Catholics to the sacramental life of the Church;

January 24th: That the Jewish people come into their inheritance in Jesus Christ;

January 25th: The missionary extension of Christ’s kingdom throughout the world.

Let us pray.

O Lord Jesus Christ, who saidst unto Thine Apostles: Peace I leave you, My peace I give to you; regard not our sins, but the faith of Thy Church, and grant unto her that peace and unity which are agreeable to Thy Will; Who livest and reignest ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

Prayer to Our Lady, Help of Christians

Mary, Immaculate Virgin, Mother of God and our Mother, thou seest how the Catholic Faith is assailed by the devil and the world – that Faith in which we purpose, by the help of God, to live and die. Do thou, O Help of Christians, renew thy victories of old, for the salvation of thy children. To thee we entrust our firm purpose of never joining assemblies of heretics. Do thou, all holy, offer to thy Divine Son our resolutions, and obtain from Him the graces necessary for us to keep them unto the end. Bring consolation to the visible head of the Church, support the Catholic Episcopate, protect the clergy and the people who proclaim thee Queen. Hasten, by the power of thy prayers, the day when all nations shall be gathered around the Supreme Pastor. Amen. +

We’ve raised 65% of our goal. Will you help us keep preparing men for the altar?

In August, we told you about our Annual Fund Drive for Seminarian Support. This campaign enables us to provide formation that costs $30,000 per man per year at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary. Thank you for your generosity! We greatly appreciate every gift we’ve received so far.

However, our work is not yet done. As of now, the fund drive has raised $648,857. This leaves us $351,143 short of our fundraising goal for the 2019-20 school year. Can you help us today?

Three Reasons Why It’s Critical For Us To Reach This Goal

As you know, the FSSP exists to bring the fullness of Christ into the emptiness of the world. But we can’t do that unless we’re forming a steady supply of good, holy priests—and we can’t continue forming priests unless our seminary is fully funded.

Here are three reasons we’re so focused on reaching our fundraising goal.

We must keep our commitments. This year’s crop of seminarians gives us tremendous hope for the future of the FSSP as well as the Catholic Church at large. We’ve already committed to the cost of providing all our seminarians with formation, housing, and food throughout the 2019-20 school year.

We must grow our apostolate. When there’s a shortfall in our Annual Fund Drive, we’re forced to make up the difference by dipping into the FSSP’s general funds. This can cause us to curtail or delay important projects across the North American District.

We want to accept more good men. Thanks to your prayers and sacrifices, there’s a vocations boom among tradition-minded young men. If we meet our fundraising goal for this year, it could enable us to accept more men next year.

How You Can Help Us Today

You have already been so generous to us with your prayers and financial support. May we ask you to send your next gift today? Donating is as easy as filling out the form below.

God is good. Our seminary is flourishing, and we are grateful for friends like you who are helping us send holy priests out into the world. Thank you for your support. May God bless you throughout the New Year! +

Dum médium siléntium tenérent ómnia, et nox in suo cursu médium iter habéret, omnípotens Sermo tuus, Dómine, de cœlis a regálibus sédibus venit.

While all things were in quiet silence and the night was in the midst of her course, Thine almighty Word, O Lord, leaped down from Heaven from Thy royal throne.

– Wisdom 18:14-15, from the Introit for the Sunday Within the Octave of the Nativity

As we continue to rejoice in Our Lord’s holy Nativity and glorious Epiphany, we invite you on a tour of the joyful celebrations of Christmas as they occurred at our apostolates in the U.S. and Canada, with a special excursion to our parish in Lyon, France for their Messe de Minuit. +

FSSP Chesapeake
St. Benedict Parish
Midnight Mass
Photos by Shalone Cason

FSSP Dallas
Mater Dei Parish
Midnight Mass

FSSP Calgary
St. Anthony Church, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Midnight Mass

FSSP Dayton
Holy Family Parish
Midnight Mass

FSSP St. Catharines
St. Aloysius Parish, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Midnight Mass

