by Fr. William Rock, FSSP

In January 2023, I received an unexpected yet joyfully welcomed email which invited me to join in a project with the Italian Apostolate of the Archdiocese of Newark to rejuvenate the neglected devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of the Torrent (Madonna della Lavina) at my home parish in New Jersey.

While devotion to the Blessed Virgin under this title originated in Cerami, Sicily around 1630, the image at the foundation of the devotion is a Byzantine icon from, possibly, the 1300s.  There are different theories of how this icon made its way to Cerami, located in the mountainous area of eastern Sicily, but none of them are conclusive.  A telling of the story how this image of the Virgo Lactans received the title “Our Lady of the Torrent” can be found in one of the earliest articles I wrote for the Missive.

Brought by Sicilian immigrants to the New World, this devotion would find a home at St. Aloysius church in Caldwell, New Jersey.  While there had been Ceramesi immigrants in the area since the 1880s, the beginning of the American observance took place on a hot summer day in 1912, when, during a work break, Ceramesi laborers began to sing in honor of Maria SS della Lavina – “protector of their fathers in Italy and of them in America.”¹  Soon after, a Maria SS della Lavina Mutual Aid Society was established (chartered in 1912, now discontinued).  In 1934, one known affectionally as “Uncle Sam” (Mr. Santo Stivale) commissioned Mr. Onorio Ruotolo, founder of the New York City Leonardo da Vinci Art School, to produce a painting of the Blessed Virgin patterned on the Ceramese painting of the Virgin nursing her Son.

Over time the devotion would grow to including a large, multiday festival and a procession in honor of the Madonna, celebrated around Labor Day weekend (the feast day in Cerami is September 7th).  The Society would also build a hall near the church in 1939, which was eventually given over the Knights of Columbus and then to the town, which turned the property into a garden.  As time passed, the large festival ceased to be celebrated, while, for a time, the procession would continue passing through the old Italian/Ceramesi areas of the town.

I have fond memories of participating in the Maria SS della Lavina devotions as a child.  When I was younger, I helped set up drinks for the participants of the yearly procession at my maternal grandparents’ house, a rest stop along the route.  When I was a bit older, I served the Mass prior to the procession and carried the processional cross.  By the time I went to college, not even the procession was being done, although there had been an attempt at a revival at one point.

When the time came, I selected the St. Aloysius painting as the image for my Priestly ordination holy card due to the sentimental value it carries for my family and myself.  This choice has led to a deepening devotion to Our Lady under this title, including eventually realizing that I have ancestral ties to Cerami through my maternal grandmother, meaning that my family’s participation in this devotion most likely goes back to the old country (it is also likely that one my relatives was among the original founders of the Mutual Aid Society in Caldwell).  As stated above, one of the first articles I wrote for the Missive was on the origin of the devotion to Our Lady under this title.  This article served as the catalyst for being invited by the Italian Apostolate to aid in the rejuvenation of the devotion.

As a result of this collaboration, an initial celebration was held in honor of the Madonna della Lavina at St. Aloysius church in Caldwell, on Thursday, September 7, 2023, which is, as was stated, the day of her feast in Cerami.

In the time leading up to the event, my mother, our neighbor, his son – all who have ties to the devotion – and I gathered together memorabilia, mostly pins and photos.  The neighbor’s son, who has professional experience with these sorts of things, put together a display for a reception.  As we were organizing the memorabilia, I noticed in a photograph that American and Italian flags were carried in the procession.  I asked if we knew where the Italian flag was, and my neighbor and his son provided me with the contact information of the one they thought had it.  I gave the provided contact a call and he agreed to meet at the church on the day of the event during the setup time.  On the day of the event, he arrived with another gentleman.  They had brought with them, among other items, the old Society banner, the wooden crown and mantle which had adorned the painting during the procession, and the Society’s officer sashes.  The wooden crown was handmade by Uncle Sam, while the faux jewels were added later by others.  Embroidered on the inside of the mantle are the names of those who fashioned it.  It was a great and unexpected surprise to receive these items.  There is no doubt that Our Lady’s hand can be seen in this.

On the day of the 2023 celebration, I offered a Low Mass in honor of the Madonna della Lavina.  I chose to use the Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Grace (B. Mariae Virg. Matris Gratiae) from the Masses for Various Places (Missae pro aliquibus locis) as the image is classified as an image of Our Lady of Grace.  The Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Grace is the same as the Mass of the Holy Name of Mary (September 12th), except for a proper collect (opening prayer).  For the Mass, the painting, which normally adorns a wall in the foyer (narthex) of the church, was displayed near the side altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  In attendance were members of the former Society and Knights of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George.  During the sermon, after expressing special thanks to the Archbishop, Joseph Cardinal Tobin, and to the Pastor of St. Aloysius, Msgr. Robert Emery, for their support, I preached about how the restoration of this devotion, and of those like it, should not be undertaken simply for the sake of nostalgia or in an effort to recreate an idealized past, but rather because they are, in and of themselves, worth recovering and because the faithful recognize something in them which will be spiritually beneficial for themselves and their children today.  The Mass was followed by a gathering in the parish center where there was the aforementioned display.  At the gathering, I presented an overview of the history and practices of the devotion as practiced both in Cerami and in Caldwell.  About fifty attended the Mass and thirty the reception afterwards.  Photos of last year’s event can be found here on the Il Regno Blog.

On Wednesday, November 22, 2023, the pastor of St. Aloysius church received a decree from the Cardinal Archbishop, dated November 1, 2023, granting me a three-year permission to celebrate annually the Traditional Latin Mass in honor of Our Lady of the Torrent, thus making this celebration “the only Archdiocesan approved Extraordinary Form Italian Devotion.”²  The FSSP North American Provincial also gave his nod for me to continue participating.  The first usage of this permission was on Saturday, September 7, 2024.  This year’s celebration was greatly expanded from the previous years.  A polyphonic Solemn High Mass (Palestrina’s Missa Brevis), in which a diocesan priest ministered as deacon and a canon of the Institue of Christ the King as subdeacon, was celebrated.  Again, the Mass was that of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Grace.  During the sermon, I compared the Italian immigrants to Aeneas, the remote founder of Rome.  When Aeneas fled Troy, he carried his father on his back, led his son, and brought with him his household idols.  Symbolically, the father represented Troy’s past and its culture; the son, the future; the idols, reverence towards their gods.  Similarly, the Italian Immigrants of the late 1800s and early 1900s left a worn-torn and devastated area, invaded by an enemy.  They carried their traditions and cultures from their different regions and towns, which merged to form a broader, unique Italian-American culture and a unique subtype of American Catholicism.  By their hard work and sacrifices, they laid the foundation for a better future for their descendants.  They brought with them, not false gods or idols of paganism, but their saints and devotions, taken from their towns, cities and regions, such as the Madonna della Lavina.

