Brothers' Schedule of Lenten Events Mar/Apr 2009

The Brothers of the Little Oratory are pleased to announce the following schedule of services in which they will participate during Lent 2009:

Thursday, 26 February 2009
Begins approx. 10:00pm
Office of Compline and
Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament
Founder's Chapel, USD Campus

Sunday, 8 March 2009
7:00pm (following the 5:30 mass)
Vespers of the 2nd Sunday of Lent
St. Mary's, Escondido
(116 South Broadway, Escondido)

Friday, 13 March 2009
7:00pm
Brothers Lenten Mass (EF, public invited)
Fr. Harry Neely, OSA, cele.
St. Augustine's Monastery Chapel
(Nutmeg and 33rd St., South Park)

Sunday, 22 March, 2009
4:00pm
Vespers of the 4th Sunday of Lent (Laetare or Rose Sunday)
St. Anne's Catholic Church
(Sicard and Irving Streets, San Diego)

Wednesday, 8 April, 2009
7:30pm
Tenebrae of Holy Thursday
(Office of Matins and Lauds)
St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church,
(Park Ave. and Polk St., Normal Heights)

Brothers Declaration of Petrine Unity: We Stand Firmly with Benedict XVI

The Brothers of the Little Oratory in San Diego, along with the members of the Chorus Breviarii Gregorian Chant Schola and Liturgical Prayer Group, wish to make the following public statement regarding those liberal churchmen who are currently in open resistance to the program of continuity and church unity undertaken by our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI:

Healing divisions is a difficult task. People come to like the social security of their ghettos. They fear what lies beyond its walls. Hence the boundaries separating the Roman and Orthodox churches has entrenched itself for nearly a thousand years. Many of us may live to see its millennial anniversary. Preventing the entrenchment of such a division is, to his credit, clearly important to Pope Benedict XVI. And he has made very clear, since the first months of his pontificate, the importance that he sees fit to attach to continuity both in worship and in doctrine. Yet this Pope not only theorizes, he acts - unilaterally and in keeping with his Petrine privilege, much to the displeasure of a dominant liberal faction which seeks and has sought since the Council to monopolize its control of church praxis. But that was not the vision of the Council, nor was it the intention of Pope John XXIII. True evenhandedness takes far more courage than monopoly, and Pope Benedict XVI is demonstrating that courage and being vilified for it by the Church and Social Left. We must and will speak and act in his defense.


Therefore the Brothers express their undying gratitude to our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI for his work to repair decades of driftage and dissolution in the identity of the Catholic faithful. His courageous work has freed the church from the icepack of decadent and monopolistic liberal theology, and is promoting new growth from both the oldest branches of the church, and the youngest. The Barque of Peter is moving once again, as the breath of the Holy Spirit fills her sails. Yet forces within the church work obstinately to obfuscate and obstruct, even threaten, both the Holy Father and his work as the Vicar of Christ. This is occurring both in the religious and secular press, and even among the hierarchies of Western Europe, to their shameless culpability. The statement of the Austrian Bishops was a disgrace.

The Brothers of the Little Oratory in San Diego wish to make it clear that we will be neither silent nor invisible in the face of such disloyal opposition to our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. Most of us have grown up in the era of the dissolution of our Catholic identities, and we have worked from before the beginning of this pontificate, with little encouragement either material or ecclesial, to reclaim it for ourselves through our dedication to the offices of the Roman Breviary both in private and in public, and to an interpretation of the liturgy rooted in the Hermeneutic of Continuity. As laymen we have done work of our own volition that our priests ought to have fostered in us and in themselves all along. Now, for the first time in our adult lives we have a Pope who not only encourages, he acts in our interests. We will act both in his promotion and his defense.


We EXPECT our Diocese to do the same. It is not to its credit that no voice has yet been heard in firm support of the Holy Father while the likes of the Austrian Bishops, the Tablet in London, and Mr. Richard McBrien, Pelosi, Fr. Kennedy in Australia, and Card. Lehmann in Germany resist him to his face. We are seeing with increasing clarity the potential for treachery that they, and their accompanying political slant and vision, bring with them from the depths of the 1960's. REMEMBER: it was THIS Pope who approved the statutes of the Neo-Catechumenal Way; it was THIS Pope who accommodated the State Bishops of the People's Republic of China, and the faithful they mislead; and it is also THIS Pope who seeks to reconcile a group of traditionalists who are more Roman Catholic than either of the other two aforenamed groups.

Should he decide that is possible, then it is not up to the liberal churchmen among us to criticize. It is for them to assent and support our Holy Father. We look eagerly forward to the day when the cracks in the facade of Christianity are healed from the bottom up, not with a superficial bridge of ice which spans the gap but melts when the examining sunlight of doctrine and dogma is shined upon it. But liberal churchmen need to know that such cracks exist on both the left AND the right. And BOTH require the same urgent attention.


We have suffered patiently the years of the Post-Conciliar "child-church"; we have longed to grow up and to put away the things of childhood and to become Men of faith, yet we have seen our spiritual ambitions repeatedly slapped down over the years. We have turned BOTH cheeks already. We will not be slapped again. And so we say now, before the ecclesial situation develops past the editorial stage: There is ONLY ONE ROCK, and we stand firmly upon it; we stand firmly WITH Peter, with Pope Benedict XVI, if necessary between him and the wolves who would undo him. We will defend him both with prayer AND action, with Faith AND Works. If we, as devoted lay-faithful can be so bold in our support, we have every confidence that our Diocese can do the same. We call on the Diocese of San Diego to stand even before us, in support of the Holy Father and his program of church unity.

Epiphany Eve and the Blessing of Holy Water at St. Anne's, Sicard Street.

