Immaculate Heart of Mary Church
We are located in Black Eagle, Montana adjacent to Great Falls. Here at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church the traditional Latin Mass is offered daily. Our church is associated with the Society of St. Pius V - an organization of traditional Catholic priests dedicated to the traditional Latin Mass and the administration of the traditional Sacraments. The priests follow the rubrics of the Mass according to the Roman Missal (Missale Romanum 1954) prior to any of the liturgical changes implemented by the Vatican II Council.
You are most welcome to browse our web site. Please feel free to visit us here at our church if you are visiting in the Great Falls area.
You may also may visit the SSPV web site's Mass Locations link to see where Mass is offered in other states by the priests of the Society of St. Pius V.
If you would like to know the daily Mass schedule at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church please click on the Bulletin link to view the Mass schedule for the current week at our church. We have also posted the Mass schedule for other chapels under the Mass Locations menu at the top of the page.
Immaculate Heart of Mary Church also publishes The Roman Catholic magazine, a beautiful church calendar, and a latin ordo for priests. More aticles will be forthcoming.
The Immaculate Heart of Mary Church purchased the Collins (Hawthorne) School from the Great Falls School District in the late fall of 1987. Before the first Mass could be offered, the gymnasium had to be converted into a church. With a tremendous amount of work by the parishioners, the traditional Latin Mass was offered in the new facility for the first time on July 11, 1988. Immediate attention had to be given to the school as well; the roof was repaired and insulated and windows replaced.
As with any building that needs to be restored, the usual repairs and updates are being made. Over the course of the years, renovation of the church has been ongoing. Just to mention a few of the major projects for the church: a choir loft was added along with a bell tower, a pipe organ installed, leaded stained glass windows were purchased, restored and placed in the church.
Beginning in 1988, the church has conducted a two-week summer school catechism program which averages about 90 students every year. The summer-school catechism is taught by the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Our Savior congregation of Sisters. The Sisters do an outstanding job in teaching the rudiments of the Faith to the children of the parish.
Welcome!
If you are a Catholic who is thinking about coming back to the traditional Latin Mass, you probably have a number of questions about why we do what we do. We have remained faithful to the traditional Mass — not out of nostalgia, love of Latin, aesthetic considerations, stubbornness or "disobedience." We have remained faithful because it is the Catholic thing to do.
We believe that the traditional Mass is a perfect expression of the unchanging and unchangeable Catholic teaching on the nature of the Mass and the Holy Eucharist, as well as a refuge from, and an antidote to, the myriad false teachings and sacrilegious practices which have found their way into our parish churches as a result of the New Mass and the "changes" in the Church. We believe that we have a right to assist at the traditional Mass, guaranteed in perpetuity by Pope St. Pius V, which no one can take away from us, and a duty to assist at this Mass so we can save our souls.
Reflections on Suspension ‘A Divinis’ by Msgr. Marcel Lefebvre
On June 29, 1976 the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre said:
—"We are suspended a divinis by the Conciliar Church and for the Conciliar Church, to which we have no wish to belong. That Conciliar Church is a schismatic Church, because it breaks with the Catholic Church that has always been. It has its new dogmas, its new priesthood, its new institutions, its new worship, all already condemned by the Church in many a document, official and definitive..."
—"The Church that affirms such errors is at once schismatic and heretical. This Conciliar Church is, therefore, not Catholic. To whatever extent Pope, Bishops, priests, or faithful adhere to this new Church, they separate themselves from the Catholic Church."
WORD OF INTRODUCTION
Requirements for Receiving Sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion
All those who wish to receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion and Penance atthe Immaculate Heart of Mary Church must:
● be validly baptized in the Roman Catholic Church. Anyone who was baptized after 1970 must speak with the priest before receiving Holy Communion.
● hold all teachings and have a sufficient knowledge of the Catholic Faith. One must believe and abide by traditional Catholic moral teaching, especially regarding purity of marriage. Anyone who has been married and divorced and/or has received a marriage annulment since 1968 must talk to the priest before receiving Holy Communion.
● be in state of sanctifying grace to be able to receive Communion, having made a good confession to a traditional Roman Catholic priest.
