Philadelphia Chapter

Mass Intention: Glen D. & Elizabeth (Betty) Miller, req. by John Castiello
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Upcoming Masses:

Solemn High Mass for All Souls & Absolution of the Dead at the Catafalque
at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul on November 2, 2015 at 7PM. Fr. James Bartoloma will be offering the Mass.

All Souls’ Remembrances: Don’t forget to turn in your All Souls’ Remembrances. Envelopes would be available at St. Edmond.

Assistance Needed: We are blest at St. Edmond to have space for socials. Anyone who would be willing to assist with organizing an after Mass social, please contact Theresa Herr @ vocemagna@gmail.com .

Music Schedule:

Sunday, October 18 XXI Post Pentecost + St. Luke + Prop of the Faith: Missa for 4 voices William Byrd with Organist, Steven Ball

Sunday, October 25 In Festo Domini Nostri Jesu Christi: Missa “O Rex Gloriae” Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina with Organist, Steven Ball

E-Giving: A few people have asked me about E-giving. Please know that on www.latinmassphila.org there is a PayPal button on the right side of the home page. You can make one-time donations or you can set up a monthly donation through a credit card. If you prefer, you can always mail a check to my rectory in Doylestown.

Website: www.latinmassphila.org

International Institute for Culture: Check out upcoming events at http://www.iiculture.org/aboutus.asp

Events: If anyone has pertinent information that would be appropriate for our bulletin, please e-mail it to Fr. McKale @ tlmcommunityofphila@gmail.com.

Mass Intentions: If anyone still has unfulfilled Mass intentions, Fr. McKale can pass them on to a priest that will satisfy the intention by offering a TLM or Divine Liturgy (Byzantine). Please specify if you have a preference. The donation is $10. If you would like a Mass card, please include an extra $5 for the card.

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Archbishop Chaput’s latest is timely and important:

As Rome’s Synod of Bishops on the Family closes its second week in a swarm of media attention and some very different interpretations, it might be a good time to remember one simple point.

The point is this. The Church can be truthful without being merciful. But she can’t be merciful without being truthful. Our task as bishops at the synod this month, and frankly what God asks from every Christian all the time, is to speak the truth with patience, humility and love. Truth without compassion wounds and repels; mercy without truth is a comfortable form of lying. Thus, as a proof of our love, we still do need to speak the truth. Then we need to live it in our service to our families, to society and to the Church.

Romano Guardini – one the great Catholic theologians of the last century and a major influence on the mind of Pope Francis — wrote beautifully that mercy is the higher virtue than justice, and that “before one can be just, one must learn to love.” Yet he also wrote:

“True illness of the mind and spirit sets in when a man no longer cherishes truth . . . when in the depths of his soul, truth ceases to be to him the primary, the most important concern.”

If being a Christian is simply about belonging to an organization, then membership can be as easy as we want to make it. But if being a Christian is about belonging to Jesus Christ, then the words of Jesus can’t be softened or ignored, because what he demands from us is a love that embodies the same total self-gift that he makes to us. We can’t negotiate for a part of Jesus. We can only have him when we give him everything. If we offer him only a part of ourselves, we get nothing – no truth, and no Jesus.

We all feel the dilemma of good people who are divorced and civilly remarried but wish the solace of Communion, and others who deal with same-sex attraction. No one can dismiss the hardships these persons sometimes face. But it’s the Gospel that needs to guide us in our reasoning. The central issue is, do we and they want Jesus Christ on his terms or on ours? If we can’t in principle accept the possibility of discomfort, suffering and even martyrdom, then we’re not disciples. We can’t rewrite or overlook what Jesus requires in order to follow him. Jesus saw the sincerity and goodness in the rich young man (Mk 10:17-22), but he nonetheless told the truth about what following him involved.

The issue of truth is not ultimately about a code of conduct or a set of creedal affirmations, though these things are clearly important. Truth in a Christian life is about a relationship with Jesus Christ, founded in the person of the Son of God, and animated by a willingness to do whatever he asks from those who wish to follow him.

We can choose to include or exclude ourselves on the path of following Jesus. He will never stop loving us, whatever we choose. But in all of today’s hard moral issues, the terms of the relationship are not ours to set.