After Mass was over, the image was incensed, and the procession, with an honor guard formed by the local Knights of Columbus, began.  An Italian Feast Band, a must for Italian feasts, met the image outside the main doors of the church.  Originally, the procession was to cover part of the older route from when I was younger, but, due to weather concerns, it was kept on the church’s property.  When the Society was discontinued, the original processional litter (vara) was donated to another parish nearby, which modified it to carry a statue of Our Lady.  While it would have been very fitting to use this vara, as it was modeled on the one used in Cerami for the feast of Our Lady of the Torrent, the modifications made this impossible.  Unsure how we would carry the image during the procession, Our Lady provided.  I had returned to New Jesey a few days before to prepare for the event.  The pastor of the local FSSP apostolate asked how preparations were going and if we had a carrier for the procession.  It turned out that the chapel had recently received a new carrier, and so he was able to offer us the older one for our use.  The day before the event, we were able to modify this litter by adding an art easel to it, making it a vara capable of carrying the image.  When the image reentered the church at the conclusion of the procession, the band followed.  The image was again incensed and then left in the Sanctuary for the devotion of the faithful.  A light reception of Italian pastries followed the procession in the church’s gym, where the neighbor’s son had again set up a display.  It was truly a family event, as my relatives played key roles in bringing about this year’s celebration, which had about 110 in attendance, nearly double from the year before.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of my family for their effort, all those who made donations or gave support in anyway, as well as the major organizational sponsors of the event: the Borough of Caldwell, the Knights of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George, the Station of The Cross – Catholic Media Network, Calandra’s Italian Village, and Caldwell Flowerland.

Next year’s celebration is scheduled for Saturday, September 6th, 2025, with Mass starting at 11 am, again at St. Aloysius church in Caldwell, New Jersey.  All are graciously invited to attend.

To conclude, I present to you, dear reader, the following photographs of the 2024 event.

Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, Mater Lavinæ!

Fr. William Rock, FSSP was ordained in the fall of 2019 and is currently assigned to St. Stanislaus Parish in Nashua, NH.

In support of the causes of Blessed Maria Cristina, Queen, and Servant of God Francesco II, King 

1. From the newspaper clipping “Madonna della Lavina Society – Ceramesi Roots of Caldwell” believed to be from The Progress Newspaper, 1979.
2. Per the Director of the Italian Apostolate of the Archdiocese of Newark.

by Fr. William Rock, FSSP

According to the Genesis creation account, on the Fourth Day, God created the sun, the moon, and the stars:

And God said: Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years: to shine in the firmament of heaven, and to give light upon the earth, and it was so done.  And God made two great lights: a greater light to rule the day; and a lesser light to rule the night: and the stars.  And he set them in the firmament of heaven to shine upon the earth.  And to rule the day and the night, and to divide the light and the darkness.  And God saw that it was good.  And the evening and morning were the fourth day.  (Gen 1:14-19).

It is of great importance to note that in addition to marking the distinction between the day and the night, these heavenly bodies were also given “for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years.”  As the Hebrew word translated here as “seasons” can also mean “feasts,”¹ this passage indicates that God intended these heavenly bodies to play a role in the religious observances of the pinnacle of material creation, man.  The role of the sun in this regard, particularly with respect to the solstices and the equinoxes, was explained previously.  More recently, an explanation of the role the phases of the moon play in this regard was also presented.  This just leaves the stars to be treated.

The roles of the stars when first encountered might strike some as strange as the foundation of the stars’ role is found in the 12 constellations of the zodiac.  For some, the word “zodiac” immediately calls to mind the sin of astrology, but this was not the case for our Christian forefathers.  For them, the constellations which comprise the zodiac were placed there by God for the sake of measuring time.  The solar year was determined by the time it took the sun to traverse all 12 signs of the zodiac.  That this is how Christians measured the year is attested to by William Durandus the Elder, Bishop of Mende (d. A.D. 1296), the great medieval liturgical commentator, in his Rationale Divinorum Officium (see VIII, III, 4).  Additionally, the Roman Liturgical books contained a section entitled “The Year and its Parts” (De Anno et ejus Partibus) which begins:

The year comprises twelve months, or fifty-two weeks and one day; more precisely, 365 days and almost six hours; this being the time taken for the sun completely to traverse the Zodiac.²

The text then goes on to explain leap years and that the year actually falls short of the 365 days and six hours.

As the sun progresses through the zodiac, it enters, is in, and then leaves each of the constellations, dividing the year into 12 segments based on which constellation the sun is currently traversing.  However, just as it was explained previously that in addition to the astronomical full moon and astronomical Spring Equinox there are the Ecclesiastical full moon and the Ecclesiastical Spring Equinox, there is also the Ecclesiastical zodiac which is the counterpart to the astronomical zodiac.  But, in order to understand this, one must have an understanding of how the Roman calendar expresses the days of the month.

Like many ancient peoples, the early Romans used the phases of the moon to determine the months.³  The first day of the month, the Kalends, was the day of the new moon (when the first crescent of the waxing moon was visible), the Nones marked the first lunar quarter (the half moon while the moon is waxing), and the Ides, the full moon.⁴  On the Kalends, a pagan Roman priest, the pontifex minor, would announce the new crescent and how many days until the Nones.  On the Nones, he would announce how many days until the Ides.  The days between the Kalends and the Nones and between the Nones and the Ides were kept in a count-down fashion.  These three days, the Kalends, the Nones, and the Ides, served as the reference days for the rest of the days of month.

