What happened in your parishes today?
If you go to a Holy Mass using the Novus Ordo, did you observe the Conversion of St. Paul today?
If you go to a TLM, did you use the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany or the Conversion of St. Paul?
Let us know what went on and any good points from the sermons you heard or good music.
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
on ROME 24/4– Day 34 (-7): The burial place of… PLATO?!?: “My baptismal anniversary. I’m mostly Scottish/Irish Catholic, birthed and educated by the Mercy Sisters during the height of the Troubles.…”
on ROME 24/4– Day 35 (-6): adventures in symmetry: “Father, it was perfect symmetry for two people. One cup handle facing one way and the other the other way.”
on ROME 24/4– Day 35 (-6): adventures in symmetry: “From a reader: “What are in the frames between the vestments?” Those are the priest’s vesting prayers. I’ll show more…”
on WDTPRS: 4th Sunday of Easter (Novus Ordo) – Mighty humble Shepherd, humble mighty flock: “Fr Z you are an inspiration in your knowledge about and love for the things of God and the church.…” on ROME 24/4– Day 32 (-9): Happy Birthday Rome!: “Holy cow that pasta. I wish we had smell-o-vision and taste-o-vision.”
on Three items of interest: a conversion, a connection, and a con job: “The German grind continues. It is in their nature.”
on Three items of interest: a conversion, a connection, and a con job: “Scary about the women. What I mean is this: it would be disheartening enough just to find out that a…” on Three items of interest: a conversion, a connection, and a con job: “I wonder what’s going on with these women. Don’t they know that the greatest example of womanhood is Our Blessed…”
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on Three items of interest: a conversion, a connection, and a con job: “Most people, whether pro or con, misunderstand the history and practice of the female diaconate. The deaconess was a separate…”
on Your Sunday Sermon Notes: 3rd Sunday after Easter (N.O. 4th of Easter) 2024: “I remember only the joke at the beginning of the homily: Priests get four weeks of vacation per year. Some…”
on “you must not remember your forefathers…” Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “My children at one of the solid Chesterton Academies have been taught science and theology by an amazing young Catholic…” on Three items of interest: a conversion, a connection, and a con job: “What is it that changed about the Catholic Herald? Interesting interview by George Farmer. (If only the faithful could be…”
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A Daily Prayer for Priests
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since Sat., 25 Nov. 2006:
We had the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time today.
:/
We had the 3rd Sunday in O.T. (Novus Ordo)
*It was a Novus Ordo parish (No Sunday TLMs).
We celebrated the Conversion of St. Paul in the OF. I preached about the radical nature of St. Paul’s conversion of heart through God’s grace, and that we need to pray for the conversion of Obama’s heart in regard to the sanctity of Life in the same way. As you might suspect, some were offended and walked out. But with the great one who’s conversion we celebrate today, “an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it!”
Father Z,
In the Ukranian Greek Catholic Church, today is the 37th Sunday after Pentecost and we observe the feast of St. Gregory the Theologian.
In my parish we had an N.O. Mass for the Conversion of St Paul. The music was pretty good. The sermon was pretty good too, on the subject of St Paul, though nothing stands out for me on reflection.
I am puzzled since I can’t find the readings for The Conversion of St Paul in either of my Collins Missals.
We observed 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time.
We observed the Conversion of St. Paul. The pastor said the feast only has one reading before the Gospel so he also included the second reading from the regular sunday. He also said there’s no Creed in the Feast so he had to add that, too.
Confusing.
At our Novus Ordo:
The deacon gave a good, basic homily about St. Paul, his conversion, and how we should observe the Pauline year. It was not particularly challenging but neither was it “fluff” or objectionable.
One of the hymns that we sang was the Year of St. Paul Hymn, which is set to THAXTED. I love the melody but I did not care for the words. The author seems to have meant well, and seems to have wanted to write something of substance, but the poetry is poor. I wonder if he was trying to force a text into that melody rather than write a good poetic text and then find a melody suitable.
In our diocese we were permitted to say one Mass using the texts of the Conversion of St Paul. Additionally a plenary indulgence was available, under the usual conditions, at that Mass. To cut down on the number of sermons that had to be prepared the two OF Masses were 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, the EF Mass was the conversion of St Paul. I would have preferred the main Sunday Mass to be of the conversion of St Paul, but that would have meant three sermons rather than the two that were necessary this way.
A unified lectionary. Now that would be nice…
—
Fr Steven Fisher
Parish Priest, Ramsgate, Kent, UK
Thomas: We observed the Conversion of St. Paul. The pastor said the feast only has one reading before the Gospel so he also included the second reading from the regular sunday. He also said there’s no Creed in the Feast so he had to add that, too.
Confusing.
Your pastor did correctly, according to the rescript issued by the CDWDS.
In that last comment I posted, the word “Confusing” belongs to the quotation, not to my response.
We had the Conversion of St Paul at the Traditional Latin Mass Congregation at Our Lady Queen of Poland in Silver Spring, Md. It was a Missa Cantata. Fr. Rigdon commented on the rarity of a sung mass for this feast because it was never celebrated on Sunday in the old rite.
Sunday Vigil Mass (TLM) was the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany.
Novus Ordo on Sunday morning was the 3rd of Ordinary time.
We celebrated the third Sunday of Ordinary time, but Father homilized on conversion. As to music — alas, the guitars were strumming.
(OF mass – our parish has Tue morning TLM)
We celebrated the Conversion of St Paul using the readings from the Sunday and had an extensive homily regarding St Paul’s conversion, the Eucharist, the Body of Christ, the Council of Jerusalem, and how St Paul (and all the apostles) were sent by Christ through His Body, the Church.
Thanks for the link, Fr. BJ.
We had a novus ordo Mass with all the gregorian proper of “in conversione S. Pauli, aposotoli”, chanted, Kyriale VIII & Credo III.
– In. : Scio cui credidi (Ist mode)
– Grad. : Qui operatus (Vth mode)
– Al. : Magnus sanctus Paulus (IInd mode)
– Off. : Mihi autem nimis (IIIrd mode)
– Com. : Signa eos (VIIth mode)
Graduale & offertory were quite difficult. But we chanted them ! Seemed very well welcomed by the pastor and the parishioners were we sing very rarley. Proof that il possible !
Just one thing : I thought for this mass it was white vestments, but the priest wore green ones… It seems odd to me…
TLM – Stuttgart, Germany
Conversion of St. Paul
I missed the homily for confession. Something about St. Paul. And his conversion. (in German).
St. Joan of Arc, Toledo had the Conversion of St Paul Novus Ordo.
St. Anthony of Padua, Buffalo, had the Conversion of St. Paul TLM. The homily concerned Christian unity.
Solemn Latin Novus Ordo, Conversion of St Paul.
The priest called for us to be like St Paul, witnesses to the risen Christ, and to run the race as he did, standing for truth and for justice and for the right to life. He spoke of our being “sent out”, as St Paul was, in the ite, missa est at the end of Mass, and said that Pope Benedict would soon allow a new and beautiful option for the dismissal: ite in pace, glorificando vita vestra Dominum: go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.
Altogether an edifying liturgy.
3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. No mention of Conversion of St. Paul. Our pastor focused on the “time is short” theme from 2nd reading, and reminded us that we are all going to die some day. Would have been nice to hear about St. Paul’s conversion, since this is the Year of St. Paul.
Well I went to a Novus Ordo Mass, 9:00 at a National Polish Shrine, to see if any changes have taken place in regards to the reform of the reform. Well the Mass was in a chapel, not in the main church. The priest had a visiting deacon, from Newark, who preached about abortion and his ministry, rather than the conversion of St Paul. The Mass had one altar boy, now called a alter minister, if you read the bulletin. A lay lector. About three quarter of the people who came, received communion in the hand. And the music was contemporary Christian music, by a man on an organ. The priest was probably in his late fifties early sixties. And during the Our Father, about three quarters of the people had their hands raised in the air. Need I say more!.
At our parish in the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio, we celebrated the Conversion of St Paul. Ordinary Form. First reading was Acts 22, 3-16, the second reading and Gospel were from the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time. White vestments, and the deacon wore a matching dalmatic (apparently the only one the parish owns.)
The homily was strong, opening with a brief explanation of why the Conversion of St Paul was being celebrated, and particularly the conclusion which brought into focus the need, with the new Administration and the abortion issue, to pray not just for legal solutions (ie overturn Roe v Wade) but for the conversion of hearts to the respect for all life. (I doubt if anyone walked out, I was sitting up front and wouldn’t have seen them anyway, but I know the parish office is likely to field calls complaining about politics from the pulpit.) The priest also made a strong pitch at the end of Mass announcements for the Bishops’ postcard campaign against FOCA.
Well, for the Saturday Vigil,
OF Mass, for the Conversion of St. Paul. Celebrated by the Bishop. Incense and Bells, Vespers Chanted within the Mass. Music was better than normal, but still pretty praisy guitar music(although they added a violin and a harp, which sounded kind of nice)
In a chapel with pew-space for about 500, the official count by the ushers was 825
TLM here in Edinburgh:
Conversion of St Paul.
No sermon, though, because it was our monthly Benediction. Some announcements, including why there was going to be a Te Deum… ;-)
Our NO Parish is the designated pilgrimage parish in our Diocese for the Pauline year, so we celebrated the Conversion of Saint Paul. Since our pastor has made for US a new year’s resolution to make sure we all get to heaven, he used St. Paul’s conversion as a jumping off point for his continuing series on means we can use to get to heaven. Today it was the Rosary. It was very good.
Forgot about the Homily.
The Bishop preached on being zealous for Christ, as Paul mentioned, not because we are good at it, but because we are bad at it. Overall I thought it was a very good homily.
I have only seen him preach a few times, but he is an excellent speech deliverer. He knows exactly when to pause, and can ride that pause to the last second before it becomes awkward, which makes it a lot easier to reflect on the homily
We had the OF as usual. It was for the Conversion of St. Paul as mandated by the Archbishop. The priest the scales fall from our eyes so that we truly recognize Christ throughout our daily lives. Very inspiring – it is a Jesuit parish and I know Jesuits seem to upset some people but the standards of preaching are first rate and they really know how to bring God’s word to life so that we can use it throughout the week.
In my Ordinary Form parish, we celebrated the Conversion of St. Paul…
“Father Z,
In the Ukranian Greek Catholic Church, today is the 37th Sunday after Pentecost and we observe the feast of St. Gregory the Theologian.
Comment by Jim — 25 January 2009 @ 8:59 am”
And, for those of us on the Gregorian calendar, it is the Sunday of Zacchaeus–the first of the pre-Lenten Sundays.
I attended a Novus Mass where we observed the Conversion of St. Paul. The homily tied St.Paul’s conversion to our ongoing conversion.
NO, conversion of Saul/Paul.
I just got home from Mass and I see someone from my church, St. Anthony’s in Buffalo, has already weighed in and reported that yes, we celebrated the conversion of St. Paul. It took me until the middle of the reading to figure that out but I am pretty new to the TLM and I always love surprises like that. Here is something I realize about Latin: It is not only beautiful but because it takes work to follow it, it keeps you from going on autopilot and makes you think about things more. The story of St. Paul never struck me in English the way it did today, hearing: “Ego sum Jesus, quem tu persequeris..” I thought it was very moving.
Dear Father Z,
At St Joseph’s in Bruxelles the 10am is the solomn sung mass. Our mass was the conversion of St Paul. We used Kyriale IV and Credo V. After reading the letters from +Fellay about the removal of the excommunications (Viva il Papa!) The young abbe gave a very moving sermon on the power of prayer and the need for complete Faith in the goodness of our merciful Lord – who has the power to order things as he pleases against all expectations – he illustrated this in relation to the conversion and also the lifting of the excommunications. We finished with a sung Magnificat(ton 8) in thanksgiving to our Holy Mother and a hymn for the Faith in Belgium.
JMJ
TLM–3rd Sunday after Epiphany
Conversion of St. Paul, with the readings modified according to the rescript of the CDWDS. Ordinary Form, solemn Mass.
Here in Little Rock, St. Edward’s celebrated the Conversion of St. Paul (OF). In the introduction, Father spoke of the Year of St. Paul and the indulgence attached to the celebration of this Mass. During the announcements, Father spoke of FOCA and discussed the postcards that would be given out. Our deacon preached a strong homily on Paul’s conversion. He also spoke of a friend’s conversion from pro-abortion to pro-life. Then he spoke of his own conversion. The latter two he attributed to years of quiet prayers. He then spoke of the first time he witnessed his faith publicly, exhorting the faithful, thereby, to pray and pray often and to speak openly and often of our faith. It was, as I’ve come to expect from him, good, good preaching.
