Mass in a hidden chapel

Today we attended a Latin Mass in a tiny chapel one mile off the main road and set half way up the side of a combe in glorious Devon.
What, in Wales would be called a Cwm, a valley, in other words.

The celebrant was an elderly, frail and venerable priest.

A man bent almost double with paralysis and to whom every movement is an immense effort.

A November Mass for the Dead

Yet, the Mass that he offered had a wonderful, translucent quality about it, it was not quite of this earth.

That is partly because this priest celebrated the Mass with great dignity despite his physical restrictions.

And partly because pure goodness emanates from him.
He is also, one might say, 'untainted' by the modern Mass.

He elected, in 1970, not to continue with the incoming changes of offering the Mass in the vernacular (as we called it then) and wrote his Bishop a letter stating that: "The changes that you are implementing are aimed at destroying the Church".

Strong words from such a mild mannered man.

Since then he has tirelessly travelled Wales and England, celebrating the Mass of Ages for those who requested it.

Hearing confessions, catechizing the children, anointing the dying.

He ministers, today, to a tiny flock who attend Mass in his private chapel and he counsels seminarians and priests who are troubled by the continuing storms that affect the orthodoxy of the Faith.

While we were there he received a phone call from a very prominent priest who wished to visit him.

This is the 50th year of his priesthood and he maintains that he will continue in his ministry as long as he has the strength to do God's work.

As the Mass proceeded it seemed to me that we were transported back to the time of the Recusants and that, at any moment, we would hear the thunder of approaching hooves swiftly followed by sword hilts hammering on the door.

Such events would not have phased this priest.

After Mass we chatted over cups of tea and he mourned the fact that young priests are not following the path that he chose, the lonely one of only offering the Tridentine Latin Mass.

"They lack Faith" said Father.

"And courage, Father" we replied. "You need both Faith and courage to leave all and follow Him".

Sadly, those two qualities appear to be lacking today.

Perhaps the prospect of losing one's pension scheme overrides the prospect of losing one's soul.

Seven myths regarding the Latin Mass

                          We should not expect our priests to entertain at Mass (or our altar  
                                             servers to do aeroplane impressions)

Having been brought up with the Latin Mass or Mass in the Extraordinary Form as we now call it, I find it more familiar and certainly easier to say than the English version.

The Latin rolls smoothly off the tongue while the English stammers and struggles to sound sensible and reverent.

The EF Mass attracts a great deal of adverse criticism and I regularly prune the comments box, lopping off those anonymous contributors who carp on about this or that concerning the 'Mass of all time'.

I have yet to read a comment that is sound or factual, most are in the realms of fantasy or ignorance.

So this is my attempt (for those born after 1980 or, who have not attended a real Latin Mass in the past forty or so years) to explode some of the myths bandied about by the liberal lobby.

1. "The priest gabbles the Latin"

 Have you ever travelled to France? Or Japan or Oman? Foreign languages, spoken as a first language are voluble and, to the novice listener, often sound unintelligible. They are not; it is just what we call fluency. The same applies to Latin, that's it.

2. "It's a dead language"

Not entirely sure what people mean when they say this.
Latin is at the root of many branches of the sciences and medics use it extensively.
It is also fundamental to many of the languages spoken in Europe including English, French, Spanish and Italian.
And, even if it is classified as 'dead', it is a truly wonderful thing to dedicate a language to the worship of Almighty God; a special language reserved solely for the purpose of giving praise to the Holy Trinity.

3. "We don't know what is being said"

What? I don't understand what you mean. If you look in any Latin missal you will see a vernacular translation alongside the Latin text - read it!

4. "I don't like the way the priest has his back to the congregation"

Let's make certain we know what is taking place here and why.
The priest is acting on our behalf, he is not asking us for forgiveness or for the chance of salvation or for any blessings; he is asking Almighty God for those things on our behalf.
He is acting as an intermediary, and, most vitally, the celebrant priest is the conduit that God uses to transform ordinary bread and wine into His own Body and Blood.
When you ask for anything it is common courtesy to face the person who will, hopefully, answer and fulfil your request; in this instance, Jesus Christ, present on the altar in the form of bread and wine.
If royalty was present you would not turn your back on them; what sort of leader looks backwards rather than forwards?

5. "But I don't speak Latin, the EF Mass is so elitist"

See point 3, the vernacular translation is there for you to follow.
In England and Wales in medieval times, even the peasant laity had a good grasp of Latin so there is nothing necessarily exclusive about it.

6. "Latin Masses are so quiet"

This is not a myth but I thought it worth including. If you have grown up with the dialogue Mass in the vernacular or, if you have not attended a Latin Mass for many years, there is a considerable shock element in the silence attached to the Extraordinary Form.
I view that as being rather like living in the centre of a busy city where noise is incessant and the roar of traffic is with you twenty fours hours a day. Take a break in the country and it will take you time to adjust and to appreciate that peace of mind that comes only when secular noises are excluded and fresh air inhaled.
The House of God should not be a place for noisy chatter and gossipping yet, in the Ordinary Form it so often is.
 The EF Mass allows you a number of options; you may follow in the Missal, you may follow at your own pace through personal prayer preferences or you may use the Mass as a backcloth to meditation - or you may do a combination of all three.