As the calendar developed, the months became disassociated from the phases of the moon, but the method of determining the days within the month as well as the names for the reference days were retained.⁵  The Kalends still indicated the first day of the month, while the Nones was either the fifth or seventh day of the month, and the Ides the thirteenth or fifteenth day of the month, depending.  Although these reference days were no longer tied to the phases of the moon, the relationship between them continued to reflect this origin.  The full moon occurs “about 14 days”⁶ after the full moon (the Ides is on the thirteenth or fifteenth day of the month) and the first quarter around seven days after the new moon (the Nones is on the fifth or seventh day of the month).  The following little poem is way of remembering how the Nones and Ides fall in each month:

In March, July, October, May,
The Ides are on the fifteenth day,
The Nones the seventh; but all besides
Have two days less for Nones and Ides.”
– Gildersleeve’s Latin Grammar

Laid out in a table, the reference days would fall as follows:

In the reckoning of the day of the month, a given day either fell on one of the three reference days, the day before one of the reference days (the Pridie), or a count back from one of the three reference days, inclusively.  Yes, the days were counted backwards from the reference days.  Remember, days between the Kalends and the Nones and between the Nones and the Ides were originally kept in a count-down fashion.  In the calendar introduced by Julius Caesar, which was later adopted by Christians, this method for reckoning the days of the month was maintained.

By way of an example, in the current method of determining the day of the month, the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord falls on the 25th day of December, but, in the Roman Books, it falls die octavo ante Kalendas Mensis Ianuarii, that is, on the eighth day before the first day of January, counting inclusively.  The following explains visibly how that was determined.

According to this method, the Nativity of Our Lord and the Nativity of John the Baptist are celebrated on the same day of the month, the eighth day before the Kalends of January and of July respectively, although according to the currant usage one falls on the 25th and the other on the 24th.

In his Rationale, Durandus explains that each Ecclesiastical zodiac period begins on each 15th day before the Kalends (see VIII, III, 5).  So, for example, during the month of March, Ecclesiastical Aries begins on the 15th day before the Kalends of April, which is March 18th (currently, astronomical Aries begins around March 21st).  In the month of April, Ecclesiastical Taurus begins on the 15th day before the Kalends of May, April 17th (currently, astronomical Taurus begins around April 20th).  Durandus then spends the next 12 paragraphs explaining each of the different constellations of the zodiac.

In his treatment of Aries, Durandus explains that this constellation is the start of the zodiac, as it is claimed that the sun was created in Aries and that this is the sign which the sun is in around the beginning of spring, the Spring Equinox (see VIII, III, 6).  Here, Durandus, as he does throughout his work, is just echoing an earlier tradition for

many ancient Christians such as Julius Africanus believed that God created the sun on March 25th, the [original Julian observed] spring Equinox.  Their reasoning was based on Scripture.  In Genesis, the reason God makes the heavenly lights-the sun, moon, and stars-is to “separate the day from the night” (Genesis 1:14).  It was assumed that when God divided the day and the night, He separated them evenly.  Since day and night are evenly divided during the spring equinox, March 25 was believed to be the day God created the sun and the moon.⁷

A March 25th date for the creation of the sun would both fall within Ecclesial and astronomical Aries.

But why does this matter to Christians?

In his letter to the Emperor Marcian (CXXI), Pope St. Leo the Great (d. 461) expressed that the celebration of Easter was always to occur in the first month (Paschale etenim festum, quo sacramentum salutis humanae maxime continetur, quamvis in primo semper mense celebrandum sit⁸), no doubt referring back the ordinance that the Hebrew Passover was to be celebrated in “the first month” (Lev 23:5).  The writings of the Jewish historian Josephus (d. ~A.D. 100) shed some relevant light onto how the “first month” is to be determined.  In his Antiquities of the Jews (3.10.5), Josephus wrote:

In the month of Xanthicus, which is by us called Nisan, and is the beginning of our year, on the fourteenth day of the lunar month, when the sun is in Aries, (for in this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians,) the law ordained that we should every year slay that sacrifice which I before told you we slew when we came out of Egypt, and which was called the Passover.

According to Josephus, “the first month” is when the sun is in Aries, corresponding with Durandus’ claim that Aries marked the beginning of the zodiac cycle and thus the year.

While St. Leo, for his part, does not state exactly how the month he referenced is to be determined, he does indicate that Easter, according to ancient custom, can only be celebrated from March 26th (the day after an observed Spring Equinox) to April 21st (Siquidem ab undecimo kalendarum Aprilium, usque in undecimum kalendarum Maiarum, legitimum spatium sit prefixum, intra quod omnium varietatum necessitas concludatur: ut Pascha Dominicum nec prius possimus habere nec tardius⁹).  An earlier reference to this tradition can be found in the Festal Letter of St. Athanasius for the year A.D. 349.  This Letter expresses that the date of Easter for that year proposed by the church of Alexandria — after the First Council of Nicaea, the church of Alexandria was entrusted with calculating the date of Easter — was rejected by the church of Rome because it fell beyond the limits received from St. Peter (ob traditionem a Petro apostolo acceptam).¹⁰  The window provided by St. Leo of March 26th to April 21st corresponds to when the sun is, for the most part, in Aries (March 21st to April 19th astronomically or March 18th to April 16th ecclesiastically), corresponding to the determination of the “first month” given by Josephus.  The occasion of this letter to Marcian by Leo was a dispute with the Bishop of Alexandria who had, again, proposed a date for Easter outside of the Roman range.  Reflecting on this, Cardinal Ratzinger, in his Spirit of the Liturgy, wrote the following:

In the fifth century there was a controversy between Rome and Alexandria about what the latest possible date for Easter could be.  According to Alexandrian tradition, it was April 25.  Pope St. Leo the Great (440-461) criticized this very late date by pointing out that, according to the Bible, Easter should fall in the first month, and the first month did not mean April, but the time when the sun is passing through the first part of the Zodiac — the sign of Aries.  The constellation in the heavens seemed to speak, in advance and for all time, of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world (Jn I:29), the one who sums up in himself all the sacrifices of the innocent and gives them their meaning.  The mysterious story of the ram, caught in the thicket and taking the place of Isaac as the sacrifice decreed by God himself, was now seen as the pre-history of Christ.  The fork of the tree in which the ram was hanging was seen as a replica of the sign of Aries, which in turn was the celestial foreshadowing of the crucified Christ.¹¹

