It was a Saturday afternoon in summer. It was bright and sunny. It was a “Saturday vigil” Mass for some green Sunday or other. I was twelve. The celebrant was the diocesan bishop, Theodore McCarrick. He was doing a parish …
Category: Liturgy
The Pre-55 Pentecost Vigil: Ripe for Restoration
Back in 2019, I had the opportunity to attend for the first time the Pre-55 Holy Triduum, and afterwards published an article here about the experience. This year, in 2021, came my first opportunity to assist at the Pre-55 Pentecost …
Calendar Clues: Pope Francis and the Lex Orandi of Papal Maximalism
For all his interest in the liturgy, Pope Benedict XVI made not a single change to the Calendarium Romanum of the ordinary form of the Roman Rite. Even after declaring John of Avila and Hildegard of Bingen to be doctors …
Why I Couldn’t Go Back… to the Novus Ordo
On March 8, 2012, the Jesuit magazine America published an article by Fr. Peter Schineller entitled “The Tridentine Mass: Why I Couldn’t Go Back.” For years, I’ve noticed that America actually pays to promote this article in online searches so …
The Consolation of Maps: The Geography of the Latin Mass
It is said that the knowledge of Church history is a consolation. Most often this is meant in the sense that, for those who are troubled about the Church in the present age, all you have to do is look …
My First Experience of a Pre-1955 Holy Triduum
Recently, I bumped into a friend who expressed her surprise that 2019 was the first time I had ever attended the pre-1955 (i.e., ancient or unreformed) Holy Week liturgies. She was under the impression that someone who travels, reads, thinks, …
Holy Week: Get Your Full Ticket’s Worth
Imagine you’re in a movie theater watching the latest blockbuster, thoroughly captivated by the plots and subplots, the beautiful faces and lush scenery as the movie progresses inexorably toward its climax. Your cell phone alerts you to an incoming call. …
Benedictus: A Brilliant New Resource for the Old Rite
As the Vatican continues its bizarre feud with the venerable Roman Rite, going so far as to prohibit the offering of the Ancient Mass in St. Peter’s upper basilica (the very Mass for which that basilica was built), it is …
The Latin Mass: A Strong Foundation, Not A Silver Bullet
For the past two years, our family has been attending Mass in the Extraordinary Form exclusively, save for a couple of times where I found myself at the Novus Ordo by necessity. Though we attend a Diocesean TLM, I have …
Vatican Suppresses Private Masses at St. Peter’s Basilica – Priests Respond
This morning, I awoke to a message from an associate in Asia. He writes: “I know you don’t want to write negative stuff anymore, but this is terrible. No more private Masses in St. Peter’s. So many altars will be …
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