Corpus Christi ... A new Priest Dear Friends and Benefactors,
On the feast of Corpus Christi, we celebrated at the Seminary the end also of the school-year. It was a perfectly beautiful mid-summer's day. After Solemn High Mass we held a procession of the Blessed Sacrament through the grounds of the Seminary, with an Altar of Repose in the front of the Seminary, and then we lunched outside under the trees, with the sun pouring down the green slope towards the lake at the foot of the hill.
The High Mass was celebrated for the intention of Thanksgiving to God for the many graces He has given to us all at the Seminary over the year. One faithful seminarian He has brought to the Priesthood, twenty more He has safely brought one year closer to the Priesthood, and to the five of us Priests, He has granted a happy year's work, divided between instructing the seminarians and ministering to our missions. May He be praised and thanked for many, many gifts!
And our thoughts at the same time turned gratefully to all of you, our Benefactors, without whose regular support we could never have kept the Seminary working for the greater glory of God. In April of last year the confidence of many of you had reason to be shaken, and the aggravation of those troubles in May of this year made many of you wonder what on earth is happening to the Society. It is of course by Almighty God being firmly planted in the Cross. In the long run this is a source of great blessings, but here and now the treatment handed out to Our Lord and His followers can scandalize us out of our minds. In such moments let us recall Our Lord's own words: "They will put you out of the synagogues: yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth a service to God. And these things will they do to you, because they have not known the Father, nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the hour shall come, you may remember that I told you of them..... In the world you shall have distress, but have confidence, I have overcome the world" (John XVI, 2,3,4,33).
To all of you then that have stayed with us, or rallied behind us, many thanks. With the help of God, we shall not disappoint you. He may already be bringing you another priest, a refugee from a Novus Ordo Diocese, who twice visited us at the Seminary in the last two months. Ordained a few years ago out of a fly-leaf Pontifical, and, so at his own request conditionally re-ordained in May by Archbishop Lefebvre. While staying with us he has been learning to say the Tridentine Mass from our Master of Liturgy, Fr. Goettler. What disturbs this Priest more than anything in the Novus Ordo Church is the mistreatment of the Holy Eucharist. On the other hand, saying the Tridentine Mass is, he says, "like a breath of fresh air".
Pray for this Priest that he may always serve God and that he may soon be serving you. He depends upon your prayers, as do we all even more than upon your material support. Pray, and have no fear, you will have the Priests of your prayers.
Enclosed is the most interesting reply from Rome to a Long Islander's question whether attendance at the Tridentine Mass fulfills the Sunday obligation. We always knew it did, but here is Rome confirming the fact. Re-print and circulate by all means.
May Almighty God grant us all the patience to bear the tribulations He designs to take us to Heaven, and may He and His Mother bless you and keep you through the summer!
Sincerely yours in Our Divine Lord,
Fr. Richard Williamson
On the feast of Corpus Christi, we celebrated at the Seminary the end also of the school-year. It was a perfectly beautiful mid-summer's day. After Solemn High Mass we held a procession of the Blessed Sacrament through the grounds of the Seminary, with an Altar of Repose in the front of the Seminary, and then we lunched outside under the trees, with the sun pouring down the green slope towards the lake at the foot of the hill.
The High Mass was celebrated for the intention of Thanksgiving to God for the many graces He has given to us all at the Seminary over the year. One faithful seminarian He has brought to the Priesthood, twenty more He has safely brought one year closer to the Priesthood, and to the five of us Priests, He has granted a happy year's work, divided between instructing the seminarians and ministering to our missions. May He be praised and thanked for many, many gifts!
And our thoughts at the same time turned gratefully to all of you, our Benefactors, without whose regular support we could never have kept the Seminary working for the greater glory of God. In April of last year the confidence of many of you had reason to be shaken, and the aggravation of those troubles in May of this year made many of you wonder what on earth is happening to the Society. It is of course by Almighty God being firmly planted in the Cross. In the long run this is a source of great blessings, but here and now the treatment handed out to Our Lord and His followers can scandalize us out of our minds. In such moments let us recall Our Lord's own words: "They will put you out of the synagogues: yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth a service to God. And these things will they do to you, because they have not known the Father, nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the hour shall come, you may remember that I told you of them..... In the world you shall have distress, but have confidence, I have overcome the world" (John XVI, 2,3,4,33).
To all of you then that have stayed with us, or rallied behind us, many thanks. With the help of God, we shall not disappoint you. He may already be bringing you another priest, a refugee from a Novus Ordo Diocese, who twice visited us at the Seminary in the last two months. Ordained a few years ago out of a fly-leaf Pontifical, and, so at his own request conditionally re-ordained in May by Archbishop Lefebvre. While staying with us he has been learning to say the Tridentine Mass from our Master of Liturgy, Fr. Goettler. What disturbs this Priest more than anything in the Novus Ordo Church is the mistreatment of the Holy Eucharist. On the other hand, saying the Tridentine Mass is, he says, "like a breath of fresh air".
Pray for this Priest that he may always serve God and that he may soon be serving you. He depends upon your prayers, as do we all even more than upon your material support. Pray, and have no fear, you will have the Priests of your prayers.
Enclosed is the most interesting reply from Rome to a Long Islander's question whether attendance at the Tridentine Mass fulfills the Sunday obligation. We always knew it did, but here is Rome confirming the fact. Re-print and circulate by all means.
May Almighty God grant us all the patience to bear the tribulations He designs to take us to Heaven, and may He and His Mother bless you and keep you through the summer!
Sincerely yours in Our Divine Lord,
Fr. Richard Williamson
