TE DEUM LAUDAMUS!

Dear Friend of the Saint Gregory Society,

Today a great gift has been given to the Church in the form of Pope Benedict XVI’s new motu proprio “Summorum Pontificum.” As you may know, a “motu proprio” is a personal initiative of the Pope, the provisions of which enjoy legal status in the Catholic Church. All Catholics, and especially those who feel a rightful attachment to the older liturgy, are encouraged to study this short document and the letter which accompanied its publication today. If you prefer paper to the internet, please note that the Society has prepared a convenient combined edition of both texts for sale after our Masses for a very modest price.

As the Pope makes clear in his explanatory letter to the world’s Bishops: “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too.” Sharing this very conviction, the Saint Gregory Society has worked diligently for the past twenty years in our little corner of the world to preserve for the Church this great treasure of the traditional Roman liturgy. This has always, for each one of us, been a labor of love, and not a mere love for “what we do” but a love for the Church. A greater validation of our mission can hardly have been expected. We are all overcome with joy and gratitude to God at this time.

Mindful of the unique significance of this moment, and of the opportunity it presents for our Society to begin a new phase in our service to the Catholic Church, both in the Archdiocese of Hartford and beyond, the Officers of the Society would like to invite you, your family, and your friends to a Solemn Votive Mass of thanksgiving in honor of the Most Holy Trinity, to be celebrated on Sunday July 15th at 2:00pm in Sacred Heart Church. Special music for the occasion, to be sung by the acclaimed Schola Cantorum of the Society, will include Palestrina’s Missa Regina caeli, festive motets, and all of the appointed Gregorian chants. The Mass will conclude with the singing of the Te Deum and Benediction, and will be followed by a reception with sparkling wine and cookies. For detailed directions to the church, please refer to our website.

Lastly, it goes without saying that we all owe our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, a tremendous debt of gratitude for what he has done for us. In these days, let us increase our prayers for him, as well as for Archbishop Mansell and all the Bishops in this country and throughout the world, that a wise, generous, and just implementation of the decrees of “Summorum Pontificum” may follow, and that the whole Church may come to share our joy in these developments and our esteem of the traditional liturgy.

Oremus pro Pontifice nostro Benedicto.
Dominus conservet eum, et vivificet eum,
et beatum faciat eum in terra,
et non tradat eum in animam inimicorum eius.