Christ is risen, alleluia! Indeed, He is risen, alleluia! A happy and most blessed Easter to you and your families! May the abundant blessings of God be upon you as we celebrate this most glorious feast and enter into the joyful time of Paschaltide, celebrating Christ’s great triumph over sin and death and the new life that He won for us.

The first Mass of Easter is the beautiful Vigil Mass, one of the most stunning ceremonies of the liturgical year. The ceremony begins outdoors the night of Holy Saturday with the kindling and blessing of the New Fire and the blessing of the Paschal Candle, which is lit from the Fire and in turn lights the candles carried by the ministers and people during the liturgy. The priest and people process into the church, led by the lit Paschal Candle, the symbol of the Risen Christ, and the liturgy continues with readings from the Old Testament that describe the history of God’s plan of salvation. Afterwards are blessed the baptismal waters that will be used in the coming year, and those present renew the promises of their Baptism. When all is complete, the Solemn Mass of the Vigil is offered and concludes with the Solemn Lauds of Easter Day. +

Let the angelic choirs of Heaven now rejoice; let the divine mysteries rejoice; and let the trumpet of salvation sound forth the victory of so great a King. Let the earth also rejoice, made radiant by such splendor; and, enlightened with the brightness of the eternal King, let it know that the darkness of the whole world is scattered.

– from the Exsultet, the beautiful proclamation of Easter sung by the deacon

The Masses and devotions of the Triduum can be viewed at our online apostolate, LiveMass.

Today is the most somber and sorrowful day of the year. On this day we commemorate the sacrifice of Our Lord of His own life for our redemption and the unfathomable suffering, infinitely beyond any human trial, which He endured for us sinners. The Church in her sorrow fasts and abstains and maintains a spirit of the deepest solemnity.

No Mass is celebrated. The liturgy comprises readings from the Old Testament and the reading of St. John’s Passion, the praying of the Great Intercessions, the Adoration of the Cross, and the reception of the Holy Eucharist, reserved from the Mass of Holy Thursday. In some places the ceremonies of today are called the Mass of the Presanctified, the term “presanctified” signifying that the Sacrament was consecrated at an earlier time. The vestments worn are black, the color used by the Church for times of mourning.

After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), “I thirst.” A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to His mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, He said, “It is finished”; and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
– John 19:28-30

One of the most interesting aspects of the devotions of the Triduum is the office of Tenebræ, the combined celebration of the offices of Matins and Lauds in the early mornings of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The office is stark and simplified, lacking any of the aspects of joy normally contained in these Hours, such as the Gloria Patri, and including readings from the soul-rending Lamentations of Jeremiah. The office is sung in darkness (tenebræ is Latin for “darkness” or “shadows”), by the light of six altar candles and fifteen candles mounted on a triangular candlestick known as a “Tenebræ hearse”. The hearse candles are extinguished one by one as the psalms are completed until the topmost candle only is lit, and the six altar candles too are extinguished. The last remaining candle is then hidden behind the altar or a curtain, leaving the church in total darkness and symbolizing the hiding of the Light of the World when He died and was buried. Those present make noise by banging books or knocking on pews or choir stalls, illustrating the consternation of nature at the death of its God. The candle reappears and the noise ceases, just as Christ completed His work of restoring order to Creation by reappearing on Easter Sunday.

The Church, then, keeps company with Our Lady in the solemn silence that followed the death of Christ, looking in faith and hope for the new dawn soon to come. +

The Masses and devotions of the Triduum can be viewed live at our online apostolate, LiveMass.

Today begins the holiest time of the liturgical year. During the Sacred Triduum, encompassing Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the celebrations of Easter, we recall the pinnacle of Our Lord’s mission on earth – His supreme sacrifice for our sins and His glorious Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

On this day Our Lord instituted the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper, giving us the inestimable gift of His own Body and Blood and establishing the Sacred Priesthood. The liturgy of today therefore carries a certain atmosphere of joy and celebration in thanksgiving for the Most Blessed Sacrament and the Priesthood by which It comes to us. The ministers wear white vestments, the Gloria is said, and during it the bells are rung one more time before going silent again until Easter.

After Mass, the Blessed Sacrament is taken in procession to an Altar of Repose, beautifully decorated with arrangements of candles and flowers, and the faithful spend time in adoration in obedience to Christ’s request to His Apostles to “watch one hour with Me.” The altars are then stripped of the visible symbols of Christ’s presence, the shadow of the Passion falling more heavily over the church as Good Friday draws near. +

Ante diem festum Paschæ, sciens Jesus, quia venit hora ejus, ut tránseat ex hoc mundo ad Patrem; cum dilexísset suos, qui erant in mundo, in finem diléxit eos.

