One week after nine seminarians from Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary were ordained to the subdiaconate, our seminary in Wigratzbad, Germany also celebrated the subdiaconate ordinations of seven from their own ranks. His Excellency the Most Reverend Vitus Huonder, Bishop of the Swiss diocese of Chur, conferred the subdiaconate upon three Frenchmen, two Germans, one Austrian and one New Zealander in a Pontifical Mass at the parish church of Gestratz, close by the seminary. In addition, His Excellency conferred the minor orders of Porter and Lector upon eleven third-year seminarians and those of Exorcist and Acolyte upon ten in their fourth year.

We give thanks to God for the flourishing of both our seminaries, and we ask you to please pray for all our new subdeacons as they continue their preparations for the priesthood!

To learn more about our European seminary, click here. +

A happy and most glorious feast of the Chair of St. Peter! Today’s celebration used to be two separate feasts: one commemorating St. Peter’s Chair at Rome on January 18th, and one commemorating his Chair at Antioch on this day. The two were combined and are now celebrated as one feast today, though January 18th still marks the beginning of the Church Unity Octave (see our post on that here).

Today is a particularly joyful feast for the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, which is under the patronage of the Prince of the Apostles, and we celebrate it as a first class feast. Members of the FSSP (priests, deacons and seminarians) and also the Confraternity of St. Peter (see more information about the Confraternity here) are granted a plenary indulgence today under the usual conditions.

Deus, qui beáto Petro Apóstolo tuo, collátis clávibus regni cœléstis, ligándi atque solvéndi pontifícium tradidísti: concéde: ut, intercessiónis ejus auxílio, a peccatórum nostrórum néxibus liberémur.

O God, Who by delivering to Thy blessed Apostle Peter the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, didst confer upon him the pontifical power of binding and of loosing, grant that, by the help of his intercession, we may be freed from the bonds of sin.

– the Collect for today

On Saturday, February 9th, His Excellency the Most Reverend Robert Finn, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, conferred the subdiaconate on nine men from Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary. Seven of the new subdeacons are from the Fraternity and two are from the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer in Papa Stronsay, Scotland.

The subdiaconate is one of the final stages in a priest’s formation, usually occurring the year before priestly ordination. The duties of the subdeacon include preparing the bread and wine and sacred vessels for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, presenting the paten and chalice at the Offertory and pouring water into the wine, and chanting the Epistle. These duties are evoked during the ordination ceremony, when the Bishop presents the chalice, paten, cruets and book of Epistles to the ordinandi and they place their hands upon them.

The ordinandi are also vested with the maniple and dalmatic, which they carry on their left arms as they process into the church. One of the Redemptorists hand-made the beautiful blue and white vestments that he and his confrere wore on Saturday (see photo at right).

Please pray for these men as they advance towards the priesthood and prepare for their diaconate ordination on March 30th.

On Saturday, February 2nd, the Church celebrated the feast of the Purification of Our Lady, or Candlemas, and the beautiful blessing of candles and procession that accompany it. Here we bring you this great feast day of Our Lady, as celebrated by the priests, seminarians and parishioners of the FSSP, from California to Providence to Wigratzbad, Germany.

FSSP Chesapeake

St. Benedict Parish

Photos by Shalone Cason

FSSP Houston

Regina Caeli Parish

Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary

Denton, Nebraska

Priesterseminar Sankt Petrus

Wigratzbad, Germany

FSSP Dayton

Holy Family Parish

FSSP Fresno

Holy Cross Chaplaincy

Photos by Paul Flores

FSSP Providence

St. Mary Parish

At the end of January, hundreds of thousands of pro-lifers across the country joined together for the national March for Life in Washington, D.C., the West Coast Walk for Life in San Francisco and many other regional and local marches throughout the United States. Found among them, smiling and joyful, were members of our own parishes, and so we invite you on a photo tour of the various marches, as seen by parishioners of FSSP apostolates from Virginia to California.

National March for Life

Washington, D.C.

FSSP Scranton – St. Michael Parish

FSSP Allentown – St. Stephen of Hungary Parish

FSSP Richmond – St. Joseph Parish

FSSP Providence – St. Mary Parish

…and a few more shots of the action!

West Coast Walk for Life

San Francisco, California

FSSP San Diego – St. Anne Parish

FSSP Sacramento – St. Stephen the First Martyr Parish

Dallas March for Life

Dallas, Texas

FSSP Dallas – Mater Dei Parish

Georgia March for Life

Atlanta, Georgia
FSSP Atlanta – St. Francis de Sales Parish

On Saturday, February 9th, 2019, at 10:00 am, His Excellency the Most Reverend Robert Finn, Bishop Emeritus of Kansas City-St. Joseph, will confer the subdiaconate on nine men from Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary during a Pontifical Mass at the seminary chapel. Seven of the seminarians are from the Fraternity and two are from the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer in Papa Stronsay, Scotland. All are welcome to attend. Please pray for these men as they take this important step towards the priesthood.

To learn more about Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, visit their website here.

The 2019 subdiaconate ordinandi for the FSSP:

On January 27th, 2019, at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, IL, Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary’s basketball team became champions of the annual Father Pat O’Malley Invitational Basketball Tournament for the first time. Each year 16 basketball teams from Catholic seminaries across the United States are invited to this fraternal basketball tournament sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. The event was celebrating its 19th year and the picturesque campus of the Chicago-area seminary greeted the incoming seminarians in an elegant wintry fashion. Travel to and from the tournament was complicated for many teams by inclement weather, but the general mood was youthful, joyful and fraternal. Such inter-seminary athletic contests present a special opportunity for the seminarians of the FSSP to meet future priests from many of the dioceses across North America and to put smiling but competitive faces to the name of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.

