Philadelphia Chapter

From New Liturgical Movement

The Calculation of the September Ember Days (Reprint)

By Gregory DiPippo

This article, which explains the difference between the traditional dating of the September Ember Days, and that currently used in the EF, was originally published in 2010. The discrepancy between the traditional rubrics and the 1960 version does not occur every year, but it does this year, and so I am republishing it for reference, adjusting the dates for 2015. You may also find interesting this article from two years ago on the September Ember Days.

One of the changes made to the Breviary in the revision of 1960 regards the arrangement of the months from August to November. This change is often noticed in September, because it causes a shift in the occurrence of the Ember Days.

The first Sunday of each of these months is the day on which the Church begins to read a new set of scriptural books at Matins, with their accompanying antiphons and responsories; these readings are part of a system which goes back to the sixth century. In August, the books of Wisdom are read; in September, Job, Tobias, Judith and Esther; in October the books of the Macchabees; in November, Ezechiel, Daniel, and the twelve minor Prophets. (September is actually divided into two sets of readings, Job having a different set of responsories from the other three books.) The “first Sunday” of each of these months is traditionally that which occurs closest to the first calendar day of the month, even if that day occurs within the end of the previous month. This year, for example, the first Sunday “of September” is actually August 30th, the closest Sunday to the first day of September, and the third Sunday of September is September 13th.

The Ember Days of autumn are the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of the third week of September, during which the book of Tobias is read; according to the traditional system of calculation, this year they will occur on the 16th, 18th and 19th. The system is also calculated so that the Ember days will always begin on the Wednesday after the Exaltation of the Cross.

In the 1960 revision, however, the first Sunday of the months from August to November is always that which occurs first within the calendar month. According to this system, the first Sunday of September is the 6th this year; the third will be therefore be the 20th, and the Ember Days will be the 23rd, 25th and 26th.

This change also accounts for one of the peculiarities of the 1960 Breviary, the fact that November has four weeks, which are called the First, Third, Fourth and Fifth. According to the older calculation, November has five weeks when the fourth of the month is a Sunday; according to the newer calculation, November may have three or four weeks, but never five. In order to accommodate the new system, one of the weeks had to be removed; the second week of November was chosen, to maintain the tradition that at least a bit of each of the Prophets would continue to be read in the Breviary.

The Sundays for the rest of the liturgical year, according to the traditional system:

August 30th – the 1st Sunday of September
September 6 – the 2nd Sunday of September
September 13 – the 3rd Sunday of September (Ember week)
September 20 – the 4th Sunday of September
September 27 – the 5th Sunday of September

October 4 – the 1st Sunday of October
October 11 – the 2nd Sunday of October (The Maternity of the Virgin Mary)
October 18 – the 3rd Sunday of October (St Luke the Evangelist)
October 25 – the 4th Sunday of October (Christ the King)

November 1 – the 1st Sunday of November (All Saints’ Day)
November 8 – the 3rd Sunday of November
November 15 – the 4th Sunday of November
November 22 – the 5th Sunday of November

The Sundays for the rest of the liturgical year, according to the 1960 system:

August 30th – the 5th Sunday of August
September 6 – the 1st Sunday of September
September 13 – the 2nd Sunday of September
September 20 – the 3rd Sunday of September (Ember week)
September 27 – the 4th Sunday of September

October 4 – the 1st Sunday of October
October 11 – the 2nd Sunday of October
October 18 – the 3rd Sunday of October
October 25 – the 4th Sunday of October (Christ the King)

November 1 – the 1st Sunday of November (All Saints’ Day)
November 8 – the 3rd Sunday of November
November 15 – the 4th Sunday of November
November 22 – the 5th Sunday of November

Priest: Rev. Fr. James Bartoloma

Mass Intention: Josephine Castiello (45th Anniversary) (RIP) req. by John Castiello

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Help Needed: Thanks to Steven Ball we have been given a pipe organ on loan for our use, which Fr. Kelley has given us permission to have placed in the church. Pertaining to the small Italian organ: It will be packed at the Cathedral and moved to St. Edmond’s on the Friday, September 11th.

We need help loading & unloading the truck on Friday, September 11
. I would like to request the assistance of at least 4 volunteers to meet at the Cathedral at approximately 9 AM to help load the organ there, and proceed to help unload the organ at St. Edmond’s. My GUESS is that the total time commitment would be 4 hours. All other arrangements have been made, and there should be no further expense to the parish.

All volunteers are asked to email Fr. McKale at tlmcommunityofphila@gmail.com

Thank you in advance for your help.

Site Coordinator: The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has appointed Dr. John Lilley site coordinator of the TLM Community of Philadelphia at St. Edmond Church.

July Finances:

Income: $3,053.25 [July 5 $1,038; July 12 $559; July19 $389.25 & July 26 $1,067]

Expenses: $2,200 [Rent $400; Donation to Mater Ecclesiae $100; Music $1,200+direct sponsorship; Clergy $500]

Balance: $853.25

Mass Sponsorship: In response to an inquiry: Anyone who wishes to sponsor a Mass at St. Edmond Church should contact Fr. McKale directly. To sponsor one of our regular Sunday Masses, Missa Cantata with organ & quartet, the donation is $1,000 – Solemn High $1,500. It would need to be far in advance so that arrangements may be made. All monies would need to be given in one envelope with the total amount.

Available Mass Intentions as of August 30:

Thursday, September 24

Sundays, November 8, 15, 22, 29 & December 6, 13, 20 & 27

Upcoming Masses:

Sunday, September 20 Missa Cantata @ Noon at St. Edmond Church

Monday, September 21 through Friday, September 25 Low Mass @ 9am at Holy Redeemer Chinese Catholic Church (1/2 mile away from the Convention Center)

Thursday, September 24 Missa Cantata @ 7pm at Holy Redeemer in honor of Our Lady of Ransom

Saturday – No TLM scheduled

Sunday, September 27 – No TLM scheduled

Music Schedule:

September 13: Quartet a cappella (No organ) – Missa Octavii Toni by Orlando Di Lasso Domine memorabor by Nobuaki Izawa

September 20: Quartet a cappella (No organ) – Missa Quaturor Vocem by Domenico Scarlatti

September 24: Quartet a cappella (No organ) – Missa Aeterna Christi Munera Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

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.

