Sexagesima Sunday 24 February 2019 Sexagesima Sunday 24 February 2019

From all this it is evident, that the Christian, who would spend Septuagesima according to the spirit of the Church, must make war upon that false security, that self-satisfaction, which are so common to effeminate and tepid souls, and produce spiritual barrenness. It is well for them, if these delusions do not insensibly lead them to the absolute loss of the true Christian spirit. He that thinks himself dispensed from that continual watchfulness, which is so strongly inculcated by our Divine Master, is already in the enemy’s power. He that feels no need of combat and of struggle in order to persevere and make progress in virtue, (unless he have been honoured with a privilege, which is both rare and dangerous), should fear that he is not even on the road to that Kingdom of God, which is only to be won by violence. He that forgets the sins, which God’s mercy has forgiven him, should fear his being the victim of a dangerous delusion. Let us, during these days, which we are going to devote to the honest unflinching contemplation of our miseries, give glory to our God, and derive, from the knowledge of ourselves, fresh motives of confidence in Him, who, in spite of all our wretchedness and sin, humbled himself so low as to become one of us, in order that he might exalt us even to union with Himself.

Dom Prosper Guéranger on Sexagesima Sunday

The Church offers to our consideration, during this week of Sexagesima, the history of Noah and the deluge. Man has not profited by the warnings already given him. God is obliged to punish him once more, and by a terrible chastisement. There is found out of the whole human race one just man God makes a covenant with him, and with us through him. But, before he draws up this new alliance, he would show that he is the Sovereign Master, and that man, and the earth whereon he lives, subsist solely by his power and permission. This awful chastisement of the human race by the Deluge was a fresh consequence of sin. This time, however, there was found one just man; and it was through him and his family that the world was restored. Having once more mercifully renewed his covenant with his creatures, God allows the earth to be re-peopled, and makes the three sons of Noah become the Fathers of the three great families of the human race. This is the Mystery of the Divine Office during the week of Sexagesima. The Mystery expressed in to-day’s Mass is of still greater importance, and the first is but a figure of the second. The earth is deluged by sin and heresy. But the Word of God, the Seed of life, is ever producing a new generation, a race of men, who, like Noah, fear God. It is the Word of God that produces those happy children, of whom the Beloved Disciple speaks, saying: they are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Let us endeavour to be of this family; or, if we already be numbered among its members, let us zealously maintain our glorious position. What we have to do, during these days of Septuagesima, is to escape from the Deluge of worldliness, and take shelter in the Ark of salvation; we have to become that good soil, which yields a hundred-fold from the heavenly Seed. Let us flee from the wrath to come, lest we perish with the enemies of God: let us hunger after that Word of God, which converteth and giveth life to souls. At Rome, the Station is in the Basilica of Saint Paul outside the walls. It is around the tomb of the Doctor of the Gentiles, - the zealous sower of the divine Seed, - the Father by his preaching, of so many nations, - that the Roman Church assembles her children on this Sunday, whereon she is about to announce to them, how God spared the earth on the condition that it should be peopled with true believers and with faithful adorers of his Name. The Introit [of the Mass], which is taken from the Psalms, cries out to our Lord for help. The human race is all but extinct after the Deluge, and is here represented as beseeching its Creator to bless and increase it. The Church adopts the same prayer, and asks her Saviour to multiply the children of the Word, as he did in former days.

Rev. Msgr. James T. Byrnes, Pastor Rectory (Friday-Monday): 484-480-4414 Priory (Tuesday-Thursday): 203-431-0201 ext.14 Email: j.byrnes@fsspx.email

Mr. Michael Sparks, Chapel Coordinator Tel. 856-223-0741

Mr. James Hayes, Chapel Treasurer

Mr. Gregory Golm, Choir Director

Holy Sacrifice of the Mass Friday 7 PM Saturday 9 AM Sunday 8 AM (Low Mass) 10 AM (Sung Mass) Monday 10 AM

Confessions Approximately 45 minutes before the start of Mass (except Monday)

Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament 3rd Sunday of the month following the 10 AM Mass.

St. Jude Roman Catholic Church

Society of St. Pius X 1402 E. 10th Street, Eddystone, PA 19022

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Sexagesima Sunday 24 February 2019 Sexagesima Sunday 24 February 2019

SANCTUARY LAMP INTENTION

Week of February 24th: Rita Kelley (+)

Please contact Victoria Foley at 215-380-5168 if you would like to place an intention.

STATUE OF OUR LADY

Month of February:

Please contact Janine Mullen at 215-804-5517 if you would like to host Our Lady.

There will be no 10am Mass tomorrow, 25 February, due to the annual Priests’ Meeting taking place in Winona, Minnesota.

Catechism classes will take place this coming Saturday, 2 March following the 9am Mass.

The 2nd Collection next Sunday is the monthly collection for the Ridgefield Priory. Please be as generous to this collection as your means will allow. Thank you.

Stations of the Cross will be prayed on the Fridays of Lent beginning at 7pm followed by Holy Mass. The first Friday of Lent is 8 March. This is an excellent practice to add to your Lenten sacrifices as it requires a sacrifice of time, one of our most precious commodities.

