In honor of
the Patron Saint of the Rochester Diocese,
St. John Fisher,
A Solemn High Latin Mass with Schola will be offered
at 10:00 AM on Saturday, June 22, 2019
at St. Francis of Assisi Church (St. Peter’s Parish)
in Phelps, NY
Celebrant: Father Peter Van Lieshout
Deacon: Father Anthony Amato
Sub-deacon: Father Peter Mottola
(Additional priests In Choro.)
In addition to a beautiful Mass in the Extraordinary Form, honoring our glorious martyr St. John Fisher, there is another event in the Sanctuary, announced in the St. Peter’s Parish bulletin by the Pastor, Fr. Peter Van Lieshout:
“… several other priests and I will … publicly pledge ourselves as members of the
Confraternity of Priest Adorers of the Eucharistic Face of Jesus.
This Confraternity is connected with a relatively new monastery called
Silverstream Priory in Stamullen, Ireland. It is a way for Diocesan
priests—within their current assignments and parish work—to share
in the spiritual benefits of the monastery, as well as unite among
themselves in prayer and priestly fraternity.
The Confraternity requires that the Diocesan priests make one central commitment, namely, to spend one continuous hour every day in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament (whether solemnly exposed in the monstrance or reserved in the Tabernacle). The rules of the Confraternity also encourage the priests to meet together once a month for an hour of adoration together (particularly in reparation for the sins of priests), as well as sharing a meal and some time of fellowship together.
If you are interested, you can read more about the Confraternity
online: https://www.cenacleosb.org/adorers
At present, there will be five of us priests that make the pledge—four
priests from our Diocese of Rochester, and one priest from the
Diocese of Syracuse. For us it is a way of encouraging one another
as brother priests to live lives of persevering prayer, and to have
some fraternal accountability in our personal pursuit of holiness. It is
also, in a sense, some small way of trying to respond to the great
sadness of the continued priestly abuse crisis, which among other
things, has exposed a serious failure among priests to cultivate lives
of holiness and virtue. We know that it is far from a comprehensive
response to the ongoing crisis, but hopefully people will see in this
gesture a sign that we truly want to be good and holy priests for our
people—the best that we can be!”
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It sounds wonderful!
Maybe meanwhile, we could all pray about the vote being taken this week, I believe it was relayed as Wednesday, about trying to legalize recreational marijuana in the State of New York. There have been statistics in other states which have legalized recreational marijuana to point to a continued increase in motor vehicle accidents and an initial increase in motor vehicle accident related fatalities after recreational marijuana was legalized in a state. It has also been pointed out, that police have no accurate tool to access marijuana intake/level of a motorist.
I hope they tell us what we can do as laity to support and unite with this effort.
Will the Confraternity be open to those priests who do not especially care to to celebrate the Latin Mass ?
Hello Raymond,
I inquired on your behalf and this is the understanding I have: these really are two separate events. The Solemn High Latin Mass is to honor the Patron Saint of the Diocese of Rochester in a special way. The Confraternity of Priest Adorers of the Eucharistic Face of Jesus is a separate organization with members worldwide, and local “cenacles.” Looking through their materials, I didn’t see any limitation for or against diocesan priests celebrating Mass in the Extraordinary Form. So, as the Confraternity (and the cenacles)grow, there would seem to be no reason for any restriction (either way.) The local group of priests will be committed to their personal daily Holy Hour, and also to meeting together once a month for a joint Holy Hour and time of fraternity. I hope this helps.
This is an excellent concept as you have explained it! We concentrate on the lost sheep of the flock and often forget there may be a lost shepherd there too?? In my experience, a priest who does not meet regularly with his confreres on a personal level will soon separate from them and seek intimacy elsewhere.
Maybe it is time for the Irish monks mentioned in the article, to be invited to come to the Bishop’s annual clergy convocation to tell how their program works??
This was an extraordinary event. If you missed it, there simply are no words to convey what you missed (or you would not have missed it.) One man, as we were leaving the church, was overheard to say: “This is what we have been waiting for!”