From The Eponymous Flower

(Rome) As auxiliary bishop of Reggio Emilia-Guastalla, (2006-2012), Msgr. Lorenzo Ghizzoni was a bitter opponent of those faithful who sought to celebrate the Holy Mass in the Immemorial Rite of All Ages. It was an opposition which undermined the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.

As Archbishop of Ravenna-Cervia, Msgr. Ghizzoni … allow[ed], on the first and second Sundays in October, a priest of the Society of Saint Pius X (FSSPX) to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The celebration … [took] place in the parish of Saint Maria del Torrione and follows from the formation of a stable group of the faithful desiring the Traditional Rite, who’ve asked the Archbishop for it.

The celebrant was Father Enrico Doria of the priory of “Madonna di Loreto” in Rimini.

The online edition of the paper “Prima Pagina Reggio” described it: “It seems that Pope Francis’ recognition of the legitimacy of the sacrament of reconciliation given by Lefebvrian priests has also quickly led to a new course in the Italian Episcopate. This, what was unthinkable yesterday, (the opening of parish property to Lefevrians, who had previously been regarded as lepers), are today not only tolerated but welcome. Those of the faithful community close to Econe will celebrate, but also all other faithful of the Catholic Church, we are convinced, will make use of this.”

Msgr. Lorenzo Ghizzoni was named in December 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. as Archbishop of Ravenna and enthroned in January 2013.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi

Priest: Rev. Fr. James Bartoloma

Mass Intention: Samuel DeLosso req. by John Castiello
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Upcoming Masses:

Solemn High Mass for All Souls “& Absolution of the Dead at the Catafalque
at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul on November 2, 2015 at 7PM. Fr. James Bartoloma will be offering the Mass.

All Souls Remembrances: Don’t forget to turn in your All Souls Remembrances. Envelopes would be available at St. Edmond.

Assistance Needed: We are blest at St. Edmond to have space for socials. Anyone who would be willing to assist with organizing after Mass social, please contact Theresa Herr @ vocemagna@gmail.com .

Music Schedule:

Sunday, October 11 XX Post Pentecost + Maternity of BVM : Missa for 4 voices, Antonio Lotti

Sunday, October 18 XXI Post Pentecost + St. Luke + Prop of the Faith: Missa for 4 voices William Byrd with Organist, Steven Ball

Sunday, October 25 In Festo Domini Nostri Jesu Christi: Missa “O Rex Gloriae,” Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina with Organist, Steven Ball

E-Giving: A few people have asked me about E-giving. Please know that on www.latinmassphila.org there is a PayPal button on the right side of the home page. You can make one-time donations or you can set up a monthly donation through a credit card. If you prefer, you can always mail a check to my rectory in Doylestown.
Website: www.latinmassphila.org

International Institute for Culture: Check out upcoming events at http://www.iiculture.org/aboutus.asp

Events: If anyone has pertinent information that would be appropriate for our bulletin, please e-mail it to Fr. McKale @ tlmcommunityofphila@gmail.com.

Mass Intentions: If anyone still has unfulfilled Mass intentions, Fr. McKale can pass them on to a priest that will satisfy the intention by offering a TLM or Divine Liturgy (Byzantine). Please specify if you have a preference. The donation is $10. If you would like a Mass card, please include an extra $5 for the card.
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Gregory DiPippo of NLM

Kudos to Kevin DiCamillo, both for this very nice article published a few days ago on National Catholic Register, and the clever pun in the title. He recounts his discovery of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, and the virtue of silence within it. You can read the whole article over there at the link given above: note that he was born in 1970, and came to the EF purely by happenstance, with no axes to grind against the OF, and not from any sense of mere nostalgia. (Cited from NCR/EWTN).

Having never been to a “Low Tridentine Mass“ ”, I had no idea what to expect. It was, in a sense, like getting contemplative bends: instead of barking out “Amen“ ” (this chapel does not do the “dialogue Mass”), or the Confiteor or the Kyrie or … anything, there was just silence. And more silence. Even the responses from the server were so muted it was almost impossible to tell (without a 1962 Missal which mercifully I had, as a gift from my late grandmother) what was going on.