Registration: It is important that if you are new that you fill out a registration form. Also, you can sign up for e-mail bulletins at www.latinmassphila.org If you did not receive notification of the move to St. Edmond via postcard and e-mail, that means that I do not have one or the other part of your contact information. If forms are not out, please see Theresa Herr or one of the servers.

Website: www.latinmassphila.org

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

Relics on Tour: The relics of St. Maria Goretti are on tour. For more information, please see http://mariagoretti.com/tour-schedule-3/ for location dates and times. They are presently scheduled to be in our area in September 2015.

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. We are presently out of Mass cards; they should be at St. Edmond’s by Labor Day weekend.

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If you would like to stop receiving these emails, please email us at latinmassphila@gmail.com and we will remove you from the email list. May God bless you.

Priest: Rev. Fr. Harold McKale

Mass Intention: Angie Laurito (RIP) req. by John A. Laurito

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Assumption Mass: Mater Ecclesiae Parish celebrated a beautiful Mass in Honor of Our Lady’s Assumption last Friday. Check out www.materecclesiae.org for some beautiful pictures of the Assumption Mass. Also, go to their Facebook page for some uploaded videos, at www.facebook.com/materecclesiae.

Upcoming Masses:

Sunday, September 20 Missa Cantata @ Noon at St. Edmond Church

Monday, September 21 through Friday, September 25 Low Mass @ 9am at Holy Redeemer Chinese Catholic Church (1/2 mile away from the Convention Center)

Thursday, September 24 Missa Cantata @ 7pm at Holy Redeemer in honor of Our Lady of Ransom

Saturday – No TLM scheduled

Sunday, September 27 – No TLM scheduled

Music Schedule:

September 13: Quartet a cappella (No organ) – Missa Octavi Toni by Orlando Di Lasso;
Domine memorabor by Nobuaki Izawa

September 20: Quartet a cappella (No organ) – Missa Quattuor Vocum by Domenico Scarlatti

September 25: Quartet a cappella (No organ) – Missa Aeterna Christi Munera by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

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.

Registration: It is important that if you are new that you fill out a registration form. Also, you can sign up for e-mail bulletins at www.latinmassphila.org If you did not receive notification of the move to St. Edmond via postcard and e-mail, that means that I do not have one or the other part of your contact information. If forms are not out, please see Theresa Herr or one of the servers.

Website: www.latinmassphila.org

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

Relics on Tour: The relics of St. Maria Goretti are on tour. For more information, please see http://mariagoretti.com/tour-schedule-3/ for location dates and times. They are presently scheduled to be in our area in September 2015.

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. Mass cards should be in the back of Church.

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Sunday, September 20 Missa Cantata @ Noon at St.Edmond Church

Monday, September 21 through Friday, September 25 Low Mass @ 9am at Holy Redeemer Chinese Catholic Church (1/2 mile away from the Convention Center)

Thursday, September 24 Missa Cantata @ 7pm at Holy Redeemer in honor of Our Lady of Ransom

Saturday – No TLM scheduled

Sunday, September 27 – No TLM scheduled

Fr. Robert C. Pasley, KCHS, from NLM

As many of you know, Mater Ecclesiae in Berlin, New Jersey, has offered a special Assumption Mass for the past 14 years. It started with a threefold intention: first, to praise God and honor Our Lady on this most magnificent feast; second, to thank God for the establishment of Mater Ecclesiae, the foundation of which back on October 13, 2000 was truly a miracle; and third, to use some of the greatest music in the history of the world where it was meant to be used, in the Sacred Liturgy.

This Friday, August 14, at 7:00 PM, the Fifteenth Annual Assumption Mass, in the Extraordinary Form, will be offered at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dr Timothy McDonnell gathers musicians from across the Philadelphia region each year and forms the Ars Laudis Festival Orchestra and Choir.

The purpose of this post is to highlight some of the music that will be used. Of course, the Propers of the Mass are the Gregorian Chants assigned to the feast, which are the foundation of all the music for the liturgy. The Ordinary is the Schopfungsmesse, by Luigi Gatti, after Haydn’s The Creation. Dr McDonnell writes in the Assumption Booklet, “Regarded as one of his finest compositions, Franz Josef Haydn’s Oratorio The Creation is a touchstone in the sacred Choir repertoire. Sometime after 1800, Luigi Gatti, then the chapel master and priest at the cathedral in Salzburg, produced a version of Haydn’s celebrated Oratorio using the text of the Latin Mass. This adaptation brings all the energy and lyricism of Haydn’s magnum opus to the liturgical context. The work is known for the vigor of its choral passages, the strong character of the arias, and for the suppleness of the line throughout. The original text of the sacred Oratorio draws on biblical and literary sources to tell the story of Genesis. Recast with the Latin text, the work conforms the power of its expressiveness to the shape of the liturgy.”

Dr. McDonnell continues, “his practice of reworking a piece with another text is called contrafactum, and it is not an uncommon tradition in church music. Many chants and motets were cast with new texts as the circumstances required. In fact, the neo-Gregorian chants that were composed for the Assumption Mass after its definition as dogma in 1950 are contrafacta. The introit, Signum magnum, for instance, is a reworking of the introit of the Common of One Martyr, In virtute tua.”
During the Offertory of the Mass the choir will sing the Salve Regina by Francis Poulenc.

During the reception of Holy Communion three motets will be sung: the first, O Quam Suavis, by G.B. Cesena – Hail, Lord Jesus Christ, blessed King, praise of the angels, glory of the saints, vision of peace, undivided Deity, true man, flower and fruit of the Virgin Mother; the second, Vidi speciosam by Felice Anerio; and the third, the five part Assumpta est Maria, by Palestrina.There will also be some instrumental works by Tommaso Albinoni.

