ACTION ITEM! PROPOSAL TO PRIESTS: On 1 August say Holy Mass for Blase Cupich

UPDATE 31 July….

It happened.

UPDATE 1 August 17:43 EDT:

On 1 August, Masses for Blase Cupich

Vetus Ordo: 52
Novus Ordo: 23

There may be more priests who haven’t yet informed me.

Do not forget, priests and laity alike, to get on your knees to pray that what Cupich has planned may be averted.


Originally Published on: Jul 17, 2022 at 15:34

I have a proposal.

Fathers: On 1 August say Holy Mass for Blase Cupich.

When people harm us, anger is a common reaction, sometimes righteous and justified, sometimes excessive to the point of being irrational.  When we are mistreated, it is common for people to hold a grudge, harbor the wrong, even nourish it inside like a cancer.

The one thing that Christ went back to explain in the Lord’s Prayer as He taught it in Matthew 6 is that if we do not forgive those who harm us, God the Father will not forgive us for the harm we have caused.   If we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven.

It is very hard to remain angry at someone for whom you often sincerely pray.  The essence of charity is the desire of the good of the other.

A path to purifying our hearts and memories of past wrongs and to heal our thoughts about those who harm us is the threefold act of 1) asking the Lord to forgive the person, 2) telling the Lord we forgive the person, 3) asking the Lord to forgive us.

And GO TO CONFESSION!

Here’s what I propose.

Every priest who possibly can on 1 August should celebrate Holy Mass for the intention of Card. Blase Cupich.   

In private… in public… TLM or Novus Ordo…. pray that God provides him with exactly what he needs for his own best good.

Fathers: Would it more fitting that these Masses be Traditional Latin Masses?  Perhaps if you are already scheduled with an intention, a second Mass that day without any stipend but for that intention seems appropriate.

1 August is the perfect day for this for the following reasons.

  1. Since 31 July is the last day that Cupich is permitting the priests of the Institute to function as priests in Chicago, 1 August is the first full day of their new status of suffering what he inflicted on them so unjustly.
  2. It is, liturgically in the traditional calendar, an “open” day, so priests can choose a Votive Mass.  I suggest “Pro Quacumque Necessitate”, which has beautiful prayers and readings.  I think in the Novus Ordo calendar we celebrate St. Alphonsus.
  3. 1 August is the anniversary of the martyrdom of Bl. Mary Stella and her ten companions, the Martyrs of Nowogrodek, killed by the Nazis in 1943.  I wrote about them HERE.  The Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth have a house in Chicago and in that house there are relics of the martyred nuns.  I’ve seen them.  They should be invoked to intercede for Cupich, the local bishop.
  4. 1 August is the Feast of the Holy Maccabees, Old Testament martyrs, and the Feast of St. Peter in Chains (there’s a Mass formulary in the PSPAL in the back of the Missale), the church in Rome when Peter’s chains are kept and where the relics of the Holy Maccabees are preserved.    More on the relics of the Maccabees HERE.   You will remember that their mother, St. Solomnis, was forced to watch them be killed, one by one like, as Ambrose put it, “an unfurling of their souls in a battle line”.  As they died she and the remaining brothers encouraged the one being tormented to die well.

Whatever baggage or ideologies or demons or false reports or … whatever have led Cupich to do what he is doing, while not ever forgetting his deeds or all the people his has hurt concerning the Traditional Roman Rite, we need to forgive, purify our own hearts, and pray for him.    This doesn’t mean that people in Chicago shouldn’t have their own plans about how to react, consequences for what has been done.  But undertaking responses without purifying heart and mind in forgiveness, and even a good confession, is spiritually perilous.

Fathers, if you want to drop me a private line to say you are doing this, you can click HERE.  I will not reveal you or name you.    You might say which Rite you will use, Vetus or Novus and which Mass, of Sunday, or Feast or Votive.  C’mon, brothers.

ALL BLOGGERS/WRITERS: Please pick this up.  1 August – Mass for Cupich Day

 

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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28 Comments

  1. RosaryRose says:

    Dominus est.

    Lord God, let me be part of Your tapestry through Our Blessed Mother. I don’t know what You are designing, but You are all good, all knowing, all loving. I know Your work is perfect.

    Jesus, I trust in You. Put me where You will.

    Praying for priests to offer Masses.