What was going on was an “active contemplation”: I was very much a neophyte that night, but the twenty or so souls around me were edifying to see: the women wore mantillas, the men even had on neckties. There was no musical fillip, no “Let’s-try-to-sing-Holy-God-We-Praise-Thy-Name-acapella“ ”. Just … silence. And still more silence. A pure, nearly unbroken sacred quiet. …

…in a world where we each have more email, voicemail, texts, meetings, and Skype-chats than we could possibly digest in a lifetime, the Tridentine Mass offers a complete contemplative oasis. You have the right to be silent when you pray.

Gregory DiPippo of NLM

In the course of his Papacy, the fourth longest in history, Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) issued eleven encyclicals on the Rosary, in the years 1883, ’84 and ’87, and then each year from 1891-98. All of them were published in September (except one, at the very end of August), looking forward to the feast of the Holy Rosary, which in his time was kept on the first Sunday of October. The feast was later fixed by Pope St Pius X to October 7, the date of the famous Battle of Lepanto which it commemorates, inter alia. Much of what Pope Leo writes is every bit as germane to the condition of society and the Church as it was when it was written over a century ago. The following is an excerpt from the 1891 Encyclical Octobri mense adventante, in my own corrected translation; on the Vatican’s website you can read the full text in Latin, and a rather sadly bowdlerized English version of it.

At the coming of the month of October, which is consecrated and dedicated to the most Blessed Virgin of the Rosary, we are greatly pleased to recall how greatly in preceding years We have commended to you, venerable brethren, our wish that the faithful throughout the world, urged by your authority and by your zeal, should redouble their piety towards the great Mother of God, the mighty helper of the Christian people, and should pray to her throughout the month, and invoke Her by that most holy rite of the Rosary, which the Church, especially in uncertain and most difficult times, has ever used and celebrated for the accomplishment of all desires.
This year once again do We take care to publish Our wishes, once again to encourage you by the same exhortations. We are urged and persuaded to this in love for the Church, whose sufferings, far from being mitigated, increase daily in number and in gravity. Well-known to all are the evils we deplore: war made upon the sacred dogmas which the Church holds and transmits; derision cast upon the integrity of that Christian virtue which she has in keeping; … attack made, with most impudent audacity and criminal malice against Christ Himself, as if to utterly abolish or destroy from its foundation the Divine work of His Redemption – that work which, indeed, no adverse power shall ever destroy.

No new events are these for the Church militant. Jesus foretold to His disciples that She must enter upon a daily battle and struggle in order to teach men the truth and guide them to eternal salvation. And indeed, throughout the course of ages She fights undaunted, even to martyrdom, rejoicing and glorying in nothing more than the fact that She can dedicate Her own blood along with her Founder’s, wherein She holds the most certain hope of the victory promised to Her. …

Through this storm of evils, in the midst of which the Church struggles so fiercely, all her devout children see by how holy a duty they are bound to pray to God with greater instance, and especially the reason for which they must strive to give to their prayers the greatest possible efficacy. Faithful to the example of our most religious fathers and elders, let us have recourse to Mary, our holy Sovereign. Let us call upon Mary, the Mother of Christ and our own, and with one heart beseech Her, “Show thyself to be a mother; through Thee, may He accept our prayers Who, born for us, consented to be Thine.” (from the Vesper hymn of the Office of the Virgin Mary Ave, Maris Stella) …

Now, among the several rites and manners of paying honor to the Divine Mother, since some are to be preferred, inasmuch as we know them to be more powerful and more pleasing to Her, for this reason We specially mention by name and recommend the Rosary … which recalls to our minds the great mysteries of Jesus and His Mother, their joys, sorrows, and triumphs… As the faithful devoutly call to mind and contemplate these august mysteries, it is wondrous to see how great is the aid they receive in the nourishment of their faith, in defense against ignorance and the disease of error, and in the lifting up and supporting of the mind towards virtue.

Indeed, the thought and memory of him who thus prays, enlightened by the light of the Faith, are drawn towards these mysteries with the greatest joy and zeal, are fixed and absorbed therein, and cannot sufficiently wonder at the ineffable work of the Redemption of mankind, achieved at such a price and by events so great. Then the mind is filled with gratitude and love before these proofs of Divine love; its hope is strengthened and increased; its desire is increased for the heavenly rewards which Christ has prepared for those who have united themselves to Him by the imitation of His example and the sharing of His sufferings. Prayer is poured forth in the midst of these things by words coming from God Himself, from the Archangel Gabriel, and from the Church; full of praise and of saving petitions, it is renewed and continued in an order at once fixed and various, and the fruits of its devotion are ever new and sweet.

