Fashion Week

Louie,

In light of the Holy Father’s suggestion that attachment to the traditional Mass is tantamount to an addiction to a certain fashion, I thought it might be useful to provide an audio “fashion show” of excerpts from this past week’s Septuagesima Sunday for those who haven’t had the privilege of assisting at such a liturgy. (I know that doesn’t apply to most readers here, so please pass this along to those who might benefit.)

The beautiful sacred music featured below (please forgive the iPhone quality) is courtesy of the Gregorian Society of Baltimore. If you feel so moved, you can support this fine organization dedicated to “preserving and fostering the Traditional Latin Mass, sacraments and ceremonies of the Roman Rite in the Archdiocese of Baltimore” here. (Special thanks to choir member Debbie Bena for helping me make the recording.)

I’ve provided some notes [in brackets] to help those who typically attend the Novus Ordo get their bearings, along with the English translation of the Latin text below the player.

Asperges [Just before the Mass begins, during the Asperges, the priest sprinkles the assembly with holy water. In the Novus Ordo this is either the “Good Morning, everyone!” rite, the turn-and-greet-your-neighbor rite, or the lector-reads-the-welcome-statement-alerting-everyone-to-turn-off-all-cellphones-and-pagers rite.]

Thou shalt sprinkle me, Lord, with hyssop and I shall be cleansed; thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow. Have mercy on me, O. God, according to thy great mercy.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

INTROIT [In the Novus Ordo, this is the “gathering hymn” as chosen by one of the parish’s resident experts; e.g., the piano player, the director of worship, the liturgy committee, etc.]



The groans of death surrounded me, and the sorrows of hell encompassed me; and in my affliction I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice from his holy temple. I will love thee, O Lord, my strength: the Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer. Glory be to the Father…

Gradual & Tract [Roughly speaking, in the Novus Ordo, this is where the cantor, with a majestic wave of the hand, signals the congregation that they may actively participate by singing, in key or out, the “Responsorial Psalm.”]

Gradual

A helper in due time, in tribulation: let them trust in thee, who know thee, for thou hast not forsaken them that seek thee, O Lord. For the poor man shall not be forgotten to the end; the patience of the poor man shall not perish for ever: arise, O Lord, let not man prevail.

Tract

Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. If thou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities, Lord, who shall stand it? For with thee there is merciful forgiveness, and by reason of thy law, I have waited for thee, O Lord.

Credo [The Creed, that part of the Novus Ordo where everyone still gets tongue-tied at “consubstantial,” and the feminists (and their spineless male supporters) grow mute at the word “men.”]

I believe in the God the Father Almighty…

Offertory [In the Novus Ordo, this is the part of the program where some lucky members of the congregation get to actively participate by carrying up the gifts, at which point they typically exchange niceties with the priest that no one else can hear. This, apparently, serves the Novus Ordo version of the “secret.”]

It is good to give praise to the Lord, and to sing to thy name, O Most High.

No, Holiness, it’s not exactly the latest in cutting edge liturgical style, but we do so hope you’ll patiently tolerate our addiction.

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Comments (25)

  3. Francis may call it fashion, but to me it is more like oxygen (something that you can’t live without). I will concede however, that although the traditional Mass goes back about 1500 years or more, oxygen predates it by a good margin.

  6. If Tradition is “fashion” then the Novus Ordo is “faddish”—ever changing and getting uglier by the minute. The Church is supposed to be Timeless, not timely. Pope Francis is a Modernist through and through. Thank you, Louie V., for these wonderful recordings.

  7. What a sad day it is, that the Vicar of Christ would hold such a low opinion of the Mass that sustained Catholics for centuries. Let him trash the Mass again, Peter has already spoken through Pope Benedict XVI and Summorum Pontificum.

  12. p.s. at my new parish it is simply, ‘for us and for our salvation…’ well that was before priestly changeovers. now we say the apostle’s creed.

  14. dear S. Armaticus,
    thank you ! I just ruined my dress by spitting out my Puerto Rican coffee when I read “—its exploitation.” One simply cannot make this stuff up!

  15. The Tridentine Mass is the true Mass, and the true Mass is the true faith and fidelity to God, and “the sensual man perceives not these things that are of the spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him.” (1 Cor. 2: 14), even if Francis is not acting maliciously when he said that adherance to the Tridentine Mass was a fashion. Those who are faithful to God and who value their salvation as they ought will reject the heretical and unholy Novus Ordo Missae which is created according to the fashions of this world.

  16. The greatest treasure which glorifies the Church of God…..known to few…..is the Holy Tridentine Mass. That sacrifice is the ‘sun’ of Christianity, the soul of our faith…….the center of the Catholic religion. An inheritance that has been given to Catholics from generation to generation.
    If, it’s God’s Given to His children……who dares to take it away, to destroy it, to make it a spectacle of mockery to the enemy? In every age, the holy Church suffered from ‘dare devils’……our age is no different.

    Francis, and his predecessors by their ‘words and actions’ are a perfect example of how the false ecumenism has destroyed the Catholic Faith…..why they ‘hate’ the Old Mass. Why each and every one of them have promoted experimenting with the ‘holy Liturgy’ of the Mass……turning their back on God, facing people. All along knowing once they turned their back on Jesus, so will the lukewarm follow. The loss of millions of souls was and is not their ‘grief’, Their ‘pride’ and ‘fear of men’ was stronger, then ‘fear of God’! Protestantism is more convenient.
    .
    ….from Fr. Georg May in his book, The Ecumenism Trap, published in 2005.
    “Ecumenism destroys the Catholic faith. Ecumenism deals a deadly blow to the Catholic priesthood. Ecumenism drains the marrow from the bones of believers. There is a clear sense that, as a consequence of ecumenism, the Church has become Protestant. Ecumenism is a sickness, and furthermore a mortal sickness, the cancer of the Church, the metastasis of which has reached virtually all its members. The Church may die of ecumenism; she cannot live with it. It must be done away with as soon as possible and in the most radical possible way.”

