Translate

Monday, September 28, 2015

HISTORY MADE IN A HISTORIC WAY AND THE MOST TRADITIONAL WAY AT SAINT JOSEPH CATHOLIC CHURCH, MACON, GEORGIA


On the last day of Pope Francis historic visit to the USA and his historic Mass in Philadelphia prior to his historic departure from the historic Philadelphia Historic International Airport in front of a historic crowd of admirers, Saint Joseph Church down the road from Philadelphia in Macon, Georgia celebrated its first ever since the historic Second Vatican Council Extraordinary Form of the Mass in the High Form at a normally scheduled Sunday Mass! HISTORIC!

No one offered any negative feedback. The Mass took about the same amount of time as our Ordinary Form Mass at this time, 12:10 PM.

I prepared for this day since September 14, 2007 when we had our first EF Mass.

In the last three years, we have celebrated the Liturgy of the Eucharist ad orientem and in the last six months we have been distributing Holy Communion to communicants kneeling at the full length of the altar railing. 

Last November 2 which fell on a Sunday, we celebrated the All Souls' Mass with our combined choirs singing Faure's Requiem. It was an Ordinary Form Mass, but mostly in Latin.

Several people said the Mass yesterday was beautiful and that this form of the Mass is more reverent.

I would agree. I contend, though, the reverence isn't in the Latin Language, per se, although some might say that; it is in the following:

--Formal Chant
--Ad Orientem
--quiet Roman Canon
--more bowing and genuflections by the priest
--kneeling for Holy Communion
--chanting the propers

It is also formal, no folksiness and no ad libs or banalities.



22 comments:

Unknown said...

Just out of curiosity, does anyone insist on Communion standing and/or in-hand? Is it ad orientem and Communion-on-the-knees for every Mass at the parish, or only for the Mass at that particular time?

qwikness said...

I watched with amusement as people held out their hands for communion but the host was being put in their mouth as they looked with a "what are you doing...okay...ahhhh" expression. funny.

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

Ad Orientem only for 12:10OF Mass and communion kneeling at full lenght of railing although people may stand, vast majority kneel but majority receive in hand. Other Masses Communion with 4 stations at railing people may kneel but majority stand.

Seeker said...

OOH-RAH!!

gob said...

"Back to the future"

rcg said...

Well done! Now you should homilize about communion in the hand vs on the tongue.

Anonymous said...

NICE!! Hopefully they will receive on tongue instead, just give them time to adjust.

Anonymous said...

The priests who offer and have offered our weekday Extraordinary Form Mass have all instructed that it is part of the rubrics that people attending the EF of the Mass must kneel and receive communion on the tongue and everyone does - even those who only attend if they haven't been able to attend an OF Mass. The only exception is when people can't kneel but they still must receive on the tongue. Are they right or wrong? Both of these priest offer the OF of the Mass also to the letter. There hasn't been any problem and people have been quite accepting.

Jan

Anonymous said...

So ..Is anything good cooking for this upcoming Nov 2 All Soul's Day?

Anonymous said...

On a very very important side note on RUSH LIMBAUGHS' blog even he is telling the story that the ultra-modernist Cardinal Danneels of Belgium now retired was in the Mafia as Cardinal Danneels says himself that he and other Left-Wing Cardinals engineered the destruction of Pope Benedict the XVI this is even going mainstream now. It started at Rorate then onto The Remnant Newspaper online and only getting bigger and bigger and it seems that a schism is going to happen this FALL AT THE SYNOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even Rush, a Protestant understands the absolute disaster that is going to happen.

Anonymous said...

Wow...the Mass of the Ages celebrated properly in a Catholic Church is "making history." So, what's to celebrate about that? We should all be weeping.

Billy Batson said...

Anonymous 5:25....I always go to Rush...one of the three top arses in America...for my religious and theological information.

rcg said...

I pray for the conversion of sinners. However, I am not sure that a schism where those sorts of people packed and left would be a bad thing. I fired five officers in one of my units on the first day. The NCOs complained about the extra work. Except of course the Chief. I told them they could carry the extra kit with or without the dead weight attending it. They chose without. The Chief had been doing the extra work all along in addition to covering for the weasels. If this schism is their path to conversion then we should throw the biggest party Times Square ever saw when they get back. But if this only gets their grit out of our gears then good riddance.

rcg said...

Fr. McDonald, I apologize for the tirade and casting a pall on your joy. Glory and Praise to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as done at St Joseph and continued Blessings on the people of Macon.

Anonymous said...

Yes I hear you anonymous at 5:25 PM, the secret society Danneels speaks of is St. Gallen's Mafia, and it was absolutely to take down Benedict the XVI and it worked, what they had on him we may never know, but Danneels and his buddies have been invited to the Fall Synod. I for one find this completely and utterly frighting indeed. And many say Francis election to the papacy is invalid!

Anonymous said...

Father, I am so pleased to hear this. Due to other commitments I was unable to attend, but you and the people of St Joseph were surely in my thoughts and prayers at noon yesterday!
Hope to make it down next month.
God bless you!

Mallen

Anonymous said...

