Easter, 2010

The tomb is empty and Our Lord is Truly Risen!

We attended Easter Vigil last night at the Parish of St. Peter with Fr. Angelo Van der Putten, Fr. Eric Flood, and Deacon Rhone Lillard -- all FSSP. Wow. 

I feel so incredibly blessed and fortunate to have been led into the Traditional Catholic movement, where the Latin epigram "Bonum, Verum, Pulchrum" (The Good, the True and the Beautiful) have such significance and impact.

After a Parish rosary a little after 10 p.m., the Easter celebrations at our Traditional Latin Mass began with the New Fire ceremony outside the doors of St. Augustine Catholic Church in North Tulsa.

It begins with the congregation surrounding a wood fire outside the doors of the church, where the year's Paschal Candle is blessed and inscribed with the Alpha and Omega and the year, and then blessed grains of incense are inserted into the candle in cruciform. The Paschal Candle will be burned during the holy sacrifice of the Mass throughout the liturgical year. 

Once it is blessed, the candle is lit from the fire and the entire congregation processes into the darkened church, pausing three times -- once at the entrance, then in the middle, and finally at the sanctuary -- for the traditional sung chant "Lumen Christi!" (The Light of Christ!) and response from the congregation "Deo Gratias!" (Thanks be to God!)

Arriving at the sanctuary, the holy fire is passed to the acolytes who then pass the fire to the congregation's candles and the entire church fills with the warm glow of the holy light of Christ. 

From there the Easter Vigil begins and the next two hours are filled with the sounds of the Holy Prophecies -- readings beginning from Genesis and throughout the Old Testament, prophesying the Birth, Passion and Resurrection of Christ.

During the liturgy the lights of the church remain off and the only light is that of the Paschal candle and the candles held by the parishioners as they worship in reverence and attentiveness (excepting the little ones, who invariably fall fast asleep in the pews.)

The culmination is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the reception of Communion. But for some reason I particularly love the Litany of Saints -- which dates from approximately 590 A.D. The litany is done in call and response with a cantor intoning for example "Sancte Michael" and the congregation responding "Ora pro nobis".

Here's a link to a YouTube video containing the litany: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiM9uJIN64g

A blessed and wonderful Easter to all! Remember that Easter began today, but lasts for the next 40 days. Let us go forth and transform the world through the light of Jesus Christ, who loved us so much that he willingly endured the pains of torture and death to rescue us from Hell.

Mass365: Ash Wednesday

And so it begins - Ash Wednesday, the first day of our Lenten season of fasting and penance. On this day (and Good Friday also) Roman Catholics 14 through 60 are obliged under pain of sin to fast and abstain from meat.

Ash Wednesday is also the day each year when Catholics receive the mark of Jesus Christ - a cross - on their foreheads, causing their non-Catholic friends and colleagues to do double-takes all day long. The usual greeting begins, "Did you know you've got something on your ....?" (You'd think you'd get used to it, but after a short dozen years as a Catholic, I haven't.)

Contrary to common opinion, although the fast and abstinence are mandatory, Mass attendance is not this day, i.e., it's not a holy day of obligation like Easter and Christmas. That doesn't stop millions upon millions who do not normally attend Mass during the week from showing up this day.

That was certainly the case today at Holy Family Cathedral, where Mass was celebrated by our wonderful orthodox bishop His Excellency Edward Slattery. The cathedral was overflowing -- in fact, there was literally no room to add anyone else. I've only seen it that full one other time -- when the monks at Clear Creek were there for Solemn Vespers a couple of years ago.

In addition to the beautiful liturgy -- full of the highest, and most solemn hymns of the Church -- Bishop Slattery surprised me by performing the Mass "ad orientem" (literally "to the East") -- the traditional way of facing the altar instead of the congregation. I'd noticed when I came in that the free-standing altar where the New Mass is normally celebrated, was covered with special linens and set up with the traditional six beeswax candles -- a throwback to the pre-Vatican II rubrics of the Mass -- and wondered whether this meant the Mass would be celebrated ad orientem. ("Can it be?" I thought to myself.) Yes, it was. And it was very moving and dignified.

I'm sure that not everyone there understood what this meant, but I did and I thank God for the opportunity to see this solemn celebration conducted with such dignity and grace as it should be. (Deo gratias.) I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but once more I am forced by charity to acknowledge what a wonderful bishop we have (and thanks also to Msgr. Patrick Brankin - who was no doubt instrumental in arranging this.) We are fortunate beyond measure here in the Diocese of Tulsa.

Bonum, Verum, Pulchrum: Solemn Vespers at Holy Family Cathedral

We have so much to be thankful for in the Diocese of Tulsa. Our good bishop, the Rev. Edward Slattery, together with Monsignor Patrick Brankin and a stable full of pious and holy priests, has done much to restore the proper dignity and beauty to the liturgy here. One example of that is the Solemn High Vespers held at the Cathedral on the last Sunday of every month. Here's a video taken in August 2008. (Fast forward to the 2:10 mark for the opening hymn, Tantum Ergo.) I was privileged (and refreshed) once again to attend this very evening with my eldest son. It capped off a weekend which began with the sublime beauty of the Byzantine Divine Liturgy Saturday evening, continued with the subdued and reverent grace of the low Tridentine Mass this afternoon and concluded with the new Mass at the Newman Center (for my son's weekly obligation) after vespers. I am so thankful that I live where I live and for all that God has allowed me to experience. Deo gratias!