Mass of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

by Fr. William Rock, FSSP

In editions preceding the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal, in the section for Masses for particular places (Missæ Pro Aliquibus Locis), listed for December 18th, is the Mass of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (In Exspectatione Partus B. Mariæ Virg.).  In the Advent Volume of his Liturgical Year, Dom Prosper Guéranger explains the origin of this Mass, its associated Feast, and how it was kept as follows:

This feast, which is now kept not only throughout the whole of Spain but in many other parts of the Catholic world, owes its origin to the bishops of the tenth Council of Toledo, in 656. These prelates thought that there was an incongruity in the ancient practice of celebrating the feast of the Annunciation on the twenty-fifth of March, inasmuch as this joyful solemnity frequently occurs at the time when the Church is intent upon the Passion of our Lord, so that it is sometimes obliged to be transferred into Easter time, with which it is out of harmony for another reason; they therefore decreed that, henceforth, in the Church of Spain there should be kept, eight days before Christmas, a solemn feast with an octave, in honour of the Annunciation, and as a preparation for the great solemnity of our Lord’s Nativity. In course of time, however, the Church of Spain saw the necessity of returning to the practice of the Church of Rome, and of those of the whole world, which solemnize the twenty-fifth of March as the day of our Lady’s Annunciation and the Incarnation of the Son of God. But such had been, for ages, the devotion of the people for the feast of the eighteenth of December, that it was considered requisite to maintain some vestige of it. They discontinued, therefore, to celebrate the Annunciation on this day; but the faithful were requested to consider, with devotion, what must have been the sentiments of the holy Mother of God during the days immediately preceding her giving Him birth. A new feast was instituted, under the name of “the Expectation of the blessed Virgin’s delivery.”

This feast, which sometimes goes under the name of Our Lady of O, or the feast of O, on account of the great antiphons which are sung during these days, and, in a special manner, of that which begins O Virgo virginum (which is still used in the Vespers of the Expectation, together with the O Adonai, the antiphon of the Advent Office), is kept with great devotion in Spain. A High Mass is sung at a very early hour each morning during the octave, at which all who are with child, whether rich or poor, consider it a duty to assist, that they may thus honour our Lady’s Maternity, and beg her blessing upon themselves. It is not to be wondered at that the holy See has approved of this pious practice being introduced into almost every other country. We find that the Church of Milan, long before Rome conceded this feast to the various dioceses of Christendom, celebrated the Office of our Lady’s Annunciation on the sixth and last Sunday of Advent, and called the whole week following the Hebdomada de Exceptato (for thus the popular expression had corrupted the word Expectato). But these details belong strictly to the archaeology of liturgy, and enter not into the plan of our present work; let us, then, return to the feast of our Lady’s Expectation, which the Church has established and sanctioned as a new means of exciting the attention of the faithful during these last days of Advent.1

The Great Antiphon to Our Lady

O Virgo virginum, quomodo fiet istud? quia nec· primam similem visa es, nec habera sequentem. Filiae Jerusalem, quid me admiramini? Divinum est mysterium hoc quod cernitis.

O Virgin of virgins, how shall this be? for never was there one like thee, nor will there ever be. Ye daughters of Jerusalem, why look ye wondering at me? What ye behold, is a divine mystery.2

The Virgin of the Expectation from the Cathedral of Ourense

The Mass3 itself opens with the chant Rorate Caeli (Isa 45:8): “Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just: let the earth be opened, and bud forth a saviour.”  This is a prophecy of Christ, the Just One Who comes from Above, and the Blessed Virgin, who will give birth to the Savior.  In addition to being the opening chant of several Masses during Advent, the text is also ubiquitous in the Office of the season.  The Psalm verse is Psalm 18:2: “The heavens shew forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands.”  While this verse seems out of place, as it refers symbolically to the Apostles, it must be remembered that this is only the start of the Psalm and, as such, is meant to call to mind its entirety.  Later on, verse 6 reads: “He hath set his tabernacle in the sun: and he as a bridegroom coming out of his bridechamber, Hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way.”  It is very common for the womb of the Blessed Virgin to be seen as the bridechamber where God the Son entered into a nuptial relationship with humanity by assuming a Human Nature.4  The Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Divine Office makes use of this Psalm in the first Nocturne.  The Psalm verse sets this Mass proper apart from the Rorate Mass chant for the Saturdays during Advent (which uses Ps 84:2), but is the same as that used in the Rorate Introits of Ember Wednesday of Advent and of the Fourth Sunday of Advent.