Mass celebrating the Conversion of St. Paul and said in the Extraordinary Form (St. Francis de Sales, St. Louis). Beautiful music–Gregorian chant with schola.
Homily at the 8:00 on St. Paul’s conversion and his subsequent effect on the Church, by which we Gentiles have received the good news. The effect of one man who is truly zealous–this should be a model for us. We, too, need to be apostles, particularly now in an immoral world. A strong reference to abortion and this administration.
Our N.O. was 3rd Sunday, no mention of St Paul at all in the sermon. Music was awful. Fortunately, there is a 6pm TLM that I will try to attend later, and no, I will not communicate again since I already have today. But that does raise a good question if one can communicate twice if one Mass is 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time and the second one is Conversion of St. Paul. Any idea?
At St. Bedes in London we had the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany (TLM), Sermon was on the readings for the Mass ( the leapers etc.)
We did talk about whether we would have the Feast of St Paul, but our chaplain was away, and the Parish priest sung the Mass, so we kept it simple.
Music;
Asperges I, Mass XI, Credo IV, Aurea Luce (Hymn for St. Paul) at the Offertory and Sacris Solemnis (Dominican tune for Matins) at Communion, Prayer for the queen (Domine Salvum fac), Alma Redemptoris (simple tune), with of course the full propers for the 3rd Sunday. We did not have time to sing the Te Deum!
I do not know what they did for the NO Mass.
Our OF/NO parish celebrated the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.
As prescribed by the USCCB:
1st Reading: Acts 22:3-16 (The 1st of the 2 options)
2nd Reading: 1 Cor 7:29-31
Gospel: Mk 16:15-18
The homily, by our young, feisty priest (who wants to learn the EF/UA), had overtones of Fr. Corapi. He lamented the lack of gusto in the bishops\’ statement concerning Obama\’s genocidal plan to fund abortions, and said that St. Paul would have been much more forceful. He also played up how Paul should be a model for us to be active in the world. Overall it was pretty good.
My parish (O.F. parish, no E.F.) celebrated the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. (We’re doing it all the Masses this weekend. I don’t know why the official permission was for just a single Mass…)
The music was nondescript.
I was the reader at Mass. I broke down in tears by the end of the First Reading. That has never happened to me before while reading at Mass. (There was some heavenly irony: the Second Reading — for which I had dried my eyes and regained my composure — admonished those who were weeping to behave as if not weeping!)
We had the Conversion of St. Paul, correctly done, in a OF Mass in Arlington Heights, IL
Visiting our new granddaughter and her parents in Alexandria, Virginia, I went to the Vigil Mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Alexandria. The church (oldest Catholic church in VA) was full for the Mass which was in the OF (EP III, also at the conclusion of Mass, Prayer to St. Michael) for the Conversion of St. Paul, with a very inspiring homily by Fr. Atumaseo, an in residence priest from Africa. Fr. Dennis Kleinmann, the young pastor who is a truly holy and orthodox priest, also greeted the parishioners following; since (from his parish bulletin column) he appears to be from around Green Bay WI originally, I was interested to see that he was wearing an overcoat over his cassock – temp was in the high 30s — I guess Washington has thinned his blood! From the effusive hugs and greetings, I could see that the faithful really love their pastor.
We stayed in the pews following Mass to fill out and deposit the USCCB postcards opposing FOCA (Sen. Webb’s staff will be bemused, no doubt, to receive a postcard from a Houston resident — if I had thought about it more, I would have added a personal note from a fellow Viet vet).
Of further note was a column in the parish bulletin, which should be available on line early next wee at the parish web site:http://www.saintmaryparish.net/index.htm in which Fr. John De Celles, the curate, announced his intention to celebrate the OF ad orientem starting Monday, with some answers to parishioners’ questions on the same. [Of course on reading this, what came immediately to mind was: brick by brick.]
This is a great parish and a great staff of clergy who deserve our support and prayers.
I went to the OF and the church celebrated the Conversion of St. Paul. The priest did a great job in the homily tying St. Paul into FOCA (he began with Paul’s quote about teaching the Gospel in and out of season). Next week, the Bishop of Arlington is launching a postcard campaign to members of Congress in opposition to FOCA.
*OF Conversion of St Paul
*Visiting Methodist chaplain preached after the Gospel
*No Creed
*Strange Canon including prayers for leaders of all Christian churches
I think that Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was the focus, but somehow IMHO not the sort that the Holy Father +{{{:) [Papal tiara emoticon?] has in mind.
In my NO parish we celebrated the conversion of Paul, Fr. preached on hell and conversion.
Today was a treat for us, Archbishop Amato was visiting, and celebrated Mass in the ordinary form for the feast of the conversion of St. Paul. They lit the 6 candles on the high altar, but the versus populum altar only had 4, and next to, not on the altar. (I was hoping for 7, with a couple bishops celebrating.) The Archbishop had a nice gold Miter. I am under the impression that the Mass was broadcast live and will be archived on CatholicTV.
Extraordinary form parish (Misericordia in Turin Italy), and we are sponsoring a big lecture series throughout the year, featuring several theologians with specialties in Saint Paul.
However, this morning we had… Readings and prayers from Third Sunday after Epiphany!
At homily time, the pastor apologized. He planned to do the Conversion of Saint Paul, however he had failed to inform the director of the schola and the guy who prints out the sheets with the Italian translations of the readings and prayers, and neither of these guys realized that they could have (should have) done things for the Conversion of St Paul!
Nonetheless, the pastor gave a brilliant homily about Saint Paul after a few brief words on the readings for the 3rd Sunday.
Novus Ordo at a suburban parish. Liturgy was dreadful. Altar girls, communion on the hand (almost exclusively), icky vestments, no altar rails and the ‘squala’ sounded like a bag of cats being involuntarily drowned.
I feel traumatized. Can I sue for mental distress?
Please pray for me.
St. Helena’s of the True Cross, in Corpus Christi, TX. TLM, Conversion of St. Paul.
Novus ordo: 3rd Sunday ordinary time
N.O. Mass at the Cathedral in Denver. The conversion of St Paul, complete with large picture and relic, as well as a long conversation about the new president and his recent signatures on the Mexico City Policy and FOCA. What should our response be to these changes in line of St. Paul’s conversion.
AFter Mass there were people handing out postcards to send to Senators Bennet and Udall and our congressman asking to vote against FOCA.
I should add that following the homily Msgr. received a large applause.
At St. Peter in Volo, IL, the vigil Mass was OF, Conversion of St. Paul. Part of the homily was about the Pharisee’s improper elevation of traditions and rituals and how this may blind us to God (as with the Apostle).
Very interesting, coming from a priest of SJC; many people, I’m sure, would accuse them of attachment to the older rituals and their “trappings” solely out of an archaic sense of “Church”, or some such. It is not hard to see they do this out of love. Not just a love for the older rites, but for Love and His Church.
I celebrated the Conversion of St. Paul at my three Masses but my pastor did the 3rd Sunday of OT at his three. He had no idea that we could do St. Paul.
It’s not a parish Mass, but our seminary had a wonderfully solemn Novus Ordo Mass this morning for the Conversion of St. Paul.
It began with the sprinkling rite and the singing of the “Asperges”. We also sang the Missa De Angelis and Credo III. Our rector, who offered the Mass, used the Roman Canon, as well. And there was incense, of course!
3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time in OF for us. The priests from our sister parish in Delatte, Haiti were visiting. One of them gave a short appeal for help and thanked us for our generosity and then a laywoman gave a much longer appeal. Inspired, though it was, this is the second time in the last three weeks that a layperson has spoken in place of the homily.
Oh, and we didn’t sing a single song that was written before 1989, if I remember correctly. And we’ve gone back to that terrible arrangement of Sanctus and the Amen. It makes the Mass of Creation sound like Palestrina. Three altar girls, one of whom was wearing jeans and Chuck Taylors under her…whatever they’re calling it. Hooded white sheet…thing. So, all in all, a normal Sunday for me. Lord have mercy.
St. Matthews of Dix Hills, New York celebrated the conversion of St.Paul today in the EF (We have an EF High Mass every sunday). As per usual, it was beautiful and dignified worship. I feel so fortunate that this is within an hour of where I live. I gladly travel to hear the priests of this church.
We celebrated 3rd Sunday in ordinary time in novus ordo. The petitions included something to do with the 50th anniversary of call for Vatican Council. I’d say the “spirit of V2” was alive and well in that call. [Apparently, it is true, however, that in this Pauline year it is appropriate to tie the call for the council, 50 years ago this year, to St. Paul, as it was done in the name of St. Paul. An article by Fr. Myler of Belleville diocese–NO spirit of V2 priest, explains this connection between St. Paul adn the call for the council.]
Lancaster Cathedral (UK); Extraordinary Form. Mass was the 3rd after Epiphany, but sermon on the Conversion of St Paul.
Chant throughout: Asperges, Proper of the day, Missa Orbis Factor, Jesu Dulcis Memoria as a motet, and the Domine Salvam Fac for the queen after Mass. Poorly attended!
University of Notre Dame: Conversion of St. Paul, celebrated by Archbishop Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. I see that it’s already been referenced by other commenters, however.
My parish celebrated the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. The homily was mostly about the 1st reading from Jonah. The music was, to use an adjective of a previous commentor, nondescript. It was a Novos Ordo Mass. I seriously need to get over my hesitations in finding a TLM in my area. I love my parish, but am tired of the lack of sacredness.
Well, yesterday after the Catechism class I teach was over, I noticed the priest and deacon were hanging around the gathering space outside the church and dressed in white/gold vestments, which caught me off guard as I know we’re in ordinary time. The vigil Mass starts 15 minutes after my class ends. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why they were wearing white/gold, until I got home later and skimmed the blogsophere and it dawned on me– Conversion of St. Paul. I didn’t go to Mass– I was beat– so I’m getting ready to leave in an a little bit for Mass. Today, what happens, will probably depend on who celebrates the Mass today, but I suspect we’ll observe the Conversion of St. Paul as well. The Year of Paul has really been stressed in my archdiocese this year.
Maria S. in Santa Fe
We celebrated the Conversion of St. Paul (NO in Latin). Music was chant plus generic processional and recessional hymns that I’ve already forgotten. Homily was quite good, on the suffering that goes along with conversion.
Today at my parish, I served at 7:30 Mass. As I was processing down the aisle with the crucifix, all the lights turned off. Because it was still morning, there wasn’t any light coming through the windows. So, we got lots of candles and heard Mass by candlelight.
At my TLM in Columbus Ohio we celebrated the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul (& 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany… the Collect, Communion, and Post-Communion propers were prayed from both Feasts).
We had quite a crowd this morning. Deo gratias.
We celebrated the Conversion of St. Paul at both the EF and OF Masses. At the EF we commemorated the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany.
Drats… Fr starts by saying that the missalette offers a choice between the 3rd Sunday and the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. “We’ll be using the readings from the 3rd Sunday… ”
Then his whole sermon was on change and conversion. from the viewpoint of Jonah. Near the end as he
was talking about the people in Ninevah listening to Jonah even though they weren’t of the chosen people,
he sequed into if we live by the Gospel and proclaim it through our lives, maybe there will be some change in our Governor (Gregoire) and President and their strong support of abortion and taking lives.
Our “clavinovist” was gone this week, so we got to listen and (some) sing with the prerecorded 70’s
music including all the recorded tambourines of the likes to “Take my Hands,” “Here I am Lord” and
other “favorites….
John
Pomeroy on the Palouse
Third Sunday after Epiphany, Extraordinary Form, at St. Mary’s in Norwalk, Connecticut. Fr. Markey preached about the year of St. Paul, telling us that the Holy Father intends for us to use the Year of St. Paul to (a) reflect on the life of St. Paul, (b) make a pilgrimage to a Pauline shrine, and (c) pray for Christian unity. As to (a), he encouraged us to read one chapter from one of St. Paul’s letters each day. As to (c), he spoke briefly about the excommunication of the SSPX bishops being lifted.
One other thing…Fr. Markey also asked us all to pray that Pres. Obama has a “Damascus moment” similar to that of Saul and realize that, as Saul had persecuted the Christians, he has been persecuting the unborn.
My parish only has OF masses. We celebrated the Conversion of St. Paul. We were also acknowledging Catholic Schools Week, so that theme pretty much took over. Before Mass began, there was “liturgical dance” by two young girls (at least it was prior to the Mass). Music was… well, I imagine the previous sentence will lead you to the proper conclusion. If not, a hint: drums were involved.
