From the Pastor: Christmas at Epiphany
Merry Christmas to you all! The 40 Days of Christmas have begun and the Glory of The Lord is being made manifest to the entire world. Not that everyone will appreciate the Infant Jesus’ Gift of eternal life, mind you—for there are men NOT of good will who do not even desire temporary Peace on Earth, let alone forever in Heaven—but nobody has been excluded from entering the Stable to worship and adore the life-giving Babe. That some would choose someone, something, anyone, or anything instead of gladly accepting what God has offered may seem strange or even impossible, but reality shows that it happens more frequently than not. Now that you are thinking about that, what do you do with such bad news? Rejoice! You have job security! As long as there are people out there in danger of losing their souls, we, dear Christians, have work to do! It’s time to save some souls! “But how do we do that, exactly? Do we put up billboards?” Yes, some people from the parish have, in the past, put up billboards encouraging Life. Those planning on having an abortion because they have been told that they have no other option, were exposed to the option of the trust in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “But I can’t afford a billboard. What else can I do? I can’t exactly stand out on the streetcorners and evangelize.” Why not? Some parishioners do that exact thing, either in front of abortion mills or even in front of the church during national Rosary Rallies. A public witness to God through the Blessed Mother’s intercession is a nearly cost-free means of evangelizing. “But I can’t stand long enough; the heat/cold is too much; I live too far away. There isn’t any way for me to show lost souls how to know, love, and serve God.” Sure there is! Do you eat at restaurants or friends' houses? Simply praying Grace before meals is quite an easy yet effective witness to your Catholic faith. Most people won’t notice but the ones who do will be affected by seeing you make the Sign of the Cross. You may edify and comfort those who have faith or are pondering the faith. You may prick the consciences of those who are lapsed. You may even anger those fighting against God, but that inevitably leads them to argue with themselves and/or others about their reasons for such unjustified anger, giving God (directly or through intermediaries) an opening to change their minds and hearts. “But I thought this was a ‘Christmas at Epiphany’ article! Why are you writing about saving souls? I want to read about Christmas and Aunt Irma!” Right you are! This is about Christmas at Epiphany, as the title states. Saving souls is what Christmas is all about. The entirety of the human race would be lost to hell were it not for the indescribable love of the God Who created us in His image and likeness. Our sins, by which we lost His Sanctifying Grace, had to be expiated if we were to return to Him even temporarily, let alone eternally. Therefore, in the fullness of time, God the Father sent His Son into the world so that “as many as received Him, He gave the power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in His Name.” The Son, humbly accepting this mission, became Incarnate by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that He may show us in visible form the invisible God. He was to suffer death to conquer sin and death in us. Yet the Holy Trinity did not carry out this plan of Salvation alone. No, God employed His created beings to fulfill His goal. He created Mary to be a worthy Mother of God, giving her a singular grace of purity, being Immaculate from the moment of her conception. But even so, it was an angel, Gabriel, who was chosen by God to reveal this plan and to obtain her fiat. Joseph also accepted his salvific role and followed the angel’s directives in order to protect both Mother and Child. God sent multiple angels to the shepherds, who, upon hearing, seeing, and believing the message, Adored the Christ Child and revealed the Savior’s presence and mission to all who would listen. Wise Men journeyed from the East to also Worship and Adore the tiny Baby, even though the full import of His Godhead was not yet in their grasp. Upon returning home, they each prepared their people for God’s salvation. I could continue with other biblical examples of God using angels and men to evangelize others, but let me bring this explanation to today’s time and place. The beauty, reverence, and prayer all of you saw and displayed at the Masses of Christmas not only brought grace to your own hearts, minds, and souls but also to all of our visitors and to each and every person prayed for at Mass. The spiritual work and preparation of Advent, along with all of the physical work and preparation needed for the Masses (choir practice, building and grounds maintenance, decorations, seemingly endless work done by staff and volunteers, and even your choice to dress in modest yet beautiful clothing) all pointed to God’s love of man and man’s in-turn love of God. You were evangelists without even noticing it! You were “recruited” by God to bring family, friends, and strangers—either physically or spiritually—to the Manger. You did a great job! I am proud of you. As for Aunt Irma, for some strange reason, she only shows up when the bulletin has to be printed before great Feasts occur. With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: Fourth Sunday Of Advent
