Are you in England? Anywhere near London?
The great Fr. Finigan has posted on his mighty blog, The Hermeneutic of Continuity, the plans for the patronal feast of the parish, Our Lady of the Rosary. They will have a Solemn Mass in the Extraordinary form on 7 October.
Fr. Finigan has an outstanding idea! He suggests bring non-Catholic friends.
Here are the plans:
Friday 7 October [8 PM] is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and therefore the patronal feast of my parish. We’ll be having High Mass at 8pm (as well as English Mass in the morning and school Mass in the afternoon.)
Cantores Missae will be singing the following:
Mass setting:
Victoria: Missa Simile est Regnum
Motets:
Guerrero: Sancta Maria
Byrd: Ave Verum
Schubert: Salve ReginaDo come along if you can. This year, I thought that I would try a new angle by encouraging people to bring non-Catholic friends to the Mass to hear beautiful music sung for the purpose for which it was composed (the worship of God) and in the setting for which it was composed (High Mass.)
You can gain a plenary indulgence (under the usual conditions) even for just visiting the Church on 7 October and reciting the Pater and Credo. This applies to any parish Church on its titular solemnity.
I have often suggested in preaching that people invite others to come to Mass and to confession. Non-Catholic friends, of course. But also fallen away Catholic friends.
His Hermeneuticalness has proposed a great idea. May I suggest to pastors of parishes and bishops of dioceses to do the same?
New Evangelization starts with small and personal moves.
Brick by brick.
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Fr Z,
We’re having our 3rd daughter’s Baptism today after Low Mass. Non-Catholic family members will be attending. We were hoping for a Missa Cantata so our family could hear the choir but instead they’ll get to experience the Hail Mary’s and St Michael prayers that follow.
What a beautiful invitation. I will keep this parish in my prayers.
Everyone should be making these invitations all the time!
I earnestly request the prayers of the liturgically blessed for those of us of the faithful who hardly dare to invite our separated brethren and others to Mass for fear that our guests would be mis-instructed, as to the nature of the liturgy and of the Catholic faith, by the manner of the celebration of the sacred liturgy in the parts of the world in which we dwell. A friend of mine, having invited a Protestant friend of his to Sunday Mass, had this happen only a couple weeks ago.
Was it His Eminence, Raymond Cardinal Burke who not so long ago remarked upon a poorly celebrated Mass’s capacity to injure the souls of the faithful? How can I invite those who are not practising Catholics to attend Masses that I have watched for years now weaken the faith of practising Catholic friends and acquaintances?
I know my parents are coming to visit me next weekend, and by some sort of Divine Intervention my mom decided to come to the TLM with me. (Whenever I’ve mentioned it she’d go on about how horrible it is, it’s liturgically incorrect because the congregation doesn’t recite the Pater Noster, communion on the tongue and the priest’s spitty fingers [??? Never experienced this one] and pretty much anything else you could think of to complain about. I’m contemplating using my daughterly charm to get my dad to come too, if for the only reason to keep Nosey Pelosi at bay wondering why I only have one parent with me at Mass. He’s the master of coming up with excuses to not go to Mass, though.
“I have often suggested in preaching that people invite others to come to Mass and to confession. Non-Catholic friends, of course. But also fallen away Catholic friends.”
Father, how could one invite a non-Catholic friend to confession? I was always under the impression that non-Catholics can’t go to confession. I understand that any validly baptised person can receive absolution, but are priests allowed to hear confessions from and give absolution to non-Catholics who aren’t, say, about to received into the Church?
Fr. Z – you said that you preach that people should invite non-Catholic friends to go to Mass and Confession. I thought that only Catholics can go to Confession.
[Here is what I actually wrote: “I have often suggested in preaching that people invite others to come to Mass and to confession. Non-Catholic friends, of course. But also fallen away Catholic friends.” I think it is pretty clear what I meant.]
I believe non-Catholics can go to Confession, but they can’t be absolved.
I’d also point out that this Mass is being offered for the talks between the SSPX and the Holy See according to a prior blog post of Fr. Finigan.
I think that attendance at Mass in the Extraordinary Form would be a marvelous tool for the evangelization of non-Catholic friends. I would caution against forcing the entire history of Vatican II and the liturgical crisis down a non-Catholic guest’s throat when doing so, however. Just let the experience speak for itself, and answer any questions they might have. No need to answer questions they might not have.
I sometimes think about inviting non-Catholic friends to Mass, but a few of these have expressed their resentment at the fact that they are not invited — are disinvited, actually — to receive Communion. There are also those who might go ahead and receive Communion anyway, and this would cause a real problem for me. I would be interested in knowing how have others dealt with this situation.