IN CONTINUITY WITH ALL OF HIS PREDECESSORS, BEGINNING WITH POPE BENEDICT XVI, POPE LEO RECOVERS THE BEAUTY OF THE EASTER TRIDUUM AS THE BISHOP OF ROME AND AT HIS CATHEDRAL CHURCH, THE BASILICA OF SAINT JOHN LATERAN—NOT USED FOR THIS CATHEDRAL LITURGY BY THE BISHOP OF ROME FOR 12 LONG YEARS….

 Pope Leo wears a beautiful bejeweled chasuble with the dalmatic underneath. The miter matches the chasuble and is bejeweled as well.  It’s all very sparkly! The liturgy is beautiful as is the washing of the feet of 12 priests (vir) 11 of whom Pope Leo ordained to the all male priesthood. The procession with the Most Holy Eucharist to the altar of repose is simple but beautiful and the chapel of repose is spectacularly beautiful as is the chanting of the Pange Lingua, especially the first verse! 

SAVANNAH'S CHRISM MASS: FLUMMOXED ON HILTON HEAD ISLAND....

 

This year and last, the Diocese of Savannah Chrism Mass has returned to an older way of blessing the oils of the sick and catechumens and consecrating the Sacred Chrism.

Most places, including the Vatican on Holy Thursday, bless the oils of the sick and catechumens and consecrate the Chrism all three in a row after the priests have renewed their priestly promises.

For the past two years, I think we have returned to an earlier tradition or, yet another option in the Bugnini Mass, of the following:

The oil of the sick was blessed during the Eucharistic prayer, toward the end of it but before the Per Ipsum, and our bishop used the Roman Canon.

Then after the Prayer after Holy Communion, the oil of catechumens was blessed and finally the Sacred Chrism, then the Final Blessing and Dismissal occurred.

Does anyone know the significance of this format. It's symbolism is lost on me and quite frankly, to me it makes no sense. 

Anyone know????

 

IN OTHER NEWS, IN CONTINUITY WITH POPE FRANCIS AND OTHER POPES, POPE LEO XIV WEARS THE ELEGANT ALL WHITE OVERCOAT TO THE SOMEWHAT FRIGID WEDNESDAY AUDIENCE

 And nice cuff-links to boot!

He has not worn this floor length white overcoat when it was even colder outside. Maybe His Holiness was symbolically saying, "I am an Chicagoan and Rome's winters are my summers!"

Nice no?

 

BOMBSHELL!! AND NOT APRIL FOOLS!! I DON’T THINK 🤔. POPE LEO RESUMES THE TRADITION OF WASHING ONLY THE FEET OF 12 MEN, MEN WHO ARE PRIESTS!

Holy Thursday in its entirety is about two sacraments that Jesus' instituted on Holy Thursday, the night before He sacrificed His life for our eternal salvation. He ordained the first bishops of the Church and instituted the Sacrament of Unity, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass not only with is "eternal banquet" symbolism but also as a remembrance of His one Sacrifice of Good Friday. 

And in this context of two Sacraments, Holy Order and Holy Eucharist, He teaches His new bishops, that the priesthood of His Church, is different than the priesthood of the Old Covenant. It is not only about cultic rituals and purity, but also about service and getting one's hands dirty in that service, something completely anathema to the Old Testament inherited priesthood.  

BRAVO POPE LEO XIV FOR REVERSING WHAT POPE FRANCIS DID AND RECOVERING WHAT HOLY THURSDAY IS ABOUT! 

 This is from Siliri non Possum. Press title for English version:

Leo XIV revives the tradition: Pope to wash the feet of twelve priests

LOOKS LIKE BISHOP MARTIN OF CHARLOTTE HAS FOUND A NEW USE FOR USELESS ALTAR RAILINGS! 🤣

 

DID VATICAN II DEMAND, ENCOURAGE OR IN ANY WAY REQUIRE THOSE WHO “IMPLEMENTED” SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM TO USE “RESOURCEMENT” AS THE CORE DRIVER FOR THE REFORM AND THE “RESOURCEMENT” BUGNINI AND CO-CONSPIRATORS USED, WAS IT ACCURATE HISTORICALLY? —DISCUSS!

 

AI SUMMARY:

Ressourcement movement (French for "return to the sources") was a 20th-century theological effort to rejuvenate the Catholic Church by reconnecting with its earliest foundations—specifically Scripture and the Church Fathers (Patristics). In the context of the Mass, this movement sought to peel back medieval and Baroque "accretions" to recover the simplicity and communal nature of early Christian worship. 