On Monday evening, January 5 2009, the Brothers of the Little Oratory, joined by the Santonino Ensemble, provided music for the First annual Blessing of Holy Water on the Eve of the Epiphany at St. Anne's, Sicard Street. This short liturgical service originated in the eastern churches, and was incorporated into the Roman Ritual in 1890.


Approximately sixty parishioners attended the service, an excellent turnout for a service which has been less familiar on the West coast than perhaps in the Eastern states, where a greater concentration of our Eastern Uniate brethren have helped keep the service alive of recent years.


The service began with a selection of Epiphany hymns and carols sung before the entrance of the liturgical procession. Then, the two cantors kneeling at the communion step, the Litany of the Saints was chanted by John Polhamus and Richard Dawes. Following the Litany of the Saints, three psalms were sung without antiphon.


After the Psalms, the prayers of exorcism against Satan and the Apostate Angels were read over the water, and the salt was exorcised as well. Interestingly, this is the only instance in the Rituale - outside the rite exorcism of a demon from a physical person - where the prayer of exorcism is used.


The Magnificat was then sung. An interesting feature of this service as it appears in the Roman Ritual, is that both the Benedictus and the Magnificat are given under the same antiphon, either to be sung depending on whether the service takes place on the morning of Epiphany Eve, or in the evening.


Following the Magnificat, Fr. Gismondi blessed the Holy Water brought to the church by the faithful for use in their homes during the year, going over the all the containers three separate times, each time sprinkling salt into the open tops in the shape of the Cross and blessing them in the names of the Holy Trinity. Fr. Gismondi was served by MC Chris Gomez, and FSSP seminarian Rhone Lillard.

Each name of the Holy Trinity was uttered in blessing only once, Father then proceeding to make the sign on the cross with salt into each container. This took some time, and during the intervening silences, descrete organ improvisations were performed.


Following the Blessing of the Water, the assembled faithful were sprinkled with Holy Water, and the Te Deum was sung. Having left Christmas and its octave behind, the service concluding with the three verse version of What Child is This, sung with a certain martial flavour which matched the text, a text which already looks forward to Holy Week and Easter. With this fitting conclusion to the first Christmastide at the new Parish of St. Anne, we may now well sense the approach of Lenten seriousness with a certain awed excitement.

"Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary."

(William Chatterton Dix, 1865)

The work of preparing the church for restoration continues; many ceremonies will have to be relearned or learnt anew; all will have to make their fullest effort to plum the depths of Holy Week's shattering profundity. Many have waited long years for this opportunity, and the Brothers look forward to doing their part to enhance the experience.

Many thanks, once again, to Jean Perko, for her excellent photographic work.

Befitting Conclusion of a Splendid Liturgical Weekend

After serving and singing for the Pontifical Requiem Mass on Friday, the Brothers of the Little Oratory concluded the weekend by celebrating Vespers at St. Anne's on Sunday, Nov. 23 (last Sunday after Pentecost). Hebdomadary was the parish pastor, Fr. Carl Gismondi, F.S.S.P. , to whom we are grateful for his availability and kindness. Fr. John Lyons, O.M.V. sat also in choir. With the exception of the two priests, all in choirs were Brothers of the Little Oratory, wearing the white Philippine collars around their necks. The seventh brother, our very own Fratellino, was busy in the choir loft playing the organ. Immediately following the ceremony, the Brothers prayed the Exercises for Sunday. We thank Ms. Rachel Gray for graciously sending us photographs of the event.

A Palestrina Mass for Immaculate Conception at St. Anne's, Sicard Street

Sung Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception will be celebrated on Monday Dec. 8th at 7:00pm at St. Anne's Church, Sicard St. in San Diego. The La Jolla Renaissance Singers will contribute the Mass Ordinary in sacred polyphony, which will be the Missa "Hodie Christus natus est" for double-choir by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. The LJRS are a local choir currently directed by Prof. William H.C. Propp, which was founded in 1964 as the UCSD Madrigal Singers, yet in all their long history, they have never sung the Catholic mass liturgically. The presence of St. Anne's parish and the Holy Mass on a daily basis in our diocese now makes that possible. A schola of the Brothers of the Little Oratory in San Diego have also been invited to sing the chant-propers of the mass. The Brothers of the Little Oratory return many thanks to Fr. Carl Gismondi, F.S.S.P. for providing the opportunity to manifest this happy synthesis of local resources "Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam", to the Greater Glory of God.

Requiem Review

The Brothers of the Little Oratory wish to thank all who were involved in the Pontifical Requiem Mass offered on Friday, 21 November 2008 by H.E. Bp. Salvatore Cordileone for the repose of the soul of Msgr. Anthony Ferrero. The Brothers also wish to acknowledge that the mass was attended by the family of Marie Breda, who died this past October 14th at the age of 5 years. As little Marie had not yet attained the age of reason she of course had no need of a Requiem, however the Bishop remembered the intentions of her family in the Pontifical Requiem Mass.
Special thanks also to Fr. Richard Perozich for his hospitality; to Mr. Enzo Selvaggi for the generous use of his Vestments; to Ms. Catherine Florentino for the regalia associated with the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre; and to Mr. Richard Dawes for producing excellent mass booklets.

Pontifical Requiem Mass on November 21st

Pontifical Requiem Mass will be celebrated on Friday, 21 November at 3:30pm in St. Mary's Church, Escondido, CA by H.E. Bp. Salvatore Cordileone, for the repose of the soul of the Rev. Msgr. Anthony Ferrero of the Diocese of San Bernardino. Msgr. Ferrero died this October 12th, and will be remembered in San Diego for having served as Assistant Priest in Bp. Cordileone's Solemn Pontifical High Mass for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross in 2005. The Mass will be served by the Brothers of the Little Oratory in San Diego, with polyphony provided by members of the Bach Collegium San Diego. More details as they become available.