Here it is, all too soon! The 4th and final Sunday of Advent is upon us. That means that Christmas is right around the corner. Tuesday, December 24th, we have a Christmas Vigil Mass in the Novus Ordo rite at 5:00 pm. Later that night the church will fill up for the first Mass on Christmas Day. Yes, people will arrive on Tuesday but Midnight Mass starts at Midnight, which makes it a Wednesday Mass. If history repeats itself, many people will look at our online calendar, the schedule listed in the bulletin, or the Flocknote announcement, and, scouring the Tuesday schedule for the Midnight Mass and not finding it there will panic. The hysterical phone calls, texts, and emails will start pouring in sounding something like, “AAAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!! What happened to the Midnight Mass? Aren’t we having one this year?” Of course we are! You just looked at the wrong day. Please look at the first item listed on Christmas Day, Wednesday, December 25th, and voila! There it is! Midnight Mass. At Midnight. On Christmas Day. Not 6:00, 8:00, or 10:00 pm on Christmas Eve. It will be a candlelight Mass. It will be peaceful, prayerful, and beautiful. It will last for an eternity but will seem to be too short when it is over. The people will stay afterward to gather in the social hall as they do on Sundays. This year the altar boys and their families will stay and clean up the mess in the church (I am amazed that people will hold a candle for 90 minutes and then somehow forget to take it with them to deposit into the baskets and/or boxes set out for that purpose). I will probably get to bed just in time to get back up to pray the breviary before heading over for the 7:30 am Mass. Fr. Mangiafico will probably drive back to his house in Largo and get to bed shortly before dawn then return for a second Mass. Many choir members, parish staff, sacristans, and other volunteers will probably also pull double duty, so to speak, and come back for one or both of the two morning Masses. Many adult parishioners attending the Christmas daytime Masses will have also lost a lot of sleep due to family gatherings the night before, last-minute preparations for the Big Day, or being kept up by sleepless children and grandchildren. The children who kept the adults up all night will also be exhausted but will be making up for it with the energy that comes from exuberance. And the Masses will be glorious in spite of it all. Or because of it, as we gather to celebrate the birth of Our Savior, Jesus Christ. All that I wrote above is simply a prelude to a simple request that I have for all of you. I ask that on Christmas you keep one eye on the tabernacle and the other eye on those around you. Sounds weird, I know. But on Christmas there are often Catholics (and sometimes non-Catholics) who come to Mass for the first time in months, years, or even decades. Those returning Catholics at the Novus Ordo Vigil Mass might not even know that the Mass responses changed a dozen or so years ago from, for instance, “And also with you” to “And with your spirit.” Those who show up at the Traditional Latin Masses may have expected Mass to be a Novus Ordo (without knowing the meaning of that term) in either English or Spanish (we sometimes get people who mistake “Latin” for “Latino”) and are so completely lost that they even wonder if they are attending a Catholic church or not. Please be on the lookout for them. Not because they are a problem but because they are in need. They will need someone to assure them that this is Catholic. That this is the Mass that the great Saints attended or celebrated. That not understanding the language is not the same as not understanding that Christ is offering His Life on the cross for our salvation. No matter what Mass these “newcomers” attend, they will benefit mentally, emotionally, and spiritually if someone shows them some kindness, offers a few whispered words of assurance, or helps them somehow just feel welcomed home. To their eternal home. Please don’t let your lack of sleep or your overexcitement make you grumpy or terse toward the person or family who took “your” pew, who dressed for the beach rather than for Mass, who talked incessantly before Mass or is doing so even during it. Please don’t let your desire to celebrate Jesus’ birth as perfectly as possible make you overly critical of those who don’t know why they (or you) are there, but who seem to be just doing the bare minimum “Catholic thing” that they think that they can get away with. Instead, open wide your heart to them, as Jesus opened wide His Most Sacred Heart to the soldier (and now Saint) Longinus as he thrust his lance into His side as He hung upon the cross. Remember that you, too, once were not the perfect Catholics (cough, cough) that you are now, and treat them in such a way that they wish with all their heart to return to the Lord, to come to Mass regularly, to become fully, faithfully, and joyfully Catholic, as you are now striving to do. What a great Christmas present that will be, when you present to the Holy Family the gift of a newly converted or reconverted soul to the Divine Infant, simply by being nice and helpful! It might even, were it possible, outshine the gifts the Three Magi will bring on Epiphany. With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: The Oplatki Are Here!
