Last night here in the Diocese of Madison we had Solemn Mass for the Feast of St Andrew and the Sacrament of Confirmation administered in the Traditional Roman Rite by His Excellency Most Reverend Robert C. Morlino, aka the Extraordinary Ordinary.
A few photos.
Mass was, of course, ad orientem, as are all the Masses at this parish, NO and TLM.
We were happy to use the wonderful red set of vestments for which some of you good readers made donations.
We had over 50 confirmands from several states.
Among the confirmation names I saw most frequently as I received the name cards for the bishop were Teresa or Therese and Michael. There were a couple John Pauls. Among the most interesting names were Venantius and Zdzislaw.
The Sacrament of Confirmation is important. Never forget your confirmed character. Ask God to strengthen you through the sacrament when you are challenged or beset. Ask Him to help you bear witness to the Faith. Ask Him for a special measure of gift of Fortitude in your struggle against the world, the flesh and the Devil.
UPDATE:
A few more snaps from another source.
Forgive the ignorance of this question: Is that you wearing a “Roman purple” cassock, Father? Have you been promoted without our knowing, or is there some other reason?
@James – clerical MCs at pontifical liturgies are entitled to the purple cassock. To my knowledge, Fr. Zuhlsdorf is still very much a nonsignor.
James, no need to apologize for not knowing something. I think some chapters are missing from my rule books!
His Excellency Bishop Andrew Cozzens will also again be doing Confirmations in the Traditional Rite this coming June in the Twin Cities.
This coming Sunday, Bishop Winter will be confirming candidates in the Extraordinary Form at St. John XXIII Quasi-parish in Pittsburgh.
One other question: I thought that altar cards were not used for Pontifical Mass but I see that they were used for this Mass.
Happily, it seems the average age of the confirmands is on the young side! We need to move back toward the proper ordering of the Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism -> Confirmation -> Eucharist.
It’s good to see the younger than usual confirmandi. God knows they need the sacramental graces in these times. Nice photos, too.
JohnMa,
Fr Z wrote that it was a Solemn Mass not a Solemn Pontifical Mass. It appears from the photos that our host was the principal celebrant not the bishop.
I’ve noticed that often times when Confirmation is conferred in the EF that the Bishop himself doesn’t celebrate the Holy Sacrifice. Why is that?
padredana,
As I recall the celebration of the holy Mass was not required or normally celebrated during the Sacrament of Confirmation according to the missal of Pope John XXIII. When the missal and the sacramental rites were revised by Pope Paul VI, the Mass became normative.
I defer to our host or the knowledgeable Henry Edwards for confirmation – pun intended.
padredana,
Aux. Bishop Joseph Perry of Chicago discusses Confirmation in the EF and the fact that there is usually no Mass celebrated in this video starting at about the 22:11 time mark. HERE (Bp Perry celebrates the TLM/EF Mass all over North America! I recommend watching all of the videos in this series by the way.)
Father Z, whoever took the first photograph that appears in your article – hang onto them and encourage them. You need more like it.
Do any readers here know what a male, adult confirmand should wear? I see dark, probably black suits on the boys. The person I know being confirmed in a week or so does not own a suit, and does not especially like black. Thoughts…? Gracias.
Charivari Rob,
We are, at the Tridentine Mass Society of Madison, no worries! She’s a talented young lady, and has taken quite a few of the Madison Pontifical Mass pictures that Fr. has posted here before. She does a great job!
How old are the youngest there? Some of these look younger. How is it that they seem to be varied in age?
Also back in the day was it common for the girls to wear white like First Holy Communion? I’ve never seen that. Our church has them all wear red [graduation-looking robes].
mo7: certainly over here in Ireland, back in the 60s anyway (and a.f.a.i.k. in the UK also) it was the done thing for the girls to wear white, with veils etc. for Confirmation. My sister was confirmed in 1967, three years after her First Communion, and my parents had the expense of a completely new outfit (not that they minded!). In fact, I just checked our old family album for that time, and I see her dress & veil are less elaborate than for Communion but still very much not a dress for daily wear. As far as I remember they continued to wear them to Mass for a little while afterwards, plus veils. But then women still covered their heads back then anyway as a matter of course.
For us boys, it was just school uniform – obviously a new one! Black blazer, grey shorts (worn all year round back then) and long grey stockings with black shoes polished to a resplendence only outdone by the Army. Oh yes, and those silly little school caps we used to have to wear. Hated them.
Beautiful!
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