These theological priorities directly informed the liturgical reforms of Vatican II, leading to several major changes in the Mass: 

1. "Active Participation" of the Laity 

The movement's core goal was to move the congregation from being passive "spectators" to active participants. 

• Dialogue Mass: Restored the practice of the assembly responding aloud to the priest rather than remaining silent while altar servers answered on their behalf.
• Congregational Singing: Encouraged the restoration of communal singing and chant to engage the faithful. 

2. Use of the Vernacular

By "returning to the source," theologians noted that the earliest liturgies were celebrated in the local language (Greek in the East, and eventually Latin in the West because it was the common tongue at the time). 

• Linguistic Shift: This historical precedent justified shifting from Latin to modern local languages so that people could deeply understand the mystery being celebrated. 

3. Restoration of Early Liturgical Elements

The movement identified ancient practices that had been lost or obscured over centuries and sought to restore them. 

• Prayers of the Faithful: Reintroduced the "universal prayer" where the community offers intentions for the world.
• Expanded Scripture Readings: Moved from a one-year cycle of readings to a three-year cycle, significantly increasing the amount of the Bible (especially the Old Testament) heard at Mass.
• Sign of Peace: Restored as a communal gesture of reconciliation before receiving communion. 

4. Architectural and Ritual Shifts

To emphasize the Mass as a "communal meal" and "sacramental communion" rather than a private transaction by the priest, several physical changes occurred: 

• Altar Orientation: The priest began celebrating Mass facing the people (versus populum) instead of facing away from them toward the apse (ad orientem).
• Removal of Barriers: Many churches removed altar rails to create a more unified space between the sanctuary and the congregation.
• Communion Rite: Introduced the option to receive Communion standing and in the hand, reflecting some early Church practices described by the Fathers. 

5. Simplified Rites

Theologians argued that the Mass had become cluttered with repetitive prayers and complex rubrics. The reform aimed for "noble simplicity," discarding elements that were duplicated or added over time with "little advantage" to the faithful's understanding. 

HOW WILL THE FRENCH BISHOPS HELP OR HINDER POPE LEO IN DECIDING HOW TO HAVE LITURGICAL DIVERSITY IN THE CHURCH, INCLUDING TWO SEPARATE LECTIONARIES…

In a nutshell, the Conference of Catholic Bishops in France more than likely won’t help Pope Leo, but rather confuse His Holiness given the grave ignorance that many of those bishops have about the 1962 Roman Missal. 

You can read what the bishops discussed by pressing the Rorate Caeli title:

La Croix: Will France be the Papal Setting for the End of Restrictions to the Latin Mass?

Some of the French bishops want TC to remain in place and enforced in the most unpastoral, authoritarian way possible including the Orwellian requirement not to advertise these Masses in a parish bulletin—can’t make this stuff up and not an April Fools joke either. 

Some want the 1962 Missal to adopt the Modern Mass’s three year lectionary. This shows their ignorance even more so, because there is a unity in the lectionary’s readings along with the Scriptural Introit, offertory and Communion antiphons as well as the changing orations. It would be like imposing the three year lectionary on Eastern Rite Divine Liturgies, or imposing the Tridentine lectionary on the Bugnini Mass! 

One group of French bishops, though, are correct about requiring those in the Latin Rite to be required to celebrate the Bugnini Mass. Then they must seek permission to celebrate the older rites of the Church from their local bishop. Those that belong to religious orders which only celebrate the older rites would be given a seperate consideration, but diocesan priests must agree to celebrate the Bugnini Mass if they are given permission to celebrate the older forms of the liturgies of the Church.

And diocesan priests and any orders under a diocesan bishop must agree to concelebrate the Diocesan Chrism Mass. That is not too much to ask of diocesan priests who promise obedience to their bishop! 

One way to completely preserved the 1962 liturgical patrimony would be to create a Tridentine Ordinariate with their own bishops. That would make them like the Anglican Ordinariate and also like the Eastern Rites which have their own bishops. What’s the big deal about doing that!

I lean more towards mandating the 1964 Tridentine Mass. It has modest reforms that were requested by Sacrosanctum Concilium. It is a post-Vatican II revised Tridentine Mass. It allows for some vernacular while maintaining Latin in a required way. Could two new cycles of Sunday readings be devised to fit the Tridentine Mass and maintain the unity of texts? Certainly but without erasing the older lectionary. 

It’s interesting that some French bishops want to impose the three year modern lectionary on the Tridentine Mass Roman Missal. Yet they allow the Bugnini Roman Missal to be manipulated by priests and music directors or liturgy planners, to substitute banal hymns for Sacred Scripture as it concerns the Introit, Offertoy and Communion antiphons. 

