Octave of Corpus Christi – Day 1
From the Sermons of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine.
In Illo Tempore: Trinity Sunday
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is “the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself” (CCC 234). That sentence ought to make any preacher on Trinity Sunday take a deep breath before he says anything. We want to…
In Illo Tempore: Pentecost Sunday
Of all the treasures in the sacred liturgy of Holy Roman Catholic Church, Pentecost is surely among the richest, perhaps the richest, especially as it comes to us in the Vetus Ordo. Easter has its Vigil with the blessing of baptismal water, its octave, its addition to the Roman Canon. Pentecost, mirroring Easter as a…
In Illo Tempore: Sunday after Ascension THURSDAY
The Sunday after the Ascension places us in a holy interval. The Lord has gone up in glory but the promised Spirit has not yet descended like fire. The Apostles have returned from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem. They are gathered in the Upper Room with Mary, with memories still burning from the Last…
In Illo Tempore: 5th Sunday after Easter
For this 5th Sunday after Easter we are still moving through John 16, Our Lord’s Last Supper Discourse, as well as the Letter of James. Liturgically, we are close to the Ascension of the Lord, when the High Priest, the Risen Savior, entered the heavenly temple where He continuously renews His once-for-all Sacrifice to the…
In Illo Tempore: 4th Sunday after Easter
Our context in the liturgical year for the 4th Sunday after Easter is our preparation for the Ascension of the Lord. We are now in the second phase of Paschaltide. The first stage looked back toward the empty tomb and drew us into the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. Now the Mass formularies shift…
The Pre-55 May Miracles Suppressed
The 1962 Missal suppressed various feast days about miracles.
In Illo Tempore: 3rd Sunday after Easter
The 3rd Sunday after Easter in the Vetus Ordo draws us into that peculiar Christian experience of living between gift and fulfillment, between consolation remembered and consummation promised, between the joy of Easter already given and the greater joy that still presses toward Ascension and Pentecost. The whole formulary has a tensile quality. Expectancy. Movement.…
In Illo Tempore: Good Shepherd Sunday – 2nd after Easter
The 2nd Sunday after Easter in the traditional Roman Rite is called Good Shepherd Sunday. The nickname is well deserved. The Gospel presents Christ’s discourse in John 10, the Epistle from 1 Peter gathers into itself Isaiah’s Suffering Servant, and the Roman Station in ancient times was St. Peter’s on the Vatican Hill, at the…
In Illo Tempore: Low Sunday, Octave of Easter
We bring to completion the great Octave of Easter this Sunday, though “completion” here is to be understood in the Church’s own liturgical sense. For a full eight days, by that ancient inclusive counting which the Romans knew so well and Christians inherited, it has still been Easter Day. The Church has, as it were,…
In Illo Tempore: Palm Sunday
Ever since we set out on this spiritual journey on the Gesima Sundays, step by step we have drawn nearer to Holy Week. Now we stand at the threshold of the remaining days of Holy Week and the Sacred Triduum, those three days which are at once the Church’s deepest descent and highest elevation. Weariness…
