Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent
Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

We are in the final days before Christmas and the Church is using many voices of her sacred tradition to prepare us for the coming of Christ. St. Paul reminds us that we have to preserve faithfully the doctrine that we have received. St. John the Baptist invites us to conversion. Last but not least Our Lady and St. Joseph are asking us to meditate in the sufferings they had to endure just before the birth of Christ.

In the epistle St. Paul is underlining that he is a minister of Christ and dispenser of the mysteries of God. As a minister he is a servant that manages the affairs of God’s household or in other words of the family of Christ, which is the Church. He is a servant of God and second and as a consequence he is a servant of the children of God. He dispenses to the ones that are ready to listen the revealed truth of both testaments. Those revealed truths nevertheless remain a mystery because a number of them are beyond the comprehension of our reason and we can accept them only through the gift of faith. His duty as it is the obligation of all the descendants of the apostles is to transmit faithfully what he has received without entering into any sort of compromises with the world that would dilute the doctrine of Christ or falling in the opposite direction to try to make this doctrine more “perfect” with a rigorist approach. Both compromise and a rigorist position come from the same source which is the enemy of mankind. At the same time we have to be aware that some members of the Church call rigorist, positions that are just in total coherence with the constant magisterium of the Church as Cardinal Ratzinger warned us. The shifting towards rigorist positions is a trap of the enemy because he will pile impossible obligations that we will not be able fulfil and when we fail he will tempt us with despair. He will tell then the ones that he entrapped with a rigorist approach, you see you are incapable of following the path of salvation abandon all hope of following Christ.

In the gospel we have a magnificent description of the mission of St. John the Baptist and how he preaches a baptism of penance to prepare the people to be properly disposed to receive the Lord. The Gospel identifies with historical precision the time and place of the public appearance of the precursor of Christ. Tiberius Caesar was the second emperor of Rome and the fifteenth year of his reign corresponds either to the 27^th or 29^th year of his reign depending in the different calculations. Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor of Judea, Samaria and Idumea between the years 26 and 36 AD. Herod Antipas a son of the so called Herod the Great, succeeded his father only in part of his reign in Galilee and Philip his brother was tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiphas were high priests but it should be noticed that all the tetrarchs and even the high priests were subordinated and in many ways controlled by the Romans. St. Gregory the Great sees in this historical presentation the prophetic meaning that the gentiles also are called to conversion. In the same way that the Romans were gathering all the nations into one, Christ comes to unify all nations under Him.

St. John the Baptist quoting the words of Isaiah is speaking of a new exodus. An exodus that will not be led by Moses but that will be conducted by Jesus Christ as Brand Petri explains. This pilgrimage would lead to the new Promised Land which is Heaven. There we will encounter the new and definitive creation. To enter into this new pilgrimage we have to be filled with the grace that Christ is offering us, but in the same way mountains and hills should be brought low we have to accept with total humility the grace that Christ is offering to us. St. Gregory the Great points out that the crooked places are to become straight, when the hearts of wicked perverted by injustice, are directed by the rule of justice. The welcoming smile of Jesus in the manger will give us a foretaste of this new creation.

In the Advent liturgy the Church proclaims the coming of Jesus Christ as Our Savior, who is our only source of hope and exhorts every Christian to purify his soul by a new interior conversion, or by a deepening of a previous conversion. Because the coming of the Lord is about to happen, we must prepare ourselves spiritually by doing penance for our sins and receiving the sacrament of confession to be properly prepared to receive the shower of graces that the Lord is bringing for us. That is what St. John the Baptist is meaning by leveling the mountains and making the Lord’s path straight.

Today it is more than appropriate to meditate in the sorrows of Our Lady and St. Joseph that preceded the birth of Jesus. Joseph and Mary had to travel to Bethlehem to be inscribed in a census for tax purposes. Most likely Joseph owned in Bethlehem some small pieces of land that he had inherited from his ancestors and for tax purposes he was required by the Romans to be inscribed as tax payer in that town, as Benedict XVI explains to us. Probably his land was very small and produced little or no income. Just think of the difficulties and discomforts of winter travel in particular for a woman that was close to given birth. Remember that no one of their relatives was ready to lodge them and they did not find a place in the inn. Most likely all the places in the only inn in town had already been taken by the crowd of richer people who were flocking there for the census. In the Hispanic popular piety there is a traditional late Advent celebration called Las Posadas (the inns) that is inspired in this fruitless effort of the Holy Family to find logins. Because they could not find any other place they had to settle in a cave that served as a stable in the outskirts of Bethlehem, that somebody allowed them to use. The Holy Family who were bringing the Savior of World suffered loneliness, disappointment and rejection. Just use your imagination to depict the frustration of St. Joseph as protector and provider of his family. At the same time he accepted all these sufferings with the patience of a humble man. These sufferings of the Holy Family had a clear redemptive value because they were part in many ways of the sufferings that Christ was going to endure for our salvation. Most likely Jesus in the womb of her mother had a sense of the suffering of His parents and shared their anguish. Extra biblical tradition points out that after the visit of the shepherds their relatives came to their assistance. Sufferings give birth to joy and we will experience that in Christmas.