TLM (Bytom, diec. Gliwice, Souther Poland) – 3rd Sunday after Epiphany.
Homily about lifting the excomunication from FSSPX (mind – it is a regular diocese parish – celebrating both OF an EF). Our young priest compered leper from todays Gospel to the traditionalist (as the mainstream Church treated us). And concluded than now they have no argument for excluding and diminishing people connected with TLM from church.
Music – Missa de Angelis (as alomost usual, Credo III – and Polish church christmas carrols during the propers). New (very good – student od Music University) organist (it was his first TLM).
Novus Ordo Conversion of Saul
Dear Fr. Z.,
At the Mass I attended yesterday evening, we had the conversion of St. Paul. The homily focused not on that but on another conversion: Norma McCorvey.
Novus Ordo–3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Horrible Oregon Press calliope music.
“Psalmist” has marbles in his mouth & couldn’t understand the psalms or prayer of the faithful.
Pastor said “Stuff” 8 times in his homily. Vapid recollection of his days prior to becoming a priest…failed to tie in destruction of Ninevah with our present predicament.
Other than that, it was the standard noisy, “high-fiving”, non-solemn event.
My birthday is next Sunday and am going 1 hour away to the TLM.
Deo Gratias God has brought the TLM back to us!
Celebrated the Conversion of St. Paul. Homily mentioned “platitudes”, but the sermon was full of platitudes. :( But, I get so inspired by St. Paul, if God chose HIM after all he had done, then nothing should stop little me from getting out there and fearlessly evangelizing (sp?).
St Paul’s Mass Centre in the Parish of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Huddersfield, in Yorkshire (UK)
I celebrated the Mass of the Conversion of St. Paul according to the Novus Ordo. A lovely congregation, with lots of young families.
TLM, a Missa Cantata. It was the Third Sunday after Epiphany; but I’m pretty sure Father did a commemoration of the conversion of St. Paul.
Music was mostly the same as normal (Gregorian Chant), and we had Credo III, and Kyrie VIII (that’s all that I remember in ways of names).
While I’ve heard Fr. Z say that Kyrie VIII is over-used, and I’ve seen that in most TLM masses they use Credo III, usually in our mass they don’t. They vary the Kyries, and usually we have Credo I.
Father talked for awhile before his actual sermon about FOCA, and had the ushers pass out the postcards.
The biggest point of discussion for us after Mass, was not the feast, or the SSPX excommunications, but the inflammatory article in our local newspaper about Vatican II and extreme traditionalists vs. radical hippies (according to them, there’s no place in between them).
Alpharetta, GA: St. Thomas Aquinas (NO parish)
Novus Ordo—3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Plagued as ever with the Oregon “Breaking Bread” hymnal.
No homily; instead, Fr. Harold from our sister parish, St. Martin’s in Delatte, Haiti, and the woman in our parish who is head of that ministry in the parish, each spoke for a bit.
Applause after the announcement before Mass that the priests from Haiti were with us. Applause again after Fr. Harold, and then after the local woman.
I really need to commit to the drive to Mableton, for the TLM (in the Archdiocese of Atlanta, the ONLY parish where Latin is to be found!)
Novus ordo Schutte/Haugen festival; mention of Catholic Schools Week; St. Paul not in evidence anywhere. The subject of “conversion” is not “pastoral” here.
(A big hello to John in Pomeroy!)
Moscow on the Palouse
“As you might suspect, some were offended and walked out. But with the great one who’s conversion we celebrate today, “an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it!” Comment by sacerdosinaeternum — 25 January 2009 @ 8:59 am
Sacerdosinternum, sorry to hear that the CINO’s walked out. We need more priests with the courage to preach the faith. Please keep it up.
my N.O. parish with no TLMs celebrated the Conversion of St Paul today. Since we also have a Catholic school, our parish had students from the school serve as all the servers, lectors, gift bearers, etc. and they did a fantastic, liturgically correct :), and reverent job.
St John the Baptist in New Freedom, Pa had Conversion of St Paul in OF. We also used it to kickoff the Postcard Campaign against FOCA.
Novus Ordp, 3rd Sunday readings, homily re Conversion of Paul
–Conversion of St. Paul
–T.L.M.
Homily re: Conversion of St. Paul
(explanation not unlike WDTPRS in the Wanderer).
Hymns:
–Come, Holy Ghost
–Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All
— O, Holy Name
Before Mass started Father went to the cantor’s podium (which is in the front of the Church, not in the sanctuary, to the right. He advised us that we would be celebrating the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, and that it was fitting that we celebrate that feast at the beginning of Catholic Schools Week. Father then related the experiences of our Parishoners at the March for Life this week, as well as the good turnout of the Faithful from both North Carolina Diocese. He provided us with clear and excellent teaching about Natural Law and Right to Life, and called on us to keep us the fight agains FOCA. He then returned to the Narthex.
Holy Mass began a few minutes later with led by the 12 or so altar boys that were serving the Mass. Father and Deacon processed in red vestments. Although a Novus Ordo Mass, it lacked nothing in reverence and holiness. I think if more people could experience a properly said NO there would be less strife in the church.
Deacon’s homily was about Saint Paul’s conversion and the hard life he led for Christ, but also the joy that life gave him and others. He also spoke of the Right To Life, and our call to witness Christ’s Truth to our elected officials, just as Paul witnessed before the civil and religious authorities of his day.
Third Sunday reading, which the pastor linked to the affirmation of life and opposition to abortion. He was quite emphatic about calling abortion evil and sinful and reminding everyone it was no opinion, but a teaching of the Church
St. Mary’s in Milaca – NO – Conversion of St. Paul, readings and homily.
I attended the Vigil Mass (Ordinary Form) and to my pleasant surprise, it was for the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. However the first reading and three “presidential” prayers came from the proper of saints, and the 2nd Reading of course came from the current Sunday, but so did the the Responsorial Psalm, Alleluia, and Gospel. Oh well!
In my parish the Ordinary Form was celebrated ad orientem, the altar being arranged in the so-called Benedictine fashion. The Mass for the Conversion of Saint Paul was said. The proper Gregorian Introit was chanted before the opening hymn; likewise, the Communion antiphon was chanted before a vernacular Communion hymn. The Ordinary was chanted in Latin, as well as the Pater Noster. Brick by brick, the pastor is catechizing his faithful by homilies, instructions, and bulletin notices and introducing new elements in Latin each week; also, new Gregorian Masses are being introduced slowly and practiced with the faithful before Mass.
The Hermeneutic of Continuity is alive at Saint Veronica Catholic Church, Chantilly, Virginia (near Dulles airport).
Traditional Mass, the third Sunday after Epiphany. The homily focused on extolling the virtues of Catholic schools, in light of the upcoming “Catholic Schools Week.” While I’m a fan of truly Catholic education, I couldn’t help but think through the entire homily: Why are there so many Catholic schools that teach heresies and that run contrary to the Faith, and why would we want to celebrate them?
As a side question: the priest, when distributing Communion, merely said “Corpus Christi” instead of “Corpus Domini nostri Jesu Christi custodiat animam tuam in vitam aeternam. Amen.” Is this allowable?
OF/Conversion of St. Paul
Our pastor did a good job of encouraging everyone to sign the FOCA postcards after Mass. He preached on the importance of standing up for life, the conversion of St. Paul and Norma McCOrvy, and even was able to make some points on BO’s speech that Catholics could agree on, while emphasizing that it will be a long, uphill battle for years to come. Prayers for the week of Christian Unity made some reference to diversity. Local diocesan group prayer recitation for APA collection at prayer of the faithful. Mozart’s Laudate DOminum for offertory was the highlight of the musical offerings, since the Schola is off this week.
Fr. Z, our parish has only recently begun Communion under both Species, and I thought the permission to take the cups away to cleanse later had expired. Doesn’t the priest have to purify them at the altar with the chalice and paten at the end of Communion?
At St. Stephen Martyr in DC, we celebrated Conversion of St. Paul. I noticed the second reading was the same as the one for ordinary time, but the first was on Paul’s conversion, and the Gospel was the scripture that talks about handling snakes (fun!). We had a two-week old (awww) Dominican deacon named John Chrysostom who gave his very first homily…and he was sufficiently golden-tongued! I’m in the choir, and understandably, one of the members wore a green stole as we headed upstairs to sing the Morning Office before mass. She hurried back down to the choir room, changed into white, and joined us in procession in honor of dear Saint Paul.
OF Mass, Third Sunday in Ordinary Time. But homily was about S. Paul, and the priest even explained that Sundays take precedence over feasts (I guess he didn’t get the memo from Rome…). The music was horrible and wasn’t at all related to the antiphons or readings for 3rd Sunday OR St. Paul (sigh). There was an announcement before Mass encouraging us to fill out our FOCA protest cards and send them to our representatives. All in all, a mixed bag of good and bad.
Tom A.
My understanding is that you may receive communion twice per day
(The question was asked of Pope JP II, I do not remember the document though).
Our NO parish observed the conversion of St Paul…homilies split between the conversion and urging action against the Freedom of Choice act.
Today it was a regular, bland Novus Ordo, but at least there was nothing too scandalous. The Conversion of Saint Paul was not even mentioned. No music, horrid vestments, modern church… WHEN will we able to have Latin Mass in the Diocese of Santa Rosa?
In Nashville, celebrated the conversion of St Paul–good homily about continual call to conversion, taking the message to all peoples and a reminder about the plenary indulgence for the year of St Paul.
I’m part of the Latin Mass community in Pittsburgh, and today we observed the Mass for the Third Sunday after Epiphany. It was funny, because I had both the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany and the Conversion of St Paul bookmarked in my 1962 missal just in case. Father’s sermon linked the gospel passage with the sacraments – I thought it was quite a good homily.
We observed the Conversion of St. Paul (in the OF – the very idea of an EF Mass at our parish is… well, it will never happen.) We got all the usual liturgical abuses, as well as some new ones our pastor came up with recently. The music was the usual garbage from Gather Comprehensive.
Our recently ordained permanent deacon gave a nice homily (actually about three mini-homilies that weren’t really connected, as is his usual practice.) He contrasted the notion of “quality of life” with “sanctity of life,” and talked about how they sometimes seem in conflict, like in cases of unplanned pregnancies or having to care for the sick and elderly.
At the end of Mass, Father invited everyone to the gym to fill out postcards to send to our Congressmen about the FOCA.
My parish is N.O. but the pastor also celebrates the E.F. My pastor celebrated the conversion of St. Paul and preached on it.
As with many Catholic church music programs, our professionally educated choir masters, who have excellent taste in music and know the rubrics of both ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Mass very well, are hemmed in by liturgy committees and priests who think they know more about liturgical music than the professional musicians they’ve hired. So although we are seroiously blessed with knowlegdable and devout music directors, we still have to sit through 90% of the Mass with bad music. The saving grace is that we sneak in the Gregorian Communion antiphon every Sunday and have an occasional nice motet at an appropriate place.
The choir director reminded the pastor that this Sunday could be the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul. We aren’t sure if he–the pastor–had gotten the email from the Vatican. The pastor wrote two very nice short pieces for the parish bullletin, one in English and one in Spanish. Curiously, the Spanish one seemed a lot more catechetical. No matter, his sermon was very good: he eloquently reminded us of how Ss Peter and Paul (the parish’s patrons) constitute the very pillars of the Church that Jesus established.
As for music, the Gregorian schola sang the Communion antiphon (from the vetus ordo, “Amen dico vobis, quidquid” because we goofed and rehearsed that one insteasd of the novus ordo, “Signa eos”) and the mixed choir sang Vaughn Williams’ “O How Amiable are Thy Dwellings”. The rest of the music was okay hymn fare.
Attended a NO Parish TLM. Readngs for 3rd Sun after Epiphany. Sermon included St. Paul’s Conversion, and 3rd Sunday. Fr. said conversion is the turning around in the opposite direction of where you were going, and also that our personal conversions do not end until death.
My parish, St. James in St. Joseph, MO has both the N.O. and the E.F. My pastor observed the Conversion of St. Paul.
I was the substitute cantor at the anticipated Mass yesterday evening (I’m the regular cantor at the Sunday evening Mass, so I will hear a different homily tonight).