Many years I write something about an ancient Polish Christmas Eve Tradition. Some sources claim it goes back to the 9th century, while others insist on the 17th century as the origin of this tradition. That simply goes to show that you cannot trust everything on the internet! Yet I am going to reproduce below an internet-sourced story about Oplatki instead of simply reprinting what I have written in the past. I would like to give credit to the author, but, as I said, you cannot trust everything on the internet and I found this exact same story on two different websites, attributed to two different authors. Aletia, a Catholic news site, attributes it to Philip Kosloski, while the site CatholicSay attributes it to Raphael Benedict. Both sites use the same photos, too, although I will not reproduce them here. Whoever wrote it, thank you! The beautiful Polish tradition of breaking bread on Christmas Eve —by Philip Kosloski or Raphael Benedict or Someone Else but not by Me The oplatki tradition is one rich in spiritual symbolism, and can even help heal family division. In many Polish homes throughout the world, a most beloved family tradition is the breaking of the oplatek on Christmas Eve. The oplatek (oplatki is the plural form) is a thin wafer similar in consistency to a communion host that is often stamped with an elaborate Christmas scene. Historically these would be distributed by religious to parishioners' homes during the Advent season. Blessed Bread It is related to an Eastern tradition of giving out "blessed bread" after the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. This bread is not consecrated, but blessed by the priest as a way to extend the fruits of the Mass into the home. The oplatek is meant to remind families of the Eucharistic bread at Mass and makes a further connection between Christmas and the gift of the Eucharist, the presence of God among us. On Christmas Eve, the family eagerly awaits the first star in the night sky, recalling the star of Bethlehem that signaled the birth of the Savior. Once the star has been spotted, the Christmas Eve meal begins. The table is traditionally covered with straw and a white cloth. In some homes this is reduced to a single plate, upon which rests the oplatek, as a symbol of Christ in the manger. Reconciliation The father (or eldest member of the family) begins the ceremony by taking the oplatek and breaking a piece off of it, giving it to his wife. When he does so, he may say what he is thankful for, wish her good health, or ask for forgiveness. According to author Sophie Hodorowicz Knab, "My father used to say, 'OK, I'm not the best, but I'll try harder'... My mother would always say, 'You work so hard and I appreciate you for that' ... The sharing of this unleavened bread with another person is sharing all that is good with life ... It's a time to tell each other, 'I love you, I care about you.' And you do it in an open area, where everyone else can see you." After this initial sharing, the oplatek is then shared with each member of the family in a similar manner, starting with the oldest down to the youngest. It is a touching ceremony, one that can help heal hurts from the past year. After the breaking of the bread is completed, a small meal is served that eagerly anticipates the Midnight Mass, which many Polish families would attend on Christmas Eve. The tradition has survived the test of time and is still celebrated in many parts of the world by various families, including many who come from a Slavic ancestry. It is a beautiful tradition, one that keeps the true "spirit of Christmas," and unites a family to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. End of Story and back to Father’s words This year there are plenty of Oplatki available in the back of the church and in the social hall for you to take home and share with your family members as you gather for the big meal on Christmas Eve or Christmas or whenever you are able to get together. The ritual of sharing the blessed wafer is not a Liturgical Rite, so there is no exact ritual that must be followed. Feel free to use the above example or something similar that fits your family’s needs. Generations from now your relatives may still be passing around the Oplatek and offering love and mercy to each other all because you picked up a simple piece of blessed bread and a church bulletin this week. With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka These are the two links to the original stories I found online. Click on them to go to the sites for this and many other Catholic articles. https://aleteia.org/2018/12/19/the-beautiful-polish-tradition-of-breaking-bread-on-christmas-eve https://catholicsay.com/th-beautiful-polish-tradition-of-breaking-bread-on-christmas-eve/ From the Pastor: 2 Big Masses This Week!
