From a priest reader:
Attended [Mount St. Mary Seminary] open house festivities this evening, including Service of Lessons and Carols, at which Mount rector Msgr. Rohlfs announced the planned celebration of EF Mass tomorrow at 4:15 pm at the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, Mount Saint Mary’s College, Emmitsburg, MD, for the first time in about 50 years. A choir will travel from Washington, DC, to assist at the Mass.
And from a seminarian:
This is the required Mass for the seminarians, and will be celebrated by Monsignor Pope from the Archdiocese of Washington. I believe it to be the first solemn Mass in the Extraordinary Form there in many years, and the first in as many that the seminarians are required to attend. This is their Mass, so I assume they will be singing the Mass and fulfilling all of the offices.
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Correction: Mount St. Mary’s is in Emmitsburg, MARYLAND, not PA.
…although if you sneeze hard, they cnn hear it over the Mason Dixon line.
It’s right there…
Chantry, the polyphonic group from Washington DC, has been arranged to sing the Mass.
They will sing Francisco Guerrero’s Missa Sancta et Immaculata Virginitas and the Gregorian propers. They will also do a couple of motets, Guerrero’s Ave Virgo Sanctissima and Josquin’s equally famous motet Ave Maria . . . Virgo Serena. All for Our Lord and Our Lady.
Msgr. Rohlfs the current rector is as sterling and as orthodox as his predecessor, Bishop Kevin Rhoades (Harrisburg, PA). He is making the Extraordinary Form available and accessible to his seminarians. With him at the helm and the excellent faculty they have, Mount Saint Mary Seminary in Emmitsburg IS the premier seminary in the nation in my book. Sadly, I was not fortunate enough to be sent there but I know many alumni, priests and bishops alike, and many current seminarians (including the Missionary Franciscans of the Eternal Word – from EWTN) and I see nothing but high caliber across the board.
They learn the Ordinary Form in both the Latin and the Vernacular and now they can also learn the Extraordinary Form as well. Not just the Mass, mind you, but all the sacraments. This way, when these guys get ordained priests, their bishops can send them to almost any parish and provide for all the spiritual and liturgical needs of their parishioners. Just as many seminarians learn Spanish to minister to the needs of Hispanics in their parishes, even in territorial ones not predominantly Spanish speaking, now we can see the day when many (if not most – and God willing someday, ALL) newly ordained priests can provide either Ordinary or Extraordinary Forms depending on the parishioner’s own needs, as Pope B16 intended.
Hopefully, the POLITICAL dimensions of those who requests and those who provide for the E.F. will finally evaporate. It would be nice if the People of God were not held hostage by hidden agendas of certain pastors and bishops, rather, that all the ordained serve the needs of everyone (as far as possible and allowable in law). This is why some of us would also like to become bi-ritual and learn the Divine Liturgy of the Byzantine Catholic Church. One priest friend of mine from Erie can celebrate the O.F. in English, Spanish and Italian, as well as in Latin; the E.F. (low, high and solemn high); the Byzantine Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (Ruthenians); and the Maronite Divine Liturgy, too.
A delegation from our server crew at Old St. Mary’s in Washington is making the trip to assist in this Mass. The crew will be composed partially of seminarians and laymen. I’m really looking forward to it.
I believe Msgr. Pope offers the solemn high Mass every 2nd Sunday of the month at 5 pm at St. Mary’s on 5th and H, NW in DC.
Meanwhile, yesterday at Mass it was announced that St. Mary’s would provide a extraordinary form low Mass at 7:30 pm today.
This is extraordinary news. Please pray for the rector, he must be under an enormous amount of pressure for striving to do the right thing and be faithful to the Pope’s liturgical vision. The “establishments” in both the archdiocese of Washington and Baltimore are surely not pleased with these developments, but it speaks volumes that the rector is going ahead and doing it anyway – as well as the courage of the seminarians.
EJ: Please pray for the rector, he must be under an enormous amount of pressure for striving to do the right thing and be faithful to the Pope’s liturgical vision.
Is there good reason to think so? One can well understand priests who are not themselves prepared to celebrate Mass in the EF–and hence are not receptive to requests that they do so–but are significant numbers of them actually opposed to seminarians being prepared for the future? If so, why?
Back in the olden days of the Ecclesia Dei adflicta indult, then-Bishop John Myers asked Msgr. Rohlfs to take a leading role in organising the celebration of Tridentine Masses in the diocese for those who desired it. I believe many of Peoria’s seminarians and recent ordinandi have been enthusiastic about Latin liturgy in both ordinary and extraordinary uses. At Bishop Daniel Jenky’s request, a Latin novus ordo is celebrated at St. Mary’s Cathedral on Saturday’s at 4 p.m.
Students from both side of campus (seminary and university) looking forward to this Mass.
FATHER JOHN TRIQUILIO
Do the Maronites celebrate ad orientem at your side of the Pond ?
Thet don’t in England.
