Yes, Virginia, this is an OF Mass:
For over five years the 12:10 pm Sunday Mass at St. Joseph Church in Macon was celebrated as all the Four other Masses were celebrated with the same vernacular music and words.
The only differences were two things:
1. The Liturgy of the Eucharist was celebrated ad orientem
2. Holy Communion was distributed at the restored altar railing by the priest and deacon to kneeling communicants. It took less time than the other Masses with four Host stations and communicants approaching single file.
This Mass, in my most humble estimation, was the most reverent Mass of the five weekend Masses and formed reverent and pious Catholic clergy and laity. It approached the reverence of the once a month EF Mass celebrated at this very same Mass time!
Interestingly, I think this group of Mass goers thought the only difference was the Mass once a month is that it was in Latin with more ceremony and more ad orientem!
As soon as I left Macon, within a few months, that Mass reverted to facing the congregation and now because of a decline of practicing Catholics in Macon and white flight as well as economic decline, the Mass schedule went from three Sunday morning Masses to two, from 7:45 am, 9:30 am and 12:10 pm to 8:30 am and 11:00 am.
The problem with the glorious reform of the 12:10 pm Mass is that these perfectly legitimate options allowed in the Ordinary Form are not universally encouraged by the pope and bishops. The status quo, a failure on many levels, is!
It is a colossal lack of leadership not only on the liturgical level but on so many other levels as we see it play out in front of our eyes in real time.
For over five years the 12:10 pm Sunday Mass at St. Joseph Church in Macon was celebrated as all the Four other Masses were celebrated with the same vernacular music and words.
The only differences were two things:
1. The Liturgy of the Eucharist was celebrated ad orientem
2. Holy Communion was distributed at the restored altar railing by the priest and deacon to kneeling communicants. It took less time than the other Masses with four Host stations and communicants approaching single file.
This Mass, in my most humble estimation, was the most reverent Mass of the five weekend Masses and formed reverent and pious Catholic clergy and laity. It approached the reverence of the once a month EF Mass celebrated at this very same Mass time!
Interestingly, I think this group of Mass goers thought the only difference was the Mass once a month is that it was in Latin with more ceremony and more ad orientem!
As soon as I left Macon, within a few months, that Mass reverted to facing the congregation and now because of a decline of practicing Catholics in Macon and white flight as well as economic decline, the Mass schedule went from three Sunday morning Masses to two, from 7:45 am, 9:30 am and 12:10 pm to 8:30 am and 11:00 am.
The problem with the glorious reform of the 12:10 pm Mass is that these perfectly legitimate options allowed in the Ordinary Form are not universally encouraged by the pope and bishops. The status quo, a failure on many levels, is!
It is a colossal lack of leadership not only on the liturgical level but on so many other levels as we see it play out in front of our eyes in real time.
21 comments:
"Lack of leadership???" Heck, in my opinion the leadership has been very successful in achieving their agenda of protestantizing the Catholic Church. They hate Catholicism and are well on their way to destroying it.
"The problem with the glorious reform of the 12:10 pm Mass is that it is not universally encouraged by the pope and bishops. The status quo, a failure on many levels, is!"
"Then God asked: Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat? The man replied, The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it. The LORD God then asked the woman: What is this you have done? The woman answered, The snake tricked me, so I ate it.”
Yes, someone else is always to blame...
Probably a lot of the "white flight" you speak of out of Macon includes Catholics, heading especially to adjoining Houston County (Perry and Warner Robins), along with Monroe County (which is in the state's "other diocese" , or rather, the state's archdiocese), and even Peach County. In the Atlanta area, we've seen a decline in some parishes based on combination of white flight and opening of other parishes (which I guess is tricky in determining whether to build new parishes---does building a new one cause too big a drop in a previously overcrowded one).
Speaking of Macon, anyone know why it is not in the Archdiocese of Atlanta? It is a lot closer to Atlanta than to Savannah, after all.
Macon (Bibb County) has had a dreadful public school system. When I arrived in 2004 many people said good bye to me my first Sunday as they were moving to North Carolina because a huge, and I mean huge, cigarette company, Brown and Williamson, closed its Macon facility. This continued with other major industries in Macon to include Kelloggs (I think Tom Makin who comments here and whose daughter has joined the Nashville Dominicans knows more about that than I do. They left Macon shortly after I got there too.)