It is a tradition at the Assumption Mass to always begin with the Hymn, O Sanctissima, and to end with The Hail Holy Queen. Both hymns have been magnificently arranged for Organ and Brass Choir by Dr McDonnell.
Friday night will be a night of magnificent praise of God and honor and love expressed to Our Lady, by some of the greatest music ever written by human beings, in the place where it belongs. AMDG.

From Christina Doherty

Assumption BVM: Solemn High Choral Mass, sponsored by Mater Ecclesiae will be held at 7PM on Friday, August 14 at the Cathedral-Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul.

Dr. Timothy McDonnell has selected the music for this year’s Assumption Mass: Die Schöpfungsmesse by Luigi Gatti after Haydn’s Oratorio, The Creation. “Regarded as one of his finest compositions, Franz Josef Haydn’s Oratorio The Creation is a touchstone in the sacred choral repertoire. Sometime after 1800, Fr. Luigi Gatti, then the chapel master at the cathedral in Salzburg, produced a version of Haydn’s celebrated Oratorio using the text of the Latin Mass. This adaptation brings all the energy and lyricism of Haydn’s magnum opus to the liturgical context.”
For more information, see https://www.facebook.com/MaterEcclesiaeChurch

Priest: Rev. Fr. James Bartoloma

Mass Intention: Rustom Ghandhi (RIP) req. by Christopher & Meredith Iwane

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Assumption BVM: Solemn High Choral Mass, sponsored by Mater Ecclesiae will be held at 7PM on Friday, August 14 at the Cathedral-Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul. No Mass is scheduled at St. Edmond for the holyday. Please attend this Mass to support the work of Mater Ecclesiae in promoting the beauty of the Traditional Latin Mass, “the most beautiful thing this side of heaven.”

Dr. Timothy McDonnell has selected the music for this year’s Assumption Mass: Die Schöpfungsmesse by Luigi Gatti after Haydn’s Oratorio, The Creation. “Regarded as one of his finest compositions, Franz Josef Haydn’s Oratorio The Creation is a touchstone in the sacred choral repertoire. Sometime after 1800, Fr. Luigi Gatti, then the chapel master at the cathedral in Salzburg, produced a version of Haydn’s celebrated Oratorio using the text of the Latin Mass. This adaptation brings all the energy and lyricism of Haydn’s magnum opus to the liturgical context.”

For more information, see https://www.facebook.com/MaterEcclesiaeChurch

MASS CANCELED: On Sunday, September 27, 2015 there will be no TLM at St. Edmond Church; please make other arrangements that day.

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. Currently, I am investigating other possibilities that would permit a withdrawal from a bank account on a weekly basis.

Registration: It is important that if you are new that you fill out a registration form. Also, you can sign up for e-mail bulletins at www.latinmassphila.org If you did not receive notification of the move to St. Edmond via postcard and e-mail, that means that I do not have one or the other part of your contact information. If forms are not out, please see Theresa Herr or one of the servers.

Website: www.latinmassphila.org

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

Relics on Tour: The relics of St. Maria Goretti are on tour. For more information, please see http://mariagoretti.com/tour-schedule-3/ for location dates and times. They are presently scheduled to be in our area in September 2015.

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. Mass cards should be in the back of Church.

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If you or people you know are attending the World Meeting of Families, please pass this information on to them.

WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES TLM SCHEDULE

Sunday, September 20 Missa Cantata @ Noon at St. Edmond Church

Monday, September 21 through Friday, September 25 Low Mass @ 9am at Holy Redeemer Chinese Catholic Church (1/2 mile away from the Convention Center)

Thursday, September 24 Missa Cantata @ 7pm at Holy Redeemer in honor of Our Lady of Ransom

Saturday – No TLM scheduled

Sunday, September 27 – No TLM scheduled

For other locations, please visit www.latinmassphila.org

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First Friday, August 7, A.D. 2015, Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) will be offered by Fr. Gerald Carey, Parochial Vicar of Our Lady of Perpetual Help 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 Saint Cajetan – Priest and Founder of the Theatines, offered in Reparation to The Sacred Heart of Jesus. WHITE vestments, with a commemoration of St. Donatus, Bishop and Martyr.

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

Mark Matthews

From Fr. McKale [Format Unedited]

9th Sunday after Pentecost

Announcements for Sunday, July 26, 2015

Priest: Rev. Fr. Gerald Carey

Mass Intention: All Deceased Law Enforcement Officers req. by Michael Fiocca

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Dear Members of the Traditional Latin Mass Community of Philadelphia,

As I look at the traffic regulations for the weekend of the Papal Visit, it seems virtually

impossible for the priests that offer the Mass, including myself, to both care for the their

respective parish duties and make it to St. Edmond to offer the Traditional Latin Mass on

Sunday, September 27 as well as more than half of our attendees who drive and were not going

to attend the Papal Mass to drive into the city and out of the city within a reasonable amount of time.

While I wish another viable solution was possible, given the current circumstances, it seems

that it is necessary to CANCEL the Noon MASS at St. Edmond Church on Sunday
, September

27. All other scheduled Masses will be offered as scheduled.

Anyone who does not intend to attend the Papal Mass is encouraged to attend another TLM

that is most convenient for you on that day. If you need to find a location, go to

www.latinmassphila.org for assistance.

God bless you and thank you for your support and understanding.

Fr. McKale

P.S. I regret not being able to offer Mass here this Sunday as during the rush of my move I made

several mistakes in my July calendar. It was very fortuitous that Fr. Carey was available. See you

next month.

Assumption BVM: Solemn High Choral Mass, sponsored by Mater Ecclesiae will be

held at 7PM on Friday, August 14 at the Cathedral-Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul. No Mass

is scheduled at St. Edmond for the holyday. Please attend this Mass to support the work

of Mater Ecclesiae in promoting the beauty of the Traditional Latin Mass, “the most

beautiful thing this side of heaven.”