St. Victor Parish in West Hollywood, CA
Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul
Msgr. Parnassus began his homily with, “According to the statistics, about half of you in this congregation voted for President Obama. I spoke to some of you about this privately before the election, but as for the rest of you, I don’t know what was in your mind or heart, that you thought other issues–the war, perhaps, or the economy, or health care–outweighed his unconscionable position on issues of life, on the issue of abortion.” He went on to say that we can already see that our new president’s promises about ending the war and fixing the economy will not come true, while his policies that enable killing babies will be enacted as soon as possible. He then spoke about St. Paul, and Saul’s part in the martyrdom of St. Stephen, ended asking us to pray that President Obama will have a St. Paul-like conversion experience. He also admonished us that if we pray, “Please let him be converted,” but have in the back of our minds, “…but it doesn’t seem likely,” that God will know that we do not have great trust in His power to change hearts; we must pray for Obama’s conversion knowing that it is truly possible.
I would like to ask your prayers for Msgr. Parnassus. He is elderly and very frail–he would not have made it up the steps to the altar last night if he did not have a strong altar server’s arm to lean on. I believe that the stresses of being in a parish in a city where the Catholic Church is becoming ever more unpopular, and the disappointing results of the election, and the nasty letters he receives because he is willing to speak the truth in his homilies, are taking their toll on him emotionally and physically. Please pray that this good and holy priest will be with us for years yet–there are not many priests like him in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and we desperately need every one of them.
Conversion of St. Paul, Apostle (Extraordinary Form)
Asperges me
Gregorian propers
Mass VIII
Credo III
Adoro te devote (after the Communion antiphon).
Alma Redemptoris Mater (after the Lat Gospel).
Homily: Visiting priest from Rome (via Romania) talked about St. Paul’s educated upbringing as a Roman citizen and a Pharisee; reiterated how wary people were about his conversion (could it be?); how were he alive today he would be using all available means to spread the Gospel (internet, mass media, etc.). Mentioned Fr. John Corapi as a modern-day version of St. Paul.
At St. Mary Mayor, we celebrated the Salus Populis Romani, NO in Latin. Double choir and Brass orchestra.
We had 3rd Sunday in Ordinary time, combined with a funeral. The first reading was from Isiah on death. The
Psalm was a communion hymn played on CD. The homily was an abbreviated life of the deceased, who was 100! A
photo was brought up at the offatory and placed on the altar! A poem (written by the deceased) was read out
after Holy Communion, thankfully a toddler in squealed through the entire thing. And for some reason we had
not one but two final blessings. The music was provided by CD/MP3 player device controlled from the altar,
that our priest loves to play with.
Holy Name of Jesus Providence, RI- Conversion of St Paul in OF and EF
FSSP in Vienna, Austria: Conversion of St. Paul
TLM at Chicago’s St. John Cantius this morning. Conversion of St. Paul at all Masses. Sermon was on praying for conversions, especially of our national leader.
Somewhere in England (North Southwark)……Novus Ordo English.
Redemptorist Mass leaflet had 3rd Sunday in Ordinary time (btw – could we not leave the \”end times\” epistle to the Jehovahs Witnesses – it is hard to read it with conviction), so imagine my delight when the dear Fr arrived on the altar in full whites, and announced that \”he had been asked\” to celebrate the Conversion of St Paul. Nice sermon going from the events surrounding the conversion, through to the tendency of the Corinthians to fight among themselves about who was for Cephas etc, and thence smoothly to Christian Unity. Ticked all the boxes, when the bidding prayers for Christian Unity had the response \”May we all be as One\”. I joined in joyfully for once – but the particular Christians I was wanting to be one with were not the Methodists this year….
Did my bit for the protestant end of ecumenism by attending a lovely rehearsal for Messiah (with singers from all denominations locally, led by another local priest) which we hope to put on at Easter. That to me a good and valid way to mix with fellow Christians, and praise God in concert with them – outside of a mix n\’ match religious service.
Robert–
It’s been plugged on Fr. Z’s blog before, but you do have Latin Mass in the Diocese of Santa Rosa. Holy Family Mission in Rutherford (a bit north of Napa) now has Latin Mass every Sunday. Also there is one at Most Holy Rosary in San Rafael (which is Archdiocese of San Francisco, but close). Unfortunately, since the Diocese of Santa Rosa stretches all the way to the Oregon border, I suppose you may be too far away to reasonably drive to these locations.
At St. Stanilaus in Milwaukee, WI
8am TLM
Conversion of St. Paul
Fr. Meney spoke of Paul’s conversion and how God is also asking us why we persecute him and do not let him into our hearts. God could quite reasonably ask us, “What have I done to you to deserve to be treated this way?”
He also spoke of another conversion, possibly a fictional tale from the middle centuries, of a man who went to “confession” and spoke of his sins, but without remorse. The priest granted conditional absolution – the condition being to fill a certain bucket with water. Try as he might, he traveled the world to every source of water he could find, but the man could not fill the bucket. In despair, he returned to the priest, weeping. A single tear then filled the bucket.
Like Saul and the man, we persecute God rather than open our hearts to him. We need to humbly ask for his presence.
At Notre Dame we did a Sung EF Mass for the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul; in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, they had a Mass offered by Archbishop Angelo Amato, also for the Conversion of St. Paul.
I attended my parish (Novus Ordo). We celebrated the conversion of St. Paul. The pastor thanked the Holy Father at the end of Mass for allowing the conversion of St. Paul to be celebrated on a Sunday. Father (an associate) preached on the evils of abortion and prayed that the President could experience a conversion a la St. Paul’s.
Saint Albert the Great Parish Church, Austin, Texas, celebrated Mass in the ordinary form for the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul at 11:45 am.
Though I and my husband are Anglo-Catholic, our parish follows the Roman Catholic calendar as a rule, and thus we celebrated the conversion of St. Paul today (and the Confession of Peter last Sunday). Our choir sang two choruses from Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio St. Paul, “O great is the depth” (anthem) and “I praise thee, O Lord” (motet), both in English.
TLM–low mass–3rd Sunday after Epiphany.
Sermon–Our priest spoke about the ways in which the Gospel for the day has been incorporated into the Mass, “Lord I am not worthy…” Also he gave spoke about how lepers were separated from society and how our sins separate us from God and the value of the sacrament of Confession to clean our souls of our sins, as Christ cleaned the leper in the Gospel, bringing us closer to God.
Short, sweet and to the point as usual.
Novus Ordo Mass
3rd Sunday Ordinary Time
Gregorian chant for:
– Prelude
– Entrance Hymn
– Kyrie
– Gloria
– Alleluia
– Offertory Hymn
– Sanctus
– Agnus Dei
– Communion Hymns
– Recessional
Great homily, too.
Sadly at Holy Nativity (NO) in Frankliville, NJ there was no mention of Saul or Paul or Tarsus or anything else that may remind you of the great Apostle…
St Paul is the titular patron of our parish. We celebrated the feast of his
conversion this morning at Mass (novus ordo). Later today the parish is holding
Vespers with a reception afterwards to mark the feast.
TLM — 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany of course.
We celebrated the OF Feast of The Conversion of Paul.
Simple chanted Kyrie, Gloria of the Bells.
In addition to the Conversion of Paul we focused on Pro-Life.
The homily, given by one of our deacons who is also a judge, discussed Paul’s conversion and then segued into the idea of need for conversion particularly involving the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). At the request of the Bishops we were invited to participate in a postcard writing campaign to congress to vote against the FOCA.
Only complaint about the homily was that the deacon apologized if he offended anyone by what he said. This raised a couple of eyebrows and elicited a couple of comments by some after mass.
The music including “Faith of Our Fathers”, “Here I Am”,”O God, You Search Me”, “Isaiah 49”. The choir director, IMHO, did a nice job selecting songs that brought out both the Pauline and the Pro-Life themes.
Novus Ordo, versus populum in Diocese of Metuchen, NJ. The celebration of the Conversion of St. Paul was made OBLIGATORY in all public Masses and public celebrations of the Office. Music was wonderful as always (no sarcasm). Nice recessional hymn, something like O Make of All Disciples..very appropriate.
FSSP, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania:
Third Sunday After Epiphany.
Father’s homily was about the Obamanation of last Tuesday, and the tragedy it means for the unborn. He contrasted that sad event with the lifting of the SSPX excommunications, and the hope it represents for the Church.
The music was exquisite Gregorian Chant.
St Rita Parish, Alexandria VA
Father did several good things:
–homily about the radical possibility of conversion through grace, even if we have dedicated our lives to the opposite of what we\’re converting to
–kids from the parish school did offertory procession, prayer of the faithful, etc. (for Catholic schools week)
–FOCA postcards afterwards, but I think the USCCB needs to re-think how to organize this
–PLENARY INDULGENCE attached to this day mentioned in the homily, which is great
–usual progress made in ROTR: Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Communio in the liturgical original. Rest in blah ICEL.
St. Victor’s Church, West Hollywood, Conversion of St. Paul, homily focused on St. Paul’s theology of Christ.
We celebrated the Conversion of St Paul at our typical NO/OF parish in No. California. Father preached on the sanctity of all human life, the incompatibility of the Christian life with the “culture of death”, and the central role of suffering in witnessing to the faith and conforming ourselves to Christ. Very unusual and outspoken for him.
At the cathedral of the Holy Cross (Boston), the Third Sunday after Epiphany (’62 missal)
At our N.O. mass today, our priest gave a STUNNING and FIERY admonition about the evil of abortion, given the Mexico City Policy debacle. Sadly, a family stormed out in the middle of mass, “offended” that the priest would dare speak about “the current administration” and abortion at church. I wrote about it on my blog.
At St. Mary Mother of God in DC
When I arrived, the priest who offered the TLM was in green.
An English Novus Ordo Mass which I stayed for was the Conversion of St. Paul and the priest in white.
As I was leaving a Chinese Novus Ordo Mass was about to begin and priest wore green.
St. Francis de Sales Parish, Archdiocese of Atlanta (FSSP)
9:00 Low Mass – 3rd Sunday after Epiphany
11:30 Missa Cantata – Conversion of St. Paul
In our Arlington Diocese parish, we observed St Paul’s Conversion in the OF.
I too was confused about the two readings while my Magnificat only had one. Thank you Fr BJ for the link.
The assistant pastor was in white and gave a good heartfelt sermon on St Paul’s background and reminders to act out our Faith publicly, and in the family not be fearful to correct our children when they do not act according to the Faith. As usual, no altar girls or general shenanigans. Though I am confused by Father’s use of “Sisters and Brothers” at the beginning of the “Pray that our Sacrifice may be acceptable…”.
This coincided with Catholic Schools Week. A children’s choir sang, children stumbled through the readings and intercessions, brought up the gifts, passed the offering baskets. The music included the typically painful choices like ‘One Bread, One Body’ and such, including Mass parts of something akin to the SLJ genre [sorry i don’t know the name of that particular Mass – ‘Jesus lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world…’]. I think there were the varied accompanying instruments but I work at blocking the parish music out, so I’m not sure. The place, including the foyer, [Mass is in a gym while we await a church bldg] was packed because of the following school open house. Father said the shortest canon and communion distribution took an extra-long time.
Tom A: I thought that if we attend both Masses completely end-to-end that we can communicate twice a day. I have been told that the “day” means ‘liturgically’ so that vigil Mass and the day’s Mass would add up to two. But then I thought ‘day’ meant 24 hours. I hope you get an answer to your question, I’m also interested in all the details.
Jeff D.: interesting Fr Markey’s intention for the ‘Damascus Moment’ of Prez O. I was thinking the exact same thing as the Gospel was being read, and this continued to engulf my mind during the sermon.
St. John the Baptist in Tryon NC celebrated the Conversion of St. Paul. Fr. Patrick used the occasion to link his trip to Washington for the March for Life with the importance of St. Paul’s conversion.
It was announced that it was the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. The celebrant wore green vestments and we celebrated the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Father preached on vocations since the Gospel told us of the call of Peter, Andrew, James, and John. The choir sang ‘Sing to the Mountains’ for the processional hymn accompanied by a guitar…
Mater Dei Traditional Latin Mass Community, Harrisburg, PA – Third Sunday After Epiphany. Music was chant by a visiting schola – very well done. First hymn sung by choir and congregation was O Sanctissima, sung entirely in Latin. Our FSSP priest explained all about the lifting of the excommunications and what this means. He is very happy about this and it was good to see his joy and hope for the future of the Church.
Ushers handed out postcards to send to congressmen asking them to vote against FOCA; they then collected the postcards and will mail them for us.
NO in English, versus populum, observance of the Conversion of Paul.
We also used J. Michael Thompson’s “Hymn for the Year of Paul” set to the tune THAXTED.
Thompson has been writing hymn texts for a while now, and to my mind his stuff is both more poetic and more theologically sound than anything being pushed by the “big three.”