In the greater Washington, D.C. area we are blessed to have nine parishes offering ten diocesan traditional Latin Masses within 90 miles today for the feastday:
* Saint John the Baptist in Front Royal; 7 a.m. Low Mass
* Saint Joseph’s in Richmond; 8 a.m. Low Mass
* Old Saint John’s in Silver Spring; 10:30 a.m. Low Mass
* Mount Saint Mary’s seminary; 4:15 p.m. High Mass
* Saint Lawrence in Franconia; 6 p.m. Low Mass
* Saint Joseph’s in Richmond; 6 p.m. High Mass
* Saint Alphonsus in Baltimore; 7 p.m. High Mass
* Saint Mary’s in Old Town; 7:30 p.m. High Mass
* Saint John the Beloved in McLean; 7:30 p.m. High Mass
* Old Saint Mary’s in Washington, D.C.; 7:30 p.m. Low Mass
Laus Deo! I have been waiting for news such as this for ages. The Chapel is gorgeous. I have been there often. Also, the Feast is the perfect time to introduce the Usus Antiquior to the Mount Saint Mary’s community. I hope the Mountain Echo, the school newspaper covers this. I check it often for news on the TLM at the Mount.
In the Immaculata,
D.v.
Ken and Deo volente:
I was at the mass today at Our Lady Queen of Poland (Old St. Johns) and Fr. Fritz announced that there would be a TLM at St. Bernadette’s in Silver Spring on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe at , I think, 7 pm. Is this correct and if you know is it High or Low?
Jim,
First, I only post Sunday Masses. Second, another problem with Saint Bernadette’s is that the Parish has no website and uses the ADW portal for its link.
I’m afraid I can’t help.
D.v.
7:30 p.m. High Mass at Saint Bernadette’s in Silver Spring on Friday, 12 December.
Holy Trinity parish in Gainesville, Virginia (just outside of Manassas) has a low Mass every Sunday at 12:30. On Christmas we will have our first high Mass! http://www.holytrinityparish.net.
D.v.
The Mount Echo will definitely be covering this. I’ve got the assignment on this one.
This is great news!
MSM Student,
Could you shoot me an email when the story is posted? My email address is on the blog. Just check under my blog profile.
Thanks!
D.v.
Msgr Rholfs is not new to the EF. He beautifully and frequently celebrated the Mass for us at St Mark’s Parish while in Peoria before departing for the Mount. Glad to see that they will implement it at the Mount!
I agree with EJ that the establishment in the Archdiocese of Baltimore is probably not happy. The traditional Mass has been appropriately ghetto-ized at St Alphonsus….and the conventional wisdom says that should be the end of it. Months ago a “liturgy office” was established. The cynical among us see a ruse to hold at bay all those people who want Latin, Gregorian chant and the 1962 Missal until they come to their senses and forget about it. Requests for Mass according to the 1962 Missal in the parish churches have been ignored. In my territorial parish, requests to sing the simple Gregorian Sanctus in the NO are routinely turned down in spite of the fact that I lead the well- rehearsed parish Gregorian schola of 7 voices! It just does not make any sense at all.
DaveA,
It is not up to the Archbishop to arrange for the TLM. The good man has enough on his plate at this moment. Summorum Pontificum placed the celebration of the TLM in the hands of individual priests and their Pastors. If a priest wishes to celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass using the 1962 Missal, they are free to do so.
St. Bartholomew’s Church in Manchester, MD, for example, has had two TLMs, and by all accounts, they were well attended. The shortage of priests who know the TLM is the problem it would seem. In fact, the shortage of priests is a huge problem in the Archdiocese.
I pray for the Archbishop every day. In his time, he has been overseer of FOUR seminaries: one in N.Y., one in Rome, and now two in Baltimore/Emmitsburg.
Perhaps praying for the Archbishop and some intercessory prayer would accomplish a good deal more. For one thing, perhaps the F.S.S.P. would make a request to enter the Archdiocese and to take over one of the several parishes that are without a priest? Also, since Fr. Zuhlsdorf speaks of “brick by brick,” why not ask first for the simple “Benedictine Arrangement” for the altar. That one act might work wonders if more Parishes adopt this.
D.v.
Msgr. Pope is a very fine fellow. He is head of the Archdiocesan task force for the implementation of Summorum Pontificum. When I wrote to Archbishop Wuerhl complaining about lack of progress one year after Summorum Pontificum, I received an incredibly gracious, detailed, three page response from Msgr. Pope, which contained much cause for hope.
Msgr. Pope also arranged for an EF Mass to be celebrated at his own parish, Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian, the first in many, many years. I though it was an excellent model of how the EF might be introduced to those unaccustomed to it. Servers, clergy and choir from Old St. Mary’s assisted, Msgr. Pope gave an excellent sermon focused on those elements less familiar to ordinary parishioners (ad orientem, chant, reception kneeling etc.), and the parish choir ably contributed a couple of motets in Latin.
Ken – how do you know this stuff? One of my major complaints in Washington is that I am unaware of half the opportunities to hear mass in the EF, especially those that are not regularly scheduled. I would like to get some kind of website or email blast organized so that all of us of the traditionalist inclination in the DC area could be in the loop.
Jonathan — sign up for this listserv and you’ll hear about every traditional Latin Mass in the entire region: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tlmarlington/
Ken – Thank you. I just signed up.