Today through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. John the Baptist and St. Paul let us ask for the grace of being properly prepared to receive the graces of Christ at Christmas, always remaining faithful to the doctrine that we have received from Christ.

May the Lord Bless you and Keep you.

It was almost deserted on Greenwich Avenue at 6:30  this morning, but the lights were on in many of the stores as employees readied things for a busy Christmas  shopping day.  Inside St. Mary’s  a different kind of preparation was taking place, where many people knelt in the quiet, candlelit church waiting for the Rorate Mass to begin.  Father Cyprian La Pastina was the celebrant of this solemn Mass.  A large group of young men assisted as acolytes.  The propers and ordinaries were sung in Gregorian chant.  As the mass progressed the light of dawn began to show through the windows.

From the parish website:  “This is a special Mass celebrated in honor of Our Lady on Saturdays in Advent. The title comes from the Introit (Entrance) of the Mass which translated means, “Drop down ye heavens from above” reminding us that the Lord came down from heaven and was born of the Virgin. What makes this Mass so unusual is that it is celebrated in the early morning by candlelight. The celebration is timed so that the sun begins to rise by the time of the consecration of the bread and wine to remind us of the constant coming of Christ into this world each time Holy Mass is celebrated.”

Last night Regina Pacis Academy, an independent Catholic school in Norwalk Connecticut, put on its annual Christmas pageant featuring a play “A House for Elves,” written for the occasion by teacher Molly Lloyd.

“To sum it up, the relentless and organized revolutionary assault has finally reached the United States as the embodiment of the pre-1789 political order, and the Church, as the embodiment of the transcendental order. Our civilization will no doubt come to an end the day the Catholic Church and the United States join the revolution.“(My emphasis)

(Thomas Molnar, The Counter-Revolution at 202 (Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1969))

Francis and Obama?

A traditional sung Mass will be offered at Sacred Heart Parish, 145 Randolph Ave, Clifton, NJ on Sunday December 27,  at 2:00PM. This monthly mass is sponsored by   Passaic County Latin Mass.

The following churches will offer Traditional Masses for the Christmas season. If you know of any that are not listed here, please let us know.

St. Mary Church, Norwalk, CT
Christmas Eve:

11 pm Rosary by the creche

11:20 pm Orchestral Prelude: Christmas Concerto (Concerto grosso in G minor, Op. 6, No. 8) (Arcangelo Corelli, 1683-1713)

11:30 pm Christmas Carols
Carol: What Child Is This (Greensleves)
Carol: O Holy Night (Cantique de Noël)
Carol: O Little Town of Bethlehem (St. Louis)
Carol: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
Carol: Tu scendi dalle stelle (St. Alfonso Maria de’ Liguori, 1696-1787)
Carol: Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming (Es is ein’ Ros’ entsprungen)
Carol: De Virgine Maria (Carl Rütti, b.1949)
Carol: Silent Night (Stille Nacht)
Prelude: Desseins éternels (from La Nativité du Seigneur) (Olivier Messiaen, 1908-1992)
The Solemn Proclamation of Christmas
Hymn at the Procession: Adeste Fideles (John Francis Wade, arr. David Willcocks, 1919-2015)
Hymn at the Procession: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (Mendelssohn, arr. Willcocks)

12:00 Solemn Midnight Mass
Mass in C Major (K. 258, “Piccolomini”) (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756-1791)
Gregorian Mass of Christmas Midnight: Dominus dixit
Motet at the Offertory: Laudate Dominum (from Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339) (Mozart)
Motet at the Communion: Verbum caro factum est (John Sheppard, c.1515-1558)
Postlude: In dulci jubilo (BWV 729) Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685-1750)
Postlude: Fugue in A Major (BWV 536/2) (Bach)

Christmas Day, 9:30 am, Solemn Mass
Prelude: Puer natus in Bethlehem (BWV 603) (Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685-1750)
Hymn at the Procession: O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles, arr. David Willcocks, 1919-2015)
Missa O magnum mysterium (Tomás Luis de Victoria, 1548-1611)
Gregorian Mass of Christmas Day: Puer natus est
Gradual: Viderunt omnes (Pérotin, fl. c. 1200)
Motet at the Offertory: Verbum caro factum est (John Sheppard, c.1515-1558)
Motet at the Communion: O magnum mysterium (Victoria)
Postlude: In dulci jubilo (BWV 729) Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685-1750)
Postlude: Fugue in A Major (BWV 536/2) (Bach)

Sunday Dec. 27, 9:30 am, Solemn Mass followed by festive Christmas coffee hour
Jan. 1, Octave Day of Christmas, 5:30 pm, Solemn Mass

St Martha’s Church, Enfield, CT

Christmas Day, 12 noon, High Mass

St. Stanislaus, New Haven, CT
Christmas Day, 2 pm, sung Mass
Jan. 1, 2 pm, low Mass

