by Karen Hastreiter, FSSP Minneapolis

“My hope is that someday every parish will have small men’s groups where men find support and encouragement to be authentic disciples, and therefore can become the fathers and leaders of the faith in their families that God intended them to be.”

The above quote is from the Most Reverend Andrew Cozzens, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He is describing an initiative, started in 2016 and backed by him, called the Catholic Watchmen, which aims to strengthen the spiritual lives of the men of the diocese. The group has regular meetings in various parishes around the Archdiocese and also sponsors special events and conferences for men. On Tuesday, May 8th, the Church of All Saints, the FSSP apostolate in Minneapolis, hosted a Catholic Watchmen event, a Marian procession, with the Most Reverend Bernard Hebda, Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, as the special guest and speaker.

His Excellency started the evening hearing confessions along with Fr. Alex Stewart, assistant pastor of All Saints. At 7 p.m., Archbishop Hebda, All Saints pastor Fr. Peter Bauknecht, Fr. Stewart and Fr. Spencer Howe, pastor of neighboring parish Holy Cross, processed into the church with a full team of All Saints’ altar servers. The men’s schola from the parish chanted the Litany of Loreto, and everyone then processed outside through the residential neighborhood, singing Marian hymns. Upon returning to the church, the Archbishop exposed the Blessed Sacrament and concluded with a Marian Consecration prayer of St. Maximilian Kolbe.

The evening ended with a dinner served by the St. Joseph Guild, All Saints’ group for men, and a talk by His Excellency on Our Lady under her title Mediatrix of All Graces. He strongly encouraged the men to have a relationship with and devotion to the Blessed Mother. He reminded them of the importance of setting the example for their children, particularly their sons. He shared his own father’s example in taking him to their parish every Monday when he was a youth to attend the Novena of the Miraculous Medal. That fostering of a devotion to Our Lady has stayed with him all his life, especially through his priesthood. He quoted Scriptures and the Church Fathers in showing that the Blessed Mother is truly our Mother, as well as the Mother of Our Savior, and that we owe her love and devotion. The evening concluded with a brief Q & A and some fellowship.

Our thanks to Mrs. Tracy Dunne for her photographs of the event.

At the same time and place as their Sacred Music Symposium on the 18th – 22nd of June, FSSP L.A. is holding a special training camp for altar boys with four seminarians from the Fraternity. The camp takes place from the 18th – 21st, and includes classes for younger servers (12 and under) from 1 – 4 p.m. each day and older servers (13 and over) from 4 – 8:30 p.m. Meals are included. There is no cost, but a donation is appreciated to cover the cost of food and seminarian travel.

You can learn more and sign up here. If you are interested in the concurrent Sacred Music Symposium, there are still a few spots left for that too. Sign up here.

Please share this post and the flyer below with any families you know with sons who would like to learn to serve the Latin Mass from the seminarians of the FSSP!

A most blessed Pentecost Sunday to all! Today we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Our Lady and the Apostles gathered in the upper room after Our Lord’s Ascension, awaiting the promised coming of the Paraclete. This day marks the official birthday of the Church, whereon She was endowed with the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit, set alight with His holy fire and fully equipped to begin Her mission in the world.

Pentecost occurs fifty days after Easter, the title itself deriving from the Greek word pentekoste (“fiftieth”), which originally referred to the Jewish Festival of Weeks, or Shavuot, celebrated fifty days after Passover. The vestments of the day are red in honor of the Holy Spirit, and, like Easter, the liturgy is preceded by a Vigil, includes a Sequence and is followed by an Octave. The day is also called Whitsunday, a reference to the white garments of the neophytes baptized during the Vigil.

Paráclitus autem Spíritus Sanctus, quem mittet Pater in nómine meo, ille vos docébit ómnia, et súggeret vobis ómnia quæcúmque díxero vobis.

But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you.

St. Joan of Arc Parish, our apostolate in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, was recently featured in Our Sunday Visitor. The article discusses why many Catholics are drawn to the Latin Mass and highlights the work of the FSSP, specifically at the Idaho apostolate. Read the full story here!

The article mentions the famous skiing-while-bagpiping feat performed by former St. Joan of Arc assistant pastor Fr. Daniel Nolan, done as a fundraiser for the church building project underway at the parish. To read more about the parish’s building plans and to support their efforts, visit their website here.

Join your intentions to the Mass offered at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary on Father’s Day, June 17th, 2018. Those whom you enroll will be remembered in this Mass and in the daily prayer of the priests and seminarians of the Fraternity, and you will receive a beautiful card to give to those you enroll. Be sure to enroll early so you can receive and send out your cards in time for Father’s Day! You can also print the card by clicking the image to the right.

Enroll for Father’s Day 2018

The priestly ordinations for the Fraternity of St. Peter take place on Saturday, May 26th, 2018 at St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha, Nebraska. If you can’t be there in person, you can watch the Pontifical Mass and ordination ceremony live on LiveMass, with commentary by FSSP priests! Watch the video below or see the flyer here to find out how and when to tune in. Share the video, post the flyer, tell your friends and family, spread the word!

On Saturday, the 5th of May, 2018, His Excellency the Most Reverend Wolfgang Haas, Archbishop of Vaduz, Liechtenstein, conferred the diaconate upon six men, four French and two German, of our international seminary in Wigratzbad, Germany. The 2018 ordinandi:

Rev. Mr. Janosch Donner
Rev. Mr. Christophe Joly
Rev. Mr. Julius Kappel
Rev. Mr. Hubert Lion
Rev. Mr. Thibaut Matschek
Rev. Mr. Thomas Souville

The day could not have been a more beautiful one for the ceremony, the spring sun illuminating the green hills of the little Bavarian town of Gestratz as the ordinandi processed into the parish church, where the Pontifical Mass and the ordinations took place. His Excellency was assisted by Fr. Patrick du Faÿ, Rector of the seminary, Fr. Brice Meissonnier and Fr. Sven Conrad.

