The “trowel” and the “sword”.  That’s what is needed now.

The other day we saw at the liberal outlet Religion New Service an absurd piece about supposed “liturgical reform” by a Jesuit.  It contained an attack on people who attend the Traditional Latin Mass. “Children and young people should not be allowed to attend such Masses.”  HERE

Today at Crisis there is a response to that piece.   There are several good points.  Among which…

[I]t’s still delightful to see Fr. Reese openly admit the power of the traditional Mass to draw souls. Only authoritative force, he believes, can stop children and young people from attending it!

The fact is, the Traditional Latin Mass is growing and growing fast.  It is not going away.  One senses that there is coordinated, incremental attack on Tradition mounting from high circles.   The Saint Peter’s Suppression was a sidewise attack on the Traditional Mass, which was more and more being celebrated each morning in the Basilica.   Now this RNS piece comes from a Jesuit.

What traditionalists are doing may appear peaceful, but we progressives know it is violent. They are violently tearing the focus of religion away from our utopia of love, tolerance, and well-being. They are setting their sights on something otherworldly, something outside, something higher. Their every genuflection is in rude defiance of the dogma we’ve so carefully instilled in the Church: God is more within than without; He is to be found in ourselves, in the spirit of our times, in the community, in interaction with other human beings. As Fr. Reese says, “More important than the transformation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ is the transformation of the community into the body of Christ so we can live out the covenant we have through Christ.”

Modernism, the essence of which is the reduction of the supernatural to the natural, is alive and well in the Church.  Quite a few of the catholic Left seem to be immanentists.

They are predictably frightened by the resurgence of Traditional Mass, with its strong intimation of transcendence.

As the demographic sinkhole continues to yawn under the Church in these USA and elsewhere, the Traditional Latin Mass is growing.   All manner of truly stupid attacks have been and are being made on it and on the people who prefer it.   All in vain.

It seems to me that those who desire traditional sacred liturgy should do their best to shore up their gains and even get ready for more serious attacks, even persecution.   Think of Nehemiah.  After the Babylonian Exile, the Jews returned to Jerusalem.  The walls of the city had to be rebuilt.  Because various enemies threatened to attack, as the Jews worked on the walls they were armed.   The rediscovered Law was read to the people and the feasts were reestablished.

You who desire our traditional sacred liturgy need to work with your trowels in one hand and your swords in the other.   By “swords” I mean, rosaries and by “trowels” I mean corporal and spiritual works of mercy, active works at the parish or church, your concrete involvement.   You need to pray on your knees specifically in gratitude for the opportunities for worship which you have and for protection for your priests.   As nervous nellies of the hierarchy see the growth of the traditional Mass, instead of rejoicing and supporting the faithful in their charge the nervous nellies will have pangs of anxiety.   People tend to fear what they don’t understand. Too few have taken the time to learn the older forms and then spend enough time involved in their celebration to get familiar with the ethos in which they were not reared.  This is one reason why traditional Catholics remain the signal most marginalized group in the Church.  Any amount of energy and attention, TLC, will be rained down on other special groups.  Traditional Catholics occasionally get a handful of dirt.  It is the rare prelate who get it about these seriously committed Catholics.  As the demographic sink hole expands, I wonder how many have figured out that these people have close to 100% Mass attendance and are in general more generous in the collection than others.   I wonder how many priests and bishops realize that, were a little TLC be shown them, these young, committed Catholics would go to the wall for them.

Hence, the “trowel” and the “sword”.  That’s what is needed now.

Excel in prayers and in good works.

 

 

 

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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16 Comments

  1. Ave Maria says:

    In my Novus Ordo diocesan parish, we have a Sunday TLM which appears to now be the most attended Mass of the weekend. And ALL our other Masses are offered ad orientem. We have altar boys, two daily Masses with confessions, and an unafraid pastor that has never made us wear the mask of enslavement. We even have and have had holy water and hymnals! No sickness. My brother’s TLM parish is bursting at the seams and donations have increased 50% and they have NO restrictions what so ever. Oh, and no sickness.

  2. adriennep says:

    Yes, is it any wonder the parishes are in trouble when at the doors holy water has been replaced by hand sanitizer…and that instead of being on our knees praying after Mass people are running to the “cleaning stations” to further sanitize as they leave.