Priest: Rev. Fr. Harold B. McKale
Mass Intention: For the conversion of the Infidels
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Long Live the Pope!!!!!!

Upcoming Masses:

Solemn High Mass for All Souls “& Absolution of the Dead at the Catafalque at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul on November 2, 2015 at 7PM. Fr. James Bartoloma will be offering the Mass.

All Souls Remembrances: Don’t forget to turn in your All Souls Remembrances. Envelopes whould be available at St. Edmond.

Assistance Needed: We are blest at St. Edmond to have space for socials. Anyone who would be willing to assist with organizing after Mass social, please contact Theresa Herr @ vocemagna@gmail.com .

Music Schedule:

Sunday, October 4 Feast of the Holy Rosary: Missa Quarti Toni Tomás Luis de Victoria

Sunday, October 11 XX Post Pentecost + Maternity of BVM : Missa for 4 voices Antonio Lotti

Sunday, October 18 XXI Post Pentecost + St. Luke + Prop of the Faith: Missa for 4 voices William Byrd with Organist, Steven Ball

Sunday, October 25 In Festo Domino Nostro Jesu Christi: Missa “O Rex
Gloriae” Giovanni Pierluigi da with Organist, Steven Ball

September 2015 Finances:

Income: 9/6 $852; 9/13 $693 ($300 for 2 persons); 9/20 $519 ($300 from 2 persons); 9/24 $103 Total $2,167

Expenses: Rent $800 Clergy $925 Music $1,700 Total $3,425. Expenses include the Masses offered at Holy Redeemer for the WMF without which we still would have deficited this month.

Balance $1,258

E-Giving: A few people have asked me about E-giving. Please know that on www.latinmassphila.org there is a PayPal button on the right side of the home page. You can make one-time donations or you can set up a monthly donation through a credit card. If you prefer, you can always mail a check to my rectory in Doylestown.

Website: www.latinmassphila.org

International Institute for Culture: Check out upcoming events at http://www.iiculture.org/aboutus.asp

Events: If anyone has pertinent information that would be appropriate for our bulletin, please e-mail it to Fr. McKale @ tlmcommunityofphila@gmail.com.

Mass Intentions: If anyone still has unfulfilled Mass intentions, Fr. McKale can pass them on to a priest that will satisfy the intention by offering a TLM or Divine Liturgy (Byzantine). Please specify if you have a preference. The donation is $10. If you would like a Mass card, please include an extra $5 for the card.
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Gregory DiPippo of NLM

This guest article comes to us from Mr Andrew Meszaros, moderator of the Miami Chapter of the Familia Sancti Hieronymi, an organization which seeks to cultivate the use of Latin as a sacred and liturgical language, but also a living language of particular importance for Catholics.

The Family of St. Jerome held its annual “Cenaculum” from July 27 to August 1 in Menlo Park, California. Holy Mass was celebrated daily in Latin, including all the sermons. The Liturgy of the Hours was chanted in Latin. All talks were given in Latin, and all conversations during meals or otherwise, were restricted to Latin, since the members of this canonical association are committed to a lifelong study and promotion of the Church’s language and for the duration of their annual meeting, they restrict themselves to converse in no other language but Latin. Why would anybody want to do that? (Below: Participants in the Cenaculum praying the rosary at Santa Clara Mission Church. Each day of the Cenaculum ends with Benediction.)

These days, whenever the question of liturgical language is brought up, most English-speaking Catholics are ready to affirm uncompromisingly their preference for the vernacular. “It is better” one hears often “to celebrate the liturgy in English because one can understand it”, the implication being that Latin is not understandable. It is reasonable for someone to humbly acknowledge a need for the vernacular due to his ignorance of Latin, but it is tantamount to serious arrogance to impose such ignorance on the entire ecclesiastical community as a general standard and principle applicable to all. Not to have studied Latin, “a treasure” as Pope Pius XII called it “of unsurpassed excellence” amounts to a “lamentable mental neglect”. Many don’t appreciate such statements, but the language of the Romans, as Pope John XXIII stated “sharpens the wits and gives keenness of judgment. It helps the young mind to grasp things accurately and develop a true sense of values. It is also a means for learning highly intelligent thought and speech.” (Veterum Sapientia) No one should proudly claim a preference for its dismissal, especially, since human life is not a series of disengaged beginnings. In spite of many regional differences, major cultural trends involve the entire human family, even when they do not involve each individual equally.