After the conflict which prompted his letter, Pope St. Leo sought a more permanent solution to the disagreement with Alexandria.  The result was the work of Victorius of Aquitaine.  Unfortunately, even though he was tasked by Rome, Victorius did not use the Roman limits when he developed his Easter Tables and, as a result, the Alexandrian range became the standard.¹²  Thus the current range of the Gregorian Easter is March 22nd to April 25th, the Alexandrian range.  Even so, because the date of Easter is tied to the observed Spring Equinox, which itself is associated with Aries, the date of Easter is thus always associated with Aries, even if Easter occurs when the sun has left Aries.

With regards to Easter and its association with the Spring Equinox, it would be worthwhile here to note that by the time of the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325), due to defects in the Julian Calendar, the observed date of the Spring Equinox (March 25th) no longer corresponded with the actual astronomical event, which was then occurring around March 21st.  As a result, March 21st became fixed as the Ecclesiastical/observed date for the Spring Equinox.¹³  The earliest Easter could be in the Alexandrian range (March 22nd) was still the day after the observed Spring Equinox (March 21st).  It was imperative for the early Christians that Easter fall after the Spring Equnoix, for, as (?pseudo-)Anatolius, Bishop of Laodicea in Syria, wrote in his De ratione paschali, around the year A.D. 270:

In this correspondence of the sun and moon [i.e., the Spring Equinox], the Pasch [the Easter Sacrifice] is not to be offered up, because so long as they are discovered in this combination, power of darkness is not overcome, and as long as equality between light and darkness prevails and is not diminished by the light, it is shown that Pasch is not to be offered.  And therefore it is enjoined that the Pasch be offered after the vernal equinox.¹⁴

Here Anatolius is commenting that since the Winter Solstice, the longest night and shortest amount of daylight in the year, the amount of daylight has been steadily increasing and the night has been growing shorter, while at the Spring Equinox the amount of night and daylight is equal.  Anatolius reasons that since in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ, the Light overcame darkness, its liturgical commemoration should not be celebrated until the natural light has overcome the natural darkness, which is not until at least the day after the Spring Equinox when they are equal.¹⁵

The Feast of Easter, then, is associated not only with the sun (Easter is to be celebrated after the Spring Equinox) and the moon (Easter is to fall after the full moon) as explored previously, but also with the stars by its association with Aries, the three types of heavenly bodies created by God in the Genesis account.

In a materialist society such as that in which we find ourselves today, it is very easy to see the heavenly bodies simply as combinations of atoms governed by the laws of physics, but our Christian forefathers saw in these bodies vestiges of the Divine given to provide structure to the universe.  It would serve us well to regain such a worldview, one which rises above the material and sees in creation the great harmony set there by the Creator intended for all men, but especially for those redeemed by the Blood of the Son of God Who entered into the great cycles of days, months, and years, which He Himself set into motion.

Fr. William Rock, FSSP was ordained in the fall of 2019 and is currently assigned to St. Stanislaus Parish in Nashua, NH.

In support of the causes of Blessed Maria Cristina, Queen, and Servant of God Francesco II, King 

1. 1. Strong’s Dictionary, H4150.
   2. Taken from an English translation from a 1967 Dominican Breviary provided by the Divinum Officium Project here.
   3. Bickerman, E. J. (Elias Joseph). Chronology of the Ancient World. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1968), pp. 16-21.
   4. Ibid., p 44.
   5. Ibid., p. 47.
   6. See What is the moon phase today? Lunar phases 2024 | Space.
   7. Barber, Michael, Patrick. The True Meaning of Christmas-The Birth of Jesus and the Origins of the Season. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press: 2021), p. 162.
   8. PL 54:1055 (1844).
   9. PL 54:1057 (1844).
   10. PG 26:1355 (1857).
   11. Ratzinger, Joseph. The Spirit of the Liturgy. Trans. Saward, John. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000), p. 99-100
   12. Cullen, Olive M. A Question of time or a Question of Theology: A study of the Easter controversy in the Insular Church. (Maynooth: 2007), pp. 73-74.
   13. The Old Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. “Reform of the Calendar.”
   14. As quoted by Godard, Philip J. Festa Paschalia-A History of the Holy Week Liturgy in the Roman Rite. (Herefordshire: Gracewing, 2011), p. 20.
   15. The reader is no doubt familiar with the fact that the Nativity of John the Baptist (June 24th) occurs soon after the Summer Solstice (June 21st), the day with the most daylight and shortest night, and that Our Lord’s Nativity (December 25th) occurs slightly after the Winter Solstice (December 21st), the day with the least daylight and longest night.  Liturgical commentators have associated the decrease of daylight associated with the Nativity of John and the increase of daylight associated with the Nativity of Christ with the following line spoke by John: “He must increase: but I must decrease” (Joh 3:30).  The increase of Christ then goes on to the Spring Equinox, when daylight and night are equal, and then past to when daylight prevails, signaling the Light’s victory over darkness by Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection.  There does not seem to be any comparable association with the Fall Equinox, when daylight and night are equal length, although the Fall Ember Days and the associated Hebrew Festivals are celebrated around this time.  In the days following the Fall Equinox, the amount of night will increase until the Winter Solstice.

by Fr. William Rock, FSSP

There is a plethora of Catholic calendars with varying degrees of detail and information.  Interestingly, some of them, such as those published by the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer and Sophia Press, indicate the phases of the moon.  The question naturally arises as to why such calendars include this information.  Some might even object that such a thing smacks of paganism.  The answer, however, has its roots in the calendar of the Old Testament.