As each candidate entered the crowded chapel, he carried a candle in his right hand and his stole and dalmatic, the particular vestments of the deacon, on his left arm. The main part of the ordination ceremony comprises the laying of the bishop’s right hand upon the head of each candidate and the invocation of the Holy Spirit upon him, the clothing of the candidate in the stole and dalmatic, and the presentation to him of the book of the Gospels, which it is his new duty to sing during Mass.

Please pray for these men and the newly-ordained deacons of our North American seminary, who advanced to the diaconate on March 17th of this year. They are drawing close to their priestly ordinations, the culmination of years of prayer, study and discernment, and your prayers are invaluable to them as they enter into this final stage of preparation.

A happy and most glorious feast of the Ascension! Our Lord ascended glorious into Heaven forty days after His Resurrection, having instructed his disciples and given them their great commission to go and preach the Gospel to all nations.

One of the notable liturgical traditions of this day is the extinguishing of the Paschal Candle, the symbol of the Risen Christ, after the Gospel, and its removal from its place near the altar to the baptistery or the area of the church where the baptismal font resides. The Easter season extends until Pentecost Sunday, but since Christ has returned to the Father and is no longer upon earth, the visible symbol of Him is taken away. The Paschal Candle is relit for baptisms and funerals that take place throughout the year.

Ascéndit Deus in jubilatióne, et Dóminus in voce tubæ.

God is ascended with jubilee, and the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.

– Psalm 46:6, from the Paschal Alleluia and Offertory for today

On Saturday, May 12th, 2018, join Catholics from all over California for the 10th annual Great Marian Procession, a magnificent event organized every year in honor of Our Lady by the priests and parishioners of St. Stephen the First Martyr Parish, our apostolate in Sacramento, California. The grand procession is held each May, crowds of faithful marching through the streets of Sacramento to honor Our Lady and to pray for California, the country and the world.

To learn more, we caught up with Heather Keevers, a parishioner of St. Stephen’s and the VP of Marketing for the Great Marian Procession. Starting as an idea that inspired procession founder and fellow St. Stephen’s parishioner Mike Solton, the procession has become the largest Marian procession on the West Coast, with over a thousand people joining in and record numbers expected this year. The procession will gather at 8 a.m. at East Lawn Cemetery, and at 9 a.m., a pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima will travel over 3 miles through Sacramento, accompanied by the Knights of Columbus, bagpipe and drum bands, the Knights and Ladies of St. Jean de Brebeuf (a.k.a. KLSJB Explorers & Guides), an army of altar boys and a veritable sea of faithful souls who, as Ms. Keevers notes, come from both Latin Mass and non-Latin Mass parishes to honor Our Lady.

“People come from all over,” she said. “People come from different parishes that are not involved with the Latin Mass. It gives them a chance to harken back to tradition.”

Whereas in former years the procession has concluded with Solemn High Mass at the Cathedral, this year it will travel to the west steps of the State Capitol, where Our Lady will be crowned and Fr. John Lyons, F.S.S.P., pastor of St. Stephen’s, will lead the people in the consecration of California to Mary.

“As California goes, so goes the nation, so goes the world,” Ms. Keevers said. “This procession is about going out into the secular word, into the streets, into the public, and being a very visible witness for Catholicism. It’s about honoring the Mother of Our Lord and honoring the Queen of Heaven, bringing her to the people and asking for her powerful intercession.”

We encourage you to join in the procession if you are on the West Coast this weekend, or if you cannot be there in person, to offer your prayers in union with those of the attendees. You can even send in prayer requests, which will be carried in a basket through the procession and laid at the feet of Our Lady. You can send in your requests and learn more about the procession at the website here (the prayer request form is on the right hand side, a little ways down the homepage).

Invite your friends and family, follow the Facebook page, tune in on Instagram, and watch and share the official video for the 2018 procession below.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

Our thanks to Jen Rego for the photos used in this article, and to Kalin Lippsmeyer for the featured cover photo.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we commemorate the Rogation Days, traditional days of prayer, and formerly fasting, which take place every year on April 25th and the three days preceding the feast of the Ascension, the former being known as the Major Rogation and the latter as the Minor Rogations. The word “rogation” has its origins in the Latin word “rogare”, which means to supplicate or ask, and the purpose of the Days is to beg God for His mercy, to turn away His anger, and to ask Him to bless the fruits of the earth while protecting us from natural disasters.

All the Rogation Days consist of a procession followed by a Rogation Mass. The procession, which traditionally moved around the territorial borders of the parish, includes the blessing of the fields and other natural features of the landscape during the recitation of the Litany of the Saints.

Et ego dico vobis: Pétite, et dábitur vobis: quaérite, et inveniétis: pulsáte, et aperiétur vobis. Omnis enim qui petit, áccipit: et qui quærit, invénit: et pulsánti aperiétur.

And I say to you: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

– Luke 11:9-10, from the Gospel for the Rogation Mass

Major Rogation at the Seminary of St. Peter in Wigratzbad, Germany

Major Rogation at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Denton, where the dawn procession is greeted by the morning sun rising upon a clear day.