This Mass which I saw over at Fr. Z's blog is amateur film taken of the Ordinary Form of the Mass on February 12, 1945 prior to Iwo Jima - 7000 killed, 20,000 wounded, probably included some of these men as Fr. Z writes.
Note that the ship is rocking and rolling and so is the priest and the parishioners. One could get sea sick simply watching this!
Please note the reverence of the men and their reverence in receiving our Lord in Holy Communion.
I am sure by now most of them are dead but maybe not all, keep the faithful departed in your prayers!
This Ordinary Form Mass in 1945 is rather awesome, completely reverent and in no way banal!
8 comments:
I think the thing I find coolest is that this Mass was filmed in color! I've been to Mass in the EF a whole host of times, but seeing old pictures of it, all in black and white, makes it seem almost "unreal" to consider that every Mass used to have that much reverence about it. This makes it "more believable", in a sense.
I felt the same way. In fact it could well have been an EF Mass today celebrated for sailors on a ship and the sailors look contemporary in color, don't they?
Although in Europe, neither side would deliberately shoot at Priests, 25 were killed in combat from mortar or artillery fire, 90 were wounded, and 12 became POW"s in the Pacific, mostly in the Phillipines. I could not find KIA numbers for the Pacific. I'm sure many of you have seen newsreel footage of Catholic Priests walking the battlefield under fire and administering Last Rites to wounded soldiers. It is an inspiring and sobering sight, reminding us of what God may call us to do and challenging our Faith.
It is amazing that the footage is in color and amazing still at the time and location it was filmed. How many of those sailors did not return home? Perhaps their last Eucharist? While on the precipice of victory those were very grim days for both the Allied and Imperial Japanese forces.
One of the You Tube comments is very interesting.
I wonder if there would have been as much reverence were the priest facing the personnel. Even in this close group I think the priest would have taken away the focus from the Holy Sacrament towards himself as the centre of attraction.
Ordinary Form? 1945? I am not sure that I follow.
Tongue in cheek! That Mass was the Latin Rite Mass, thus the regular, ordinary Mass of all Catholics at that time until 1969.
What they say about atheists in foxholes I'm sure applies to sailors in the holds of ships. As you mention, most of these men are probably already dead, but wouldn't it be wonderful if a family member was able to identify their loved one there, attending Mass, receiving communion, realizing they were most likely in the state of grace going into that battle. It sure would comfort me.
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