Happy Thanksgiving

The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth" (1914) By Jennie A. Brownscombe (@ Pilgrim Hall Museum).

I had intended to make a post earlier in the week, encouraging people to go to Mass on Thankgiving Day. Twice, I ended up at the store longer than I had expected.  Wednesday, I ran off to Grotto for 7:30am Mass, then off to work at 8:30, left at 5:00 to pick up another choir member near work, and off to practice.  I walked in the door about 10:20. 

I began the practice of going to Mass on Thanksgiving day soon after discovering Assumption Grotto in 2005 and have done so ever since.  There is a 7:30am Mass (this is for cooks - LOL), as well as a 9:00am Mass (for those eating what the cooks are cooking). Evening Mass and Thursday night Passio will not take place today.

Please pray for those who are suffering this Thanksgiving, especially those without a meal, without a home, and without warmth in this cold weather. 

I want to leave you with this article on Thanksgiving from NewAdvent.org. 

A civil holiday observed annually in the United States of America on the last Thursday in November. It is now celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. The president issues a proclamation, calling on the citizens, all Federal officials, and others subject to Federal authority to observe the day as one of national thanksgiving and prayer. The governors of states concur in the president's proclamation and also recommend the citizens to observe the holiday, and all public business is suspended.


The custom originated in 1621, when Governor Bradford of the Plymouth colony appointed a day for public praise and prayer after the first harvest, and the practice spread throughout the other New England colonies. The first national observance was when President Washington, at the request of Congress, recommended Thursday, 26 November, 1789, to the people of the United States "as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God". This proclamation exhorted the people to "beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best". It was the first observation of the day on the date that present custom holds it.


In 1817 Thanksgiving Day was first officially noticed in New York State, and by 1859 its observance had spread to twenty-eight states and two territories. In 1863 President Lincoln made his first proclamation, naming the last Thursday of November as a day of national observance, which President Johnson also selected in 1867 and President Grant in 1870. Since then there has been no change, the last Thursday in November being named in each year's proclamation.


Catholic recognition of the day by special religious features has only been of comparatively recent date and not as yet (1911) of official general custom. Historians of the day attempt to trace the origin of Governor Bradford's idea (1621) back to the old Hebrew Feast of the Tabernacles and through the ages to the ancient Greek Harvest Feast, Thesmophoria, the Roman Cerealia, and the English Harvest Home. In the Dominion of Canada the governor-general by proclamation sets aside the last Monday in October as a legal holiday for the purpose of acknowledging God's providence and expressing the nation's dependence on His bounty.

Meehan, T. (1912). Thanksgiving Day. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved November 24, 2010 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14555a.htm



Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.

On this 4th of July, read the last verse of the Star Spangled Banner

Happy Birthday, America!

The Catholic Church teaches that all countries have an angel. May the guardian angel of the United States of America guard her well and get her on the path with God. On this day, read the religion clauses of the US Constitution.

From Wiki is the full Star Spangled Banner. Read it, especially the fourth verse. I'm sure American kids won't be learning this in their US History classes.

O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming.
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.


On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.


And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.


O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave![12]

That last verse was sung by a Marine at a tea party event. I had never heard anything beyond the first verse until this video made it's rounds. The guy has a great voice, too. Watch this...

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Happy Independence Day

Stop and say a prayer today in thanksgiving for American independence. Also pray today for all of those who fought for her independence, and who serve today in the armed forces.

Here are a few interesting quotes:

• Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains or slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take but as for me; give me liberty or give me death! - Patrick Henry


• Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. - Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)


• It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once. - David Hume (1711-1776)


• Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. - George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

Read these and more here...

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Photopost: Te Deum and Mass for Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God on New Years Eve

Above, Fr. Perrone and five other priests, three from the Order of the Holy Cross, chant the Te Deum at 11:00pm, just before the Latin Novus Ordo which was celebrated for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. This Mass could not be a "Tridentine" or TLM unless the 9:30am were switched to something else. Only one TLM can be celebrated on Sundays and Feast Days so Fr. Perrone carefully plans it out, rarely moving it from that 9:30am Sunday/Holyday time slot.

Public vespers with the Te Deum is not practical given that we are a commuter parish. The parish has traditionally brought in the New Year in the midst of Mass honoring Mary. We were actually receiving Communion as the New Year rolled in, as was audible by that which took place in the world around us. The beautiful Marian vestment worn on major Marian feast days was worn by Fr. Perrone.






We had Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament as the priests led us in the Holy Rosary just after Midnight.


The beautiful cope, which is part of the very old Assumption vestment set is seen here.



Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!