Church of St. Anthony, 1496 Commonwealth Avenue, Bronx, NY

Christmas Day, 8:30 AM,Low Mass

Church of the Holy Innocents, New York, NY
Christmas Eve, 1 pm, Vigil Mass of the Nativity; 11:30 pm, program of sacred Christmas music; 12:01 am, Midnight Solemn Mass, followed by a festive reception in the parish hall
Christmas Day, Mass, 10:30 am
Sunday, Dec. 27, Mass at 10:30 am, Sunday Vespers and Benediction at 2:30 pm
Monday, Dec. 28,  Solemn Mass at 6 pm
Jan. 1, Octave of Nativity, Mass 1 pm

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 448 East 116th St., New York, NY
Christmas Day, 10:30 am, sung Mass
Jan. 1, Octave Day of Christmas, 10:30 am, sung Mass
Wed. Jan. 6, Epiphany, 7 pm, Solemn Mass and distribution of blessed Epiphany water, chalk and frankincense

St. Agnes Church, 143 East 43rd St., New York, NY
Christmas Day, 11:15 am, sung Mass

Our Lady of Peace, 522 Carroll St., Brooklyn, NY
Christmas Day, 9:30am

Immaculate Conception Church, Sleepy Hollow, NY
Christmas Day, 3PM Sung Mass
December 27th – 3PM Low Mass
Friday, January 1 – 3PM Low Mass
Sunday, January 3 – 3PM Low Mass Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, followed by Christmas pageant and special dinner, convivium

St. Matthew’s Church, 35 North Service Road, Dix Hills, NY 
Christmas Day, 12:30 pm High Mass (in the Parish Center Chapel)

St. Ladislaus, Hempstead, NY
Christmas Day, 9:00 am, sung Mass

St. Patrick’s Church, 55 Grand Street, Newburgh,  NY
Christmas Day 3 pm

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, 259 Oliver Street, Newark, NJ
Christmas Eve: Solemn Midnight Mass. There will be a prelude of Christmas Carols at 11:30pm.

Our Lady of Victories Church, 150 Harriot Avenue, Harrington Park, NJ
Christmas Eve, 9:00 pm Sung High Latin Mass

St. Anthony of Padua, Jersey City, NJ
Christmas Eve, 9 pm
Jan. 1, 9 am
Wed. Jan. 6, Epiphany, Sung Mass, 7 pm

St. Catherine Laboure, 110 Bray Avenue, Middletown, NJ
Christmas Day, Solemn Mass, 8:45 am

Our Lady of Fatima Chapel, 32 West Franklin Avenue, Pequannock, NJ
Christmas Eve, 11:00 pm Christmas carols, 12:00 Midnight Mass

Christmas Day, 7:00 am  Mass at Dawn
9:00 am  Mass of Christmas Day
11:00 am  Mass of Christmas Day

St. Anthony of Padua Oratory, West Orange, NJ
Christmas Eve,
9:30 pm Confessions
10:30 pm Traditional Christmas Carols
11:00 pm Solemn High Midnight Mass (First Mass of Christmas)
Christmas Day,
7:30 am Low Mass (Second Mass of Christmas)
9:00 am Low Mass (Second Mass of Christmas)
11:00 am High Mass (Third Mass of Christmas)

The stained glass window is in St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Manhattan, a church that was closed recently by mandate of the Archdiocese.

A new edition of Traditionalist magazine is available, featuring articles by Roget McCaffrey, Bishop Athanius Schneider, Martin Mosebach, Maureen Mullarkey Fr. Richard Cipolla and many others. For a free download, go to

http://www.booksforcatholics.com/pdf/The_Traditionalist_2016_Special_Edition.pdf

The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe was observed this evening at St. Mary’s Church Norwalk with an outdoor procession with mariachi band and a banquet.

Last Thursday evening, a Missa Cantata was celebrated in the chapel of San Lorenzo Ruiz (the Filipino Apostolate of New York). The Reverend Dr. Joseph G. Mugabe (Director of the Filipino apostolate of he Archdiocese of New York) was celebrant and homilist. Mr. Lorenzo Tinio was the Master of Ceremonies. They were assisted by the community of San Lorenzo Chapel and volunteers. I’d like to add that the Society of St Hugh of Cluny was sponsor of this liturgy…

The Chapel of San Lorenzo Ruiz on Broome Street – originally the Church of the Most Holy Crucifix, it was built for an Italian congregation in 1925-26.  No more than a small chapel, it supposedly seats only 250 – even fitting in that number would seem to me a great stretch! Reminders of the original Italian congregation are the polychrome statues displayed around the chapel. The parish of Most Holy Crucifix closed in 2005 and the Filipino Apostolate of the Archdiocese moved there in that year. 1)   Such a  strange quirk of fate: this exceedingly modest chapel has survived while so many New York parishes so much more significant for their history and art have closed…..

(Above and below) Statues presumably inherited from the original parish church are joined by new works related to the Filipino apostolate – including statues of St. Lorenzo Ruiz, above.

The modest but enthusiastic congregation posed afterwards. We hope this will be only the first of many masses in the extraordinary form!

1) Wikipedia entry on the chapel