Chairman's Blog
Mass at a distance: devotional aids
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| Mass in Chartres Cathedral relayed to Pilgrims outside (2014) |
Tomorrow for the first time in my life I am going to sit down to watch the celebration of Mass on my computer screen. I'm not a great one for watching liturgy on screens. The experience of the liturgy cannot easily be reproduced through a screen, and indeed it is important to remember that at the end of the day one is looking at a (moving) picture of Mass, by contrast with one one can see, for example, through a window or a glass door. (I have extensive experience of following the Mass through windows and doors, in the company of small children who need a breath of fresh air.)
Huge screens outside a church for the overflow crowd, as we have at Chartres Cathedral for the Chartres Pilgrimage, are rather different, as you know it is happening right there in the church and the people around you are all taking part in the usual way. But no one would suggest that these are as good as being in the church.
But in one's home? In one's work space? On a little mobile device?
In these strange times we must do the best we can, and if we can't get to church, this is better than nothing. The experience of a live, as opposed to pre-recorded, Mass will give us a more intimate connection with what is happening, and it will be the liturgy of today, the liturgy intended by the Church specially for this moment in the Lenten season.
The Latin Mass Society has collected links to live-streaming Masses being celebrated in England and Wales here.
To get the most out of it we should consider the ideal preparation one might make for Mass: not only prayer, but looking ahead at the texts, and commentaries on the texts. The great liturgical commentaries of Prosper Gueranger, Ildefonso Schuster, and Pius Parsch - especially the last of these - are intended to facilitate the Faithful in liturgical participation precisely through explaining the texts in themselves and in the context of the season and feast. If we can't get the ordinary liturgical experience, nor receive Holy Communion, one can at least do this.
The LMS online shop has a number of books which explain the Traditional Mass, which will be helpful not only to the newcomer but to even long-established EF Mass-goers.
If you don't have a hand Missal, this situation should prompt you to get one. The Latin Mass Society's online shop has a large range of Missals for the Traditional Mass, for children, for Sundays only, and ones with pretty well everything one can find in the Altar Missal, with a facing translation. We even have a Latin-Polish Missal, with an Imprimatur from a certain Bishop Wojtyła: pretty cool, eh?
You will find that even the smaller ones have lots of things in addition to the text of Mass: lots of traditional devotions and prayers, prayers for Confession, and often very useful explanations and commentaries on the Mass. Your hand missal is your spiritual treasure-trove.
Even without a live-stream of Mass, you can pray the prayers of the Mass and meditate on them, using your hand Missal. Peter Kwasniewski discusses it here, and provides downloads to assist you further, with the texts of Mass and prayers for a Spiritual Communion.
Acts of Spiritual Communion are of particular importance at this time. Here is most widely used one, by St Alphonsus of Ligouri.
My Jesus, I believe that thou art present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love thee above all things, and I desire to receive thee in my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive thee sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace thee as if thou wert already there, and unite myself wholly to thee. Never permit me to be separated from thee. Amen.
Also to be considered, particularly if the lockdown continues for a long time, is the reception of Holy Communion outside Mass. A century ago it was the universal practice: Holy Communion was distributed between Masses, and on demand outside Mass, as Confession is often provided today.
Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote a lovely poem about giving a First Holy Communion in this way to a little bugler boy:
| Here he knelt then ín regimental red. | |
| Forth Christ from cupboard fetched, how fain I of feet | |
| To his youngster take his treat! | |
| Low-latched in leaf-light housel his too huge godhead. |
The law of the Church still gives the Faithful the right to receive Holy Communion outside Mass, and the current situation is one in which this right has an application which it would not normally have. While being sensitive to the extra demands being made on many of the clergy dealing with the sick, it is legitimate to ask if this can be arranged, with all necessary precautions. I know one priest who is making slots available for advance booking for Holy Communion. This should become widespread. The ritual to be followed for this in the Extraordinary Form has been made available by Una Voce Scotland in handy downloadable pdf format.