    At least at our TLM Mass weekly, our *young* priest has said that masks are not required, as his duty is to God and not the state. And every time we hear babes cry at the back, there is our hope.

  3. Semper Gumby says:

    “You who desire our traditional sacred liturgy need to work with your trowels in one hand and your swords in the other. By “swords” I mean, rosaries and by “trowels” I mean corporal and spiritual works of mercy, active works at the parish or church, your concrete involvement.”

    Amen Fr. Z.

    “And every time we hear babes cry at the back, there is our hope.”

    Amen adriennep.

    Occasionally, in a post-apocalyptic wasteland the fine village-folk of Altar Rail may have to man the barricades of their self-sustaining hamlet and fire the FPF at the javelin-hurling Antifa-Maoist hordes who approached disguised as refugees and at their barbarous comrades driving souped-up El Caminos topped with cow skulls sneaking along an abandoned railbed attempting to take Altar Rail by surprise. Hey, it happens. But for daily use Altar Rail should have an abundance of St. Padre Pio’s weapon, the Rosary. Stack ’em high. Logistics for the Soul.

  4. Sportsfan says:

    “were a little TLC be shown them, these young, committed Catholics would go to the wall for them.”

    Right after the smelling salts did their job.

  5. PM says:

    Surely the italicized quote is satire, ham-handed satire at that?

  6. mo7 says:

    My son, raised and educated in the Novus Ordo, has recently baptised his firstborn son in the traditional rite. A little motherly advice: give your kids a sense of the sacred and they will learn to seek it out.

  7. The Astronomer says:

    Poor Fr. Reese has the vapors!!!

    I STILL maintain he and James Martin SJ are brothers…

  8. Thomas says:

    I can speak only about my little corner: our parish which began with Fr. Rawley Meyers in the 1990’s saying the TLM every other Sunday at 7 AM is now growing at an ever-increasing pace, and has been for some time now. And we are not all old people who do not understand “the need for change”. Actually, we do understand, which is why we changed. To the TLM.

  9. matt from az says:

    Nothing can immanentize the eschaton the way the TLM can, and that scares the hell of girlymen like Fr Reese.

    His article is the first of seven seals indicating the apocalypse, the end of days for the Novus Ordo and the modernism that spawned it. He knows their days are over.

  10. Tooksam says:

    “They are setting their sights on something otherworldly, something outside, something higher”

    Yes, and that something is God. It seems to me that what Catholic Modernists are saying is Non serviam.

  11. JonPatrick says:

    “God is more within than without; He is to be found in ourselves, in the spirit of our times” Wow. So God is to be found in the spirit of our times? In abortion, euthanasia, easy divorce, contraception, approval of same sex unions, men using women’s bathrooms, total lockdown and isolation due to a disease with a 99.7% survival rate?

  12. @JonPatrick said “Wow. So God is to be found in the spirit of our times?”

    I think it was Voltaire who opined that if God didn’t exist, man would have had to invent Him (someone correct me if I’m wrong).

    It’s pretty obvious, to me anyway, that these wolves in clerical clothing don’t believe in a transcendent God, so, they’ve had to manufacture one in their own image fulfilling, in some manner, what Voltaire observed long ago.

    They see the church as a social action NGO.

    My observation is that what we’re seeing is the result of a church trying to become more like society instead of a CHURCH which is what society is aspiring to become. One’s focus is a bit lower than the other…and they’re trying to drag it down to their level.

    And we know, who in the end, wins. Pray hard, and 73.

  13. Gerhard says:

    Fr. Reese SJ would ban this:
    https://www.nd-chretiente.com/dotclear/public/documents/Appel_de_Chartres/AdC_n_247_avril_2021.pdf
    Check out the pic on the front: a whole field with 10,ooo *young* Catholics at Mass (TLM of course) and on page 3: adolescent bloodied bandaged pilgrim feet – the fires of Purgatory in their boots. Fr. Reese – you don’t know what you’re missing until you join us.

  14. Gerhard: Yes, he would probably ban that. However, wouldn’t it be something if he did, even out of curiosity, join for part of it?

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  16. moosix1974 says:

    This statement reminds me of the CCP who do not allow children and young people to attend Mass or to be evangelized to. This statement shows great fear, because they KNOW that this is where the Church will be renewed and it will be renewed as GOD intended.

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