The Hebrew people used a lunisolar calendar where the length of the 12 months was determined by the cycle of the moon, resulting in months which were 29 or 30 days long (the lunar part of the calendar).  As this would fall short of the solar year, an additional month would be added in intervals to realign the lunar months with the solar year (the solar part of the calendar).  The month would start with the new moon,¹ which is when the moon is at its minimum visibility at the start of a period of increase (i.e., the first visible crescent when the moon begins to wax).  The days of the month, for their part, were counted, inclusively, from the most recent new moon.  The days of the month, then, are really days of the moon, with the first day of the moon, the first day of the month, corresponding to the new moon.

The beginning of the month, the new moon, was kept as a festal day.  God commanded the Hebrew people through Moses that “on the first days of your months [that is, the day of the new moon], you shall sound the trumpets over the holocausts, and the sacrifices of peace offerings, that they may be to you for a remembrance of your God.  I am the Lord your God” (Num 10:10).  Again, in the Psalms is found: “blow up [bucinate, sound] the trumpet on the new moon, on the noted day of your solemnity” (8o:4).

The feasts of the Torah, which were to be kept on certain days of the month, were determined by counting days from the start of their respective months, that is from the new moon which began the month.  The most important of these feasts for our purposes here is the Feast of Passover which was to be kept in “the first month, the fourteenth day of the month at evening” (Lev 23:5).  It is important to note here that the full moon occurs “about 14 days”² after the new moon.  This means that the celebration of the Passover was associated with, but not determined by, the full moon.

In the early Church, there was a controversy over when the feast of the Lord’s Resurrection, the Feast of Easter, should be kept.  The greater number of the churches kept this feast on Sunday, while the churches of Asia Minor kept the feast on the fourteenth day of the first Hebrew month regardless of which day of the week it fell.  This controversy came to an end at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea.  The Old Catholic Encyclopedia explains as follows:

It is generally held that the Last Supper took place on the Jewish Feast of the Passover, which was always kept on the fourteenth day of the first month of the old Jewish calendar.  Consequently, since this month always began with that new moon of which the fourteenth day occurred on or next after the vernal equinox, Christ arose from the dead on Sunday, the seventeenth day of the so-called paschal moon.  It is evident, then, that an exact anniversary of Easter is impossible except in years in which the seventeenth day of the paschal moon falls on Sunday.  In the early days of Christianity there existed a difference of opinion between the Eastern and Western Churches as to the day on which Easter ought to be kept, the former keeping it on the fourteenth day and the latter on the Sunday following.  To secure uniformity of practice, the Council of Nicæa (325) decreed that the Western method of keeping Easter on the Sunday after the fourteenth day of the moon should be adopted throughout the Church, believing no doubt that this mode fitted in better with the historical facts and wishing to give a lasting proof that the Jewish Passover was not, as the Quartodeciman heretics believed, an ordinance of Christianity.³

The calendar being used by these Christians was the Julian Calendar, the months of which, by this time, no longer had any ties to the lunar cycles.  Resulting from the need to determine the relevant “fourteenth day of the moon,” the early Christians adopted the Greek Metonic Lunar Cycle, also known as the Cycle of Golden Numbers, founded on the work of Meton of Athens (5th century B.C.).  A key part of Meton’s work is summarized as follows:

In the year now known as 432 B.C., Meton, an Athenian astronomer, discovered that 235 lunations (i.e. lunar months) correspond with 19 solar years, or, as we might express it, that after a period of 19 solar years the new moons occur again on the same days of the solar year.  He therefore divided the calendar into periods of 19 years, which he numbered 1, 2, 3, etc. to 19, and assumed that the new moons would always fall on the same days in the years indicated by the same number.  This discovery found such favour among the Athenians that the number assigned to the current year in the Metonic Cycle was henceforth written in golden characters on a pillar in the temple, and, whether owing to this circumstance or to the importance of the discovery itself, was known as the Golden Number of the year.⁴

And so, the Nicaean calculation of Easter was based not only on the Julian determination of the Spring Equinox (solar), which was observed on March 21st, but also the relevant 14th day of the moon of the Metonic Lunar Cycle (lunar), which, as was stated above, is associated with the full moon.  The Church, then, not only had a solar calendar in the Julian, but also an independent lunar calendar.

The method for determining Easter established by the Council of Nicaea is generally summarized as follows: “Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first full moon following the Spring Equinox.”  And, while this is helpful, it should be more actually expressed as: “Easter is to be celebrated on the first Sunday following the 14th day of the Moon of the Metonic Lunar Cycle which occurs after March 21st of the Julian Calendar, when the Spring Equinox is observed.”  Because there might be some discrepancy between the astronomical events and their observances in the calendars, in order to avoid confusion, the Julian March 21st is referred to as the Paschal or Ecclesiastical Equinox, while the associated 14th day of the moon is referred to as the Paschal or Ecclesiastical full moon.  As such, a more proper rendering of the first would be: “Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first Ecclesiastical full moon following the Ecclesiastical Spring Equinox.”

At the time of the First Council of Nicaea, the astronomical Spring Equinox did regularly occur on or around the Julian date of its observance and the astronomical Paschal full moon regularly occurred on or around the associated 14th day of the moon.  However, as the centuries progressed, the shortcomings in the Julian Calendar resulted in the astronomical Spring Equinox and its Ecclesiastical observation becoming more and more disassociated from each other.  Additionally, “it was found that the paschal moon of the Metonic Cycle was losing all relation to the real paschal moon”⁵ due to its shortcomings.  For these reasons, Pope Gregory XIII (d. A.D. 1585) undertook a reform of the calendar, which not only corrected the shortcomings of the solar Julian Calendar (reassociating the astronomical Spring Equinox with the calendar’s March 21st), but also the independent lunar calendar (reassociating the 14th day of the lunar month with the astronomical Paschal moon).  From this point, the Gregorian March 21st and the Gregorian 14th day of the moon became the Paschal/Ecclesiastical Equinox and Paschal/Ecclesiastical full moon, respectively, used in the determination of the date of Easter (at least for those who accepted the reform).

