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This Hour of Shadow Over Our Easter: The Greater Litanies

Greater Litanies

Tomorrow, the feast of St. Mark, is also a day set aside for a penitential procession and was designated so long before St. Mark’s festival was instituted. As Dom Gueranger says in his history of the Greater Litanies,

Laden as we are with the manifold graces of this holy season, and elated with our Paschal joys, we must sober our gladness by reflecting on the motives which led the Church to cast this hour of shadow over our Easter sunshine. After all, we are sinners with much to regret and much to fear; we have to avert those scourges which are due to the crimes of mankind; we have, by humbling ourselves and invoking the intercession of the Mother of God and the Saints, to obtain the health of our bodies and the preservation of the fruits of the earth; we have to offer atonement of divine justice for our own and the world’s pride, sinful indulgences, and insubordination. Let us enter into ourselves, and humbly confess that our own share in exciting God’s indignation is great; and our poor prayers, united with those of our holy Mother the Church, will obtain mercy for the guilty, and for ourselves who are of the number.

The great feature of the day is the procession with the singing of the Litany of the Saints, followed by several versicles and prayers. You may want to recite them at home if you do not have a procession available to you. Find them here.

Here is a link to Dom Gueranger’s history and explanation of this day. You will find it by scrolling down to the heading, “St. Mark’s Procession”. The link also provides a bounty of information on St. Mark.

 

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Triduum of Our Lady of Good Counsel

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*Triduum, April 23-25, Feast, April 26

 

The devotion to Our Lady of Good Counsel originated near Rome, where for centuries an Augustinian church, which contains a miraculous picture of Mary, has been a place of pilgrimage. Your earthly pilgrimage is beset with many dangers. You are in need of advice in the serious problems of life. Remember that Jesus gave you a counselor who will never fail you. Go to your Heavenly Mother with childlike confidence and abandonment. Entrust yourself to her prudent guidance, for she is your Mother of Good Counsel.

I, Wisdom, dwell in counsel and am present in learned thoughts..Counsel is mine, prudence is mine, strength is mine” (Prov. 8, 12. 14).

PRAYER

MAY the kind intercession of Mary, Your glorious and ever Virgin-Mother, be our help, we beg of You, O Lord, that it may make those whom it has blessed with continual favors ever to know what should be done, and then strengthen them to carry it out faithfully. Who live and reign forever. Amen.

     Mary, you are favored more than all other women on earth, for in the presence of our God you have aided us in our weakness. Rule over us, you and your Son, because you have freed us from the hands of our enemies!

Hail Mary…

Mary speaks:

     “He that listens to me shall not be put to shame, and they that work by me shall not sin” (Ecclus. 24, 30).

PRAYER

O GOD, You gave her who bore Your beloved Son, to be our Mother, and glorified her fair image by a wondrous apparition; grant, we beg of You, that by always following her counsels we may be able to live after Your own Heart and arrive happily in our heavenly fatherland. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

*Taken from Mary, My Hope by Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik, S.V.D., copyright 1954

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Six Seminarians Wow Our Weekend

On Friday night, Fr. Sandquist brought down six first and second-year seminarians from CMRI’s recently-acquired Iowa location to help us prepare for Candlemas and a High Mass for the Feast of the Purification, as well as lend their muscles to a chapel workday: Joe (Nebraska), Dominic (MN), Adam (MI), William (MI), Caleb (Scotland), and Frederic (France).

Saturday morning was dedicated to removing the Christmas decorations and Nativity, followed by server and choir practice. Then sheetrock projects began as the ladies boxed up the large Nativity figures. That complete, the women organized an assembly line to pull nails from salvaged oak baseboards. After the de-nailed boards were stained, seminarians whisked them off to be cut and then nailed in place while others taped so that a second coat could be applied. Fr. Sandquist took to his hands and knees to finish the staining–the baseboards and, he ruefully noted afterward, his hands. Between all the sheetrock dust, the blue tape, and everything being pulled away from the walls, including the altar, it looked like we couldn’t possibly be ready for mass on Sunday, but of course it all came back together with many hands making light work.

Sunday’s Candlemas ceremony and high mass were simply glorious. We couldn’t have asked for a more gorgeous day for our procession either. It was 69 degrees with sunny, blue skies. The seminarians were thrilled with the fantastic weather after enduring a tough winter in Iowa. All the practice paid off, and everything went smoothly. The choir finished with a stunning Stella Matutina. Afterward Adam asked if it was too loud, and I assured him that it was exquisite, and the volume was perfect. Truly, we congregants zoomed heavenward in a musical chariot powered by their strong male voices, sonorous with Marian devotion.

Below is a photo gallery from the Asperges, Candlemas ceremony, and procession:

Below is a photo gallery from the Mass for the Purification, with the final two photos depicting the new location of the statues of Sts. Peter and Paul and a zoomed-in look at the altar with the newly-acquired Jesus and Mary statues.

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Saturday Mass, Practice, and Work Day

Since Fr. Sandquist will be at our chapel with four seminarians for a work day, we will have mass on Saturday, Feb. 1st, at 8 am.

Afterward we will eat breakfast, take down Christmas decorations, and have choir and server practice.

Then the work projects will begin, which will include installing double doors on the chapel entrance from the hallway so that we may have the Blessed Sacrament reserved on our altar and finishing sheetrock projects in the confessional, priest’s office, and cry room.3F76E077-A7CE-4901-BA53-EAC189EF7298