Dr. Timothy McDonnell has selected the music for this year’s Assumption Mass: Die

Schöpfungsmesse by Luigi Gatti after Haydn’s Oratorio, The Creation. “Regarded as one

of his finest compositions, Franz Josef Haydn’s Oratorio The Creation is a touchstone in

the sacred choral repertoire. Sometime after 1800, Fr. Luigi Gatti, then the chapel

master at the cathedral in Salzburg, produced a version of Haydn’s celebrated Oratorio

using the text of the Latin Mass. This adaptation brings all the energy and lyricism of

Haydn’s magnum opus to the liturgical context.”

For more information, see https://www.facebook.com/MaterEcclesiaeChurch

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. Currently, I am investigating other possibilities that would permit a withdrawal from a

bank account on a weekly basis.

Registration: It is important that if you are new that you fill out a registration form.

Also, you can sign up for e-mail bulletins at www.latinmassphila.org If you did not

receive notification of the move to St. Edmond via postcard and e-mail, that means that

I do not have one or the other part of your contact information. If forms are not out,

please see Theresa Herr or one of the servers.

Website: www.latinmassphila.org

International Institute for Culture: Check out upcoming events at

http://www.iiculture.org/aboutus.asp

Relics on Tour: The relics of St. Maria Goretti are on tour. For more information,

please see http://mariagoretti.com/tour-schedule-3/ for location dates and times. They are

presently scheduled to be in our area in September 2015.

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. Mass cards should be in the

back of Church.

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If you or people you know are attending the World

Meeting of Families, please pass this information

on to them.

WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES TLM SCHEDULE

Sunday, September 20 Missa Cantata @ Noon at St. Edmond Church

Monday, September 21 through Friday, September 25 Low Mass @ 9am at Holy Redeemer

Chinese Catholic Church (1/2 mile away from the Convention Center)

Thursday, September 24 Missa Cantata @ 7pm at Holy Redeemer in honor of Our Lady of

Ransom

Saturday – No TLM scheduled

Sunday, September 27 – No TLM scheduled

For other locations, please visit www.latinmassphila.org

By Peter Kwasniewski and Michael Foley, of OnePeter5

Given that it can often be less convenient for a person or a family to attend the traditional Latin Mass (and I am thinking not only of obvious issues like the place and the time, but also of the lack of a parish infrastructure and the hostile reactions one can get from friends, family, and even clergy), it is definitely worthwhile to remind ourselves of why we are doing this in the first place. If something is worth doing, then it’s worth persevering in—even at the cost of sacrifices.

This article will set forth a number of reasons why, in spite of all the inconveniences (and even minor persecutions) we have experienced over the years, we and our families love to attend the traditional Latin Mass. Sharing these reasons will, we hope, encourage readers everywhere either to begin attending the usus antiquior or to continue attending if they might be wavering. Indeed, it is our conviction that the sacred liturgy handed down to us by tradition has never been more important in the life of Catholics, as we behold the “pilgrim Church on earth” continue to forget her theology, dilute her message, lose her identity, and bleed her members. By preserving, knowing, following, and loving her ancient liturgy, we do our part to bolster authentic doctrine, proclaim heavenly salvation, regain a full stature, and attract new believers who are searching for unadulterated truth and manifest beauty. By handing down this immense gift in turn, and by inviting to the Mass as many of our friends and our families as we can, we are fulfilling our vocation as followers of the Apostles.

Without further ado, ten reasons:

1. You will be formed in the same way that most of the Saints were formed. If we take a conservative estimate and consider the Roman Mass to have been codified by the reign of Pope St. Gregory the Great (ca. 600) and to have lasted intact until 1970, we are talking about close to 1,400 years of the life of the Church—and that’s most of her history of saints. The prayers, readings, and chants that they heard and pondered will be the ones you hear and ponder.

For this is the Mass that St. Gregory the Great inherited, developed, and solidified. This is the Mass that St. Thomas Aquinas celebrated, lovingly wrote about, and contributed to (he composed the Mass Propers and Office for the Feast of Corpus Christi). This is the Mass that St. Louis IX, the crusader king of France, attended three times a day. This is the Mass that St. Philip Neri had to distract himself from before he celebrated it because it so easily sent him into ecstasies that lasted for hours. This is the Mass that was first celebrated on the shores of America by Spanish and French missionaries, such as the North American Martyrs. This is the Mass that priests said secretly in England and Ireland during the dark days of persecution, and this is the Mass that Blessed Miguel Pro risked his life to celebrate before being captured and martyred by the Mexican government. This is the Mass that Blessed John Henry Newman said he would celebrate every waking moment of his life if he could. This is the Mass that the Fr. Frederick Faber called “the most beautiful thing this side of heaven.” This is the Mass that Fr. Damien of Molokai celebrated with leprous hands in the church he had built and painted himself. This is the Mass during which St. Edith Stein, who was later to die in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, became completely enraptured. This is the Mass that great artists such as Evelyn Waugh, David Jones, and Graham Greene loved so much that they lamented its loss with sorrow and alarm. This is the Mass so widely respected that even non-Catholics such as Agatha Christie and Iris Murdoch came to its defense in the 1970s. This is the Mass that St. Padre Pio insisted on celebrating until his death in 1968, after the liturgical apparatchiks had begun to mess with the missal (and this was a man who knew a thing or two about the secrets of sanctity). This is the Mass that St. Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei, received permission to continue celebrating in private at the end of his life.

What a glorious cloud of witnesses surrounds the traditional Latin Mass! Their holiness was forged like gold and silver in the furnace of this Mass, and it is an undeserved blessing that we, too, can seek and obtain the same formation. Yes, I can go to the new Mass and know that I am in the presence of God and His saints (and for that I am profoundly grateful), but a concrete historical link to these saints has been severed, as well as a historical link to my own heritage as a Catholic in the Roman rite.

