A happy and most glorious feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary! The most pure Heart of Our Lady, adorned with every virtue, was always united to the Sacred Heart of her Divine Son; indeed, it was from Mary that He took His human Heart. These Hearts loved one another more than we can comprehend, and they suffered in union with one another as well: in Our Lord’s Passion, Our Lady’s Heart was pierced by a sword when Our Lord’s Head was pierced by thorns and His Heart by a lance.

Our Lady’s Heart is filled with love for us too. She is truly our Mother, and her maternal Heart is a refuge for us sinners in all our needs. Whether we need a favor, the conversion of a loved one or anything at all, we should fly to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and she will hear us. Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation!

Adeámus cum fidúcia ad thronum grátiæ, ut misericórdiam consequámur, et grátiam inveniámus in auxílio opportúno.

Let us come with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and may find grace for a timely help.
– from the Introit for today

Fr. Rhone Lillard, FSSP, who teaches at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, Nebraska, recently appeared on Catholic Answers’ show Catholic Answers Live, where listeners can call in and ask questions of the guest. Fr. Lillard spoke on the history of the FSSP and answered such questions as how to discern between a diocesan and religious priest vocation, if you can use grape juice instead of wine in the Mass, and how to best participate in the Mass if you can’t receive Communion.

The segment featuring Fr. Lillard begins at about the 58:52 mark, and we’ve preset the video below to start right then. So just press play and enjoy the segment!

The FSSP recently appeared in the August edition of Legatus Magazine, the monthly publication of Legatus, an international organization of Catholic business leaders. The article by Trent Beattie highlights the work of the FSSP, particularly at our apostolates in Baltimore, Maryland and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The article appeared both in print and online, and you can click the link below to read it!

https://legatus.org/finding-reverence-in-abundance-with-priestly-fraternity-of-st-peter/

Why is St. Augustine called the greatest of the doctors? – Jeanne from Colorado Springs

Augustine has been called the greatest by various authors, e.g., Pope Benedict referred to him as “the greatest father of the Latin Church”[1] and The Catholic Encyclopedia even has a sub-entry under the Augustine entry titled, “the greatest of the Doctors.”[2] I share their opinion but the case must be proved.

To propose a value statement as a matter of fact is a tricky thing. Arguments would undoubtedly grow and opinions fly while the inquiry is made. I can already hear someone objecting, “What about St. Thomas?” Who is the best athlete, actor, scientist or saint? The broader your category, the more difficult the task. Moreover, when adjectives are employed, one mustn’t overlook the latent subjectivity. Who is the most beautiful? One needs facts to argue the case.

If one makes a value statement and wants it to stick, he must specify criteria and then give objective information. Since our current inquiry is on “the greatest of the doctors,” let us first consider whether we can’t narrow this a bit. The doctors of the Church have a long history within the Church, yet they did not all become doctors in quite the same way. Today there are thirty-six declared doctors of the Church, but at the beginning (1298) only four: Sts. Gregory the Great, Ambrose, Augustine and Jerome.

Nor did appreciation for these four suddenly arise in the thirteenth century; rather, the faithful for over half a millennium had recognized them as preeminent teachers. How could they not? These four were inescapable in any serious discourse concerning Christianity. If one pauses to consider how much of the Church’s culture flows through these individuals, he would be astonished: Gregory—preservation of chant, ecclesiastical administration, codification of liturgical texts; Jerome—the Latin Bible which was the norm in the Church until the twentieth century; Augustine—the philosophic thought which guided the Latin Church for almost 800 years, his Confessions (he invented the autobiography), City of God and On Christian Doctrine, just to name a very few of his works. Ambrose, a great writer on his own (Concerning the Mysteries, On Virginity, etc.), seems less domineering than the previous three, yet he also converted Augustine. Before any official proclamation of the Church, these four were already singled out by popular piety. Moreover, their influence didn’t diminish with time—it grew. Consider the decree of Boniface VIII, officially granting the title of doctor to them for the first time, almost 700 years after the death of Gregory:

