On Saturday, December 15th, apostolates across the District celebrated the beautiful Rorate Mass, a traditional Advent devotion in honor of Our Lady. It takes its name from the first words of the Introit and is offered by candlelight in the darkness of the early morning. As the dawn breaks, the church gradually fills with light, the candles and the progressively brighter sunlight symbolizing the Light Who will soon fill the dark world with His radiance.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary

Denton, Nebraska

FSSP Baltimore

National Shrine of St. Alphonsus Liguori
Photos by Amy Proctor

FSSP Dallas

Mater Dei Parish

FSSP Houston

Regina Caeli Parish

FSSP Minneapolis

All Saints Church
Photos by Lucas Brown

FSSP Tacoma

St. Joseph Parish

FSSP Dayton

Holy Family Parish

FSSP Maple Hill

St. John Vianney Chapel

FSSP Calgary

St. Anthony Church

FSSP South Bend

St. Stanislaus Parish

FSSP Conshohocken

St. Mary Church
This is actually the Mass of the Immaculate Conception on December 8th. St. Mary’s chose to celebrate this Mass in the style of a Rorate Mass.
Photos by Allison Girone

Father Aaron Liebert grew up in a Catholic family of five in rural Wisconsin. For years his family drove an hour each way to attend the Traditional Latin Mass at 5:00 p.m. on Sundays.

At the age of eight he first began to serve at the altar.

“I still remember my excitement at serving my first Mass on Christmas Day,” he recalls.

Father Liebert credits his vocation to the example of his parents, teachers and parish priests. He has always had a passion for hunting, ice hockey and gardening. During his time as a seminarian, Father served in Fraternity apostolates on both the East and West coasts as well as throughout the Midwest, Canada and France.

Ultimately, Father insists he would not be a priest today if not for the good example and prayers of so many wonderful Catholics.

“I would not have persevered in my vocation if not for the support of so many good men and women. Thank you, and may God bless and keep all of you.”

Fr. Liebert is currently serving his first assignment as the assistant pastor of St. Stanislaus, our apostolate in Nashua, NH.

This week contains the Advent Ember Days, which always fall on the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of the third week of Advent. The Ember Days take place four times a year, the other occasions being the weeks after Ash Wednesday and Pentecost and the third week of September. The purpose of the Days is to thank God for the gifts of Creation, to ask His help in using them with wisdom and moderation, and to assist those in need, and they are observed by fasting and prayer in addition to the particular liturgies the Church assigns them.

While not obligatory, the Ember Days are a holy practice, of great benefit to the Church and to us, and they constitute a solid preparation for the coming of Our Lord. We therefore encourage you to participate in whatever way you are able.

In diébus illis: Clamábunt ad Dóminum a fácie tribulántis, et mittet eis salvatórem, et propugnatórem, qui líberet eos.

In those days they shall cry to the Lord because of the oppressor, and He shall send them a Savior and a defender to deliver them.

– Isaiah 19:20, from the first Lesson of Ember Saturday in Advent

This past Saturday, many parishes celebrated the candlelit Rorate Mass, a beautiful Advent tradition in honor of Our Lady which takes place early in the morning. The Rorate Mass and that of Ember Wednesday have much in common, including the Introit, which speaks of the Light Who is soon to come into the world.

Roráte, cœli, désuper, et nubes pluant justum: aperiátur terra, et gérminet Salvatórem.

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just: let the earth be opened and bud forth a Savior.

Not long ago, a message appeared in the Missive’s inbox that came from quite a long way away. It was a dispatch from a parishioner at the FSSP’s apostolate in Amsterdam – not one of the many Amsterdams in the USA, but the original, the capital of the Netherlands, a city which, if it’s a traveler-favorite and a center of European culture, also carries a reputation for being decidedly post-Christian. But a few email exchanges later, we received a write-up and pictures of the apostolate from that parishioner, Mr. Hans Eichbaum, and pastor Fr. Martin Knudsen, and what an unexpected joy it was to meet the extraordinary community of Sint-Agneskerk that, like the candle in the Gospel that gives light to all in the house, is shining brightly in the heart of the Netherlands.

by Fr. Martin Knudsen and Mr. Hans Eichbaum, FSSP Amsterdam

Since 2006, the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter has been represented at Saint Agnes Church in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. At first the Fraternity was a guest at the church, but since 2008, Fr. Martin Kromann Knudsen from the Fraternity has served as the parish priest.

Saint Agnes is located outside the center of Amsterdam, in the district “Oud-Zuid”. It is very close to the Vondelpark, a good walking distance from the center. The church was built between 1919 and 1931, and inside artwork can be found by famous Dutch artists. The church organ was built by J.W. Clavaux in 1932.

Nowadays it is one of the few churches in the Netherlands that exclusively celebrates the traditional Latin Mass. Many faithful travel for hours from all across our tiny country to celebrate the High Mass on Sunday. Visitors from other countries or Christians just orienting themselves join us as well. On an average Sunday 100 to 130 people attend the Mass.