Anonymous at 5.25 pm, this is further pieces to the jigsaw surrounding Benedict XVI's resignation. This story first seems to have arisen from the book - "The Great Reformer, by the British Catholic writer Austen Ivereigh, nicknames the group “Team Bergoglio” and says members toured private dinners and other gatherings of cardinals in the days before the conclave, quietly putting their case." Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor is named as contacting Cardinal Bergoglio prior to the synod and asking him to be their man. Austin Ivereigh was the press secretary to Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/11248263/English-cardinal-Cormac-Murphy-OConnor-lobbied-for-Pope.html

From this latest disclosure in Cardinal Daneels' biography it could be that Benedict XVI's resignation was invalid as he was pressurised to do so. Now we have this cabal: Murphy-O'Connor, Kasper, Daneels - papal delegate to the synod - who are pushing for the Church's moral teachings to be overturned or liberalised at the synod.

I am sure we are seeing the last hurrah of the dying liberals - although there will always be one or two within Catholic ranks. This attempted liberalisation of the Church has been going on since Vatican II. They are now so sure of their success and power over the Church that they are boasting and not hiding away anymore. Why Kasper even admitted that Vatican II documents were deliberately ambiguous and that is what has led to "the spirit of Vatican II".

All good Catholics need to stand up and oppose this and see this evil cabal off. I am sure that the synod will be their last stand and like Custer they will be no more although there will always be a lingering smell.

We need a strong and courageous Pope to stop them in their tracks. We shall see at the synod if we have one.

Jan

Mark Thomas said...

Deo gratias for Father McDonald.

Here is one aspect to Father's decision to offer the TLM: By offering the TLM at his parish, he, as a good father, is better able to influence his spiritual children.

That is, there isn't any question that there are Catholics who, for decades, have been fed by "fringe" TLM groups and "independent" priests and "bishops."

Catholics associated with said groups have long been exposed to bizarre conspiracy theories...take your pick, Jews, communists, Satanists, Freemasons control the Vatican.

The Pope is evil, a communists, Freemason, the Antichrist... Vatican II is part of a plan to destroy the Church. Therefore, is there any wonder as to why many TLM blogs feature endless attacks against His Holiness Pope Francis, "modernist" Rome, and "Newchurch?"

How on earth did Catholics find themselves attached to "independent" priests, bishops, and TLM groups?

In many ways, that is the result of priests and bishops who refused to accommodate the "rightful aspirations" (Pope Saint John Paul II's words) of Catholics who wished simply to worship God via the Traditional Roman Mass.

Hard-hearted bishops and priests drove many Catholics who desired the TLM into the hands of "fringe" and "independent" priests and groups who offered the TLM.

Said bishops and priests rejected Pope Saint John Paul II's declaration that "respect must everywhere be shown for the feelings of all those who are attached to the Latin liturgical tradition, by a wide and generous application of the directives already issued some time ago (in 1984 A.D.) by the Apostolic See for the use of the Roman Missal according to the typical edition of 1962."

Actually, the problem began during the mid-to-late 1960s when the liturgical "reform" (revolution) was rammed down the throats of the Faithful.

Had the TLM been maintained alongside the Novus Ordo, that would have at least prevented many Catholics from having filtered into "independent" TLM communities. The liturgical "reform" was instituted by Rome and our bishops in shoddy fashion.

But Deo gratias, today, Father McDonald is a leading example as to how our priests can end the Liturgical War that has raged for decades within Holy Mother Church. Infuse the Novus Ordo with Holy Tradition. Offer the Novus Ordo in holy fashion inside a church that befits God's majesty. Keep the TLM alive within the parish.

It is that simple.

Father McDonald's way is the way of the Peacemakers. Blessed are the Peacemakers. Blessed is Father McDonald. He is the future of the (Latin) Church's priesthood.

Pax.

Mark Thomas

John Nolan said...

Regarding Danneels, the 'revelations' are in his authorized biography. There have always been factions and cabals at the highest level in the Church, and pre-conclave lobbying is a fact of life. In 1978 Cardinal Basil Hume was behind a 'stop Siri' campaign and both he and his successor Cormac Murphy O'Connor were associated with the Sankt Gallen group which was founded in 1995. Danneels described it, no doubt tongue-in-cheek, as a 'mafia'. It last met in 2006 and was not a lobby group at the 2013 conclave. Although its members were united in their dislike of Joseph Ratzinger there is no evidence they engineered his destruction or were in a position to do so. His abdication took everyone by surprise.

Should there be a serious schism during this pontificate it could only be a result of monumental incompetence on Francis's part. The outcome could be that on the death of Benedict XVI a significant number of cardinals would elect a successor; the official list of popes would be adjusted and Francis would be the first antipope since Felix V (1439-1449). Alternatively support could rally round Francis and the alternative candidate would be the antipope. But either scenario is very very unlikely to happen.

Anonymous said...

Cardinal Burke is the only man who can save Holy Mother Church. Beware the Synod

Fr. Michael J. Kavanaugh said...

John - Thank you for your sensibility.

Anonymous said...

Yes, but John St John Paul The Great deemed the influencing of a synod serious enough that he made it an excommunicable offence. No doubt he was aware of what was going on behind the scenes that we now see in daylight. Therefore, I think you treat it too lightly. The direction the Church appears to be moving in is far different from that of Pope Benedict. Therefore, any pressure on him to resign has surely influenced the Church and could not be the work of the Holy Spirit.

To avoid a schism Pope Francis needs to uphold Church teaching on marriage and homosexuality. We already have the Polish Bishops Conference and the German Bishops taking different sides on this issue.

We need to pray for the Pope that he will uphold Catholic teaching. That is the simple solution.

Jan