Advent III – Gaudete Sunday
Recent Short, Daily Sermons
Fr. McKenna: Vigil of the Immaculate Conception
Fr. Lehtoranta: St. Peter Fourier
Fr. McKenna: Holy House of Loretto
Fr. Lehtoranta: St. Daniel the Stylite
Fr. Lehtoranta: Our Lady of Guadalupe
✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
Were it not for the Communist Revolution going on about us, this has really been a lovely Advent. I note this with gratitude today as we mark the halfway point of this season of preparation and longing for Jesus to be born again on Christmas. The Advent succession of special Sundays and feasts, the beautiful music and altars, and certainly the mellow if short days of sun; all cheer us on this mid-Advent Sunday of Gaudete.
So, we were blessed with an almost perfect Holy Day for Our Lady’s perfect and Immaculate Conception. The pure white poinsettias and the sermon pointed to America’s Empress conceived without sin, Our Lady of Guadalupe. The apparition occurred in what was “Just America” then, Mexico today. After Mass we had the tenth anniversary reading of Fr. Abram Ryan’s magnificent poem for the feast, with our best attendance ever. Sung Vespers, Benediction and the third Mass completed this beautiful day. I never go out anymore, but we did manage a festive and maskless lunch for the occasion. Joy!
I make bold to insert here a little doggerel verse in homage to the Poet, but also with my apologies:
Fell the snow on the feast of St. Andrew
Dark and icy and white
The morrow would dawn December
Cold and clear and bright
The Virgin comes first all sinless
Who gives birth to the Light in the night
No need to question the sequence
’Tis all the work of His might.
We are marking St. Lucy’s Day with special music and a St. Lucy Procession at the High Mass. Fr. Lehtoranta remembers these from growing up in Finland. Although Scandinavia was Lutheran, there are some saints even Protestants could not give up. Think of St. Nicholas in Holland. Thus in the dark North they still honored the Saint of Light.
Fr. Lehtoranta prepared today’s procession with the help of the choir and his very popular Sodality of Charity. One young lady portrays St. Lucy, and wears a crown of burning candles. Carefully, I suppose. The other maidens of her court, also wearing white, accompany her. Soon the dark days will lighten and lengthen, soon the Light of the World will come, this charming custom says.
Tomorrow the Electoral College is supposed to meet. Please pray against the darkness. Tonight they say to expect a meteor shower, the brightest of the year, and under a new moon. Tomorrow, too, Bergoglio’s Argentina will experience another full eclipse. More darkness at its source.
Thanks to everybody who helped with Christmas lighting and St. Lucy’s lights yesterday. See you Friday for the big push for Christmas church decorating? I am sure it will be beautiful. Remember the Communists and their stooges want to crush Christ’s Birthday beneath their Covid cover. So it’s probably more important than ever, the best Christmas ever. We hope to welcome many to the birthday celebration to show Christ is not crushed out so easily. Bidden or not He comes on the altar, and will come again at the end.
Oh, and happy Rejoice Sunday. Christ is nigh!
–Bp. Dolan