After the High Mass on Sunday we almost always drink coffee and tea together. Every first Sunday of the month a family afternoon is held, where participants bring homemade soups and sandwiches and have lunch together. Catechism lessons for children and adults are held afterwards.

Mass is offered every day (except Mondays) at 11am. The confessional opens at 10:30am. The priest team is fluent in Dutch, English, German and Russian.

Sint-Agneskerk
Amstelveenseweg 163
NL-1075 XA Amsterdam
Nederland

To find out more about the FSSP’s locations in Europe and throughout the world, visit our international site.

A happy and most glorious feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe! Our Lady of Guadalupe is a special patron of the FSSP, as our North American seminary is named for her.

Today’s feast recalls the appearances of Our Lady on the hill of Tepeyac, near Mexico City, to a humble Catholic Aztec named Juan Diego in December of 1531. Appearing as a beautiful maiden and speaking to him in his native language of Nahuatl, she asked him to tell the Bishop that she wished a church to be built on the hill. The Bishop listened to Juan Diego’s story and asked him to bring a sign of its verity. Our Lady directed Juan to pick roses, miraculously growing in the winter, and bring them to the Bishop as a sign. When he brought the roses to the Bishop, they cascaded to the floor, and on St. Juan Diego’s tilma was the beautiful image of Our Lady.

In the image, Our Lady’s feet rest upon the moon and she eclipses the sun, symbols of two Aztec gods, illustrating how she crushes the head of the serpent and conquers the demons that had held sway over the Mexican people. The iconography also evokes the image of the “woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” from the Book of Revelation. St. Juan Diego’s tilma is kept at the basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City and venerated by countless pilgrims every year, and though the cactus-fiber material should have disintegrated long ago, it has been miraculously preserved for over 485 years.

During these apparitions Our Lady appeared as a woman with child, as they occurred in December near the time of Our Lord’s Nativity. Hence she is honored as the Patroness of the Unborn and invoked against the evil of abortion, as she interceded for the Aztecs against the terrible scourge of human sacrifice that characterized their pagan worship.

We wish you and your families a most joyful feast day, and ask your prayers for the Fraternity, our apostolate in Mexico and the seminarians of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary on this day!

St. Clement Parish, our apostolate in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, recently concluded its 50th anniversary celebrations with three days of events crowned by a Solemn Pontifical Mass at Ottawa’s magnificent Notre Dame Cathedral, the first traditional Pontifical Mass to be celebrated at the cathedral in 20 years.

The festivities began on Thursday, November 22nd, when St. Clement’s held Solemn Vespers for the feast of their patron led by Fr. Josef Bisig, rector of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary and a founding member of the FSSP. The accompanying music featured the debut of Dedisti Domine, a piece specially composed by St. Clement organist Rachel Laurin for the 50th anniversary. The text is taken from the antiphon found in those same Vespers.

The Solemn Pontifical Mass took place the next day, Friday, November 23rd, the feast of St. Clement, and was celebrated by His Excellency the Most Reverend Terrence Prendergast, Archbishop of Ottawa. The Archbishop carried the crozier of his predecessor, Archbishop Joseph-Aurèle Plourde, who first granted permission for a small community of Catholics to hear the traditional Mass at the Monastery of the Sister Adorers of the Precious Blood in Ottawa on March 3rd, 1968. That group later became the parish of St. Clement under Archbishop Plourde’s successor Archbishop Marcel Gervais, who invited the Fraternity to assume administration in 1995. In 2011, Archbishop Prendergast invited the parish to administer the historic church of St. Anne, and St. Clement celebrated its first Solemn High Mass there on Trinity Sunday of 2012. You can read more about the history of this remarkable community in our post here.

The Archbishop was assisted at the Mass by St. Clement pastor Fr. Erik Deprey, assistant pastor Fr. Jacques Breton, Deacon Luc Poirier, North American Superior Fr. Michael Stinson and FSSP Québec assistant pastor Fr. Laurent Demets. Also present were Fr. Bisig and FSSP Superior General Fr. Andrzej Komorowski, and the choir of St. Clement provided the music for the Mass. Parishioners and non-parishioners alike flocked to the cathedral to attend, some driving as far as 2 to 3 hours. In the sanctuary, a relic of St. Clement was displayed for veneration.

On Saturday, Fr. Bisig gave a talk on the history of the FSSP. You can read more on that talk in the story here published by the Canadian publication The Catholic Register, and you can read their story on the anniversary Mass here.

We congratulate the parish of St. Clement on its 50 years of service to God and the faithful of the diocese of Ottawa, and pray for many more years to come!

A happy and most joyful feast of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady! Today we celebrate the singular privilege granted to Our Blessed Mother of being preserved free from original sin from the very first moment of her existence. Truly she is the most blessed of all creatures, full of every grace and virtue, the most worthy and noble Mother of God and our Mother as well. This feast is a Holy Day of Obligation (the obligation is never abrogated, even when it falls on a Monday or, like today, a Saturday), so be sure to check your parish’s Mass schedule today.