He is attached to the faculty (I believe) of the Byzantine Seminary in Pittsburgh, PA, and has been tireless in his work to advance the music of the Byzantine tradition in both its original and “modernized” forms. If one examines the kinds of music being written for the Byzantine Rite by current composers, I think it sets a good example for what the Latin Rite composers should strive for. Just my 2-cents.
It was the Conversion of St. Paul, Novus Ordo. Good homily describing that we can’t convert ourselves, we must open our hearts to let the Holy Spirit convert us.
At St. Benedict’s in Chesapeake, VA, a TLM parish, we celebrated the third Sunday after Epiphany and the homily was on the importance of giving a good confession. I am certain Father challenged most if not all of us.
OF Parish–the sat vigil and three of the Sunday masses were for the III Sunday per annum the other two were for St Paul with the 2nd reading from the Sunday. All the homilies were about conversion though and the celebrant mentioned that we were “commemorating the Conversion of Saint Paul” in the per annum masses but he didn’t say the collect.
I attend St. Stanislaus Oratory in Milwaukee, which is a Traditional Latin Mass Community under the care of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. We celebrated the Conversion of St. Paul.
The music was great, of course. I sing in the choir. LOL!
At our TLM in McLean VA, we had a solemn high mass to celebrate the conversion of St. Paul. The lengthy epistle was beautifully sung by the deacon. The homily addressed the ongoing conversions of St. Paul and the parallel to our lives as Catholic Christians. A truly beautiful experience and during which I offered up unceasing prayers for a similar conversion in Obama’s heart. Can you imagine? To harness all that charism and the following of the mindless masses down a different path? A path to elevate the sanctity of life rather than trouncing upon it? The audacity to hope, indeed.
We went to a TLM today (first one for my husband!), and we celebrated the Feast of the Conversation of St. Paul.
Celebrated 3rd Sunday in OT.
Homily: Talked about FOCA and the postcard campaign to US reps and senators. Said he never will make political statements from the pulpit but will always defend the truth and speak the truth which is life begins at conception and ends at natural death. He received a round of applause afterwards – a first for me to witness.
Novus Ordo Mass. We celebrated the Conversion of St. Paul. The priest remarked that the reading from Jonah is used only once every three years. He used his own variation of the liturgy which includes a lot of references to “unconditional love,” anxiety, and so on. I’ve noticed he has eliminated the word “Christ” from every place it appears in the liturgy except for the Kyrie.
As for the music, my ears are still bleeding from the sheer volume of the guitars and vocals. (The drummer was curiously absent this morning.)
I know my attitude stinks. I have been writing to the Cardinal since a particular accretion began in 2001 and was assured he was going to address it. Things have only become worse.
OF, 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time with a great homily on the need for conversion in regards to FOCA, info on the USCCB postcard drive and how even if there are those among us who voted for President Obama, “I ask for the good of your souls” to send a messagfe regarding the unwanted nature of an already started tirade against life and FOCA, because “we as Catholics can change even this heart.” He also mentioned the Catholic Vote TV ad.
St Columban Church, Garden Grove, CA. Ordinary Form; Conversion of St. Paul
Interesting homily tying in the conversion of St Paul to the Apostle of the Gentiles and the start of Catholic Schools Week. St Paul and the Apostles evangelized to the world, now it is our turn to evangelize and to educate the next generation of Catholics.
Here at seminary (somewhere in DC) we had N.O. 3rd Sunday. :\
N.O. 3rd Sunday Ordinary Time: Music – 2 blah-blah la-la Dan Schuttes and two I’ve not heard before, but written pre-1940. I listened but did not know them.
Great homily, though, contrasting the Culture of Death to the Gospel of Life and how we need to very carefully, and daily, decide whether we want to follow Jesus into the Gospel of Life or live in the Culture of Death. He also went into detail in more than just ‘abortion mindedness’ – but in our whole way of thinking (and Father mentioned chastity & sexuality, marriage vows, how we talk about children and talk to our own children, how we serve and speak about the sick & poor and care for our elderly.)
He also spoke out against the President’s Mexico City Policy exectutive order & made NO FOCA post cards available. After years & years of nary a Prolife nod from the previous pastor and homilies mostly focused on sports, our new pastor is moving our parish into conversion through outstanding homilies and additional opportunties for the Rosary, Adoration & Benediction, Confession and additional times to study the teachings of the Church. We’re not sure when he sleeps.
If only he could get people who can actually sing to join the choir and a director who could pick good music instead of Muppet Movie tunes…..
Ontario, ordinary parish (Resurrectionist Order). Ordinary form Mass, with propers from the Feast and 2nd reading from the Sunday, Gloria, Creed. Sermon about the Conversion and work of St Paul.
To the author of “bland TLM Mass”:
How often I have emerged from Church on a Sunday morning uttering these very words. In fact, there is no \”quality control\” in the Diocese of Santa Rosa. There will be no improvement until the current generation of aging priests are replaced. However, there is a very fine Byzantine Catholic Church, St. Peters, located on Brush Street in Ukiah. It is part of the Ukranian Greek Catholic eparchy. The Divine Liturgy is entirely in English. The priest is an excellent preacher. You might give it a try.
Went to the FSSP Parish in Scranton PA this morning. 3rd Sunday after Epiphany. Sermon was about Obama during which praying for his conversion and the road to hell was mentioned more then once.
Our parish had a visiting priest since our pastor is taking his yearly month-long vacation to his native Sri Lanka. The visiting priest mixed the two celebrations. The first reading was taken from the feast of the conversion of St. Paul, and was followed by the “responsorial psalm,” second reading, and the gospel from the 3rd Sunday in ordinary time.
Our associate pastor spoke of the conversion of St Paul and somehow managed to work in a shot at Catholics that attend the Tridentine Mass (a friend relayed to him how all people at the Tridentine Mass he attended looked angry).
TLM (FSSP apostolate, South Bend, IN) – 3rd Sunday after Epiphany.
Homily was about Roe vs. Wade, abortion, the Obama-nation of desolation, and FOCA.
At St. Ann Church in Erie, PA, the E.F. Low Mass was of the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany. Fr. Bob Levis’s homily was a condemnation of modernism in the church and the country, and how our new President’s “change” means killing the unborn. Father was outstanding as always, which should come as no surprise to anybody who knows him or has seen him on EWTN.
Extraordinary Form
Third Sunday after Epiphany with Commemorations for Conversion of St. Paul and St. Peter
We had an excellent sermon on Hell. (Apparently it still exists!)
Michael Weidlick
Saint Gregory the Great and Saint Augustine of Canterbury Oratory
St. Louis, MO
Went to both EF and NO today(altar serving family- we helped at both Masses)…both celebrated the Conversion of St Paul. Both homilies talked of the importance of Catholic Schools Week. EF had schola and choir…and homily also talked of Mexico City Policy/lifting of excommunication…always a beautiful Mass. Other Mass was at a monastery. Simply done…some Latin…(organ broken, but traditional hymns still sung)The silence always leads to a nice time of prayer. Great way to spend Sunday, really.
N.O., 3rd Sun, OT. No mention of St. Paul, and I’d never know it’s the year of St. Paul. Guess our San Diego bishop has never taken that lead. I was (as I often am), blown away by the prophetic Scripture readings – Nineveh, etc. Does that not describe what needs to happen in our world?! There are no coincidences with God!
In honor of the remission of the excommunications, I attended an SSPX Mass this morning, where Third Sunday after Epiphany was celebrated with Gregorian chant propers and ordinary and with beautiful motets both after the Offertory and before the Communion propers. The final hymn, sung by the choir, was the Magnificat. Immediately following the homily, the priest read the statements by Bishop Fellay. It was quite moving.
I was at a EF Mass, we celebrated the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany. Father actually didn’t preach on St. Paul at all – he rather expressed our need to trust in God and in Him alone, to abandon our will and search only for His. I needed to hear that homily – I suppose that God, in His mercy, speaks to each one of us precisely what we need to hear. :) As for music, we had a cantor sing the Propers and an organist play during Communion. Unfortunately, being at a university, the scholae have not had sufficient time to rehearse the Propers yet – women’s schola sings next week, however. God bless, Fr. Z
We had a “children’s Mass” today and learned about Jonah…
St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Victoria, B.C. Ordinary Form. Conversion of Saint Paul. Deacon preached on Saint Paul receiving new vision after God’s “corrective surgery”. The Deacon spoke about his own experience of blindness. As a child he was cross-eyed and underwent corrective surgery. His eyes were bandaged for several days, in effect rendering him blind. Afterward, the bandages came off, it was a whole new world. A theologically solid, informed homily permeated with calls for holiness and conversion to God.
Here in Seattle, at St. Alphonus during the Latin Mass we used the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany.
Two memorable parts of today’s Mass:
1.) Attendance is WAY up. This is the only TLM in the Seattle area, and people obviously have a large interest in it.
2.) Fr. Gerard Saguto’s sermon was all about the central role of traditional music in the liturgy.
At our FSSP parish in Seattle we had 3rd Sunday after Epiphany; sermon was on role of music in our worship of God in the liturgy. Including quotes from Pius XII encyclical.
Novus Ordo
Announced at the beginning of Mass as The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul
First two readings were from the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time; the Gospel was Mk 16:15-20, which Father said is a reading for the Feast of St. Paul (I don’t know whether it is or not, but I’m sure he wouldn’t do anything that wasn’t correct).
Homily was based on the first reading, which was about Jonah. Father pointed out that Jonah hadn’t wanted to save the Ninehvites, was angry with God for not destroying them — and yet no prophet in the OT was more successful than Jonah. After Jesus came, though, we have had many successful prophetic witnesses. Examples: St. Juan Diego (converted over a million Native Americans in Mexico by his example and with the help of Our Lady of Guadalupe), St. Ignatius. We all have a call to witness and be prophets, right here and right now. This is just as important to us as it was to Jonah and the Ninehvites. Many millions may die in their sins if we don’t answer the call.
All of this was the foundation for the most important part of the homily. The most important thing for us to stand up and speak about today is Life. We can all accept “God loves you.” But to say we must stop killing the innocent through abortion makes many uncomfortable, when we should be angry. Then came information about FOCA and a call to contact our representatives and ask them to oppose this terrible legislation. We’re on God’s side in this, and we don’t need to be afraid, unless we do nothing — in which case we may spend the rest of our lives fighting not only for the lives of the unborn, but also for the lives of the elderly (see Oregon for how far this has gone) and the infirm.
It was a very strong homily. Father got a standing ovation at the first three masses of the day.
It wasn’t what people expected, but I have to think that St. Paul might have done the same thing.
We went to a NO Mass with the readings for the Conversion of St. Paul. Homily was about Paul’s conversion and the call to continuing conversion for all of the faithful. The music was not really great- it’s the beginning of Catholic Schools week and the children’s choir was singing less than good songs inaudibly at the Mass we attended.
We celebrated the feast of the conversion of St. Paul with a commemoration of the Sunday at our beautiful little Spitalkirche in Bad Reichenhall,Bavaria(Germany). The mass was a missa cantata with the proper in Gregorian, the kyriale was the missa du Mont. Father preached a wonderful sermon on St Paul, the cross and all those who suffer, especially the weakest and most innocent of all…babies killed by abortion…we are truly blessed to have the TLM and our priest and the ICRSS here in Germany.
Mary Immaculate of Lourdes Parish, Newton, MA
Rev. Fr. Charles J. Higgins, Pastor
Conversion of St. Paul
(both EF and OF Masses)
Father Higgins’ sermon explained that St. Paul, as taught directly by the Risen Christ (on three occasions: at his conversion, in the desert, and in another vision) also correctly teaches Christ’s doctrine. The Christianity taught by St. Paul is the same Christianity of Jesus Christ. The opinion that the dogmatic St. Paul destroyed the non-dogmatic Christianity taught by Christ is false.
The weekly bulletin note also relates the Conversion of St. Paul and the conversion of Dr. Bernard Nathanson:
http://parishbulletin.com/Bulletins/1096/012509MaryNewton.pdf “Pastor’s Note” appears on page 2.
The bulletin also gives the music sung at the Masses, on page 5 (EF) and page 9 (OF).
St. Anthony Parish, San Antonio, FL
Diocesan Church, Extroadinary Form
1. Conversion of St. Paul – Father asked us to pray for the conversion of President Obama.
2. Father spoke about the lifting of the Mexico City restrictions. Interseting that in this horrid economy we are spending money to kill babies – sending death overseas.
3. Father spoke about how Obama said he was going to do this (lift restrictions on abortion), and if one voted for Obama they needed to seek repentance.
