Also known as Palm or Pussy Willow Sunday (there are no palms this time of year in Russia). As celebrated at St. Michaels’ Russian Catholic Chapel, New York.

(Photo courtesy of Thomas Stadnik)

Palm (or Olive Branch) Sunday in the Traditional Ambrosian Rite. As celebrated  at the church of the Traditional Ambrosian Rite Catholics in Milan:  Santa Maria della Consolazione.

(Above) The full schedule of Traditional services at St. Anthony’s

JERSEY CITY – The Office of Tenebrae of Holy Thursday will be anticipated on Wednesday, March 23 at 7:30PM as part of this year’s schedule of Holy Week services at the historic downtown church of St. Anthony of Padua, located at Monmouth St. between 6th and 7th.

This ancient service generally referred to as the Holy Week Office of Shadows or Darkness consists of the Office of Matins and Lauds for Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The name derives from the Latin meaning of Tenebrae which means “shadows.” It is also referred to as “Christ’s Funeral.”

As the name suggests, the service is conducted in a darkened church while the choir chants Psalms, Lamentations, Responsories and Lessons. After the completion of each Psalm one candle is extinguished from the “hearse” holding fifteen candles gradually reducing the lighting throughout the service. The six altar candles are put out during the Benedictus, and then any remaining lights in the church. The last candle is hidden, and the service ends with the strepitus (Latin for “great noise”) symbolizing the earthquake that followed Christ’s death. This beautiful and moving service is very rarely experienced in parish churches.

The resident choir, Cantantes in Cordibus will lead the Gregorian chant and other musical settings by Allegri. Its director, Maestro Simone Ferraresi, studied at the Conservatory of Music in Ferrara, Italy where he earned his degree with highest honors; at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna he studied with world renowned pianist and musicologist Paul Badura-Skoda. Maestro Ferraresi specialized in interpretation of classical composers; at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he was awarded the Diploma of the Royal Academy of Music – the highest examinable award given by the Royal Academy. He was also awarded three special prizes for best performance in the final recital. He is the founder and artistic director of the Ferrara International Piano Festival.

St. Anthony’s Church is listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Sites. The church, built in the Victorian Gothic Style, is a pristine example of a church untouched by modern elements and remains a true example of Roman Catholic aesthetic rarely seen today. The church parking lot is located on 6th St. between Coles and Monmouth Street and is easily accessible from the Grove Street PATH, the Newport PATH and Light Rail stop.

Through the generous support of Very Rev. Canon Joseph Urban, Pastor of St. Anthony’s, this is the first time Tenebrae will be available at St. Anthony’s. We invite everyone to attend this moving service during the most important and significant week of the Liturgical Year. Please visit the parish website at stanthonyjc.com for more information about the other traditional services during Holy Week.

(Images in Church of the Holy Redeemer, New York)

St. Mary Church, Norwalk, CT

Palm Sunday, Solemn Mass 9:30 am
Wednesday, March 23, Tenebrae, 7 pm
Holy Thursday, Mass of the Last Supper, 7 pm; Stripping of the Altars and Tenebrae, 8:30; All night vigil before the Blessed Sacrament
Good Friday, Good Friday Liturgy, 3 pm, Outdoor Good Friday procession, 6:30 pm, all night vigil
Holy Saturday, end of vigil, 12 noon; Easter Vigil Mass, 7 pm
Easter Sunday, Solemn Mass, 9:30 am

St. Stanislaus Church, New Haven, CT
Palm Sunday, High Mass,2 pm
Good Friday, Sung, 12 noon
Easter Sunday, High Mass and Benediction, 2 pm

Church of the Holy Innocents, New York
Palm Sunday,Sung Mass,10:30AM, Sung Vespers 2:30PM
Monday in Holy Week, Mass at 6PM
Tuesday in Holy Week, Mass at 6PM
Spy Wednesday, Sung Mass at 6PM; Tenebræ Service at 8PM
Holy Thursday, Sung Mass at 7:30PM. The church will remain open for prayer at the Altar of Repose.
Good Friday, Seven Last Words at 12 Noon – Musical setting: Théodore Dubois: Liturgy of the Passion (Pre-Sanctified) at 3PM
Holy Saturday, Easter Vigil at 9:30PM; Easter festive reception immediately after the Easter Vigil
Easter Sunday, 10:30AM; Festive Coffee Hour after Mass; Sung Vespers for Easter at 2:30PM

St. Patrick’s Church, Newburgh,  NY (55 Grand Street, Newburgh, NY 12550)

Easter Sunday Mass, 3:00 pm.

