UVM News and Readings: September 2024
As Summer comes to a close, our monthly newsletter is back and in an updated format. Here, you will find upcoming events this month, recaps of past events, and a return of the readings for the current month of the liturgical year.
News and Announcements
Join us on the Pilgrimage for Restoration!
by Adam Chamberland
Ever wanted to go on a pilgrimage? Later this month, Sept. 27th-29th, you have an opportunity to represent Maine at the Pilgrimage for Restoration, a 3-day traditional walking pilgrimage to the Shrine of the North American Martyrs. With over 800 participants last year, this is the largest pilgrimage of its kind within driving distance.
We walk, we camp, we pray through this 62-mile journey near the Adirondacks, offering it up both for our own intentions, and collectively for the restoration and freedom of the Church and its Tradition. High Mass is offered each day, with meditations and spiritual counseling available from traditional priests traveling with us. The North American Martyrs are a significant focus of our spirituality on the trip, since we start at the location where St. Isaac Jogues was captured, and end where the first of these missionary saints were martyred. The Maine brigade (now in its second year) has St. Athanasius as our patron saint, so you will hear about his life and works as well.
The pilgrimage again is from September 27th-29th.
Registration is open now! If you have questions or are interested, please contact Adam Chamberland at adam.chamberland1@gmail.com, or you can join us at one of the meetings below. Odds are, you'll already know a few people going on the pilgrimage.
Meetings after each TLM
To prepare for the pilgrimage, we’re having an important (but optional) meeting to ask questions, plan, prepare, and get to know who will be joining us.
This meeting is especially helpful for newcomers and those joining by themselves or a small group of friends. It’s an opportunity to ask the veteran pilgrims questions, learn how to prepare for a good pilgrimage, and coordinate things such as carpooling and camp sites.
This meeting will be held after each of the chaplaincy TLM’s social hours:
Portland, Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception: 9/8 at approximately 2pm
Lewiston, Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul: 9/15 at approximately 10am
+ We hope to see you there! +
August Highlight: TLM Community Explores Traditional Liturgy with Dr. Peter Kwasniewski
Approximately 90 members of Maine’s TLM community turned out on Sunday, August 18th, for an engaging evening with noted author and liturgist Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, at Holy Martyrs Church in Falmouth.
Dr. Kwasniewski, a founding faculty member, administrator, and choir director at Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, Wyoming, spoke for an hour in a lecture titled, “The Grace of Stability: How Liturgy Forms the Christian Soul.”
Readings
The Liturgical Year
Very Rev. Dom Prosper Guéranger Abbot of Solesmes, 1833-1875
September 8 – The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
And the Virgin’s name was Mary. (Luke 1:27) Let us speak a little about this name, which signifies Star of the sea, and which so well befits the Virgin Mother. Rightly is she likened to a star: for as a star emits its ray without being spoilt, so the Virgin brought forth her Son without receiving any injury; the ray takes nought from the brightness of the star, nor the Son from his Mother’s integrity. This is the noble star risen out of Jacob, whose ray illumines the whole world, whose splendor shines in the heavens, penetrates the abyss, and traversing the whole earth, gives warmth rather to souls than to bodies, cherishing virtues, withering vices. Mary, I say, is that bright and incomparable star, whom we need to see raised above this vast sea, and shining by her merits, giving us light by her example. . . .
Our Lady: such is the title which befits her in every way, as that of Our Lord beseems her Son; it is the doctrinal basis of that worship of hyperdulia which belongs to her alone. She is below her Son, whom she adores as we do; but above all God’s servants, both Angels and men, inasmuch as she is his Mother. At the Name of Jesus every knee is bent; at the Name of Mary every head is bowed. And although the former is the only Name whereby we may be saved; yet, as the Son can never be separated from his Mother, heaven unites their two Names in its hymns and praise, earth in its confidence, hell in its fear and hatred.
September 14 – The Exaltation of the Holy Cross
“Through thee the precious Cross is honored and worshipped throughout the world.” Thus did St. Cyril of Alexandria apostrophize our Lady on the morrow of that great day, which saw her divine maternity vindicated at Ephesus. Eternal Wisdom has willed that the Octave of Mary’s birth should be honored by the celebration of this Feast of the triumph of the holy Cross. The Cross indeed is the standard of God’s armies, whereof Mary is the Queen; it is by the Cross that she crushes the serpent’s head, and wins so many victories over error, and over the enemies of the Christian name.
By this sign thou shalt conquer. Satan had been suffered to try his strength against the Church by persecution and tortures; but his time was drawing to an end. By the edict of Sardica, which emancipated the Christians, Galerius, when about to die, acknowledged the powerlessness of hell. Now was the time for Christ to take the offensive, and for his Cross to prevail. Towards the close of the year 311, a Roman army lay at the foot of the Alps, preparing to pass from Gaul into Italy. Constantine, its commander, thought only of revenging himself for an injury received from Maxentius, his political rival; but his soldiers, as unsuspecting as their chief, already belonged henceforward to the Lord of hosts. The Son of the Most High, having become, as Son of Mary, king of this world, was about to reveal himself to his first lieutenant, and at the time to discover to his first army the standard that was to go before it. Above the legions, in a cloudless sky, the Cross, proscribed for three long centuries, suddenly shone forth; all eyes beheld it, making the Western sun, as it were, its footstool, and surrounded with these words in characters of fire: In hoc vince: by this be thou conqueror! A few months later, the 27th of October 312, all the idols of Rome stood aghast to behold, approaching along the Flaminian Way, beyond the Bridge Milvius, the Labarum with its sacred monogram, now become the standard of the imperial armies. On the morrow was fought the decisive battle, which opened the gates of the Eternal City to Christ, the only God, the everlasting King.
September 29 – Dedication of Saint Michael the Archangel
The glorious Archangel appears today at the head of the heavenly army: There was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels. (Apocalypse 12:7) In the sixth century, the dedication of the churches of St. Michael on Monte Gargano and in the Roman Circus increased the celebrity of this day, which had however been long before consecrated by Rome to the memory of all the heavenly Virtues.
The east commemorates on the sixth of September an apparition of the victorious Prince at Chone (ancient Collossæ) in Phrygia; while the eighth of November is the solemnity of the angels, corresponding to our feast of today, and bearing the title: “Synaxis of Saint Michael prince of the heavenly host, and of the other spiritual Powers.” Although the term synaxis is usually applied only to religious assemblies here on earth, we are informed that in this instance it also signifies the gathering of the faithful angels at the cry of their chief, and their union eternally sealed by their victory. (Menolog. Basilii.)
Who, then, are these heavenly Powers, whose mysterious combat heads the first page of history? Their existence is attested by the traditions of all nations as well as by the authority of holy Scripture. If we consult the Church, she teaches us that in the beginning God created simultaneously two natures, the spiritual and the corporal, and afterwards man who is composed of both. (Fourth Lateran Council, iv cap. Firmiter) The scale of nature descends by gradation from beings made to the likeness of God, to the very confines of nothingness; and by the same degrees the creature mounts upwards to his Creator. God is infinite being, infinite intelligence, infinite love. The creature is forever finite: but man, endowed with a reasoning intellect, and the angel, with an intuitive grasp of truth, are ever, by a continual process of purification, widening the bounds of their imperfect nature, in order to reach, by increase of light, the perfection of greater love.