Before the festival day of the Pasch, Jesus, knowing that His hour was come, that He should pass out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them unto the end.

– John 13:1, from the Gospel for today

The Masses and devotions of the Triduum can be viewed live at our online apostolate, LiveMass.

Even if you can’t physically make it to Mass every day of Holy Week, you can still follow the Church’s liturgical journey through these sacred days via LiveMass.net, our online apostolate. Solemn High Mass from today through Thursday, as well as the liturgy of Good Friday and the Easter Masses, will be broadcast live from one or more of three FSSP apostolates: Sarasota, FL; Warrington, UK; and Fribourg, Switzerland. You can watch on the LiveMass website or you can download our app, iMass.

See the schedule below (click the image to enlarge and download/print) for the times and locations for each liturgy. All times are in EST, and the local times for Warrington and Fribourg are printed in parentheses within each relevant event. Blue indicates a live stream; red or pink indicates a video that will be recorded and uploaded later to LiveMass’ website and Youtube and Vimeo channels. You can also tune in to LiveMass’ Twitter account (@LiveMassFSSP) for last-minute broadcast updates and notifications when a new video is posted, and you can view a video of the Triduum schedule here. +

St. Benedict Parish, our apostolate in Chesapeake, Virginia, has a unique memento of the Passion which they employ during the Sacred Triduum to aid the devotion of the faithful. If you go into the church on the evening of Holy Thursday, you will notice a beautiful clock hanging to the right of the sanctuary, facing the congregation. It is a 24-hour, fully-functional clock, but its purpose is far greater than to simply tell the present time. This clock tells the story of the Passion, recounting the events of each of the 24 hours from the Last Supper to Our Lord’s entombment in the sepulcher on the evening of Good Friday.

Here’s how it works. All 24 hours are marked on the clock face, which is divided into two halves, one for the night hours (6pm – 6am) and one for the day hours (6am – 6pm), the time being notated according to both the old Roman method and the modern system. The events of the Passion are written out in a circular timeline, each event lining up with the hour in which it occurred.

The clock was commissioned a few years ago by Fr. Neal Nichols, pastor of St. Benedict. It is based on illustrations found in old Roman hand missals up through the mid-1950s, and was crafted by Dixon Studios in Staunton, Virginia. Fr. Nichols places cards in the pews on Holy Thursday explaining the clock to those who attend Mass, and below you can see both sides of the card and its accompanying prayer.

One can imagine how the clock must bring the reality of the Passion into sharp relief, memorializing in the hearts of the faithful every moment of Our Lord’s hours of suffering. If you are near the Chesapeake area, we encourage you to join St. Benedict for the liturgies of this week and, with the assistance of a most unusual timepiece, to accompany Our Lord in a new and profound way during the blessed hours of His most holy Passion.

Every summer, seminarians and priests of the Fraternity of St. Peter run a 10-day camp for boys ages 13 – 15 on the property of Gregory the Great Academy in Elmhurst, Pennsylvania. This year’s camp runs from July 15th through July 25th and is now accepting applications.

The young men who attend Camp St. Isaac Jogues will grow in faith, make friends and have a lot of fun. The schedule includes daily Mass and prayer, catechism, sports, hikes, games and all manner of fun activities in the expansive and beautiful setting of northeastern Pennsylvania. The goal of the camp is to provide the next generation of Catholic men with a firm foundation for their future lives and memories that will last a lifetime.

Cost for the camp is $350 and the deadline to apply is May 6th. Don’t delay, as the camp fills up quickly! Visit the camp’s website to find out how to apply. +

FSSP Joliet, the Illinois apostolate that honors St. Joseph as their patron saint, commemorated his March 19th feast with particular zeal this year. The feast day of their great patron was, of course, cause for celebration enough, but adding to the joy of the parish was the recent completion of renovations that, over the past two years, have turned a somewhat plain structure into a house fit for a King. Joining pastor Fr. Michael Magiera and the parishioners of St. Joseph in their celebrations were special guests from the East Coast: North American Superior Fr. Michael Stinson, Director of Development Fr. Zachary Akers and FSSP Allentown pastor Fr. Gregory Pendergraft, who assisted Fr. Magiera as deacon, subdeacon and MC at the Solemn High Mass he offered in the evening. Also attending in choir was Fr. Arnaud Devillers, pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church, our apostolate in Quincy on the western border of the state. The Mass was followed by the St. Joseph’s Table celebration, an Italian tradition observed by several parishes in our District (stay tuned for an upcoming post on that).

