I was able to make it into DC on Saturday evening to attend the Mass of reparation offered by Fr. David Franco of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), who was ordained a year ago last month. The Mass was offered in reparation for abortion and the other sins of our nation. It marked the conclusion of the FSSP’s annual pilgrimage to the Shrine.
I have a particular love for the Crypt Chapel of the Basilica, and not only did the Mass of the Ages seem very fitting in those environs, but the acoustics for the schola were exceptional (as was the schola itself). Here are two samples I grabbed with my pocket digital recorder:
Schola Clip 1:
Schola Clip 2:
I also brought along a camera so that I could share some photos of the event with you. You’ll note that it was a very multi-cultural event, reminding us once again that the universality of liturgy bridges all divides. As is so often the case with the TLM, the majority of those in attendance appeared to be quite young, including families with small children (which is a considerable feat at 5:30PM on a Saturday). I never tire of being reminded that the liturgical future of the Church rests in the hands of those who have chosen the ancient Roman liturgy, rather than merely having inherited it.
Some curiosity-seekers who were exploring the Basilica came by during the Eucharistic Canon and stood in the back near where I was set up with my camera, and they seemed very taken with the sacred music and reverence that permeated the chapel.
Those who have attended the event before tell me this is the largest crowd they’ve had for it. It’s wonderful to see something like this growing. Hopefully one day soon, it’ll be large enough that it has to be held upstairs in the main church. What a glorious sight that’d be!
Oh how beautiful!
Why can’t we all just be Catholic again?
Wouldn’t that be awesome?
The second schola piece put me there. You can hear the clicking of the thurible against the chain. Was this the Offertory Antiphon? I could almost smell the incense. The chant and the clicking of the censor together are just so….so….Catholic!
I’m honestly not sure. I just set the recorder down and let it run while I was taking photos. I went back to the recordings and looked for some clear audio, and that’s what I gave you. I think it’s a good guess on your part.
Fr. I was an alter boy starting around 1968. My parish switched to the Tridentine mass in English and then later to the Novus Ordo. I felt no greater honor than when it was my responsibility to incense the priest. I never understood why the mass had to be changed. Clearly, a Tridentine mass in English was a good option.
I used to go to mass in the crypt every morning after working the night shift at Washington Hospital Center. I miss it so much! Thanks for the beautiful pictures.
Hopefully one day soon, it’ll be large enough that it has to be held upstairs in the main church.
It *would* be – but the Crypt is just a better looking venue than the Upper Church, so I can’t say I am unhappy about being down there for this…
My feelings are similarly mixed. Still, I want thousands!
Ideally, of course, there would be TLM’s regularly celebrated in BOTH the Upper Church and the Crypt…
As far as the Upper Church is concerned, it can happen.
man with black hat: Stairway to Heaven
I was there for that – a terrific event.
I can’t believe that’s the crypt! There are no churches like that where I am. I would love to see some of these churches someday. It does have a very peaceful, special (can’t think of quite the right words) look about it.
I would like the Holy Father to MANDATE at least one TLM per week in EVERY Church throughout the world. Record it, broadcast it on the Internet, and disclose the amount of the offering.
Theoretically, if Trads are right, this would be a jam-packed mass while the 3 or 4 other Novus Ordo masses in the parish would languish. It would be good to find out how much support there is for the TLM in the real, every day life of Catholics. In my city of 5 million people, perhaps 1500 people a week attend the various SSPX, independent, and sedevacantist chapels in the area. Is that the ceiling or is lack of canonical regularization holding so many back?
I wish it were that simple. In my experience, being immersed in the Novus Ordo “paradigm,” so to speak, innoculates you against the TLM. The two forms of the Mass have such different orientations and theology that they noticeably clash with one another. And inasmuch as the NO is very man-focused, the typical reaction of a person exposed to a TLM for the first time is one of complete alienation: “I don’t know what’s going on, I can’t see anything, I can’t hear anything, I was totally lost. I hated it.”
That was my reaction. It took me several attempts and years of conversation, study, and thought before I was ready to actually go TLM without looking back. It was a process of deprogramming.
Without that, I don’t think the old saw about how if the two were allowed to stand on their merits would actually play out the way trads think it would. Yes, some would see it right away. Many would feel slighted. Maybe even most.
That’s the role, I think, that the missa cantata plays in the current life of the Church Steve. If the low Mass is a bit of a challenge in terms of accessibility to those who have never been exposed to the ancient liturgy, the missa cantata is more accessible because of the chant. You would have to be very hard-hearted to have chant like what you recorded touch you. Easier said than done of course with the difficulty of finding people wiling to learn it, but how many people do we know now that just want to be Catholic (as Netmilsmom says above), that don’t want priests to be liturgical game show hosts, warm-up one-liners and all, but want them to instead offer sacrifice. The missa cantata in particular has the power to serve as the gateway to Apostolic Tradition.
