UVM News and Readings: November 2024
News & Events
Sr. Mary Elizabeth Makes Solemn Profession to Benedictines of Mary
UVM is delighted to offer our heartiest congratulations and grateful prayers following the Solemn Profession of Sister Mary Elizabeth with the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, in Gower, Missouri. Sr. Mary Elizabeth is the daughter of Josh and Sandra Smith of Auburn, and the ceremony took place on Friday, Sept 27th.
The Smiths were gracious enough to share some photographs which capture the beauty and joy of the ceremony, as well as a link to the livestream recording on the YouTube channel of the Benedictines of Mary. Those interested in understanding more deeply how a Solemn Profession proceeds can read a detailed description by Dr. Peter Kwasniewski of another Solemn Profession with the Benedictines a few years back.
Photos
Mary Elizabeth and two fellow professurae present themselves before their vows.
After all have read their chart of profession, the nuns lie down on the floor and are covered with a black pall as the church bells ring and the Litany of Saints is chanted.
Sr. Mary Elizabeth with her crown of roses.
The Smith family, including Sr. Mary Elizabeth and Sr. Consuela, together after the ceremony.
Ceremony Livestream
Psalterium Institute Works for Renewal of Catholic Sacred Music
Members of the Maine TLM community are well aware of the dedication it takes to preserve and teach the Truth and Beauty of traditional Catholicism. But while our focus is on supporting and promulgating the Latin Mass, the traditional Catholic culture of which the TLM is the foundation reaches far and wide to, among other things, education, social doctrine, and the arts such as painting, literature, and music.
On that note (if you will), we’d like to highlight the efforts of an organization that focuses on teaching and performing traditional Catholic sacred music. Founded and directed by Leon Griesbach, the Psalterium Institute, based in Lisbon, Maine, is dedicated to the mission of training singers of all ages to produce beautiful choral music, while also instructing them in the traditions of Catholic sacred music including Gregorian chant, sacred polyphony, and the modern choral repertoire.
Currently the Music and Choir Director at St. John the Baptist Church in Brunswick, in 2003, Leon spent a period of time discerning with the Benedictine monks of Blue Cloud Abbey in North Dakota where he studied organ and chanted the Liturgy of the Hours with the monks every day. This experience of living and breathing the psalms and in the liturgy was an important inspiration for Leon and contributed to his decision to devote his career to liturgical music, and to sharing the Liturgy of the Hours with as many people as he can.
For both singers and listeners, in settings both sacred and secular, the Institute serves as a source of education and formation in broader musical education in the context of the Catholic musical tradition, and in specific forms and expressions of sacred Catholic liturgy. While the Psalterium Institute intends to present learning and listening opportunities to an array of audiences, it also hopes to be of particular service to the church by training clergy, music directors, cantors, and choristers for the full range of liturgical offerings.
Upcoming Performances
In addition, the Institute maintains a performance schedule to note highlights of the liturgical year. The performances usually consist of a sacred service appropriate to the date followed by a selection of additional choral reflections. Upcoming events include:
Vespers for the Dead
November 9th
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Basilica of Saints Peter & Paul, Lewiston
November 8th
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Yarmouth
Epiphany Lessons & Carols
January 4th
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Portland
January 3rd
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church, Brunswick
More information on how to support or participate can be found at the Institute’s website.
Readings: The Liturgical Year
Very Rev. Dom Prosper Guéranger Abbot of Solesmes, 1833-1875
November 24 – Saint John of the Cross, Confessor
Let us go with the Church to Mount Carmel, and offer our grateful homage to John of the Cross, who, following in the footsteps of Teresa of Jesus, opened a safe way to souls seeking God. . . John of the Cross was the living image of the Word of God, more piercing than any two-edged sword, reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow; for he read, with unfailing glance, the very thoughts and intentions of hearts. Let us listen to his words. Though he belongs to modern times, he is evidently a son of the ancients.
“The soul,” he says, “is to attain to a certain sense, to a certain divine knowledge, most generous and full of sweetness, of all human and divine things which do not fall within the common-sense and natural perceptions of the soul; it views them with different eyes now, for the light and grace of the Holy Ghost differ from those of sense, the divine from the human. (The Dark Night of the Soul, Book 2, Ch 9) The dark night, through which the soul passes, on its way to the divine light of the perfect union of the love of God—so far as it is in this life possible—requires for its explanation greater experience and light of knowledge than I possess. For so great are the trials, and so profound the darkness, spiritual as well as corporal, which souls must endure, if they will attain to perfection, that no human knowledge can comprehend them, nor experience describe them. (The Ascent of Mt Carmel, Prologue)
“The journey of the soul to the divine union is called night, for three reasons. The first is derived from the point from which the soul sets out, the privation of the desire of all pleasure in all the things of this world, by an entire detachment therefrom. This is as night for every desire and sense of man. The second, from the road by which it travels; that is, faith, for faith is obscure like night to the intellect. The third, from the goal to which it tends, God, incomprehensible and infinite, who in this life is as night to the soul. We must pass through these three nights if we are to attain to the divine union with God.
November 30 – Saint Andrew, Apostle
We should remember that Saint Andrew is the Apostle of the Cross. To Peter, Jesus has given firmness of faith; to John, warmth of love; the mission of Andrew is to represent the Cross of his divine Master. Now it is by these three, faith, love, and the Cross, that the Church renders herself worthy of her Spouse. Everything she has or is, bears this threefold character. Hence it is that after the two Apostles just named, there is none who holds such a prominent place in the universal Liturgy as Saint Andrew. . .
Andrew, the Apostle, born at Bethsaida, a town of Galilee, was brother of Peter, and disciple of John the Baptist. Having heard his master say, speaking of Christ: Behold the Lamb of God! he followed Jesus, and brought to him his brother also. When, afterwards, he was fishing with his brother in the sea of Galilee, they were both called, before any of the other Apostles, by our Lord, who, passing by, said to them: Come after me; I will make you to be fishers of men. Without delay, they left their nets and followed him. After the passion and resurrection, Andrew went to spread the faith of Christ in Scythia in Europe, which was the province assigned to him; then he travelled through Epirus and Thrace, and by his teaching and miracles converted innumerable souls to Christ. Afterwards, having reached Patræ in Achaia, he persuaded many in that city to embrace the truth of the Gospel.