FSSP Lyon
Collégiale Saint-Just, Lyon, France
Messe de Minuit (Midnight Mass)

Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary
Denton, Nebraska
Christmas Matins

FSSP Atlanta
St. Francis de Sales Parish
Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus (January 5th, 2019)
Photos by Owen Berry

FSSP Fresno
Holy Cross Chaplaincy
Blessing of Epiphany Water
Photos by Paul Flores

“The prayer of the Church is, therefore, the most pleasing to the ear and heart of God, and therefore the most efficacious of all prayers.” So states the Benedictine abbot Dom Prosper Guéranger in the preface to his monumental work The Liturgical Year, a fifteen volume series that guides the reader through every day of the Church’s calendar by means of readings, meditations, prayers and commentary. Dom Guéranger, originally a diocesan priest, became instrumental in restoring monastic life in France after the French Revolution through his revitalization of the abandoned Solesmes Abbey and founding of the French Benedictine Congregation in the 1830s. His Liturgical Year is a goldmine of insights that assist the faithful soul in better praying and understanding the Mass, and St. Francis de Sales Parish, our apostolate in Atlanta, Georgia, has begun a digital delivery service that brings Dom Guéranger’s readings right to your inbox. We recently talked to Fr. James Smith, FSSP, assistant pastor at St. Francis, to learn more.

The Liturgical Year is divided seasonally, each season including an overview of the purpose and liturgical development of that season, a section with the propers of the season (temporal cycle) and a section with the saints of the day (sanctoral cycle). The parish is currently transcribing the entire series onto its website and began the email service this past Advent. The website postings now occur concurrently with the delivery of the emails, both happening as often as Dom Guéranger has material for the day (which is almost every day of the calendar year) and including his full entry for that day. When there is both a temporal and a sanctoral entry, the Atlanta emails conveniently include them both: for example, December 21st, 2019 was both Ember Saturday in Advent and St. Thomas the Apostle’s feast day.

Fr. Smith was introduced to Dom Guéranger’s work while still an Anglican, the parishioner who made the bulletin at his church including excerpts from The Liturgical Year. While the work is available in book form, online or via smartphone app, Fr. Smith said that the parish wanted to make it more convenient and easier to access.

“Really we want more people to pray every day and come and assist at Mass every day,” he explained, while acknowledging that it is not possible for everyone to attend daily Mass. “By reading what the Church is doing in her liturgy, it makes people more likely to love what the Church is doing, makes them want to be there, not out of obligation but out of love.”

If you are not familiar with The Liturgical Year, one of the fascinating things that you will notice when you open the emails is that they include prayers, antiphons and other items taken from not only the Roman liturgical tradition but several others as well, such as the Ambrosian, Armenian and Mozarabic liturgies. This provides the reader with devotional gems that otherwise might be hidden from him, as relatively few of us in the Western tradition are skilled in navigating through the literature of, say, the Syriac Rite and may not know where to start if we wanted to.

“One of the great things about this project is that it provides poetry that people would have never read in many cases, with lovely translations made by English Benedictines,” said Fr. Smith.

And as Dom Guéranger’s preface again says:

We shall hear the several countries, united as they are in one common faith, pouring forth their admiration and love in accents, wherein are blended the most perfect harmony of thought and sentiment with the most marked diversity of genius and expression.

Fr. Smith adds that readers need not feel obliged to read all the entries, which are often comprised of a great deal of material, in their entirety, but rather as much or as little as assists them in their prayer.

“Whatever helps them to pray better and to grow in love for God, that is the goal,” he said.

Signing up for the emails is as simple as going to FSSP Atlanta’s email signup page here. Just type in your name, email, check the “Liturgical Year” box and hit “Submit.” You will then receive an email asking you to confirm that you really want to receive the emails – this is to protect people from spam. Confirm that email and you’re all set. If you’d like to view the corresponding web archive, you can do that here. +

Photos of St. Francis de Sales Parish by Owen Berry.