Blessed Pope Pius IX infallibly defined the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in the Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus, promulgated on December 8th, 1854. There we read:

From the very beginning, and before time began, the eternal Father chose and prepared for His only-begotten Son a Mother in whom the Son of God would become incarnate and from whom, in the blessed fullness of time, He would be born into this world. Above all creatures did God so love her that truly in her was the Father well pleased with singular delight. Therefore, far above all the angels and all the saints so wondrously did God endow her with the abundance of all heavenly gifts poured from the treasury of His divinity that this mother, ever absolutely free of all stain of sin, all fair and perfect, would possess that fullness of holy innocence and sanctity than which, under God, one cannot even imagine anything greater, and which, outside of God, no mind can succeed in comprehending fully.

We wish a happy patronal feast day to our parishes in Omaha, Nebraska, El Paso, Texas and Colorado Springs, Colorado!

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

On Saturday, November 17th, His Excellency the Most Reverend Robert Finn, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph, conferred minor orders on twenty-one men from Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary during a Solemn Pontifical Mass at the seminary chapel. Eleven seminarians in their third year of studies received the first two orders of Porter and Lector, and ten in their fourth year received the second two, those of Exorcist and Acolyte. Please pray for these men as they continue their discernment, and for the fourteen second-year seminarians who received tonsure in October.

Have you visited the new website for our official bookstore, Fraternity Publications? The recently reconstructed site features over 100 new products, improved layout and easier navigation. We offer an extensive selection of titles, including saints’ writings, children’s books, Bibles, breviaries, missals and prayer books, as well as rosaries, crucifixes, scapulars and gifts. You’ll also find nifty features like wishlists and low-cost shipping through Media Mail, plus great discounts in our sale section.

Do some of your Christmas shopping this Thursday through Saturday, December 6th through 8th, during our St. Nicholas Day Sale – take 10% off your entire order! Just use the code #10stnick when checking out.

www.fraternitypublications.com

by Mrs. Katie Zeunges, FSSP San Diego 

On Wednesday, October 31st, 2018, parishioners of St. Anne Parish in San Diego, California, hosted their annual All Hallows’ Eve party in celebration of All Saints’ Day, attended by over 300 people.

After beginning the evening with a Rosary led by pastor Fr. John Lyons, children dressed as Saints were introduced to the crowd during the Saint Parade. Some of the Saints included St. Juan Diego wearing his tilma, St. Kateri with braided hair, St. Padre Pio with his stigmata, St. Catherine of Alexandria with her cracked wheel, St. Joan of Arc with her shield and sword and Servant of God Fr. Kapaun in his military garb. What a joy it was to see the children invoking these heavenly giants.

Following the Saint Parade, the Carnival Games began. For the Wheel of Saints, children spun the wheel which landed on a letter of the alphabet, then they had a few seconds to name a saint that began with that letter. At the Halo Toss booth, children attempted to throw glow-stick ring halos onto pegs. St. Peter’s Fishers of Men booth challenged children to use magnetic-tipped fishing poles to pull up duct tape fish while being careful not to reel up the boot. At St. Joseph’s Workshop, children searched through sawdust to find St. Joseph’s wooden hammers, saws and squares.

Team competition games began with the St. Lucy’s Eyeball Relay Race in which each team focused on carrying a ping-pong ball in a spoon across the yard and back again to trade off with another team member. The Saint Guessing Jar Game involved estimating the goodies inside each saint’s jar and the winners went home with treats such as St. Brendan the Navigator’s Gummy Fish and St. Marie-Azelie Martin’s Colorful Rose Garden Candies. The evening continued with the Saint Scavenger Hunt. Teens searched among the crowds to find the 16 adults holding the particular saint card that answered a question regarding that saint. After the hunt, several rounds of Saint Bingo ensued for young and old with some impromptu narratives about the saints while the names were called.

During the party, a Carved Pumpkin Contest brought many voters to select their favorite of the 18 saint-themed carvings. There was a tie for first place this year which went to Jesus on the Road to Calvary by Francis Kuss and Our Lady and St. Joseph Traveling to Bethlehem by Ana Larson. Second place was the soldier kneeling before the cross by Therese Cruz.

For snacking enjoyment, families brought an impressive array of saint-themed snacks to share. Edible wonders included St. Juan Diego’s Nachos, St. George’s Swords made of cucumbers and hummus with red pepper handles and St. Notburga’s Pigs in a Blanket.

Throughout the evening, Fr. Lyons and assistant pastor Fr. Christopher Mahowald could be found holding adorable babies, participating in saintly games or chatting with guests. St. Anne Parish is so blessed to have these extraordinary priests (plus Fr. Dorsa who was away that evening). What a wonderful way to spend All Hallows’ Eve with fantastic priests and remarkable Catholic families!