Prayer resources for epidemic
This Lent we are experiencing a special time of penance, including the cessation of public liturgies, even those of Easter itself.With this in mind I have created a printable booklet with the Seven Penitential Psalms in it (free download). Yes you can find these on lots of websites but this booklet has a facing translation, stress marks on the Latin, and 'pointing' to facilitate singing.
Taking part in the Prayer of the Church during the epidemic
My latest in the Catholic Herald, below.
Public Masses, the Bishops of England and Wales have announced, will cease from tomorrow. It makes perfect sense, given the speed with which coronavirus can spread. It is also a reminder that Mass is about more than Communion, and the public prayer of the Church is more than Mass. Saying the prayers of Mass at home, and making a Spiritual Communion, perhaps in the context of a recorded or live-streamed Mass, is one way of uniting ourselves with the Holy Sacrifice. We also participate in the perfect prayer offered to the Father through the Son by praying the Office (Liturgy of the Hours), including the Little Offices, and the rosary.
Read the whole thing there.
EF Communion Rite outside Mass: handy printable pdfs
- Click here to download a PDF including the rubrics for priests (2pp, A4)
- Click here to download a PDF for servers or communicants (2pp, A4)
- Click here to download a PDF for servers or communicants, which can be cut to A5 size.
LMS Caversham Pilgrimage cancelled
Corona virus and Holy Comunion: letters in the Catholic press
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| Holy Communion at the LMS Oxford Pilgrimage, at the Oxford Blackfriars (Dominican Rite) |
This weekend I have had a letter (the same one) published in The Catholic Herald, The Tablet, The Catholic Universe, and The Catholic Times.
I am very grateful to the Editors of our UK Catholic national weeklies for publishing it, and in this way making it possible for the Latin Mass Society to get our vi
ew out to the widest possible public.
As well as publishing our own 'statement' online and through social media, we have written on related matters to all our priest supporters, and to the Bishop Chairman of the Bishops' Conference Committee on Worship (Bishop Alan Hopes of East Anglia), who is our regular liaison with the Conference.
The current situation is a reminder of the utility of an organisation such as the Latin Mass Society which has the recognition and standing, and the resources and contacts, to do something like this when the need arises.
Here it is. (It has been edited slightly in different ways in the different papers; this is the ur-text.)
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Sir,
In light of the news of the continuing Corona virus epidemic and measures responding to that from bishops around the country, I would like to note the following.
At celebrations of the Extraordinary Form (the Traditional Mass) it is not permitted to distribute the Host in the hand. Should the suspension of distribution on the tongue be necessary for the safety of the public, there would be no Communion of the Faithful at celebrations of the Extraordinary Form.
This is not a matter of legalism. The Extraordinary Form places great emphasis to the reverence due to the Blessed Sacrament in all its ceremonies and texts, and reception in the hand in this context would be not just incongruous but a cause of distress to the Faithful. The overwhelming majority of Catholics attached to the ancient Mass would rather make an Act of Spiritual Communion.
There seems, however, to be no objective medical foundation for the claim that reception in the hand is safer than reception on the tongue. The office of Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, Oregon, notes, following consultation with medical specialists, that in terms of the danger of passing on infection from one Communicant to another by the Minister inadvertently touching them in turn, ‘done properly the reception of Holy Communion on the tongue or in the hand pose a more or less equal risk.’
There is also the danger of each Communicant infecting his own Host from his own hands, which is entirely avoided by the method of receiving on the tongue.
Yours faithfully,
Joseph Shaw
Chairman, Latin Mass Society
Corona virus and God's anger
My latest in LifeSiteNews.
Immediately this was published someone in the LifeSite comment box appeared to say I am wrong: God is not punishing us. It's not me who needs to be persuaded, however, but the Holy Ghost who inspired so many texts in both Testaments about divine punishment.