The Collect (opening prayer) reads as follows:

Deus, qui de beátæ Maríæ Vírginis útero Verbum tuum, Angelo nuntiánte, carnem suscípere voluísti: præsta supplícibus tuis; ut, qui vere eam Genetrícem Dei crédimus, ejus apud te intercessiónibus adjuvémur. Per eúndem Dóminum…

O God, Who, by the message of an angel, willed Your Word to take flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, grant that we, Your suppliants, who believe her to be truly the Mother of God, may be helped by her intercession with You.  Through the same Our Lord…5

This is the same as the Collects in the Mass of the Annunciation and in the Saturday Rorate Mass.

The Epistle is the prophecy of the Virgin Birth found in the seventh chapter of the Book of the Prophet Isaias (Isa 7:10-15), the same used on the Feast of the Annunciation, Ember Wednesday of Advent, and the Saturday Rorate Mass.

The Gradual is taken from Psalm 23:7, 3-4: “Lift up your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates: and the King of Glory shall enter in.  ℣. Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord: or who shall stand in his holy place?  The innocent in hands, and clean of heart.”  The first part, in this context, would seem to indicate the preparation the world should be undertaking to prepare for the One soon to be born, soon to enter into this world.  The second part describes the perfections of the One Who is to Come.  These lines are also the Gradual for the Ember Wednesday during Advent, and Psalm 23:7 is the text of the Offertory of the Mass of the Vigil of Christmas.

The Virgin of the Expectation from Diocesan and Cathedral Museum of Valladolid

The Alleluia alludes to the prophecy heard in the Epistle and Luke 1:31: “Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, Jesus Christ.”  While similar to others, this chant, due to its conclusion, is unique.

The Gospel is the account of the Annunciation found in the Gospel of Luke (1:26-38), the same used on the Feast of the Annunciation, Ember Wednesday of Advent, and the Saturday Rorate Mass.

The Offertory chant is also taken from the Gospel of Luke (1:28, 42), combining the greetings of the Archangel Gabriel and Mary’s kinswoman Elizabeth: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women: blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.”  This is the familiar beginning of the Hail Mary.  The same chant is used as the Offertory for the Feast of the Annunciation, the Saturday Rorate Mass, and the Fourth Sunday of Advent.

The Secret (prayer over the gifts) is the same as that prayed on the Feast of the Annunciation and the Saturday Rorate Mass:

In méntibus nostris, quǽsumus, Dómine, veræ fídei sacraménta confírma: ut, qui concéptum de Vírgine Deum verum et hóminem confitémur; per ejus salutíferæ resurrectiónis poténtiam, ad ætérnam mereámur perveníre lætítiam.  Per eúndem Dóminum nostrum….

Fix firmly in our minds, O Lord, we beseech You, the mysteries of the true faith; that we who believe Him, conceived of a Virgin, to be true God and man, may be found worthy to reach eternal happiness through the power of His redeeming resurrection.  Through the same Our Lord…

The Communion chant is taken from the Isaias’ Prophecy (Isa 7:14): “Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel.”  The same is used on the Feast of the Annunciation, Ember Wednesday of Advent, the Fourth Sunday of Advent, and the Saturday Rorate Mass.

The Postcommunion (closing prayer) is familiar as the prayer used in the Angelus:

Grátiam tuam, quǽsumus, Dómine, méntibus nostris infúnde: ut, qui, Angelo nuntiánte, Christi, Fílii tui, incarnatiónem cognóvimus; per passiónem passiónem ejus et crucem, ad resurrectiónis glóriam perducámur. Per eúndem Dóminum…

Pour forth, we beseech You, O Lord, Your grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Your Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may, by His passion and cross, be brought to the glory of the resurrection.  Through the same Our Lord…

The Virgin of the Expectation from the Museum of Sancta Cruz (Toledo)

This prayer is also used as the Postcommunion in the Mass of the Annunciation and the Saturday Rorate Mass.

Besides the Alleluia, the Mass of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary shares many propers with the Marian Masses of the Annunciation and the Rorate Mass of Our Lady on Saturdays during Advent along with the Masses of Ember Wednesday in Advent (which itself also commemorates the Annunciation) and the Fourth Sunday in Advent.  So, while the texts of this Mass are not overly unique, it is the spirit associated with the Mass which sets it apart, a spirit captured by Dom Guéranger in the lines already quoted above and expressed in the form of the below prayer to Our Lady.

Most just indeed it is, O holy Mother of God, that we should unite in that ardent desire thou hadst to see Him, who had been concealed for nine months in thy chaste womb; to know the features of this Son of the heavenly Father, who is also thine; to come to that blissful hour of His birth, which will give glory to God in the highest, and, on earth, peace to men of good-will. Yes, dear Mother, the time is fast approaching, though not fast enough to satisfy thy desires and ours. Make us redouble our attention to the great mystery; complete our preparation by thy powerful prayers for us, that when the solemn hour has come, our Jesus may find no obstacle to His entrance into our hearts.6

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

  1. Guéranger, Prosper. The Liturgical Year, vol. 1 (Advent). Trans. Shepherd, Laurence. (Fitzwilliam: Loreto Publications, 2000), pp. 588-486.
  2. Ibid., p. 490
  3. The Propers of the Mass were taken from this edition of the Roman Missal.
  4. See, for example, Guéranger’s Advent, p. 156.
  5. Translations of the orations are taken from The Divinum Officium Project.
  6. Guéranger, pp. 489-490.