Fr. Magiera first began contemplating a beautification project for St. Joseph Church during Easter Week of 2017. He contacted his friend, Mr. Todd Brausch of Todd Brausch Studios, with whom he had worked on the restoration of Holy Rosary Church in Indianapolis back in 2008. Fr. Magiera first saw Mr. Brausch’s work in the restoration project he did at the Oratory of Ss. Philomena and Cecilia, the FSSP’s apostolate in Brookville, Indiana.

The final plan for the church of St. Joseph was completed in early summer of 2018 and work finally began in September. Prior to that, the entire apse had to be re-drywalled. Basic painting of the interior was done in October and November, and Mr. Brausch arrived in November to begin the artistic design process. Ultimately, not one surface of the church interior was left untouched; every area received a repainting and, depending on the conception of the whole, its appropriate design touches.

The area of prime concentration was, of course, the sanctuary, comprising the apse, high altar and two side altars. All three altars are new and custom-made. The high altar with its mid-size reredos was installed prior to December 2016, and the other altars and the enhanced reredos for the high altar in 2018. The pulpit was also custom-made and installed in the fall of 2018. The new altar rail was created and installed by two parish volunteers, Mr. Michael Carduff and Mr. James Reichstadt, who contributed vastly to the project by freely donating their services and securing materials at reduced prices.

Mr. Brausch’s design work was inspired by classic French Gothic churches. The ceiling of the sanctuary represents the heavens, with the Holy Spirit descending with tongues of fire through stars that symbolize both the star of Bethlehem and the Crucifixion. The rich red on the sanctuary walls recalls Our Lord’s sacrifice for the sins of men, and gold-leaf is used for its purity that reminds the faithful to always give their best to the Lord.

And certainly this parish has done just that. We congratulate St. Joseph on the completion of the project, which testifies to their dedication in giving God their very best. +

Our thanks to Fr. Michael Magiera for the details of the renovations.

Ever wondered why something is the way that it is? Ever spent hours sifting through a large book trying to find the answer? Now is your chance to “ask Father”! In upcoming editions of our Meménto newsletter, we will be featuring a new “Ask Father” section, in which one of our priests will answer a Faith-related question sent to us by you, our avid readers.

Therefore, we hereby issue a call for questions! Send one or send many. Maybe you have a query about the ceremonies of the Easter Vigil, or why Catholics fast on certain days. Maybe you’ve wondered about the meaning of items used in the Mass, or the purpose of a pilgrimage. Tell your friends, family, coworkers and fellow-parishioners! Respectful questions from non-Catholics and non-Christians accepted! Send us your questions and you just may see your answer in the next Meménto!

Fill out the short form below to ask your question, or click the “Ask Father” button in the sidebar of the homepage. Our default attribution will be [First Name, Last Initial], but just let us know if you’d rather stay totally anonymous.

Go ahead, try to stump us! +

On Saturday, March 30th, 2019, Bishop Joseph Perry, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago, ordained nine men to the diaconate at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary. The evening prior, following sung Vespers with Fr. Daniel Geddes as Celebrant, Fr. Anthony Uy as First Assistant and Fr. Charles Ryan as Second Assistant, the seven FSSP subdeacons became permanent members of the Fraternity during a ceremony that took place in the presence of their families and the whole community of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary. After a homily by Fr. Geddes, Fr. Uy called the candidates forward, each responding “Adsum”, or “I am present”, the same response that Abraham gave to God when He called him. The candidates then processed into the sanctuary, where they knelt and, after singing the Veni Creator, together recited the Prayer of Incorporation, the Profession of Faith, the Oath of Fidelity and the Oath of Celibacy, each candidate naming himself before each prayer. Each one then knelt before the ministers with his hand placed on the Bible and confirmed with an individual and solemn oath the promises he had just made.

Please pray for these deacons and the two from the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer as they embark on this final stage of preparation for the priesthood. +

St. Mary Parish, our apostolate in Providence, Rhode Island, was recently featured in a news segment on WPRI, a local Rhode Island station. The video features interviews with Fr. John Berg, FSSP, pastor of St. Mary’s, and parishioners of the church that, prior to the arrival of the FSSP in late summer of last year, was facing dwindling attendance and a real danger of closure. One of those interviewed is a parishioner who has been attending St. Mary’s for ten years and saw it go from flourishing to just surviving, and has witnessed its revival under the administration of the FSSP. He was a little skeptical of the Latin Mass at first, but now seems to have embraced the liturgy that has drawn faithful from all over the region and filled the pews once again.

“It will never close now,” he says of his parish.

Watch the full video here!