2. What is true for me is even more true for my children. This way of celebrating most deeply forms the minds and hearts of our children in reverence for Almighty God, in the virtues of humility, obedience, and adoring silence. It fills their senses and imaginations with sacred signs and symbols, “mystic ceremonies” (as the Council of Trent puts it). Maria Montessori herself frequently pointed out that small children are very receptive to the language of symbols, often more than adults are, and that they will learn more easily from watching people do a solemn liturgy than from hearing a lot of words with little action. All of this is extremely impressive and gripping for children who are learning their faith, and especially boys who become altar servers.[1]

3. Its universality. The traditional Latin Mass not only provides a visible and unbroken link from the present day to the distant past, it also constitutes an inspiring bond of unity across the globe. Older Catholics often recall how moving it was from them to assist at Mass in a foreign country for the first time and to discover that “the Mass was the same” wherever they went. The experience was, for them, a confirmation of the catholicity of their Catholicism. By contrast, today one is sometimes hard pressed to find “the same Mass” at the same parish on the same weekend. The universality of the traditional Latin Mass, with its umbrella of Latin as a sacred language and its insistence that the priest put aside his own idiosyncratic and cultural preferences and put on the person of Christ, acts as a true Pentecost in which many tongues and tribes come together as one in the Spirit—rather than a new Babel that privileges unshareable identities such as ethnicity or age group and threatens to occlude the “neither Greek nor Jew” principle of the Gospel.

4. You always know what you are getting. The Mass will be focused on the Holy Sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross. There will be respectful and prayerful silence before, during, and after Mass. There will be only males serving in the sanctuary and only priests and deacons handling the Body of Christ, in accord with nearly 2,000 years of tradition. People will usually be dressed modestly. Music may not always be present (and when present, may not always be perfectly executed), but you will never hear pseudo-pop songs with narcissistic or heretical lyrics.

Put differently, the traditional form of the Roman rite can never be completely co-opted. Like almost every other good thing this side of the grave, the Latin Mass can be botched, but it can never be abused to the extent that it no longer points to the true God. Chesterton once said that “there is only one thing that can never go past a certain point in its alliance with oppression—and that is orthodoxy. I may, it is true, twist orthodoxy so as partly to justify a tyrant. But I can easily make up a German philosophy to justify him entirely.”[2] The same is true for the traditional Latin Mass. Father Jonathan Robinson, who at the time of writing his book was not a friend of the usus antiquior, nevertheless admitted that “the perennial attraction of the Old Rite is that it provided a transcendental reference, and it did this even when it was misused in various ways.”[3] By contrast, Robinson observes, while the new Mass can be celebrated in a reverent way that directs us to the transcendent, “there is nothing in the rule governing the way the Novus Ordo is to be said that ensures the centrality of the celebration of the Paschal mystery.”[4] In other words, the new Mass can be celebrated validly but in a way that puts such an emphasis on community or sharing a meal that it can amount to “the virtual denial of a Catholic understanding of the Mass.”[5] On the other hand, the indestructibility of the traditional Mass’s inherent meaning is what inspired one commentator to compare it to the old line about the U.S. Navy: “It’s a machine built by geniuses so it can be operated safely by idiots.”[6]

5. It’s the real McCoy. The classical Roman rite has an obvious theocentric and Christocentric orientation, found both in the ad orientem stance of the priest and in the rich texts of the classical Roman Missal itself, which give far greater emphasis to the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the sacrifice of Our Lord upon the Cross.[7] As Dr. Lauren Pristas has shown, the prayers of the new Missal are often watered-down in their expression of dogma and ascetical doctrine, whereas the prayers of the old Missal are unambiguously and uncompromisingly Catholic.[8] It is the real McCoy, the pure font, not something cobbled together by “experts” for “modern man” and adjusted to his preferences. More and more Catholic pastors and scholars are acknowledging how badly rushed and botched were the liturgical reforms of the 1960s. This has left us with a confusingly messy situation for which the reformed liturgy itself is totally ill-equipped to provide a solution, with its plethora of options, its minimalist rubrics, its vulnerability to manipulative “presiders,” and its manifest discontinuity with at least fourteen centuries of Roman Catholic worship—a discontinuity powerfully displayed in the matter of language, since the old Mass whispers and sings in the Western Church’s holy mother tongue, Latin, while the new Mass has awkwardly mingled itself with the ever-changing vernaculars of the world.

6. A superior calendar for the saints. In liturgical discussions, most ammunition is spent on defending or attacking changes to the Ordinary of the Mass—and understandably so. But one of the most significant differences between the 1962 and 1970 Missals is the calendar. Let’s start with the Sanctoral Cycle, the feast days of the saints. The 1962 calendar is an amazing primer in Church history, especially the history of the early Church, which often gets overlooked today. It is providentially arranged in such a way that certain saints form different “clusters” that accent a particular facet of holiness. The creators of the 1969/1970 general calendar, on the other hand, eliminated or demoted 200 saints, including St. Valentine from St. Valentine’s Day and St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, claiming that he never existed. They also eliminated St. Catherine of Alexandria for the same reason, even though she was one of the saints that St. Joan of Arc saw when God commissioned her to fight the English.[9] The architects of the new calendar often made their decisions on the basis of modern historical scholarship rather than the oral traditions of the Church. Their scholarly criteria call to mind Chesterton’s rejoinder that he would rather trust old wives’ tales than old maids’ facts. “It is quite easy to see why a legend is treated, and ought to be treated, more respectfully than a book of history,” G. K. writes. “The legend is generally made by the majority of people in the village, who are sane. The book is generally written by the one man in the village who is mad.”[10]

7. A superior calendar for the seasons. Similarly, the “Temporal Cycle”—Christmastide, Epiphanytide, Septuagesimatide, Eastertide, Time after Pentecost, etc.—is far richer in the 1962 calendar. Thanks to its annual cycle of propers, each Sunday has a distinct flavor to it, and this annual recurrence creates a marker or yardstick that allows the faithful to measure their spiritual progress or decline over the course of their lives. The traditional calendar has ancient observances like Ember Days and Rogation Days that heighten not only our gratitude to God but our appreciation of the goodness of the natural seasons and of the agricultural cycles of the land. The traditional calendar has no such thing as “Ordinary Time” (a most unfortunate phrase, seeing that there cannot be such a thing as “ordinary time” after the Incarnation[11]) but instead has a Time after Epiphany and a Time after Pentecost, thereby extending the meaning of these great feasts like a long afterglow or echo. In company with Christmas and Easter, Pentecost, a feast of no lesser status than they, is celebrated for a full eight days, so that the Church may bask in the warmth and light of the heavenly fire. And the traditional calendar has the pre-Lenten season of Septuagesima or “Carnevale,” which begins three weeks before Ash Wednesday and deftly aids in the psychological transition from the joy of Christmastide to the sorrow of Lent. Like most other features of the usus antiquior, the aforementioned aspects of the calendar are extremely ancient and connect us vividly with the Church of the first millennium and even the earliest centuries.

