Here are some audio clips, stitched together, from Holy Mass this morning at Holy Innocents in NYC. This was a Sung Mass in the Extraordinary Form. We were happy to have good polyphony and Gregorian chant … as there is every Sunday.
I left a period of silence leading up to the consecration. Silence is a necessary part of our worship.
This was made from a small digital recorder in the edge of the pulpit, so don’t expect good balance between celebrant at the altar and pulpit, and also the choir in the loft.
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After Mass!
There was the Holy Innocents’ version of coffee and doughnuts.
There were also empanadas and bagels with schmeer and fresh croissants.
To wash it down…. Mystic Monk Coffee!
TLM and Mystic Monk with all these goodies.
If you are in NYC why aren’t you at this Mass on Sundays?
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How beautiful! I’m jealous; the only TLM in my diocese doesn’t have the resources to sing high Mass.
[Oh but it does! There are people! Build it… brick by brick!]
I’m not minimizing the effort and level of involvement necessary to have Sung Masses regularly, but it can often be done quite worthily and well with a small number of dedicated people. The T.L.M. I’ve attended for most of the past eleven years has a large corps of servers, several veteran M.C.’s, a talented and dedicated music director, and… a totally amateur schola of about 15 souls whose average age is under 25. People are amazed at what they manage to accomlish liturgically with what might be considered minimal resources, however I also have had the privilege over the past year of helping to get another weekly T.L.M. going much closer to home. With a congregation that averages about 40 and a pastor (and staff) that tolerates rather than encourages the E.F. Mass we have MANY fewer resources but we manage to have one or two sung Masses each month with a VERY small schola – two (very talented young) voices! – and as few as five servers! And I’ll reiterate that the liturgy is done worthily and well! Yes, it takes some effort and commitment; and it really helps to have a priest who wants to do it (and of course a few people who can handle very basic chant) but the results are well worthwhile.
Just beautiful Father, thank you. What a shame that I didn’t appreciate the EF when I lived but a 20 minute subway ride from Holy Innocents!
The Cowboy Blend reminded me of a wonderful poem by John Senior. I’ll post it if I can find it, but cannot just now, as I think it’s on the other computer somewhere.
High Mass is always good (only been to 4 in the last year), Dohnuts and Croissents look wonderful, but if I were the Priest at Holy Innocents the ‘mystic monk’ would be unceremoniously poured into the down the drain (although I hate Coffee its only mystic monk coffe that should be treated this way, I CAN tolerate people drinking coffee) and post-Mass drinkies would consist only of good old fashioned Earl Grey tea and squash for the children.
Beautiful,The Holy Sacrifice of the MAss as it should be in every parish in the world. The Dunkin Donuts bring back memories of living on the east coast. As a lover of the Traditional Mass and Donuts, I can Say Fr. Z was as close to heaven as one can get in this world.
I’ve never been to a TLM, but I just had the most nostalgic moment at 14:50 – 16:50 from back when priests used to sing the vernacular NO Mass every Sunday. I haven’t heard that since back in the mid 90s. Without it, the Mass just seems so…bland.
At my parish, I would settle for expunging Marty Haugen from the repertoire…
No crullers??? :-(
“If you are in NYC why aren’t you at this Mass on Sundays?”
One good reason might be that those with a preference for the TLM now actually have many choices. Within walking distance of one another in midtown, there are sung masses each Sunday at 9am, 10am, and 11am. Overall, the situation in the Archdiocese of New York and the neighboring dioceses is very good. Things have certainly changed.
I would love to have a EF in the suburbs of Baltimore :(
Oooo, those Dunkin’ Dounts and NY bagels look delish, Father Z!
And I would love to have an EF in a not-so-far-away parish in my diocese! The ones that my diocese allows are far-flung distance-wise or at ‘ghetto hours’.
There’s another storm headed East-time to hunker down or take the next plane out!
I wonder if this is where the Cowboy Blend name came from:
COWBOY COFFEE BY JOHN SENIOR
The immediate (practical) purpose of drinking a cup of coffee is to wash the biscuit down; the proximate (ethical), the intimate communion of, say, cowboys standing around a campfire in a drenching rain, water curling off their Stetsons, over yellow slickers, splashing on the rowels of spurs, their faces creased with squinting at the sun, drawing the bitter liquid down their several throats into the single moral belly of their comradeship. The remote (political) purpose of coffee at the campfire, especially in the rain, is the making of Americans — born on the frontier, free, frank, friendly, touchy about honor, despisers of fences, lovers of horses, worshippers of eagles and women. Nations have their drinks: the English, tea, the Irish, whiskey, the Germans, beer. Drinking coffee from a can is us. The ultimate purpose is mystical. To drink a can of coffee with the cowboys in the rain is as Odysseus said of Alcinous’s banquet: “something like perfection.”
This is posted on http://alcinousbanquet.blogspot.com/2009/06/greatest-mistake-of-my-life-dr-bernard.html
Just listened to the ‘sounds of the Mass’, Father Z-wonderful! Sounded like heaven!
Thank you for bringing this to us here in the ‘spiritually starving’ dioceses of Upstate NY!
Loved your voice and the voices of the choir! Is the choir at Holy Innocents small? Seems there were only a few male singers….
irishgirl,
The choir is all men: four paid singers (including the director) for the polyphony plus two volunteers who join them for the chant.
eweaver,
Very cool! And I like the way they stay together when singing! Thanks for the info!
Mens’ voices always sound nice when they chant!