This past weekend was only the 4th appearance at this tournament for OLGS, but the seminary’s 2019 team made the most of their opportunity this time around. Led by no less than three of FSSP Harrisburg pastor Fr. Gregory Eichman’s younger brothers, OLGS achieved 5 comprehensive victories in a span of 40 hours. The FSSP seminarians defeated teams from the following seminaries: Moreau (CSC – South Bend, IN), St. Gregory the Great (Lincoln, NE), IHM (Winona, MN), St. John’s Seminary (Boston, MA) and Mundelein (Chicago, IL).

Upon leading their team to a +20-point average margin of victory, Mr. Nicholas Eichman, FSSP and Mr. James Eichman, FSSP were conferred the tournament’s highest individual honors at the trophy presentation ceremony after OLGS defeated Mundelein 54-34 in an entertaining championship game. Throughout the tournament the team’s high-paced and well-coached style of play garnered loud and enthusiastic vocal support from nearly all the teams and guests present.

The victorious seminarians would like to extend public thanks to OLGS faculty members Fr. Anthony Uy, FSSP (Head Coach) and Fr. Joseph Lee, FSSP (General Manager) for the sacrifices of their time, talents and efforts to train and guide them to such an achievement. Participation in the team provided an opportunity for camaraderie, discipline and recreation that provided entertainment and inspiration to the entire community at OLGS. In sum, it was a blessed weekend that will live long in the memory of, Deo volente, many future priests.

Non nobis, Dómine, sed nómini tuo da glóriam!

A few more shots of the championship game:

2019 Father Pat O’Malley Invitational Basketball Tournament Participants:

1. Mundelein Seminary (Chicago, IL)
2. St. John Vianney Theological Seminary (Denver, CO)
3. St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary (Boynton Beach, FL)
4. Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary (Winona, MN)
5. St. Charles Borromeo Seminary (Philadelphia, PA)
6. St. Gregory the Great Seminary (Lincoln, NE)
7. Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary (FSSP – Denton, NE)
8. St. Francis de Sales Seminary (Milwaukee, WI)
9. Bishop Bruté College Seminary (Indianapolis, IN)
10. Sacred Heart Major Seminary (Detroit, MI)
11. Conception Seminary College (Conception, MO)
12. Kenrick-Glennon Seminary (St. Louis, MO)
13. Mount Angel Seminary (Portland, OR)
14. St. John’s Seminary (Boston, MA)
15. Notre Dame Seminary (New Orleans, LA)
16. Moreau Seminary (CSC – South Bend, IN)

Today we celebrate the feast of the Purification of Our Lady, also known as Candlemas, on which we commemorate the obedience of Our Lord and Our Lady to the Mosaic Law, which required the purification of the mother and the dedication of the firstborn son to the service of the Lord. The Holy Family, upon coming to the Temple, is met by the holy man Simeon, who, moved by the Holy Spirit, recognizes Jesus as the Savior of Israel and prophesies about His divine mission. He says that Our Lady’s Heart will be pierced by a sword, foretelling the part she will take in the sufferings of her Son, and hence the prophecy of Simeon is named first among Our Lady’s Seven Sorrows.

The title “Candlemas” refers to the candles that are blessed and distributed before Mass today and carried in procession. The blessing includes five beautiful prayers that explain the meaning of the lighted candles, and we encourage you to read through them and reflect on the petitions they contain (they are printed in your Missal before the Mass).

Et statim véniet ad templum suum Dominátor, quem vos quaéritis, et Angelus testaménti, quem vos vultis.

And presently the Lord Whom you seek, and the Angel of the testament Whom you desire, shall come to His Temple.

– Malachi 3:2, from the Epistle for today

Cover photo shows last year’s Candlemas procession at our seminary in Wigratzbad, Germany.

We’ve seen some Arctic weather lately here at headquarters in northeastern Pennsylvania, but that’s nothing compared to recent snowfalls in southern Germany. Several feet of snow buried our seminary in Wigratzbad as the seminarians returned from their Christmas holidays, turning the scenic Bavarian landscape into a wonderland of white – and a veritable battlefield for the inevitable snowball wars that such cosmic events entail.

At the seminary:

The first year French-speaking seminarians in particular took advantage of the conditions to take an excursion to nearby Bolsternang and wage an internecine battle of the ages under the boughs of the snow-laden evergreens.

Click here to learn more about our Wigratzbad seminary and here for news from our English-speaking seminary in Denton, Nebraska.

Fr. Armand de Malleray, pastor of St. Mary’s Shrine, our apostolate in Warrington, England, recently released Ego Eimi – It is I, a book of reflections on the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. With a foreword by Bishop Athanasius Schneider, the book is a “paper shrine to the Most Holy Eucharist”, an invaluable aid to enhancing and deepening our understanding of and love for Our Eucharistic Lord.

You can find Fr. de Malleray’s book at our bookstore, Fraternity Publications, by clicking here.

May the present book of Rev. Fr. de Malleray, FSSP, a beautiful and impressive “paper shrine to the Most Holy Eucharist”, have a wide diffusion and be a practical spiritual aid in order to renew the Catholic Faith, the Catholic Love and the Catholic Worship of the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist.
– His Excellency the Most Reverend Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan

I heartily recommend this book to all.
– Fr. John Berg, former Superior General of the FSSP