4. Read a letter from our bishop regarding FOCA and how this would affect Catholic hospitals, doctors, nurses, etc.
5. Asked us to fill out the postcards to our Senatiors, Rep.
I attend St. Francis de Sales in Saint Louis–TLM associated with the Institute of Christ the King. We celebrated the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. Our priest preached on what we can learn from the principles of Paul’s conversion: (1) that conversion always involves an authentic encounter with Jesus Christ; (2) that the grace God gives does not destroy or replace our nature, but builds upon it; and (2) that conversion necessarily leads us into deeper communion with the Church, which is the mediator of all graces. Before the homily, Fr. Wiener also read a message from the Institute of Christ the King, expressing gratitude to the Holy Father for lifting the excommunications of the SSPX bishops.
Oh, I should mention — Father had the Knights pass out NO FOCA cards, printed 3-up, and waited until everyone who wanted to send them to their Senators and Representatives had time to fill them out and address them. Father has been here for six months, and is moving us toward evangelization. He has also made a number of much-needed changes to increase reverence for the Eucharist and for the liturgy. Last week he moved the tabernacle back to its proper location, behind the altar (had been off to the side for many many years and many pastors). He’d have done it sooner, but the bishop told him to wait six months before he made any changes (the change of pastors wasn’t exactly under normal circumstances).
Conversion of St. Paul O.F. Mass
Our parish celebrated the 3rd Sunday in OT. The homily was about hair stylists. No kidding.
Father has now posted his homily on his weblog. Good reading. Imagine this delivered with passion: http://yusefalfonse.blogspot.com/2009/01/prophetic-witnesses-needed.html
We celebrated Dominca III post Epiphaniam at TLM this afternoon, though Father mentioned themes from the Coversion of St. Paul & the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. We chanted the Gregorian Propers, which was really a workout! Our Communion hymn was Pange Lingua & our post-Mass recessional hymn was Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow. Father’s homilies are always challenging – he’s not scared to preach on anything & tells it like it is. Always with charity, though.
Went to the new TLM run by the St. Peter Society — couldn’t hear a word Father said because the parish has a significant number of young marrieds who do not use artificial birth control, so place is full of crying babies — He wore green, guessing that it was 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany….
3rd Sunday Ordinary Time
FSSP Parish, St. Francis de Sales, Archdiocese of Atlanta: Missa Cantata, Conversion of St. Paul (11:30 High Mass)as previously noted. Pastor’s positive remarks on the lifting of the SSPX excommunications, while noting the irregular status still existing (along the lines of what Fr Z noted), then discussion of FOCA and joining in the postcard campaign, and homily. Music and singing outstanding as usual.
We had the NO and observed the Conversion of St. Paul. The celebrant was one of my favorites–he has a doctorate in philosophy from Rome and combines the cerebral with deep spirituality. Fr. talked about the great sins that St. Paul committed and how his conversion is a sign of hope for us. He also referenced a Polish priest whose case for canonization has just been brought up–Fr. Walter Ciszek, S.J. who was known for his clandestine missionary work in the Soviet Union. I suspect that his story was meant to be a modern example of an evangelizer. Fr. also referenced the early Christian community and their example of chastity, charity and courage. Fr. closed his homily by stressing the importance of focussing on transforming ourselves first before others…
We celebrated the Conversion of St. Paul at St. John Neumann Parish in Farragut (Knoxville) TN and the Pastor Fr. John Dowling introduced it (since it differed from the Missal) and also preached on the event.
Before Mass the choir warmed up singing Hide Not Thou Thy Face by Farrant and then sang If Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments by Thomas Tallis as a prelude to the Mass. We sang a Gregorian Chant Sanctus and Agnus Dei, as has been the practice at all Sunday vigil and morning Masses in this Novus Ordo parish for the last two and a half years. Then following Communion the choir also sang this text to the chant tune for Jesu Dulcis Memoria:
Let all the Church acclaim St. Paul
And sing the glories of his call
The Lord made an apostle be
From one who was his enemy
The name of Christ set Paul afire
Enkindling him with great desire;
And higher these same blazes reached
When of the love of Christ he preached.
His merits are forever praised
For to the heavens he was raised,
And there, the all-mysterious word,
That none dare speak, by Paul was heard.
The Word, like seed sown in a field
Producing an abundant yield
Fills heav’nly barns whose stores of grain
Are tilled and grown on earthly plains.
The shining of the lamplight gleams
And drenches earth with heaven’s beams.
The dark of error’s night is past;
The reign of truth has come at last.
To Christ all glory, and all praise
To Father and the Spirit raise,
Who for the nations’ saving call
Gave us the splendor of Saint Paul.
Translation © 2008 Kathleen Pluth. Permission is given for parish use January 24-25, 2009. All other rights reserved.
This is Pluth’s translation of the office hymn Excelsam Pauli Gloriam. And can be sung to many Long Meter (LM, or 8888) hymn tunes, such as Eisenach or Jesu Dulcis Memoria.
She also offered this on her blog as well for this date, her own original text:
The martyr Stephen met his death
Forgiveness in his final breath.
He interceded for them all
Whose cloaks lay at the feet of Saul.
The Father, hearing Stephen’s prayer,
Gave gifts for all the Church to share
When grace and mercy overflowed
In light upon Damascus Road.
Then bless the Lord of heart and mind
Who gives new vision to the blind,
Whose reign throughout the world extends,
Whose loving-kindness never ends.
© 2008 Kathleen Pluth. Permission is given for parish use January 24-25, 2009. All other rights reserved.
http://www.hymnographyunbound.blogspot.com/ is the link to her blog.
It was great singing her translation, softening the end of each line without slowing down, then quieting and singing a bit gently on the second to last verse but then singing the last verse red-bloodedly…no softening and a crescendo on the last note and an abrupt cut-off.
No wimpy chant around here….
We need MORE texts like this that teach the story of the faith….
Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Dionysius the Areopagite, Athens, Greece.
Novus Ordo Mass in English, 6 pm. Conversion of St. Paul. Fr. Arthur called attention in his homily to the choice of the Greek bishops to celebrate the feast on the Sunday, seeing as it’s the Pauline year (now if he or somebody could just explain to me exactly when the heck we’ll be having Easter and whether the Roman Catholic Church in Greece follows the Julian Calendar for Easter in order to be more in line with the rest of Greece or not–something I had heard before leaving the states–then I would be completely happy!). Homily, focusing on the end of the week of prayer for Xstian Unity, highlighted necessity of humility and love for following the truth and for achieving unity. There was a nice tie-in with St. Paul, and a random reference to Spinoza! Music was rather folk-y, but I didn’t care because it is nice to hear a homily I can fully understand every once in a while. PC
MEF, St. Benedict the Moor, Winston-Salem, NC, 3rd Sunday after Epiphany. A special Mass is planned for the end of the Pauline year, in June.
Reverend Father,
Today, Father Kevin Bravata, Chaplain of Regina Caeli Latin Mass Community at Blessed Sacrament Church in the Diocese of Memphis, celebrated the Third Sunday after the Epiphany. The Mass was a beautiful Tridentine Low Mass, with Father vested in green Roman vestments. Father spoke during his homily of the conversion of the centurion, of his simple but profound expression of faith and humility, and of our need, following his expample, of expressing to Our Lord our unworthiness to receive Him, but made more perfect by regular reception of the Sacrament of Penance. The choir sounded wonderful, and sang “Veni Creator Spititu”, and “Ave Maria” as well as “Remember, Holy Mary”. Their repertoire continues to grow, and as they add voices and adhere to their practice regimen, reflect the devout spirit of our Community, and our desire to serve Our Lord faithfully. Next week, the first Sunday of February, we will have our regular first Sunday Missa Cantata, with the choir singing the propers of the Mass.
Respectfully,
William Hunter
“Comment by Jenny — 25 January 2009 @ 2:42 pm”
I attended the Solemn Mass at St John’s in McLean, VA, as well. The Mass was that of the Conversion of Saint Paul, which was permitted for all parishes in the Diocese of Arlington. In the traditional Mass, there are already two each of collects, secrets, and post-communion prayers for this feast, since orations to Saint Paul are accompanied by one for Saint Peter. (Why, I don’t know. Maybe it was written into their contract…) In the 1962 Missal, I do not believe the additional orations for the normative Sunday are required.
The epistle was read by the Subdeacon, Father Gregory Thompson, while the gospel was read by the Deacon, Father John Fritz. (The Celebrant, by the way, was Father Paul Scalia.) Admittedly it is hard to tell between the two. The Deacon’s dalmatic and the Subdeacon’s tunicle are virtually identical garments, except for additional ornamentation on the former to indicate a higher rank. Many solemn vestment sets, unfortunately, do not have this difference, so the only way you can tell, is if you can see the deacon’s stole peering out from underneath. The subdeacon does not wear a stole. Fortunately for me, I usually have a good view from where I am (as first master of ceremonies).
The choral setting for the Mass was Papa Haydn’s “Kleine Orgelsolo Messe.” It was magnificent, although I was sure the Benedictus would never end.
Long story short, it doesn’t get better than this. Laudetur Jesus Christus.
At Oakland the Institute celebrated the conversion of St. Paul, as requested by the pope
In this middle England parish we had the Mass (OF) for the Conversion of St Paul with the second reading from the Mass of the day. Missa de Angelis plus vernacular hymns – two in honour of St Paul. Sermon on conversion, but with an over-emphasis on sola fides, bordering on the heretical, but I doubt the priest realised this. It’s the best we can get here.
Having a late start I went to the late mass at St Paul the Apostle. Of course they observed the conversion of St Paul. A pretty good sermon by visiting Carmelite priest before soliciting donations for the Carmelite missions.
Of interest this very liturgically liberal parish is running a strong campaign to get signatures to stop FOCA.
In the diocese of Stockholm, the Conversion of St Paul was the only option according to the diocesan Ordo (which, of course, pertains exclusively to the OF). Where I attended Mass, only one reading (from Acts) took place before the Gospel. This may be due to a mistake in the Ordo. The homily included the clear articulation of the incompatibility of antisemitism with the Catholic faith.
Father,
St Martin of Tours, Louisville Kentucky.
Sunday TLM was Third Sunday after Epiphany, but Father mentioned conversion of St. Paul in the homily; also spoke about the anti-FOCA campaign, and even mentioned the Holy Father’s lifting of the SSPX excommunications and asked for us to pray for unity within the Church. Excellent all around.
Father,
At the TLM, St. Anthony of Padua, Buffalo, we heard about the Conversion of St. Paul… We also received a message in the homily about the importance of vigilance with the pro-life movement in lue of the recent Obama Executive Order and FOCA…
We have a great TLM at St. Anthony\’s…My family is so blessed to have found it a little over a year ago. I frankly don\’t think we would have event started going to the TLM were it not for Pope Benedict\’s Moto… We are so blessed now… Even my six year old twins now prefer the TLM over the Ordinary Form…
I went to two N.O. Masses today.
My first Mass (which was the second Mass in that parish) was the Mass of the 3rd Sunday. The parish had earlier celebrated the Converstion of Saint Paul, but the celebrant talked about St Paul and his conversion in the homily. Incidently, the music at this Mass was Victoria’s Missa o quam gloriosam.
My second Mass was at a slightly more modern location. It was the Conversion of Saint Paul, and the layperon who appointed herself in charge of the liturgy declared that the second reading of the Sunday (contrary to the decree) would be ignored because Saint Paul was anti-women.
It made me wonder if the lady liturgist would have snipped the second reading out of the liturgy if it were the Third Sunday being kept. Hmm.
I went to an EF low Mass with Entrance, Communion, and Recessional hymns sung by some Sisters of Mary Mother of the Church in the loft. It was the Conversion of St. Paul, which took some jumping around in my hand missal, apparently the Gospel Reading for the Conversion of St. Paul in te EF is the same as for the Gospel of a Mass of a Holy Abbot.
We attended N.O. at the Cathedral and we did observe the Conversion of St. Paul.
Nothing unusual about the music other than the Cathedral has a fine Cantor and pipe organ. The Eucharistic Prayer he used included St. Paul.
The only thing I thought was funny was that the announcer at the beginning stated that plenary indulgences were available. Sounded like they could be “handed out” but the retired Bishop explained later, the requirements for the indugence.
3d Sunday in OT, Gregorian Chant (as is usual) for Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Mysterium Fidei, & Angus Dei, Novus Ordo.
Homily was about Catholic schools…more precisely, about the pastor’s experience with Catholic schools.