  2. maternalView says:

    When I attend Mass that day I will have this as my intention also.

  3. Dan says:

    Whenever I am having difficulty in praying for someone that I struggle with. Romans 12:20 usually helps me get there.

  4. visigrad22 says:

    Beautiful Father…..Thank you…..I will not be able to attend a Mass with this intention…but as a layperson in the pew…I will offer this intention

  5. Liz says:

    Great idea, Father. We will pray for this intention.

  6. Kevin says:

    I guess The Mercyful Lord may often allow people to act in an unjust and evil way because he knows that the faithful victims, will follow his command and “pray for their enemies and do good to those who hurt them”. It’s may be the only chance the perps., persistent in evil or error can be saved.

  7. Pingback: Thinking about the Latin Mass | Pluot

  8. Cornelius says:

    I bet a lot of priests are rather blasé about that.

  9. Bosco says:

    “If a man knows his brother to be guilty, yet not of such a sin as brings death with it, he should pray for him; and, at his request, life will be granted to the brother who is sinning, yet not fatally. There is a sin which kills; it is not over this that I bid him fall to prayer…” 1 John 5:16

  10. Benedict Joseph says:

    Quite honestly I could never pray for the intentions of Cardinal Cupich nor for those of a wide spectrum of the episcopate. I do daily pray for them — for their conversion and eternal salvation. By their own actions I’m afraid their intentions reveal something quite contrary to those ends.

    [You are not the only person to get bogged down in the different meanings of “intention”. Think it through. What is it that I actually asked you to pray for?]

  11. JesusFreak84 says:

    I offered my Mass attendance and Communion here in Michigan for the Shrine. It’s still where I go when I visit family, (unless I have Dad with me; then we go to Hammond because, at his age, it’s easier for him to get around there,) and I’m attached to the Institute’s third order (hopefully will be able to join at the retreat next June, but the God of surprises…) so this hit me HARD when I read the news over the weekend. Also lit candles for the intention. (I love that our response to something can literally be lighting something on fire ;) )

    However, I was also talking over this mess with a friend of mine who’s NO fan of the TLM; he’ll go for weddings and funerals, but that’s it, and even then he’s not thrilled, but there was one area where he saw a problem right away: how many weddings does the Shrine have scheduled, where halls and florists and etc. are all already booked? If any Shrine parishoners want to try going to the media, (it DID work, with prayer, for getting Cupich to back down from demolishing the church after the fire!) it might help to point out how many weddings Cupich just hecked over. (Heck, if it was MY wedding, I’d be sending him any bills for cancelations! My friend pointed out there may even be lawsuits, civil, possible in such cases; not a good look.) Especially when so many parishes are just now getting past the glut of weddings not done because of lockdowns, (Chicago, remember…) it’s not like these couples can just reschedule elsewhere. Those other churches will likely charge more for neither bride nor bridegroom being parishioners, they may not accept pre-Cana that they didn’t run, etc. On weddings alone, Cupich has created a huge mess that I suspect he thought of for exactly -3 seconds :(

    On that note and related to Father’s post, if any other Chicago-area priests are reading this, (maybe especially if you’re juuuuuust outside of the Archdiocese and not under Cupich’s thumb,) and you have some Saturdays free, maybe offer to perform those weddings, without charging non-parishioner prices and without making couples do pre-Cana all over again? :\ It’s small, in the grand scheme of things, but it might help…

  12. Ave Maria says:

    I can pray for his conversion but never for his ‘intentions’.

  13. Bosco says:

    “Keep good watch over yourselves. As for thy brother, if he is in fault, tax him with it, and if he is sorry for it, forgive him; nay, if he does thee wrong seven times in the day, and seven times in the day comes back to thee and says, I am sorry, thou shalt forgive him.” Luke 17: 3-4

    As the song goes, “Sorry seems to be the hardest word”

  14. FranzJosf says:

    What if we laymen add Rosaries to the Masses and then send his Eminence a Spiritual Bouquet?

  15. Joe says:

    I will pray every day that on August first I can do it, Father.

  16. Julianne says:

    The only way to respond to the current ecclesiastical dysfunction is with love and hope. Thank you, Father Z, for offering positive outlets.

  17. Ame E. says:

    Thank you for the reminder…

    A path to purifying our hearts and memories of past wrongs and to heal our thoughts about those who harm us is the threefold act of 1) asking the Lord to forgive the person, 2) telling the Lord we forgive the person, 3) asking the Lord to forgive us.