One such major trend is the heritage of the Roman civilization and its language, and their role in shaping our history and our thinking from antiquity to this day, “pointing to the universality of the human spirit, whose basic needs” as Pope St John Paul II stated “are the same in the most disparate cultures.” (Fides et Ratio 72) This cannot be dismissed. He goes on to say, “The Church cannot abandon what she has gained from her inculturation in the world of Greco-Latin thought. To reject this heritage would be to deny the providential plan of God who guides his Church down the paths of time and history. This criterion is valid for the Church in every age, even for the Church of the future.” (ibid.)

The Latin language is like a major river of knowledge that has watered many people and nations in the course of its long history. And as Pope Benedict XVI writes, “the Church of Rome not only continued to use Latin but, in a certain way, made herself its custodian and champion in both the theological and liturgical sectors as well as in formation and in the transmission of knowledge.” (Motu Proprio Latina Lingua) That is why “the Roman Pontiffs … have assiduously encouraged the knowledge and dissemination of Latin.” (ibid.) It should also be pointed out that the Second Vatican Council, whose authority is often falsely invoked by those who wish to abandon the usage of Latin in the Church, stated plainly that “the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites.” (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy No. 36).

Moreover, it is a serious misconception to think that a translation of one language into another can produce a perfectly equivalent meaning. Each language carries within itself a unique mode of expression which cannot be reproduced in any other language. Would anyone consider teaching English literature by studying Hungarian translations of English works? If absolute correspondence existed among languages, it would be very easy to reduce all of the world’s languages into one. But languages differ not only in sound, not only in form, but above all, in their mode of expression. Hence, vernacular languages can never be turned into some equivalent counterparts of Latin.

Three specific qualities, as St. John XXIII explained, make Latin eminently suitable for being the Church’s language: Latin is universal, it is immutable, and it is sacred. (Veterum Sapientia) As previously mentioned, it is universal as a substantial heritage of mankind across many and diverse regions and across many centuries, embracing the entire Christian era from its beginning to the present.

It is immutable since it is not a national tongue of any particular ethnic group subject to constant change. Today, students of Latin are learning the same language as the one spoken by Cicero two thousand years ago, while in four centuries Shakespearean English has changed so much that presently our students often need a translator to understand it.

Finally, Latin is a sacred language. It was prepared through divine providence (divinitus provisum est: Pius XI – Officiorum Omnium) to be transformed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and become the language of the Church’s social foundation on the rock of Peter in Rome. The entire terminology of our religion took shape in Latin and its full meaning can only be appreciated in Latin: humanitas, persona, virtus, aeternitas, gratia, sacramentum, natura, matrinomium, incarnatio, misericordia, and the list of words goes on. Even if we could somehow reinvent the wheel, so to speak, and set up some modern language as a new norm (imagine how well that would be agreed upon) it would create an enormous rift with the past. Languages are not interchangeable. It is not possible to jump from one language to another and to retain a consistency of thought.

In view of the above, it would be absurd to think that the Church might abandon the study and use of Latin, which “is a most suitable bond that binds the Church’s present age with the past and with the future.” (Veterum Sapientia) That is why the “Roman Pontiffs have so often extolled the excellence and importance of Latin … warning against the dangers that would result from its neglect.” (Veterum Sapientia).

Finally, those who frown at Latin should take to heart the words of Pope Pius XI: “For any member of laity, who is at least somewhat literate, the ignorance of the Latin tongue, which we can call a truly Catholic language, indicates a certain lack of affection towards the Church.” (In quopiam homine laico, qui quidem sit tinctus litteris, latinae linguae, quam dicere catholicam vere possumus, ignoratio quendam amoris erga Ecclesiam languorem indicat. Officiorum Omnium).