These doctors’ clear and helpful instruction has illumined the Church, beautified her with virtues, and formed her with character . . . By their fruitful eloquence, heavenly grace has flowed and watered the Church, uncovered the mysteries of the Scriptures, unloosed knots, explained the obscure and answered doubts; the vast architecture of the very Church glows with their deep and beautiful sermons, like with shining jewels, and sparkles most gloriously with the singular and refined elegance of their words.[3]

Their writings influence all western clergy to some extent. For the clergy who recite the older Divine Office, as in the time of Boniface, the vast majority of scripture commentary is culled from the sermons of these authors. Boniface is referencing this fact when he says, “the vast architecture of the Church glows with their deep and beautiful sermons.” This alone gives them a formidable presence. They have passed away long ago into the night of the past age, yet their voices are still heard echoing in the darkened predawn hours of divine worship.

I fear there is some ambiguity with the title of doctor nowadays. It was once considered a closed class. Boniface enumerated them after the twelve apostles and four evangelists for a reason. The apostles, “the most glorious princes of the Christian faith,” built the Church, the evangelists “illumined the Church with their holy gospels,” and after the closing of the deposit of faith the four “extraordinary doctors” focused and reflected that light throughout the Church. The number four is intentional. Based on biblical symbolism, four represents the sufficiency for the entire earth, hence four major prophets anticipate Christ (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel), four evangelists record Christ, and—subsequently—four eminent doctors unwrap the teachings of Christ. Artistic representation has always appreciated this continuity. From stained glass windows to renaissance paintings the four evangelists are often accompanied by the four great doctors, even after new doctors were created.

250 years after the establishment of these four great doctors, six were added after the Council of Trent. Pope Pius V in 1567 assumed the “three holy hierarchs” of the east (Chrysostom, Basil and Gregory Nazianzus) along with Athanasius, in effect keeping the previous symbolism of four but branching it into a west and east division—Romans love symmetry. A real innovation had occurred the previous year, when he added Thomas Aquinas, an innovation which was continued by Sixtus V who made Bonaventure a doctor in 1588. These two “doctors” are of a different type from those previous, who were all from the patristic period. Moreover, they are dependent on the aforesaid doctors, and build upon them. They are scholastics and write distilled summaries of Church teaching in a highly organized fashion. One can detect a little politics here as well: Pius V, a Dominican, enrolled Thomas and Sixtus V, a Franciscan, enrolled Bonaventure. Many have been added in the modern age—four in the eighteenth century, nine in the nineteenth, ten in the twentieth and already three in the first quarter of the twenty-first. This new class of doctors, though their works may be impressive, are of a noticeably different order. A different criteria forms election, i.e. “eminent doctrine, outstanding holiness of life, and a declaration passed by the supreme pontiff.” Neither the essentialness of their doctrine to orthodoxy nor the breadth of their work is a factor (Francis de Sales, Bede, Peter Damien, Anthony of Padua, Peter Canisius, Lawrence of Brindisi don’t merit a citation in the new catechism, but the four great doctors are heavily cited, with Augustine claiming the most at eighty-seven). One can study theology for a decade and never find a John of Avila or Gregory of Narek in a footnote. On the other hand, it is impossible to read anything, be it in dogmatic, moral or mystical theology, and not run across Augustine. Most importantly, the Church’s own historic and lived experience dictated which doctors stood out above the rest, whereas the modern approach is much more top down. Boniface’s concern was one of proper piety and justice: the great western doctors were “raised up in the universal Church with tribute of more profound honor so that just as they enlightened the Church more than others, they
may know that they are all the more honored by her.” If we are unfamiliar with these great doctors, it is not because they are now irrelevant, rather, we have become ignorant. We do an injustice to place all doctors on a level field. St. Thomas is singular, I would admit that. He is a universal teacher and the most endorsed theologian of the Roman Church. He should have a class set apart—a class which stands upon the shoulders of the great four. If that holds for St. Thomas, a fortiori for all who follow. Therefore, if I am measuring the greatest doctor of the Church the contestants must be Gregory, Ambrose, Augustine and Jerome. Anything else is an equivocation. +

Next month, Part Two.

1. General Audience, January 9, 2008.
2. Charles Herbermann, ed., The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 (New York: Encyclopedia Press, 1913), 115.
3. Boniface VIII, Gloriosus Deus in Sextus Decretalium Liberorum, title 22.