December 18, 2023

Fr. James Buckley, FSSP 1937-2023

A Solemn Requiem Mass for Fr. Buckley will be held at 11am on Friday, December 22nd at Christ the King Church in Dallas, Texas, with burial to follow at a later date at OLGS in Nebraska.

Fr. James Bartholomew Buckley was born on November 29, 1937, in New York City. His parents, John Francis Buckley and Mary Catherine Lyons were Irish immigrants from County Galway.

He attended St. Luke’s grade school in the south Bronx, graduating in June 1951. In the fall of 1951, he entered Mother of the Savior, a Junior Seminary run by the Salvatorian Fathers in Blackwood, New Jersey. After graduating in May 1957, he entered the Salvatorian Novitiate in Colfax, Iowa on September 7th, 1957. After professing his first religious vows on September 8th, 1958, he began his studies in Philosophy at the Catholic University of America. Upon obtaining his B.A. in 1960, he taught Freshman Latin & English for one year at Francis Jordan High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On June 5th, 1965, having completed his study of Theology at Catholic University, he was ordained a priest at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C.

From the fall of 1965 to the spring of 1967, Fr. Buckley taught English and Religion at St. Mary’s High Scholl in Lancaster, New York (Diocese of Buffalo). For the next three years, he taught English, Religion and College Composition at St. Pius X, the Junior Seminary for the Diocese of Sacramento.

From September 1970 to June 1975, Fr. Buckley was a missionary in Southern Tanzania where for two years he administered a parish with three mission stations in the Diocese of Nachingwea. After obtaining his master’s degree in English, he spent the next two years teaching English, Math, and General Paper at the Junior Seminary in Likonde operated by the Benedictine Fathers.

After returning to the states in 1975, Fr. Buckley was an Assistant Pastor at St. Marks Parish in Phoenix, Arizona for two years. He next taught English and Religion from 1977 to 1980 at Bishop Manogue High School in Reno, Nevada. He was the Administrator of St. Margaret of Cortona Parish in Big Lake, Texas for 10 months and then became an Assistant at St. Mary’s in Ft. Worth, Texas. From 1981 to 1985, he was an Assistant for a year at each of the fallowing parishes in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia: St. Thomas More Cathedral, Our Lady of Fatima, St. Michael, and St. William of York. In 1986, he taught at Seton School in Manassas, Virginia while residing at All Saints rectory.

From the summer of 1987 to the summer of 1992, Fr. Buckley lived with the Fathers of Mercy, preaching Missions and Retreats. On July 5th, 1992, Fr. Buckley joined the Fraternity of St. Peter. For the next two years, he was the Administrator of Mater Dei, the Latin Mass community in Dallas, Texas. From 1994 to the spring of 2016, he taught various courses at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, where he served as Spiritual Director. During this time, he wrote a monthly column for the Fraternity Newsletter, published articles and book reviews in Homiletic and Pastoral Review, and conducted the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. He also wrote some booklets including the following titles: You Are Peter, Purgatory, The Real Presence, A Catechism for Making a Good Confession, Miracles, and Collected Articles.

Because of glaucoma and macular degeneration in his right eye, he retired in the spring of 2016. He lived for one year at the Fraternity Apostolate in Fort Wayne, Indiana, before moving to his final assignment in Mater Dei in Irving, Texas.

Please pray for the repose of Father’s soul.

December 15, 2023

Fr. Rock’s Extraordinary Thoughts liturgical guides

Advent is a great time to refresh your memory on the traditional liturgical year!

Fr. William Rock has written an excellent set of Extraordinary Guides  to the various church seasons, available on our website here:

Extraordinary Thoughts: Guides to the Liturgical Year

 

December 6, 2023

Rorate Mass at the National Shrine of Saint Alphonsus Liguori

Holy Mother Church has given us the tradition of the Rorate Mass, on a Saturday of Our Lady, in the midst of Advent as an opportunity to contemplate the mystery of darkness and light. Outside, all the world lies in darkness while, inside, the candlelight leaps into the shadows and overpowers them.

We may feel like the darkness of sin and indifference, like the darkness of the troubles that plague our world, our nation, and our Church, threaten to overwhelm and destroy the Light of Christ. But darkness does not overcome light. The light of just one candle is enough to dispel darkness. Imagine the power of the Light of the World!