By William Guelker, Editor off LLA, Inc. Newsletter

When I determined to set quarterly publication dates for the LLA Newsletter according to certain liturgical feast days, the choice of 9/14 seemed especially appropriate because of the correlation of the liturgy of the day to the Sacrifice of the Mass and the selection of that same day for the implementation of Summorum Pontificum which freed the Traditional Latin Mass from many restrictions imposed upon it. I would like now to speculate upon the rationale of Benedict XVI for his choices of 7/7/7 to issue the motu proprio in question and of September 14th for its implementation. This is pure speculation – please indulge me – or, better yet, write something for the Newsletter to free yourself from my speculation!

Few will argue against the proposition that the Traditional Latin Mass emphasizes the Good Friday sacrifice, whereas the Mass of Paul VI emphasizes the Holy Thursday meal. If you do not agree with this proposition, I offer only the following excerpt from The Spirit of the Liturgy by then Cardinal (and Prefect of CDF) Ratzinger, pages 77-78:

“Today celebration versus populum really does look like the characteristic fruit of Vatican II’s liturgical renewal. In fact it is the most conspicuous consequence of a reordering that not only signifies a new external arrangement of the places dedicated to the liturgy, but also brings with it a new idea of the essence of the liturgy – the liturgy as a communal meal…the Eucharist that Christians celebrate really cannot adequately be described by the term “meal”. True, the Lord established the new reality of Christian worship within the framework of a Jewish (Passover) meal, but it was precisely this new reality, not the meal as such, that he commanded us to repeat. Very soon the new reality was separated from its ancient context and found its proper and suitable form, a form already predetermined by the fact that the Eucharist refers back to the Cross and thus to the transformation of Temple sacrifice into worship of God.…”

If we look at the Gospel reading in the 1962 Missal for 9/14, we find it is from John’s Gospel, chapter 12, verses 31-36. It begins as follows:

At that time, Jesus said to the multitude of the Jews,
‘Now is the judgment of the world: now shall the
prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up
from the earth, shall draw all things to myself.’
(Now this He said, signifying what death He should die.)

Note that he is speaking to the Jews about judgment and casting out evil by his death on the cross, which will make salvation possible. (The Latin says omnia traham, that is, I will draw all. There is no specific object in the text and so “things” or “men” are often added in translations. A related verse from St. John’s Revelation (21:5) is handled the same way – “And he that sat on the throne, said: Behold, I make all things new.”) The emphasis on sacrifice is also evident in Church discipline. We are required to witness this sacrifice on our behalf every Sunday and Holy Day of obligation, whereas we are required to receive Holy Communion once a year. Since there is no Mass on Good Friday, this feast provides a day in the liturgical calendar to celebrate that supreme sacrifice. It was formerly a class I feast on a par with the Holy Days of obligation. (It is one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the Byzantine Rite.) Today, if it occurs on a Sunday, it overrides that Sunday’s liturgy. So, the choice of this date for the implementation of the motu proprio is fitting and deliberate.

Is the choice of 7/7/7 for the issuance of the motu proprio also deliberate, and, if so, how? Only Benedict XVI knows for sure. Speculation is more tenuous, but I think a case can be made for the following if we relate the issuance date to the feast date. ‘7’ is a sacred number to the Hebrews. Many instances of ‘7’ may be found in the Old Testament beginning with on the seventh day He rested and so has sanctified that day as the Sabbath. But I wish to reference only one other such instance because of its relation to God’s judgment, purging evil, and expiation via sacrifice. The text is from II Chronicles, chapters 28 and 29. I would ask you to consider this text in conjunction with the following abbreviated quote from Cardinal Ratzinger’s address to the Chilean bishops immediately after the issuance in 1988 of Ecclesia Dei adflicta, Saint John Paul II’s motu proprio, that expanded the possibilities of the so-called “Indult Mass” which Pope BenedictXVI later titled the “Extraordinary Form.” The Prefect of CDF said to the bishops:

“While there are many motives that might have led a great number of people to seek a refuge in the traditional liturgy, the chief one is that they find the dignity of the sacred preserved there. After the Council there were many priests who deliberately raised ‘desacralization’ to the level of a program,… they put aside the sacred vestments; they have despoiled the churches as much as they could of that splendor which brings to mind the sacred; and they have reduced the liturgy to the language and the gestures of ordinary life, by means of greetings, common signs of friendship, and such things… That which previously was considered most holy — the form in which the liturgy was handed down — suddenly appears as the most forbidden of all things, the one thing that can safely be prohibited.”

