Fr. Perricone is conducting a Lenten Day of Recollection on Saturday, March 16th at St. Josaphat Church in Bayside, Queens, starting at 10am.  It is open to all family and friends.
The Day’s format (which may run about 2.5 hours):

• Conference #1
• Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
• Confession and Rosary
• Conference #2
• Closing Benediction

Friday was a very special evening at the Princeton University Chapel: First Vespers of St. Chad of Mercia, bishop, according to the use of the Church of Salisbury (the “Sarum Use”). The Use of Sarum was the main form of the Roman liturgy in Pre-Reformation England. It was celebrated now and then by Catholics as late as the 19th century, but was regrettably entirely superseded by the “Tridentine” liturgy. Perhaps that was because the Use of Sarum obviously makes considerable demands upon a church’s staff resources and available time….. First Vespers refers to the fact that St. Chad (whose feast is on the following day, March 2) was commemorated. 1)

Music and ceremonial were of outstanding quality. A congregation of around 1,000 was in attendance. The demeanor of all was reverent. An introduction preceding the Vespers and the informative program emphasized the spiritual nature of what was happening. In no way was this liturgy presented as a secular concert.

I must admire the creativity (in an appropriate sense) of the organizers. If the basic elements of ritual and music were supplied by authentic texts of the period, features of other traditions were freely drawn upon to complete the liturgy. So, German and English organ music of the 20th Century preceded and followed Vespers. A Byzantine icon was displayed. Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament ( a ritual not a part of the Use of Sarum) concluded the evening. It was a rare instance of how the various strands of Tradition can mutually complement each other without falling into arbitrary eclecticism.

Achieving all this was a truly a remarkable effort. 2) It illustrates that if such an effort is made, while preserving the spiritual basis of art, music and ceremonial, people will come. We were proud that the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny could be counted as one of the sponsors.

1. March 1 itself is the feast of St. David. An old English weather rhyme commemorates the saints of first three days of March:  First comes David, then comes Chad, Then comes Winnol, roaring like mad.
2. More information can be found at Catholic Sacred Music Project.

Members of Tradition, Family, Property (TFP) are organizing a Rosary rally to make reparation for a sacrilegious pro-LGBT funeral held in New York City’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral last week.   

On February 15, transgender activist and prostitute “Cecilia Gentili,” a man who “identified” as a woman, was celebrated at St. Patrick’s by hundreds of people dressed in scandalous clothing.

A LifeSite petition launched in response to the event, which organizers have called a political protest, is urging Cardinal Timothy Dolan to exorcise the cathedral. As of the publication of this article, more than 10,000 persons have added their signatures to the petition. 

TFP’s Rosary protest will be held at 12 p.m. noon EST on Saturday, February 24, Sunday, February 25, and Monday, February 26. “Our public rosary will be peaceful and legal. We ask for God’s mercy and offer public reparation,” the group said. St. Patrick’s Cathedral is located at 5th Avenue.

At the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist in Stamford, CT.

Pontifical Vespers for Candlemas at Old Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York – a magnificent liturgical and musical presentation that took place on Friday evening. It was co-sponsored by the Society of Saint Hugh of Cluny. The music, in addition to chant, was by Italian composers of the first half of the eighteenth century – especially Vivaldi. In particular, his Dixit Dominus (one of several settings of this text that Vivaldi composed) was a revelation in its expressiveness. We should be grateful to the otherwise disastrous liturgical developments of the last 60 years, which, by freeing us from the misguided strictures of Pius X against women singers and orchestral instruments, have enabled us to hear once again this music in its proper liturgical context.

On Wednesday, January 31, a Mass will be celebrated on the feast day of Blessed Maria Cristina of Savoy – Queen of the Two Sicilies. The Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St George (of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies) is of course a sponsor. But Fr. John Hunwicke has pointed out her connections with the house of Stuart and the Jacobite succession. A point of particular interest to me given my name!

From Fr. John Hunwicke’s Mutual Enrichment: Saintly Stuarts, from Blesssed Charles to Blessed Maria Christina

By a chance, January 31 is the memorial, optionally, in Naples, of one of blessed Charles’ descendants who was beatified on January 25 2014 in the Basilica of S Clare in Naples by Crescenzio Sepe, Cardinal Archbishop of Naples. Blessed Queen Maria Christina of Savoy was the daughter of Victor Emmanuel (de jure King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, 1819-1824) and sister of Maria Beatrice (de jure Queen Mary III and II of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, 1824-1840). Blessed Maria Christina was married to Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies, and mother of Francis, last King of the Two Sicilies before the Piedmontese usurpation. Her Eulogy describes her as ‘a prudent counsellor of the King and a true Mother of the poor and needy’. She was also a woman of great modesty, who by her influence prevented the use of the Death Penalty. She died in childbed when she was only twenty four. Here is her Collect, discovered by Fr Andrew Starkie, a learned priest of the Ordinariate.

Deus, qui in figura huius mundi beatam Mariam Christinam prudenti ardentique caritate decorasti et artificem in augmento Regni tui effecisti: tribue nobis, eius exemplo et intercessione; ut de vero amoris tui thesauro benefacientes accipere valeamus. Per.
(O God, which in the figure of this passing world [I Cor 7:31] didst adorn [Isa 61:10] Blessed Maria Christina with a wise and burning charity, and didst make her a worker in the increase of thy Kingdom: grant to us, by her example and intercession; that by doing right [I Pet 2:15] we may be able to receive of the very treasure of thy love. Through. (This rendering takes account of the Italian version, which is not exactly the same as the Latin, and of the Italian Commentary which accompanied the texts.)
The banquet which followed the Beatification, hosted by the de jure King of the Two Sicilies, was, by all accounts, a very ancien regime occasion … Golden Fleeces wall to wall … I bet the Holy Father would have loved to have been invited … I wonder how many of the descendants of blessed King Charles, through his prayers, are within the Church’s catalogus Sanctorum et Beatorum. 

Today is the 40th anniversary of Fr. Richard Cipolla’s ordination to the priesthood. Deo gratias agimus! He celebrated Solemn Mass at St. Mary Church, Norwalk.