The Rorate Mass is a visible, burning reminder to us that, by our prayers and offerings, we are to awake the dawn of Christ in our own lives. By vigilantly tending our own flames of faith, of prayer, and of penance, we burn out all inside of us that is not of Him. The candles on our altar, offered by our faithful, are a reminder to us that these spiritual flames are the only real weapons that have any power over the darkness.

It takes days to set up all the candles in the Shrine of Saint Alphonsus Liguori before Rorate. Hundreds of tiny, flickering flames set the altar and sanctuary aglow. But it is a joyful, spiritual labor, because their light in the darkness is a reminder of the Divine Flame that burns inside our hearts, even in a dark world.

Offer a candle to Our Lady this year for your particular intentions. The Rorate Mass will be offered for those intentions enrolled. And the candles that burn for those intentions will continue to bear your prayers to Heaven for seven days and nights. Unite your prayers to our Lady’s at this year’s Rorate Mass by lighting a candle. Together, let us awake the Dawn, hidden just beyond the horizon: https://stalphonsusbalt.org/rorate

Watch the live broadcast of High Mass from the Shrine, featuring Tomás Luis de Victoria’s Missa Alma Redemptoris Mater and his motet Alma Redemptoris Mater, as well as Ola Gjeilo’s Ave Generosa, beginning just before dawn at 6 am on Saturday, 9 December:

December 4, 2023

Video: Christ the King Procession in El Paso

Immaculate Conception Church in downtown El Paso Texas is the Pro-Cathedral of El Paso, meaning that it was the first Cathedral of the diocese until St. Patrick’s Cathedral was finished. Build in 1893, the FSSP has had charge over this historic church since 2014 at the invitation of Bishop Mark Seitz.

This year the parish community has hosted a number of events in honor of the 130th anniversary of the Church, including a Eucharistic Procession on the Feast of Christ the King.

Over 400 people attended Solemn Mass and the procession through the streets of the city, which included Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in San Jacinto Plaza, the central plaza of downtown El Paso. Over a mile long the procession was attended by faithful from around the city who came together to honor Christ our King and witness to their fidelity to his kingdom.

A faithful parishioner made a beautiful video to honor the occasion that we want to share with you. Never forget that, in the midst of worry and discouragement, there are still many faithful hearts who strive to offer beautiful tributes of worship to our God and to witness to His love.

Que viva Cristo Rey! Que viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!

Immaculate Conception FSSP Feast of Christ the King Procession, Downtown El Paso, TX from Paul Sandoval on Vimeo.

November 27, 2023

Requiem Masses after the Day of Burial

by Fr. William Rock, FSSP

William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s The Day of the Dead

From the very foundation of Christianity, Masses and prayers have been offered up for the repose of the souls of the departed.1  In the Roman tradition, this practice developed into the various Requiem Masses, prayers, and other suffrages for the dead.  Named after the first word of the Introit (entrance chant), a Requiem Mass is a Mass whose focus is the repose of the soul (or souls) of the departed.  The Requiem Mass is, therefore, a Mass for the dead.  All of the Requiem Masses share the same chants (Introit, Gradual, Tract, Sequence, Offertory, and Communion), but the orations (Collect, Secret, and Postcommunion) and readings (Epistle and Gospel) vary.  There are Requiem Masses for the Day of Death or Burial, three for All Souls Day, on the Anniversary Day of the Death or Burial, the daily Mass for the Dead, and those for the Third, Seventh, and Thirtieth Day after the Burial.

The Requiem Masses which can be offered on the third, seventh, and thirtieth days after the burial are the same as the Mass of the Day of Burial (Epistle: 1 Thess. 4:13-18; Gospel: John 11:21-27) with the following orations:2

(Collect) We beseech Thee, O Lord, that Thou wouldst vouchsafe to grant fellowship with Thy saints and elect to the soul of the Thy servant (or handmaid) N., the third (or seventh or thirtieth) day of whose burial we commemorate, and wouldst pour out the everlasting dew of Thy mercy.  Through Our Lord…

(Secret) Look favorably, we beseech Thee, O Lord, upon the offerings we make on behalf of the soul of Thy servant (or handmaid) N., that cleansed by heavenly remedies, it may rest in Thy mercy.  Through Our Lord…

(Postcommunion) Receive our prayers, O Lord, on behalf of the soul of Thy servant (or handmaid) N., that if any stains of earthly contagion remain, they may be washed away by Thy merciful forgiveness.  Through Our Lord…

Florimond Van Acker’s Jacob’s Burial

Offering Masses on these days for the departed is very ancient and symbolic reasons have been given for their celebration.3  “With regard to the third day, as commemorative of the three days which Christ passed in the sepulcher, and as presaging the Resurrection, there is special prescription in the Apostolic Constitutions [4th Century] (VIII, xlii): ‘With respect to the dead, let the third day be celebrated in psalms, lessons, and prayers, because of Him who on the third day rose again.’”4  Evidence of the Masses offered on the seventh and thirtieth day is found in the works of St. Ambrose (d. A.D. 397): “Now, since on the seventh day, which is symbolical of eternal repose, we return to the sepulchre”5 (De fide. resurr.), and