7.  "I find the Latin Mass thing to be old fashioned and out of date"

Fashion should not enter into the liturgical process; the fact is that the EF Mass evolved, after Christ's time on earth, providing the faithful with the most perfect means of us worshipping God and, at the same time, enabling us to fulfil His Son's request at the Last Supper.
In terms of format, that evolution had to stop at some stage; in terms of textual translation, there is a need to ensure that what is said at Mass remains intelligible.
We draw on tradition and ritual to link us back to when Christ walked the earth and to remind ourselves of our heritage - what Pope Emeritus Benedict called the hermeneutic of continuity.

And, if you wish to leave a comment please make it courteous and non anonymous.

Picture: Empower Lingua

No Mass in Westminster at Christmas?

That's what it looks like, I hope that I am wrong and, oh yes, I do mean Tridentine Latin Masses.

"Latin Mass on Christmas Day? Bah! Humbug!"

I have checked with our good friends at the LMS online and nothing is listed for Christmas Day.

It would be helpful (if, indeed, there are some occult (no, wrong context) hidden Masses available) for the Society to feature a special Christmas section because, as you can see from the badly transcribed listing, it is not overly user friendly (but the format is much better on the LMS website).

Westminster
The Oratory, Brompton Road, LONDON SW7 2RP Sundays
Mon to Sat (St Joseph’s Altar)
Saturdays (usually in St
Wilfred’s Chapel)[1]
9.00am
8.00am
12.15pm
Low Mass
Low Mass
Low Mass
St. James's, Spanish Place, LONDON W1U 3QY Sundays
Holy Days of Obligation
Tue 1 Jan (Circumcision)[2]
9.30am
11.00am
12.30pm
Low Mass
Low Mass
Sung Mass
Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane, COVENT GARDEN, London WC2E 7NA Mondays
2nd Fridays
Sat 2 Feb (Purification)[2]
6.30pm
6.30pm
11.00am
Sung Mass
Low Mass
Sung Mass &
Procession
Westminster Cathedral, Victoria Street, VICTORIA, London SW1P 1QW 2nd Saturdays (Lady Chapel)
Sat 17 Nov (Annual Requiem)
Sat 2 Mar
4.30pm
2.30pm
2.00pm
Low Mass
Pontifical High
Requiem
High Mass
St Etheldreda, Ely Place, LONDON EC1N 6RY 1st Fridays 6.00pm Low Mass
St. John the Baptist, 3 King Edward's Road, HACKNEY, London E9 7SF 1st Fridays 6.00pm Low Mass
St Mary Moorfields, Eldon Street, LONDON EC2M 7LS Fridays 7.45am Low Mass
Holy Trinity and St Augustine, London Road, BALDOCK, Herts SG7 6LQ 1st Sundays 3.00pm Low Mass
St. Edmund of Canterbury & English Martyrs, Farm Lane, Old Hall Green,
Nr. WARE, Hertfordshire SG11 1DT
2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Sundays 3.00pm Low/Sung
Our Lady of Lourdes & St Michael, Osborn Rd, UXBRIDGE, UB8 1UE 1st Fridays[3] 7.00pm Sung Mass
Church of Our Lady and St Catherine of Siena, 177 Bow Road, Bow,
LONDON E3 2SG
Thursdays[4]
Fri 2 Nov (All Souls)
TBA
7.00pm
Low Mass
Sung Mass

All other Diocesan listings have the Mass at Christmas listed as such.

Do not despair Menevia!

It is happening all over the world, brick by brick as Fr Z might say.
It may not be happening too much in Menevia (or Westminster or Middlesborough for that matter) but, the light is coming just as it came two thousand years ago in Bethlehem.

The traditional faith is on the march, read about it here

This excellent blog also carries important news for children (as well as some adults)...Santa Claus is real...well of course he is but Philothea on Phire makes a great case for honesty!

THE CRITICAL MASS - ARE BOTH FORMS THE SAME?

Well, it had to be stated at some stage; I know the SSPX view would be 'no', I expect the liberal view would be 'no', but the traditional, orthodox view is, 'YES! Yes', they are the same; a Mass is a Mass is a Mass.

But what do I mean when I state that they are the same? I mean that both Masses are valid before Almighty God and that both are pleasing to Almighty God. I also mean that there is a difference between them and that difference is one of the reasons for the Holy Father giving them the two forms; Ordinary and Extraordinary.

Which form do you think more pleasing to God? Which form produces God's gift of grace more abundantly? - or are they both the same?

Anything extraordinary must, in essence, be better than its ordinary counterpart. Extraordinary calls for extra effort, a more advanced production or style, maybe, even, a more complicated structure. That is what we experience at an EF Mass. It is more demanding for the celebrant, more demanding for the altar server and arguably more demanding for the congregation (although the jury is out as to that point, much depends on whether you 'participate' or 'meditate').