8. A Better Way to the Bible. Many think that the Novus Ordo has a natural advantage over the old Mass because it has a three-year cycle of Sunday readings and a two-year cycle of weekday readings, and longer and more numerous readings at Mass, instead of the ancient one-year cycle, usually consisting of two readings per Mass (Epistle and Gospel). What they overlook is the fact that the architects of the Novus Ordo simultaneously took out most of the biblical allusions that formed the warp and woof of the Ordinary of the Mass, and then parachuted in a plethora of readings with little regard to their congruency with each other. When it comes to biblical readings, the old rite operates on two admirable principles: first, that passages are chosen not for their own sake (to “get through” as much of Scripture as possible) but to illuminate the meaning of the occasion of worship; second, that the emphasis is not on a mere increase of biblical literary or didactic instruction but on “mystagogy.” In other words, the readings at Mass are not meant to be a glorified Sunday school but an ongoing initiation into the mysteries of the Faith. Their more limited number, brevity, liturgical suitability, and repetition over the course of every year makes them a powerful agent of spiritual formation and preparation for the Eucharistic sacrifice.

9. Reverence for the Most Holy Eucharist. The Ordinary Form of the Mass can, of course, be celebrated with reverence and with only ordained ministers distributing Holy Communion. But let’s be honest: the vast majority of Catholic parishes deploy “extraordinary” lay ministers of Holy Communion, and the vast majority of the faithful will receive Holy Communion in the hand. These two arrangements alone constitute a significant breach in reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. Unlike the priest, lay ministers do not purify their hands or fingers after handling God, thus accumulating and scattering particles of the Real Presence. The same is true of the faithful who receive Communion in the hand; even brief contact with the Host on the palm of one’s hand can leave tiny particles of the consecrated Victim.[12] Think about it: every day, thousands upon thousands of these unintentional acts of desecration of the Blessed Sacrament occur around the world. How patient is the Eucharistic Heart of our Lord! But do we really want to contribute to this desecration? And even if we ourselves receive communion on the tongue at a Novus Ordo Mass, chances are we will still be surrounded by these careless habits—an environment that will either fill us with outrage and sorrow or lead to a settled indifference. These reactions are not helpful in experiencing the peace of Christ’s Real Presence, nor are they an optimal way to raise one’s children in the Faith!

Similar points could be made about the distracting “Sign of Peace”[13]; or female lectors and EMHCs, who, apart from constituting an utter break with tradition, can be clad in clothing of questionable modesty; or the almost universal custom of loud chitchat before and after Mass; or the ad-libbing and optionizing of the priest. These and so many other characteristics of the Novus Ordo as it is all too often celebrated are all, singly and collectively, signs of a lack of faith in the Real Presence, signs of an anthropocentric, horizontal self-celebration of the community.

This point should be emphasized: it is especially harmful for children to witness, again and again, the shocking lack of reverence with which Our Lord and God is treated in the awesome Sacrament of His Love, as pew after pew of Catholics automatically go up to receive a gift they generally treat with casual and even bored indifference. We believe the Eucharist is really our Savior, our King, our Judge—but then promptly act in a way that says we are handling regular (though symbolic) food and drink, which explains why so many Catholics seem to have a Protestant view of what is going on at Mass. This unfortunate situation will not end until the pre-Vatican II norms regarding the sacred Host are made mandatory for all liturgical ministers, which is not likely anytime soon. The safe haven of refuge is, once again, the traditional Latin Mass, where sanity and sanctity prevail.

10. When all is said and done, it’s the Mystery of Faith. Many of the reasons for persevering in and supporting the traditional Latin Mass, in spite of all the trouble the devil manages to stir up for us, can be summarized in one word: MYSTERY. What St. Paul calls musterion and what the Latin liturgical tradition designates by the names mysterium and sacramentum are far from being marginal concepts in Christianity. God’s dramatic self-disclosure to us, throughout history and most of all in the Person of Jesus Christ, is a mystery in the highest sense of the term: it is the revelation of a Reality that is utterly intelligible yet always ineluctable, ever luminous yet blinding in its luminosity. It is fitting that the liturgical celebrations that bring us into contact with our very God should bear the stamp of His eternal and infinite mysteriousness, His marvelous transcendence, His overwhelming holiness, His disarming intimacy, His gentle yet penetrating silence. The traditional form of the Roman rite surely bears this stamp. Its ceremonies, its language, its ad orientem posture, and its ethereal music are not obscurantist but perfectly intelligible while at the same time instilling a sense of the unknown, even the fearful and thrilling. By fostering a sense of the sacred, the old Mass preserves intact the mystery of Faith.[14]

In sum, the classical Roman Rite is an ambassador of tradition, a midwife for the interior man, a lifelong tutor in the faith, a school of adoration, contrition, thanksgiving, and supplication, an absolutely reliable rock of stability on which we can confidently build our spiritual lives.

As the movement for the restoration of the Church’s sacred liturgy is growing and gaining momentum, now is not a time for discouragement or second thoughts; it is a time for a joyful and serene embrace of all the treasures our Church has in store for us, in spite of the shortsightedness of some of her current pastors and the ignorance (usually not their own fault) of many of the faithful. This is a renewal that must happen if the Church is to survive the coming perils. Would that the Lord could count on us to be ready to lead the way, to hold up the “catholic and orthodox faith”! Would that we might respond to His graces as He leads us back to the immense riches of the Tradition that He, in His loving-kindness, gave to the Church, His Bride!