Because some people are accustomed to observe the third and thirtieth day and some the seventh and the fortieth, let us look closely at what the text of Scripture teaches.  When Jacob died, it says, Joseph instructed the undertakers in his service to bury him.  And they buried Israel.  And forty days were completed for him; for this is how the days of the funeral rites are reckoned.  And Egypt mourned him for seventy days [Gen 50:2-3 according to the Itala].  This, then, is the observance to be followed, which is set out in the text.  But equally, in Deuteronomy it is written that the children of Israel mourned Moses for thirty days and the days of mourning were completed [Deut. 34:8 according to the Itala].  So either observance has the authority through which the duty required of filial piety is fulfilled. (De ob. Theodosii, iii)6

In the Roman tradition, then, the Mass on the third day can be seen as being done in honor of the days Our Lord’s Body rested in the tomb and also His Resurrection, on the seventh as expressing eternal repose, and on the thirtieth in imitation of mourning of Moses by the Hebrews.

In the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal, these three Masses are votive of the third class, so they can be celebrated on fourth or third class days according to the rubrics (rubric 415).  The computation of these days, however, is a bit complicated.  In this regard, the 1959 edition of Matters Liturgical gives the following:

In computing the day of the Mass, one must count three or seven or thirty days exactly.  This count, however, may be made either from day of death or from the day of burial; in either case the day of death or the day of burial may be either included or excluded.  Consistency is not required in computing all these privileged days for the same person; thus the 3rd day may be computed from the day of burial exclusively, the 7th day from the day of burial inclusively, and the 30th day from the day of death either inclusively or exclusively.  One may have these privileged Masses said on all three days or on one or two of them only; all three Masses may be said for one and the same person, not only in one church or oratory, but in more than one.  It should, however, be noted that only the first 30th day is privileged. (294.d)

Memento Mori

It is fitting that during this month dedicated the Holy Souls that the Faithful be urged, when preparing the funeral rites of a loved one, or even for oneself (if plans are being made in advance), to see if this ancient tradition of celebrating Masses for the departed on the third, seventh, and thirtieth days can be arranged as well, so that this venerable tradition may continue, and the souls for whom these Masses are offered receive the associated spiritual assistance.

 

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

  1. See, for example, Appendix II of Neale, J. M.’s The Liturgies of the Saints (Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2002) and the Old Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. “Prayers for the Dead.”
  2. The translations of these orations are based on those presented in The Saint Andrew Daily Missal (St. Paul: The E. M. Lohmann Co., 1940), p. [99] and The Roman Catholic Daily Missal (Kansas City: Angelus Press, 2004), pp. 1617-1618.
  3. Old Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. “Masses of Requiem.”
  4. Ibid.
  5. Ibid.
  6. Translated Texts for Historians, Volume 43 – Ambrose of Milan: Political Letters and Speeches. Trans. Liebeschuetz, J. H. W. G. with the assistance of Hill, Carole. (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2005), p. 178.

November 2, 2023

A Marine’s Mission: Phil’s Camino Pilgrimage

 

Every year, more than 400,000 pilgrims from around the world walk the Camino de Santiago—the Way of St. James—in Spain, hoping to encounter God in a new way. For U.S. Marine veteran Philip Webb, this trek is also a chance to raise money for a very worthy cause: FSSP Mission Tradition.

Webb, a retired machinist, begins his Camino pilgrimage on October 3 and plans to finish by November 10, the 248th anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps.

“For me, the Camino walk is a fantastic opportunity to disconnect from the noise of the world,” said Webb. “It’s a chance to live each day by faith, not knowing what lies ahead on the trail. It’s also a way to draw attention to a very worthy cause. The priests of Mission Tradition do an excellent job of bringing the light of Christ to remote and often dangerous places. This draws me to their cause, and I’m happy to donate my efforts to them.”

Read more at FSSP Mission Tradition.

October 3, 2023

Our Lord’s Help and Ours

by Fr. William Rock, FSSP

“And the Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help like unto himself” (Gen 2:18).  While this verse from Genesis is familiar, there is a level of meaning which is missed in the English translation for the Hebrew word translated as “help” or “helper” (עֵזֶר / ‛ezer) can have a military or martial, warfighting, connotation.1  As such, it would not be much of a stretch to translate this passage as “let us make him a military ally like unto himself.”