Sense on COVID 19 from Peru
This is a Google-translate (slightly improved) version of an article from Aciprensa. The medical experts consulted by Archbishop Eguren of Piura, Peru, agree with those consulted by Archbishop Sample of Portland, Oregon.
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Based on the advice of world experts in immunology, José Antonio Eguren, Archbishop of Piura (Peru), will allow Communion to be received in the mouth during the COVID-19 Coronavirus epidemic, and called not to close the churches or yield to the "virus of fear."
In a statement published on March 7, Mons. Eguren announced measures to "contribute to this evil not spreading among us."
The Metropolitan Archbishop of Piura said that “Holy Communion can continue to be received in the usual way at the choice of the faithful Christian, that is, either in the mouth or in the hand, since world experts in immunology point out that the risk of contagion, between to give communion in the mouth or in the hand is the same ”.
"Ordinary and extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion are asked to avoid the risk of touching the mouth or hands of communicants, and that the faithful be instructed on how to receive Communion properly in each of these cases," he said.
Bishop Eguren also asked “ordinary and extraordinary ministers of holy communion should wash their hands carefully before and after the distribution of it.”
“Washing should include the front and back of the hands and the area between the fingers. For this, it is advisable to use alcohol gel, which should be available in all the sacristies of the churches of Piura and Tumbes, ”he said.
The Peruvian Archbishop also indicated that at the time of giving peace during Mass “instead of shaking hands or giving a hug, another kind of greeting and fraternity gesture can be made, such as a nod, and this give it only to the person we have on each of our sides, avoiding displacements to exchange peace. ”
"The stoups of holy water of the churches should be kept empty," he said, but said that "this does not mean to stop blessing the water that the Faithful customarily bring to Mass for blessing."
Bishop Eguren then encouraged the faithful that "in our daily lives we follow the measures and instructions that are issued by the health authorities, and we invoke to keep calm and trust in God."
The Metropolitan Archbishop of Piura recalled that “churches are places of salvation and healing where we welcome who life itself is: Jesus Christ, our Lord,” and recalled that “throughout history when great plagues struck humanity, churches remained open and the Christians kept helping the sick. ”
Churches, he stressed, “are spaces where faith is strengthened, hope is renewed and grows, and charity is revived. They are also places of fraternal encounter where trust is strengthened and peace is revived.”
“That is why it is important to keep them always open, because along with this world virus, another as dangerous as the 'virus of fear' has emerged, and it is overcome above all in shared prayer, which reaches its maximum expression in the Sacred Liturgy, ”he said.
Una Voce International Magzine: new edition
Una Voce International, the Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce (FIUV), the federation of lay groups attached to the Traditional Mass, publishes a magazine twice a year. Here is the latest: Gregorius Magnus 9.
Contents include:
-Photographic report of Bishop Schneider in St Petersberg
-Photographic report of the Polish Ars Celebrandi conference
-News from Canada, Nigeria, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and India
-Articles from the magazines of Una Voce France, PMT Germany, and the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales
-Book reviews and more!
LMS Statement on the Coronavirus and Holy Communion
STATEMENT ON COVID-19 (CORONAVIRUS) AND THE RECEPTION OF HOLY COMMUNION AT CELEBRATIONS OF THE MASS ACCORDING TO THE EXTRAORDINARY FORM,
When giving communion in the hand seek to ensure you place the host in the hand of the recipient in such a way that you do not touch their hands.
In the same spirit the distribution of the Host on the tongue should never involve the touching of the communicant’s tongue by the priest.
Further information
My Jesus, I believe that thou art present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love thee above all things, and I desire to receive thee in my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive thee sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace thee as if thou wert already there, and unite myself wholly to thee. Never permit me to be separated from thee. Amen.
The Latin Mass Society
The Latin Mass Society, founded in 1965, is an association of Catholic faithful dedicated to the promotion of the traditional Latin liturgy of the Catholic Church, the teachings and practices integral to it, the musical tradition which serves it, and the Latin language in which it is celebrated.