It is no time to flag or grow weary, but to put our shoulders to the wheel, our hand to the plough. Why should we deprive ourselves of the light and peace and joy of what is more beautiful, more transcendent, more sacred, more sanctifying, and more obviously Catholic? Innumerable blessings await us when, in the midst of an unprecedented crisis of identity in the Church today, we live out our Catholic faith in total fidelity and with the ardent dedication of the Elizabethan martyrs who were willing to do and to suffer anything rather than be parted from the Mass they had grown to cherish more than life itself. Yes, we will be called upon to make sacrifices—accepting an inconvenient time or a less-than-satisfactory venue, humbly bearing with misunderstanding and even rejection from our loved ones—but we know that sacrifices for the sake of a greater good are the very pith and marrow of charity.

We have given ten reasons for attending the traditional Latin Mass. There are many more that could be given, and each person will have his or her own. What we know for sure is that the Church needs her Mass, we need this Mass, and, in a strange sort of way that bestows on us an unmerited privilege, the Mass needs us. Let us hold fast to it, that we may cleave all the more to Christ our King, our Savior, our All.

NOTES

[1] See “Helping Children Enter into the Traditional Latin Mass” (Part 1, Part 2); “Ex ore infantium: Children and the Traditional Latin Mass” (here).

[2] Chesterton, Orthodoxy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1995), 132.

[3] Jonathan Robinson, The Mass and Modernity (Ignatius Press, 2005), 307.

[4] Ibid., 311, italics added.

[5] Ibid., 311.

[6] The same author, John Zmirak (who is sound on this issue), continues: “The old liturgy was crafted by saints, and can be said by schlubs without risk of sacrilege. The new rite was patched together by bureaucrats, and should only be safely celebrated by the saintly.” John Zmirak, “All Your Church Are Belong to Us.”

[7] As documented in Peter Kwasniewski, Resurgent in the Midst of Crisis (Kettering, OH: Angelico Press, 2014), ch. 6, “Offspring of Arius in the Holy of Holies.”

[8] See, among Lauren Pristas’s many fine studies, her book Collects of the Roman Missal: A Comparative Study of the Sundays in Proper Seasons Before and After the Second Vatican Council (London: T&T Clark, 2013).

[9] Fortunately, acknowledging that this was a mistake, Pope John Paul II restored St. Catherine to the Novus Ordo calendar twenty years later, but what about all the other saints who got axed?

[10] Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 53.

[11] See, among the many who argue for this point, Fr. Richard Cipolla, “Epiphany and the Unordinariness of Liturgical Time.”

[12] See Father X, “Losing Fragments with Communion in the Hand,” The Latin Mass Magazine (Fall 2009), 27-29.

[13] The Novus Ordo “Sign of Peace” has almost nothing to do with the dignified manner in which the “Pax” is given at a Solemn High Mass, where it is abundantly clear that the peace in question is a spiritual endowment emanating from the Lamb of God slain upon the altar and gently spreading out through the sacred ministers until it rests on the lowliest ministers who represent the people

[14] For centuries, going all the way back to the early Church (and even, says St. Thomas Aquinas, to the Apostles), the priest has always said “Mysterium Fidei” in the midst of the consecration of the chalice. He was referring specifically to the irruption or inbreaking of God into our midst in this unfathomable Sacrament.

By Peter Kwasniewski of NLM

In her magnificent book Cistercian Europe: Architecture of Contemplation, Terryl Kinder describes how medieval Cistercian architecture, seemingly simple and humble, is actually extremely subtle in its relationship to the cosmos and particularly the light of the sun:

What there is in a Cistercian abbey—and in abundance—is the presence and the play of light. It is sunlight that animates the buildings by day, outlining every protuberance and recession, giving full value to architectural detail. When trying to understand light in an abbey, the role of silence needs to be underlined, for speaking draws attention away from visual subtleties. In order to experience fully the movement of light and shadow in a Cisterician church, one needs to be present throughout the day from morning until evening, in winter and in summer, at dawn, when it is raining, and in the reflected light of snow. The evolving luminous effect is most apparent when one is sitting in the same stall, the very slowness of the moving light providing a perfect backdrop to contemplative life. Then the subtlety of the architecture and its detail may gradually reveal itself to those who have grown aware and can see it.[1]

In other words, you have to live patiently and attentively with this architecture before it reveals its secrets to you, and once you have learned its language, you are ushered into a world of spiritual symbolism that echoes and amplifies the longings and thoughts of your own prayer.

This example from the Middle Ages reminds me of certain striking words Pope Benedict XVI addressed to bishops in the letter accompanying the publication of Summorum Pontificum:

The fear was expressed in discussions about the awaited Motu Proprio, that the possibility of a wider use of the 1962 Missal would lead to disarray or even divisions within parish communities. This fear also strikes me as quite unfounded. The use of the old Missal presupposes a certain degree of liturgical formation and some knowledge of the Latin language; neither of these is found very often.[2]

In noting how a “certain degree of liturgical formation” and “some knowledge of Latin” are required for the usus antiquior, Pope Benedict voiced a polite but stinging critique of the paucity and superficiality of liturgical formation found among many Catholics today as well as the pathetic and scandalous lack of Latinity among the clergy, contrary to the express requirements of Canon Law.[3] It is as if he said: You need not fear a sudden disarray in the Church, since the use of the classical Roman Rite, which presupposes the very things that the original Liturgical Movement and then Vatican II called for—namely, sound liturgical formation and the retention of Latin—are hardly to be found nowadays. Things are so bad that the old Mass, with its very great goods, will not immediately be able to spring back to life and take over.

Can we not see this as an implicit critique of the Novus Ordo, which, according to its architects’ express intentions, was meant to require little in the way of formation? It was designed to be self-explanatory, an “instant liturgy” like the instant coffees and dehydrated foods popularized in the Space Age. After all, in one of the most embarrassing sentences ever consigned to the text of an ecumenical council, we read in Sacrosanctum Concilium: “The rites … should be within the people’s powers of comprehension, and normally should not require much explanation” (34).

