St Mary’s in Greenwich will be offering a traditional Mass on Tuesday, June 21 at 7:30 pm to celebrate the Feast of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, patron saint of youth.

Above images are part of a window in St John the Baptist church, New York.

This morning ,a Solemn Mass was offered at the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist in Stamford in the presence of a relic of St. Anthony of Padua. Father Cyprian La Pastina was the celebrant.

This Sunday, June 19, 9:30 am,  at St. Mary Church, Norwalk, Timothy Iannacone will serve as deacon for the first time at a traditional Solemn Mass.  He will be ordained a transitional deacon for the Diocese of Bridgeport the day before, on Saturday June 18.   The St. Mary’s Schola Cantorum under the direction of David Hughes will perform  Herbert Howell’s Mass in the Dorian Mode.  Fr. Richard Cipolla will be celebrant and Will Haffey will be sub-deacon.

The photo shows Tim assisting Bishop Athanasius Schneider in his celebration of a Solemn Pontifical Mass at St. Mary’s Norwalk,  Jan. 6, 2013.

For the first time since Vatican II, on Saturday, June 4, 2016, at Holy Face Monastery, Clifton, New Jersey, a Solemn High Mass with Gregorian chant was celebrated in honor of Our Lady of Sacro Monte of Novi Velia, Salerno, at her shrine.

(Above) Holy Face monastery is a treasury of Italian saints and devotions, both inside the monastery chapel and outside in a number of separate shrines. From the monastery grounds a visitor has a magnificent view of New York City – this day largely obscured by the summer-like haze.

(Above and below) The Madonna del Sacro Monte: a devotion of the Cilento region near Salerno, Italy. Love for the Madonna of Sacro Monte was carried to the United States by Cilentano immigrants who arrived in the United States around 1900. In Jersey City, where many of them settled, an annual devotion was started. In the late 1960s the devotees from Jersey City moved their celebration to Holy Face Monastery in Clifton, New Jersey. At the Monastery they constructed an outdoor shrine to the Madonna and brought a small statue for veneration.
The annual celebration at Holy Face Monastery ended in 1980. It was revived in 2012 by Cilentani and their descendants in New Jersey.

(Above and below) Mass was celebrated in an open chapel consecrated to this devotion.

(Above) The Tony Neglia Italian Band featured prominently prior to the mass and at the procession. – here playing before a Marian shrine on the grounds of the monastery.

(Below) The start of the procession.

(Above) The procession circles the monastery three times – but does not go inside.

(Above and below) The conclusion of the procession – prior to the festive meal.

Tomorrow, June 3, is the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  The following churches will offer the traditional mass.

St. Mary Church, Greenwich, CT, 7:30 pm, Solemn High Mass with Sung Litany of the Sacred Heart and Benediction. Mass will be celebrated by a newly ordained priest who will offer his first priestly blessing in the Hitchcock Room following Mass.

Holy Innocents Church, Manhattan, 6 pm; As usual, Holy Innocents will have the monthly all-night vigil starting with the 6PM Mass and will include exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament, hours of silent adoration, prayers, devotions, and will conclude with a votive Mass of the Immaculate Heart of Mary at 5AM.

St Christopher’s Church, 11 Gale Ave, Baldwin, Nassau County, New York, 7 pm, see link

St. Mary Church, Norwalk, Vespers, 6pm
Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite
Unus militum & Psalm 109 (mode i)
Stans Jesus & Psalm 110 (mode vii)
In caritate & Psalm 115 (mode iii)
Venite ad me & Psalm 127 (mode iv)
Fili praebe mihi & Psalm 147 (mode v)
Hymn: En ut superba (plainsong, mode iii)
Magnificat antiphon: Ad Jesum autem (mode i)
Marian antiphon: Salve Regina (plainsong, mode i)

External Solemnity of the Feast of the Sacred Heart, Sunday, June 5

St. Mary Church, Norwalk, 9:30 am
Vespers for the Sunday within the Octave of the Sacred Heart, 5 pm

Immaculate Conception Church, Sleepy Hollow, NY, 3 pm, First Communions and reception

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, 448 East 116th St., New York, NY, 10:30 am

Regina Pacis Chapel at Our Lady Queen of Peace, 400 Maywood Ave, Maywood, NJ 5 pm

The stained glass window is in St. Cecilia Church, Manhattan

(Above and below) The procession begins in the church.

A brass band added an Italian/Hispanic accent (although this is common elsewhere; e.g., Southern Germany and Austria)

The spire of St. Mary’s in the background.

Fireworks!

The celebration of Corpus Christi at St. Mary’s Norwalk CT. Along with a visit by Monks of Norcia…..

(Above) Since there were only two masses this day, the assembled musical forces of the parish performed – including the student schola.

For the first time since Vatican II, on Saturday, June 4, 2016, at 11:30 a.m., at Holy Face Monastery, 1697 Route 3, Clifton, New Jersey, there will be celebrated a Solemn High Mass with Gregorian chant in honor of Our Lady of Sacro Monte of Novi Velia, Salerno at her shrine. Following Mass there will be a grand procession on the monastery grounds with the statue of Our Lady, her canopy and authentic cinte (Italian candle-houses), all accompanied by the Tony Neglia Italian Feast Band.

The miraculous image of Our Lady of Sacro Monte of Novi Velia, crowned by pontifical decree in 1889, rests atop Mount Gelbison in the town of Novi Velia in the Cilento region of the Province of Salerno, Italy.