New industries are reluctant to locate in Macon because of the educational issues. the only bright spot and the savior of Macon is Mercer University. There is also a dreadful lack of leadership going way back
At one time Macon was on the same level as the other "second tier" cities of Georgia, after the Atlanta Metro area/suburbs. Augusta, Columbus, and Savannah. But no more, it is now included in the third level, which would be Valdosta, Albany and Brunswick.
From 2004 to 2010, we were told by the city that 10,000 people had moved out of Macon, mostly whites. Yes, they moved to Warner Robins, a more progressive city and growing and so to be larger than Macon as well as Atlanta only an hour drive up I-75.
In the 1970's Macon was touted to become the see city of a new diocese (primarily because of St. Joseph Church) which would carve out of both Savannah and Atlanta. That won't happen anytime soon. I think Augusta should be the new see city, but it would have to include a significant part of South Carolina, or Columbia, SC would have to be a new see-city taking in a significant part of Georgia. That's not going to happen for a variety of reason. South Carolina is one diocese but the mountain area is so much different than the low country area.
Mercer University is investing a lot of money and effort into advanced technologies that are based on basic science. They are working on manufacturing technologies that can be applied to sustainment and maintenance of existing items, in this case aircraft. This is not a trivial thing. In these times people speak of ‘technology’ and jobs but think exclusively of information technologies. When those sorts of jobs are recruited by a city they unintentionally ignore people with different learning methods and ways of interfacing with their environment. The Mercer technologies need people who are hands-on and enjoy physical contact with their work. The path to meaningful employment can also be shorter when the learning associated with the skills is physically present rather than remote, or conceptual. So the people who have been failed by the school system are not yet a total loss if they can still learn a skilled and demanding job. In many ways I think the city fathers make a mistake bringing in IT companies for the existing population.
Dayton suffers from similar well intentioned harm. I heard a priest preach that the minimum wage should be a living wage for a family. So that a lawn service should pay their mowers enough to raise a family. The road to Hell, indeed.
I assume this stopped once you left the parish.
Yes, the status quo, the OF, is unsustainable, people continue to vote with their feet. It almost borders on evil to stick with this failed format. I guess this is all about them and not the Lord or the Faithful. They should be forced to visit websites like The New Liturgical Movement to see that the alternative seems very appealing to the young.
Dan, I would not attribute sinister things to those who promoted the OF Mass to begin with or do so now. They did and do so thinking it is what the Council and Holy Father at the time wanted. They do so out of a hope of actual participation and the new ecclesiology that comes from the council. They do decry "clericalism" of the EF Mass.
They do believe it to be more ecumenical and appealing to Protestants and the reunification of the Church--although I wonder about the East and their appreciation of our reforms.
Thus all these ideologies, I don't think you can call them doctrines, but certainly "theologies" underpin their plans and vision.
Well, I don’t know about “see city”, but Augusta’s MHT has lost a Sunday Mass as well. The 12:30 Mass is gone, and the Parish Administrator is not there for the Sat. Vigil. Soo, he celebrates two Sunday Masses only. And he walks the center aisle during the homily (like a good progressive priest should), so very difficult in that old nave to hear him. But he’s a genuinely good guy, so we will see if that parish can make it.
Father McDonald,
As you now, Our Lord did not have an ideology. He said his kingdom was not of this world. Clerics who view the Catholic Faith through the lens of a particular ideology are undermining the Faith.
By the summer, MHT will have a full time pastor but I have no inside track as to whom that will be. For those who don't know, their pastor died of cancer a few months ago. And the administrator is a full time teacher at the Catholic high school.
The many versions of the Catholic Church results in the lack of support and leadership. To me, your former 12:10 pm liturgy, in addition to being my personal preference, was most in continuity with tradition. Nothing revolutionary there. The other "versions" arguably showcase rupture to some extent. A good amount of the hierarchy clearly favors rupture and progressivism, though I'm not sure what they are progressing towards besides championing social concerns and social justice. I don't see a way out at this juncture or, anytime soon. Longer-term, the biological solution will likely raise the profile of the EF. At that point, perhaps reform closing the chasm created by this rupture will be closed.
