Yesterday evening Vespers and Benediction for the Feast of All Saints Day were offered at St. Mary Church Norwalk. Father George Rutler preached a sermon. Vespers are now scheduled for every first Sunday of the month at St. Mary’s.

St. Mary Church, Greenwich, CT, November 3, Sung Requiem Mass, 7:30 pm

A beginning level biblical Greek class will now be offered at St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk. The first class will be this Friday, November 6 at 6:30 pm in the St. Therese Room of the school building. Read the New Testament Gospels, Acts of the Apostles and Epistles in the original language. The instruction is being offered at no cost. For further information, please contact Charles Edstrom at 203-838-9114.

Today at Regina Pacis Academy, Norwalk, CT

The following churches will be offering Traditional Requiem Masses on Monday, November 2, the Feast of All Souls Day.

St. Mary Church, Norwalk, CT, Solemn Mass, 6:00 pm

St. Stanislaus Church, New Haven, Low Mass, 5:30 pm

Church of the Holy Innocents, Manhattan, Solemn Mass, 6 pm, Missa pro Defunctis by Victoria

Immaculate Conception Church, Sleepy Hollow, NY, Missa Cantata, 7 pm

St. Paul the Apostle Church, Brookville, NY, 7 pm

St. Matthew’s Church, Dix Hills NY- 9:30am Low Mass for All Souls in the Chapel

Requiem Masses on other dates:

St. Mary Church, Greenwich, CT, November 3, Sung Requiem Mass, 7:30 pm.

St. Catherine of Siena, Manhattan, Solemn Requiem Mass in the Dominican Rite, Monday, Nov. 16, 6:30 pm, Durufle Requiem, information.

St. John the Baptist, Manhattan, all night vigil of eucharistic adoration for the souls in purgatory on Thursday, Nov. 19 to Friday Nov. 20, beginning at 9 pm, schedule.

St. Stanislaus Church, New Haven, a Sung Mass for the intentions of the Purgatorial Society St Stanislaus, November 20, 7:00pm.

The stained glass window appears in the Cathedral Basilica of St. James, Brooklyn

There will be an all night vigil of eucharistic adoration for the souls in purgatory on Thursday, Nov. 19 to Friday Nov. 20 at the Church of St. John the Baptist, 210 W. 31st St., New York.  This event is sponsored by the Third Friday Reparation Devotional Prayer Group

9 P.M.  1st Annual Traditional Latin Requiem Mass with absolution at the catafalque 10 P.M. First Break
11 P.M.  Exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament ; Prayers for the Holy Souls in Purgatory
Third Friday Reparation Prayers to the Most Precious Blood
3 A.M.  Divine Mercy Chaplet of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus 3:15 A.M. Second Break
3:45 A.M.  Eucharistic Procession and Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament
4:15 A.M.  Closing Sung Traditional Latin Sung Requiem Mass with absolution at the catafalque
5:30 A.M.  Blessing of Religious Articles; Recitation of the Angelus at 12 Midnight and 6 A.M.

Saint Mary Church in Norwalk, CT,  will host Fr. George Rutler from New York City for sung vespers at 5 PM this Sunday, November 1, Feast of All Our Saints.

This traditional Sunday prayer service will culminate with Exposition and Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament, a beautiful way to end Sunday’s Feast. This devotion continues every first Sunday of each month with various priests presiding.

The Ravine – the site of the martyrdoms.

As so often in the past, we came back again this year to the shrine of the North American martyrs in Auriesville, New York (west of Albany) for a personal “pilgrimage.” The time was right – it was the Saturday before the feast of St. Isaac Jogues on October 19. The fall weather and the foliage were magnificent. Only the temperature was distinctly on the chilly side – snow fell the next day. That’s the reason the “Pilgrimage for the Restoration” – which originally took place at this time – was pushed back to September.

(Above and below) A strange, sacred calm prevails here in the “offseason.” That is particularly so in the Ravine – the holiest part of the shrine – where Rene Goupil was martyred.

(above) The deserted second shrine church from the 1890’s. Only a handful of visitors could be found on the grounds of the Auriesville shrine this brilliant Saturday afternoon. The shrine “welcome center” and bookstore were “closed for the season.” Signs of neglect abound: outdoor stations of the cross have been knocked over here and there; a a large cross formed of pine trees created to advertise the shrine to the nearby thruway is sadly overgrown. Yet the brooding silence is welcome relief from the daily reports of the unfolding chaos of the synod in Rome.

(Above and below). After 120 years the Jesuits are giving up at the end of this year care of the Shrine of the North American Martyrs. “We’re moving on!” one of them proudly told us. Who will take over the spiritual care for the shrine is uncertain at this time. But this year money has become available – from the Knights of Columbus, among others – for some urgently needed repainting in the main church. And it seems that “master sculptor” Timothy P. Schmalz has obtained two or three big commissions.

(Below) It seems that the modest Victorian statuary of the past no longer suffices. The new funds are a mixed blessing indeed.

(Above) As the Catholic Church contracts, the Buddhists expand. Some years ago the Jesuits sold or leased the former Jesuit retreat house to a Chinese sect. They have expanded, constructing a pagoda-like tower peering over the shrine and a very Chinese-looking gate. The Buddhists have also gotten into disputes with the shrine over non-payment of utilities and the use of an access road (below – the “Father” is the Jesuit head of the shrine). What happens next is anyone’s guess. In the last few years, confronted with decreasing  numbers of visitors (and correspondingly diminishing donations), the Jesuits responded by restricting or excluding Traditionalist pilgrimages. We would hope the new management of  the Shrine of the North American Martyrs adopts a more Christian approach – and shows more energy in promoting what should be focal point of Catholicism on the East Coast.