Posted on 08/10/2014 6:27:13 AM PDT by marshmallow
ST. LOUIS When Pope Francis first appeared to the crowd in St. Peters Square without the short red cape known as a mozzetta, some Roman Catholics cried foul, worried the popes decision to forgo the more formal wear signaled a threat to traditional worship.
Specifically, they fretted over the fate of the old Latin Mass, now in the hands of a papacy that seemed to shrug off pomp and circumstance.
But more than a year into Francis reign, the Tridentine Mass, as it is sometimes called, appears to be alive and well. Decades after the Catholic Church moved away from celebrating Mass in Latin, a throwback movement is growing, in many cases with young people leading the charge.
On Tuesday (Aug. 5), four men were ordained to the priesthood at St. Francis de Sales Oratory, the St. Louis church known for practicing the Latin liturgy.
The Mass marked only the second time members of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest have been ordained in the United States. The religious community, founded in Africa in 1990, regularly celebrates the old-style Mass.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Rather, I sense that the more newer ordinations want to end the abuses that have gone on in the NO masses, and to make the NO a lot more reverent.
For many Catholics, the return of the Latin Mass meant their return to the church. When the first Latin Mass was held in Phoenix, the front rows were filled with “one foot in the grave” elderly, most in wheelchairs, some with IV bags, all desperate to hear the Latin mass once again. Tears of joy were plentiful.
As far as the rest of the church, it was SRO, with large floor fans brought in to help the overwhelmed air conditioner. Many young children were also brought, and told to remember every detail, for fear that the mass would again be taken away from them.
Did a very quick read and also refers to interest among youger people for the traditional mass.
Rather it has survived very well and has joined in the many rites that are a part of the richness that is the beauty of the Church.
Thank you for this post.
Nothing short of the Tridentine Mass offers our Lord the best, and the most, in movement, meaning and piety, beauty and reverence, of worship to His gift to us, Jesus Christ.
It is good that the WP gave exposure to the movement and the unity of spirit it brings, as the deacon attested. No one is attending who is not united in awe.
Thank-you for your good word.
What I want to see are much, much more reverent masses, in both forms.
Surely you jest.
I can’t imagine having to drive four to six hours, in any direction, before finding a Tridentine Mass means anything close to saying, “it has survived very well”. LOL! Only those who don’t care about the TM, or oppose it outright, would say such a thing.
And, nevermind the near shunning of anyone appealing to bishops for the TM, and killing every effort to bring the Tridentine Mass into a diocese and parish. Stories abound coast to coast on the begging and the shunning going on.
“Survived very well”. Ridiculous.
You are welcome. The NO has a very l o n g way to go, as it has from the beginning, set in motion a scandalous pattern of minimalization of all things past, bordering on abuse of piety, reverence, dignity. That will cause waves to change.
Cleavage abounds, deck shoes & shorts is common, as well as the casual behaviors that come with it.
I am not opposed to the TLM myself. Just opposed to those who end up acting not in a spirit Christian charity towards those who attend parishes where there is only the NO mass, even when it is done in a very reverent manner such as at my parish by those who attend TLM masses themselves.
At a time when Christians in other countries are fighting for their lives we who can still worship freely in this country cannot be fighting with each other.
At most seminaries, according to my information, new priests must take Latin. Thus they can celebrate the Novus Ordo or the Latin Mass.
Good, thank-you for the updates.
At most seminaries, according to my information, new priests must take Latin.
***
Well, that is good news. Sounds promising.
Ah, a covert Zony.
I know 3 of the 4 newly ordained in this story, good men.
The celebration of Mass ISN'T about the language used. I've been to Masses in India, all over Europe and south of the border.
I must say that in Serbia, a Catholic country, I understood only ONE word of the entire Mass: Jesu Christo.
So, Latin, Greek, whatever, we were given the gift of Jesus' Body and Blood. People who refused to go to Mass because the Latin disappeared apparently WEREN'T terribly interested in the ESSENCE of the Mass, that is, the gift on taking in the BODY, BLOOD, SOUL and DIVINITY of Jesus, but in the "bells and whistles."
SHALLOW faith.
One needs only to go to Google and look up the local seminary in their area and SEE what goes on. There ARE "public" days, feast days, celebrations and such, where the hordes can visit. I did that once and it was MOST rewarding and interesting.
Signed: hordette
I don’t think people realize how many priests we know.
Three out of the four pastors in my vicariate. Two Carmelites, and several Benedictines in addition to knowing many of them by sight and just having trouble remembering their names.
Also know some of the priests in other cities, including Portland in my Archdiocese.
I so agree. We absolutely should not be fighting with each other. Our experiences are just different, therefore rather miles apart.
If it’s any consolation, the TM is at the mercy of the bishops and not so much the differences between the faithful. The faithful are mostly indifferent but not stridently opposed to something that has been unavailable to them or they have never seen themselves.
There are now, seemingly, a handful of bishops in the West who will cheerfully and actively provide for the TM, despite the longing for its return by young and old alike, and this despite the clarity of instructions from two popes to provide the great old Mass that defined Catholics for centuries.
Certainly the TM has been so banished in the US seminaries that priests themselves have seldom, if ever, been exposed to it nor trained for it, can no longer speak the liturgical Latin required for it or with any fluency, having for 40 years seen only the truncation or complete disposal of the beautiful, penetrating prayers and gestures of the TM.
Thirteen years in the Church as a convert and I have never even observed the traditional Mass, but instead have seen even the Novus Ordo celebrations become more and more indistinguishable from my Protestant experiences.
This just means I am rather exercised by the obvious campaign to keep the TM so “Extaordinary” that it is now considered a cultural oddity and a point of contention.
I am glad you have a reverent NO. I have not experienced even that in about six years. I have had to wonder if I will ever see a well done TM, in my lifetime.
Peace be with you. Rita
> The celebration of Mass ISN’T about the language used.
This is the argument of modernism, that “x” doesn’t matter as long as the intent of “y” is there. In that case, then why doesn’t the Pope wear a Hawaiian shirt, shorts and flip flops? He would still be the Pope, wouldn’t he?
When people are raised from infancy with a spiritual ritual offering them a depth of feeling and a connection with the past, that of their parents, and grandparents, and ancestors, they rarely appreciate ideas like “...and now you can download the entire mass on your iPod, and it’s *exactly* the same!”
No, it’s not.
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