Post intelligent and civil comments. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the NLM
The Missa Solemnis at 6 p.m. on Saturday in the Basilica Shrine's crypt (downstairs, not upstairs -- that will be a Sunday novus ordo ending before the traditional Mass on Saturday begins!) will be a votive Mass of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Will Stehle be overseeing the music?
I can assure you there will not be one conga drum in the crypt on Saturday evening.
Although, we are in need of an organist, if there are any solid players in the D.C. area who would do this for free..............
Ken: None of the organists at the Shrine would be willing?
I'm thinking of going to this, any idea on what attendance will be like?
In addition to Saturday's Solemn Mass at the Shrine in Washington, Fr. Romanoski is scheduled to offer another Solemn Mass at St Alphonsus Church in Baltimore, on Sunday, June 8, at 11:30 am. Fourth Sunday after Pentecost.
I understand Fr. Romanoski will be imparting the special blessing of a newly ordained priest after this Mass.
*Off topic and abusive of the comment box (will you indulge me? Delete if inappropriate)*
I hope a local will help me out, as Google and all my trusty usual sources haven't revealed anything so far: I'm going to DC for the first time June 21-28. My train arrives Sun am at 10:00. Any NLM-ish recommendations for Mass? I'm happy to volunteer for any singing or playing...
Nullpara:
Check out TLM Arlington on Yahoo Groups. It has all the DC area E.F. listings.
As a reminder, under the 1983 Code of Canon law, going to the 6PM Trid at the Shrine fulfills your Sunday Mass obligation.
Does anyone have any additional information about the Solemn High Mass in the Crypt Church?
My dad and I are thinking about going, and it will be the first time either of us has had the opportunity to participate in the EF. Are there likely to be any hand-outs or helpful guides, or should we try to print something out on our own?
If the latter, any suggestions? I think I'd be fine without, but I'd really like it if my dad could have something to help him understand more of what is going on.
Thanks!
A point of clarification on the above announcement regarding the post-Vatican II liberalization allowing one to attend Sunday Mass on Saturday: the Solemn High Mass this Saturday in the Shrine's crypt will be a vigil Mass for the Immaculate Heart of Mary -- NOT a so-called 1967 "anticipated" Mass for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost.
There are many options for Sunday Mass on Sunday, including several High Masses in the region.
Jeff R -- you are choosing a fine first Mass to attend!
I recommend printing the following:
Ordinary (omit the Asperges):
http://mysite.verizon.net/missal...sale/
order.html
Propers (omit the commemorations):
http://mysite.verizon.net/missal...sale/
aug22.html
Sit somewhere in the middle and just follow the standing, kneeling and sitting of people who look like they know what they're doing. I look forward to hearing your reaction.
Ken,
the obligation is to hear Mass in the time specified by the law, i.e. "either on the feast day itself or in the evening of the preceding day" (can. 1248 § 1 CIC). Which Mass propers are being used is irrelevant.
Gregor, thank you for debunking that. I get tired of hearing this old chestnut trotted out. Otherwise you couldn't go to a votive mass on a Sunday.
I thought it was a votive Mass, not a vigil Mass.
Thanks, Ryan!
Thanks so much for the info!
How much attention do you all suggest we should pay to the print-outs during the Mass? That might sound like a weird question, but I don't want to miss the beauty and solemnity of the Liturgy because I was spending an unnecessary amount of time and energy trying to follow everything on paper...
Any more tips from NLM readers on how to skate by doing the bare minimum? How late can I show up and how early can I leave and have it still count?
I guess that's an example of the OF's gravitational pull on the EF. Less of that, please.
Jeff R -- great question. I went to a talk where the Institute's Monsignor Schmitz made a recommendation to look toward the altar for as much of the Mass as possible. Otherwise, one could read the missal at home. Of course, having the Latin-English translations of the ordinary, propers and rubrics is helpful when there is "static" time (i.e. prayers at the foot of the altar, the Epistle and Gospel, the cannon, etc.), but I think you would most appreciate your first Mass by witnessing and hearing the sacrifice. Then you could glance at your printouts every so often.
