10 May

2019

Solemn Mass at US Merchant Marine Academy

Posted by Stuart Chessman Published in Masses

no comment

5 May

2019

Requiem Mass for Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro at Holy Family Church

Posted by Stuart Chessman Published in Masses, The Churches of New York

*The congregation that Saturday afternoon was relaively small – but included many people who had known and worked with Msgr Barreiro for decades.*

A sung Requiem Mass was celebrated for the repose of the soul of Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro at Holy Family Church, New York on Saturday, May 4 – the second anniversary of his death.
Fr. Richard Cipolla was the celebrant, the pastor of Holy Family, Fr. Gerald Murray, was the homilist. Charles Weaver directed the choir.

Spectacular vestments from the early part of the 20th century were made available for this liturgy. Regrettably, due to a last minute cancellation, a Solemn liturgy using the complete set could not be celebrated.

Fr Murray, the homilist, did not merely present his reminiscences of Ignacio Barreiro – with whom he studied at Dunwoodie. He set forth, drawing on the writings of of Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, how Msgr Barreiro had led an exemplary life *as a priest.*

Charles Weaver led the schola, presenting plainchant and works by Victoria and Morales. Whatever else you may think of this church’s architecture, the acoustics are excellent!

(Above and below) I still find it hard to believe the miracle that the Traditional Mass has returned to this church – one of the very first examples of would-be modernism in New York! (Note the early substitution of an image of the “Risen Christ” for the Crucifix- a practice that became almost universal in the 1960’s)

(Above and below) Holy Family church is a weird combination of the “moderne” and the traditional: a space-age tabernacle that would delight George Jetson, displaced from the altar to a corner of the church – but surrounded by Latin inscriptions and surmounted by a Byzantine-style image of “Our Lady of Peace.” Generally in beautiful condition and relatively untouched by subsequent renovations, Holy Family perfectly illustrates the confusion of ideas prevalent in the Catholic Church of 1964-65.

1 comment

3 May

2019

Mass of Our Lady of Prompt Succor in Queens

Posted by Stuart Chessman Published in Masses

no comment

24 Apr

2019

Requiem Mass for Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro

Posted by Stuart Chessman Published in Masses

**Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro Carámbula**
**Born** **22 October 1947, Montevideo**
**Ordained** **14 November 1987, New York**
**Died** **13 April 2017, Hawthorne**

On Saturday, May 4, 2019 at 2:00 PM, the Society of St Hugh of Cluny will be sponsoring a Solemn Requiem Mass on the occasion of the second anniversary of the death of Msgr Ignacio Barreiro, who died on April 13, 2017. The Mass will be celebrated in the church of the Holy Family, 315 E 47th St, New York, NY. Fr. Richard Cipolla will be the celebrant. The music will include works by Morales and Victoria; Charles Weaver will direct. Msgr Barreiro’s own generous gift makes this liturgy possible.

I hope to be able to greet there many of us who knew Msgr Barreiro well.

It is entirely appropriate that this Mass takes place at Holy Family church. For Msgr Barreiro spent one summer at this parish during his studies at Dunwoodie seminary prior to his ordination. And, earlier, when he was serving in the Uruguayan delegation to the United Nations, had he perhaps visited the nearby “Church of the United Nations?” Finally, the architecture of Holy Family represents the first, if timid, breakthrough of modernism in the design of a New York Catholic parish church. Is it not fitting then, that we will gather in this place to pray for the soul of such a tireless champion of the recovery the Traditional liturgy as was Msgr. Barreiro? I am sure he would be amused!

**Msgr Barreiro in congenial company near Siena in 2006.**

**Msgr Barreiro in the Rome offices of Human Life International, which he directed for many years.**

**Msgr Barreiro was always a steadfast advocate of the Traditional liturgy. (Above) Msgr Barreiro (left) at special vespers with the Archbishop of Siena in 2006.**

(Above) In 1989 Msgr Barreiro celebrated at the Princeton University Chapel what was – perhaps incorrectly – reported as the first “official” Traditional Nuptial Mass in the United States since the 1960’s.

**(Above and Below) In the last year of his life Msgr Barreiro served as parochial vicar at St. Mary’s, Norwalk .**

no comment

21 Apr

2019

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

Posted by Stuart Chessman Published in Masses, Photos, St. Mary's Holy Week 2019

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.**

3 comments

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 Published in Masses, Photos, St. Mary's Holy Week 2019

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.

1 comment

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 Published in Masses, Photos, St. Mary's Holy Week 2019

**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.**

no comment

20 Apr

2019

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

Posted by Stuart Chessman Published in Masses, Photos, St. Mary's Holy Week 2019

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.**

1 comment

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 Published in Masses, Photos, St. Mary's Holy Week 2019

**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.