What do I mean by more demanding for the celebrant? For a start, it is in Latin. That has to be learnt and comprehended. Next, is the liturgical format itself. Few would argue against the fact that the EF rubrics require much of the priest. Each move, each tone, inflection and tenor of voice; it is, as Mgr Ronald Knox once described it: "A slow and deliberate dance". Each step requiring precision and timing. As a privileged altar server, I, at certain stages during the Mass, have a close view of proceedings on the altar; I see the hands of the priest gently rotating the host in a certain direction, I see the tips of the index finger and thumb being joined so as not to be sullied by earthly things after touching the Lord, I see the earnest and silent prayers being offered up on our behalf.
It is both reverent and complicated; it is challenging to undertake and, above all else, it places the priest in a face to face confrontation with the Almighty giving him an opportunity to focus solely on God rather than the congregation.

It is not my purpose to denigrate the Ordinary Form of Mass in any way. As stated previously, it is an authentic and licit form of the Mass. But it requires less input from all concerned, it is plain, it does not challenge, it is ordinary.

Which form do you believe to be more pleasing to God? Which form do you believe produces a greater flow of grace from God to us?

They cannot be equally pleasing. Cold logic precludes that train of thought. A one line prayer enunciated in 3 seconds must be less effective in producing grace than, say, a more elaborate and longer prayer (accepting that both are delivered reverently).
Ten decades of the Rosary are better than one Hail Mary; is that not the principle?

I want to emphasize the fact that both Masses are valid but I also do not wish to shy away from the fact that the Extraordinary Form of Mass is more competent in terms of the reverence it inspires and the volume of grace that comes as a result.

I have experienced that flow of grace.
As a family, we 'bounced' back into the traditional arms of Holy Mother Church in 1988 - for a number of profound reasons. Our needs were provided by a great priest, Father Peter Lessiter. Father Lessiter travelled the country, on a continous circuit, taking the Mass and Sacraments to the faithful. As returners to the Latin Mass he explained that we would receive  tremendous grace as a result of the path we had chosen.
This was so. In fact, it was so to a point of overflowing, and so it continues to today.

Finally, I would like to ask a question of every priest that celebrates both forms of the Mass:
"Given the option, would you prefer to only celebrate one form and, if so, which one?"
The answer will be known only to God, but I think it would be an extraordinary one!

Are we being subjected to liturgical engineering?

I don't mean clown Masses or prancings around the sanctuary, I'm talking about the rash of Masses in Tagalog, Polish, Cantonese (why no Mandarin?), Spanish, Portuguese and even Xhosa for all I know.
These have erupted in Great Britain over the past ten years and I believe that the whole concept of liturgical provision in various languages to be flawed.
Why? For very many sound reasons. For a start, our essential Catholic nature is universal and inclusive. If you must have Mass in the vernacular then that is what should be on offer. The only exception might be if any one country had a "national" Church in a major city, like the French Church near Leicester Square.
For too long we have pushed factions into separate pens, encouraging a ghetto mentality. When Phillipino nurses come to Britain en masse they should go to Mass in the vernacular as part of the process of adopting the language and customs of the country. Keep them apart from their British brethren and you have separatism and exclusion.
In the aftermath of Vatican II, the Catholic regions in India suffered from this problem, and are probably still suffering for all I know. They certainly suffered from it in 1997 when I was last there.
Madras, or Chennai as it is now called presents a very good example of the dangers of "language" Masses. In that region it had been the custom, fully approved of under Quo Primum, of celebrating the Mass in Malayalam but when Vat II took root, the Masses began to be offered in Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and so on. The congregation, of course, split into the social or ethnic groups so that Tamils never had  occasion to mix with Hindi speakers, factionalism crept in and there were scraps over Mass schedules, the various groups became ever more isolated and partisan towards each other. A strain was placed on the Church authorities who had to make great efforts to ensure that priests who spoke the required language were available. What had once been one united congregation (need I say, with the Tridentine Latin Mass) became a series of much smaller, disparate groups with little in common.

Exactly the same problem is emerging in Great Britain. Phillipino Tagalog Mass proliferate as do Polish ones and its not just in the cities, rural communities are being affected also.
Different races need to be brought together rather than segregated and the other major issue is, what happens to the native Catholic? If they only have one chance to get to Mass on a Sunday and its in Polish, they are sunk (at least from following in any co-ordinated fashion). Pastoral care is threatened also. It is unreasonable to expect a priest brought up in a Sri Lankan or Nigerian culture, to click into place in leafy Leamington Spa or Aberaeron in Wales -  generally it just will not work and besides, these priests are much needed back in their home countries.



Photo: Tradition in Action

Mass Indian style in Juan Capistrano Basilica, California - could be your parish next!

 A rapid check online shows that, for example, St Patrick's Soho Square offers Mass in Spanish, Portuguese and Cantonese; and remember last year when Damian Thompson of Holy Smoke reported on Mgr Curry's move to ditch sung Latin Mass in favour of Tagalog Folksie?
It can only be a question of time before someone offers us Mass in Esperanto!
                                     Dio sav ni!