The Church has never lost track of the fact that she is indeed using two different calendars, one solar and one lunar, to calculate not only the Feast of the Resurrection, but also all the observances which depend on this date – Septuagesima, Ash Wednesday and Lent, the Spring Ember days, the days of Holy Week, the Minor Rogations, the Ascension, Pentecost, the summer Ember Days, Corpus Christi, and the Feast of the Sacred Heart.  In fact, Roman Liturgical books contained detailed explanations, in the section entitled “The Year and its Parts” (De Anno et ejus Partibus) on how to determine Easter, and thus the associated moveable feasts, a calculation which involves, among other things, the Gregorian Golden Number of the lunar calendar.  Additionally, in her daily proclamation of the Roman Martyrology at the Office of Prime, where the entry for the following day is read, the lector begins not only by indicating the entry’s Gregorian calendar day (solar), but also its Gregorian day of the moon, the day of the lunar calendar, with the first day associated with the new moon.  The antiquity of this practice is attested to by Pope Gregory XIII in his decree promulgating his reformed calendar (Inter gravissimas [A.D. 1582], 10).

So now, when you, dear reader, look upon a Catholic calendar which shows the phases of the moon, you can think back to this article and remember the prominent role the moon and its phases play in the shaping of our liturgical year.

Fr. William Rock, FSSP was ordained in the fall of 2019 and is currently assigned to St. Stanislaus Parish in Nashua, NH.

In support of the causes of Blessed Maria Cristina, Queen, and Servant of God Francesco II, King 

1. Old Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. Jewish Calendar.  See also Bickerman, E. J. (Elias Joseph). Chronology of the Ancient World. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1968), pp. 16-21.
2. See What is the moon phase today? Lunar phases 2024 | Space
3. Old Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. Epact.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.

Communiqué of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter

Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary
Denton, Nebraska, USA

The General Chapter of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), which is taking place from July 3 to July 18, 2024 at the International Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Denton, Nebraska, elected in a plenary session the Assistants and Counselors of the Superior General as follows:
Assistants: Fr. Hubert Bizard, Fr. Andrzej Komorowski and Fr. Arnaud Evrat;
Counselors: Fr. Josef Bisig and Fr. Benoît Paul-Joseph

Communiqué of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter
Wednesday, July 10, 2024,
Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary,
Denton, Nebraska, USA

The General Chapter of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), which takes place from July 3 to July 18, 2024 at the International Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Denton, Nebraska, in plenary session elected Fr. John Berg as Superior General for 6 years.  This election, at which the 32 capitulants were present, took place on Tuesday, July 9. In succeeding Fr. Andrzej Komorowski, Fr. John Berg intends to continue the work undertaken these last six years in the service of the Fraternity.

The election of the Assistants and Counselors will follow in the next few days.

An American priest born in 1970, Fr. John Berg studied philosophy at St. Thomas Aquinas College (California, USA) and theology at the International Seminary of St. Peter in Wigratzbad (Bavaria, Germany). Fr. Berg holds a licentiate from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.  Ordained a priest in 1997, Fr. Berg was a professor at the International Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Nebraska, USA).  He served as Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter from 2006-2018.  For the past six years he returned to parochial work with the faithful as the Pastor of the Fraternity parishes in Providence, Rhode Island and Omaha, Nebraska.

by Fr. William Rock, FSSP

In current usage, the day, running from midnight to midnight, is divided up into 24 hours of equal length.  The Romans, however, kept time in a different manner.  Their day was divided between the time when there was daylight (the day) and the time when it was dark (the night).  The Roman day was divided into 12 hours of equal length, regardless of how much time of daylight there might be on a given day.  So, as the year progressed, the length of each of these daylight hours would increase or decrease.  The Third Hour (Hora Tertia), for its part, marked when the sun was halfway to its zenith, the Sixth Hour (Hora Sexta) when it reached it the zenith, and the Ninth (Hora Nona) when the sun was halfway down.  This way of telling time is still reflected in the Divine Office – which divides the 150 Psalms among the days of the week and then distributes the Psalms assigned to each day to different parts of the day, each part called an “Hour,” along with other readings from Scripture, ecclesiastical compositions, and prayers – where the Minor Hours of the day are called Prime (the First Hour – Hora Prima), Terce (the Third Hour), Sext (the Sixth Hour), and None (the Ninth Hour).

The Roman night was also divided up into 12 hours of equal, yet variable length, but these hours were organized into four Watches (Vigilia).  As Mr. Gregory DiPippo has explained, the first three Watches correspond to the three Nocturns in the Office of Matins, while the fourth Watch, which ends with the dawn, corresponds to the Office of Lauds.¹  It is no surprise, then, that one commonly finds in the Office of Lauds references to the dawn, light, and the morning.

Prior to the changes made to the Roman Psalter under Pope St. Pius X, every Lauds contained Psalm 62,² which proclaims: “O God, my God, to thee do I watch (vigilo) at break of day…I will meditate on thee in the morning,” and Psalm 66 which prays: “May God have mercy on us, and bless us: may he cause the light of his countenance to shine upon us, and may he have mercy on us.”  Just as the material sun was beginning to shine its rays upon them, the faithful would pray for the supernatural light of God, the God for Whom they had been keeping vigil throughout the night and Whose arrival is symbolized by the rising sun.³  Being followed by the variable Old Testament Canticles and the three Psalms of Praise which conclude the Psalm-portion of Lauds (Psalms 148, 149, and 150; the Laudate Psalms from which the name Lauds is derived), Psalms 62 and 66 serve as a fitting culmination to the night Watches.  Further, it is also becoming that the praise of the Laudate Psalms breaks forth with the symbolic arrival of the Watched-for-One.

In addition to the daily praying of Psalms 62 and 66, Psalm 5 (“For to thee will I pray: O Lord, in the morning thou shalt hear my voice.  In the morning I will stand before thee, and I will see: because thou art not a God that willest iniquity”) was recited on Mondays; Psalm 42 (“Send forth thy light and thy truth: they have conducted me, and brought me unto thy holy hill, and into thy tabernacles”) on Tuesdays; Psalm 64 (“Thou shalt make the outgoings of the morning and of the evening to be joyful”) on Wednesdays; Psalm 89 (“In the morning man shall grow up like grass; in the morning he shall flourish”) on Thursdays; Psalm 142 (“Cause me to hear thy mercy in the morning; for in thee have I hoped”) on Fridays; and Psalm 91 (“It is good to give praise to the Lord: and to sing to thy name, O most High.  To shew forth thy mercy in the morning”) on Saturdays.⁴

The Lauds ferial Chapter (a short reading from Scripture), taken from Romans 13:12-13, fittingly marks the transition from night to the day at the dawn and the associated spiritual lessons Christians should learn from this daily occurrence:

The night is passed and the day is at hand.  Let us, therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light.  Let us walk honestly, as in the day.