Never mind the fact that the people’s powers of comprehension have to be deliberately formed and informed in order for anything liturgical to make sense, and never mind the fact that the mysteries into which we are thrown are permanently and unfathomably mysterious, comprehensible and explicable only to a certain point, beyond which they dazzle and humble the human mind with their unapproachable light. As Benedict XVI frequently said in his homilies, man is not naturally Christian; we are not born redeemed; we must be born anew in water and the Holy Spirit, we must receive instruction and nurture our faith all our lives. Part of this process of becoming Christian is learning assiduously the vocabulary of the sacred, the language of the supernatural, the symbolism of the liturgy.

It is true, as Guardini reminds us, that many of the signs and gestures used by the Church have their origin in the order of creation, which speaks (or can speak) to man at the level of nature. But something like making the sign of the Cross or burning incense before the Blessed Sacrament is simply not intelligible apart from catechesis. Three conclusions suggest themselves: (1) taken in its totality, the Christian liturgy is not and can never be within the sphere of the people’s powers of comprehension in the absence of “formation in the spirit and power of the liturgy,” as Sacrosanctum Concilium recognizes elsewhere (n. 14). (2) Normally, and especially for modern man who spends his life deracinated from nature and culture, the liturgy will require much explanation. (3) Lastly, the worst place to attempt to explain liturgy is within the liturgy, even though this has been the constant trend for the past 50 years.

The original Liturgical Movement wanted serious formation of the clergy and the faithful so that they could yield themselves intelligently and willingly to the profound riches of the rites handed down to us, with their ultimately impenetrable mysteriousness that was the secret of their magnetism for devout souls. The Consilium decided instead on a horizontalized and transparent meeting format in which business is conducted in a linear fashion, “no congregant left behind,” with no residue of unintelligibility, no need for outside effort or inward suffering, and no submission to cultural forms that transcend our age as God transcends the entire created order—Latin being, perhaps, the most notable symbol of such a cultural form.

In fact, it is not difficult to see a certain pattern among those who discover the traditional Latin Mass and begin to attend it regularly. As a Catholic becomes more educated in both the Roman liturgy and the spiritual life, he or she comes to find the Novus Ordo less satisfactory. One notices more and more its thin rationalism, its openings for egoism, its heavy-handed didacticism, its lack of tranquility, its surprising distance from the interior world of the great spiritual masters. The classical Roman liturgy expresses to perfection all the great themes that the spiritual masters are always pursuing, and does so with a beauty, clarity, and forcefulness that is refreshing, invigorating, and habit-forming. Juventutem chapters and Fraternity parishes will recognize immediately the phenomenon I am describing here. It seems as if young people in particular, when serious about their faith, are quick to recognize the strengths of the old and the weaknesses of the new.[4]

Whether one realizes it or not, to seek to be formed “in the spirit and power of the liturgy” is, ipso facto, to become suited for the traditional Latin Mass, prepared to benefit from the feast it spreads before us. To become more prayerful, more accustomed to meditation, is to be in motion towards the usus antiquior—at least in the best of circumstances, when this trajectory can be peacefully completed. Tragically, as with storm-tossed ships too far from shore to find a safe harbor, there are many Catholics who cannot discover our liturgical heritage because it is simply not readily available to them. They will do what they can with the poverty of prayer forms they are offered, but it will be like poor children who cannot flourish on a meager diet, or who can do so only by special divine intervention and favor, outside of the ordinary course of things.

Let us return to the lines from Pope Benedict XVI’s letter to bishops of July 7, 2007. Having quoted these very lines, a commentator then went on to say:

The extraordinary form is difficult in the way that anything that’s rewarding but exacting is difficult, like classical music when what we know is mainly popular music. At Mass in the ordinary form, we experience it as something that projects itself from the sanctuary into the pews: it meets us halfway. At Mass in the extraordinary form, “Introibo ad altare Dei,” I will go to the altar of God. In the United States, a number of Catholics higher than anyone might have predicted from a survey of Catholics worldwide prefer to do the harder thing.[5]

The classical liturgy begins, in a sense, with the inner man and works from there to the outer man. This is why it is a harder, more demanding way, a more deeply transformative way—one that is, for that very reason, more full of joy and more productive of fierce devotion. This liturgy demands of us that we be formed and educated, otherwise we can make no sense of it. It prompts the development of new faculties of seeing and hearing; it requires an exodus from our surroundings of pop culture and intellectual fashion; it calls us to a strange land, like Abram being summoned from Ur to Canaan. Latin is the intuitive symbol of this stripping of oneself and donning a new garment, fit for standing in the presence of the Lord.[6] When Latin was de facto abolished, a potent and efficacious sign of the transcendence of God (the object of worship), of man (the subject of worship), and of the activity of worship itself (the mediating sacrifice), was lost, with immensely damaging consequences.

“What there is in a Cistercian abbey—and in abundance—is the presence and the play of light.” This, indeed, is what we find in the traditional Latin Mass and throughout the Roman liturgy as a whole: the presence and play of a divine light that illuminates man’s total condition, as a sinner redeemed in Christ, destined for immortality and fighting the battle of good and evil. It is this irresistible presence and liberating play of light, worlds removed from anthropocentric spontaneity and creativity, that we have discovered in the Mass of the Ages and everything that goes with it. With a shock of joy, we have embraced that gift, or rather, yielded ourselves to it, with all the fervor of young love, the foretaste of eternal blessedness.

NOTES

[1] Terryl N. Kinder, Cistercian Europe: Architecture of Contemplation (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans; Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2000), 385–86.

[2] The full text may be found here.

[3] See Fr. John Hunwicke for the canonical requirements and kindred matters.

[4] For example, a college student wrote in an essay: “We do not immerse ourselves in the Mass [viz., the Ordinary Form] as much. It is more rushed and there is less concern with what every movement and every item means.”

[5] Nicholas Frankovich, First Things, September 26, 2013, “It’s Extraordinary.”

[6] This kind of stripping of the ego happens in the vernacular Byzantine liturgy in a variety of ways that do not have their exact parallels in the Western liturgy. But that would be another subject to pursue.