TLM reaction

Posted on 16 August 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a priest friend:

Fr. Z,  I offered a Holy Mass in the Gregorian Rite for some pious Brazilian ladies who were in town visiting and a lady who is a friend of mine and of theirs.  The friend hadn’t gone to Mass for years and after the Mass  she was bawling like a baby and she kept saying "I don’t know why I am crying!" 

I think I know!

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in Brick by Brick. Bookmark the permalink.

6 Comments

  1. Chris says:
    16 August 2009 at 2:06 PM

    Keep saying the TLM father! You’ll never get those emotions out of people saying the novus ordo. If we’re going to save souls and get the Church back to where it once was — yes, gasp, turn back the clock — then we need to turn back to the liturgy of the time.

  2. Seraphic Spouse says:
    16 August 2009 at 2:25 PM

    Yay! What a beautiful story. Thank you for that. Sometimes I get teary, too, and I HAVE been going to Mass for years!:-)

  3. Traductora says:
    16 August 2009 at 5:55 PM

    We had our first EF mass in decades in St. Augustine recently. It was touch and go for awhile, partly because of the somewhat confrontational attitude of the people who had arranged it (a TLM group from Jacksonville), and partly because the priest who celebrated it (his very first EF mass) is the object of scorn among most of the diocesan clergy and doesn’t seem to be very popular with the bishop, either. We couldn’t publicize it much, but everybody was very appreciative of the pastor of the church that controls the chapel where it was celebrated for even letting it happen, and attendance was pretty good even though we were forced to change the time to an hour earlier at the last moment.

    I had invited a number of people who consider themselves “former Catholics,” and I also learned that somebody I have been singing with in the schola – who I always assumed to be a lifelong Protestant – was a “former Catholic” who now goes to an evanglical church. She said that they should never have changed the mass.

    Personally, I think there were some good changes in the works before Vatican II swept them off the table and imposed the Novus Ordo. But even those positive changes hadn’t been made and we were still doing the 1962 mass, I doubt that my friend and many others would be “former Catholics.”

  4. gloriainexcelsis says:
    16 August 2009 at 6:03 PM

    When I first found the TLM again, almost seven years ago, after years of deprivation, I also cried – tears of joy and vindication. I still get a lump in my throat and tears often, at the Consecration, Thanksgiving after Communion, at Benediction, etc. What a gift Our Lord gave us and how little is it understood and appreciated in many churches these days.

  5. Suburbanbanshee says:
    16 August 2009 at 9:36 PM

    The OF Mass makes reverts cry with joy, also. And not just reverts, either. Sometimes the Mass really is the Mass.

    I’m all for making the EF more accessible and for respect of its graces; but let’s just be glad for the lady and the priest without feeling the need to claim that this never happens any other way.

  6. Mark says:
    16 August 2009 at 10:02 PM

    I have cried during the OF Mass. If done well, it can be quite moving!

Comments are closed.