Monday, April 21, 2025

 Traditional Latin Mass this Weds. 7:00 P.M. April 23rd

St. Martha Church 214 Brainard Rd. Enfield Ct

Saturday, April 19, 2025

 

                    April 20th  at 10:30 A.M. Traditional Latin Mass
                                            St. Martha Catholic Church Enfield Ct 214 Brainard Rd. 
                                                         
                                 Easter Sunday

EASTER SUNDAY

[Easter is the Anglo- Saxon word for April, and was derived, as Venerable Bede tells us, (in his book De temporum ratione c. 13,) from Easter, a goddess of our pagan ancestors. Others derive Easter from Oest, Oost the Saxon for rising, or the east: and hence, Osteren, the Resurrection. Tr. from Butler’s Moveable Feasts.]
HAEC DIES QUAM FECIT DOMINUS; EXSULTEMUS ET LAETEMUR IN EA!THIS IS THE DAY WHICH THE LORD HATH MADE; LET US BE GLAD AND REJOICE THEREIN!

 

MORNING

The night between Saturday and Sunday has well nigh run its course, and the day-dawn is appearing. The Mother of sorrows is waiting, in courageous hope and patience, for the blissful moment of her Jesus’ return. Magdalene and the other holy women have spent the night in watching, and are preparing to start for the sepulchre. In limbo, the Soul of our crucified Lord is about to give the glad word of departure to the myriads of the long-imprisoned holy souls, who cluster round Him in adoring love. Death is still holding his silent sway over the sepulchre, where rests the Body of Jesus. Since the day when he gained his first victim, Abel, he has swept off Countless generations; but never has he held in his grasp a prey so noble as this that now lies in the tomb near Calvary. Never has the terrible sentence of God, pronounced against our first parents, received such a fulfilment as this; but, never has death received such a defeat as the one that is now preparing. It is true, the power of God has, at times, brought back the dead to life: the son of the widow of Naim, and Lazarus, were reclaimed from the bondage of this tyrant death; but he regained his sway over them all. But his Victim of Calvary is to conquer him for ever, for this is He of whom it is written in the prophecy: ‘O death! I will be thy death!’ [Osee, xiii, 14]. Yet a few brief moments and the battle will be begun, and life shall vanquish death.
As divine justice could not allow the Body that was united to the Word to see corruption, and there wait, like ours must, for the Archangel’s word to ‘rise and come to judgement,’ so neither could it permit the dominion of death to be long over such a Victim. Jesus had said to the Jews: ‘A wicked generation seeketh a sign; and a sign shall not be given it, but that of Jonas the prophet.’ [St. Matth. xii, 39]. Three days in the tomb, - the afternoon and night of Friday, the whole of Saturday, and a few hours of the Sunday, - yes, these are enough: enough to satisfy divine justice; enough to certify the death of the Crucified, and make His triumph glorious; enough to complete the martyrdom of that most loving of mothers, the Queen of sorrows.
‘No man taketh away my life from Me: I lay it down of Myself: I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.’ [St. John, x, 18].  Thus spoke our Redeemer to the Jews before His Passion: now is the hour for the fulfilment of His words, and death shall feel their whole force. The day of light, Sunday, has begun, and its early dawn is struggling with the gloom. The Soul of Jesus immediately darts from the prison of limbo, followed by the whole multitude of the holy souls that are around Him. In the twinkling of an eye, it reaches and enters the sepulchre, and reunites itself with that Body, which, three days before, it had quitted amidst an agony of suffering. The sacred Body returns to life, raises itself up, and throws aside the winding-sheet, the spices, and the bands. The bruises have disappeared, the Blood has been brought back to the veins; and from these limbs that bad been torn by the scourging, from this head that had been mangled by the thorns, from these hands and feet that had been pierced with nails, there darts forth a dazzling light that fills the cave. The holy Angels had clustered round the stable and adored the Babe of Bethlehem; they are now around the sepulchre, adoring the conqueror of death. They take the shrouds, and reverently folding them up, place them on the slab, whereon the Body bad been laid by Joseph and Nicodemus.
But Jesus is not to tarry in the gloomy sepulchre. Quicker than a ray of light through a crystal, He passes through the stone that closes the entrance of the cave. Pilate had ordered his seal to be put upon this stone, and a guard of soldiers is there to see that no one touches it. Untouched it is, and unmoved; and yet Jesus is free! Thus, as the holy Fathers unanimously teach us, was it at His birth: He appeared to the gaze of Mary, without having offered the slightest violence to her maternal womb. The birth and the resurrection, the commencement and the end of Jesus’ mission, these two mysteries bear On them the seal of resemblance: in the first, it is a Virgin Mother; in the last, it is a sealed tomb giving forth its captive God.
And while this Jesus, this Man-God, thus breaks the sceptre of death, the stillness of the night is un disturbed. His and our victory has cost Him no effort. 0 death! where is now thy kingdom? Sin had made us thy slaves; thy victory was complete; and now, lo! thou thyself art defeated! Jesus, whom thou didst exultingly hold under thy law, has set
1 Apec. 1, 5. 2 I. Cor. xv, 26.
‘Ibid. 56.
Himself free; and we, after thou hast domineered over us for a time, we too shall be free from thy grasp. The tomb thou makest for us, will become to us the source of a new life, for He that now conquers thee is ‘the First-born among the dead ; ~1 and to-day is the Pasch, the Passover, the deliverance, for Jesus and for us, His brethren. He has led the way; we shall follow; and the day will come, when thou, the enemy, that destroyest all things, shalt thyself be destroyed by immortality.2 Thy defeat dates from this moment of Jesus’ resurrection, and, with the great Apostle, we say to thee: ‘O death! where is thy victory? O death! where is thy sting ? ‘3
From The Liturgical Year Volume 7    Abbot Dom Prosper Gueranger