Immaculate Conception Church, Sleepy Hollow, NY
Palm Sunday, Missa Cantata, 3:00 pm (with Procession/Blessing of Palms/ Chanting of the Passion)

Easter Sunday, Missa Cantata, 1:30 pm

Our Lady of Peace, Brooklyn, NY
Palm Sunday, Missa Cantata with blessing of palms and procession, 9:20 am

St. Anthony of Padua, Jersey City, NJ
Spy Wednesday, Tenebrae, 7:30 PM (please be advised to bring your 1962 or earlier Roman missal)
Holy Thursday, Mass of the Lord’s Supper, 6:00 PM
Good Friday, Liturgy of Our Lord’s Passion, 5:00 PM
Holy Saturday, Easter Vigil and Mass, 10:00 PM
Easter Sunday, Low Mass, 9:00 AM

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Newark, NJ

Holy Thursday, Solemn Mass, 7 pm

St. Anthony of Padua Oratory, West Orange, NJ
Palm Sunday: 7:30 am, 10:00 am; Vespers 3:00 pm
Holy Thursday: 9:00 a.m. Tenebrae; 7:00 p.m. Solemn High Mass; 8:30 p.m. Eucharistic Adoration at the Altar of Repose
Good Friday: 8:00 a.m. Tenebrae; 3:00 p.m. Liturgy of the Passion & Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Holy Saturday: 8:00 a.m. Tenebrae; 8:00 p.m. Easter Vigil Mass
Easter Sunday: 7:30 a.m. Low Mass; 9:00 a.m. Low Mass with Hymns; 11:00 a.m. High Mass

Our Lady of Fatima, Pequannock, NJ
Note: The Sacred Triduum will be held at HOLY CROSS CHURCH in Wayne, NJ
HOLY THURSDAY MASS : 6 pm followed by Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament until Midnight
GOOD FRIDAY MASS OF THE PRESANCTIFIED: 3 pm
EASTER VIGIL : 10 pm
EASTER SUNDAY MASS, in Our Lady of Fatima Chapel
10:00 AM Solemn Mass; There will be no Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and no 5:00 PM Mass on Easter Sunday

(Stained glass window in St. Monica Church, New York)

Feast of St. Patrick, Thursday March 17

Holy Innocents Church, New York, Solemn Mass at 6PM

St. Mary Church, Norwalk, CT, Vespers according to the Extraordinary Form, 5:30 pm, featuring children’s schola cantorum

(Image is in the Asamkirche, Munich, Germany)

Feast of St. Joseph, Saturday, March 19

St. Mary Church, Norwalk, CT, Missa Cantata, 9:00 am
Missa sine nomine à 6 (Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, c.1525-1594)
Gregorian Mass of St. Joseph: Justus ut palma
Motet at the Offertory: Beatus vir qui timet Dominum (II) (Claudio Monteverdi, 1567-1643)
Hymn at the Communion: Magne Joseph, fili David (plainsong)

Holy Innocents Church, Solemn Mass, 1 pm. Following the Mass, there will be a reception in the Church Hall with St. Joseph’s Table.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Newark, NJ, Solemn Mass, 12 noon, followed by a St. Joseph’s table

Our Lady of Peace Church, 400 Maywood Ave., Maywood, NJ, 7:30 pm

Other masses for this coming week (Passiontide):

March 13, Passion Sunday
Holy Name of Jesus Church, Brooklyn, Solemn Mass, 5 pm

March 15, Tuesday of Passiontide
St. Mary Church, Greenwich, CT, Missa Cantata, 7:30 pm

March 16, Wednesday of Passiontide
St. Mary Church, Roslyn Harbor, NY, Missa Cantata, 7 pm
St. Mary Church, Norwalk, 6 pm