KEEP IN MIND THESE ARE SCRIPTURES BEING DUMPED BY THE CAPRICE DECISIONS OF INDIVIDUALS WHO THINK THEIR NON SCRIPTURE CHOICES ARE BETTER! IT WOULD BE LIKE DUMPING THE LITURGY OF THE WORD READINGS FOR POETRY OR OTHER RELIGIOUS NON-SCRIPTURAL READINGS, WHICH BTW, WAS DONE IN THE LATE 60’S AND EARLY 70’S!

The Bugnini Mass that I celebrated for Laetarae Sunday this year, the choir director chose the nice hymn, “Take Up Thy Cross” as a substitute for the official Introit. In no way does that hymn convey the theology of the Official Introit for Laetarae Sunday!

This is the Introit for Laetarae Sunday:

Latin:
Lætare Jerusalem: et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam: gaudete cum lætitia, qui in tristitia fuistis: ut exsultetis, et satiemini ab uberibus consolationis vestræ.
Ps. Lætatus sum in his, quæ dicta sunt mihi: in domum Domini ibimus.

English:
Rejoice, O Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her: rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow: that you may exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation.
Ps. I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord.

BOMBSHELL: THE JESUITS WILL SPLIT AND FORM TWO GROUPS—THE SEDEVACANISTS BRANCH THAT WILL BE THE MAJORITY, THE REST WILL JOIN THE SSPX, ABOUT FOUR OF THEM

 With the passing of the first Jesuitical pope, His Holiness Pope Francis, the Jesuits see no way forward in a backward looking Church under the current papacy that is reversing all the 1960’s thrust of the previous papacy.

The majority of the Jesuits, most in the late 70’s, have decided to stop vowing their fourth vow of fidelity to the current pope and will maintain it for the late Pope Francis, the first and last true pope of the Church.

The rest, some estimate about four of their youngest members will join the FSSPX.

Pope Leo has remained silent on this development, but sources close to him relate that he was heard to have said under His Holiness breath, “good riddance.” 

WHEREIN I WOULD LIKE TO RANT ABOUT THE PRE-VATICAN II MASS, IN PARTICULAR THE 1962 ROMAN MISSAL…

As I have stated over and over and over again, I love both forms of the Roman Missal. The Modern Form, euphemistically called the Bugnini Mass, while needing a good reform to make sure that it is in more continuity with the 1962 Missal, in terms of reverence, rubrics and mysticism, is fine when celebrated properly, with the propers and with humanity and divinity. It has too many options though that contributes to the clericalism built into the Mass and added to the Mass, the added ones completely unnecessary.

The 1962 Roman Missal has its own built-in clericalism too. Two that stand out concern who reads the Scriptures and the priest doing all parts of the Mass in a spoken fashion while these are also being chanted by the schola and laity. For example, even though the schola chants the introit, offertory and communion antiphons, the priest still says these. Ridiculous! 

My other complaint is about the Sacred Scriptures.Pope Benedict gave permission for the Scriptures to be read in the vernacular. As far as I can tell, this permission means that these can be read in the vernacular at the normal time that they are read in Latin, which means that the priest does not need to read or chant these in Latin then followed by the vernacular or to have simultaneous renderings. 

At Sacred Heart Church in Savannah, the custom has developed that a lector, a layman, reads the Epistle from the ambo in English simultaneously as the Celebrant is reading it quietly at the altar in Latin—That makes no sense whatsoever!

And get this, the custom there is for the priest also to read the Gospel quietly in Latin as the same layman reads the Gospel in English. Personally, I think that that is illicit. But sense its the TLM, no one cares about that.

On Passion/Palm Sunday, I got radical. I told everyone that I would read/chant the Gospels, the one associated with the blessing of the palms and then the one for the Passion Gospel in English and from the very fine 1964 altar missal we have, which provides the readings in English. 

In fact, I chanted both Gospels in English, except for the Passion I read the parts not associated with the very words of Jesus but chanted the words of Jesus. It was very long for me but God gave my voice the grace to remain strong throughout, with both the spoken and chanted parts and the chanted parts in tune. 

I personally think that while still using the 1962 Roman Missal, not the 1964, that the Scriptures be read in the vernacular and that the Collect, Secret and Post Communion Prayers should have the option of the vernacular and that the Secret should be chanted/spoken aloud. 

At Sacred Heart in Savannah, we also have the priest and laity chant in Latin the entire Pater Noster together.