References to light are also regularly found in the feria Lauds hymns throughout the year (the hymns sung when no when feast is kept).  The relevant portions of the hymns of each day will be presented in turn.

In the Sunday Lauds hymn Æterne rerum conditor (St. Ambrose), which is used “from the Octave of the Epiphany until the first Sunday of Lent, and from the Sunday nearest the [First] of October until Advent,”⁵ the Church hymns the following:

Now the shrill cock proclaims the day,
And calls the sun’s awak’ning ray—
The wand’ring pilgrim’s guiding light,
That marks the watches night by night.

Roused at the note, the morning star
Heaven’s dusky veil uplifts afar:
Night’s vagrant bands no longer roam,
But from their dark ways hie them home.⁶

The hymn Ecce jam noctis (St. Gregory the Great), also used for Sunday Lauds “from the third Sunday after Pentecost until the Sunday nearest the [First] of October,”⁷ contains the following:

LO, the dim shadows of the night are waning;
Lightsome and blushing, dawn of day returneth;
Fervent in spirit, to the world’s Creator
Pray we devoutly:

Monday’s hymn, Splendor paternæ gloria (St. Ambrose), uses the theme of light to praise the Son Who is from the Father as “Light from Light” (Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed) and Who mutually indwell in one another:

O SPLENDOR of God’s glory bright,
O Thou that bringest light from light,
O Light of Light, light’s Living Spring,
O Day, all days illumining.

O Thou true Sun, on us Thy glance
Let fall in royal radiance,
The Spirit’s sanctifying beam
Upon our earthly senses stream.

…

Rejoicing may this day go hence,
Like virgin dawn our innocence,
Like fiery noon our faith appear,
Nor know the gloom of twilight drear.

Morn in her rosy car is borne;
Let Him come forth our Perfect Morn,
The Word in God the Father One,
The Father perfect in the Son.

The hymns for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were written by the great Christian poet Prudentius (A.D. 348-413).  Found in his Cathemerinon, “it will be observed that they are replete with figurative expressions.  As darkness and mists are symbolical of sin and unbelief, so light is a symbol of truth and of Christ.”⁸

The hymn for Tuesday Lauds, Ales diei nuntius, begins by referencing the birdsong which accompanies the dawn:

AS the bird, whose clarion gay
Sounds before the dawn is grey,
Christ, who brings the spirit’s day,
Calls us, close at hand:

“Wake!” He cries, “and for my sake,
From your eyes dull slumbers shake!
Sober, righteous, chaste, awake!
At the door I stand!”

Lord, to Thee we lift on high
Fervent prayer and bitter cry:
Hearts aroused to pray and sigh
May not slumber more:

Break the sleep of Death and Time,
Forged by Adam’s ancient crime;
And the light of Eden’s prime
To the world restore!

Nox, et tenebræ, et nubila is sung on Wednesdays, the day the Sun was created according to the Genesis account:

DAY is breaking, dawn is bright:
Hence, vain shadows of the night!
Mists that dim our mortal sight,
Christ is come! Depart!

Darkness routed lifts her wings
As the radiance upwards springs:
Through the world of wakened things
Life and color dart.

Thee, O Christ, alone we know:
Singing even in our woe,
With pure hearts to Thee we go:
On our senses shine!

In Thy beams be purged away
All that leads our thoughts astray!
Through our spirits, King of day,
Pour Thy light divine!

Thursday’s hymn, Lux ecce surgit auria, begins as follows:

SEE the golden sun arise!
Let no more our darkened eyes
Snare us, tangled by surprise
In the maze of sin!

From false words and thoughts impure
Let this Light, serene and sure,
Keep our lips without secure,
Keep our souls within.

Friday’s hymn, Æterna coeli gloria (Ambrosian, 5th century), contains the lines:

The morning star fades from the sky,
The sun breaks forth; night’s shadows fly:
O Thou, true Light, upon us shine:
Our darkness turn to light divine.

Within us grant Thy light to dwell;
And from our souls dark sins expel;
Cleanse Thou our minds from stain of ill,
And with Thy peace our bosoms fill.

In the last hymn of the week, Aurora jam spargit polum (Ambrosian, 4th or 5th century), sung on Saturdays, is found the following:

THE dawn is sprinkling in the east
Its golden shower, as day flows in;
Fast mount the pointed shafts of light:
Farewell to darkness and to sin!

Finally, the daily Benedictus (Canticle of Zacharias, Luke 1:68-79) references Christ as “the Orient [or Dawn] from on high” sent “to enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.”

Thus does the Office of Lauds, preeminently the Office of Light, express the sentiments which our Christian forefathers associated with the dawn, the daily coming of light, and the morning.  May we strive, through the praying of this Hour, to make them our own.

Fr. William Rock, FSSP was ordained in the fall of 2019 and is currently providing coverage at the FSSP Apostolate in Edmond, Oklahoma.

In support of the causes of Blessed Maria Cristina, Queen, and Servant of God Francesco II, King 

1. What is now called Lauds was called at one point “Laudes matutinæ” or “Morning Praises” while what is currently called Matins was called “Vigilia,” “Vigils” or “Watches.”  Over time, “Laudes” came to be applied to just the dawn Office, while the “matutinæ” (Matins) was applied to the previous.  The term “Vigil” was then used to indicate a day of preparation, usually penitential in nature, immediately before a major feast day.  It is important to note for this discussion that Matins and Lauds originally constituted only one Hour.  This explains why, unlike when other Hours are prayed continuously, Matins and Lauds can be concluded together with only one oration rather than one at the end of Matins and the other at the end of Lauds, which would be the case for the other Hours.  This also helps explain why, historically, both Matins and Lauds were able to be anticipated on the day before.
2. All Psalm numbers are given according to the Vulgate numbering.
3. In the reform of Pope Pius X, Psalm 62 was assigned to be recited only on Sundays and Psalm 66 only on Tuesdays.
4. The reform of Pope Pius X maintained these Psalms on the above mentioned days.
5. Britt, Matthew. The Hymns of The Breviary and Missal. (New York: Benziger Brothers, 1936), p. 51.
6. The translation of this and the following hymns are taken from Britt, Matthew. The Hymns of The Breviary and Missal. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1936.
7. Britt, p. 54.
8. Ibid., p. 60.