The Missa Cantata led me back to the Church. The Latin Masses that I grew up with were not inspiring — in fact I found them to be somewhat forbidding — my first guitar Mass — was my last Mass for many, many years. I had to attend funerals and the hymns offered were — in my opinion — just plain horrid. The first Missa Cantata I actually,saw (and heard) was on the web — it was an SSPX Missa Cantata offered in Paris. From the very first notes of The Asperges, I knew. I am well and truly Home now, and pray that others will find this, too.
I grew up with only the novus ordo and my experience was the opposite. I was hooked from the first, enthralled with the entire ceremonial, with the huge number of all male servers in cassock and surplice… with the palpable reverence, the incense.
Then after more research, I was hit with the knowledge that this was our patrimony. The knowledge of every saint the Church had produced up until the very late 20th century…
Now I serve twice weekly (to include MC), recite the Divine Office (Lauds, Vespers, Compline daily with the Little Hours as work allows and Matins rarely), and have been pouring over liturgical and ecclesiastical history.
You hit that right on the head. It is a different kind of seeing. It’s like being transported from one culture to another.
At first you flounder, but if you remain long enough you see the beauty. At first the main concern is the fact that you can’t understand a thing. Then your senses settle and you get a glimpse of the Divine. And if you persevere it becomes home and you feel like you’ve been wandering kind of homeless all this time.
The rejection is too common. Our tiny Latin Mass community doesn’t grow, even though there are three Masses on Sunday at 7:30 am (Low), 9:30 am (sang) and 11:30 low, and daily Mass at different times of the day (two on Solemnities). Too often I heard, but why Latin when we have English. Or another one: I like doing something and here I am deprived of my “active” participation.
Well, I keep thinking about all the parish “jobs” or “ministries” that many paid folks fill who would lose them. I mean, think about it: no more musicians other than organists, no more guitars, banjos, bongos, no more “liturgy directors”, no more abuses of the Blessed Sacrament, no more Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist…the list goes on and on….
I get a warm feeling just thinking about it!
JMJ I never knew there was another rite let alone 22 different rites. My first time at the TLM by accident I said this is not Catholic! Another 3 times and I knew this is what my soul was always looking for. Knock and the door will be opened seek and you will find. I am with now Aboriginal Australians who pine in their old age for the Old Latin Mass please spare an Ave that Our Lord will answer their prayers.
Where abouts are you Tim?
Steve, I have a very good, lifelong friend who is staunchly Catholic. He wrote a lengthy article which includes over 400 footnotes of documentation that he is trying to get published. His computer is currently down, and he would like for me to send you a complete copy for review and possible publication on your website. Where can I send it?
The “deprogramming” that you’re talking about is the process of becoming Catholic after having been (unwittingly) Protestant. So the process of moving Novus Ordo Catholics back to their Latin Rite patrimony would approximate the process of Protestants converting to Catholicism.
Pope Emeritus Benedict should have mandated it but hadn’t the nerve. Then he abandoned us or, in his own words, extended the Papacy. All Catholics everywhere have been denied their rightful heritage.
Moreover, Benedict should have completely abrogated the Novus Ordo altogether.
Yes, he could & should have, but he had a great input into the NO Mass & Vatican II generally. He essentially is a Modernist although not as in your face as PF & the St. Gallen Group. There doesn’t appear to be any non-Modernist in the Hierarchy so we are on our own. Hopefully Lund will bring a lot of people to their senses.
When people see and hear the Mass of Ages, they come to see how wonderful it is. Pray for those good priests.
Fr Ratzinger worked alongside Fr Karl Raehner SJ, a very clever but also radical theologian at Vatican II. Both wore suits there. Pope Benedict still wears a suit on occasion. His prayers at the Blue Mosque and presiding over Assisi 2, a joint religious ceremony with every manner of pagan, show that he was still a Modernist as Pope. Restoring the Mass of Ages was a great mercy, and he clearly loves the traditions of the Church, but he was certainly, as you say, no Traditionalist.
I don’t think they would be packed, at least not right away… there are many moving parts: the servers and the choir most especially but must consider the most important part: the celebrant. Most priests don’t know the rubrics, which are precise and demanding. They don’t know Latin, either… most work long hours and especially in certain regions are spread over a couple parishes each. None of these are insurmountable, but then consider that many Catholics do not know what they don’t know and are actually happy with their Mass… just like the Catholics of the 1960’s were. None asked for the reforms and most aren’t asking for things to change back, unfortunately…
Don’t get me wrong, I find the TLM far superior in every respect to the NO, but the faithful should not be disregarded now anymore than they were in the 1960’s. Reform needs to be done carefully and deliberately to make sure as many souls aren’t lost as saved.