9 AM Ordinary Form – 3rd Sunday
Our Lady of Sorrows (Jesuits) Santa Barbara, CA
Not one word about Paul, abortion or FOCA (but had the soloist/guitar player)
Usually attend the 7 AM cloistered Poor Clares chapel but was running late. Although OF, usually much more reverent. The Franciscans from the Mission offer the Mass. If it was one of the older retired ones then perhaps it would have been about St. Paul and they would have definitely mentioned abortion. The younger ones (earring wearing, don’t hold the host up for consecration) would have never mentioned abortion or conversion. I can’t attend Mass at the Mission since it is a party atmosphere there.
Anglican Use: Conversion of St. Paul with a homily explaining why, among other things, and tying the conversion of St. Paul to the need to fight FOCA. I have to say the pastor of our parish was on his game this morning. Dy-no-mite!
All Saints, Manassas, Virginia in the Arlington Diocese. NO for the Conversion of St. Paul, done properly. Not too much to report in the music department.
The FOCA postcards were filled out and collected. Apparently our bishop is hand-delivering them.
EF Missa Cantata – 3rd Sunday after Epiphany
In homily Father talked briefly about the conversion of St. Paul, and Christian Unity Week but most of his homily was about abortion and FOCA. One of the points he made was that when people put the economy (ie material things) ahead of life, no one is safe. The homily was pretty powerful and left those who heard it with a lot to think about.
St. Gregory the Theologian today.
I think many of the Eastern Rite attendees had this one. :)
High Mass with incense and torchbearers. It was the mass of the Third sunday after Epiphany with the commemoration of the Conversion of St. Paul. The homily featured St. Paul
St. Stephen the First Martyr, Sacramento, CA, FSSP. 3rd Sunday after Epiphany for the two Low Masses and weekly High Mass. Schola chanted the 3rd Sunday Propers. We follow the Kyriale, so the choir sang Mass XI, Orbis Factor, for Sundays throughout the year, with Credo III. Our congregation sings antiphonally with the choir at High Mass (and is as comfortable with the Mass for Advent, de Angelis, etc). The homily dealt with the Gospel and the centurion. His faith was greater than Jairus, who wanted Christ to come physically, while the centurion knew that His word was enough. The centurion also showed humility and charity. All was directed to the faithful today. We signed the postcards last week against FOCA and over 1000 people from parishes in and around Sacramento took buses to the San Francisco Walk for Life yesterday, which had more than 30,000 pro-lifers.
THE OF mass I attended at my parish was for the Conversion of St. Paul
later in the day I went to the EF mass in Sleepy Hollow which was a sung mass for the Conversion of St. Paul
What happened in your parishes today?
The Bishop celebrated Mass.
If you go to a Holy Mass using the Novus Ordo, did you observe the Conversion of St. Paul today?
You bet they did. After all, he is our parish’s patron saint, and say what you want about Bp. Barnes (here for a canonical visit), but he’s on most matters pretty orthodox.
Let us know what went on and any good points from the sermons you heard or good music:
Well, it was certainly much better than the usual sermons given by Fr. Gilsenan. The good Bishop was talking about how there are five necessary things for a parish:
1) A good and solid devotion to the Sacrifice of the Mass and all the other sacraments;
2) A willingess to evangelize beyond just the Church.
3) An understanding that the individual parishioner must show gratitude to God for all his blessings, and that his chief purpose of attending Mass is for the greater glory of God.
4) A spirit of service to your fellow man (he referenced the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy)
5) Devoted to encouraging vocations (emphasized this point in particular, since we’ve had only one vocation for the priesthood, and three for the religious life, so far.)
Holy Rosary, Indianapolis: TLM, Conversion of St. Paul. The focus of the sermon was on FOCA and the need for us, like St. Paul, to be witnesses to the truth, in this case by reminding our elected officials and fellow citizens of the sanctity of human life and the moral necessity of protecting that life from the moment of conception. Postcards that will be sent to Indiana’s national senators and representatives were filled out and collected for mailing.
TLM -3rd Sunday after Epiphany-Green
Joliet Latin Mass Community 5:30PM
Naperville, Il
Sermon reflecting the Gospel
(FOCA envelops next week.)
strike out unintended
ST. MARY’S CATHEDRAL, AUSTIN, TEXAS: TLM, CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL
St. Adelaide’s, Peabody, MA – TLM Mass (one of three now in the northshore of Massachusetts…FINALLY!!!) Feast of Conversion of Saint Paul (supposed to be sung high Mass, schola illness resulting in low mass – beautiful just the same!) Love your blog, Fr. Z – learning much.
At the Cathedral parish for Portland, OR- the Conversion of St. Paul. Homily- if we co-operate with the will of God, we too can break the world open for Christ.
Stella Maris, Sullivans Island, South Carolina. TLM Third Sunday after Epiphany (5:30PM)Green vestments. Our parish has had the TLM every Sunday evening for the last two years.
Rosewell, GA. N.O. Mass. 3rd Sunday readings with the Conversion worked into the homily quite well.
St Matthew’s Cathedral in DC– Conversion of St Paul, Latin OF with chant, homily by the deacon on conversion throughout our lives. The schola is on a break for a few weeks, but this congregation is pretty comfortable with the chants. Nice opening and closing hymns. Lovely and very well attended.
TLM at Holy Wisdom Parish in Pgh, PA USA – 3rd Sunday after Epiphany Mass; no Conversion of St. Paul
Guadalupe, CA ~
The one TLM Mass was a Missa Cantata (Missa De Angelis) for the 3rd Sunday of Epiphany. We don’t know about the later NO Spanish Masses for the day except that they appear to be set ad orientem, complete with altar cards [ 8 ) ]
A real pipe organ is on the wish list.
In the homily, Father rejoiced heartily at the lifting of the excommunications of the SSPX bishops and then pointed out how the Lord, responding to the humble appeals of both the leper and the centurion, healed both but in very different manners.
I came away with the impression that what we have seen this week with the SSPX is akin to a miracle of St. Peter healing a person’s withered hand. (And the Church is to be all the stronger for it.) Our family had a party meal tonight and all raised a toast to the Holy Father.
My family went to my old parish in South Philadelphia, St. Paul, on Tenth & Christian Sts., for a Missa Cantata. It was the Mass for the Conversion of St. Paul. The music and acoustics were beautiful. Fr. Carey celebrated and did so flawlessly. Fr. Pasley from Mater Ecclesiae, along with others from our parish, were there to support either as altar servers or as those in the pews. Photos were taken. I hope someone sends you some.
Two OF: 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time
Two EF: 1 was 3rd Sunday after Epiphany (no commem.), 1 was Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul with Commem. of St. Peter and of the Sunday (in that order).
Here, a parish in Brazil, we had a Mass in extraordinary form second to the liturgy for the conversion of S. Paul Ap. with comemoration of S. Peter Ap., as prescribed on rubrics. Previously, it was expected the Epiphany temporal liturgy, by the director of schola, knowing about the extraordinary authorization conceeded for the current year, suggested 3 weeks ago to the father that he says the S. Paul liturgy. He accepted the suggestion. But, as he never conceeds something that may be seen as an exclusive privilege of the Gregorian Mass, he decided to extend this liturgy to all other Masses. So, all the 4 sunday Masses were said second the liturgy of S. Paul, apparently beyong the roman authorization. The homily was clearly tendencious, acusing the present tradicionalists of being like the pharisee, and saying that their forms of piety, ritual and liturgy are nothing beyond what they are, and that each person conversion does not depend nor be interfered by those things, except for an personal encounter with God (it was said four times). Regarding to the music, a Frescobaldi toccata was played for the entrance, followed by Gradual propers and Cum Jubilo Mass for the ordinary chants. Some appropriate chants were sung after the offertory and communion antiphons. Beginning with the Mass end procession, a Te Deum (juxta morem Romanum) were sung “pro gratiarum Actione” for the reabilitation of FSSPX.
Rev. Mr. Brian T. Austin, FSSP, treated us to a magnificent sermon on the “continuing” conversion of St. Paul, relating his conversion to spiritual stages described by St. John of the Cross. Deacon Austin comes up with the most amazing talks! Also in the bulletin, see page 3-4 for a transcript of the Wed. audience of Pope Benedict XVI, 3 Sept. 2008 regarding the Conversion of St. Paul:
http://www.phoenixlatinmass.org/docs/notitiae/20090125.pdf
Note: the front page of the bulletin above says “3rd Sun. of Epiphany”, but in fact the Conversion of St. Paul was the Mass celebrated (announced at Mass).
St. Michael, Worthington Ohio – Ordinary Form. Conversion of St. Paul. Our pastor delivered a solid homily about the historical background of Saul and the implications of his conversion. This was both from the Jewish and Gentile perspective. He tied it nicely to his dream of Obama’s conversion and exhorted all of us to pray. The Right to Life Committee was out in full force for the FOCA postcard signing. The orthodoxy in this parish is why we make the drive despite having moved out of it’s boundaries.
The traditional Roman Rite at St Therese Church in Alhambra, CA.
Fr Bishop celebrated the 3d Sunday after Epiphany — no commemorations to St Paul or otherwise. Gregorian propers and polyphonic Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, & Agnus Dei. Credo was Credo III. There was a Mozart motet at the offertory whose name I should know but cannot think of it for the life of me. And the Mozart Ave Verum Corpus at communion time. Recessional was a wonderfully thundering organ piece which must have rattled windows a mile away.
Oh, yes. And Fr Bishop’s sermon. He packs an awful lot into a quarter of an hour; it’s a bit difficult to summarize. The essential theme I would say is the necessity of reliance on grace and the mercy of God.
Newman Center Mass at a large public university.
It’s a regular OF Mass and we did the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. I asked Father why we weren’t doing the conversion of St. Paul and he explained that in his parish, the reading and gospel for the Conversion of St. Paul weren’t included in the hymnals/missals the parish uses. He might have done it for our Mass but he didn’t have time to write 2 different homilies. Which he really doesn’t as he is a pastor of a parish, says Mass at the local convent and is campus minister.
The gospel question was “Are you one of those that constantly needs to know what time it is?” So the homily was about time and death.
I went to the 8pm “college” Mass. The priests are generally more orthodox than not. The readings were from the Conversion of St. Paul, which we heard about during what I’ve dubbed “Church History Lesson” that occurs before every mass, along with 1/4 of the announcements. The music was actually worse than normal, with me shuddering and wincing more than usual. The sermon was quite memorable, but for the wrong reasons (imo).. A video by some diocesan office about the work of the (arch)diocese’s charitable fund. Bits of “Catholic Charities saved my life/soul/family” testimonies from three ladies and an old guy. Three “if if weren’t for this fund I wouldn’t be a seminarian” tales. Some random lay guy talking about Cain being the first immigrant and it being a good thing rather than a punishment so that he could make the leap that a predominately immigrant (arch)diocese needs to tend to its immigrants. The video was followed by the lady in charge of the parish’s finances doing a “talk” about the need to pledge as much as possible, tying her “talk” in with both the Conversion of St. Paul and the video. The priest said squat during homily time.
At Most Pure Heart of Mary in Topeka KS we celebrated the Conversion of St Paul with a great sermon by our pastor Fr.Brian Schieber
The video was followed by the lady in charge of the parish’s finances doing a “talk” about the need to pledge as much as possible, tying her “talk” in with both the Conversion of St. Paul and the video.
It really is stunning sometimes how “utilitarian” we have made the [Novus Ordo] Mass. I.e., “This is the only time of the week when we have everyone together, so we might as well take some time out of worshipping God to watch a video on finances….”. Unbelievable!
I remember when I was in seminary, it was “custom” to have the Litany of Thank Yous at every Mass presided over by a visiting Bishop. The rector would give thanks at the beginning and at the end, and it was expected that the visiting Bishop would say some nice thing also.
One Bishop who came refused to do any of that — he did allow the Rector give thanks briefly at the end — but otherwise there were no introductions, no Litanies of thanking the janitor, musicians, lumberjacks who cut down the trees that contributed to the paper on which the hymnals were printed, et al… nothing. It was just…. THE MASS. That Mass surely ranks as one of the most prayerful and beautiful I ever attended when I was in seminary.
Mass works better when the focus is not on us! (Or on our problems, or our agendas!)
Dear Father Z.
I too give thanks that the Holy Father lifted the excommunications of the four SSPX bishops. I also pray that the Society’s leaders will not be too stubborn and will truly work with the Holy Father to resolve the other outstanding differences. Question: May (or even should) Catholics faithful to Rome, but who desire the TLM attend SSPX Masses if the TLM is not available in their diocese? As for Sunday’s Feast, the priest who said the Novus Ordo Mass I attended gave a very brief homily because all the parishes in Miami had to show a video promoting ABCD…the Archbishop’s Charity and Development campaign. However, in his brief remarks, the priest noted that Saul was a “murderer” because of his complicity in the murder of Saint Stephen. And if that “murderer” is now Saint Paul, that should encourage all of us to hope and trust in God’s mercy now matter how “filthy” we are because of our sins.
