It is the real thing

Last week, whilst with Catholic friends our discussion touched on the SSPX. 

I was surprised to find our friends making a statement that, up until then, I had only believed in myself in a very private way.

They stated that it was only really when attending an SSPX Mass that they felt that all was right - all was perfect and complete.

I perfectly understand this view and find it refreshing that others believe it also.

That is not to show any disrespect whatsoever to our great priests who struggle in their parishes, offering both the old and the new in an effort to hold all together, to abide by the orders of their Bishop and to the guidance of the Holy Father.

But an SSPX priest, when he celebrates Mass, does so in an environment that is wholly Catholic, wholly at one with Christ.

And he is completely dedicated to the Mass of all Time as is the church where he celebrates Mass.

The air is not defiled by echoes of guitars and tambourines, there has never been any inane pre Mass chatter in the church, no one has ever walked across the path of the tabernacle and bowed instead of genuflecting.

No lay person has ever laid hands on the Blessed Sacrament, the ambience evokes totally the hermeneutic of continuity; when you attend Mass there you are back in the time of Christ. The basic elements of the liturgy that materialised over the first three or four hundred years of Christianity are palpable - Christ lives, God is present!

That is one reason why we so badly need the SSPX back within the fold. They provide the gold standard against which, others may set their benchmark.

When the continuity of tradition has been fractured, and to a large degree lost, it is invaluable to be able to take that missing gem and restore it to its rightful place in the crown that is Christ's.

A Mass untainted by modernism