The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a holy day of obligation, is on Monday, August 15. The following churches will offer the Traditional Mass on August 15th. Please notify us with additional information.

Connecticut

St. Mary Church, Norwalk, CT, 8 am, low Mass.

Sts. Cyril and Methodius Oratory, Bridgeport, 7:45 am low Mass, 6 pm Solemn Mass. Blessing of herbs: Please place fresh herbs for the traditional blessing on the table by the statue of Our Lady of Grace before Mass.

St. Patrick Oratory, Watebury, CT, 8am Low Mass; 6pm High Mass and Benediction

Oratory of the Most Sacred Heart, Georgetown, CT, Missa Cantata, 6 pm.

St. Marguerite Bourgeoys, 138 Candlewood Lake Road, Brookfield, CT, 07:00 am Low Mass.

St. Pius X, Fairfield, CT, 7 pm Solemn Mass

St. Martha Church, Enfield, CT, 7 pm

New York

Holy Innocents, New York, NY, 8 am low Mass; 6 pm Missa Cantata

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, New York, NY, 7 am and 7:45 am Low Masses; 7 pm Missa Cantata.

St. Josaphat, Bayside (Queens), 7pm

St. Matthew, Dix Hills, NY (Long Island) , 10:30 AM.

St. Rocco, Glen Cove (Long Island), 7pm

St. Paul the Apostle, Yonkers, NY, 12 noon

Annunication-Our Lady of Fatima, Crestwood, NY, 7:30 pm Solemn Mass followed by a Marian Procession through Crestwood.

Immaculate Conception Church, Sleepy Hollow, NY, Low Mass, 7 pm

Sacred Heart in Esopus NY, 11 am

St Mary-St Andrew, Ellenville, NY, 7 pm Missa Cantata

New Jersey

Our Lady of Sorrows, Jersey City, 7 pm.

Our Lady of Victories, Harrington Park, NY, 5:30 pm, low Mass.

Shrine Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, 52 West Somerset St., Raritan, NJ, Solemn Mass 7 pm.

Sermon by Fr. Richard Cipolla for the Feast of St. James given this evening at the Church of St. Pius X in Fairfield, CT.

One of the most dramatic scenes in the gospels is the calling by Jesus of James and
John. They are in their fishing boat with their father, Zebedee. And Jesus calls to
them: Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. So they drop their
nets, get out of the boat, leave their father behind and follow Jesus as the first two
of his disciples, who will become his apostles at Pentecost. I have always been
impressed by the clarity of this scene and the cutting away of any small talk: Come
follow me. And they left their nets and followed him.

It is James and John who are chosen with Peter to walk up the mountain to witness
what we call Jesus’ transfiguration. It is James and John with Peter who
accompany Jesus after the Last Supper when he goes to pray in the Garden of
Gethsemane. But it is also James and John who pull Jesus aside one day to ask
him if he would see to it that one of them sat on his right and the other on his left
when they reached heaven. They, like Peter, did not really understand what
following Jesus meant. James found out after Pentecost, when he became a true
apostle who proclaimed the person of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior both in
Jersusalem and in Spain. Tradition tells us that he was martyred in Jerusalem and
that his body was then carried to Compostela in Spain where he was buried.

The pilgrimage to St James’ tomb in Compostela became, as we all know, one of
the most important pilgrimage sites in the Middle Ages and beyond. People
walked from all over what we now call Europe, some for hundreds of miles, to this
shrine, as pilgrims and penitents. There has been in the recent past a revival of
Catholics making this pilgrimage, as a sign of their faith in Christ and his apostle
James, who finally understood that the heart of faith in Christ is being willing to
partake of the suffering of the Cross, which alone leads to the joy of the
resurrection. I have been to Compostela and prayed at the tomb of St. James. I
wish I could tell you that I walked many miles over the mountains to get there.
The fact is that I officiated at a lovely wedding in the north part of Portugal, and
the groom graciously offered the use of his Mercedes after the wedding so I could
drive to Compostela. And so I went in style, but I did pray there, that I would
remember what Jesus told St. James about glory in heaven: no suffering, no glory.