  17. “[A.] “Vatican II was a re-reading of the Gospel in light of contemporary culture,” says the pope. “Vatican II produced a renewal movement that simply comes from the same Gospel. Its fruits are enormous. Just recall the liturgy. The work of liturgical reform has been a service to the people as a re-reading of the Gospel from a concrete historical situation.”
    .
    http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2014/02/cdw-secretary-abp-roche-latin-mass.html
    —
    “Enormous” ? Yes they are – & deadly. V2 was poison. If Judas, Arius or Luther is worthy of beatification, so is Paul VI – not otherwise. Any Pope who says that the Church is in a New Pentecost, is a fool, an ignoramus, a liar, or a fantasist.
    —
    “Ecumenism destroys the Catholic faith. Ecumenism deals a deadly blow to the Catholic priesthood. Ecumenism drains the marrow from the bones of believers. There is a clear sense that, as a consequence of ecumenism, the Church has become Protestant. Ecumenism is a sickness, and furthermore a mortal sickness, the cancer of the Church, the metastasis of which has reached virtually all its members. The Church may die of ecumenism; she cannot live with it. It must be done away with as soon as possible and in the most radical possible way.”
    .
    ## Tell us something we don’t know. The problem is that the rapists, vandals abortionists & thieves – sorry, Popes – who have “governed” (pardon the misuse of language) the Church since V2 insist that ecumenism is a good thing. They are poisoners & abortionists of the Church’s Life – but they cannot be dislodged. They are free to continue to kill the Church. Because they cannot see, or refuse to see, the harm the Church has sustained & continues to sustain thanks to their ideas.
    There has to be a way by which the Church can protect herself from Popes like these. As things now stand, she has no defence against them, except the knowledge that that even they cannot ruin her for ever. The present arrangements do not envisage traitor Popes & hirelings like Paul VI; the result is that the CC is condemned to being raped until these men’s crimes are ended by Divine Providence.
    Dr May can complain – justifiably ! – until he is blue in the face, but until the Popes are made accountable to the Church, instead of being unaccountable tinpot Caesars lording it over it, the rot will continue. (I am well aware of the Conciliarist movement, & of Vatican I – but there are alternatives that have not been tried. They need to be, ASAP.)

  18. JImmy:
    You said: “There has to be a way by which the Church can protect herself from Popes like these.” There is. It is the doctrine of the faith itself that Christ left His Church, it says: “A pope who is a manifest heretic automatically (per se) ceases to be pope and head, just as he ceases automatically to be a Christian and a member of the Church…” (St. Robert Bellarmine, De Romano Pontifice, II, 30). Pope Paul IV papal bull “Cum ex Apostolatus Officio” 6, 7, says the same thing. Pope Pius XII in Mystici Corporis, 23, also said: “For not every sin, however grave it may be, is such as of its own nature to sever a man from the body of the Church, as does schism or heresy or apostasy.” St. Thomas Aquinas also said: “Whoever is a heretic is a schismatic.” (Summa Theologica, Q. 39, A. 1). St Robert Bellarmine said in the rest of the above quote that such a one could be deposed and judged by the Church since he is nor a pope or even a member of the Church if he is a heretic.

  19. The only thing we can count ourselves fortunate is an apostasy on this scale has happened after 2000 years so we have a solid understand of what the church has always taught enabling us to clearly pinpoint the ruptures.

    Good post Jimmy.

  20. Unfortunately could not attend TLM last sunday. I dragged myself to the local Novus Ordo. Never again. Kids dressed in what can only be described as white batman capes participating in everything that they could…. except saying a prayer. The priest quoting deceased Church of Scotland Minister William Barclay in his sermon…. give me strength. The most awful guitar playing and dreadful hymns… Never again!!

  21. This is coming from a bishop who celebrated mass with large puppet figures all around him. He is trapped in the 1970s and it’s a pity.

  23. Armaticus……For those who joined the ‘greatest circus on earth’, this is love……love of ALL MEN…… their ‘god’.

    For the faithful Catholics this is a ‘mockery’ and ‘scandal’ of the Roman Catholic Church……the true ‘unblemished’ Catholic faith is no longer visible to the world…..but, not for long. The Soldiers of Christ, who love God, but ‘hate’ heresy…… are arising, to defend, to protect in fearless faith Our Mother the Church! …….what a privilege it is to be Catholic! Viva Cristo Rey!

  24. Not very impressed, Louie. There are proper tones for the Propers, so why are these grown men Rossini-ing them? Rossini psalm-tones are for high school.
    There are two ladies (both amateurs) chanting the Propers in our EF small-town coetus fidelium of less than 20, but they use the Liber Brevior. which can be bought, “vintage”, for less than $40 a piece from Amazon, Ebay, or AbeBooks.
    There are also quite a few chant resources on line, an excellent site being the Saint Rene Goupil section of Corpus Christi Watershed. I’ve been to Saint Alphonsus Church in Baltimore and I think Sts. Alphonsus and John Neumann deserve better.
    The Baltimore scola sounds professional but not very resourceful.

  25. Listening to the Asperges Me makes me sad.
    .
    We have all of the alternative ‘rites’ at our NO mass. The lector (usually a girl in tight pants or too short of a skirt) tells us to turn off our cell phones (but nobody does until it rings twice, and they find out who it was), keep the children from running around unattended, and please stand to greet our sisters and brothers. Then, when the priest gets up to the front, he says hi and welcome, and whatever other suitable comments there are to be said.

    Come Lent, I’m sure there will be sand in the fonts again.

    Sigh.

    Paul

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