Many thanks to the Mulier Fortis for snapping away on her mobile phone during our principal Mass on Sunday. Fr Michael Culllinan, an old friend from Oxford days was visiting me for the weekend and so after persuading my Deacon, Rev Michael Baldry to act as Subdeacon, we managed to put together a High Mass for our normal scheduled principal Mass on Sunday. Here is Mac's video montage of the photos:
I have to be honest and say that we do not yet have all the music sorted out (ie. not all the texts from the Gradual are sung.) Nevertheless, the ceremonial is pretty well there.
This was proved the next day at Maiden Lane when Gregory, my young MC, acted as Master of Ceremonies for the regular Missa Cantata at Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane. This was very brave of him since Gordon Dimon, Bill Tomlinson and Jonathan Hague, three veteran MCs of the Latin Mass Society, were on the sanctuary. It was good of them to give way to a youngster and allow him to take charge.
There were a number of other young families from the parish and we enjoyed a fun meal afterwards in the Coal Hole with sausages, chips and tomato sauce much in evidence.
8 comments:
Wow, that sounded like an Orthodox choir until the organ. Very impressive. I don't think I have heard anything that closely related to an Orthodox choir before. Very reverent.
I must own up and say that the music was a soundtrack added by Mulier Fortis - it was not our choir!
Father Tim,
Wow! Very beautiful. A real expression of the "hermeneutic of continuity" between our two traditions. Authentic unity and diversity...I hope to visit your chapel someday next time I am in England.
God bless!
Fr. Deacon Daniel
When watching the history channels and documentaries one often finds himself looking at a re-enactment of a battle or a standoff or a past event being re-enacted to give us an idea of what life and living was hundreds of years ago etc. I believe that the old rite of the Latin mass is exactly that. There is no meaning today with the new right for the old one. The old right is merely us being able to see what it was like to have mass before the new right was introduced. I don’t think it really has a point anymore. It’s more of a story than a sacrament.
Pope Benedict has affirmed that the old rite was never abolished. As something that has continued without a break since at least the time of St Gregory the Great, in terms of ritual, it is living history, not a re-enactment. In sacramental terms, it makes present the sacrifice of calvary and the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ are made present.
The newer form of the rite cannot be seen as a definitive replacement for the older form since Pope Benedict's Motu Proprio.
People who regularly participate in the older form of the rite can give eloquent witness to its "point".
Fr. Tim,
I'm afraid that Joe of Grant's opinion here is not the voice of a minority. Traditional liturgy for some is nothing but an archeological dig - resurrecting ancient rites for people who just can't cope with modernity.
I rather think it is the reverse: modernity is for people who can't cope with tradition!
One nun who left a traditional Mass said, "Well that was a wonderful walk through the past!" Clearly she was not in touch at all with the living stream of tradition or mind of the church on these matters.
I think it is comparable to those who periodically visit the zoo or the botanical gardens to see the exotic plants and animals. We have visitors at the Eastern churches who see things this way. I'm certainly glad they come, but I think their eyes need to be enlightened by the Spirit to recognize the reality they are encountering in our worship. The same holds true for the Gregorian Rite.
God bless,
Fr. Deacon Daniel
I must say that even though the Pope may “affirm” the old rite I mean common... Don’t you believe that the old right has to be shammed about its liturgy? There are accounts of how communion distributed “back then” compared to today it is foreign to us. By this I do not mean that it was given on the tongue, or under one form, or with the communicant kneeling. What really appears strange and baffles me is... That communion would be given at various times rather than during the communion rite of the mass itself. Communion was given outside of mass because it was thought that the people receiving during the communion would interrupt the mass. Even as late as 1962, at the mass that opened the Second Vatican Council, communion was not distributed. Although hundreds of bishops attended, only the presiding minister received. Instead communion was given out after mass was over... Where is the communion between God, his representative and his people?
Giving Holy Communion during Mass is perfectly proper and is what usually happens in the TLM.
There is a significant problem today with many people assuming that they have to go to Holy Communion when they attend Mass. There is a general lack of any idea of the proper dispositions for Holy Communion. So in many parishes, people come to communion on Christmas Day even though they have not been to Mass for several months.
The question of large celebrations is an important one. The distribution of Holy Communion at some large celebrations falls short of the proper standard of reverence with thousands of hosts being poured into large containers after Holy Communion. It would be quite possible to have a Mass at St Peter's with other Churches round about encouraged to put on early Masses for those who wish to receive Communion.
The Bishops at the Mass you describe would have celebrated Mass earlier and therefore attended in choir without receiving Communion.
Although devout reception of Holy Communion can be an important way of participating at Mass, one thing we have lost sight of is the idea of participating at Mass without receiving Holy Communion if, for example, we have sinned grievously, broken the fast, or received Communion earlier in the day.
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