I found a priest’s blog with a charming name: Father Talks Too Fast
Back in October Fr. Joseph Faulkner preached a sermon about ad orientem worship. It’s a little weird at first, but he gets good points across. He posted the audio of the sermon.
Fr Faulkner also posted his explanation of what he’s up to.
“I Wish I Had a Hat” — Ad Orientem
This weekend we inaugurated ad orientem worship at St. Wenceslaus—that is to say, the priest and the people face the same direction at Eucharistic Prayer. We are going to do this as a spiritual exercise for at least a year. There were about ten more things I wanted to say, but the homily was already nineteen minutes long. I will post more later in this blog and in our bulletin.If you are skeptical about this practice or even frustrated by it, I encourage you to read or listen to this homily slowly and prayerfully. And then I encourage you to experience it. Many a person has thought they were going to hate it but once they gave it a chance they even preferred it.
He has a follow up, to which he links.
Father is pastor in… I’m not making this up… WAHOO, Nebraska.
Moving back to ad orientem worship is urgently needed. We MUST revitalize our sacred liturgical worship. This is the key to the renewal of our Catholic identity and, hence, our effectiveness in the world around us as individuals and as a Church functioning in the wider world.
Out of appreciation for his efforts, I’ve sent Father one of my coffee mugs.
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Wow! Thanks for the bump! Yes, the homily definitely begins weird. Gotta jostle the thinking a little bit to dig into something new. And to those who attend the EF, I want to be clear that I wasn’t trying to knock biretta-wearing, just that it is a less reliable weathervane than the bishop’s miter. (And most of my people only know it from old movies and photos.)
And I encourage any OF priests and parishioners to steal parts of the homily or the whole if that’s helpful for encouraging it at your parish. I don’t even want attribution. Just use what you need.
[Thanks! Very helpful. Good to see you here. Let us know when the mug arrives and which kind of Mystic Monk Coffee you will drink.]
I know that I am being a bit silly, but Wahoo, Nebraska keeps popping up, this time in conjunction with a great priest and parish.
But there was hardly a finer man than Wahoo Sam Crawford, thanks to Wikipedia I found out that he coached baseball at the University of Southern California and spent his entire working life around baseball. And for the Traditional minded his wife’s maiden name was Ada Lattin (one t to many, but what the heck). He was so modest that when he was elected to the Hall of Fame, his neighbors were not even aware that he had played major league baseball. He insisted that on his HOF plaque his name would be listed as Wahoo Sam Crawford, because he dearly loved his home town.
I heartily recommend Mystic Monk Blend.
Please say a prayer for the Catholic Center at the University of Rhode Island. Our chaplain, at my slight pestering, will be celebrating our weekly community-wide Mass next Wednesday ad orientem. He’ll also be using black vestments and unbleached candles as it will be a Requiem for deceased benefactors. If the community is receptive to the change, we may soon do it twive a month, and may even offer some EF Masses.
Discerning Altar Boy – That’s great news from my great state!
And congrats to Fr. Faulkner!