God Creating Adam and Eve

God creates Eve, and, when He presents her to Adam, Adam says, “She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man” (Gen 2:23).  In the original Hebrew, there is a play on the words “man” and “woman” (מאישׁ / ‘ish and אשׁה / ‘ishah respectively), similar to that in English.  When St. Jerome translated this passage from Hebrew into Latin, he ensured this play was retained.  The usual Latin words for “woman” are femina and mulier, but here Jerome used the word virago, to play off the Latin word for man, vir – “man” and “woman,” vir and virago.  Happily, the word virago’s normal meaning is “warlike or heroic woman, a heroine, a heroic maiden.”  So, God created Eve, this heroic maiden, to be the helpmate, the military ally, to Adam.  Why?  Because they were set in Eden not just to enjoy it, but, as Scripture says, to “dress it, and to keep it” (Gen 2:15).  Adam and Eve were placed there to take care of the plants, but also to keep the Garden, to keep it from evil, to keep out the evil of the fallen angels and their own personal evil.

Unfortunately for us and for them, Adam and his military helpmate failed in this, let in the evil, were stripped of all their supernatural and preternatural gifts, and were exiled from the Garden.  Worse still, heaven was closed to them, and their nature was wounded by sin.  But as dark as this seems, all was not lost, for a second Adam came to the fight, Christ Our Lord (1 Cor 15:45).  And just like the first Adam, this second Adam would have His helpmate, His military alley, His Eve – and this second Eve is, according to the testimony of the Fathers, the Blessed Virgin Mary.2 The Blessed Virgin, the promised woman who crushes the head of the serpent (Gen 3:15), strove in union with Our Lord for our salvation as she stood at the foot of the Cross.  The Church recognizes that Our Lady is a heroic maiden in the praise offered to her – “Who is this, beautiful as a dove, like a rose planted by the brooks of water?  It is the mighty Virgin, like the tower of David; a thousand bucklers hang upon it, all the armour of valiant men.”3

Waltère Damery’s Our Lady of the Rosary, Saint Dominic and Edmund Gottfried von Bocholtz

But Our Lady’s mission as a military ally did not end with her Son’s Ascension or her own Assumption.  As Our Lord was hanging upon the Cross, He addressed His Mother, calling her “woman” (Joh 19:26) – no doubt a reference back to the passage in Genesis where Jerome introduces to us the heroic maiden – and gave her to all of us, in the person of St. John, as an adopted Mother, yes, but also as a military ally for our battles, and not just us individually, but also the Church as a whole.

Not only does Mary enter into the battle with us and for us, but she has entrusted us with a powerful weapon by which we can call upon her aid and strive against our foes.  The Rosary – in more or less its present form – was, according to pious tradition, given by Our Lady to St. Dominic as the tool for defeating the Albigensian heresy.4 This was by no means, however, the last time Our Lady would procure victory through the pious use of her Rosary.

Paolo Veronese’s Battle of Lepanto

On the First Sunday in October – October 7, 1571 – the Christian fleet, commanded by Don Juan of Austria, engaged the Turkish fleet in the Gulf of Lepanto.  The Christian victory – which preserved Christendom from a Turkish sea-invasion – was in large part due to the prayers of the Rosary confraternities.  In thanksgiving and in commemoration of this victory, Pope St. Pius V established the Feast of Our Lady of Victory.  “His successor, Gregory XIII, altered this title to Our Lady of the Rosary, and appointed the first Sunday of October for the new feast,” the same day of the month as the naval victory.5  “In 1716, Clement XI inscribed the feast of the Rosary on the universal calendar, in gratitude for the victory gained by Prince Eugene”6 over the Turks.  More recently, the Feast Day of Our Lady of the Rosary was moved to October 7, the calendar date of the battle of Lepanto, but an External Solemnity of Our Lady of the Rosary may still be celebrated on the First Sunday of October.

As we read in the Book of Job, “the life of man upon earth is a warfare” (7:1) but we are not without allies.  Our Lady is the military ally par excellence given to us by Our Lord, and she is more than ready to enter into battle with and for us, not just against political and ecclesial enemies such as naval fleets and heresies, but also against our personal enemies of the world, the flesh, and the devil.  But if we want her to be with us in the combat, we need to call upon her.  And we do this by praying to her and especially by using the weapon she herself gave us, her holy Rosary.  Let us then, in this month of the Holy Rosary, commit ourselves to call upon Mary to aid us in our struggles against our enemies, personal, political, social, and ecclesial.  And let us respond to her request given at Fatima to pray five mysteries of the Rosary daily.  If we are already in the habit of doing this, let us try to pray more fervently.  If we are not in this habit, let us take up the practice, if only for this month.

Our Lady of Victory, Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us!

