The Catholic Church of

St. Mary the Virgin

                                                         
    Last week I wrote about “Caring Catholic Customs” in my bulletin article. This week I would like to touch on “Confessional Courtesies”.  SMV offers Confessions twice a week – on Wednesday at 11:00 am to 11:50 am and on Saturday from 10:00 am to 11:00 am. In order to be able to hear as many penitents as possible, it would be helpful if we all practiced these courtesies.
    Please have the list of which sins one wishes to confess ready before entering the confessional. Many of the waits experienced by those in line are due to penitents who wait until they are already in the confessional before thinking about which sins, they wish/need to confess. Making a list is fine, and can often expedite the wait time.
    Please confess your sins, not those of others (family members, coworkers, partners, spouses, etc.) Sympathetic as we may be, we can only absolve those sins of the actual penitent – please leave lazy coworkers or ungrateful daughter in laws out of one’s own confession.
    Please try to keep the line moving. While there are plenty of seats along the south transept leading to the confessional, it is very helpful if those in line move forward to the next nearest seat, rather than staying four or five seats behind. This courtesy makes entering the confessional much smoother than walking three, four or five rows to the confessional.
    Parents, please prepare your children on how to make their confession. Both Fr. Kennedy and I are able to gently lead a child who doesn’t know how to make a confession by supplying the words “Bless me, Father…” and the Act of Contrition at the end of the confession just before the words of absolution, but it is most helpful if the child already knows what to say.
    By practicing these “Confessional Courtesies”, we hope to make the wait time much shorter, and the grace of the Sacrament available to more penitents.
 
Faithfully, Your Friend and Pastor,
Fr. Christopher C. Stainbrook.
 
 

 
   Last week I wrote about Catholics and Labor Day. Today I want to remind us that the month of September is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, whose memorial the Church celebrates on September 15th (The day after the celebration of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14th). The Catholic Church chose to celebrate this feast of Our   Lady of Sorrows on September 15, to show  the close connection between Jesus' Passion and Mary's Sorrows.
   This advocation, like so many in the Catholic Church, has its roots in the Gospel. We can find some major references: John 19:25 (Calvary); Luke 2:35 (Mary pierced with a sword). Other sorrows can be inferred: Luke 2:7 (no room at the inn); Matthew 2:6-18 (massacre of the Innocents); Luke 2:41-50 (anxious search for Jesus); Luke 4:28-30 (rejection by townspeople of Nazareth); and Luke 11:53-54 (rejection by authorities of Jerusalem), etc.
This form of Marian piety goes back to the fourteenth century, but Mary's compassion was remembered from early centuries:
- Abbot Poemon (5 c.) Apothegms 144: "I would like to weep with her always."
- Ephrem the Syrian (373 A.D.) "Lamentation of Mary" (still used in the Syrian Rite)
- Romanos the Melodist (500 A.D.) "Hymn of Mary at the Cross" (Jesus instructs His mother on the mystery of the Cross).
Also, to be mentioned are Saints Ambrose, Anselm and Bernard who preached about and often meditated on Mary's  sorrows. The specific devotion to the Sorrows of Mary properly appears toward the middle of the fourteenth century.  Devotion to the five sorrows of Mary appears first and eventually develops into devotion to seven sorrows. In fact, two lists of seven sorrows were drawn up, one including the infancy and childhood of Jesus Christ, the other concentrating on the Passion.
1. The prophecy of Simeon ("a sword ...”);
2. The massacre of the Innocents and flight to Egypt;
3. Jesus lost in Jerusalem;
4. Jesus arrested and judged;
5. Jesus crucified and dying;
6. Jesus taken down from the Cross;
7. Jesus wrapped and laid in the tomb;
and …
1. Jesus is arrested and struck;
2. Jesus is led to Pilate to be judged;
3. Jesus is condemned to death;
4. Jesus is nailed to the Cross;
5. Jesus gives up His Spirit and dies on the Cross;
6. Jesus is taken down from the Cross;
7. Jesus is wrapped and laid in the tomb.
   The commemoration of Mary's sorrows gave rise to meditations, prayers, poems, lamentations, not to forget the representations of the Pieta. This devotion became part of the rosary, as we know, and the present form of the Seven Sorrows was popularized by John de Coudenberghe (1482):
1. The prophecy of Simeon (Lk 2:34-35);
2. The flight into Egypt (Mt 2:13-21);
3. The loss of Jesus for Three Days (Lk 2:41-50);
4. The ascent to Calvary (Jn 19:17);
5. The crucifixion and death of Jesus (Jn 19:18-30);
6. Jesus taken down from the cross (Jn 19:39-40);
7. Jesus laid in the tomb (Jn 19:39-42).
   These mediations on the Seven Sorrows of Mary continue to be popular today, and we encourage our parishioners to visit the Church and pray about and meditate on Her Sorrows and offer to Her the Sorrows of our own lives.
 
Faithfully, Your Friend and Pastor,
Fr. Christopher C. Stainbrook
 
 

       
       Monday September 5th is Labor Day in the United States. The Catholic Church often looks at the well-being of society through the lens of the well-being of the family. As Pope Francis said during his visit to the United States in 2015, “We cannot call any society healthy when it does not leave real room for family life. We cannot think that a society has a future when it fails to pass laws capable of protecting families and ensuring their basic needs.”
       This is also the first Labor Day since the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade. The ruling is an incredibly significant step towards healing the deep wounds of abortion and protecting all preborn human life. But our aim as Catholics has always been, and remains, to build a society in which abortion is unthinkable. 
       From the beginning of creation, God intended for us to work. We learn this in Genesis 2:15, which reads, “The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it.” As The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church explains, God created the world, and He wants us to share in the process of creation by working and cultivating it. “Work is part of the original state of man and precedes his fall; it is therefore not a punishment or curse,” the document states.  When reflecting on the importance of work, we can also look to the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus spent most of His life doing manual labor at the carpenter’s table. During His ministry, He continued to work by healing the sick and aiding the suffering. In several of His parables and teachings, Jesus commends the obedient and prudent workers. 
       According to The Compendium, work is not just a part of human life, but a duty. Work enables us to provide for ourselves and our families, aids us in the fight against poverty, and serves as a means of shaping a better future. Work can even take on a redemptive quality; in dealing with the daily rigors of work, we join Christ in bearing His cross as He calls us to do. However, as important as work is, Catholic social teaching warns us not to let it become a false idol.
        The Church’s social Magisterium calls for the protection of workers’ rights, such as the right to a just wage, the right to a safe work environment, and the right to assemble and form associations.
In particular, The Compendium highlights the right to rest. Just as God rested on the seventh day, we who are made in His image must be able to rest. We need free time to tend to our health, our families, and our social and, especially, our religious life.  As I have written before about Labor Day, our word “Holiday” comes from “Holy Day” – a time when people were freed from work so that they could rest and observe the festivals in the Church Year.
        We wish everyone a safe and happy Labor Day holiday tomorrow. We offer prayers and gratitude for those who have to work on the holiday. And finally, we will have our regular Noon Mass tomorrow.
 
Faithfully, Your Friend and Pastor,
Fr. Christopher C. Stainbrook
 
 
 

Register is now closed for the Religious Education program for the 2022-2023 year! Classes will meet from 9:15-10:15 am on Sundays. 

Please send any questions to Amy Horan at smv.dre @ gmail.com

         This Tuesday we, in the Ordinariate celebrate three women who gave their lives for the Catholic Church. Anyone who claims that the Catholic Church dislikes women have never seen the story of these brave martyrs: St. Margaret Clitherow, Margaret Ward and Anne Line.
        St. Margaret Clitherow was born in Middleton, England, in 1555, of protestant parents. Possessed of good looks and full of wit and merriment, she was a charming personality. In 1571, she married John Clitherow, a well-to-do grazier and butcher (to whom she bore two children), and a few years later entered the Catholic Church. Her zeal led her to harbor fugitive priests, for which she was arrested and imprisoned by hostile authorities. Recourse was had to every means in an attempt to make her deny her Faith, but the holy woman stood firm. Finally, she was condemned to be pressed to death on March 25, 1586. She was stretched out on the ground with a sharp rock on her back and crushed under a door over laden with unbearable weights. Her bones were broken and she died within fifteen minutes. The humanity and holiness of this servant of God can be readily glimpsed in her words to a friend when she learned of her condemnation: "The sheriffs have said that I am going to die this coming Friday; and I feel the weakness of my flesh which is troubled at this news, but my spirit rejoices greatly. For the love of God, pray for me and ask all good people to do likewise.”
She is the Patron Saint of Businesswomen, Martyrs to the Catholic Religion and Converts and has been named “The Pearl of York”.
       St Anne Line is believed to have been born as "Alice Higham" or "Heigham", the eldest daughter of the Puritan William Higham of Jenkyn Maldon. William Higham was the son of Roger Heigham, MP, a Protestant reformer under Henry VIII.She was born circa the early 1560s, and at some time in the early 1580s converted to the Roman Catholic Church along with her brother William and Roger Line, the man she married in February 1583. Both Roger Line and William Higham were disinherited for converting to the Roman Catholic Church and Alice Higham lost her dowry. Among Catholics, the married "Alice" became known as "Anne", presumably a name she took at her conversion. In 1596, Father John Gerard, S.J., opened a house of refuge for hiding priests, and put the newly widowed Anne Line in charge of it, despite her chronic ill-health. For about three years Anne Line continued to run this house while Fr John Gerard was in prison. One day, however (it was the Purification of Our Blessed Lady), she allowed in an unusually large number of Catholics to hear Mass … Some neighbours noticed the crowd and the constables were at the house at once.
Anne was hanged on 27 February 1601. She was executed immediately before two priests, Fr. Roger Filcock and Fr. Mark Barkworth, who received the more severe sentence of hanging, drawing and quartering. At the scaffold she repeated what she had said at her trial, declaring loudly and bravely to the bystanders: "I am sentenced to die for harboring a Catholic priest, and so far I am from repenting for having so done, that I wish, with all my soul, that where I have entertained one, I could have entertained a thousand.” This doughty woman is the Patron of Converts, Widows and the Childless.
      St. Margaret Ward, the “pearl of Tyburn”was born in 1550. She was living in London in service to a wealthy family when she learned of the severe maltreatment of Richard Watson, a priest confined at Bridewell Prison She obtained permission to visit and was searched before and after early visits, but gradually the authorities became less cautious.  She managed to smuggle a rope into the prison. Fr. Watson escaped, but hurt himself in so doing, and left the rope hanging from the window. Margaret, Ward, having been Fr. Watson’s only visitor, was arrested. She was kept in irons for eight days, was hung up by the hands, and scourged, but absolutely refused to disclose the priest’s whereabouts. At her trial, she admitted to having helped Fr. Watson to escape, and rejoiced in, “having delivered an innocent lamb from the hands of those bloody wolves”. She was offered a pardon if she would attend an Anglican service, but refused. She was convinced by her conscience that it was not lawful for her to conform to the new religion. Rather, she invited the authorities to proceed with the sentence against her, saying that she was willing to lay down not one life, but many, if she had them, rather than betray her conscience or act against her duty to God and His holy Catholic religion. She was hanged at the famous gallows at       Tyburn (hence her title) on 30 August 1588.
      The words pronounced by Paul VI at their Canonization of 25 October 1970 (as three of the “40 Martyrs of England”) can be applied to all of them: “Faced with the choice to remain firm in their faith and therefore to die for it, that is to say to have saved their lives by denying the former, they, without a moment's hesitation and with a truly supernatural force, sided with God and joyfully faced martyrdom."
      A Tuesday August evening Mass is often not exceptionally well attended, but it would certainly be “Meet and Right so to do”  for all of us to pause on Tuesday, March 30th, and give thanks for these resolute English Catholic  women, these Saints, who gave their all for their Faith.
 
Faithfully, Your Friend and Pastor,
Fr.Christopher C. Stainbrook
 
 

   

    Some of you may have seen me when I preached the homily at the 7 PM Assumption Mass on Monday, or saw me celebrate the 6 PM Mass on Tuesday, or perhaps made a confession to me while I was in the confessional on Wednesday. God be praised, my strength and lab numbers have improved, and the doctors have released me to return to my beloved duties here at the Catholic Church of St. Mary the Virgin. The Bishop, my doctors, my Parish Council, and my loyal staff have all cautioned me to try to take it somewhat slowly and ease gradually back into full-time parish ministry.
 
   I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many parishioners who sent cards and letters, who offered spiritual bouquets, and who participated in the Meal Train by bringing me delicious meals throughout my recovery! Our parish is truly a special one, where we do practice the Corporal Works of Mercy, at least for your Pastor!
 
   I met with the Staff on Wednesday, and I am very excited that two new ministries will begin this fall. Our young adult ministry will begin on Friday August 26th with a fun outing, (see their announcement in the bulletin). Also, we are starting a Youth Group for children aged 12-18, which will be beginning very soon as well! Christian Education for all ages will begin on Sunday, September 11th, the week after Labor Day, as is our tradition.
So, as your Pastor is integrating back into his role, our parish is integrating back into our full Fall schedule.
 
   Our parish is a special one to belong to. And we welcome back all who were away this summer, all our regular parishioners, and our newcomers.
 
   Again, I thank each and every one from the bottom of my heart, for all your support of me as your pastor during my hospitalization and recuperation this summer.
 
Faithfully, your grateful Friend and Pastor,
Fr. Christopher C. Stainbrook.
 
 

   The celebration of the Feast of the Assumption tomorrow (August 15th) , refers to the Blessed Virgin Mary being assumed—body and soul—into Heaven at the end of her earthly life.
 
   “Assumption” is different from “Ascension” because one is passive (i.e.one is assumed) and the other is active (i.e. one ascends).
 
   We speak of Mary’s Assumption not her Ascension. Christ ascended via His own power, and Mary was taken up to heaven by the power of God. The Assumption of Mary is something God did for her.  It is the result of Christ’s redemptive power applied to His Blessed Mother.
 
   The dogma of  the Assumption  means that the Virgin Mary now experiences in Heaven the union of a glorified body and soul, which her Son enjoys. She is no disembodied spirit, but a complete human person, body and soul, matter and spirit, reigning with Christ.
 
   As evidenced by the writings of many early Church fathers, Christians have believed for more than a millennium that the Blessed Virgin was assumed into heaven.  In 1950, Pope Pius XII issued Munificentissimus Deus which officially defined the dogmas of the        Assumption.  This means that the Church officially recognizes this belief as a true and necessary part of our Catholic beliefs about Mary.  Like all beliefs about Mary, they illuminate our most treasured     beliefs about her Son.
 
   The Assumption illustrates to the  truth about Christ’s promise of eternal life and the resurrection of the faithful.
 
   Our Feast of the Assumption, Mary’s feast, reminds us that we are created for the glory of God and to be with God for all eternity.  Plan to be with us either tomorrow at noon or tomorrow night at 7 p.m. to celebrate this, our Patronal Feast.
 
Faithfully, Your Friend and Pastor,
 
Fr. Christopher C. Stainbrook