Love for the Madonna of Sacro Monte was carried to the United States by Cilentano immigrants who arrived in the United States at the turn of the last century. In Jersey City, where many of them settled, an annual devotion was started. In the late 1960s the devotees from Jersey City moved their celebration to Holy Face Monastery in Clifton, New Jersey. At the Monastery they constructed a stunning outdoor shrine to the Madonna and brought a small statue for veneration.

The annual celebration at Holy Face Monastery ended in 1980. It was revived in 2012 by Cilentani and their descendants in New Jersey.

Musical entertainment will begin at 10:30 a.m. with a performance of the Bloomfield Mandolin Orchestra, followed after Mass by the Tony Neglia Italian Feast Band, Italian American singing sensation Maestro Marcantonio Pezzano, and DJ Stefano. Delicious meals and desserts will be sold throughout the day and there will be activities for young and old to enjoy. For more information about this grande festa, you can contact us at info @ madonnadelsacromonteusa.com (remove the spaces when addressing your message) or call Pat at (201) 658-0775.

Yesterday, at the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend, Solemn High Mass in the Dominican Rite was celebrated at the church of St. Vincent Ferrer in New York City.

The church of St Vincent Ferrer is worth a visit in itself. Bertram Goodhue’s masterpiece is a seemingly inexhaustible treasury of architecture, stained glass, sculpture, painting and metalwork. In nearly every corner of the vast church can be found a special devotional image or an intriguing artistic detail.

Preceding the Mass, Dr. Samuel Schmitt gave a lecture on the musical life of the Elizabethan recusants. Despite the most severe persecution,  they were able (at least in some households) to maintain an astoundingly rich liturgical and musical culture. But their music underwent a transformation: from the grand public liturgical music of pre-reformation times to a more private, interior style. It was a style adapted to the “underground” nature of Elizabethan Catholicism. But this development was also furthered by the influence of the Jesuit order, whose missionaries brought with them new Roman musical ideas and a spiritual culture that, in contrast to pre-reformation times, assumed a largely literate laity.

The great Catholic composers of this era, such as Tallis and Byrd, also composed for the monarch and the established church. In that regard, Dr. Schmitt described the initial musical and liturgical strictures of the bishops and cathedral chapters of the Church of England as the reformation was imposed. All should be simple, clear and in English, only one note for each syllable of the text…. Much of this sounds eerily familiar to those of us who have followed developments in the Church for the last 50 years.

Dr. Schmitt’s talk was supplemented with musical examples. The performers were Charles Weaver (lute), Judith Malafronte (voice), Grant Herreid( bass viol) and Priscilla Herreid(voice).

(Above)The schola sang in front of the right transept.

We are grateful to the pastor of the combined parish of St.Vincent Ferrer and St Catherine of Siena and to the Dominican community for organizing this liturgy. The execution of the ceremonial of the Dominican Rite on this evening was of course exemplary.

Fr. John Sica, OP served as deacon. (Fr. Sica had been ordained to the priesthood at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington on May 21 of this year).

Fr. Innocent Smith, OP celebrated the mass and gave the homily.

(Above) Charles Weaver directed the Schola. David Hughes was organist. (Both are associated with the music program at St. Mary’s parish in Norwalk CT)

(Above and below) Priscilla Herreid, Grant Herreid, Judith Malafronte, Richard Dobbins and James Wetzel sang. The music included works of Fairfax, Tallis,  Taverner and Lambe. It was an  outstanding performance of this often challenging music  – sung in architectural surroundings intended to duplicate  the pre-reformation churches and chapels where these works were first performed.  And these musical masterpieces were of course also being performed in the context of the liturgy for which they were created. For it is the purpose of the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny to integrate the arts in support of the overriding objective of promoting and restoring the Traditional liturgy.

Finally, we were gratified to see that, despite the heat and the upcoming holiday, so many people from all over the area attended the lecture and then assisted at mass. Afterwards, a lovely reception was organized by the hospitality committee of the parish at which everyone could enjoy some conviviality on the feast of St. Bede!

Solemn High Mass for Corpus Christi was celebrated on Thursday Evening in East Harlem. The shrine statue of the Madonna was resplendent in newly restored robes.

Fr. Marian Wierzchowski SAC, the pastor of Our Lady of Mt Carmel,was celebrant and homilist. Fr. Christopher Salvatori SAC served as deacon; Fr. Charez “Don” B. Gringco, as subdeacon. Mr. Lorenzo Tinio was the master of ceremonies. Also, thanks are due to Mr. Teddy Thongratnachat. Last but not least, The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny sponsored this mass.

Mass was followed by the procession with the Blessed Sacrament through the surrounding streets.

(Above and below) What had started as a devout but modest congregation at the start of the mass had grown to very respectable size when the time came to form the procession. The public display of Catholicism (and one of the specific doctrines of Catholicism)that is of the essence of Corpus Christi seems to find remarkable resonance everywhere. It’s the only effective way to “take back the streets.”

And so the procession went its way as the streets gradually grew darker. Languages heard in addition to Latin and English included Polish, Spanish, Haitian Creole…..

(Above) At times the chants of the procession had to compete with boom boxes; the incense with the aroma of joints. But here and there beautiful floral displays had been set up by residents of the area. (Below) The first altar on the processional path was in a florist’s shop; the second in a convent.

Benediction concluded the procession.