Rejoice in the Lord Always!

This past weekend has been what we at Pistachio House sometimes refer to as a “churchy weekend”: three Masses and chanted Vespers.

The first of these was a new experience for us. At 6:30 on Saturday morning, we attended an Extraordinary Form Rorate Mass at Saint Joseph. This is a votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin celebrated in Advent. Since Saturday was the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe – a feast sadly not on the calendar for the Extraordinary Form – it seemed appropriate that they scheduled this Mass for this day.

It’s called a Rorate Mass for the first word of the Introit (entrance antiphon):

Rorate cœli desuper et nubes pluant justum
Aperiatur terra et germinet salvatorem.

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just
Let the earth be opened and send forth a Saviour.

A Rorate Mass is traditionally celebrated by candlelight. It’s absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. Unfortunately, that means it’s also extremely difficult to get a decent photo with my humble little phone camera.

It was a high Mass, so there were three priests acting the roles of priest-celebrant, deacon, and subdeacon.

They also employed no less than eighteen altar servers and a young (and extremely competent) MC.

The choir was heavenly.

The entire Mass was, as I said, breathtakingly beautiful and absolutely uplifting and joyous.

Afterwards, we spent some time in the hall, where breakfast was served, and I got to speak for awhile with the priests involved, as well as some friends from both Saint Joseph and Holy Rosary.

Father Stinson was particularly gracious. He allowed me to remove the old server albs, for which the F.S.S.P. and Saint Joseph parish have no particular use, and we brought them back to Holy Rosary for use by our servers.

There are a number of other items there, which Father Stinson encouraged me to take to Holy Rosary, including a Book of the Gospels, a Roman Missal, and assorted priestly vestments. I will get to those in the coming weeks.

After breakfast, Francine and I went for a short hike. It was raining, so we broke out our Altus ponchos, which fit over our packs.

We looked rather like a pair of strawberry trolls stomping through the woods.

Saturday evening was the vigil Mass for Gaudete Sunday – the joyous third Sunday of Advent. A few years ago, Jimmy Akin wrote a brief article explaining Gaudete Sunday. Well worth a read.

Francine read and I served at the Mass, which included the baptism of the beautiful Caeli, daughter of Regina.

Afterwards, I conducted a brief training for my newest adult altar server.

Sunday: Opening the Holy Door

At the Sunday noon Mass, Father Wichert opened the Holy Door at Holy Rosary (photos by the lovely Francine).

The Holy Doors will remain such through the entirety of the Jubilee Year. What a blessing to our parish!

Sunday evening, we chanted Vespers at our parish. Attendance was small, but growing, with twenty people joining in to sing “the prayer of the Church for the Church”.

As both of my long-time readers know, I love the Divine Office, particularly chanted Vespers.

Although the group was small, we worshiped joyfully in song. This is due in no small part to our former pastor, Rev. Jacob Maurer, who was instrumental in encouraging Solemn Lenten Vespers and Triduum Lauds during his time here.

For Advent Vespers, we have alternated between Solemn Vespers (2nd and 4th week) led by our pastor Very Rev. Nicholas Wichert, and Simple Vespers (1st and 3rd week) led by our delightful and very talented choir director, Mrs. Victoria Solenberger.

I wish you the joy of the season, and I will leave you with the Introit (entrance antiphon) for Gaudete Sunday:

Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete. Modestia vestra nota sit omnibus hominibus: Dominus enim prope est. Nihil solliciti sitis: sed in omni oratione petitiones vestræ innotescant apud Deum.

Benedixisti Domine terram tuam: avertisti captivitatem Jacob.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your forbearance be known to all, for the Lord is near at hand; have no anxiety about anything, but in all things, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.

Lord, you have blessed your land; you have turned away the captivity of Jacob.