● must attend the traditional Latin Mass exclusively (see following: 1, 2 and 3).
● be fasting for three hours from solid food and alcoholic beverages and one hour from liquids other than water. Water and non alcoholic medicines may be taken at any time. (please note) Those who are able to do so, are encouraged to fast from midnight at those times when they plan to assist at a Mass scheduled for the morning.
1.) Anyone who adheres to the teachings of Father Leonard Feeney and Saint Benedict Center (denying the Church’s teaching concerning “baptism of desire” and “baptism of blood”) must not receive Holy Communion at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. 2.) Likewise those who attend and receives Communion at the religious services conducted by any of the CMRI bishops or clergy or Thuc bishops and clergy in concert with them; 3.) also, those who attend the religious services of the Novus Ordo (the new Mass) including John XXIII Mass, the Indult Mass / Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, offered by clergy who are affiliated with the Novus Ordo, among them being the Fraternity of St. Peter, Institute of Christ the King, Opus Dei, Transalpine Redemptorist, Institute of the Good Shepherd, Canons of St. John Cantius – and others must not receive any Sacraments, much less Holy Communion here, at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church.
Ladies, as stated above, are required to wear dresses, or full skirts and blouses. Hemlines must be long enough to touch the floor when kneeling. Necklines must be no more than two fingers-widths below the pit of the throat. Slit skirts are not acceptable; a skirt is too tight if it needs to be slit to allow walking. Ladies are also required to wear a suitable head-covering while in church. Obviously, by the standards given by Pius XI, the wearing slacks, sleeveless dresses including “cap” sleeves(which are not sleeves at all), or low necklines are not suitably dress. Sleeves must cover the arms at least to the elbows.
Gentlemen also must wear modest and decent clothing in church and observe the prescript of Pope Pius XI as noted above. Men must wear dress slacks and dress shirt, with sleeves which cover the arms at least to the elbows, with suit coat and tie. If their attire is immodest or indecent, they should not enter the church.
Flip-flops, shorts, sweats and T-shirts are not acceptable attire in the church at any time. The wearing of revealing, tight-fitting and transparent garments of sheer material is forbidden in the Church.
Please do not come to receive Holy Communion at this church today if you do not meet these requirements. Rather, respect our standards and observe them
Dress code
You are most welcome to come and assist at Mass. Be advised that we do enforce a dress code while on church property.
According to Apostolic Tradition and out of respect for our Lord's presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament, the faithful must dress modestly while in the church and assisting at Holy Mass. Hence, please observe the following rules:
Women and girls must wear a modest dress and cover their heads with either a hat or chapel veil. Short skirts or dresses that are above the knees, revealing blouses (such as low cut, sleeveless or see-through), slacks or shorts of any length do not meet the norms of Christian modesty.
1. The question is, what exactly does it mean, to dress modestly?
2. What does the Catholic Church say on the matter?
On January 12, 1930, the sacred Congregation of the Council, by mandate of Pope Pius XI, has issued emphatic instructions on modesty of dress to all bishops, directing them to insist on these prescriptions:
"We recall that a dress cannot be called decent which is cut deeper than two fingers breadth under the pit of the throat, which does not cover the arms at least to the elbows, and scarcely reaches a bit beyond the knee. Furthermore, dresses of transparent material are improper.
Women must be decently dressed, especially when they go to church. The parish priest may, with due prudence, refuse them entrance to the church and access to the reception of the Sacraments, [each] and every time that they come to church immodestly dressed." (General Pastoral Directive, 1915 A.D.)
"Girls and women dressed immodestly are to be debarred from Holy Communion and from acting as sponsors at the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation; further, if the offense be extreme, they may even be forbidden to enter the church." [Decree of the Congregation of the Council, 1930 A.D.]
Men and boys should be wearing neat trousers, a coat, jacket or a dress sweater and tie. Jeans, shorts, open shirts, sneakers and other such casual dress are inappropriate and do not meet the standards for Mass.
Please be advised that the priest reserves the right to refuse Holy Communion to anyone, who in his prudent judgment, does not meet the requirements of the Rules for Receiving Holy Communion and Dress Code as stated above.
A word to newcomers