What he said was that at least one Mass of the week should be in the Old Rite in each parish. There is nothing unreasonable about this request when all you’re doing is adding or replacing one time slot. When the novus ordo hit, Masses were changed overnight and Mass as the people knew it was de-facto abolished.
People won’t switch over night, they need to be exposed and given the opportunity. How else are they going to be given the opportunity if you don’t actually offer the Old Mass in their parishes? How can you talk about being pastoral when you’re not actually doing anything? There is absolutly nothing un-pastoral about this. Offering one Mass out of the whole week in the traditional Rite is the most pastoral approach to the restoration of tradition.
His Holiness can mandate anything he wants, but the reality is that, at present, there are not enough priests who know how to celebrate the ancient rite, and not enough of the faithful who want it.
“if you can’t imagine why you don’t have access to the Traditional Latin Mass in every gosh darn parish in the universe, as of one day after the Pope said you could, or you want to know what has to happen to have one anywhere at all, you should read this.
“Then you should read it again. Slowly.”
man with black hat: The Latin Mass: Why You Can’t Have It
When the NO Mass was instituted they learned it very rapidly. They would also learn the Tridentine Mass quickly as well if it were mandated. After all it’s not that difficult and our missals always carried the vernacular on the side so everyone could follow the proceedings.
As regards the vestments – these used to be made in the convents, particularly enclosed orders, as were the hosts & communion wafers.
I feel that if the Traditional Orders were allowed into parishes the Old Rite could be implemented very quickly as they could teach the NO Diocesan priests and the laity would, I believe, give their support to such effort as the benefits to the parish would be visible to all.
“People won’t switch over night”…yes they would…every Latin rite Catholic was forced to virtually switch over night to the Novus Ordo. I think you would be surprised.
According to PF the TLM is just a fashion..i don’t think he would ever mandate such a thing
So lovely!! Technical question: What are the specs for your photos? (camera/lens/tripod) Thank you in advance!
I just purchased a Nikon D7200 for publication use. It shoots high def video and has an incredible sensor for low light (25K ISO) which is absolutely necessary when shooting in churches. The crypt chapel was actually far darker to the naked eye than in these shots.
I alternated between the two kit lenses that came with it: an 18-55MM f/3.5 VR and a 55-300MM f/4.5 VR. I had my 50MM f/1.8 prime on hand, but I wasn’t working closely enough to my subjects to use it. My goal when shooting at a liturgy is to be unobtrusive.
No tripod was used at all. All hand-held.
Lovely pictures Steve! Especially with no flash.
Thank you so much! I have a D700 and have to be there this week for an event. I assume you also didn’t use flash…i hate flash and it looks like i might be able to escape it, at least for Mass. I have a 70-300…not that great, but i think it could work well if i have to be back a bit. I also have 85, 50 for primes. Thanks again for the feedback and beautiful photos!
I pray for the day I can go to Church and feel Jesus there.. Have priests there for my spiritual soul, and kneel in front of the alter to take communion… The Vatican 2 took all that beauty away… the Ladys 3rd massage of Fatima was never honored… I’m sure the day will come when wrath from God will change peoples hearts and minds when there will be a judgement coming one day.
We need a “miracle of the sun” for all pagans to see and believe.
Whats stopping you most priest won’t stop you if you kneel for communion regardless if its EF or OF. I go to the OF with my family on Sunday and receive the same way I do at low mass on Saturday mornings
I want to cry for 2 reasons: 1) the beauty of what you have posted 2) on Saturday night I attended the saddest NO mass in my life in an architecturally beautiful church, but nearly empty with mostly old people, no altar servers, the procession led by a woman and the music led by a guitarist…the future is not here but in the TLM..looking at the pictures my recurring thought is “there is life here”
Can you hear the schola from above? I wonder if people are ever attracted to go down to see where the beautiful singing is coming from?
I have been super busy of late with Parish and Family related stuff, however three week ago I was able to make it to FSSP’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton Nebraska to attend the week long Low Mass workshop. It was excellent and I would recommend it to any priest, plan on attending the Sung Mass workshop either in December or next May. Should be able to have my first TLM in a month or so, want to make sure I am fluid with it before I offer it publically.
JMJ praise be Jesus Father, courage, we will pray for the grace for you to continue. Ave Maria
That was beautiful! Thank you for sharing. I hope and pray that we will have more Masses like this one.
They’re so few in the grand scheme of things. Thank you for the heartening photos.