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

  1. “The Hebrew ‘ezer kenegdo (King James Version ‘help”) is notoriously difficult to translate. The second term means ‘alongside him,’ ‘opposite him,’ ‘a counterpart to him.’ ‘Help’ is too weak because it suggests a merely auxiliary function, whereas ‘ezer [עֵזֶר] elsewhere connotes active intervention on behalf of someone, especially in military contexts, as often in Psalms.” – Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible – A Translation with Commentary. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2018), Commentary on Gen 2:18.
  2. First and Second Antiphons at Vespers of the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (Beatæ Mariæ Virginis a Rosario). Translation taken from The Divinum Officium Project.
  3. Pitre, Brant. Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary – Unveiling the Mother of the Messiah. (New York: Image Press, 2018), pp. 33-35.
  4. Guéranger, Prosper. The Liturgical Year, vol. 14 (Time after Pentecost Book V). Trans. The Benedictines of Stanbrook Abbey. (Fitzwilliam: Loreto Publications, 2000), p. 296.
  5. Ibid., p. 297.
  6. Ibid, p. 298.

October 1, 2023

Pray for Fr. James Buckley, FSSP

Please pray for Fr. James Buckley, FSSP. Father has been experiencing health problems over the past few months which have recently worsened and are compounded by his advanced age. Father has been with the Fraternity of St. Peter for thirty years.

September 14, 2023

“Forget not the Groanings of thy Mother”

by Fr. William Rock, FSSP

In a previous article it was related that the 40 days between the Feast of the Transfiguration and the Exaltation of the Holy Cross represent, through the lens of Our Lord’s Resurrection, a recapitulation of the 40 of Days of Lent with the Feast of the Exaltation being a recapitulated Good Friday.  This all being the case, it is not unreasonable to ask if there is, following this recapitulated Good Friday on September 14th, a recapitulated Holy Saturday on the following day, September 15th.

Holy Saturday, for its part, marks the day when Our Lord’s Body rested in the tomb and His soul abided in the Limbo of the Fathers.  It was also on this day that only Our Lady, of all of His disciples, kept faith in her Son.  On this point, in his entry for Holy Saturday, Dom Guéranger wrote the following:

And now let us visit the holy Mother, who has passed the night in Jerusalem, going over, in saddest memory, the scenes she has witnessed.  Her Jesus has been a victim to every possible insult and cruelty; He has been crucified; His precious Blood has flowed in torrents from those five Wounds; He is dead, and now lies buried in yonder tomb, as though He were but a mere man, yea the most abject of men.  How many tears have fallen, during these long hours, from the eyes of the daughter of David!…Mary alone lives in expectation of His triumph.  In her was verified that expression of the Holy Ghost, where, speaking of the valiant woman, He says: “Her lamp shall not be put out in the night” (Prov. xxxi. 18).  Her courage fails not, because she knows that the sepulchre must yield up its Dead, and her Jesus will rise again to life.  St. Paul tells us that our religion is vain, unless we have faith in the mystery of our Lord’s Resurrection: where was this faith on the day after our Lord’s death?  As it was her chaste womb that had held within it Him whom heaven and earth cannot contain, so, on this day, by her firm and unwavering faith, she resumes within her single self the whole Church.  How sacred is this Saturday, which, notwithstanding all its sadness, is such a day of glory to the Mother of Jesus!  It is on this account that the Church has consecrated to Mary the Saturday of every week.1

Providentially, the day following the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is a feast of Our Lady, a feast whose object is the sufferings of the Mother of God, including those she experienced during the Passion of her Son – the Feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  As with the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, this September Feast of the Seven Sorrows2 can be seen as a recapitulation, through the lens of Our Lord’s Resurrection, of what was observed during Holy Week.

Adriaen Isenbrandt’s Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows

But this September Feast of the Seven Sorrows serves another purpose.  On the 8th of September, Holy Mother Church celebrates the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The September feast of the Seven Sorrows falls on the Octave Day of Our Lady’s Nativity.  So not only can the September Feast of the Seven Sorrows be seen as a recapitulated Holy Saturday, it is also connected with the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lady.

As such, it can be argued that there is a fittingness to having this Feast on the Octave Day of Our Lady’s Nativity.  The Octave Day of Our Lord’s Nativity marks Our Lord’s Circumcision, when He first shed His Blood for us and received His Name, which means “Savior” or “the Lord saves.”