  18. Kevin says:

    40hr fast 18:00 July 28th to 10am July 30th. United through the Immaculate Heart with the Holy Sacrifice of Christ in the Vetus Ordo Holy Mass on Friday 29th July.

    For Cardinal Cubich to be filled with, and to use, all the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

  19. Fr. Kelly says:

    I will offer prayers for him but as I will be on retreat at the Diocesan retreat house, I won’t have access to an altar for private Mass. (Mandatory concelebration each day.)
    And I already have an intention for the day so I will take Blase on as a secondary intention that day

  20. Ellis says:

    I too struggled with praying for our Pope because of a number of decisions or statements made that caused unrest in my Catholic heart….until I was told by a young FSSP priest that it is our DUTY as Catholics to pray for the Pope. So I reflected on it and came up with this….
    Most gracious Lord,
    Please bless our Pope and hear and grant the petitions/intentions of your servants Pope Francis (and Pope Benedict (Emeritus) that are most pleasing and efficacious to Thy Most Holy Sacred ?? Heart!
    Please bless all future Popes, and ALL Thy servants, with grace, holiness, and charitable hearts. I ask all this through the Immaculate Heart of Mary! ?

  21. Catholic Dan says:

    Rite on!

  22. Danteewoo says:

    Since Cardinal Cupich is mentioned at every Mass said in his archdiocese, it doesn’t seem that he is corresponding to grace.

  23. slainewe says:

    I will be praying the Novena to Our Lady of Good Success beginning tomorrow for the Institute of Christ the King and Cardinal Cupich. It is usually prayed from January 24 through February 1 in anticipation of Her feast on the Purification, but I love it so much I now pray it in every month that has 31 days for the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and personal needs. So this month I will end it on August 1 when all these offerings of the Mass for the Cardinal will occur.
    .
    This novena relates the story behind the finding of the statue of Our Lady of Good Success; how Brothers of the Friars Minors for the Service of the Sick, while traveling to Rome seeking approval of their Institute, were caught in a vicious storm and found refuge in a beautiful cave that enshrined a statue of Our Lady. In the next days they searched for Her owners but no one had ever heard of the cave or statue. Rejoicing that this Treasure was their possession, they traveled on to meet His Holiness Paul V, who, when he saw Her and heard the story of her discovery, was enraptured and named Her “Our Lady of Good Success.” He approved the Brothers’ Institute, and also charged them to spread Her devotion in all corners.
    .
    It occurred to me today how this story mirrors my discovery of the Traditional Mass; how I was caught up in the storm of the Novus Ordo culture with no place to lay my head until, by Divine Grace, I found an abandoned traditional missal in a church “lost and found” cabinet and learned of the present existence of the Vetus Ordo and its culture. This traditional missal, and an occasional pilgrimage to a Traditional Mass, was my cave of refuge for over ten years until I was blessed to pick up my whole life and relocate to a city with a traditional apostolate. Then my joy of seeing a Pope approve the “Extraordinary Form” and seeing this Treasure begin to spread in all corners.
    .
    “Dear Lady of Good Success, I thank Thee for writing the Mass in my heart so it can never be taken away from me. But do allow all men to stand under the Cross with Thee on Calvary and feel the sword pierce Thy Heart; to sit next to John at the Supper and feel the beating of Thy Son’s Heart. Please save the Institute of Christ the King and His Eminence Blase. Divine Will always. Amen.”
    .
    This site has the complete novena which incorporates the story of Her finding: http://www.ourladyofgoodsuccess.com/pages/novena-first-day

  24. tufty says:

    “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him; and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

    NB Jesus says to forgive him if he repents, not regardless of whether he does so.
    Jesus does not forgive the unrepentant sinner.

  25. IaninEngland says:

    I am a layman. So far, I have recruited two priests to say Mass (both Vetus, I think) for Cdl Cupich on 1 August.

    Just thought I should let you know.

  26. Pingback: ACTION ITEM! PROPOSAL TO PRIESTS: On 1 August say Holy Mass for Blase Cupich – LINK to post | Fr. Z's Blog

  27. leftycbd says:

    There is a strange silence on this issue in the press. Nothing from anyone since the initial stories two weeks ago…. (Of course my google foo may be lacking and I am wrong)…

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