But be sure to catch things like the kiss of peace tomorrow -- you won't see a traditional Missa Solemnis very often, at least yet.
Enjoy it!
Sorry -- "canon." We're not shooting anything...
I think Jeff R brings up an interesting point: how much do we contemplate visually, how much do we look at our missal? He is not speaking in terms of minimalism, which has been here always, in both the EF and OF.
I think he asks it not so much in a spirit of minimalism, but how do we move from a text-based modern praxis to the grand, integrated visual-textual tradition of the past? The temptation to keep one's nose in a book--or, to not crack a missal at all--at an EF mass is a great one, and finding a devotional balance between the two requires discernment. Ideally, it'd be a question that would not need to be asked, but we live in strange times.
Boko, all the rules I know about the "bare minimum" come from the period before the liturgical changes. That was an era that at least had rules. If the present state of the Church is to be lamented, it is not for its rules-bound nature.
Boko,
your comment is unnecessarily aggressive. I have not recommended going to Mass on the evening before instead of the Sunday or Feast day proper (personally, I never do), but only clarified the law as it stands (and hearing Mass on Sunday is a law of the Church, which can be changed). We are certainly not helping the cause by making people believe they are bound to do something which Mother Church currently does not ask of them, independently of whether we think the decision to allow the anticipated Mass was felicitous or not.
At the same time, Gregor, Boko brings up a valid point: why not remind people they can arrive for the first word of the offertory and still fufill their Sunday obligation?
I think the point here is that we should promote the traditional and not worry about the optional liberalizations that have been created since the 1962 missal. Don't ask, don't tell, because I don't care. My interest is in the traditional Mass, disciplines, rubrics, music and sacraments.
Now, how about we go back to encouraging people to attend the Solemn High Mass at the Shrine on Saturday, and one of the Solemn High Masses in the region on Sunday?
You're right, Gregor, and I apologize for the aggressiveness of my post. Ken's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy is, I think, best here, and that's what I was getting at. It is debatably permissible for everyone to receive standing up and in the hand at an EF Mass, perhaps even to have "altar girls." Until we get a clear kibosh on this from PCED, though, I think it best just not to mention it.
Until PCED clarifies the relationship between current disciplines and the EF, I think we're only asking for trouble by bringing this up.
I am kind of scratching my head over the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. I presume the people adopting it here are intelligent people acting in good faith. But it /is/ important to know what the bare minimum is. I wish every parish in the country reminded people in the bulletin that there was a point after which their arrival does not fulfil the obligation (barring justification).
The Mass has been advertised as open to all, and it is reasonable to think that some of the people there will be attending to fulfil their obligation. No one should be bent out of shape by those doing so. And it is not for those who choose to attend both on Saturday and Sunday to criticize those who do not, or to suggest that others attend on Sunday. Such criticisms/suggestions could come from the relevant pastors, confessors or spiritual directors, but not from some random do-gooder.
I've been called "random" before, but never a "random do-gooder." Thanks.
The real issue here is the intersection of post-reform (for lack of a better word, and, because I'm such a do-gooder, I even left out the sneer quotes) disciplines with the pre-reform rites. It's a hot-button issue that can lead to hurt feelings, anger, resentment, an irregular situation within the Church, and, ultimately, schism.
Some ultramontanes, basking in the warmth of the New Springtime, have a rather blase attitude about what does and does not impede the full communion of others with the Church. This do-gooder is much more sensitive to the legitimate aspirations of his brothers in Christ.
If I've given offense with the do-gooder label, I apologize. But I'm still scratching my head here. I can understand people who have a legitimate aspiration to attend the traditional liturgy every day of the year. I can't understand a legitimate aspiration to require someone ELSE complying with Church law to do more than that. It's a difference between "what I want available to me" and "what I want other people to do beyond the lawful minimum." The former is admirable; the latter, bizarre.
