PALM SUNDAY: Gregorian antiphons and chants

Opening Antiphon: HOSANNA FILIO DAVID



Procession Antiphon: PUERI HEBRAEORUM


GLORIA, LAUS ET HONOR




During entrance into the church: INGREDIENTE DOMINO





Grazie a Studio di Giovanni Vianini, Milano. Thanks to Studio of Giovanni Vianini, Milan.

Relics of Saint John Neumann at National Shrine in DC Today, 28 March, until 5 pm

In celebration of the 201st anniversary of the birth of John Neumann, the first male American saint, and the 160th anniversary of his ordination as a bishop, the relics of Saint John Neumann will make their own pilgrimage to “Mary’s Shrine” on March 28.

March 2012 — The Redemptorists are honored to bring the relics of our confrere, St. John Neumann, to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. on March 28.

Exposition of the reliquary of St. John Neumann coincides with the 201st anniversary of his birth and the 160th anniversary of his consecration as a bishop.

The traveling reliquary — which includes a first-class relic — will be welcomed at the 12:10 p.m. Mass in the Crypt Church by Monsignor Walter R. Rossi, rector of the National Shrine and celebrant of the Mass; Redemptorist Father Matthew Allman will be the homilist. Following the Mass, veneration of the relics of St. John Neumann will continue throughout the afternoon and will end with Mass at 5:15 p.m. at which Father Allman will preside and preach.

“As fourth bishop of Philadelphia, Neumann was present in Rome in 1854 for the solemn declaration of the dogma of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. It was one of the highlights of his life, and he used it as an opportunity to teach his flock back home,” said Father Allman. “To bring his relics to the nation’s preeminent Marian shrine is a wonderful way to celebrate the life of this missionary priest, catechist, and devoted son of Mary.”

In January 2011, the Redemptorists kicked-off a special year marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of this first male American saint and the founder of the Catholic parochial school system. The Neumann Year included themed parish missions and retreats, the celebration of 40 Hours Eucharistic Devotion, a nationwide essay contest for Catholic school students, and the relic tour.

The traveling reliquary made stops in several locations including Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City; St. Alphonsus Church in Baltimore, MD; Buffalo, NY; the Diocese of Trenton, NJ; and several parishes throughout Pennsylvania. The relics will make a final stop at the Malvern Retreat House in Malvern, PA prior to the closing celebration of the Neumann Year on June 23, at the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.

For more information about the Neumann Year, visit redemptorists.net/neumann.

Who is St. John Neumann?

Philadelphia’s “little bishop,” John Nepomucene Neumann, was born March 28, 1811 in what is today the Czech Republic. He immigrated to America and was ordained a priest in 1836 in Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. He served for several years as a missionary among German immigrants in the Buffalo area of New York before joining the Redemptorists in 1842; he was the first Redemptorist to profess vows in the New World. In 1848, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Ordained the fourth bishop of Philadelphia on his 41st birthday (March 28, 1852) Bishop Neumann embarked on a huge building campaign that saw the creation and completion of more than 90 churches and schools. He died January 5, 1860, while running errands. Canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1977, John Neumann is the patron saint of immigrants and sick children. His Shrine is located in the lower church of St. Peter the Apostle Church in Philadelphia.
About Fr. Matthew Allman

Archdiocese for Military Services Chrism Mass at National Shrine, March 29 at 6 pm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AMS Chrism Mass to be Celebrated Thursday
Archbishop to bless sacramental oils in evening celebration at National Shrine

His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services, USA (AMS), will celebrate the annual Chrism Mass at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 29, in the Crypt Church of the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, 400 Michigan Avenue, Northeast, Washington, D.C.

The Chrism Mass is held once a year to bless the oils that will be used for Baptisms and other sacraments throughout the coming year at military installations, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers and other locations served by the AMS around the world.

The Oil of Catechumens and Oil of the Sick will be blessed; the Sacred Chrism which is used for Confirmation and Ordinations will be consecrated.

Concelebrating the Mass with Archbishop Broglio will be Auxiliary Bishops Richard Higgins, F. Richard Spencer and Neal Buckon, along with about 20 other AMS-endorsed priests.

The Chrism Mass is open to the public.

In photo: Archbishop Broglio

Obamacare: the Reckoning. "Leviathan state — grotesque cost, questionable constitutionality, and arbitrary bureaucratic coerciveness"

March 22, 2012 8:00 P.M.

Obamacare: The Reckoning

The stakes could not be higher.

By Charles Krauthammer
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Charles Krauthammer
Obamacare dominated the 2010 midterms, driving its Democratic authors to a historic electoral shellacking. But since then, the issue has slipped quietly underground.

Now it’s back, summoned to the national stage by the confluence of three disparate events: the release of new Congressional Budget Office cost estimates, the approach of Supreme Court hearings on the law’s constitutionality, and the issuance of a compulsory contraception mandate.

CostObamacare was carefully constructed to manipulate the standard ten-year cost projections of the CBO. Because benefits would not fully kick in for four years, President Obama could trumpet ten-year gross costs of less than $1 trillion — $938 billion, to be exact.