This is the beginning of the second week of Advent and a quick look at the calendar shows two very “big” Masses which you should put on your calendar. The first is the biggest of the big Masses. Monday is a Holy Day of Obligation (transferred from Sunday the 8th to Monday the 9th): The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (I have already written about how this year the Immaculate Conception was not and yet now is a day of obligation. Look up past articles if you missed that drama.) To help you fulfill your obligation we will have our regularly scheduled morning Masses at 6:30 and 8:00 plus an additional evening Mass at 7:00 pm. Just as a “heads up” for anyone new to Catholicism, the Immaculate Conception is not Jesus’ Conception! This feast comes just a few weeks before Jesus is born and oftentimes new Catholics think that it is strange that we would celebrate His Conception right before we celebrate His Birth. But the feast of His Conception is named the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary—which really confuses the newbies since it names Mary and not Jesus! But a few seconds of thought put into it and it all makes sense as on that day the Archangel Gabriel told Mary that she was to conceive the Savior, she said “Fiat” and, Lo and Behold, Jesus was Conceived in her Immaculate womb. Our Lord’s Conception was celebrated nine months (not just a few weeks) before His Birth, on the 25th of March. At this week’s feast, we celebrate the conception of Mary, who was given the singular grace to be preserved from even Original Sin from the moment of her conception, hence, the Immaculate Conception. Her birth will be celebrated nine months after the Immaculate Conception, on September 8. The second big Mass, while not of obligation, is a very beautiful Mass that, similar to the Immaculate Conception, honors the Blessed Virgin Mary. This Saturday, the 14th, we will celebrate the Rorate Caeli Mass at 6:30 am. [Note that there will not be an 8:00 am Mass that morning!] Except for those who are new to the parish or to the Traditional Latin Mass, by now I think that everyone knows that the Rorate Mass is a Votive Mass of Our Lady in Advent. It can be celebrated on any Saturday during this short season but we only do it once, since it “messes up” our regular schedule. leaving those who forget about the change without Mass that day. So, as we heard from St. Paul just last week, “now is the hour for us to rise from sleep”! For some of you living far away, you will have to rise very early, but “now our salvation is nearer than when we believed” and the early start to the day will be worth it! All of the altar boys, schola members, and sacristans will have to get there even earlier than you and they are the ones begging for this Mass every year! So set your alarm right away so you don’t forget. It is worth getting up early on the one day a week which you might normally get to sleep in a little! The Advent Rorate Masses are celebrated in darkness, with only candlelight to illuminate the altar. As the Mass continues, the daylight grows stronger, as if the signified Light of the World, Jesus Christ, is finally dawning upon us. The Savior is bud forth in the East (or Orient, which, as an aside, is why the term ad orientem—to the east—is used when the priest faces at least liturgical east, the same way the congregation is facing, all looking expectantly to the Orient for the return of Our Lord in His Majestic Glory), the land is blessed, and the Christians are set free from the dark captivity of sin. He came to save us from our sins; to bring light to those in darkness. He came through—and is magnified by—the Blessed Virgin Mary, without whom we would find no Savior, and merit no salvation. Rorate Caeli (or Coeli) 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 bud forth a Savior) are the opening words of the Introit of the Mass. They are taken from Isaias 45:8 and have, quite naturally, been seen as a prophecy about Our Lord’s birth. One last thing about the Rorate Caeli Mass that I wish to point out to you is the Postcommunion prayer. Maybe you have prayed this, perhaps even three times a day, and never knew where it came from. Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts: that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ Thy Son was made known by the message of an Angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection. Through the same Christ, our Lord. Yes, this is the final prayer of the Angelus, traditionally prayed at 6:00 am, 12:00 noon, and again at 6:00 pm. The church bells would ring out at those three times and, in a Catholic town, at least, everyone would stop and bow their heads and pray the Angelus. Not having grown up in a small Catholic town, I never experienced that myself, but in old stories it seems that everyone would stop, pray, and even genuflect in public as the church bells pealed. It was a “Catholic thing” that even the non-Catholics showed reverence to. Now, even the priests don’t know it. Sigh. With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: Liturgical Mess re: Obligations