This Saturday: Traditional Mass pilgrimage to the beautiful shrine church of Our Lady of Mt Carmel, 448 E 116th St, New York

A Connecticut atelier, Sacra Indumenta, provided vestments for the Solemn Pontifical Mass in San Francisco on July 1 (we posted our pictures yesterday here). Archbishop Cordileone was wearing a pontifical alb specially designed and tailored by owner Susan-Jayne Caballero, who operates out of Norwalk, Connecticut. Mrs. Caballero is well-known in Connecticut and the New York area for her beautiful heirloom-quality bespoke sacred vestments. But we were pleasantly surprised to find out, when we attended the Pontifical Mass in San Francisco, that her reputation has spread to the west coast. You can read more about this amazing firm on the Sacra Indumenta website.

These notes written by Susan-Jayne Caballero, will impress on you the detail that went into the design and tailoring of this one vestment piece:

This Pontifical Alb is 100% pure lightweight Irish linen with special commission Italian hand-made lace from a renowned lace designer in Italy, GALBIATI. The cuffs are lined in pure silk moiré in the crimson from Gammarelli in a shade designated for prelates (as opposed to Cardinal red). The lace is engineered into a continuous panel for the skirt with decorative floral and cruciform motifs and accompanied by coordinated paraments for the sleeve overlay.
I designed a completely custom new pattern with particular vintage details for the shoulder construction and worked with a close friend who is an historical pattern maker, and historical costume museum curator and embroidery artist (Shaina Dombrowik who owns Deciphering Designs). Since I own quite a few vintage pieces, I studied several and worked with Shaina to digitize a custom alb pattern to fit His Excellency that incorporates the vintage construction techniques.
This particular shoulder construction is seen on many vintage albs for securing the neck and shoulder intersection which eases the stress point at that intersection. It is essentially a bias cut godet and allows a bit of flexibility between the shoulder bands and the neck collar band where the micro bunch pleating has gathered in the fullness of the body of the Alb. See here a photo from an Instrgram post where I detailed this construction in progress before setting the collar band.

I added matching white floral embroidery to the placket end point as well as as to each point of the godets on the shoulder bands.
Throughout the entire neckline outer edge, shoulder inset and along placket opening in front, I detailed with 1/4” fine Cluny scallop lace which traditionally protected the placket and collar edges from wearing or soiling badly from perspiration and abrasion. It’s not just decoration! Similar to how collar and stole protectors guard chasubles and stoles and are changed out every so often.
The sleeve moiré silk and lace overlay are both basted on and can be removed fairly easily for cleaning and lovingly basted back to the linen sleeve body.
The tie is a double face cotton sateen with a small bunched pleat at the ends to help the ends lay flat and stay put and prevent it from curling with use. 

In addition, four of the acolytes at the Mass wore surplices made by Sacra Indumenta.

n.b. The silk Mass set, including the Spanish chasuble, were also made by an American firm, Altarworthy. For more information see:
https://www.liturgicalartsjournal.com/2022/07/vestments-commissioned-for-solemn.html?fbclid=IwAR0825M0-AxH-KCziVwHAybTJXJpdTvvSv6CRbmPoxWgl-W7i-

For further reading: we also posted an article by Susan-Jayne Caballero a few years ago on the art of creating sacred vestments.

Threads of Continuity: Stewards of Sacred Treasure

On Friday, June 24th, the Guild of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus will celebrate the patronal feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus with adoration from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm at Sacred Heart Church in Georgetown, CT.  Please come and spend time with the Lord!  Review the available slots and sign up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0e48aaaf29a5f4ce9-adoration

St. Marguerite Bourgeoys Church in Brookfield, CT will offer a Low Mass for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on Saturday July 16, 2022 @ 09:00. Blessing of scapulars and investing of scapulars at the altar rail following Holy Mass.