Sunday, April 13, 2025


 Find  The Triduum in the Traditional Roman Rite at these locations. All 3 Churches are Institute of Christ The King Sovereign Priests.
No Latin Mass at St. Martha until Easter Sunday at 10:30 A.M.


St. Patrick Oratory
50 Charles Street Waterbury, CT 06708. Church Address: 48 Charles Street Waterbury, CT 06708. Phone: (203) 756-8837. Email: stpatrick@icksp.org ·
Thursday April 17th Maundy Thursday 6:00 P.M. High Mass of The Lord's Supper
Good Friday April 18th 12pm Stations of The Cross 1PM High Mass of The Presanctified
Holy Saturday April 19th 10AM Confessions then 12pm Easter Vigil High Mass
 
Saints Cyril and Methodius Oratory
79 Church Street Bridgeport, CT 06608. Phone: (203) 333-7003. Email: stscyrilandmethodius@institute-christ-king.org
Thursday April 17th Maundy Thursday 12 Noon High Mass. Followed by Procession of The Blessed Sacrament.
Good Friday April 18th 12 noon Mass of the presanctified.
Holy Saturday April 19th 3:00 P.M. Easter Vigil
 
St. Paul Oratory
1060 Main St. Warren, Ma 01083 Phone: (413) 436-8034
Holy Thursday April 17th High Mass at 6:00 P.M.
Good Friday April 18th 3:00 P.M. Mass of the presanctified
Holy Saturday April 19th 4:00 P.M. Easter Vigil
 
Easter Sunday TLM at St. Martha at 10:30 A.M.


              

Saturday, April 12, 2025

 

Traditional Latin Mass for Palm Sunday April 13th at 11:00 A.M. With Procession                                               St. Martha Church 214 Brainard Rd. Enfield Ct