With this in mind, I will now abridge II Chronicles, 28 and 29 as follows:

All the ornaments of the Lord’s house he (Achaz) had already taken away and broken up; now he closed the temple doors, and built altars of his own in every corner of Jerusalem; altars, too, in every city of Juda, the smoke of whose incense enraged the Lord, the God of his fathers…. And the throne passed to his son Ezechias. Now Ezechias began to reign, when he was five and twenty years old,… And he did that which was pleasing in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. In the first year and month of his reign he opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them. And he brought the priests and the Levites, and assembled them in the east street. And he said to them: Hear me, ye Levites, and be sanctified, purify the house of the Lord the God of your fathers, and take away all filth out of the sanctuary. Our fathers have sinned and done evil in the sight of the Lord God, forsaking him: they have turned away their faces from the tabernacle of the Lord, and turned their backs. They have shut up the doors that were in the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burnt incense, nor offered holocausts in the sanctuary of the God of Israel. Therefore the wrath of the Lord hath been stirred up against Juda and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, and to destruction, and to be hissed at, as you see with your eyes…. Now therefore I have a mind that we make a covenant with the Lord the God of Israel, and he will turn away the wrath of his indignation from us. My sons, be not negligent: the Lord hath chosen you to stand before him, and to minister to him, and to worship him, and to burn incense to him. Then the Levites arose,… And they gathered together their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and went in according to the commandment of the king, and the precept of the Lord, to purify the house of God. And the priests went into the temple of the Lord to sanctify it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found within to the entrance of the house of the Lord, and the Levites took it away, and carried it out abroad to the torrent Cedron…. And they went in to king Ezechias, and said to him: We have sanctified all the house of the Lord, and the altar of holocaust, and the vessels thereof, and the table of proposition with all its vessels, And all the furniture of the temple, which king Achaz in his reign had defiled, after his transgression; and behold they are all set forth before the altar of the Lord. And king Ezechias rising early, assembled all the rulers of the city, and went up into the house of the Lord: And they offered together seven bullocks, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he goats for sin, for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, for Juda: and he spoke to the priests the sons of Aaron, to offer them upon the altar of the Lord. Therefore they killed the bullocks, and the priests took the blood, and poured it upon the altar; they killed also the rams, and their blood they poured also upon the altar, and they killed the lambs, and poured the blood upon the altar. And they brought the he goats for sin before the king, and the whole multitude, and they laid their hand upon them: And the priests immolated them, and sprinkled their blood before the altar for an expiation of all Israel: for the king had commanded that the holocaust and the sin offering should be made for all Israel. And he set the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, and psalteries, and harps according to the regulation of David the king, and of Gad the seer, and of Nathan the prophet: for it was the commandment of the Lord by the hand of his prophets…. And when the oblation was ended, the king, and all that were with him bowed down and adored.

Clearly, this text is about restoring a form of worship in the Temple “according to the regulation of David, the king…” that had been neglected with unfortunate consequences. It involves purification of the Temple, its vessels, and furnishings. It requires sacrificial offerings (3 x 7) to God and one immolation of “he goats” for the expiation of sin. It restores the “dignity of the sacred.” Did Benedict XVI have this text in mind? He certainly was aware of it. And we are free to speculate.

First Friday, October 2, A.D. 2015, Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) will be offered by Fr. Ronald Check, Priest in Residence at Resurrection of Our Lord Roman Catholic Church, at the Rectory Chapel of St. Albert The Great Parish, 212 Welsh Road, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006, (T) 215-947-3500, at 7:00 p.m. preceded by Confessions at 6:30 p.m. This TLM will be the Mass of the Holy Guardian Angels, offered in Reparation to The Sacred Heart of Jesus. WHITE vestments.

First Saturday, October 3, A.D. 2015 Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) will be offered by Fr. Harold B. Mc Kale, Parish Vicar of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church, at the Rectory Chapel of St. Albert The Great Parish, at 9 a.m., preceded by Confessions at 8:30 a.m. This TLM will be the Mass of St. Therese of The Child Jesus (St. Therese of Lisieux – the Little Flower) offered in Reparation to The Immaculate Heart of Mary. WHITE vestments.

The St. Albert The Great Rectory, also known as the Parish Center, is behind the Church, which fronts on Welsh Road.

Mark Matthews