One of the reasons I'm scratching my head is because I'm not sure of the exact proposition I'm responding to. Neither Boko nor Ken have claimed that the law is otherwise than it is. But the reaction to the observation is peculiar.
I guess my conclusion is this. Don't like the changed law? Live in compliance with the former one.
It just occurred to me that, in the context, one reason to encourage people to attend both Saturday (DC) and Sunday (Baltimore) would be to assure a good turnout, or to avoid embarrassing sponsors, or to impress the Shrine. If that is what Ken or Boko had in mind, I would find the motives comprehensible and coherent.
Their have been sung Masses at the Shrine before albeit Missa Cantata. I know i did it three times in MAy and once in January.
If I can offer some brief thoughts that may help to frame the present discussion in a more helpful light.
My family is leaving for vacation on Sunday, and we have a day full of travel in order to get there, so my we are going to a vigil Mass on saturday in accordance with present Church law.
However, my dad and I both want to go to the Solemn High Mass, as we have never attended the extraordinary form. I can't imagine that in this situation the promoters of the NLM would tell us NOT to go to the EF because according to old canon law it wouldn't have counted traditionally. That seems counterintuitive.
However, I can see the discussion being framed in a helpful way by pointing out that the Solemn High Mass is a votive mass and will therefore not have the readings for the proper Sunday. That, conjoined with the practical fact that first-time hearers will not pick up everything immediately, makes it a perfect opportunity to ALSO attend the "regular" Sunday mass. If people want to return to the traditional practice of always hearing Mass on Sunday (ie not the vigil), I suggest advocating it by inviting people to delve deeper into the spiritual life by going to both, rather than taking the juridical approach.
Anyways, thanks a ton for the advice, and I really appreciate the comments about how much to use the missal and how much to keep my eyes to the east!
God Bless!
- Jeff
Jeff R -- If it works for your family, you could attend today's 6 p.m. Solemn High Mass at the shrine's crypt, then attend tomorrow's 8 a.m. Mass at Old Saint John's in Silver Spring, Md. or the 9 a.m. Mass at Saint Mary's in D.C. before your travels.
By the way, we will have a fantastic organist playing tonight at the Solemn High Mass -- he read the plea in this thread. So thank you!
It is certainly wholesome to encourage frequent Mass attendance. And so I feel that I need to explain why I am troubled by Ken and Boko's otherwise-wholesome comments here. Traditionalists cannot be a sect of super-Catholics within the Church, akin to the perfect among the Cathari or the Pelagians among the Catholics. Entreaties to live a more faithful life cannot be used to mask the proposition that the Church's minima are insufficient to lead a Christian life.
The Solemn Mass and Benediction in New York on Friday were wonderful. Being First Friday, the Mass was a Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Msgr. Schmitz was present in choir and preached the sermon - an inspirational reflection on the Sacred Heart. A schola chanted the propers from the Liber Usualis and the ordinary was Kyrie Fons Bonitatis. The congregation enthusiastically joined in singing the hymns for Benediction, especially the Tantum Ergo.
After Benediction there was a lovely reception in the courtyard of the school. By then, the sun had set and the evening was quite pleasant. The First Friday Masses at the Church of the Guardian Angel will resume in October.
As the organizer for the Nine Month Novena of Masses at Guardian Angel, I am glad to see a positive response on this website, in addition to those I received first hand since the event.
While we will resume on First Fridays in October, I will keep you posted about possible future events in the mean time, eg, days of recollection and liturgical symposiums for priests and laity. If you are interested in receiving an e-mail directly from me, please send it to grizzetti8cm@yahoo.com with the subject: Oratory of the Sacred Heart and I will add you.
Nullpara --
If you'd like to go to a very solid Novus Ordo Mass, you should go to St. Stephen Martyr parish for their 11:00 am Mass. The church is modern in architecture, but I think the liturgy is the most beautiful and the preaching is the most orthodox in the city. The church is at the corner of 25th and Pennsylvania Avenue.
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