A happy and most glorious feast of the Assumption of Our Lady! Our Lord, Who preserved His Mother immaculate from sin from the first moment of her conception, would not allow her to suffer bodily corruption but brought her to Heaven, body and soul, to join Him there. Our Lord’s Ascension and Our Lady’s Assumption are a beautiful reflection on our own humanity and its destiny. Our Lord, the God-Man, and Our Lady, the new Eve and the pride of our race, both reign in their glorified bodies in Heaven, a reminder that our humanity in its entirety, body and soul, will join them someday if we follow in their footsteps.

Don’t forget that today is a Holy Day of Obligation, so check with your local parish to find out the Mass times for today.

Almighty everlasting God, Who hast taken body and soul into Heaven the Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of Thy Son: grant, we beseech Thee, that by steadfastly keeping Heaven as our goal we may be counted worthy to join her in glory. 

– the Collect for today

You just started running. You couldn’t help it.

The annual Running of the Saints held by St. Anne Parish, our apostolate in San Diego, California, is a strange and wonderful event. An Italian tradition particular to the town of Gubbio, it was imported to the United States by the hands of immigrants to the humble town of Jessup, Pennsylvania, just down the road from our headquarters in South Abington. Gubbio holds La Festa dei Ceri on the eve of the May 16th feast of their patron, St. Ubaldo, the event involving a “race” through the streets of the town among St. Ubaldo, St. George and St. Anthony, whose statues are borne on the shoulders of teams of men wearing the colors of their saint (yellow, blue or black, respectively). Jessup holds its event on Memorial Day weekend, and if you drive through the town around this time, you will see the colors of the saints displayed outside houses as families show their support for their saint. Fr. Carl Gismondi, former pastor of St. Anne, brought the tradition to his San Diego parish, and they adapted it to their own patroness, holding it every year on a Sunday near her July 26th feast day.

This year, the Sunday in question was July 28th. The Running is not the only event in honor of St. Anne that day; it is but the crown on a day of celebration constituting St. Anne’s “Fiesta”. The festivities began at 9am with a Solemn High Mass, celebrated as the External Solemnity of St. Anne. Attendance was astounding. The pews were filled and attendees amassed in the back and in the side aisles. To accommodate the anticipated overflow, seating was set up ahead of time outside the parish doors under a shade-producing covering.

After Mass, the fiesta began. The work of setting up for this grand event, which was held in the relatively small courtyard and parking lot adjacent to the church, was not a burden shouldered by a few: the parish had turned out in force on Saturday to assist one another with the myriad tasks involved. Space was limited but utilized to perfection. Smaller tents were set up along the outside of the parking lot to accommodate the various food and drink booths, and large tents provided cover for long tables and chairs. A misting system was even installed in the large tents, a real blessing on a sunny summer day in southern California!

Breakfast was served after Mass, and the pro-life group provided iced coffee and smoothies. Throughout the day the food offerings included “A Taste of Manila”, a perennial favorite serving Filipino fare, Our Lady of Guadalupe Mexican Food, St. Juan Diego Tacos, St. John Bosco Hamburgers and Our Lady of Fatima Ice Cream Parlor. Attendees could try their luck at “Duck Range” and other games or at the table full of raffle prizes. A popular feature among the young ones was Jacob’s Ladder, a horizontal ladder that swiveled and swung and challenged the kids not to fall to the soft, bouncy surface below. Traditional Mexican dancers in colorful attire performed early in the day, and later on a mariachi band with guitars, violins and talented voices filled the air with the sounds of the country that lies only 15 miles south of San Diego.

But the lively fiesta was only the outward sign of an inward reality. Congregations are not happy unless they are first holy, and the joy on display that day was hardly a product of palm trees and beaches. Theirs is a joy that comes from within, fueled by the Sacrifice so well attended that morning and that is normally celebrated five times on Sunday and twice every other day of the week. Additional spiritual sustenance comes from Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament Monday through Saturday (Exposition is Solemn on Friday and Saturday) and Vespers on Sunday. Various parish groups round out the life of the parish, including a particularly vibrant young adult group that sees 45 – 50 attendees at its weekly events.

Larissa Lopez, a young adult who recently began attending St. Anne’s, told us a bit about what draws her to this parish.