Dear Friends,

We have a nearly full house for the 24th Annual Summer Symposium at Gardone, with application still open until March 31st. Unfortunately, we also have some very serious hurdles to overcome in order to offer our normal program.
As you know, the Roman Forum no longer has any endowment whatsoever, and now relies solely on donations for all of its activities. We are still $10,000 short of the $30,000 that we need to run the Summer Symposium. The money is used to pay for our twelve speakers’ participation (airfare, room and board), as well as scholarships for priests, seminarians, and students. We have nine more speakers to support, and a backlog of fifteen scholarship applicants.
We are planning to put all of our talks online from this summer forward, including a redoing of all twenty five years of the New York Church History Lecture Series, but we desperately need your help to be able to do so. I wish that I could think of new words to indicate what an enormous blessing the twenty four years of this Summer Symposium has been, not just for the people taking part in it, but for the broader work of building up scholarly contact and cooperation among Traditionalist Catholics and providing major texts in Church History and Social Thought. Our speakers now come from Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Spain, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Sweden, and Australia in addition to the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Alas, I simply cannot think of anything else to say.
Fundraising is a very, very unpleasant work, and I promise that this, my second general request for help, will be my last appeal for help for this project. Quite frankly, I have a great fear that without your immediate assistance we may no longer be able to keep the Roman Forum going past this summer at all.

Warm regards,
John Rao (D.Phil., Oxford; Associate Professor of History, St. John’s University)
Chairman, Roman Forum

Difficile est saturam non scribere. (Juvenal, sat. 1,30)

In February Cardinal Turkson paid a  – rather low profile – visit here to preach the environmental Gospel of Pope Francis. First, to Molloy College on Long Island.

Thank you for the invitation to introduce the Encyclical, and then to reflect on “Catholics, Capitalism and Climate” with the help of Fr James Martin as moderator and three distinguished panellists Meghan Clark, R.R. Reno, and Erin Lothes. (my emphasis)

Today, we must discover the “fundamental and astounding” steps we need to take to address global warming, environmental and social degradation, or else face cataclysms like the more frequent and higher coastal floods that are predicted here in New York.

Vatican Radio

And later, he travelled to Philly and spoke at Villanova University. There he offered, as part of a”Lenten Reflection,”  a Bergoglian “better translation” of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy:

You may remember the Works of Mercy from catechism, or they may have slipped your mind, and I hope you have found them printed in this evening’s program. “They are still valid, still current… they remain the basis for self-examination,” says Pope Francis. “Perhaps some aspects could be better ‘translated’” for our situation, our society. It is just such a “better translation”, inspired by
Laudato si’, that I would like to share with you this evening. 8) Let me read the Works to you slowly.

First, here are the 7 corporal ones:
1. to feed the hungry; especially those who suffer from poverty and drought.
2. to give drink to the thirsty; especially those who lack clean, abundant water.
3. to clothe the naked; especially those exposed to the cold of winter and the sting of indifference.
4. to give shelter to the homeless; especially victims of war, storms, and rising seas.
5. to care for the sick; especially those who have been poisoned by the wastes of our industries.
6. to ransom the captive; especially those oppressed by cruel economic and political systems, or from addictions to the pleasures of the world.
7. to protect the dignity of the human person, especially in reverently burying the dead.
And here is an additional 8th:
8. to care for our common home.

Now, here are the 7 spiritual ones, again with the same additional 8th:
1. to teach those who do not see how their lifestyles harm others.
2. to offer hope to those who despair for the future of loved ones or the future of the world.
3. to admonish those who sin against neighbor, the natural order, or the laws of nature.
4. to patiently bear the sufferings inflicted by gluttony and greed.
5. to willingly forgive offences committed against humanity and the goodness of creation.
6. to comfort those afflicted by corruption, by changes to our climate, and by unwholesome desires.
7. to desire always to pray for the living and the dead and future generations.
And again here is the additional 8th:
8. to care for our common home.

8) Written by Bill Patenaude for the Global Catholic Climate Movement (Cardinal Turkson’s note)

Source

(Thanks to Catholic World News)

With flowers, the playing of the organ and rose vestments (from England).  As  well as a magnificent performance of a Michael Haydn mass by the student schola.

Followed in the evening by Vespers, Benediction and the start of the Lenten Mission of the parish.