For the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer will offer a Dominican Rite Mass on Wednesday, March 7 at 7 pm.

On the 18th anniversary of the death of Ignatius Cardinal Kung,  a traditional Latin high Mass will be offered at the Basilica of

St. John the Evangelist in Stamford, CT on Saturday, March 10 at 10:30 am.  Fr. Cyprian La Pastina will be the celebrant.  David Hugh will direct the music.

This is the most critical time in the history of the Catholic Church in China.  Please pray for the underground church in China.

Note: Parking is free during church services in the Bell Street Government Parking at the back of the basilica.

St. Mary’s Church and the St. Cecilia Society are delighted to announce the second installment of the Rosary Concert Series, dedicated to the Sorrowful Mysteries, on Sunday, March 18, 2018 at
3:00 p.m. at St. Mary’s Church, 669 West Avenue in Norwalk, Connecticut.

This concert, a meditation on the Sorrowful Mysteries, falls on Passion Sunday, which begins the final phase of Lent, leading into Holy Week.

The performers for this concert are Elizabeth Baber Weaver (soprano) and Charles Weaver (lute), who are both members of the St. Mary’s Schola Cantorum.

The Weavers will present devotional arias and cantatas from 16th- and 17th-century Italy, including works by Benedetto Ferrari, Francesca Caccini, and Claudio Monteverdi. These pieces, rather than being liturgical works for the Church, are more personal expressions of faith, meant to increase the intensity of prayer.
The concert will be performed in St. Mary’s Church at 3:00 p.m. Admission is free of charge, though donations will be gratefully accepted. All proceeds will benefit the sacred music program at St. Mary’s and make more concerts possible in the future. A light reception in the church hall (school building) will follow the concert.

Summer course offerings at Dunwoodie! If you’ve been looking for an opportunity to study sacred music at the graduate level in a compact format, take a look at our offerings. For the first time, we’re offering a hybrid course – Principles of Sacred Music – 7 weeks online and 2 days (July 23-24) in person in NY. Principles of Chant immediately follows in a 4-day format (July 25-28). Auditor and credited spots are available, and there’s a 50% discount for 1st-time Dunwoodie students or musicians sponsored by their parish. Inexpensive room and board options are also available. Registration available here: https://59929.schoolforms.org/summer-2018-music-course-enro…
Course descriptions:
Principles of Sacred Music
Through a survey of the history of sacred music and reading of Church and papal legislation on sacred music, students gain an understanding of the principles which shape Western sacred music and the musical structure of the Roman rite. Special focus is placed on current documents which govern music in the Church. The course also features in-depth discussion of practical issues including the formation and management of sacred music programs in parishes, active participation, progressive solemnity, the use of instruments in the sacred liturgy, resources available for music directors and choristers, and other relevant topics.

Principles of Chant
Serving as an introduction to Gregorian chant, this course will cover neumatic notation, Gregorian modes, ear training and sight reading, vocal technique appropriate for singing chant, and Latin pronunciation. Special focus will be placed on rhythmic interpretation of the chant according to the classical Solesmes (Mocquereau) method. By the end of the class, students will have confidence singing from the Graduale Romanum, solfège, and psalm tones, and some experience in conducting (chironomy). Additional topics introduced in the class include the history of Gregorian chant, rehearsal techniques for teaching chant to children and adult choirs, and an introduction to chant resources in English and Spanish.

(Above) The so-called “Crown of the Andes.” A masterpiece of Spanish colonial art, it was fashioned of gold and emeralds in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries for a statue of the Madonna in Popayán, Columbia – although stories connected the gems to the last Inca ruler. It was sold to an American investor/collector in the 20th century.

The new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Golden Kingdoms: Luxury and Legacy in the Ancient Americas,” is a major attraction for fans of the arts of the pre-Columbian American cultures. The tile is a bit unfortunate, however, in that it suggests that in their original cultures these objects had the function of luxury knick-knacks or high-priced antiques. Rather, these had a numinous, magical character – and often a specific liturgical function. The exhibition shows how different cultures handed down and reused precious objects such as the mysterious Olmec and Mayan jade pieces over hundreds of years and that techniques such as working in gold slowly made their way from one people to another.

(Above) a Mayan Lady

The pagan art of the pre-Columbian Indian cultures has for us a mysterious, utterly alien quality. Below, a depiction of an a menacing octopus from Peru.

Then came the Spanish and later the Portuguese. How did they set about evangelizing this vast new world? The exhibition confronts us with one object which serves as a corrective to current stereotypes and the “black legend.” It is a unique image of the Mass of St Gregory – based on a print from the Netherlands but executed in the traditional Aztec craft of feather-working! The date and circumstances of its creation are as interesting as its technique. For it was commissioned in 1539 as a gift for Pope Paul III by Diego de Alvarado Huanitzin, an Aztec noble who was serving as a governor of Mexico city under the Viceroy of New Spain. He previously had held high office under his relative, the last Aztec emperor. His gift follows a decree of that Pope in 1537 favorable to the native population. It seems we need to drastically revise our preconceptions about the early life of the indigenous populations in the Spanish colonies.