God Bless you for your great work and be assured of my prayers for you.
“Big Mike”
St. Anthony’s FSSP Latin Community, Calgary, Canada:
The Conversion of St. Paul.
Holy Family in Honolulu, 3rd Sunday in Ordinary time but the Homily did include The Conversion of St. Paul.
Novus Ordo–3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Atrocious music from the Gather hymnal :(
Sigh, many wonderful things about my Parish, but that is not one of them. Very good homily on the subject of God\’s continuing call to us.
Small Novus ordo mission church (16 communicants today!). Conversion of Saint Paul.
Father Waldemar (Salvatorian) preceded the Mass with an explanation of why we were celebrating this feast, as an exception permitted for the Pauline Year.
PS. Four hymn sandwich alas, but we recently introduced more traditional tones for the psalm refrain and Gospel acclamation, and have a soloist Gregorian chant during communion, usually a eucharistic hymn or something appropriate to the feast. Since we didn’t know which Mass was to be celebrated until the priest arrived, and there was such a small congregation, it was Tantum Ergo today.
Due to a flat tire we could not make it to the Anglican use that I was scheduled to serve at, and by the time everything was fixed all EF and AU Masses were done so we had to go to the 6pm OF.
The Music was the same Shutte et al –
but Father did chant the Kyrie and use the Roman Cannon in english – It was the Mass of the Conversion of St. Paul – in a parish named “St. Paul’s” – that includes a Plenary Indulgence no?
Novus Ordo in St Michael’s, Lane Cove Parish, Sydney (Australia) – Ordinary Time (3rd Sunday); however, Father made a point of mentioning the conversion at the end of mass and briefly explained its importance.
St. James in Vancouver WA had Feast of St. Paul O.K. Homily better than average but basic NO
I only caught a few minutes due to pancake breakfast (I had to flip them)
St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, 5:30 Pm – Portland OR.
Conversion of St. Paul
Surprisingly (To me – I seldom attend here) homily was excellent and focused on Paul, on conversion and more.
Music at this mass is Contemporary Jazzish with piano, electric bass, drums …Very good, but not very conducive to my prayer at Mass
I was pleased most of the way through Mass that the liturgical details and music did not grate on my nerves as much as usual…Until I observed that the Priest did not distribute communion at all, and then the EMs just brought the vessels up and didn’t purify them.
Finally, I had noticed the Priest’s vestments seemed more traditional style, but what was the appropriate color? He was wearing something between cream and gold.
Paul in the GNW
3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time for OF in St. Catherine of Alexandria, Morgan Hill, CA. I’d like to how typical this was of the Diocese of San Jose; I wonder if any NO parish observed The Conversion of St. Paul?
In my parish, we basically celebrated the conversion of St Paul. For some reason, one of the priests wore a green stole instead of white, though (and as usual, none of them wore chasubles, sigh). However, the _first_ reading was taken from the Ordinary Sunday Mass instead of the conversion of St Paul. In other words, the very reading where the conversion of St Paul is told, was not read. The priest recalled the events during the sermon instead. Now that was an interesting compromise!
I attended Mass twice today, once in the extraordinary and once in the ordinary form. Both were the Mass of the Conversion of St Paul.
I suggest that you go to Confession for trying to ruin somebody’s reputation (a mortal sin!) with lies and cheap jibes. We are talking here about a Prince of the Catholic Church!
I pray for your errant ways.
Let’s see your suggested “humility” in action!
Grischino (look it up, please!)
Went to EF Mass which was Conversion of St. Paul treated as a double. The priest wore a beautiful white and red chasuable, though I would encourage a cassock under the alb as sweat pants sticking out under the priest’s alb detracts from the beauty of the vestments. The music was fine for the most part, and the servers were excellent as per usual. A new incense was used, very nice cinnamon/nutmeg fragrance.
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Portland, Maine.
St. Gregory the Great Latin Mass Chaplaincy noon Mass:
3rd Sunday after Epiphany
Chaplain Fr. Robert Parent (who chants the Mass beautifully) preached on
the humble faith of the leper and the even greater humble faith of the
centurian.
Missa De Angelis with propers, Credo III,
Jesu dulcis memoria,
Alma Redemptoris Mater.
Our infant schola gets better and better but we need more people!
East Troy, Wisconsin – Conversion of St. Paul
Good homily on conversion and the workings of grace. But I was amused that Father said St. Paul was “struck down from his horse” – demonstrating the continued influence of Christian Art!
Acts never said that he was on a horse…!
We had the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany with a sermon on the SSPX reunion their juridical status. I asked my pastor if he had thought about the Conversion of St. Paul, and he said [jokingly, as the main reason was the choir had practiced the pieces for the 3rd Sun. post epiphany] “I’m a trad, I don’t like change!”
At Our Lady of Peace in Canton, OH we celibrated the Conversion of Saint Paul with a wonderful homily on St.Paul’s life. The music included piano, two violins and a flute. At least the congregation does sing the Agnus Dei in latin, and it seems, most do know the words.
We had, in Bergamo – Italy, the mass of 3rd Sunday after Epiphany (TLM)..
I attended the (mostly) Latin Novus Ordo mass for the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. Our pastor gave a wonderful and inspiring homily about conversion, the extent to which it should go, including establishing a rule of life and centering it on prayer; praying at least a decade of the Rosary a day; reading the Scriptures, etc. I was in the choir, which attempted Gibbons’ “Almighty and Everlasting God,” as well as the Missa De Angelis. Also, before the final blessing, he made two announcements, one sad and one happy as he put it. The sad was the announcement of President Obama’s decision to reverse the Mexico City policy. The happy one was that the excommunication on the SSPX bishops has been lifted; I think he also explained that we should pray for further unity with our SSPX brethren.
I went to a nice Novus Ordo Mass. It was for the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul with special prayers for that. The young Dominican priest gave a homily about Paul and how he was so awful before his conversion, even consenting to the murder of Stephen. Our takehome lesson was that we should never write anybody off as being outside of God’s mercy and grace. He said he would rather have God say on Judgment Day that he had been too broad rather than too narrow.
We sang For All the Saints at the end. I sang that hymn so many times at Methodist funerals I have it memorized. I cried because my best friend died recently. He was a Methodist pastor.
In the big church hall people were signing postcards against FOCA so send to our legislators. People were taking some home too to bring to friends and neighbors. It appeared as if everyone who came out of Mass went to sign the cards. Our parish is very faithful to the teachings of the Church.
Cathedral of the Immacualte Conception – Diocese Kansas City/St. Joseph Missouri. 3rd Sunday Ord. Time. N.O. Mass (the newly consecrated oratory for the Latin Mass is a few blocks away). Deacon preached the homily – about listening to God’s call (related to the Jonah first reading) and about his personal calling to the permanent diaconate – a very good homily. Schola sang Laudate Dominum (Mozart) as an offertory hymn. The Lamb of God was based on an orthodox chant setting. Two other schola hymns. Opening hymn: Praise My Soul The King of Heaven (Lauda Anima); Closing Hymn: Joyful Joyful (Ode to Joy).
The Pittsburgh Latin Mass Community celebrated the Third Sunday After Epihany.
St. James Parish – St. Joseph, MO
All Masses (3 O.F. and 1 E.F.) used propers for the Conversion of St. Paul. The 11am Mass was also a Mass for Catholic Schools week (propers from Conversion of St. Paul – but the homily included the theme of Catholic Education as well). I hope I didn’t misinterpret the rescript (as to whether only one of the Masses might use those propers!)
Not that surprisingly, our parish did not celebrate anything this week. It was just Ordinary Time. We did have a guest speaker (yours truly) talking about the Freedom of Choice Act, and Obama’s stance on it. Sacred Heart Valley Park, Archdiocese of St. Louis. N.O. Mass
Mater Misericordia, Extraordinary Form parish in Phoenix, AZ administered by the FSSP offered the Mass with the propers for St. Paul’s conversion. As for the homily, it was an excellent homily about how St. Paul’s conversion relates to the process of the spiritual life as popularly explained by St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. You can hear the homily here, this site is the recordings of talks/homilies given by Deacon Brian Austin FSSP who will be ordained a priest in May.
http://www.mediafire.com/btafssp
Here’s the tally thus far:
NO/St. Paul = 110
TLM/St. Paul =44
TLM/III Sunday Post-Epiphany =42
NO/III Sunday Ordinary Time =53
Other Rite =5
n.b. This is not a scientific poll
We attended Holy Mass at St. Charles Borremeo Seminary as our large group of 285 was returning home to Nebraska from the Walk for Life. We celebrated the Conversion of St. Paul.
Our Lady of Peace in Santa Clara, CA celebrated a reverent NO for the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.
At our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Littleton, CO (aka the Denver area FSSP Parish, thus TLM) – the Conversion of St. Paul was celebrated.
We were staying in Lompoc, Calif., and visited La Purisima Concepcion Church, attending the 8:00am OF mass.
Father’s homily was mainly focused on the horrors of abortion (considering the date, and the fact that the church had placed a large sign about the infamous decision and hundreds of tiny crosses in their front lawn).
The liturgy was from the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time; there was a special mention in the Prayers of the Faithful about St. Paul’s conversion (that we may be like him, etc.).
TLM: 3rd Sunday after Epiphany.
I was on retreat at an Opus Dei conference center. Our Mass celebrated the conversion of St. Paul (it was Novus Ord0, but ad orientem).
I’ve been in Rome for the past few days and I attended Ss. Trinità dei Pellegrini, the FSSP parish here. They used the Conversion of Saint Paul.
We did the third Sunday, BUT, as i was a Lector for the mass and we had a visiting retired priest for evening mass, i asked if we were doing the Conversion of St. Paul and he smiled and said third Sunday. However in his homily he mentioned that the conversion of St. Paul which was commemorated today(sunday–with a twinkle in his eye for me i might add) was one of his favorite feasts and St. Paul one of his favorite saints.
Then the elderly Polish priest went on for at least 1/2 hour recalling his choice to enter the priesthood in rural Poland over 53 years ago at age 14. His recollections were fascinating and i sat in front egging him on. It was wonderful and many stayed after mass to thank him and encourage him.
He was a dear sweet old polish fellow who told us after mass that his mother was sure he would never be a priest because he so loved to fight! He laughed and said that this was their form or recreation back then! :-)
As reported, FSSP parish in Phoenix, AZ celebrated the Feast of The Conversion of Paul. The sermon made me think my book by Tanquerey. It followed St. Paul’s journey from the Purgative through the Illuminative to the Unitive Way.
St. Thomas Aquinas Cathedral, Reno, NV
NO Mass, Conversion of St. Paul (Music leader erroneously announced it as 3rd Sun in OT)
Featuring the usual OCP stuff in too high a key with drums and bass guitar
BUT
a great homily denouncing the Freedom of Choice Act in the strongest terms! Wow!
We had the Conversion of St. Paul, Novus Ordo, very well chosen hymns, excellent sermon drawing from a sermon of the Holy Father on St. Paul. Very challenging message. (UK)
St. Mary’s, Kalamazoo: usual EF at 12:15 (will be Noon starting in Lent). Conversion of Saint Paul. Orbis factor joined in by congregation. Gorgeous chanting of the Mass and propers by Fr. David Grondz and schola. Incense, of course. Good sermon on our need to be converted. Lovely recessional on one of my favorite hymns, which I haven’t heard in 15 years: “If Thou but Suffer God to Guide Thee”. Took my 5-year-old grandaughter (first time–plenty to engross her). My cup runneth over; I was very grateful.
MC
Here in Dublin we celebrated the third Sunday after Epiphany. Our main chaplain for the TLM, Fr. Gerard Deighan, celebrated the Missa Cantata. However when he read the english epistle before the sermon he read it for the feast of the Conversion of St Paul. He preached on the theme of Conversion and managed to associate the feast of the conversion with the lifting of the excommunications.
Music was provided by Picollo Lasso, a childrens choir that sings here every two months or so (other sundays are with the Schola or else the Lassus Scholars who will be performing Lassus Missa Vinum Bonum this Sunday). Picollo Lasso sang the gregorian propers exceptionally. They sang Missa Pueri Cantores (Menschick); at offertory they Jesu Rex Admirabilis (Palestrina) and at Communion they sang Ave Verum (Saint Saens) and O Mysterium Ineffabile (not sure of composer); for reccesional they sang Alma Redemptoris (Chant). Organ music was also provided.
All in all a truly catholic mass,
In Nomine Christi