Just a thought. Isn't nice that as Catholics we can shop around till we find the right parish and mass? Sets us apart from those protestants.
Father M, thanks for clarification on Macon--I guess it is a part of the Savannah Diocese to help the small diocese have enough population to support the diocese, and I suppose ditto for Columbus, which is far closer to Atlanta than to Savannah. I agree it is unlikely Augusta would be its own diocese without crossing the Savannah River, in part because diocesan lines generally follow state lines. Wonder how big an Augusta diocese would be if it ran to say Screven County (halfway between Augusta and Savannah), Statesboro, maybe Dublin/Laurens County, and then halfway to Atlanta at Lake Oconee (Greene County)? Maybe 35,000-40,000 Catholics?
According to Census estimates from 2017, Houston is ahead of Bibb in population (153,479 versus 152,862). In 1970, Bibb had about 143,000 people, Houston only around 63,000. Do you think Macon will keep its 3 parishes? Doesn't seem like there are enough Catholics in Bibb county for three, probably could get by with just one.
Maybe South Carolina someday could be divided into 2 dioceses, a low-country one based in Charleston and a midlands/piedmont one based in Greenville---what would the anti-Catholic group at Bob Jones University say about that?!?!
As the resident Easterner who reads this, I can say only this, it's impossible to give what one does not have. Ask most Easterners, and they will say in a semi-polite way, that the Western Liturgy in its modern form is an abomination as done in most parishes. We tend to have more respect for those parishes that are more faithful to the Roman traditions rather than those that transform themselves into St Irreverant Roman Protestant church.
Hi Father!
We miss you in Macon! I loved your unapologetic preaching of the Church’s true beliefs and your call for parishioners to be more active in the church; both financially and through our many ministries. Sadly, these ministries have declined dramatically in the past couple of years. I can’t really complain because I am not very active lately myself ��. I love my church. I love our pastor. I am somewhat embarrassed by our current pope however. I find his leadership way too left-leaning and more concerned with being politically correct than biblically correct. The Word of the Lord has not changed, so why has the Church’s leadership changed it’s interpretation of the Word?! I miss the days of Blessed John Paul II and his call to holiness. Somehow he was able to love everyone and have everyone love him while still being true to the teachings of the Holy Catholic Church! I fear for our great country and the state of disarray and lack of morality. I believe it is still possible to love everyone and see that all are formed in the image of God, while not agreeing with their lifestyles or beliefs. I believe that attraction is the best way to increase our fold and we are failing to do that. It’s really sad that some churches with openly homosexual pastors are growing because of their “inclusion “ while our dwindle. I pray that our leadership will make some serious changes without compromising the written Word! I love you, Father!! Don’t ever change!
Thank you Althea’s! I hope you and your family are well!
My biggest fear is that one day soon the tacky, back-lit business sign located on the northwest corner of the Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church's Rosary Garden will be changed to read 'Most Holy Trinity Cultural Center'.
'The same vernacular music' would be the fly in the ointment for many people, myself included. It implies nothing written before 1965, apart from the odd 'traditional' hymn.
Dan's ironic comment rings true. Anglicans, with many churches to choose from (High, Low and Broad) would attend one where the liturgy suited them. In a city like Oxford this would include all the college chapels. Catholics, on the other hand, had far fewer churches and tended to congregate in territorial parishes. However, the liturgy was standard, although some parishes had better musical resources than others.
This no longer applies. Going to Mass these days usually means getting the car out, and having done so, why put up with Fr O'Bubblegum's folk Mass just because it's the nearest? As a chant specialist I don't sing at the same parish every Sunday, and when I'm not singing I can get a solemn Latin OF Mass, ad apsidem with chant and polyphony, at the Oxford Oratory.
(The Masses I sing for are all EF.)
John Nolan,
Father "Bubblegum!" Soon to be a classic.
Does the Oxford Oratory offer the EF?
TJM
The Oxford Oratory has an EF Low Mass every Sunday at 8 am and on Holy Days at 12:15. On occasion there is a Solemn EF Mass, but most Solemn Masses are OF (in Latin, and with the Roman Canon as standard).
John Nolan,
Thanks. It is good to hear the EF is celebrated there and that in the OF the Roman Canon is standard.
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