But now that the near-costless years 2010 and 2011 have elapsed, the true ten-year price tag comes into focus. From 2013 through 2022, the CBO reports, the costs of Obamacare come to $1.76 trillion — almost twice the phony original number.

It gets worse. Annual gross costs after 2021 are more than a quarter of a trillion dollars every year — until the end of time. That, for a new entitlement in a country already drowning in $16 trillion of debt.

Constitutionality

Beginning March 26, the Supreme Court will hear challenges to the law. The American people, by an astonishing two-thirds majority, want the law and/or the individual mandate tossed out by the Court. In practice, however, questions this momentous are generally decided 5 to 4, i.e., they depend on whatever side of the bed Justice Anthony Kennedy gets out of that morning.
Ultimately, the question will hinge on whether the Commerce Clause has any limits. If the federal government can compel a private citizen, under threat of a federally imposed penalty, to engage in a private contract with a private entity (to buy health insurance), is there anything the federal government cannot compel the citizen to do?

If Obamacare is upheld, it fundamentally changes the nature of the American social contract. It means the effective end of a government of enumerated powers — i.e., finite, delineated powers beyond which the government may not go, beyond which lies the free realm of the people and their voluntary institutions. The new post-Obamacare dispensation is a central government of unlimited power from which citizen and civil society struggle to carve out and maintain spheres of autonomy.

Figure becomes ground; ground becomes figure. The stakes could not be higher.

Coerciveness

Serendipitously, the recently issued regulation on contraceptive coverage has allowed us to see exactly how this new power works. All institutions — excepting only churches, but not church-run charities, hospitals, etc. — will be required to offer health care that must include free contraception, sterilization, and drugs that cause abortion.

Consider the cascade of arbitrary bureaucratic decisions that resulted in this edict:

1) Contraception, sterilization, and abortion pills are classified as medical prevention. On whose authority? The secretary of health and human services, invoking the Institute of Medicine. But surely categorizing pregnancy as a disease equivalent is a value decision, disguised as scientific. If contraception is prevention, what are fertility clinics? Disease inducers? And if contraception is prevention because it lessens morbidity and saves money, by that logic, mass sterilization would be the greatest boon to public health since the pasteurization of milk.

2) This type of prevention is free — no co-pay. Why? Is contraception morally superior to or more socially vital than — and thus more of a “right” than — penicillin for a child with pneumonia?

3) “Religious” exemptions to this edict extend only to churches, places where the faithful worship God, and not to church-run hospitals and charities, places where the faithful do God’s work. Who promulgated this definition, so subversive of the whole notion of godliness, so stunningly ignorant of the very idea of religious vocation? The almighty HHS secretary.

Today, it’s the Catholic Church whose free-exercise powers are under assault from this cascade of diktats sanctioned by — indeed required by — Obamacare. Tomorrow it will be the turn of other institutions of civil society that dare stand between unfettered state and atomized citizen.
Rarely has one law so exemplified the worst of the Leviathan state — grotesque cost, questionable constitutionality, and arbitrary bureaucratic coerciveness. Little wonder the president barely mentioned it in his latest State of the Union address. He wants to be reelected. He’d rather talk about other things.

But there’s no escaping it now. Oral arguments begin Monday at 10 a.m.

— Charles Krauthammer is a nationally syndicated columnist. © 2012 the Washington Post Writers Group.

Bishop Alexander Sample to offer Mass in Extraordinary Form regularly

His Excellency, the Most Reverend Alexander Sample, Bishop of the diocese of Marquette, Michigan, pictured above celebrating the holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form, has announced that he will now offer the Mass "approximately once a month on Sundays" in his cathedral church.

Bishop Sample recently ordained transitional deacons for the Fraternity of Saint Peter, also in the traditional Latin rite.

God give Bishop Sample many years. God be praised.

Happy (belated) Saint Patrick's Day from St Francis de Sales volunteers

On March 17 Saint Francis de Sales Catholic Church held the second annual "Volunteer Thank-You Dinner" at the parish hall. Many of our volunteers were able to attend and celebrate their own share in the missionary spirit of Saint Patrick who spread the Faith by serving others.

Thanks to all of our volunteers at SFDS who are involved in every aspect of parish life and worship so that all we do comes alive with the Spirit and love of the Lord.

Saint Francis de Sales Church in Benedict, Md, Announces Plan to Restore Sanctuary

BEFORE

Wooden screen at rear of sanctuary has become shiny under multiple coats of varnish and darkened by sealing in smoke residue resulting from church fire of January 2010. Photo taken Christmas 2010.

AFTER

Artist's conception of sanctuary after removal of brown wooden screen and restoration through repair and repainting of white apse wall. Crucifix will be mounted at rear of apse within architectural framing. Carpet will be removed in sanctuary and white Carrara marble to match historic high altar installed throughout. Large tabernacle will be repositioned to rear of altar on external support to free more area of mensa for offering of extraordinary form of holy Mass.
Work is projected to be completed in Spring of 2012. Please pray for the success of this project and for raising of remaining funds necessary to complete the work.

Vivat Iesu.

Ad majorem Dei gloriam.

Saint Francis de Sales, pray for us.

Those interested in information about supporting the restoration may send inquiries to SFDS Church Restoration, PO Box 306, Benedict, Md 20612