Ss. Peter & Paul Novena, Jun 20-28, 2024

As we prepare for the feast of Ss. Peter and Paul, the FSSP will be praying a novena to our great patrons for the good of the North American Province, from Jun 20 to Jun 28th.

Novena prayer pamphlets will be available at your local apostolate, and a printable version can also be downloaded here.

To receive daily meditations during the novena via email, visit our signup page.

by Fr. William Rock, FSSP

When treating of the Names of God in his Theological Summa, St. Thomas Aquinas remarked that “the name ‘God’ signifies the divine nature, for this name was imposed to signify something existing above all things, the principle of all things and removed from all things; for those who name God intend to signify all this” (S.T. I, q. 13, a. 8, ad 2).  In these few words, as he does, St. Thomas expresses very sublime and deep truths which will be explored below.

God is Above All Things – In these words, St. Thomas does not intend to indicate God’s physical location.  He is not implying that God is somehow physically located above creation, both material and spiritual.  Rather, he is expressing that God’s perfections are above all created perfections.  It is very easy to fall into believing, perhaps without even realizing it, that God is a “big man in the sky with a beard,” with perfections like His creatures, just to a much greater degree, a maximum degree.  The truth St. Thomas is here expressing, however, is that God’s perfections, while not completely dissimilar to those of His creatures, differ not only by degree, but also by kind or order.

A common analogy used to explain the difference between God’s perfections and created perfections is that of comparing a series of equilateral polygons (polygons whose sides are all the same length) with an increasing number of sides to a circle.  The series starts with an equilateral triangle, then a square, then an equilateral pentagon, then an equilateral hexagon, and so on.  As the number of sides continues to increase, it is clear that the series is approaching, or converging to, a circle.  But, no matter how many sides are added, the series will never actually reach a circle.  No matter how many sides an equilateral polygon may have, there will always be angles and joints, which a circle does not have.  The circle is the limiting case of the series, what the series is converging to, but is itself outside of the series.

In this analogy, the equilateral polygons represent created perfections, while the circle represents divine perfections.  No matter how “maxed out,” as it were, created perfections may be, they will never make the jump to the level of the divine perfections, just as the equilateral polygon series will never make the jump to a circle.  Again, it is a difference not just in degree, but also in kind or order.  Further, just as equilateral polygons are not completely dissimilar to circles, after all they are all plane figures, so the created perfections are not completely dissimilar to divine perfections.  This is why created perfections can be used to discuss divine perfections analogously (expressing sameness yet also difference at the same time).  So, while perfections such as “power,” “wisdom,” and the like are attributed to God, these must be understood as “limiting cases” when compared to the same attributed to creatures.  God’s power, then, for example, is not just a maxed-out power such as that which creatures have but is actually the “limiting case” of creaturely power, completely beyond what any creature could possess.  The same, of course, can be said for all of God’s other perfections (see S.T. I, q. 4).

God is the Principle of All Things – God, as expressed in the Creeds, is the Creator of all things, material and spiritual.  Further, He is also the cause of all being, of all that is ontologically one, true, and good (see S.T. I, qq. 44–45).  No being falls outside of God’s causality.  But it is not just that God freely created all things which exist outside of Him, without any necessity or compulsion, ex nihilo (out of nothing, i.e., without recourse to anything besides His own power), He also continuously maintains His creation in existence (see S.T. I, q. 104, aa. 1–2).  Were He to remove this divine preservation, creation would return to nothingness.  God, then, is the principle not of some things, or even a majority of things, but of all things outside of Himself.

God is Removed from All Things – Even though God is the principle of all things, He is not mixed with His creation (here excluding considerations of the Incarnation).  Here, St. Thomas is setting up a safeguard against pantheism, the idea that God is somehow part and parcel with His creation.  In truth, God is one thing; His creation is another (see S.T. I, q. 3, a. 8).  But this does not mean that God is not present to His creation.  As St. Thomas explains, God is present to His creation by presence (all of creation is known by God), essence (all is maintained in existence by God), and power (God can act immediately on any portion of creation) (see S.T I, q. 8, a. 3).

These above reflections help express how truly other God is from His creation.  As was said above, there is always the danger of seeing God as the “big man in the sky with a beard.”  Knowing, however, that God is “above all things, the principle of all things and removed from all things,” serves as a safeguard to this misconception.

Fr. William Rock, FSSP was ordained in the fall of 2019 and is currently assigned to Regina Caeli Parish in Houston, TX.

In support of the causes of Blessed Maria Cristina, Queen, and Servant of God Francesco II, King 

On May 29th, 2024, 11 men were ordained to the priesthood at the Cathedral of St. Cecilia in Omaha by His Grace Archbishop Terrence Prendergast. Video here:

More photos of the ceremony can be found at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary website.

Thanks be to God! On May 29th, eleven new priests of the FSSP were ordained at the Cathedral of St. Cecilia in Omaha, by His Grace Archbishop Terrence Prendergast Archbishop emeritus of the archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall. Congratulations to our new priests and their families. Ad multos annos!

Ordinandi:

Rev. Fr. Jeremy Chua
Rev. Fr. Joseph Duffy
Rev. Fr. Christopher Eichman
Rev. Fr. Benjamin Feuerborn
Rev. Fr. Anthony Fıll
Rev. Fr. Samuel Florance
Rev. Fr. Matthew Kane
Rev. Fr. Jacob Kasak
Rev. Fr. Brian Myers
Rev. Fr. Charles Ohotnicky
Rev. Fr. Stephen Wetzel

If you missed the livestream, you can watch the ceremony again below: