This Sunday, 1:30 p.m. at St. Stanislaus Church, corner of Hudson Avenue and Norton Street, the timeless, ageless Tridentine Latin High Mass will be celebrated. Father William Lawrence, FSSP, will preach. Father Lawrence is a native of the Rochester diocese and is priest with the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. He is a very good and pointed speaker.

We have plenty of room. So, by all means bring your children, grandchildren, friends, neighbors, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, grandma and grandpa, even great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers too. “All are welcomed in this place.”

If this is your first time at a Tridentine Latin Mass, just attend. Don’t try and follow along in the red missals. Just take it in. Stop! Look and Listen! Even smell the incense.

If you sit near the center aisle you might get sprinkled with Holy Water during the Asperges. The Asperges happens before Mass. It is not a part of the Holy Sacrifice; but a blessing of the people. It’s all part of the true Catholic experience that so many Catholics have been denied for years.

This is OUR heritage. Our patrimony. This is how many of your parents and grandparents worship for centuries. The Mass in the Extraordinary Form as it is called, traces its origins back to the Mass of the Pre-Sanctified from Good Friday.

Our local “Schola Roffensis” will chant the Propers parts of the Mass and our Polyphonic Choir will sing the Ordinary parts. The Propers change from day-to-day; the Ordinary parts do not change from day-to-day. We will be singing the complete “O Magnum Mysterium” Mass by Tomas Luis Victoria. There will be two motets. One during the Offertory and the other during Holy Communion.

Communion is received kneeling at the altar rail and on the tongue ONLY and there is no need to say “Amen”. The priest will recite “Corpus Domini nostri Jesus Christi custodiat animam tuam in vitam aeternum. Amen” over each person before he puts the Sacred Host on your tongue. It is ever so reverent. It’s easy to get use to. Imagine you get time to kneel at the altar rail before the priest gets to you. This gives you time to pray and recollect yourself before receiving Our Lord in the Eucharist. No long, cattle lines going up the aisle for Holy Communion. And then, the even better part is, right after you receive Holy Communion, you can kneel at the rail for awhile longer and pray before you leave and return to your pew to give thanksgiving to Our Lord.

Come and see what you have been missing all these years.

Yes, I forgot.

We have an elevator for handicapped accessiblity , security guards who are very friendly and courteous, inside “flush” toilets.

There is even a large narthex in case the “kids” act up and you want to sequester them. The narthex is the area between the front door of the Church and the door before you go into the church itself. There is a very well stocked book table that is manned (can I use that word?) by some very nice guys and gals (can I use those words too, or am I being sexist?).

Parking: You can park in back of the church or, on Hudson Avenue in front of the church or across Hudson Avenue in the parking lot. The bus even stops in front of the church. Our guards, Clint and Brad, patrol all over the grounds while Mass is going on. They would gladly walk you to your car if you would like that too.

Music: Our Polyphonic Choir is under the very capable direction of Mr. John Morabito, an Eastman School of Music student studying organ. He’s been in some major world-wide organ competitions. And our director of the Schola is Mr. Joel Morehouse, a devoted student of Gregorian Chant and a very good organist and teacher too. We hope not to hit any wrong notes, but we’re human too! And we LOVE being Catholic.

Tags: Latin Mass, News and Media

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