“The community is awesome,” she explained. “I feel alive here.”

Andrew Daniels, another young St. Anne attendee who participated in the Running on the St. Michael team, echoed the sentiment. “I love everything about this parish,” he said.

Round about 3pm, it was time for the much-anticipated Running. Men dressed in t-shirts colored red for St. Michael or blue for St. Anne gathered in the church for a short talk by pastor Fr. John Lyons on the meaning of the event and a time of pre-Running prayer. Once outside, the runners gathered about the statues that stood mounted on wooden platforms and Fr. Lyons blessed the saintly cargo, sprinkling it with holy water. The participants hoisted their saints on their shoulders and they were off, traveling up Irving Avenue towards downtown San Diego, the gleaming buildings of the city looking down on the unusual goings-on from a couple miles away. Eight or ten runners would carry the platform at one time, with their teammates switching in and out as necessary. Vigorous shouts of “St. Anne, pray for us!” rose into the late afternoon air as they ran, the voices issuing what seemed like not only a plea to the saints but also a challenge to competitor and spectator alike. You heard it and your blood and your feet began to move in a way that maybe you didn’t expect, the sweat and pain of a mile run in the heat of the afternoon down unforgiving asphalt evaporating in the inspiration you felt at the sight and sound of such great faith in motion.

And that certainly is the answer to any question as to the “point” of such proceedings. Not only is the Running a display of our Faith that is a visible and audible witness to the world, it is also a rousing call to action, a reminder that our God and our heavenly patrons are indeed truly alive – alive, in action and taking our sanctification much more seriously than we do ourselves on a daily basis. They are calling to us to rise from sleep and from the spiritual lethargy that tempts us all at times, to move our hearts, minds and feet towards the heavenly goal where they are already awaiting us and cheering us on to victory.

Who won, you ask? No one, officially. The Running is, in fact, not a race, despite our calling it so. In the original Gubbio version, St. Ubaldo always wins, and from what we gather, St. Anne normally finishes first in San Diego. But in a result that stunned the Running world, St. Michael pulled off an upset victory over the defending champion. Maybe the two of them were letting us know that we should run so as to win. +

The Annual Appeal is our most important fundraiser of the year for forming traditional priests.

On June 8th, 2019, the Vigil of Pentecost, thousands of Catholics set out on foot from Paris, bound for the Cathedral of Chartres that they would reach two days later as part of the famous pilgrimage that bears the destination city’s name. Many of our priests, seminarians and parishioners were with them, and two young parishioners, one from St. Joan of Arc in Coeur d’Alene and one from North American Martyrs in Seattle, shared with us their memories of the journey.

by Zoe Brown, FSSP Coeur d’Alene

It began nearly a thousand years ago, this throng of pilgrims travelling to the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Chartres in order to see the precious relic it houses, the Veil of Our Lady. As an organized event, however, the pilgrimage began in 1989 and has continued every year since.

It began for us at dawn outside the second largest church in Paris, the magnificent Saint-Sulpice. A crowd of 14,000 faithful Catholics from all over the world waited outside, flying the colorful banners of their separate chapters, all come together to begin this unbelievable journey that has become legend—the Chartres Pilgrimage, a 70-mile walk over 3 days around Pentecost, from Paris to Chartres. Thousands of pilgrims gather with one intent, to offer prayer and penance and to honor Our Lady.

A beautiful Solemn High Mass inside the church was the starting point of the journey—our chapter (St. Joan of Arc) was so fortunate as to be inside for Mass, whereas a huge crowd spilled out all around the church. Then, soon enough, we were unfurling our flags, and setting out on the first grueling march.

On the first day of the trip, we wound our way through the sophisticated streets of old city Paris, all cream stone and delicate iron filigree. We walked to the outskirts of the city and beyond, into the picturesque French countryside composed of tiny stone cottages and vast farm fields of waving grain. Laughing, singing, talking, in friendly fellowship and good faith, praying rosaries and saying the Stations of the Cross, we walked 28 miles before reaching camp. It was a long, hard day, painful but worth every moment.

