On Thursday evening I celebrated High Mass at the Conventual Chapel of the Knights of Malta. This was the annual Mass of the Society of St Catherine of Siena of which I am proud to have been appointed chaplain. Dr Laurence Hemming was Deacon and Fr Jean Claude Selvini Subdeacon. Jonathan Hague was MC. The Oratory School choir sang the Byrd 3 part Mass and the Gregorian chant propers. Fr Andrew Wadsworth and Fr Gareth Jones assisted in choir.
The photographs are from Mac McLernon's photostream where you can find many more. Here are a couple:
5 comments:
Is that the celebrants 'chair'? It looks more like a throne...
No, it is not the "celebrant's chair". The sedilia are in their proper place on the epistle side. I'm not sure of the terminology re. Knights of Malta but that chair and prie-dieu is for the Grand Master. Equivalent of an abbatial throne, I think. Someone else may be able to explain more accurately.
Are the photos on your blog always posed?
If not, one of the things that puzzles me is how many photos there are from extra-ordinary form Masses on your blog.
Our parish Mass is Novus Ordo, but nobody takes photos - not because it's not really a photo opportunity - but because it's not exactly what one does at Mass if one's deeply participating and in love with Christ. It's not a rock concert...
Is it the case that, if I attend a Mass in the extra-ordinary form, my participation is irrelevant, and so I can just click away with my camera, say my rosary, or walk round lighting votive candles during Mass, like in the 'old days'?
I'm confused, because, what I've seen of the extra-ordinary form, I think I'd be over-awed in worship if I were present, and so getting souvenir photos of the event would be the last thing on my mind...
This reminds me of the Panufnik Mass advertised on this Blog the other day, the objective, seeming to be a high-brow equivalent of what people are expecting from a folk Mass - entertainment and a feel-good factor ('bread' and circuses!) - rather than keeping the Missa de Angelis simply as parts of the Mass.
Why not continue singing the Missa de Angelis, in it's simple plainchant, but to the best of one's ability - to the Glory of God - rather than dress it up into something designed to give a frisson to the 'audience' like the Protestants do at their raves which they call 'worship'?
Is it all just the high-brow equivalent of 'seeker friendliness' for those who disdain the kitsch of the 'chattering classes'?
What's really happening Fr Finigan? Aren't we just seeing high-brow liturgical abuse which is more interested in its form than in its substance, which ends up making it little different from our Protestant brothers and sisters, and the 'progressives' in our own Catholic family, desperately 'trying to get something out of it'?
Paul - Not posed. These are photos taken during the course of Mass as it is celebrated. Mass facing the people is not as attractive in terms of photography and this says something about the aesthetic impact of the Mass. Novus Ordo Mass facing Eastward is more attractive since it does not involve the personality of the priest.
I allow photos at the old Mass because it is a help for people to see pictures of these beautiful celebrations. There is nothing posed about them. To reverse a phrase, what you get is what you see. The aesthetic element is not the most important thing but it is significant that even with a small camera perched on a pew, the pictures are stunning.
Thanks, Father, for such a courteous and helpful reply.
Twice recently, I have had the privilege of participating at a Novus Ordo Mass in the parish of Fr Bernard Barrett, and what made it so special was that he faced Eastward during the consecration, and as you imply, it takes the emphasis off the personality 'towards the Lord'.
I really appreciated the argument in Uwe Michael Lang's book, Turning Towards the Lord, when I read it, as I did Bishop Athanasius Schneider's, Dominus Est, but their argument was placed humbly and reverently before me, rather than in anger.
I suppose I'm struggling with what I can describe only as a kind of angry, liturgical pomposity, I frequently encounter, which treats the Novus Ordo as if it's a liturgical abuse itself, rather than a valid Mass of the Church, and seems to treat Summorum Pontificum as if it were a Dogmatic Constitution.
Maybe I'm confused, but to me this viewpoint, in its intention, appears little different from what progressives like to call, 'the spirit of Vatican II', but what seems worse, is that it's done by people I'd expect to know better because they care about the liturgy and being faithful to the Church.
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