In the 1957 translation of the Raccolta – a book which is a collection of the various prayers which were then indulgenced – is found the meanings the Church has recognized in these two interrelated events – Our Lord’s Circumcision and the conferral of His Name – on the Octave Day of His Nativity.  She expresses herself as follows: “Jesus, sweetest Child, wounded after eight days in Thy circumcision, called by the glorious Name of Jesus, and at once by Thy Name and by Thy Blood foreshown as the Savior of the world, have mercy on us.”3

Just as the events which occurred eight days after Our Lord’s birth foreshadowed, at least in part, His mission, it is fitting that there be a feast around the birth of Our Lady which expresses the same on her behalf.  There cannot be a complete unity of expression between Our Lord and Our Lady on these points as Jewish baby girls do not undergo the rite of Circumcision on the 8th day after their birth.  But having a feast on the Octave Day of her Nativity which touches on the newborn Queen’s future sufferings mirrors well the feast on the Octave Day of her Son’s Nativity which touches on His future sufferings.  For just as Our Lord was predestined to be the Man of Sorrows, so was Our Lady predestined to be Our Lady of Sorrows.  Even more, for, as the Church sings in the Communion for the feast of her sorrows, Our Lady merited the palm of Martyrdom as she stood at the foot of the Cross.  She is rightly and properly titled, then, “the Queen of Martyrs.”  Additionally, just as the Octave Day of Our Lord’s Nativity also commemorates Our Lord’s reception of His Name, so within the eight days of the Nativity of Our Lady, the Church keeps the feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary.  This Feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary falls on the 5th Day of the Nativity of Our Lady, that is September 12th.4  So not only does this time of the Liturgical Year provide the faithful a recapitulation of Lent, it also serves as a mirror of Our Lord’s Nativity through these feasts of Our Lady.

Albrecht Dürer’s The Birth of the Virgin

And just as Our Lord underwent His Passion and Death for our sake, so did Our Lady undergo her Sorrows for us also, the modes being different, of course.  For we read in the Book of St. John’s Apocalypse, the Book of Revelation, “And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. And being with child, she cried travailing in birth: and was in pain to be delivered…And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with an iron rod.  And her son was taken up to God and to his throne” (Apo 12:1-2, 5).  While these verses can admit of various, non-contradictory interpretations, one interpretation understands this woman symbolizing Our Lady, and the child symbolizing Our Lord.  After all, He is to “rule all nations” and was taken up to the Throne of God, being equal with God.  But this leaves the issue of her “travailing in birth” and being “in pain to be delivered,” for Our Lady did not suffer any labor pains in the birth of Our Lord.5  So, the questions must be asked, for whom is she suffering these labor pains and what exactly are these pains?

To find an answer to these questions, it should be noted that what was quoted earlier as “and being with child” is more an interpretation than a literal translation.  The Latin, following the Greek, is “et in utero habens,” literally, “having” or “holding in the womb.”  The Greek and Latin do not specify how many children the woman is holding in her womb, just that she is expecting.  Giving this text as “being with child” reflects what follows in the proximate verses, but this is perhaps too restrictive.  As it will be explained shortly, the more vague, “holding in her womb,” conveys a deeper spiritual reality.  Additionally, it should also be noted that what is translated as “was in pain” in the Greek (“βασανιζομενη”) comes from the word “to torture,” the Latin being “cruciatur,” literally meaning she is being crucified, tormented, tortured, in order that she may deliver.  These are not normal labor pains.

Christ with Mary and John

A few verses later, St. John explains that the woman had other children, namely, those “who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (12:17).  Surely, she held these other children in some way in her womb, in some way gave birth to them.  And would not these “who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” be all true Christians?  Therefore, all true Christians are children of this woman, the Blessed Virgin Mary, held in her womb in a certain manner and then born by her, in pains and sufferings which are compared to being tortured, being crucified.  This reinforces the interpretation which says that at the Foot of the Cross, when Our Lord said to Our Lady and to St. John, “behold thy son…behold thy mother” (19:26-27), that Our Lord was giving His Mother as Mother to all of the Faithful in the person of St. John.  It was not by accident that this occurred at the Foot of the Cross, for here she suffered, was crucified, tormented, tortured, in her Sorrows so that she might give supernatural life to us, her children, as a mother suffers for her natural children.

It is written in the book of Sirach, “forget not the groanings of thy mother” (7:29) which she suffered in giving you birth.  If such is true regarding our natural mothers, how much more so should this apply regarding our Mother in the spiritual life, in the life of grace?

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

  1. Guéranger, Prosper. The Liturgical Year, vol. 6 (Passiontide and Holy Week). Trans. Shepherd, Laurence. (Fitzwilliam: Loreto Publications, 2000), pp. 547-9.
  2. The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary are also commemorated on the Friday of Passion Week, the Friday before Good Friday.
  3. The Raccolta. Trans. Christopher, Joseph P., Spence, Charles E., Rowan, John F. (Fitzwilliam: Loreto Publications, 2004 a reprint of Boston: Benzinger Brothers, Inc., 1957), p. 69 (126, V).
  4. Previously kept on the Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
  5. See Ott, Ludwig. Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma. Trans. Lynch Patrick. Edited by Bastible, James. Updated by Fastiggi, Robert. (Baronius Press, 2018), p. 222.

September 8, 2023