Our Lady, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, has been the patroness of our country for longer than most of you have been alive. The first Bishop of the United States, John Carroll, placed the diocese of Baltimore, which comprised the original 13 colonies, under her protection in 1792. By 1846 the number of dioceses had increased, as had the population, and the Bishops, gathered in Baltimore for their 6th Provincial Council, placed the entire nation under the Immaculate Conception’s care. The next year this was approved by Pope Pius IX. The Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception is December 8 and it is supposed to be a Holy Day of Obligation. But this year, since the Eighth falls on a Sunday (next Sunday), the Novus Ordo calendar calls for it to be transferred to the following day, Monday, December 9. And, while you may think that the US Bishops would be pleased, nay, eager, to at least promote that transferred day as a Holy Day, they instead shrugged their collective shoulders and declared that, since the Feast was transferred to a Monday, and they can’t expect people to attend Mass two days in a row {shudder}, the obligation was lifted. Even our Patronal Feast Day wasn’t worth the trouble of taking the day (or even just a few hours) off work, or so it seemed to imply. Fortunately for those who attend the Traditional Latin Mass, that whole thing was avoided because in the 1962 liturgical calendar, the Immaculate Conception Feast “trumps” even the Second Sunday of Advent. So on our Sunday calendar we had planned, as the Ordo properly showed, to celebrate the Mass of the Immaculate Conception and join to it (called a “commemoration”) the three proper prayers of the Second Sunday of Advent (the Communion, Secret, and Postcommunion prayers). Monday, December 9, was then to be the normally scheduled feria (daily) Mass of the Monday of the second week of Advent. Until the following happened... One of the US Bishops, Paprocki by name, thought that (I am speculating on his reasons, here) it was ridiculous to ignore our Country’s Patroness on her Feast Day, so he asked Rome to clarify. Here is the response, as shown in a news article by Kate Quiñones of Catholic News Agency which is easily accessed online. The Vatican has clarified that Catholics in the United States must still attend Mass on holy days of obligation even when they are transferred to Mondays or Saturdays, correcting a long-standing practice in the U.S. Church. In its complementary norms, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) stipulates that when certain feast days fall on a Saturday or Monday, the obligation to attend Mass on that day is “abrogated.” Dec. 8 is typically a holy day of obligation celebrating the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, but this year the feast day lands on a Sunday in Advent. As a result, the USCCB transferred it to Monday, Dec. 9, according to the 2024 USCCB liturgical calendar. In its complementary norms the USCCB does not list the Immaculate Conception as a solemnity to which the abrogation normally applies. Nevertheless, the bishops’ calendar this year stated that “the obligation to attend Mass … does not transfer” to Monday, Dec. 9. Yet the Vatican’s Dicastery for Legislative Texts, in a Sept. 4 letter to Springfield, Illinois, Bishop Thomas Paprocki, stated that all of the feasts in question “are always days of obligation … even when the aforementioned transfer of the feast occurs.” Paprocki, the chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance, had in July written to the Holy See seeking clarification on whether an obligation transfers when the feast itself is transferred. Archbishop Filippo Iannone, the prefect of the legislative text dicastery, told Paprocki that “the feast must be observed as a day of obligation on the day to which it is transferred.” Iannone noted in the letter that certain feast days are established by canon law as days of obligation. These “must be observed” and “the canon does not provide exceptions,” he noted in the letter. Iannone clarified that if someone is unable to attend Mass for a “grave cause” such as illness or caring for an infant, then they are excused, as “no one is bound to the impossible.” Several U.S. dioceses are already stipulating that Mass attendance is obligatory on that day... I will stop quoting the article at this point because, although not mentioned explicitly, Bishop Parkes has sent word to us that in the Diocese of St. Petersburg we will be observing the Immaculate Conception on December 9 as a Holy Day of Obligation and celebrating the Mass of the Second Sunday of Advent on the 8th. TLM communities were, years ago, informed that we were to follow the Novus Ordo calendar as to which days were Obligatory. So for the upcoming dates in question, it seemed that at the TLM we would be celebrating the Immaculate Conception on Sunday yet have an obligation to attend Mass on Monday even though that Mass would not be the one of the Feast! Instead of that weird scenario, I have changed our liturgical calendar at Epiphany to basically follow the Novus Ordo calendar. On Sunday, December 8, we will celebrate the 2nd Sunday of Advent. On Monday, December 9, a Holy Day of Obligation, we will celebrate the transferred Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Another Fine Mess. Oh, wait, that was from just two comedians, not a whole Conference full. (Only the elders will get that reference. Sorry.) With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka |
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