(Above) The Mass of St Gregory. Mexico City, 1539 executed in gold and feathers. The earliest dated example of  Aztec Christian art, it is preserved in the city of Auch, France. The design is based on a contemporary print from the Netherlands.

The legend of the Mass of St Gregory confirms the truth of transubstantiation.  A doubting deacon saw a vision of Christ in His Passion above the altar during a Mass celebrated by Pope Gregory the Great. What better image to use to instruct the newly converted populations on what the Mass really represents? Here the native artist has taken the basic outline from a print (an art form and technology of the Old World) and has “translated” it into his own fantastically colorful and intricate medium of feather-work.

(Above) Pope St Gregory and assisting sacred ministers (one of whom is the doubting deacon).

Traditionalists should be heartened to see how the solemn mass served as a means of evangelization. A world of pagan ritual and cruel sacrifice was displaced by new, even richer rituals and forms. Within a few decades virtually the entire population of the Aztec lands had become Christian.

This image of the Mass of St Gregory, hoverer, is not just a noble witness to the past, but an admonition to us in the present. For nowadays, despite all the official talk, the spirit of evangelization has almost completely vanished from the Church. The public culture of our age in the United States and Western Europe is militantly anti-Christian. And it seems the majority of contemporary Catholics urgently need basic instruction themselves in the nature of the Mass and the Eucharist. This image  is a salutary example of what once was  accomplished in a prior age by missionaries and their (very) recent converts. It it is just one aspect of a  never-ending task, which despite the unimaginable differences between Mexico City in 1539 and New York in 2018,  always can and must be taken up once again.

(Above) The image of Christ in the “Mass of St Gregory” is surrounded by items associated with the Passion of Christ – a subject of late medieval devotions. In addition, there is a somewhat incongruous offering of two pineapples – a fruit from the New World.

For a detailed and extremely informative discussion of this image see HERE.

A description of the exhibition.

From the website of St Ignatius Loyola parish, New York:

News & Announcements

Cardinal John Ribat KBE, M.S.C., of Papua New Guinea will discuss the climate change crisis that is affecting the Oceania region. Rising sea levels are washing away islands, putting the region’s very survival and existence at stake.

So one of Pope Francis’s recent cardinals – from the periphery – comes to one of the wealthiest parishes in the country to share with the rich his expertise on climate change. All stage-managed by the Jesuits, of course.

A most revealing commentary on what is actually going on in Francis-land.

Solemn Mass for the Feast of Saint Joseph
Monday March 19th at 7pm
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church
259 Oliver Street,  Newark
Coffee and refreshments served after mass in Rectory.
Rev Msgr Joseph F. Ambrosio, Celebrant and Pastor

Tonight, Monday, February 26, 2018, there will be a Solemn Requiem Mass and Absolution at the Catafalque to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Happy Valley Racecourse Fire in Hong Kong at which 670 people perished.

The Mass is at the Pontifical Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in New York City at 7:30 PM.

Following Mass, the Sacred Ministers will change from black to violet vestments and lead the choir and people in a procession throughout the Church singing a Solemn Litany of the Saints to beseech our Lady of Mt. Carmel and the Communion of Saints to intercede for the persecuted Church in China and protect it against the attacks it faces today.

At the Requiem Mass, the choir will sing the Missa pro defunctis for six voices by Manuel Cardoso (1566-1650).

The Mass is being sponsored by a family that lost five members in the tragedy.

It’s a sad undertaking: a visit to the former church of St Vincent de Paul on a cold and rainy day in February. The neoclassical facade of the 1930’s stands forlorn on West 23rd street surrounded by nondescript chain stores and, more often than not since a blast rocked the surroundings two years ago, by empty storefronts. Statues, windows and welcome boards have been stripped away; a bum pulls down his trousers on the steps. It’s a sad end for a parish that, as the French national church of New York, once enjoyed a certain degree of celebrity in the city – even if located in a neighborhood that, until the last few decades, was out of the way and mildly disreputable as well.

(Above and below)The neoclassical facade of 1939 is much more recent than the rest of the church.

By 2016 all appeals against its closure and sale had been rejected by the Vatican.  In that year too an explosion knocked out the facade windows of the closed church. And finally, also in 2016, the property was sold to a “hotelier”;  in 2017 a new owner took over.  But as of today the church still stands – eloquent testimony to the post-Vatican II progress of Catholicism in this city.

(Above) Boards, like a strange dead eye, where the rose-shaped window looked out on the street.

For a description of the church before its closing see HERE.