21 Apr

2019

The Easter Vigil at St. Mary’s, Part II: The Christening, The Confirmations, The Mass of Easter

Posted by Stuart Chessman

Continued from Part I

Once inside the baptistery, the celebrant prays over the font, that the Lord will deign to remake those about to die to their old selves in its waters into His spiritual sons and daughters by the grace of His Spirit. The celebrant breathes on the water three times in the shape of a cross

**The celebrant plunges the Paschal Candle into the water thrice.**

The acolyte removes some of the baptismal water for the aspersory: the celebrant sparges himself and his ministers with the Easter Water. He circles the church to sprinkle the faithful with Easter Water.

**The celebrant changes into white vestments.**

**The celebrant pours the Oil of Catechumens and the Oil of Sacred Chrism into the baptismal water. The consecrated baptismal water will be retained in the font for the baptisms throughout the year.**

**The newly baptized receives his white garment—a symbol of his baptismal innocence—and his baptismal candle, lit from the Paschal candle. It symbolizes the new light of grace which he received.**

**The procession returns to the sanctuary.**

The celebrant anoints each by name on the brow with the Chrism consecrated by the bishop on Spy Wednesday. He strikes the cheek of each, a sign of the hardships and mockery each will endure as a Christian.

The sacred ministers divest and prostrate themselves at the foot of the altar. After a time, they retreat to the sacristy to change into festive vesture. The Litany of the Saints is chanted by cantors. On this night, the entire invocation is repeated after the cantors, not only the response.

The acolytes prepare the altar for the festive Mass of Easter.

Toward the end of the Litany, the celebrant and ministers return. The Mass of the Easter Vigil, due to its extreme antiquity, has no Introit, but instead the Litany is concluded with the solemn recitation of the Kyrie.

**The celebrant intones the Gloria. The church bells are sounded throughout, the first time they have been heard since Maundy Thursday, and the images of the church are uncovered.**

**Acolytes assist in lighting the candles of the faithful from the fire of the Paschal Candle.**

**This year, children of the parish received their First Communion at the Easter Vigil**

**After Communion, Vespers immediately follows. During the Magnificat the celebrant censes the altar and he, his ministers, the clergy and the faithful are censed as well.**

21 Apr

2019

The Easter Vigil at St. Mary’s: Part I: The Blessing of the Easter Fire, Procession and Twelve Prophecies

Posted by Stuart Chessman

The Easter Vigil at St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk, CT, Part I. (Descriptions courtesy of John Pia)

**The celebrant and ministers—vested in penitential violet, the celebrant in cope, the ministers in folded chasubles—approach to sanctify the new fire, in anticipation of the light of Easter Day.**

**The celebrant blesses five grains of incense. These represent the five wounds of Christ and the scented unguents used to prepare His body for burial.**

**The fire and grains are sprinkled with holy water and incensed.**

**The deacon changes his penitental folded chasuble into the white dalmatic of joy.**

The deacon takes up the triple-branched reed, whose staff represents the bronze serpent which Moses fashioned on a rod to heal the Israelites in the desert, and whose three candles mystically symbolize the three days in the tomb, as well as the three Marys approaching the tomb on Easter morn. A procession is formed; the faithful follow the clergy into the church.

Three times along the way the procession stops, and one of the three candles in lighted with the taper lit from the new fire: at each lighting the faithful should genuflect, save the subdeacon who bears the cross. The deacon sings “The light of Christ” each time on a higher pitch, to which the people respond “Thanks be to God”.

**When the sacred ministers reach the sanctuary, the deacon hands the reed over, and seeks a blessing from the celebrant.**

The deacon proceeds to consecrate the unlit Paschal candle by the great Easter proclamation, the ancient “Exsultet.” The deacon and his retinue face towards the North: towards those dark regions that do not yet know the Light of Christ.

**The deacon lights the Paschal Candle with the flame taken from the reed, which itself was lighted from the new fire.**

The dedication candles and the lamps of the church are now lighted from the Paschal Candle.

**Candidates for First Communion, wearing white, and Confirmation. This year over 70 received the sacrament of Confirmation at the Vigil.**

The Prophecies: The Twelve Prophecies of the Vigil are among the oldest cycle of readings known in the Roman Rite, prefiguring our salvation and recounting the duties, trials, and hardships of the Christian, they form the final catechesis for the elect who are to be baptized. They are sung by a series of lectors to their own tone.

**A procession is formed to the baptistery, led by the Paschal Candle. Please continue to** Part II.

20 Apr

2019

Good Friday at St. Mary’s Norwalk, Part III: The Burial of the Body of Christ and Compline

Posted by Stuart Chessman

**The bearers of the image of the Dead Christ and women mourners.**

**The choir chants the psalms of the office of Compline**

The priest washes and anoints the wounds of Cristo Muerte

**The mourning women process with flowers two-by-two to the image of the Dead Christ.**

**In conclusion Allegri’s** **Miserere** **was sung.**

20 Apr

2019

Good Friday at St. Mary’s Norwalk, Part II: The Procession of the Dead Christ

Posted by Stuart Chessman

The procession of Cristo Muerte and Our Lady of Sorrows though the streets of Norwalk, Connecticut on Good Friday evening. This year, the procession was sponsored by the Norwalk parishes of St. Mary and St. Joseph.

**The encounter of the Dead Christ and His sorrowful Mother.**

20 Apr

2019

Good Friday at St. Mary’s Norwalk, Part I: the Mass of the Presanctified and the Veneration of the Cross

Posted by Stuart Chessman

**The Sermon of Fr Richard Cipolla – see HERE**

Why is the Sacred Host brought into the church in this solemn procession on this Good Friday? In order for the priest, on the one day that the Sacrifice of the Mass is not celebrated, to hold the Host on high for all to see on this day, to behold the Sacrament of the One who exploded the black hole of sin and death, the God who loved us so much that he gave his only begotten Son to die for us, and it is the priest, the one who offers sacrifice, who then consumes the Sacred Host not to offer the Sacrifice as he usually does at the Mass, but to show us what the absence of the Sacramental presence of Christ would mean, the void without hope. And with this gesture the priest shows us what this is all about, the will of God to become flesh and die a real death for you and me. He died a real human death, yes, without sin, but real, a death died not in some sort of smug way knowing the outcome, smug because of his Godhead, but rather like you and me, he died in faith that his Father would allow him to smash the terrible power of death and bring him once again to his bosom. He died really for you and me so that the reality of what he died for, the forgiveness of our sins, may become a reality in our space and time, for you and for me.

**After the veneration of the cross, it is placed on the altar and the candles throughout the church are lighted.**

**The celebrant goes with his ministers to retrieve the Blessed Sacrament.**

**The Procession of the Blessed Sacrament.**

**The Blessed Sacrament is brought to the altar.**

11 Apr

2019

Tomorrow: Traditional Masses for Our Lady of Sorrows

Posted by Stuart Chessman

4 Apr

2019

Our Lady of Sorrows Mass in Little Italy

Posted by Stuart Chessman

The American Delegation of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George invites you to a Solemn High Mass that we will be sponsoring in honor of Our Lady of Sorrows to be celebrated for the persecuted Christians of the Middle East at Most Precious Blood Church at 113 Baxter Street in Manhattan’s Little Italy on Friday, April 12th at 7:15 p.m.