PALM SUNDAY

Hodie si vocem Domini audieritis, nolite obdurare corda vestra.To-day, if ye shall hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.
Early in the morning of this day, Jesus sets out for Jerusalem, leaving Mary His Mother, and the two sisters Martha and Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus, at Bethania. The Mother of sorrows trembles at seeing her Son thus expose Himself to danger, for His enemies are bent upon His destruction; but it is not death, it is triumph, that Jesus is to receive to-day in Jerusalem. The Messias, before being nailed to the cross, is to be proclaimed King by the people of the great city; the little children are to make her streets echo with their Hosannas to the Son of David; and this in presence of the soldiers of Rome’s emperor, and of the high priests and Pharisees: the first standing under the banner of their eagles; the second, dumb with rage.
The prophet Zachary had foretold this triumph which the Son of Man was to receive a few days before His Passion, and which had been prepared for Him from all eternity. ‘Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion! Shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold thy King will come to thee; the Just and the Saviour. He is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.’ [Zach. ix. 9]. Jesus, knowing that the hour has come for the fulfilment of this prophecy, singles out two from the rest of His disciples, and bids them lead to Him an ass and her colt, which they would find not far off. He has reached Beth phage, on Mount Olivet. The two disciples lose no time in executing the order given them by their divine Master; and the ass and the colt are soon brought to the place where He stands.
The holy fathers have explained to us the mystery of these two animals. The ass represents the Jewish people, which had been long under the yoke of the Law; the colt, upon which, as the evangelist says, no man yet hath sat [St. Mark xi. 2], is a figure of the Gentile world, which no one had ever yet brought into subjection. The future of these two peoples is to be decided a few days hence: the Jews will be rejected, for having refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Messias; the Gentiles will take their place, to be adopted as God’s people, and become docile and faithful.
From The Liturgical Year Volume 6    Abbot Dom Prosper Gueranger

Thursday, April 3, 2025

 

 Traditional Latin Masses this weekend at St. Martha Church 214 Brainard Rd.

1st Friday April 4th at 7:00 P.M. Low Mass

1st Saturday April 5th at 9:00 A.M. Low Mass
Sunday April 6th Passion Sunday at 11:00 A.M. High Mass

PASSION SUNDAY

Hodie, si vocem Domini audieritis, nolite obdurare corda vestra.To-day if you shall hear the voice of the Lord, harden not  your hearts.
The holy Church begins her night Office of this Sunday with these impressive words of the royal prophet. Formerly, the faithful considered it their duty to assist at the night Office, at least on Sundays and feasts; they would have grieved to lose the grand teachings given by the liturgy. Such fervor has long since died out; the assiduity at the Offices of the Church, which was the joy of our Catholic forefathers, has now become a thing of the past; and even in countries which have not apostatized from the faith, the clergy have ceased to celebrate publicly Offices at which no one assisted. Excepting in cathedral churches and in monasteries, the grand harmonious system of the divine praise has been abandoned, and the marvelous power of the liturgy has no longer its full influence upon the faithful.
This is our reason for drawing the attention of our readers to certain beauties of the Divine Office, which would otherwise be totally ignored. Thus, what can be more impressive than this solemn Invitatory of to-day’s Matins, which the Church takes from one of the psalms, and which she repeats on every feria between this and Maundy Thursday? She says; To-day, if ye will hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts! The sweet voice of your suffering Jesus now speaks to you, poor sinners! be not your own enemies by indifference and hardness of heart. The Son of God is about to give you the last and greatest proof of the love that brought Him down from heaven; His death is nigh at hand: men are preparing the wood for the immolation of the new Isaac: enter into yourselves, and let not your hearts, after being touched with grace, return to their former obduracy; for nothing could be more dangerous. The great anniversaries we are to celebrate have a renovating power for those souls that faithfully correspond with the grace which is offered them; but they increase insensibility in those who let them pass without working their conversion. To-day, therefore, if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts!
From The Liturgical Year Volume 6    Abbot Dom Prosper Gueranger
Followed by Blessing of Sacramentals.

Saturday, March 29, 2025

 Traditional Latin Mass 4th Sunday in Lent March 30th at 11:00 A.M. (High Mass) St. Martha Church 214 Brainard Rd. Enfield Ct. Followed by Monthly TLM Potluck social.

Introit
Rejoice, O Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her: rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow: that you may exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation. (Psalm) I rejoiced at the things that were said to me; we shall go into the house of the Lord. Glory be to the Father. Rejoice...
The Prayer To The Most Holy Trinity
Receive, O Holy Trinity, this offering which we make to Thee, in remembrance of the Passion,Resurrection, and Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and in honor of Blessed Mary ever Virgin, and of blessed John the Baptist, of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, of these and all the Saints; that it may avail to their honor and our salvation: and may they intercede for us in Heaven whose memory we celebrate on Earth. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen
Postcommunion
We are constantly filled with Thy holy mysteries, O merciful God; grant, we beseech Thee, that we may celebrate them with sincere homage and always receive them with steady faith. Through our Lord. 
St. Joseph Pray for us. Amen

Tuesday, March 25, 2025