In the Mass of this Tuesday in Holy Week, the Passion accounts which we began on Palm Sunday continue with the reading of the account from St. Mark. Alongside the reading of the Passion, the Church also presents for our consideration the Epistle taken from the prophet Jeremiah, who describes the meekness of the Lamb of God Who will be offered in sacrifice.

O Lord, Thou hast shown me, and I have known: then Thou shewedst me their doings. And I was as a meek lamb that is carried to be a victim: and I knew that they had devised counsels against me, saying: Let us put wood in his bread and cut him off from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more.

Jeremiah 11:18-19

Below are Palm Sunday ceremonies that took place this year at some of our apostolates. Our thanks to Mr. Michael Curtis for the photos from FSSP Seattle.

On this first weekday in Holy Week, the Epistle presents us with a striking image of Our Lord’s Passion. The prophet Isaiah speaks of the sufferings which the Savior will take willingly upon Himself, and how He will face them with divine confidence and the assurance of victory.

The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I do not resist: I have not gone back. I have given my body to the strikers, and my cheeks to them that plucked them; I have not turned away my face from them that rebuked me and spit upon me. The Lord God is my helper, therefore am I not confounded: therefore have I set my face as a most hard rock, and I know that I shall not be confounded. He is near that justifieth me.

– Isaiah 50:5-7

Today is Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week. Among the beautiful liturgical traditions of this day are the blessing and procession of palms, ceremonies which commemorate the triumphant entry of Our Lord into Jerusalem before His Passion. During this week all four Gospel accounts of the Passion are read, beginning today with St. Matthew’s Passion and continuing with St. Mark’s on Tuesday, St. Luke’s on Spy Wednesday and St. John’s on Good Friday.

We will be doing a post every day during this most sacred week of the year, recalling a particular ceremony or reading found on that day. May we prepare ourselves well in the beginning days of this week to celebrate the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord during the Holy Triduum.

Humiliávit semetípsum, factus obédiens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis.

He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross.

– Philippians 2:8, from the Epistle for today

On Saturday, March 17th, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, His Excellency Bishop Edward Slattery, Bishop Emeritus of Tulsa, Oklahoma, conferred the diaconate on the five seminarians who were raised to the subdiaconate in February.

Rev. Mr. John Killackey
Wayne, New Jersey, USA

Rev. Mr. Jesus Valenzuela Alcántar
Delicias, Chihuahua, México

Rev. Mr. Ralph Oballo
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Rev. Mr. Luc Poirier
Irishtown, New-Brunswick, Canada

Rev. Mr. Daniel Powers
Chicago, Illinois, USA

Please pray for these men, who have just taken a key step towards the priesthood.

The gallery below is from the ordination ceremony and the Pontifical Mass which accompanied it.

On the weekend of March 9, 2018, Immaculate Conception Parish, our apostolate in El Paso, Texas, was privileged to welcome Fr. Josef Bisig, FSSP, who celebrated Mass at the parish and gave conferences on the history of the FSSP. Fr. Bisig is the rector of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary and a founding member of the Fraternity, which was formed 30 years ago this year, in October of 1988.

A most happy and joyful feast of the holy St. Joseph, spouse of Our Lady and the guardian of Our Lord! St. Joseph is the patron of the universal Church and of a happy death, and he is a powerful intercessor in all our necessities. St. Joseph, pray for us!

To other Saints Our Lord seems to have given power to succor us in some special necessity – but to this glorious Saint, I know by experience, He has given the power to help us in all. Our Lord would have us understand that as He was subject to St. Joseph on earth – for St. Joseph, bearing the title of father and being His guardian, could command Him – so now in Heaven Our Lord grants all his petitions. 

– St. Teresa of Ávila

FSSP Los Angeles will be holding the 2018 Sacred Music Symposium on the 18th – 22nd of June at St. Therese of Lisieux Church in Alhambra, near Los Angeles. The Symposium includes instruction for singers and choir directors in such subjects as medieval music, counterpoint and choral conducting. Participants will have the opportunity to attend Mass in the Extraordinary Form every day and to sing the music of Tomás Luis de Victoria at a Solemn High Mass celebrated by Fr. Josef Bisig, FSSP, on the final day of the Symposium. See the complete schedule here.

The video above is a reel from last year’s Symposium. To see more videos from previous years and to sign up, please visit www.ccwatershed.org/symposium. Registration deadline is March 31.

At the same time and in the same location as the Symposium, FSSP L.A. will be holding an Altar Server Training Camp and a week of instruction in the Latin Mass for priests. More info on those events will be forthcoming.

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In an act illustrating both his generosity and his commitment to the Shrine of St. Alphonsus, home of FSSP Baltimore, Archbishop William Lori has granted that every dollar which St. Alphonsus donates to this year’s Archbishop’s Appeal will go straight back to the Shrine, tax-free! Usually the parish receives a percentage of the amount that it donates to the Appeal, then a larger percentage after it reaches its goal. But this year every dollar donated by Shrine supporters will go to the Shrine.

FSSP Baltimore is eager to meet their goal and demonstrate their appreciation of and their commitment to the Shrine, and so they are looking for a generous response from Shrine supporters to the Archbishop’s kind gesture. If you have had the privilege of visiting the beautiful Shrine of St. Alphonsus, or are simply a supporter of the FSSP who would like to help the Shrine, please visit the donation section of the Shrine’s website here. The Shrine is in need of some significant repair work, so your donations are much needed to restore the splendor of this beautiful house of God.

May God reward you for your generosity!

On March 3, 2018, St. Clement Parish, the FSSP’s apostolate in Ottawa, Ontario, celebrated half a century of service to God.

The story of St. Clement is certainly a remarkable one, and was made possible in large part by the generous actions of three consecutive Archbishops of Ottawa. The parish’s origins can be found with a small community of Catholics who gathered on Sunday, March 3, 1968, to hear the Latin Mass of 1962 with the permission of Archbishop Joseph-Aurèle Plourde at the Monastery of the Sister Adorers of the Precious Blood in Ottawa. In 1984, the community gained its first chapel, which was placed under the patronage of St. Clement, and in 1993, Archbishop Plourde’s successor, Archbishop Marcel Gervais, granted them their own church building and the rank of quasi-parish.

At the invitation of Archbishop Gervais, the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter assumed administration of the parish at the beginning of 1995, with Fr. Charles Ryan appointed the first pastor, and in 1997, the Archbishop erected it as a personal parish within the Archdiocese of Ottawa. In 2011, Archbishop Gervais’ successor, Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, invited the parish to move into the beautiful and historic church of St. Anne, which at the time was in danger of being closed. The parish accepted the Archbishop’s invitation, and celebrated their first Solemn High Mass at St. Anne on Trinity Sunday in June of 2012.

St. Clement Parish is, according to available information, the first parish in the world after 1969 to be dedicated solely to the celebration of the traditional Roman liturgy. You can read more about its fascinating history on its website or by reading The Continual Sacrifice: A History of the Origins of Saint Clement Parish, Ottawa 1968-1998 by Bernard Pothier. A new, 50-year anniversary book is currently in production, and is slated for release in late 2018.

On Saturday, St. Clement Parish offered a High Mass in thanksgiving for their anniversary, on the same altar on which its first Mass was celebrated at the Sisters’ monastery all those years ago.

Our thanks to Mr. Ian Gallagher for his contributions to this article and for the pictures of the anniversary Mass.