At Mater Ecclesiae Church in Berlin Township, the Mass has been said in Latin for several years, unlike at most other Roman Catholic churches.
Music was sung in Latin at the Mass. The pope allowed freer use of the traditional liturgy.
Posted on 07/10/2007 1:25:59 PM PDT by Pyro7480
With their love of tradition and their formal dress code (no shorts even for children, and covered heads for women), the members of Mater Ecclesiae Church in Berlin Township can seem a tight-laced congregation of Roman Catholics.
But on Sunday they were ringing bells, popping corks and slicing cake, and - mirabile visu! - some were even smoking cigars.
Mirabile visu? Isn't that Latin?
Graceful, dignified, formal and obscure, Latin is the language of choice at Mater Ecclesiae, one of the only Catholic churches in the nation where all the liturgies are conducted according to the centuries-old Tridentine rite.
Its bells were ringing and corks popping after Sunday's Mass because Pope Benedict XVI had on Saturday issued a decree allowing freer use of the traditional Latin liturgy, which had all but withered away in recent decades.
"My good friends, we are living through and a part of a major, fundamental, awesome reaffirmation of the tradition of our faith," the Rev. Robert C. Pasley, rector of Mater Ecclesiae, told his congregation from the pulpit during Sunday's high Mass....
Mater Ecclesiae, which is not a parish but a borderless facsimile open to all worshipers seeking to partake of the Tridentine tradition, is the site for Latin Masses of the Camden Diocese. It had 70 families when it began in 2000 and now has 520, according to Pasley, a diocesan priest....
Sunday's high Mass at Mater Ecclesiae began at 11 a.m. with a procession of three priests, 12 altar boys in black cassocks and white surplices, and 12 white-clad girls of the Blessed Imelda Society, as the choir and congregation sang Gregorian chant. In Latin, of course....
After a special ringing of the church bells and a singing of the ancient hymn Te Deum ("Thou, Lord"), the congregation relocated to the church hall for sparkling cider and cake. About a dozen of the men - including Pasley - retired to a veranda for a bit of conversation and "Chestertonian incense," or cigars....
Marisa Consoli, 17, who said that next year she will join a traditional order of cloistered nuns that prays day and night for priests, said she owed her "vocation to the Latin Mass because it increased my love for the Lord."
Music was sung in Latin at the Mass. The pope allowed freer use of the traditional liturgy.
Catholic ping!
What a beautiful church.
Awesome
I was there, and it was just an awesome day. And yes, I was one of the dozen or so who indulged in the Chestertonian incense. I actually bought the Inquirer (God forgive me!)today just for this article, as the reporter alerted us it would run on Tuesday.
Home parish ping!
Your parish church is beautiful -
We are in an English-Mass parish, but the local FSSP parish is not far down the road. They took an old Baptist chapel and made it a thing of beauty -
I believe this is the fairest MSM article on the MP and the TLM that I’ve read yet. Thanks.
Considering that the reporter attended the whole Mass and stayed afterwards for the festivities, we were all hoping his article would be positive, and it was. He even told us how he remembered the TLM when he was a kid and was mouthing the words to the “Tantum ergo” during Benediction. I would guess he’s about 50-55 years old.
WOW and double wow!! I didn’t know the Inky was at the Mass!!!!!!
bumpus ad summum
I can remember the Latin Mass from my childhood, and I'm 52. We used to travel around the Caribbean a lot, and we always went to Mass when there wasn't an Anglican church available.
It must be nice -
Sacred Music
Music Coordinator – Dr. Timothy McDonnell
Director of Schola Nova in Philadelphia, PA
Member of Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra
Music Director – Mr. Nicholas Beck
Recent graduate of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, NJ
Organist – Mr. Karl Tricomi
Teacher at Haddonfield Conservatory of Music
I am et up with envy. No, I shouldn’t say that: I am full of gratitude and hope, really. These precious few are seeds: and now our wise, kind Benedict has taken the concrete blocks and tarpaper off the ground so these seeds will grow, and seed, and yield 40 or 60 or a hundredfold, and a hundredfold again.
Finally, laus tibi Domine, a new Springtime.
Very striking church.
I’m just happy that everyone else is happy! Except for the people who are grumpy, of course ... and piffle on them!
bump
God bless Pope Benedict XVI!!
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