My Diocese of residence, the Diocese of Charleston, is a booming diocese from the Low Country where I live, which is the coastal southern part of South Carolina, to the midlands and upstate.
Of particular note is the metro area of Greenville, South Carolina, at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is about 100 miles from Augusta, Georgia where I grew up and where I visited as a young child.
The Catholic Church in the Greenville Metro area is booming and it is a Post-Vatican II Church with the Modern Mass celebrated as Vatican II intended, not some liberal/progressive hodgepodge of neo-Arianism mishmash, kitschy and banal hymns from the 70’s and 80’s folk era.
The National Catholic Register has a great article about the Catholic Church in Greenville, which you can read HERE. Of particular note is what is happening at Greenville’s downtown Catholic Church since the early 2000’s, St. Mary Church.
The video below is their Solemn Sung Mass for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe from this past Sunday.
It is the Modern Mass at its best:
1. Please note the Entrance Procession with the proper chant flowing directly into a marvelous metrical hymn embellished by the great choir. But note, too, how the laity are singing both the Proper Chant and then the metrical hymn!
2. Please note how crisp the Introductory Rite is, with no stupid bantering by the celebrant prior to introducing the Penitential Act. The Kyrie chanted in Greek and the Gloria in Latin, with the Collect in English. There is a great mix of Latin and vernacular in this Mass.
3. Please note the excellent lector wearing Sunday Best for a layman!
4. The Credo is spoken which seems to be the default in Modern Masses. I don’t see why one sung version of the Credo, in Latin or English can’t be used and memorized by the laity when used weekly!
5. The Liturgy of the Eucharist is Ad Orientem and has been so at this parish since the early 2000’s. Please note the number of altar boys. This parish has provided a considerable number of candidates for the priesthood in the Diocese of Charleston.
6. Please note the Communion Procession. There are Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, both male and female and all in appropriate Sunday Best clothing.
3 comments:
Father Christopher Smith, pastor of Prince of Peace in Taylors, said his first Mass at this parish in Greenville. It was almost entirely in Latin.
Father, your article addresses what is very close to my heart.
I am a member of a Novus Ordo parish where the liturgy is very faithfully celebrated 7 days per week. Our sister parish, one mile away and sharing our pastor, is also Novus Ordo and is the site of a TLM celebrated on Sundays.
There is no taking of liberties with the liturgy at either parish, because our young pastor would not tolerate it and would correct it immediately. No one is singled out for wanting to receive only from a priest or deacon and not from an EMHC, and no one is stopped from receiving on the tongue, kneeling, in the hand, or standing as long as it is done with reverence and without drawing attention to oneself. There is no liturgical dancing, no changing of the words of any liturgical prayers, and never any disrespect on the part of our priests and our congregations.
I am so tired of seeing good Catholic people attacking one another and insulting the TLM or the Novus Ordo Masses or the Divine Liturgies of the Eastern Rites (which occurs much less often). These Masses and DLs are licit and valid and we must respect them. We are blessed to have the option of attending either the TLM, the Novus Ordo Mass, or a Divine Liturgy, whatever our preference may be. In the Latin Rite, we may receive Holy Communion standing or kneeling, in the hand or on the tongue, or in the Eastern Rites - standing, tongue extended, on a tiny golden spoon which has been intincted with the Host and the Precious Blood.
But we do not have the option of insulting any Form of the Mass or Divine Liturgy, or to condescendingly insult our fellow Catholics for their valid preferences which are theirs to make and are extended by the Church.
i have issues with your characterisation of the new order mass using 70s and 80s hymns. While some to the 70s hymns were of a particular era and zeitgeist, there's nothing wrong with most of them which my parish still uses. Same for the oldies, some pass the test of times and some dirges fall out of favour or get new lyrics etc.
There's room for multiple styles of praise in the roman rite eg Good Friday for me would be amiss with the traditional spiritual classic of 'when they crucified my Lord.... thunder, thunder, thunder'!
I'd ex
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