This weekend we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi, the feast that celebrates the Real Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. This is the feast that celebrates the “bodiness” of our Catholic faith: that because of the Incarnation of the Word of God in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the…
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About: Fr. Cipolla
Recent Posts by Fr. Cipolla
Trinity Sunday
This weekend we celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Trinity. This is the only feast that celebrates doctrine, that is, that celebrates the Christian understanding of God. Every Sunday is a feast of God, in thanksgiving for what He did for us in the person of his crucified Son who made eternal life possible…
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Pentecost
Pentecost is the last great feast in the Easter cycle of feasts: Easter, Ascension and Pentecost. I have heard about parishes that bake a special cake and walk around the church singing Happy Birthday to the Church. Obviously this is something we would never do at St. Mary’s, not only because it is a sentimental…
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Ascension
At the Solemn Mass on the great feast of the Ascension we extinguished the paschal candle. This has been part of the Tradition for centuries. This is the liturgical signal that the presence of Christ has now passed into the Sacraments. The time of his bodily presence on earth is over, but his Presence in…
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Once Again about Silence
We look forward to Bishop Caggiano’s presence at St. Mary’s to bestow the Sacrament of Confirmation on our young people on May 27 at 4 p.m. This is the first time the bishop will confer the Sacrament in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, that is, the Traditional Roman Mass. Under the guidance of…
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The Appearance of Jesus
The readings at Mass for the first part of Eastertide describe the appearances of Jesus after the Resurrection. He appeared to a number of people including Mary Magdalene, the apostles, and others. The question arises often: why did he not appear to his Mother? It is true that he may have but we have no…
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Because Christmas Falls on a Sunday this Year
Because Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, we have four full weeks of Advent. Advent is a time of preparation for the great festival of Christmas. The loveliness of Advent comes from the admixture of the sense of waiting for the light in what is the darkest time of the year, the sense of…
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Post-election reflections
Last week I commented on the devastation of the basilica of St. Benedict and the monastery in Norcia and suggested that this was a sign of the death of what we called Western Civilization since the early Middle Ages. I write this column this Wednesday morning bleary-eyed, having stayed up until the wee hours of…
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Two Great Feasts: All Saints and All Souls
This is one of my favorite times of the year: the brilliant blue color of the sky, the gold and red of the leaves on trees, the intensity of activity after the somnolence of the summer, yes, even the earlier darkness at the end of the day that makes us appreciate light in all of…
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