From Fr. Wegner, the District Superior: The Angelus magazine has been in operation for over 30 years and is a crucial part of the apostolate of the Society of Saint Pius X. The Angelus magazine defends tradition and educates those looking to deepen their Catholic Faith. To make The Angelus even more accessible it is now available online. If we are going to reach as many people as possible, we need your help to spread the word to family and friends. Subscribe for either a print or digital copy! Or call (800) 966-7337. Keep Learning ~ Keep Growing ~ Keep the Faith Go to: angelus.online to read our latest issue on "The Episcopacy”

Anyone who has not received their boxed offering envelopes should see Msgr. Byrnes to obtain them.

Anyone wishing to be included in the St. Jude’s email list should email Msgr. Byrnes (j.byrnes@fsspx.email) with the request. Please include in the email, along with your request, your full name, address and phone number.

Dom Prosper Guéranger on the Spiritual Practices of Septuagesima

The joys of Christmastide seem to have fled far from us. The forty days of gladness brought us by the Birth of our Emmanuel are gone. The atmosphere of holy Church has grown overcast, and we are warned that the gloom is still to thicken. Have we, then, for ever lost Him, we so anxiously and longingly sighed after, during the four slow weeks of our Advent? Has our divine Sun of Justice, that rose so brightly in Bethlehem, now stopped his course, and left our guilty earth? Not so. The Son of God, the Child of Mary, has not left us. The Word was made Flesh in order that he might dwell among us. A glory, far greater than that of his Birth, when Angels sang their hymns, awaits him, and we are to share it with him. Only, he must win this new and greater glory by strange countless sufferings; he must purchase it by a most cruel and ignominious death: and we, if we would have our share in the triumph of his Resurrection, must follow him in the Way of the Cross, all wet with the Tears and the Blood he shed for us. The grave maternal voice of the Church will soon be heard, inviting us to the Lenten penance; but she wishes us to prepare for this laborious baptism, by employing these three weeks in considering the deep wounds caused in our souls by sin. True, - the beauty and loveliness of the Little Child, born to us in Bethlehem, are great beyond measure; but our souls are so needy, that they require other lessons than those He gave us of humility and simplicity. Our Jesus is the Victim of the divine justice, and he has now attained the fulness of his age; the altar, on which he is to be slain, is ready: and since it is for us that he is to be sacrificed, we should at once set ourselves to consider, what are the debts we have contracted towards that infinite Justice, which is about to punish the Innocent One instead of us the guilty. The mystery of a God becoming Incarnate for the love of his creature, has opened to us the path of the Illuminative Way; but we have not yet seen the brightest of its Light. Let not our hearts be troubled; the divine wonders we witnessed at Bethlehem are to be surpassed by those that are to grace the day of our Jesus’ Triumph: but, that our eye may contemplate these future mysteries, it must be purified by courageously looking into the deep abyss of our own personal miseries. God will grant us his divine light for the discovery; and if we come to know ourselves, to understand the grievousness of original sin, to see the malice of our own sins, and to comprehend, at least in some degree, the infinite mercy of God towards us, - we shall be prepared for the holy expiations of Lent, and for the ineffable joys of Easter. The Season, then, of Septuagesima is one of most serious thought. Perhaps we could not better show the sentiments, wherewith the Church would have her children to be filled at this period of her year, than by quoting a few words from the eloquent exhortation, given to his people, at the beginning of Septuagesima, by the celebrated Ivo of Chartres. He spoke thus to the Faithful of the 11th century [12th Sermon for Septuagesima]: “We know, says the Apostle, that every creature groaneth, and travaileth in pain even till now: and not only it, but ourselves, also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of God, the redemption of our body. The creature here spoken of is the soul, that has been regenerated, from the corruption of sin, unto the likeness of God: she groaneth within herself, at seeing herself made subject to vanity; she, like one that travaileth, is filled with pain, and is devoured by an anxious longing to be in that country, which is still so far off. It was this travail and pain that the Psalmist was suffering, when he exclaimed: Woe is me, that my suffering is prolonged!. Nay, that Apostle, who was one of the first members of the Church, and had received the Holy Spirit, longed to have, in all its reality, that adoption of the sons of God, which he already had in hope; and he, too, thus exclaimed in his pain: I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. During these days, therefore, we must do what we do at all seasons of the Year, - only, we must do it more earnestly and fervently: we must sigh and weep after our country, from which we were exiled in consequence of having indulged in sinful pleasures; we must redouble our efforts in order to regain it by compunction and weeping of heart. Let us now shed tears in the way, that we may afterwards be glad in our country. Let us now so run the race of this present life, that we may make sure of the prize of the supernal vocation. Let us not be like imprudent wayfarers, forgetting our country, and preferring our banishment to our home. Let us not become like those senseless invalids, who feel not their ailments, and seek no remedy. We despair of a sick man, who will not be persuaded that he is in danger. No: let us run to our Lord, the Physician of eternal salvation. Let us show him our wounds, and cry out to him with all our earnestness: Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak: heal me, for my bones are troubled. Then, will he forgive us our iniquities, heal us of our infirmities, and satisfy our desire with good things

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MASSES FOR THE UPCOMING WEEK Friday, 1 March: Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart Saturday, 2 March: Votive Mass of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sunday, 3 March: Quinquagesima Sunday Monday, 4 March: St. Casimir, Confessor

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