Exhausted and hurting, but ready for anything, we woke at 5:00 the next morning and enjoyed a cup of coffee before setting out once more, again winding through seemingly eternal fields bordered by woods. Often enough an endless line of vivid banners stretched to the edge of both horizons. Our thousands of pilgrims marched down the narrow, winding main street of tiny hamlets, the townspeople watching with delight. By the end of the day we were utterly worn out after walking some 26 miles, but we could see the tiny spires of Chartres in the distance, so close.

With 15 more miles to go, we walked the next day with the end in sight. After a long climb up the town’s hill to reach the breathtaking cathedral at its crown, we were there. We had made it. The pilgrims crowded into the cathedral’s courtyard and beyond, a throng of relief and delight, and Solemn High Mass began.

Chartres is stunningly beautiful, restored in shades of white and cream, lit by gorgeous stained glass. Our chapter heard Mass in the crypt of the cathedral, and we had an entire day to explore.

We all will cherish our memories and experiences of the Chartres Pilgrimage—even the hard times, the times that hurt, but especially the infinite moments that made the trip beautiful. We are traditional Catholics in a modern world that tries to tell us that our Faith is dead, irrelevant, worthless. It’s wrong. There is no stronger sense of community and solidarity than in this vast crowd of Catholics, where the strength of faith is tangible and feels so alive, so vibrant, both ancient and new. This pilgrimage is a reminder once again of the life, beauty and eternity of Catholicism. +

The Chartres pilgrimage is something special. It is by no means easy. It challenged me in a way I had never been challenged before, but it has hands down been the most rewarding thing I have done in my life.
– Kerrie Lawson, FSSP Seattle

Photos by Zoe Brown

Additional photos by Kerrie Lawson

Today is the old feast of St. Peter in Chains, a day that commemorates St. Peter’s miraculous escape from prison by the hand of an angel. He had been incarcerated by Herod Agrippa, who had already killed St. James the Greater and intended to bring St. Peter before the people also after Easter. But, as the Acts of the Apostles tells us, “prayer was made without ceasing by the church unto God for him”, and he was delivered by an angel who awoke him in the night, led him past the guards and out of prison.

Though no longer included in the general liturgical calendar, the feast of St. Peter in Chains is nonetheless an important day for the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. The pilgrims who joined the Fraternity on our 30th Anniversary Pilgrimage to Rome last October visited the Basilica of St. Peter in Chains, where they were able to venerate the chains of St. Peter.

Also commemorated today are the seven Maccabees, the holy brothers who were tortured and killed before the eyes of their mother in the 2nd century before Christ for refusing to abandon the Jewish faith. Please pray today for the priests of our Fraternity, that, through the intercession of our patron St. Peter and the holy Maccabees, we may ever possess the same fortitude and love for the Faith that enabled them to endure all things for its sake. +

And Peter coming to himself, said: Now I know in very deed, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews.

– from the Epistle for the feast of St. Peter in Chains

Most of us have relatives or friends who have fallen away from the Faith, and many constant souls have been praying faithfully for a long time for the return of their loved ones. Every year, FSSP Baltimore offers a wonderful opportunity to pray in a special way for the lost sheep that we know. Beginning on the August 2nd feast of its patron, the National Shrine of St. Alphonsus Liguori holds a week-long novena of Masses for fallen-away Catholics. St. Alphonsus was a devoted confessor and had a great love and care for penitents, and hence is an apt patron for lapsed souls.

100% of your donation will be used for much-needed repair and restoration work underway this summer at the Shrine. Among the projects the Shrine is working on is a rebuild of the retaining wall around the courtyard, including reconstruction of the drainage system that was causing flooding at one end of the courtyard that was damaging the wall. The courtyard will be a Marian garden that they hope will supply their altar flowers for next year. Also being replaced are the carriage house doors that have been shut fifty years but will allow access for further repair work on the church and attached convent, which the Shrine will use to host retreats. The historic iron fence that provides some security at the front of the church also needs to be replaced.

May God reward you for your generosity, both in supplying the spiritual needs of your fallen-away relatives and friends and in supplying the material needs of this beautiful and historic Shrine, which the FSSP has administered for two years now. We are immensely grateful and humbled to care for the Shrine, which counts St. John Neumann and Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos among its former pastors and is a treasure of American Catholicism.

You can see more pictures of the repair work below. Click a picture to learn more, and visit the Shrine’s website to enroll your intentions. +