Catholic and Enjoying It!
A reader in Florida writes:
Mr. Shea, here is part of an email I received from Michael O’Connor
There will be a Missa cantata in the extraordinary form at St Patrick’s at 2:00 on March 1 and then another at St Christopher’s at 2:00 on March 8. Both will be assisted by the Gregorian schola. Pray for us, the Proper chants are the most difficult ones of the year!
(St. Patrick’s is located in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.)
Learning about this Missa Cantata represents one of the best days of my entire life. I’ll prolly die from joy during the Mass itself.
For forty years I have wandered through the Liturgical Desert in Maine and in Florida with my senses and intellect assaulted by loud jaw-boning in the pews prior to Mass; Priests as reverent as the fat guy manning the cotton candy booth at the local fair; drums at Mass; Prayers made-up seemingly on the spot, St. Louis Jebbie Ditties, etc etc, and now I learn I have but a few more miles to go in that desert before I reach the well of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful.
If I die there. I die happy.
Mr. Shea, I know how much you hate Mass in the Extraordinary Form (You know I am teasing) and how you despise we old-school Christian Catholics (again, teasing) so I wanted to tell you of my great and uncontainable joy.
The young priest offering the MEF was trained by the Canons at St. John Cantius. And it was my Bishop, Bishop Barbarito, who paid for he and another Priest to be trained in the Mass liberated and restored to its rightful prominence by Our Sweet Jesus on Earth, the great Pope Benedict.
God Bless you Bishop Barbarito, and Fr. Nelson, and Mr. O’Connor and everyone else whose love for the Immemorial Mass with its Sacred Music has brough to fruition what I thought were my irrational seeds of hope. If it can happen in my Diocese, it can happen everywhere.
Jesus makes all things new.
I’m happy for you! But don’t tell anybody. Cuz everyone knows I have nothing but contempt and loathing for the Latin Mass.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In